Incentives for moving Data Center

[Shistar]

From what I understand, a DC cannot have 16 worlds due to infrastructure which is part of the issue with EU as well. Light is the more populated and popular and Chaos suffers because of it, but they can't merge the DCs because they would have to get rid of worlds, and that's not a fair thing to do.

As the playerbase goes into hiatus or straight up shrinks, Chaos suffers because whoever is left here and wants to raid is very likely to simply transfer over to Light. I like Chaos and I'm already settled in, moving is not really an option for me anymore, but man if it isn't sad to open PF and not even find venue spam... lol

[CCheshire]

Wait, hold on, if no one is even bidding on even the large plots, doesn't that mean it's easy to get one in the first place already?

I kinda get that grinding a new FC to lvl 30 is tedious, but nothing is locked away at max rank other than being able to store more FC buff items. Also, many players have already moved to Dynamis for housing since its launch, and SE won't suddenly nuke them from existence so it can be merged with the older DCs, which in turn will make them less efficient or stable before being sundered.

Finally, the biggest incentive so far from the latest patch is that both aether and crystal are Congested so the only way for new players to join is join Dynamis or Primal too.

[FeyFavilla]

Wait, hold on, if no one is even bidding on even the large plots, doesn't that mean it's easy to get one in the first place already?

I kinda get that grinding a new FC to lvl 30 is tedious, but nothing is locked away at max rank other than being able to store more FC buff items. Also, many players have already moved to Dynamis for housing since its launch, and SE won't suddenly nuke them from existence so it can be merged with the older DCs, which in turn will make them less efficient or stable before being sundered.

Finally, the biggest incentive so far from the latest patch is that both aether and crystal are Congested so the only way for new players to join is join Dynamis or Primal too.

Relinquishing a plot loses you money. A lot, depending on the size.
Doing that also would either force you to make enough inventory space (somehow) to hold all of your stuff or just let it be destroyed.
Same with FCs. All of that storage would need to be managed between retainers and chocobo and that is in most cases just not going to happen. Taking the existing ones and moving them over would be an easy fix that does not punish someone for moving. It should not be that difficult since they can do it with player inventory, retainers and chocobos. The basic framework exists, it might just be practical to expand it.
And new players... given the current sub trends there are not really enough to make a big difference, and I can guarantee a lot of people who would bring in friends will simply wait until their world opens again. It's what I did back when I joined because I wanted to play with friends.

Not asking for hand-outs, just for square to take into consideration what might be stopping people from relocating despite the incentives they already give us and how to work around some issues we have with DC limited content and functionality.

[CCheshire]

wdym SE will already reimburse players with full costs of the estate and 3m for lost furnishing when anyone moves from Congested to any Preferred+ World? Also, you can rent a 2nd retainer for extra storage for 1 month for $2 to fill it up with furniture before moving over too.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ing/#worldtype

[FeyFavilla]

wdym SE will already reimburse players with full costs of the estate and 3m for lost furnishing when anyone moves from Congested to any Preferred+ World? Also, you can rent a 2nd retainer for extra storage for 1 month for $2 to fill it up with furniture before moving over too.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ing/#worldtype

Oh! Oh damn I really missed that. I apologize for being wrong on that statement but the sentiment does still hold up.
Because - 3 mil is not realistic to cover a medium size furnished house and up. I am pretty sure the items i have in my home plus in storage well break the mark twice over. Not to mention the hassle of having to hunt the items down again and carry everything from the market board back to the house and then spend ages refurnishing it. And that does not include event items no longer available outside of the cash shop. Or just the step of having to do all of these things and then also having to start bidding on new houses.

Objects at rest stay at rest, if someone is set in a space they will need to be moved or lured. I would much prefer just getting the chocobo feathers and having my character plus the connected things moved over than having to invest dozens of hours (if not more if I am honest about how long it took me to do my home lol) and be handed a meager few mil. I admit I was wrong about the loss of releasing the plot but there is still plenty of related issues.

[YumieYumiki]

I will preempt this with:
I know congestion should not be this bad to begin with given the player number drop.

I don't think congestion has anything to to with the global number of players, it has to do with people all going to the same data center simply because being on a more populated server is advantageous (lower prices on MB, faster queues, etc.)

Any expectation that people will act against their self interest for the "sake of the greater good" (like improving server population balance) is completely unrealistic in a MMORPG.

Therefore regarding your other point: moving to a different server should at a minimum be completely seamless and hassle free, even for people with houses, to the fullest possible extent. No fussing around with retainers to keep furniture, for example. I'd go as far as to say that after moving you should be able to bid for free on an available plot and your house should be entirely restored with all its furniture if you win the plot.

And even that wouldn't be enough for people to migrate to less populated servers, because even if the process was completely smooth and hassle free, doing so would still work against their self interest. You'd have to give incentives on top of all that. Perhaps give them the favored server exp buff, with the same rules as when creating a new character (ie it works only if you play on that server).

[FeyFavilla]

(...)And even that wouldn't be enough for people to migrate to less populated servers, because even if the process was completely smooth and hassle free, doing so would still work against their self interest. You'd have to give incentives on top of all that. Perhaps give them the favored server exp buff, with the same rules as when creating a new character (ie it works only if you play on that server).

That is honestly a good idea that would not really cost them anything. I doubt the amount of boosts people buy would drop significantly since even a xp buff would still require hours of work. There is probably a ton of little things like this they could offer that would cover many play styles. Maybe even offer a free extra retainer since those are DC locked anyhow, though that would also imply it has to be removed if the character changes DC at any point.