Sign if you would of Prefered this over the data Center shuffle

[Iscah]

Is it to do with how much data is attached to the character? I know XIV's system is unwieldy (eg. carrying all the inventory across and into instances; continued access to linkshells and FC chat) - are the other games more efficient with that kind of thing? Are you locked out of a lot of features when the game sends you cross-data-centre? Does it make a difference that your character information stores your progress in ~30 different classes?

[Stigmar]

So the big take away am hearing here is:

People believe its too much to expect a party finder system that connects NA servers together in 2018 regardless that WoW already have this feature (which I didn't know).

And/or people believe that this will impact the DF which to be fair most people don't use DF for EX Savage which is the PF primary function.

Majority of people responded are on Aether which is fine but curious how the most unaffected are also the most vocal, which leaves me to wonder if all those threads complaining are more to do with they don't want change or any solution they put forward would be met with it can't be done or that's a stupid idea.

And finally its amazing how many seem to know or assume what SE can or can't do last time I checked SE was still a AAA developer (see Micro Transactions in other games "Cough Cough") and if enough demand for something is called for SE will through money at it to make it happen especially when its a sure fire way to bring people into the game (looking at you Blue Mage).

It's amazing how many didn't actually read what was put in the OP and just assumed it was another boohoo I cant play with my friends post which all I was asking is wouldn't of been better to have a system in place to keep the NA servers connected together or the EU servers.

[Phileas]

A lot of my raid mates and friends are being ripped away . I understand the need for the change but I just can’t support it as a lot of friendships and raid mates were built on the current data centre structure. No one can agree on how to migrate because they either are apart of an fc they don’t want to leave or own an fc that won’t move across.

In the end I ended my sub (not just for this reason but for many others) and wish the influx of new players luck in the new structure.

[JunseiKei]

BDO. All one data NA/EU data center. All character and clan data is stored separately from servers. You pick the server to log in on based on whichever has best ping at that particular time. Some events and bonuses set to particular servers to draw relevant players, but generally it's just a matter of additional/excess servers being made or crunched as needed for ping, with a graduated transition of some three seconds as your server or mini-server is crunched or split.

BDO is two data centers; one for NA, one for EU. If you make a family on one, when you switch over, it'll prompt you to create a new family name, meaning it's not interchangeable as your statement would lend one to believe. The other "servers" in BDO would be called channels/realms/shards in some other games, like TERA. Adding a new channel/realm/shard isn't nearly as costly as adding a new server or data center, but is meant to split the player-base apart to avoid things like overloading the server. BDO's servers are all of the regions (Olvia, Velia, Balenos, Serendia, Mediah, Calpheon, Kamasylvia, Arsha) - they share certain chat features when you are within that server. The shards are numbered (Calpheon 1 is the first shard of the server Calpheon; Calpheon 1 to 6 will share the same server chat, but when you switch to Mediah, you stop hearing Calphone's chat and gain access to Mediah 1 to 6's instead). World chat broadcasts over the entirety of the data center.

FFXIV is devoid of the shard-server model; the server is the channel/realm/shard.

Links are what I'm greeted with when I pick between NA and EU DCs in BDO.

[Vidu]

So the big take away am hearing here is:

People believe its too much to expect a party finder system that connects NA servers together in 2018 regardless that WoW already have this feature (which I didn't know).

And/or people believe that this will impact the DF which to be fair most people don't use DF for EX Savage which is the PF primary function.

Majority of people responded are on Aether which is fine but curious how the most unaffected are also the most vocal, which leaves me to wonder if all those threads complaining are more to do with they don't want change or any solution they put forward would be met with it can't be done or that's a stupid idea.

And finally its amazing how many seem to know or assume what SE can or can't do last time I checked SE was still a AAA developer (see Micro Transactions in other games "Cough Cough") and if enough demand for something is called for SE will through money at it to make it happen especially when its a sure fire way to bring people into the game (looking at you Blue Mage).

It's amazing how many didn't actually read what was put in the OP and just assumed it was another boohoo I cant play with my friends post which all I was asking is wouldn't of been better to have a system in place to keep the NA servers connected together or the EU servers.

I read the OP and I dont want even a big company like SE to throw money at something that I dont consider extremly necessary - and this is something that I indeed dont consider extremly necessary. I'd love to see them invest more into FFXIV, but I'd also like to see that money going towards fixing real problems and improving the game where its truely needed - things like a real glamour log, more content, eventually turning BLU into a real job, job balance in general, housing, lag-issues, graphic updates... I could go on and on. And even a big company like SE has only so much money - and there are only so many people working on this game.

The last statistics I saw estimated that each of the NA-datacenters will have about 90k people on it (spread across all severs of that DC, ofc); for the EU-ones its closer to 60k.
Since OP is mainly talking about NA... thats 90.000 people on your datacenter to potentially play with - I dont see why SE needs to invest a probably huge amount of money to increase that number. I realise that not all of them are going to be online at the same time, ofc, but it still seems like plenty of people to play with? Certainly enough to fill DF-queues and PF-groups!

I want SE to invest their money into things that actually matter, there are plenty of them. The OP asked for opinions and mine is: This isnt one of the things that actually warrant attention and huge investments.

[Seuny]

I like the idea of a Cross Data Center party finder.

First, I don't think it will impact too much Duty finder, as people use both tools for different uses imo.

But most of all, I want to keep playing with my friends. Friends that are on two servers that will be seperated by the Data center split.

People will tell me to transfer server, makes alts, add people on discord...
None of these options fits me.

- I want to stay on my server, as I have my FC, my friends and my house. I play with my FC and some friends on high end content, and my raid team and friends are on another server. So transfering server is not a good option to me and force me to choose between my friends.
- I want to be able to play with MY character, as I don't have time to level and gear up two characters at the same time, so alt is also off the table.
- Discord is definitely not an option. I talk with people from both servers on discord already, but my need is to PLAY with them, not interract with them.

So now what ? They are taking away a part of my fun from the game.
I get that you cannot put everyone on the same place (even tho some MMO does, but that's not the point), but right there, they are taking away something we used to be able to.
I don't care about world visiting, although I love the idea and I am usually very open-minded about new features.
But I'd rather keep the way it is now, to be able to play with all my friends, rather than visit people just to do some emotes at their faces.

I am normally not the type to complain, but here I am. SE, by spliting the data center, is spliting my fun and it's the same for a lot of people on my friend list too.
And again, I don't really mind not playing with NA or JP when I am in EU, because that's not something we used to do. So Cross Data Server Party Finder for your region is the best solution to me.

And believe me, even tho I have 60k people on my data center, finding a raid team that fits me in terms of level, numbers of raid days and that you have fun with, isn't an easy thing to do.

[Canadane]

2.0 launched with the PF across all servers. Maybe it was early access.
It was terribly broken. I completely stopped working at times.

[Lunalepsy]

do other MMOs really not have servers (i've only played 4 in my life and everyone has them)? do they really have open world fields where you load 2000 players at the same time?

Lots of them, actually.

2.0 launched with the PF across all servers. Maybe it was early access.
It was terribly broken. I completely stopped working at times.

Mhmm, it did. Long queues because it was poorly implemented. They added the feature during open beta to test the waters.

[splinter1545]

do other MMOs really not have servers (i've only played 4 in my life and everyone has them)? do they really have open world fields where you load 2000 players at the same time?

A lot of modern MMO's just use datacenters now with one big megaserver that will split and create new server clusters when needed. I never played one that had 2k people shown at once (and doubtful there is any that is like that), but games like ESO and DoAC allowed you to see a lot of people on your screen, so it's definitely possible if the game is optimized and if the tech/hardware is there.

[Adrestia]

A lot of modern MMO's just use datacenters now with one big megaserver that will split and create new server clusters when needed. I never played one that had 2k people shown at once (and doubtful there is any that is like that), but games like ESO and DoAC allowed you to see a lot of people on your screen, so it's definitely possible if the game is optimized and if the tech/hardware is there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O56g8KC6CM