NA/EU Server Congestion: The Problem & A Solution for Devs (PLEASE READ)

[EmiliM]

The current issue with NA/EU servers, when it comes down to it, is quite simple: there are simply too many people trying to play at the same time. The fact of the matter is, the existing 25 NA/EU servers are basically already near, at, and in many cases, over capacity.

Assuming most Early Access players stick around for official release, the influx of new players joining at that point will almost guarantee the necessity for new servers to be opened up. There is no other way to address this. No queue or server maintenance will resolve the fact that too many people are trying to get in. Yes, eventually the server populations will most likely stabilize, but it will come at a cost of many people having already left.

Meanwhile, the Japanese servers are humming along relatively problem free. This is not because Japanese servers are somehow better, but the result of a simple marketing decision to "designate" these servers, which are physically located in Japan, as "Japanese worlds".

The reality is that the latency difference between a JP and a NA/EU server is mostly negligible for most people. In fact, I'd wager if Square Enix never bothered with separating the servers and simply stated "we have 50 worlds for all players in the world, feel free to join any one of them" we would have a far more even distribution of players across all worlds, and you won't have this issue of the JP servers being underutilized while the NA/EU ones are bursting at the seams. And I would bet nobody in NA would even notice the latency difference of a JP server (and vice versa).

My solution to the devs is to abolish the system of "designating" servers. Simply list ALL servers in a single list for ALL world players. All servers would then be utilized evenly AND you end up with the benefit of a more varied world community that people valued in FFXI.

For now, there needs to be more servers. Once that is done, please allow all existing players to do an optional one-time server transfer to ONLY those new servers, so those who wish to reunite with their friends/family or are willing to leave their current world for a less congested server can do so.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Yeah, if I knew this would happen, I would have rolled on a Japanese server. Not much of a difference except time zones, and that would be easily solved if more people from NA and EU rolled on them.

[Dallie]

This is very true. I have been tooling around on Garuda off and on during all of this mess, and i've not noticed a single issue with Latency, and there are a significant number of Oceanic players there as well. The language barrier and latency are non-issues, and are now starting to seem more xenophobic than technical in nature.

Again, I say they should have started trying to roll out a bigger box or redundant servers for the login and instancing problems on our side, once this started yesterday. By now, if they'd done that, we'd be playing happily. People keep stating that launch will be worse, but after everyone reading about the login troubles we've had all weekend, i'm not sure it will be.

[Fellswoop]

totally agree ive got a character on the jpn servers also and have not had a single issue there so far. Could simply be a case of underestimation of server loads for EU/NA since the last boot im getting a 1-2 second tween freeze for all characters moving past me. Crafting failing due to repeating commands thinking they have not processed. As for free server swaps not 100% on that could limit gameplay later but atleast free 24-48hr transfers to even the load

[Dallie]

totally agree ive got a character on the jpn servers also and have not had a single issue there so far. Could simply be a case of underestimation of server loads for EU/NA since the last boot im getting a 1-2 second tween freeze for all characters moving past me. Crafting failing due to repeating commands thinking they have not processed. As for free server swaps not 100% on that could limit gameplay later but atleast free 24-48hr transfers to even the load

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

[Fellswoop]

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

yeah it would cause some issues maybe they could do a population cap per server or release the info for per server member list/pop ratio. Im loving the 2.0 ARR atm not even that bothered that ive paid for the game twice to get early maintenance access but would like to see something drastically change prior to launch. I want to pay and stay i just need a reason.

[Ebojager]

I dont understand servers much, cant they do anything to increase the capacity of each world vs adding new ones?

[Tsuroku]

I dont understand servers much, cant they do anything to increase the capacity of each world vs adding new ones?

A lot of the problem is not only the installation, but also the configuring, testing, ordering, shipping, budgeting or just anything that is related to upgrading a piece of hardware (even more so for something of this magnitude). I am somewhat familiar with servers, but I think the best way to describe it would be like getting tires on your car switched out.

It would seem like a very simple switch, but what is time consuming are all the steps that lead up to the end result. What type of tires are you going to get, where are you going to get them, are they optimal for your car, can you afford them, how long will it take a technician or yourself to install them, if it takes longer do you have a back up vehicle to use? Its just stuff like this that make it a big pain.

[EmiliM]

I dont understand servers much, cant they do anything to increase the capacity of each world vs adding new ones?

It will probably be just as much work to upgrade existing servers vs getting new ones altogether. I'm led to believe the existing limit also takes into consideration of the game world design. For example, assuming at any given point 10% of players in each server can be found inside Gridania, and let's say Gridania can hold a maximum of 500 people before things start to look really crowded and unnatural. Then raising the population limit above 5,000 will potentially make a lot of the busier places very difficult to navigate.

[Abrasumente]

Yours isn't the first to suggest opening up transfers again, and it would be a solution that would help NA/EU side, but might cause the same problem on JP side. Everyone would then just jump ship over to JP servers! Regional group locking was tardo to begin with, and 95% of the players during 1.0 told them it was, but they did it anyways.

+1 for regional locking being retarded.

However, you do realize most NA players already are jumping ship over to JP servers right? I've already made a toon on Kujata because I'm tired of my world being up for maybe 15 seconds on the list and then the NA/EU lists go back fucking down. Awesome isn't it?