Thinking of Transferring to Toneberry - Questions (Help Appreciated)

Hi everyone, a quick overview about me. I am an American who is married to a Japanese woman and living permanently in Tokyo, Japan. Currently I am playing on a EU server, as I wanted to be on an English speaking server and had no idea which JP sever, if any, would have a large population of English speakers. From what I am told, Tonberry is that server.


My questions are simple:

1) Does Tonberry in fact have a large English speaking player base?

2) Are there many active English-based FC's on Tonberry

3) How active is the Party Finder on Tonberry during peak JP hours for English speaking groups?



Living in Japan and being on a EU server has been pretty boring. My FC mates are never online when I am online, and during my prime play times, the server is pretty dead. I would love to be on a JP server with a vibrant English speaking community and am hopeful that Tonberry is that place. Any insights would be extremely helpful and appreciated. Thank you!

1. yes
2. yes
3. tons of jp onry PF

the below link will show u more details on your question no.1
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...y-Finder-Group!

Thank you Erik! So do you find it difficult to make groups through the PF? As a point of reference during off-peak times on Odin, there is usually between 4-7 English groups being made on the PF. During peak hours it rises to 20+ English speaking parties being formed via the PF. How does this compare to Tonberry?

Also, that is very interesting about longer wait times through the DF. Matching Tonberry and Masamune would seem to make a ton of sense. Hopefully SE responds positively to the request

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Capricious4

Thank you Erik! So do you find it difficult to make groups through the PF? As a point of reference during off-peak times on Odin, there is usually between 4-7 English groups being made on the PF. During peak hours it rises to 20+ English speaking parties being formed via the PF. How does this compare to Tonberry?

Also, that is very interesting about longer wait times through the DF. Matching Tonberry and Masamune would seem to make a ton of sense. Hopefully SE responds positively to the request

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I just checked PF now (it's 17:35 JST for reference) and there's 10 listings, about half of which are in English. During peak evening hours, you're probably looking at around the same ratio - maybe 20-25 listings, half of which are English.

The community here is definitely large though and it's not uncommon to find yourself bumping into more English speakers than JP ones (although I'm sure the same could be said for vice versa if you were trying). There's been a bit of fluctuation with people coming and going because of the patch but I'd say you wouldn't struggle to find a group for things during peak hours.

Thank you for the information about the PF. That was extremely helpful and is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!

just to add some stuffs :
1.yes tonberry is around 52% E and 48% J, however the mapchat is so awfully silent, unlike any other NA/EU servers where mapchats are flooded 24/7
2.yes its around 50-50 for E and J fcs
3.not really much though as only half of E knows PF while 100% of J is aware of PF and thus u're more likely seein JP ONLY NO ENGLISH 24/7
4.during offpeak hours well goodluck finding any E on PF with those hordes of JP only
5.anyway J is more active in doin dungeons compared to E so expect lots of time with J in df

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Empressia

just to add some stuffs :
1.yes tonberry is around 52% E and 48% J, however the mapchat is so awfully silent, unlike any other NA/EU servers where mapchats are flooded 24/7
2.yes its around 50-50 for E and J fcs
3.not really much though as only half of E knows PF while 100% of J is aware of PF and thus u're more likely seein JP ONLY NO ENGLISH 24/7
4.during offpeak hours well goodluck finding any E on PF with those hordes of JP only
5.anyway J is more active in doin dungeons compared to E so expect lots of time with J in df

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Good info, you can probably take this into account :)

Not sure if you've already transferred or not yet, but I also live in Japan, but am American. There are plenty of major, massive English linkshells, and more than a few bilingual ones too (I run one myself, but it's currently more or less just me, as most of our main members got new jobs, moved, etc, and haven't gotten back in yet). I generally feel like the Japanese are more accepting of foreigners (as far as pugs go) than you might otherwise expect on a normal JP server. I'm sure the JP player base is aware of what Tonberry is for us, and I regularly see people using the autotranslate before even establishing language.
And even if there isn't anyone using the translater, I find bilingual people are far more common than you'd expect, so there's often a lurking translator-in-waiting.

Thanks BlasphemyMan. This is pretty helpful. Like you I am also living in Japan, so I can speak some Japanese, but my Kanji is no where near up to task and I am sure there is lots of Japanese gaming slang being used that I would be completely clueless on. For me the big advantages of transferring over would be:

*significantly less lag and better server response time, which makes a huge difference in many encounters.
*being able to join a FC that is active during my normal play times

My biggest area for concern is with the Party Finder. Despite the fact that I play off-peak hours for a EU server, I am still fairly easily to get various groups utilizing the Party Finder, which I have really come to enjoy.

Actually yeah, I've gotten my jlpt 2, nothing too special, but the slang does trip me up sometimes. It's pretty easy to learn though, and I'm sure there's a google guide out there somewhere. There's so little important vocab, you could be fine after a day of studying, I think. A lot of it makes sense if you know the kanji but not the word, too, for example 雑魚, which is "adds."
I find that even if, on the party finder, they specify "Japanese only," they're fine with a foreigner that speaks enough Japanese and knows the fight. Also, as someone else said, a full half (or more) of the parties are ENG. According to the server statistics page, it's the most populated in the Japan group, so if you're looking for a healthy environment with lots of people, Tonberry's your best bet.
If you decide to actually move over, send me a tell and we can run stuff together!

Thanks a lot for the additional info. It sounds pretty nice. I am going to think it over for another week before deciding. One of the massive differences I realized was when I traveled back to the States for the holidays. Since launch I have always been playing FFXIV from Tokyo on an EU server. My connection rating is always “good“, but I still experience some lag on most boss encounters. I just thought this was a normal part of the game. Then when I traveled to the States over the holidays I booted up FFXIV and my connection rating was “excellent“ for the first time. The game and content became so much easier it was indescribable. Particularly in fights like Titan HM, which dodging certain moves was tough before. From the States with no lag I felt like I was playing the game in slow motion. It was a pretty remarkable difference. I imagine my play experience would be the same from Tokyo if I transfer to Tonberry.