Raubahn Extreme will return? Version 6.0

[Daniolaut]

Hello community, I am curious what are your thoughts for the launch of version 6.0?

Currently this message is ongoing almost all day everyday, even for small servers, most likely due to the free trial.

This world is currently full.
Players in queue: ###.

During peak hours this can easily get over 100+ players, again, even on "small" servers.

With the launch of version 6.0 just around the corner, what do you think will happen on launch day/early access?

With this massive influx of players all at once (hopefully) how do you think things will go, and how do you think Square-Enix will handle it?

Will we experience another similar situation to Raubahn Extreme? But on a much larger more damaging scale?

To my understanding Square-Enix cannot split over populated servers like they can with FFXI due to the lack of changes to the housing system. Could you imagine Square-Enix pulling you off a server, and you lose your house? Even if they would compensate players in gil, I'm sure many players would not like that so I dont believe it is an option.

What do you think it will be like come 6.0, do you think the free trial players will all quit before 6.0 freeing up server space?

What are your thoughts?

[ItMe]

In 5.0 there was a point where the player has the option of going to Eulmore to meet up with Alphinaud, or going to Amh Amaeng to meet up with Alisae.
SQEX later mentioned they did this in order to divide the server load in a place where they saw potential for something like Raubahn EX to happen again.
They're def conscious of the issue and working hard to try to circumvent it. As for what tricks they have in store for 6.0, we can only guess, especially since (as I understand it) they've been addressing this problem on the back end too.

[Daniolaut]

If you're a new player and unaware,

normally on a launch day for an expansion, the FFXIV servers become extremely congested. In so much, over the years, they had to add measures to counter the severe congestion. Such as creating instanced zones, for example, when traveling to "Lakeland" a player will either automatically enter a certain "Lakeland" instance numbered 1-4 or 1-5, or choose a specified instance (to try to stay with a party) which divides the players from each other to lessen the load on the server.

They also added the log-in queue, as you are very likely accustomed to already.

They even had to change/adjust/regulate how story quests are created to prevent having an instanced battle (the type of quest that makes you enter a solo duty) early on in the quest line of the expansion which is where the term "Raubahn Extreme" originated.

So since the log-in queue currently is an ongoing experience to FFXIV, which is not a normal occurrence for FFXIV, one would assume, upon launch day of 6.0 the "normal" influx of hundreds of thousands of players will exceed the current already reached cap of players.

For example what this means, is if the server can hold only 90,000 connections (I'm using the 90,000 error when you get kicked from the server) on a normal day pre free trial, there would be only 50,000 connections at a time.

During the launch of an expansion, the amount of players connecting to the server could be lets say 95,000 or even 100,000. But now with the free trial, the servers hover over 90,000 continuously, meaning the influx of 45,000+ players will now be instead of 95,000-100,000 will reach 145,000 or even 150,000 or even beyond that.

This means nearly 1/3rd of the player base will not be able to log in at all whatsoever. As many players on a normal launch day would sit in a 15 minute queue just to even log into to FFXIV, under these new conditions players would be sitting for an hour or even potentially more. Many players try to combat this issue by just going on busy and staying in crafting mode, which means any other players actively wanting to play, and not just sit AFK to avoid the log-in queue will not be able to log in.

So what are your thoughts?

(We're not here to argue my numbers. I literally just said 90,000 was just a number I choose for the example, that statement or "example" is not a reality fact, its just a representation for the reader to gain a basic understanding of the question which said question is what do people think 6.0 launch day will be like with the already reached cap number of players connecting to the servers, as there very likely will be a massive influx of players at the launch of version 6.0, unless of course it is a massive failure in comparison to the previous expansions.)

[Daniolaut]

In 5.0 there was a point where the player has the option of going to Eulmore to meet up with Alphinaud, or going to Amh Amaeng to meet up with Alisae.
SQEX later mentioned they did this in order to divide the server load in a place where they saw potential for something like Raubahn EX to happen again.
They're def conscious of the issue and working hard to try to circumvent it. As for what tricks they have in store for 6.0, we can only guess, especially since (as I understand it) they've been addressing this problem on the back end too.

Oh thats great news, Do you have a link where they are mentioning addressing the Free trial/current constant cap of player connections? I seemed to have missed it. If they are already aware of it, and have plans to address it before 6.0 then thats wonderful news.

[ItMe]

Oh thats great news, Do you have a link where they are mentioning addressing the Free trial/current constant cap of player connections? I seemed to have missed it. If they are already aware of it, and have plans to address it before 6.0 then thats wonderful news.

Unfortunately I have long since lost the link
I am sorry.

[Daniolaut]

Unfortunately I have long since lost the link
I am sorry.

Thats fine, I wasnt questioning your honesty, I just was curious the details of any statements made. As long as they are aware of the issue, and have plans to address it then thats great. It would be very unfortunate it for them to frustrate such a large portion of the playerbase due to lack of foresight/preparation. I'm sure no matter how much they prepare they will face some issues with congestion, no MMO has had a "successful" launch without congestion issues. Congestion is a good thing to a certain extent.

[Brill_]

The Raubahn extreme problem wasn't due to server login, but was due to them putting a solo instance early on in the MSQ that every player had to do to unlock the rest of the expansion. Raubahn ex brought progress to a standstill. In 5.0, they did not put any solo instances that early to prevent that from happening. Aside from some login queues, I don't recall any major issues during ShB launch.

[tdb]

My thought of 6.0 is that it's still at least half a year away, probably more like 8-10 months, so there's no point in worrying about it. If I get bored with current content I can always play other games or do something else entirely.

I wonder if the queue message is just misleading and has to do with some sort of "login server" (for lack of better term; the actual login is handled by the launcher but there might be another check of the session token here) and not with the actual game world servers being full.

[Avatre]

They also had Pippin EX not long after that iirc. So they had two solo instances, not far apart, that were taking up the instance server space. It was definitely a good time for anyone who decided to level crafters/gatherers until the line-ups(yes, I remember those lines and standing in them...I was stuck at Raubahn for almost the entire early access of Stormblood) cleared out. I decided at that point if it happens again, I would just go level my crafters and gatherers - thankfully they changed it, and hopefully they keep any quests that are early in and require a solo instance to be able to be split where you either go talk to person A and do the instance, or go to person B and do an overworld quest.

[SnowVix]

the login queue isn't so much about how many people are currently online, it's about how many are trying to log in at once. think of it as the winding heavy rope barriers that turn a milling mob outside a club into an orderly queue