PSA: Aether is open

[ItMe]

Guess it was unlocked quietly.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Guess it was unlocked quietly.

They had an announcement on the lodestone, as they always do when changes to server status are made.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fdefe8549f3990

[CaptainLagbeard]

They did some server updating in the maintenance on the 28th, and as a part of unlocked Aether...

Also they mostly just temporarily closed it off anyways because, as far as I can tell, a lot of the WoW streamers when they came over to FF XIV went to Aether, so it got bombed with too many new players all at once and their servers couldn't entirely deal with it.

[ItMe]

They had an announcement on the lodestone, as they always do when changes to server status are made.

They did some server updating in the maintenance on the 28th, and as a part of unlocked Aether...

Ah, I see.
I have a lodestone bot in my FCs discord but must have missed the announcement.
I thought they'd just quietly unlocked it.

Well, I know not everyone checks the lodestone so I hope this info helps someone out.

[Dreamsoap]

Finally! Time to go find an Aether FC.

[Shougun]

Will be nice when the data center walls blend such that all this flocking becomes relatively irrelevant. "What's your data--" "Doesn't matter, just login and send an invite!".

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Will be nice when the data center walls blend such that all this flocking becomes relatively irrelevant. "What's your data--" "Doesn't matter, just login and send an invite!".

I don't think it will ever be that transparent. There will still be walls.

[Shougun]

I don't think it will ever be that transparent. There will still be walls.

Some sure, but 'usually' (lol) surmountable walls I believe is the goal from what they've said. Like DF collapsing into one (iirc).

[Bsrking5]

Quick, lock it back up. Before anyone notices

[Jojoya]

Some sure, but 'usually' (lol) surmountable walls I believe is the goal from what they've said. Like DF collapsing into one (iirc).

I'm not sure they'd be able to collapse the "walls" anytime soon with the way the player base has been growing. The partitioning probably helps server performance since it reduces the number of players receiving certain pieces of information (like party finder listings). A lot of the limitations we already have seem to be related to that server communication struggle.

To be honest, I'm not certain removing the walls it's a good way to go in the long run. Communities and friendships get formed because of repeat encounters with the same people. The more people you add to potential groupings, the fewer repeat encounters you will have. People tend to be more relaxed when they're in a community they feel they know.

Certainly you want there to be enough in a group so players don't have a problem finding others to do group content but you also shouldn't want it to be so large that players effectively turn into faceless NPCs of no consequence. That opens the door to toxicity. Many players have no problems being rude to others they know they'll never see again but will think twice when it's someone they're likely to see again in the future.