Concerns about the Data Center Redistribution

[oPGroOve]

To whom this may concern:

While I cannot speak for the rest of the raiding community, my raid group is currently in a somber and apprehensive state after hearing the news of the 'Data Center Shuffle.' Two of our members reside in Sargatanas while the rest of us are on Zalera. This leads to an Aether and Crystal Data Center split, which consequently leads to a split in our raid group.

We appreciate the measures taken by the development team to help us with the server transfers. The 999,999,999 Gil transfer cap and the compensation in housing and furniture will definitely help us if we choose to transfer. However, there are concerns about the loss of the plots of land that will happen if we were to transfer. Obtaining 'Large' plots of land in desirable cities (i.e. Kugane) is a difficult process that people have already worked hard to obtain due to the extremely limited availability. While the Gil compensation helps recoup the costs of the properties themselves, it does not cover the loss of the plots of land.

The Gil compensation definitely provides my friends a boost to help rebuild what they've worked on with their properties. However, if there are no plots of land for them to use their Gil on, they are left with a situation that is unsatisfactory. This does not even include the time they spent on the arrangement of furnishings on their properties and the airships associated with their Free Companies.

People have worked tirelessly on their housing to express themselves freely in the world of Eorzea. It provided a lot of content that my friends and I ate up and enjoyed. I love visiting my friends' houses and seeing all the hard work they've put into their properties. I also love raiding with them - tackling the latest challenge provided by Alphascape. Now, they are being forced to make a choice to either keep their months/years worth of hard work or to lose the connections they've made with their friends.

We still enjoy playing this game and and experiencing the many things it has to offer. On the other hand, the upcoming changes with Patch 4.5 makes things so a lot of us are questioning their motivation to continue playing FFXIV. While we appreciate the development team's solution to the data center shuffle, we are ultimately unsatisfied with the current measures that they have planned. This is a plea to implement a better plan to accommodate everyone.

Thanks for taking the time to read our concerns!

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I think they should at least delay the datacenter redistribution until 5.0 to allow current statics to play out the rest of this raid tier. If they need time to work out the world visiting feature, fine, but surely they can implement that without changing the datacenters as well ?

[Malicust]

I don't understand why they don't just make all plots Large and let people choose what size house to put on it. Small house, large yard. Medium house, medium yard. Large house, small yard. That way nobody has to move, they may just move for a change of scenery or to be closer to friends.

Now as far as the raiding goes, I totally understand what you're saying. People in my FC have been transferring out just to stay on Primal because of the already established community. I'm going to ride the wave and stay put, but I may move my old main (which is currently on Aether DC) over to another world on either Aether or Primal and just use that specifically for raiding so I don't feel as though I need to keep up with two characters and I can enjoy the content to my hearts content.

[Penthea]

I think they should at least delay the datacenter redistribution until 5.0 to allow current statics to play out the rest of this raid tier. If they need time to work out the world visiting feature, fine, but surely they can implement that without changing the datacenters as well ?

Having an expansion launch at the same time as the introduction data centre split and the cross server visitation would be a direct ticket to disaster.

Expansion launches are already very taxing on game servers due to the massive amount of people all trying to play at the same time, as well as any bugs that made it through to launch. Adding the strain of new server features and data centre redistribution on top of that would likely render the game unplayable, potentially for days. I understand that people want more time to sort themselves out, but having the server changes occur with 5.0 launch is a terrible idea.

Where SE really went wrong with this is not telling us sooner. We should have been told at 4.4 launch or even before the summer. But what's done is done. The best thing SE can do now is have the server changes before an expansion launch, which is what they're doing.

I don't understand why they don't just make all plots Large and let people choose what size house to put on it. Small house, large yard. Medium house, medium yard. Large house, small yard. That way nobody has to move, they may just move for a change of scenery or to be closer to friends.

I completely agree that this is what SE should have done with the wards, however changing it to be like that would require a complete redesign of all the housing districts. You can fit four small plots on a large plot. The size difference is crazy, so redesigning wouldn't be a small or quick undertaking. It's possible that giving us a proper instanced housing system would be less work.

This is a plea to implement a better plan to accommodate everyone.

What do you suggest SE should do instead? What do you want to see? Your post very clearly explains your issue with the current situation, but it gives no suggestion on how it could be better.

The housing issue is a tough one. I can't see any way for SE to make it better without doing something like adding even more wards after the data centre split has been done, so that recently transferred players will have a chance to get desirable plots again. Or in some cases a plot at all. There are still some servers with completely full wards.

[whiskeybravo]

I think it's about as fair as it can be. Consider that the desirable plot you own prevented anyone else from acquiring it up til now. Perhaps you still get a desirable plot should you choose to transfer, as it's possible that other plot owners will be transferring as well which will open them up. An analogy, just because you were first in line at Best Buy for Black Friday sales this year doesn't mean you get to be at the front of the line next year.

[Vonleo]

I don't understand why people don't search for similar threads and post in there? There is a huge thread on this topic already....

[Vespar]

I know this sucks for the raiding community, I wont deny that but SE is doing their best to give those affected as many resources and opportunities as possible. I suggest you guys make use of the free trnsfer when it happens. You guys might just have to move servers to stay in raid group.
No matter what Square Enix does in this situation they WILL NOT be able to address all the concerns for everyone 100% of the time. They understand FULL WELL that this is a HUGE inconvenience to the communities we've built, but its also a necessary endeavor...

They cant please everyone. But They are hoping they can atleast pave the way for a bigger and hopefully better community moving forward. Just talk with your raid group and see if you guys can jump to a server where you can all be together.

[Final-Fantasy]

Easy, have the two either join the same DC or replace them with new people seeking that didn't want to move for their old group.

Waiting until 5.0 release would just create total chaos, and no doubt issues they didn't know about, emergency maintenance and more.


And for Plots of land, there is bound to be plots vacated on all worlds due to this split, you may even get a better plot this way. Not only that, but it wont even matter what world on the DC you choose, you can buy a plot on your home world and go play on your friends/groups, they even said they may revoke some limitations depending on how well this plays out.

[Sylvina]

Yeah and putting all the servers which are not known for raiding on their own data center spells doom for anyone desiring to raid on said data center.