With SWTOR Update 7.4.1 character transfers are coming with 7.4.1 to SWTOR’s new APAC server at a free or reduced cost if you meet the requirements, though there are some restrictions.
UPDATE: Based on everyone’s feedback, Broadsword has reduced the restrictions. Keith Kanneg, SWTOR’s executive producer, explained on the forums that players will now be able to transfer up to 15 million credits on each toon and will only need to have been subscribed since January 2, 2024 to get the 16 free transfers.
Shae Vizla Character Transfer Restrictions
You will only be allowed to transfer toons to Shae Vizla that have 2 million 15 million credits or less and are at least level 20. Broadsword has not announced any concrete plans to allow characters to be transferred from Shae Vizla at this time.
In the character transfer interface, it sounds like it won’t actually prevent you from trying to transfer a toon with more than 2 million 15 million in their wallet, but you’ll get an error message after pressing Submit.
The level limit is likely in place to accelerate the transfer process for toons with a more appreciable amount of playtime. The credit limit is almost certainly in place to mitigate the (sudden) inflation and preserve freshness.
Shae Vizla Character Transfer Costs and Timeline
Character transfers to Shae Vizla become available with the launch of Game Update 7.4.1. They would do it sooner, but these requirements and timed discounts “need to be tied to an update”, and 7.4.1 is the next closest one after the official announcement.
We don’t yet have a release date for 7.4.1. However, we receive alternating major (7.X.0) and minor updates (7.X.1) roughly every 3 months. Factoring in the holiday break, I predict we will get 7.4.1 along with these transfers to Shae Vizla (and GS6!) on Tuesday, February 27th, 2024, ±1 week. We may find out an official release date with the 7.4.1 livestream on February 14th.
Subscribers will be eligible for free and reduced transfer costs when moving toons to Shae Vizla. For the first 90 days after character transfers to Shae Vizla open, so basically from 7.4.1 to 7.5.0, all subscribers will get 50% off on all character transfers to Shae Vizla.
In addition, if you have been subscribed for at least 90 consecutive days since the Shae Vizla APAC server was launched since January 2, 2024, you will be eligible to transfer 16 toons for the first 30 days after transfers become available. Shae Vizla was launched on November 17, 2023, approximately 90 days prior to the publishing of this article.
I perceive these free transfers as some sort of reward for the loyalty and pioneering spirit of players who have been subscribed to SWTOR the entire time Shae Vizla has been available, and the subscription requirement is the fine print to qualify.
The 50% discount for character transfers to Shae Vizla will apply for any remaining toons after those 16 free transfers have been used up. After the 90-day promotional period ends, or if you aren’t a subscriber, you can still transfer toons for 1000 CC just like you can for any other server, though the level 20 and 2 million credit restrictions will stay in place until further notice.
| Account Status at Time of Transfer | Cost per Transfer | Available Until |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriber (since January 2nd, 2024) | Free (Limit: 16 toons) | 30 days after 7.4.1 |
| Subscriber | 500 CC | 90 days after 7.4.1 |
| F2P | Preferred | 1000 CC | George Lucas Goes Broke |
Min-Maxing the Subscriber Discount
Apologies for this section sounding like a sales pitch. It is not meant to be one. We’re just assuming some of you are already planning to transfer toons anyway and want to make sure you get the best deal. Don’t forget that Galactic Season 6 should also arrive with 7.4.1, so you’ll likely be able to get up to 2000 CC as a subscriber on each server where you do Galactic Seasons.
If you are not currently a subscriber but plan to transfer at least 3 toons, the Cartel Coin subscriber discount on APAC server transfers will be enough to cover the cost of subscribing for a month. You’ll also be able to transfer a 4th toon for free because of the monthly CC reward.
In other words, during the promotional period, a 30-day subscription + 1500 CC costs the same amount of $USD as 3000 CC for 3 character transfers.
If you haven’t already gotten it and do the character transfers within the promotional period, the Join the Fight Bundle is an even better deal. You get 2 months of sub time and enough CC for 6 transfers (3450 CC, 2400 upfront + 525 per month). Complete 3 achievements that each give 20 CC, and you’ve got yourself a 7th transfer!
Unsubbed, all those character transfers would cost 6000+ CC ($45+), and you don’t even get the sub time or a neat mount that gives 110% movement speed at Level 1. In contrast, just subbing for a month to transfer 6 toons + 3000 CC instead of getting the bundle would cost $35.
Overwhelmingly Negative Initial Reaction from Players
I can’t speak from experience about what it’s like on Shae Vizla, but player responses on the forums about these restrictions are almost universally negative because the initial plans are poorly thought out.
There are numerous players who are so irate they’re already unsubbing, potentially giving up their 16 free transfers in the process.
The biggest problems relate to credit transfer restrictions and treatment toward actual APAC players, especially those that have been enduring the higher ping on other servers until now.
Credit Transfer Restrictions
Some players, particularly those who plan to relocate their entire legacy, are upset that they can’t also relocate all of their credits. Even though they are inflated, those credits were earned, and Shae Vizla was marketed first and foremost as an APAC server, not a fresh start server.
Inflation remains an issue everywhere else, but it is coming down quite rapidly. By my very rough estimate, prices have already come down by about 10x since they started making changes, and it hasn’t even been a year yet.
Unfortunately, existing vendor costs and credit sinks are designed to counter hyperinflation, so Shae Vizla’s economy likely feels oppressive as players report needing to do tons of heroics just to cover repair costs.
The low transfer limits may counter this, but most of those will go toward costs like reactivating Strongholds and remaking Outfits, meaning they’ll get sucked out of the economy anyway.
While it’s likely a technical limitation, some have also expressed frustration that the limit is toon-based instead of account-based, as that creates a perverse incentive to transfer more toons than a player might want.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem like there’s much of a middle ground either. The only solutions I can think of are:
- Implement credit sink and vendor cost changes on Shae Vizla with 7.4.1 that are meant to maintain a desired level of inflation instead of causing deflation with the intended level of inflation. Allow players to transfer a total amount of credits in line with the number expected to be in circulation in a healthy, post-deflation economy on that server.
- Open the floodgates and remove the credit restrictions, causing massive inflation that will continue to come down just as it will on other servers.
Mistreatment of APAC Customers
Players in the actual APAC region had all of their toons and credits moved to other servers for free when the old APAC servers shut down. Now, they’re charging some of those same players to move some of those same toons back to a new APAC server.
At the same time, the only way to transfer some toons for free is if you had been continuously subbed for 90 days when Shae Vizla launched, but players were only notified directly via email about the existence of the new APAC server 3 weeks after it went live. Those people wouldn’t be eligible even if they resubbed as soon as they found out.
Broadsword needs to recognize that this is a return home for some players, including those who unsubbed when local support for the APAC region was shuttered.
They also need to respect that a likely far greater proportion of those seeking to transfer toons want to migrate most or all of their legacy in pursuit of better game performance and active hours. I doubt that most server transfers nowadays are nearly as important.
Broadsword’s Inevitable Response
Broadsword announced the details of the transfer at the end of their work week, but we plan to update this article or make a new one after they inevitably respond. I don’t recommend making any rash decisions at this time. Just voice or echo your concerns on the forums or social media.
These issues are serious but mitigable. It’s easier for them to make an initial error in judgment with something like this because the dev team is based in Texas, not the APAC region. They have to act on empathy rather than experience.
Given how unified the player reaction is, I am confident Broadsword will rework their plan, though you might not get a solid answer until the livestream, and you still might not get everything you want. To be clear, I do not speak for them either.
[Update] Reacting to Broadsword’s Response
To reiterate, I am not an APAC player, so I do not speak for them, but it’s pretty clear that the changes Broadsword announced do little to address the underlying issues. It feels like they are prioritizing making money over what’s fair to some of SWTOR’s most loyal customers.
The credit increase pushes the maximum free amount that can be transferred via 16 toons to roughly a quarter billion credits. While that is technically a 750% increase, I don’t believe it will last long while hyperinflation-reducing measures are active. It’s just mathematically impossible.
It is quite reasonable that Broadsword either doesn’t have the post-inflation prices ready or does not have the practical capability to alter credit costs on a per-server basis.
They need to pick a side. Either it’s a fresh start server or it’s a new home for APAC players. If they can’t remove the hyperinflation measures on a single server, I think it makes far more sense to remove restrictions on credit transfers entirely.
The fresh economy contributed to Shae Vizla’s initial popularity, but there is broad consensus on the forums that Shae Vizla is pretty inactive now, at least for endgame content, and players attribute that to the prohibitively high costs associated with playing endgame content. Given that you don’t need a group or active community for non-endgame content, it makes sense to cater to them when population is an issue.
Even then, removing the opportunity to experience such an economy is only a temporary issue. The whole point of causing deflation is to put us on a path towards a less-inflated economy, so players who want that aren’t giving it up forever.
There is also a significant benefit to letting players transfer as many credits as they want. If there are enough players to justify an APAC server in the first place, the amount of credits being moved to a new server will likely have a noticeable impact on the servers those players are moving from.
Adding a new server and letting players migrate money there will reduce inflation on the servers that those players are migrating from. Costs shouldn’t be as high on Shae either because the credits coming over can only be a fraction of what exists on the other servers.
Broadsword needs to stop trying to have their cake and eat it too.
