Switching Worlds

[SoCalKingg]

I just started playing FF14 a week ago, and not knowing better, I chose Mateus server.

Mateus is deserted. I'll run through areas and never see 1 other player. I started googling and found out that Mateus is considered a "low population" server. I had no idea when I picked this one.

Square said I had two options. 1) They can erase my character and I can start over or 2) i can pay $18 to switch servers. This seems like crap to me. I don't want to start over. I made it to level 18 in the beta, got wiped, and now 27 so I don't want to start over AGAIN. I just paid $40 for the game, $13 per month sub now, and I have to pay $18 to switch to a world with other players in it? I was surprised they wouldn't give me a one time waiver since I didn't know. Does anyone have experience with this, have any suggestions for me, or has ever done a transfer and managed to get the fee waived?

[Lemon8or]

Why should Square give you a free transfer? You should've done research on the world before choosing one. Leveling to 27 is not that big a deal anyway. Probably takes like a day of doing main quest line. My suggestion is either choose the high pop server like Behemoth, Leviathan, Hyperion or Excalibur or the new server like Jenova, Zodiark and just start over.

[SoCalKingg]

Research on the world? This is the only game I have ever played in my life that required you to pick a server to play on. Thanks for the kind answer though. REALLY APPRECIATE IT.

[ariaandkia]

I just started playing FF14 a week ago, and not knowing better, I chose Mateus server.

Mateus is deserted. I'll run through areas and never see 1 other player. I started googling and found out that Mateus is considered a "low population" server. I had no idea when I picked this one.

Square said I had two options. 1) They can erase my character and I can start over or 2) i can pay $18 to switch servers. This seems like crap to me. I don't want to start over. I made it to level 18 in the beta, got wiped, and now 27 so I don't want to start over AGAIN. I just paid $40 for the game, $13 per month sub now, and I have to pay $18 to switch to a world with other players in it? I was surprised they wouldn't give me a one time waiver since I didn't know. Does anyone have experience with this, have any suggestions for me, or has ever done a transfer and managed to get the fee waived?

I'm sorry, but if that is the case, just change servers. level 27 is pretty easy to reach. I can hit that in a day if I wanted to bother. In 3 days of beta, I got what was it, 3 level 20s, and the rest were 15/11? Like 2-3 days after early access, I was pretty much working on my second level 50? Yeah, it sucks to have to start again, but not that much of a big deal. Plus, you can make 1 character each on about 8 servers if you have basic service.

[SoCalKingg]

Thanks for the response. I must suck at this game because it took me about 30-40 hours to get to level 27. I'm just going to live with it I guess. Square support was no help and all they could say was, "We get this complaint all the time, you are not alone." $18 is not going to break the bank, it's more of the fact that I've all ready committed $200 to play this for a year, and now I have to spend $18 more if I want to actually play with other players. I'll just cross my fingers that one day they'll run the free transfer again like they did back in October, and I'll be able to leave the deserted world of Mateus.

[Niwashi]

I must suck at this game because it took me about 30-40 hours to get to level 27.

That's not a bad time for a first run. When you begin a new game, things take a lot longer because you're spending a significant amount of your time learning the game and its interface, and exploring an unfamiliar world. If you do decide to start over, repeating now-familiar content goes far faster than exploring and learning new content, so you can get back to level 27 in far less time than it took you to get there initially.

Or at least it can go a lot faster if you want it to. It really comes down to how much time you like to spend on exploring. You can decide to rush through the early levels up to the point where you left off with your previous character, and only then slow down enough to explore the content and side-stories, etc.

[Sagittarian]

I was curious where you found information about Mateus being a low population server because I hadn't seen anything about server populations since August of 2013. Then I found this site - http://xivsoul.com/ which counts server population based on how many people are in a free company on the server. Not a perfect count but the percentages between servers are probably good.
From that it looks like Mateus has the second to lowest population among the NA servers with about 75% of the population of most of the other servers and 55% of the most populated.

That being said, on Malboro the time of day has a tremendous effect on the number of people logged in. I assume it is the same for other servers. Malboro has a lot of east coast US players. After midnight Pacific time, most of the population has dropped off. I don't know what times you are playing but that may also be an issue. Some people who work odd hours in the US have had better luck on the EU servers because of the time difference.
It may also be that there aren't a lot of new players on Mateus and everyone is clustered in the higher level areas.

The duty finder is across all worlds in your data center, by the way. So the world itself having a lower population shouldn't affect your use of the duty finder. I realize it does affect your experience with the rest of the game however, including free companies, FATEs, and forming pre-made parties.

Also, almost all MMOs require you to pick a server for your character as far as I know. So it's not that odd. World Of Warcraft charges $25 USD to change servers.

Regarding leveling, everyone plays at their own pace. We have several players who all started with the PS4 release. Their levels all range from 18-44. I think one of them is actually 50. So while re-leveling to 27 may be nothing for some, it is a significant investment for others. It depends on how you play.

So, for you the question is which is going to cause you the least frustration: paying the $18 for the server transfer, continuing to play in a world you feel is empty, or re-leveling?
Personally I would create a new character and re-level them. But I have the subscription that allows multiple characters. If that is what you have, I'd create new characters in several worlds just to see what the online population looks like during your play times.

[namidax]

If you decide to stay there, maybe you should consider joining an Free Company or linkshells in your server? If you run into some friendly people there, send friend request too. It would be alot more fun than going solo.

Good luck

[SoCalKingg]

All good points and advice so thank you. It probably has to do with the time I'm playing as well like you mentioned. I live in California and normally play from 8-1 PT so that would be 11-4 ET. I figured that had something to do with it, but it's bad. In an MMO, I just like to see people interacting in the world. Sometimes I'll go 7-8 minutes on foot without seeing a soul. I'm glad the duty finder is not affected because I registered for Ifrit twice last night, and had to withdraw both times after 55 min of waiting. I thought maybe it was server related, but glad it's not.

I also realize other MMO's charge, but some MMO's that I play, like DCUO, don't have separate servers for separate groups of players. This is actually my first experience with that so I'm learning the hard way. I'll probably just keep my character and start a new one in a new world. Square told me "low population servers remain low population servers for a long time" so no use staying in Mateus.

[Sagittarian]

I live in California and normally play from 8-1 PT so that would be 11-4 ET.

That's my play window also.

I registered for Ifrit twice last night, and had to withdraw both times after 55 min of waiting.

Welcome to the dps queue... It can be a pain even when registering for multiple dungeons or roulette. If you can find a tank or a healer to party with it will go much faster.