A Plea to the Community: Long Queues

[Mazora_Espeon]

You guys are thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much exploiting as it is fear. People are afraid to get stuck in the extremely, insanely long login queues so they decide to find a way to avoid getting kicked. And so the answer to that is to exploit the AFK Timer Penalty. So what we need to do as a community isn't fault them for doing that, but rather convince them that by logging off will cause these login queues to disappear.

And actually, the proof of it might actually be true because around 5am Central Time, there was little to no login queue at all. I was able to enter instantly. Grant it, all the people who had work tomorrow morning who also care about saving energy and avoid stressing out their gaming system because of overheating from overuse probably had all logged off and went to bed. This is the argument that you need to present to people to get them to log off.

However... the other problem is also because of the population size of the server so even if there are people who do log off at night which causes the login queues to disappear, the issue still remains that there are just TOO MANY people on the server who are login during the busy hours. That being said... the only thing you can really do is just wait to be let in to the movie theatre. It's not the people's fault that the building's facilities can't accommodate all these people who wish to enter it.

[Icywebs]

The intent of my initial post was to ask people to stop doing it because it's exacerbating an already heavy load for this server during an expansion release with the added hurdle of a DDOS attack, not demonize anyone.

Regardless of motives behind why people are doing it, the damage exists and that is going to get peoples' hackles up, so while I can certainly understand and appreciate the concerns about high queues. I also don't fault people who are frustrated by people who know they're contributing to problems and not caring.

A child breaking your grandmother's urn because they weren't paying attention is understandable, but the urn is still broken and the ashes are still scattered on the floor.

I'd just like it if people quit kicking Grandma's ashes around the living room while doing the dance to dodge the queues.

[Elamys]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...84/unknown.png

In other news, I can't get into my house.

[Thortok2000]

Somehow you seem to have stopped reading at the first post even though you've replied now two or three times. The appeal was made to the players asking that we rethink our choice circumvent the queue by remaining online, not to ask SE for programmatic alterations.

As it stands Balmung is the community recognized RP server which is one reason it is so populous and the reason many will not leave.

Somehow you completely misunderstand context.

Let me put it simply: DON'T appeal to the players. They don't need to rethink their choice. You don't pay their subscription.

And, more of the players are actually online and playing than you think. Balmung is simply that congested.

This isn't an issue with the players. It's an issue with SE. Appealing to the players is a waste of time. Programmatic alterations from SE are the only thing that will cause any effect at all.

That clear enough for you?

[Alisyn]

People afk exploiting is only a tiny part of the problem. During the day, I see people afk in front of bells, hiding in Inn's & in crafting mode, but there's barely a queue until 1pm+ or so..15-30 people?

Prime time population is our issue.

Instead of people barking at each other & thinking it's going to change anything anyone is doing with their own paid subscription time, make posts directed at SE in hopes that they change something somehow. It's better use of your time than the anger & energy we're spewing at one another as a community. SE should have shut down Balmung's transfers back when they realized the server was already so overburdened that people couldn't even create characters.

Unless my cynicism is unfounded, I highly doubt anything anyone posts here is going to make another player say, "Oh sure I'll log out so you can play... even if it means I'm in a queue for 4+ hours again because I went to eat dinner."

Address the actual issue/source.

[Gyson]

People afk exploiting is only a tiny part of the problem. During the day, I see people afk in front of bells, hiding in Inn's & in crafting mode, but there's barely a queue until 1pm+ or so..15-30 people?

Prime time population is our issue.

Instead of people barking at each other & thinking it's going to change anything anyone is doing with their own paid subscription time, make posts directed at SE in hopes that they change something somehow. It's better use of your time than the anger & energy we're spewing at one another as a community. SE should have shut down Balmung's transfers back when they realized the server was already so overburdened that people couldn't even create characters.

Unless my cynicism is unfounded, I highly doubt anything anyone posts here is going to make another player say, "Oh sure I'll log out so you can play... even if it means I'm in a queue for 4+ hours again because I went to eat dinner."

Address the actual issue/source.

Complaining to SE isn't going to change anything (and, honestly, has been going on since launch with zero results). But this frustration from players is leading to exactly what SE wants - the transfer of players off a heavily populated server like Balmung and onto servers that need a population boost. Square has all the reasons in the world to allow this mess to continue as long as it's giving them what they want.

This is entirely a psychological issue for players at this point. Until they feel they can log in easily at any point in time, they won't stop AFK-loitering on the server to reserve their spot. As for why there are barely queues at certain hours, that's easily explained: for one thing, people don't AFK on the server 24/7 (not everyone, anyway). Like you, they know the range of hours where the queues are reasonable and take the opportunity to go offline during those times. Also, during those same hours the active population on the server can be lower as well, meaning the people who are still on (regardless of whether they're active or AFK) are having less of a noticeable impact on the capacity of the server.

You suggest addressing the issue/source - but the issue is twofold: too many people loitering online AFK, and too little capacity on the server to support them. SE is unlikely to address both the former and the latter, but players can change the former simply by giving up the practice of loitering online while they're away. However, the reality is this: it's unlikely threads like this will convince or even reach the ears of that population. Perhaps FC leaders should try something bold and spreading the word to their members, or even inform them that their guild won't tolerate the behavior.

Who knows. I believe this problem didn't last as long with the release of Heavensward because Square was bringing the servers offline much, much more often than they have been with Stormblood, which in turn provided more opportunities to show players that there wasn't much of a queue (because AFK players were kicked off and not immediately returning, and thus not being a constant burden on the server's capacity). That, in turn, had the effect of convincing players that they no longer had to bother with leaving their character online just to gain access to the server in a reasonable frame of time. I know it did for me, at least.

But Stormblood has had very little in the way of downtime and emergency maintenance - which is good for obvious reasons but certainly not helping this issue.

By the way, it takes me upwards of 50-100 spammed attempts to successfully enter indoor housing locations these days. That's been fun.

[tyhone]

This plea is misplaced and you shouldn't put it on the players to fix this issue

[Mikhaill]

Placement in Q have been getting lower.
DC/Errors for me have been nonexistent for 2 days now so...
I'm 1.9k as oppose to a near 4k now. It's getting better at least...
But it's the matter of getting on lesser than 3-4 hours. Was 2.3k yesterday
but I still waited almost 4 hours since I was like 50 in Q for 35 mins.

Omg. What is wrong with ppl today? Why? Why do you plead with S/E to kick paying customers? Why? Are you a paying customer that wants to play? Why are you attacking other players? THIS IS S/Es FAULT. They pay people to manage these servers. You pay for the service that S/E clearly can't provide. Why are you more upset with what other players are doing, and less concerned with what S/E is doing? I don't get it.

Lmao, people are paying to AFK.

[Gravton]

Omg. What is wrong with ppl today? Why? Why do you plead with S/E to kick paying customers? Why? Are you a paying customer that wants to play? Why are you attacking other players? THIS IS S/Es FAULT. They pay people to manage these servers. You pay for the service that S/E clearly can't provide. Why are you more upset with what other players are doing, and less concerned with what S/E is doing? I don't get it.

[Icywebs]

Honestly, it is a combination of things.

Server congestion to begin with on an overly populated server combined with a DDOS attack that they've been facing since launch. These ARE problems and it is to be expected that we face queues.

However, responding to this by exploiting methods to avoid measures SE put in place to help manage these things has exacerbated the situation. If people are not logging off while they're AFK for the duration of work and sleep (as people brag about doing), and they do so in housing districts (thus causing extreme overload), the players are making a poor situation worse. I am asking them to stop making it worse.

It isn't entirely the fault of the people doing this, but it is both inconsiderate and damaging to a pre-existing mess.