I'd like opinions on joining a new server as a relatively new player

I am a NA player, but I made a character on Omega (EU) both for the bonuses and because I thought the time difference would be better for my schedule. As it turns out, I am playing later in the day than I expected, so Omega is well past its prime time by the time I am online. While I happened into a really nice FC with some fun people, I think I would rather make a permanent home on a NA server.

So...
If you are willing to share your opinions about your server and/or your own experiences with moving about and finding the right spot, I'd appreciate reading about them - especially if you are from one of the 4 currently offering bonuses (Coeurl, Goblin, Mateus, Zalera). As for me, I am a casual player. I am just as happy running content with friends and FC-mates as wasting time chatting. (Which if you just happen to be part of a really good FC, I wouldn't mind reading about that too!)

Thanks!

I know out of experience, that zalera and coeurl are extremely casual servers, as well as very low populated. That is one reason they are given bonuses right now, but you won't have any issues, if you like to play casually, craft and gather, as well as looking for housing plots later down the road. Just don't plan on raiding or usage of the party finder, when it comes to more progression orientated content, as well as current or old primals. Not sure which FC's are still on these servers, or active as of right now, most of the nice and good people moved to a bit more populated servers.

I would suggest this, make an alt on a world you're interested in, and talk to a couple of active fc's. IF you find a good home, you can always transfer the omega character over to the NA data center.

Yeah, I just took a spin around one world, and it was more empty than the EU one was - and a lot less chatty. I ran from Ul'dah to Gridania, saw quite a few people, not a single one spoke. Not-one-line of chat.

Another thing I would like to mention, the NA data center (Aether as well as Primal) have been moved at the beginning of this month. Depending on where you're are at, in the US or if even outside the US, it can make a significantly difference. Since the servers have been moved to the west coast, I for example went from ping 350+ using a VPN prior, all the way down to 15-24 without having a 80% packet loss, however some people over on the east coast for example, again depending on the ISP you're with, experiencing a huge increase to a point were some claim, that it is unplayable. Hence a lot of them playing now on the EU data center.

I'll post the IP (204.2.229.9 & 204.2.229.10) of the data centers, and maybe you want to trace route these or ping them, prior of making the decision. Another suggestion I could give, if you're not playing during absolute NA prime time, but later that day or during night, maybe you would want to look at some medium populated servers. Sure they won't have the bonus initiatives but it might be worth looking into, servers like Hyperion or Leviathan, are some medium pop, as well as medium to casual. Sure both servers do have some hardcore players or FC's but it's not declared a hardcore server, compared to others. These servers are on the primal data center, but if you would like to stay on the aether data center and have looked at Zalera and Coeurl, but aren't very happy with the result, there's always Sargatanas. It's a legacy server but has very nice FC's and helpful people of all ranges of play style, and it's very active at nearly any time of the day.

Sometimes all these servers mentioned have a new character restriction policy, but if you are patient, you can create characters on these servers at early morning hours, throughout the night or during non prime time, just have to keep checking. Again I am not trying to convince you, but it might defiantly be worth a visit and maybe you can find a good home there. GL