Source: Official WoT NA Portal:
Attention all tankers!
We’re merging East and West into a central North America server!
When two people move in together to a new residence, it takes a little time to see how everything fits. A crude analogy, but we’re in a similar situation, as we prepare to merge the East and West servers into a central North America server on Wednesday, August 16.
The ultimate goal is more stability and a more enjoyable World of Tanks gaming experience.
Rather than make the switch and leave you to fend for yourselves, we’re taking the opposite approach by keeping you up to date with important information and notifications about potential service outages and other problems as they occur.
You surely have questions. For answers, we’ve assembled this FAQ, but it’s hardly a catch-all. That’s why we have taken additional steps by establishing a forum topic, where you can find up-to-date information.
We’re setting up a survey for feedback about your experience with the merge. It’s slated to go live on August 16, so please take the time to fill it out with as much information as possible.
FAQ:
Where is the new server located?
Chicago
Has the server merge started and is any current lag due to this change over?
No, the merge will start early Wednesday. Any current issues are not due to the server change over
Will I need to do anything special to update my client to connect with the new server?
No, there will be a small patch to redirect your client to the correct server but you don’t need to do anything special. Just open the launcher and patch like normal.
Why are we doing this merge, what is the benefit for players?
The goal for merging our servers into the new NA Central location is to improve our matchmaking times for all players by having them join a single queue. This also will help to combine all eligible players for special modes like Ranked Battles, Clan activities, and the upcoming Grand Battles (30v30), 9.20 Update, which includes huge balance changes, great new modes, and a new tank line, and more.
When will the server merge occur?
Servers will go down on 8/16/2017 at 2:00am PT and are planned to go live at 3:15am PT 8/16/2017
Will this specifically fix the server lag? If not, when is the server lag fix?
The current plan is to finish the server merge, and focus on stabilizing the regional connections that are going to be impacted by this shift in location. Our server operations team is working daily to optimize our network connections, and improve routing by working with our partners such as Level3, Telia, and Comcast. Engineers will be monitoring performance for the entire region, including North and South America. Server lag has been an ongoing issue we will work to resolve as we focus on NA Central stability. There is no ETA for this to be 100% fixed, but we’re committed to improving the situation for users who have lag and freezing issues.
When will the server lag get better?
We will post frequent updates in this thread. For the next week we will post daily, and any time emergencies or big changes arise. To help us debug issues on an personal level, you can click the survey link below (that will be live once the merge) for complete instructions on how to send us logs and information about your situation. The more info we can gather, the faster we can stabilize the server! We will keep you posted here each week with a report from our development team about progress. Check back here to read updates, and ask questions in our dedicated forum.
Why is my ping worse?
When we move the server, the networking connections across NA will be updated. At first you may see higher ping inside the game client. But our priority is optimizing the connections and minimizing any packet loss. Players may see higher ping values in-game, but if there is a stable connection, your gameplay experience should not be degraded. We know that merge issues won’t resolve overnight, but we’re committed to monitoring and optimizing for as long as it takes. Stay tuned for updates in this section, and specifically this thread.
How will this affect LATAM players?
For any player, there is the potential to have a slower connection based on their distance and routing to our servers. We will be optimizing our connections to all locations, and it’s very important to provide a playable experience to players on the NA server. The best thing any player can do is fill out our survey that will be available after the server merge if they are having difficulty with connection or gameplay quality. This includes tankers from Latin America!
[Survey Link Incoming When Server Is Live]
Can I transfer servers if my ping gets worse?
We are working on a customer support plan to allow users to transfer servers. More information to follow shortly on this topic, and we will update this thread with links and details this week.
