Petition to Terminate Restrictions on Transfer to “High Population” Servers

[Zojha]

Come to Mal, we have pie.

But eww, Malboros have bad breath!

[Keydah]

I wouldn't call a server where there actually appears to be people playing the game at various times of day "OVERPOPULATED," especially compared to servers that are actual dead ghost towns [i.e. - run around Limnsa and enjoy spotting 5-6 people, tops]. Forcing players to pick between friends and dividing players is poor policy that will ultimately result in subscription loss.

Servers with half your population are ~there actually appears to be people playing the game at various times of day~. When it's so populated that its active population could sustain like 3 other very populated, healthy servers, that isn't okay. And Balmung/Gilgamesh are auto-locked constantly due to online players. Therefore, they're overpopulated. By the dev's and by anyone who actually stops to think about it's standards.

[Moonlite]

I can't imagine why you'd think having an increased fee for subscription and transfers be a good idea. Why would the guy on Balmung would pay more than my Faerie subscription? Maintenance isn't more expensive, most of it is highly likely to be automated anyways. They're already adding incentives according to their announcement. We just don't have any details as to how much and what exactly it means. Your only good suggestion is #5 which would need to be backed up with free transfers to make sure a hardcore raider on Balmung could bail to a more like-minded server and vice-versa.

In theory SE already has a double standard pricing structure. Not all players that meet the in game requirements can enjoy the same in game features. Actually cause by the over population due to assets available.

[magnanimousCynic]

According to the graph posted higher in this thread, you can clearly see that Balmung was at 26k or so "active" players for the month of March. Balmung is anywhere from two to SIX times larger than the other servers. That's the definition of Overpopulated for you.

[JunseiKei]

Again, these are relatively minor disruptions to gameplay and impact a handful of hardcore PVE players. These minor disruptions pale in comparison to the very real threat of fragmenting the FFXIV community across many small servers and turning the game into a quasi-single player experience, which will cause subscribers to lose interest.

SE could support high population servers or implement actions similar to those discussed in the OP to mitigate population problems.

Do you know what would need to go into re-design the game to accommodate your desires from it's current standards?

Also:


That's a lot of only 5 people. That's only the aetheryte, too.

[AxlStream]

In theory SE already has a double standard pricing structure. Not all players that meet the in game requirements can enjoy the same in game features. Actually cause by the over population due to assets available.

Are you referring to the MogStation services like retainers and such? I see those as a sort of on-demand feature. Some may feel like 2 retainers are just not enough but others (like me) are satisfied. It all depends on perspective and what you get out of them.

[Lexia]

How about no? Others servers need players also instead of everyone thinking they all need to go to the same server.

[Rokke]

The solution should not be to boost the populations of dead servers (which will remain sparse and dead -- see post above for detrimental effects), but to merge small population servers and devote resources to sustain high population servers. SE has the assets to do this, and if they do not, should simply raise subscription prices.

I agree that some of the smallest servers could benefit from a merge, but you seem to be glossing over the midpop servers. Aether is not just "ghost towns + Balmung". With the temp lock + 4.0's launch, those mid population servers will fill in and hopefully even out some of the data center's lopsidedness.

[savageink]

But eww, Malboros have bad breath!

It's the pie.

On the bright side, once you have some you will never notice.

[MaethusXion]

Simple: put Balmung and Gilgamesh on their own server tree, then put Bahamut, Mandragora, Chocobo, and Shinryu on their own as well.

That gives all 5 servers more room, since it'll just be those together on those groups.