Increase Server Capacity

[LunaHoshino]

Login is handled by a different server... AFK players don't impact logins anymore. We used to log directly in to the worlds originally, but they changed that up a long time ago with the addition of the intermediary servers (Aether, Primal, etc). The queuing and "full server" statuses are now triggered and managed at those lobby servers and not by the worlds themselves like they were at launch.

Interesting! Then it really makes me wonder why Balmung is closed off more often than Gilgamesh is despite Gilgamesh having a larger population (AFAIK).

[Raist]

Interesting! Then it really makes me wonder why Balmung is closed off more often than Gilgamesh is despite Gilgamesh having a larger population (AFAIK).

It has always been and continues to be about load balancing. All of this data is hosted on clustered servers. Basically, they are trying to keep things spread out as best as they can for stability and such. You can go all the way back to Beta4 and pre-launch and find notices about it:

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...68581b416c19ad

08/21/2013 3:06 PM
Procedures during Periods of High Congestion (Aug. 21)
We are expecting major congestion during the period starting with the Early Access on Aug. 24, 2013 at 2:00 a.m. (PDT) leading up to the official game launch on Aug. 27, 2013 (PDT).

If a large volume of players attempt to login to the game simultaneously, certain players may receive the following message: “This World is currently full. Players in queue: ##.” If you receive this message, we ask that you please wait until your login is processed.

In addition, in order to avoid server congestion related issues from multiple characters concentrating in the starting areas, we may implement restrictions on logins and/or the creation of new characters for a period of time after the servers open to the public.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.

[Ashren]

It has always been and continues to be about load balancing. All of this data is hosted on clustered servers. Basically, they are trying to keep things spread out as best as they can for stability and such. You can go all the way back to Beta4 and pre-launch and find notices about it:

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...68581b416c19ad

After reading this post, I guess I can assume that it is the massive amount of RPers hanging around in the cities that are causing Balmung to constantly be locked, though I do also disagree with the notion of Gilgamesh is more populated than Balmung. I checked Gilgamesh recently and there were probably a little more people scattered around all three cities in total than you will see hanging around in Ul'dah on Balmung.