Mercer

With the maitenance tonight, Balmung is officially a "Congested Server" once again, with all the limitations as before. Source: https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/4dbec81fbda77b5ddafb1f4980285343fbc1dcf2

Wonderful tool!

Apparently there has been some misinformation being spread around the last day or so. Free transfers are still going and as long as Mateus is labeled a prefered server, it's still free to transfer to from Balmung and Gilgamesh. You can find current prefered servers here: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/80cd4583bf743600105b947d6906d0909189e479

We've finally got the last bit of information one day before Stormblood! This is the preferred server list for transfers off of Gilgamesh and Balmung: Coeurl Goblin Mateus Zalera Ok, I think we would have all preferred to have this information a few weeks ago but lets make due with what we have. I'll be linking all the info and threads created up to this point so please educate yourself before voting in the poll. Free Transfer servers will be noted in the poll but all the servers listed have RP communities to join. The poll options are tourniqueted down to the most popular results from Leggerless's tumblr poll and the previous poll. If you want to be part of the EU server discussion go here: EU Server Poll Alternative RP server directory: Alternate RP Server Directory Old Alternate RP server discussion threads: 1st Alternate RP Server Discussion Thread 2nd Alternate RP Server Discussion Thread Leggerless's Tumblr Poll

Something to note is that the free transfers are going to be to a few select servers. We'll find out more during maintenance tomorrow.

This is some great news. The transfer incentives and removing gil caps are what we were expecting but still welcome news. Those new character bonuses. Man, it might be faster to level a fresh character with the amount of XP bonuses being thrown around. The new earrings gives 100% bonus up to 50 and then the server perk of another 100% up to 60. Going to make leveling through HW a breeze.

We've finally got information on when the server transfer info will be given out: Thursday the 15th. I've had a feeling it would be during downtime with the rest of the patchnotes. As soon as we get this info I'll be starting an indefinite poll for people to vote on their preferences. I will be noting the options that have free transfers available but outside of that I won't be splitting the poll.

I wouldn't exactly be as aggressive as Momo, but yes this is a very good change in direction toward RPers. I'd like to clarify what I said earlier, I jumped the gun on my understanding of what was said. Apologies folks. The big thing now is we wait and see what SE has to say or do with surveys and data. In the mean time, I'm going to push out the next round of RP server polls once we know the transfer information.

World Transfer info on the 15th.

The important note is the definitive "NO" on giving Balmung the RP server label. It's too big, too old and too diverse.

Did my survey get referenced by Senpai? I don't know how to feel about this. Edit: This is a joke. This is more likely they want to do their own surveys to collect data on an RP tag. This is very good news.

So... look. I'm one of those Balmung people that transferred over to Mateus to help get settled and promote community growth. How's it going? I'm going to lay down some fucking data here, since the conceived notion that Mateus isn't growing or isn't becoming more active is 100% incorrect. The Mateus RP Hub has grown so much that events are happening daily. They aren't just spur of the moment activities either, there are planned out events happening constantly where it used to be weekly or bi-weekly. The RPM, the RP linkshell of Mateus, is getting ready to open it's 3rd linkshell. That means we are quickly hitting 250 active players. This is a mains only linkshell. Mateus itself has grown by over 700 characters in the last three months alone and is the second fastest growing server behind Cactuar. You know something about Cactuar? It's the largest open server on NA. Mateus is the smallest even after the 700 people. Hell, Mateus has gained 16% of it's total population in the last 3 months alone. This doesn't include anyone under 35. Between my poll and Leggerless's poll, over 400 people have given their vote to support Mateus. With the RPM/RP Hub growth coupled with server populations flourishing it is plainly obvious that not only are people rolling on Mateus there are also transfers (such as I) going to bring Mateus up. Your notion that you think so few are willing to help is wrong when data and events say the opposite. If you feel like more should be done pick up the slack yourself and help build up Mateus.

Oh boy, more Estinein!

I agree. The fact that the server has only lost around 500 characters is not a good sign of server health. By percentage Balmung lost 1.9% of it's population while Gilgamesh lost 3.4%. 1.9% is a drop in the pain compared to the roughly 50% drop needed to be comparable to other high pop servers.

My morning breakfast of data! Thank you Leggerless. So, important things to note about this census: Mateus has grown far faster than servers in a similar situation. 727 new active characters since March. Compared to Goblin, that's twice as much and compared to Zalera that's three times. This also makes Mateus the second fastest growing NA server! Of note: Mateus has gained 16% of it's active character population in the last three months alone. Balmung is bleeding far slower than other servers by percentage. It is by far the most bloated but has lost only 507 compared to Gilgamesh's 702. An important criteria of this census is that for a character to be counted, they have to be above the current free trial cap (35). That means that Mateus' growth of 727 new characters have a significant time investment. This is real server growth, not just alts putting around scoping out the server.

We got ourselves a new Lucky Bancho census post today, just in time for Stormblood. Overall, the game has seen an increase of 21,000 active players since March! By this census info, we're getting close to hitting 600,000k active characters again! Of note: The census this time has a focus on population growth and decline since the server locks were put into place. Cactuar has the fastest growing NA server community having gained 980 new characters since March. This is a concern for Cactuar since they has put them over the 12,000 active population hump. Notable NA realms also in that range: Behemoth, Hyperion and Bahamut(locked). Mateus is the second fastest growing NA server community at 4,423 active characters. They have gained 727 new characters since March, or about 16% of it's entire population. It is no longer the smallest server in the game, wooo! Just the smallest server in the NA/EU regions. Mateus also saw much higher growth than similar small servers in the NA region. Compared to Goblin, Mateus grew by twice as many characters. And compared to Zalera Mateus grew by three times! Goblin and Zalera remain larger than Mateus however. Faerie is also doing particularly well, hitting 11,513 characters after gaining 556 new active characters. They are approaching that 12,000 active character hump so it'll be interesting how the server does as we hit SB release and beyond. Balmung on the other hand is shrinking, so the lock out is working. So far, Balmung has lost 507 active players, bringing their active character count to 25,925. Still by far the largest server in the game yet Gilgamesh lost more characters at 702 in the same time frame. What do we get from this? That the server lockout is working in that smaller servers are getting more attention while larger servers are slowly bleeding players. The server bleed will likely become much more noticeable once server transfers are activated. Also, Mateus' server growth is far higher than servers in a similar situation likely due to the attention it's gotten as the alternative RP server. Edit: Important note about this data, characters under level 36 are not counted for this census. This means that small alts and the like to check out Mateus are not counted. What we're seeing is actual server growth.

Yeah, we're about four years too late for that. Even if Balmung does get labeled as the RP server, there is an extensive population already invested in the server. Friends, Companies, housing, etc that makes it difficult to leave because of the simple fact it's the RP server. The free transfers away with perks and housing reimbursement that SE is going to give out eventually is a better incentive. And combined with the RP server flag, would likely put a dent into the population. However, there is an overwhelming amount of people on Balmung. It needs to lose over 8,000 players at least to become "stable" by the amount of people SE has deemed to be a large server.

Well, if you're joining up make sure to join with the RPM to be connected with a growing, supportive community. Roleplay Mateus

There was a big push by a few people early based on polls that existed for less then 48 hours after the lock down announcement. And a lot of shouting at other opinions that amounted to "if you're not with us, you shouldn't say anything." There are a lot of other communities that exist out there on somewhat more populated servers where an influx won't cause near as much disruption as it would on Mataes. Indeed, there was a lot of drama that first week. It was... a lot of late nights arguing that having alternative RP servers is good instead of waiting around on if Balmung should even unlock. Anyhow, yes there are other communities out there and they should get as much attention as possible. It's always been my goal to try and get as much information as possible for people to make an educated decision on their server of choice. One of the things that makes Mateus appealing is also why the move is so disruptive, server size. Before the lockdown Mateus had a small but passionate RP community. The size of it has tripled, by my estimates. The RPM discord/Linkshell is getting ready to go into it's third linkshell to handle the amount of people willing to join. And... it's made things disruptive to the older community. Mateus as it was is unlikely to return at this point. It's gotten so much attention and so many new players. Even if half of them would leave, that still leaves a sizable population that have acclimated. And once free transfers/incentives open up? Well Mateus is guaranteed to see a whiplash of population one way or another.

That's what most people on this site want. I havent heard anything bad about Mateus, to be honest, though I haven't seen anything bad in my (albeit limited) time there. I probably should've said something a lot more verbal about this before but..I can name a lotta friends of mine who came from Mateus to get away from the inhabitants and saw Balmung as just a 'good option' when looking at the server transfer list at the time. This sort of hostility towards people from Balmung isn't surprising to me at all, since if it happened literally any other server, there would be much better treatment. Well..except maybe Moogle or Zodiark..which is primarily French..or Exodus which is filled with e-peen-stroking PvE elitists who ragequit when getting hit by one AoE with a keyboard through the monitor. Anyhow, I'm actually wondering what made Mateus even stand out or seem like a good idea as opposed to more willing servers like Siren, Goblin or Cactuar. So, from what I've seen in the few threads I've run on the issue, Mateus gained a strong following for 3 reasons: 1) It's very small. The current issue facing Balmung/Gilgamesh is wholly a problem of size. I won't go into the full math here, as I've done another post detailing it. In short, Balmung has three times the desired server population that SE wants. Of the servers mentioned here, Sargantanas, Jenova and Cactuar are close to the same population limits (Around 7,500 active player) so if a sizable number of RPers transfered to them, it would put them in the same situation that Balmung/Gilgamesh are in now. Given Mateus is the smallest populated server in the game, it's also nearly gauranteed to be on the free transfer list off of Balmung. There are a lot of incentives for this transfer (Free Gil and a XP bonus that we know of, likely more.) 2) Active RP community. When Balmung first closed, Mateus and foxfirestorm specifically really helped advertise Mateus as a viable alternative. That there was already an active and healthy RP population despite it's small server population. This information spread on Reddit and Tumblr as well. Over the first week or two of the closure, other linkshells and free companies on Mateus made their pressence known. This has lead to the RPM to swell with population over the last three weeks, gaining about 150-200 members with more that are unaware of the linkshell/discord combo. It'll likely continue to grow. 3) Housing. Until recently Mateus still had even a large house or two available. Now, there are still Mediums available in Goblet and small housing available in all the wards. Apartments are wildly available. The constant demand for more housing on Balmung makes Mateus look particularly attractive given their very low cost housing and availability. When these points came to light last month, that had a great effect on the RP community. Many made alts or transferred over to Mateus to check it out, and that got reflected back on the polls that Leggerless and I ran between Tumblr and the RPC respectivelly. It ended up in a landslide both time toward Mateus. I've since checked it out myself, and I've enjoyed it. Yes there are a few bad eggs specifically, I won't name names because that's just bad form. I have a feeling that we're sharing the same handful of people being outright pricks. Feel free to DM me if this is something you want to talk about in private. Anyhow, that's how Mateus got so much attention. Is it deserved? I think it is for a variety of reasons. I think the biggest hook is that there is a growing community of Balmung and new players, creating a much more diverse population than earlier with plenty of room to grow. It's not something Balmung has enjoyed... really ever.

I've not spoken about my personal experiences on Mateus yet because I like to be as neutral as possible when it comes to the server polls. But I'll make an exception here. Yes, there has been some bias in the Mateus Hub specifically against Balmung players. I have not seen the same kind of bias in the Mateus RP-C discord and linkshell. I have met some wonderful, great people on the server so far and it's gotten my stamp of approval, for all that's worth. But as always, there are going to be bad parts of every community. And again, this is a very rapid change on both sides of the issue. Mateus has been the home for some for a long time. We are coming into their world, and some don't want us. That's alright too, they aren't obligated to hang out or RP with us just like we aren't obligated to do the same to them. The vast majority of people I have met have been excellent to each other and if you are locked out of Balmung or looking for a new place I implore you to give the server a shot. Let the RP-C linkshell know you're interested, they have been growing so rapidly. More Free Companies and Linkshells are popping up. Daily events by a wide array of Free Companies and linkshells are popping up. Mateus has grown so much and so well over the last month. Give the server a shot. You'll be happy you did.

Alright, even if we don't hear about the server transfers I'm going to start the next poll on the 7th. We're starting to cut it close to Early Access and I know a lot of folks are sitting on their hands waiting. If transfer information comes out sooner than that, I'll start the poll that day.

So we are 14 days out from Stormblood. The poll has been resting for a few weeks now and there are going to be even more people joining. Do we feel like we should get the next big poll under way? Of the servers voted on it seems like Mateus, Faerie, Jenova and Sargantas had the most support between the poll here and on Tumblr. Would it be best to limit to those four choices?

Actually, revising that. RDM can instant cast it's raise every other spell. That's some bonkers raid utility. It also enjoys the damage buffs from BRD/MCH and the debuff from BRD/DRG/MCH. That piercing and magic synergy is going to be insane. PLD/MCH/BRD/DRG/RDM sharing the same damage sources and buffs? Oof, that's a stupid strong lineup. I don't think NIN can really compare.

Compared to the other DPS jobs, SAM, BLM and MNK are in a hard spot. MNK's party buff is pretty weak, only 5% with a long cooldown. SAM brings nothing as far as party utility. SMN, BRD, MCH, DRG and RDM all have a lot more utility. Thanks to MCH still bringing that piercing debuff I think we'll see the meta go to PLD/WAR/NIN/DRG/BRD/MCH/SCH/AST. The only real change is swapping DRK for PLD since PLD got some crazy defensive buffs while DRK lost it's niche for being adaptable between OT and MT roles. If DRK damage can remain competitive to SIX FELL CLEAVES, LOL, then it's likely to take the OT spot. It really depends on how crazy raid damage gets. If it's high, then DRK will OT. If not, then 2 more years of FELL CLEAVE, LOL.