Square, I beg you. I've lost a dozen friends signing up already. Please open Balmung.

[Vorpal_Spork]

Either move to a server that isn't overpopulated or have your friends try at less busy times. You have the power to fix this, but the devs don't. The servers only hold so many people.

[Gyson]

Either move to a server that isn't overpopulated or have your friends try at less busy times. You have the power to fix this, but the devs don't. The servers only hold so many people.

Actually, the developers could have a hand in fixing this, in more than one way. Like the poster below stated:

Maybe if we'd start kicking all these AFKers it be easier to make characters since the lockout is a function of congestion and traffic tot he server.

I'm not sure how it is on other servers, but there are a ridiculous number of long-term AFK characters on Balmung. I don't think I'd be that far off if I suggested nearly 25% of the characters currently logged into Balmung have been AFK for longer than an hour. If players were automatically logged off after 15 minutes of inactivity I suspect the number of characters logged into Balmung at any given moment would be significantly lower.

The other thing that really should be happening is that character creation restrictions shouldn't apply to players who already have a character on Balmung. If I switch from my main character to an alternate character, I'm not increasing the number of characters logged into the game - it remains exactly the same. As I'm not adding to the number of characters currently logged in, I shouldn't be prevented from creating new characters when the population is too high. After all, I can't play more than one character on the same account at once.. thus I can't contribute any more to the population problems than I already have. My impact is exactly the same whether I have just one character on Balmung or eight.

[Santherelle]

Well said Gyson.

[Sadana]

I'm not increasing the number of characters logged into the game - it remains exactly the same. As I'm not adding to the number of characters currently logged in, I shouldn't be prevented from creating new characters when the population is too high.

That's the thing though... we don't know if this is the reason Balmung or any server is closed. :/ It could be overall population, not how many are active at that time. SE may want people to spread out more and not leave some servers deserted.

[Gyson]

That's the thing though... we don't know if this is the reason Balmung or any server is closed. :/ It could be overall population, not how many are active at that time. SE may want people to spread out more and not leave some servers deserted.

I suspect if it were overall population (rather than the current number of characters online) then Balmung wouldn't be open to new characters in the wee hours of the morning, or just following a maintenance / server-crash. But that's often precisely when new characters can be created on Balmung, so it seems likely it's more about the number of characters currently logged in at any given moment.

Having said that, I find that new character creation on Balmung is not usually possible on the weekends or during holidays, when more people have time to play (and for longer). I would be surprised, for example, to see Balmung open for character creation anytime over this next week - although people do travel over the holidays, so who knows.

[finalthief]

There are other servers, just go to another server. Why bother getting Balmung? What's so special about it? I mean, you can do whatever you want so why stress over one server? I just don't understand... Help me understand. *confused*

[Noshpan]

Because friends want to play together. If they can't play together then they eventually don't play. Also, if you've spent a lot of time on a character that happens to be on an often closed server you don't really want to start a new character and do everything all over again. And some people just don't want to transfer to a different world server, either because they don't want to pay the fee or they've also got established friends on the server that they are on (and trying to get new friends on).

[Sadana]

There are other servers, just go to another server. Why bother getting Balmung? What's so special about it? I mean, you can do whatever you want so why stress over one server? I just don't understand... Help me understand. *confused*

Balmung is the unofficial RP server and is very active at all times. There isn't another server quite like it, in my experience. ^^

eta: Oh... you're ON Balmung. I'm guessing you don't RP and have never tried a different server?

[finalthief]

Balmung is the unofficial RP server and is very active at all times. There isn't another server quite like it, in my experience. ^^

eta: Oh... you're ON Balmung. I'm guessing you don't RP and have never tried a different server?

Yes, I am on Balmung which is why I don't see why it's such a big deal for people to jump on but I do see Noshpan point. I have failed to see that point myself, I apologize. FYI, I didn't choose Balmung because it was an RP server but because it was one of the few Legacy servers that was available on launch coming from v1.0. I apologize again.

[rainichan]

Balmung was where I was shuffled from 1.0 along with all of my friends once characters were actually put on to servers after beta. A majority of us were put there, so that's where we stayed. Balmung has ALWAYS been congested; a friend who started playing had to transfer her character in since when they called SE they said Balmung was going to pretty much be on lockdown for a long while with very few attempts to be able to create a character there. Server transfer may be the only way at this point, beyond waiting for maintenance to conclude.