When are congested worlds "reviewed" to be opened?

[Anger]

It seems as though the "congested" marker on a world is manually applied or removed after a set period of time. However, I can't quite pinpoint when that is. Does anyone have any idea?

[MariaArvana]

It seems as though the "congested" marker on a world is manually applied or removed after a set period of time. However, I can't quite pinpoint when that is. Does anyone have any idea?

If you're referring to the congested status of servers like Balmung that are completely locked from character creation until they lift it, It usually changes on larger patches from what I recall, though who knows how often they review those servers to be opened up again or stay locked.

If you're referring to servers that aren't completely locked and sometimes open randomly for character creation, it's based on the current number of users logged in at the time as far as I'm aware, so it can change and lock down and open up through the day & night depending on activity.

[Anger]

If you're referring to the congested status of servers like Balmung that are completely locked from character creation until they lift it, It usually changes on larger patches from what I recall, though who knows how often they review those servers to be opened up again or stay locked.

If you're referring to servers that aren't completely locked and sometimes open randomly for character creation, it's based on the current number of users logged in at the time as far as I'm aware, so it can change and lock down and open up through the day & night depending on activity.

Yes, I am referring to the "Congested" locked servers like Balmung that do not open up at any time unless the lock is lifted.

[MistakeNot]

It seems as though the "congested" marker on a world is manually applied or removed after a set period of time. However, I can't quite pinpoint when that is. Does anyone have any idea?

The "congested" status on overpopulated servers is removed when the population on those servers has dropped enough. Exactly what counts as "enough" is unknown.

[Kaedan]

They are updated every few hours. Problem is, on worlds like Balmung, there is almost never a period where space is available.

[MistakeNot]

They are updated every few hours. Problem is, on worlds like Balmung, there is almost never a period where space is available.

Actually, no they aren't.

What is updated on a continous basis is that servers sometimes get temporarily locked for character creation. Depending on how busy the server is this can be anything from a few minutes per day, to almost always. In the past (before the introduction of the "Congested" status) there was a long period of time when Balmung was only open for character creation for a few minutes after a maintenance. The notices posted on the Lodestone about this are updated several times per day, but the actual status of temporary locks can change more often than that.

However the "Congested"/"Preferred"/"New" status that some servers have is not updated nearly as often. When a server is declared "Congested" it will be completely locked not only for character creation but also for transfers to that server. (The temporary lock for character creation mentioned above does not prevent character transfers.)
So far everytime there have been changes in the "Congested"/"Preferred" status has it has been on a Tuesday - just like standard maintenances - and there has been a separate notice posted to the Lodestone about the status change. This leads me to believe they review the server status on a weekly basis to see if there should be any change.

[Kaedan]

Congested can change as fast as by the hour, though that is rare (usually just during expansion release or major patch releases). It's not only on Tuesdays/maintenance.

[MistakeNot]

Congested can change as fast as by the hour, though that is rare (usually just during expansion release or major patch releases). It's not only on Tuesdays/maintenance.

Perhaps they can, but they never have.

[HyoMinPark]

Yes, I am referring to the "Congested" locked servers like Balmung that do not open up at any time unless the lock is lifted.

The only time they would unlock a Congested server like Balmung would be during a scheduled maintenance - the last two times it opened up was during a major patch maintenance (the first time they closed it after 2 weeks because people flooded back to it, and the second time it was unlocked for at least a month or so - longer than the first time). It was a good several months between each time; significant enough for the active population to drop a fair bit.

How often they monitor the total population on Congested worlds is unknown, but I would assume they at least check it once a month (it could be more or less though). The Locked to Character Creation worlds seem to be evaluated every ~6 hours roughly, and open/lock based on the amount of people logged in at the time.

As for when Balmung will open again, with a new expansion coming, if they don't open it before 5.0 drops, it will definitely be a while after it launches before they think about unlocking the server. Simply because everyone is going to be logging in doing main expansion things. With the Aether/Crystal split, it may occur sooner than we'd expect though. It all depends.

[Anger]

The only time they would unlock a Congested server like Balmung would be during a scheduled maintenance - the last two times it opened up was during a major patch maintenance (the first time they closed it after 2 weeks because people flooded back to it, and the second time it was unlocked for at least a month or so - longer than the first time). It was a good several months between each time; significant enough for the active population to drop a fair bit.

How often they monitor the total population on Congested worlds is unknown, but I would assume they at least check it once a month (it could be more or less though). The Locked to Character Creation worlds seem to be evaluated every ~6 hours roughly, and open/lock based on the amount of people logged in at the time.

As for when Balmung will open again, with a new expansion coming, if they don't open it before 5.0 drops, it will definitely be a while after it launches before they think about unlocking the server. Simply because everyone is going to be logging in doing main expansion things. With the Aether/Crystal split, it may occur sooner than we'd expect though. It all depends.

Thank you for your informative response, HyoMinPark.