Reassessing the Merger of FFXIV Worlds (02/13/2012)

[Bayohne]

Greetings again! As I said earlier, Yoshida made a lot of follow-ups to player questions that I wanted to share with you. Some apply to those questions asked here, and some don't, but we've shortened the questions down to make them as clear as possible.

In response to a player asking whether or not inactive accounts would be able to transfer:

Unfortunately, this isn’t likely to change from what was outlined in the previous announcement. In keeping with the concept behind the World Merge, the primary goal is to maintain a balance of active players (i.e. characters) on the servers. If we allow hundreds of thousands of currently inactive characters to freely transfer across Worlds, there’s a high risk that our calculations for time zone peak numbers on every World will end up in chaos.

Sorry to confirm this, but world transfer requests will be sticking to the system explained in the previous topic.

In response to a player asking about naming the Worlds after famous FF characters:

Characters are too iconic and were removed as a possible option as they are too heavily associated with a specific image. Also, this would start draining the names that we’re leaving available for when we add more Worlds in future.

In response to a player asking if there might be the possibility of three servers being merged, depending on the number of transfer requests and to maintain balance:

Yes, that is possible and there’s even a chance that some World(s) remain as is without merging.

In response to a player asking about the possibility that New World 10 doesn’t reach the number of players required to foster good balance; is it possible that New World 10 is removed? Would players be returned/re-allocated to other Worlds? Would World 9 server possibly be merged with World 10? (etc.)

Yes, the development and operations teams will monitor the number of application requests and try to sort players in a way that’s best for everyone. We have a number of different ideas at the moment to address this issue so we are aiming for the best possible balance of players and nothing is set in stone at this point.

In response to a player asking if Yoshi-P has any plans to hold a random drawing to announce on the spot what World is getting which name and which server is being merged with which.

You’re not the first to suggest this idea and even though I’d like to announce the names before they’re fixed, I have my own selfish desires and it’s my responsibility to directly name the Worlds myself so that’s how it’s going to be.

If you’re disappointed by this, feel free to hold it against me…! ^^;

In response to a player asking about making market wards integrated between the three city-states:

We’re asking the team to come up with a way to spread out populations more evenly using in-game specifications and will decide whether to implement this after patch 1.21 or to hold off on it. The current server set up won’t allow us to merge markets, so our apologies for any inconvenience this causes. However, you can look forward to markets being consolidated in version 2.0 (still in development) instead!

In response to a player asking if it would be possible to withdraw their World Transfer request if their current World reaches its limit, as long the request is done in the time limit:

The number of active characters on the World you currently occupy will be reduced by one internally and the destination World you have selected will increase by one after clicking on ‘Confirm’. For this reason, you cannot ‘undo’ your choice by deleting your request as this prevents us from accurately calculating player numbers. We will make sure to show multiple confirmation windows in order to avoid making mistakes when selecting your destination World.

In response to a player asking if the dev. team could implement a system that allows users to see a creation timestamp for each character/retainer before the merge starts:

As we are expecting regular and sizable changes in the number of transfer requests all the throughout the application period, it will be too difficult to check duplicate names ahead of the merge. So for now, the best way to check if your name is in use by another player is to use the Character Search function on the Lodestone.

We understand that you cannot compare your status if you cannot see another player’s data in full, but if we allow this system, there is the potential risk that certain players will be targeted for harassment by other players. I don’t want to even imagine this situation, but we can’t take any chances as long as the risk is there.

This also goes for changes to retainers’ names. There will be an enormous strain on servers if we end up repeatedly checking for duplicates and as we can only see the results once the World Merge is complete, we may end up with names which were changed before the merger being duplicated all over again. I hope you understand the situation as we came to this decision only after thoroughly looking at all the available options and possibilities.

In response to a player asking about an instance where the Linkshell leader moves to another server and whether this means the linkshell would be dissolved:

If possible, I’d like just the linkshell name and linkshell forum preserved alongside the linkshell leader who moves worlds. This means that even if the leader chooses to transfer, they will be removed from the list but the linkshell itself will remain intact. It’s unlikely to be that simple, but we ask that you all speak to your LS members before the merge.

In response to a user asking if Yoshida assumes no new players will be joining before the launch of 2.0:

Just as it was explained in the concept, the main purpose of this merge is to encourage current active players to play with the users in the same time zones. As I said in the previous entry, we will set up new servers if we see an increase in the number of players in future. PR activity will start again in March as well to attract new users.

Some of you talked about this; however it is nothing to do with financing or obtaining new players. (In fact, I want new players to come in when the servers are alive and full with players. When server capacity reaches its limit, we are willing to create a new server)

In response to a player asking whether or not all of the changes and adjustments to the World Merge will affect the next patch release:

Since we have been working separately on the World Merge and the new patch for two months now (different teams are in charge), we are certain the patch will not be delayed even with system changes on this scale (also, 1.21 is in its final stage of development now). We have stopped updating Topics due to the World Merge, but we will post new topics about 1.21 when the situation is a little calmer, so please look forward to those!

In response to a player asking whether active players already on a World take priority over players who requested a World Transfer to the World:

Yes, that’s correct. Naturally player characters that were in that World originally will get first priority.

Inactive characters/non-subscribers are also counted, but they are not factored into the maximum limit of active characters allocated to each server. It’s hard to explain, but if you want to keep your character on the World you are currently on, then you don’t need to do anything (if there happens to be duplicate character names, we will ask you to make changes however). You needn’t worry as you are not going to get kicked out from the World automatically or be forced to move.