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Forums > Home› Neverwinter Discussion › General Discussion (PC)

Reminder: Server Merge Tonight! 8:00pm PDT (Complete)

zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator
edited October 2013 in General Discussion (PC)
. . . . . Don't forget folks, the Shard Merge is happening tonight! It is scheduled to begin at 8:00pm PDT and expected to take approximately 6 hours to complete.

. . . . . Plan accordingly and make sure you invoke prior if you think your invocation grace period (29 hours) may lapse during that time.


For more information, please see:
cmpinpointerror wrote: »
Hey all,

As announced on our blog post, the upgrades are happening next Tuesday, October 8th, starting at 8pm PDT (Pacific). The estimated downtime will be 6 hours.

When will the upgrade begin for you? Click here to find out.

Thanks so much for understanding. We'll have more information as we near our maintenance period, but this is just a week-long heads up so you can prepare (auctions, Celestial Coins, etc.!). For now, please feel free to read our extended FAQ regarding shards.

Cheers,
Pin

. . . . . Here is some additional information as well. Parts of the following will be a part of the re-vamped Extended FAQ coming very soon, but I felt would be good to add here in the interim to help answer questions:
SECTION VI
SHARDS & PREVIEW SERVER

When are the shards being merged?
. . . . . We are currently planning the Shard Merge for October 8th. For more information, please see this news thread.

What is a Shard?
. . . . . A shard is a copy of the game world that has its own unique set of characters and guilds. You may team up and play with other characters on the same shard, but not with characters on other shards. Many MMOs have the concept of a shard, and there are several different terms in use for the same concept including Server, World and Realm.

What Shards does Neverwinter currently have?
. . . . . Neverwinter has three shards. These shards are named:
. . . . . . . . . . -Beholder
. . . . . . . . . . -Dragon
. . . . . . . . . . -Mindflayer

What does Shard Merge mean?
. . . . . The three Neverwinter shards will be merged into a single shard.

Why is Cryptic merging the shards?
. . . . . We believe that having all players in a single game world provides for the best user experience because it allows players to play, interact and trade with others without having to worry about which shard they are on. Launching a new online game is an exciting time, where new hardware and new software meet a large user population for the first time. Hence, we decided to launch Neverwinter with three shards, to reduce the risk of players having a negative experience due to servers overloading. Since launch we have continued to optimize our software and hardware so that we can merge the three shards into a single seamless game world.

Was it always the plan to only have one shard for Neverwinter?
. . . . . Yes. We have always been fans of the single-shard model, and like our previous games, we've always wanted to optimize Neverwinter's infrastructure to be able to meet this goal. We are excited to be close to meeting this goal and are excited about allowing all players in our game world to be able to communicate and group with one another.

What will happen to the shard selection screen during character creation?
. . . . . The shard selection screen will no longer appear.

What happens if there is another character with the same name as my character? Will my name have to change?
. . . . . Neverwinter does not require unique character names. Every account already has a unique @handle, so there is no need for individual character names to be unique.

What happens if there is another guild with the same name as my guild? Will my guild name need to change?
. . . . . No. Since the launch of Neverwinter we have required unique guild names across all shards due to the fact that we were planning to merge the shards as soon as technically possible.

What will happen to active auctions during the shard merge?
. . . . . All auctions will be automatically expired during the shard merge. If you have a pending auction it will either go to the highest bidder at the time of the merge, or be sent back to you as unpurchased if no bids have been made.

Update from Dezstravus: This plan has been updated. During the maintenance the engineers were able to preserve the auctions and allow them to stay intact, rather than forcing them to end early or be sent back (at the cost of losing some AD). At first we didn't think it would be possible to preserve the auctions through the shard merge, but once we discovered that it could be done, we decided to move forward with it to minimize any potential player AD loss.

What will happen to active Astral Diamond Exchange orders?
. . . . . All active Astral Diamond Exchange orders will be automatically withdrawn during the shard merge. Any Zen or Astral Diamonds that have been escrowed as part of these active orders will be returned to your exchange balance. You can reclaim this currency to spend or create new buy or sell orders using the Astral Diamond Exchange window.

I have been using the Astral Diamond Exchange on more than one shard. What will happen to my currency balances?
. . . . . During the Shard Merge, the balances from all shards will be added together. If you have been using the exchange on more than one shard, the log of previous transactions will be cleared during the Shard Merge.

I have been playing on more than one shard. What will happen to my in-game mail?
. . . . . The mail from all shards will be merged together on the unified shard following the Shard Merge.

What will happen to my Celestial Coins during the Shard Merge extended maintenance?
. . . . . Celestial Coins will expire normally during this period, so please plan accordingly!

I'm concerned about the performance and stability of Protectors Enclave. Will the number of instances be increased or amount of players per instance?
. . . . . The Cryptic Engine automatically spawns new instances as needed when existing map instances are at their maximum population. We are not changing the population caps, so after the Shard Merge players should not notice any difference in the populations of Protector's Enclave or the Adventure Zones. There will just be more instances to accommodate the larger shard population.
[ My Character Bios | Discord: Zebular#9524 | In Game: @zebular (PC) • @MtnDewFreak (XBOX) • @Terraseer (PS4) ]
Zebular
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
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Comments

  • cribstaxxxcribstaxxx Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 1,300 Bounty Hunter
    edited October 2013
    Lol thank you for that, for some reason I was thinking it was happening at 8 am (30 minutes from now) lol.
    Guild Master of <Enemy Team>
    We are definitely dominating, and we are always about to win.
  • kolatmasterkolatmaster Member Posts: 3,111 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Good deal, and thanks for the reminder on the time... I had also, wrongly, thought it would be at 8am PDT! :cool:
    va8Ru.gif
  • eldartheldarth Member Posts: 4,494 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    ..and, I'm guessing, the shardless, independent Foundry servers will be experiencing "sympathetic downtime" as well?
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  • sockmunkeysockmunkey Member Posts: 4,622 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Just some friendly cautionary advice. Might be a good idea to clear out or retrieve any mail attachments you might have out there. The mail system is part of the chat system. And that is seperate from the main game. So it should be reasonabley safe. Still, no point in taking chances. Load up a storage mule for the day and wait it out. Better safe then sorry.
  • cribstaxxxcribstaxxx Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 1,300 Bounty Hunter
    edited October 2013
    Nothing will happen to ongoing profession tasks right? I have 1d 20h to go on my fomorian sword
    Guild Master of <Enemy Team>
    We are definitely dominating, and we are always about to win.
  • samuraim0samuraim0 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 87
    edited October 2013
    I hope you won't lose my account data or anybody else's character.

    This happened before with DC online and I lost all my character info and the didn't do anything to get my character back.
    Boycotting SOE since then they are terrible company with a terrible service and are just terrible terrible people that could care less about there players.
  • zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator
    edited October 2013
    sockmunkey wrote: »
    Just some friendly cautionary advice. Might be a good idea to clear out or retrieve any mail attachments you might have out there. The mail system is part of the chat system. And that is seperate from the main game. So it should be reasonabley safe. Still, no point in taking chances. Load up a storage mule for the day and wait it out. Better safe then sorry.

    . . . . .Good advice! I also cleared my mail just in case.

    cribstaxxx wrote: »
    Nothing will happen to ongoing profession tasks right? I have 1d 20h to go on my fomorian sword

    . . . . . Professions should continue normally as they do for any other downtimes.
    samuraim0 wrote: »
    I hope you won't lose my account data or anybody else's character.

    This happened before with DC online and I lost all my character info and the didn't do anything to get my character back.
    Boycotting SOE since then they are terrible company with a terrible service and are just terrible terrible people that could care less about there players.

    . . . . . The character database is already on the same server, just assigned to their chosen Shard within the Server. This should not be an issue. If for some reason this is an issue afterwards, be sure to file a GM Ticket or Web Site Support Ticket (not a bug report) right away. PWE and Cryptic are very good about making things right when something that terrible goes so wrong.
    eldarth wrote: »
    ..and, I'm guessing, the shardless, independent Foundry servers will be experiencing "sympathetic downtime" as well?
    . . . . . I'm sorry, I don't have any information regarding this. I'll see what I can find out!
    kolatmaster wrote: »
    Good deal, and thanks for the reminder on the time... I had also, wrongly, thought it would be at 8am PDT! :cool:
    cribstaxxx wrote: »
    Lol thank you for that, for some reason I was thinking it was happening at 8 am (30 minutes from now) lol.
    . . . . . Most welcome!
    [ My Character Bios | Discord: Zebular#9524 | In Game: @zebular (PC) • @MtnDewFreak (XBOX) • @Terraseer (PS4) ]
    Zebular
    [ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
  • zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator
    edited October 2013
    Added some FAQ's to the Original Post.
    [ My Character Bios | Discord: Zebular#9524 | In Game: @zebular (PC) • @MtnDewFreak (XBOX) • @Terraseer (PS4) ]
    Zebular
    [ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
  • abell39abell39 Member Posts: 1,175 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    zebular wrote: »
    What will happen to active auctions during the shard merge?
    . . . . . All auctions will be automatically expired during the shard merge. If you have a pending auction it will either go to the highest bidder at the time of the merge, or be sent back to you as unpurchased if no bids have been made.

    It's not going to refund the posting fee on those items that get returned unbought, is it? I just posted a coalescent ward at a hefty fee yesterday that isn't going to be easy to make up after all the AD I've been exchanging for Zen for dye....
    Kerensa Loreweaver, level 60 DC | Rilla Turtledove, level 60 CW | Calvin Meriwether, level 60 TR
    Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
  • eldartheldarth Member Posts: 4,494 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    zebular wrote: »
    Eldarth wrote:
    ..and, I'm guessing, the shardless, independent Foundry servers will be experiencing "sympathetic downtime" as well?
    . . . . . I'm sorry, I don't have any information regarding this. I'll see what I can find out!

    Any news? Is the Foundry going to be forced offline for 6+ hours as well?
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  • dezstravusdezstravus Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    eldarth wrote: »
    Any news? Is the Foundry going to be forced offline for 6+ hours as well?

    Hey Eldarth,

    The Foundry will be offline during the maintenance as well. We'll be working as hard as we can to finish as quickly as possible! :)
  • raptorskyfireraptorskyfire Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 120 Bounty Hunter
    edited October 2013
    Crud. Hope the mail system doesn't flip out. I've been out of game for a while and didn't think to clean it up beforehand (too much RL going on). Hope I don't lose my stuff, it's mostly gear for alts but still...
    Part of Storm-Shore, a RP/PvE guild. http://www.stormshore.com/

    I have many alts, I am a class and race rainbow.
  • zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator
    edited October 2013
    dezstravus wrote: »
    Hey Eldarth,

    The Foundry will be offline during the maintenance as well. We'll be working as hard as we can to finish as quickly as possible! :)
    Thanks, Dez!
    [ My Character Bios | Discord: Zebular#9524 | In Game: @zebular (PC) • @MtnDewFreak (XBOX) • @Terraseer (PS4) ]
    Zebular
    [ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
  • shiralacshiralac Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 139 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    OMG!

    You all couldn't have postponed/scheduled the start of the merger for another minute longer, so that we could have won the gg pvp!
    There is no such thing as Pleather Armor.
  • sockmunkeysockmunkey Member Posts: 4,622 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    And the complaints have already started.
  • pestilence149pestilence149 Member Posts: 195 Bounty Hunter
    edited October 2013
    abell39 wrote: »
    It's not going to refund the posting fee on those items that get returned unbought, is it? I just posted a coalescent ward at a hefty fee yesterday that isn't going to be easy to make up after all the AD I've been exchanging for Zen for dye....

    I see what this guy is saying, I just posted a greater plague fire enchantment yesterday which cost's 2,400,000 ( I believe roughly a 40K AD Sink if you are just going to remove it from bids and return the item.. ) Thanks bro? On a good note , glad to see the servers merge for a little more competition in PVP and to see a little more livelihood to the game! Thanks Cryptic,

    Sincerely,
    Pestilence
    Foundry Missions ;
    By ; @pestilence149
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    ELIGIBLE FOR THE DAILY FOUNDRY REWARDS!
    Search by Best : Name/Summary/Short-Code ; Gladiators
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    Any feedback and suggestions are welcome please enjoy!
  • sockmunkeysockmunkey Member Posts: 4,622 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    pestilence149 wrote: »
    I see what this guy is saying, I just posted a greater plague fire enchantment yesterday which cost's 2,400,000 ( I believe roughly a 40K AD Sink if you are just going to remove it from bids and return the item.. ) Thanks bro? On a good note , glad to see the servers merge for a little more competition in PVP and to see a little more livelihood to the game! Thanks Cryptic,

    Sincerely,
    Pestilence

    Why would you post a big ticket item like that a day before a major thing like a merger? Why not wait a day or two?
  • abell39abell39 Member Posts: 1,175 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    sockmunkey wrote: »
    Why would you post a big ticket item like that a day before a major thing like a merger? Why not wait a day or two?

    Personally I forgot the merge was coming up so fast (yes I know it was in the game news that I glanced at right before logging in, don't judge my short-short-term memory), but the ward sold sometime this morning while I was at work so I'm happy regardless at least. Plus I'd have missed out on all that AD for the dye sale if I'd waited a couple more days so it's a good thing I didn't.
    Kerensa Loreweaver, level 60 DC | Rilla Turtledove, level 60 CW | Calvin Meriwether, level 60 TR
    Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
  • beckylunaticbeckylunatic Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 14,231 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    The information about auctions expiring during the downtime was posted Oct 2, to allow us to plan accordingly.
    Guild Leader - The Lords of Light

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  • lizardthewizardlizardthewizard Member, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Since the previous patch update (10-3) I, like many others, have experienced an unacceptable level of lag during all aspects of gameplay, that was not present before. Since the patch on 10-3-13 was advertised as preparation for this coming merger, are we expected to see the lag issue resolve?
  • coffeeforevercoffeeforever Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    So... if you had 2 characters per shard, does that mean you get 6 characters to play with on the new unified shard?
    If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance....
    ....baffle them with your bullsh!t
  • eldartheldarth Member Posts: 4,494 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    dezstravus wrote: »
    The Foundry will be offline during the maintenance as well. We'll be working as hard as we can to finish as quickly as possible! :)

    Booo... dislike, dislike. :p

    I wish you guys could just disable the "publish" button and separate whatever ties it in so directly to the game servers.
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  • ambisinisterrambisinisterr Member, Neverwinter Moderator Posts: 10,462 Community Moderator
    edited October 2013
    eldarth wrote: »
    Booo... dislike, dislike. :p

    I wish you guys could just disable the "publish" button and separate whatever ties it in so directly to the game servers.

    Problem is everything goes through the servers.

    There's no offline mode and since the servers will be unavailable for obvious reasons I doubt it is feasible even if they wanted to allow it without massively revamping The Foundry. :(
  • lewstelamon01lewstelamon01 Member Posts: 7,415 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    coffeeforever wrote: »
    So... if you had 2 characters per shard, does that mean you get 6 characters to play with on the new unified shard?

    No. Character creation was actually limited to two characters across all shards unless you purchased more slots. Therefore, when the shards are merged, you'll still have your two character (or up to the amount of purchased slots) limit.
    ROLL TIDE ROLL

    Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?

    PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
  • coffeeforevercoffeeforever Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    lewstelamon01 wrote: »
    No. Character creation was actually limited to two characters across all shards unless you purchased more slots. Therefore, when the shards are merged, you'll still have your two character (or up to the amount of purchased slots) limit.

    Thanks for clearing that up! :)
    If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance....
    ....baffle them with your bullsh!t
  • dezstravusdezstravus Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Thanks for all the helpful replies, lewstelamon01 and ambisinisterr!
  • galagargalagar Member Posts: 17 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I'm rather disappointed in the lack of notice regarding the timing of this. There was a previous message that the merge was coming, but not detailed timeframe listed as of then. Now, with less then 16 hours notice the merge is happening.
  • lewstelamon01lewstelamon01 Member Posts: 7,415 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    galagar wrote: »
    I'm rather disappointed in the lack of notice regarding the timing of this. There was a previous message that the merge was coming, but not detailed timeframe listed as of then. Now, with less then 16 hours notice the merge is happening.

    http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?498291-Neverwinter-Server-Technology-Upgrade-October-8-2013-starting-at-8pm-PDT-(Pacific) And yes, the time frame was listed. Thread OP date is 10/1
    ROLL TIDE ROLL

    Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?

    PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
  • galagargalagar Member Posts: 17 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    lewstelamon01 wrote: »
    http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?498291-Neverwinter-Server-Technology-Upgrade-October-8-2013-starting-at-8pm-PDT-(Pacific) And yes, the time frame was listed. Thread OP date is 10/1

    Why, pray tell, didn't they utilize the NEWS portion on the launcher??? Everyone sees that ... not everyone looks in the forums so often ...

    I had only seen the original blog posting (only by accident at that), before they updated it with the date/time.
  • ambisinisterrambisinisterr Member, Neverwinter Moderator Posts: 10,462 Community Moderator
    edited October 2013
    Check the news article. ;)

    It was updated the day after the initial announcement to coincide with the Forum Post.

    It's a good idea to check the forums. if there was a news article for all of the information in the forums then it'd be impossible to sift through the news. It's fast and simple to find the information too!

    Simply check the DevTracker and/or the Patch Notes, Patch preview Patch Notes and the General Forum's sticky posts to get an idea what upcoming changes will be arriving in Neverwinter.
    We work hard to make sure the information is easy to find. Check the forums in the future. :)
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