Any recent updates for server "balancing"?

[Tsumdere]

Do you actually hunt? Like, actually hunt-hunt? Unless you’re hoping to leech of a party in pf or are playing between 2-5am ptd, hunts drop faster than slow comps can reach the mark because linkshells are so quick.

The open world is dead because there’s nothing to do in it. Potd/hoh killed fate trains, which were the only reason to really stray out of the cities. Opening the server would not really change that. Level a character on one of the preferred worlds. Outside the city states the world is a ghost town regardless of server pop.

Yes, I am a hunt-hunter in several linkshells. I am an actual hunter/spawner, not a leecher and I make it easily to every single hunt unless two are pulled at the same time. Last night, I was duoing all ARR and HW hunts because no one bothered to follow up my calls for literally 10+ minutes and no it wasn't that late probs 7 - 8 pm. SB hunts will sit up for hours because you only gather 1 or 2 people who actually want to do it (you can solo, and there are people who do, but I would rather do something else). I have never seen a single SB hunt melt, and ARR and HW hunts aren't melting because of the amount of people, but because we are 10-20 levels above them... I can kill an ARR rank in about 30 seconds by myself. S Ranks are a whole 'nother ball game and I bet you on every single server S Ranks are nuked from orbit upon pull, not just Balmung.

I agree that there is nothing to do in the open world unless you are a hunter or need super fates, but what I said is not false because there is no open world content. I think you missed my point. SE could make FATE leveling better than PotD and HoH and you still would not see a lot of people out in the open world on Balmung. Everyone is already mostly leveled. There is no new people joining. As an example, Ixion takes almost the full timer to kill these days, not because there isn't enough people on (which there is), but because people already have their rewards and have no reason to do so. If there was a stream of new people who need to do Ixion, this would be less of a problem. Vets sit in their houses or Kugane and Balmung is reaching the point where most of the population is max level.

And yes, I do think it's a problem that will get worse over time. One that should be fixed.

[jameseoakes]

And yes, I do think it's a problem that will get worse over time. One that should be fixed.

How though?

[Frizze]

Outside of transfering off the server(the people willing to do this already did), theres one obvious and easy solution that doesnt get mentioned often. Split the server - like King Solomon with the baby. Give everyone a 1 month window to input a command while online. Are you team /Bal or team /Mung? Try to let people have their pick(they can change as often as they want over the month - the last entry given is the one counted), but if more then 2/3 pick one side then a certain number of randomly selected people dont get their way(people who dont vote would be an issue to figure out - do they get used to balance the sides with no choice? do we think theyre coming back at all?). People keep everything, but their server has a new name now. These would be the first characters on the new copied servers, so there are no name or housing disputes(a bunch of plots just opened up!). Give both servers an RP tag, open them both up to transfers and new characters(you may need a rule that you cant transfer from one to the other for a certain period of time to prevent the old problem from resurfacing). Voila! We have cut the baby in half, and now both parents can be happy.

[Zojha]

Voila! We have cut the baby in half, and now both parents can be happy.

Which, as the story tells, makes nobody happy. The story isn't particularly applicable anyway, because the whole point was to present a terrible solution in order to discern who truly cared and who didn't between two arguing parties, so that the item in question may go to the one who truly cared for it. Presenting a terrible solution doesn't serve much of a purpose in the case of Balmung.

Frankly, there is no solution to the issue that doesn't cost SE money, so effectively, there is no solution at all. The only way to solve the issue without pissing people off is to increase server capacity, either by upgrading the server itself or by developing tech that allows multiple servers to act as one (See WoW "connected realms" as an example of the latter). Both are a nono for SE. So all there is is to wait until people quit eventually and make room for new people.

[Daeriion_Aeradiir]

Voila! We have cut the baby in half, and now both parents can be happy.

Unless you let everyone's choice be absolute, both parents will not be happy.

Let's pretend there was a 3/4 - 1/4 split in choices. How would the randomizer choose? Would it select people inside of FCs and forcefully tear them away from their communities? Would it simply stockpile all of the "dead" characters (people who've never logged in a VERY long time) onto one server, resulting one of the parents being a ghost town while the other flourishes with active players? What if a person has a bunch of friends in another FC and then they suddenly get torn away from them? A server split on Balmung will 100% guaranteed result in massive outcry, and potentially tons of people quitting (which Square will see as a TON of lost $$$) unless you let the community adhere to its absolute choice.

Beyond that, if you wanted to do such a draconian choice, you'd have to force the restrictions to switch between the servers on the characters themselves; as it'd be easy to bypass your rule by transferring to a different server first, then swap to the other server to bypass the "transfer lock" between the two of the newly created servers.

A solution to lowering Balmung's population is to increase the benefits to transferring off of Balmung to any server (none of this preferred worlds only thing) so that the people who aren't as rooted in the community are siphoned out over time; raising the reward to make people more easily tempted to leave. (Because its evident the current rewards aren't enough) Then when Balmung's population reaches the point where it's stabilized, open it up to new characters only to prevent a repeat of the last time it opens up. Until then, Balmung is going to remain locked and forced to bleed out until Square decides otherwise. Best thing for people like OP to do is create an alt on their friend's server & dedicate time to play with them. It's what I did way back when Gilga was locked.

[Iscah]

As Zohja said, you may want to check that analogy. Solomon never intended to actually split the baby, he just threatened to do so, to test the women and see how they would react when 'their' child was in danger - thus revealing which was the true mother. (Correct answer: the one who would rather see it alive and given to the other woman. Which means it's not even a story about 'how to split something'.)

[Hakuro89]

I imagine if the incentives for leaving weren't so half-assed people would be far more inclined to transfer to less-populated servers. As it is now, they don't really offer anything to gain, and rather just offer ways to limit what you would lose. They can reimburse you for your house and its furnishings to a "reasonable" extent, remove the limitation on how much gil you can bring with you, but you still lose the connections you made with the people you met and played with there. This is the part they should be looking into additional compensation for, perhaps in the form of a legitimately considerable gil payment, maybe some kind of items, tomes, an exp boost for anything not at 70, or even a discount on your monthly subscription for a set period of time. Something practical that people get a lot of use out of, rather than just saying 'we'll see to it your losses from transferring are kept to a minimum'. Because that's not an incentive.
Another option would be to somehow reward a large number of people (like an FC) for moving from Balmung to another server. A larger incentive for a large group of people moving, since forfeiting your FC & friends seems to be the biggest reason one would not want to leave Balmung. It's certainly the primary reason I'm sticking around. If I didn't love the FC I'm in, I would've been gone ages ago.

[Lunalepsy]

Everything is streamlined! O_o