What happens when Primal & Crystal get full too?

[MeiraStarborne]

I’m on Aether, currently under lockdown like many others. It’s frustrating, as I have friends also on Aether who’d like to transfer to my server to join my FC and all that jazz, but we all understand the lockdown and need for it. So, for now we just world hop / cross-world party and deal. We’re just glad to all be on Aether.

My question is… What is the plan for when Primal and Crystal’s populations reach the same size as Aether’s? Will SE shut down all of NA and force new NA players to create on EU or JP servers? Or do they unlock Aether and we all suffer with long queues and potentially unstable servers?

I won’t lie, I’m hoping they do the latter just so my friends can transfer to my server, but I’m also not looking forward to the queues. (Which, by the way, have been shorter on Aether than my login queues for my Crystal alt - anecdotal and only my experience, but it does make me wonder…) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[MistakeNot]

Until SE are able to add new servers, then, if population keeps growing they will eventually have to lock down more of the existing servers - that or risk unstable servers, which I don't think SE will risk.
The extreme result would be to disallow character creation on any server, but hopefully we will get new servers before then.

[MeiraStarborne]

And to elaborate, I understand and support the Aether lockdown. The global chip shortage is real and crippling many industries (as well as the pandemic and travel restrictions).

My somewhat pessimistic view is that we won’t see new servers in the NA datacenters before we reach capacity limits that would have all servers locked.

And my question is, in that not so unlikely hypothetical situation, what does SE do?

[Kes13a]

in that eventuality, I am sure SE will likely end up having to prioritize paying subscribers for login.

its not the best solution, but they will want to have people who support them with a subscription, as happier than people who do not.

[MeiraStarborne]

They already do this. In times of heavy congestion and long queues, Free trial players can’t even join the login queue. They are told to come back another time.

[Wasselin]

That's just reality. I suppose they will have to reopen all the servers and we will just have to deal with longer log in queues. Hopefully they are able to launch new servers before that happens.

I don't think longer queues is the only downside. I feel like the servers are getting too big with too many people. It kind of dilutes the community atmosphere.

[Anienai]

What happens when Primal & Crystal get full too?

The Purge happens.

[Hanayumi]

Serious doubt we'll see new servers soon, earliest 6.1 maybe... But yeah they were very unprepared for the sudden growth, not to mention the production of a the necessary equipment and also services took a hit from covid and is still recovering. So unless they get lucky or just throw tons of money at it, its likely not going to happen anytime soon.

[MeiraStarborne]

The Purge happens.

Seems legit!

[Jeeqbit]

They are looking for temporary ways to increase capacity like software improvements, configuration changes or upgrades but obviously that is just to handle the pressure until new data centers can be made.