Any recent updates for server "balancing"?

[Zeluha]

Hi,
I know most likely I won't get any or only sarcastic responses, but this is a major question that needs to be answered with the push to get so many people back to playing and/or starting the game.

I've personally recruited 3 new players from work that I cannot play with at all outside of instanced dungeons as they solo through their story content because my server - Balmung - does not allow transfers or new character creation with no end in site. I've established hundreds of friends on this server that I do content with now that makes it extremely difficult for myself (a legacy player) to simply pick-up and leave including a house, excessive gil that doesn't transfer, etc.

Is there ANY update on the server balancing efforts and/or the opening of even just PAID transfers again to Balmung? I'm doing the parts I absolutely can with helping through dungeons and story stuff that I can from afar (I even made a character to level with them but now at different levels due to different play times, it's even harder). I can't even show them my house, my gear, how to transmog other than through screenshots and tutorials - can't lead them to NPC's or even just sit with them to have fun.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

The option is transfer off, or make a new char like you did. Balmung is still full, as when they opened it back up, many people that left immediately went back, so the problem was never resolved. The issue is fully a balmung only thing at this point.


You can still go to a preferred world and not have to pay for the transfer or lose any gil. My whole fc transferred off at the start of 4.0. Probably our best decision.


They aren't going to upgrade every physical server in the game because 1 is overpopulated.

[Vidu]

I doubt that Blamung will open any time soon - and I also doubt that even SE could tell if and when thats gonna happen, since its linked to people leaving the server first, so... up to you guys.

If you're willing to pay though, you could always consider to buy a jump potion for your alt, instead of playing through the story again? You wont be able to show of your house that way, but would only have SB to play through, with most other things unlocked to help your friends.

[Kazgrel]

It’s the scenario the OP describes which makes me glad I took the free transfer off back at SB launch. No beef with Balmung and it’s players at all; loved the server. But trying to recruit new people to play this game while being on a server the new people literally cannot join just...ugh.

I’d rather it be opened strictly for new characters and not transfers, but eventually the population would balloon back up to HW era levels.

[Cylla]

That the two best options stated above - create an alt on the server their on and jump potion or if they're on a preferred world, you can move off Balmung for free.
People aren't willing to move off Balmung, as such it going to remain locked.

Personally, I moved off Balmung. There were people I wanted to play with who couldn't get on the server, plus I wanted a house so these two things pretty much won over staying there.
It sucks having to decided between leaving a server you enjoy or playing with friends more then just over cross-server. It just how SE rolls sadly.

[Rita1989]

I’d rather it be opened strictly for new characters and not transfers, but eventually the population would balloon back up to HW era levels.

No this should never happen again, the last time they tried that a few months ago bots flooded the server and any legitimate player was not able to create a character and caused the server to be locked again much faster then it should have.

If any thing it should only be openned to transfers next time.

[Kurando]

Generally if anyone intends to introduce friends to the game, you may as well forget it if you want to do everything (inc solo stuff) with them but have no intention to transfer off Balmung. There is a reason it is locked and has been for so long (aside from the brief period of it being open), and yes it can be hard to leave when you have established a life on there but you have to compromise somewhere. SE really needs to offer more incentive to transfer from a locked world like Balmung, otherwise it'll just stay a big population for a long time with a lot of other people stating they have life/friends/house etc there. Opening Balmung is the complete opposite of balancing...

[Kazgrel]

No this should never happen again, the last time they tried that a few months ago bots flooded the server and any legitimate player was not able to create a character and caused the server to be locked again much faster then it should have.

If any thing it should only be openned to transfers next time.

Probably not just bots. I was able to make a char on Balmung a day or two after it reopened during prime time. Being the RP capital, I’m sure there was a significant amount of people making alts there. Having the server only open to transfers would be another $18 on top of the cost of getting started...a price many left new players would scoff at and either remain where they are or simply not play the game.

The bot issue is something they’ve needed to address for years, but that’s another topic.

[Tsumdere]

It's a bad situation all around imo.

I will preface what I'm about to say with this :

Balmung should not open at this very moment. I am not saying it should. I believe SE should heavily reconsider server balancing though. Something needs to be done.
That being said...

1. Its feels really dead. Like really really dead. No one comes to hunts, no one comes to super FATEs, low level areas are completely devoid of life because there is no leveling, and there is no fresh blood replacing the people who just... leave (this point really feeds into the no one showing up to content). The only place you see people is Kugane and the Quicksand. I understand it is the mid-patch lull, but it really does feel terrible to be punished for two weeks of heavy activity that happens every two years. I haven't had a single queue to log in since the first two weeks of Stormblood.

2. SE no doubt has lost customers because of it. I cannot for the life of me get people to keep playing the game. They say they like the game, but feel lonely even if I do dungeons with them. I understand this feeling, because it is exactly what I felt like when I started on a different server than my friends. For a new player who wants to play an MMO like... an MMO, not being on a server with their group of friends is practically a death sentence to that player's sub. I have lost all of my five new friends to this. They quit and never come back.

Personally, I am between a rock and a hard place where my FC and friends of literal 6+ years have dug in their heels and said we're not leaving Balmung, but irl friends and new friends saying they will quit if they don't get on Balmung (and they do). But why should we leave? We have our dream houses, large contact lists, stable FC, and (for me) a great hunting community. It's not exactly fair to tell me to choose between two groups of friends. In any case, I made my choice and the only real losers are new customers and SE.

[Rokke]

Do you actually hunt? Like, actually hunt-hunt? Unless you’re hoping to leech of a party in pf or are playing between 2-5am ptd, hunts drop faster than slow comps can reach the mark because linkshells are so quick.

The open world is dead because there’s nothing to do in it. Potd/hoh killed fate trains, which were the only reason to really stray out of the cities. Opening the server would not really change that. Level a character on one of the preferred worlds. Outside the city states the world is a ghost town regardless of server pop.