Maybe free transfers off of locked servers?

[Kazrah]

So with all of these "please unlock my overcrowded server" threads, maybe instead of crushing servers by opening them up, how about giving actual incentives for people to leave them so those servers won't be crushed when they are able to be reopened? Heck, the same incentives for transferring to a preferred server could be used to get people off the bloated ones (maybe doubled ones for going from locked to preferred servers).

Now I know the most likely comeback of something along the lines of "this is my home" or "my friends are here", to which I say that as someone who has transferred more times than I can count, home is what you make it and what's stopping you from bringing your friends with you?

I'm sure it's not the most favorable idea, but I felt like this alternative need to be presented as well.

[Enla]

I'm pretty sure the free transfers are still in effect? SE would have to be pretty off their rocker to remove them.

[Kazrah]

I'm pretty sure the free transfers are still in effect? SE would have to be pretty off their rocker to remove them.

I mean free transfers off of the currently locked servers, not to remove the current free transfers to preferred worlds.

[worldofneil]

I can't see them changing that. They want you to move to the preferred worlds so they offer you free transfers. It just wouldn't make any sense to give free transfers to a world of your choice.

[Airget]

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...5d22338cf55ce7

Preferred Worlds are free.

[HaelseMikiro]

SE couldn't possibly allow free transfers from a locked world to any world of your choice at this point. They'd lose money. Either from the ethical obligation to refund paid transfers from said worlds since the whole Free Transfer to Preferred Worlds started, or the PR backlash from not offering refunds. And we don't even know how long they plan on remaining locked. It could just be too late to offer a token goodwill like this. We've no idea.

[Xeon]

The goal here is to balance out the worlds. Idealy, there would be no congested worlds, nor would there be worlds with low population. If they let people transfer to any world for free, then some of the standard worlds may become overcrowded, causing those worlds to be locked too.

They are trying to get roughly the same population on each world, to equally distribute them, so that none of them are overcrowded. If people still won't transfer off the congested ones, then it's safe to assume that they will never open again, because they will probably not ever open back up a world that already has too many players. The preferred worlds do not have enough players, making it harder to play with other people, which is the whole point of this game.

Basically, they are actually paying you to move to preferred worlds, but only if you're world is congested.

[Xeon]

Server does not equal world. World is world, and server is datacenter, which datacenter is likely a cluster of servers. Also, it's crash the servers, not crush the servers.

I believe that this is the correct course of action. We do not need more overcrowded worlds. Only to eliminate them. When that happens, there will be no more free world transfers until another world faces overcrowding issues.

[CaTi]

Pretty much. The transfer incentives are just that. Incentives to take the sting out of transferring and it's the best offer we'll get. It's there as a way for SE to say "please move to these worlds so we don't have to cleave your world in two". They had no obligation to offer them and could have just gone straight for the splitting. And as mentioned there's little point in creating a system where one bloated world gets traded for another.

[Kazgrel]

Transfers to preferred realms are free. It’s a major reason I pulled the trigger and left Balmung. Had it not been free and still stuck with their gil transfer limit, I wouldn’t have left.