Server Merge

[Vandark]

Hey everyone, this is actually my first time here on the XI forums although my character has been around since 2001 lol.

I hate to see how my servers population has decreased on a massive scale, it would be really nice to see the world flooding with action again.

I'm not happy about the direction Final Fantasy 14 has taken and I've made my return to 11, I think a server merge could really save this game in ways, how do the rest of you feel about this?

Just some added views on the situation I feel like it's a shame the game hasn't ever taken the free to play model, I think if possible XI as a free to play game could really revive it.

[Sfchakan]

I think the populations are fine, but I do think the playerbase has gotten a little bit lazier when it comes to networking. It makes a world with hundreds of active people currently online seem that much more small and quiet.

If you returned and started actively trying to network to do things, you'd get enough people who are too lazy to proactively do the same.

[Vandark]

Well my server only really caps out at about 1.2k players max when before ARR was released it was capping out at about 3k +

[Sfchakan]

Well, more people on less worlds means more congestion. Sure, it sounds great for some things, but it really stinks for others. Imagine trying to farm Colorless Souls or do AA fights on a world where 2-3 times as many people are wanting to do the same?

[RalphTheGalka]

Then fix those events. There's no reason why the game should continue to suffer because of congestion in some old content.

[Sfchakan]

Again, the issue isn't the population, but the playerbase. You can make this magical assumption that things will be perfect with 2-3 times as many people online. They won't if you continue to sit back and complain instead of proactively playing the game.

[Alhanelem]

Also I'm curious what this "direction" FFXIV has taken you're not liking. A lot of people complain about the lockouts and such but XI has had once a day / once per 3 days / once a week lockouts for its entire existence. (I currently have active subs to both games)

Also agreed with post above. It's bad in some ways but the thinner population has also promoted greater camaraderie amongst the community. I've actually had an easier time getting help more recently than a year ago, oddly enough.

[Vandark]

Also I'm curious what this "direction" FFXIV has taken you're not liking. A lot of people complain about the lockouts and such but XI has had once a day / once per 3 days / once a week lockouts for its entire existence. (I currently have active subs to both games)

Also agreed with post above. It's bad in some ways but the thinner population has also promoted greater camaraderie amongst the community. I've actually had an easier time getting help more recently than a year ago, oddly enough.

14 went from being a game closer to XI than it is currently to a game that has become basicly a WoW clone, to me it's like Sfchakan said ARR is a whole bunch of anonymous players all standing around playing the game solo queing in for dungeons. I'm not into that, I'm more into group play and working as a team like XI had, XI used to be better...

Anyways, the world sure could use another merge IMO because right now there just isn't enough going on.

[Elphy]

14 went from being a game closer to XI than it is currently to a game that has become basicly a WoW clone

So many ppl want to say ffxi is its own incarnation and fight that to the point where they don't seem to realize ffxi is an EQ clone.

Having just canceled my sub to ffxi in favor of ffxiv (I cannot justify paying $16 a month after mules x2 accounts for a game that is basically a single player these days when I can pay $7.99 a month for xiv with its booming population and a good bit of content since 2.1) I must say that xiv is not even close to a wow clone. Sure they share a couple minor similarities but its not a true clone.

I also like the fact that I log in and am greeted by a fc of about 60-something players who are active, want to do endgame, want to lvl, want to gear, want to play together. I was logging into xi for months since v1 of ffxiv went offline and barely said 2 words to anyone else. LS I would join would go belly up within a couple weeks, ppl would look at you and say ilvl117? gtfo and honestly I don't see a point in busting my behind of a r/e/m anymore. Even if they are best of the best in some cases since the boost they got the work you need to put into them is way to much for this game anymore. And all the work I put into obtaining gear was pointless as they sit on my mannequin.

A server merge may be a good thing but I think at this point its like a Band-Aid on a stab wound.

[Vandark]

I must say that xiv is not even close to a wow clone. Sure they share a couple minor similarities but its not a true clone.

FF14 in a nut shell

- Crafting took a huge hit and is basically useless now for end game, so why bother crafting, what a waste of time and content
- Gathering is useless now coz all it dose is fund pointless crafting
- Gil has close to no purpose apart from an insanely over priced housing cost implemented and repairs. It has no real use because there is no point in funding crafting or gathering, you won't get the return you want, you can earn all the equipment you will ever need threw questing and dungeons and all the gil you'll ever need is earned in dungeons also so why bother making gil.
- Previous point eliminates the use in farming, so anyone who enjoys farming too bad because you won't make good money doing it and there isn't much point in it now anyway.
- Leveling, the entire system for leveling is smashing monsters that spawn randomly all over the place in an outside group this means you don't interact with other players and it's basically just a spam fest of huge numbers smashing at the same mobs without any form of difficulty or strategy. It feels more grindy because it's so repetitive and boring, it's the same experience for every time you level a new job and the old party system in FFXIV 1.23 was more engaging and was actually faster exp.
- The game is mostly solo, all you do is play solo in this game for the most part, the entire story apart from more dungeons is solo'ed..... Even gearing up in end game is mostly solo play just with others around you.
- The zones have no sense of danger
- The zones are 1/3rd of the size they used to be
- The zones have no exploration because there all a set path layed out for you with no alternative directions to take and with no caves to enter or underground areas to explore.
- Everyone is pimp in this game has there relics for all there lvl 50 jobs and the best end game gear, everyone looks the same because the game is incredibly easy and everything is handed to you without providing much effort and basically no skill.

What about it is like a wow clone?
All these games befor FFXIV – ARR were basically wow clones
.Guild Wars 2
.Rift Online
.Tera
.SWTOR
What do these have in common?
- Questing to lvl
- Questing to do the main story
- Lots of the same type of quests, running from A to B constantly back and forth all the time, kill these mobs, run to A, kill these mobs, run to B, do this emote, pick up these items. That about sums it up for all the quests in the game.
- End game is only dungeons, raids and PvP and have nothing else to offer.
- They all were forced to take on the free to play model because they seriously lacked content
- Instances where monsters spawn in large groups, Guild wars 2 and Rift online and now Fates in FF14.

What is a WoW clone, a game thats like WoW right?

Not exactly, a WoW clone from what I can see consists of taking small parts from WoW and trying to make it new.

What is bad about this?
Everything!
-They always take the same parts from WoW that people see in every game now and it's seriously getting old.
-They try to revolve there entire game around these small parts that they have taken from WoW creating a very basic world that feels and plays like child play with very little to offer players.
"Theme park MMO"

What dose FF14 have that’s different?
Housing that no one can afford?
Limit breaks that for the most part only dragoon and monk get to use and only in a team?
Crafting and gathering that is no longer cool like it was in 1.23 or has a purpose?
Story which ends then the game is basically over?
Is this supposed to be a console game or an MMO because right now it doesn’t feel like an MMO to me. In FFXIV I have nothing left to do except a few dungeons and pvp, that’s about it, I’ve already finished the entire game and I’m over it and it only took me a month to do everything.