Update Regarding NA/EU Data Center Congestion and Next Steps

https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...34483dabdcc490

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Increased Login Caps for European Data Centers

During the Patch 5.58 Hotfix maintenance scheduled for August 24, we will be changing the operating system settings for the server configuration of the European Data Centers, and the login cap will be increased once we have confirmed stability post-maintenance. Furthermore, in late September, we are also planning to replace some of our equipment with high-performance machines to further increase the cap.

We’ve observed considerable levels of congestion on the European Data Centers over the past few weeks, especially during weekends. Though login queues have been quite long, please rest assured that they are working properly. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we ask that you continue to wait for your turn to log in should you encounter a queue.

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Classifying All Aether Data Center Worlds as Congested

As of the Patch 5.58 Hotfix maintenance, all Worlds on the Aether Data Center have been classified as Congested. Despite expanding the maximum capacity as much as possible and closely monitoring the situation, the number of logins for each World have constantly remained at full capacity, which led to us taking this course of action.

This means players will be unable to create new characters on any World on the Aether Data Center until this classification is lifted. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this will cause for those of you who were looking forward to embarking on adventures with friends.

Were the number of characters to increase any further, it could result in login queues taking up to several hours, which is why we needed to take this approach. In the meantime, we kindly request that you consider creating a character on a World within the Primal or Crystal Data Centers, though we’re aware that they are currently quite congested as well.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this will cause for our players on the North American Data Centers.

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Addition of New Worlds and Other Large-scale Solutions for Each Data Center

To address the congestion situation, our Infrastructure and Development teams are working closely to plan large-scale solutions such as expanding our data centers or adding new Worlds. As previously mentioned, however, there is an ongoing global shortage and increased demand for semiconductors, and quite frankly, we are still struggling to source the required equipment. Additionally, the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Japan has raised major concerns regarding our ability to travel overseas for on-site implementations. These setbacks have made it difficult for us to cut down on the time required for implementation.

Considering the current situation, we will likely require more time in implementing our large-scale solutions. The circumstances surrounding our infrastructure are far from ideal, but I promise that we will continue to persevere in implementing any solutions we can!

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So it's nice to see login caps will increase in EU but will it be enough I wonder. I wonder if this means we'll getting a third data center in EU (which is needed) in the longterm once they able to aquire hardware again.

Same with NA, will there be a forth DC or how can they realistically solve that issue.

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Originally Posted by Sotaris

So it's nice to see login caps will increase in EU but will it be enough I wonder. I wonder if this means we'll getting a third data center in EU (which is needed) in the longterm once they able to aquire hardware again.

Same with NA, will there be a forth DC or how can they realistically solve that issue.

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Honestly I just hope they increase server capacity over adding a 4th data center for US. Its a surge but how will this effect the long term? You split the community quite a bit by increasing the amount of servers. Which if this surge dies down you end up with to many empty servers and people start to complain their server is dead.

I played mmo's with server bloat and made me learn to never pick new or low pop servers and always go for the full ones and just take the login queues over no one to play with.

Yeah I guess I can see that side. I played FF11 and we had a lot of bloat servers after a couple years.
I hope we get some more info regard that situation during the fall/winter. Hopefully the supply issue will be better soon.

I'm not sure if a lot of the people coming with this recent surge will actually stick to the game long term, after they have done what they wanted and Endwalker. Many will, but I'm not sure a fourth data center is necessary for NA either. Maybe more worlds for EU (and/or better quality) if they can maintain the new players.

We don't know if the current new players are sticking to the game long-term. The development team will decide if new data centers are needed for both NA/EU after some time into the new expansion. They'll need to check the number of active players during new patches, and the downtime between patches. Let's not forget that OCE datacenters are getting added to the game soon :) It might assist with the current situation.

I think EU been in a need of a third DC for a long time. At least that what it feels like for us on Light DC. We've seen login queues for a long time, long before the "surge".
But it's more effective with a wait and see approuch than go out and aquire a bunch of server hardware for 8 new worlds.

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Originally Posted by Yeol

Let's not forget that OCE datacenters are getting added to the game soon :) It might assist with the current situation.

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I think that's more for JP and NA. I don't see or meet many OCE players in EU.

What NA needs more than anything else is two additional servers added to Aether, since that is where most of the new pop has gone. I suspect most of them, if Rich Campbell and Asmongold stay, are going to stick around, so they will be needed.

We def dont need 3rd DC to spread people even further. If anything, add more servers to DC, dont spread people more. Already have to wait 30-60 mins for SB alliance raids for example. And before surge of players it used to be close to 2 hours as tank/healer but that was mainly because afk people want crystal tower so they queue naked to roulettes so the pool was very small. Its just ridicilous.

Hoping DC travel will fix some of this tho.

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Originally Posted by InkB

We def dont need 3rd DC to spread people even further. If anything, add more servers to DC, dont spread people more. Already have to wait 30-60 mins for SB alliance raids for example. And before surge of players it used to be close to 2 hours as tank/healer but that was mainly because afk people want crystal tower so they queue naked to roulettes so the pool was very small. Its just ridicilous.

Hoping DC travel will fix some of this tho.

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Currently EU has 6 servers per data center. NA has 8 per data center.

I'm currently not sure 2 additional servers will make or break the issues we're experiencing as I saw similar comments to your when Omega & Louisoix was added in.. SB? And lastly when Twintania and Spriggan was added in SHB.

I still think we'd need a third DC in EU to solve the situation longterm as we had problems ever since the EU datacenter was established (after the move from NA location to Germany)

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Originally Posted by Sotaris

Currently EU has 6 servers per data center. NA has 8 per data center.

I'm currently not sure 2 additional servers will make or break the issues we're experiencing as I saw similar comments to your when Omega & Louisoix was added in.. SB? And lastly when Twintania and Spriggan was added in SHB.

I still think we'd need a third DC in EU to solve the situation longterm as we had problems ever since the EU datacenter was established (after the move from NA location to Germany)

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I mean, difference between adding servers to DC and adding whole new DC is vastly different.

Whole new DC would make people move there from "old DCs" - having 24 wards of houses free in 6 servers is enough reason for LOT of people to transfer even if they dont get the house. Lot others would too for whatever reason. With DC travel this could be slightly better but I'd still be very careful since some duty queues can be veery long (again, before surge of new players ive seen people queue 120 mins for orbanne monastery as tanks! Ive only had to queue for 60 as dps. Now its under 15-20 mins due surge).

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Originally Posted by InkB

I mean, difference between adding servers to DC and adding whole new DC is vastly different.

Whole new DC would make people move there from "old DCs" - having 24 wards of houses free in 6 servers is enough reason for LOT of people to transfer even if they dont get the house. Lot others would too for whatever reason. With DC travel this could be slightly better but I'd still be very careful since some duty queues can be veery long (again, before surge of new players ive seen people queue 120 mins for orbanne monastery as tanks! Ive only had to queue for 60 as dps. Now its under 15-20 mins due surge).

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I never said it was the same thing though.

Maybe you wasn't around when the DC split happened but we had to choose then as well which to belong to.
With any new server being added to the game it pretty much same thing. If you value getting a house and can convince your friends to switch, that's your oppertunity since they usually for free too.

That's what made me switch from Ragnarok to Zodiark years ago.
But as you mention, DC visist doesn't mean this should be any issue -- if they go with a new DC that I still think we'll need to split the burden on current servers. If you think it's bad now, just wait when we get Endwalker and more people will join the game and everyone who been taking a break since april will return.

I think a new DC would benefit EU community and playerbase.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

I think the EU data center queues may be longer because the language flags actually mean something there. NA has a small French population from Quebec, but English is the majority language and the secondary language is Spanish, which isn't officially supported and has no flag.

So NA data centers just leave English as the default and don't touch any of the other queue language flags - or flip on them ALL like I do - so have the entire pool of the data center to pull from for almost every duty. Whereas a lot of folks on the EU data center may not have turned on the additional language flags (or may not even want to, which is fair) so you're only pulling from a fraction of the population. 30-60 minutes to build a single German only alliance raid sounds about right.

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Tbh I never run into long instance queues on Light. The most frustrating part is having login queues despite log in to the game at 6 am, 9am or 4pm.

To be fair NA doesn’t likely need a new DC oceanic servers may help with some of that, i know that there’s been calls for a south american DC which would also help with that, so a new NA data center seems wholly unnecessary.

EU I dont know enough about the server situation but upgraded tech and thinking about adding a new DC couldn’t hurt.

I think the EU data center queues may be longer because the language flags actually mean something there. NA has a small French population from Quebec, but English is the majority language and the secondary language is Spanish, which isn't officially supported and has no flag.

So NA data centers just leave English as the default and don't touch any of the other queue language flags - or flip on them ALL like I do - so have the entire pool of the data center to pull from for almost every duty. Whereas a lot of folks on the EU data center may not have turned on the additional language flags (or may not even want to, which is fair) so you're only pulling from a fraction of the population. 30-60 minutes to build a single German only alliance raid sounds about right.