Why are we still perpetuating this server congestion meme?

[SalamanderIX]

When did they start marking servers as unavailable all the time? I could swear around the start of Endwalker, you could make a character on any server, provided it wasn't too busy at the time you logged in.
It's really inconvenient to have to wait months for servers to be randomly marked as congested or not.

[CCheshire]

When did they start marking servers as unavailable all the time? I could swear around the start of Endwalker, you could make a character on any server, provided it wasn't too busy at the time you logged in.
It's really inconvenient to have to wait months for servers to be randomly marked as congested or not.

TBF Aether has only been fully closed since 7.2 patch as it had 2 worlds open for transfer and new characters before that time.

[Jeeqbit]

When did they start marking servers as unavailable all the time? I could swear around the start of Endwalker, you could make a character on any server, provided it wasn't too busy at the time you logged in.
It's really inconvenient to have to wait months for servers to be randomly marked as congested or not.

I think it started in Stormblood. Because there was a time in late Heavensward when it was getting out of hand. Balmung was so congested you couldn't make a character on it except for a few minute window at a certain time of the week. As a result, people did paid transfers and it was bursting an already congested bubble.

They created the Congested status to prevent people joining Balmung. That later led to the Data Center Split, or the sundering, that split Aether and Primal into a new data center called Crystal, and the addition of World Visit, all of which helped balance out Balmung's population.

But as the game grew, it ceased to just be Balmung in this spot. A lot of other worlds got into this spot. Crystal actually grew so much that it now often exceeds Aether's population (but we can't account for Data Center Travel in these stats, which obviously alters things).

Now, people will say "but the population dropped since Dawntrail release", but the thing is that the population was still higher than in Stormblood last I checked and we had congested worlds like Balmung then as I mentioned. We also have to consider that Lucky Bancho doesn't even consider free trials (or those with no clear evidence of a subscription even if they have one) in the stats.

In my experience, the worlds getting set as congested make sense based on the situations ie. certain ones end up congested at raid patches, others end up congested purely because they've allowed new players for an extended period of time and those new players have become regular players and this is visible when you travel to them.

[NoFaceNobody]

The fact i get put in a queue to get onto Golem is laughable when there is at most 5 people in limsa. (30+ people queues sometimes)
Congestion? Where?

[Jeeqbit]

The fact i get put in a queue to get onto Golem is laughable when there is at most 5 people in limsa. (30+ people queues sometimes)
Congestion? Where?

That doesn't represent congestion. The queue is just 1-by-1 processing of logins. There are 30 people trying to login at that moment in time. They could be players or they could be bots.

Either way, not everyone spends their time at Limsa. After all, new players would be doing MSQ and many players transferred to Dynamis for a house.

According to Lucky Bancho, Golem has around 4461 active players (of course, they won't all be logged in at once). As a contrast, healthy worlds seem to have 10,000 to 16,000. Mateus is currently the most congested with over 18,000.

Source: https://livedoor.blogimg.jp/luckyban...0/80ace487.png

[Darkstride]

The fact i get put in a queue to get onto Golem is laughable when there is at most 5 people in limsa. (30+ people queues sometimes)
Congestion? Where?

It doesn't mean anything is congested. Players are in a batched queue.

[SalamanderIX]

The active hardcore players I'd say is just as high, or higher now than ever. I think the issue is, people are looking at data and drawing the wrong conclusion. Since it shows the number people playing at all on steam, on a given day. What's missing is at least half the playercount is made up for people who login for 10 minutes to try a free trial, or are in some ARR dungeon with their trusts. -- players we don't normally interact with or take up much space in peak hours. With Stream reviews being negative, we aren't getting nearly as many of these anymore, and they'd almost certainly be on Dynamis, because the client directed them there.

[Batbrat]

I don't know whether or not the congestion thing is true, but I do hope that Aether can open again soon (specifically Gilgamesh) so that more friends of mine can come on over!! tyty