Server Lockouts are limiting the growth of this game.

[Silvanoshi]

Does anyone else feel like server lockouts are limiting the growth of this game?

I just had a friend try for two solid days to make a character on Behemoth on the Primal Data Center. Coming from WOW, he does not understand why this game needs this feature considering WOW has/had far This is a tremendous and unneeded barrier of entry into the game. No one wants to have to try this hard to start a character on the same server as a friend of theirs. No established player is going to want to pick up and leave all their other friends for a server transfer either.

If server population is too large, Square needs to upgrade servers and offer free transfers to lower population servers. The servers they currently use are very poor. (Try Interrupting a cast in this game vs WOW for example).

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem and want this to change?

Why have a recruit a friend campaign and make it so hard to recruit a friend to play with you on the same server?

[KisaiTenshi]

Does anyone else feel like server lockouts are limiting the growth of this game?
...
Has anyone else experienced a similar problem and want this to change?

Why have a recruit a friend campaign and make it so hard to recruit a friend to play with you on the same server?

Every server in Primal is available for short windows except Excalibur. I can guarantee it.


And for the record, I was finally able to create a new character during the 10 minute window after the servers came up after the last patch. The gif above is about 2 solid days worth of trying to create a character between 10pm and 8am pacific.

[Silvanoshi]

Every server in Primal is available for short windows except Excalibur. I can guarantee it.


And for the record, I was finally able to create a new character during the 10 minute window after the servers came up after the last patch. The gif above is about 2 solid days worth of trying to create a character between 10pm and 8am pacific.

Short windows where players can create characters is still unacceptable. This scenario you are stating has not happened for my friend attempting to join. It's unacceptable and serves no purpose other than a hinderance to new players. No one should have to sit and wait and camp at a server log in to create a character for ANY reason. It's a VERY poor business practice and I'm sure it deters some people from playing. This is not even an industry standard --- It's only something Square has done in the MMO industry.

My friend has had a sour taste in his mouth with this game right from the start. No business wants this for a new player, yet it's being provided.

EDIT: A mutual friend of ours even attempted to contact GM's in-game to see if any help could be found. Nope --- The player has to put in the ticket themselves. It's like opening a birthday or christmas present and then just having to sit and look at it rather than play with it. -_-

[KisaiTenshi]

Short windows where players can create characters is still unacceptable. This scenario you are stating has not happened for my friend attempting to join.

Literately, during those two days, I was refreshing it every 3-4 minutes, and there were times where only one server would be available, and there were times where every server but Excalibur was available for about 10 minutes.

If you want to try and "queuejump" you will need your friend to basically sit there and refresh the servers between 1 and 3am. There is a hotfix patch in 2 hours. I'd suggest having them save the character appearance of what they want to create now, and then create their character immediately when the server comes up. That was pretty much the only option for Excalibur. Other servers you need to camp the server selection screen until 5am. After 5am, it's usually just Diablos, Famfrit and Lamia availability rotating around until about 7pm.

But I'll understand if your friend is irritated by this. It's pretty hard to get populations to migrate.

I made a suggestion last week about making the congested servers "invite-only", whereby you need a friend already on it to email you an invite code to place in the mog station. That would temporarily reserve a spot on the server that the friend is on. There were suggestions that this might result in a kind of blackmarket (Eg people selling invites) but I think that might be overblown since that would be easily traceable as RMT.

[Silvanoshi]

[QUOTE=KisaiTenshi;3122550}

I made a suggestion last week about making the congested servers "invite-only", whereby you need a friend already on it to email you an invite code to place in the mog station. That would temporarily reserve a spot on the server that the friend is on. There were suggestions that this might result in a kind of blackmarket (Eg people selling invites) but I think that might be overblown since that would be easily traceable as RMT.[/QUOTE]

This is tens times better than to have someone operate on certain timelines that they cannot attend. I'll agree with you here.

[Chukkaque]

Every server in Primal is available for short windows except Excalibur. I can guarantee it.


And for the record, I was finally able to create a new character during the 10 minute window after the servers came up after the last patch. The gif above is about 2 solid days worth of trying to create a character between 10pm and 8am pacific.

YUP. There is a list that updates every 4-6 hours idr which. But usually the sever lock out is overnight for sure. They shut it down during the busy times.

Just use this.
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...06d0909189e479

[papichulo123]

is there a way to see how populated a server/ world is/ like how many people are on now?

[Mikedizzy]

I agree. how can you play with a friend if you cannot join the server. I want to make an alt on Behemoth and have not been able to. I hear there are "times" when it is open to create but it is really early in the morning or something. Too much hassle.

[Krr]

Keep the AFK kick timer and unlock all servers permanently.

Problem solved, dunno why this is so difficult for S-E.

[Catwho]

They need to bring back the FFXI Friend Code as part of their recruitment campaign where getting the code from your friend gets you access to their otherwise locked server.