Have I returned at the wrong time?

Been playing since 1.0, haven't played in years though. My first MMO after RS was FFXI and i spent years on that game. I saw a lot of youtube videos hyping how good FFXIV was in 2019 so thought to myself 'maybe it's time to go back'. Logged on yesterday to a LOT of changes, and realised something eerie, that the server was dead (Ragnarok), there were no parties being formed for any dungeons or content I can do (LVL 37) and only one party formation in the entire world which was for endgame stuff. I checked a census online and saw that it said my server only has a few hundred active characters? So I'd like to know, is this now the norm? I've just came from Guild Wars 2 which always had a healthy amount of people online and looking for groups in all dungeons and maps so it was a bit of a shock. I read some forum posts talking about the game being put into maintenance soon, so have i returned too late?

The game currently just released a new expansion last month. It had more players than ever before, before the expansion even launched. The topic about maintenance mode was just talking about the distant future. It has nothing to do with the current time.

I don't know about your server but in Adamantoise I see new players all over the place doing old content and old players leveling up jobs. I get queue times just trying to log in there are so many people online at once.

Ragnarok, dead? Last I heard that was one of the most congested servers, although it did become part of the European server group so maybe you were just playing during EU 'quiet time'?

We now have the world-visit system so that you are free to 'server hop' to any server on your data centre, although there are restrictions to what you can do when you are not on your 'home server' (such as you cannot join a Free Company on another server when visiting that server). To access it all you have to do is click on the aetheryte in either Limsa Lominsa, Gridania or Ul'dah and select the server you want to visit (it's how you return to your home server as well).

Also don't listen to the so-called unofficial censuses, they're usually biased and only collerate data based on certain parameters (usually endgame or story completion) to try and determine 'active' players instead of just grouping all player data on that server.

Either way, welcome back to Eorzea! :D

Hmm, I think you are mistaken. I am not sure which census you looked at, but Ragnarok has a very healthy population of around 12,000 characters. http://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/wsurvey...world=Ragnarok

Not even to mention, World means nearly nothing as they have implemented a system that everyone on the same data center can interact(you can even travel to the other servers through the aetheryte if you so choose). I think perhaps you are in the wrong state of mind as people do not "form parties" for level 37 content, you need to use the Duty Finder, which can be opened by default by pressing U. You then select the instance you want to do, then register for it. It will automatically place you with a group.

I do not play on the EU servers, but there may be some things that are impacting your play:
1. EU servers have unofficial nationality majorities. I do not know which is which but I know some mostly have German, some mostly have French, and some mostly have UK or otherwise. Based off of LuckyBancho, I believe Ragnarok is a 2/3 English and 1/3 French server.
2. You need to go into your Duty Finder settings(click the gear icon on the top of the Duty Finder menu) and select all 4 languages. This will improve your wait times immensely.
3. The time of day that you play impacts population greatly. if you are playing at 3AM, hardly anyone will be on. I don't know if you actually live in Europe, but if you play around 3-8PM Europe time or thereabouts, you will have more success.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I will be continuing until at least this subscription runs out so there is still time. I wanted to do a low level dungeon to get to grips with Paladin again (it seems I can no longer use cure spells?) I was playing from 11pm - 2.30am (took a while to download). The census I viewed was one recommended on the forums - https://ffxivcensus.com/2019-08/ . I really hope to find some parties today now that I am on during peak time and I will adjust my language settings to include French and German. I was walking around Uldah and encountered no-one except a few retainers :'D. If things pick up I will purchase the new expansion but I thought I won't need it until i finish levelling and main story. Thank you for the welcome back :)

Unfortunately SE scrapped the old cross-class ability system when the Stormblood expansion was launched, which indeed means you can no longer equip spells like Cure on PLD (PLD does get it's own potent healing spell called 'Clemency' though, but you have to wait til level 58 for that). Instead, we have what are called 'Role Abilities' that are automatically learned based on what role your class or Job is and can be used by any class or Job of that role. As a result we lost a lot of abilities but gained some new ones as well, plus at least one PLD ability was renamed and had it's level learned greatly reduced (Shield Oath became 'Iron Will' and is now learned by GLA at a mere level 10). This official page explains the Role Ability system and what abilities you can equip for GLA and PLD.

As for Ragnarok being dead, I still can't understand why Ul'dah would appear empty (retainers don't show up physically anymore since 1.0 ended), as there should at least be a few people still around. All I can think of is you must have indeed been playing during the server's quieter times as I think it would be more lively around 6-12pm GMT or thereabouts.

Kinda sounds like you were using the Party Finder system to look for running a low level dungeon. Few players, if any, will utilize that system. You might get a few bites if you explain that you just want to do something low level easy to learn the ropes. But, if it doesn't really matter who or how you get a group, just queue up for the content. The Duty Finder will get a group of players together and dump you in.

Also yeah. If Party Finder was that sparse, likely also you're on during the off hours.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Kinda sounds like you were using the Party Finder system to look for running a low level dungeon. Few players, if any, will utilize that system. You might get a few bites if you explain that you just want to do something low level easy to learn the ropes. But, if it doesn't really matter who or how you get a group, just queue up for the content. The Duty Finder will get a group of players together and dump you in.

Also yeah. If Party Finder was that sparse, likely also you're on during the off hours.

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This.
To emphasise: Use duty finder, not party finder. Iiirc on PC the default key to open duty finder is "U". In there, select the dungeon you want to run and click the "queue" or "ok" or whatever it's called button, the game will start searching a party for you, in the meantime you can go do whatever you like, as long as it isn't instanced (the game will warn you if you try to start something like that). As a healer or tank it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes, as DPS 20 minutes or more are normal unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by ErufuMan

If things pick up I will purchase the new expansion but I thought I won't need it until i finish levelling and main story.

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The only things the expansions unlock before you reach level 50 are the new races they introduced. So if you want to either switch to or start a new character as an Au Ra, Viera, or Hrothgar, getting the expansion now would let you do so.

After reaching 50 but before finishing the story, the only other things unlocked are the new jobs introduced in Storm Blood: Samurai and Red Mage. Besides unlocks, having the expansions would let you continue earning XP and levels rather than being level locked at 50 (though whether that's an advantage or not while still doing level 50 and below content is a matter of opinion).

For all other content from the expansions (new quests, dungeons, areas to explore, etc.) as well as the Heavensward jobs and some other new features (like flying) you'll need to finish the main story first, both the original story of ARR, and the story continuation that was added in the patches between ARR and HW.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Also yeah. If Party Finder was that sparse, likely also you're on during the off hours.

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For a low level character, it's common for most PF listings to either show up as "Locked Duty" or not show up at all, depending on how it's configured. There's a setting for whether you want locked duties to show up or not. I don't remember which way is the default, but if his is set to not show them, then the only listings he'd see are ones that don't list what duty they're for except in the comments, and ones for low level duties that he's already unlocked. Since, as already mentioned, few players use Party Finder for low level content, there's rarely any of the latter, so PF can look a lot more sparse than it really is.

Ragnarok is far from dead, quite the opposite is the case. As one of the biggest 'raiding' servers on Chaos it might actually be the case the low level areas seem kinda empty since most ppl are hanging out in endgame areas or housing districts afaik.
(At least it's the case for Cerberus.)

If you are actually playing as a Paladin you should have instant queues using the Duty finder, since tanks are always needed. I had to wait about 20-30min this weekend when leveling my Dancer and queuing for specific dungeons, but thats not too surprising when playing a dps class.


Regarding the party finder: Chaos PF is pretty filled these days so its probably just a setting hiding unlocked duties.

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Originally Posted by ErufuMan

Thanks for the feedback guys, I will be continuing until at least this subscription runs out so there is still time. I wanted to do a low level dungeon to get to grips with Paladin again (it seems I can no longer use cure spells?) I was playing from 11pm - 2.30am (took a while to download). The census I viewed was one recommended on the forums - https://ffxivcensus.com/2019-08/ . I really hope to find some parties today now that I am on during peak time and I will adjust my language settings to include French and German. I was walking around Uldah and encountered no-one except a few retainers :'D. If things pick up I will purchase the new expansion but I thought I won't need it until i finish levelling and main story. Thank you for the welcome back :)

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The census you linked to shows some seriously weird numbers. Perhaps it is not finished yet, and so only show partial numbers? Look at the one for the previous month for more correct numbers: https://ffxivcensus.com/2019-07/
Ragnarok is actually one of the busiest EU servers.

Reasons why you see few people can include: Time of day; Lots of people being busy in newer zones; The area being instanced so only a handful people ended up in the same instance as you;


One thing that is certain though is that the game is very far from dead. New expansion recently released, and lots of players enjoying it.

Also make sure you use the duty finder and not the party finder for your dungeons. If you're expecting to find people via PF you'll be waiting a while.