[Discussion] Do data centers need to be merged/allow cross play?

[Driavna]

The idea behind of splitting DCs for NA and EU was to improve stability and queues during prime periods, like expansion releases, and to accommodate the growing player base. Anyway, Yoshida has already stated that he wants a mega server of shorts so what you are asking will be a reality at some point in the future.

Still, DF is hardly used in NA/EU for Extreme/Savage content so even after a "merge" those queue times are going to be there. In particular during a period like this with low player activity.

[dragonkyn20]

Nidhogg EX is a terrible example since it's not current content. Nobody really does the older fights in DF, it's all in party finder. Now if you used Titania or Innocence, you might have a point.

[Rasikko]

I understand the vast technical limitations and challenges of making cross-data-center play possible when involving data centers from different physical locations IRL. Square Enix does not want to get ISPs and all of their related issues involved for communication between the data centers.

However, I fail to see why they can not do this for data centers that are located in the same building IRL. Wouldn't it be as simple as just using a wire at that point? Why can't Crystal play with Aether?

Oh for sure that Cross regional DC play isn't on their to-do list.


...on the hand other, I've yet to play any MMO where such a thing existed, so.. this gives SE something to work towards I guess lol. FFXI just allowed everyone from all over the world to play together, there was no regional server separations, just the client.

[MistakeNot]

What's the point of having separate data centers within regions? It just means I have to move servers to play with my friend on Siren but that means I could no longer play with my friend on Coeurl.

Technical reasons. In addition to all the world servers each datacenter also includes instance servers that handle all the dungeons and other instanced content that potentially involves people from multiple worlds. There are limits to how much load the instance servers can handle, so they try to keep the datacenter populations at a reasonable size to avoid problems - at some earlier expansion releases the instance servers got overloaded and much instability and complaining ensued.

[tdb]

Technical reasons. In addition to all the world servers each datacenter also includes instance servers that handle all the dungeons and other instanced content that potentially involves people from multiple worlds. There are limits to how much load the instance servers can handle, so they try to keep the datacenter populations at a reasonable size to avoid problems - at some earlier expansion releases the instance servers got overloaded and much instability and complaining ensued.

Well, they could add more instance servers. But there's also the servers that store character data, and all world and instance servers within the datacenter need to communicate with those. At some point they'll become a bottleneck. Transferring character data would also be one problem to solve in implementing cross-datacenter instances. There needs to be all kinds of safeguards to prevent losing or duplicating items.

[JWag12787]

They talked about cross-datacenter and the feasibility of it, but are still in the "discussion" phase.


As far as queues, as long as I'm not queuing for the obvious (EX, PVP, etc), I've never waited longer than a couple minutes as a tank/healer, so I don't think the issue is solely related to that.
It could also be time specific as well (depending when you queue, since you posted at 1am my time on a Sunday, perhaps the server pop was low. I know there are less PFs at that time overall as well)

[DrWho2010]

I think they need to merge some of them. Like other day I waited 25 minutes in queue for Heaven on High floors 21 to 30. This was at 11am pst. which always seen queues of less than 5 minutes. Last frontline queue had was 85 minutes.

11 am is when most people that play the game are at work/school. not a whole lot of people play the game in off peak hours.

[Rilifane]

Even for EU I understand why they did it and we don't have enough people for a split but too many for keeping datacentres merged. So the result was generally longer queue times and less people in PF. But even though queue times, escpecially on dps for 4man content, can be annoyingly long I prefer it over a lack of server stability. Escpecially when a new content patch hit, it was too crowded and often causes issues. And if the population slightly grew we'd have trouble even between patches.
If they can find a way to keep datacentres merges without stability issues, I'm all for it. But for now I think it's for the best as it is, even in the relatively small EU zone.

[Barraind]

Their long term goal is to allow for party and duty finder across datacenters. World visit may not be possible.

And if you're wanting to do EX trials, use the party finder. EX trials arent shoved into anything except mentor roulette and direct queue'ing, and it wont pull from mentor to fill if its that empty.

[ElazulHP]

Last frontline queue had was 85 minutes.

I had a two hour queue earlier this morning. Yesterday I had one three hour queue and a couple 1.5 hour queues. Typically the average wait time during peak hours is like 45 minutes to an hour. I remember when Frontlines used to be almost instant queues. What happened?!? Trying to get that 100 win mount seems to be impossible because of the wait times.