Three things are taking place in the middle of next month that ArcheAge players should be aware about:
Multiple low-population servers are being merged into brand new single servers. This is what Trion is referring to as server Evolutions.
Servers transfers will be taking place for players who would rather join the ranks on the high population servers than go through with an Evolution.
New Fresh Start servers are being added (one for NA and the other for EU) with separate auction house clusters than the other servers, for a “launch-like” experience. These require brand new characters.
All three of these things are pretty big deals, since players currently on low population servers are going to lose their land in the merges and transfers – if you’re on one of the affected servers, you might want to take off work the day the Evolution to get some land.
Server Evolutions
The servers being merged during the Evolution are as follows:
North America
Inoch and Calleil are being merged to make Hanure. Ezi and Lucius are being merged to make Nazar. Naima and Enla are being merged to make Kraken.
Europe
Aier and Orchidna are being merged to make Anthalon. Nui and Janudar are being merged to make Leviathan. Melisara and Nebe are being merged to make Sirothe.
Servers not mentioned above will not be affected during the Evolution process, though players on the current servers mentioned above have the option to transfer to an already-present server. Players who are currently on a high population server are exempt from all of the above.
The new servers will be almost completely fresh, and as such there will be a land rush on the day they are released. But their economies will be tied with the high population servers because of the auction house clusters. Only the brand new servers, Morpheus (NA) and Rangora (EU) will have separate auction houses from the other servers.
Transfers
If you’re ready to jump ship from your current server and aren’t too keen on being merged with another low population server, you better get ready to go through with the server transfer process lasting from August 25th to September 4th. This is the only window you will have to get a free server transfer during the Evolution process.
Those who apply to be moved to another server will be migrated on September 8th, before the 1.8/2.0 patch and Evolution.
The big patch will be happening in the middle of September, after which ArcheAge will finally be sitting at the 2.0 version of the game and the new Fresh Start servers will be live.