Server Mergers 2010 (EQ2)
On October 18, 2010 it was announced [1] that there will be server mergers starting on or about November 16, 2010. Merges will happen over several weeks rather than all at once. Details on each server merge will be posted in the Official News and Announcements section of the official forums.[2]
Merger Schedule
The U.S. merges are expected to be complete by nighttime on Monday, December 20th. The international merges will be performed after the first of the year due to necessary database maintenance.
Merge Durations
As of December 8, 2010, the merges are expected to take up to 24 hours each.
Affected Servers
- Blackburrow merged into Everfrost - Completed Dec 8, 2010
- Najena merged into Unrest - Completed Dec 14, 2010
- Kithicor merged into Butcherblock - Completed Dec 16, 2010
- Mistmoore merged into Permafrost - Completed Dec 16, 2010
- Befallen merged into Oasis - Completed Dec 20, 2010
- Nektulos merged into Guk - Completed Dec 20, 2010
- Nexus merged into Barren Sky (RU) - Completed Jan 25, 2011
- Runnyeye merged into Splitpaw (UK) - Completed Feb 4, 2011
- Innovation merged into Valor (German) - Completed Feb 8, 2011
- Lucan D'Lere merged into Crushbone - Completed Feb 16, 2011 [3]
- Vox merged into Nagafen - Completed Dec 19, 2011
- The Bazaar merged into Freeport -Completed Dec 21, 2011
Russian Servers
Akella, the company that manages EQ2 for Russia, announced that the Nexus server will be merged into the Barren Sky server on January 25, 2011. Servers will be closed for 24 hours from 23:00 Moscow time on 01/25/2011 to 23:00 01/26/2011. [4]
Check here for the Russian server merger rules: http://forums.akella-online.ru/showthread.php?t=36134
Unaffected Servers
- Antonia Bayle
- Crushbone
- Harla Dar (Russian PvP)
- Sebilis (Japanese)
- The Bazaar (Live Gamer)
- Storms (French)
- Vox (Live Gamer)
- Nagafen
Reasons for Unaffected Servers:
- US Servers: Antonia Bayle, Nagafen and Crushbone are all highly populated and don't need to merge. Lucan D'Lere is a roleplaying server and isn't being merged with Antonia Bayle because the resultant population would be too high.
- Live Gamer Servers: We're currently unable to merge the Live Gamer servers into any other servers because of contractual obligations.
- French and Japanese: Sebilis and Storms are unique language servers and shouldn't be merged elsewhere.[5]
Chat, Mail & Friends List Outages
The following services will be affected for all EQII servers during merger downtime and may experience interruptions: [6]
- Cross-server chat
- Chat channels
- In-game mail
- Friends Lists
Players on servers that are not being merged can expect the in-game mail system and their friends list to not function for the duration of any server merge. The chat system will be down for the duration of the team moving the universal chat data for the merging server into the new home server. [7]
Post-Merge Side Effects
With the first two merges on 12/8 and 12/14 these side effects were known to happen to several people on the newly merged servers. They are mainly just annoyances that are easy to fix.
- Problem: A few players have seen that all of their characters show as "Offline" even after the server is up. Another variation of this is that only 4 of the characters display.
- Solution: "Try deleting your cache or logincache directory. If that doesn't help, try making a new character on [your server]. You can delete it later, but that should force a new fetch of your characters if clearing your directories didn't work." [8]
- Problem: Unable to enter their guild hall through the Magic Door to Guild Hall nor with the Call to Guild Hall spell.
- Solution: One player needs to enter the guild hall through its normal entrance; after this then the issue should not reoccur.
- Problem: [Some] players may be missing their keymaps.
- Solution: "We apologize for this inconvenience but don't have a fix for it currently." [9]
Character Names
- In the event of duplicate character names as a result of this server merge, priority will be given to the character who has logged in to the game within the past sixty (60) days; if both characters have logged in within the past sixty (60) days, then the character which has accrued the most gameplay time overall will retain its name. Other characters will have an "x" added to their names until a unique name has been determined.
- Players with a character whose name has been affected by the server merge can type "/rename" in their in-game chat window and receive a one-time complimentary name change.[10]
During the first merge on October 8, 2010, it was realized that the script was not modified correctly and character names were determined by creation date. Rothgar explained what that this should be fixed on the official forums: [11]
 | We are running a script to correct the names but it will take a couple of hours to complete. This means you might notice your name is incorrect when you first log in, but don't worry, it'll be updated automatically. If you happen to be online when the script renames you, you'll be kicked from the world, so don't panic if that happens. Also, there's no need to petition Customer Service about your name change. Please let your friends know that names should be corrected in a few hours. |
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Guilds
- Guilds with leaders will be transferred intact; however, guilds without leaders will not be transferred and will be deleted as part of this event. If you belong to a guild on a merged world which currently does not have a leader and you wish to have the guild transferred as part of this scheduled server merge, please submit an in-game petition (/petition) in order to resolve this situation prior to the scheduled date of this server merge.
- Priority for guild names will be given to the guild with the earliest guild creation date, with such guild keeping its name and the other guild having an "x" added to its name.
- Guilds whose names have been affected by the server merge that wish to change their guild's name will need to use the in-game "/petition" command.[12]
Player Homes
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All items in characters' homes will be inherited by the home's owner during the merge. If you have alts that own any items, have designated any trustees to your character's home or if you are a trustee in another character's home, please arrange for the appropriate owner to retrieve its items before the server merge begins.[13] - The merge scripts were rewritten so that ownership is not wiped during the mergers.
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After the merge any vendor (like Salesman Crates) items in your transferred character's house will need to be re-placed in your character's new home. - Most players did not have to re-place their sales containers.
- You can use the house vault of the character which is being transferred for storage. The items in your transferred character's house vault will remain associated with that character during the server merge. [14]
- Despite the statement below under Sales Containers, Smokejumper posted: "After the merge, your house and guild items will be right where you left them. No packing/unpacking or saving of layouts needed." [15]
- This statement was confirmed during the 12/8 merge... house items and guild hall items stayed exactly in place.
- Player-Written Books - If you have any player written books, make a backup of their contents on your computer prior to your merge. Many players have experienced being unable to edit or copy some or all of their books post-merge. This issue happens with some books but not with others, despite having the same author.
- To make a backup, edit your book, use CTRL-A to select all of the text, use CTRL-C to copy it, then go into a word editor on your computer and CTRL-V to paste it. Ensure that all of the text copied over, then save the file.
Sales Containers and Broker Info
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As noted above, your transferred character's house items, including any vendor crates containing such character's broker inventory, will need to be re-placed in that character's new home. - Most players did not have to re-place their sales containers.
- Vendor Events (i.e. the logs of what was sold, to whom, when, etc.) will not transfer as part of the server merge.
- Until your transferred character concludes a sale on the newly merged server, that character's Total Coin Gain will display 0. After that character makes a sale, it will display the sum of the total amount of coin that such character has gained on both servers.[16]
Shared Bank Slots
- If shared bank slots are in use for two servers being merged together, the "excess items should go into overflow. That can be a pain to deal with, so [...] prepare your inventory ahead of time." [17]
No Free Character Transfers
In the past, populations across the servers were very unbalanced and the free transfer program was used to create additional balance during a server merge. At this time, the mergers have been calculated to create population balance and density and thus, single-player character transfers will not enhance the outcome of the merge.[18]
Legacy Titles
Players from the eight servers that are being merged will be granted a Legacy Title, "of (servername)". For example, "of Nektulos," "of Najena," "of Runnyeye" and so on. The title will give these players the opportunity to show off the server they came from and distinguish themselves if they choose to do so.[19]
During the first merge pair, it was announced by Rothgar that legacy titles will take some time to process: [20]
| Regarding the server legacy titles, those will not be available as soon as the server comes up. They will be processed after a few days. |
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We later learned that it could take a hotfix to process these titles.
Hardware
At Fan Faire 2010 (and in other discussions) Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson mentioned that he was trying to get new servers with better hardware to support server mergers. After the server mergers were announced he said that there was not yet new hardware. "However," said Dave, "when we merge the worlds, we are adding *all* of the machines from both worlds merged into that single world's available systems. This greatly reduces the load on any specific CPU and should do good things. We'll know more soon after doing the first test of this concept."[21]
Valor and Splitpaw
Rothgar addressed concerns on where the merged International servers would be housed: "Valor and Splitpaw have slightly higher populations than their U.S.-based counterparts so we are planning on keeping the servers in Amsterdam. It is not our plan to cause additional lag with the mergers, so we will do everything we can to reduce lag during the merge process." [22]
Server Merger Q&A
This Q&A was sent to SOE and published November 8, 2010.
- ZAM: Are legacy titles being considered for players on home servers?
- SOE: No. Only players that are merged away from their original server will gain titles.
- ZAM: Regarding potential guild name conflicts: If two guilds share the same name, what is the criteria for which guild will keep the name? Will active guilds have the chance of losing their name to an inactive guild simply due to the guild's inception date?
- SOE: The guild that was created first, chronologically, will keep the name.
- ZAM: Will the EQ2Player leveling history and/or item discoveries be wiped for anyone affected by the merges? If so, will it only affect the merging server or will it also affect the home server?
- SOE: No changes will be made immediately and that won't change until the department that owns EQ2Players has time to make new database feed changes.
- ZAM: If a player has characters on both a merging server and a home server, how will items and money in the shared bank be affected?
- SOE: If there is overflow after the merge, then any remaining items will just flow into the Overflow area. Coin will just add together.
- ZAM: For players who have purchased a name change, will they be allowed a reimbursement and if they lose that purchased name due to the merge, and if so, is there a certain time restriction on this?
- SOE: There is no special reservation for players that purchased their name. If they can't keep their name, they'll need to petition CS on a case-by-case basis.
- ZAM: Is any consideration being given to renaming or purging extremely low level characters that have not been played for years (or possibly never got beyond the trial), even if their name is not conflicting in the merge?
- SOE: Not at this time.
ZAM: Houses and guild halls seem to be the biggest concern with multiple questions posted. The following are all housing and guild hall questions.
- ZAM: 1. Will both houses and guild halls be treated the same (ie: access lists, item ownership, etc) with the merges?
- SOE: Yes. All will remain intact.
- ZAM: 2. Will both the merging server (ex: Blackburrow) and the home server (ex: Everfrost) be subject to item ownership changes, or will only the merging server have this concern?
- SOE: No item ownership changes will occur this time around.
- ZAM: 3. Will both houses and guild halls be subject to having ownership removed from items, or is this limited to houses only?
- SOE: Same question. Nope.
- ZAM: 4. If guild halls are affected as well to the item ownership reset, will the new owner be the person who purchased the hall? If that person no longer is part of the guild, who will be the owner?
- SOE: Still no. :)
- ZAM: 5. If multiple lore items that were placed by alts suddenly become owned by the home owner will duplicates be deleted, or will the home owner simply be unable to pick up more than one at a time?
- SOE: Not going to happen. See above. (Same as #2, 3, 4)
- ZAM: 6. How will house and guild hall access lists be affected? If a character on the access list receives an "x" on their name due to the merge, will the list update to reflect that?
- SOE: Same as #1. No changes will occur and everything will remain intact.
- ZAM: 7. Will homes retain any crafted item count and vault expanders used, as well as the Marketplace item expanders, or will those items need to be re-purchased after the merge?
- SOE: No change will occur. No reason to repurchase or reuse.
- ZAM: 8. We know that it was stated that vendor crates will need replaced after the merge. However, will items need to be removed from the vendor crates first? Should the vendor crates be manually picked up by the player first?
- SOE: No. They can just replace them. No need for any pre-merge scrambling.
- ZAM: 9. If an item placed in a home or guild hall is owned by a deleted character, will the item be deleted or will ownership still transfer to the owner of the house and/or hall?
- SOE: No change. Everything will stay the same as before the merge.
- ZAM: 10. Will houses and/or guild halls affected by the merge have to re-place all of their items after the merge? Dave Georgeson addressed this on the forums, but his answer conflicts with the official email.
- SOE: As I stated previously, no, you won't have to do diddly-squat. :)
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- ^ SOE Customer service email
- ^ Amnerys's FAQ on the official forums
- ^ Rothgar on the official forums
- ^ Akella Online EQ2 Forums, January 20, 2011
- ^ Amnerys's FAQ on the official forums
- ^ Merge announcement by Amnerys on the official forums
- ^ Explanation of chat server outages during mergers by Rothgar
- ^ A post by Rothgar on 12/14 explaining how to fix "Offline" characters.
- ^ Rothgar's post explaining the keymap problem during Unrest's reboot on 12/14.
- ^ SOE Customer service email
- ^ Rothgar's post explaining the character rename issues during the October 8, 2010 Blackburrow to Everfrost merge.
- ^ SOE Customer service email
- ^ SOE Customer service email
- ^ SOE Customer service email
- ^ Smokejumper's post on the official forums.
- ^ SOE Customer service email
- ^ Quote from Windslasher on the Testers forum.
- ^ Amnerys's FAQ on the official forums
- ^ Amnerys's FAQ on the official forums
- ^ Rothgar's post regarding legacy titles being granted on the EQ2 forums
- ^ Smokerjumper's post on the official forums.
- ^ Rothgar on the official forums