Have I returned at the wrong time?

[ErufuMan]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I will be continuing until at least this subscription runs out so there is still time. I wanted to do a low level dungeon to get to grips with Paladin again (it seems I can no longer use cure spells?) I was playing from 11pm - 2.30am (took a while to download). The census I viewed was one recommended on the forums - https://ffxivcensus.com/2019-08/ . I really hope to find some parties today now that I am on during peak time and I will adjust my language settings to include French and German. I was walking around Uldah and encountered no-one except a few retainers :'D. If things pick up I will purchase the new expansion but I thought I won't need it until i finish levelling and main story. Thank you for the welcome back

[Niwashi]

If things pick up I will purchase the new expansion but I thought I won't need it until i finish levelling and main story.

The only things the expansions unlock before you reach level 50 are the new races they introduced. So if you want to either switch to or start a new character as an Au Ra, Viera, or Hrothgar, getting the expansion now would let you do so.

After reaching 50 but before finishing the story, the only other things unlocked are the new jobs introduced in Storm Blood: Samurai and Red Mage. Besides unlocks, having the expansions would let you continue earning XP and levels rather than being level locked at 50 (though whether that's an advantage or not while still doing level 50 and below content is a matter of opinion).

For all other content from the expansions (new quests, dungeons, areas to explore, etc.) as well as the Heavensward jobs and some other new features (like flying) you'll need to finish the main story first, both the original story of ARR, and the story continuation that was added in the patches between ARR and HW.

Also yeah. If Party Finder was that sparse, likely also you're on during the off hours.

For a low level character, it's common for most PF listings to either show up as "Locked Duty" or not show up at all, depending on how it's configured. There's a setting for whether you want locked duties to show up or not. I don't remember which way is the default, but if his is set to not show them, then the only listings he'd see are ones that don't list what duty they're for except in the comments, and ones for low level duties that he's already unlocked. Since, as already mentioned, few players use Party Finder for low level content, there's rarely any of the latter, so PF can look a lot more sparse than it really is.

[MistakeNot]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I will be continuing until at least this subscription runs out so there is still time. I wanted to do a low level dungeon to get to grips with Paladin again (it seems I can no longer use cure spells?) I was playing from 11pm - 2.30am (took a while to download). The census I viewed was one recommended on the forums - https://ffxivcensus.com/2019-08/ . I really hope to find some parties today now that I am on during peak time and I will adjust my language settings to include French and German. I was walking around Uldah and encountered no-one except a few retainers :'D. If things pick up I will purchase the new expansion but I thought I won't need it until i finish levelling and main story. Thank you for the welcome back

The census you linked to shows some seriously weird numbers. Perhaps it is not finished yet, and so only show partial numbers? Look at the one for the previous month for more correct numbers: https://ffxivcensus.com/2019-07/
Ragnarok is actually one of the busiest EU servers.

Reasons why you see few people can include: Time of day; Lots of people being busy in newer zones; The area being instanced so only a handful people ended up in the same instance as you;


One thing that is certain though is that the game is very far from dead. New expansion recently released, and lots of players enjoying it.