How long until transfers to the big servers return?

Don't think something like this has happened before, so curious on guesses.

the locked servers are overpopulated to an absurd degree and should have been completely locked like this years ago. They will not be unlocked until such time as the population shrinks significantly. Which means a lot of people have to transfer out. So I'm gonna go with a conservative estimate of...
Never.

Depends on how the launch of SB goes and if people take advantage of the free transfers.

Assuming the attempts to woo players to new servers (free game time is not one I've seen offered before so that could prove to be a nice incentive) are relatively successful?

I'd guess no sooner than December 2017 (and that's being hilariously optimistic), with a more likely time frame being 9 months to a year out.

The whole thing would need time (imo) to really start encouraging players to move and for new communities to form and become established enough to be stable and not just transfer back when they are opened again, and that process is likely to take time.

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Originally Posted by Areonus

the locked servers are overpopulated to an absurd degree and should have been completely locked like this years ago. They will not be unlocked until such time as the population shrinks significantly. Which means a lot of people have to transfer out. So I'm gonna go with a conservative estimate of...
Never.

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I hope it isn't never. It makes hard to invite friends into the game when they can't get a character on the same server I am, and I am already rather invested into the server with my FC and the friends that are on Gilgamesh and the same goes for them. Sure there's cross world parties, but not being on the same server can suck a bit.

An easier solution is to transfer off to join your friends on a open server. Not being mean but that is the only answer right now. The population needs to go down and spread to other servers.

Till then it will hopefully remain locked tight.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

I hope it isn't never. It makes hard to invite friends into the game when they can't get a character on the same server I am, and I am already rather invested into the server with my FC and the friends that are on Gilgamesh and the same goes for them. Sure there's cross world parties, but not being on the same server can suck a bit.

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Which is exactly WHY they'll probably never be unlocked. Unless some people decide to bite the bullet and give up their connections and friends or convince those friends to go with them, the servers will never de-populate. Square should probably keep the locks up for a fair bit after Server populations stabilize so that people become invested in their new server, otherwise everyone that left can/will just transfer back in. This rendering this lockdown an exercise in futility. Yes it does suck. But it also completely necessary for he health and survival of the servers and ultimately this game.

I think I'm the only Balmung player that hopes we stay closed for a while. I understand the plight of others but we are way too full.

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Originally Posted by Areonus

Which is exactly WHY they'll probably never be unlocked. Unless some people decide to bite the bullet and give up their connections and friends or convince those friends to go with them, the servers will never de-populate. Square should probably keep the locks up for a fair bit after Server populations stabilize so that people become invested in their new server, otherwise everyone that left can/will just transfer back in. This rendering this lockdown an exercise in futility. Yes it does suck. But it also completely necessary for he health and survival of the servers and ultimately this game.

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Then we will have to hope it won't backfire and reduce the number of players entering the game, because people may not decide to bite the bullet. I know I am highly unlikely to give up my connections and friends on Gilgamesh. Not only do I want to maintain these relationships on a personal level, but some of them can be useful in a professional sense as I am in the same field of study as a number of my friends and FC mates.

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Originally Posted by Atlas-04

An easier solution is to transfer off to join your friends on a open server. Not being mean but that is the only answer right now. The population needs to go down and spread to other servers.

Till then it will hopefully remain locked tight.

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That's assuming that people don't already have friends and relationships on their current server. I am rather unsure about how effective this will be. Yes, server distribution will end up more even but whether or not it will be to the degree that they are aiming for or if it was the right cause for such a result remains to be seen. It could just end up evening out because new players can't join the locked servers and thus become forced to join other servers thus causing the overpopulation to technically remain.

My other concern is that, if the amount of new players entering decrease due to this, and they join a less populated server while people don't migrate to smaller servers, the smaller communities may not be able to stabilize as people may not stay due to a lack of a stable community in their server. I hope this won't be the case but it is a possibility.

Right now, I am unable to get any of my friends who aren't already playing the game to join FFXIV, and I don't think I will be able to convince them otherwise as long as the lock remains. I hope that this lock does work and the other servers quickly build up a community so that the lock goes away and I can try inviting my friends again, but at the same time I have my doubts onto whether or not the lock will work.

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Originally Posted by AnaviAnael

I think I'm the only Balmung player that hopes we stay closed for a while. I understand the plight of others but we are way too full.

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You're not the only one.

They are full stay away and tell friends to leave with you

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Originally Posted by Areonus

Which is exactly WHY they'll probably never be unlocked. Unless some people decide to bite the bullet and give up their connections and friends or convince those friends to go with them, the servers will never de-populate. Square should probably keep the locks up for a fair bit after Server populations stabilize so that people become invested in their new server, otherwise everyone that left can/will just transfer back in. This rendering this lockdown an exercise in futility. Yes it does suck. But it also completely necessary for he health and survival of the servers and ultimately this game.

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It won't be forever as that could easily be a huge financial loss. The two largest servers cannot invite friends without giving up all their existing connections or preference to be apart of larger communities? No business will risk that potential loss in revenue. They'll inevitably open again, though not for a while.

probably until after SB launch and population normalizes, SE likes there money too much to keep that transfer money away.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

I hope it isn't never. It makes hard to invite friends into the game when they can't get a character on the same server I am, and I am already rather invested into the server with my FC and the friends that are on Gilgamesh and the same goes for them. Sure there's cross world parties, but not being on the same server can suck a bit.

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It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. I have had two people hyped to play the game, but then say "no" when they find out I'm on a now perma-locked server. They don't want to play on a server seperated from the friend group. I fully understand why servers are locked (you should have seen the rush for the pineapple hair) and I'm not saying they shouldn't be locked, but it is still saddening.

And no - I'm not transfering off. I would only transfer off if my EB partner and best friend linkshell transfers off. And they will only transfer off if their friends will transfer off. And their friends will only transfer off if THEIR friends will transfer off. So on and so forth into oblivion... and the surrounding areas. For this reason, I do not think the mega servers like Gilgamesh and Balmung are going to be unlocked in the next couple of years. It's the sad truth, but it had to be done before the servers literally catch on fire and burn down everything.

Wonder if SE could move people by designating a RP server.

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Originally Posted by Jaleyn

Wonder if SE could move people by designating a RP server.

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Or the RP community can chose some more servers to declare Unofficial RP Servers.

I actually transferred from Gilgamesh to Tonberry >.> I don't really mind the change

They will be closed for a long time; probably at least until 4.1 if not longer.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

It won't be forever as that could easily be a huge financial loss. The two largest servers cannot invite friends without giving up all their existing connections or preference to be apart of larger communities? No business will risk that potential loss in revenue. They'll inevitably open again, though not for a while.

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But they closed them for technical reasons, not for business reasons, AFAIK. So they might have to take the risk unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by Tsumdere

And no - I'm not transfering off. I would only transfer off if my EB partner and best friend linkshell transfers off. And they will only transfer off if their friends will transfer off. And their friends will only transfer off if THEIR friends will transfer off. So on and so forth into oblivion... and the surrounding areas.

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Stuff like this makes me think they'll never unlock. Because most people are going to be like that. Only way I think SE will be able to do it to stabilise the population is to split the server in two, and let group 1 remain in Balmung/Gilga, and move group 2 to other realms. Without their permission (but it won't cost the player anything). But then I don't know if that's going to open up a ton of lawsuits. Then there's also the "Make sure they get invested in the new server" timings.

already said were closed cause of SB release and their gonna have enough trouble already and then with all the people trying to log in on early access wouldn't hold your breath on them even being up and running.

And frankly everyone fault on those realms too with the "Don't want to move cause of some reason" or the mostly "transfer here" they do if they weren't full you be able to make a character there so kind of a hint when only way in a transfer should be big enough to NOT go there

also someone saying won't keep them close cause of money trouble is there they make money off the outfits/mounts and more so cost them more to either make those realms stronger with all these people if not cost more to fix it when it goes crashing down and takes the whole data center with it cause everyone want to go there or invite all their friends there cause they want to be with them or need their hand held

As others have said, the servers will unlock in time, though likely not for a good while. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet is FC/linkshell health. While ones that are already large and healthy may opt to stay, smaller ones will likely flock to other servers simple so they have the opportunity to grow. Even the larger ones would only be shooting themselves in the foot for not taking advantage of free transfers if they do have a lot of prospective members (member friends) that won't sub because they can't join their friends.

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Originally Posted by Dyvid

Or the RP community can chose some more servers to declare Unofficial RP Servers.

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RP community won't do that, no point. Would have to be a second RP community not on balmung gathering on a server for that to happen. Sqaure designating a server would speed up the process.

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Originally Posted by Areonus

the locked servers are overpopulated to an absurd degree and should have been completely locked like this years ago. They will not be unlocked until such time as the population shrinks significantly. Which means a lot of people have to transfer out. So I'm gonna go with a conservative estimate of...
Never.

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Agreed, the overpopulated servers should remain locked until their active population diminish's to a more practical level, and they should auto lock if the population exceeds that level again in future.

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Originally Posted by Jaleyn

RP community won't do that, no point. Would have to be a second RP community not on balmung gathering on a server for that to happen. Sqaure designating a server would speed up the process.

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Wasn't Mateus trying to become the second RP server?

If those "connections" won't come with you to a new server then that means you didn't really have much of a connection in the first place.

I hope that Balmung remains locked for quite some time. It's much too bloated at the moment. Preventing new characters from being created easily on the server was a good way to mitigate the problem for a while but a lot of people got around that simply through transferring. This is a process that stands to make the development team quite a bit of money, so it's very telling that they're preventing people from transferring to Balmung altogether.

Balmung is a behemoth - one that needs to be beaten down a few times until it becomes more manageable in size. Offering incentives to players to move away from it is a pretty great move, especially if the development team continue to make it more appealing to play on a server that isn't so overpopulated. The cross server friend's list and messaging system will go a long way towards accomplishing that, I believe.

I would not be surprised to see them not unlock because I don't think the population will stabilize to the level they want it to. They may just end up doing a forced split of the server.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

I hope that Balmung remains locked for quite some time. It's much too bloated at the moment. Preventing new characters from being created easily on the server was a good way to mitigate the problem for a while but a lot of people got around that simply through transferring. This is a process that stands to make the development team quite a bit of money, so it's very telling that they're preventing people from transferring to Balmung altogether.

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Not really. I'd say that's a cultural misconception. If the orders are coming from Japan, then I'd guess they would have thought telling you the servers were overloaded and locking for new characters would be like putting up a 'do not enter sign'. At least it would for most people. But they didn't count on the western idea of something that costs more is like joing an exclusive club for doofuses who don't understand what 'the server is overloaded' means. They would expect the users not to want to inconvenience the others with long queue times and server lag, so they would join a mid or lower pop server. Closing it completely is pretty draconian and probably an act of desperation.

Don't count on it any time near future cause I would imagine it will be closed indefinitely.

It'll unlock once enough people leave the server.

So, never.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

I hope it isn't never. It makes hard to invite friends into the game when they can't get a character on the same server I am, and I am already rather invested into the server with my FC and the friends that are on Gilgamesh and the same goes for them. Sure there's cross world parties, but not being on the same server can suck a bit.

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If SE is offering free server transfers, then have the entire FC transfer out together.

Didn't YoshiP mention something about wanting to do a mega server for the game at some point? The tech is there and I half expected the transfer to move in that direction. Granted ESO tried it and it more or less failed early on.

The simplest answer to the question of "How Long until transfers to the big servers return?" is "When they are no longer big servers".

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Originally Posted by SuzakuCMX

Wasn't Mateus trying to become the second RP server?

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I saw people RPing in the Carline Canopy.

If SE is smart, they will keep it locked until patch 4.3-4.5. With Stormblood alot of newcomers are going to join the game and every one of them will be adviced (heard or read) to join big servers like Balmung, because of its population. Servers like Balmung should have been locked the moment SE saw how high the population was.

I think for FFXIV servers in general, its best to keep it locked for the next 12 months.

The transfers will open when the big servers are no longer big.

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Originally Posted by OmegaFlare

If SE is offering free server transfers, then have the entire FC transfer out together.

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It's actually not an if - part of the proposed solution will be free transfers to designated servers (existing ones for NA/JP, the new ones for EU) that also include bonuses for playing and leveling on them for a certain amount of time.

So the only real barrier at that point will be getting enough of a given group to agree to leave together to make it worthwhile for those individuals.

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Originally Posted by OmegaFlare

If SE is offering free server transfers, then have the entire FC transfer out together.

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Only issue is that at the moment there is no easy way to transfer an entire FC, including the FC house. For everyone to move, the FC would have to disband (and sell their estate if they had one), move to the new server, then re-establish itself.

So until they solve that issue, I doubt we'll see many FC's move servers.

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Originally Posted by Nerisu

If those "connections" won't come with you to a new server then that means you didn't really have much of a connection in the first place.

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Ah yes, I remember when I left my home town, and my friends didn't ALSO move with me.

??

How the eff did this get upvotes.

Sure some people who are really good friends/connections will keep in contact via other means. But your primary shared interest becomes greatly more difficult to share if you're not on the same server, it's a logical progression that it would be harder to maintain that relationship with the addition of a strain.

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Originally Posted by Xiomara

So until they solve that issue, I doubt we'll see many FC's move servers.

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The good news is this is already on their radar - "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. We also plan to accommodate free companies members that plan to move together with or without a free company estate." - Emphasis mine.

Bad news is, no additional details on how thorough these provisions will end up being or a real time table for implementation.

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Originally Posted by CosmicKirby

Sure some people who are really good friends/connections will keep in contact via other means. But your primary shared interest becomes greatly more difficult to share if you're not on the same server, it's a logical progression that it would be harder to maintain that relationship with the addition of a strain.

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But, from what I'm hearing, in Stormblood we're getting cross-realm (so datacentre wide) friends lists (though don't take me for gospel on that, it's interpretation from what I've been reading on the forums). It won't help if the designated servers for NA are on the other NA datacentre (the one w/o Balmung + Gila I always forget the names), but for EU that'll help immensely as we'll still be on the Chaos datacentre (since they're not adding a new EU datacentre, even though I think it may be needed, they're just adding new realms). However we're discussing Balmung and Gilga here so my Chaos datacentre information isn't really productive. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what designated NA realms are. If they're the DC with B/G, and we get cross-realm FL, then it becomes a good chunk easier. If they're the other one, then your point will still stand in its entirity. Even with the cross-realm FL and the desig servers on the same DC as B/G there will be some challenges, but they'll be somewhat mitigated by that FL.

And I'm sorry that's an incoherent wall of text. I woke up about 20 minutes ago and haven't eaten. My brain can't English properly right now.