DevTalk: Detailed Analysis of Depopulation in Limsa/Grid and How to Fix It

[Chezen]

Well, initially I was for linking the wards... but if the population was distributed better, I don't think that part would be a problem. Linking them, however, would create more room issues. Each city should have it's own flavor and stable economy, at least I believe that's the idea.

Other than that I agree. No city should be better than the other if you want the population distributed. The companies will help too I think.

[Rentahamster]

Well, initially I was for linking the wards... but if the population was distributed better, I don't think that part would be a problem.

It would still be a problem at the current server population rates. By my estimation, the population of each server would have to be at least 3 or more times larger than what it is currently (basically, at least 3 "uldah's worth" of players in each city).

However, that's not gonna happen for a while until the game gets better, so you may as well just cut your losses and merge the wards to make life better for your existing player base. It will be a dramatic improvement now, which will only help to give positive feedback to support future player growth.

Linking them, however, would create more room issues.

This part is true, which is why they would also either need to:

1. scrap the NPCs and make market wards a completely text-driven interface (item search menu without the NPCs, basically)

2. improve the game engine and optimize the servers enough so that overcrowding isn't an issue anymore (unlikely in the short term)

Each city should have it's own flavor and stable economy, at least I believe that's the idea.

I agree that this would be nice, but at the current population numbers, it is an unfeasible fantasy.

This works in other MMOs like EVE Online, but that is only because there are 100,000 people on a single server.