Standing Stone Games and their 64-bit Lord of the Rings Online server plan has fallen off the rails more than a few times so far, sending time frame estimates out the door as they reacted to the entirely predictable enthusiasm of players to get onto realms that promised better performance, server lag and related issues being a long time problem with the game.

Entirely predictable to everyone besides SSG that is.  But player enthusiasm is a good problem to have and the team has tried to roll with it even has their well laid plans were smashed by a flood of transfers.

The news that dropped yesterday told us that the long awaited additional US 64-bit server, Sting, will open up to VIP subscribers today 15:00 Pacific time (22:00 UTC) and then to unwashed masses an hour later.

Free transfers to Sting will be available from the 32-bit realms and other US 64-bit realms at 16:00 Pacific time (23:00 UTC).  There is a whole coming six week rotor of when you’ll be able to transfer from specific 64-bit servers to other 64-bit servers, but we’ll get to that when it is a thing.  It is supposed to commence on June 3rd.

Then there are the Dark Worlds, the servers that were shut down as part of the great server merge back in 2015.  Turbine doesn’t actually do server merges like its Daybreak siblings, preferring to offer up transfers and, eventually, leaving characters behind and inaccessible if you don’t transfer on time.

There are reasons you might choose such a path.  Certainly with a free to play title you do end up with a lot of accounts that log in once and never return cluttering up the database.  The downside is that any number of potential returning players can get caught up when essentially dumping the trash.

Except, of course, they didn’t dump the trash.  Instead they bagged it all up and let it sit in a corner for close to a decade.  There is certainly an argument that maybe after all that time there isn’t much worth salvaging.  But we’re going to get a chance as they have given us a new schedule for when we’ll have an opportunity to try transferring.  We’ll see if it sticks, but here it is:

• Wednesday, May 28th:
  • Firefoot (US)
  • Silverlode (US)
  • Maiar (EU)
  • Estel (EU)
• Thursday, May 29th:
  • Vilya (US)
  • Imladris (US)
  • Anduin (EU)
  • Withywindle (EU)
• Friday, May 30th:
  • Dwarrowdelf (US)
  • Meneldor (US)
  • Snowbourn (EU)
  • Morthond (EU)
• Monday, June 2nd:
  • Nimrodel (US)
  • Windfola (US)
  • Gilrain (EU)
  • Vanyar (EU)
• Tuesday, June 3rd:
  • Elendilmir (US)
  • Riddermark (US)
  • Eldar (EU)

They did not say in the most recent post how long transfers would be available, but on the original FAQ (linked below) it was indicated that dark server transfers would be available through August, after which there would be no future opportunity to transfer characters.  The trash will finally be disposed of at that point I guess.

Going back to an old post about guilds, (itself built off of a 2011 post about my journey in LOTRO thus far) I know I have characters leftover on:

• Firefoot
• Nimrodel
• Silverlode
• Windfola

At this point I have no idea what level or state of being any of those characters are in.  I suspect few are much past level 30, though I may have made it to Moria Silverlode.

Windfola are the oldest of the set as that is where we setup at launch back in 2007.  My notes on those old posts indicate, if nothing else, all my bag slots are full.

I will see if there are any characters worth moving over when the time comes.  In addition, I also have characters on Brandywine and Arkenstone… and left a couple behind on Anor, from the first round of legedary servers.  Not sure where they went.

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