NA/EU Server Congestion: The Problem & A Solution for Devs (PLEASE READ)

[EmiliM]

The current issue with NA/EU servers, when it comes down to it, is quite simple: there are simply too many people trying to play at the same time. The fact of the matter is, the existing 25 NA/EU servers are basically already near, at, and in many cases, over capacity.

Assuming most Early Access players stick around for official release, the influx of new players joining at that point will almost guarantee the necessity for new servers to be opened up. There is no other way to address this. No queue or server maintenance will resolve the fact that too many people are trying to get in. Yes, eventually the server populations will most likely stabilize, but it will come at a cost of many people having already left.

Meanwhile, the Japanese servers are humming along relatively problem free. This is not because Japanese servers are somehow better, but the result of a simple marketing decision to "designate" these servers, which are physically located in Japan, as "Japanese worlds".

The reality is that the latency difference between a JP and a NA/EU server is mostly negligible for most people. In fact, I'd wager if Square Enix never bothered with separating the servers and simply stated "we have 50 worlds for all players in the world, feel free to join any one of them" we would have a far more even distribution of players across all worlds, and you won't have this issue of the JP servers being underutilized while the NA/EU ones are bursting at the seams. And I would bet nobody in NA would even notice the latency difference of a JP server (and vice versa).

My solution to the devs is to abolish the system of "designating" servers. Simply list ALL servers in a single list for ALL world players. All servers would then be utilized evenly AND you end up with the benefit of a more varied world community that people valued in FFXI.

For now, there needs to be more servers. Once that is done, please allow all existing players to do an optional one-time server transfer to ONLY those new servers, so those who wish to reunite with their friends/family or are willing to leave their current world for a less congested server can do so.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Yeah, if I knew this would happen, I would have rolled on a Japanese server. Not much of a difference except time zones, and that would be easily solved if more people from NA and EU rolled on them.

[Dallie]

This is very true. I have been tooling around on Garuda off and on during all of this mess, and i've not noticed a single issue with Latency, and there are a significant number of Oceanic players there as well. The language barrier and latency are non-issues, and are now starting to seem more xenophobic than technical in nature.

Again, I say they should have started trying to roll out a bigger box or redundant servers for the login and instancing problems on our side, once this started yesterday. By now, if they'd done that, we'd be playing happily. People keep stating that launch will be worse, but after everyone reading about the login troubles we've had all weekend, i'm not sure it will be.

[Fellswoop]

totally agree ive got a character on the jpn servers also and have not had a single issue there so far. Could simply be a case of underestimation of server loads for EU/NA since the last boot im getting a 1-2 second tween freeze for all characters moving past me. Crafting failing due to repeating commands thinking they have not processed. As for free server swaps not 100% on that could limit gameplay later but atleast free 24-48hr transfers to even the load

[Eewec]

Now this I like. I even hit the like button. Nice one. Even tried posting something similar earlier but couldn't for the life of me work out where to stick it (and hit a problem with caps on thread starts which put me off stride). Had it all written up in word hoping I could post it tomorrow but you've worded it much better and more concisely.

[Mr_Garrison]

Rolled a toon on a JAP server earlier, no problems so far and no noticeable difference between this and the EU server (playing from Scotland).

[Arae]

Theres a 50-60ms difference between them for players in the US, which while not super huge is still significant. Not to mention we don't really want to have to play on a server where the majority don't understand us. They need to just open more US servers. And work towards setting up a hub of servers to be used for instances/dutys so that all of the strain isn't going onto 1.

[Dallie]

totally agree ive got a character on the jpn servers also and have not had a single issue there so far. Could simply be a case of underestimation of server loads for EU/NA since the last boot im getting a 1-2 second tween freeze for all characters moving past me. Crafting failing due to repeating commands thinking they have not processed. As for free server swaps not 100% on that could limit gameplay later but atleast free 24-48hr transfers to even the load

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

[Eewec]

Opening transfers is a good idea. However, managing those transfers is also a good idea. Get groups together to apply 'as a group' for a transfer. I dunno, by guild or linkshell or something so people don't get left behind and it can be managed properly. That way people actually get to play with their friends and really, at the end of the day, would it really matter what the servers called, so long as those groups can stay together? True, there might be a bit of fun if someone wants to transfer the group between pvp, pve or rp servers and others in the group don't, but well, give people notice of how it'll work and people will adjust accordingly if given fair warning. Heh, do we even still have those designations any more for FF XIV:ARR servers? The bracketed info doesn't seem to be listed in the server list any more.

'Course, if they separated characters from servers so you could pick which server to play on today with your toon then it'll remove most if not all of the issues.

[Fellswoop]

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

yeah it would cause some issues maybe they could do a population cap per server or release the info for per server member list/pop ratio. Im loving the 2.0 ARR atm not even that bothered that ive paid for the game twice to get early maintenance access but would like to see something drastically change prior to launch. I want to pay and stay i just need a reason.