Move the servers back?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

On the note of the server relocation, I don't think it's a coincidence that we have been having severe issues being unable to load into solo instances every single patch ever since the relocation. Lag and such aside I've suspected for a long time that the new servers just aren't able to handle the load as well as the old ones

Actually, the original servers also had this issue, but even worse. They also stated they had power issues at the location the old servers were.

The game was unplayable for many at 5pm EST because the level3 nodes in Montreal basically just stopped letting traffic through because they were hammered so badly. I haven't DC'd hardly at all since the move, it used to be daily.

And it IS an ISP issue, not a "server routing issue" as the other person said. If it was a server issue, VPN's wouldn't fix the problem. All a VPN does is go around crappy ISP routes. Which means its your ISP or your ISP's ISP (yes this is a thing).

[Leviathan1usa]

Actually, the original servers also had this issue, but even worse. They also stated they had power issues at the location the old servers were.

The game was unplayable for many at 5pm EST because the level3 nodes in Montreal basically just stopped letting traffic through because they were hammered so badly. I haven't DC'd hardly at all since the move, it used to be daily.

And it IS an ISP issue, not a "server routing issue" as the other person said. If it was a server issue, VPN's wouldn't fix the problem. All a VPN does is go around crappy ISP routes. Which means its your ISP or your ISP's ISP (yes this is a thing).

It absolutely is a server routing issue and kinda shows how much you know about it as I work for the said ISP I am using and it is not a small company. If you know anything about ISP's and how a routing table works then you would know the first 4 hops of a traceroute starting from you are your ISP. The issue doesn't occur until after that which makes it the issue of SE's provider to their servers. I have been working for an ISP way too long both for the business side of things as well as residential services. If you are going to call someone out on things know the facts. NTT is the backbone of SE's current server network. The reason the ping server fixes it is the fact that the routing to the server from New York which is where I run it through has a different routing table than where I am. As far as California being the best place for it Kurando, if that many people are having issues, and the tables have turned where the PA and New York just as two examples that I know of were experiencing the same issues as we are now, then California is still not the right location. As you have stated we have to think about everyone here, and I agree with you, but having this issue for over a year and doing nothing about it for people that do pay money for a service, only to have to pay more to get a decent connection by paying an additional service is wrong. That's not a good business practice, and what's even worse is they ignore it when there have been way too many posts about this.

[LauraAdalena]

Here's the thing about moving back, they couldn't upgrade the servers very easily (at least, that's what they said), and it's overall worse for most players such as I who, despite it being a very minimal difference in distance from me, got a nice consistent connection even if it's not faster. The problem with moving them from Cali AT ALL is that there are not that many US cities or states that have as good internet. The problem is that moving from CA would leave them where? The East Coast? Higher up in Washington? The problem is, the best internet is in CA and the east coast. If they moved it to Canada, a lot more people would be screwed over. If they moved it to central US, the internet for them would suffer and connections would be probably worse than they were in Montreal. And then on the east coast they screw over all the players on the west coast. It's a lose-lose situation. Only city I could see them moving them to that would be beneficial is Austin Texas.

As for people complaining it's not an ISP thing but an SE thing, I know someone in Virginia who has amazing internet and next to never disconnects from FFXIV unless his entire internet takes a dump. This is the same with me and I in New Mexico, have a far worse ISP, and yet he has a better connection than I do in terms of lag. If this is NOT an ISP issue, then explain to me how someone in PA and NM have worse connection issues than someone in VA.

Also, I'd like to point out that ISPs are very untrustworthy companies and are notorious for trying to screw the customer over and most notoriously even tried throttling connections of specific apps, and Verizon recently throttled CA firefighters communications while fighting the CA wildfires.

[Darrcyphfeid]

The problem is that moving from CA would leave them where? The East Coast?

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Americas_r..._by_datacenter

There you go, Chicago and Dallas are two locations chosen by the game everyone loves to copy. I'm sure there are several other viable locations used by other games (/MMOs) if you make use of Google.

[Jojoya]

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Americas_r..._by_datacenter

There you go, Chicago and Dallas are two locations chosen by the game everyone loves to copy. I'm sure there are several other viable locations used by other games (/MMOs) if you make use of Google.

WoW hasn't used a data center in Dallas in years. Everything has been in Chicago or Los Angeles since they did the realm connections in 2013/2014 and they had stopped using the Dallas data center a couple of years before that.

My FFXIV connection has been far superior since the move. When the data centers were in Montreal, it would be 600 ms on a good day and frequently went over 1200. Lag was a constant annoyance. Now it's in the 50-60 range consistently. I rarely notice any lag going on and it's usually gone within a few minutes when it does happen.

If the game servers were the issue then everyone would be reporting the same problems. Outside of a few specific occasions, we're not. There's something else causing the issues the East Coast players are reporting.

SE can't please everyone. FFXIV only has 24 servers in NA (compared to WoW having over 100 since people want to use WoW as a comparison). It doesn't make sense for them to split them between data centers in different locations unless the player base expands greatly. With a large number of players from Pacific Rim countries playing on the NA servers, I don't see them moving the data center to the East Coast to please the players that are now experiencing what other players had been experiencing before the move. Someone is going to end up unhappy one way or another.

[Darrcyphfeid]

WoW hasn't used a data center in Dallas in years. Everything has been in Chicago or Los Angeles since they did the realm connections in 2013/2014 and they had stopped using the Dallas data center a couple of years before that.

Chosen =/= currently in use. If Dallas was good enough for WoW before, I should think it's good enough for XIV now. And if not, hey, there's Chicago. Neither one is on a coast.

If the game servers were the issue then everyone would be reporting the same problems. Outside of a few specific occasions, we're not. There's something else causing the issues the East Coast players are reporting.

Level-3 was messing with you before, and now NTT is messing with... everyone, really. But especially Comcast subscribers on the eastern half of the continent from the sounds of it. Got a guy in my friend circle from southern CA whose ping is lower now, but can't play any more reliably than I can because Square wanted to save a few pennies or something. Another guy in Vegas was screwed when the servers were in Montreal and, last I heard, wasn't fairing much better with NTT in Cali. Yet another guy, in Arizona, has had some rough patches the last few nights our group has gotten together; unsure what his situation was like prior to move.

Either way alternating between one side of the country or the other being unable to reliably play your online-only, subscription-based game is pretty damn sad. If that's truly the best Square can manage, they should reconsider this whole online gaming thing.