Physical/regional servers FINALLY confirmed ??! (Y)

[Asiaine]

If we have 'regional' servers, a noticable portion of people will choose their server based on the region. This means there will be less 'international' people per server. This has some noticeable impacts:

-- Less economic activities during quiet periods (you put items up for sale at bed time, nothing may sell till next evening, as your whole server goes to bed at same time).
-- Less people during 'off' hours (if you are on EU server but want to play during day you may find no one to play with)
-- Less global feeling (if you enjoy spending time with people who are not in your region you may miss out on this. This is very good for those who do not live in the region they are originally from (i.e. Brit living in US for a while)).

This is a lot to 'sacrifice' for less latency. Perhaps they can come up with better solution?

-- Regional 'proxy' servers that have better/dedicated/optimized link to main servers?

I.e.: Connect to 'proxy' server in Germany which has a dedicated link to the real server in Japan

-- Remove timing based on server calculation in favour of client calculation?

You move away from Ifrit's cracks when you see them on your screen, not when the server in japan says they are up.

[Valmonte]

the real issue now is the server has to confirm everything everyone is doing. that's over 1200 people on average the server has to constantly check up on.

all they need to do is take all character related checks and make them client side, that alone will cut Server latency in half and improve player response times.

[Nemo5990]

If we have 'regional' servers, a noticable portion of people will choose their server based on the region. This means there will be less 'international' people per server. This has some noticeable impacts:

-- Less economic activities during quiet periods (you put items up for sale at bed time, nothing may sell till next evening, as your whole server goes to bed at same time).
-- Less people during 'off' hours (if you are on EU server but want to play during day you may find no one to play with)
-- Less global feeling (if you enjoy spending time with people who are not in your region you may miss out on this. This is very good for those who do not live in the region they are originally from (i.e. Brit living in US for a while)).

This is a lot to 'sacrifice' for less latency. Perhaps they can come up with better solution?

-- Regional 'proxy' servers that have better/dedicated/optimized link to main servers?

I.e.: Connect to 'proxy' server in Germany which has a dedicated link to the real server in Japan

-- Remove timing based on server calculation in favour of client calculation?

You move away from Ifrit's cracks when you see them on your screen, not when the server in japan says they are up.

Well If they setup a proxy server that will make things Lag alot more , and cracks aren't time based it's just they appear on your screen late an end faster to which give less time to respond . FFXIV loads in chunks which I believe is the chunk the player stands in and 1 chunk in all directions so 9chunks in total and i also believe those nine chunk are possibly 1 grid square it may vary in areas idk this is all just assumed but it does work that way in some areas you can possible run through 4 chunks at 1 time which could cause latency issues that would happen when you run through the 4way spots on the map grid like an crossroad

[DIJIDL]

I don't think there is a reason to worry about regional servers.

I think many people are forgetting what Chardrizard just touched on... Content-finder. It is already confirmed that Content-finder will be a big factor in cross-server content and 2.0's future/success.

If they choose to go with regional servers, it could possibly be to make servers and Content-finder's uses more efficient. (Hypothetically, of course.)

Speculatively, speaking: (I haven't read much on Content-finder, as there have been few details)

I would assume that Content-finder would provide you with options; I don't think it would just whisk you away and auto-drop you into a party or event. I imagine it would provide you details about the party/event/members such as:

Languages spoken
Region or time-zone
Event times
Server latency
Among others

*At least, that is what I imagine when cross-server content and Content-finder has been mentioned.

In other-words, maybe it will let you select what server to PvP on (something that latency could have a huge impact on) or dungeon raid with your LS (one that suits the most members in the event), and so forth.

Of course, there is really no telling without them officially making any concrete announcements. However, I would just assume that as a more likely scenario, than binding regions by region.

Speculation aside, I am certain that restricting regions to regional servers is definitely not on the table for this game... It would hurt this game a lot, just when it is getting into it's second wind.

Our Linkshell also has members from various different regions; it would definitely upset me to be broken up with the friends I have made, so far.

[Asiaine]

Well If they setup a proxy server that will make things Lag alot more , and cracks aren't time based it's just they appear on your screen late an end faster to which give less time to respond . FFXIV loads in chunks which I believe is the chunk the player stands in and 1 chunk in all directions so 9chunks in total and i also believe those nine chunk are possibly 1 grid square it may vary in areas idk this is all just assumed but it does work that way in some areas you can possible run through 4 chunks at 1 time which could cause latency issues that would happen when you run through the 4way spots on the map grid like an crossroad

Without trying to get tooo technical:

Without proxy:
Home -> Hop -> Hop -> Hop -> Hop -> (10 more hops) -> Server!

With proxy:
Home -> Hop -> Hop -> Hop -> Proxy -> Server!

The idea is the proxy is:
- Optimized with a dedicated/optimal link to server
- Data is sent from proxy to server with better configuration (QoS/etc)
- Proxy can act as 'pseudo client' for latency checking and optimisation

It can get pretty silly on how it can be optimized (and expensive both from hardware and software) but it is an option.

[Valmonte]

Well If they setup a proxy server that will make things Lag alot more , and cracks aren't time based it's just they appear on your screen late an end faster to which give less time to respond . FFXIV loads in chunks which I believe is the chunk the player stands in and 1 chunk in all directions so 9chunks in total and i also believe those nine chunk are possibly 1 grid square it may vary in areas idk this is all just assumed but it does work that way in some areas you can possible run through 4 chunks at 1 time which could cause latency issues that would happen when you run through the 4way spots on the map grid like an crossroad

what Asiaine meant are dedicated relay hosts with a main link to the primary server where ever it may be. While this does indeed work very well for latency & Ping improvements. it comes packaged with redundancy issues, should the relay fail for whatever reason uplink to the primary server is cut.

the internet prides itself on being a redundant pain in the ass. should one route fail to return requested information the internet will automatically find another route for that information to pass though. a relay host eliminates that advantage.

[Asiaine]

I don't think there is a reason to worry about regional servers.

I think many people are forgetting what Chardrizard just touched on... Content-finder. It is already confirmed that Content-finder will be a big factor in cross-server content and 2.0's future/success.

Although Content Finder is great and I am looking forward to it, it is meant for entering instances / dungeons with others. So it would not help with anything related to the economy, general socialising and chit-chat, crafting needs, or the majority of XP parties (unless they start to take place in dungeons..not popular now but may be in the future).

[Jynx]

Content Finder.....*Shudders*

[Valmonte]

Content Finder.....*Shudders*

Here's to hope, that its as asinine and useless as Party Search.

just pray for one of SE's famous one flop wonders.

[Risae]

This Crap engine is the cause. Wait till 2.0 and we will be lag free.

The input lag and all of this mess is NOT because of the crappy engine. Even when i'm playing on a TF2 server that is located in japan i will not have a better connection than 300ms.

The only solution to this would be regional servers. Iirc the european team is stationed in London, maybe they could place the server there? Playing an MMO with a ping over 150ms is NOT fun.