Suggestion to stabilize servers

As I am sure everyone has noticed the servers are incredibly unstable due to the influx of players. It seems to me, at this point, the only logical, quick and easy to implement solution to this issue would be to lower the limit on how many players can be logged on to a server at any given time. This solution should stabilize the servers and allow players to stay connected to actually play the content and enjoy the game without being disconnected every 5 min.

The drawback would be that the queues would be longer but frankly, I'd rather wait 30 min in a queue than be kicked off every 5 min only to have to wait in the queue yet again. I love this game but this current issue is very reminiscent to the launch of 2.0. This, of course, isn't nearly as bad. When 2.0 came out there initially were no server queues and no afk kick. People would log on and never log off. They would stay logged on for days at a time. Something needs to be done about this issue because a lot of us can't stay connected long enough to complete any content.

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Originally Posted by Jwrigh7784

As I am sure everyone has noticed the servers are incredibly unstable due to the influx of players. It seems to me, at this point, the only logical, quick and easy to implement solution to this issue would be to lower the limit on how many players can be logged on to a server at any given time. This solution should stabilize the servers and allow players to stay connected to actually play the content and enjoy the game without being disconnected every 5 min.

The drawback would be that the queues would be longer but frankly, I'd rather wait 30 min in a queue than be kicked off every 5 min only to have to wait in the queue yet again. I love this game but this current issue is very reminiscent to the launch of 2.0. This, of course, isn't nearly as bad. When 2.0 came out there initially were no server queues and no afk kick. People would log on and never log off. They would stay logged on for days at a time. Something needs to be done about this issue because a lot of us can't stay connected long enough to complete any content.

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I think they should maybe lower the capacity slightly - just so that there isn't so much lag - but I don't know that this is the best idea given the circumstances. People aren't exactly hopping on and off given that they want to progress the MSQ and level new jobs, so it's conceivable that the line to get in really won't decrease much. The only reason it's decreasing now is because people are getting disconnected.

The better suggestion would be what SE should have done instead of moving to a new data centre: adopt cloud architecture. It would've been a good chunk of work, but it would have saved them a bundle on hardware costs, and would have completely eliminated issues like what we're having right now.

All they need to do is temporarily disable cross-realm duty-finding. Run them isolated so they only talk to one realm, and then when the capacity issue stops being hit they can restore it.

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

The better suggestion would be what SE should have done instead of moving to a new data centre: adopt cloud architecture. It would've been a good chunk of work, but it would have saved them a bundle on hardware costs, and would have completely eliminated issues like what we're having right now.

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No, that's the opposite of what they should have done.

"cloud" systems are not for low-latency systems, they are for bulk capacity that is incredably spikey. eg streaming netflix, youtube, dropbox, etc.

For games, telecoms (voice and video chat), and emergency services you over-provision your hardware resources so that you don't accidentally oversell the typical peak capacity you have. You never build a system that 100% of customers can access 100% of the time because 80% of the capacity will be wasted outside of two four-hour peak usage cycles at 6-10am and 4-8pm.

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

I think they should maybe lower the capacity slightly - just so that there isn't so much lag - but I don't know that this is the best idea given the circumstances. People aren't exactly hopping on and off given that they want to progress the MSQ and level new jobs, so it's conceivable that the line to get in really won't decrease much. The only reason it's decreasing now is because people are getting disconnected.

The better suggestion would be what SE should have done instead of moving to a new data centre: adopt cloud architecture. It would've been a good chunk of work, but it would have saved them a bundle on hardware costs, and would have completely eliminated issues like what we're having right now.

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I don't think cloud computing is appropriate for something like Final Fantasy XIV. I think the servers themselves are fine as far as hardware and data transfer. The problem is they have the servers set to allow too many people to log on at any given time. This puts strain on the servers and causes instability just like we are seeing today and just like we saw at 2.0 launch (i don't know about Heavensward because I wasn't around for the launch). SE should have been prepared for the massive influx of players and I feel that they were not. I would have thought they would have learned from the past but obviously they didn't. Like I said, the simple solution would be to lower the number of players that can log in. If there are less players logged on there is less stress on the hardware and data transfer and thus the servers become more stable. The way I see it, I would rather wait 45 min in a queue if it means when I get logged on I can actually play and enjoy the game, then wait 20 min in the queue only to log on and play for 10 min then get disconnected and thrown back in the queue over and over and over again.