Server population overview tool to find a playerbase in your timezone

[Nyclia]

I would like to ask SE about implement a tool to give players the option to find a playerbase in your specific timezone, since playing with all regions on one server, especially with japanese, doesn't work out.

Beside the fact that i get angry sometimes and people feel offended, even when i didn't write anything about them personally, all german seemed to have left Phoenix. Most of the time the population on Phoenix doesn't even scratch 400+ in my main-playtime. At the moment i don't know anyone i could speak/write german with. If i didnt't forget some single player.
Actually at 15.10.2017, 14:45 GMT+2 in germany its 867 player on Phoenix within the Japanese main-timeframe on Sunday, about 2h 15min to Japanese midnight.

I still like this game and don't want to stop, as long as i still have the smallest kind of support. But often i wish to have a wider EU-playerbase in my timezone. Or the possibility to find them, so i don't have to use the 14€ each 3 days to try it out. Or to have to create a new char in each still existing server.

m<(o.O)"M~~~ *highpaw*

[Justuas]

There is only one answer: Asura. Haven't you heard

[Nyclia]

I heared from Asura to drain the people from other servers.
But i'm not sure, if Asura is the solution for everything.
I may try it out with a new char, just to see if the bad attitude that ppl shall have there is wrong.
But i would still love a constantly updated tool like the server status list on the POL-website for EU/NA/JP player population. Maybe not updated in a 5 min rhythm.

[Sirmarki]

People from Asura are not 'draining people from other servers'.

They are suggesting move to Asura because, the odd's are, you will have a better gaming experience and play the game as a MMORPG is intended to be played (with actual people).

There are good and bad people everywhere, on Asura you get to spot the trolls quickly, so there is always the /blist option.

[Shiyo]

There is only one answer: Asura. Haven't you heard

No, that is the obvious place to NOT go. Enjoy your 30m+ ambuscade queues and everything being overcrowded/camped. This game is NOT meant to be played with 3.5k server populations, heck, my server had like 2k people online at prime time during 2007-2009.

You're going to quickly find out that telling everyone to come to your server will be a gigantic issue.

[Moppet]

Asura usually has 1,200-1,600 players online at a time, 2k at most.

[Nyarlko]

I'm on Asura, and I'm actually shocked when Ambuscade queue goes over 15min. Normally it's in the 5-10min range, frequently next in line when I sign up.

[Sirmarki]

No, that is the obvious place to NOT go. Enjoy your 30m+ ambuscade queues and everything being overcrowded/camped. This game is NOT meant to be played with 3.5k server populations, heck, my server had like 2k people online at prime time during 2007-2009.

You're going to quickly find out that telling everyone to come to your server will be a gigantic issue.

Just out of curiosity, have you actually ever played on Asura?

What you're saying is what I thought Asura would be like when I was playing on Fenrir. After I got fed up playing in what essentially was a ghost town, I made the move to Asura and found the rumours to be vastly exaggerated.

I actually wished I had moved over sooner.

[Shiyo]

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in 30 minute ambu queues?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in omen queues?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in queues for htbfs?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and see every apex mob camp taken?

Why do I have to play on asura to look at ffxiah shouts and see this: «Ambuscade» #1 VD «Looking for members.» «Veteran» RUN-Epeo NIN-Aeonic 5/6?

Or that 20% of the shouts are people mercing, or looking to merc items.

Asura is NOT the answer for everyone, STOP telling people to go there.

What the OP is doing is great, seeing which servers(that aren't the reddit approved server) have high volumes of players during x time so people can see which server is best for them. Stop telling everyone to go to asura.

[Nyarlko]

OP: I'm not sure how useful a tool like that would be. SE won't even do the censuses anymore so they don't have to say what the actual game population is after all.. I doubt we'd get anything beyond something similar to the server status tool, with something like "High" to "Low" generic population indicators. :(

As far as the suggestion to move to Asura goes, I can say that I do have several EU players in my (primarily social) linkshell, but no Germans as far as I know. At the very least, you should be able to find a linkshell that is active during your regular playtime, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's actually German-only linkshells running around. If you make the move and want a social to get started with, send me a tell and I'll be happy to give you a pearl. ^^


Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in 30 minute ambu queues?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in omen queues?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in queues for htbfs?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and see every apex mob camp taken?

Why do I have to play on asura to look at ffxiah shouts and see this: «Ambuscade» #1 VD «Looking for members.» «Veteran» RUN-Epeo NIN-Aeonic 5/6?

Or that 20% of the shouts are people mercing, or looking to merc items.

Asura is NOT the answer for everyone, STOP telling people to go there.

What the OP is doing is great, seeing which servers(that aren't the reddit approved server) have high volumes of players during x time so people can see which server is best for them. Stop telling everyone to go to asura.

There are never queues for Omen, rarely run into waiting for HTBFs unless you are doing Levi, and there are more Apex camps in the game besides Dho Gates so try finding the other ones besides the Crab Bowl before panicking. V1VD is now actually worthy of the clvl assigned to it (the tripled HP IS brutal,) and PUGs always ask for more than what's actually needed regardless of which game you're playing to compensate for not knowing if you are a decent player. If you have the gear, it can be assumed that you should have at least a tiny clue about playing your job and won't drag down the group. (I have no REMAs btw, so even if I understand where it's coming from, it does exclude me as well. ^^;; Still not anything new and/or special about it.)

The merc thing is rather annoying to me too, but I feel that it's in large part symptomatic of the HP scaling in Geas Fete discouraging players from trying to tackle the higher end mobs with larger groups than the barest minimum possible. I know that I could scrape up a full alliance of decent+ players in decent+ gear who'd love to clear out the stuff that mercs deal with, but it's going to be a near mathematical impossibility to down things w/ 18man worth of NM HP when everyone is not geared enough to carry their own weight (well over double the 6man baseline HP at that point.) The only other content that you are going to see merc'ing around is Omen, which is something that is impossible to succeed solo at with highly desirable drops. I doubt that is going to be much different on other servers, just less frequent since there are fewer players around.

Also, when someone complains about a lack of population on their current server, the most common response would be to move to a more heavily populated server. Which would be Asura in this case. From what I've heard, it's the only server left with a large non-JP population. :( If any other server can match it's population density, please let us all know so we can share the good news.

[Haldarn]

It's 4pm BST/3pm GMT/11am ET/8am PT on a Tuesday, hardly prime-time for anyone. Shiva is @ 678. It's not busy, but it's not dead either. I couldn't comment about the state of endgame though. Perhaps someone else from my server can.

[Sirmarki]

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in 30 minute ambu queues?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in omen queues?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and sit in queues for htbfs?

Why do I have to play on asura to see people from asura stream the game and see every apex mob camp taken?

Why do I have to play on asura to look at ffxiah shouts and see this: «Ambuscade» #1 VD «Looking for members.» «Veteran» RUN-Epeo NIN-Aeonic 5/6?

Or that 20% of the shouts are people mercing, or looking to merc items.

Asura is NOT the answer for everyone, STOP telling people to go there.

What the OP is doing is great, seeing which servers(that aren't the reddit approved server) have high volumes of players during x time so people can see which server is best for them. Stop telling everyone to go to asura.

Err.. I got bored after reading the first line...

I have experience of both dead and active servers, not by making judgment by watching a few videos online which isn't a true reflection of the overall experience.

[Shiyo]

There are servers that have active player bases that aren't huge. Some people like smaller communities and not huge zergs, respect peoples opinions.

[Sirmarki]

There are servers that have active player bases that aren't huge. Some people like smaller communities and not huge zergs, respect peoples opinions.

Right...

That's not how MMOPRG's work though, big businesses wouldn't create games with a subscription based model for 'smaller communities' - It's not financially viable.

[Justuas]

snip
Well the OP asked about server population and EU-players. Do you know any better server than Asura population-wise? We don't want the OP to quit the game, do we?

[Nyclia]

If something makes me quit the game, then it is that certain Monster can still kill me with 2-3 attacks/moves after playing almost 13 years. I don't want to kill the hardest NMs in 2-3 hits, but that i survive longer than i do now, after getting better equipment and abilities for 13 fucking years... .

SE doesn't have better ideas to keep this games endgame harder, but to enable mobs to remove ALL buffs at once, block your equipment, reset ALL of your abilities (also Ability-THEFT, TP-THEFT, HP-THEFT, MP-THEFT), to use the old 2h/1h/45 min abilities in a row, enable NMs to sleep and damage you with the same move, without waking you.
Their is no "fairness" or relation between how player can use their abilities and how often mobs can use them in one and the same fight.

Would players have almost the same potent options as mobs, or mobs would have less chances to use the same abilities as the players as often as they do now, it would be different... .

But back to the roots. It's silent without a linkshell. Especially without people from your own timezone or another country in Europe. I'm gonna stay a while. Maybe gonna play less. But once i got the mythics i want, i may have to rethink what to do. Quest or Servervise.

[Sirmarki]

or country like Europe.

*facepalm*

[Nyclia]

*facepalm*

Sorry that i didn't read my post often enough, to not make a mistake as not-native english player. o.o
I removed the mistake.
You should read, how certain native english player write on Phoenix. Your face wouldn't stop burning.

[Afania]

The merc thing is rather annoying to me too, but I feel that it's in large part symptomatic of the HP scaling in Geas Fete discouraging players from trying to tackle the higher end mobs with larger groups than the barest minimum possible. I know that I could scrape up a full alliance of decent+ players in decent+ gear who'd love to clear out the stuff that mercs deal with, but it's going to be a near mathematical impossibility to down things w/ 18man worth of NM HP when everyone is not geared enough to carry their own weight (well over double the 6man baseline HP at that point.) The only other content that you are going to see merc'ing around is Omen, which is something that is impossible to succeed solo at with highly desirable drops. I doubt that is going to be much different on other servers, just less frequent since there are fewer players around.


This merc thing is just supply and demand + player demographics. There are large amount of new or returning player pick Asura as their server after reading about it being the biggest on public forums. There are also large amount of player thats not in top end endgame linkshell transfer to Asura because they don't have a group to kill things, so "Transfer to Asura" becomes an easy and fast way to solve their problem. This kind of players, in general, has less experience in endgame setting because of their background: you get endgame experience by actually doing endgame, so if you're not in endgame LS you won't have the experience.

The result is that, you have this 1600+ people server with very high percentage of player that's not part of top end endgame community, nor have the experience/connection/reputation/understanding of FFXI core mechanics to get in. They don't have a reliable high end group/ls to kill things for their gears and more or less have to resort to buy gears.

On the other hand, the top end endgame community are much smaller (as percentage, not actual numbers) because many of these groups also merc for gil with tons of potential buyers. The nature of merc is that you only take absolute bare minimum of people for maximum profit. If you can kill T4 with 4~6 real player and split income 4 ways, there are 0 reason to take 18 people and make less gil per run.

Because of that, many high end merc groups only recruit people that carries more "weight" in a group. Such as players with geared mules access, multiple key jobs to merc efficiently like REMA BRD WHM SMN epeo RUN idris. They usually don't recruit people with only 1~2 not meta jobs due to inefficiency for merc.

Some other endgame LS may not actively merc, but they may also end up being full and not very easy to get in since those who can't get into high end merc group joins them. Once you have 18/18 in an alliance you won't be able to fit in anymore people. So the only spaces available are for rare jobs, such as BRD idris WHM high end SMN etc.

In other words, if you're a new/returning/semi casual/less experienced/not so versatile player with only (mediocre) DD geared and leveled, it will be really hard to get into top end endgame groups. Because half of the high end groups merc and keep their numbers at bare minimum for maximum profit, and the other LS are often full and no space for more people. The rest of the players that can't get in has to buy gears and it becomes vicious circle.

Merc is less frequent on smaller servers because:
1) Smaller servers usually are not top pick for new/returning player/semi casual players, thus less potential buyers to buy gears.
2) Top end groups on smaller servers generally has more space available because the endgame community is much smaller. So many geared characters gets in a lot more easily, and won't have to worry about lack of groups to kill things, nor they need to buy gears.

I don't think HP scaling is the reason behind merc. Even without HP scaling, merc groups would still run things at bare minimum to maximize profit gain.

[Shiyo]

Hp scaling has to exist or you end up with a situation like omen where bosses don't scale past 6 people(I think?) and you literally can't wipe to any boss in there with 18 people so the entire even becomes a joke with no challenge. Saw popular FFXIAH posters on streams literally sitting there afk on their pup as the caturae died 100% to 0% contributing zero to the boss, meanwhile they have drops from all the cats.

Omen should've never been unlocked past 6 people.

[Zehira]

OP, I think your idea will be useless for all Asurans and Japanese whatsoever. Just saying...

-Someone who moved from Bahamut to Asura.