R2 policy change allows them to merge your server into a new time zone, but you can't change servers to get back to a time zone that fits your schedule

[KS222]

I'm posting here because I find R2 Support's response to my ticket regarding ArmorGames US West and US East time zone servers being merged with a server on GMT to be very distrubing and extremely detrimental to players. R2 Support stated that they changed their policy so that servers on different time zones can be merged. They also claimed this was the decision of the devs and out of R2's hands (which is confusing since their wording made it sound like R2 are the ones who changed the policy). However, support also said that it is impossible for players to move to another server.
I'm sure you can see where this is heading. R2 and/or 7Road (the devs) just stranded the US West and US East players on Armorgames on a server that is in a time zone hostile to our schedules with no recourse and no way to move to a time zone where we can actually participate in most events.
Since this is a policy change, that implies that this can be done to any server at any time with no recourse and no way to move back. Hence, I can't help but cry foul. I can understand the need to merge servers to keep head count up, however, if you're going to move people to another time zone, you need to give those players the ability to move to another server on a time zone that suits their needs.
Previously, R2 claimed changing servers was impossible due to "game balance" (basically, to prevent older players from flooding to newer servers, which would create a very hostile environment for new players). However, I think this needs to be re-examined in light of this policy allowing us to be arbitrarily moved to another time zone. I'm certain that it would be possible to give players the option of moving to specific servers close enough in age that disruption would be minimal, and to prevent floods of people shifting for BR advantage, it could be limited to those affected by a merge to another time zone.

[Alfadur]

So all ArmorGames WT servers get merged just like that? Why is there no announcement on forum? It kinda feels like someone screwed up and now is inventing excuses.

[KS222]

Its happened before this. Kongregate's Oceanic server was merged into the Kongregate US West server cluster and they all got stuck on US West time zone. There were very few active players on the Oceanic server and most of those who were active are now gone for good due to the time zone change (to be fair, I suspect many of those players were alts created to get a preview of upcoming events and went inactive since they were no longer able to be used for that purpose).
Of course, Kongregate servers were also down for 3 days due to an unannounced transfer from R2 to Proficient City. If you think R2 is bad, just pray you don't get stuck under the Proficient City umbrella. They make R2 look like saints.

[Alfadur]

Still, it would be nice to hear some official statement from R2. There was no server merge planned for AG.

[KS222]

There was no message on the forums, but there was a message in game. They didn't disclose that it would be into a completely different time zone server though. All they said was there would be down time for a merge and the time it would start.

[MemoryLane]

I don't know if the new team even knew there was an ArmorGames forum section. I do know that for small platforms, they are most susceptible to odd merges because they are so small. Merges are largely based on back end statistics, where they can see the most active time frame for players in the game, so it's possible that enough people were on during GMT prime time to warrant merging into GMT, but I don't think I'm going to get a satisfactory answer about that for you.

The game doesn't support moving between servers. It's not in the code. The imbalance isn't really about having the ability to move, but that characters would have to be completely recreated on a new server through the back end, then tied to an account on the front end, but the original character can't be deleted because the system doesn't support that, so then you could potentially have an imbalance. The merges don't even affect how you get into the game, it's still the same access point, and only combined once you're in the game, so even with merges you're still not actually moving servers.

[Alfadur]

Is there any chance of devs undoing this merge?

[MemoryLane]

No, unfortunately once a merge is complete, they can't go back and undo it.