To all you asking for server merges: READ THIS

[djjdiss]

What SE's gonna do:

1. Ask players in low-populated servers if they want to change server;
2. Seeing how it goes;
3. Merge servers.

That's how they declared they're gonna do =)
But yeah, searching in the forum search feature you can easily find this by typing "server merge".

That's not a server merge, it's a free server transfer

Big difference

I'm referring to the people asking SE to actually merge them which IS NOT a good idea.

I'm happy about the transfer tho. Wutai is so dead

[Chardrizard]

Here it is.

Hi, this is Producer/Director Yoshida here.

I understand your concern on the number of concurrent users.

Actually the world merge is currently in plan.

We will first analyze the number of players in the game after the billing service begins.
Based on that analysis, we will be running a simulation where the maximum concurrent access during the peak hours will become somewhere around 1500 to 2000 per World.
* The above number is provisional and not a finalized number.

And with the method on how the world merge will be done, it will not be done in a simple method where World A and World B will merge into a single new World.
In order for EU players to gather on the same server in a certain mass, we are planning to go with the method where the players from a World with a less population can designate the World they wish to transfer to.

With the details such as when and how it will be done, they will be announced once they are confirmed.
(I'm assuming that the next update should become available in mid-January.)

[djjdiss]

Thanks for the link

Ren beat you both to the punch.

as I said above though, that's more or less a glorified server transfer.

I'm glad SE isn't going the desperate route with an actual merger. I just can't see any good coming of it at all. These next months are too important on the road map to be put aside for a perma-merger population fix.

Too many nightmares in other games that happened to.

[ArieOcean]

I think the hassle of regrouping a LinkShell is kinda a minor annoyance when you put into perpective that LS members are already willing to grind moogle. A minor annoyance compared to shouting in uldah for 7 hours for a Darkhold group which merging the remaining players would help with.

[Razor]

Although it was a well thought out post, couple issues right off the bat...

1. The press already slams the game no matter what kind of update is posted. Each update for the game gets turned into a "yay lets beat the ffxiv horse again for the amusement of the internet" despite all the good these patches contain.

2. Economy is already a smoldering pile of garbage at the bottom of the Uldahn sewers in most servers, so bad in fact, that a server merge would help it. More people to make gear and more people to buy gear = better money flow. Even if the ratio of buyers to sellers remained the same (as in, 10:50 vs 100:500), there would be more market competition and therefore generally more balanced prices.

3. I think you're over dramatizing a lot of the merger side effects personally. Yes there are rare cases of data being lost or corrupted but that can happen even without a server merge. SE has already done several merges to XI with very minimal damage to all related parts. Also, without working for SE as their database manager, it is impossible to make any kind of educated analysis on exactly how a server merger would impact the 2.0 porting. There are so many ways to store, copy, edit and transfer data from one place to another that one can't possibly judge the risk of damage without having detailed information.

[djjdiss]

I might be a bit theatrical about the topic, but that's because i've seen too many mmo's eat it from a failed merge or suffer heavily from performing one from then on out.

It's just that I don't wish to see this game so easily flushed because of a small problem.

Being a computer tech I can tell you that even with flash based memory, you can only read one way and write one way. So unless they were pulling from another set of clone servers, you're only able to do one task at time at a time. Same thing applies when you try to install and delete something at the same time.

That's just the limit of technology

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Lock your daugther.
Shoot your son.
The server merge is coming to town !
Seriusly, people blow this way out of proportion. I, for one, think server merge = game failing, but when a server it's 200 people at best it's necessary. Both for players and SE, since a running server have a lot of costs. It just isn't right keep running lot of empty server for reputation. And we all know the actual reputation this game have..

[Kafeen]

There is zero reason why most of those things would occur.

For example if merging a lower population server into a higher population server, or two lower population servers together, EVERYTHING and EVERYONE from one server will go to the other. There is no reason for linkshells to be split and members ending up on different servers.

Items shouldn't be lost as they should be tied to the player, not the server.

A temporary solution

As others below have pointed out, SE is planning to allow for a free server transfer to a much more heavily populated server at the players choice. This should make for enough of a band-aid fix to tide the few of you that are left over for the time being.

Allowing players to choose to move if they want WOULD result in players being separated over multiple servers. Linkshells are more likely to split because some move and others don't or some move to a different server to others.

And what for those that don't move? They end up being on an even sparser populated server, making the problem even worse to a point that the server merger is forced anyway because it doesn't hold a sufficient population.

[djjdiss]

There is zero reason why most of those things would occur.

For example if merging a lower population server into a higher population server, or two lower population servers together, EVERYTHING and EVERYONE from one server will go to the other. There is no reason for linkshells to be split and members ending up on different servers.


Items shouldn't be lost as they should be tied to the player, not the server.



Allowing players to choose to move if they want WOULD result in players being separated over multiple servers. Linkshells are more likely to split because some move and others don't or some move to a different server to others.

And what for those that don't move? They end up being on an even sparser populated server, making the problem even worse to a point that the server merger is forced anyway because it doesn't hold a sufficient population.

Ya I mentioned that above in my post after I wrote the OP. there really isn't any foreseeable way around Linkshell mayhem the more I think about it. This is exactly why these kinds of processes unnerve me, because they're so touchy.

Well all we can do is wait and see what pans out I guess. Linkshells really are the only thing that keep most of these players logging in, so if they get fragmented, it might have a very negative impact on the community.

[Chezen]

I agree with the OP's point about bad press, and I always have thought this since server merge was first brought up. SE doesn't need to give the press this sort of news. Officially announcing server merge would be very, very bad.

Allowing for server transfer is the only thing needed.

And what for those that don't move? They end up being on an even sparser populated server, making the problem even worse to a point that the server merger is forced anyway because it doesn't hold a sufficient population.

That would be the choice of those who chose to stay. I chose my server because I wanted to be here. I'll stay here until someone or something forces me to move.