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.