When will NA get more shards?

[Reap00]

Crystal data center has a few servers that are not congested yet. Start a new character outside of prime time and you should be fine. SE shouldn't add any servers. Ya see kids when the hype starts to die down a bit people won't login and MAGICALLY you will be able to login to just about every server again! WOW! OMG! LOGICAL THINKING!

[Enla]

Crystal data center has a few servers that are not congested yet. Start a new character outside of prime time and you should be fine.

This, try non-peak hours tomorrow and it'll be fine. It's the weekend with an expansion just released, the servers are going to be packed no matter how you look at it.

[Arixtotle]

This, try non-peak hours tomorrow and it'll be fine. It's the weekend with an expansion just released, the servers are going to be packed no matter how you look at it.

This isn't about me. It isn't about "packed servers". This is about new players being unable to make a character anywhere. Why do you think this is acceptable practice? Why do you think it's okay for JP to have so many more servers with the same, or even slightly smaller, player base?

[Enla]

This isn't about me. It isn't about "packed servers". This is about new players being unable to make a character anywhere. Why do you think this is acceptable practice? Why do you think it's okay for JP to have so many more servers with the same, or even slightly smaller, player base?

I never said it was, however I'm explaining /why/ it's happening and that come tomorrow for the most part it'll likely be alleviated until Early Access is over due to people needing to work. Please don't put words in my mouth.

Personally I do think they need to add more capabilities for our existing servers to handle the strain, especially as they want new people to jump in, but making new servers entirely is something I'd hesitate at enforcing until the dust has settled and we see how things are actually distributed.

[Arixtotle]

I never said it was, however I'm explaining /why/ it's happening and that come tomorrow for the most part it'll likely be alleviated until Early Access is over due to people needing to work. Please don't put words in my mouth.

Personally I do think they need to add more capabilities for our existing servers to handle the strain, especially as they want new people to jump in, but making new servers entirely is something I'd hesitate at enforcing until the dust has settled and we see how things are actually distributed.

With the new world visit feature I don't get why making new shards is a big deal honestly. It won't spread the players too thin since they could visit other shards. It would allow more players to have houses for one. NA actually has the biggest player base out of the three areas. Last month there were over 400,000 active characters. It's probably at least 500,000 now. I don't understand SE's thinking on this if I'm honest. The only think I can think of is they paid for lesser servers than they have in JP so they can't make more than the 24 shards we have now.

[Mistyregions]

This isn't about me. It isn't about "packed servers". This is about new players being unable to make a character anywhere. Why do you think this is acceptable practice? Why do you think it's okay for JP to have so many more servers with the same, or even slightly smaller, player base?

I dunno probably because NA isnt the center of the known universe and JP takes care of it's own before others. Seeing that it's a JP company I'm sure they are more inclined to take care of there costumer base first.

[CazzT]

I dunno probably because NA isnt the center of the known universe and JP takes care of it's own before others. Seeing that it's a JP company I'm sure they are more inclined to take care of there costumer base first.

If you offer your services in multiple locations, it's common business practice to provide equal level of service to all locations. This isn't a citizenship thing, it's a game.

[JWag12787]

If you offer your services in multiple locations, it's common business practice to provide equal level of service to all locations. This isn't a citizenship thing, it's a game.

Business practice would be supply and demand, if the demand is there, supply it. I agree the queues and registration currently is bad, but often times, it isn't, so is it worth making new shards that will be hallow and empty after the rush of Shadowbringers completes?

[CazzT]

Business practice would be supply and demand, if the demand is there, supply it. I agree the queues and registration currently is bad, but often times, it isn't, so is it worth making new shards that will be hallow and empty after the rush of Shadowbringers completes?

Supply and demand doesn't apply the same way for online gaming. You don't run the game on a toaster just because you have less players in that area of the world. Hence, equal level of service.

As for the servers being ghost towns after the initial population spike of a new expansion? A legit concern. Though at this point, I've seen queue times often enough, throughout the day, and have heard of it from people on other servers and data centers, that I think it's safe to say we can add at least one server to each data center (or a new data center altogether). Still, we don't have the full numbers. Maybe it's just a matter of increasing the allowed number of players on each server, though? Too many variables in play and not enough info available.

Something needs to be done, though.

[Tempest222]

It is definitely a bad thing for new players that characters cannot be created during peak hours on the NA data centers, but it would also not be great for SE to add new worlds right now that would end up being almost deserted once the new expansion hype dies down. I’m sure they are planning for what the projected stable population of these data centers will be after the next few weeks and on rather than potentially overreacting to temporary fullness over the next few days.