Splitting up friends defeats the spirit of an MMO. Please reverse this server mess.

[Azurymber]

Part of the fun of an MMO is making friends. And sure, some people switch servers or quit the game. But most of us have numerous linkshells, and an FC, and many of us have cross-server friends or raid groups.

But this server shuffle is legitimately defeating the entire point of playing a social game. Having friends.

Almost anyone switching data centers is going to have to choose some friends over others. Or lose out on seeing familiar faces they have seen for years.

Additionally, many people have spent months getting a house. And getting your money back is not helpful, when you likely won't be able to land a house on another server, because of a poorly designed housing system.

No one wins with this server reshuffle.
And no one asked for this.

Many people will likely lose any motivation to play this game once their social circles get split up.

Please stop this server disaster from happening.

[Rangar]

One can only hope the community's response will not fall on deaf ears, but I'm afraid SE neither cares nor listens to the community. They're gonna do whatever is the cheapest solution to the ongoing problems with server stability; and this is it. But as I said in another thread, I also see this backfiring greatly, as many will flee the Crystal DC in order to keep with current raiding groups. Raid groups are already figuring the logistics on moving. The players will always outsmart any of SE's ideas to "balance" the servers; and SE will be forced to lock Aether, IMO.

[NanaWiloh]

One can only hope the community's response will not fall on deaf ears, but I'm afraid SE neither cares nor listens to the community. They're gonna do whatever is the cheapest solution to the ongoing problems with server stability; and this is it. But as I said in another thread, I also see this backfiring greatly, as many will flee the Crystal DC in order to keep with current raiding groups. Raid groups are already figuring the logistics on moving. The players will always outsmart any of SE's ideas to "balance" the servers; and SE will be forced to lock Aether, IMO.

You got two choices server split or them taking more drastic measures which would more then likely involve the servers coming down for several months. The infrastructure needs work they are taking this route so you can continue to play and they do care or you would not be getting free transfers. They have tried to get people to move, increasing server pop is not going to solve the problem either their hand has been forced. If this does not work they may very well take a route that people will hate even more..

[Aerlana]

The players will always outsmart any of SE's ideas to "balance" the servers; and SE will be forced to lock Aether, IMO.

This is a matter with SE (atleast on FFXIV) from the begining of ARR.
They dont think as players.

When hunt was released, B rank gave insignia even without the weekly quest, and had 5 min respawn CD. So, Naul (the first quest) was impossible to get. and numerous players didnt manage to just finish the weekly quest.
This is one example, one of the oldest (2.1)

But let's see more recently. Players during ARR did do, at the begining, the fate train, because they were the best way to gain level on second+ jobs. Even with 2.1 (boost of dongeon XP and roulet) and after, fate train stayed the way to level. Killed only with PotD (which was even better finally)
So, they do eureka anemos, with the chain kill... long, boring. aaaand players fast did find that fate train is boring... but a better way to farm, so return of the train. Yes people did complain (boring vs boring)
And The team seemed surprise that people went back on fate train !


They are not players in their own realm. Or they play, but without thinking as a player.


So, this, so, this "BLU" which is not a job. The "you dont want to pay sub? take appartment" or "a white mage with pld armor it would be ridiculous" (and pld with bikini?)
If they were players... most stupidity we see wouldn' exist.

I'm more worried about Hunts.

For the hunt, there is a second announcement we have to see :
we will be able to teleport to other servers from the same datacenter. So, for a simple example.

I am on Ragnarok, and i see (with interserv FC, discord or anything else) that a S rank spawn on moogle server. I go to limsa/uldah/gridania, and teleport to moogle, and then go where the S rank is.

It will ensure that even those new DC wont have a lot of matter getting enough people for hunting... BUT... maybe too much people also? :-°

[Wobi]

So let’s say they don’t shuffle servers around, how do you propose they fix the existing problem without adding any new servers? They are likely at or nearing capacity for the ones they already have. People were upset at server mergers in FFXI days but sometimes things have to be done for the game as a whole and unfortunately there will be players negatively affected. The alternative is to do nothing and let things break which makes everyone unhappy.

[Azurymber]

So let’s say they don’t shuffle servers around, how do you propose they fix the existing problem without adding any new servers? They are likely at or nearing capacity for the ones they already have. People were upset at server mergers in FFXI days but sometimes things have to be done for the game as a whole and unfortunately there will be players negatively affected. The alternative is to do nothing and let things break which makes everyone unhappy.

add new servers?
increase the capacity of servers?
make cross-world play manageable through the creation of an existing raid-only server?

why make excuses for bad server management?

we pay to play a social game.
the social aspect of that is being screwed up for countless people

even from a profit standpoint this move is bad. lots of people will pick up the game again for the expansion, realize all their friends and social circles are gone, and unsub.

[Wobi]

add new servers?
increase the capacity of servers?

They are adding new servers (for data) though, but of course they have to move worlds onto them or it’s not going to do any good; if you mean add more worlds that just contributes the the problem as you still end up with instance issues. They are likely close to capacity on the servers they have. It’s possible they could migrate all of the existing ones to some beefier hardware, but it can be costly. While several people will be negatively impacted this is also an improvement for many others. But everyone seems to care only about how they are being personally affected and not whether this is better for the game overall. Yes it sucks, but it’s better than ignoring the current server issues until things hit the breaking point.

[NanaWiloh]

add new servers?
increase the capacity of servers?
make cross-world play manageable through the creation of an existing raid-only server?

why make excuses for bad server management?

we pay to play a social game.
the social aspect of that is being screwed up for countless people

even from a profit standpoint this move is bad. lots of people will pick up the game again for the expansion, realize all their friends and social circles are gone, and unsub.

Add new servers wont work as people are stubborn and dont move. Your on Balmung look how stubborn your own world community is about moving. Also they have add new servers or have we forgotten about that!! As for the upcoming transfers expect worlds like Balmung to be blocked against incoming transfers..

[ColorOfSakura]

add new servers?
increase the capacity of servers?
make cross-world play manageable through the creation of an existing raid-only server?

Adding New Servers is actually terrible for game life though (if its not done carefully or properly), especially when you have low-pop servers that exist in game already. It makes the game feel empty and playerless, and it causes people to quit. This is a proven thing that's happened with a ton of MMOs in the past - you don't want to just "add new servers" unless absolutely necessary.

Increasing the capacity of servers isn't as easy as just flipping a switch and making it a thing - server stability changes the more data is put onto them.

Not to mention that neither of these fixes the underlying problem: that the datacenters are crowded as a whole and stability issues have started to crop up because of this. The entire situation with Stormblood's launch and the instance server problems is to do with the datacenters becoming crowded - not just individual servers.

And you can't just make an entire datacenter with nothing but new servers because then there'd be literally zero established economy or playerbase on them. This was clearly a very difficult decision for Square Enix to make, and I'm sure its one they'd have preferred not to - but the fact of the matter is that NA and EU have stability issues because of how crowded their datacenters are.

[WellFooled]

So let’s say they don’t shuffle servers around, how do you propose they fix the existing problem without adding any new servers? They are likely at or nearing capacity for the ones they already have. People were upset at server mergers in FFXI days but sometimes things have to be done for the game as a whole and unfortunately there will be players negatively affected. The alternative is to do nothing and let things break which makes everyone unhappy.

I assume the problems they're having stem from the fact that Aether is getting too populated for the servers to handle, as this infographic posted on reddit shows.

I think one way to ease that is to actually make official Role Playing servers and spread them out among the data centers. Right now both of the major role playing hotspots are on Aether: Balmung and Maetus. Both have the highest active player population in Aether in the information I could find, with 19k and 13k. I would suggest that this isn't likely a coincidence. Every new player in North America who is interested in RP is getting channeled to Aether because the players choose those servers as their RP hub. Square could instead start channeling those RPers to other data centers with the creation of officially backed RP servers.

Beyond that, incentivize moving or creating characters on a low population server in more meaningful ways than they have now. A friend of mine recently started playing with me and was actually annoyed by the Road to 60 buff he got as it sped up the leveling process, which he enjoys, to an unnatural pace--like being level 35 but only at the level 25 main story. To me, that isn't as widely desired as a unique piece of glamour gear or a unique mount would be as an incentive, but I'm sure there are lots of ways to do it.