How Square Enix can solve both data center travel and ping/routing issues for NA

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Other games with multiple server locations within a region don't have this issue. The only reason it's a problem here is because every NA data center is in the same physical location so if you're getting the same ping everywhere you might as well play on the one that's better for the content you're interested in. FFXIV might be playable up to a certain point but as proven by the cloud test it's still a noticeably better experience to play on a closer server and when node issues pop up it can very easily become unplayable for many people.

We already know this won’t work because of materia. Oceania got a DC with good ping, and even most aussies didn’t transfer to it, because why would they, they’d been raiding just fine on the JP ones for years.

[mana-burner]

The cloud server test was not to test the viability of other data center locations, it was to test the viability of spinning up AWS servers to meet demand before bringing them back down, basically what Shadow in EU was for Dawntrain launch. They were pretty clear the entire time that this was not a plan to move any existing DCs into the cloud or move them between data centers.

I know, I was saying it's to test the viability of those services, not that it was to test an east coast server. Point is that despite that the majority of the feedback was regarding how well the game played from the east coast. And I can't recall a time where they explicitly said moving locations would never happen. Given the positive feedback I wouldn't write off the possibility.

Maybe but it's still worth a try. They could block off normal versions of those to travelers as well.

Even if it doesn't prevent everyone traveling, prevent some wanting to travel is half the battle because there are people that travel reluctantly (they want to stay on their Home DC, but because everyone left, they feel pressured to as well). It's an exponential problem.
A lot of people can't do that due to work and stuff like that.
Less but some do. It's really such a common thing that I once filled a linkshell in 2 days with people who felt that way. 128 people in 2 days. There are a threshold of people who break through the initial anxiety and join a [Practice] party but it's not like it completely vanishes.

It doesn't really make sense to me that you say preventing some people from moving will fix things and then acknowledge that there are already people who are reluctant to travel. To me this just goes to show that you can't just stop some people from transferring. Because those who really want to do it anyway will do it, and then everyone that's left will feel like they have to follow just like they have been.

Anyway I'm just not a fan of this type of solution, where the devs have to keep coming up with different limitations to adjust for how players work around the system. If party finder is neutered people will find other ways to make grouping work like LFG discord servers and if they went further than this we'll end up with a system where you can't do shit outside of your home server and DC travel becomes pointless.

I'd much prefer physically moving data centers. You don't lose access to anything you previously had. Instead of forcing them with shitty restrictions people go to the server that works for them because they want to be there.