"Reserving Instance"

[JayvirDeforte]

Can someone tell me why a full pre-made group needs to wait for over a half hour for a dungeon? Why do we even need to queue for this anyway? Just let us walk into the dungeon like every other game does. I get that Amdapor Keep is popular and all, but when you are practically running it multiple times a day to get Mythology Tomestones, it needs to function quicker.

[Breladine]

The instance/dungeon servers are servers just like the login servers are servers. I still have to sit in a (very small) queue to get into the game on an average evening, because that makes sure the servers don't crash due to more people than it can handle.

You're in a queue to stop the server from crashing due to too many people at once. Whether that's login or dungeon servers, doesn't really matter. The population limit was reached and now you are waiting for a free spot.

Do I wonder why it's this bad when other games have no issues with instanced dungeons? Yeah, I do.. but I also know the development team is doing the best with whatever they have available, so clearly what they have available isn't quite enough for whatever reason.

[Unruhe]

Can someone tell me why a full pre-made group needs to wait for over a half hour for a dungeon? Why do we even need to queue for this anyway? Just let us walk into the dungeon like every other game does.

Nearly every single bit of this game that has to do with server performance and responsiveness is absolutely and unacceptably terrible. It's like SE purposely found the worst possible network engineers and coders for this game. Somehow, they learned absolutely nothing from 1.0 despite having to shutter it because it was so terrible only the most dedicated of FFfans would play it.

It doesn't help that they made the endgame revolve almost entirely around exactly one single 4-man dungeon, so of course everyone crowds into it instead of spreading out into more content.

[Fazrenar]

.... they made the endgame revolve almost entirely around exactly one single 4-man dungeon, so of course everyone crowds into it instead of spreading out into more content.

Yes, I agree.

Please Square Enix, this needs to be addressed as a priority.
I have been unable to enter AK promptly for 3 days now.. This is preventing my progression in the game, slowing my Relic, slowing my Titan.
Will I ever see Bahamut if I cannot get much AK?

[Lissyl]

I thought it was common knowledge that you always make reservations at least two hours in advance.

Ba-dum-TSH!

[Holyhunter]

ust let us walk into the dungeon like every other game does.

that wouldn't change anything. Imagine a bunch of rooms. When the game is havign to reserve a room for you, it means that every room is currently full. Walking to the room wouldn't make it any less full than if you teleported to it.

Also, to say that this hasn't been a problem in other games is a downright lie. In vanilla and BC of WoW i distinctly remember instances being full, although it was never as big of a problem as this.

[svann]

How is it possible that tanks reputedly have instant DF's but this guy has a full group and doesnt? Something is very wrong about that.

[Cienna]

How is it possible that tanks reputedly have instant DF's but this guy has a full group and doesnt? Something is very wrong about that.

It seems to be:
1- certain instances like AK, not all instances
2- full groups can't join an in progress, while tanks can select that option
3- time of day/week... the day of weekly resets means more of the 50 dungeons are being sought, so thus during that time, those dungeons have an extraordinary queue compared to other dungeons or times of the week.

[Unruhe]

How is it possible that tanks reputedly have instant DF's but this guy has a full group and doesnt? Something is very wrong about that.

Seeing the problems with Duty Finder at 50 require you to know how FFXIV's current "endgame" content works. At 50, there are vendors that sell items for two types of tokens. "Darklight" items are item level 70 and require "Tomes of Philosophy". "AF2" or "AF+1" items are a higher item level (can't log in to check exact number) and require "Tomes of Mythology".

There are 7 level 50 locations accessible via duty finder:
CM - Second-to-last story dungeon. 8man. Drops no loot, but gives 100 Philosophy.
Final story dungeon. 8man. Long, filled with cutscenes, a few difficult fights. Nobody farms it.
Wanderer's Palace. 4man. Drops item level 55 equipment, weapons barely superior to Grand Company weapons. Gives ~50ish Philosophy.
Amdapor Keep. 4man. Drops item level 60 equipment. Gives 80 Philosophy. Gives 40 Mythology.
HM Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan all drop only weapons, but are also part of a relic weapon quest that gives you the best weapon in the game, so sane people only ever defeat each of the HM primals once (and then only ever go back when an acquaintance needs their quest completed).

This leaves AK as the sole piece of accessible, repeatable content to get gear. The terrible duty finder system can only accommodate X number of copies of a particular dungeon, and so if you queue for AK, even with a tank, or a healer, or even with a full party, the duty finder system will hang at "reserving instance" for 1-50 (yes, 50, not a typo) minutes depending on time of day and general population. It's literally the only thing in duty finder that people can and need to run repeatedly in order to get the best equipment. If you queue for any of the lesser (and therefore kind of pointless) dungeons, you do get in instantly, because most of the playerbase is concentrated in the one important dungeon and so there's plenty of room for CM and WP instances.

The final kicker is if you have a partial group, and the duty finder has matched you with an as-yet-unmet stranger, that stranger withdrawing from the queue will put your group back at the bottom of the list for instance reservation. Our FC has two tanks and so we were running two AK groups, neither with a healer. My group queued a split second before the other group because one of their members was AFK. Both groups were paired with a healer and sat at "reserving" pretty much the instant we respectively queued. Ours popped after 20 minutes, and the pug healer withdrew. Our other FC group then IMMEDIATELY popped their queue, and all entered. Meanwhile, my group sat for another 20 minutes before a new instance was available.

[Kenka]

HM Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan all drop only weapons, but are also part of a relic weapon quest that gives you the best weapon in the game, so sane people only ever defeat each of the HM primals once (and then only ever go back when an acquaintance needs their quest completed).

Just a FYI, people go several times to Ifrit and Garuda HM to farm their weapons..