Repopulating Gridania and Limsa Lominsa (how can we spread out?)

[Ventus]

Introduction:

It's hard to speak for everyone since I know server population distribution may vastly differ, but I've heard a fairly general consensus that ul'dah seems to be the only city with any "life" in it these days. Gridania and Limsa Lominsa are merely unspeakable ghost towns only providing use for guild marks and perhaps grand company gear (only temporary trips, fleeting things that do not plant you to the city).

So if this is not an issue on your server and I'm merely mistaken then to you I say "you lucky SOB =/", but as for others I ask you this:

What do you think SE should do to give incentive to spread out to Limsa and Gridania?

The last time I remember my home town of limsa having a healthy population was since launch and I'd like to be able to go back one day and see it booming and healthy as it was before .

Current Factors Helping Distribution:

1. Allow class guild marks to be allocated only in their home city

2. Have specific grand companies and gear associated with each different city

3. (as of patch 1.19) airships that go across to each city

I think airships will be a big help in increasing distribution since the convenience of uldah will become less significant geographically. However, I still fear it is not enough.

Current Factors Harming Distribution:

1. Well everyone is already packed there so finding groups is better

2. Everyone I know is in ul'dah (linkshell/friends/etc)

3. Ul'dah has the superior market economy and widest list of items

4. I've already dedicated my grand company to ul'dah since it is my current home city

Among these I feel the market economy is a huge factor keeping people in ul'dah. They want to sell and buy with a healthy population to circulate money.

Closing Statement:

As we are all aware, SE is doing their best to get us to spread out but I'd like to hear what ideas we can bring up to help the situation. Anyways, let me know what you guys think and thanks for reading!

[CK11]

This happened in FFXI as well, jeuno was the major place to be, the center of everything happening. I havent been on in a month or so, but one thing they changed was linking all the AH's together. So you didnt have to go to Jeuno to find the best price or items you needed. I believe if this was the first change they did way back when FFXI first was released, it would help other citys survive. But with FFXIV, its hard to say, i guess my only idea (maybe not the best) but to allow you to choose 8 more leves in each city. Keep all the rules, but each city will allow 8 leves each reset. Might bring more traffic to them?!

[Xatsh]

You cannot get rid of it, every mmo in history has 1 central location for everyone togather.

Just like how in XI everyone gathered in Jueno, then Whitegate, then Jueno again

[Shyd]

Linking the AH's in XI helped populate the other towns i believe.

Plus when we have airships, i think we will see another increase in the population since 1.18 (Guild Marks only from cities with the guild.)

So maybe linking AH's will help. Influx of new players too will repopulate the area. Grid was very very busy during the first few weeks of the game on Gyshal. But died down as players progressed in the story, sending them to Ul'dah. Then the whole abandon leve thing caused players to stick in Ul'dah.

But basically like Xatsh said ppl will flock to Ishguard when it opens up and we wont see any players in the cities at all.

[Azurymber]

If FFXIV closed off the main zones via rank 30 agro mobs, so you have to be rank 25 to get to other cities, then new players would essentially stay in their "home zone".
Then you change the levelling curve so instead of hitting 25 in 2 days it takes a few weeks, but getting from rank 40-50 takes a lot less. This way people spend a fair bit of their starting time in their home city and get used to it.
Then have "universal wards" instead of city specific ones.

And now your population is balanced between the three cities.

[SnowTiger]

Merge the wards across all cities, and maybe add a new buying interface that doesn't involve actually entering the wards, because it's already too crowded without merged wards... Not to mention down the road, when we get more retainers, and more people playing per server... The wards as they currently are just won't be able to accommodate that, even if they don't get merged. I don't wanna say we need an AH, but basically, the closest thing to what we have now that will actually work down the road, is a retainer driven AH. ;/

Seems to me that a good portion of the population in Uldah is because that's the ward center of the game. If you could buy and sell equally as well in the other cities, than I'm sure a lot more people would hang out in their favorite city, which for me, has always been grid, followed by limsa... I don't even like uldah really, but often when I'm crafting or w/e else, I find myself in need of some item, and there's like a 0% chance of finding it outside uldah at any reasonable price.

You could do a number of other things to encourage people to spread out, but as long as uldah is the ward center, it will never really work. People will just go to the other cities, get what they need asap, and then 'get back to uldah'. Nobody will set their return at other cities, nobody will hang out there when not doing anything else, nobody will gather there for teles, or shout there for services/parties, etc.

Of course, once Ishgard comes along, assuming it too has a ward, I'm sure that will become the new uldah, and the old uldah will be just as barren as the other 2 cities are atm.

[Tsukino]

There are two main things I think need to be done just to allow people to hang out in their city-state of choice.

The first is a proper search system, which is coming with the server rebuild. If you want a group for a dungeon, for EXP, or for any future content that will require one, you currently need to be where other people are because no one uses the confusing search system and just shouts instead. You're not going to see such a shout or get a response to your own shouts in, say, Gridania. Once people can look for you there though, you'll be more free to do so and still get invited.

The other is somehow fixing the market wards system to make it so centralization is no longer advantageous. Linking them all together and then making it so when you leave you exit back out to the city-state you were in, for instance, would accomplish this. Being able to search all three from the same place and then buy without entering would too, but then that would just be an auction house. Whatever is done, there needs to be a way for people to buy and sell items just the same from separate locations, rather than gathering together being superior.

Both of these things revolve around the idea of making it easier to be wherever you want. Other solutions would involve enforcing distribution, such as how guild marks are currently distributed. Those solutions force people to do something in a specific place rather than allowing them to be where they choose, but control even distribution by giving equal reason to need to be in all three.

[Stockapotapoulos]

How about having all of the guilds in every town? Like when I first started, I wanted to start in Gridania, 'cause it's so purdy. But I am a Pugilist, and I saw, "Oh. Ul'Dah is the home of Pugilists, so I should start there."

Just a newbie's perspective.

[ydp002]

Well what I can see from everyone opinions is two main topic. Items search "Market Wards" and the other will be Party search.. Fixing those 2 things will bring a little more distribution to other city...I like the idea of Linking the items search to all market wards .. It helps with the economy of the game.. I think this should be the next priority after 1.19


edit: lol... i guess this is a double post. ^_^ but it just show that its definitely the main problem..

[Ventus]

Well what I can see from everyone opinions is two main topic. Items search "Market Wards" and the other will be Party search.. Fixing those 2 things will bring a little more distribution to other city...I like the idea of Linking the items search to all market wards .. It helps with the economy of the game.. I think this should be the next priority after 1.19

edit: lol... i guess this is a double post. ^_^ but it just show that its definitely the main problem..

oops didn't know that someone else posted this topic before =/