Datacenters: A Plea For Community Building, Not Fracturing

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Seriously get over it. It's been done because it's necessary. They're not doing it to make people upset. I have a Balmung alt that won't be able to play with many of my friends now but waiting in a queue of over 3000 to log into the game is kind of ridiculous.

This happened for only two weeks over a two year span. Was it annoying? Absolutely. But I think a good number of people would rather be inconvenienced for a handful of hours over a two week period than having to uproot entirely. That being said, the OP doesn't present a good counter argument. A merger isn't remotely possible, especially given SE seems intent not maintaining their current, heavily dated, infrastructure.

I feel like SE somewhat expect the PF to help with this (thus avoiding long or any queues) and also the World Visit offering more opportunities to find other like-minded players to run content with. Of course some players will lose social connections by the split but we'll see how that goes. Humanity (i.e the players) might actually surprise us and prepare for it... but wishful thinking eh.

Oh, they absolutely do. I suspect they lumped mostly low population servers with Balmung and Mateus in the hopes people will spread out more. What they aren't accounting for is NA/EU's preference to congregate hence why you're seeing so many people talking about transferring back to Aether. And why it took them outright locking Balmung down to stop people from transferring to it. We could very easily end up with the same Raubahn bottleneck again if enough people dogpile one datacenter. This is especially true if they put another instance very early into the MSQ, which is what caused a lot of their problems to begin with.

[Hyperia]

For the topic, I am sure one data center would be possible if they actually upgrade their servers and netcode. But no, lets overburden the servers with pointless repeated data exchange because rushing out 2.0 was more important, and it is more important to save money so lets never address that.

Looking back on it now, yes, it would have been nice for them to overhaul the code from the 1.x days to significantly improve the systems for 2.x+ but... they were doing triage with what resources SE could scrounge up for them to salvage the mess that they were given. Any other game company would have just shutdown the system and said screw it. SE didn't, nor did Yoshi but they lacked two critical resources that were necessary to overhaul the server systems and that was Time and Money. They had to get 2.0 out as soon as humanly possible. Yes, they had to make compromises, many compromises they wish they had not made but at the time, it was the best they could do with what they had. I know there looking at ways to improve the backend system, but it will be done incrementally over time, how long, nobody knows besides Yoshi and the Server team.

I'm not happy that I am going to loose friends, my static and acquaintances I have made on my old DC. Nobody wanted this, not us, not the devs, nobody. I have accepted the fact that this is happening and the best thing we can do now is to welcome those who are transferring and give a proper sendoff to those who are moving on.

Maybe in 2020, cross DC groups / chat / visits will become a thing. Its something for us to add to our wish list now so the Devs can start working on it now and present it to us at Fanfest 2020. Who knows, maybe at Fanfest 2024 we will be shocked that the devs are merging all worlds into a mega-server that can support the entire population in a given geographical region. Wouldn't that be something...

[Bourne_Endeavor]

As I have said in another thread regarding the third NA DC:

This wouldn't have happened if the balmung population wasn't so stubborn about staying on their server despite all of SE's attempts to balance out the population.

Also the fact that players on balmung of all places are the ones complaining is hilarious. It and Mateus will be in Crystal together anyway.

And Balmung wouldn't have become so congested if Square Enix didn't happily pocket $18 per transfer for the better part of four years. It also wouldn't have happened if they designated official Roleplayer servers (not the plural) like WoW did. When SE finally did wise up and realize their mistake, people had long formed connections that weren't willing to lose, especially when it meant giving up a house they likely wouldn't get again or losing their FC. Putting fault on Balmung conveniently ignores SE did literally nothing to prevent it until the situation reached critical mass.

[xbahax92]

And Balmung wouldn't have become so congested if Square Enix didn't happily pocket $18 per transfer for the better part of four years.

No offense but, didnt they close transfers and the creation of new characters on Balmung for a good amount of time during the release of Stormblood?
And was it not like that playeres here started qq'ing, whining, offending, flaming, stopping their subs (showing it off here), and even started a petition to reopen the "gates"? Or was that all just a illusion?
I mean, ok they might be open right now, but that is cause the population dropped during the last patches. But what to do after people see the next news about upcoming expac and rejoin the game again?

[Dzian]

Because the instance servers are split by datacenter, as is lobby servers. This is effectively adding 50% more instances to the NA world's.

OK maybe it's too early for me but how do you work that out. having 3 datacentres instead of 2 isn't magicallly going to mean 50% more people playing or running instances.

all it means is the people running them will be much the same only split across 3 ares not 2...

so instead of say 2 data centers with 15,000 players each. you'll have 3 data centers with 10,000 players. in both cases there's still only 30,000 players so the number of instances won't really change.

[Sheriyana]

No offense but, didnt they close transfers and the creation of new characters on Balmung for a good amount of time during the release of Stormblood?
And was it not like that playeres here started qq'ing, whining, offending, flaming, stopping their subs (showing it off here), and even started a petition to reopen the "gates"? Or was that all just a illusion?
I mean, ok they might be open right now, but that is cause the population dropped during the last patches. But what to do after people see the next news about upcoming expac and rejoin the game again?

Balmung was open for transfers until that point, letting the server get as bloated as it got was absolutely SE's fault. And of course players complained about closing it, Balmung was established as the RP server at that point with no alternatives, until the community turned Mateus into one. Balmung has been closed for a little while again too.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

No offense but, didnt they close transfers and the creation of new characters on Balmung for a good amount of time during the release of Stormblood?
And was it not like that playeres here started qq'ing, whining, offending, flaming, stopping their subs (showing it off here), and even started a petition to reopen the "gates"? Or was that all just a illusion?
I mean, ok they might be open right now, but that is cause the population dropped during the last patches. But what to do after people see the next news about upcoming expac and rejoin the game again?

Why would I take offense?

Regardless, yes, they closed Balmung prior to Stormblood's launch. That occurred precisely because they allowed Balmung to balloon in the first place. In essence, SE proved reactionary once again—waiting until the problem slapped them in the face before actually doing anything to prevent it. Did people complain? Some did, but nowhere near as much as people are complaining now.

As for what they'll do when people return? Unlike other servers, Balmung doesn't see nearly the same drop off during droughts. Therefore, little will change from now and June 2019. In fact, it will likely be smaller than Stormblood's launch because there's a second RP server, thus splitting up Balmung's population. For reference sake, Mateus—at the time of Stormblood's launch—had a paltry 5,300 active characters according to Lucky Bancho. It currently boasts roughly three times that number. Funny how when they finally locked Balmung, the problem stopped. Whether you agree with their decision regarding Crystal is another matter entirely. Blaming the playerbase for congestion issues that could have been mitigated ages ago simply comes across disingenuous. This was a SE created problem, not a Balmung one.

[Reinha]

OK maybe it's too early for me but how do you work that out. having 3 datacentres instead of 2 isn't magicallly going to mean 50% more people playing or running instances.

all it means is the people running them will be much the same only split across 3 ares not 2...

so instead of say 2 data centers with 15,000 players each. you'll have 3 data centers with 10,000 players. in both cases there's still only 30,000 players so the number of instances won't really change.

The number of players is still the same but the maximum number of instances that they can occupy is 50% larger. Normally we can enter an instance as soon as all roles have been fulfilled, but during expansion launches we may have to wait in queue until there is room for new instances. Having fewer players per instance server will help prevent problems like quest battle NPCs becoming unresponsive or housing being inaccessible. I think having another lobby server will have a similar effect on login queues (not sure about that).

[SomeRandomHuman]

As I have said in another thread regarding the third NA DC:

This wouldn't have happened if SE managed thier servers and housing better. People did not really want to move because it meant losing a house and other things. I find it hilarious that someone from the balmung exodus server are mocking people from balmung for SE's short coming when addressing their own server problems.

How can you blame the player base when SE completely opened balmung in SB not to long ago? defeats your argument. Stop blaming the playerbase for SE's bad management.

For the topic, I am sure one data center would be possible if they actually upgrade their servers and netcode. But no, lets overburden the servers with pointless repeated data exchange because rushing out 2.0 was more important, and it is more important to save money so lets never address that.

The player base is just as guilty sadly. It's not all the fault of one side. It's from both sides. A lot of people hate on Balmung because when that server crashes the whole DC, we ALL lose sub time. Not just the server, but the whole DC while its clear that people on Balmung are saying its tech related. Many tech savvy people here on the forums have tried to explain the actual expenses of hardware upgrades. Especially when SE has said they don't wanna have to rebuild their infrastructure from the ground up.

So by trying to force SE to upgrade the servers, SE is executing their last ditch effort to relieve stress: forced moves. The community brought it upon themselves. I'll be losing touch with a few friends, but guess what? That's what things like discord are for.

We're too far in to get SE to change their mind. You just have to accept it. If you wanna try to make a change then you have to speak with your wallet.

[SomeRandomHuman]

And Balmung wouldn't have become so congested if Square Enix didn't happily pocket $18 per transfer for the better part of four years. It also wouldn't have happened if they designated official Roleplayer servers (not the plural) like WoW did. When SE finally did wise up and realize their mistake, people had long formed connections that weren't willing to lose, especially when it meant giving up a house they likely wouldn't get again or losing their FC. Putting fault on Balmung conveniently ignores SE did literally nothing to prevent it until the situation reached critical mass.

Again, there's fault on both sides. SE waited so long partly due to the sense of community. And then when they finally did, it took mere seconds for people to start having a fit. SE gave them what they wanted, and the whole DC suffers from it. So yes, please excuse the hate from the rest of the DC when Balmung costs up Sub time because of their congestion.

As for housing yes its a total mess and SE doesn't seem to want to fix it. I'm lucky to have both mine and my FC's house. If I lose them I can just find another place that's quiet and easy to access to afk and enjoy some quiet ambiance.

People are quick to blame the product, but the people are equally guilty here sadly. Just because you can go to the server doesn't mean you should. SE enabled yes, but ultimately the people that went for it are what are causing the problem.

The reason for the overpopulation isn't the issue, the server crashing an entire DC and taking all the other servers with it is the issue.