“That’s usually not a good sign,” says Margie.
City of Heroes® is proud to announce that starting today character transfers between servers (within North American OR European server lists) will become free to all players and remain that way through the end of January 2010.
- Starts: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 8:59 a.m. PST (11:59 a.m. EST / 4:59 p.m. GMT / 17:59 Central European Time)
- Ends: Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. PST (2:59 a.m. EST / 11:59 p.m. GMT / 00:59 Central European Time)
Now you will have more freedom to fully enjoy the game and each other…but don’t go haphazardly jumping servers without knowing the Character Transfer limit and all the other facts. Visit our Knowledge Base to learn all the specifics so that you can make educated transfer decisions. Amongst other things to bear in mind:
- Transfers are not available between North American and European servers.
- You will be able to complete up to 6 transfers a week (7-day period) per account.
- Not all possessions will transfer over with your character so be sure to read the corresponding Knowledge Base article before you decide to transfer a character.
- Super-group affiliation, Prestige and access to your Supergroup base items will be lost.
- You may lose your character’s name when transferring from a server.
Then all you have to do is transfer away and enjoy the holiday server ride!
So I wonder what’s going on here? Are paid transfers simply not being done? Is this a prelude to server consolidation?
Some clarifications from the KB article:
Between December 15th, 2009 and January 31st, 2010, you will be able to complete up to 6 transfers a week per account. For example:
- You can transfer 1 of your characters to five different servers then back to his/her original server in the span of a week.
- You can choose to transfer 6 unique characters to a different server, or
- You can transfer 3 characters to a different server and back, etc.
[…]
With Character Transfers, when someone does use it, do they receive a warning that their name is already taken prior to the move?
No, there is no warning. However, there is now a Name Check feature included in the game. By using this feature, found at the character select screen when logging into a specific server, you can check if a name is available on the server you are currently logged on to prior to purchasing a rename token. Be sure you are logged into the correct server when you are checking names.
Please keep in mind that while a name check may come through as showing a name available, there is still no guarantee that someone might not choose that name just before you use your rename to obtain it. Therefore, there are no guarantees that any name will be available.
If you do go through with a Character Transfer and there is a name conflict on the destination server, the character’s name will be appended to have a numeral at the end and be issued a free rename token. When you next log that character in, you will be able to use the rename feature to obtain a new name. […]
Do all your possessions move with you when you do a character transfer?
Yes, including your auctions on the Consignment Market. Here is a list of things that do not move:
- Your non-global Friends list of players will no longer be valid.
- You will be removed from any Supergroup that character was in, and will lose access to any SG storage.
- You will also lose all Prestige accumulated within your Supergroup since you will be effectively leaving it (even if you are going to be re-creating the same Supergroup on your new destination server).
- Taskforces or Strikeforces that may be in progress will be abandoned.
- Kiosk stats will be preserved, but rating positions will likely change.
- We cannot guarantee that your character’s name will be available on the destination server you move to. Should there be a name conflict, your character will be issued a free character rename to change the name.
Still … can’t stop wondering what the metameaning behind all this is … The (non-conspiratorial) speculation is that it’s giving folks a chance to clear the decks for the “Going Rogue” expansion. But it still has that server-consolidation feel that some folks are so terrified about.