I was wondering if one can transfer characters to another shard and if so, what is involved.

Also wondering if there are relatively empty shards (with room for larger houses still) that it would be worth transferring to.

Any one have any ideas? I'm Eastern time zone, Great Lakes area in RL.

You can transfer to other shards, just need a transfer token. That'll allow you to bring yourself, your bank box, your stables, and any pets in your control slots. Not sure what would be an empty east coast shard. There is plenty of space for a house on LA, but it's west coast.

Does it make much difference playing on a shard far from where you physically live?

And I would assume a transfer token costs real money so transferring all characters would be pricey?

Yea, the character transfer from EA costs a fair bit
But, if you can find a site selling transfer tokens, they're normally a fair bit cheaper.

I would stick to a shard based in the USA, perferably east coast
Legends is East coast and probably one of the most quiet of shards.

IT's $19.99 PER character if you buy the code from EA
http://www.uogamecodes.com

You know you're in trouble when your fantasy life starts to get more complicated than your real life....

I live in beautiful *cough* New Joisey and I get 26 ping to Atlantic shard and 130 to Lake Austin
For some reason, even though that doesn't sound real bad... I lag like carzy on LA

That's where i want to be though *cry*

So I am selling my house and moving in rl...

Yah, if you play a shard far from where you live, you'll probably lag in game. But LA is just a laggy server. lol. Used to live 20 miles from it and still pinged over 100....

You might be able to get a char transfer token in game. Usually around 10-15 depending on your shard.

As they are suggesting Palexandria, check your ping to all servers when you log in. That will give you some direction. Then ask which server (of the best pings you have, i.e. under 100) is the least populated here.

off the top of my head:
Oceania
Origin
Legends
Lake Austin (I ping 45 to it from Washington State)

all have plenty of room for up to 18*18. Larger, then you are looking at Oceania or Origin.

Wow. Under 100 from Washington? I'm in Oregon now and pinging about 170 right now. No more doughnuts for my ISP!

I-i-i- would agwee with many of the above c-c-c-comments in regards to Legends. Hardly a soul about anymore, lots of elbow room, and pings and pongs fine for those like me on the eastern seaboard. Just stay the hell outa Luna, but that's on any sh-sh-sh-sh-shard.

/agree however I live in louisiana and only get random lag on LA, so depending on your isp and connection it may not be too bad. I would suggest making a temp char on shard of your choice and trying it out to see what the lag is like if its even playable. If you have plenty of gold transfer tokens can be found in game as well. Sometimes its even cheaper to buy gold from a broker than buy token with the gold (rare but possible!). Remember dead and slow shards with alot fewer peeps means much more solo play and fewer raiding guilds, also item availability is much less (+20 ps's) for instance. If you are simply looking to be able to place a larger house but otherwise are comfortable with your shard it might cost less money just to buy a house/gold to buy a house than to move everything which is a slight pain. Good luck