Choosing a Server - What to consider

[Sectorbob]

Hello everyone,

I am new to MMOs in general so please excuse my lack of proper lingo when phrasing these questions.

For a player (such as me), who is new to MMOs and doesn't have any RL friends playing FFXIV, is there anything to consider (other than server proximity) when choosing which server to play on?

I currently play on Diabolos (~80k), and according to http://xivsoul.com/, it is a lower trafficked server, when compared to Exodus (~103k) or Famfrit (~102k). Is there an advantage, in your opinion, to being on a more popular server? Is the higher traffic a con with regards to server load?

Also, note that I am not really plugged into a good Free Company yet, and I may be inclined to switching servers and paying the small fee if I find the advantage suitable.

[Kazumac]

Community > anything else. With a higher population, there's more activities going on and more different types of players. You still have to find the right sub community (FC/LS) for you. The site you linked is a rough estimate. What you are going to notice more is if that particular server is active at the times you tend to play. I was on Diablos for a bit. It didn't feel as active as Leviathan to me but it could also be due to the time I was on vs actual server population.

I love my server, it is active and lots of people are on when I am on. I also have a strong social FC and LS community that I belong to which keeps me doing stuff with people I like to game with. If you are on Levi at some point you can shoot me a tell. I help run a more social FC with plenty of MMO newbies and vets alike.

[Neuflune]

Community is important. Instead of switching servers, you could make many low-level characters to get to know people. Also, you can meet people in the Lodestone by putting up blog posts. I know some people on Lodestone who have become good friends and switched to one or the other's server. Since this is an MMORPG, a game that was made to be played "together" (even lone wolves need to party up with random players on the Duty Finder), communication is important and most especially for new players (new to MMOs in general or just new to the game).

[CYoung187]

There is no way that site is accurate. I'm on famfrit and the housing wards for example still had small houses months after the recent wards opened up. No way it has more then Balmung and other legacy servers.

That said they all have pros/cons. Larger servers will have more competition for thing like crafting and hunts, while if you are interested in housing you better pick a small server. If you ever have friends that want to play it will be much easier to get them on a smaller server with you where there is no character creation restrictions .

[NorthernLadMSP]

There is no way that site is accurate. I'm on famfrit and the housing wards for example still had small houses months after the recent wards opened up. No way it has more then Balmung and other legacy servers.

That said they all have pros/cons. Larger servers will have more competition for thing like crafting and hunts, while if you are interested in housing you better pick a small server. If you ever have friends that want to play it will be much easier to get them on a smaller server with you where there is no character creation restrictions .

Totally agree. That site is way off. I used to be on Famfrit, and left because of how dead it was.

[Sectorbob]

I love my server, it is active and lots of people are on when I am on. I also have a strong social FC and LS community that I belong to which keeps me doing stuff with people I like to game with. If you are on Levi at some point you can shoot me a tell. I help run a more social FC with plenty of MMO newbies and vets alike.

Thanks very much. I may just do that. I did, however, just realized that the character migration fee was 18USD.... *palms face* I have found that the LS in Diabolos are limited, and I find this frustrating. Also, the markets seem quite depleted especially when it comes to fish and other DoL items.

[Sectorbob]

That said they all have pros/cons. Larger servers will have more competition for thing like crafting and hunts, while if you are interested in housing you better pick a small server. If you ever have friends that want to play it will be much easier to get them on a smaller server with you where there is no character creation restrictions .

Competition sounds intriguing. Character creation restrictions? Does squeenix manage the demographic distribution? *chuckles*

[Sectorbob]

Fleur puts it very well here. I like my higher population server but it is very lively and I've had lots of good experiences with the community, lots of friendly people, etc. Market prices are pretty low compared to some small servers and there's lots of market activity, i.e. no worries that no one is selling what you want to buy.

Would you say that you find the markets in the higher populated servers to be more balanced?

[Risvertasashi]

Would you say that you find the markets in the higher populated servers to be more balanced?

Sorry for the delayed response. In short, yes.

Longer answer: So FFXIV servers are designed for about 5000 simultaneous users, though perhaps large ones have a bit more. But only a small fraction of these are market participants, which is a tiny number of people for a market system. So even on big servers most markets are not terribly stable, barring a few very high volume ones. But on some of the really small servers the sellers will remorselessly ra--erm, take advantage of you. But big servers, there's at least more than 1 seller, and if the prices get too high other sellers will step in and put downward pressure on the price.

The disadvantage is new items can be very expensive due to a larger amount of gil in circulation. This mostly happens when new items are introduced in a patch, but if you don't mind waiting, the price always drops as the market develops and matures (i.e. some things that were millions can go for 10k now). Truly limited items--only real estate at the moment--will be disproportionate expensive (and in the case of several servers, utterly unavailable), however. Housing is currently, for the most part, just fluff, but SE has said they're developing more uses for it and currently have no plans to add more real estate on high population servers.

Lastly--in this game, you can pretty much ignore the market. You can get raid-ready gear all from token drops and as drops from said raid (best-in-slot pieces being a mix of both). Crafted gear is always a tier behind... Although some top-end players still prefer it for the flexibility the materia system offers, and this is where things can get expensive. But once more, generally the 'best'/most powerful gear is unsellable/nontradeable, earned from tokens and drops.

And preemptively, if you want to join a very large server, the small hours of the morning (6amish) are the best time to do it. Don't use the server list on the Lodestone; instead look at the in game one, which updates every 2 or 3 minutes.

Good luck!

[Fleur]

High pop servers are like big cities: there's a ton of people of all types to socialize and do stuff with, but you have to deal with crowding (hunts, etc) and it is harder to get noticed. Oh, and real estate is at a premium, so good luck buying a nice house.

Low pop servers are like small towns: there's not a lot of people, which can make for a close community but also alienate some folks. It can be harder to find people to do stuff with. But there's little worry of having to deal with crowds, and the real estate is affordable and available.

I'd personally pick a higher population server; it is like having the perks of living in a big city without having to deal with obnoxious neighbors and traffic. But if you may ever want a house, I'd stay away from the highest pop servers (Balmung, Excalibur, Gilgamesh, etc).