Known Issues

[Eagleheart]

He's a human being and human beings make mistakes. Just because he has done a lot of good does not raise him above the bullshit.

O.o

I concur. I am simply in doubt as to who is really at fault. 0.o I am apt to blame SE Higher Ups because they've been boneheaded since I was a teenager. Perhaps it is personal bias on my part.

So long as it all gets fixed, though, I am content to remain in that particular limbo. What I am confused about is why it is going to have taken two weeks.

o.O Everyone here noted the problems with the servers back in beta phase 04. I've never done any work relating to computers - I'm in construction - does it really take that long to call up your supplier and say "Dude we need another ten servers five hours ago"?

( >.>) I dunno. I am a bit curious why this issue bled into launch.

[Kairos]

More than anything this seems to have been a money and budgeting issue. The executive board was most likely not willing to write a blank check for the establishment of the servers and set up a budget amount to accommodate the estimated number of sign ups they had based on data from beta test and pre-orders.

However, We all know that many people were on the fence with this game, and it is a fact that there was a large volume increase of people placing new pre-orders and applications directly before phase4. As early as last week large numbers of players were just purchasing a digital copy and getting early access codes from vendors.

The company has already spent so much money on version 1.0, and then to redevelop the game and release more servers for a project that failed previously? The company's financial wing had no intentions of handing over enough money to add extra capacity there was no expected demand for. I've worked freelance for SE a few times, NOTHING is quick there. Everything is a large bureaucracy. So it doesn't shock me at all that even if they requested more server capacity as soon as 9000 reared it's ugly head, that it takes a few weeks for the higher ups to approve of the expenditure. But as we have seen, now that launch day has come and The executives are seeing the actual numbers to prove that this heightened demand for access to the game is real, they see those $$$dolla signs$$$ and handed the money right over. New servers due in by next week. It's all a money issue within square, and has nothing to do with yoshida's personal production or management of the project.

[Hyan]

For almost 3 years now Yoshi-P has gone to SE's money bin freely on the basis that there may or may not be enough demand to get enough return for the investment. And now suddenly the financial wing has become a bunch of Scrooges?

[Gilgameshx]

From my experience being a union guy, working behind the scenes, etc; I don't think this was yoshi's fault. Usually there are a few stuck up managers and higher ups and no matter what you suggest they won't listen. He could've told them they needed more servers but they don't listen.

I'm an engineer and can't tell you how many times we suggest shit and make too much sense and management continues to be retarded. I feel like that's how square higher ups are like.

Anywho that's my two cents

[Skjie]

I've never done any work relating to computers - I'm in construction - does it really take that long to call up your supplier and say "Dude we need another ten servers five hours ago"?

As an IT manager, yes it really does. The sort of servers that run infrastructure like this aren't just sitting pre-built in a warehouse somewhere and even after you get your servers assembled you usually want to run hard testing on them for 24-48 hours to check that no parts are DOA. As well, because the servers are also apparently in Montreal it's usually even a few extra days to get parts from the US as well. My shortest turn around for even small orders is a week.

[Salodin]

I'm an engineer and can't tell you how many times we suggest shit and make too much sense and management continues to be retarded. I feel like that's how square higher ups are like.

You're an engineer, not a producer.

Everything falls to him, as it should. If he didn't have the pull to say "We're adding 10 servers, deal with it", then he isn't executive producer, and he shouldn't be calling himself that as well. If he didn't know about the problem, that's different, but it's hard not to know about this problem when half your open beta was unavailable because of it.

If they gave more time in beta to test the problem out, this might not have happened, but it's not like any one was asking for th...oh wait nevermind.

[Cutriss]

For almost 3 years now Yoshi-P has gone to SE's money bin freely on the basis that there may or may not be enough demand to get enough return for the investment. And now suddenly the financial wing has become a bunch of Scrooges?

Suddenly = last six months, after the "failure" of Tomb Raider/Sleeping Dogs.

Unknown Issue: Calamity Salvager will not accept items with cracked materia if that item does not naturally have materia slots.

[Balb]

For almost 3 years now Yoshi-P has gone to SE's money bin freely on the basis that there may or may not be enough demand to get enough return for the investment. And now suddenly the financial wing has become a bunch of Scrooges?

Freely? You make it sound as if Yoshi could just swipe the black card at will anytime he needed additional resources. Everything is approvals and budgets. The redevelopment was budgeted, launch was forecasted and budgeted based off the interest they perceived. Kairos couldn't have explained it any better. Any additional cost requires business justification. It's just not that simple.

[ArchDizzle]

You're an engineer, not a producer.

Everything falls to him, as it should. If he didn't have the pull to say "We're adding 10 servers, deal with it", then he isn't executive producer, and he shouldn't be calling himself that as well. If he didn't know about the problem, that's different, but it's hard not to know about this problem when half your open beta was unavailable because of it.

If they gave more time in beta to test the problem out, this might not have happened, but it's not like any one was asking for th...oh wait nevermind.

Yoshi will take the good and bad that come with ARR because he is the producer, its in the title, however that does not mean he made the decisions or had full control over what happened with the server issues.

[Lucavi]

For almost 3 years now Yoshi-P has gone to SE's money bin freely on the basis that there may or may not be enough demand to get enough return for the investment. And now suddenly the financial wing has become a bunch of Scrooges?

I agree with this. Yoshi has said in quite a few interviews that money is not an issue - that it, instead, is one of the benefits of working for a company like SE. Instead of having to beg shareholders and commit to their horrible deadlines and whims, you can reach into the SE McMoney-Vault and pull out some cash when needed. If he was blowing PR smoke up our ass the entire time, then that's on him. If he wasn't, and they were just unprepared, well, that's also on him.

I love Yoshi, but you have to call a spade a spade. My boss loves me at work when I show up and do a great job. He's allowed to bust my balls if/when I screw up. This is real life.

[Salodin]

I agree with this. Yoshi has said in quite a few interviews that money is not an issue - that it, instead, is one of the benefits of working for a company like SE. Instead of having to beg shareholders and commit to their horrible deadlines and whims, you can reach into the SE McMoney-Vault and pull out some cash when needed. If he was blowing PR smoke up our ass the entire time, then that's on him. If he wasn't, and they were just unprepared, well, that's also on him.

I love Yoshi, but you have to call a spade a spade. My boss loves me at work when I show up and do a great job. He's allowed to bust my balls if/when I screw up. This is real life.

Thank you.

[Lucavi]

Thank you.

Of course.

[Ambrosia]

Not sure if this has been posted but:

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/08/...ive-free-days/

"In order to make it up to the players affected by the problems caused by server congestion, everyone will receive an extension to the free period by “several days” after the issues will be solved."

It better be more than 2!

[Akiyama]

Not sure if this has been posted but:

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/08/...ive-free-days/


"In order to make it up to the players affected by the problems caused by server congestion, everyone will receive an extension to the free period by “several days” after the issues will be solved."

It better be more than 2!

Won't be two, as it's a couple, or three as that's a few, but four! That's technically several.

:3

Please look forward to it!

But seriously, I hope it's at least a week.

[Salodin]

I hope it's more then a week, the problem has been going on for almost that long and it's taking them a week alone to setup new servers.

[Prothescar]

I'm fine with whatever. They aren't required to give us shit, so the fact that we're getting anything at all is nice.

[Guyverarmor]

I have been wanting to play real bad, but I figure I would wait till the new servers arrive...or maybe try this weekend.

Pretty nice of them to extend the free time though.

[Hyan]

Further Details on Access Restrictions

This is FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn producer and director Naoki Yoshida and I would like to take the time to personally apologize once again to all those players who have been affected by the extended World login and character creation restrictions which have been in place for the past several days. I also understand that apologies will not help you get logged in, so I would like to give you an update on the situation at hand and the various measures we are currently employing to alleviate the situation.

Concurrent Connections

On the night following the announcement of our plans to temporarily limit sales of the download version, A Realm Reborn recorded upwards of 218,000 concurrent connections. This is in spite of the fact that the peak login times for separate regions around the world arrive at differing intervals. We estimate that without time zone differences, the total number of concurrent connections would number anywhere from 300,000 to 350,000.

As many of you know, this is the second launch for FINAL FANTASY XIV─something unprecedented in the MMORPG market. Considering the outcome of our first launch, our sales estimates for this one were decidedly conservative, as we believed that there would be a more gradual rise in users over the opening weeks and months.

Instead, to our pleasant surprise, we experienced tremendous support from a great number of players who were eager to get into the game from day one. To ensure that these players, once logged in, were able to play in a stable environment, we were required to implement login restrictions which kept server population near maximum capacity without exceeding those numbers.

The fact that we had to implement these restrictions is a direct result of my inaccurate sales and login estimates, and as producer, I must accept complete responsibility for this misstep. Each and every player who has been affected has my deepest apologies.

The Reasoning behind Login Restrictions

Each FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn World server has been designed to support a maximum of 5,000 concurrent connections. This is not the maximum number of characters which can be created on a World, however, but the maximum number of characters which can be logged into that World simultaneously. When more than 5,000 characters log into a World at once, there is a higher risk of server crashes and login errors. The restoration of crashed servers is usually followed by a rush of players attempting to log back in, which, in turn, puts a strain on our lobby server, and can ultimately have an adverse affect on all of the Worlds.

To prevent this from happening, we felt that the safest course of action would be to limit logins. However, we would like you to know that the restrictions are under constant surveillance. We are currently monitoring login numbers on all Worlds 24 hours a day, and actively removing/applying restrictions as soon as we detect even the smallest fluctuation in concurrent connection numbers.

Currently, peak login times for each region are occurring from approximately 9:00 p.m. to midnight. During this three-hour window, Worlds are more likely to have login restrictions implemented. These temporary restrictions are expected to continue until the time that we can execute the measures we have planned to alleviate the current situation. Those measures, including the addition of new World servers, are listed, in detail, below.

Character Creation Restrictions

As stated above, the maximum number of simultaneous connections each World server can handle is 5,000, while the number of characters which can be created on a World is several times that amount. This estimate of 5,000, however, is based on those characters being somewhat distributed over all the in-game areas (zones).

At the game’s start, however, while everyone is still at a low level, the majority of players are concentrated in the three city-states and surrounding areas. This can not only lead to a lack of enemies to slay (preventing quest progression), but also see area servers overloaded, and ultimately lead to crashes.

Fortunately, differences in total individual play time, login times, and character/class progression will eventually lead to players being more spread out within each World. Once this happens, there will be less need for both login and character creation restrictions.

As is the case with logins, our team is working around the clock, monitoring the current population of each area in each World, as well as the class level of each character, and adjusting new character creation restrictions based on their findings. Unlike login restrictions, we believe that character creation restrictions may take slightly longer to be removed, as there are still great discrepancies in the distribution of characters across Worlds, and we thank players for their patience and understanding in this issue.

Adding Worlds and Alleviating Server Load Issues

A server is essentially a high-spec PC, with each FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn World being made up of several of these machines. Creating a new World involves physically acquiring the servers, installing the necessary programs, and conducting internal functionality tests...all before opening the World to the public.

As the login data gathered from the Open Beta test (in which anyone, including those who had not purchased the game, could participate) was inconclusive, it was during the Early Access period that we had a clearer picture of the scope with which we would need to increase World capacity, and on the 25th of August began making preparations to do so significantly.

As of this post, the servers have been acquired, the essential programs installed, and we are currently in the process of conducting our internal tests. Once these tests have concluded and the Worlds go live, we believe we will be able to better accommodate a greater number of our players, making logging in less of a hassle.

In addition to increasing the number of Worlds, we are also optimizing the Duty Finder (party matching) management servers in an effort to reduce server load and ensure better stability when using this feature.

Currently, the Duty Finder servers split our data centers into two groups of 25 Worlds, and then do the party matching from players from within the same data center. We have determined that by adding new Worlds, the Duty Finder servers will not be able to process the additional data as long as there are only two pairings of groups to match from. Therefore, we have decided to create additional groups to alleviate this problem before it occurs, and by doing so, reduce the burden on the Duty Finder servers, and ultimately allow more players to access the feature.

The development and operations teams are currently concentrating 100% of their efforts into the aforementioned tasks and are on pace to have both completed by the beginning of next week and then released to the public once our final tests have concluded. Once a date and time for the implementation of the measures have been solidified, we will release another announcement on Lodestone outlining the details. We ask that you bear with us for just a few days longer while we make the final push.

Resolving AFK Character Issues

From several users on some of our more congested Worlds, we have received requests for a feature which automatically logs out characters who are AFK for an extended period of time. We are actively looking into the implementation of such a feature, but have decided to first concentrate our efforts on increasing the number of Worlds and optimizing the Duty Finder servers.

In Conclusion

The development and operations teams are working diligently to combat the login issues which many of our users are currently facing, and ask for your continued patience and understanding over the next several days as we move to solve these problems.

To thank all of you for bearing with us for so long, we will be looking into different ways to reward our loyal fans and customers, such as an extension of the free trial period. Details on the plans we have in the works will be announced shortly.

In conclusion, I would like to say that we have been overwhelmed with the positive response for A realm Reborn, which is why it doubly pains us to implement any sort of measure that may restrict people from joining us in Eorzea. We sincerely apologize for the unwanted stress these restrictions have caused, and thank you immensely for the understanding you have shown over the past week. The fixes are almost in place and we look forward to seeing all of you very, very soon.

Thank you.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Producer & Director Naoki Yoshida

He Is Not A Perfect Productor After All? Who would've thought....

[Salodin]

It's like he went on BG and read this thread lmao. At least he finally put some info out, which is all people really needed to see. Duty finder currently only pulling for a pool of half the servers wasn't expected though, I thought we were matched with all servers.

[Day]

He Is Not A Perfect Productor After All? Who would've thought....

I Read The Whole Thing Though. Seems Like A Good Producer To Me. Why Are We Capatalizing Every Word Though?