On the Status of World Population Balancing Incentives and the Resumption of Private

Hmmm time to make an alt on Balmung while I still can lol

Can't wait for world queues and DUE TO EXTREME SERVER LOAD YOU WERE UNABLE TO LEAVE THIS AREA on the same morning lol

On the bright side, a few of my friends will be moving back so my FC's gonna be a bit livelier :3

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Originally Posted by Settiesama

As far as Shirogane, Mist and Lavender are concerned, I highly expect every single placard to have at the least 3 people logging in at. Goblet (I personally love the place so a little upset it's disliked by most) will probably just end up getting rushed after all other plots are taken.

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I’m a Goblet resident also, but mainly because my friends and I wanted houses near each other and there weren’t enough open in other districts to pull that off. I like it here, though!

Couldnt they just do one of these things first and the other after that? Having both at the same time just increases the chance that a whole data center will crash. x) I wish everyone that wants to have a personal house the best of luck.

Well, I guess this is going to be a good way to know if the "UNLOCK BALMUNG1111!!!!11!" crowd is right about the server being "dead, repetitive and with no people to interact".

I'll make sure to grab my popcorns for the usual "Waited 8 hours to log in and got kicked to launcher, nice job SE I'm unsubbing because of the housing fiasco" threads.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Couldnt they just do one of these things first and the other after that? Having both at the same time just increases the chance that a whole data center will crash. x) I wish everyone that wants to have a personal house the best of luck.

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Agreed, but on the other hand... if they'd released Balmung after, there'd be hundreds of threads complaining I JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE AND NOW YOU OPEN BALMUNG THAT'S NOT FAIR, and if they'd released housing after, there'd be just as many complaints about how long it's taking. People have already been bemoaning the 'weeks' (hint: it's been 10 days, and two weeks is at 14 days) that housing has been open that they couldn't buy.

In some ways I almost feel like this is a "you guys think you're ready, fine, here's what you've been asking for, once you're done setting yourselves on fire maybe you'll listen" situation, but that would be dumb because the complaints are going to pour in no matter what.

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Originally Posted by InkstainedGwyn

I'm probably giving them too much credit for sneakiness, but I wonder if that's the whole point - make people pick. They know that Balmung transfers are going to be a nightmare, and they know housing is going to be a nightmare, so now people have to decide - stay and have a chance at a house on your lower-pop server, or transfer in before it's relocked but know you won't get a house? They're probably hoping that instead of 100% nightmare on both sides, it'll just be 75% nightmare, because most people can't do both.

Whatever the case, good luck to people - and I'm glad I'm not on Aether.

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Yeah, it’s definitely a “how bad do you want it?” scenario. If I were broke to the point the gil transfer limits were a nonissue, I might consider going back...but the idea that the server can (and likely will) be locked down again to where any friends wanting to join me couldn’t helps to quash that idea.

I doubt that Balmung will remain unlocked for very long. There's going to be a lot of people flocking there simply based on its reputation alone - and I fear for the stability of Aether as a whole as well as the efforts of those who made Mateus into a second unofficial role-playing server crumbling apart. So I'm guessing that it'll be open for a week or two at most and then it'll go right back to where it has been for the past five months or so.

Balmung bot flood 2018.

I called this before the expansion that the Balmung lock wouldn't last SE needs that world transfer $$$

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Originally Posted by Rita1989

I called this before the expansion that the Balmung lock wouldn't last SE needs that world transfer $$$

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We all knew it wouldn't last, they even said it was a temporary measure when it was announced. It's not about the money but the population which they believe is low enough to open. I don't think they thought about what'll happen once the floodgates are opened though. I feel it's far too soon, the other servers still need more time to build up more.

I'm still poor, have no interest in RP, and will probably log in hours after everyone scrambles for housing. Can't say it'll affect me very much, tbh. Good luck to the rest of you though.

The Alts are coming! The Alts are coming!

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Originally Posted by Theodric

I doubt that Balmung will remain unlocked for very long. There's going to be a lot of people flocking there simply based on its reputation alone - and I fear for the stability of Aether as a whole as well as the efforts of those who made Mateus into a second unofficial role-playing server crumbling apart. So I'm guessing that it'll be open for a week or two at most and then it'll go right back to where it has been for the past five months or so.

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We will see. Some people will undoubtedly transfer to Balmung, but how many? There really isn't much reason any longer to move there specifically unless you have friends who play there.
There are active role-playing communities on Mateus and Omega, so no need to transfer to Balmung specifically for RP anymore.
Cross-server DF and PF have removed several other reasons to want to be on a big server.

This is totally not going to end well. It's like they want a bunch of us to be frustrated and crazy!

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

We will see. Some people will undoubtedly transfer to Balmung, but how many? There really isn't much reason any longer to move there specifically unless you have friends who play there.
There are active role-playing communities on Mateus and Omega, so no need to transfer to Balmung specifically for RP anymore.
Cross-server DF and PF have removed several other reasons to want to be on a big server.

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I think you underestimate how big of an appeal and rep Balmung has, and overestimate how big Mateus is for an NA RP server. While Mateus has a growing RP community, it doesn't hold anything to what Balmung already had and still has. This will only help destroy what Mateus has started up if it remains open more than a week or two.

Well there goes Aether. Nobody plan to actually do anything next week.

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Originally Posted by Settiesama

I think you underestimate how big of an appeal and rep Balmung has, and overestimate how big Mateus is for an NA RP server. While Mateus has a growing RP community, it doesn't hold anything to what Balmung already had and still has. This will only help destroy what Mateus has started up if it remains open more than a week or two.

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And remember folks, if you can't make a character on Balmung directly just make it on another server first then pay to transfer it over.

It's always more enjoyable when you don't have a horse in the (server) race.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-conte...013/07/see.gif

I'm more interested to see what this will do to Mateus. I've been playing around with different races seeing which one I want to stick with (Midlander is gorgeous but something feels...off), and ended up popping in Mateus to see what it was like.

Despite having way less players, the server felt more alive than Cactuar and Sargatanas did during my travels there. People were actually doing fates in starter areas for newbies. People were actually shouting in world chat asking for help in story progression and offering advice. The market board economy is actually really healthy and mirrors Balmung pretty closely. And people were just overall willing to interact with each other. In the first half hour of my playtime there I had more folks just plain /wave at me than I've had anyone even attempt conversation outside of Novice Network for months elsewhere.

Mateus has put in a lot of hard work to build up the community there, and it succeeded because Balmung was locked, and therefore players were forced to give it a chance. I'm really hoping people will actually opt to stay there instead of flood Balmung again.

Also SE how long has it been? Geeze the 1k character limit is dumb.

This all that needs to be said about Balmung opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIBTg7q9oNc

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Originally Posted by Seryne

I give it like 10 seconds before Balmung gets locked again. It'll be nice to see some fresh faces over there though.

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Dying to ask can you remember half the people you have seen in the last month...by name?? You are constantly seeing people you have not seen before everytime you log in.

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Originally Posted by Settiesama

I think you underestimate how big of an appeal and rep Balmung has, and overestimate how big Mateus is for an NA RP server. While Mateus has a growing RP community, it doesn't hold anything to what Balmung already had and still has. This will only help destroy what Mateus has started up if it remains open more than a week or two.

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Perhaps I do. It is odd though - I see many people talking about how everyone will rush to Balmung, but I see very few people saying they will move over there.
Time will tell though.

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Originally Posted by NanaWiloh

Dying to ask can you remember half the people you have seen in the last month...by name?? You are constantly seeing people you have not seen before everytime you log in.

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Do you not recognize the people who stick to certain areas? I suppose a perk to being locked is getting familiar with regulars :P

Wait, we might actually get newbies in the NN. I doubt it, but there's a chance!

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Originally Posted by Rokke

Do you not recognize the people who stick to certain areas? I suppose a perk to being locked is getting familiar with regulars :P

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No I don't as I am part of the thousands of fresh faces that you dont notice that simply pass through.

RIP balmung, you gonna have it rough

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Originally Posted by InkstainedGwyn

Agreed, but on the other hand... if they'd released Balmung after, there'd be hundreds of threads complaining I JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE AND NOW YOU OPEN BALMUNG THAT'S NOT FAIR, and if they'd released housing after, there'd be just as many complaints about how long it's taking. People have already been bemoaning the 'weeks' (hint: it's been 10 days, and two weeks is at 14 days) that housing has been open that they couldn't buy.

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Well they could have simply said that they first will open up houses and that some days later the worlds will all be open again. This way people are able to choose what they want. Do they want a house or do they want to be on a certain server (I do wish that we would not even need such descisions but sadly SE does not want to change housing)

In the end we can all post "SE we told you so" if certain data centers will crash. (Which will hopefully not be the case because that would be bad for those players)

Personally I think the community Mateus has established will be enough to keep many players from jumping ship.

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Originally Posted by Rinuko

RIP balmung, you gonna have it rough

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That's how we like it.

People said the same about Gilgamesh and it still hasn't come close to its former population totals. Balmung will be similar, especially as Mateus has established itself as a viable alternative for roleplayers, which had been the biggest problem.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

People said the same about Gilgamesh and it still hasn't come close to its former population totals. Balmung will be similar, especially as Mateus has established itself as a viable alternative for roleplayers, which had been the biggest problem.

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With the exception that Gilgamesh now is sitting on pair with many other servers on an average 13k to 15k players.
Balmung is still sitting on 23k+ people even after being closed for almost a year. And this is something that no other server has ever achieved. There are a couple other servers sitting around 18k to 19k, but those are servers open and available to the public.
Of course only time will tell, but I feel like we are beyond the point of comparing Balmung with Gilgamesh, because Gilgamesh is very, very far from it's former self and probably will never go back to it.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

People said the same about Gilgamesh and it still hasn't come close to its former population totals. Balmung will be similar, especially as Mateus has established itself as a viable alternative for roleplayers, which had been the biggest problem.

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Except I never saw as many calls of 'unlock Gilgamesh' as I did for Balmung or as much transfer regret voiced. Maybe the Balmung folks are just more vocal about it.

SE worked to officially solve the problems that led to Gilg closin though, mostly with cross world party finder and making raids much easier. There's no real fix to balmung, especially since people may just want to rejoin it to be with friends that they miss, or fc's they couldn't be a part of.

Well, they could fix it, cross-world housing or social areas would be a huge step forwards.

Cross world housing would be amazing. Then it wouldn't matter which server your on. Everyone would get a house

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Originally Posted by NanaWiloh

No I don't as I am part of the thousands of fresh faces that you dont notice that simply pass through.

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This month a joined a new hunt linkshell and have been really active…so yes, I do recognize quite a few people in the open world by name/job/glamour/mount. I also know certain crafters’ favorite crafting spots, the constant afker’s idling spots, and after farming Byakko for the last week, I now am used to seeing certain people who frequent rhalgar’s reach. Even as someone who doesn’t rp much anymore, I know people by name/FC tag.

I can’t claim to know/remember everyone, but I find it kinda sad you don't remember anyone on your server ^^;

So I noticed he didn't mention if they fixed the cash grab transfer system. It will only takes minutes before Balmung is back to unable to create new character. Which is kind of a poorly designed system. Trying to keep the server somewhat stable. But straight cash bypasses that a 100% of the time in the past.

So soon we should see if they missed the money grab from paid transfers. Many months over the course of HW's paid transfers onto Balmung were in the thousands at $18 a transfer. They could literally create a whole another server worth of subs if they let it get out of hand.