Free transfers and housing reimbursements are a given. They are NOT an apology

[KisaiTenshi]

People, you're not entitled to anything. This is SE going "sorry server is full", they can't magically create more space.

Some players are going to throw a fit because they have mains on Balmung, some are going to throw a fit because they have alts on Balmung, some will throw a fit because the only reason they were in Aether was to have cross-world parties with people on Balmung, but at the end of the day, Balmung is the reason for this.

Make your alts now before the servers are split up if you want to stay together, because once they're split, moving will be a bigger issue. If you already maxed out how many characters you can make on one data center ... I sure hope SE decides to allow players to have more, because if by some bizarre reason someone has 40 characters between Primal and Aether... well that could mean all their characters end up on Crystal.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

People, you're not entitled to anything. This is SE going "sorry server is full", they can't magically create more space.

They can when they charge you for it, ala the companion app. Remember how inventory was a huge issue... until it wasn't. Regardless, you said it yourself, they could have added more servers which would have helped mitigate this problem immensely. And if they could afford to do it for EU, they could for NA as well.

As for Balmung. You do realize Mateus is now the second largest server and they shifted it over with Balmung, yes? Meanwhile, you have people talking about a mass exodus, thus this won't solve a damn thing. Balmung may drop from being the most popular server, but it's a rather moot point when Gilgamesh replaces it.

Are we getting the full cost of our houses back if we swap? Because if I get all my gil back, I'm fine.

Although, to the above poster, Balmung isn't the problem.

Balmung has 17k people on it because it's the community-recognized RP server. SE could implement RP specific servers to ease the strain on Balmung, but they haven't. Consequently, the second largest server, Mateus, with 14k people, was a ghost town until Balmung players decided it would be a second RP server and expatriated there.

It is a problem that Square-Enix could solve through community management, but is instead trying to gamify their hardware issues.

Yes, you will get full compensation and 3.5M extra for furnishings.

[KisaiTenshi]

They can when they charge you for it, ala the companion app. Remember how inventory was a huge issue... until it wasn't. Regardless, you said it yourself, they could have added more servers which would have helped mitigate this problem immensely. And if they could afford to do it for EU, they could for NA as well.

The issue they're trying to address is the DC services being drowned by DDoS's and/or bots. So the bean counters were probably presented with two options:

a) Split the servers X many ways = $$,$$$ (eg the cost of a new server group is probably one router and fiber drop, the rest is just time physically moving cables or machines in the DC)
b) Replace all the servers, networking equipment = $,$$$,$$$ (the cost of 16-24 new servers, plus the supporting services like the market and duty finder servers)

Option B, btw is the only way you get an east-coast server cluster. A maxed out server, alone is about $65,000 USD before taking into account redundant parts like RAM and SDD's. So multiply that by 8 for the world cluster and then by 4 for the housing, duty finder, and market.

At any rate always assume the corporation is going to pick the cheapest solution even if it's going to result in lots of expensive maintenance, because changing from the status quo likely requires paying termination charges for power, networking and space rentals wherever the machines physically are.

There's a difference between a spoiled sense of entitlement (throwing a fit) and a just sense of entitlement.

Not really. You'll see the same people throwing the same entitled opinions on this forum every time a pet peeve subject comes up, and even if the situation has changed, their opinion has not.

My opinion is that SE would do better by ripping the bandaid off:

1. Send everyone an email like in 1.x when they decided to move people to other servers, have them rank which server they want their main character moved to. Every other character is also ranked. So the character designated "main" gets priority.

2. At "DC move" time, they shut down all the world servers, and then over-provision one server temporarily and move everyone to it. (the "from <server name>" is temporary used.) The housing, market and duties remain offline while this process happens. Delete all the characters and retainers off the "old" servers.

3. When the players log back in they will get a "reserved" spot for the server they nominated #1 for their main that they can either move their previous character, or they can create a new character. After their main is given a spot, all "alt" characters will not be permitted to login/move until landrush ends unless requirements are met. Thus ensuring that everyone who actually wants to play, has an equal chance of getting a spot on that server. Housing will not become available to buy until landrush ends.

After launch, but before landrush ends, any additional characters that a player has that have "3.0/4.0 MSQ cleared" flags set, can also be moved, but they do not get a reserved spot, so if they have houses or retainers that will create a collision, then those will not be recreated without GM involvement.

After landrush, any characters still on the over-provisioned server with active service will get one last chance to be moved, and then will be marked "retired" if not moved. Retired characters will be marked as "retired" on the lodestone and as not residing on any server. They can be reactivated, but they will only be able to pick their previous server if that server isn't closed. If their previous server is closed, then they will have to be moved to an open server.

After this point, SE should make a point about "retiring" characters that haven't been played, or haven't had service for 360 days so that server resources aren't tied up by bots creating endless characters.

[Naginatasu]

Not really. You'll see the same people throwing the same entitled opinions on this forum every time a pet peeve subject comes up, and even if the situation has changed, their opinion has not.

.

I don't see how you can say this. If someone is laid off from work, are they being spoiled to think they're entitled to compensation? If someone gets sick from eating something at a grocery store, are they not entitled to more than just their money back? This isn't being spoiled. I don't peruse these forums that often because I agree, a lot of whining happens about trivial issues. I'm disappointed about blue mage and I don't agree with the direction they're taking it for now, but I know I'll enjoy it when it comes out. That's more of a trivial issue as that's content I have a choice about engaging myself in. I don't think this is a trivial issue. Your suggestion actually entails a fairer chance for people to get back what they're losing. Retiring characters would open up a whole new can of worms, though.

[Tarta]

Has it been confirmed that personal estates, and FC estates will be reimbursed?
I recall seeing personal estates mentioned, but nowhere did it mention FC estates being reimbursed.
Also who will get reimbursement? The one that initially purchased the plot for the FC? Or the current leader?

[Final-Fantasy]

Has it been confirmed that personal estates, and FC estates will be reimbursed?
I recall seeing personal estates mentioned, but nowhere did it mention FC estates being reimbursed.
Also who will get reimbursement? The one that initially purchased the plot for the FC? Or the current leader?

Free Companies cannot get any reimbursement other than letting the house plot expire from no activity for 45 days (not entering the house).
And the Master will be the only one who gets Gil and items once the plot expires. Although, its easier to sell the FC with the house to someone else, you can often get more Gil for it so its not really a loss, you maybe even get 9 figures for a large, easy.

[Nalien]

Free Companies cannot get any reimbursement other than letting the house plot expire from no activity for 45 days (not entering the house).

Well SE needs to work on that ASAP, that's a f*cking joke... Bad enough if you move with your Free Company you need to regrind everything for it; Can't even buy an estate until rank 6, which very likely means you'll miss out on even being able to rebuy your plot before someone else snaps it up. You lose Airship and Submarines, all the Credits, etc. They mentioned a Free Company transfer system in the past, but seemingly never decided to work on it, this is the bloody time to implement it and we get nothing... Not even reimbursement... What a complete and utter joke...

This whole situation really is just a complete and utter mess... Way to completely kill the hype for 5.0 for those of us effected, Yoshida... I lose out if I stay, lose out if I move... Lose out if I just quit, but that honestly seems like the best option right now... Why am I paying a subscription to be put in this kind of shitty situation? I just wanted to play with friends and enjoy myself, not have to worry about this kind of bull. Can't believe the monumental lack of awareness that must have gone into announcing World-Visit alongside this... All these great features to help you play with friends on other servers, an expansion announcement you can enjoy with them, then you decide to split people up like this? What a farce.

[Naginatasu]

People, you're not entitled to anything. This is SE going "sorry server is full", they can't magically create more space.

Some players are going to throw a fit because they have mains on Balmung, some are going to throw a fit because they have alts on Balmung, some will throw a fit because the only reason they were in Aether was to have cross-world parties with people on Balmung, but at the end of the day, Balmung is the reason for this.

Make your alts now before the servers are split up if you want to stay together, because once they're split, moving will be a bigger issue. If you already maxed out how many characters you can make on one data center ... I sure hope SE decides to allow players to have more, because if by some bizarre reason someone has 40 characters between Primal and Aether... well that could mean all their characters end up on Crystal.

There's a difference between a spoiled sense of entitlement (throwing a fit) and a just sense of entitlement. This is my first post on the forum because I want to do my part in calling this situation out and asking them to do more because it's evidently lacking. Nothing changes if you don't do anything. That's how businesses prefer to work. Say nothing and they do nothing. It's easier for them that way. People called EA for their shenanigans and they did something about it. They didn't sit back and say... oh, well I'm buying their product so I don't have a say even though this doesn't feel right. People were also incredibly disappointed with WoW's latest expansion and part of the issue is Blizzard's reluctance to actually listen to their player base. Lots of those players are now playing FF14. A GW2 employee was fired for going on a rant against a player who she thought was questioning her ability to design in game narratives. The power of the player is now stronger than ever. It's not a power that should be abused, but exercised responsibly.

I don't play so far away from one data center that I experience severe latency so the urgency of new data centers isn't as apparent to me as it might be to others. A lot of servers aren't incredibly congested to the point where I imagine they need an entirely new data center... but maybe they are? In either case, the hastiness of this reveal and implementation is forced and questionable. Would it not one day be possible to link local (ex all NA) data centers together, if only for duties and pf? Why not wait until such a day instead of causing chaos across servers in well establish data centers? I don't know much about networking or how dire the situation SE faced, but I feel like it could've been handled with a little more grace.

[Krojack]

People, you're not entitled to anything. This is SE going "sorry server is full", they can't magically create more space.

Strangely enough, Blizzard was able to cope with this. They stopped offering free server transfers and server merging years ago. How? More powerful servers. The hardware power outgrew what was needed while they kept improving the server software to run better.

[NanaWiloh]

Strangely enough, Blizzard was able to cope with this. They stopped offering free server transfers and server merging years ago. How? More powerful servers. The hardware power outgrew what was needed while they kept improving the server software to run better.

They also have 150+ servers and a community thats not as stubborn as boulder about moving..