Tag: Server

Final Fantasy XIV Mergers: March 27th.


On February 9th, Square Enix announced that the Final Fantasy XIV server mergers would take place on March 27th, reducing eighteen servers down to ten. Later on, the company redacted their announcement on the promise that the system needed to be reevaluated before anything could go ahead. Yesterday, the Final Fantasy Lodestone was updated with the new plan.

The merger, to take place on March 27th, is not much different than the previous plan. Eighteen servers, as before, will merge to ten. Starting March 1st and concluding March 19th, players will be able to enter an application period where they can choose their destination server.

As before, name/retainer rules follow a guideline of active account followed by first created. Linkshells will be carried over with the merge, and in case of duplicates the name will be handed over to the linkshell with more active members. Any players, including the master, who transfer to different worlds will be automatically removed from the linkshell roster. Friends/ignore lists will also be kept.

(Source: Lodestone)

Everquest Mac Accidentally Diagnosed As Dead


How much does John Smedley love you? Enough that, earlier tonight, he posted this on Twitter:

Ok EQ Mac Players. You are a wonderful group of players. We will leave it running with no changes or subscription fees. Details soon.

Sony announced with sorrow last month that Everquest Mac would come to an end on March 29th. Players mourned the loss of what many play for the experience of a “near classic” Everquest, what with EQMac still being based in the Planes of Power (4th expansion, 2002).

Additional details will no doubt come this week or next, but it is reassuring to see the game being run with no changes or subscription fees.

(Source: John Smedley Twitter)

Final Fantasy XIV Server Mergers Coming


We’ve known about Final Fantasy XIV’s upcoming server mergers for a long time, since December when Square initially announced them. At the time, Naoki Yoshida commented that Square would be taking a look at the server populations after billing began and judge how many servers to merge afterward. He also stated at the time that the mergers were expected to be temporary, until FFXIV 2.0 launches in late 2012 and an anticipated surge in returning players necessitates for more servers.

On the Lodestone today, Square Enix is finally ready to discuss brass tacks. The original eighteen servers will be merged down to ten, on March 27th. Players will have much of the month in order to designate a destination server to move to, and worlds will be locked as they fill up in order to prevent overpopulation.

Name duplicate rules on characters and retainers are based on whoever has an active subscription as of March 26th, and then on which character is older. Linkshells will be deleted, as will friends/block lists.

(Source: Lodestone)

Crimecraft De-Mergifying Servers Tomorrow


No, de-mergify is not a word, but technically neither is Crimecraft, or Bleedout, or Vogster. Earlier this year, Vogster merged the two servers on Crimecraft down to one, resulting in a certain writer for MMO Fallout losing his low level character (pictured above). To bring in more players and increase the scope of the game, Vogster just recently launched the free client on Steam, offering players a bonus pack if they sign up before August 29th.

So tomorrow (the 25th), Vogster is set to open a second server to alleviate the population. Vogster is going to need a second briefcase for the lods of emone that will be pouring in.

Good luck to Vogster, the existing community, and those who are just now discovering Crimecraft.

TERA: Not Meeting Financial Expectations, Major Server Merger


The Exiled Realm of Arborea, also known as TERA, has been a long time coming for North American and European markets, although Korean players have been enjoying the game since January. Well, some of them are anyway. I’ve mentioned in the past that MMOSite has done their best to trash this game’s release in Korea, and for all intent and purpose…they weren’t completely wrong. According to MMO Culture, TERA is set to undergo its second server merge since release, and boy is it a big one. The first merger dropped the list of 37 servers to 35, but tomorrow that number is set to plummet to about 15.

TERA’s major pull has been not only the graphics, but that the game is an action-based, non-targeting MMO, and the game looks beautiful. Merging servers isn’t an issue in and of itself, however in NHN’s recent revenue filings, the company stated that TERA did not meet expected sales figures.

More on TERA and its impending launch in the west as it appears.

Mortal Online: 14 Day Trial


Fight now, and let spill the dogs of war?

Wanted to try out Mortal Online without the need for purchasing the game? Those of you paying attention will be aware that a free trial has been on the list for a while now, but hampered due to Star Vault’s desire to continue patching the game before advertising it to the general public. The wait, however, is over! Announced via email and through the game’s forums, players may now create a trial account here, download the client here, and soon be experiencing the full frontal nudity that is Mortal Online.

Limitations, you say? There is a limit of 600 skill points and a cap of level 60 for all skills. Other than that, you have 14 days to wreak havoc on your fellow players in the nudist colony. You may want to check up on the servers before you go in, however, as Star Vault’s Henrik Nystrom posted a couple days ago:

Dear community,

Our entire host network in Europe have operation issues at the moment. This is affecting our server at the moment. We got reports that servers running a game called World Of Warcraft is effecting these network at the moment via Frankfurt……

This could affect our server connections and they are working to solve it as we speak.

A game called World of Warcraft…Nope, not ringing a bell. Whatever it is, surely it can’t be big enough to cause lasting server problems.

DC Universe Opening Up Two Servers Across PC and PS3


 

Open more servers now!

A once-employed man who may or may not be named (Mark Jakobs) once said

“Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we’re not adding servers, we’re not doing well.”

DC Universe Online may have only been out for a couple of days, but the team over at Sony Online Entertainment is already adding servers to mitigate the load. Two new North American servers are coming to the fledgling MMO, one for the PC and one for the PS3 versions, named “Cry For Blood” and “Blood Will Run” respectively. If you haven’t picked up from the names, these are player vs player servers.

Granted, it is a bit early to start shouting uplift in population, as most MMOs either deal with server strain or introduce a few temporary servers directly after launch (see Aion’s added servers that were made obsolete by the massive merger the following year). Still, if Sony can keep what they have, and continue to improve the service, then DC Universe may climb to the top!

More on DC Universe as it appears.

Lineage II Merger: One Final Server


Poor Lineage II

[UPDATE] Since this article has recently started receiving a high amount of traffic, I want to point out that the information below was true as of this article’s publication (September 10, 2010) and that more up to date data can be found in the Lineage 2 category.

Lineage II is one of NCsoft’s biggest hits, scoring #3 worldwide in NCsoft’s sales lists for Q1 2010, and having the benefit of being so good that addicted kidults are willing to sue over it. Granted, most of Lineage II’s sales and subscribers come from Korea while over in North America and Europe, not so much.

So it is with great…I would imagine joy that NCsoft announced that the North American and European Lineage II servers will be shut down and accounts will be merged into two servers (one NA, one EU). As part of the merging process, any character under level 20 that has been inactive for a year will be deleted. In addition, players will only be able to keep seven characters from all servers combined, and those with the lowest experience will be deleted, so it is advised that players move items from low level to high level accounts, and figure out which they want to keep and which they would like to delete.

The merger hits October 5th (reflected in the MMO Fallout calendar, so you don’t forget). This move consolidates five US servers into one, and three EU servers into one. There is currently no information on how clans, alliances, Olympiads, castles, etc will play out.

Mortal Online Compensation Coming


Currently offline...

To expect an MMO to launch with no down time is ridiculously out of line. Despite the utilization of closed beta, open beta, and finally head start, the servers that run an MMO are usually ground down to the core in the opening month. Lag, random crashes, and more plague the game and launch issues are so common that the rule of thumb with MMOs is that those who are not patient should not become early adopters.

Now, I may come off as being a little more brute than necessary. Server crashes are often fixed in the first few days of launch, and lag disperses as players move out from more crowded areas. Occasionally, however, the server hits hurdles that bring the game down on a regular basis. As a recent example, Darkfall last year had a several month period where it was virtually impossible to buy the game. Those of you who remember World of Warcraft’s launch are probably in the fetal position underneath your desks right now. In many of these cases, the developers ask for the hand of forgiveness by compensating players for lost game-time.

Mortal Online’s servers have not been doing well since launch, and saying that is an understatement. Maerlyn, of Star Vault, announced that there is compensation coming for players, that is being decided by management. While they are still working on fixing the server stability issues, for now the servers will be staffed all day long in order to allow for a manual reboot in the case of a crash, which will cut down on the duration the servers are offline following a crash.

More on Mortal Online’s compensation model when it appears.

Aion Server Mergers To Be Quick/Painless


Still gives me nightmares.

When Aion launched last year, a last minute decision was made post-launch to add a few servers to alleviate load. Of course, as is the usual case with MMOs, the population has gone down since release and the extra servers are no longer necessary, as the queues and server load of old are just that, a thing of the past. As pointed out in the NCsoft financial report, although Aion numbers have gone down since last September’s launch, NC believes that the numbers will maintain their current position, especially with the 1.9 and 2.0 patches.

When Aion’s servers merge, they want to give players free reign to move from server to server to find themselves a suitable new home. As a result, players will be given free, unlimited transfers between July 8th and August 18th.

Server mergers will begin July 7th (The same day as the Vanguard server merges.) and the following servers will be merged:

North America
New Siel (West Coast)
Siel & Ariel
New Vaizel Server (West Coast)
Vaizel, Kaisinel, Yustiel & Fregion
New Israphel Server (East Coast)
Israphel, Lumiel & Marchutan
New Zikel Server (East Coast)
Zikel, Triniel, Azphel & Meslamtada
New Nezekan Server (Oceanic)
No Change

Europe
New Spatalos Server (ENG)
Spatalos & Gorgos
New Telemachus Server (ENG)
Telemachus & Castor
New Perento Server (ENG)
Perento, Kahrun & Kalil
New Kromede Server (GER)
Kromede & Votan
New Thor Server (GER)
Thor & Nerthus
New Balder Server (GER)
Balder& Lephar
New Urtem Server (FRA)
Urtem & Vidar
New Suthran Server (FRA)
Suthran, Arbolu & Deltras

Your items, equipment, kinah, legions, warehouse items, broker items, and AP. Name change coupons will be provided if you were not able to keep your name through the merger. Fortress ownership will be reset.

Read the full FAQ here: http://powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/aion/Server+Merge+FAQ