Lodestone: Preventing Congestion on High Population Worlds

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...2360440abe9651

YES!!! Good it's about time. Balmung was getting too big.

If I'm reading this right, sounds like any player is able to transfer to the new EU servers for free which would solve the problem the EU players may have with the ping of the moved NA servers.

"All Worlds on the EU data center are presently experiencing high levels of player congestion. To resolve this issue, new Worlds will be added at the release of 4.0.
Moreover, players who to transfer to or create new characters on designated Worlds across all data centers will receive special bonuses as described below.
* Pleased be advised the bonuses planned for implementation are subject to change.

Bonuses

Transfers to designated Worlds will be free of charge."

So they finally decided to bite the bullet, put aside greed, and shut down transfers in addition to the existing creation restriction? Good job Squeenix, it's just a shame that it's far, far too late for that. Damage has been done, and the current situation will never change without heavy-handing it by forcing people to leave those servers.

Gil transfer limit increased to
10mil gil on character from 1m + 5mil per retainer from 100k per

Housing compensation

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For players who own personal housing, we are planning a number of provisions including a reimbursement for the full price of the estate, and compensation for the cost of furnishings which we will add in subsequent updates moving forward.

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My friend was going to transfer to Balmung after the maintenance. I guess we can't play together now?

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Originally Posted by Braggaman

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Unfortunately no, but honestly Balmung, and Gilgamesh to a lesser degree, needed a transfer lock for a long time. They're too big for their own good.

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Originally Posted by Braggaman

My friend was going to transfer to Balmung after the maintenance. I guess we can't play together now?

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Come to Mal....we have pie.

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Originally Posted by savageink

Come to Mal....we have pie.

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I have a lot of friends on Balmung. We have events planned out for the next several months... We were even planning something to welcome my friend. ; ;

All of this reads excellently, like I was thinking about clapping to myself like an idiot.

Unfortunately due to the nature that draws people to Balmung it'll probably always have housing issues and for other reasons (creative control/limit capacity) I'll probably still cry and beg for instanced forms ala WS/EQ/Rift/GW2/WoW but.. all of this still looks great regardless. I like the mindfulness with reward to move and compensations.

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Originally Posted by Dyvid

Seriously SE, if you have to do these provision shouldn't you offer free world transfer from high to low worlds on Gaia, Aether, and Mana data centers?

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Now I may be interpreting this wrong but I don't think it's just EU stuff, the notice is just put w/ EU stuff. At least to me it reads there will be a list of servers that will reward you if you transfer to them and they could have easily said EU servers but they didn't - rather they said "Designated Servers". To me this means that some server like Balmung or Gilgamesh will definitely not be a free transfer/reward server, but perhaps other servers on Aether, Mana, and Gaia would be (for "Improvements to Population Distribution").

https://i.imgur.com/c5o8FNZ.png

I do wish that Aether also got the free transfers from high pop servers to low pop servers. It feels like 50% of Aether players are basically on Balmung/Gilgamesh. We're home to some of the emptiest servers like Mateus, which may not actually exist according to player-made censuses.

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Originally Posted by Dyvid

https://media.tenor.co/images/7a940b...2774/tenor.gif

Seriously SE, if you have to do these provision shouldn't you offer free world transfer from high to low worlds on Gaia, Aether, and Mana data centers?

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I agree with this whole hardheartedly.

I'm sure there are people who regret their decision to be on a high populated server and would like to switch but the $18 fee per character is a little much this would give lots of players the incentive to try a lower population server. Giving a period of time where people can transfer off all the high population servers for free and hop servers ( to test to see if they enjoy that server of course ) would be a good idea.

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Originally Posted by magnanimousCynic

We're home to some of the emptiest servers like Mateus, which may not actually exist according to player-made censuses.

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It actually feels a lot more populated than when I first started, in my opinion.

Which isn't saying a whole lot. But it is a little harder to go long without seeing anyone.

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Originally Posted by Dyvid

https://media.tenor.co/images/7a940b...2774/tenor.gif

Seriously SE, if you have to do these provision shouldn't you offer free world transfer from high to low worlds on Gaia, Aether, and Mana data centers?

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Read the post. The phrase is "Across All Data Centers."

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Read the post. The phrase is "Across All Data Centers."

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Reading sounds a lot like waiting to see how something is implemented before jumping to conclusions.

And if we've learned anything from this game it's that nobody has an ounce of patience for that.

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Originally Posted by Braggaman

My friend was going to transfer to Balmung after the maintenance. I guess we can't play together now?

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This isnt to poor salt on the wound, however you joined a year ago o_o why wait till now to move if you had so many friends over there? I mean Ive seen this in a few places people upset they cant move NOW when they really should have done so much sooner if they really wanted to do so.

From the sound of it though, these restrictions are only going into place in June. So, get those transfers in now?

Glad I got my buddy on gilga before these restrictions went through \o/

That being said, this is a good change. "Just move to Balmung/Gilga lol" was not a great solution for population issues. Hopefully this will allow some of the other servers to fill up.

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Originally Posted by Voison

I've been told by others in my FC that Balmung is not on the transfer list anymore.

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Ah. Wording was unclear, I suppose.

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Originally Posted by Voison

I've been told by others in my FC that Balmung is not on the transfer list anymore.

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Can confirm. Just went and looked at the mogstation and neither Balmung nor Gilgamesh appear. In any event, this is only temporary. They did it back when Heavensward released in the hopes a flux of new players won't populate the already massive servers. Give it 3-4 months and they'll be open for transfer again.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

Can confirm. Just went and looked at the mogstation and neither Balmung nor Gilgamesh appear. In any event, this is only temporary. They did it back when Heavensward released in the hopes a flux of new players won't populate the already massive servers. Give it 3-4 months and they'll be open for transfer again.

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Doubt it unless they take a serious population dive. Balmung and Gilgamesh will likely be closed to transfers/creation until they drop to about 2/3rds their current population.

The whole EU is congested? That's a surprise.

Guess people spreading doom and gloom about FFXIV being in decline will be disappointed, which is nice.

About time to drain the Swamp. Good work Dev team for making right choice in locking out those servers. #MAKEFF14AWESOMEAGAIN

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Originally Posted by Jandor

The whole EU is congested? That's a surprise.

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Chaos is the smallest Datacenter at 8 worlds with each other datacenter having 10 to 12 worlds. Of the 3 sectors (NA/JP/EU), EU is the only one with only one datacenter.

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Guess people spreading doom and gloom about FFXIV being in decline will be disappointed, which is nice.

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Most of the doom and gloom is repeats of the same stuff from after 2.57. People are once again panicking about the end of expansion downturn.

Seems like a lot of EU players will have some stable homes, that's nice. New servers with fresh open housing? Sounds real nice actually.

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Doubt it unless they take a serious population dive. Balmung and Gilgamesh will likely be closed to transfers/creation until they drop to about 2/3rds their current population.

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That is never going to happen. You think approximately 26,000 characters will relocate? What incentive do players on either of those servers have to transfer off? If Square actually wants to stabilize their populations, then make transfers off either of them free. Until they do, people aren't going to shell out $18, especially with pre-existing connections. If I recall, they locked larger pop servers when Heavensward launched only to open them again not too long after the expansion. If they actually do keep them locked, it'll stay that way for the entire duration of Stormblood because, once again, no one on those servers has any reason to leave. The housing gesture is a nice touch, I'll grant them that.

Does that mean we won't be able to deport skirt-wearing mancats to Balmung anymore?

Seems like a lot of EU players will have some stable homes, that\\'s nice. New servers with fresh open housing? Sounds real nice actually.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

That is never going to happen. You think approximately 26,000 characters will relocate? What incentive do players on either of those servers have to transfer off? If Square actually wants to stabilize their populations, then make transfers off either of them free. Until they do, people aren't going to shell out $18, especially with pre-existing connections. If I recall, they locked larger pop servers when Heavensward launched only to open them again not too long after the expansion. If they actually do keep them locked, it'll stay that way for the entire duration of Stormblood because, once again, no one on those servers has any reason to leave.

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Did you read the announcement? They are going to make transfers to certain low pop Worlds in all the datacenters free as well as giving various benefits for starting new characters on those low pop servers.

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players who to transfer to or create new characters on designated Worlds across all data centers will receive special bonuses as described below.
* Pleased be advised the bonuses planned for implementation are subject to change.
Bonuses

Transfers to designated Worlds will be free of charge.
EXP bonuses will be applied to designated Worlds (up to level 60).
Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on designated Worlds.
EXP bonuses will be applied to newly established Worlds (up to level 60).
Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on newly established Worlds.

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Did you read the announcement? They are going to make transfers to certain low pop Worlds in all the datacenters free as well as giving various benefits for starting new characters on those low pop servers.

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Doesn't that apply just to the EU though?

Relative to transfer from Gilga, I'll be transferring one of my alts to Siren from there because I want to get a house in Doma. That won't happen on Gilgamesh.

Too bad I'm bound to Ragnarok, otherwise I wouldn't doubt move to a new world.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Doesn't that apply just to the EU though?

Relative to transfer from Gilga, I'll be transferring one of my alts to Siren from there because I want to get a house in Doma. That won't happen on Gilgamesh.

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The phrase "designated Worlds across all datacenters will receive special bonuses" seems to state that it is not just EU servers that will be getting the transfer benefits.

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Did you read the announcement? They are going to make transfers to certain low pop Worlds in all the datacenters free as well as giving various benefits for starting new characters on those low pop servers.

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Hmm, I may be misinterpreting but that section is listed under EU, which, to me at least, implied those bonuses were for the new servers. Hopefully, I am wrong though because that would actually be the solution.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

Hmm, I may be misinterpreting but that section is listed under EU, which, to me at least, implied those bonuses were for the new servers. Hopefully, I am wrong though because that would actually be the solution. Or at least a decent one.

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The "across all datacenters" bit is fairly easy to miss since they combined the adding new EU worlds and benefits to improve population distribution into one heading.

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

The "across all datacenters" bit is fairly easy to miss since they combined the adding new EU worlds and benefits to improve population distribution into one heading.

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Yeah. That part I did miss at first glance, though where they listed it makes me... unsure? This would actually be a great question for the Live Letter. Just to be absolutely certain. Honestly, I hope you're right. :)

Umm, we only have one data center in the EU.

It is more likely that they add another couple of worlds to the existing data center than open up more data centers. Even if they did open up another data center, then it would be more than likely worded as "across both [EU] data centers". Opening up any more data centers in the EU would just be creating multiple dead worlds with no one on them, imho.

To put peoples minds at ease, I think it is worthy of a rep response on the forums for clarification.

I need some translation. Language barrier here

What are they saying? In some bits they talk about transferring for free to new worlds with 10million per character + 5 million per retainer. But then it goes on about :

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If players are able to transfer characters without problems after these changes, we will consider removing the gil limit on character transfers.

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Does this mean that I will be able to transfer for free + all my Gil (100million+) eventually?

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Originally Posted by Mature

I need some translation. Language barrier here

What are they saying? In some bits they talk about transferring for free to new worlds with 10million per character + 5 million per retainer. But then it goes on about :



Does this mean that I will be able to transfer for free + all my Gil (100million+) eventually?

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Yes it appears they are considering removing the gil limit entirely if the new transfer amounts don't affect world economies. It's about time they increased those amounts before the older ones were simply ridiculous. I wouldn't count on them removing limits any time soon though.

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Originally Posted by Natsuno

Umm, we only have one data center in the EU.

It is more likely that they add another couple of worlds to the existing data center than open up more data centers. Even if they did open up another data center, then it would be more than likely worded as "across both [EU] data centers". Opening up any more data centers in the EU would just be creating multiple dead worlds with no one on them, imho.

To put peoples minds at ease, I think it is worthy of a rep response on the forums for clarification.

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All Worlds on the EU data center are presently experiencing high levels of player congestion. To resolve this issue, new Worlds will be added at the release of 4.0.

From the wording on there they are not planning to create a new data center rather add more worlds to the current one.

Honestly a new system needs to be considered. Balmung since 1.0 days and comparing FF 14 to wow leaves a bad taste in my mouth but they did plan for a better form of population control on servers with psuedo mergers and virtual space with phasing. For all of its flaws SE needs to sit down and realistically consider options more carefully. Sadly Balmung is the roleplaying server whether official or unofficial so restriction to it sort of saddens me.