Expanding Server Capacity Clarification

[Slickpig]

I was about to post the same thread, if they don't offer server transfers as part of this expansion, then it will all be for nothing since the current servers are already over capacity, they over subscribed too far it's seems, and no one will log out because they are afraid they won't be able to get back on when they want too. Hopefully once people realize that if everyone just logs on when they actually want to play the problems won't be as severe as they are now.

[Alhanelem]

But for corporations, that physical limit is much higher than what SE is using right now.

You don't really know how much bandwidth is available at their datacenters, nor do you know what kind of CPUs they are using, how much CPU usage their processes require, and how much of that one person's connection accounts for.

[Roaman]

You know it pays to do research rigth?

Part 1:

[NA]Regarding Congestion in Japan Data Center Worlds (Aug. 27)
Thank you very much for playing FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Currently, an extremely high number of players are enjoying the game. Should the number of players continue to increase at the current pace, there is the possibility that our expectations and server capacity will be greatly surpassed. Therefore, in order to maintain a stable gameplay environment, we are implementing login and character creation restrictions.

In order to be able to welcome a drastically greater number of players, we are starting as early as this week with preparations to increase our facilities, to be ready by early next week. Until that time, we will be continuing to implement these restrictions as required, and we ask for your understanding and patience.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and once again thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

And so you dont freak out about oh jp only ohh part 2

[NA] Regarding Preparations to Increase the Capacity of our Data Centers (Aug. 27)
Thank you very much for playing FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn.

We would like to make a clarification regarding our previous announcement “Regarding Congestion in Japan Data Center Worlds (Aug. 27)” in which we stated that we are preparing to increase the capacity of our data centers.

The first half of the announcement regarding login and character creation restrictions was directed towards our players who would be playing during peak hours in Japan data center Worlds.

However, the second half of the announcement regarding increasing the capacity of our data centers was meant to also encompass North American and European data center Worlds and not just be limited to Japan data center Worlds.

We deeply apologize for causing concern amongst the North American and European community due to our lack of clarity. Capacity will be increased for data centers in all regions.

Once again, thank you for your understanding and cooperation to help us welcome more players to the game.

Source: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...57#post1083457

[Slickpig]

Also, people need to stop speaking out of their butts about clusters and load balancers, you clearly don't understand how they work in a Network. I do, I've built and maintain several, and I won't begin to speculate about their infrastructure. I love how everyone that can Google thinks they are an IT expert.

[Hulan]

You don't really know how much bandwidth is available at their datacenters, nor do you know what kind of CPUs they are using, how much CPU usage their processes require, and how much of that one person's connection accounts for.

Of course, but since we're discussing optimization, I am working under the assumption that they are doing "the best that can be done". I know how many packets my game is sending (it's printed in game after all), so I can formulate a rough estimate of the bandwidth utilized by ~5,000 users. Worst case scenario, they are pumping it all through a single connection, still puts it somewhere around 256Mb/s (~2Kb/s up/down * 5,000 * 25 servers). Assuming (again, I know, damn all of these assumptions), they're using OC-12 lines, which is the standard for mid-range corporate usage, they have 2488.32 Mb/s available. Now, generally speaking, those servers probably handle other, not-obvious traffic, but I'd say that is not a terrible estimate of their current position, bitrate wise.

If we're talking about CPU usage, that's just a matter of load balancing and distributing subprocesses to sub-servers in the cluster. Such a thing is not trivial, but it is also not impossible. It would take a few months, but it's not a solid wall, just a steep incline.

Now, please remember, I'm not saying that taking advantage of that extra space is easy, only that it exists. In fact, I originally made the exact opposite point. Adding more servers is the more efficient solution to the current problem. Adding more concurrent users is prohibitively difficult in the short term.

[Azmaria]

You know it pays to do research rigth?

Part 1:

And so you dont freak out about oh jp only ohh part 2


Source: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...57#post1083457

If you would have actually read the OP instead of just proceeding with your condescending link you would realize that your linked post does not answer the questions that are asked. Are they going to add more worlds to allow more service, this does not seem to fix the issue of the already maxed out worlds, or are they adding more servers, AND increasing the cap of players per server. The language to find the answers seems vague and can swing either way, hence asking for Clarification.

[Raim]

I have a guild full of Legacy players on a Legacy server I am trying to help coordinate. At the same time I have friends who bought the game recently, but they can't even make characters on my server due to the lockout. What am I expected to do here, SE? Am I supposed to make characters on their server to help them out, and then pray that you lift the character creation restriction on my original server and allow server transfers? We don't even know if SE is going to charge for first/early transfer.

If my friends are forced to play on a random server for weeks, then pay $15+ to transfer to my server just to play with me, thats not going to go over well for many people. This is tearing things apart.