[Feedback] Data Center Travel Changes

[Qorani]

This isn't supposed to be a good thing lol. Players are suffering (I know the exact wording there sounds hyperbolic, but a better way to phrase it isn't coming to me at the moment) because of the devs not knowing how to handle their game and implementing features that blatantly degrade what was an acceptable player experience before now.

Please don't defend this. They took a feature that people liked - aside from some pf issues - and made it tentatively unusable at best. I'm not one to harrass the devs or anything, but this is a significant step backward. This feels like a version of the feature that would be in alpha or beta build of it.

[ObscuraFi]

- aside from some pf issues -

Crystal:
PF Issues

Primal:
PF Issues

Dynamis:
PF issues
Eureka/Bozja Issues
Roulette Issues
Open World Fate Issues
Low Population Social Zones
Never getting access to FC Buffs or retainers while PvE'ing which is what everyone else complained about having to go to Dynamis but is what Dynamis dealt with for years.
No casual PvP queue's until it was organized by a PvP discord
Low Population count for venues
Low Marketboard interest due to more undercutting on main data centers

[Qorani]

I'll agree that the Crystal and Primal pf issues are somewhat valid, but you can't attribute the Dynamis issues to DC travel. At best they slightly made the issues work, but the bigger problem is that no one wanted to go to Dynamis to start with and we didn't see enough NA player expansion in Endwalker to really justify them - especially an additional 4 worlds for Dawntrail. The issue with Dynamis is the same as Materia in that there is no GOOD incentive to go there aside from maybe easier housing. People need a great reason to uproot their habits, leave their FCs and friends behind wherever they left them, and contribute to building a new data center from the ground up. And the devs simply have not done that. Extra exp and some gold chocobo feathers aren't going to cut it.

[ObscuraFi]

And the devs simply have not done that. Extra exp and some gold chocobo feathers aren't going to cut it.

They did now. And now you're complaining because you got hurt in the process xD They gave extra xp, extra housing, extra gil, extra membership time, faster login times, chocobo feathers. They don't have anything else to offer besides limited time cosmetics. Increasing rewards from content or open world would just get Dynamis farmed out and then people would leave after those items were no longer relevant, and Dynamis would shift the economy for all of the region.

[Qorani]

If their rewards offerings are enough, then why is Dynamis still having issues with population? It really does seem that no one has a compelling reason to go there.

It makes one think... that maybe the devs haven't made it feel worth it? That maybe they should have added additional worlds to pre-existing data centers instead? Not my job to fix things since I'm not a game dev, but the issues are apparent.

[ObscuraFi]

If their rewards offerings are enough, then why is Dynamis still having issues with population? It really does seem that no one has a compelling reason to go there.

I don't know what you mean by still. This is minimum 3-4x the population Dynamis had throughout Endwalker even on patch days.

[Qorani]

Then surely a fair amount of the issues that you cited are either nonexistent or significantly reduced at the moment?

Also, to not post twice regarding your previous discussion about queues on savage patch day. Despite all of the extended queues for DC travel, throughout the day as I hopped from DC to DC delivering gear, and even during peak hours going to Dynamis, my login queue when I got there was never more than 30-40 people. On day one of savage, during peak hours. If anything you said about "you should have expected high queues" is accurate, that means that they moved all of the login queues to DC travel queues that we're actively crashing and throwing errors. Even if it was intentional for them to shift the queues to DC travel, errors and bugs are not intended.

Not even to mention the issue of still having to pick a non-crowded server to jump to when you start to DC travel being potentially locked to DC travel players for long periods of time when you get there. I tried to go to Primal during the middle of the day today, when congestion was reasonably at its lowest, and still couldn't get in.

Stop defending the problem and start proposing a solution that people can agree on.