Can we have a server merger after fee take place ?

[DAOWAce]

1. Latency is not the issue.

People can say however much they want about how the servers are configured 'poorly' and cause 'most' of the delays themselves (which I have not seen complete proof of from SE employees, feel free to link some), but you cannot argue against distance latency. It's better now because the action based combat system was removed (which I didn't like, as I've explained on my forum/blog); but you're still talking about distance latency! The same problem FFXI had; the same reason your casts were interrupted, your interrupts were late, you stood in the fire, you took an arrow in the knee; your reactive fighting ability was limited. It's all the same in FFXIV, and it's all based on distance latency. (Remember NM camping when JP players would provoke things before they even appeared on your client as entities? Yeah, that's from distance latency!)

People can test this type of latency themselves by playing a foreign version of a game that's also available in their region and then switching to their region's version. The difference is night and day. In fact, the difference is like going from dial-up to 10/1Mbit broadband. (Speaking of which, I'm on 60/8Mbit. I like it being useless for gaming because of distance latency!)

I prefer global servers because I don't always play during US primetimes, so I don't want NA only servers.

I rarely play during US primetimes on MMOs I frequent. Why? Mainly because I want to get away from most of the kids, but also because less people on the server = less server latency.

Some of the most memorable MMO moments for me have come while I was playing with people in Australia, Europe, Japan, HK, and other areas who I would not have a chance to play with if we were constricted to only regional servers.

I have memorable moments in FFXI with JP groups. I also wouldn't have met one of my good friends if Australia was blocked from one of the games I played in the past. So yeah, I agree it sucks, but again; that still doesn't change the want for regional servers.

For me, latency = gameplay ability, gameplay = fun. End result? Latency > community.

[Shneibel]

Yes, I agree but I stated that given the option, a player should be able to choose which server and not be forced to a server. In any event and time, if the population doesn't increase in one server and over populates in another(Odin,FFxi), there'll be a mandatory server merge.

"forced" is not the right word imo, 1 server merger with another = good. The idea you suggest is nothing different from server transfer and that doesn't work well on a low population game and can prevent ppl to play together with their friend/ls in some case of restrict

[Bahn]

...So guys, about that server merger?

[Answa]

...So guys, about that server merger?

Sorry for the delayed response to this topic, but things have been a bit busy as the team worked to complete patch 1.20. I confirmed with Yoshida that we'll continue to monitor the in-game populations and situation, and if we run into issues where players are unable to match up with each other for parties and other content, then of course the possibility of mergers taking place is there.

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[Mamba]

I think it would be a good idea to merge servers if we are all going to be taken to new servers at 2.0 anyway.
But there are some things that might be a bit tricky to manage...

The other day I wanted to summon my retainer at the armorfitters row in Uldah (Besaid server) and it said that it was impossible to summon my retainer there as it was full.
I can only imagine how full the market wards would be if people from other servers merged to Besaid...

Another thought that this brought to me was how do we know which server we will go when 2.0 comes out?
I don't want to be on a server which is full of lvl 50s with all the gear that is possible to get. I want to be able to interact with the new people and sell them the stuff I craft etc. But at the same time I don't want to be on a differen't server from the friends I made...

Solution, before 2.0 SE gives us a month to decide which server we want to go to (this gives us time to discuss this with out friends) and the ones who don't choose gets distributed to random servers. At this same time we could re-do our characters (like mentioned before due to new races coming to 14) and be born again with maybe a new shorter (one part) name etc.

BUT for now... server merge YES PLS, but pls do it right and not just merge em... market wards and exp camps would get PACKED!!!

[Murugan]

People can say however much they want about how the servers are configured 'poorly' and cause 'most' of the delays themselves (which I have not seen complete proof of from SE employees, feel free to link some), but you cannot argue against distance latency. It's better now because the action based combat system was removed (which I didn't like, as I've explained on my forum/blog); but you're still talking about distance latency! The same problem FFXI had; the same reason your casts were interrupted, your interrupts were late, you stood in the fire, you took an arrow in the knee; your reactive fighting ability was limited. It's all the same in FFXIV, and it's all based on distance latency. (Remember NM camping when JP players would provoke things before they even appeared on your client as entities? Yeah, that's from distance latency!)

People can test this type of latency themselves by playing a foreign version of a game that's also available in their region and then switching to their region's version. The difference is night and day. In fact, the difference is like going from dial-up to 10/1Mbit broadband. (Speaking of which, I'm on 60/8Mbit. I like it being useless for gaming because of distance latency!)


I rarely play during US primetimes on MMOs I frequent. Why? Mainly because I want to get away from most of the kids, but also because less people on the server = less server latency.


I have memorable moments in FFXI with JP groups. I also wouldn't have met one of my good friends if Australia was blocked from one of the games I played in the past. So yeah, I agree it sucks, but again; that still doesn't change the want for regional servers.

For me, latency = gameplay ability, gameplay = fun. End result? Latency > community.

Wow you should not be playing MMO's. (I won't even address how wrong you are about everything in FFXI, I'm sorry you never got claims and were terrible at the game, that was your problem not "distance latency".)

I hear single player games have awesome "latency". Enjoy.

[PandaTaru]

I think it would be a good idea to merge servers if we are all going to be taken to new servers at 2.0 anyway.
But there are some things that might be a bit tricky to manage...

The other day I wanted to summon my retainer at the armorfitters row in Uldah (Besaid server) and it said that it was impossible to summon my retainer there as it was full.
I can only imagine how full the market wards would be if people from other servers merged to Besaid...

Another thought that this brought to me was how do we know which server we will go when 2.0 comes out?
I don't want to be on a server which is full of lvl 50s with all the gear that is possible to get. I want to be able to interact with the new people and sell them the stuff I craft etc. But at the same time I don't want to be on a differen't server from the friends I made...

Solution, before 2.0 SE gives us a month to decide which server we want to go to (this gives us time to discuss this with out friends) and the ones who don't choose gets distributed to random servers. At this same time we could re-do our characters (like mentioned before due to new races coming to 14) and be born again with maybe a new shorter (one part) name etc.

BUT for now... server merge YES PLS, but pls do it right and not just merge em... market wards and exp camps would get PACKED!!!

wards are full because a lot of people use their 8 free slots to spam retainers in the wards to sell stuff. Check again after SE start charging if it's still the case, it surely/probably won't be.

[Culexies]

Please merge servers! One thing SE is going to face is a decrease in population in the game. If the population drops then the people who want to stay on and play the game will have no one to play with. Merging the servers gives the die hards (::cough:: paying customers ::cough: people to actually play with. If Palamecia turns into a ghost world I'll just be sitting there are my crafting table having conversations with NPCs like the old men at the park who talk to the pigeons. I don't want to be that guy!

[Jennestia]

People can say however much they want about how the servers are configured 'poorly' and cause 'most' of the delays themselves (which I have not seen complete proof of from SE employees, feel free to link some)

Read interviews. They state it all the time.

Also no, if I was able to play Rift from Japan with almost no latency problems distance is not a contributing factor compared to how well optimized your servers are. It's understandable if you're a european because europe has problems connecting to even American services, let alone asian services.

However FFXI versus FFXIV is light and day in terms of latency and they're both ran by the same company with development teams and servers in the same locations.

In fact, the difference is like going from dial-up to 10/1Mbit broadband

This means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things -- It's all in the optimization and bandwidth on both ends, if you're also on Cable or Satellite, you're not ever getting full speed regardless.

[Bahn]

Wow you should not be playing MMO's. (I won't even address how wrong you are about everything in FFXI, I'm sorry you never got claims and were terrible at the game, that was your problem not "distance latency".)

I hear single player games have awesome "latency". Enjoy.

I could've sworn we had two giant threads (where I participated in) where we were able to basically confirm it wasn't the so-called distance latency - or ping - that's causing the issues we're having, but rather the poorly built client and the game not updating the server often enough about changes in our position. Whereas the UI latency was something even Square admitted was built into the game (too lazy to dig up the link on this) to supposedly slow down RMTs by forcing the game to check with the server for every single interaction with the UI. Also the game seems to drop packets quite often, which results in that previous poster trying to do a skill and it not kicking in - this actually makes me mash skills quite a bit to make absolutely sure it went through (I often hit the number row keys 2 or 3 times in succession before proceeding to the next skill).

I played the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Universe, and I sort of "get" what the previous poster is talking about. But the big difference here is in PSU JP:

1) The UI didn't have these unnecessary server side checks and was therefore quick and responsive. The UI only lagged a bit when I went to do things that ACTUALLY affected my character - i.e. equipping an item.

2) The latency was consistent. None of this "I dodged this attack on my screen, but it didn't work, yet the next time I dodge the same attack using the same tactics, it worked". Because the latency was consistent, you knew exactly how to change your tactics to compensate for that latency. The game client always updated the server on where your position was so your position on the map on your client always matched up with the server (if not 200-300 milliseconds behind).

3) Packets (and therefore actions) weren't dropped. I hit a button to do an attack, it always went through. None of this "I thought I hit the button, but it didn't go through" annoyance that's happening in XIV combat.

And if I recall correctly, even Japanese players are noticing the UI latency and the combat latency (most prevalent in the Ifrit fight). Japanese players' pingtimes to their natively hosted servers are in the 10's and 20 ms' - this has NOTHING to do with our physical distance from their servers.