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

[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?

[EmiliM]

Thanks for the inputs everyone. I have a character on Tonberry and everything works smoothly there even during grouped instances despite the hard data telling me the ping time is higher. I'm sure that may change when the servers become congested but beyond that there's no real technical reason why people wouldn't want to play on these servers other than the psychological barrier SE put on people by designating them as "Japanese worlds".

Whatever benefits of splitting these servers up, business or marketing wise, cannot possibly make up for the operating nightmare this has been for them. I'm very worried about official launch since most gaming publications will be reviewing the game soon and they will slaughter this game if this is the experience they will be getting.

[Zeblade]

Great thought yet your sitting on the out side with no real clue whats going on. Its more then just "congestion" or we would all get a "jump in que". Lol people keep talking about transfers as if right now ALL servers are full. The "try again later" should be your 1st clue something more is going on and servers are NOT all full.

[IveraIvalice]

Thanks for the inputs everyone. I have a character on Tonberry and everything works smoothly there even during grouped instances despite the hard data telling me the ping time is higher. I'm sure that may change when the servers become congested but beyond that there's no real technical reason why people wouldn't want to play on these servers other than the psychological barrier SE put on people by designating them as "Japanese worlds".

Whatever benefits of splitting these servers up, business or marketing wise, cannot possibly make up for the operating nightmare this has been for them. I'm very worried about official launch since most gaming publications will be reviewing the game soon and they will slaughter this game if this is the experience they will be getting.

the technical reason is the Na/EU physical locations for lower latency. thats why we would want to pick those to have the best connection possible, thats why they made them. they just didnt make enough of them

and some of us cant just hop on a JP server because we have 1.0 characters that we want to keep.
i mean we technically can but im not gonna make another throw away character or just restart on a JP server (located in japan) and lose all that i did on 1.0
they need to add more NA and EU servers

[Zalt]

In the end, we are all speculating. And, many are very upset - as is to be expected. It's like ordering that new gizmo you always wanted from some online store only to have to wait 2-3 days before it's delivered. During the wait, the anticipation is immense. Then, when you get it, you discover they sent the wrong thing. You feel let down, betrayed, and extremely angered. That's what many are feeling here. And, I am truly sorry that you all have to go through this. I'm not defending SE at all here, but I know in the end, things will get better. I did not play in beta, so I find some solace in being able to log in to a Japanese server to explore some of the world and get a feel for the game.

No real point in this post really. Just wanted to chime in.

[EmiliM]

Great thought yet your sitting on the out side with no real clue whats going on. Its more then just "congestion" or we would all get a "jump in que". Lol people keep talking about transfers as if right now ALL servers are full. The "try again later" should be your 1st clue something more is going on and servers are NOT all full.

I have a character on Tonberry because I can't get in to my character on Behemoth, and even when I am able to the instanced quests are still broken so I am painfully aware of what's going on, and that's why I suggested what I did: get rid of server region designations to avoid uneven population distributions like what's happening now.

The try again later is the only thing they can say when connections time out due to traffic. You will continue to see this for as long as there are too many people trying cram into a full server.

[Nocens]

They should of kept phase 4 going longer to stress test the servers a day isn't long enough to stress test 50 servers

[EmiliM]

the technical reason is the Na/EU physical locations for lower latency. thats why we would want to pick those to have the best connection possible, thats why they made them. they just didnt make enough of them

and some of us cant just hop on a JP server because we have 1.0 characters that we want to keep.
i mean we technically can but im not gonna make another throw away character or just restart on a JP server (located in japan) and lose all that i did on 1.0
they need to add more NA and EU servers

That makes perfect sense in theory, and is probably why SE went with separating the servers in the first place along with whatever business benefits that came with it. In reality however, you end up with lopsided server population distribution and you are stuck with thousands unable to connect even though there are perfectly functional servers that would serve their purposes just fine, if only they weren't designated as "Japanese" simply because they are physically located in Japan.

And what I am proposing is not to create a new character on a JP server, but to abolish the JP/NA/EU designations altogether. Instead of saying "I'm going to play on a JP server because the NA/EU ones are full", you'd simply go to, say, Atomos, not because it's Japanese or whatever, but because it's available and not already packed to the brim with people. If everyone did this, then you'd end up with a even distribution of players speaking all languages across all servers. Sure, some of these servers will have somewhat higher latency, but IMO that's a small price to pay to avoid all of this.

For relieving congestion, free transfers should be available only to new servers. Assuming enough people do this, it should relieve the stress on existing servers so you wouldn't have to move your 1.0 character.

[Kahlane]

Theres a 50-60ms difference between them for players in the US, which while not super huge is still significant. Not to mention we don't really want to have to play on a server where the majority don't understand us. They need to just open more US servers. And work towards setting up a hub of servers to be used for instances/dutys so that all of the strain isn't going onto 1.

I disagree. The best experience I had in FFXI was the diversity in culture.

[Fellswoop]

Great thought yet your sitting on the out side with no real clue whats going on. Its more then just "congestion" or we would all get a "jump in que". Lol people keep talking about transfers as if right now ALL servers are full. The "try again later" should be your 1st clue something more is going on and servers are NOT all full.

Sorry but every major convenience in the world from tele banking , pizza ordering to booking a flight to the other side of the world for plastic surgery will use "try again later" when they are pushed beyond their capabilities redundant post , also note no issues on JPN servers and 4 extra worlds added on launch ?? gotta get you thinking