Server-wide /shouts

[Zirael]

Though we need to do some more testing, and we are not sure whether it would be possible yet, we are looking into the possibility of making/displaying shouts throughout multiple areas.

To be a bit more specific, we will be looking into grouping certain areas server side so that a shout from one of the areas in that group will be heard from each of the other areas.

For example:
If Ru’Lude Gardens/Upper Jeuno/Lower Jeuno/Port Jeuno were to be grouped together, making a shout in Ru’Lude would be heard in the other areas (Upper Jeuno/Lower Jeuno/Port Jeuno). However, this would ultimately quadruple the server load, so we will definitely need to pay close attention to this.

My plea was more about being able to go camp a NM in some obscure place or go gather Beehive Chips or /fish and still be able to get a word about a shout group forming for something I might be interested in. Your solution would give me an option to afk in few more zones, but I would still be left with a choice: do I stay hang around city with nothing else to do in order to see shouts, or I move out to do Campaign/camp NM/whatever and miss all the shouts. I want to stay tuned in AND go out do stuff. Is that too unreasonable to ask for?
As for system resources issue: having 3k people online with 700+ people in Port Jeuno alone and people zoning in getting DC during weekends is a proof to me your server can't keep up already. Don't think being able to see a wide range shout would make it worse than that. If the server can't handle sending a packet to 1-3k people simultaneously, it looks to me you need to optimize your code or upgrade that 2Mbit connection. I think there are few games out there that manage to handle that. Is it really not feasible for FFXI?
Anyways, thank you for the reply, at least we can hope for a step forward.

How about a kind of radio you could acquire, and tune to different cities? Transmitters could be placed in central locations and if a shout was heard by the transmitter, you could hear it as well. Then different cities could be used for different kinds of shouts; Jeuno for Abyssea & w/e, AU for Assault & missions, Bastok for bazaar & item shouts, Windurst for live Ballista games, Norg for conspiracy-theory-themed interview shows, etc.

Actually, I like your idea. Maybe something like a new type of linkpearl/key item channel that you could equip/uneqip to tune in to the talk you're interested in.
As for JP people staying in Whitegate, I think they do that more for convenience. Quite a lot of them don't speak EN, so English shouts are meaningless to them, same as for us JP text in chatlog is useless. This way they aren't bothered by people shouting back {Please use autotranslate function.} and we get less spam. Win/win.