SE: Please address the enormous imbalance created with the data center changes.

[JackHatchet]

There's a reason why Gilgamesh was the big raiding server. That's where people went to raid. I have a feeling that anyone just chilling on non-raiding servers hanging out with non-home statics were just casual raiders anyways. And you'll still find raiding scenes on Coeurl and such. It's not like all raiding will stop just because Crystal is the RP data-center. Just find new statics.

[Atlantasia]

There's a reason why Gilgamesh was the big raiding server. That's where people went to raid. I have a feeling that anyone just chilling on non-raiding servers hanging out with non-home statics were just casual raiders anyways. And you'll still find raiding scenes on Coeurl and such. It's not like all raiding will stop just because Crystal is the RP data-center. Just find new statics.

Do you think finding a GOOD raid group is easy? It takes months to find good ones where you all mesh well, are on the same page with goals and competency, etc. Back in the day, it was darn near impossible. And we're losing a LOT of our core raiders from our server because of this, they're moving servers to continue to raid, they're not going to stay here to build the raiding community up and frankly, why would they bother?

I have the horrible and agonizing choice of either losing 50% of my friends, nearly my entire FC and my raid group, or giving up the other 50% of my friends and my house! Friends I've had for 4+ years!

It's great if this doesn't effect you, but it highly effects me here. :/

[Dhaid]

It's great if this doesn't effect you, but it highly effects me here. :/

Basically the biggest thing about these DC shenanigans. When it effects you, there's massive ramifications. But if you aren't effected, there's only positives to be had in the future. I wish square had ran this by us before sending a 3rd of the playerbase into a panic.

[Barraind]

There's a reason why Gilgamesh was the big raiding server. That's where people went to raid.

Back before cross-server party finding, absolutely.

Now that you dont have to transfer to those srrvers, you... dont have to transfer there. you could be on "i can buy a house and hang out with friends when not raiding and have an economy that isnt trash" instead of, say Cactuar (which is what I did). I can totally raid with people on gilg, or cactuar, (or in my case, Faerie) and not have to be on that server.

With these changes, surprise, you cannot again, unless you picked the right smaller world to be on. If you wer eon a smaller aether world, you picked poorly, despite it being marketed, for YEARS, as the best thing to do by Squenix itself.

"come to this small server, its great, we give you bonuses to do so, you can still do almost everything with everyone on your datacenter still, theres almost no downside"

We're now seeing the downside. Its called "you dont get to play with any of those people anymore (I personally lose 94% of my raid/ex/farm contacts who arent also on my server. Woo, fun)".

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

The other option requires players who currently aren't moving back due to friends or statics to not bail on crystal.

I'm probably not in those statistics cuz my static never cleared o8s, but I raid. Most of my fc does, and well probably look to build a group on crystal.

[Nalien]

Basically the biggest thing about these DC shenanigans. When it effects you, there's massive ramifications. But if you aren't effected, there's only positives to be had in the future. I wish square had ran this by us before sending a 3rd of the playerbase into a panic.

Yeah, you'd think they'd have more sense than to take communities they've helped grow and split them up like this with relatively little notice... If this was announced in one of the past live letters, as a "We're thinking about doing this, let us know what you think", and actually discussed this with us somewhat... Well people would be a lot calmer about it at least, not this frantic panic and looming uncertainty some of us now have to deal with... On the eve of a new expansion no less... Tied up nicely alongside "We're adding World-Visit so you can visit friends on other servers!", the sheer lack of awareness or consideration for what this change does for some players is shocking, to say the least...

I would love to be hyped for Shadowbringer right now, but I don't even know who I'll be playing it with at the moment because of all this... Essentially being forced to lose friends like that, in an MMO of all things... I don't know what is going through their heads at this point... I hope the developers at least acknowledge this mess soon... Honestly, the cynical part of me wonders if they timed this announcement with the expansion on purpose, hoping 5.0 hype would drown out the players who are impacted by this, but we'll see I guess...

[RareItems]

Just transfer servers or don't raid.

[Hamada]

Just transfer servers or don't raid.

That is not a solution. SE should do a better job in handling this. Housing is a big issue why this is a problem with people. Some people spent a long time not only trying to get a house, but furnishing it. 3M is a flat joke as a reimbursement for all that work, and most likely not have a house trying to get back to Aether.

It is hard for some people just transfer and reform groups because of housing.

Also what about PvP? I do not see this talked about enough, seems like crystals top 100 is gonna be determined by who sits in the queue the longest. Maybe SE should update the cap on that queue wait timer to go higher then 999 mins and 99 seconds. At least that would allow people to show SE how long they wait for PvP queues.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Ultimately, no one data-center can support BOTH the Raiding and RP communities, so a split was destined to happen.

And yet this has never been an issue for WoW. The whole reason both communities are big is due to cross over. A lot of raiders also RP. In fact, there's already discusses of building another RP server back on Aether. If it actually takes off, literally everything SE tried to do has been undone. Splitting up communities like this just doesn't work. People will congregate right back to their established roots.

There's a reason why Gilgamesh was the big raiding server. That's where people went to raid. I have a feeling that anyone just chilling on non-raiding servers hanging out with non-home statics were just casual raiders anyways. And you'll still find raiding scenes on Coeurl and such. It's not like all raiding will stop just because Crystal is the RP data-center. Just find new statics.

Do you remember pre-cross world PF, where Gilgamesh devoured practically every other server? Leviathan took almost a year to recover and they're on separate DCs. Gilgamesh as the definitive raid server was among the worst things for the health of the game because it forced people to isolate themselves. Now we're seeing that same issue except spread across a datacenter.

The other option requires players who currently aren't moving back due to friends or statics to not bail on crystal.

I'm probably not in those statistics cuz my static never cleared o8s, but I raid. Most of my fc does, and well probably look to build a group on crystal.

While I agree, I also cannot fault people for bailing en masse. Building an entire raid scene takes an incredible amount of work—work plenty of people simply aren't willing to partake in when they signed up just to play a game. For those who are, great! But when the options are put in a lot of work and potentially never see those results pay dividends or go to an already established community, people will take the latter every time.

[Atlantasia]

._. If they made one or two new worlds on each Data Center and made them for transfer players only temporarily, along with adding new wards to housing, then MAYBE this would be half way okay. It'd still be the shuffle from h*ll to get all my retainers in order so I can carry over my furnishings... and I'd have to give up my alt's small house in favor of having my main still having her medium + access to all three of my alts. But I'd be at least halfway more willing to to just transfer at that point.

3 million isn't an incentive for me. It's not worth about 3-4 weeks worth of shuffling between 4 characters and trying to trim down inventory space to accommodate, hopefully temporarily, 500+ housing items. Shoot, I don't think 5 million is worth it. Even if the amount was enough for a Large house... I don't know if that's remotely worth it, because you'll never actually get one. x.x

Mist, Plot 6, this has been my home for YEARS and I had coveted that spot since the LAUNCH of housing. ._. I'm not likely to get that on any other server, especially with all the transfers. And I feel terrible for my FC, maxed subs and airships... large in Shirogane, but they have to leave, because of their raid groups... :/