Ever getting server merge?

[Gilraen]

Sigh... seeing as people have this notion that a server merge is something can 'just happen' I will detail what a server merge means and what all is involved. Give me a bit to write my novella.

Square will announce well in advance when they will perform server merges, easily more so than they do maintenances. They will also announce which servers will be affected and how. When servers are merged one server is assigned the role of host. For this server all that's changing is it's population size, the other server(s) being the ones immigrating to the host server. For the server(s) immigrating to the host server, though, alot is going to happen. All linkshells will be broken. All free companies will be disbanded. All property will be relinquished, maybe refunded. The reasons for all this is that the only thing they are carrying over to the host server are your characters and anything directly connected to them like gil, items and retainers. In that regard it's not unlike a server transfer, look that up for the particulars that goes with it though you might be able to keep all your gil instead of a set amount.

This is because the server merge process favors the host server over the immigrating server(s), just like server transfers. This is also why server merges are not something Square does idly, there's alot of inconvenience involved for players. Between removing and storing furniture if you have a house or room in a company house, preparing with linkmates or company members about reforming on the new server, running afoul of naming issues, etc., it can be daunting. That's just the player side of things, server side can take a day or two to move all the character data to the host server. Setting up the European datacenter alone took a day, and that was just a straight copy onto blank servers.

This is why server merges is something they save for when they need to cut costs, it's easier to justify the time and effort when it means saving money.