When do you think they'll add cross-region data center travel? OCE is screwed!

[Iscah]

Rather, SE could easily just say "Hey, move to OCE server, and set up your account with an OCE credit card/bank to pay and we'll give you 3 months free"

Not enough? Give 6 months free with purchase valid through 2023. You'd get people coming to save money, you'd get people telling their friends "hey just try it, you get 6 months of sub free!", and if even 20% of those people who try it stick, well, that's people.

It sounds like a good idea on the surface, but there's a big catch: people can have multiple characters and (if it's even technically possible) walling people off from any characters not moved to the new DC would be unfair, while letting them continue to play all characters could mean they just park a disused alt on the bonus server and keep playing elsewhere.

[Jeeqbit]

This is where we need to be honest. There are certain people who will never DC travel away from a data center. Not just people who are trying to help it grow, but people who are simply ignorant that DC travels exists, too new to the game to understand that it exists or think it's too complicated to bother with. To this day, there are people who don't even know that world visiting is possible and I inform people that it exists regularly. These are the people who slowly make the queues viable over time.

As a new data center it's going to be hard because there is nothing established there - no RP events, no communities, no big and famous FCs, no statics, nothing to socially entice people to be there like there definitely is on established data centers. We can point to Crystal or Balmung for roleplaying, we can point to Aether for raiding and dozens of high profiles content creators, but what can we point to Dynamis or Materia for? Peace and quiet?

It's going to take time whether there is DC travel or not, but being able to drag people to the data center for roleplay events or static nights is something that would help build a reputation of some sort.

[kaynide]

It sounds like a good idea on the surface, but there's a big catch: people can have multiple characters and (if it's even technically possible) walling people off from any characters not moved to the new DC would be unfair, while letting them continue to play all characters could mean they just park a disused alt on the bonus server and keep playing elsewhere.

This is true and would need some kind of work to improve. I don’t really know what that is, but it could be a requirement of playtime in exchange for the sub waiver. Or their characters must exclusively be on OCE (which I don’t like). Some way to ensure the bulk of playtime is on OCE characters, or at least enough to promote others to play there.

Whatever the case, it should only reward those putting effort into playing on OCE, but also not penalize those who are happy on another server. (Eg. no weird throttling to make ping impossible for OCE players outside of OCE servers)

[Hanayumi]

Considering the mass request for it I think they will, folks just got to remember they said they "might" have the means to do so, doesnt mean they can right this moment.

[Jojoya]

As a new data center it's going to be hard because there is nothing established there - no RP events, no communities, no big and famous FCs, no statics, nothing to socially entice people to be there like there definitely is on established data centers. We can point to Crystal or Balmung for roleplaying, we can point to Aether for raiding and dozens of high profiles content creators, but what can we point to Dynamis or Materia for? Peace and quiet?

Peace and quiet works. A lot of players came to Dynamis to get away from the reputations and drama of their previous home worlds/data centers.

Come 7.0, Dynamis and Materia will have only minor log in queues compared to the login queues on the more populated worlds.

There will probably continue to be available houses for those who were drawn to the game by housing.

There will be subcommunities where players get to know each other well instead of being an anonymous name in a crowd.

With more interdependence caused by a small population, there generally comes a more friendly and helpful community.

Dynamis doesn't really have anything to worry about as NA players are free to visit on their existing characters then return home if they don't like it. Materia is a 90 day commitment to see what it's like.

Perhaps SE needs to revise the how World Balancing initiative rewards are received in addition to opening up cross region travel for OCE. Make Road to 80 XP bonus apply to any character playing on a Materia world, even a Traveler. Only give the other rewards after the character has a Materia home world for 90 days and 100 hours of time played on a Materia world. That way making a new character for the gil bonus and free game time isn't a done thing after 15 minutes to get to level 10 then 2 Ocean Voyages as FSH.

[VelKallor]

Who would willingly travel to a datacenter that has both longer queues and worse ping?

It's a legit problem, and data center travel just really isn't a good way to go about it.

Rather, SE could easily just say "Hey, move to OCE server, and set up your account with an OCE credit card/bank to pay and we'll give you 3 months free"

Not enough? Give 6 months free with purchase valid through 2023. You'd get people coming to save money, you'd get people telling their friends "hey just try it, you get 6 months of sub free!", and if even 20% of those people who try it stick, well, that's people.

That's the core issue- SE needs to entice people to populate these servers. The current 1 million gil nonsense is a non-starter.

Ideally, cross region DC travel JP - OCE would work, as there have to be thousands of players who want to play on OCE but dont want to leave their current communities. I am well aware of the issues, but to keep OCE viable, which is a MUST, it may have to be the only option. The advantage of them is the improved latency, without the need to move permanently.

Allowing NA - OC or EU - OCE travel but locking off JP...I dont know if that can even be done.

I know JP isnt too hot on the idea, but at the same time, there is a much wider issue to be addressed. Its a balancing act, I know.

We also CANNOT make a hedged bet on 7.0 improving the situation, as there is no gaurantee it will change population numbers on a long term basis.

[kaynide]

Ideally, cross region DC travel JP - OCE would work, as there have to be thousands of players who want to play on OCE but dont want to leave their current communities. I am well aware of the issues, but to keep OCE viable, which is a MUST, it may have to be the only option. The advantage of them is the improved latency, without the need to move permanently.

Allowing NA - OC or EU - OCE travel but locking off JP...I dont know if that can even be done.

I know JP isnt too hot on the idea, but at the same time, there is a much wider issue to be addressed. Its a balancing act, I know.

We also CANNOT make a hedged bet on 7.0 improving the situation, as there is no gaurantee it will change population numbers on a long term basis.

The problem is it’s not just a simple thing to allow international movement. With DC travel, everything moves in house, from one stack to another mere feet from each other IRL.

Doing transfers from one cluster to another in another country requires new infrastructure. We are talking transfers from SE cluster to another SE cluster in another country, using their bandwidth and their internet connections.

OCE isn’t that old. If you hate it and can’t be patient, don’t play on it…pretty simple. Asking for bandaid solutions isn’t going to fix it, isn’t going to encourage growth, and doesn’t address the actual issue of retaining/recruiting players to the DC.

To be clear, you are complaining that a server, which is about a month old, is not as populated as established servers during the absolute dead zone of the expansion’s lifecycle. If it’s still like this at the same point in 7.0 then sure, we have a problem. Right now, the sky is decidedly NOT falling.

[Myrany]

The problem is it’s not just a simple thing to allow international movement. With DC travel, everything moves in house, from one stack to another mere feet from each other IRL.

Doing transfers from one cluster to another in another country requires new infrastructure. We are talking transfers from SE cluster to another SE cluster in another country, using their bandwidth and their internet connections.

OCE isn’t that old. If you hate it and can’t be patient, don’t play on it…pretty simple. Asking for bandaid solutions isn’t going to fix it, isn’t going to encourage growth, and doesn’t address the actual issue of retaining/recruiting players to the DC.

To be clear, you are complaining that a server, which is about a month old, is not as populated as established servers during the absolute dead zone of the expansion’s lifecycle. If it’s still like this at the same point in 7.0 then sure, we have a problem. Right now, the sky is decidedly NOT falling.

OCE is more than a month old. Several months more than a month old.

Now if you are referring to Dynamis then I rather agree that it isn't as dead as some people think it is. Dynamis will without a doubt improve over time and with 7.0.

[Nafreyu]

Valid points have already been raised towards the beginning of the thread that set Materia up for a fail.

I've watched the deterioration and I've made the calculated choice to let sub lapse but come back after my M house has been relinquished, claim what Gil I get from the recovery and transfer back to Elemental ahead of the new ward releases.

Not sharing this for any other reason other than this is my battleplan. See you on the other side

[Tigerlilley]

Valid points have already been raised towards the beginning of the thread that set Materia up for a fail.

I've watched the deterioration and I've made the calculated choice to let sub lapse but come back after my M house has been relinquished, claim what Gil I get from the recovery and transfer back to Elemental ahead of the new ward releases.

Not sharing this for any other reason other than this is my battleplan. See you on the other side

As SE's complete silence on anything about Materia stretches on, we're watching many people do the same thing and no one can blame them. Disappointing, of course, but we all pay a monthly sub to play the game. If we can't play the game then what's the point? Good luck back on Elemental