Don’t look now, but Lord of the Rings Online has finally set a date for not just the launch of the Sting server but also the dark worlds and 64-bit server cross-migrations.

The Sting server, readers will recall, is the third and newest of the US-based 64-bit server. Standing Stone Games launched four such servers – two in the US, two in Europe – earlier this spring in a rocky series of transfers, following it up with a third European server that’s already live. Sting has already been delayed several times, owing to the fact that many players’ housing items had been lost during the transfers, and SSG wanted to ensure that was fixed-ish before anyone hopped on the Sting bus. Now, it’s finally opening.

“Sting will join Glamdring, Peregrin, and Angmar as 64-bit servers located in the United States,” SSG announced this evening. “Sting will open to VIP gameplay starting at 6:00 PM Eastern (-4 GMT) on Wednesday, May 21st. The world will open to all players starting at 7:00 PM Eastern (-4 GMT). Free character transfers from both 32-bit worlds and the other 64-bit US worlds will begin at 7:00 PM Eastern (-4 GMT). Housing will be open for immediate claim when the server opens to VIPs at 6:00 PM Eastern (-4 GMT).”

One downside of the problematic transfer situation back in March was that the dark worlds – that is, the long-closed legacy servers on which many people still have marooned characters – weren’t made available for emigration on the originally proposed schedule, and the delays of the Sting server affected that rollout too. Now, we’ve finally got a new schedule for when they’ll open for transfers – do note that this schedule is not a mirror-image of the old one.

The very last thing we’ve been waiting on is the resumption of transfers between the existing 64-bit game worlds. That’s now slated to start rotating on June 3rd.

“We expect to begin rotating transfers from two 64-bit game worlds to a third 64-bit game worlds on a weekly basis starting Wednesday, June 3rd. We will have more information on the order of rotation as we get closer to the date. Each week, for one week, players will be able to transfer their characters from two of the US worlds to one of the US worlds, and from two of the EU worlds to one of the EU worlds, and the worlds players can transfer to will rotate every week. We will continue offering these transfers for six weeks, giving every player two weeks to transfer to each world. After this time frame, free transfers between these worlds will no longer be available.”