June 8th, 1966 was a Wednesday. Star Trek: The Original Series was still three months away from debuting on American television, but production on season one is well underway. The episode Mudd’s Women is in production and on June 8th their shooting scenes in the briefing room and sickbay. So what does this have to do with Server Mergers?
Not much really, except that on June 8th, 1966 in New York City, the National Football League, and the American Football League announced their merger. So ’66 was a big year for Star Trek, and a big year for mergers.
And as with the AFL-NFL merger, there are a lot of details to sort out when it comes to server mergers.
What?
Basically, you’re going to log on one day to find a more crowded universe, or maybe even a Crowded House. You won’t have a Private Universe anymore.
At some point in the near future, two servers will become one. If you’re in one of the merged servers, your account won’t change. Your alliance won’t change. Your power won’t change. And you should (good Lord-willing) still have all of your stuff, though I’d take some screenshots just in case. I’d also recommend just taking a picture of your Player ID screen, just in case you find yourself Locked Out.
You will receive a pretty substantial (so I’m told) compensation chest.
There will also be a Merge event before the server mergers that will determine which server is merged onto the other. The server that wins the event will receive certain preferences when the merger comes.
Where?
Your station might be moved. You may find that around a Distant Sun is the World Where You Live.
Territory capture zones will all be reset. You’ll have to retake your Territories, but do so against more rival alliances than before.
Why Server Mergers?
In order to increase competitiveness, and make things more interesting. It’ll let you meet some new people, Pineapple Head. It should mix things up on servers that may have gotten a little stale.
On server 11, for example, a lot of our territory captures lately were basically just uncontested camp-outs. While Isogen mining is fun and all, it’s not really what TC should be.
Who?
In the US, Server 11 (my server) and Server 19 are merging. In the EU, servers 137 and 141 are joining. If your server isn’t merging now, it still may in the future, so Don’t Dream it’s Over. But there’s nothing imminent.
When?
As of right now, we don’t know. This date will be released in the nebulous “near future.” There are final details to be hammered out and time to tech-the-tech. But players are being given notice to um … get their affairs in order. (More on that later.
Hopefully, the downtime won’t be that long. But it might feel like Four Seasons in One Day.
How Should I Prepare?
As a player, you should work to get yourself as strong as possible. If you’re a player whose alliance controls a territory, I’d suggest mining as much Isogen as you can right now, as you the territories are going to be reset, and there will be a period in which you won’t be able to mine it for a while.
If your alliance doesn’t control territory, now would be a great time to send your Vi’Dar on frequent tours of Territory Space looking for overprotected Isogen. (Hopefully, you’ll find a bunch of free Isogen that will Fall at Your Feet.)
Alliances should work now on making themselves as strong as possible before the merger. Cut out players who haven’t been active in a while, and consider merging with other alliances to make Something So Strong that you’ll be ready to compete in alliance events on the new combined server.
Concerns
The biggest concern about a merged server going forward is with lag. How will lag be for Territory Capture, and for gameplay in general? This has been one of the biggest complaints with the game in general. Here’s hoping that this concern doesn’t come to pass.
Good luck to you, and I hope it goes smoothly, and I hope that Everything is Good for You after the mergers.