Ever getting server merge?

[Hanayumi]

Think if there will never be server merge, then they should at least add some kind of data center wide Party Finder and maybe even market boards, or at least with a few servers in one. I think that would help things a lot, the only other thing I can think of would be to start restricting transfers or character creations like how they did when FFXIV ARR 1st started but that would prolly piss a lot of people off, >.<

[Adire]

Think if there will never be server merge, then they should at least add some kind of data center wide Party Finder and maybe even market boards, or at least with a few servers in one. I think that would help things a lot, the only other thing I can think of would be to start restricting transfers or character creations like how they did when FFXIV ARR 1st started but that would prolly piss a lot of people off, >.<

Something something data limitations, something something server limitations.

[Gilraen]

It's not data limitations, it's not server limitations. It's not even limitations. It's been said already, the only reason Square would merge servers is to reduce costs by merging the lowest population servers. The only reason to reduce costs is if the game is on it's way out. We're only a couple months into first expansion with the second expansion already being worked on, we're far from 'on it's way out'. I foresee server merges happening in a few years, but that's a few years from now.

[Kosmos992k]

I think the reason low population servers are feeling to some, empty, is not that they are actually empty or in decline, it is that Duty Finder is universally light on players right nos,because so many are gorging on Diadem. I'm on Behemoth, not a low population by any means, but I tend to play at off peak hours, and the current state of the Qs reminds me of when the Hunts were first implemented. So many people were doing little to nothing else for weeks, Qs were long, and PF was near empty. After a few more weeks things will return to normal. Another factor is the spread of players throught the content, so players are less likely to congregate in the same area because their individual goals differ.

Think if there will never be server merge, then they should at least add some kind of data center wide Party Finder and maybe even market boards, or at least with a few servers in one. I think that would help things a lot, the only other thing I can think of would be to start restricting transfers or character creations like how they did when FFXIV ARR 1st started but that would prolly piss a lot of people off, >.<

Something something data limitations, something something server limitations.

LOL I'm sure that the default answer for requests is something along those lines these days. That said, if they can handle cross server Qs and matching in DF then data center wide MB would be relatively easy. A cross server/data center wide party finder would be harder since you'd really want cross server friend lists and blacklists to go with it.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

7kiukiu7kiu7

You're asking the devs to change the DF so that it can access servers outside of its own data center. The servers would explode trying to connect with each other like that in large chunks.

[Gilraen]

Actually, the Duty servers used to pool from all servers. The problem from that was lag. Players from Japan, Europe and the Americas routinely played together inciting lag the likes of which hasn't been seen since. They instituted data centers to reduce the lag. There's leftovers of this old integration in the Duty with the language selection. Reintegrating the Duty servers would hasten queues but also bring back the old lag. Good luck dodging AoEs.

[Hanayumi]

Yeah, I really think cross server Party Finder and possibly Market board would be the next best thing, if server merging would be too difficult to have happen. Heard mention of a cross server PF in the works but only for Raids, so guess its a start but still a ways from a good solution to things.

[PFM]

Don't merge. Lock Chocobo, Gilgamesh, Balmung etc. Let the other ones fill up.

[Serilda]

I don't want a merge either. My server is tiny - I'm very often the only player I see online in Idyllshire, Limsa Lominsa and the like and party finder is literally empty most of the day - and it is frustrating if you aren't playing at prime time. You really have to start your own PF groups, at which point people suddenly start surfacing from their solo activities and assemble to take down a hunt or participate in some other task together.

However, a server merge would be a huge amount of unnecessary upheaval for something which might well be a temporary issue. I don't want to lose my house and airship progress just because my server is quiet. If new players were landing on the quieter servers instead of queueing up en masse to join Balmung, Gilgamesh and the like, there would be no problem to begin with.

It's ludicrous that there are endless threads about housing shortages and queues when everyone is still piling onto the same handful of servers. You can just walk into The Goblet on my server right now and buy a house without any competition. They're at the lowest prices and have been for ages because there aren't enough players on the server who want housing to purchase all of the land available. I don't think I have ever seen a queue longer than 5 people when logging on, and that was the very first day of Heavensward. I've never seen these legendary instanced areas that the development team has to implement to prevent overcrowding when new content is released. Free transfers from the overcrowded servers to the empty ones would be the most logical first step in any rebalancing strategy. Block all transfers and character creation on the overcrowded servers, but let existing players invite friends or alts (alts in particular) if needed - this is how it worked in FFXI and it's far less frustrating than the current 'hang around until a specific time of day and sneak onto the server' workaround.

I also don't really think that merges will help the real problems. I sat in a queue for PVP for 7 hours a couple of days ago, and 4 hours last night. That's not server-specific, that's happening because they just dumped a whole load of new instanced content into the game and Diadem is a more attractive prospect than PVP for esoteric farming, gear etc. If an entire data centre can't scrape together enough people for an 8v8v8 Seal Rock outside of peak times then no amount of server merges is going to help; they need to improve queueing and incentivise all different kinds of activities first.

(One other thing to add; the language settings are still important in Duty Finder even if the worlds are split by data centre now. There are French-speakers in North American time zones and Australian English-speakers on Japanese servers!)

[AnaviAnael]

I agree that they should do free server transfers from high pop servers to low pop servers.