We have reported that AoC Server Merge is coming and Funcom claimed Server Merge Was Requested From The Playerbase no long time. Now Funcom is finally getting its long awaited server merger before Christmas. Funcom US Community Manager Glen "Famine" Swan has put up a post in the official forums laying out details on the procedure. The future server mergers will include some free game time for players to cover the downtime needed for the mergers. Players will also have the option to use one free server transfer should they wish to start on a different server.

With our experiences, the cause of server merging are often lack of simultaneous players. Apparently, Funcom's life was not easy recently, especially after the launch of WAR and WotLK. What's more, they also will face the following Aion.

The details are as below:

As announced a few weeks ago, we will merge the Age of Conan servers before the Christmas Holidays. Today we want to give you some detailed information about how these merges will happen and what this will mean for you, the players.

We will be spreading the server merges over the next few weeks so not all the servers will be merged at the exact same time. It is important to us to ensure that the merge process goes as smooth as possible. Therefore it is vital that we spread out the work rather than doing these complicated processes all at the same time in order to minimize possible risks.

The first servers that will be merged are the US servers 'Bloodspire' and 'Hyperborea'. The list of servers for the next merges will be published shortly.

It is important to know that during the time servers will be merged, all servers of the same territory (US or EU) will not be available. This means that during this week's downtime - where the two above mentioned servers are merged - all US servers will be unavailable. The exact duration of such a downtime will be announced soon but we do expect them to be longer than the usual update downtime.

When the merge process is complete we will be giving all active subscribers an appropriate amount of free game-time to compensate for the additional downtime required for the merges. The details of this will be communicated once the merge process is complete.

It's important for us to ensure the best game-play experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future.

Once the merges are complete we will be offering a free one-use character transfer option for all characters so that if you wish to join a different community after the merge than the one you were allocated you are free to do so. This transfer will be free of charge and can be used once per character and will be available from your billing pages.

Also after the merges are complete we will be opening up new 'fresh start' servers in both the US and EU territories. One each for PVE and PVP rulesets. Transfer will not be allowed to these servers after the merges. These new servers are designed to allow players to start afresh in a totally new environment should they wish to do so and forge a new community instead of joining one of the newly merged ones.

RECAP
* We will have to pull all the US servers down to do this small merge.
* There is no official ETA on the downtime but the going rate thus far is 5-6 hours. More information on that soonish.
* We are still aiming to come up after the first merge. Future merges will happen shortly after but hopefully at a faster rate.
* The first set of merges are Oceanic servers and thus the two Oceanic servers are being merged.

Today Famine announced the Server Merge FAQ.

When will the server merges happen?
We will start merging the first servers in the first week of December.

Will all servers be merged at the same time?
No. We will do this over a certain period of time to ensure everything will run smoothly. Which merges will be happening at what time will be communicated some days ahead of course.

Which servers will be merged?
The final list of servers that will be merged will be available very soon. As of now, we will merge the two US servers 'Bloodspire' and 'Hyperborea' in the first week of December. Also after all the merges are complete we will be opening up new 'fresh start' servers in both the US and EU territories. One each for PVE and PVP rulesets. Transfer will not be allowed to these servers after the merges. These new servers are designed to allow players to start afresh in a totally new environment should they wish to do so and forge a new community instead of joining one of the newly merged ones.

Will there be a possibility to transfer single characters to another server?
Yes. The option to transfer characters to another server will be available after all server merges have been completed. Every character will be eligible for one free transfer and this offer will be valid for one month after the final server merges have been completed. This transfer will be free of charge and can be used once per character and will be available from your billing pages.

Can a character be transferred from one server ruleset to another (e.g. from a PvE server to a PvP server)?
Yes, that will be possible.

Can a character be transferred from one language server to another (e.g. from a German server to a Spanish server)?
Yes, this will also be possible.

Can a character be transferred from an US server to an EU server or vice versa?
No, characters will only be able to be transferred to another server in the same territory (US or EU).