(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.
