BioWare Offers Details for Character Transfer in The Old Republic

Automatic character transfers to new game servers are coming to the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO and the developers behind the game are saying that the process will not affect players in any significant way once it gets underway.

Damion Schubert, who is the principal lead systems designer for The Old Republic stated, “In many cases, should have a good idea of which populations you are likely to end up with. Another top concern is trying to help the populations that result have a good factional balance.”

He added, “We will give out a specific list once we are closer to implementation of this plan – watch for more info soon.”

Preferences linked to Player versus Environment and Player versus Player engagements will not be changed and BioWare also promises that it will address all potential problems as soon as they are reported.

Earlier during July, the development team working on the Star Wars MMO has announced that it is encouraging players to move their characters to servers with bigger population in order to improve their gameplay experience.

Underpopulated servers also mean that no new characters can be created and later in the year the developers will officially announce which of them will be automatically shut down.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has been losing subscribers in the last few months and BioWare is trying to make sure that those who remain get the best experience possible, both in PvE and in PvP.

The company also plans to launch more content for the game, including an entire new planet filled with quests and dungeons and a new HK-51 companion.

Analysts have speculated that if the player drain continues, Electronic Arts will announce that The Old Republic is going free-to-play starting with the fall of 2012 or early during next year.