Increase Server Capacity

[Saccharin]

So since the launch of 2.4 I have managed to get six of my friends to buy the game and start playing, however every time one of them bought the game we have constantly run into road blocks with the server we are all on. I've been playing on Balmung since before it was Balmung (originally from Besaid), and over the years most of my friends have also joined this server. With it becoming the primary RP server, and the home of many large communities, it is easily the most popular (and populated) server in the game, at least based on the fact that the server is CONSTANTLY locked.

Occasionally you might get lucky at 4am to 6am PST and the server will open up briefly, and if you're fast enough you can get a new character in right after maintenance, but this is incredibly frustrating for me trying to get friends into the game, and I can only imagine how frustrating it is for people who paid to play a game they can't even technically access (I understand they could join a different server, but it kind of defeats the purpose).

Back in the early days of FFXI you used to be able to purchase something called a World Pass that would let your friends create a character on your server (because the game would otherwise pic a random server). I think that either SE needs to consider raising their server capacity, at least for these high pop servers, or including something similar to this, a code that will let players make a character on your server.

With the new expac coming out soon, I can only imagine that things will get worse with new players drawn in, returning players coming back, and the overall increased activity of current players.

NO.

SE need to get a backbone and just lock the server to all new characters. If they don't get a handle of this there will be overloaded servers struggling with the load and servers with very few people on it. Increasing capacity doesn't solve problems with people clustering to specific server, usually legacy. You are part of the reason why it's locked; you introduce new people to an already overfilled server. If you want to play with friends you either make a fresh character on another server or transfer off. SE should however offer free transfers off of high pop servers.

[tocsin]

NO.

SE need to get a backbone and just lock the server to all new characters. If they don't get a handle of this there will be overloaded servers struggling with the load and servers with very few people on it. Increasing capacity doesn't solve problems with people clustering to specific server, usually legacy. You are part of the reason why it's locked; you introduce new people to an already overfilled server. If you want to play with friends you either make a fresh character on another server or transfer off. SE should however offer free transfers off of high pop servers.

This. I 100% agree with this, and thank you for bringing it up. By being on balmung in the first place, you are part of the problem. by bringing more people in, you are adding to the problem, and should be ostracized.

I'm 100% for penalizing people who try to draw new players into the overfilled servers. take away their houses, give them a logon restriction, whatever it takes to get them to stop.

I'm really glad they introduced personal housing the way they did, for this reason. You are the reason why half the servers are dying. you should NOT be allowed to get a personal house, for being a venom in the side of your game.