Dawntrail launch log-in queues

Here's some information about launch log-in queues for those that didn't experience the mess at Endwalker's release or have forgotten just how bad it was.

We don't know for certain that Dawntrail will be just as bad. The additions of the Dynamis data center for NA and the soon to open Shadow data center for EU are intended to help mitigate the wait times but that will be dependent on the number of players in those regions who choose to use those new data centers at launch.

To better understand what happens as you log in and what causes the hours long queues to form, here are links to messages from YoshiP that were posted during the Endwalker launch issues:

(initial acknowledgement of the ongoing problems)
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fa3e81cf20dccf

(discussion of a specific log-in error code, auto-kick of AFK characters, and other issues)
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...9cad782363f25b

(discussions of additional log-in error codes and what steps SE was taking to try to prevent them from recurring)
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...24153ef4405c13

Note that YoshiP states in the last message that the best solution to log-in queues is the addition of new worlds for players to use to reduce the number of concurrent log-ins happening on individual worlds. We have those worlds now but it's wasted effort if there aren't enough players willing to use them.

Don't expect others on your home world to decide to use data center travel so you'll have the convenience of having a shorter wait for your home world. If you want a shorter wait time, it will be up to you to use data center travel to get it. World visit might also get you a slightly shorter wait time depending on the online population variance between your home world and the rest of the worlds in your home data center but it is unlikely get you to your home world any faster as you'd still have a wait time using world visit to get there.

Remember that when you are not on your home world, you will not have access to your retainers, FC buffs and local linkshells. You'll want to make certain you have your character inventory and chocobo saddlebags prepared with the things you'll need while doing the MSQ and other content.

When you are off your home data center, you will also lose access to FC chat and home data center cross-world linkshells (though you'll be able to join cross-world linkshells on the data center you visit without deleting any of your normal ones).

Regardless of your choice, go into Dawntrail with realistic expectations for the launch based on past expansions releases. Better to expect small problems than a smooth experience (I miss you, Shadowbringer's launch).

I hope you enjoy the adventure waiting for us.

Best advice I have: Stay off Aether and potentially Crystal unless you want hour long queues. It happened last expansion and I would hard bet on it happening again this time.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Note that YoshiP states in the last message that the best solution to log-in queues is the addition of new worlds for players to use to reduce the number of concurrent log-ins happening on individual worlds. We have those worlds now

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Just bolding this for people who are wondering why we are getting more new servers even though previous new servers are still dead, and why the devs aren't going to disable data center travel. You all will thank them when your queue number is 8956.

I predict it might be just as bad as the Endwalker launch. Considering we've also been getting DDOS attack, and those attack could be just a test run before the real one?

they are going to be long regardless of what they do, anyone who expect them to not be isnt very smart even if the game is really really really bad at the time the seconds something new comes out any qs to get into it will be long because its "new" so you might well order pizza/asain etc while you are trying to get into the game

this is why i always wait a week or so on new expansion launches i'll let everyone else have fun pulling out their hair trying to login then i'll pop on once everything has calmed down

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

World visit might also get you a slightly shorter wait time depending on the online population variance between your home world and the rest of the worlds in your home data center but it is unlikely get you to your home world any faster as you'd still have a wait time using world visit to get there.

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Pretty sure the option to world visit from the login screen exists for this specific scenario, that's why you can't pick where it sends you.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Remember that when you are not on your home world, you will not have access to your retainers, FC buffs and local linkshells. You'll want to make certain you have your character inventory and chocobo saddlebags prepared with the things you'll need while doing the MSQ and other content.

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Also worth noting that the post on cross region overflow mentioned that it might be a while before DC travelers can get back to their home DC.

It is also worth noting that it might not ALL be doom and gloom though. If you remember, during EW they had really rough servers that they had planned to update, but could not get the hardware for because of pandemic backlogs. Since then, every single region (except OCE) has had an update to the physical servers with the intention of being able to handle more people online at once. Combined with the additions of Dynamis and Shadow to NA and EU, so long as people are willing to try it, I think with perhaps the exception of day one, it might have a good chance of going better over all.
We can't really do much other then just wait and see, and have a backup plan.

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Originally Posted by ryouma17

this is why i always wait a week or so on new expansion launches i'll let everyone else have fun pulling out their hair trying to login then i'll pop on once everything has calmed down

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Yep, have a couple of days book off the middle of July, I'm not in a rush.

kinda disappointed.

I thought this was a pre-emptive "SE DO SOMETHING!" rant about the wait to get in to the new content.

I'll just do what I usually do, cook something nice, have a book handy and keep an eye on my position. gaming over the years has shown the benefits of patience. (especially on launches)

Wanted to bring this back up now that we have a Lodestone topic about Dawntrail congestion and travel posted.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...56e40c77a5af8e

Summary for those who don't want to read the entire topic.

NA data centers: players will be restricted to their home world and worlds on the Dynamis and Materia data centers. No world visit will be available on any NA data center except Dynamis. No data center travel to Aether/Primal/Crystal except for return trips to the player's home world.

EU data centers: players will be restricted to their home world and worlds on Shadow and Materia data centers. No world visit will be available on Light or Chaos. No data center travel to Light or Chaos except for return trips to the player's home world.

JP data centers: players will have access to world visit and data center travel though there will be a limit on how many visiting players can be on a given world. If a player logs out their character on a world that reaches the visitor limit, they may not be able to log back in on that character until that world's visitor count drops lower.

Materia players will have access to world visit as usual but are still unable to visit other data centers.

Main takeaway: make certain to return any characters to their home worlds and log out on them there before servers go down for the 48 hour maintenance or you may not be able to play those characters for up to 4 weeks depending on how bad server congestion is. Restrictions will definitely be in effect until 7.01's release (July 16th). SE may choose to extend the restriction period to 7.05's release (July 30th) if congestion continues to be severe.

If you wish to play with friends that have different home worlds for their characters, you will need to meet on either the Materia or Dynamis data centers.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Wanted to bring this back up now that we have a Lodestone topic about Dawntrail congestion and travel posted.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...56e40c77a5af8e

Summary for those who don't want to read the entire topic.

NA data centers: players will be restricted to their home world and worlds on the Dynamis and Materia data centers. No world visit will be available on any NA data center except Dynamis. No data center travel to Aether/Primal/Crystal except for return trips to the player's home world.

EU data centers: players will be restricted to their home world and worlds on Shadow and Materia data centers. No world visit will be available on Light or Chaos. No data center travel to Light or Chaos except for return trips to the player's home world.

JP data centers: players will have access to world visit and data center travel though there will be a limit on how many visiting players can be on a given world. If a player logs out their character on a world that reaches the visitor limit, they may not be able to log back in on that character until that world's visitor count drops lower.

Materia players will have access to world visit as usual but are still unable to visit other data centers.

Main takeaway: make certain to return any characters to their home worlds and log out on them there before servers go down for the 48 hour maintenance or you may not be able to play those characters for up to 4 weeks depending on how bad server congestion is. Restrictions will definitely be in effect until 7.01's release (July 16th). SE may choose to extend the restriction period to 7.05's release (July 30th) if congestion continues to be severe.

If you wish to play with friends that have different home worlds for their characters, you will need to meet on either the Materia or Dynamis data centers.

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It feels like Christmas.

Intend to take at least one day off work to get started with Dawntrail, but am thinking it may be better to do so a week or so after launch. Not sure I see much value in spending most of my day off looking at a message like this
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...d0c061473acd6&

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

Intend to take at least one day off work to get started with Dawntrail, but am thinking it may be better to do so a week or so after launch. Not sure I see much value in spending most of my day off looking at a message like this

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I will just be playing my dynamis characters. I can get back to my main when things calm down a bit

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

Intend to take at least one day off work to get started with Dawntrail, but am thinking it may be better to do so a week or so after launch. Not sure I see much value in spending most of my day off looking at a message like this
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...d0c061473acd6&

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If you can get to Materia it might be the best option to avoid that.

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Originally Posted by Myrany

I will just be playing my dynamis characters. I can get back to my main when things calm down a bit

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See, I was going to say Dynamis but I have a suspicion that a lot more people than we think will try to go to Dynamis to escape queues now that this restriction is in place. Materia has the advantage of worse ping so I think less people will be going there, at least on the NA side of things. That, at least, is my plan as I find the ping hardly noticeable.

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Originally Posted by LianaThorne

If you can get to Materia it might be the best option to avoid that.

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Assuming the lag doesn't get you. I played on Materia (when I live in NA) for awhile. The following was a frequent problem for me.

In the trial where you have to jump on the whales back in Heavensward. I would see the whale pull up along side the platform and immediately jump to its back...and fall to my death as the whale had in reality already left. That kind of delay can be VERY hard to live with. In the end it was why I left Materia as I really loved the people there.

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Originally Posted by LianaThorne

See, I was going to say Dynamis but I have a suspicion that a lot more people than we think will try to go to Dynamis to escape queues now that this restriction is in place. Materia has the advantage of worse ping so I think less people will be going there, at least on the NA side of things. That, at least, is my plan as I find the ping hardly noticeable.

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I will admit I have an advantage many do not in that I am retired. So I am able to play in very off peak times if I choose. For me the ping on Materia was a gamebreaker.

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Originally Posted by Heh

I predict it might be just as bad as the Endwalker launch. Considering we've also been getting DDOS attack, and those attack could be just a test run before the real one?

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I don't think so. I don't remember the specific numbers but I saw a rough estimate based on how many people have the preorder minion. Around Endwalker launch, it was almost 900k people, now it's around 500k or so. There is still clearly a lot of interest but it shouldn't be as insane.

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Originally Posted by Myrany

I will admit I have an advantage many do not in that I am retired. So I am able to play in very off peak times if I choose. For me the ping on Materia was a gamebreaker.

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Interesting, I've personally never experienced that and I live on the East Coast. Sorry to hear that.

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

I don't think so. I don't remember the specific numbers but I saw a rough estimate based on how many people have the preorder minion. Around Endwalker launch, it was almost 900k people, now it's around 500k or so. There is still clearly a lot of interest but it shouldn't be as insane.

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Wasn't a certain large streamer trying the game also part of the login issues last time? Kinda foggy on the exact timing of his coming to FFXIV so I could be wrong.

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Originally Posted by Myrany

Wasn't a certain large streamer trying the game also part of the login issues last time? Kinda foggy on the exact timing of his coming to FFXIV so I could be wrong.

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I have no idea, I wasn't around for EW's launch and I don't follow said obnoxious cockroach man, either.

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

I have no idea, I wasn't around for EW's launch and I don't follow said obnoxious cockroach man, either.

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I don't follow him either. His playing was just impossible to not know about at the time. His followers FLOODED the DC he rolled on and any other one they could roll a toon on and travel to him. I think I remember it coinciding with launch (or so close as not to matter) and really adding to the login chaos at the time.

Edit: In fact I moved my characters OFF his DC to Dynamis because of all the mess.

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Originally Posted by Myrany

I don't follow him either. His playing was just impossible to not know about at the time. His followers FLOODED the DC he rolled on and any other one they could roll a toon on and travel to him. I think I remember it coinciding with launch (or so close as not to matter) and really adding to the login chaos at the time.

Edit: In fact I moved my characters OFF his DC to Dynamis because of all the mess.

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I swear I'll never understand that sort of behavior.

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Originally Posted by Myrany

I don't follow him either. His playing was just impossible to not know about at the time. His followers FLOODED the DC he rolled on and any other one they could roll a toon on and travel to him. I think I remember it coinciding with launch (or so close as not to matter) and really adding to the login chaos at the time.

Edit: In fact I moved my characters OFF his DC to Dynamis because of all the mess.

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IIRC it was pre-Endwalker as I have memories of discussing all of the chaos with an ex-friend and they weren't in my life at the time of Endwalker launching. That chaos was what spurred Square to pick up extra servers before Endwalker as well I believe. Check out whenever WoW blew themselves up and you'll have your answer because Asmon showing up happened as a result of that.

So, basically those of us who are residents of Dynamis are royally screwed since we can't travel anywhere, but all the other North American worlds can. So, basically everyone from Aether/Crystal won't bother with their queues and come to Dynamis and then make it so those of us who live here can't get on at all and we have zero we can do about it. Already know how this is going to be play out.

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

I have no idea, I wasn't around for EW's launch and I don't follow said obnoxious cockroach man, either.

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Yet, you still feel entitled to comment on [Subject] concerning [Person] regarding [Situation], despite admitting you have no knowledge about it.
I find people like you amusing; everything you said was a waste of breath. Sometimes, it's better to stay silent.

Regarding the topic, if you believe it will be the same as Endwalker (EW), I'm afraid you'll be mistaken.
While I can't predict the future, Shadowbringers (ShB) marked the peak of FFXIV, wherein the same timeframe World of Warcraft (WoW) faced significant issues.
Despite the high anticipation for EW, it failed to meet expectations. Since its launch, the population has steadily declined, never reaching the levels seen with ShB.
EW was released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several factors contributed to the outcome of EW launch.
None of these factors are currently at play, making the situations very different.
Additionally, we did not encounter any of these issues during the ShB launch.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I swear I'll never understand that sort of behavior.

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Which? The mess at login or me moving off the DC?

Taking the Free transfers to Dynamis was actually a very good move for me personally. I prefer smaller servers.

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Originally Posted by Myrany

Which? The mess at login or me moving off the DC?

Taking the Free transfers to Dynamis was actually a very good move for me personally. I prefer smaller servers.

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Neither - was referring to this sentence from the post (of yours) I quoted: "His followers FLOODED the DC he rolled on and any other one they could roll a toon on and travel to him. I think I remember it coinciding with launch (or so close as not to matter) and really adding to the login chaos at the time"

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Originally Posted by DynnDiablos

So, basically those of us who are residents of Dynamis are royally screwed since we can't travel anywhere, but all the other North American worlds can. So, basically everyone from Aether/Crystal won't bother with their queues and come to Dynamis and then make it so those of us who live here can't get on at all and we have zero we can do about it. Already know how this is going to be play out.

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I’m pretty sure home world characters get priority in the login queue if you read through all the details. The DC travel will also be funneling them to whatever worlds are least congested at that moment, if I’m understanding it right: world will be chosen for you based on how many people are currently on it. (Unless that’s just a default that can be changed.)

I’m cautiously optimistic that if everyone is forced to stay on their home worlds, that the queues won’t be that bad at all. And worse comes to worse, low pop servers get some help filling the duty finder for a bit!

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

Neither - was referring to this sentence from the post (of yours) I quoted: "His followers FLOODED the DC he rolled on and any other one they could roll a toon on and travel to him. I think I remember it coinciding with launch (or so close as not to matter) and really adding to the login chaos at the time"

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Yeah...that is what I meant by login mess. Tired= me not voicing my thought well Sorry

I think many forget on why there were so many issues with congestion at the start of Endwalker. There was a surge of players coming from World of warcraft at the time due to very high streaming some from Esport teams coupled with a new expansion there was congestion to be expected. Then we have to remember that at the time there was a very big shortage on semi conductors and Square enix was unable to expand their servers. So yeah, while there were problems with logins and disconnects, they did fix it as soon as they could. Yoshi made a comment that he was confident that it would not be a repeat since they have a larger capacity in server space and the ability to create additional worlds. We shall see.

You should be expecting login queues, long ones for the largest population worlds. You should expect bugs and maintenances and further down time. This is consistent with every single MMO on every expansion.. If you call off work on day one and can't play. That's on you.

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Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra

I’m pretty sure home world characters get priority in the login queue if you read through all the details. The DC travel will also be funneling them to whatever worlds are least congested at that moment, if I’m understanding it right: world will be chosen for you based on how many people are currently on it. (Unless that’s just a default that can be changed.)

I’m cautiously optimistic that if everyone is forced to stay on their home worlds, that the queues won’t be that bad at all. And worse comes to worse, low pop servers get some help filling the duty finder for a bit!

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I didn't see the Home World prioritization part, so that does make me feel slightly better.

Go to Shadow, got it.