Upgrade the data center travel so we can go to other regions.

[Edelgarde]

Why? Because there is eff all to do in dead cope data center Materia. I'm almost tempted to just lose my houses just to transfer back to my old data center. The reason why people are transfering out of Materia data center is because:

1. Most SEA players have chosen not to transfer over despite the Square Enix thinking they would, but they have underestimated the dedicated community that has been established in Elemental.

2. Players from Materia can't visit other data centers with their main, and have to make do with an alt, so we simply can't bring our best glamour to other data centers. We can't show off our achievements to other players.

3. OCE skill level is an absolute joke on terms of both PvP and PvE level, and people don't want to deal with the majority of the players over here.

4. Because of how lowly populated the data center is, it's almost impossible to unlock raid content (besides from mandatory crystal tower story) without asking for help from other people to do it unsynced in the duty finder. Duty sync if they're lucky enough to get 24 people.

5. Niche content is so dead. Even casual PvP only has a 9 hour peak time over here. Ranked pvp is dead because the majority of pvp players got their top 100 title, and pissed off for better pastures. Frontlines peak time is just around 2 hours.

6. The domino effect of the disaster. It all stemmed from Square Enix thinking SEA players would transfer over. The moment that idea was a complete failure, people who were enthusiastic about now being in Materia data center have now transferred back, making the state of the data center even worse.

It is the worst it has ever been here and the fact that we don't get to cross data center other regions and be isolated from all the other logical data centers is one of the most stupid business decisions that Square Enix has done. You have left the data center to be doomed. You could of easily fixed this issue by letting people travel to other data centers with their main, but you didn't.

If you're so against having all data centers be connected and you're too scared of the potential consequences where one data center is permanently full cause all players are trying to travel to that data center, then here's a better solution:

Just let Materia data center be part of either NA or JP data centers. Let them join. If you think JP want nothing to do with us, just let us join NA then. There has got to be way to fix this, because you're wasting money on this data center, and if you don't fix what's going on here, you're dealt with a losing hand where you have to delete the data center, and that is going to backfire on you.

We've been doing our best here trying to get new players into older content and there have been discords to help players struggling in OCE. But Square Enix can't keep making us fix the issues ourselves. They have to do something, because players will keep transferring out and I'm going to do the same.

[Amarande]

It is the worst it has ever been here and the fact that we don't get to cross data center other regions and be isolated from all the other logical data centers is one of the most stupid business decisions that Square Enix has done. You have left the data center to be doomed. You could of easily fixed this issue by letting people travel to other data centers with their main, but you didn't.

If you're so against having all data centers be connected and you're too scared of the potential consequences where one data center is permanently full cause all players are trying to travel to that data center, then here's a better solution:

Just let Materia data center be part of either NA or JP data centers. Let them join. If you think JP want nothing to do with us, just let us join NA then. There has got to be way to fix this, because you're wasting money on this data center, and if you don't fix what's going on here, you're dealt with a losing hand where you have to delete the data center, and that is going to backfire on you.

Given that NA has not yet suffered from the "everyone's trying to pile onto one DC" issue, I doubt the "permanently full" thing is an actual going concern with SE (Though to be fair, before DC visit was released, I did wonder if that would happen, i.e., everyone expected to visit one particular DC - most likely Aether - for any serious PF and leaving the PFs in the other two DCs high and dry).

Player culture is an issue however. There is plenty of evidence that combining player pools together into a single mega player pool is not an unmixed blessing: with convenience comes the cost of player culture and playstyle options being de facto lost as the loudest culture among the original groups (typically the hardcore raiding contingent) forcibly reforms the entire combined pool to its liking. This appears to be a game-independent phenomenon (both WoW and FFXIV have suffered for it) but is arguably starker here, chiefly due to the weakness of guilds in XIV compared to most MMOs (a chronic problem which I suspect finds its root in housing, and whose fatal moment was long ago with the introduction of Airships). It is obvious this is a large influence on SE's reluctance to permit cross-region travel (although some pairings of regions are likely compatible, the JP cluster has a significantly different playstyle that would risk annihilation to NA, particularly when top NA raiders have so much pull through moderatorship of major Discords. Partially this is a platform issue with Discord itself, mind you).

Materia being part of NA might be viable, just as OCE and NA are part of the same group in WoW, but do keep in mind ping - as someone who did many late night WoW PUGs which had Aussie leads, I'm painfully aware that the ping between the two is a whopping 200-250ms on a good night, and I'm not quite sure how friendly Endwalker is to such high latency.

[Shibi]

OCE skill level is an absolute joke on terms of both PvP and PvE level, and people don't want to deal with the majority of the players over here.

Well, I disagree, but you are entitled to your views.

For me, I think that attacking other players like this cheapens your whole argument, including any valid points.

...players will keep transferring out and I'm going to do the same.

Bye! I hope you enjoy the more elite players on Tonberry or wherever you are heading off to to escape us scrubs.

[Edelgarde]

Yeah. I'm aware that if Materia were to be part of the NA data center groups, us traveling there to do content over there will burden us with bad ping, but at least we get to play content that we want. Also be aware that you can see from Shibi's butthurt post, he is one of the majority of casual players who would not mind the bad ping. There is a higher ratio of just casual OCE players who don't mind that kind of issue, since Aussie players are more laidback and are not competitive. If Materia players can travel with their main to NA data center to do content, it will be great for them. I don't see ping being an issue when most of them are very casual. They don't even give two damns when they have a history of bottom damaging in every pvp match. They simply don't care, they just want to play more content. So I don't see ping being an issue. People who hardcore raid while being in Materia, are just going to raid with their static in Materia with good ping. Letting us join NA players at least gives us a choice on how we engage with our content. Like if we want to do Eureka, but its dead over here? Fine we'll just hop over to NA to do Eureka over there with bad ping, but at least we can get stuff done.

But yes, I do agree with you that it's slightly risky for OCE culture to conflict with NA culture, but I don't think it will be a big deal given how low our playerbase is and that I'm sure they will adjust well to NA players. Also, I think you've guys got plenty of horror stories from the duty finder that having a bad player in your instance should be the norm by now.

[Myrany]

Given that NA has not yet suffered from the "everyone's trying to pile onto one DC" issue, I doubt the "permanently full" thing is an actual going concern with SE (Though to be fair, before DC visit was released, I did wonder if that would happen, i.e., everyone expected to visit one particular DC - most likely Aether - for any serious PF and leaving the PFs in the other two DCs high and dry).

Player culture is an issue however. There is plenty of evidence that combining player pools together into a single mega player pool is not an unmixed blessing: with convenience comes the cost of player culture and playstyle options being de facto lost as the loudest culture among the original groups (typically the hardcore raiding contingent) forcibly reforms the entire combined pool to its liking. This appears to be a game-independent phenomenon (both WoW and FFXIV have suffered for it) but is arguably starker here, chiefly due to the weakness of guilds in XIV compared to most MMOs (a chronic problem which I suspect finds its root in housing, and whose fatal moment was long ago with the introduction of Airships). It is obvious this is a large influence on SE's reluctance to permit cross-region travel (although some pairings of regions are likely compatible, the JP cluster has a significantly different playstyle that would risk annihilation to NA, particularly when top NA raiders have so much pull through moderatorship of major Discords. Partially this is a platform issue with Discord itself, mind you).

Materia being part of NA might be viable, just as OCE and NA are part of the same group in WoW, but do keep in mind ping - as someone who did many late night WoW PUGs which had Aussie leads, I'm painfully aware that the ping between the two is a whopping 200-250ms on a good night, and I'm not quite sure how friendly Endwalker is to such high latency.

As a NA person with a character on Materia it is FAR worse than 200-250 for me. On a good night I get 400 one way and 4000 the other. It is legitimately more than I can cope with and as soon as the new NA DC opens my character will be moving there.

[NekoMataMata]

It would only work if they didn't allow people to visit the Japanese DCs, I think. I've heard that they're pretty much against visitors and they have a much different culture and way of doing things from what I've heard.

[GTK0HLK]

Yeah, Shibi's post was not only, Anti-constructive, but really antagonistic (and if anyone was actually that paper skinned, inflammatory)

But yes, hope SE finds a solution to the lack of player count in OCE.

Whilst I'd really only want Cross-Region to visit my friends in Discord.<since everyone, even my NA friends went EU cause that's where everyone else in the group is. even though the majority of us are NA> I'm started long ago in NA, and decided to stay here.

Even here in NA the queues for ranked are a pain. And kinda hate seeing the same pool of players.<would love Region wide PVP, but this isn't important to the topic>
Kinda reminds me how, if tomes got split into roles, no one would find enough time to run sidecontent or old raids.

I can't say much will change without Drastic Measures..,
I'd almost want SE to lock Character Creation for OCE sphere of the world to OCE only for a short while to artificially funnel new players to said zone.
<but of course players would rage against that, despite it being largely for the overall good of the region and the game. Despite Muh Rihts>

[Zaniel]

- Sophia and Ravana have perma-login queues, even at 2am. Only Zurvan is actually perma low pop.
- A couple days back when I had a look there were 21 Savage groups in PF, is this ALWAYS the case? No, but you'll find 5-10 of the latest tier Savage groups basically 24/7 and 20ish each night for 2-3 nights each reset.
- DF & roulettes pop within 5-10 mins for pretty much all content at peak hour, you'll only have problems trying to do some random Stormblood Raid at like 5am and maybe some of the HW/SB alliance raids.
- Bozja & Coils raids don't exist on any server, Materia or not
- Market boards are not super packed but are pretty fluid and have everything you need.
- Hunts are 200+ people on Tuesday/Weds and 40+ the rest of the week and S-ranks are spawned non-stop all day
- Eureka and Bozja have plenty of groups except in the wee hours of the morning.
- PVP is a bit so-so: Crystalline Conflict pops in under 5 mins at peak and under 10 offpeak. Frontline is a bit sketchy, OCE players don't seem to do it much.

Does the above apply constantly all day 365 days a year? No, but it's pretty consistently true. Are you actually doing general content or are you queuing for some super obscure content at maximum-offpeak?

[VelKallor]

Market boards are not super packed but are pretty fluid and have everything you need.

..at prices that would make anyone cry.

[Edelgarde]

- Sophia and Ravana have perma-login queues, even at 2am. Only Zurvan is actually perma low pop.
- A couple days back when I had a look there were 21 Savage groups in PF, is this ALWAYS the case? No, but you'll find 5-10 of the latest tier Savage groups basically 24/7 and 20ish each night for 2-3 nights each reset.
- DF & roulettes pop within 5-10 mins for pretty much all content at peak hour, you'll only have problems trying to do some random Stormblood Raid at like 5am and maybe some of the HW/SB alliance raids.
- Bozja & Coils raids don't exist on any server, Materia or not
- Market boards are not super packed but are pretty fluid and have everything you need.
- Hunts are 200+ people on Tuesday/Weds and 40+ the rest of the week and S-ranks are spawned non-stop all day
- Eureka and Bozja have plenty of groups except in the wee hours of the morning.
- PVP is a bit so-so: Crystalline Conflict pops in under 5 mins at peak and under 10 offpeak. Frontline is a bit sketchy, OCE players don't seem to do it much.

1. The login queues are fake. The worlds are never full. They just slow down the logins to avoid errors when too much people login at once.
2. PF peak times fall down very quick, because Aussies don't stay up late like SEA players. You're telling me that 20-30 PF (not just including savage) at peak time is good? That is so delusional.
3. Duty finder peak hour? You mean a good measly 8 hour peak times for using duty finder, and any late night monkey gets to suffer waiting in queue for a lot longer after that? And to you, that means the duty finder in OCE is in a good state? I can go on NA, where it will be morning for them, night time for me, and I can get into a duty more faster than OCE.
4. Bozja and Eureka community have the biggest community to set more events where people all go in the instance at the same time to do content compared to OCE. You don't know that, because you don't bother trying to look for a dedicated discord for it. Stop misinforming people.
5. Don't care about the marketboard issue. That's not issue. I don't know why you brought that up.
6. Yes. Hunts are actually fine. But watch what happens when we're in a content lull. Just watch...
7. So you completely contradicted yourself when you said Bozja doesn't exist on any server.
8. Did you not read? Do you not know how to read? I said casual CC has a little measly 9 hour peak time, so trying to queue for it outside that peak time is either gonna take almost forever or not even pop even pop at all. Where as you can queue any time on other data centers, and it will pop with no problem.

I don't understand why you try so hard to play devil's advocate just to have a go at someone who's hurting your feelings that your data center is absolutely awful and is going to crumble if the issue keeps lingering for much longer. All you've shown us was how ignorant and complacent you are.