European servers

[Shioban]

"I don't care about all of this, why can't they just open more servers over here!"

People are fickle, people change games.

The 'new' world servers for FFXIV are almost empty compared to a lot of the Legacy Servers (With exception for some such as Ultros, Gilgamesh etc.)

To invest hundreds of thousands in a datacentre that may turn out to be a waste of money when people jump shit is an investment nightmare.

Retaining players is difficult for an MMO especially as it ages, ARR is now only a year old but even then to invest in more servers where there's currently a need for some to be merged already would simply signal to the developers as well as the publisher themselves "Lol no, it's clear there's no need for it".

Maintaining the server is not the big issue for them, that cost is negligible at best.
Purchasing and Installing and Preparing them is, this initial cost could be a HUGE duck and loss in profits that could have been used better elsewhere.

They simply will not invest the time or money into it, unless its absolutely necessary, which currently it's not.

Yes they can, by making the route much shorter. As in not having to go through a freaking ocean.

Is costly for them? Shouldn't we expect a much better service from a subscription MMO?

Is it costly for them?
The initial cost and the maintenance of a data-centre of the same quality as the one you're currently using in Canada is extremley expensive to set-up, prepare and also maintain.
The cost for a good quality infrastructure capable of delivery an average 0.3 response for an average 1000-5000 connections at once per world is always going to be high, sub-par hardware isn't going to be purchased therefore increase the cost to hundreds of thousands of dollars to set-up initially and then maintain.

Should we expect more from a subscription MMO?
In some ways yes, but in many many other ways no, this is a business and large costs albeit to satisfy customer demand sometimes just cannot be met.

Does the ocean part matter?
No, as we've already proven that's not the issue here, there's clearly an issue between specific players connections taking routes that either hit a bad node, or somewhere with heavy congestion or instability causing the jump or delay. If the entirety of EU/AU players were unable to play the game, THEN cause for an EU datacentre would be considered.

For the most part the problem can be fixed either be contacting your ISP and explaining the situation and demanding to speak to someone with the technical expertise to diagnose the issue by providing them with your Worlds IP address; http://www.arrstatus.com/


I completely understand the enmity towards this subject.
It it VERY frustrating when you're playing any online game and it doesn't work optimally, but people all to easily point their finger at the developer and say "It's not working for me, therefore it's your job to fix it and my connection!

Networks are complex, Square Enix cannot compensate for every eventually for hundreds of thousands of players with thousands of different network combinations, routes and overall circumstances.

It's frustrating but a little maturity goes a long way.



Can I fix it though?

Maybe! Try doing what I said above;

For the most part the problem can be fixed either be contacting your ISP and explaining the situation and demanding to speak to someone with the technical expertise to diagnose the issue by providing them with your Worlds IP address; http://www.arrstatus.com/

I must insist that if you do this BULLY them into allowing you to talk to someone who actually knows how to help you with this issue.





You can also try these services to re-route the traffic if you're unable to do-so yourself;

http://www.battleping.com/

http://www.wtfast.com/

Which a fair number of FFXIV users in an area with high internet traffic and or suffer from a 'bad-hop' between You > Server > You, and for the most part see a significant improvement.


There are always solutions, people just prefer to complain and demand unreasonable demands instead of trying them first.


=====================================================================================

phenomenally isn't a number.

If you'd actually read over my post you would see that I elaborated on this.

Don't be so quick to jump the gun.

[Toranja]

If you knew the initial cost and the maintenance of a data-centre of the same quality as the one you're currently using then you'd understand what I said that.
The cost is phenomenally expensive for a good quality infrastructure capable of delivery an average 0.3 response for an average 1000-5000 connections at once per world.

phenomenally isn't a number.

[Alukah]

This game is designed to be playable no matter where you live.

Not with the way they designed how this game handles data, even with a steady 80ms I have problems dealing with aoes, yet I can play any Action MMO or FPS with 200~300ms and have no issues, only here, a tab-target game.

I understand why they made the game this way, it prevents any kind of hacking, but I feel like the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

[Shioban]

Not with the way they designed how this game handles data, even with a steady 80ms I have problems dealing with aoes, yet I can play any Action MMO or FPS with 200~300ms and have no issues, only here, a tab-target game.

I understand why they made the game this way, it prevents any kind of hacking, but I feel like the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

You should have absolutely no issue dodging AOEs with a steady 80ms.

You have half the ping I do and actually even a 1/4 of the ping that my friend in Australia has, and we've both been able to clear all of the content in the game we've come across with ease thus-far. Even when I had personally a connection in London of 200ms due to a low-quality line and high traffic area I was still able to complete the content without issue.

Packet transfers in FFXIV do not prevent hacking, not even remotely I have no idea where you're pulling that information from, the packet transfers are extremely easy to manipulate.


A lot of the time that players encountered this issue, we found they were moving too slowly, either due to their reaction times and or they weren't looking at the cast bar.
For example in Titan HM, "Weight of the Land" is extremley easy to dodge when you know it's coming up, using "Shift+F" for focus target on Titan also helps you notice the cast-bar.

If you're still in the way as the CAST BAR ends then you'll get hit, the graphic you see in-game means nothing.

Understanding what's coming up next and moving preemptively or moving the SPLIT second the cast starts is important.

[Alberel]

Yes they can, by making the route much shorter. As in not having to go through a freaking ocean.

Is costly for them? Shouldn't we expect a much better service from a subscription MMO?

Thing is the majority of EU players have no problem... which makes it VERY likely that all those currently having problems would STILL have problems if SE moved the datacentre. The reality is those with problems need to change something on their end because it is not the location of the datacentre that is causing the issue.

[Saccharin]

Square Enix cannot compensate for the route your ISP and particular connection will take from You > Server > You > Server (etc).

Each 'hop' has the potential to cause issues for you.

While you are correct it can be an issue between the player and SE it is up to SE to 'compensate' for this. 'The internet' wasn't designed for real time anything just that you get your data eventually. It's no surprise that other MMOs have this issue too but what they did is use code to compensate for the 'lag'. SE decided to make this a dodge game and while that's fine and seems to be what other MMOs are doing now it does mean that you have to set the game up to cope with poorer connections and SE have not done this and some of their 'net code' is ill-fitting considering how this game operates. After a few datacentre tweaks I'm 100-150ms and don't have an issue but not everyone is that lucky.

[Toranja]

If you'd actually read over my post you would see that I elaborated on this.

Don't be so quick to jump the gun.

Let me translate your first paragraph for you. It begins with "IF ONLY YOU KNEW..." and then it goes with "I DON'T KNOW EITHER, BUT IT MUST BE BAZILLIONS!"

If you're still in the way as the CAST BAR ends then you'll get hit, the graphic you see in-game means nothing.

Ballistic Missile. There are also a few others.

[Shioban]

Let me translate your first paragraph for you. It begins with "IF ONLY YOU KNEW..." and then it goes with "I DON'T KNOW EITHER, BUT IT MUST BE BAZILLIONS!"

I know the rough cost, yes. But as I don't know the exact to the letter hardware set-up Square Enix themselves are using it would be inappropriate to post a random figure without actually knowing to the letter what they have.

I can sit an work it out for you in a new reply if it's really that big an issue, it won't take too long, but the cost is still going to be at the very least $100,000 minimum for a hardware set-up even close to producing the 0.3 delay they currently have.

Ballistic Missile. There are also a few others.

Yup! There are a few that work as intended and for the most part reflect the cast bar correctly.

But there is a HUGE amount of AOEs where people place their reliance on the in-game graphic that they see and therefore react to slowly, then complaining "I got hit, whyyyyy SE!"


My point still stands, the cast-bar for those rule supreme, even if the graphic in certain cases matches the timing perfectly.

[Edli]

Thing is the majority of EU players have no problem... which makes it VERY likely that all those currently having problems would STILL have problems if SE moved the datacentre.

Why do you say that? You have absolutely no idea how many EU players are affected or not. The only data you have is some comments here and there on how it is fine for them. For all we know the majority may have problems but decided to deal with it or leave.

The initial cost and the maintenance of a data-centre of the same quality as the one you're currently using in Canada is extremley expensive to set-up, prepare and also maintain.

You wrote a long reply to defend SE but you still ignore the fact that a lot of other MMOs, some even f2p or no sub like GW2 have data centers on EU. Why did they do that? For fun, to waste money?

Then your suggestion to fix it is for me to deal now with my ISP and I don't have the nerve for that mainly because I know they'll do nothing. Another suggestion is for me to pay monthly to wtfast. Yeah no. I pay monthly to SE and I expect for them to do something about it.

[Shioban]

You wrote a long reply to defend SE but you still ignore the fact that a lot of other MMOs, some even f2p or no sub like GW2 have data centers on EU. Why did they do that? For fun, to waste money?


Then your suggestion to fix it is for me to deal now with my ISP and I don't have the nerve for that mainly because I know they'll do nothing. Another suggestion is for me to pay monthly to wtfast. Yeah no. I pay monthly to SE and I expect for them to do something about it.

Well, it comes across as a defence for Square Enix, but it's really a defence for MMO developers in general.

First you have to understand is that those MMOs have investors.

Investors are people outside of the company who put forward money as capital towards a new release to try and make it "The next big things", this money can be used for;

> Development
> Servers
> Wages
> Marketing

You name it, whatever is needed. The big issue with that is the investors want their money back ASAP. Hence why you see F2P/P2P/P2W games coming up all over the place, they want their money back as soon as possible so the developer resorts to adding in cash-cow mechanics.

Square Enix does NOT have investors, after the original failure of FFXIV any money put into FFXIVs development was done so frugaly and with great care.
All of the money spent is from Square Enix own pocket as a risk and wager in the hope that ARR would be more popular.

This game relies almost entirely on its subscribers to fund it's future developmen, maintenance and even profit for the company to develop/produce other content comes from FFXIV.
Thinking for even a second that all of your subscription goes back into FFXIV's development is just foolish, it's thrown into to pot and then split.

So vice-versa, other content produced by Square Enix that turns a profit goes back into FFXIV also.



Why does this matter?

Investing in servers where they weren't needed was one unnecessary cost they decided to avoid.

All unnessecary risks, dangers and costs were avoided from start to finish, which is why FFXIV is one of the most accessible and 'safest' MMOs on the market currently to play.

Then your suggestion to fix it is for me to deal now with my ISP and I don't have the nerve for that mainly because I know they'll do nothing. Another suggestion is for me to pay monthly to wtfast. Yeah no. I pay monthly to SE and I expect for them to do something about it.

That's my suggestion yes, not as a "SE are supreme, you're a scrub!" menatality, but a genuine effort to help.

Square Enix or any company for that matter cannot and will not guarantee that your connection to their game will be flawless, there are just too many factors that they cannot influence or change to guarantee that, which is why it falls on you to do your best to either bully your ISP into trying to fix it, or finding a work around.

That's all that can be done really, Square Enix dumping an EU datacentre somewhere in Germany will not fix a terrible connection and I can guarantee even then that people will still have issues if not the exact same ones.



THAT BEING SAID. There are some people who would genuinely benefit from an EU datacentre, but the cost is still a bigger factor to Square Enix which is why you've never heard them even mention an EU based EU datacentre.