Can we do something about the congestion on Balmung... please?

[Isralia]

I normally love how populated and full that Balmung is because you never have a dull moment here but oh my Lord, I just wanna go inside my FC house. I haven't been able to get in for a stinking week let alone trying to do island shenanigans. Can we do something about this please?

[fantasiaaddict]

I mean, you chose to play on Balmung, the most popular server on American datacenters (atleast for roleplay). Do "most popular" and "congestion" not click?

[Darthgummibear]

I mean, you chose to play on Balmung, the most popular server on American datacenters (atleast for roleplay). Do "most popular" and "congestion" not click?

Do people not realize that not everyone was aware of this when they chose this server? When I made this character, it was the first server on the list of available options.

[Kuroka]

Do people not realize that not everyone was aware of this when they chose this server? When I made this character, it was the first server on the list of available options.

Thats why they need to lock it and keep it locked... or at least label it as (unofficial) RP server AND maybe give ppl who didnt start there on purpose a way to transfer away from it...

[Darthgummibear]

Thats why they need to lock it and keep it locked... or at least label it as (unofficial) RP server AND maybe give ppl who didnt start there on purpose a way to transfer away from it...

I would agree with this. If I had known what this server was like I would have never rolled here in the first place. I've avoided RP servers in other games in the past because while I enjoy the "occasional" RP myself, I've found those servers to attract a particular type of player that I don't really jive with for the most part.

[LianaThorne]

Thats why they need to lock it and keep it locked... or at least label it as (unofficial) RP server AND maybe give ppl who didnt start there on purpose a way to transfer away from it...

This already exists, just gotta pay for it. Would recommend going to Primal if you want quiet, except Hyperion.

[fantasiaaddict]

Do people not realize that not everyone was aware of this when they chose this server? When I made this character, it was the first server on the list of available options.

Then... maybe do some research before you step foot into one of the most popular MMOs? I'm still a relatively new player (started playing in April of last year) and I did my research before picking a server. Obviously you can't do research for a server if you joined when the game first launched, but judging by OPs join date (for forums) they most likely started playing the same time they made a forums account.

There's no excuse to not do research on an online game before trying it out. Why do you think people make guides for new players? I only joined my third server, Excalibur, because of research of how active it was, which is what lead me to join it in the first place.

[caffe_macchiato]

Then... maybe do some research before you step foot into one of the most popular MMOs? I'm still a relatively new player (started playing in April of last year) and I did my research before picking a server. Obviously you can't do research for a server if you joined when the game first launched, but judging by OPs join date (for forums) they most likely started playing the same time they made a forums account.

There's no excuse to not do research on an online game before trying it out. Why do you think people make guides for new players? I only joined my third server, Excalibur, because of research of how active it was, which is what lead me to join it in the first place.

Balmung has not always been the most active server. After the streamer wave of 2021 it was one of the few servers open to character creation while other, newer servers were locked. Balmung in general is mostly congested due to travelers and wanderers, not actual characters that are playing the game.

Also, if external forums are necessary and compulsory reading for new players, then Square Enix has an obligation to put that information in easy access to the player before they buy the game. Square Enix provides all other required reading such as an installation guide, new player help, a walkthrough of early quests, and even advanced gameplay guides, but nothing about Balmung’s population size. There isn’t even a population size indicator in the UI unlike almost every other MMO. Your argument, thus, still leads to Square Enix being responsible for the problem. And if someone needs to trawl through Reddit to find which server to join, then that needs to be monitored by Square and linked as an official player resource. What happens if these external blogs or sites go offline? What happens if they have a different opinion?

[Avoidy]

Then... maybe do some research before you step foot into one of the most popular MMOs? I'm still a relatively new player (started playing in April of last year) and I did my research before picking a server. Obviously you can't do research for a server if you joined when the game first launched, but judging by OPs join date (for forums) they most likely started playing the same time they made a forums account.

There's no excuse to not do research on an online game before trying it out. Why do you think people make guides for new players? I only joined my third server, Excalibur, because of research of how active it was, which is what lead me to join it in the first place.

Or maybe the 2 billion dollar company can invest its profits back into its profitable game so there aren't congestion issues in 2022.

Or failing that, just bar people from making a new character here if it's like this. lock it up, so that going forward new people aren't misled into starting here. it's so bad due to dc travelers and wanderers and then just the sheer number of actual native players that you can't get anything done. "Oh why didn't you predict that it would be this bad when you joined" doesn't make sense since the thing people are complaining about is brought on by two new features.

Even if you do your research before joining, you just find out that balmung is an RP server. In the last game I played, people went out of their way to avoid the RP server because they thought it was cringe so it actually had way less people than the hardcore pve servers. When you make a new character, the game outlines which worlds are congested and doesn't let you start there because they're too full. This implies (falsely) that a world you can pick doesn't have those issues. If balmung can be selected, a player will think "oh, this world must have a fine population." For this reason, simply locking Balmung again would be a small step in the right direction. It wouldn't be perfect, since travelers and wanderers can still show up and make towns laggy as hell, but it'd be a start and it'd stop a lot of people from making a wrong decision. I'd also argue that they should label balmung as an RP server to start with, because expecting people to go outside of the game they just started playing for something as basic as server selection isn't really reasonable imo, especially when the base game gives you enough info to make you think you're making a rational choice without extra help.

[Darthgummibear]

Then... maybe do some research before you step foot into one of the most popular MMOs? I'm still a relatively new player (started playing in April of last year) and I did my research before picking a server. Obviously you can't do research for a server if you joined when the game first launched, but judging by OPs join date (for forums) they most likely started playing the same time they made a forums account.

There's no excuse to not do research on an online game before trying it out. Why do you think people make guides for new players? I only joined my third server, Excalibur, because of research of how active it was, which is what lead me to join it in the first place.

I don't know a single person who has ever done this for choosing their server in any online game ever beyond where the server is physically located. But kudos on thinking this is automatic for all of humanity.