They announced how worlds would be shuffled.

I won't lie, the data center change is by far one of the worst things I've seen Square Enix put forth to this game. Not because it's a bad idea, per say, but doing it so late into the game - and specifically after establishing cross party, to allow us to make friendships with others on other servers - is incredibly detrimental to the community and the connections people have made. I understand why Square Enix needs to separate Gilgamesh and Balmung in particular, but it's just awful timing. I do feel fully entitled to keeping my friendships I have had since 2.0 and onward, but I'm losing them on the game we first met and connected on, and it's a shame.

I started on Gilgamesh and transferred to Balmung when it was open and cross world was offered, because I do enjoy roleplaying. But I've had my friendships on Gilgamesh since 2.0 and now I'm completely shoved out of doing PvE content with these friends. My only alternative is to leave the roleplay connections I've made instead, and I love the friends I have on Balmung just as much. I could make an alt, sure, but I shouldn't have to do such a thing on a game that's incredibly alt unfriendly (at least, in my opinion - having everything on one character truly takes away from alt necessities, aside from raiding and aesthetics). I also prefer to do things on my main; I've had her for so long, she's the character I'm invested in.

I would love for Square Enix to reconsider this as a whole, but I know it's just not an option when they have such high populated servers. I'm sure plenty can sympathize and have in this thread, but I also at least want my voice to join the chorus.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Honestly though, if Balmung is the biggest problem, as the unofficial RP server... Why not see what impact an official RP server has before fracturing the community like this? Leave the servers as they are, take this new Crystal data center and slap "Official RP Data Center" on it, add incentive to move there, see how that plays out. It might not have the desired impact, but I'd say it's worth trying before, you know, screwing over a large portion of the playerbase as is the current plan... I don't think ping should be a major issue for RPers, so slap the data center anywhere and have NA/EU/JP servers in it perhaps...

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Because that doesn't do much for those of us on affected worlds that aren't there for the RP.

I don't understand the perception that all the worlds being moved to Crystal are RP worlds just because Balmung is also going.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

There's already talk about some people leaving Balmung to try and establish a strong role-play community on one of the Aether servers, so the people convinced that they'll finally be free of role-players will be bitterly disappointed.

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They should be disappointed already in that case. Just about every server has at least a small RP community that doesn't draw attention to itself.

The number of people leaving Balmung to establish a RP community elsewhere would be small. Most transfers are more likely to be from people trying to get off an overcrowded server while SE is footing the bill or looking for more PF options than Crystal will end up having since most of the servers are low pop.

People who enjoy leading groups tend to migrate to higher pop servers because higher populations make it easier to create groups. Low pop servers tend to be an exercise in frustration for them. Fewer leaders means fewer group opportunities for those looking but don't feel comfortable leading. It's easier to be a leader when you're among friends but that's hard to accomplish when suddenly you can't play with friends anymore. And so people migrate to the servers where groups are getting made, leaving the low pop servers even more barren. That's going to leave the Crystal Party Finder very empty in comparison to the ones for Aether and Primal.

Group Finder in WoW did alleviate the problem for players on low pop servers there to some degree but Group Finder also gave them access to every single server in their region. FFXIV data centers are more akin to WoW battlegroups in size and WoW gave up group matching solely by battlegroup back in Cataclysm, switching first to data center and eventually to region.

FFXIV would need to create cross-region Party Finder to put a dent in the group finding problems this split is going to create for the worlds being moved to Crystal.

The Aether servers exiled to crystal, except Mateus, are specifically the servers that people moved AWAY from to RP.

It is already hard to find o12s weekly clear group from pf and now they wanna make it even harder?

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Originally Posted by Sunako

It is already hard to find o12s weekly clear group from pf and now they wanna make it even harder?

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its going to be even hard for those of us who are going to lose our statics. I hope they are seeing this and maybe rethinking things.

While it's unavoidable when they shake up world distribution like this, it still sucks. Since Balmung, among others, was a major world, guilds are getting split up over this. People are forced to choose between staying without their DC-based guild or staying with their world, its specialities, and their FC.

Primal DC has a great number of the cross world raid groups since there is no single server as large as Gilgamesh or Balmung. Most static groups have members from Brynhildr, Marlboro and Diabolos. Regroup of worlds and data center may be a good way for the game experience but definitely a really BAD idea for the RAID community. For now, 3 statics in my FC all need to choose to stay at Primal, go to Aether, or even transfer to JP servers for raiding. No one is considering staying at Crystal.

Why not give such compensation to players willing to transfer to the new data center with new servers? Just like the second DC opened at Chinese region

and 3 million Gil compensation for furnishing is like a joke. You cannot even but a crafted weapon at most NA servers lol.

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Originally Posted by Nyxn607

I am torn ... I am on Mateus currently and have been before it became a RP server. I don't like the idea of having more RP'ers to annoy me from Balmung with the world visiting coming. I do however enjoy my FC and doubt they would move. I am also getting better at certain and feeling confident enough to start trying to raid savage content so it would be nice to be with experienced raiders that could help guide my newbie self to become a decent raider in FFXIV. This doesn't look to be promising on the crystal DC. So I am torn as to what I will do ....

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Crystal may have a very casual raid scene, but if you have any aspirations for something beyond that, I suggest you either level an alt or take the L and transfer. I know a good chunk of the raiders are already bailing on Crystal. So it isn't going to be nearly as active as Aether or Primal.

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Originally Posted by Miste

I met my boyfriend on online games. We have now been together for 7 years and plan to marry and start a family.

Like...are you even thinking about what you are saying?

You can find meaningful relationships online and in online games....if someone can meet their significant other online then friendships are even easier, hello?

Are you a licensed psychiatrist? What is so unhealthy about having friends, spending time having fun with them, and cherishing your interactions with them?

Having friends and wanting to continue playing with them is "unhealthy"....sigh...just when you think you've seen everything on these forums. This is ridiculous.

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I value my ingame friends I just have no emotional attachment to them which makes things like this easy to deal with. My enjoyment of this game is it not dependent on them and I am also quite good at sparking up conversation with strangers when I feel the need to be social. I got a few friends on other worlds we stay in contact as we don't need to play with one another too maintain a friendship or have fun. Learning to let go of people and move on is not evil and sometimes needed, if you cant let go in these times you are just going to drag yourself down with heart ache.

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Originally Posted by Duskane

still nothing about a aus data center

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AU will never get a data center. Our population would be enough to fit on two servers, so there's no point.

I'm very interested in seeing how all this plays out when it happens, and what happens to the subscriber count and population movements. It's a shame this game is so fundamentally broken that this had to happen, but the joke is Japan is like 10 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to IT and it shows.

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Originally Posted by meizhiguo

and 3 million Gil compensation for furnishing is like a joke. You cannot even but a crafted weapon at most NA servers lol.

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You can also pick up all your furnishings (or almost all), so that you don't lose them when you move. Just pick up all your belongings before you move, keep all your furnishings and get a free 3 mill. Not too shabby in my eyes.

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Originally Posted by NanaWiloh

Clinging to ingame friendships so tightly is unhealthy..so seek therapy yourself before suggesting others do.

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I met my ex who I'm wonderful friends with through this game. I've forged lasting friendships with people in this game (and had less problems than I've had with IRL friends). Yet apparently I need therapy? Sorry but I agree with Moro here, you really are being insensitive about this. In fact, I've had therapists tell me that having online friends isn't a bad thing (and treating them as valuable as IRL friendships is fine too), so guess what, that goes counter to your entire point, and that coming from a trained psychologist. Try again.

I'm starting to wonder if with all this talk of mass transfers to Aether if SE won't eventually try to lock that data center down to try and 'fix' the problem of their own making and encourage people onto Crystal. This bandaid is going to need it's own bandaids ad nauseum until they pony up the cash for better servers.

Given how quiet Bryn is, I'm hopeful for a population boost with the new DC being linked to the major server.

Sure the raiders may start congesting Gilgamesh but that's not to say crystal's scene will be dead, something'll grow from it.

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Originally Posted by Paladinleeds

You can also pick up all your furnishings (or almost all), so that you don't lose them when you move. Just pick up all your belongings before you move, keep all your furnishings and get a free 3 mill. Not too shabby in my eyes.



I met my ex who I'm wonderful friends with through this game. I've forged lasting friendships with people in this game (and had less problems than I've had with IRL friends). Yet apparently I need therapy? Sorry but I agree with Moro here, you really are being insensitive about this. In fact, I've had therapists tell me that having online friends isn't a bad thing (and treating them as valuable as IRL friendships is fine too), so guess what, that goes counter to your entire point, and that coming from a trained psychologist. Try again.

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Psychology on matters online if your looking to be a predator. Cause last time I checked nobody plays a online game looking for mental help.

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Originally Posted by NanaWiloh

Psychology on matters online if your looking to be a predator. Cause last time I checked nobody plays a online game looking for mental help.

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Not directly, but plenty of people I know play online games because they help ease symptoms relating to mental help. Or the people they met through the game are a good influence that help the player get into a better head space. I'm also not really sure why you're being so nasty about this? What does it matter if people have made genuine friendships online?

Sadly I fear the development and ordering of new infrastructure and servers and connections between them and what not is already way too far advanced if they were able to announce it officially. Yet I really dislike this splitting too, even though it does not affect me directly.

What I really want SQEX to ask themselves is, was this the "best" solution? This splitting seems like the "easiest", the one with the least work to do. Maybe the "cheapest" one too. But is this still the "best" solution? Could it maybe be more beneficial to put a bit more development into stabilization and optimization than to simply rip apart connections and relationships between the players which in the end will have to pay for it with their tears and money?

I know, we only use your service. But still, without the WoL this service would not exist in the first place. I just think, the ones that pay for your services should be heard and considered in determining which the "best", the "very best" solution actually is.

Nothing personal against Balmung, but I can't say I'm terribly pleased with these seating arrangements. I also don't want to leave Primal. I know I'll regret this day. Like leaving a datacenter-shaped womb where it was warm, and safe, and wet. This will be awkward and painful, in a way I never knew existed. It's going to be a whole new spectrum of pain, like a rainbow. And this rainbow, it's not just like any other rainbow, no sir. It's a rainbow so painful they'll have to invent new colors for it. And I'm bored with myself so I'm going to stop talking about pain and rainbows and wombs and just say that this serve redistribution sucks.

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Originally Posted by Enla

Not directly, but plenty of people I know play online games because they help ease symptoms relating to mental help. Or the people they met through the game are a good influence that help the player get into a better head space. I'm also not really sure why you're being so nasty about this? What does it matter if people have made genuine friendships online?

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I have nothing against genuine friendships I have a friend of more then 10+ yrs. Its the accusation that SE does not care about friendships forged in this game that set me off.They do care its just not their top priority if they didnt care you would not have free transfers. What they are doing with the servers is least intrusive way to solve the current infrastructure issues. There are more agressive methods they could take in dealing with but it would come at greater cost like not being able to play the game for 6+ months. Their choosing the lesser of two evils as they would say..

I dislike the uncertainty.

I've been on Balmung since the early days of ARR. I've seen the server change over time. It used to be the place to be and had a broad variety of players who were interested in different types of content. Over time, the number of role-players grew.

I role-play occasionally, though I only do it with people I can trust not to be overly dramatic and/or thirsty. Looking at Ul'dah and the sort of role-players it attracts its hard not to see why role-players have such a poor reputation. Though I assure people that we're not all like that and some of us really just want to have out characters head out into the game world and have cool adventures.

That aside...

I'm worried. I'm looking forward to the expansion but this news has soured things. I don't want to be stuck on a server that mostly just has role-players. I enjoy having people on Balmung who like to do PvE and PvP content. Yet that number has been declining over time...and I know there's already people considering moving because they don't want to be stuck on Crystal.

So I guess I need to decide what I want to do. There's people I really enjoy talking to and playing with on Balmung. Yet Discord exists as a means to chat with them outside of the game. Pockets of role-players exist on every server and the person I role-play with most frequently would be transferring with me if I left Balmung.

Of course, I don't want to make a knee jerk reaction so leaving at present isn't worthwhile...

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Originally Posted by NanaWiloh

No mmo developer is going to make your in game relationships priority when making these decision. The health of the servers takes priority over your ingame friendships, don't like it quit and never touch MMO again. Clinging to ingame friendships so tightly is unhealthy..so seek therapy yourself before suggesting others do.

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This comment was uneeded. You telling me we need to seek therapy over making online friendships?
I have you know I met my best friend, online, 10 years ago when we were teenagers.
Why does it matter whether you met your friends in-game/online or not?
It's cool you can pick up and make new friends easily but it's different when you
known the people for literal years.
Either way, the split is going to hurt someone, somewhere, because there's no way you
can get others to move because they have their reasons to stay. People met others in all different
servers within the centers.
No reason to be mean about this.

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Originally Posted by Jybril

This comment was uneeded. You telling me we need to seek therapy over making online friendships?
I have you know I met my best friend, online, 10 years ago when we were teenagers.
Why does it matter whether you met your friends in-game/online or not?
It's cool you can pick up and make new friends easily but it's different when you
known the people for literal years.
Either way, the split is going to hurt someone, somewhere, because there's no way you
can get others to move because they have their reasons to stay. People met others in all different
servers within the centers.
No reason to be mean about this.

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Read the comment it was in reply too. As for my comment yes it was out of line.

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Originally Posted by Jybril

x .

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It's not unneeded to an extent. This part: No MMO developer is going to make your in-game relationships priority when making these decisions. Is true. SE specifically did this to help people on the greater scale. For houses and latency issues. To fill dead areas with people again on the low pop servers. The comment about needing therapy is unneeded. But there is truth to the words about MMO developers. In the long run they are helping the community as a whole. The truth can be hurtful. I've played several MMOs over the years and I've quit playing them. But I did not lose the connection to the people I really wanted to keep with me. There is other social media outlets. Over discord, phone, facebook, twitter. You can't say you're going to lose your friend forever. If you do - then maybe you didn't cherish it very well. I know it sounds harsh but my boyfriend played a game with this guy in FF11 for like 5 years. They don't see each other and he doesn't play 11 but every once a year they call each other and talk genuine. You can't say it's going to be the end. There's other ways to prosper on a good good relationship with people.

Shit, I met my boyfriend in FF11 and here we are gaming together today.

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Originally Posted by meizhiguo

and 3 million Gil compensation for furnishing is like a joke. You cannot even but a crafted weapon at most NA servers lol.

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Where are these magical places, where I can sell weapons for that amount of gil?

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Originally Posted by Zsolen

Where are these magical places, where I can sell weapons for that amount of gil?

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HERE!!! Weapons used for Transmog got a nice collection of them on the MB going for 2-3 million. Gathered the mats to craft one for a FC memeber a few days ago cause what he wanted was selling for close to 3 mil. :P

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Originally Posted by Zsolen

Where are these magical places, where I can sell weapons for that amount of gil?

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If I remember correctly some of the glowing crafted weapons like the Titan weapon on Hyperion sold less for 15k and the Ruda bow for like 100k.
On Leviathan the bow is like 800k. If there's anything besides my friends I miss - the cheap ass end game glamour. lol

I wish that they put Omega to the light DC.


I don't want to have anything with people from that shi* server.

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Originally Posted by Mikkairi

I won't lie, the data center change is by far one of the worst things I've seen Square Enix put forth to this game. Not because it's a bad idea, per say, but doing it so late into the game - and specifically after establishing cross party, to allow us to make friendships with others on other servers - is incredibly detrimental to the community and the connections people have made.

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To say it in one word, it is CRUEL, too CRUEL. We made friends, we could play together and now they're making us split. GG.

Can't play with my friends on Midgard anymore. Which is fine, not like I really did anything with them anyway.

And I'm already considering moving because of other reasons... A friend will be joining eventually (hopefully) and having to make her chose between her brother and her friends would suck.

Awww, after all these years of seeing "Nep nep afk club" in the party finder, i'll never see it again!!!!!

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Originally Posted by MorfineCeres18

So in EU we have populated world on chaos and dead worlds on light.... rip light data center, they just killed it -.-

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Isn't it rather the other way around? I think numberwise, Light has more active players than Chaos.

is there any information on if a free company will be able to transfer servers? I really hope they are able to implement this.

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Originally Posted by SugarBunz

is there any information on if a free company will be able to transfer servers? I really hope they are able to implement this.

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Unfortunately the only time I saw anything related to this was on that page about population balancing in 2017:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...5d22338cf55ce7

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"We plan to continue introducing new incentives and updates following the release of 4.0, including bonuses to accommodate the transfer of entire free companies and free company housing.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we strive to create an enjoyable playing environment for players on all Worlds."

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Originally Posted by Zazay

Isn't it rather the other way around? I think numberwise, Light has more active players than Chaos.

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Light is expected to have a slightly lower population :

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DsQN3awXQAEtY4f.jpg

But this is a guess, without taking the server transfers into account. I believe most raiders will go to Chaos, leaving Light devoided of an active raiding scene. And eventually, leaving it as a leveling and casual DC. That will mean worse PF, worse DF, longer queues for high end content and so on.

Aw man. I just made some really good friends on Balmung, and then this happens. NGL, I was actually looking forward to the invasion, just for the memes and sh*tposting

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Originally Posted by Nyxn607

I am torn ... I am on Mateus currently and have been before it became a RP server. I don't like the idea of having more RP'ers to annoy me from Balmung with the world visiting coming.

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If you're annoyed at rpers, you could always world visit another server that RPers don't gather on, but not lose your stuff on Mateus.

I was sadly expecting this when they announced the World Visiting system and regrouping on Friday at the opening ceremony. At first I was extremely thrilled that I could visit my friends on Balmung, but when I saw the regrouping shortly after I pretty much knew. The LL confirmed it for me so I wasn't as shocked but equally (if not more) disappointed.

It's entirely possible for a large chunk to try and return to Aether due to Raiding/PvP/Friends, this wouldn't solve what they were attempting to fix but rather make people's lives harder. People want to be with their friends and raid groups, shoving them away doesn't really solve that. Sure you could spend the next however many months to create a raiding scene on Crystal, but isn't it far much easier to take the free transfer to a Preferred World on Aether to be able to continue raiding?

I know they probably won't go back on this decision or alter it in any way (there was also no way of making this sort of shift benefit everyone), but I do hope they consider this feedback. Let us hope they implement tech for Cross Data Center by region.

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Originally Posted by Yumisara

I was sadly expecting this when they announced the World Visiting system and regrouping on Friday at the opening ceremony. At first I was extremely thrilled that I could visit my friends on Balmung, but when I saw the regrouping shortly after I pretty much knew. The LL confirmed it for me so I wasn't as shocked but equally (if not more) disappointed.

It's entirely possible for a large chunk to try and return to Aether due to Raiding/PvP/Friends, this wouldn't solve what they were attempting to fix but rather make people's lives harder. People want to be with their friends and raid groups, shoving them away doesn't really solve that. Sure you could spend the next however many months to create a raiding scene on Crystal, but isn't it far much easier to take the free transfer to a Preferred World on Aether to be able to continue raiding?

I know they probably won't go back on this decision or alter it in any way (there was also no way of making this sort of shift benefit everyone), but I do hope they consider this feedback. Let us hope they implement tech for Cross Data Center by region.

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You're sbsolutely right that people coukd just transfer back to their old DC, leaving crystal relatively unpopulated.
However their intention with this is future proofing. Simply adding more servers and more worlds doesn't solve the problem of congestion within DCs, and with a nrw expansion looming and expecting more players than they've ever had, they cant just put up with the current set up. We cant just put up with it, unless ypu want the game to be unplayable for the first couple months of the expansion.
Ultimately the new, sparsely populated DC will be populated by newer players, and it'll all be forgotten about in a few months.

I'm lucky in that my only complaint is that Chaos and Light aren't called Chaos and Order. :'(

Well, time to bide the time until I can get full reimbursement for my house and move back to Aether. :)

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Originally Posted by Theodric

There's already talk about some people leaving Balmung to try and establish a strong role-play community on one of the Aether servers, so the people convinced that they'll finally be free of role-players will be bitterly disappointed.

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im not gonna lie but this for some reason made me laugh ;)