Ever getting server merge?

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Originally Posted by AnaviAnael

I agree that they should do free server transfers from high pop servers to low pop servers.

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And how is giving free transfers from high pop. servers to low population servers going to get people to move out. When players are already paying and flocking out of the low pop. ones to the high population servers.

They have done server merges in the past, as in 1.0. I remember my original server Saronia merged with another large one and became Sargatanas.

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Originally Posted by Natashio

And how is giving free transfers from high pop. servers to low population servers going to get people to move out. When players are already paying and flocking out of the low pop. ones to the high population servers.

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I know quite a few people who want to get off Balmung, but won't do it because some of their FC members can't afford the cost. In XI, there were whole linkshells that would transfer to different servers when the option was available.

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Originally Posted by Altera

They have done server merges in the past, as in 1.0. I remember my original server Saronia merged with another large one and became Sargatanas.

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Yes, I remember that, too. I was there for it though all my server got was a name change... (Selbina to Ridill) I also remember that when it happened 1.0 was undeniably on it's way out. There was no future for 1.0 at that point so they decided to cut costs and merge the low population servers. XI has done the same, and I was there for that, too! It wasn't long after Wings launched, if I remember correctly. Maybe around Abyssea's peak... But by then XI had 10-11 years under it's belt and was showing it's age with slowly dwindling subscriptions and thinning player base. Again, cutting costs. Server merges are rarely if ever about improving communities.

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Originally Posted by AnaviAnael

I know quite a few people who want to get off Balmung, but won't do it because some of their FC members can't afford the cost. In XI, there were whole linkshells that would transfer to different servers when the option was available.

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Yep - a large FC on Balmung with no house and few ties to the server outside of the FC would jump at the opportunity to switch to one of the few low population servers with housing available. But for a 100+ member FC, the cost of switching is at a minimum $1800 collectively. Too much for some individuals, too complex for a single whale, of which I doubt there are many on the RP server. (The XI linkshell jumps usually happened because a whale would pay 20 other people to jump ship with him. That was chump change compared to the $3000 NASA bot a few of them shelled out for.)

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

You're asking the devs to change the DF so that it can access servers outside of its own data center. The servers would explode trying to connect with each other like that in large chunks.

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Something I want to clarify before I reply; the language SE uses to describe their server groups as data centers creates semantic problems when you talk about the JP data center, NA data center and EU data center. Both the JP and NA data centers (physical locations) host multiple server groups that SE refers to as data centers. I'll stick to 'server group' to refer to the 'data centers' such as Primal, Aether, Gaia, Elemental, etc., and I'll use data center for the physical data center location that hosts the server groups.

I wasn't suggesting that DF should access anything outside it's own sever group. Let me clarify as my post may not have been clear. I was agreeing with the idea that someone suggested for cross sever MB & PF (within the same server group - for example 'Primal'), not across multiple server groups. I was here during Beta 3 & 4 and when they changed DF to only span server groups (what SE terms data centers). I know they can't simply span all servers, especially now that the EU servers have physically moved to the EU, resulting in 3 physical data center locations separated by 1000's of miles and many milliseconds of network latency.

Given that the server groups (SE calls them data centers) are co located in physical data centers and share the same networking infrastructure, some might ask why things like DF cannot span all server groups within the physical data center; for example a DF spanning the Elemental, Gaia and Mana server groups at the JPN data center. As you said, that would likely not work because the increased load on the servers responsible for Qing and matching, along with the extra communication across all servers would cause problems.

I was saying was that since we already have DF/DR that operates across all severs within a server group (which we do) then implementing a cross server (within the same server group) market board should be feasible. I also said that a cross server Party Finder (within a server group) might not be as easy since PF across multiple servers would seem to require cross server (again within a server group) friends lists and black lists which would be new functionality and hard to maintain.

I hope I was clear enough. I wasn't suggesting that we should bridge everything together, not only do we already know that doesn't work well, but the geographic separation of servers between JPN, NA and EU creates even more issues of latency and bandwidth between the locations.

What I tried to say was with Square constantly saying how they can't add this or do that because of sever limitations. I feel they'd just give that excuse again when it comes to your idea. I want better server infrastructures.

Lets look at the ball of worms they have made for themselves.


Personal and FC Housing,
FC rank,
FC Names,
LS


What is under populated?
Also You can pay for a server move

I don't think housing will be the issue everyone assumes it to be ( at least for those stating concern ). With less servers overall they should be able to support the extra housing wards needed in the merged servers no problem.

I would be concerned about someone having your name, FC name, so on and so forth ;o If your server merged into another one you better be ready to come up with a new identity! They've already taken a step in making a change like this easier by allowing FC name changes.

I don't see LS being a problem when you can already rename them.

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Originally Posted by Hanayumi

Think if there will never be server merge, then they should at least add some kind of data center wide Party Finder and maybe even market boards, or at least with a few servers in one. I think that would help things a lot, the only other thing I can think of would be to start restricting transfers or character creations like how they did when FFXIV ARR 1st started but that would prolly piss a lot of people off, >.<

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I'd have literally unsubbed if staying on a small server was my only option. I briefly debated it, but looking at recruitment for servers like Gilgamesh and Leviathan convinced me to give moving a chance.

Preventing transfers or in any way forcing or pressuring players onto small servers is a terrible idea. The MMO experience some people play and pay for is only available on large ones. Maybe a merge isn't the answer, but the other options (short of simply leaving everything as-is) are even worse.