Dear SE, please unlock Balmung

[Snugglebutt]

But regardless, SE needs to address the server always locked issue.

The server being locked is not the issue, it is done for very good reasons. The issue is people trying to bypass that lock and squeeze more in to the server whenever there is a crack in the wall found aka specific time gap. I think that server needs to be locked at this point and only unlocked when population significantly drops. The players are causing the issue, not SE.

It may not be the perfect solution for the players trying to get on it but there is a vast amount of other servers which need population increased which could benefit from it. They should also add the occasional free transfer weekends so FC's and groups of friends can move to other servers but make the free transfer weekend rare like maybe once every few months. The biggest excuse I see given most often is "my friends or FC is on the server and they do not want to pay to move", free weekends help with that issue.

[NinjaTaru72]

snip.

Character data does mean something and your honestly ignorant if you don't think it does. The data has to be stored somewhere in the server which can only hold so much data. Even if the characters only make up a small amount of data per character 15000 characters could easily take up 100k+ gb of space. And that's a low end estimate.

Yes, you may make up a small % of the population (I belive it to be more than 10-15) but your characters(RP players) take up a much greater amount than the rest of us combine.

And I didn't say I know how there system works, but I'm not stupid I know how memory space works, it doesn't take a genius to understand that.

[Blackweaver]

The server being locked is not the issue, it is done for very good reasons. The issue is people trying to bypass that lock and squeeze more in to the server whenever there is a crack in the wall found aka specific time gap.

Actually I don't think it is legitimate players that is the issue. It's the hacking bots that is causing the issue. There's quite frankly, a ton of them on Balmung, and nothing appears to be getting done about them. Goto a major quest hub, mainly a story quest npc area, or even just to the npc outside of the sunken temple of qarn. You will see black mage bots teleport hack to the npc, talk to the npc, then teleport hack away.

[Tiggy]

Actually I don't think it is legitimate players that is the issue. It's the hacking bots that is causing the issue. There's quite frankly, a ton of them on Balmung, and nothing appears to be getting done about them. Goto a major quest hub, mainly a story quest npc area, or even just to the npc outside of the sunken temple of qarn. You will see black mage bots teleport hack to the npc, talk to the npc, then teleport hack away.

This is the biggest part of the problem. I'd wager hundreds of server slots are taken up by the bots. It's actively hindering legit players from using the server.

And I didn't say I know how there system works, but I'm not stupid I know how memory space works, it doesn't take a genius to understand that.

Your attitude could use some improvement. You're talking like what you're saying IS the only correct answer. Bots are clearly a big part of the problem as are vast quantities of AFK players.

[Snugglebutt]

This is the biggest part of the problem. I'd wager hundreds of server slots are taken up by the bots. It's actively hindering legit players from using the server.

The bots are not the issue long term though, they do not help the issue but with or without them the issue is still players trying to squeeze into a cramped server. The population limit is required for server stability and such. If removed all the bots, the issue would continue to exist with players trying to get on and while you might get a tiny respite in terms of how long before back to square one server full again...it would still happen and quite quickly too.

If anything locking the server permanently on and off based on population limit will help remove the bot population almost completely because no new bots could be created on the server so when they ban one it cannot be replaced with another. But it would need to be locked at the end once filled with actual players not bots if hit the population limit. The population limit needs to be adhered to for server stability so when locked, should not be opened up during off peak hours, it should only be unlocked when significant population drops happens.

Once they banned every bot on the locked server they could then maybe open it up for a period of time for new players to fill those spots then lock it once more when hit population limit > ban any bots that sneaked their way in and keep doing that until the server is just non-bot players hitting the population restriction and then lock it for a final time. Do the same on all servers and it will clear the entire RMT bot population over time from world to world as each one fills up with actual players.

[myahele]

I think they need to re-implement the afk timer. Just so people wont throw a hissy fit, they should auto kick people who've been afk for atleast 24 hrs. There's no excuse for being afk for 24hrs.

Also, a free world transfer for those in high population to low population only would be great. Didn't they do that a few months after launch?

[Blackweaver]

snip

These issues though, weren't happening nearly as much when the bots were banned soon after they were reported, and there was an AFK auto-kick feature in place. Now, they removed the afk timer, and bots are running rampant, with nothing being done. Legit players are not the issue. It's those 2 groups that are. Yeah there were lockouts, but Balmung used to be on a level of the other popular servers. But, the fact there's now so many bots. I bet if I did a head count, I could have the names of at least 1000 active bots on balmung. SE should ban those accounts, and delete them characters, and guess what. The issues will dissipate.

[ExKage]

Anyone speaking as if they -know- the answer should sincerely stop. We don't know concretely what causes the character creation restrictions to be enforced only possibilities that we ourselves conclude but it's definitely going to be due to a high population of something that is only marginally affecting logins. Concurrent logged in characters is a high possibility considering that when people start logging off for maintenance gives some people time to smash a character into a world that is now almost locked 24/7. It used to be (just before the Christmas holidays) that it was possible to create characters on Balmung at 4am PST. It's no longer the case now and that RPers or new players are trying to get in during maintenance times or paying the transfer fee. Clearly we have a lot more players [or bots] on the world, moreso than any other world. This is evidenced by the login queue (that we started to have consistently since the time of the Christmas Holidays). The login queue is not as bad as pre-2.2? or whatever it was when they fixed the infrastructure and removed the auto-AFK kick.

The question is: Why are other worlds not as affected because they probably have just as bad of a time with bots than Balmung does. Looking at the bot pics of other worlds they're either a lot more noticeable/not teleporting glitching themselves or we -don't- have as many. I get, at most, 3 tells in a week for RMT. Three. On balmung. I have all methods of communication open and I don't set myself as Busy. This is a vastly different experience than others report on other worlds where they go "Oh I have such issues with how full my Blacklist is. I get so many tells in 15 minutes!"

[Snugglebutt]

The issues will dissipate.

It would only alleviate it for a tiny amount of time until fills up again whether by bots or by players. It does not solve it, there is no way to solve it completely unless players stop trying to squeeze into a pretty full server. I think they should lock it completely (off peak and peak hours) then go through banning all the bots, then unlock it for period of time to allow players to join to fill the spots once held by bots, lock it again once hit population cap and keep it locked at that stage until population drops significantly of its own accord. I think they should do that combined with the option of free transfer weekends from time to time.

[Snugglebutt]

The question is: Why are other worlds not as affected because they probably have just as bad of a time with bots than Balmung does.

...because the server populations are lower. The others with not as high but quite high populations are affected, just less often. Seems pretty simple answer whether population is made up of players or players and bots the answer is the same in that it is simply difference in populations and the population limit is needed to address server stability and memory issues. They could probably upgrade the bandwidth and servers themselves to increase capacity but it won't stop there from being a need for population limit, it just increases that limit slightly for a short period of time.