The way sites like Warcraft Logs and RaiderIO currently track characters across realm transfers is by fingerprinting the account (by studying the achievements API results for a character), and then breaking ties between multiple characters of the same class on the same account using the statistics API.
Being able to merge logs across realm transfers is a huge deal. When the community achievements API broke mid-BFA for a couple of weeks, over 800 support tickets were generated for Warcraft Logs from angry customers whose logs didn’t follow them when they transferred.
This post is a plea to not break this functionality, as it will really make life horrible for those of us running sites where people want their scores to carry over.
The current issue with supporting realm transfers is that the old statistics API, although cited as PLANNED, seems in danger of not making the Dec 16 deadline.
If it is dificult to port this functionality in time, I’d like to suggest an alternative method for fingerprinting a character. You could add a “force_character_only” flag to the achievements API that when set returns only achievements actually earned by that character, i.e., behaves as though Display Only Character Achievements To Others is set in-game.
If you did that, then we could simply character fingerprint using the achievements API, and not need the old statistics API to be ported.
If not, though, please prioritize migrating the old statistics API, as some way of character fingerprinting is essential for WCL and RaiderIO.
One support ticket I handled early on while my realm xfer feature was still buggy was from a player with 12(!!!) hunters. He had transferred a couple of them and was upset that I had merged them into the wrong characters.
We HAVE to be able to tell characters apart in a reliable way for realm transfers. Please don’t break this functionality.
Thanks.
