NA/EU Server Congestion: The Problem & A Solution for Devs (PLEASE READ)

The current issue with NA/EU servers, when it comes down to it, is quite simple: there are simply too many people trying to play at the same time. The fact of the matter is, the existing 25 NA/EU servers are basically already near, at, and in many cases, over capacity.

Assuming most Early Access players stick around for official release, the influx of new players joining at that point will almost guarantee the necessity for new servers to be opened up. There is no other way to address this. No queue or server maintenance will resolve the fact that too many people are trying to get in. Yes, eventually the server populations will most likely stabilize, but it will come at a cost of many people having already left.

Meanwhile, the Japanese servers are humming along relatively problem free. This is not because Japanese servers are somehow better, but the result of a simple marketing decision to "designate" these servers, which are physically located in Japan, as "Japanese worlds".

The reality is that the latency difference between a JP and a NA/EU server is mostly negligible for most people. In fact, I'd wager if Square Enix never bothered with separating the servers and simply stated "we have 50 worlds for all players in the world, feel free to join any one of them" we would have a far more even distribution of players across all worlds, and you won't have this issue of the JP servers being underutilized while the NA/EU ones are bursting at the seams. And I would bet nobody in NA would even notice the latency difference of a JP server (and vice versa).

My solution to the devs is to abolish the system of "designating" servers. Simply list ALL servers in a single list for ALL world players. All servers would then be utilized evenly AND you end up with the benefit of a more varied world community that people valued in FFXI.

For now, there needs to be more servers. Once that is done, please allow all existing players to do an optional one-time server transfer to ONLY those new servers, so those who wish to reunite with their friends/family or are willing to leave their current world for a less congested server can do so.

Yeah, if I knew this would happen, I would have rolled on a Japanese server. Not much of a difference except time zones, and that would be easily solved if more people from NA and EU rolled on them.

This is very true. I have been tooling around on Garuda off and on during all of this mess, and i've not noticed a single issue with Latency, and there are a significant number of Oceanic players there as well. The language barrier and latency are non-issues, and are now starting to seem more xenophobic than technical in nature.

Again, I say they should have started trying to roll out a bigger box or redundant servers for the login and instancing problems on our side, once this started yesterday. By now, if they'd done that, we'd be playing happily. People keep stating that launch will be worse, but after everyone reading about the login troubles we've had all weekend, i'm not sure it will be.

totally agree ive got a character on the jpn servers also and have not had a single issue there so far. Could simply be a case of underestimation of server loads for EU/NA since the last boot im getting a 1-2 second tween freeze for all characters moving past me. Crafting failing due to repeating commands thinking they have not processed. As for free server swaps not 100% on that could limit gameplay later but atleast free 24-48hr transfers to even the load

Now this I like. I even hit the like button. Nice one. Even tried posting something similar earlier but couldn't for the life of me work out where to stick it (and hit a problem with caps on thread starts which put me off stride). Had it all written up in word hoping I could post it tomorrow but you've worded it much better and more concisely.

Rolled a toon on a JAP server earlier, no problems so far and no noticeable difference between this and the EU server (playing from Scotland).

Theres a 50-60ms difference between them for players in the US, which while not super huge is still significant. Not to mention we don't really want to have to play on a server where the majority don't understand us. They need to just open more US servers. And work towards setting up a hub of servers to be used for instances/dutys so that all of the strain isn't going onto 1.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fellswoop

totally agree ive got a character on the jpn servers also and have not had a single issue there so far. Could simply be a case of underestimation of server loads for EU/NA since the last boot im getting a 1-2 second tween freeze for all characters moving past me. Crafting failing due to repeating commands thinking they have not processed. As for free server swaps not 100% on that could limit gameplay later but atleast free 24-48hr transfers to even the load

---

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

Opening transfers is a good idea. However, managing those transfers is also a good idea. Get groups together to apply 'as a group' for a transfer. I dunno, by guild or linkshell or something so people don't get left behind and it can be managed properly. That way people actually get to play with their friends and really, at the end of the day, would it really matter what the servers called, so long as those groups can stay together? True, there might be a bit of fun if someone wants to transfer the group between pvp, pve or rp servers and others in the group don't, but well, give people notice of how it'll work and people will adjust accordingly if given fair warning. Heh, do we even still have those designations any more for FF XIV:ARR servers? The bracketed info doesn't seem to be listed in the server list any more.

'Course, if they separated characters from servers so you could pick which server to play on today with your toon then it'll remove most if not all of the issues.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dallie

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

---

yeah it would cause some issues maybe they could do a population cap per server or release the info for per server member list/pop ratio. Im loving the 2.0 ARR atm not even that bothered that ive paid for the game twice to get early maintenance access :) but would like to see something drastically change prior to launch. I want to pay and stay i just need a reason.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dallie

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

---

+1 for regional locking being retarded.

However, you do realize most NA players already are jumping ship over to JP servers right? I've already made a toon on Kujata because I'm tired of my world being up for maybe 15 seconds on the list and then the NA/EU lists go back fucking down. Awesome isn't it?

Thanks for the inputs everyone. I have a character on Tonberry and everything works smoothly there even during grouped instances despite the hard data telling me the ping time is higher. I'm sure that may change when the servers become congested but beyond that there's no real technical reason why people wouldn't want to play on these servers other than the psychological barrier SE put on people by designating them as "Japanese worlds".

Whatever benefits of splitting these servers up, business or marketing wise, cannot possibly make up for the operating nightmare this has been for them. I'm very worried about official launch since most gaming publications will be reviewing the game soon and they will slaughter this game if this is the experience they will be getting.

Great thought yet your sitting on the out side with no real clue whats going on. Its more then just "congestion" or we would all get a "jump in que". Lol people keep talking about transfers as if right now ALL servers are full. The "try again later" should be your 1st clue something more is going on and servers are NOT all full.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmiliM

Thanks for the inputs everyone. I have a character on Tonberry and everything works smoothly there even during grouped instances despite the hard data telling me the ping time is higher. I'm sure that may change when the servers become congested but beyond that there's no real technical reason why people wouldn't want to play on these servers other than the psychological barrier SE put on people by designating them as "Japanese worlds".

Whatever benefits of splitting these servers up, business or marketing wise, cannot possibly make up for the operating nightmare this has been for them. I'm very worried about official launch since most gaming publications will be reviewing the game soon and they will slaughter this game if this is the experience they will be getting.

---

the technical reason is the Na/EU physical locations for lower latency. thats why we would want to pick those to have the best connection possible, thats why they made them. they just didnt make enough of them

and some of us cant just hop on a JP server because we have 1.0 characters that we want to keep.
i mean we technically can but im not gonna make another throw away character or just restart on a JP server (located in japan) and lose all that i did on 1.0
they need to add more NA and EU servers

In the end, we are all speculating. And, many are very upset - as is to be expected. It's like ordering that new gizmo you always wanted from some online store only to have to wait 2-3 days before it's delivered. During the wait, the anticipation is immense. Then, when you get it, you discover they sent the wrong thing. You feel let down, betrayed, and extremely angered. That's what many are feeling here. And, I am truly sorry that you all have to go through this. I'm not defending SE at all here, but I know in the end, things will get better. I did not play in beta, so I find some solace in being able to log in to a Japanese server to explore some of the world and get a feel for the game.

No real point in this post really. Just wanted to chime in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zeblade

Great thought yet your sitting on the out side with no real clue whats going on. Its more then just "congestion" or we would all get a "jump in que". Lol people keep talking about transfers as if right now ALL servers are full. The "try again later" should be your 1st clue something more is going on and servers are NOT all full.

---

I have a character on Tonberry because I can't get in to my character on Behemoth, and even when I am able to the instanced quests are still broken so I am painfully aware of what's going on, and that's why I suggested what I did: get rid of server region designations to avoid uneven population distributions like what's happening now.

The try again later is the only thing they can say when connections time out due to traffic. You will continue to see this for as long as there are too many people trying cram into a full server.

They should of kept phase 4 going longer to stress test the servers a day isn't long enough to stress test 50 servers

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IveraIvalice

the technical reason is the Na/EU physical locations for lower latency. thats why we would want to pick those to have the best connection possible, thats why they made them. they just didnt make enough of them

and some of us cant just hop on a JP server because we have 1.0 characters that we want to keep.
i mean we technically can but im not gonna make another throw away character or just restart on a JP server (located in japan) and lose all that i did on 1.0
they need to add more NA and EU servers

---

That makes perfect sense in theory, and is probably why SE went with separating the servers in the first place along with whatever business benefits that came with it. In reality however, you end up with lopsided server population distribution and you are stuck with thousands unable to connect even though there are perfectly functional servers that would serve their purposes just fine, if only they weren't designated as "Japanese" simply because they are physically located in Japan.

And what I am proposing is not to create a new character on a JP server, but to abolish the JP/NA/EU designations altogether. Instead of saying "I'm going to play on a JP server because the NA/EU ones are full", you'd simply go to, say, Atomos, not because it's Japanese or whatever, but because it's available and not already packed to the brim with people. If everyone did this, then you'd end up with a even distribution of players speaking all languages across all servers. Sure, some of these servers will have somewhat higher latency, but IMO that's a small price to pay to avoid all of this.

For relieving congestion, free transfers should be available only to new servers. Assuming enough people do this, it should relieve the stress on existing servers so you wouldn't have to move your 1.0 character.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arae

Theres a 50-60ms difference between them for players in the US, which while not super huge is still significant. Not to mention we don't really want to have to play on a server where the majority don't understand us. They need to just open more US servers. And work towards setting up a hub of servers to be used for instances/dutys so that all of the strain isn't going onto 1.

---

I disagree. The best experience I had in FFXI was the diversity in culture.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zeblade

Great thought yet your sitting on the out side with no real clue whats going on. Its more then just "congestion" or we would all get a "jump in que". Lol people keep talking about transfers as if right now ALL servers are full. The "try again later" should be your 1st clue something more is going on and servers are NOT all full.

---

Sorry but every major convenience in the world from tele banking , pizza ordering to booking a flight to the other side of the world for plastic surgery will use "try again later" when they are pushed beyond their capabilities redundant post , also note no issues on JPN servers and 4 extra worlds added on launch ?? gotta get you thinking

The projection of players and the capacity of servers is fine... Due to an error in 1.0 I luckily already made a toon on a JP. That is kind of sad.... But happy times for a few hours.
Would be nice to have a server transfer when it's all fixed and sorted, cause I do notice the lag and the language barrier.

It's the silly blockages and errors that make people re-queue that is congesting a crap load.
The silence of death and technical error # with unknown solutions is also a sad way of doing business.
"Your #fephaf is undergoing a #49958. Should be fixed if you #o3820r or we #392484. Thanks"

Soooo..... Keep the servers where they are and the way they are.
Give us a queue system, fix the errors or just make 1 that makes sense and fix disconnections first.

and 27th even more people will try to get ingame, oohh joy

I totally agree with OP.
This game will fail again if this problem isn't fixed soon! The saying always is, Bad News always travels faster then good, people always would complain about something rather then say how good it is. The game is fantastic, yeah it could do with a few tweaks here and there I am sure, but these servers could be the death of ARR.

You can say all MMO's have these problems, and "welcome to MMO launch" but remember, Beta Test stages where designed to help sort these problems out, the final beta, was a stress test, where not only were they trying to max out server load, but also give people a taste of the game! They want to fix these issues FAST, they have a NDA in place during the EA, this is why, but the NDA will be void when servers open in just over a day and a half! All the hard work, will be ripped to shreds, within hours!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aydem

and 27th even more people will try to get ingame, oohh joy

---

Well, I'm not sure about this...after all this problems many soon to be players will think it twice before waisting their money in something that doesn't work. Many will wait until they see all has been fixed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pavetl

Well, I'm not sure about this...after all this problems many soon to be players will think it twice before waisting their money in something that doesn't work. Many will wait until they see all has been fixed.

---

That's the thing though, if people stop playing the game, or hold off until it is fixed, then eventually the problem will be fixed, because less people will be playing, so it be like "Hey the game works perfectly again".. everyone bombards the servers then say.. "Oh wait, I thought they fixed it!"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dukedudeston

That's the thing though, if people stop playing the game, or hold off until it is fixed, then eventually the problem will be fixed, because less people will be playing, so it be like "Hey the game works perfectly again".. everyone bombards the servers then say.. "Oh wait, I thought they fixed it!"

---

That's exactly where my thoughts lay as well. In reality we really cant say much since its still early access... but my early access ends today cause of my work schedule....so ive not really done anything... And I will not pay to play a busted ass game. So far the game has impressed me. But as it stands... Id rather go play some free to play mmo then try to get my moneys worth of a game that I cant even log into a server for. Im giving them 1 month... if theres not an improvement im gone. And I know of at least 10 other people irl that are saying the same thing as me.

I started playing on a japanese worlds yesterday and haven't had any problems, but I expect later I will if for no other reason than the time difference. She'll probably become my "I need to escape and go solo for awhile" character because during my prime time the server population is scarce.

The idea of just having all worlds listed so the population can sort itself works for me, except we can't sort ourselves since we can't tell what the load on any of the worlds is. I know companies don't like to list their population numbers these days, but even just a word or graphic designation for population level would help.

Login Limitation After Emergency Maintenance (Aug. 25): Follow-up 3
We have confirmed that the issues on the North American/European data center Worlds have resurfaced. Therefore, we have placed a severe login restriction in order to stabilize the servers.

While you may continue to have a difficult time logging into the game, please note that the issue is being addressed, and new updates will follow as additional information becomes available.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this is causing everyone for an extended period, but we would like to ask for your continued cooperation to make this a stable environment.

My recommendation would be to implement a rationing system:

[I'm not sure if the queue already works this way or not (probably not), but it would ensure that people can at least play for a little bit.]

I think, for the most part, when people log in, they stay logged in for quite some time (I was on for like 8 hours straight the other day). This would be fine if no one was waiting to get in, but when you're flooded with so many users, only a select few can enjoy the game.

If there's a queue in effect, the server should disconnect the users that have been logged in the longest (this would also kick the assholes who sit there afk-ing). Those disconnected users can then simply put themselves onto the end of the queue and wait for an available spot (which shouldn't take too, too long).

This would ensure that EVERYONE can at least play the game at some point. No more of this nonsense login blocking that's taking place.

Of course there are some additional parameters to consider:

- Don't DC people that are in transition
- Don't DC people in an instance
- Give someone at least (say) an hour before they're force-DC-ed by the server
- Wait (say) 5 seconds before the server force-DCs someone
- etc

I think this would be much easier to do than the original proposal, which requires some serious server architecture overhauls (sharing accounts across all data centers, sharding, normalization, etc etc) - although this would certainly relieve some of the congestion problems.

Perhaps SE could consolidate servers into smaller "networks" that could share their data - so if there's 25 data centers, put 5 data centers on a "network = 5 "networks". You connect to a "network" and then select a server. The data center with your data on it transfers that data to the server that you selected. Presto! This is how high volume services handle this problem on the back end (facebook, twitter, etc).

With this much congestion already (and it's only going to get worse after a full release), SE needs to seriously consider these "Big Data" concerns.

I think SE has rolled out a fantastic game, but they've done a shoddy job with communication and server management (at least on the non-JP end)

Sorry for rambling and thanks for reading.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MisterPuddin

My recommendation would be to implement a rationing system:

---

I'd disagree with you and say this is not an amusement park ride. There is no point in kicking people off so others can play for fairness's sake. You're going to end up with one group of pissed users or another, it's all the same.

The solution I suggested would require some reconfiguration for sure, but it would definitely cost less at least in the short-medium term than adding and operating entirely new servers, and it's far better for the health (not to mention community) of all existing servers in the long run (far less concern about under- or over-utilization of regional servers).

I remember SE having to explain their head off to unhappy users about splitting up the servers during beta 3: very few, if any, people asked for it, and many 1.0 players in both Japan and NA/EU were very unhappy about being torn apart from their friends overseas. SE tried to explain the merits but looking back at it now, I really hope they realize it was all a big mistake.

Anyway, I'd disagree except I just got kicked off 90000 style after being on for a few hours so maybe they are rotating people lol

I like what other games have done. Allow gamers to freely switch to another server in-game. Servers were labeled green, yellow, or red based on congestion and people could move their character to a less populated server. Or even when a person ''teleports'' or ''returns'' in FFXIV, that they would be going to their chosen destination, but on a less congested server. People in parties could still talk to party members between servers, and a party member could say "Hey. Everyone move to XXXXX server." Joining instances could teleport you to less populated servers, etc. Let the game itself and the people playing it regulate the congestion. *shrugs* Seems to work for others.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kahlane

I disagree. The best experience I had in FFXI was the diversity in culture.

---

I don't know why people had such great experiences playing with Japanese people while playing FFXI, I thought it was terrible.

I mean, no offense to them but they had some strange traditions.
Such as, disbanding the party as soon as any single person left... even if you were searching for a group for 2 or more hours.

Also, no matter how good I was at using the in-game translation system, most Japanese speaking people would ask me if I spoke Japanese; If i replied with "No I don't sorry" (using the in-game translator) I wouldn't get in an invite to the party.
Likewise, If I lied and said yes, I'd get an invite and most likely not have to actually say a thing anyway.

Also no Japanese speaking people ever really joined my party if we needed to fill a position.

It was literally the worst thing about FFXI.

Great points, liked. We need to get some feedback from Square.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scolaris

I like what other games have done. Allow gamers to freely switch to another server in-game. Servers were labeled green, yellow, or red based on congestion and people could move their character to a less populated server. Or even when a person ''teleports'' or ''returns'' in FFXIV, that they would be going to their chosen destination, but on a less congested server. People in parties could still talk to party members between servers, and a party member could say "Hey. Everyone move to XXXXX server." Joining instances could teleport you to less populated servers, etc. Let the game itself and the people playing it regulate the congestion. *shrugs* Seems to work for others.

---

Ragnarok Online I think did this. I think that's due to the way the infrastructure is set up. There are obvious benefits of doing this, although there is the downside of being technically complicated and makes it harder for people to meet up. A server status indicator would be useful regardless though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmiliM

The current issue with NA/EU servers, when it comes down to it, is quite simple: there are simply too many people trying to play at the same time. The fact of the matter is, the existing 25 NA/EU servers are basically already near, at, and in many cases, over capacity.

Assuming most Early Access players stick around for official release, the influx of new players joining at that point will almost guarantee the necessity for new servers to be opened up. There is no other way to address this. No queue or server maintenance will resolve the fact that too many people are trying to get in. Yes, eventually the server populations will most likely stabilize, but it will come at a cost of many people having already left.

Meanwhile, the Japanese servers are humming along relatively problem free. This is not because Japanese servers are somehow better, but the result of a simple marketing decision to "designate" these servers, which are physically located in Japan, as "Japanese worlds".

The reality is that the latency difference between a JP and a NA/EU server is mostly negligible for most people. In fact, I'd wager if Square Enix never bothered with separating the servers and simply stated "we have 50 worlds for all players in the world, feel free to join any one of them" we would have a far more even distribution of players across all worlds, and you won't have this issue of the JP servers being underutilized while the NA/EU ones are bursting at the seams. And I would bet nobody in NA would even notice the latency difference of a JP server (and vice versa).

My solution to the devs is to abolish the system of "designating" servers. Simply list ALL servers in a single list for ALL world players. All servers would then be utilized evenly AND you end up with the benefit of a more varied world community that people valued in FFXI.

For now, there needs to be more servers. Once that is done, please allow all existing players to do an optional one-time server transfer to ONLY those new servers, so those who wish to reunite with their friends/family or are willing to leave their current world for a less congested server can do so.

---

I like this solution, especially the one-time server move. There are likely quite a few people willing to transfer to a low population server, but don't want to start-up a new character and lose progress. If anything, I don't see how this can hurt the current situation.

That said, I am unsure how long it would take to implement this solution, inform the community and then wait to see how it plays out. Its unfortunate, but I think we are too close to launch and to many issues they are currently working on to shift away resources to get something like this going. Hell world transfers were not even going to be an option for another few weeks if I am correct, its possible because they are still working on it.

I dont understand servers much, cant they do anything to increase the capacity of each world vs adding new ones?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ebojager

I dont understand servers much, cant they do anything to increase the capacity of each world vs adding new ones?

---

A lot of the problem is not only the installation, but also the configuring, testing, ordering, shipping, budgeting or just anything that is related to upgrading a piece of hardware (even more so for something of this magnitude). I am somewhat familiar with servers, but I think the best way to describe it would be like getting tires on your car switched out.

It would seem like a very simple switch, but what is time consuming are all the steps that lead up to the end result. What type of tires are you going to get, where are you going to get them, are they optimal for your car, can you afford them, how long will it take a technician or yourself to install them, if it takes longer do you have a back up vehicle to use? Its just stuff like this that make it a big pain.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tsuroku

That said, I am unsure how long it would take to implement this solution, inform the community and then wait to see how it plays out. Its unfortunate, but I think we are too close to launch and to many issues they are currently working on to shift away resources to get something like this going. Hell world transfers were not even going to be an option for another few weeks if I am correct, its possible because they are still working on it.

---

Yes, this would be a major change in the way servers are managed, which will be difficult to implement once paying customers are playing. That's probably why they wanted to have the current system set up during beta (and even then people made a big fuss about it). At the end of the day, I fear those who are frustrated will simply leave, and the servers will stablize and everyone else will just go back to playing and forget about all this. One of the reasons I wanted to direct people's attention to this is because it does more than just address the immediate server congestion concerns, it's a call to reverse their original decision to "split" the servers up and dividing a great global community. Yes, language barriers will present themselves, but at the end of the day, I think the benefits still far outweighs the downsides.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ebojager

I dont understand servers much, cant they do anything to increase the capacity of each world vs adding new ones?

---

It will probably be just as much work to upgrade existing servers vs getting new ones altogether. I'm led to believe the existing limit also takes into consideration of the game world design. For example, assuming at any given point 10% of players in each server can be found inside Gridania, and let's say Gridania can hold a maximum of 500 people before things start to look really crowded and unnatural. Then raising the population limit above 5,000 will potentially make a lot of the busier places very difficult to navigate.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tsuroku

A lot of the problem is not only the installation, but also the configuring, testing, ordering, shipping, budgeting or just anything that is related to upgrading a piece of hardware (even more so for something of this magnitude). I am somewhat familiar with servers, but I think the best way to describe it would be like getting tires on your car switched out.

It would seem like a very simple switch, but what is time consuming are all the steps that lead up to the end result. What type of tires are you going to get, where are you going to get them, are they optimal for your car, can you afford them, how long will it take a technician or yourself to install them, if it takes longer do you have a back up vehicle to use? Its just stuff like this that make it a big pain.

---

Thank you, that helps. Ive always wondered how the servers got full, or whatever, hard drive space, is each world multiple computers and can be enlarged by adding more space or computers, etc. Sounds interesting. Thanks for your reply.
Can I ask an unrelated question...the forum is only letting me post in the Technical Support forums, not the General or anything else ("New forum post cannot be made due to either you have reached to your daily limit or your main character's level is not high enough.")