Resolving the Balmung Population Issue at Minimal Cost to the Benefit of All Players

[ErikMynhier]

Who's the one bringing it up 3 hours later?

Someone with family living in Flint.

[ExKage]

Someone with family living in Flint.

The point is that yes I made that comment in extremely poor taste and stupidity that I am ashamed for doing so. The point was not to make light of the poor situation but because I think too many people are trying to trivialize something that isn't as trivial as they think it is. The point is also, I did drop it. You brought it back up.

[Vhailor]

There is only one viable solution to resolving the population issue on Balmung: the creation of an official roleplay server and offering existing transfer bonuses to that server.

I disagree. I can't possibly fathom that a desire for roleplaying is the primary reason, or even a major reason, why most people aren't migrating off. As others have said, FFXIV is a social game. Whether you're a roleplayer or not, unless your friends are willing to move, it's going to be rough taking the leap yourself.

SE needs to improve its server architecture and/or hardware. They created the problem of Balmung; they've known about it for years now, and they've done absolutely nothing meaningful to address the problem during FFXIV's low-population cycles. F*cking hold them responsible for fixing it, already. Asking people to leave behind their friends and communities isn't a solution - it's a cop-out.

[Reaperking386]

I think Square should just go all united airlines on the balmaug players. Knock them out and drag them off the server.

[SaitoHikari]

I have an alternate idea.

Currently the main reason why people are refusing to transfer off of Balmung and Gilgamesh is because they have established friends and resources like housing that they cannot take to a different server, and the limits on what they can take with them are far too restrictive considering that. So why not do something like a server split, except not actually being a forced server split? Create a new server SPECIFICALLY to take in players from Balmung and Gilgamesh (or just Balmung), and ONLY for transfers from those servers (new character creation would probably have to be locked for about 2 months to determine how many are transferring over first). Said players that transfer to the new server will be allowed to keep all possessions except for housing plots and any FC-related progress (since I don't think any infrastructure exists to bring those over).

So the super big established FCs with housing in Balmung still won't have any incentive to transfer over, but larger groups of players who don't possess a housing plot would pretty much have no downside to making the jump since they get to keep everything else.

[ErikMynhier]

The point is that yes I made that comment in extremely poor taste and stupidity that I am ashamed for doing so. The point was not to make light of the poor situation but because I think too many people are trying to trivialize something that isn't as trivial as they think it is. The point is also, I did drop it. You brought it back up.

You don't get it. Nevermind, its to much to hash out.

[Vhailor]

I have an alternate idea.

Currently the main reason why people are refusing to transfer off of Balmung and Gilgamesh is because they have established friends and resources like housing that they cannot take to a different server. So why not do something like a server split, except not actually being a forced server split? Create a new server SPECIFICALLY to take in players from Balmung and Gilgamesh (or just Balmung), and ONLY for transfers from those servers (new character creation would probably have to be locked for about 2 months to determine how many are transferring over first). Said players that transfer to the new server will be allowed to keep all possessions except for housing plots and any FC-related progress (since I don't think any infrastructure exists to bring those over).

So the super big established FCs with housing in Balmung still won't have any incentive to transfer over, but larger groups of players who don't possess a housing plot would pretty much have no downside to making the jump since they get to keep everything else.

SE needs to make the FC housing infrastructure. A server split should allow for everyone in either server to keep everything that they have - housing, furniture, FC stuff, friends list entries (for those who transfer with), linkshells, everything. I realize it's difficult to do this with normal transfers (a housing plot might not be available, for instance), but for a split? It's possible.

And I know it wouldn't be especially difficult to do this. The files containing relevant data are stored somewhere. Hell, even if you just cloned the server data entirely (which should copy over everything) and then "transferred" (deleted) everyone who no longer belonged on the respective server, that would do the trick. Why make excuses for SE to continue being lazy?

[Galgarion]

I think Square should just go all united airlines on the balmaug players. Knock them out and drag them off the server.

Didn't that make everyone hate United Airlines and tank their stock value? Is that something to emulate?

[Clover_Blake]

RPer here, but considering I never RP in-game, it's not really about losing the RP community for me.

I've been playing in Balmung since ARR release, I've met many people there and I also own a personal house. Even if my FC mates transferred, I'd still lose my house (which was a pain in the heart to get, mind you) and all the other friends I've made in-game. I'm sure most players are in the same situation; the server we initially choose becomes some sort of home for us, and losing everything we've build over the years is not an easy step.

This goes for people from other servers complaining about Balmung players who chose not to transfer. You can't simply ask everyone to leave everything behind to suit your personal needs, especially when you're not doing any sacrifice yourself. It's not easy, period.

On another note, if I were guaranteed that I could at least keep my house in the new server, I'd consider the option to transfer, even if it would still be a difficult step to take.

[SendohJin]

Blow it up and do a force server split. Clone the server 3x. Give people 3 months to choose. Once a choice has reached 40% of current population it can no longer be selected, people can switch out until the last day.

Players that don't select something will be joined with their FC leader if there's space, if there's no space they will be randomly distributed among the other two or just one if it ends up being a 40/40/20 split. Whichever hits the 40% mark will ban incoming transfers for at least 6 months.

Nobody loses their houses, some people will lose their FC and healthcare. They can designate 2 of the 3 as RP friendly.