Full world solutions thread

[Zeeber]

Part 1/4

I'm making this thread in hopes that some logic and sense can meet the developers on the server's being full with friends unable to play.

Obviously the giant elephant in the room is that the servers were poorly managed/prepared/allocated to account for the expected vs actual loads imposed on them. This is the main issue with the game, NOT the game mechanics or gameplay itself. This is the problem with the game currently. It is a good game built with a terrible server infrastructure.

A lot of people are frustrated with improperly designed queues (or lack thereof) and servers being full before their friends could join and most of the servers are ALREADY full before launch! This is simply ineffective management and needs to be addressed. While I am not sure if at this point they can increase capacity on existing servers, something needs to be done.

[Zeeber]

Part 2/4

One thing that FFXI had going for it that was done right was when it came to "full" servers, you had buddy passes. If someone on the existing server got to a certain level, you got a buddy pass that would allow you to give to your friends that would give them access to an already full server. In this sense, the server was NEVER at max capacity, but at some cap limit, say 80% for example, and gave room for expansion. What FFXIV has done from what I can tell is reach 100% capacity leading to 1017 woes.

I think what needs to happen is a combination of proper queues that won't kick you off while you wait, have a higher capacity on queue (think of League of Legends in this regard; 20 minute queue is better than having to refresh every 3 seconds to get error 1017) and auto-logout for AFK players, at least for the first month or so. This will help with logging into the servers. I have heard people haven't logged out since EA began to avoid the queue and error 1017!

[Zeeber]

Part 3/4

A buddy pass system should also be implemented so that players who couldn't get into the full servers can join their friends. I can't give an exact way to implement this, but I think either via a certain level requirement (say level 20) or playtime should be required to acquire the "buddy pass." Give it to your friends so they can join you on the server.

For existing users who have joined other servers just to play WITHOUT playing with their friends, maybe a one time free server transfer should be awarded to players on the added servers, not the originals. OR perhaps give the full server players a server transfer OFF the full server to the new ones.

[Zeeber]

Part 4/4

I don't have a perfect solution for this, so I hope the community and developers can come together on this issue and come up with solutions that will benefit everyone. Right now the game seems to be a mess because the servers can't handle the load. Granted, every MMO launch is crazy time. I understand this. But moving forward something has to be done or the longevity of the game will be at risk. A lot of people have bought the game to play with their friends and if they cannot do so, what will keep them playing? Players will unsubscribe and money lost because server infrastructure wasn't planned properly.

Help us, Naoki Yoshida, you are our only hope!

TLDR; Servers are the reason the game will fail, not the development behind it. Let us work together to come up with a solution to the problem such as buddy passes and proper queues to allow players to actually PLAY the game and play WITH their friends.

[RobotDinosaur]

great post. you pretty much summed up what needs to happen for optimal experience for all customers at this point.

[Duelle]

Word of advice: Type up the large post on word and then use the first paragraph to make the OP. After the OP is made and the thread started, click on edit and paste the entire post as seen on the word document and hit save changes. You can thus bypass the need to make multiple posts that were originally one large post.

Part of the reason FFXI had a buddy pass system was that the game would randomly assign you a server at the end of character creation, causing you to essentially play random draw with what server you were in, and if you ended on a different server, too bad. What I would like to see is server transfers open up a little sooner, if only to help get people together. I have a bunch of friends who are rerolling on Lamia and some who refuse to leave because they feel they've done too much already on their characters.

[raph2013]

good post , great topic

[Taaku]

There are many good ideas for fixing server congestion, but as far as i remember, the login restriction was in place for the Duty finder server, not the regular ones. My server at least, was fine as far as everyone being on. it was the sheer amount of people doing instances that caused it to stop working, which led to the restrictions to my understanding.

A buddy pass/referral system would be nice though. even more so if said system showed you which server the friend who sent you the pass was on. (save the trouble of your friends forgetting which server you are on ect lol )