Character creation restrictions are a little ridiculous

Just started playing this game and i'm enjoying it a lot so far. My biggest issue with it though isn't the gameplay itself it's the ridiculous server blockages. A longtime friend of mine suggested this to me and he plays on the excalibur server, but this server is always blocked except for maybe 2 hours of the day. I had to pretty much waste my first of 30 days just to get my character created.

Now I'd like to recruit some other friends but how am I supposed to do convice them to play it? I'm coming from WoW which has over triple the subs of FF14 and I can create a new character on any server whenever I want so what's the issue here?

At least make a recruit a friend option that allows people to create characters on their friends servers regardless of restrictions.

"Just pick a different server" is not an option. am I expected to ask my friends who have had their characters since 1.0 to reroll?

You're forgetting that WoW has been around for what, ten years? (Never played it, no interest in playing it, forgive me for pulling the number out at a guess, but it should get the point across), whereas ARR is still under a year old, not counting beta time. Back at launch, it was near impossible to play because the servers were so full, it even existing players couldn't login. Servers are capped on how many characters may be logged in at once, and if they keep the servers open for character creation at all times, it'll just go back to that -or the days when extended periods of inactivity were an auto-logout.

Don't get me wrong, this annoys me as much as anyone, but I doubt it's being changed just yet. Give it some time; restrictions will ease up later on. Just get them to register during the window when character creation IS open, it's what I've had to do when I've wanted to make alts, and the same for the rest of my FC.

This is a very real problem, and I don't understand why SE is handling server restrictions the way they are. I totally agree with the friend recruitment thing... something should be done to make it so that an invitation to join the server is required from an existing character on the server, and simply leave it at that, restrict the crowded servers for randoms indefinitely. I don't want to leave Hyperion, because I would have to leave behind several friends I've made in the game, but it is proving a real hassle for my friends that I suggested the game to to get on the server. It appears around 7-8 AM is pretty much the only time a character can be made. No one's schedule should have to revolve around getting a character created on a server.

I would rather have to occasionally queue up to get into the world then to have to put my friends through the stress of this nonsense.

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Originally Posted by Rennah

Servers are capped on how many characters may be logged in at once, and if they keep the servers open for character creation at all times, it'll just go back to that -or the days when extended periods of inactivity were an auto-logout.

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Are they actually? I mean, they probably are, but I have never once seen that limit hit on Hyperion (at least since VERY early after launch). I am never met by a login queue or denied entry, and Hyperion is restricted 99% of the time. I would GLADLY trade no idling auto-logout for a reasonable method for our friends to be able to join us on our respective servers. Idling for long periods of time doesn't really do anything to help anyone.

Create the character during non-peak hour. When I create an alt, the servers are always full at night. So I just make them the following morning instead and it is fine.

Just take some time to create the character in the morning, before you go to work or something. The system checks how many people there are in the server and since there are less people playing in the morning, the servers would most likely be available for character creation.

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Originally Posted by Viirin

Are they actually? I mean, they probably are, but I have never once seen that limit hit on Hyperion (at least since VERY early after launch). I am never met by a login queue or denied entry, and Hyperion is restricted 99% of the time. I would GLADLY trade no idling auto-logout for a reasonable method for our friends to be able to join us on our respective servers. Idling for long periods of time doesn't really do anything to help anyone.

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Yeah. RARELY you'll see the "Players in queue: 1" message on Balmung, now, so you can see it's still in place, but back at launch you'd see queue numbers in the hundreds, if not thousands, and you'd have to wait it out. It's just calmed a bit (a lot) since early access/free trial period time.

I think the list were is said if character could be createt or not is updatet every 5 hours (22:00 GMT +2 is one of the update times i think). So just take a loot which time the next update is and hope that the Server u would like to join is free.
My BF did it like that and it worked very well.

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Originally Posted by Chiffre

I think the list were is said if character could be createt or not is updatet every 5 hours (22:00 GMT +2 is one of the update times i think). So just take a loot which time the next update is and hope that the Server u would like to join is free.
My BF did it like that and it worked very well.

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That post is updated at those times. But the servers update themselves constantly. So if the post says it was open at say 5AM somewhere, 5 minutes later it could be closed, but the post would still say open since it only updated at 5AM for that timezone.

Think of the positives. At least you can play on a full server! Yay?

Really what's a couple of days when signing up for a MMO that you're likely to play for years to come?

I don't remember the reference but from what I recall character creation restrictions are put in place when the amount of logged in characters is high, not necessarily when the sever is full. From what I recall it was to allow those people already with characters to continue to log in. Once the servers full then the queue starts, but I don't see that too often anymore. Considering how often I see people complaining or asking about the character creation restrictions on the boards, I feel that SE was premature in removing the afk auto-logout feature.

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Originally Posted by Seif

...what's a couple of days when signing up for a MMO that you're likely to play for years to come?

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I find quite difficult that someone who starts complaining on forum already at his first day of trial, then will subs.

Then OP also mentioned WoW, but trial users on WoW will have to face queues. LONG queues on some servers. And on its first days, even subbing players had to deal (and cry) with them. Maybe he doesn't knew because he wasn't there at that times. Yes you can create your character anytime, but then you want also login the game, right?