New player, looking for an active RP realm (Oceanic)

Hello!

I'm just starting FFXIV after a break from MMOs in general, forums required me to have at least one character but I haven't played much on him at all. Like, three hours at the most. I hear Balmung is the unofficial RP server in this game though it seems full all the time, won't let me make a character, and apparently it has a somewhat unsavory reputation. At least from what people tell me. So I guess what I'm asking is which server has the best RP population? It'd really help if I found someone to level and RP with me since that's always a fun experience in MMOs. Finding a FC that shares the same interests and play times would be AMAZING but that's probably a pipe dream.

I should note that I'm an oceanic player (NZ) so that means I might be online during weird times for most people. Planning on playing a male Miqo'te healer who's kind of a sour puss (Get it? No? I'll let myself out...).

Welcome! :D

Balmung is the unofficial RP server as you stated, but coming from personal experience, I've found it to be extremely friendly. :) And yes, as it's probably the most populated NA server it's almost always locked to new characters, although you should be able to transfer to it without problems (it's how I got onto Balmung myself - I transferred there from Ridill).

As I understand it Tonberry on the JP server group is the 'unofficial Australian/NZ/Oceanic server', but again from what I heard is extremely popular and is now difficult to get onto as well. Hence I think transferring there from another server would probably be the better (although costlier) choice instead of waiting for an opening in character creation to occur.

Enkidoh is correct. Keep in mind that Balmung is hosted on the NA data center which is located in Montreal, while Tonberry is on the JP data center and is hosted in Japan.

From my own personal experience (AU) the JP data center gives much better latency than the NA.

Check this site out for more details on RP Linkshells and FCs:
http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/