It’s been pretty quiet around these parts. But yesterday, the blog saw a small flurry of visitors, looking for assistance from my post with its resources for (re)naming your SWTOR characters, and ideas for (re)naming your guild something clever.
That’s because with less than a day’s notice, SWTOR did another server consolidation, moving all the origina server folks to a new server, but in some cases, additionally moving destination servers from the round 1 consolidation to a new server as well.
The 3 that specifically affected me were:
Jedi Covenant Destination
Includes: Jedi Covenant, Canderous Ordo, The Constant, Krayiss Obelisk, Kathol Rift, Whitebeam Run, Khoonda Militia, Ki-Ta Kren, Kaas City, Fort Garnik, Hanharr, Sedyn Kyne, Keetael, The Corsair, Nathema, Zez-Kai Ell, Shii-Cho, The Courageous, Assassins of Sion, Eidolon Security, Axial Park, Keller’s Void, Master Dorak, Juyo, The Defenestrator, Telos Restoration Project.
The Ebon Hawk
The Ebon Hawk, Kath Hound, Rubat Crystal, Lord Adraas, Sanctum of the Exalted, Shien.
The Bastion
The Bastion, The Crucible Pits, The Maw, Rakata Mind Prison, Nadd’s Sarcophagus, Infinite Empire, Daragon Trail, Warriors of the Shadow, Black Vulkars, Shadowtown, The Swiftsure, Dark Reaper, Wound in the Force, Mandalore the Indomitable.
Wait, no I’m wrong I also have characters consolidated over onto The Harbinger too, from Space Slug…
The Harbinger
The Harbinger, Drooga’s Pleasure Barge, Fa’athra, Veeboo Lunx, Master Gnost-Dural, Darth Xedrix, Gauntlet of Kressh, Zakkeg Beast, Perlemian Trade Route, Zaalbar, Empress Teta, Namadii Corridor, Kaiburr Crystal, Krath, Wall of Light, Vornskr, Soresu, Lord Praven, Master Zhar Lestin, Space Slug, Darth Sion, Hyperspace Cannon, Mask of Nihilus, The Jekk’Jekk Tarr.
I had an OK time of it in that I didn’t lose any of my level 47+ names. I lost a number of my placeholder names, and on Jedi Covenant, I now have 3 characters with the same name times 3 if I recall, which means having to figure out a slew of new names, or, more likely just deleting some of those alts after checking their bags for shiny crafted gear made by Anexxia.
I still need to log in and actually rechoose my legacy name and clean things up. It was just too overwhelming last night, after seeing all the characters crammed together on Canderous Ordo, to get it together and sort it all out.
I’m hoping that now that we went through this additional consolidation, paid server transfers will be on the horizon so I can finally do my own reunification and consolidation and no longer have my favorite character on a PvP server as I am just not feeling that environment.
How’d you fair?
Inquisitor's Roadhouse 
I haven’t logged in to check because I’m not paying currently. I know Lou cancelled but his account is still active, so I’m going to have to remind him to look soon.
I’d love to know if I kept my names, but I am not paying $15 just to see. Waiting on the f2p options….
Nod, wrenz is in that same boat. It would be a nice gesture to give folks a tool for that.
Dont forget some additional options: irritated this consolidation doesn’t include name change options and/or choice of server for the paying subscribers that may be inconvenienced by the impacts otherwise.
One more thing keeping me from logging in until the free option comes up. Being a subscriber just hasn’t been installed with the value that it could’ve been. The path to the new cartel coin system couldn’t be more lacking in direction.
You might be wondering as you always say on the podcast why people who arent subscribing keep responding to your posts: After they refused to open up a name change for my main on origin server or grant my referral speeder from 2 referrals of my family I made, I ran out of patience with the low value of my subscription and dropped it for a break, shortly followed by the announcement of the impending free system
— Mr Obtuse
I hear you on the issues you’ve raised. As for my q as to why folks are still reading swtor blogs when they have stopped playing, I don’t know that you’ve answered it. I’m guessing it is because you had high hopes for the games and issues like these have frustrated you and you are hoping they will make changes that give you more of the experience you are hoping for? I personally don’t keep reading about a game on blogs and commenting once I’ve given up on it.
A fan is a fan. There’s very little that could cause a fan (who wasn’t merely giving an unfamiliar game a random shot but highly interested in that game) to abandon their interest.
Once you reconcile that that thing you followed and enjoyed has vital flaws that prevent your further ability to enjoy it, how can you continue to contribute to its success? If each time I ordered a meal from a preferred cafe it had serious flaws causing it to taste bad or deliver far less value than advertised, what would continue to bring me back to do business again with them as the customer/user role?
Especially if after raising my observations to them with suggestions on how to fix the flaws and add the missing value (restoring the same value I used to receive) so the customers get what they paying for, the response was unempowering & nearly customer apathetic – “we don’t really mind those problems and hope you will reconsider using our product”
The other problem that is very severe is the warzone gameplay. It has all the right elements to be successful, then fails at the last moment once the 50 bracket kicks in and introduces non bolstered and thereby forever imbalanced combat. It’s just plain not fun after that. The balance is gone. There is not one advantage, unless you call a lack of accessibility a benefit, to allowing items to boost your power and defenses and then asking players to spend game time acquiring that equipment step by step. That’s putting pve in your pvp, in a bad way..
Instead it should offer meaningful choices to all players on which aspects of their class capabilities they like best and want to improve. Balance the power and value of the bonus capabilities with each of the gear sets you have to choose from, then players can pick what matches how they play and upgrade their experience and level instead of equipment the more time they spend playing, granting them more skills or quality of life improvements that are not going to be the “I win Button”
How many characters? I deleted all the placeholder ones I had as we weren’t moving again and just made sure I had all the names I wanted covered on the server before the incoming hordes took those too.
I’ve said it elsewhere but the lack of communication about all this has been astounding.
I ended up with 11 toons on one server. Less than that on my other 3 servers.
I was lucky in that I didnt lose any names and I still kept my legacy name the same. Right now the only long term item I am looking forward to is HK-51. I hope we start to see some detailed information on that companion very soon.
Well, they’ve got 3 more months for the content that was promised before the end of the year…