Server Limitations and the Future of the Game

In the full translation from the last Live Letter, YoshiP mentioned a couple of ominous things about what the current game servers can handle;

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Originally Posted by Yoshi-P

Additionally, the congestion in North Shroud is quite rough, so we're currently looking into whether we should implement a system that has been adopted by other MMORPGs for making multiple instances of the same open-world area. The preparations have already been made and we've implemented this into the Chinese version of the game, so we do have some operative results. We'll be testing things up until the last minute to be sure that the concept of multiple open-world instances is clear for players who aren't used to this kind of system.

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Can we please not? Instanced open-world areas are really immersion-breaking and anti-social and feel like a kludge. Please just invest in better servers for the long-term health of the game. If you had invested in better servers already there wouldn't be 500 different threads raging about personal housing right now.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi-P

Of the ideas we have at the moment, we are trying to make the final decision as to which solution is the quickest and would allow for the most land, as well considering the amount of time and resources it will take. Of course there have been those who have suggested spending millions to enhance the servers, but this would be the last resort for our engineers. We're currently looking into exactly how much we can increase the amount of land with our current resources and we'll be doing this right up to the last minute. If it appears that all other avenues have been exhausted, then I'll make the call to beef up the servers. At the very least, we will be increasing land in patch 2.38 and you'll also be able to start purchasing private housing.

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I'd be more curious on how this would effect hunts :F

op gets it!

riot!

Oh god please no instanced open-world that is the worst fucking thing.

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Originally Posted by Vaeix

I'd be more curious on how this would effect hunts :F

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That's going to be an issue with their testing how it works on the Chinese servers, since the Chinese servers are a couple of patches behind us and wouldn't have hunts yet. About the only comparative content they'd have is Odin and Behemoth.

Kill Rank A in my instance travel to new one kill it again. Its Aion all over again.

Confirmed: Square-Enix reusing old Final Fantasy XI pentium 2 servers.

Yea they'd either be really sticking it to everyone on hunts making it harder to farm in such large groups OR make it much easier with the ability to hunt on different instances of the same zone.

No instances for zones please... think more multiple servers per zone though. But that congestion has mostly died down now that the rush of people got it done. Was there last night to finish leveling my BSM(I got the quests done saturday). It was a ghost town. While before there were so many people there it hit the 200 PC cap...

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Originally Posted by ruskie

No instances for zones please... think more multiple servers per zone though. But that congestion has mostly died down now that the rush of people got it done. Was there last night to finish leveling my BSM(I got the quests done saturday). It was a ghost town. While before there were so many people there it hit the 200 PC cap...

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Yeah.

You'd think the initial problem could have just been avoided by better forward planning, too, and not putting two different heavy-traffic destinations in the same world zone.

I'd like to know what congestion they're talking about? Coeurl population has literally dropped by half since march...the place is empty.

Or they do something about having to physically enter 2nd coil from the aether gate. I dunno, just saying, sounds like a non-issue to me.

Wow I totally didn't see that they were seriously thinking about doing this. Noooo please nooooo. I absolutely do not want separate instances of areas. Not unless it's like, EVERY server is sharing all these instances, and you can freely go to any of them, like in Guild Wars. But most likely they'd never do something like that.... So please... Not ANOTHER nail in the coffin for this game... I really want this game to do good. Stop it. :(

Think phasing in WoW. And the tech may come to FFXIV which would allow phasing zones from different servers together in low pop areas (on the same data center obviously.) Possibly only applicable to town areas which could, for example, put all the folks that have unlocked 2nd Coil into a different phase of Fallgourd Float than those that have not. This would illeviate the stress on the area surrounding the aetheryte without hampering the remainder of the zone.

ps3

/10char

If any forum moderator sees this please tell to Yoshi that doing this will ruin the immersion feeling and the MMO feeling. Also what about fates? You said that you are thinking about some areas. Which areas and why. Maybe you didn't explain it well and we are missing the whole picture but I don't like this idea. Reconsider to invest on better hardware too. Europeans playing on Canadian servers is not the best thing for such a big and successful mmorpg.

I love how server limitations are the reason I can't be enjoying Personal Housing right now.

Plan much?

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Originally Posted by LilPhist

Think phasing in WoW. And the tech may come to FFXIV which would allow phasing zones from different servers together in low pop areas (on the same data center obviously.) Possibly only applicable to town areas which could, for example, put all the folks that have unlocked 2nd Coil into a different phase of Fallgourd Float than those that have not. This would illeviate the stress on the area surrounding the aetheryte without hampering the remainder of the zone.

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Phasing in WoW is nothing like instanced areas of zones. Phasing in WoW allows you to "progress" through a storyline with the environment changing as you complete tasks, until it's in its final form. That's not even close to being the same thing.

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Originally Posted by Souljacker

Phasing in WoW is nothing like instanced areas of zones. Phasing in WoW allows you to "progress" through a storyline with the environment changing as you complete tasks, until it's in its final form. That's not even close to being the same thing.

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Aye, and I used the task of unlocking 2nd coil as an example to being placed in a diff phase of FF than those that have not. You can also use phasing for housing and gardens much like WoW did with the farm in MoP. This may not be what they are talking about doing (straight up instanced copies of NS, who wants that?) but it is a possible solution that would reduce load due to too many models in an area and/ore on a single server. Heck, they could even quasi merge servers this way by having you phase over to another servers instance of the area. I never said that this was 100% their intended goal or even had anything to do with what is in their design plan. I was throwing it out there as a discussion point.

If they do this I'm out. GW 2 I was always thrown into a dif overflow from my friends.

For everyone who seems to think this is about them being too cheap to buy good servers....I doubt it. There is so much more to it than that. Throwing hardware at a problem with the hopes of alleviating real issues IS the quick and easy solution....just rarely the best solution. Hardware is relatively cheap.... in the short run. Last thing I want to see though is ffxiv throw hardware at real problems and end up a couple years down the line with a cost structure that requires 2 million subscribers to break even.

I am not a fan of open world intanced zones either. I am however pleased to see they are not sweeping these type of issues under the rug and really trying to address them.