Square: You need to open servers before this community is slowly choked

[rainichan]

No. Because stuff like this will start up again. Eventually they'd probably do what they did after most servers weren't having queue times and start auto-kicking people again. No thanks. The server is STILL busy even with the lock, I'm fine with it being closed until we go down from the... what was it, like, 30k characters created/transferred on there?

Inb4 ROLEPLAYERS!!!! I'm one too, I still don't want the server opened until we're a little more balanced in terms of not uber congested. Plenty of people do the FC shuffle if they don't feel they fit with the one they're in. You'll live.

[Steel_Arrow]

Every time I see this title I get a little excited.

[CaTi]

It's probably healthy too. Sometimes the impression I get of the big servers is that some people can be a bit flakey when it comes to other players as there used to be such a large pool of reserves to get more from. But that's just from what I've heard and you know how hearsay is and all that.

[basketofseals]

I was under the impression that slowly choking the community was the entire point of closing the servers.

[Nezerius]

No thanks. The server is STILL busy even with the lock

I'm not sure if I'd call a 7 player queue at prime time "busy'', and it's not even a real queue, since you can easily bypass it.

I'm fine with it being closed until we go down from the... what was it, like, 30k characters created/transferred on there?

Roughly 21k, but that's from a census that counts every character with the 3.3 minion as "active". That number means Balmung will most likely be locked until maybe 2019, maybe 2020, or whenever they actually upgrade the servers, or switch to megaservers.

I'm making those estimations based on the other server that has been completely locked, Gilgamesh. Looking at the November census, Gilgamesh's active amount of characters is roughly 1.2k lower than Leviathan, a server that's not completely locked. These two servers are at roughly 16.4k and 17.6k active characters. Balmung would have to lose about 4k active characters... somehow. Probably to people slowly transferring, but I can imagine an equal amount straight up quitting the game.

It'd probably be a smarter idea for them to lift the restriction on newly created characters, and keep using the system that temporarily stops character creation. Sure, it'll mean someone will have to get up in the early morning, or hope to create a character right after a maintenance, but it'd at least allow some new blood to trickle in. It'd also allow the players currently on Balmung to make alts again, as it's not like they'll be playing on more than one alt at the same time.

All in all, Gilgamesh is probably doing much worse than Balmung. They should really just open up character creation for Gilgamesh, and halt transfers to Leviathan, if the census numbers (which should still be taken with a grain of salt) give any indication to the population difference between those servers.

[RubyCirha]

Part of the problem is not all isp's are equal some are better than others and use better server equipment to provide a stronger connection i never dc unless there's like ddos or something or the servers on SE's end crash

[rainichan]

snip snip

I'm not really talking about the queue, but I can see it happening since I'm pretty sure SE knows that everyone will still bumrush Balmung the minute it's opened. But there is still a definite player presence on the server, it's not a dead server, there are plenty of FC-less people still running around too. Some people are dusting off their alts that they've had on the server for a long while, but don't get used (ftr I have all 8 slots on Balmung full, and they are used) and it's not like the Quicksand is any less empty than normal.

I'm actually 100% ok with no RMT bots or the swarm of characters named Fgdsahfjhdkj Alfgadsybnsf piling on questgivers and seeing botting, and I have none of that with a closed server.

[Rai_Takara]

One thing to note about queues is that every expansion start has them for those servers. But times like now? Even if the locks were lifted, nothing would change as the hype has died down and not everyone is trying to progress through the same instanced chokepoint. In effect, the locks made sense prior to the expansion release so that new people don't pile into the already congested servers during it's highest peek. However, it makes little sense to leave the servers locked now, especially after the housing wars of shirogane are over.

[KikodeYusaku]

They can't open the servers back up safely right now, otherwise they would.
It's not an issue of the players' hardware, it's an issue of the server infrastructure needing a serious overhaul that it probably won't get, so this is the consequence.