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+--- Thread: Balmung Transfer Restriction Megathread (/showthread.php?tid=19397)
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Kage - 05-17-2017
They most likely are talking about the afk auto-logouts when they talk about the character login restrictions.
Which is not at all unexpected.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Cato - 05-17-2017
I have my doubts that the developers will change their stance on this. I'll be very surprised if they do. I also suspect that this is very much a necessity - for the sake of keeping Balmung stable. There's been a lot of problems over time, including a dubious economy, a lack of player housing and major issues whenever new content is added due to too many people rushing to get online at once. Aether has crashed more than once in recent months and that isn't entirely the fault of the development team.
Far too many people here and elsewhere have been constantly urging more people to transfer over to Balmung. I get it, a lot of people want their friends to be here too - and I've done as much myself. All the same, there's definitely valid concerns about the server being too bloated at this point.
Bigger isn't necessarily better. Technically there's 'more role-play' here than elsewhere. In large part that is due to Balmung serving as a vacuum which indirectly hampers attempts for other servers to truly thrive as legitimate alternative options. Let's be honest here, 99% of the time if someone has the choice between a huge server bustling with players and a smaller, much tighter knit server where more effort to find role-play is required they're going to go for the easiest option.
I expect the developers to continue offering incentives to players to transfer elsewhere and consider making use of other servers.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Lydia Lightfoot - 05-17-2017
Yep, the post on the official forums is already getting anti-roleplayer pushback from people. Hooray.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Literal-Ghost - 05-17-2017
(05-17-2017, 12:21 PM)Ellmida Wrote: I sort of feel this was a long time coming, it's not unexpected. One of the reasons I moved 8 placeholder alts over to Balmung is because I suspected SE would probably be doing this at one point, it's surprising that the announcement was so sudden but I kind f think they were trying to avoid a lot of last minute rush transfers. While high population is good for RP i feel it's reached a critical mass where it's starting to hurt gameplay. Housing is not so much as a long shot as it is a lottery and while the new move may help with loading issues piling on more transfers to an overpopulated server could exhaust the capabilities of what it can support. The bonus is I don't have to witness a general f#$*ton of bots every time the server restarts.
I also think that the overemphasis on Balmung has caused smaller communities such as Faerie, Mates and Jenova to be passed over to  everyone's​ loss.
This is pretty much how I feel about it, too. The staff has been trying to nudge people into dispersing out into other servers for quite some time now, and it doesn't make much practical sense to make changes that accommodate the needs of overly populated servers while there are so many others that are near desolate by comparison.
Though it would be nice to be able to have the option to guest to other servers, and/or temporarily making transferring to lower pop servers free.
To be honest? I really hope that smaller servers see an increase in interest, especially for roleplayers. The general environment for Balmung has felt kind of unwelcoming for new players as of the past few months, especially if a new person's avatar starts out in Ul'Dah and their first litmus test to the server community is yet another shout chat discussion about futas. It can feel hard to get a foothold unless you already have friends you know in the game.
The people who are solidly sunk in Balmung are going to stay solidly sunk in Balmung, and the only real negative effect this change has on them is that a) they can't make new alts on Bal without fanting an old one, or b) if they have friends they want to introduce to the game, they have to make a new alt on another server with them. Both of those problems are probably largely inconsequential to most people who already have alts and already have a network of friends in game.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Aegir - 05-17-2017
I didn't know Balmung's population is what's been causing the aether data center crashes.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Mipo - 05-17-2017
(05-17-2017, 01:33 PM)Sable Wrote: I actually have some alts on mateus that I HAD planned to move to balmung, I might actually keep them on Mateus and see what I can find.
Hello, someone from Mateus here! If you're planning on keeping your alt-characters on Mateus, there's actually a growing community of roleplayers. If you're around, feel free to message me (Miah Aliapoh is my main, but you can also find me on Leiah Tayuun). I've an FC I'm a part of, and we have roleplaying set as optional, and we've been been trying to get it back into full gear.
If people plan on moving to Mateus? That would be wonderful, and I look forward to  (trying) to meet everyone that decides to come over and give it a shot. There are plenty of people around that have the RP tag up, a lot of friendly folks, and people usually seem pretty happy to just ... play.
I'm really bad at this. I'm sorry.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Lydia Lightfoot - 05-17-2017
I was just discussing with a friend, and one of the main issues is that even if they offered transfers off Balmung completely for free, and made incentives on low-pop servers with exp and the like, it wouldn't work very well due to "anchor" players: those who have spent resources on a gil sink that they wouldn't get back, such as a house or apartment, FC airships, or even just an FC chamber (300k gil is a lot of gil to lose for a lot of players).Â
When we played ArcheAge and they had some server issues, one of the ways they tried to mitigate the anchoring issue was to offer a token item to anchor players which would let them reacquire a similar gil sink (not the exact same spot, but, for example, a medium house to a medium house) on their destination server. They'd made some new servers, and temporarily made it so that land could only be bought via those tokens (not by the normal currency), so that the anchor players who opted to "lead the way" with their transfer would have their pick of the choicest locations using their token.Â
Even outside of RP, one anchor player who owns a house and refuses to leave and lose the gil they'd spent on it... well, if they're important to a big raid group, or a big PVP group, then their friends will be disinclined to leave them behind, and suddenly you have a big chunk of players who won't leave just because one or two among them have an anchor. Give them the option to pick up that anchor and drop it on the new server, and they might.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Virella - 05-17-2017
Got to love delusional people on the OF.
"Why not start another RP server." "You can just try to make one."
It has been tried and it failed before. But alas, don't let people hear about Gilgamesh.
I honestly wish it was realistic to start another RP server, and I support any attempt. But I'm cynical about the situation for a heap of reasons. I hope I'm proven wrong though!
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Nigerian-Scam-Artist - 05-17-2017
Having a large role play community is a GOOD thing.Â
What population issues are we actually concerned about? Housing? Apartments? If you consider that to be a problem, go to any housing ward and check the housing list. How many of those houses belong to single players? How many are being utilized on a regular basis? Now, if you are a person who thinks a single player should be allowed to have a house as well as enjoy a FC house and also a personal apartment, maybe that is a valid argument for you. But if you make an alt on any medium sized server, you're going to find the same situation. With the exception of the very low population servers: people have bought houses. Houses are an issue for them too.
The economy? If anything, Balmung has the most stable economy for middle income players. Yes, the big name crafters cannot gouge prices like other servers can. But there is also a huge variety of goods available and at a stable market price.Â
Being on a small role play server is miserable. Finding like minded roleplayers is a shot in the dark. Everyone has their own preference. These preferences include tolerance to violence, language, sex, opinion on lore, sense of humor, schedule, posting length preference - and then you have to agree on what you want to role play. Some people want to do slice-of-life stories, some people want to do tavern/forest rps, some people want long, epic adventures. Some people just want sex. Some people want to RP politics in Ishgard, some people want to RP the tribal life of a Miqote. Some people want to rp the tribal life of an Au Ra.Â
On Balmung, thanks to our HUGE buffet population, we can find these people.Â
On smaller servers where you might have... 100-200 role players - all with different preferences, regards to lore, and availability ... you probably aren't going to find these people.Â
This restriction might personally benefit YOU, because maybe it spurs YOU to transfer and meet new people on a smaller server but that should be your choice. Just like it should be MY choice if I choose to go to a small server where I might not jive with other role players, but I might be able to buy a house or an apartment. Or MY choice to go to the giant server, where on any given hour I can find someone to RP with. But I won't be able to get an apartment. Do not support taking away other people's choices to force your personal preference.Â
I doubt this restriction will last long. Maybe a month or two after the release of Stormblood. They should have given us warning that they were going to do it, so those who wanted to get into Balmung had a chance to before they closed their gates for an indefinite period of time.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - foxfirestorm - 05-17-2017
(05-17-2017, 02:31 PM)Virella Wrote: Got to love delusional people on the OF.
"Why not start another RP server." "You can just try to make one."
It has been tried and it failed before. But alas, don't let people hear about Gilgamesh.
I honestly wish it was realistic to start another RP server, and I support any attempt. But I'm cynical about the situation for a heap of reasons. I hope I'm proven wrong though!
Given Mateus has been going on for nearly-- 4-7 months now?? I think you already are.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Nero - 05-17-2017
Anyone who makes fun of my OF username gets banned. No exceptions.
Kidding, of course. For those interested, here is a relevant thread from two years ago that sort of addresses this topic.
In short: transferring is too expensive with not enough incentive. A mass exodus doesn't really need a coordinated effort, honestly.
The key to this is twofold: transferring needs to be completely free with no loss of any assets except for time, and there'd need to be some kind of official designation in order to facilitate the segregation of RPers and non-RPers.
That means transferring needs to be completely free at the minimum. Housing needs to be guaranteed. Things like FC airships need to be guaranteed, or adequately compensated in gil and materials.
At the same time, they should offer free transfers away from whatever the designated RP server is so that non-RPers can choose their environment.
I really don't see any downside to this, unless you're a corporate executive that only cares about quarterly profits and want to milk transfer money as much as possible. Which, I mean, it's Square Enix so...
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - savail - 05-17-2017
(05-17-2017, 08:38 AM)Rash Wrote:(05-17-2017, 07:20 AM)savail Wrote: My spouse has been playing with some friends on Phoenix. Â Been contemplating transferring off Bal to join them (I made an alt over there, but I'm struggling getting both ready for Stormblood given I've been slacking with HW). Â Apparently, there's a decent-sized linkshell for RP over there that he got an invite to.
Do you know what the name of the Linkshell is? I've been checking around on Phoenix and haven't seen anything really. Phoenix is a great server, busy but not to busy.
I know the people in charge have another LS listed here, but don't know if that one is active. Â Looked it up on the Lodestone, and this is it:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/linkshell/15762598695872350/
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Kage - 05-17-2017
(05-17-2017, 01:59 PM)Lydia Lightfoot Wrote: Yep, the post on the official forums is already getting anti-roleplayer pushback from people. Hooray.Unsurprising. The general populace on the official forums views Balmung's issues as a problem of Balmung's own making.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Virella - 05-17-2017
(05-17-2017, 02:44 PM)foxfirestorm Wrote:I'm curious how many people there are though. If you know the majority, I'd still say it's not... what people are looking for.(05-17-2017, 02:31 PM)Virella Wrote: Got to love delusional people on the OF.
"Why not start another RP server." "You can just try to make one."
It has been tried and it failed before. But alas, don't let people hear about Gilgamesh.
I honestly wish it was realistic to start another RP server, and I support any attempt. But I'm cynical about the situation for a heap of reasons. I hope I'm proven wrong though!
Given Mateus has been going on for nearly-- 4-7 months now?? I think you already are.
RE: High Pop Anti-Transfers - Kage - 05-17-2017
(05-17-2017, 02:55 PM)Virella Wrote:How big is the 'web' so to speak? How large is the network?(05-17-2017, 02:44 PM)foxfirestorm Wrote:I'm curious how many people there are though. If you know the majority, I'd still say it's not... what people are looking for.(05-17-2017, 02:31 PM)Virella Wrote: Got to love delusional people on the OF.
"Why not start another RP server." "You can just try to make one."
It has been tried and it failed before. But alas, don't let people hear about Gilgamesh.
I honestly wish it was realistic to start another RP server, and I support any attempt. But I'm cynical about the situation for a heap of reasons. I hope I'm proven wrong though!
Given Mateus has been going on for nearly-- 4-7 months now?? I think you already are.