We need a Cross-Data Center Party Finder

So I'm sure I'm not the only one whos noticed how the advent of DC travel has basically siphoned all life out of party finder on some data centers.

I cleared the Asphodelos raid tier on Crystal no problem, but that doesn't even seem like its possible now, like there aren't even parties for it, everyone is just slowly being conditioned to go to Aether for literally everything. I've even noticed that Primal's PF has slowly diminished since people got used to it.

It be really nice if something was done about this so we don't have to always travel to aether for anything that is extreme level or higher. Maybe a unified Party finder across all the data centers perhaps?

Short of getting rid of the concept of data centers, what you propose is literally impossible. There's a reason why you have to data center travel before your character logs in.

Regional Cross DC queue's and PF would be great.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

Short of getting rid of the concept of data centers, what you propose is literally impossible. There's a reason why you have to data center travel before your character logs in.

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Until the devs say its impossible I see no reason to see why it is.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

Until the devs say its impossible I see no reason to see why it is.

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The Data Centers are the main server computers. Each of them are running multiple Worlds. Going between Wrolds on the same Data Center is easy because they exist on the same physical machine.

When you travel between Data Centers, the server needs to send your character's data over the other server. Which is why there's that wait of varying length when you do it.

Unless you'd be willing to wait for the length of time it takes to jump between all Data Centers in your region (which can at any point in time slow down drastically due to traffic), before you can join a party, it isn't physically possible to do.

OCE has been asking for this for ages.

Absolutely not. For all the good it'll do, we'll all likely end up with multiple pages worth of ads.

And I say this despite how much it can benefit me being on Dynamis, since it would help a lot knowing which DCs might have PFs I'm interested in before I travel.

Would have alot of lag in it too as people from down under or up above ping differences could inflict problems with multiple mechanics.

the devs already said this that it would take years to implementing something like this. possibly 2 expansions from now

They've definitely been talking about it. It's unknown when it could happen.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

Until the devs say its impossible I see no reason to see why it is.

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Don't really need the devs to say anything. Data centers are physically separated from each other which is why you can't data travel while logged in. They have to copy your data completely and move it to a different physical server, unlike world transfers were everything is in the same server cluster. At best they could probably set up a system that allows you to search party finder lists on other data centers, but joining them and chatting with party members seamlessly would probably be insanely difficult. The "solution" would probably be for the system to send a request to hold the slot and then having you log off to copy your character over.

It should be possible to communicate with the other data centers and retrieve a list of party finders that are on the other data center. How frequent that communication could be depends on what it can handle with all the other things going on. Every piece of network and database traffic seems to be a big factor for them. It's possible to have a cross-data center chat, but then they have to figure out which data center hosts the chat server.

That's where it ends. After that, either the party or SE would have to decide which data center the content is happening on. If we get cross-region DC travel, that will be more significant of an issue because depending on who wins, some of the party will suffer high pings and the others won't.

What we do manually:
- Know somehow that DC XYZ has a lot of PF usually up
- Logout
- Login
- Select to datacenter travel to XYZ
- Click yes in the following 10 popups that will show up
- Click on your character to join the game, wait for a possible login queue
- Once inside the game, find your desired PF
- Join the PF
- Play the content

What I think could be achieved with the current DC travel + PF (and no, not insta joining another PF in another DC and play the game):
- Party finder could show us all PF across available DCs (the ones we can select when DC travelling)
- If I click to join a PF that belongs to another DC, my slot on that PF is now locked for me
- My client immediately starts the logout+dc travel+login without asking me for any input and confirmation, just put me online on that DC + World please
- Wait for the login queue and to instance in with the PF already joined
- Play the content

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I wish we never had cross data center travel.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

Until the devs say its impossible I see no reason to see why it is.

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Its the only way to keep game cheap as possible to maintain. One datacenter costs way more.

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Originally Posted by Xaruko_Nexume

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I wish we never had cross data center travel.

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It's made a mess on the raid recruiting side of things as well.

Getting a static is easier than ever. Getting a *GOOD* static has become harder. The gate keeping to getting into those better statics have become much stricter. There is less risk to kicking people out. Discord communities have become a bit more united and so your reputation/image can no longer be buried by a simple data center transfer with name change. People with better FFlogs are now competing with each other more than ever. You can find any static you want easily, but if want a high end group, it's become much more difficult. Especially if you're playing a congested job. These are issues that have always existed but it's much worse now.

Even just in daily roulette content, its made a mess of queues on dynamis. Almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day I see someone in novice network or shout chat complaining that they literally can not get a dungeon to pop for their MSQ progression after often times waiting an hour or more. Someone always just tells them to "go to Aether."

No, thats a terrible solution to have to present to a anyone, much less a newer player. Shouldn't have to leave servers just to play the game.

Honestly, to fix the problems that DC has caused for Duty Finder/Party Finder/Roulettes, there just needs to be some sort of "Home Data Center" bonus, especially for new Data Centers.

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Originally Posted by TheRogueX

Honestly, to fix the problems that DC has caused for Duty Finder/Party Finder/Roulettes, there just needs to be some sort of "Home Data Center" bonus, especially for new Data Centers.

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Being effectively a new player (had JUST started HW when I hiatused 2 years ago, came back in the past couple weeks and now like 90% through SB), I transferred to Dynamis just to get an EXP bonus + I don't really have any roots put down anywhere. All of this to say: I concur with this suggestion.

Road to 80 is a nice buff and all, and I'm hoping I can scrape together enough to buy a house before they all get finally picked up as Dynamis fills up, but it feels like a self-defeating feedback loop

- "no one is queueing"
- run to Crystal or Aether to run a duty
- end up sticking around on the DC after finishing the duty to continue prog because I'm not gonna burn 5 minutes (potentially longer depending on traffic) going back home, also hey maybe there's another duty waiting for me in the MSQ?
- me being gone causes me not to queue on Dynamis
- someone else thinks "no one is queueing"
- rinse and repeat

At this point, I only stay on Dynamis for the first hour of the day to due my tribal dailies (joined a independent-player FC just for the buffs, so I take advantage of the TP discount), send my retainers on ventures, entrust whatever mats I collected the night before, etc., then basically spend 90% of my time otherwise away from the server. I realize I'm part of the problem, but it's like a prisoner's dilemma. Or something. I'm not 100% versed in game theory lol.

Having something that KEEPS you on your home DC would be nice. I might even go so far as to say the Road to 80 buff should ONLY apply if you're home. Yeah, it'll suck if you're in the very particular situation of having friends on other DCs and playing content with them, you lose your bonus, but I'd argue (with absolutely no stats to back it up, just a gut feeling) that the people who most need the XP buff (newbies and/or latecomers like me with few or no jobs above 80) are less likely to be in this particular situation?

The most valuable use for cross DC is stuff like idk savage+ raiding. And despite not participating in that (yet...?) myself, even so I say right on, get everyone to play with a good static wherever it might be "homed". But if you ARE doing such content, you're probably level capped anyway, so don't need Rt80, so there's no reason NOT to take it away.

And even then, longer-time players who've created an alt on Dynamis or whatever will then be encouraged to at least roulette on Dynamis to level that character up, which solves the issue of dead queues.

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Originally Posted by TheRogueX

Honestly, to fix the problems that DC has caused for Duty Finder/Party Finder/Roulettes, there just needs to be some sort of "Home Data Center" bonus, especially for new Data Centers.

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A bonus for running content on home data center is a great idea. Id go so far as to stay a negative of some kind for doing content elsewhere. Nothing harsh or anything, but Dynamis needs help, badly. I would also suggest giving players from more populated data centers an incentive to come over to places like Dynamis and queue up for stuff.

Would be nice since everyone here on Dynamis DC hops to other DC.

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