Save Cerberus Server Please.

[Kylos]

Once again .. I feel the need to express my frustration with the server of Cerberus.

Not because of the players, or because they are not helpful, but because there's a sheer lack of players during GMT and EST time. Meanwhile, the Japanese population is big enough to get things done, I have a friend who plays then and has a few Aeonics made with a JP LS. Sadly, I cannot play during JP primetime as I have work and other commitments. Currently we average 200-250 players online on weekdays around this time. This makes it exceptionally difficult to get content done. I cannot play every weekend as I have my daughter to take care of. I know the weekend is likely to have more players, but due to taking care of my daughter I cannot commit to running an event on Fridays or Saturdays each week.

I tried using FFXIAH.com to advertise my Event Linkshell in the hopes that some would join. Even had a couple of players jump server to join us. But it's still not enough .. it's not enough to sustain an event LS looking to do regular Aeonics and Omen. I don't want to say the word .. but, I've been asking for a server merge for the longest time. But now .. it's really needed, and many players I've talked to have said the same thing.

We should not be told to "move to Asura" to find players. Why should we have to pay to find players to play with? It's not fair on us who stuck with Cerberus instead of jumping ship. I would only be happy if I could get clarification as to why SE decides not to merge lower-populated servers at this time. Is it because of money? Is something blocking it? Are SE afraid they'll lose more players? Can SE not afford to take two or three servers offline?

Please .. put my mind at ease. Please tell me why you are making it so difficult for us to play the game with other players. Why are you forcing us into a situation where we may have to leave servers and linkshells to find people to play with? As for those who run with me on Cerb .. thanks a bunch. We wouldn't get anything done if you were not here. It's not like I haven't tried to find players .. it's not like I don't spend several hours yelling for players to join us.

I've been saying this for a while .. When forming a party/alliance is tougher than the content itself .. something is wrong. Do you agree? Are there other servers who would like to join with Cerberus? Please upvote the post otherwise we'll be ignored again. Cheers everyone! And sorry if this came across as whiny .. but I think I have the right seen as I'm paying for this service and am not getting what I'm paying for.

[Diavolo]

I like to watch FFXIAH.com's Database page as it's a decent representation of the game's current activity. Cerb's population numbers haven't changed a great deal in recent months, but the game as a whole seems to have lost over 30,000 active characters since the start of the year and that's a steep decline, all things considered. Even Odin, a server that used to match and sometimes surpass Asura's population numbers, has fallen a good bit behind now. It's going to take a whole lot of action from the remaining player base before the dev team decides to do anything about it. Personally, I believe now more than ever they're more likely to pull the plug on the remaining 16 servers before they merge any of them.

[Sirmarki]

We should not be told to "move to Asura"

Nobody is 'being told to move to Asura'. People have moved there because it is far more active than anywhere else with population numbers consistent at 1300~1800 whatever time of the day.
I think the majority of people are happy to pay-to-move if it means a better gaming experience. So this gives SE a decent cash flow and therefore, no real reason to do anything about it at this stage.
People are making the choice for themselves.

I moved from Fenrir because of the same issues you are having (be it I waited for the discount campaign). GMT was terrible. We also have to remember, of the 200-250 people you count, how many are actually "players" and not alts and such (?).
Which, if anything (as I have stated before sometime ago) are probably holding up any kind of mergers, because on paper, they are seen as "real" players.

It's all a bit of a mish-mash now, as we have one (maybe two?) populated servers and a load of pretty much dead servers - it's very unbalanced. So how would they go about merging? I don't think they can really merge Asura with any other servers - The congestion in some events and the very select few areas used now would be over crowded. We also have the issue of some people simply like to play on a quiet server, what will happen to them?

[Selindrile]

Nobody is 'being told to move to Asura'.

True, but the key part of that response is that I WAS told to move here, and I see FFXI streamers and people on forums tell others to move to Asura all the time, and for good reason, it indeed shouldn't need to be that way.

You admit that the population imbalance is a big issue, your only argument against such is:

So how would they go about merging? I don't think they can really merge Asura with any other servers - The congestion in some events and the very select few areas used now would be over crowded. We also have the issue of some people simply like to play on a quiet server, what will happen to them?

The same way they have in the past, by population, Asura probably doesn't need to be merged with any server, but other servers should probably be merged with one another. As to those who like playing on a quiet server, I imagine those people are few and far between but you can't make everyone happy, and I've seen looooots of calls for merges with few people coming on to say they prefer dead servers in response.

[Sirmarki]

The same way they have in the past, by population

The past was a different ball game though. Many different players spread over many various zones, at many different levels.

Now its mainly players in a marginal amount of zones utilizing the same content.

[Folken]

The past was a different ball game though. Many different players spread over many various zones, at many different levels.

Now its mainly players in a marginal amount of zones utilizing the same content.

How is merging smaller servers to be similar size to Asura make any more congestion than Asura?

[Sirmarki]

How is merging smaller servers to be similar size to Asura make any more congestion than Asura?

I dont think I said that?

The point I was making was that; if they were merging down the servers; anything that would equate to bigger than Asuras current population would result in over crowding in the very small amount of areas used in this day and age.

[Selindrile]

I was told to move to Asura, >.> I love it here, also from Fenrir..

[Sirmarki]

I was told to move to Asura, >.> I love it here, also from Fenrir..

Yes. In all honesty, I don't know why I delayed myself from moving there for so long. I couldn't believe the amount of shouts I was seeing when I first logged in. Think some people just don't like/are afraid of change to their comfort zone.

[Kylos]

MORE PLAYERS ON CERBERUS PLEASE! While you're at it.. check other servers too, because I get messages from players on others saying they find it difficult to get things done due to a lack of players.

If you're on a populated server like Asura, Bahamut or Odin .. you can't understand what we are going through. Some players do not want to abandon their linkshells and friends to move to a populated server. It's great if you don't care .. or don't have friends, but if you're like me you want to stay on the same server as people know who you are and what to expect. Much like how I've played with most English-speaking players on Cerb .. so I know what I'm getting. Why should I have to give SE extra money to start over? I shouldn't have too.

By principle SE should even servers out .. or merge the least populated servers so we get numbers similar to Asura, Odin, Bahamut etc. This would make the game more enjoyable for everyone, and at the same time .. give SE less servers to maintain. All I'd like is an explanation from SE, or at least a hollow "Apologies, but we do not have any plans to merge servers at this time". Some acknowledgement would go a long way, at least if I know for a fact that servers won't be merged.. I can consider moving. I probably won't, but at least I'd have the option.

Merging Cerberus into Shiva for example .. would be awesome, and I highly doubt congestion would be anywhere near as bad as what Asura experiences at peak times on new content. Playing on Cerberus .. we never have issues with congestion. If you absolutely hate congestion, Cerberus is the place to be. If you want to do Omen.. or an Aeonic, it's the worst unless you understand Japanese and can play at their times.

We are paying for this service, yet we are not getting the "MMO" aspect. It is up to SE to give us what we are paying for, instead of expecting us to give them more money to fix something for ourselves while everyone else continues to pay for something they are not getting.

PS: I've seen TONS of players from Asura telling returning players to move there. And then if I chime in and say "come to Cerberus, we need you more", I get ridiculed for asking them to go to one of the quietest servers instead of the most populated. This is a trend which should not be happening, but due to a lot of players on Asura going out of their way to recruit .. it makes it even harder for other servers to find reliable players for their linkshells.