The Dynamis Problem and Potential Solutions

[Aidorouge]

But it won't be same situation. Player population is not the same as it once was. Dynamis wouldn't even have current 2,5 players if there was no DC travel. People will just naturally trickle to the most populated servers: raiders to Aether, RPers to Crystal. Dynamis will be left in submarine-farming ruins, Primal will probably be middleground where you'll farm like, ex trials and prog savages over 6 months. These who won't be able to transfer to Aether for raiding will unsub. These who won't be able to transfer to Crystall will unsub as well.

But it's not the same as back as before DC Travel didn't exist vs in 2025 like it would just punish low pop DC even more than aether which is doing fine on its own but I can't say the same for Dynamis, which is already empty other than housing or RP mains. It would completely destroy their remaining worlds and it's not worth it, esp not since SE can get a refund on their DC costs either way.

I'm not really surprised that some people outside of Dynamis/Materia are unsympathetic of what would happen if DC travel was removed, as people on Aether and Crystal in particular do not lack for players before and so they wouldn't lack for them again if they suddenly couldn't leave, and those people likely assume its okay if cross-DC friend groups/statics/queues were destroyed because screwing over others is fine if it benefits them personally by say... trapping people on Primal for example.

The consequences now would be more than "just a fuss" as the previous lockdown and the implementation of Cosmic Exploration already proved, to say nothing of Materia being RIGHT THERE proving further that even a half-lockdown is not doing it any favors. Removing DC travel only helps Aether/Crystal because they're already massive, not Dynamis, certainly not Materia, and even Primal is questionable if its really seeing more people traveling/transferring out of it these days. I know I certainly wouldn't stay on Dynamis if DC travel was removed tomorrow and I wouldn't be the only one, there would be no point staying, because if the DC is in this sorry of a shape almost 3 years later (it launched on November 1st 2022) even with DC travel, it's as good as buried once it goes away entirely.

By all means though, if any Aether/Primal/Crystal players are so adamant that Dynamis will be "just fine" without DC travel, they're welcome to transfer over and take my place if they ever start shutting the gates.

[Alicie]

...

I already transferred my main out of Dynamis to Aether while it was open. I had to give up my large house and settle for just a small on Aether, but either way it was unused, I couldn't really be there because you kinda have to be on Aether to do content, nobody wanted to come over either, and overall it was just a thing that nobody really needed, neither me nor others. No regrets - no more DC travel, no more inaccessible retainers and FC chest, no more struggling to switch worlds or data centers during prime time.

[Aidorouge]

I already transferred my main out of Dynamis to Aether while it was open. I had to give up my large house and settle for just a small on Aether, but either way it was unused, I couldn't really be there because you kinda have to be on Aether to do content, nobody wanted to come over either, and overall it was just a thing that nobody really needed, neither me nor others. No regrets - no more DC travel, no more inaccessible retainers and FC chest, no more struggling to switch worlds or data centers during prime time.

Aye, and I don't blame you or anyone else who left when the opportunity presented its self, especially when it was Aether of all places that opened up.

I stay myself because the only thing I was DC traveling for anymore was PVP, but now that I've reached Series 30, I can go back to forgetting about it. Otherwise I don't even bother to queue for anything else here (not even 4-man content) because I know it won't pop in a reasonable amount of time (or at all) and I'd be better off using NPCs, and if I really need something done that demands other players (like Dying Gasp and Seat of Sacrifice recently), it's much better to DC travel anywhere else, toss up an unsync PF listing while mentioning first-time bonuses, and be done and out within a couple of minutes.

Even just progressing the MSQ required me having to DC travel because there was no way I would have ever found 7 other people on Dynamis to get SoS done, not even on a weekend during "prime time". That in mind, I would only accept shutting down DC travel if Square-Enix also implements Trusts for ALL group content, even trials and raids, because they need to give the remaining people there SOME kind of way to keep playing the game once everyone else on Dynamis starts transferring out in droves.

[CidHeiral]

That's because cheese didn't go anywhere. People just bring level 50-59 jobs into alliance roulette, partying up with such or skipping unlocking of other alliance raids. Crystal tower still dominates roulette while alliance raid roulette pop got decreased because a chunk of people who only did it via cheesing permanently left it because, realistically, if it takes more than 15 minutes it just isn't worth doing.

Most of that is inaccurate and you entirely missed the point of what I was saying.

I think it's very unlikely that they'll remove DC travel at this point, whether it would be the best solution or not (we could probably argue hypotheticals for ages). It's not like the ilvl cheese, something which was never intended in the first place and SE just closed the loophole. It's a feature that was introduced and is widely used, and if SE backpedals on it now, it makes them look bad.

Moving markers during combat was a feature that was introduced and was widely used, then people abused it so it was removed. A good dev is going to do what's ultimately healthiest for the game overall even if that ruffles some feathers and "makes them look bad" to a group of players that don't understand much about the situation. There's an insightful clip on this topic from the Killer Instinct devs that I recommend checking out.

That being said, I agree with you that arguing in circles about hypotheticals won't accomplish much. People who can't see past their own nose are going to argue for whatever benefits them the most and I'm sure there's no changing their mind. Ultimately we're all leaving our opinions to the devs and they're going to do whatever they feel is best, and hopefully they do it soon because the current situation is untenable.

[Miradelle]

The bandaid aka DC travel has been a massive failure due to ppl just crowding aether for everything. But putting quick and easy solutions into the game with little forethought, next to no testing and a complete lack of understanding on how game communities work is kinda par for the course in this game.

If they actually want to fix the problem they need to just pull the plug on dc travel and force everyone back to their home dc until they can come up with a better solution. But I also understand that this will never happen. "meh, it's good enough" feels like the new "please look forward to it"

This won't work in the current state of the game, unless you want raiders to literally transfer off of their DCs to Aether. There's simply not enough people playing this game, at least on NA, for there to be healthy amount of groups for the raiding/extreme scene. What they'd need to do is consolidate servers so that there's a lot more people on each server, or make cross DC party finder that automatically sends the party to a dedicated cross-world server.

Right now, the best system is to let everyone just go to Aether, so people don't need to wait hours and hours for a group that never fills. However, they screwed even this over by locking Aether .. so ironically enough, what you suggested is sort of already in play, and it has just made things worse--everyone just LIVES on Aether now by logging in at early hours and never leaving.

[Alicie]

This won't work in the current state of the game, unless you want raiders to literally transfer off of their DCs to Aether. There's simply not enough people playing this game, at least on NA, for there to be healthy amount of groups for the raiding/extreme scene. What they'd need to do is consolidate servers so that there's a lot more people on each server, or make cross DC party finder that automatically sends the party to a dedicated cross-world server.

Right now, the best system is to let everyone just go to Aether, so people don't need to wait hours and hours for a group that never fills. However, they screwed even this over by locking Aether .. so ironically enough, what you suggested is sort of already in play, and it has just made things worse--everyone just LIVES on Aether now by logging in at early hours and never leaving.

Why half-measures are even being discussed?
Are we assuming that Square Enix is completely incapable of creating cross-dc pf and df in a timely manner?
Other studios manage to do it, why SE can't?
Maybe we should demand - and demand really hard - that they reroute their revenue back into game, hire programmers and make it happen?

[Aidorouge]

Why half-measures are even being discussed?
Are we assuming that Square Enix is completely incapable of creating cross-dc pf and df in a timely manner?
Other studios manage to do it, why SE can't?
Maybe we should demand - and demand really hard - that they reroute their revenue back into game, hire programmers and make it happen?

It took them over half a decade to figure out how to put hats on Viera and Hrothgar (and then it still ended up half-hearted), and chat bubbles were underwhelming for a lot of people even after they kept delaying them over and over again... so I admittedly don't have much hope in their ability to do something "so difficult" as create a cross-DC party finder and duty finder that works properly or comes with drawbacks of some kind.

Even if they had the cash to implement it, can we really give them much confidence in it?

[Unixeon]

I actually agree with the shut down of DC traveling, as well as the options for shutting down dynamis entirely and just putting it's resources into the other servers. I mean just moving a server (basically copy/pasting it) to another one would allow people to keep their houses and such, but DC traveling has truly messed up a natural order this game had...

You can say it's bc people want to "play with their friends" but that's just not true, before people played with their friends on servers that had room? yknow? new players starting together would start on the same server. meet people naturally IN that server, and each DC had their own homemade ecosystems that have just been fully erased because of said DC visiting feature...

Even so, everyone fluttering to Aether for Raiding, on top of the people who have just lived there since before the visiting feature was even introduced, who don't even raid is just clogging that place up, and leaving other servers feeling empty..

My own twisted answer to this, which i know would cause the most resentment but would probably be the most effective in decision they could make, would be doing what they did to Balmung way back when.. shut off DC visiting, switch some of the aether home worlds with the dynamis ones. People wouldnt like it obviously, and they could eventually move back to aether, over time. etc. Give the people who were forced to move a free home world transfer. that way the people who ABSOLUTELY want to be on Aether can move back for a cost (any homes, etc.).. That way it's more ideal for them to stay.. Honestly, it would even out the servers again over time, people joining to play with friends would move around again, etc. And everyone wouldnt be crammed on one singular server..

Now if that didn't work? and for some reason MOST players ended up just moving back to aether? It's just a lost cause..

IDEALLY they'd remove logical DCs entirely.. why arent we able to easily transfer to Aether in game anyways? why does it have to be through the login screen? Why are there 3 logical dc's? Why isnt it all just on one massive megaserver that way all the resources can be divided equally across the board? allowing players to do CW-parties.. What happened to the online servers that they were experimenting with? yknow? there's a lot of ways they could go about this.. but i do agree, some things need to change, and DC visiting is a problem, and it's a large one.

[Xieldras]

Why are the ones arguing in favor of locking down Dynamis' travel not even from here in the first place? You guys won't suffer the consequences at all.

[Alicie]

Why are the ones arguing in favor of locking down Dynamis' travel not even from here in the first place? You guys won't suffer the consequences at all.

Because it's much easier to suggest destructive solutions when you will not be a part of the group who will suffer because of it