Ability to switch servers!

[camjay]

Hey man I was a total noob to XIV when I chose Selbina. I just randomly picked it. Haven't needed to change! I didn't ask anybody about servers or anything.

[Seif]

I don't understand at all why anyone wouldn't want to be on a fuller server and if it's optional you could always not do it right?
Just seems so mean somehow.

[Chain]

Any MMO that doesn't offer server transfers is behind the curve, end of story.

Alot of us have legit reasons for wanting to transfer, like the few of us stuck on the "unofficial" oceanic server.

I rolled here with a few good friends from XI but it's a nightmare finding people to play with or form a shell with in our timezone. I could reroll and catch back up in a few weeks but some of them have multiple 50s and crafts which isn't an option to just ditch and start over.

[Seif]

Also do you really want to limit your gameplay experience just because you don't like everybody on different servers?

For example in XI sure there's some hilariously offensive /shouting going on at all times but the high population keeps the economy healthy and the AH can always offer the things I want to buy from there. Also if the transferring was made free then those who enjoy to play a MMO all by themselves could easily take trips to dead servers when they want some "me"-time.

Just walking in a city while doing nothing is a lot more enjoyable also visually when you see other players running by doing their thing.

Also if you really don't like some players you can alway blacklist them.

[Nipa]

One free server transfer every week. Only forbid transfers to the overpopulated servers (based on the playing population, not the number of char created). This would allow players to easily play with their friends, and naturally create maximum population servers, which are good things.

This is what we can expect for a 2011 MMO.

[DoctorMog]

One free server transfer every week. Only forbid transfers to the overpopulated servers (based on the playing population, not the number of char created). This would allow players to easily play with their friends, and naturally create maximum population servers, which are good things.

This is what we can expect for a 2011 MMO.

One per... WTF?

Why even have different servers to make characters on?
At that point, you might as well make it like Maple Story, just pick the server you want to log on to, after character selection.

[Nipa]

Why even have different servers to make characters on?
At that point, you might as well make it like Maple Story, just pick the server you want to log on to, after character selection.

Basically, there are 3 reasons for having more than one server:
- the first, obvious, one, is technical: if your game is poorly coded, you won't be able to balance correctly the load of all your players on a single server. A correctly coded game, using instantiation, can handle as much player as you want (the only things that need to be running on the same physical servers are players in the same instance, nothing more... and in fact, you can even split that a bit more, Rift do this). But of course this is not an easy feat.
- the second one is to split the game into small communities. Some players actually love knowing "everyone" on their server, some other don't care since they only play with their guild. In bigger servers or in game where population is quickly cycled, it's harder to attain that feeling.
- The last one is a matter of immersion: if you have too many players on a single server, you will have to instantiate some (open land) zones. Some people don't like that, and it will impact greatly open PvP.

Basically, as much as I understand how SE has to abide by that first reason, I find the second one quite strange in a game where you can have as many guild as you want, and the third one pretty stupid in a PvE game.

The idea behind the weekly free transfer (also behind cross-servers groups or LFD) is to allow players to play with nearly everyone while keeping all those reasons. Allowing the players to choose which server they will play on at login totally breaks the second point, unlike with a slow paced server change.

Rift went the weekly transfer way, I find it quite adequate (since the game has an open PvP component).

WoW went the cross-shard LFD way, and focuses on guild progression: the average player doesn't really care on what server he is, until he want to play with some specific out of game friend. They intend to go for the cross-shard group making (and are struggling on how to monetize this).

In the case of FF14, a game with last names (reduces names collisions), multiple guilds (good thing to handle a lot of potential people), only PvE content (every thing can be instantiated), and an international community, if they could have a single server, with instantiated zones, I pretty sure it would turn out nicely. Of course seeing how SE is handling a mere interface rework, I'm pretty sure it's out of the question.

Hence my request for a slow transfer option (weekly or even monthly would be enough, since we only have one character).

[Delsus]

Basically, as much as I understand how SE has to abide by that first reason, I find the second one quite strange in a game where you can have as many guild as you want, and the third one pretty stupid in a PvE game.

The idea behind the weekly free transfer (also behind cross-servers groups or LFD) is to allow players to play with nearly everyone while keeping all those reasons. Allowing the players to choose which server they will play on at login totally breaks the second point, unlike with a slow paced server change.

Rift went the weekly transfer way, I find it quite adequate (since the game has an open PvP component).

WoW went the cross-shard LFD way, and focuses on guild progression: the average player doesn't really care on what server he is, until he want to play with some specific out of game friend. They intend to go for the cross-shard group making (and are struggling on how to monetize this).

In the case of FF14, a game with last names (reduces names collisions), multiple guilds (good thing to handle a lot of potential people), only PvE content (every thing can be instantiated), and an international community, if they could have a single server, with instantiated zones, I pretty sure it would turn out nicely. Of course seeing how SE is handling a mere interface rework, I'm pretty sure it's out of the question.

Hence my request for a slow transfer option (weekly or even monthly would be enough, since we only have one character).

SE wants us to have pickup parties which is why they are working on the lfp/party search function, they dont want people to stay in thier linkshells, most people dont want to do everything in thier linkshell, they want to meet people out of thier linkshells.

Also they are going to put PvP in ffxiv, but its not top of thier priority list so whereas right now it has only PvE content that will not be the same in the future.

Also the interface is not top of thier priorities either there are other more important things to fix in the game before asthethics, the UI works, admittedly not as well as it could but it does, it will be fixed just when it comes up in thier priority list.

[syntaxlies]

One free server transfer every week. Only forbid transfers to the overpopulated servers (based on the playing population, not the number of char created). This would allow players to easily play with their friends, and naturally create maximum population servers, which are good things.

This is what we can expect for a 2011 MMO.

i would actually cut this down to a month but a time limit is a good idea.

[Delsus]

There isnt a server transfer atm so they can balance the populations between servers, its why some servers get temporerily closed when thier population gets too high (mainly saw it at release), I dont think we will get server transfers till after the ps3 release or you will have some servers with really high populations and some with no one on, Besaid, Selbina and Mysidia would have a huge eruption in population while Gysahl, Karnak and Istory would have no one on.