We need an alternative to Aether.

[HyperiusUltima]

Can't even get into Savage without going to Aether in PF unless it's the dead of night. Literally impossible otherwise because it's heavily congested regardless because it's the "raid data center".

Really do wish they'd find a solution to that because you've got dead DCs otherwise(staring at all the other DCs on NA) when it comes to accessing raids.

[AlliciaCapulet]

Can't even get into Savage without going to Aether in PF unless it's the dead of night. Literally impossible otherwise because it's heavily congested regardless because it's the "raid data center".

Really do wish they'd find a solution to that because you've got dead DCs otherwise (staring at all the other DCs on NA) when it comes to accessing raids.

The inconvenience also exists on our side for players who are actually on Aether. We still want to travel between worlds, but that becomes difficult during certain hours because of the large number of visitors coming to our data center.

Have you considered trying to meet on another data center, or organizing premade groups on your own DC?

That said, I agree that SE should find a better solution. The barriers between worlds and data centers should probably be reduced. For example, the Free Company system could allow members from multiple worlds or even multiple data centers. It would also help to have ways to queue together across data centers without needing to travel.

The same issue exists with PvP as well. Ideally, we should be able to queue from any data center and still participate in things like ranked Crystalline Conflict without having to move our characters.

[TeresaFortell]

The best solution would be, as many have asked many times in the past, to have cross-dc. That way, you need not dc travel to Aether solely for raiding, and would not be limited by any constraints.

[Zarkovitch]

The best solution would be, as many have asked many times in the past, to have cross-dc. That way, you need not dc travel to Aether solely for raiding, and would not be limited by any constraints.

This will take like 2 or 3 expansion to be added. Just move to Aether and say bye bye to your house

[GraceHorizon]

Seems appropriate to quip here that in game lore, the alternative to aether is dynamis.

[Aidorouge]

I have my doubts that cross-DC party/duty finder will ever materialize at this point, or if it does, it'll come with some kind of terrible drawback because Square-Enix just can't help themselves.

At the same time though it's an entirely player-made problem as it was the community, not the company, that labeled Aether as the "raiding data center" and voluntarily started piling in there. Square-Enix clearly didn't like that, which is why they keep doing things that are punitive in nature between congestion locks and transfer blocks, while trying to make Dynamis the more lucrative option to the point they're "Preferred+" instead of just Preferred now. As far as they're concerned, NA did this to themselves, and they've already provided all they're willing to do to make people disperse.

[SalamanderIX]

We can only hope they've been working on cross dc party finder for 8.0. It has been an issue since they opened up dc travel.

Otherwise, in NA's case, you can always try making your own party finder on Primal DC. Most raiders are Aether but we have a good amount on Primal who will see it and skip the travel there.

[GraceHorizon]

I have my doubts that cross-DC party/duty finder will ever materialize at this point, or if it does, it'll come with some kind of terrible drawback because Square-Enix just can't help themselves.

At the same time though it's an entirely player-made problem as it was the community, not the company, that labeled Aether as the "raiding data center" and voluntarily started piling in there. Square-Enix clearly didn't like that, which is why they keep doing things that are punitive in nature between congestion locks and transfer blocks, while trying to make Dynamis the more lucrative option to the point they're "Preferred+" instead of just Preferred now. As far as they're concerned, NA did this to themselves, and they've already provided all they're willing to do to make people disperse.

Yeah it does come across as a possible cultural disconnect — a failure of SE to understand NA player behavior. (Although I’m not really sure it’s specific to NA culture…) But what’s happening is a “network effect,” where a thing becomes more valuable the greater the number of people using it. It’s the same reason social networks tend to snowball: people want to be on the same one as everyone else. But social networks are generally designed to be able to scale up to accommodate, and it really seems FFXIV isn’t. (Hello-o SE software dev team? Is anyone left in your department?)

[Alicie]

I have my doubts that cross-DC party/duty finder will ever materialize at this point, or if it does, it'll come with some kind of terrible drawback because Square-Enix just can't help themselves.

At the same time though it's an entirely player-made problem as it was the community, not the company, that labeled Aether as the "raiding data center" and voluntarily started piling in there. Square-Enix clearly didn't like that, which is why they keep doing things that are punitive in nature between congestion locks and transfer blocks, while trying to make Dynamis the more lucrative option to the point they're "Preferred+" instead of just Preferred now. As far as they're concerned, NA did this to themselves, and they've already provided all they're willing to do to make people disperse.

It's not a player-made problem, it's a natural order of things: people that want to do something organize in the same place. Even before DC travel, Aether was raiding DC and if you wanted to do any more or less serious raiding, you are transferring to it. If you wanted a serious static, you are transferring to it as well. It's simply unwillingness of SE to put their effort and money into anything but ffxiv store.

[Alicie]

Yeah it does come across as a possible cultural disconnect — a failure of SE to understand NA player behavior. (Although I’m not really sure it’s specific to NA culture…) But what’s happening is a “network effect,” where a thing becomes more valuable the greater the number of people using it. It’s the same reason social networks tend to snowball: people want to be on the same one as everyone else. But social networks are generally designed to be able to scale up to accommodate, and it really seems FFXIV isn’t. (Hello-o SE software dev team? Is anyone left in your department?)

What do you mean NA player behavior? Problem exists in all 3 regions - EU and JP as well. Just on EU servers are not congested because EU in general has not many players. And in JP it's less noticeable because it's spread across two data centers - Mana for JP-speaking raiders and Elemental for English-speaking raiders.