Square: You need to open servers before this community is slowly choked

[DeaconMoore]

What if SE allows players to move their houses as well when they transfer servers? That seems to be one of the major factors for people to not want to move. It could work like moving your house from one ward to another. SE already said they were going to add more wards, so why not hold back a little before releasing them to the public and let players willing to relocate get first dibs on plots?

Considering the lack of available housing on any server and the fact that overcrowding is why the server is locked in the first place, I don't think housing is what's keeping most of them from moving. They would've had a better shot to get a house of their own if they had moved after all.

[Joven]

Considering the lack of available housing on any server and the fact that overcrowding is why the server is locked in the first place, I don't think housing is what's keeping most of them from moving. They would've had a better shot to get a house of their own if they had moved after all.

I was referring to people who already have a house to be able to take it with them, not letting any player that transfers get a free house.

[Naunet]

Any community needs some supply of new blood to thrive, regardless of population. It's shit that nobody on here can invite friends to come join them. It's shit that nobody already on here can even make a new alt here. It's shit that preexisting communities and friendships are being fractured by transfers.

I have always thought it utterly idiotic that you can't even make alts when you're already on a locked server. But yes, while Balmung was/is overpopulated, it is hard to deny that the extended chokehold SE has put it in has damaged the scope of certain communities on that server.

[Zsolen]

Lower pop servers are annoyed enough with transfers buying up houses, just as they are earning enough gil themselves. I consider that fair game, but if you block the natives* and long-time members of a server from getting a house at all, there will be a lot of angry people on that server and rightfully so.

*used because of a lack of a better word

[Joven]

Lower pop servers are annoyed enough with transfers buying up houses, just as they are earning enough gil themselves. I consider that fair game, but if you block the natives* and long-time members of a server from getting a house at all, there will be a lot of angry people on that server and rightfully so.

*used because of a lack of a better word

While I can agree that housing disappearing too fast is annoying (I didn't get a house until I came back after nearly 3 years, and even that was luck), I don't think it would be too far of a stretch if they limited the number of people per ward that could transfer per server. Either way, it's just a suggestion.

[Kaethra]

The content model we have encourages raidlogging, and stormblood made it worse by being more or less an extension of Heavensward, not it's own expansion. By this I mean that we do more or less exactly the same things we did in HW, with no real variation or unique aspect to the game. While people leveled their mains, the game was busy. Now that people have done so, there simply isn't enough fresh content to keep people playing.

This in itself isn't a bad thing. Daybreak does this with both EQ games. They'll release an expansion that raises their level cap by 5, then after that they release what is called Content Expansions. They do NOT raise the level cap, and don't really advance the story in a major way, sticking to the plot started in the leveling expansion. So you get a trilogy of expansions. The benefit is, you remember those 6 zones you did in SB from 61-70? Imagine that effort being put into dungeons and raids.

The result is an content release schedule your average player is likely not going to get bored with anytime soon. In many cases they don't even complete everything before the next leveling phase which is used as a bit of a 'catchup'.

Stormblood feels like a content expansion. The story is directly after HW's. And does much of the same stuff. But in their 'wisdom' SE decided to raise the level cap by 10. That requires leveling content. 10 levels worth. Think about that. Take ARR and you'll notice its 50 levels. So an expansion that raises the level cap by 10 needs 20% of the originals content. That's alot of time, alot of resources needed.

Now imagine if SB was a content expansion and level cap was still 60. All those dungeons and trials 61-70 would be 60. And we'd have twice as many of them. And that'd just be with the 4.0 launch. the downside is the story would be focused on Doma for the entire 4.0-4.x cycle. 5.0-5.x would be Ala Mihgo. The story would come slower, but the content would be literally doubled.

Point is, you can have expansions be extensions of expansions. And do it well. But you have to make sure we're not simply 'starting over'. Like it felt with 61. That's really my only complaint. In reality I'm a bit impressed with the 4.0 content so far. 4.1 seems a bit lacking though.

[Zarabeth]

Isn't there a section of the forums specifically for each world? Oh yeah there is!!! Go here to post the daily threads about opening Balmung again. Seriously, be considerate. You already clog up your world at least stick to your world forum area for these pointless threads. They aren't going to open up Balmung until the population stabilizes. You want Balmung open? Move.

[BubblyBoar]

Souds to me like SE's plan is working perfectly. Keep it up!

[Kukajoo]

Balmung is locked because its bursting at the seams isn't it? A bit of "death" is what it needs to be able to thrive in the future if you ask me, like burning a forest so new trees can grow. To me the slowdown people are complaining about is really just the server slowly bit by bit dropping to what should be a regular amount of activity. Im sure square will unlock it once they feels its leveled off again, till then it doesn't need to stay overpopped.