My first expansion experience, should I expect long queues and down time?

I'm just curious. I mean I get a queue to log in now from time to time so I'm assuming it's going to be nasty when shadow bringers launches.

What's it been like in the past and why are there queues now at the end of an expansion weeks before the new one launches? Typically an mmo is slow before an expansion.

Edit: I really should get coffee going before looking at forums.

Expect the servers to potato at least a few times during the first 24 hours, max 48 hours.

After that it's usually fine.

I'm speaking from experience with SE and a lot of other MMOs. After a new expansion release, server usually fails a couple of times, then maintenance, long login times, lag, crashes, disconnects. It's pretty hectic at the start.

It chills out after 48 hours max though. Never seen any MMO take longer than 48 hours to chill.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cincierta

It mostly depends on what you're queuing for and what class/job, and what time of day you're queuing on.

Typically tanks and healers have much faster queue times compared to dps, though if you're trying to queue up solo for the msq it'll be a wait. Make popcorn while you wait on the timer.

---

I'm talking about servers. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OhnoozeMyToes

I'm talking about servers. ;)

---

Don't mind me, I only got up about 10 minutes ago.

But yeah, it'll get worse once we get the expansion in.

They just reclassified Ultros and 7 other NA servers as Congested World. That's a lot of congested worlds.

Source

ARR was brutal, everyone stayed logged in because it took 15+ minutes to get into the game. I don't think I ever had to wait more than a few minutes for HW and SB, except when the servers were failing and needed a fix/reboot.

When HW was released there was a DDoS attack and no one could play for like 2 days at peak times. SB wasn't so bad and I expect ShB to be about the same. Though it all really depends on if you are part of a congested world or not.

Yeah it'll depend a lot on how congested your World is. This is why new players really should join the preferred/smaller worlds.
Queing into Balmung (biggest world) took a lot of minutes, definitely 15+ in Stormblood While in other servers it was more like 5-10 minutes.

The queue line might seem long but it's never 30+ minutes. The problem happens when the servers are unstable and you get kicked out and have to log into the game again. We'll see, this game is actually very good when it comes to early access "launch." Never seen a situation where it takes hours to log, not in Heavensward, not in Stormblood.

Well what's concerning is that I get stuck in queue now from time to time. It's only for a few minutes but still... Around launch time could be bad. I wonder if they would consider free transfers.

The first couple days of Early Access will have long que times, but any other problems depends on certain factors. The biggest problem with SB EA was that the MSQ had an instance fight before you even got to your first dungeon on top of both of the new jobs also having instance fights right at the start. We know the MSQ won't be doing that again so early so it'll probably come down to how the Trusts affect things. Which the devs have already said if it does start really affecting things they will turn it off till things calm down.

By the time SHB officially starts on July 2nd everything should be under control.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OhnoozeMyToes

Well what's concerning is that I get stuck in queue now from time to time. It's only for a few minutes but still... Around launch time could be bad. I wonder if they would consider free transfers.

---

One of the things that will make Early access not as bad as you think is the day and time it releases. It's on a workday at 5am Eastern, 4am Central, and 3am Pacific. That cuts out a good amount of people. Yes, a lot will take the day off and be up by the time the server opens but a good amount won't be able to make it until later in the day.
There are actually server infrastructures that allow for extra room than what the website tells you.

For example, currently the amount of people that can log on Ultros could be: 2000 people
Server Administrators will increase that to 5000 for Early Access

Sounds surprising, but yes, this is actually possible depending on the server infrastructure and design
So we'll see, I wouldn't be scared of the queue we're getting recently

Early access people are like beta testers when it comes down to it. Hopefully Yoshi P and the devs learned a lot from last expansion's Early Access. It won't be flawless this time, but let's hope that the bottlenecks are few and far between where it concerns the queue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crystal_Raven

Expect the servers to potato at least a few times during the first 24 hours, max 48 hours.

After that it's usually fine.

I'm speaking from experience with SE and a lot of other MMOs. After a new expansion release, server usually fails a couple of times, then maintenance, long login times, lag, crashes, disconnects. It's pretty hectic at the start.

It chills out after 48 hours max though. Never seen any MMO take longer than 48 hours to chill.

---

Oh you young soul.

I've never seen this game take longer than 48h to chill...but I remember servers on certain other games going down as long as a week.

Yes and yes, though the big thing to worry about is the potential down time. For the most part when the servers come up they are relatively stable. The problem is usually just logging in. After a few hours or days the servers usually begin to show their cracks and hotfixes and maintenances are usually required a few times over.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OhnoozeMyToes

Well what's concerning is that I get stuck in queue now from time to time. It's only for a few minutes but still... Around launch time could be bad. I wonder if they would consider free transfers.

---

Since Ultros is now a Congested World, you get a free transfer to a Preferred World.

During HW, there was an initial issue for the first few hours but it was mostly stable after the early access weekend. There will be some queues and AFK logouts.

During SB, there were also issues stemming from the instances and Susano bug but also there were DDOS attacks. This led to HOURS long queues and AFK logouts. There were also times that they logged everyone out, a reset of sorts.

All I would tell you is have another game on another system ready to go while you experience crashes, instance issues, login queues and the rest. Mario Maker 2 comes out on the 28th and will be my personal recommendation.

FYI - If the server queue is low enough, you can just hit cancel and then try again immediately and it'll let you right in. I'm not sure what the minimum number for that is though.

These past few days, I usually get "Server is full. Players in queue: 7" and that's definitely low enough that I just hit cancel, select my character again, and it'll let you right in.


Back when I was on Balmung, I've definitely encountered ~1 hour wait times (during peak hours) when Stormbringers hit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by galbsadi

Oh you young soul.

I've never seen this game take longer than 48h to chill...but I remember servers on certain other games going down as long as a week.

---

Man some years back, and by some I mean over 10, I remember playing an MMO I won't name for obvious reasons, but the servers went down for maintenance for a huge patch, like what SE is doing. Servers came back up...all good so far, went down in 5 minutes.

They were down for 2 weeks before they were brought back up. Developers didn't give anyone any sort of compensation.

The playerbased tanked incredibly hard because of that. The game is still live which is why I'm not mentioning it, but it's pretty dead. It all went downhill from that one patch that failed badly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by linay

Since Ultros is now a Congested World, you get a free transfer to a Preferred World.

---

And how do I go about that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OhnoozeMyToes

And how do I go about that?

---

Mog Station, as with any other account services.

They suggested using the world visit feature if yours is too packed, but of course, you need to get logged in to use it. It would be nice if you could log directly in to an alternate world.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by linay

Mog Station, as with any other account services.

---

I tried but I'm in a FC so it would not let me....I'll have to log in tonight and leave my FC first I guess.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OhnoozeMyToes

I tried but I'm in a FC so it would not let me....I'll have to log in tonight and leave my FC first I guess.

---

I would think twice, didn't you make some nice friends in that fc/server?

If what you all are saying about early access being beta testers for the servers well that sounds fun! This will actually be my first expansion experience right along with you OP! Can't wait! :D

Move to Balmung for the ShB early acces and launch.

You can thank me later.