(11-19-2017, 03:07 PM)Sukoto Wrote:I CANNOT for the life of me remember which game it was, it's been to long, but FCs actually got to be made early and FCs got to pick which server they'd be placed on before launch (I think it was TOR? Gonna say TOR), if SE could do something like that, where people who care choose which server to go on ahead of time and people who don't care just get thrown on whatever server it would be pretty feasible. Just like TOR though, there would be a cap of how many people could do that. I remember the rush to get to the website when it opened because Bioware said there would be a cap. If the RPers got word they were all going to a certain server, a bunch of PvE's who are convinced Balmung was ruined by them would go to the opposite.Quote:We are almost certainly heading for a server split. They did it in FF11, so they have precedent. Stats on Balmung have shown that although the active population has lowered, we're still nearly double their volume for an unlocked server - and the majority of those who transferred off did so during the queue and 90k woes immediately following the launch of Stormblood, and they had incentives for transfer. Transfers off are basically a trickle now. There's no logical outcome for us at this point but a split. Do yourselves a favor and don't pretend that it's not going to happen. Avoid being surprised by it. Expect it. Plan for it. Stay tuned to the community so you can be aware of the general consensus as to which server the other roleplayers are going to once the split comes.
First off, it's not really a good idea to compared this game to FFXI in the sense of what can or should happen. This game is completely different in regards to UI, gameplay, and allocation of server resources, and comparisons like that are part of what caused 1.0 to flop. They tried to make it too much like FFXI, and the UI was a dying system that making improvements to was creating more problems than fixing them. ARR was an overhaul, and thus should be handled differently. I think such a drastic measure requires even -more- careful consideration now than ever before because, now, you're not just affecting players' communities, but you're affecting their FCs, their housing, all the money they put into the house/apartment they have, all the money they put into the private chamber they'd be losing by being separated from their FC.
Sure, you can reimburse them, but you can't guarantee they'll get a house on the new server either. It's a more complex system than FFXI was. To my knowledge, you didn't have whole housing communities, just Moghouses. You didn't have FCs, just Linkshells, which were little more than private channels anyway. You didn't have a community you actively contributed to and were rewarded for, other than simply playing the game with others. A splitting of servers was more feasible in FFXI, but not so much for FFXIV.
Housing is really the only difficult thing in this scenario. I'm going to keep an eye out for how they fix it in 4.2 and maybe whatever they do will make people feel more comfortable leaving.