FFXIV ARR is 3 this year, Server upgrades?

[Kaiser-Ace]

what does better servers have anything to do with better models for characters and gear?
and i personally dont think we need server upgrades, the ones currently exist is alreayd empty as is

What you're playing on isn't the same kind of server. The guys here are talking about, at least what I assume is, The Mega-Server Mainfraim that is actually connecting all of the files, traffic, and other functions of the game it's self. The Worlds that you're refuring too are parts of The Data Centers which themselves are part of either the NA, EU, or JP servers. I think "The Mega Server" is more acuratly the collective hardware of the NA, EU. And JP servers combined.

[Felis]

I'd love to see servers for the folks at Oceania & Australia but other than that, for me, it has been smooth sailling on Chaos, don't know about other servers.

Tonberry is the unofficially Oceanic & Austalia server.

[Dajinn]

Theres one key thing here I think people might not understand or are greatly under valuing because they just don't know.

But in singularly large applications like this and Facebook each server tends to be a compute and both a storage node. Old storage RAID is not really a thing in compute heavy singular applications. Its likely their infratructure is based on converged computing where the traditional roles of storage and compute are shared on the same platform but act together in a logical pool maintained by some proprietary software block based scale out solution. The long story short is adding servers creates expontential gains in capability, literally.

So yes I think they would benefit from more servers and it's really a lame excuse at this point.

[LadyVal]

Are you willing to postpone content updates for a server overhaul?

Just to add my own two cents to this, I would rather not postpone content since we just waited, what, 7 months between 3.0 and 3.1 and the game is just now getting back on its feet (at least on my server), a couple of weeks into 3.2. We would need some long-lasting content if the server overhaul would take more than a month. (I understand that may be a silly expectation for a time frame but honestly I have no idea how the process would go.)

[Colorful]

Are you willing to postpone content updates for a server overhaul?

Somehow I doubt their server guys are the same people from the various development teams on FFXIV. Regardless of that, another delay won't fly with the community most likely, it was a real ghost town pre-3.1 for a relatively disappointing patch but giving us the same tired excuses won't fly either. Server/PS3 limitations has practically become a meme at this point, I see constant jokes about it everywhere, it really is a joke at this point.

[Khalithar]

They could very easily upgrade the servers with the launch of the next xpac or some sort of major patch. Also this:

Somehow I doubt their server guys are the same people from the various development teams on FFXIV.

[Saccharin]

So with that 3 year mark advancing upon us, I wondered about server upgrades for FFXIV. With increasing network bandwidth and better server hardware, how many of the limitations we hear of might be overcome?

I doubt SE use any different hardware than any other MMO in fact it might even be newer. SE have upgraded their hardware at certain points when we had large maintenances.

What we've learned about the limitations it's due to SE's own server code and out muscling it is never a good idea.

The models are not limitations and are intentional to allow the game to not only run on consoles but also low spec PCs. Most people who play MMOs dont not have 'gaming rigs' but rather basic PCs; probably laptops. Models are also client side so SE could have the most powerful servers in the world but it wouldn't make a difference.

Are you willing to stagger onward with old server hardware? Servers age, and need refreshed, it's a fact of life with infrastructure.

A single realm is not made of just one server but multiple and there's many realms. This equipment is not cheap and would cost millions, maybe even 10s of millions to replace.

[Kosmos992k]

Theres one key thing here I think people might not understand or are greatly under valuing because they just don't know.

But in singularly large applications like this and Facebook each server tends to be a compute and both a storage node. Old storage RAID is not really a thing in compute heavy singular applications. Its likely their infratructure is based on converged computing where the traditional roles of storage and compute.....

You think facebook is analogous to FFXIV? Facebook dwarfs FFXIV into insignificance in raw computing, storage and bandwidth terms. That doesn'tneven begin to touch the number of transactions a day that Facebook handles. By the way, singularly large means what exactly? Monolithic applications, distributed applications, or just big assed applications? It's not really clear why you think that Facebook is even partly a suitable comparison to make, Facebook sure as hell is not a single monolithic application, or a "compute heavy singular application". Facebook is a monstrously huge database that processes a continual stream ofntransactions. It is essentially a big vacuum cleaner sucking up user's data, and spitting it out on the otherside.

You talk about convergence like it's something new...You do realize that you just described the basic components of a computer, right? I mean it's all nice to throw around terms like converged computing, when all you're talking about is a modular system that scales as you add units...you know, like clusters in the 80's and 90's.... I mean seriously? This is as bad as the 'big data' nonsense I have to put up with at work, too often people see large unstructured data sources and scream for big data solutions as if they are some kind of pixie dust to make things work. Converged computing and the convergence of the various components into grid computing or mesh computing, or computing fabric, or whatever new jargon you want to use, is really little more than scalable clusters and distributed computing, which has been going around for donkeys years. Too many people lack basic understanding and instead have to lean on buzz words. The so called traditional roles you're talking about are roles that grew out of the spread of segregated file and app servers in organizations that started in the 80s. on the other hand, large paltforms such as Mainframes, clusters and departmental systems all integrated storage and computing just fine. Funny how things come full circle and suddenly we need new buzz words to describe them lest we realize it's the old become new again.

But, the thing that all of you seem to be missing is that all MMOs are huge transactional databases being fed by the game engines that handle the instances and run the actual game code.the servers that run thed are largely unaffected by the size of character data, the back end data base, the clients, the client server communication and the continual backup oflive character data is however very much affected by bandwidth constraints tha impose a limit on the amount of data that can be held in memory for each character. Upgrading the databse servers and infrastructure that serves them has a direct impact onhoe many players can be handled at once, how much character data can be processed and so on. And that is only a single aspect of what would improve with an upgrade on the infrastructure side.

However, it seems that many of you would be content to run with the same game servers for a decade, which is a truly horrible idea for multiple reasons. But, since no one would like to talk about potential improvements to the game, but would rather discuss how a server upgrade would have no impact without some code work (duh!), or offer some buzz words giving new polish to old ideas, I am left wondering why you would rather do that instead of considering the possibilities.

[Geula]

Tonberry is the unofficially Oceanic & Austalia server.

So it seems, but that does not fix the latency issues people from those regions suffer.

[Jynx]

It's not a totally foreign thing for MMOs to beef up their servers if required WoW has done it as have others if I'm not mistaken. I think a few people misunderstand what the servers actually do though, they wont give us better graphics for one that's entirely a client based issue on our end and them designing for the lowest common denominator to run the game at a respectable visual level.

Why they don't give us options is beyond me though, a high resolution texture pack would not tax the servers as far as I am aware it would all be on our machines end to handle the graphical processing as all the files are located locally and not server side.