About the World Merge and Character Transfers (02/09/2012)

[Lucavi]

I can't believe they totally ignored English speaking EU players. Yay let's go fragment the tiny EU population even further by convincing all then French and German speakers (half of which probably speak English too) that moving to the same server would be a good plan and let the English EU spread across all 10.

I suppose it will be down to the community itself to unofficially designate a server for this. 10 would make the most sense.

Or I could start looking for English EU linkshells on other servers now and get applying so I could join up at the merge... but that's a pain in the ass.

Either way I'm done with this game until March 27th, apart from the short time it will take to finish off CUL.

You can't believe that Japanese company wouldn't listen to Non-Japanese?

...Only you, Sephiroth.

You hear that, SE? You just lost your biggest gaijin fan (for the moment)! Shit's looking real down for you right now.

[Meko]

10 servers? I didn't think enough people played to warrant 10 servers. :/

[Kaylia]

10 servers? I didn't think enough people played to warrant 10 servers. :/

I'm now going to be able to find nobody twice as fast.

[Jamison]

I'm basically left with the option to pay now to play with friends, or wait until 2.0 and reroll a new character. I'm probably going with C) and go play another game.

I fear a lot of people will agree with you.

In my opinion, this is the first truly bad decision by Yoshadi.

I have a number of friends who aren't in my linkshell, and there's no way in hell we'll all end up on the same server. It's pointless to even try. Likewise, it will be very strange to not see the folks from other large linkshells about; even though I might not be close to them, they are part of the world. They really should have predetermined which servers were going to merge with each other, or at least left it an option. A lot of my enjoyment of the game will be gone when those folks are no longer around to talk to.

There is zero upside to randomly moving inactive characters to servers where their friends won't be, and there is no argument to support it. Asinine move, and it's going to be a big check in the NOEP column for anybody who has been optimistically keeping their ear to the ground for 2.0.

Truth.

[Sephiroth]

You can't believe that Japanese company wouldn't listen to Non-Japanese?

...Only you, Sephiroth.

You hear that, SE? You just lost your biggest gaijin fan (for the moment)! Shit's looking real down for you right now.

SE has actually been doing a pretty good job at listening to non-Japanese people since Yoshi took over and I expect the server merge plans will be modified if a lot of people bitch about them.

[Ambrosia]

It really should of been 5 servers like I said in one of my older posts (plus or minus 1) if he wanted to reach the 2k mark. But it seems he went with a much more conservative number (most likely so the negative impact of the merge wouldn't be so great) and instead went with 1k distributed throughout 10 servers.


There is roughly a little over 9500 JP simultaneous log ins during most of the week (evenings). At its current form that averages to about 530 people across 18 servers. Dropping it to 10 servers that brings the average to 950. Had he gone with 5 servers he would of hit 1900 which was within the range he initially intended. Of course this is assuming that at the end of all of this the servers will be more or less balanced in regards to population.


And Yoshida already wrote on 2 separate occasions that they were looking into how they were going to distribute the Europeans effectively. Of course this could of been a blanket statement. The European population is completely dismal. And when I mean dismal I mean all 18 servers with people logged in from Europe in the single digits or double digits for most of the day with only a few exceptions going into the triple digits.


There was no way in hell they were going to "actually" take the time and sort out multiple possible methods on how to distribute such a tiny fraction of the player base. Put it this way, even placing all the Europeans together in just one server probably wouldn't of reached the halfway point of capacity (for simultaneous log ins).

[Raldo]

It's probably more servers than any of us expected because SE expects the population to slowly return and/or they're leaving some slack room for when 2.0 hits.

should of / could of / wouldn't of

Hnnnnnnnggggg

[SneakyTonn]

Do you think the NA community is capable of player-side directing the 10 worlds? In a way, similar to Besaid claiming themselves as the role-play server early on. If BG created an unofficial listing and players spread the news, it might make selection a little easier for big groups (or, who knows, might make things messier).

Just my thoughts:
World One: Cornelia + Melmond
World Two: Kashuan + Palamecia
World Three: Gysahl + Saronia
World Four: Fabul + Mysidia
World Five: Istory + Karnak
World Six: Figaro + Selbina*
World Seven: Wutai + Rabanastre*
World Eight: Trabia + Bodhum*
World Nine: Lindblum
World Ten*: (FRGR) + (EU ENG) + Besaid (RP)

I've assigned worlds to their closest FF-# correspondence. Personally, I joined Figaro because FFVI is my favorite. Likewise, "World Six" is the best representation of Figaro to me. It's extremely unfortunate SE refuses to name these ten worlds until after the transfer, but this is the best reconciliation I can fathom.

If anyone could suggest alterations based upon server size or gameplay, please do so! And please BG, help us finalize an unofficial transfer directory!

*Included FF11, 12, and 13 references at random.
- May edit this looking up server population amounts.

[Sephiroth]

World Ten*: (FRGR) + (EU ENG) + Besaid (RP)

I think that would make me quit forever.

Do you think the NA community is capable of player-side directing the 10 worlds?

So no.

RPers should have their own server. I've heard Besaid is a nightmare to play on if you aren't an RPer.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I already proposed a region-based server merger idea on the OFs but of course I got the usual "that's segregation" (i think someone needs a dictionary) and the general "that's not how it was done in XI, so no" feeling.

The EU, RP, and spanish-speaking players have already chosen servers. Why the NA and JP can't get together to divide servers is beyond me, but people are rejecting a very common sense idea with asinine logic.

[Jamison]

Why the NA and JP can't get together to divide servers is beyond me,

I could get behind that as long as one server was held in reserve for people who *wanted* to play across regions. I'm sure there are others like myself who either 1) have odd play hours and would like some server life to exist during those times, or 2) enjoy meeting/playing with people from other countries.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Yeah that's fine. Someone with an erratic schedule in EST could go to a PST server, or vice versa. You see this all the time and it's not a big deal. As for #2, my proposal included a mixed/international groups server.

[blindSharingan]

I've heard Besaid is a nightmare to play on if you aren't an RPer.

That's pretty incorrect; almost no one RP's on besaid anymore. I think currently there are maybe 2 (I think small) linkshells that RP. Early on there was a small/fair RP community but a larger community of people looking to give the RPers a hard time. Over time either the RPers quit RPing/Quit the game or they are super private about it now.

I'll admit I've had my share of laughs at their expense. I only chose besaid to play with friends from XI...who chose besaid because they thought it'd be hilarious to be on a server with RPers <_<

I believe Besaid has one of the larger populations and it's pretty much a normal server just with the occasional extra laugh you might not get elsewhere.

[Lordender]

Lol, leave it to SE to fuck up something so simple for no other reason than because they're Japanese and have to be different.

[SneakyTonn]

I think that would make me quit forever.
So no.
RPers should have their own server. I've heard Besaid is a nightmare to play on if you aren't an RPer.

I'm confused. Could you elaborate why "World Ten*: (FRGR) + (EU ENG) + Besaid (RP)" would make you quit forever? If you RP, take comfort knowing everyone is trying to migrate to the same location. If you don't RP, then ignore World Ten. If you're European, same thing. Is it that RP and EU don't mesh? To me, they seem like the smaller communities which is why I combined them in my suggestion. I'm sorry if this is a faux pas. D:

As a sidenote, its seems people are already staking out server worlds. The earliest claim I've seen has come from Besaid/ RP pitching for World Nine. Something like a tele-thon filling in a thermometer with magic marker, I imagine other servers are going to start shouting which World # they'd like. =/ I'm simply hoping we, as a community, can reign in on the chaos with an unofficial directory before things get crazy.

[SneakyTonn]

If it helps any, a LSmate picked up this post from the JP forums earlier this morning. The population count during JP prime time:

Selbina - 1400 (@23:26)
Gysahl - 1150 (@ 23:02)
Cornelia - 1071 (@22:46)
Figaro - 1008 (@22:33)
Mysidia - 955 (@23:37)
Lindblum - 874 (@23:00)
Besaid - 753 (@23:36)
Kashuan - 748 (@23:02)
Saronia - 710 (@22:55)
Trabia - 698 (@23:48 )
Istory - 659 (@22:13)
Palamecia - 627 (@23:29)
Fabul - 619 (@23:56)
Rabanastre - 593 (@22:30)
Melmond - 585 (@22:41)
Bodhum - 487 (@23:06)
Wutai - 460 (@23:28 )
Karnak - 439 (@23:39)

After a little reorganization to my earlier suggestion, we could put the ten Worlds in a speculative range of:
World One: Cornelia + Melmond = 1656
World Two: Kashuan + Palamecia = 1375
World Three: Gysahl + Saronia = 1860
World Four: Fabul + Mysidia = 1574
World Five: Istory + Karnak = 1098
World Six: Figaro + Rabanastre* = 1601
World Seven: Wutai + Bodhum* + Besaid (RP) = 1700
World Eight: Trabia + Lindblum = 1572
World Nine: Selbina* = 1400
World Ten*: (FRGR)

That's not too bad?

[Kurokikaze]

I think thats a really bad way of merging servers... They should have just done merges between certain servers like they did for XI. All this is going to do is split up current playerbase from friends waiting for 2.0. In the worst case scenario, it'll make it so that some of those people don't come back at all. "I'm not on the same server as my friends and I don't want to start all over!" etc.

Hopefully this was announced early enough for people to complain and Yoshida to change his method for merging.

[Raldo]

If they don't back down from their current idea for server merges, then I have two questions/concerns.

1) Can you select a server without renewing? You can get all the way to the character selection screen without actually paying for the game, so hopefully people can just make their selections without renewing. The only downside is that it would require all the inactive folks that care to download the latest version.

2) Do alts have to be changed as well? I assume it does, since you can have characters on different servers. My problem is that I have an alt from back when the game was free. He has a good 1Mil or so gil on him, but I don't want to bother renewing him until I have a d.box to ship stuff around. If the answer to #1 is No, then I'll reactivate my alt dude for a month just to pick a server, but ugh that's dumb.

I would post these concerns on the official forums, but they're currently filled with nutjobs going batshit crazy, and I'm sure I would get flooded out. I might do it once it dies back down.

Yes, I'm aware that no one knows the answers to these questions at the moment, but I hope they're addressed.

[Burningthought]

I think they'll probably do all the server transfer nonsense through the lodestone rather than the client. I don't have any hopes that people will be able to pick without being active. If it makes the decision any easier, the transfer is going to happen after 1.21 which is going to have a shitload of content. So it's not like you'd be stuck with nothing to do ingame.

You guys are acting like this is going to be the only time they allow transfers. I'm sure once 2.0 comes out or shortly before it comes out they'll add some sort of value added service and just charge for transfers.

[Lucavi]

^ That has no bearing on the present and now. A bad decision today is still a bad decision, regardless of whether you "know" they're going to fix it in the future.