Shard transfer idea revisited

[Loqucious]

A while back someone posted the idea that we should be able to jump into a moongate on our home shard and be able to go to any other shard. The more I think about this the more I think it is a GREAT idea. Here's why:

1. Many people from many different shards already are leaving their home shard to go to the larger population shards. This just kills the smaller shards that much more and makes new players, who happen to start newbie chars on these smaller pop shards, wonder if anyone cares about this game. Napa has lost a ton of players who transferred to other shards like ATL. Plus I'm sure the newbies are bored when they see there is nobody to play with.

2. Allowing this to happen would create all kinds of great possibilities for player run events. I would not hesitate to shard hop to an event that sounded fun and I bet many other people would do so as well. This in turn would give value to all the smaller shards.

3. The housing issues on the larger pop shards would diminish because people could just build a nice home on smaller pop shards.

4. I think the economy would balance better.

5. Bottom line is that players would have the opportunity to feel that they are playing a popular game and the interaction with more players would simply make the game more exciting.

6. The question of potentially eliminate some shards would become a mute point.

Ok, three issues that would have to be addressed:

1. Only what the character is wearing should be able to transfer with them so the programming issue of bringing all the stuff in the bank would be more easily overcome.

2. EA would have to realize that losing out on a few bucks from transfer tokens would be made up for by the fact that the player base would be happier AND IN TURN word of mouth would possibly help subscribership (I really believe it would)

3. There would have to be a population limit built into each shard.

End

 

[Nystul]

No.

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

sounds good to me, especially with the qualifyer that you would only be able to bring the clothes on your back. however, that would ONLY work for events not requiring money. what would be the diff between popping through a moongate to another shard with only your clothes on your back, versus just creating a newbie char on that other shard? if you can't bring your money to spend or your rares to sell, or your ethy mounts to ride, etc. it would be very limiting. it's great to build a big house on a low-pop shard (in order to free up some over-crowding on the bigger shards), but you'd still have to buy $20 transfers to bring all your stuff over or you'd be sitting in an empty house on a low-pop shard, and all your stuff would be crammed into your bank box on your high-pop shard.

 

[Loqucious]

No.

Come on Nystul I can accept a "no" answer, but please give reasons why you feel this way. I have to assume that you are a cross shard seller and this idea would hurt you personally. But I'm thinking of the greater good of the game.

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

Come on Nystul I can accept a "no" answer, but please give reasons why you feel this way. I have to assume that you are a cross shard seller and this idea would hurt you personally. But I'm thinking of the greater good of the game.

No ... where would the character log out at? Home or non-home shard? When they log do they "snap" back to the home shard?

The current character transfer has issues ... the base mechanics of this would most likely to be the basis of what you propose. Want your character black-holed during transfer ... or no transfer ability because internet hops are having fits, or the shard of destination is down for some reason?

 

[Loqucious]

No ... where would the character log out at? Home or non-home shard? When they log do they "snap" back to the home shard?

The current character transfer has issues ... the base mechanics of this would most likely to be the basis of what you propose. Want your character black-holed during transfer ... or no transfer ability because internet hops are having fits, or the shard of destination is down for some reason?

These seem like issues that could definately be worked out. But do the basic ideas I have proposed in order to help the game not make sense? Do you not think they would help if your issues could be overcome?

 

[love2winalot]

Hail: Right now even the normal, "Pay $25" shard transfer does not work as intened. I just transfered a charater yesterday, and after sitting in que for well over an hour, i went to the data base and saw it was to be 30 minutes max. So i logged out, "still in que", and i ended up on the new shard. Whew.........

But as long as EA has the, "We no not replace lost or stolen items" policy, written in stone, i would not reccomend it. Oh, for those who have never lost anything, it does not matter if the game lost it, ea lost it, the client crashed, ect, Items do NOT get replaced. Besides, there is no incentive for EA to give up their transfer fee.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

Still no, "The clothes they're wearing" could be worth many millios.

 

[Tina Small]

I think before something like this is implemented, it would be smart to do a poll and find out why people make characters or continue to keep characters on the larger shards. Is it because there are more people to hunt with or role play with? Is it for the shopping? How many people who still play on a quiet shard like having the ability to pay for a character transfer in order to be able to buy something useful (e.g., artis, recipes) on a larger shard and transfer it to their home shard?

Without understanding why people choose to make or keep characters on large shards versus small shards, I think it would be hard to make changes to the current transfer program and keep the majority of players happy with the changes. I suspect that if you restrict the ability to transfer goods from shard to shard, you may, at least in the short term, cause some of the smaller shards to lose even more players.