Quote Originally Posted by Kidria View Post
Basically the above. They periodically check the population and how many are logged in and decide if it's still congested or not. Keep an eye on the news page about world status and congested servers.

I'm not sure if you can try the 'early ass hours of the morning' new character trick that used to work sometimes, but in general, the servers are locked down for the time being. Can't make new and can't transfer to.
When congested, it's a hard lock until maintenance, if they decide to change the status then.

Character creation can be softlocked as well, during peak times, but congested is a full lock.