Server Transfer! A feature of great importance!

Taemien · 2023-01-03T11:30:30.311Z

There’s a few reasons why character transfer between servers was removed.

First one is it gave a Pay to Win advantage for those who would transfer from a Siptah map to Exiled Lands. FC has taken a bit harder stance and revamped some of the systems to make the game have less and less pay to win as much as possible. Even something as ‘harmless’ as a cabinet having a few more inventory slots has been on the nerf block.

Second one was failure rate. Because of how old the game is, there has been many changes to the game’s database and how characters and map data has been saved. Characters are saved directly in the same file and database as the map which also has the buildings and clan data on it as well. So on servers with older characters, the rate of character transfer failing and losing the character was too high.

And finally, adding up all the little detriments and comparing them to the benefits, it basically comes down to what’s the point? For example, if we don’t allow Siptah to Exile travel, why bother with a transfer anyway? Just have a character on both. If you want to move to another server for kicks and giggles, at the harvest and exp rates that the servers in question have, its almost as quick just to roll another character anyway.

I could only see character transfer being needed for sub 0.3x exp rates servers. Even on 0.5 the leveling speed is quite fast and doesn’t take very long to regather all recipes.

Also another note is the servers that nearly 90% of players playing on are kind of hit and miss if they allowed transfer to them or not. If we’re talking PC, then mods come into play and they didn’t always play nice with transferring, meaning even if a destination server allowed transfer, the chances of it working went down. Thus the majority of players had no use for it.

It was only a tool for a few (not even a large minority) of official players and a handful of private server players. Or less than a few hundred players out of tens of thousands. Why maintain a feature that isn’t free to operate (webservers and their staff aren’t free) when hardly anyone is using it?

Because of its unpopularity and failure to work right in the number of cases it was used. It was likely deemed a failed experiment.

Seeking · 2023-01-03T11:36:55.003Z

Taemien:

Because of its unpopularity and failure to work right in the number of cases it was used. It was likely deemed a failed experiment.

So you basically say: No Server Transfers.
I couldn’t disagree more with your reasoning but of course I cannot deny that a lot are fine with it’s absence.
I however, am not.
It is not just the level, which takes still long enough, it is also about items and immersion.

But sure, let’s just assume for a moment you are right,

Then it would be the right thing to do in every way for Funcom to simply state so.

Taemien · 2023-01-03T11:46:13.851Z

Seeking:

So you basically say: No Server Transfers.

I didn’t say no to it. I said hardly anyone used it. And then gave the facts to why.

Without playing the game, its hard to understand that. You could play it and see how easily it is to level up a character, even your first one. This game isn’t about its progression. The ‘hard’ part and the one that takes the most time is building (and to be fair, that’s not really that much time consuming either). Server transfer never did, never would, and never could transfer that with a character.

Seeking · 2023-01-03T11:52:15.866Z

Taemien:

The ‘hard’ part and the one that takes the most time is building (and to be fair, that’s not really that much time consuming either). Server transfer never did, never would, and never could transfer that with a character.

I can only agree to that. That wouldn’t even work.
It is my character that matters though!

And I actually played CE for about 10h.

I watched an insane amout of YT-Content on it.
Thing is, I am not exactly rich and I need to think carefully about what Video-Game I actually start to invest time and money in.

The idea of having to start a new character on every server is simply a huge turn-off.
Buildings are fine.
If they REALLY can’t be bothered to get it done, even the gear (which I really think they should though)

But not the Character himself.

I 100% want to keep him.

Taemien · 2023-01-03T11:57:03.427Z

If server transfers are worth that much to you, it pretty much means you’re looking to play on Officials. I would recommend another game in that situation. The lag and performance of officials is outright atrocious and not worth the time investment.

As I said before, private servers don’t really allow for character transfers and in many cases couldn’t because of their modlists.

As for me personally I’ve gone through probably over 20 characters by this point. Many of those times were voluntary rerolls because I wanted to play something different. But I don’t think that’s too far from most who have over several thousands hours played. In case you wish to know what the time-money investment is.

DaVice · 2023-01-03T12:01:53.294Z

Server transfer was never about the difficulty of leveling a toon, it was about moving recipes and materials to a server where those recipes or materials were difficult or impossible to obtain. It’s true it was mostly only useful to players that played on official servers, which was a small percentage. However PvP players exploited the transfer system, just like they exploit everything else, and that coupled with the failure rate that you mentioned is what caused it to get shut down. I agree with OP that player transfers need to be brought back for PvE players as Siptah was marketed as an “expansion” and yet we are required to start over.

Taemien · 2023-01-03T12:29:42.063Z

Have you ever played Siptah with fully reciped out Exiled Lands character?

Since you don’t require much of the RNG recipe rolls. You only need to complete each of the vaults once. You only need to visit some of the other new locations in the south, once. And then all you need to do after that is delve any recipes you think you might need and then get yourself about 5,000 Eldarium (probably much less), and then go back.

You could do that in a weekend. I don’t want to call Siptah an outright failure. But its systems are pretty garbage. The only thing keeping people playing it outside of building in a single unique biome (that gets old after a month or so), is the RNG on a character created there.

If Siptah was supposed to be an expansion, then it should have been designed with level 60 characters from Exiled Lands in mind. It wasn’t. Nor will it ever be, unfortunately.

Elmoeff · 2023-01-03T17:47:54.832Z

Well… we still do want it back!! we got it, they took it, we miss it, we want it back

Anirock · 2023-01-03T17:53:56.474Z

I don’t know what “reasons” for shutting down the transfer are in question, but for me it’s very sad. Perhaps this is true in relation to PVP, but for PVE it severely cuts down on gaming opportunities.
I play Conan for the sole reason - content, lore, roleplay. The world of Siptah with new recipes, animals, resources, and more is worth the money and time, and I would like my clan and I to be able to travel between these worlds. Among other things, this is another reason for interaction and trade between players and clans. Look at the “Ark SE” - there have been official cluster servers for many years, including PVP, and there are no problems with this.
It’s a question of competent attitude of developers and balance of genres.

Capt_insano0 · 2023-01-03T19:08:28.381Z

After playing with transfers and without them I can comfortably say I like the separation of siptah and exiled lands. So if they bring it back I hope it’s just your character and equipped armor/hotbar. No backpack at all.

Of course fix the gods being able to transfer

Xevyr · 2023-01-03T19:42:29.567Z

Seeking:

And I actually played CE for about 10h.

Based on how much you seem invested in this “close to meaningless” feature the game had for a short period of time that was also bugged… I’m having difficulties believing this scenario and am more inclined to believe that you and your clan got banned and lost your eldarium stock and need to buy new copies of the game or something

The alternative is that you indeed are so new that you merely THINK this is somehow an important and relevant feature to this game… ofc it doesn’t really matter what impression I get of all this…

Server transfers were never a core feature of this game and it was never marketed as such… they introduced it as a “nice to have” and then it kept deleting people’s characters so they disabled it… that’s about it… and given the controversial discussions and accusations of P2W, it’s probably so far down their priority list that you will see them repaint grass sooner than fix the bugs with it and reintroduce it…

On top of that it’s not very important to normal gameplay… you can max a character in 2-3 days with the default progression… without even putting special effort in it… so it’s not like playing on multiple servers is somehow an issue without this.

The ability to travel back and forth between the two maps, that would be an awesome feature ofc. They can’t really shove both maps into one for a multiplayer game because of the UE4 limits, but they “could” do what would essentially be a fancier official version of Amunet’s server transfer mod and actually do server pairs and implement it into the game so you don’t have to go to menus and websites and whatnot… they could do that and I and many others suggested it before. Would ofc require the inclusion of Siptah in the basegame. It would also involve a lot of work for very little profit and currently that’s not the type of work they seem to be focusing on… soo probably won’t happen.

So all of that plus the above stuff others mentioned

Jimbo · 2023-01-03T19:55:19.407Z

Seeking:

we will only buy CE when it is back for good!

Server transfers is actually a pretty insignificant feature to let dictate if you buy a game or not tbh. Buy the game for the game, not for the transfers. It doesn’t magically make it a completely different game by introducing them. It’s a good feature for players who want to run both maps on one character, but you don’t even own one map at this time, pal.

No offense but the game has survived just fine without your purchase thus far, and threatening to withhold it further isn’t as big of a threat as you think. The only one missing out is you, since you’re left not owning the game over a petty hill to die on.

Kikigirl · 2023-01-03T20:07:57.472Z

Current x4 rates: You can max a character in an hour with a starmetal pickaxe hitting lotus and black ice actually. About 3 or so hours with a stone pick.

At x1 killing gorillas and skeletons would net you 60 in about those 3-4 hours. Of course there were other ways that people used that were exploitative.

Nevermind the boring aspect of something like this as is when the goal is not about enjoying the PVE content.

Aside from that.
My clan, friends, acquaintances et al, lament often about how the server transfer was a fantastic feature and we wish it back.

We server hop a lot and the biggest issue is time and recipes.

Time:

A friend asking for help on a server you’ve never been means you have to spend that hour not fighting, defending, raiding, building, getting key mats, etc.,… Notwithstanding the risks of being ganked while you’re low level trying to “farm/level”. It sucks in that you have a perfectly usable 60 on a dead server elsewhere sitting there invisible to the world.

Recipes:

Trying to get very important recipes on Siptah is -to me and those like me- a boring grind. Considering I can run through most of the dungeons naked on Exiled and get what I need, like bestial memory potion or k’lael’s.

Then there’s the HUGE issue with yellow lotus atm. If you have to respec, as we often do, you risk losing that RNG’d recipe that gave you a leg up.

I’ve said boring twice of course. For someone like me I do enjoy the PVE content of the game and I take my time when I choose. So it’s not a matter of that. You want to get into the content of PVP as fast as possible.

Of course I am saying all this from a PVP perspective.

At this point we can speculate all we want on the reasons and possible outcome. At this time the company has communicated that they’re working on it. This is the information that we have - not that they’re not bringing it back. Reading some of these comments leads me to believe that these opinions hold little merit if they’re stating as such. But of course to people like me that do pay attention and know better we’ve noted those statements; otherwise it risks influencing others that don’t know and spreads misinformation.

If I am wrong then please provide the link where Funcom has stated they won’t be bringing transfers back.

Regardless, I also agree that we shouldn’t be able to move loot and tokens from one server to another. I’d even be fine with it naked.

Anirock · 2023-01-03T23:37:19.967Z

Kikigirl:

Then there’s the HUGE issue with yellow lotus atm. If you have to respec, as we often do, you risk losing that RNG’d recipe that gave you a leg up.

Yes, but the problem could be solved if the character’s progress was assigned to the account, and not the game world, you know? For example, my character has never been to Siptah, but has learned a weapon recipe from there. I assembled it from three (?) recipe parts. In the end, I can’t craft him because there is no access to the eldarium in the Exiled Lands…
If I drink the yellow lotus potion, then most likely this recipe will be lost forever. This is a crazy situation when a character is tied to the world in which he was created, and not to an account.

Regardless, I also agree that we shouldn’t be able to move loot and tokens from one server to another. I’d even be fine with it naked.

No, such an opportunity should be present, but there should be restrictions that will not allow abuse.
For example, as mentioned above - a cooldown for a few days after the transfer and/or a mandatory high-level building + resources to complete this transfer. Among other things, you can introduce “overload” restrictions for characters when transferring, so that it is not possible to move a large number of resources at a time for PVP.
Or those same “sea ships” with a team that would have to pay 10k gold to make a transfer. And for example, the more resources and co-clan members you are going to transport, the “more expensive” the services of pirates will be for PVE|PVE-C.
Among other things, in order not to “break” the lore of the game when using “buccaneers services”, you must go through the story and remove the slave bracelet.

With the old mechanics - for PVP servers, I would add a cooldown from 12 hours to a 1-2 days of “inactivity” before the transfer. For example, so that the people who raided could not quickly leave for another server.
I would add 1+1 clustered servers (as duos at the moment - Exiled Lands + Siptah). In this case, the cooldown before the re-reverse would not be required, because raiders will only go to a specific server.

At the same time, for PVE and PVE-K, I would leave the function of decaying buildings so that the “alpha clan” would have to confirm its dominance on both worlds, etc…
Again, the character must belong to either the cluster or player account to be transferred, not the world in which it was created.

My reasoning is not without meaning, because I am not only a player and fan of Conan (who read a bunch of books as a child), but also a narrative designer… xD

Kikigirl · 2023-01-04T01:51:59.490Z

Anirock:

character’s progress was assigned to the account

Funcom has not announced that this is a possibility. They’ve acknowledged the issue with yellow lotus however.

Anirock:

I can’t craft him because there is no access to the eldarium in the Exiled Lands…

This was a mistake as they’ve communicated and has since been corrected. You assembled 5 schematics fragments.

Anirock:

No

As I said, I would be fine with it being naked. I wasn’t suggesting that this is what they would do.

No matter what amount of restrictions would be in place, the only way to stop most if any exploits or inventive ways of increasing the amount is going to be by not allowing any transfer of loot. Restrictions were already in place but that didn’t stop people from figuring it out.

Anirock:

12 hours to a 1-2 days of “inactivity” before the transfer.

Are you suggesting people not play in order to transfer? O.o

Anirock:

1+1 clustered servers

They already said they won’t do this.

Anirock · 2023-01-04T03:00:44.070Z

Funcom has not announced that this is a possibility. They’ve acknowledged the issue with yellow lotus however.

I think that anything is possible if there is a desire to realize it. Players keep avoiding this potion… xD

This was a mistake as they’ve communicated and has since been corrected. You assembled 5 schematics fragments.

I understand they removed the drop of these parts of the recipes?
I have 2 left, I was hoping to collect another recipe.
This is actually a very good bug that they could turn into a feature…
A sort of ersatz DLS content is one of the reasons to buy and make a transfer to Siptah =)

No matter what amount of restrictions would be in place, the only way to stop most if any exploits or inventive ways of increasing the amount is going to be by not allowing any transfer of loot. Restrictions were already in place but that didn’t stop people from figuring it out.

There will always be bugs, as well as gaps in the logic of the game mechanics, and there will always be players for whom bugging is the meaning of the game.
I understand your “bare transfer” stance - less implementation complexity - faster release, as well as the “avoid problems” logic.
But do you understand that in this way you will kill this game before bugs and bugusers combined? In this moment, the game is lived on the enthusiasm of players who build fantasy castles and are waiting for new high-quality content (and are willing to pay for it ofc), and not those who jump naked from server to server?
I like the PvP aspect of this game and would like to have a proper balance and empowerment for the PvP players, but not at the cost of restrictions and unbearable shackles for the PvE community.
The question here is not that the problems voiced cannot be solved, but rather your fear that they will not be solved.

Are you suggesting people not play in order to transfer? O.o

No, I suggest that people who want to make a transfer do not participate in pvp activities for some time.
From gameplay:
Think about how this can diversify PVP, what tactics it will give to raiders and those who want to take revenge on them.
From real life:
Think about how banks are robbed and then “go to the bottom”, or when some rob, while others cover their waste, etc …

They already said they won’t do this.

I wonder what the solution will be. Looks like an infrastructural problem with servers. Either way, it’s sad…

Kikigirl · 2023-01-04T03:11:13.996Z

Anirock:

you will kill this game

Whoa whoa whoa lmao

I see you’re new to participating in the forums. I can assure you I am not suggesting ways to kill the game and this is doomsday bs. Kindly don’t.

I lived through transfers when people were bringing tokens over and those that were bringing full bodies of loot my dude. I’d be more inclined to suggest that helped the exodus of players than a musing of naked transfers.

Anirock:

do not participate in pvp activities for some time

Ya nah. It was 3 days before you could transfer previously and imo that was too fast. It would be better at a week. Not allowing people to play though? That’s terrible.

You’re brainstorming and giving suggestions. That’s great. But don’t hard stance on them as Funcom doesn’t really take suggestions into consideration unless they have merit and meets their own game design.

Others I am sure will eventually comment and I’ll leave the more logical and complicated picking apart to them.

Fellow PVPer

PS (in case you don’t know, it’s not crap like this that killed PVP pop, it’s the overbearing usage of Zendesk and lack of quick action on hackers that did winkyface)

Anirock · 2023-01-04T03:37:56.444Z

Kikigirl:

Whoa whoa whoa lmao

I see you’re new to participating in the forums. I can assure you I am not suggesting ways to kill the game and this is doomsday bs. Kindly don’t.

What are you, I don’t judge opinions.
As you correctly wrote, I’m trying to analyze the situation and brainstorm.
I remember several projects that died precisely because of decisions in favor of ease of implementation. This is what my opinion is based on.
I’m sure your opinion is based on more information than I have.

I lived through transfers when people were bringing tokens over and those that were bringing full bodies of loot my dude. I’d be more inclined to suggest that helped the exodus of players than a musing of naked transfers.

I agree that a bugs-user is worse than a cheater, but I have given options for solving the situations you described. It’s a traumatic experience that I’ve had on “other game projects” as well (We fought with the whole world against the сhinese cheating raid for a whole sleepless month, but no one admins helped us… Hugs CrossArk13)…
But I understand that you shouldn’t be be guided by fear to make decisions.

Ya nah. It was 3 days before you could transfer previously and imo that was too fast. It would be better at a week. Not allowing people to play though? That’s terrible.

I don’t know how much free time you devote to the game, but a conditional 12 hours without direct pvp activity in the game is not much, given the time for sleep and work/study, household chores/family responsibilities. The concept can be more variable. This is not necessarily taking damage, perhaps it is “not causing damage” or “not causing damage to buildings”, etc… Ie. the meaning is precisely in limiting certain actions within the framework of PVP activities, etc. Plus, I proposed this based on the cluster version of servers and, among other things, offered other options. Combinations of different conditions are possible. In addition, there can be quests and rewards for PVP activities, both in the main game from NPCs and as part of BP tasks.
Think big.

Others I am sure will eventually comment and I’ll leave the more logical and complicated picking apart to them. Fellow PVPer

Of course, with all due respect to you!

Anirock · 2023-01-04T03:39:57.846Z

Kikigirl:

That’s great. But don’t hard stance on them as Funcom doesn’t really take suggestions into consideration unless they have merit and meets their own game design.

I understand what you are trying to convey. Perhaps if my concoctions find interesting a large number of players, then Funcom will listen, what do you think?

Seeking · 2023-01-04T11:38:55.569Z

Xevyr:

Seeking:

And I actually played CE for about 10h.

Based on how much you seem invested in this “close to meaningless” feature the game had for a short period of time that was also bugged… I’m having difficulties believing this scenario and am more inclined to believe that you and your clan got banned and lost your eldarium stock and need to buy new copies of the game or something

My Steamname is ‘Mechanicus’ 76561198032214819.
You can check my statistics if you actually think I got “banned” XD
Now I actually feel greatly complimented by your suspicion though, the truth however is simpler.
I am invested in this feature because it is important to me from a gameplay and immersion PoV.
And I see no reason to buy CE without it.
If that is not the case for you then I guess good for you.
But wishing for this feature back is most certainly not something I feel even remotely bad for.

And if not even that, then at least some info from Funcoms side on the matter would be highly appreciated in regards to the LONG time it is overdue now.