Congestion solution: Make Early Access a Buff

[whiskeybravo]

I'm not aware of any buffs with this particular design already in game, but I've seen it used in other MMOs. It's too late for this expansion so perhaps a future consideration.

Something like:

Pre-order/early access - Grants 40 hours (arbitrary/debatable) of early access prior to official launch.

With the buff diminishing only while online.

This would encourage people to log out when they are done playing, not waste time/server space idling about, and hopefully allow more players through as others reach their time limit.

The buff itself would just allow access to new quests/duty registration. Once the buff expires quests/duties would again be locked until official release.

IDK, just something that came to mind. How difficult it would be to implement vs. how much it would alleviate congestion.. Feel free to discuss.

[PewPewPewPewPew]

the first actual good idea. You should consider submitting this to the proper forum or channel to have it considered for the future.

[Wildsprite]

I dunno, I mean I could see this as an option for some scenarios but I feel like Yoshi-P would only see this as another way to alienate players.
it could work though.

[lezard21]

what about crafters?

also if after 40 hours only the new stuff gets locked, then people would just stay logged in in the old areas or doing old content just to prevent other EA people from logging in. Like it's currently happening with afkers and botters.

[Clicked]

No because that encourages people to rush through cutscenes quickly rather than enjoy them as intended.

Just log people off after 24 hours IMO. There's no reason to play more than 24 hours straight at this point. There is no world race or anything. Go to sleep and come back the next day.

[AnotherPerson]

That would certainly alienate players and force the players to rush through content. This is a bad idea. The game is meant to be played at your own pace. People might do other stuff during Early Access, not entirely dedicated to specifically doing new content. Controlling what people want to do or create FOMO is the worst idea possible. Absolutely disagree.

Considering how the pacing of the Endwalker story is immediately supposed to ease you in, forcing people to experience something and then denying them access to it after a period of time is the worst ways to go about this. It just makes people want to rush through content rather than explore what the world has to offer. You can't really appreciate anything the devs put into it other than "Long story, must skip", and that's a completely wrong mindset for a MMO that heavily focuses on storytelling as its priority.

[lezard21]

both of the above are moot point since right now not only are people not able to experince the game at their own pace, they are not able to experience it at all.

[whiskeybravo]

The problem of congestion exacerbates the problem of congestion, difficulties actually getting in the game contributes to finding more ways to avoid having to deal with it.

Yea, there are a lot of little details that would need to be sorted. The way I imagine it, once the buff is expired you simply wouldn't be able to advance the story. But I did consider open world activities in the unlocked zone would probably be too difficult to limit, fates/crafting/gathering/etc. Again, 40 hours is somewhat arbitrary, but it's about the time it takes to complete the msq. Somewhere around that time allowance where you are able to complete the story if desired, and spend some time exploring but not entirely.

Short of that, a much simpler suggestion would be along the lines of server resets. Just kick everyone off every couple of hours, rotate through the servers so there isn't a mad rush on all of them at once. They could do that today.


Upon further reflection:

It might at least be worth developing something to use as an emergency countermeasure. Perhaps a shorter buff for all users, 8-12 hours, that automatically logs out when depleted and replenishes while offline. Give it a cool icon and fancy name, "Aetherial Dissipation - interference with your aetheric density is limiting the stability of your presence within this realm "

I'm not suggesting SE shouldn't do everything they can to bolster capacity otherwise, but it's good to have options.