Aether Data Center Down

SE please.


It's my birthday.

Why has there been no update from any of the forum mods or anything? I need a soothing "we're working on it" post with an ETA to dispel my rage!

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Originally Posted by Averax

Why has there been no update from any of the forum mods or anything? I need a soothing "we're working on it" post with an ETA to dispel my rage!

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Because they don't work on weekends. Most people work during the week. Also even if they are working, they are perhaps working out of japan, where there is a large time difference.

Got into a queue. :D

And finally in...2 hours later

And finally out with a 90k insta error.

Actually they always have people at work on servers. It's not good business to be sitting at home and a server goes down. Besides, I feel like this is one of those congestion issues and we just have to live with it until something actually crashes. If something does, I imagine the people working are only in Japan and they have remote access to other servers like anyone else would with servers from afar.

my last try was a 5006

This is the fix I've gotten in the habit of doing. Go to a different data center, log into a character there. Once you're on, log off, go to Aether data center, and then go back loggin' on your character. It seems to always work for me.

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Originally Posted by Arrelaine

I still can't get in. :( I've tried logging into a different center and then back to mine, but it doesn't seem to work at all for me right now.

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That sucks. It was a method I found on forums that has been working for me. I thought I'd share. It's a shame it doesn't work for everyone.

I still can't get in. :( I've tried logging into a different center and then back to mine, but it doesn't seem to work at all for me right now.

Yeah, I think Aether had the sky (Dalamud?) fall on it. Can log into other data centers without incident, but Aether is 2002 all the way.

just got kicked and now i can't get back into Aether. all the other data centers seem to work just fine though

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Originally Posted by Wolfyboy

This is the fix I've gotten in the habit of doing. Go to a different data center, log into a character there. Once you're on, log off, go to Aether data center, and then go back loggin' on your character. It seems to always work for me.

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I went to my alt in Behemoth (Primal data center), spent a few minutes there walking around, then logged out, switched back to Aether and it worked! THNKS! \o/

Half an hour in queue and then 2002.

You screwed up again, Square Enix.

Also if you get stuck in a queue click on cancel then try entering again. You might get back in right away...or just face a shorter line.

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Originally Posted by Solaria_Luna

Also if you get stuck in a queue click on cancel then try entering again. You might get back in right away...or just face a shorter line.

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Usually you just get put back into the same spot unfortunately =\@673 for ages

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Originally Posted by Yuyushuu

Usually you just get put back into the same spot unfortunately =\@673 for ages

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I've been at 1 for a long while now. Obviously bugged.

Edit: And now 2002, after a ton of time in queue again. Whoever said SE is doing a good job with the servers needs to review that position.

Dear Square Enix. Sort your datacenter out. You're not gaining much goodwill. In the past two days I managed to play 3 hours.

I cannot get into aether data center at all. sigh i wanted to play tonight

switched to Chaos (EU) and without even logging in a character switched back to Aether and... tada! Connected

I'm worried about when the official launch starts. If it is this bad now I don't even want to think what will happen during release. You would think after the fiasco of ARR's launch they would've had this stuff figured out by now. They can no longer use the excuse of unexpectedly high number of users logging in, that's what they messed up on during launch.

With all the apparent success the game is having and the further revenue stream of a cash shop in a subscription based game, server issues should not be happening.

This is the second time today I was kicked off the game randomly and could not get back on for an extended period of time.


EDIT: I made an alt on a Japanese server during official launch when the NA datacenters were doing terribly (surprise surprise), I logged onto that character just fine now and tried to do the switch that everyone mentions and I still got the lobby error.

Honestly, I'm in Balmung (aether data center) and I've been able to play about 12 hours or so in total the past couple days without too many issues. I kinda think it's on your end if you have only been able to play for about 3 or so due to the login screen. And I never left the game on when I stopped playing by the way. So every time I've wanted to play, I'd get in essentially. A couple times I'd have issues with the 2002 or whatever for like a half hour or an hour or so, but then it'd work just fine aside form obviously having to wait for the queue.

There're a couple work-arounds that have worked for people that's posted in the technical forum if you're curious. Like I said, it could very well be on your end.

You guys have to fix this. My friends and I have spent the last three hours trying to get on. When we do get past the data center connection we get stuck in a queue that goes on for 15+ minutes until it dumps us with a lobby error. After three hours we're out of time.. another wasted evening.

What's the point in paying a subscription fee if the game won't let you on to play every time you try?

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Originally Posted by Gyson

You guys have to fix this. My friends and I have spent the last three hours trying to get on. When we do get past the data center connection we get stuck in a queue that goes on for 15+ minutes until it dumps us with a lobby error. After three hours we're out of time.. another wasted evening.

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Like I said in my previous post, that seems like an issue on your end. It certainly did not take me 3 hours to get in the game on Balmung. :l And I logged in twice today.

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Originally Posted by Miya_Carbuncle

Like I said in my previous post, that seems like an issue on your end. It certainly did not take me 3 hours to get in the game on Balmung. :l And I logged in twice today.

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No, it's not an issue on my end. You got in when I didn't because of random chance. My friends and I are all communicating as we sit here trying to log in. Some sessions these past two days one of us gets lucky even as they others don't. Sometimes it's me and I'm the one who gets in while they're all stuck outside playing the data center/lobby game. Other times I'm not the lucky one.

Just be glad you got in sooner rather than later, because for a lot of people it just happens to be later. There isn't a single person in my guild who managed to get on that hasn't let out an expression of frustration upon finally managing to do so. They're all having these problems.

I got 90002 error while in a dungeon and now I'm just sitting here with the queue at 358. Was on the last leg of the dungeon, too. They'll have kicked me out by the time I get back on, if I even do.

Ive been trying for 2 hours now can't get in >.< whyyyy

I had the same thing happen but the Chinese lady couldn't count change and I got AFK booted yesterday around 2 pm haven't been able to log back in. on the bright side I have watch the whole season of Daredevil.

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Originally Posted by Adire

I'm regretting going to eat now.

I got lectured by a Chinese lady working at the restaurant how to hold my drink cup correctly, and got afk booted and can't get back in now :(. Sad day.

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Just for the record, Primal data center has been rock solid since launch. Login queues on Lamia, but no one has had issues logging in since 8AM EST on Friday morning.

I wonder why Aether is doing so poorly but Primal is fine?

Hey, you could have it worse. While trying to get into the game, my software token suddenly reverted to the registration screen. I used my emergency removal password to reset it, reinstalled it, and somehow the token is now out of sync and the passwords it generates don't work. I was smart enough to grab the new emergency removal password asap, but you can apparently only use an emergency removal password once per 24 hours. This happened at the very start of the 24 hours I had set aside to do nothing but play FFXIV (well, and sleep and eat). Meh.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

I wonder why Aether is doing so poorly but Primal is fine?

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Because Balmung is on the Aether server group which is the most heavily populated (read: congested) server of all, so Balmung's excessive congestion would snowball to the whole server group. And it should be no surprise that most of the complaints are coming from Balmung players (and yes, I'm on Balmung too).

Really, this congestion is to be expected - it's the weekend and thus US peak time, everyone wants to play the expansion at once, and like a freeway during rush hour when everyone is trying to get to work fast at the same time, you're going to have traffic jams and collisions. There's nothing you can do about it except have a little understanding and try to access the game later on.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Because Balmung is on the Aether server group which is the most heavily populated (read: congested) server of all, so Balmung's excessive congestion would snowball to the whole server group. And it should be no surprise that most of the complaints are coming from Balmung players (and yes, I'm on Balmung too).

Really, this congestion is to be expected - it's the weekend and thus US peak time, everyone wants to play the expansion at once, and like a freeway during rush hour when everyone is trying to get to work fast at the same time, you're going to have traffic jams and collisions. There's nothing you can do about it except have a little understanding and try to access the game later on.

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Don't forget Greg, its not all that far behind Balmung. Plus Aether has about 2-3 more servers on it than the any of the other ones.

Ok but people who love the game enough to pre-order and get early access are frustrated and pissed off that they can't play. How much of a turn off will this be to new players? " I paid $_ for and it has a subscription fee and I can't play it." That's going to go over really well.

I am getting extremely sick of joining the queue, sitting in it for 20minutes, and then it just 2002s and closes the client.

Especially whenever I actually make it in, go to fallgourd float, and surprise surprise...........the pack of rmt bots sitting there at their normal spot.

Whine all you want, they can't "fix" the servers getting hammered by login attempts. You just have to keep trying and be patient.

Greetings,

I'd like to a moment to clarify the errors you're seeing when attempting to log into the Aether data center. These errors are not something to do with a bug, or unexpected problem, on the part of the lobby server or World servers. What you're seeing with these errors is a result of the massive congestion surround Balmung and Gilgamesh (two of the largest NA Worlds), which happen to be on Aether. These two Worlds maintain an almost maximum number of concurrent users because of how large the population is on both of them. The errors you're experiencing are due to the large amount of congestion.

While the Development and Operations teams are working to ensure that the servers are stable and doing everything they can to avoid downtime, unfortunately, this issue a result of the large populations being housed on the Aether data center.

We truly apologize for the frustration experienced and ask for your patience and understanding.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

These errors are not something to do with a bug, or unexpected problem, on the part of the lobby server or World servers.

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They are, in part, an issue at this point because of a frustrating design.

If we were logging in and placed in a reliable queue that would eventually put us into the game, that would at least be something. But instead we are receiving error messages when attempting to connect to the data center after logging in, and being dumped back to desktop. That requires to load the launcher all over again and re-enter our login credentials, including any one-time security code (which is slowly draining the non-replaceable battery on my $10 security token, by the way).

We have to do this over and over and over again, until we eventually luck out and successfully advance to the character selection screen. At this point we're in a queue that may or may not actually count down (the latter sure seems to be a bug). And after spending a hefty amount of time in this queue we often end up getting a lobby server error, and then dumped back to the desktop.

Waiting in a queue can be frustrating enough. Having to deal with that other nonsense (whether bugged or a poorly thought out implementation) on top of that, however.. I think the frustration people are feeling over it is justifiable. Nobody expects the congestion to magically go away, but expecting a login process that handles congestion better isn't an unreasonable request.

@Gyson, what he and many others are asking for is very reasonable. i am not on their DC but I am on a close 2nd Primal. We too have had some of this to deal with. Before claiming it is just overload and not a bug , plz see about getting the queue situation fixed at least so it counts down correctly and more importantly does not kick us to the desktop. That much at least. Gyson speaks the truth on how I feel.

There's two options I see to this:

1.) Split Aether into two smaller data centers. Put Balmung and Gilgamesh on separate data centers to relieve the congestion.
2.) Move either Gilgamesh or Balmung to the the other existing NA data center.

What it comes down to is you have the largest worlds situated on the same data server. Here's what I want to know, what is the company going to do about this? Official release of Heavensward comes in less than 3 days from now, not only will this bring players who could not afford to get the expansion early but also those who may be new to the game. This new influx of players will surely come to a different world, but on the same data center. Combined with the existing players on the closed worlds on that same data server trying to log in will cause even more problems. I'm sorry but again you underestimated the player base and numbers. Some planning was shown (Like splitting zones into new instances.) but it was vastly underestimated.

So at this point what I want to know is are you going to deal with it, and how?

EDIT: And for gods sake, remove this damned cap on the forum posts please! Having to cut a post in half to bypass the 1,000 character limit is absurd.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

What you're seeing with these errors is a result of the massive congestion surround Balmung and Gilgamesh (two of the largest NA Worlds),

While the Development and Operations teams are working to ensure that the servers are stable and doing everything they can to avoid downtime, unfortunately, this issue a result of the large populations being housed on the Aether data center.

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My question is why did you put both Balmung and Gilgamesh on the same data center?

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

*snip*

We truly apologize for the frustration experienced and ask for your patience and understanding.

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Another option for addressing this issue that wouldn't require any restructuring of the network would be to allow people free transfers off of those worlds, prevent transfers to them, and possibly even a long-term lockdown of character creation on them. I know all of my friends would have no problem free transferring off Gilgamesh onto one of the smaller worlds.

I am understanding of the server congestion and its not an easy solution as I've worked in as a NOC however the design flaws with how it handles the time outs is rather frustrating as I have to keep logging back in and putting in my security token. As Gyson said its a poor design choice and a consideration should be made to atleast keep you in the game or put you in a separate queue.