Why have more than one server?

So, in talking to people and browsing the new player forums, it seems there are about 5 populated servers, and the rest are barren wastelands, devoid of anyone except the occasional unfortunate soul who made a character without checking the forum first.

Take a look at any thread on servers, and you'll see everyone wants to be on the bigger server. No exceptions. They don't care if they have to wait until 4 AM to log in, they want those server numbers.

If everyone is just going to cram into the highest population server anyway, why bother having other servers?

im not sure where you get the 5 populated servers idea. Yea the few legacy servers are full to the max. But there are alot of medium size servers that are no where near dead. Also sticking everyone in 1 server would be a horrible idea. There is just way to many people to fit on 1 server.

Having many servers means that there's still servers available when those few packed servers can no longer accept characters. Pretty simple, really. Why have fewer, more overpopulated servers when you could have more, less overpopulated servers?

RIP everyone with a bad PC or bad internet connection

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Originally Posted by Gilraen

Why have fewer, more overpopulated servers when you could have more, less overpopulated servers?

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Tell that to everyone who wants to get on the most populated server no matter what it takes :P

Tell that to me, who wanted to get OFF one of said overpopulated servers. Which I clearly did if my profile info is any clue.

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Originally Posted by Urthdigger

Tell that to everyone who wants to get on the most populated server no matter what it takes :P

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these players mostly are friends of people on that server. Most threads on here are "what are my other options since these servers are so full" They need to lock servers that are full and have a ticket system like ffxi to alow only friends on servers. It would help imo.

They just need to rename all the servers to ''Balmung1, 2, 3...'' and problem solved!

Well I'd assume eventually any server that has too few people on it may get merged with another but with the expansion and possibly an increase of players returning or joining for the first time, may see even the "barren wasteland" servers fill up.

I'm on a fairly low population server and I don't mind it at all. I have friends who play here; I don't on larger servers.

Mayhaps you're mistaking "everyone" for yourself, OP?

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Originally Posted by Urthdigger

So, in talking to people and browsing the new player forums, it seems there are about 5 populated servers, and the rest are barren wastelands, devoid of anyone except the occasional unfortunate soul who made a character without checking the forum first.

Take a look at any thread on servers, and you'll see everyone wants to be on the bigger server. No exceptions. They don't care if they have to wait until 4 AM to log in, they want those server numbers.

If everyone is just going to cram into the highest population server anyway, why bother having other servers?

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Well, I've made the suggestion in the past (more than once) that SE allow

1. Guesting on to other servers
2. Cross server /tells
3. Cross server party finders.

etc. Basically, let people play with their friends even if on a different server.

However, despite the DF being cross server, we are stuck with an archaic server model and the only way to play with people you know is to be on the same server. Participation with other populations is near impossible, and where possible, completely random.

So, here we are. Even without friends specifically, the high population servers are like living in the upbeat parts of a city. Lots of people to meet, lots of activities to attend, and so on.

So you want the servers to be even more congested.. uh huh.

I like my barren wasteland. It's quiet, and most peolpe are nice.

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Originally Posted by Whiteroom

I like my barren wasteland. It's quiet, and most peolpe are nice.

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That last bit isn't exclusive to small servers. And small servers do have their charm... But it can be kind of hard to get much done on them, if a given player is interested in completing content.

Our server (Lamia) went from barren wasteland to one of most highly populated servers over the course of the last year, and we're still not sure why.

It's been nice, it's cut down on RMT tells a bit in the last few weeks. Server opens up for character creation at night, and as long as we log out or /busy, we tend not to get RMT tells or friends requests as much during the day. (Just checked, haven't gotten one in the last few hours.)

Note: which server the people who post on the forums reside on is not necessarily representative of the distribution of the population in general. So the ratios you see here might be quite different than that of the whole picture's.

I like my server. It's just the right size. I have an alt on Balmung and if I log in at like, any time besides about three AM I can barely move because of all the people around...
my poor computer...it's ok...

As someone who is on one of the lowest pop servers in the game it's far from a barren wasteland and their are many benefits to it. For one I won't be sitting in a queue on Friday morning, I'll be playing heavensward. Like when the Gold Saucer was dropped people on Gilga had to wait to queue into the area due to it reaching max capacity. On my server no such thing happened and it was still packed.
And another is that while there are less people there is much more opportunity in everything including things like server firsts, crafting, markets, housing and so on. There is also a tighter sense of community on smaller servers.

More people =/= better for everyone. Better is an opinion. I personally prefer a less populated server but I can see why some would prefer a larger one. It's all preference.

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Originally Posted by Urthdigger

Take a look at any thread on servers, and you'll see everyone wants to be on the bigger server. No exceptions. They don't care if they have to wait until 4 AM to log in, they want those server numbers.

If everyone is just going to cram into the highest population server anyway, why bother having other servers?

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Count me out on this, I actually chose moogle as my server simply because it's a moogle because i like mini mog card from ffviii despite the fact that i have worse latency compared from JP datacenter.. As much as i never created any character in legacy server, i'd think moogle is quite lively server

Never understood the draw of servers like Balmung and Gilgamesh. I have alts there and honestly is no better than my home server Siren. Its a case of the grass looking greener on the other side.

I agree I like moogle server as well. Mostly nice and helpful people and not to crowded. Fits me very well. I would hate to be on an overpopulated server.

I wouldn't want a crowded server.

Who is everyone? I certainly wouldn't want to be on a server I had to wait in queue to log into. I'm on Ultros. It's medium, and lovely. The server is very active and I have never had a queue time.

While I'm playing Heavensward Friday morning leveling with friends, I await the dozens of "THIS ISN'T FAIR! LET ME LOG INTO GILGA/BALMUNG!" threads here.

I'm on Behemoth which is a fairly populated server, and I've had no issues whatsoever. Logging in or running content. I agree that some of the smaller servers should be absorbed and we should expand the existing servers some. However, one server by itself wouldn't be possible. There's no way the existing framework could handle such a load, nor do I see them creating the infrastructure to support such a machination.

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Originally Posted by Zodiar

RIP everyone with a bad PC or bad internet connection

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Also RIP PS3.

I support the idea of getting that last nail in PS3's coffin. This would be great in many ways for game development. Some of my greatest peeves about this game is related to PS3 limitations.

example. Debuff limit on a target, the "sorry batteries died (on ps3 controller) scenario" i imagine thats a ps4 problem as well but trying to kill off as many karakuls as we can, lack of TP bars for party members, can't display both eorzea time and IRL time at the same time, duty inprogress UI attached to questlog UI. More hotbars? more UI features and functions?

They should have done a lot of things differently with servers in the very beginning.

They should have made our characters share a cross-server account name, allowing people to identify the player by account instead of character name (thereby preventing one RMT account from spamming with a hundred different characters).

They should have created a framework for cross-server play, like many western mmos have been experimenting with. Consider that we can group with random players from other servers during dungeons, but we can never meet or speak to those players in-game again. Meet someone new online or in real life that you want to play with? Pay $ to change server and say goodbye to all of your old in-game friends.

They should have experimented with different types of servers for different activities. Imagine if housing was on an entirely different server from your home world, and each housing server was shared among the general population. Access to housing would no longer be impossible on overpopulated servers and there wouldn't be dozens of empty housing wards on the lower population servers. Or how about a GLAMOUR server, where your character could temporarily migrate to access a glamour catalog for all of the armor designs you have unlocked? The glamour server would only load your current inventory and a massive wardrobe native to the server, ignoring all data for achievements and quests, thereby allowing the separate storage of data currently unmanageable by the native servers.

It's sad that Dragon Quest X was actually a lot more bold about how it handled server shards, and that was just a Wii game. Once they locked FFXIV into the same type of server system that traditional mmos had, they made it really hard to improve on how players are able to interact together.

Way to completely over-exaggerate. Lower population servers are hardly a wasteland.

You know the Fate trains at Coerthas and Thanalan? Imagine that with all servers as one.

No, thank you.

I like my server just fine as it is. Some days I can't stand to be in town to do my crafting because I think it's too busy and crowded, so I go to the house. I would never want to be on a hi pop server, did that in another game, and I hated it.

First off, the way the Duty finder and 'Data Center' system works, makes it so being on a low pop. server really, overall, isn't that big of an issue. Since the Duty Finder randomly matches you with people linked in your Data Center...and since each Data center has a mix of High/Mid/Low pop servers, your wait times aren't super long etc just because less people live on your server.

Sure, if you're a hard-core 'world first' raider type, you might have trouble finding others for cutting edge content on a low pop server, but that is actually a fairly unique situation (overall) for most people...and even then, finding 7 other people isn't that hard...as even a 'low pop' server in this game (unless it's brand new) actually doesn't mean 'ghost town.

Furthermore, there are perks to being on a lower population server (I left a high pop for a mid sized so I have some reference on the matter).

1. You likely can buy a house...AND it's likely to be cheaper than the same house/plot on a larger pop server.
2. Hunts aren't a complete zerg/disappear from my screen/scream at each other fest.
3. People tend to be more helpful to strangers (because 1. you need to help eachother and 2. lower pop means it's easier to remember names and if you develop a bad rep it'll cost you.
4. At least in my case, your gil is worth more, buying power is more and the markets are more stable on a lower pop. server. This might just be my experience...and likely best on Mid-sized servers (which I believe I am on). As low pop might not have enough ebb/flow on the MB's but High pop has too much.
5. Some people like 'quieter'. Not all mind you, but some people find it nice to be out gathering and maybe only see a couple people in passing...others would find that maddening. Depends on who you are.
6. On Launch Days/Patch days... you stand a shot of logging in even if you didn't attempt to get online the moment the servers go live. It's nice to be able to sleep, and log in at your leisure.

Boils down to something as simple really as 'why do some people like living in the city vs. some in the country' Both have pros and cons.

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Originally Posted by silverhope

these players mostly are friends of people on that server. Most threads on here are "what are my other options since these servers are so full" They need to lock servers that are full and have a ticket system like ffxi to alow only friends on servers. It would help imo.

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This would be wonderful for anti-RMT.

Goblin is a wonderful boring dead server!

I miss the server structure of Rift. In that you could visit, chat with, friend and party with players on any server. For the weekly 72 person open world raids. Was on the RP server which wasn't the most populated so used to hop over to other servers to join parties to get the kill. As you could see, with chat settings, regional chat on other servers, was a simple matter of sending a tell to the person recruiting and with a click of a button hopping to their server.

A possible perk for a low pop server? A potential smooth log in during HW early access or launch