Agreed. I dont think there should be a way to stop the server from merging per say as others have mentioned. But i think a timer would be possible. You know as a server that you have only had X amount of ships for Y amount of time. So there must be some internal clock that starts figuring when ships will be merged. I think it would be possible once the parameters were met that a count down timer would begin. Today i lost over 300k in loot due to a server merge. Our ship sank do to skelykrakamegaldon during an already PVE event. We recovered, salvaged all the loot, swam it to the nearest island. Sent someone back to get the ship and then started collecting the loot. in an attempt to make the loadup faster we all jumped on the ship. once upon the ship the server merged. our loot with the last 4 hours + of stacking then disappeared before our eyes.
SOMETHING, could very easily be done to allow people the knowledge a merge is coming. had we known i would have done my best to not board the ship, stay on the island. or at least made that attempt to stop the server from merging once everyone was on the ship. Or even knowing the merger was coming we wouldn't have taken on the PVE fight that close to the merge.
it could be something as simple as the pop ups that happen when mait. is happening. In 30 minutes we will be merging the server. in 20 minutes we will be merging. in 15, in 10 and then countdown from 10-0. once it hits 0. The next moment the parameters are met for a server merge. Merge them. Or even make it a range. well there was this loot within this range of the merge. We will carry that loot on to the next server (i know this is a lot harder than i'm making it seem. just dash a few 101100 here and there but im reaching for something)