So what was the point of the server upgrades when I can't continue the MSQ?

[Driavna]

...

This problem is common to any MMO. Devs tweak their servers around the average traffic the game has most of the time, current numbers are something extraordinary that won't last and from a business perspective is a waste of money/resources to build server only needed during the first few weeks. This won't change and players have three options:

- Don't support this.

- Wait a month or so to join the game.

- Deal with it.

WoW Legion, GW2 HoT.

At least for EU login server did crash and long ques for popular servers. No idea about GW2 expansion but the hype for that game really died so is no wonder.

[Vhailor]

This problem is common to any MMO. Devs tweak their servers around the average traffic the game has most of the time, current numbers are something extraordinary that won't last and from a business perspective is a waste of money/resources to build server only needed during the first few weeks. This won't change and players have three options:

- Don't support this.

- Wait a month or so to join the game.

- Deal with it.

This is only partly a server resource problem. It's also a design problem. When the first real 'fight' of the storyline is a solo instance a handful of missions in, you're guaranteeing the worst possible bottleneck. If they'd thrown in a dungeon (or preferably two) first, it would have gone over a lot better, even with the same server resources. They knew this, and ignored it.

And people just letting it slide as "eh, always happens" aren't helping the problem at all. Companies need to face the wrath of their customers for incompetent launches, or things will never improve.

[Niwashi]

Devs tweak their servers around the average traffic the game has most of the time, current numbers are something extraordinary that won't last and from a business perspective is a waste of money/resources to build server only needed during the first few weeks.

This is only partly a server resource problem. It's also a design problem. When the first real 'fight' of the storyline is a solo instance a handful of missions in, you're guaranteeing the worst possible bottleneck. If they'd thrown in a dungeon (or preferably two) first, it would have gone over a lot better, even with the same server resources. They knew this, and ignored it.

But it's still an issue about it being the first day. Just as they have to balance their hardware around a more normal level of traffic, they also design their storyline and quest scenarios around having normal traffic. Saying they should have designed the whole progress of the game's main scenario around an issue that'll only be true for a few days is nonsense.

Yes, it sucks the first day. If you can't handle that, then wait a few days to do the MSQ and it won't be an issue.

[Moonlite]

But it's still an issue about it being the first day. Just as they have to balance their hardware around a more normal level of traffic, they also design their storyline and quest scenarios around having normal traffic. Saying they should have designed the whole progress of the game's main scenario around an issue that'll only be true for a few days is nonsense.

Really? They should not do the math about what they have and just keep going on like this in the future? I swear the SE apologists are the reason they ended up the way they had over the last 10 years. "Fanbois don't care how we screw up we are SE." How do you explain the other design choices that are resource based like the choice to refresh inventory ever X second and housing being open world. This is a team that doesn't plan for what they have and people like you give them a pass. Sad just sad.

[Saccharin]

At least for EU login server did crash and long ques for popular servers. No idea about GW2 expansion but the hype for that game really died so is no wonder.

Except for those few mega popular servers the rest went fine.

The way blizzard solved this was to essentially borrow a technique from mega server, thee realms are basically mega servers now.

When you move into a zone and it's too busy a new instance is created therefore reducing the burden on the servers. This worked flawlessly for people on Legion release.

The problem with FF14 is that it uses very poor server organisation.

Edit, turns out they use instances now!

SE really need to get their act together and write proper server code. Sadly the Achilles Heal of this game (2.x+) has always been it's poor, limited server code.

[Claviusnex]

Except for those few mega popular servers the rest went fine.

The way blizzard solved this was to essentially borrow a technique from mega server, thee realms are basically mega servers now.

When you move into a zone and it's too busy a new instance is created therefore reducing the burden on the servers. This worked flawlessly for people on Legion release.

The problem with FF14 is that it uses very poor server organisation. They, as far as I know, keep everyone on the same instance so you can only get in so many, which is odd considering each zone is instanced, and not seamless like WoW.

SE really need to get their act together and write proper server code. Sadly the Achilles Heal of this game (2.x+) has always been it's poor, limited server code.

I agree with you that whoever SE has doing the server and system parts don't seem to have a good handle on their environment. Of course it could also be a management problem as this type of support isn't "Content" nor considered sexy so often gets the short shrift when it comes to funding.

As to design it shouldn't have to be that complicated. All they need to do is setup instances to run in their own server pool. As instances are generally going to be well known in their system resource requirements it should be straight forward to determine how many instances they can run on a system image. If the pool gets full then add more system images to the pool (could be hardware or software). When things drop off remove the extra images. It is not rocket science as this type of thing is done everyday for eons on any large, high transaction system.

[Hyperia]

While you can say it was an oversight, it's a really bad one. They used this mechanic in 3.55 with no problems because not everybody hit it at the same time. This time, it's at the beginning of the MSQ and everybody hit it at once. 300,000 players hitting the same instance solo.... well, you do the math.

[Catwho]

I think the miscalculation was having this instance be before the first 60+ dungeon. That would have slowed people down a bit, as they farmed out that dungeon's gear. And people are more willing to take a break after a dungeon or a MSQ instance. Prior to this quest, it was all really easy. This was going to be the first serious challenge of the expansion.

[TheJarvisMan]

I've wasted half my day-off spam-clicking Raubahn... GG SE.

[Galaktica]

"I have a great idea! What if everyone could do the story whenever they wanted?"
"That's stupid. Why don't we put an instance at the very beginning, but then give that instance limited slots?"
"But we know everyone is going to be logging on at the same time...so why would we do this?"
"Because like...these instanced fights are always so much fun. This time they get to a slightly different looking magitek thing!"
"Oh, well that changes everything! Why didn't you say so sooner!"