Dev response to Server Merge please.

[InpendingDeath]

What you want isn't what everyone else wants, I pay to play this game so I can do things. Not so I can see server full or not be able to get into what I want to do due to overcrowding. You are new, many of us have played for a long long time and have seen the server with 4-5k people online, sorry it was crap and more people quit after server merges than from anything else. Go to do limbus, can't get in because their are only 4 instances, they are all full and there are 5 parties waiting outside. Can't get sky pops because it's full of people, can't farm dynamis because it's packed, can't do anything so go level some job you aren't really interested in.

Transfer to Asura and stop complaining, you aren't filling your shout groups because nobody needs what you're shouting for.

I did say they should address the instance problem before hand. It's a MMO if you can't handle the competition try WoW or offline game. Maybe they won't merge your server because there are plenty of people but from the server merge posts popping up every week there is obviously some that need it.

[Pixela]

I did say they should address the instance problem before hand. It's a MMO if you can't handle the competition try WoW or offline game. Maybe they won't merge your server because there are plenty of people but from the server merge posts popping up every week there is obviously some that need it.

I've been around long enough to see that what players ask for isn't really what they want, it's just what they think they want.

Here's how it goes:
"Give merge, nobody joins my crappy shouts!"
"Omg Square I'm going to lose my name, this sucks!"
"Please add more instances I can't do any content anymore!"
"omg it's so laggy"
Then they realise that a merge does not fix their issue because, again nobody wants the crap they are shouting for so now they have the negatives of an overpopulated server & the original issue.

At the end of the day, you can complain about it as much as you want (although I'm not sure I buy you actually care about FFXI at all given your name and post history) but it's pretty obvious what side of the fence Square is on since they ignore all these threads.

[InpendingDeath]

I've been around long enough to see that what players ask for isn't really what they want, it's just what they think they want.

Here's how it goes:
"Give merge, nobody joins my crappy shouts!"
"Omg Square I'm going to lose my name, this sucks!"
"Please add more instances I can't do any content anymore!"
"omg it's so laggy"
Then they realise that a merge does not fix their issue because, again nobody wants the crap they are shouting for so now they have the negatives of an overpopulated server & the original issue.

At the end of the day, you can complain about it as much as you want (although I'm not sure I buy you actually care about FFXI at all given your name and post history) but it's pretty obvious what side of the fence Square is on since they ignore all these threads.

Didn't say no one joined my "crappy shouts" just only during prime time really, which I can't always play during. Don't see how new content is considered crappy shouts anyway. My name? I don't care about this game because my name? Your IQ must not be very high lol that's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. Don't know if your trolling or being serious but please say trolling. . . Sorry I'm trying to make a post for Dev response to something many many other people would like the answer to as well. Quitting a game over name loss is pretty childish and we could do without them. Adding more instances is common sense. It's 2014 there isn't any server side lag unless they use AoL.

[Zumi]

I've been around long enough to see that what players ask for isn't really what they want, it's just what they think they want.

Here's how it goes:
"Give merge, nobody joins my crappy shouts!"
"Omg Square I'm going to lose my name, this sucks!"
"Please add more instances I can't do any content anymore!"
"omg it's so laggy"
Then they realise that a merge does not fix their issue because, again nobody wants the crap they are shouting for so now they have the negatives of an overpopulated server & the original issue.

At the end of the day, you can complain about it as much as you want (although I'm not sure I buy you actually care about FFXI at all given your name and post history) but it's pretty obvious what side of the fence Square is on since they ignore all these threads.

Only thing is the servers are running at about 25% of the population they once were. Back in the day about 2000-3000 people would be on. Now a days its 500-800 people. That is a lot less people to do stuff with thus people want a merge.

[Comeatmebro]

The server hardware is either worse than it was in 2005 or changes in playstyle have resulted in a higher load. The server quality is certainly lower than it was back then.

Please don't think about a merge until the game is stable for the current population.

[Pixela]

I think the devs have added a lot of features that were impossible back in the day, that added a larger load to the servers. These are things they have added precisely because of more normal server pops, so it's probably impossible these days to do server merges. Keep in mind that current server populations are not low, they are normal for almost any mmo.

I think honestly, that some people want merges just purely out of comparison sake instead of actual reasoning, I've played a lot of titles and you can see quite easily that there are a few hundred people on the game (much smaller worlds so easier to actually judge). You only argue for it here because you can see the actual numbers and compare to years ago, on almost every other mmo people will use the arguments they do on FFXIV and just goto a busy area and say see the server is full!

The lowest numbers I see (and they peak well upto 1.5k+ at times) is 500, 500 is a hell of a lot of people. If you're telling me that you can't do the small scale content FFXI has to offer with that many people then there is something wrong with what you're shouting for. We aren't in the era where most everything required an alliance.

Oh and also when FFXI had 3-4k people online at once shout content DID NOT EVEN EXIST, everyone did everything in their linkshell 100% of the time and at set times because it was impossible to enter dynamis or whatever whenever you wanted. Nobody shouted for anything endgame related ever, at all. If you didn't have an event linkshell you did no endgame content, the end.

The problem with some players (those who aren't obvious XIV trolls) right now is they are refusing to be part of the community and expect FFXI to accommodate their shout content demands like it did for Abyssea, abyssea was by design so simple it was shout friendly and that is something totally alien to FFXI. Join linkshells and do content with people in those shells, where are all the event linkshells that used to exist? FFXI has always been a community game. Only since Abyssea were shouts even a thing and we aren't in the abyssea era anymore.

Nobody wants to join shells to do content anymore. They just want to shout for everything in a game not designed for that kind of system. When those shouts don't work they get pishy and demand merges for no reason or real benefit.

There are huge numbers of negatives to a merge, very very few benefits.

[Mitruya]

But all those 500 people aren't actually PLAYING. They're afk. They're mules, They're bots. Or whatever.
Also, I think people are throwing together the job imbalance (both perceived and real) and the server populations into one issue.
When casuals/returners/new players/people who want to play other jobs face the "we can only clear this content with 5 relic RNGs and a mythic WHM"-type of baloney, they see the lack of shouts and lack of interest in events and lack of invites as a population problem. And to some extent it is.
The rampant cheating and use of third-party tools isn't helping, either.
Not to mention, there have been posts from people who lead or are in event linkshells, and even they have problems, either filling slots due to lack of interest, or feeling punished by the HP-scaling of events and drop-rates that reward less people. So there's a game design issue, too.

[Pixela]

But all those 500 people aren't actually PLAYING. They're afk. They're mules, They're bots. Or whatever.
Also, I think people are throwing together the job imbalance (both perceived and real) and the server populations into one issue.
When casuals/returners/new players/people who want to play other jobs face the "we can only clear this content with 5 relic RNGs and a mythic WHM"-type of baloney, they see the lack of shouts and lack of interest in events and lack of invites as a population problem. And to some extent it is.
The rampant cheating and use of third-party tools isn't helping, either.
Not to mention, there have been posts from people who lead or are in event linkshells, and even they have problems, either filling slots due to lack of interest, or feeling punished by the HP-scaling of events and drop-rates that reward less people. So there's a game design issue, too.

If 1/4 are afk (which they aren't, many idle but keep an eye on shout and LS chat), that's still a ton of people and comparable to almost any other mmo (oh and afk people used to be a far bigger issue in the past, rolanberry was packed with bazaars and whole linkshells would afk showing off loot before Abyssea). People only complain because they compare one number with another without putting more thought into it than that, let's say 300-400 people at lowest taking into account bazaars? that's still a huge number of players online at one time (and it peaks well above 1k during server peak). Also please keep in mind that this is not regional servers, it's JP/EU/NA all in one.

As I said, the problem is that so many people have the shout mentality. They don't want to join shells anymore because Abyssea ruined their idea of how endgame can be done and the content is not keeping up with that mindset change.

Square can fix these issues in 4 ways:
A) Regional servers? Want that forced on you? This is where a lot don't understand how things work, a dev will never count population numbers by EU or US peak it will be server peak...which is JP prime time.
B) Nerf much of the content like they did on FFXIV so it is 100% pugable. How about that?
C) Force people to join linkshells again by blocking content off from puggers (again like they did in FFXIV by removing "top content" from the doody finder).
They did this in the past by adding large price tags to enter (1 mill per dynamis entry etc), they also had very low drop rates meaning you had to have point systems.
D) Add some kind of group finder system for specific content, again if they do this they will have to go with B.
I don't particularly like any of those options but they are all still better than MORE PEOPLE in the pig pen.

As an added note, their are 988 people online right now on Sylph. There are still almost no shouts at all, certainly no more or less than when their are 500.

[Mitruya]

I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with you, just posting some personal observations that may or may not really have anything to do with the population issue. I don't really have any solutions to offer though, and I understand the hesitancy to make things overcrowded again.

[Zumi]

Is there a server that a majority of NA players transferred to because my server is pretty much dead for doing anything really. Someone told me there was one or two servers that the majority of the NA playerbase moved do anyone know what that is?