Can't create new character?

[Morbys]

I am trying to get my brother playing the game and he can't get into any game world. All servers are full and blanked out. This isn't exactly building any confidence in the game when he can't even start a character just to see the game because he can't create a character anywhere. Please help.

[Nezerius]

Keep in mind that Crystal is the most popular datacenter, assuming your brother is trying to make a character on one of its servers. Chances of the status of each server changing to congested is especially high over the weekend.

Looking at the server status page, all the other datacenters (Aether, Primal, Dynamis) all have servers that are open for character creation. Your brother could just make a character on one of those servers, and then datacenter travel to your server.

[Morbys]

Unfortunately thats unacceptable as I want to play with him on my server. Does he essentially just have to wake up 4am-6am to create a character? Currently he can't create a character on ANY server in Crystal, looks really bad for someone who just wants to try the game out.

[MistakeNot]

Unfortunately thats unacceptable as I want to play with him on my server. Does he essentially just have to wake up 4am-6am to create a character? Currently he can't create a character on ANY server in Crystal, looks really bad for someone who just wants to try the game out.

Currently all the servers on Crystal have the Congested status. While they have that status it is impossible to create a character on those servers or transfer to them, at any time of day.
This status will change when the devs think the populations have dropped enough, and will then change during some regular maintenance downtime. Changes to server status will be announced on the Lodestone and in the launcher.
(Non-congested servers can also have character creation blocked temporarily, but that can and will change at any time.)


Looking bad or not, the Congested/Preferred status of servers exist to help spread out the population between servers so you don't get everyone using only the most popular servers making them unstable through overload.

See https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/worldstatus/

[EorzeaWanderer]

The world you want to play on might not be classified as “Congested” anymore after Tuesday when patch 6.35 goes live, you might want to check on the situation again then.

[Morbys]

The issue is none of the servers are available, ALL of them are congested.

[MistakeNot]

The issue is none of the servers are available, ALL of them are congested.

Yes, they are. Nothing you or we can do about that, except possibly transferring away from Crystal to some other datacenter.

Your options are:
1) Wait until your server is no longer Congested. This may be a short or long wait - impossible to tell for sure.
2) Transfer to some other server and play there instaed. Transfer to a New server, or from a Congested to a Preferred server, is free of charge,
3) Give up and leave the game.

[Nezerius]

Unfortunately thats unacceptable as I want to play with him on my server. Does he essentially just have to wake up 4am-6am to create a character? Currently he can't create a character on ANY server in Crystal, looks really bad for someone who just wants to try the game out.

If you want him to create a character on your server specifically, why even mention the other servers on Crystal?

Your brother could make a character on literally any North American server, several which are not congested, and still be able to travel to your server. The restrictions boil down to no mog mail/can't access retainers/can't join a free company. These restrictions apply to both World Visit & Data Center Travel.
He'd be able to join a Cross-world Linkshell for easy communication, if you create one.

[Jeeqbit]

Unfortunately thats unacceptable as I want to play with him on my server. Does he essentially just have to wake up 4am-6am to create a character? Currently he can't create a character on ANY server in Crystal, looks really bad for someone who just wants to try the game out.

No, it doesn’t look bad for someone who just wants to try the game out.

I promise you that all MMORPGs have server caps or queues to stop people making characters on them when they are overflowing. I promise you that all MMORPGs give some sort of incentive for new players to make characters on less populated servers, such as bonus experience.

As stated by others, if they make the character somewhere other than Crystal, they can use the free data center travel system to travel to Crystal in 30-60 seconds.

Do be aware that people on the free trial are not the priority and are prevented from logging in when servers are busy. Square Enix priority is paying customers. This is mostly only noticed when an expansion releases though.

[Hasrat]

Fortunately, Crystal has been relieved of it's Completely-Congested status, so this isn't really an issue anymore.