Dear SE, please unlock Balmung

[Kiroh]

I'm not saying I dislike rolplayers or you. I'm just saying if you guys get rid of some of your alts it would make room to make more. If you don't wanna do it as an. Accidental death, then just delete them. I just said "accidental death" for a suggestion that would fit in the "RP" stile. Then you could make new characters that go on an adventure together to find out what happened and why/how they died. =D

For the hundredth time, the amount of characters on the server has absolutely nothing to do with the server being locked. Server locks are based on the number of players logging in to the server at the time.

What I wonder is why Lamia, which also has daily login queues during the evening hours, doesn't have the same character creation restrictions?

Because Lamia doesn't have the amount of login server traffic consistantly enough to be locked. Other servers are locked pretty regularly too, like Behemoth and Cerberus.

[Blackweaver]

For the hundredth time, the amount of characters on the server has absolutely nothing to do with the server being locked. Server locks are based on the number of players logging in to the server at the time.

I put him on ignore after a comment he made. And yep, I definitely feel you are correct. And a lot of this, is from RMT. Prior to 2.5, I saw no bots personally, or if I did, it usually was a random RMT whisper. However, the moment I logged in after being patched to 2.5, went on my rogue and for the first time ever, saw huge armies of thaumaturge bots. Reported quite a few, and there were so many in one area, I couldn't get every single name and ended up just giving a location. And even today, they are still active. And prior to them, we didn't see the server as badly locked down as we do right now.

[Zohnax]

-Snip.-

The complete oversight of his point says a lot about you. It was an RP suggestion if the amount of existing characters was the problem and if you no longer used them to either have them in character meet with an unfortunate end, or simply just delete. It was not a personal death-threat to you or roleplayers. To counter your initial post, are you faster than these bots who create the accounts when the server is open and if they were to unlock the server at all times? What if someone got d/c'ed mid-raid due to ISP failure and can't get back on reasonably because they're several hundred players in queue?

The bots actually show heavily every two weeks to a month or so, by the way. (See: Actions Taken Against...) They do a lot of housekeeping and then they all have to start over from Thanalan on THM or where ever. But I think the reality is, Balmung is just that full normally because I hardly ever see an RMT /tell here as compared to hearing about the barrages some of the other servers get.

Which brings me to my personal stance on the issue, if you're done RP'ing with that character or you hardly ever use it, you should probably get rid of it(them). Because you're taking away from other peoples' friends being able to transfer or legit new players from starting here with their friends as well, which is the reasoning you used earlier in this thread to justify your desire for more characters. (However, this last statement hinges on how they define congestion.)

[Tiggy]

For the hundredth time, the amount of characters on the server has absolutely nothing to do with the server being locked. Server locks are based on the number of players logging in to the server at the time..

Saying it repeatedly doesn't make it true.

Specifically the page here http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...06d0909189e479 specifically says..

During periods of high congestion, we may institute a temporary restriction on the creation of new characters.

it may surprise you to know that congestion includes logins, AND other metrics like current server population. So until you can provide a source that specifically says that it is ONLY logins then me and others will continue to call BS on your baseless statement. Currently logged in players absolutely count as server congestion since they actively take away server and network resources. Not just logins. Your statement has no bearing on the realities of how the internet and servers actually work.

TLDR: Bring a source or drop it because what you're saying doesn't make any technical sense.

[TheRogueX]

Saying it repeatedly doesn't make it true.

Specifically the page here http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...06d0909189e479 specifically says..



it may surprise you to know that congestion includes logins, AND other metrics like current server population. So until you can provide a source that specifically says that it is ONLY logins then me and others will continue to call BS on your baseless statement. Currently logged in players absolutely count as server congestion since they actively take away server and network resources. Not just logins. Your statement has no bearing on the realities of how the internet and servers actually work.

TLDR: Bring a source or drop it because what you're saying doesn't make any technical sense.

Uh, Tiggy? Your quote just proved his point. It's not about the total number of characters created on the server, it's specifically about the number of characters concurrently logged in. That's what 'high congestion' means, and it is preciesely what Kiroh was saying.

[Tiggy]

Uh, Tiggy? Your quote just proved his point. It's not about the total number of characters created on the server, it's specifically about the number of characters concurrently logged in. That's what 'high congestion' means, and it is preciesely what Kiroh was saying.

Maybe I read him wrong but this was my interpretation.


For the hundredth time, the amount of characters on the server has absolutely nothing to do with the server being locked. -I read this as people currently logged in.

Server locks are based on the number of players logging in to the server at the time.. - Read this as people logging on right now.

Perhaps I misunderstood since the argument I interpreted it as has been made in the past. Especially with people thinking afk players don't count.they are on the server so they clearly do.

[Kiroh]

Maybe I read him wrong but this was my interpretation.


For the hundredth time, the amount of characters on the server has absolutely nothing to do with the server being locked. -I read this as people currently logged in.

Server locks are based on the number of players logging in to the server at the time.. - Read this as people logging on right now.

Let me be more clear on this then.

The number of characters that exist on a given world has nothing to do with the server being locked. Though I thought it was pretty clear considering I quoted someone suggesting people delete their alts as a solution...

The amount of people that have logged on to the server in the past several hours (the last window for character creation) is what determines a server lock, not the amount of people logging in exactly at the time the clock rolls over.

[Raist]

TLDR: Bring a source or drop it because what you're saying doesn't make any technical sense.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...s-Restrictions

Not an exact quote per say, but it is roughly where the discussion on the issue began... roughly 1.5 years ago. So, it is kind of hard to nail down a specific quote, but this post sets the framework for where the problems were and how they've been moving forward since then to try to improve stability.

Back then, the focus was on the concurrent connection limit problem and NOT the amount of characters created per world (note, it is specifically stated that it is NOT a problem with how much character data was stored that was an issue, but it was concurrent connections). Not too long after this was posted they restructured things so that we got shunted through more front end servers to better manage the logins and such (initially, we logged in more directly to our world servers, and there were fewer servers managing the various areas and instances--they redistributed the loads across more boxes). Basically, they moved into a much more complex structure of clustered groups to distribute the loads more effectively. This new topology initially allowed them to ramp up the concurrent connections to 7500 from 5000 (not sure how high they are up to now though).

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...d_to_75007800/

Again, I apologize for not being able to provide an exact quote... just doing some googling for specific phrases I recall from the discussions of the time and getting odd hits here and there that may hopefuly bring a little more clarity to the discussion here.

I did however find this buried in the Lodestone. A post that went up after some of these changes that may provide the details you are looking for:

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...b9b8b5c44d4061
Partial quote from that post:

-Regarding Limits on New Character Creation As a result of this maintenance, it is now possible to accommodate an increased number of simultaneous logins in the various Worlds; therefore, we have now lifted the New Character Creation restrictions in the majority of Worlds in which restrictions were in effect. New players who are just starting a game or those who would simply like to create a new character can do so by finding a World which has had the restrictions lifted, and creating a character there.

Please note that there is a tendency for characters to become concentrated in certain Worlds, causing login numbers to jump up in those particular Worlds. In order to create a population balance between Worlds, we will continue to be implementing New Character Creation restrictions in overly congested Worlds.

We will monitor the situation, and in the event restrictions may be lifted, follow-up news posts will be posted. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and ask for your patience and understanding.

-Addition of New Worlds
With this maintenance, preparation for the addition of new Worlds has been completed.

Although it is possible to add several new Worlds due to load balancing on servers, an increased number of players able to login simultaneously to various Worlds, and New Character Creation being possible again on various Worlds as a result of this maintenance, we will only be adding a minimal number of Worlds at this time directly after maintenance.

The point back then, and still to this day, is about managing the login traffic. Concurrent connection limits are the larger factor in play, not how much data is stored in the back end.

As to the debate about the AFK players... In a sense, the bulk of the character data is more or less static--they aren't loading everything about us into the world server's memory all the time. When we interact with our character and/or the environment, the specific pieces of needed information is retrieved and processed from the back end. We saw the same methods used in XI, and it is S.O.P. in the industry where databases are exposed to the internet--there is a front-end with a database connection, and that connecter has a connection pool with defined limits. A player in XIV that has gone into AFK status presents a very minimal load on the servers by comparison--no chat, no equipment swaps, no interactions with npc/environment/mobs, etc. It is only when someone else interacts with them (casting a spell and such), or they become active again (and thus exit AFK status) that they could start to impose any noteworthy load on the world server. You can demonstrate it yourself by watching your own data stream after you've slipped into AFK status for about 5 minutes or so....then watch it some more when you are running around interacting with NPC's and such.

So the issue is not how much data storage is saved on the backend--it is the potential load generated when fetching and updating that data. Thus, they have to be mindful of the potential concurrent connection load coming to/from the front and back ends. The more characters they allow into a world, the greater that potential traffic becomes. So they have been using character creation and login queues to try to shape that traffic flow across their entire infrastructure. Locking out worlds is basically an attempt to make people set up on other worlds so when they log in they get shunted to another segment of the network...hopefully improving the load balance.