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+--- Thread: [Discussion] An EU server, for EU roleplayers *UPDATED 14/06* (/showthread.php?tid=19399)
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Maril - 06-03-2017
Whilst we are waiting for the new server names, assuming there's going to be more than one:Â
To cut the confusion, should we simply elect to head for the last new server in the alphabet? Or the very first one? Something like that. It may be easier to navigate over several discords and the RPC all shouting different names.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Swanmay - 06-04-2017
(06-03-2017, 01:07 PM)Maril Wrote: Whilst we are waiting for the new server names, assuming there's going to be more than one:Â
To cut the confusion, should we simply elect to head for the last new server in the alphabet? Or the very first one? Something like that. It may be easier to navigate over several discords and the RPC all shouting different names.
An excellent idea! If people can agree on a number then that seems like the best course of action.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Nebbs - 06-04-2017
(06-04-2017, 06:26 PM)Swanmay Wrote:(06-03-2017, 01:07 PM)Maril Wrote: Whilst we are waiting for the new server names, assuming there's going to be more than one:Â
To cut the confusion, should we simply elect to head for the last new server in the alphabet? Or the very first one? Something like that. It may be easier to navigate over several discords and the RPC all shouting different names.
An excellent idea! If people can agree on a number then that seems like the best course of action.
The talk on Discord seems to be for the last new server in the list, as names are not yet available.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Abriael - 06-05-2017
I'm certainly going to stay on Balmung, as I don't think fragmenting the RP community is a good idea.
As a matter of fact, SE should probably simply recognize Balmung as an official RP server, and offer incentives to non-roleplayers to move.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Swanmay - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 02:21 AM)Abriael Wrote: I'm certainly going to stay on Balmung, as I don't think fragmenting the RP community is a good idea.
As a matter of fact, SE should probably simply recognize Balmung as an official RP server, and offer incentives to non-roleplayers to move.
That's all well and good, but the server is locked to everyone who wants to join an RP community, and will be for the forseeable future. With nowhere to go, those RP'ers not currently on Balmung can have a home to start another community on the EU data centre. The community is already fragmented because of this. Furthermore, MMOs can have more than one RP community and be successful. Look at WoW as an example, two large servers (Wyrmrest Accord and Moon Guard) and that's only the US side. The EU side also have a couple of, albeit small but no less succesful servers.
Lastly, roleplayers are the minority. The needs of the many come before the needs of the few as it happens, and while SE seems to do more than most other companies with regards to being specifically RP friendly, they wont designate Balmung as their official RP server. It would be nice, but it's unrealistic.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Abriael - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 02:53 AM)Swanmay Wrote: That's all well and good, but the server is locked to everyone who wants to join an RP community, and will be for the forseeable future. With nowhere to go, those RP'ers not currently on Balmung can have a home to start another community on the EU data centre. The community is already fragmented because of this. Furthermore, MMOs can have more than one RP community and be successful. Look at WoW as an example, two large servers (Wyrmrest Accord and Moon Guard) and that's only the US side. The EU side also have a couple of, albeit small but no less succesful servers.
Lastly, roleplayers are the minority. The needs of the many come before the needs of the few as it happens, and while SE seems to do more than most other companies with regards to being specifically RP friendly, they wont designate Balmung as their official RP server. It would be nice, but it's unrealistic.
Wow also has an enormously larger population than FFXIV, so yes, it has the bodies to accommodate two major RP servers. Plenty of them. FFXIV doesn't get even close, so it's much more convenient to keep the vast majority of the RP population focused in one place.
I wouldn't be so sure that, at least on Balmung, RPers (including heavy and light) are a minority. And I certainly don't agree that SE seems to do more than most in being RP-friendly. They never did the most basic of the RP-friendly things, which is giving us a RP server.
Personally, I won't contribute to the fragmentation of the RP community, like I didn't when people pushed the split between Balmung and Gilgamesh (which crashed and bushed for obvious reasons). If others want to leave, that's their prerogative, but I have the feeling that they're gonna regret it on the long run.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Maril - 06-05-2017
This really is not an attempt to fragment the community. Whilst there may be a situation where some leave Balmung with their mains in the EU community, as far as I have seen, it is not the majority who wishes to do so. Most people want to contribute to a new server with an alt. People are embracing that you can exist on more than one server for roleplay, and I think that is about time. There's a tonne of people using alternate platforms for their RP already, so why not hop on a different server from time to time. It literally will be free this time around, to transfer to this new server.
Please also keep in mind that some people are seeking to move because the latency on Balmung for some european players have become unbearable. If they want to enjoy for example progressive end-game raiding, or maybe have spouses and other close friends who are into that, they have to move. Before the NA server location move you could sort of justify that it wasn't bad enough, however this is no longer the case for some. There are also ones that haven't been hit so hard and yet again some who do not really care about latency, but I don't think it's fair to blame those who have to do these things and tell them they're fragmenting the community.Â
And yet again additionally, Balmung is locked and will probably be locked for a long time. On top of that, when it unlocks, we will no doubt be back in the situation where people have to pay to transfer onto the server. This is not a good way to convince new roleplayers to join up (I know a handful of my friends who chose not to, because of this restriction.) - For both sides of the sea it is about time the community unfolded and branched out. We may not be bigger than WoW, but we are the second most popular choice last I checked, I really do not see why the community shouldn't try to plan ahead & create welcoming homes for the future - especially when there are people motivated to lead these initiatives.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Arty - 06-05-2017
Even GW2 had EU and NA RP servers when I played, and that game didn't even have the numbers FFXIV has, let alone WoW. LOTRO as well had EU and NA RP servers.
Having 2 RP servers is a normal thing and people shouldn't be afraid of it.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Flynn Rosenberg - 06-05-2017
As soon as Balmung was announced closed, I didn't see any concern about an EU server. It was straight for another NA one, which is all well and good but you know, I think it's about time our side of the pond get a place recognised and supported by the RPC as much as they supported Balmung. I understand there are some website limitations, but when you look at the FC/LS tabs, you see a Balmung section, Gilgamesh section (no Mateus yet?), and Other. It might change in the future, I don't really know, but as of now it doesn't give me a lot of faith that there is any support for EU players. I hope this changes once we pick one of the new servers.
I've also heard some say Lich is already the unofficial EU RP server, but I can't find that anywhere unless it's through word of mouth, and that's definitely not a good way of letting the community know.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Virella - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: I've also heard some say Lich is already the unofficial EU RP server, but I can't find that anywhere unless it's through word of mouth, and that's definitely not a good way of letting the community know.I've tried to RP there... It wasn't something I'd enjoy :/
I would wait and see if people go to a new server.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Skae - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: I've also heard some say Lich is already the unofficial EU RP server, but I can't find that anywhere unless it's through word of mouth, and that's definitely not a good way of letting the community know.
If so it is very unofficial.
Among the EU servers Lich does appear to have the biggest RP community at the moment, but otherwise I do not think it has been chosen by anybody as the EU RP server.
On the contrary I have seen several people state they are only playing on Lich temporarily until the unofficial EU RP server has been chosen.
Personally I am hoping for one of the (upcoming) new servers which will have several benefits over any existing server:
- A sudden influx of RPers won't disrupt any existing community - since there won't be an existing community.
- Free transfers greatly lower the barriers to moving to a new server
- Plenty of room for growth over time
Which one of the new servers will get chosen I don't really care about, but the decision should be made as soon as possible after the names of the new servers become known, to minimize any confusion.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Unnamed Mercenary - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: As soon as Balmung was announced closed, I didn't see any concern about an EU server.
This was one of the first threads to pop up when Balmung closed. And unlike the mess of NA threads, it's remained on-point and organized. If there's less activity in it, it could just be cause more people are focused on a NA server. That's....not coming from an administrative push from the staff. We're trying to keep our involvement on this issue to the minimum. I've already made a variety of posts on why the staff flagging a server is a poor idea.
(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: It was straight for another NA one, which is all well and good but you know, I think it's about time our side of the pond get a place recognised and supported by the RPC as much as they supported Balmung.
Are you talking about RPC's users or the site? We're still using the layout that has been around for about three changes of site administrator and nearly two full refreshes of staff.
(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: I understand there are some website limitations, but when you look at the FC/LS tabs, you see a Balmung section, Gilgamesh section (no Mateus yet?), and Other. It might change in the future, I don't really know, but as of now it doesn't give me a lot of faith that there is any support for EU players. I hope this changes once we pick one of the new servers.
Have you taken a moment to check our Announcements section? [15 May 2017] RPC Upgrades and Migration Announcement is a pretty big one. So is [18 May 2017] User accounts on the same email if it applies to you or people you know.
The forum software is being changed. The entire codebase for the forums is being replaced. (Yes, posts and threads are going to be imported. Details on the final save will come at a later date). On top of limited resources (I'm the only current staff member with both access to the Admin CP and knowledge on MyBB's custom code templates and plugins), people haven't even fully figured out which servers they want to support. There's little point to change an incredibly complicated and fickle set of 10-15 custom-written templates per Hall per server to add a hardcoded post filter when that hasn't happened. If we'd seen more activity from other servers in the past, it would have been updated. Honestly, it should just be Balmung and "Other" right now because Gilgamesh hasn't been particular active since early 2015. When we implemented Hall cleanings, this became more apparent.
So again. The RPC administration and staff don't have say in selecting a server. We're not going to direct people to somewhere there isn't already a community that appears to be active at the very least. If a server wants "special treatment" we need to see that they're actually active and self-sustaining before pinning them up. Otherwise that's just spending limited development resources for naught.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Swanmay - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 11:07 AM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote:(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: As soon as Balmung was announced closed, I didn't see any concern about an EU server.
This was one of the first threads to pop up when Balmung closed. And unlike the mess of NA threads, it's remained on-point and organized. If there's less activity in it, it could just be cause more people are focused on a NA server. That's....not coming from an administrative push from the staff. We're trying to keep our involvement on this issue to the minimum. I've already made a variety of posts on why the staff flagging a server is a poor idea.
(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: It was straight for another NA one, which is all well and good but you know, I think it's about time our side of the pond get a place recognised and supported by the RPC as much as they supported Balmung.
Are you talking about RPC's users or the site? We're still using the layout that has been around for about three changes of site administrator and nearly two full refreshes of staff.
(06-05-2017, 07:02 AM)Flynn Rosenberg Wrote: I understand there are some website limitations, but when you look at the FC/LS tabs, you see a Balmung section, Gilgamesh section (no Mateus yet?), and Other. It might change in the future, I don't really know, but as of now it doesn't give me a lot of faith that there is any support for EU players. I hope this changes once we pick one of the new servers.
Have you taken a moment to check our Announcements section? [15 May 2017] RPC Upgrades and Migration Announcement is a pretty big one. So is [18 May 2017] User accounts on the same email if it applies to you or people you know.
The forum software is being changed. The entire codebase for the forums is being replaced. (Yes, posts and threads are going to be imported. Details on the final save will come at a later date). On top of limited resources (I'm the only current staff member with both access to the Admin CP and knowledge on MyBB's custom code templates and plugins), people haven't even fully figured out which servers they want to support. There's little point to change an incredibly complicated and fickle set of 10-15 custom-written templates per Hall per server to add a hardcoded post filter when that hasn't happened. If we'd seen more activity from other servers in the past, it would have been updated. Honestly, it should just be Balmung and "Other" right now because Gilgamesh hasn't been particular active since early 2015. When we implemented Hall cleanings, this became more apparent.
So again. The RPC administration and staff don't have say in selecting a server. We're not going to direct people to somewhere there isn't already a community that appears to be active at the very least. If a server wants "special treatment" we need to see that they're actually active and self-sustaining before pinning them up. Otherwise that's just spending limited development resources for naught.
When we do decide on a server, would it be reasonable to drop the relevant mod(s) an email to discuss adding in tags and sections for our server, along with the new NA server?
It's expected that the initial server is going to be small by comparison to Balmung, and we will have growing pains too. Seeing the server on the site being, not advertised per say, but supported by the "officials" of the RPC would likely go a long way to adding support to the movement. Almost like an unofficial "official" sanction that yes, this is an unofficial RP server and you will find RP there.
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Unnamed Mercenary - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 11:28 AM)Swanmay Wrote: When we do decide on a server, would it be reasonable to drop the relevant mod(s) an email to discuss adding in tags and sections for our server, along with the new NA server?
It's expected that the initial server is going to be small by comparison to Balmung, and we will have growing pains too. Seeing the server on the site being, not advertised per say, but supported by the "officials" of the RPC would likely go a long way to adding support to the movement. Almost like an unofficial "official" sanction that yes, this is an unofficial RP server and you will find RP there.
Yes! Currently, adding in prefixes for threads (like for directories, making connections, etc) is easy. Those I can do within the forum control panels and without messing with delicate code. Anything that makes a post filter (LS Hall and FC Hall) requires more overhead than the filtering's worth on our software. (And usually means I crash the site because we have to implement it live.)
But I should say we're by no means looking for like, Balmung-levels of activity. Especially not in the beginning. The best thing to do is to continue to be active here. [broken record]Keeping being active here. Keep making threads for servers to boost awareness and to show activity. Dilute Balmung.[/broken record] The more active a server appears to be, the better it is for everyone. It means coding time/investments will have a better chance of sticking and it also means users won't get shafted to a small RPC enjin clone site where all public activity disappears.
In the IPS layout, I'm planning to make prefixes admin-controlled by to allow users to use any tags they want. ...as long as the tag system doesn't become a nightmare like the test import I ran which grabbed every single misspelled tag from our gallery. :p
RE: An EU server, for EU roleplayers - Swanmay - 06-05-2017
(06-05-2017, 11:47 AM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote:(06-05-2017, 11:28 AM)Swanmay Wrote: When we do decide on a server, would it be reasonable to drop the relevant mod(s) an email to discuss adding in tags and sections for our server, along with the new NA server?
It's expected that the initial server is going to be small by comparison to Balmung, and we will have growing pains too. Seeing the server on the site being, not advertised per say, but supported by the "officials" of the RPC would likely go a long way to adding support to the movement. Almost like an unofficial "official" sanction that yes, this is an unofficial RP server and you will find RP there.
Yes! Currently, adding in prefixes for threads (like for directories, making connections, etc) is easy. Those I can do within the forum control panels and without messing with delicate code. Anything that makes a post filter (LS Hall and FC Hall) requires more overhead than the filtering's worth on our software. (And usually means I crash the site because we have to implement it live.)
But I should say we're by no means looking for like, Balmung-levels of activity. Especially not in the beginning. The best thing to do is to continue to be active here. [broken record]Keeping being active here. Keep making threads for servers to boost awareness and to show activity. Dilute Balmung.[/broken record] The more active a server appears to be, the better it is for everyone. It means coding time/investments will have a better chance of sticking and it also means users won't get shafted to a small RPC enjin clone site where all public activity disappears.
In the IPS layout, I'm planning to make prefixes admin-controlled by to allow users to use any tags they want. ...as long as the tag system doesn't become a nightmare like the test  import I ran which grabbed every single misspelled tag from our gallery. :p
Thanks very much! All the help we have from the mods, and the RPC as a whole is greatly appreciated.
