Balmung Transfer Restriction Megathread

[Iron Bride]

I've been kind of expecting them to do this for a while, to be honest.   It's a sensible move just prior to an expansion.

 

That doesn't mean it sucks any less for the folks that are affected, but I expect it will be temporary.

 

Temporary like the character creation locks that haven't been changed in like...three years?

 

Mmkay.

 

From what I understand, this was done for Heavensward as well.

[BumblingSeaBiscuit]

*looks over here*

 

Kind of shitty they did this so suddenly without warning.

 

They've been telling us to not transfer to fill world's for a really long time. They just weren't actually enforcing their words. It sucks, but this is also the perfect chance to foster some larger RP communities on other servers. (I can almost hear Mateus server people screaming!)

 

 

And why would we be screaming?

Just curious actually.

 

I don't think there was aggression intended here. I think Merc meant like, "Screaming in excitement," because there will be more people going to your server. At least, that's how I read the implication! I could be wrong. ^-^;;

[Koti Nexus]

*looks over here*

 

Kind of shitty they did this so suddenly without warning.

 

They've been telling us to not transfer to fill world's for a really long time. They just weren't actually enforcing their words. It sucks, but this is also the perfect chance to foster some larger RP communities on other servers. (I can almost hear Mateus server people screaming!)

 

 

And why would we be screaming?

Just curious actually.

 

I don't think there was aggression intended here. I think Merc meant like, "Screaming in excitement," because there will be more people going to your server. At least, that's how I read the implication! I could be wrong. ^-^;;

 

Yeah-- why I added my PS, cause I realized I probably was misreading. It is late. I'm tired. I feel shitty this is happening to Balmung at the same time--- Having to deal with growing pain issues on the RPC which has me grinding my teeth.

 

Combine it all together and you got rawr Xaela!

[Iron Bride]

But yeah. It might also help nurture some of the smaller RP communities, I would certainly encourage people who are scattered over many of the smaller servers (Jenova, Mateus..) to see if it's possible to come together completely in one place and foster Balmung's little sister.

 

It would be lovely to have a more consolidated "little sister" server for RP here, especially given character slot limitations!  I have far more ideas for characters than I do slots, but I'm hesitant to make a character on a server that doesn't have a substantial RP community on it.  

 

I actually walked away from FFXIV after playing the free trial once over a year ago, because I didn't know I could pay to transfer into a new-character-locked Balmung, and the only other server that was listed here as having a roleplaying community was Gilgamesh (also locked).  So not having a community-designated secondary server actually hurt my willingness to stay with the game in that case.  It's possible we could grow the RP community by having another option out there.

[YaiCola]

Fortunately for myself I have all the alts I had planned for the immediate future but I very much hope this isn't a permanent change. I understand their desire to advocate for spreading out to another server due to latency and other issues but.. darn.

[Maril]

But yeah. It might also help nurture some of the smaller RP communities, I would certainly encourage people who are scattered over many of the smaller servers (Jenova, Mateus..) to see if it's possible to come together completely in one place and foster Balmung's little sister.

 

It would be lovely to have a more consolidated "little sister" server for RP here, especially given character slot limitations!  I have far more ideas for characters than I do slots, but I'm hesitant to make a character on a server that doesn't have a substantial RP community on it.  

 

I actually walked away from FFXIV after playing the free trial once over a year ago, because I didn't know I could pay to transfer into a new-character-locked Balmung, and the only other server that was listed here as having a roleplaying community was Gilgamesh (also locked).  So not having a community-designated secondary server actually hurt my willingness to stay with the game in that case.  It's possible we could grow the RP community by having another option out there.

 

There are presently established communities. I am only going to speak about Jenova, because that's the only place I've got an alt and I've done a little bit of RP on- 

What Jenova needs from my experience, is something like a centralized Discord or more of an active presence here on the RPC that can help direct people at guilds that foster RP. 

Presently I know Reclamations United to be one such guild that also has a high focus on helping people gear up & level. Basically the friendly type of helping guild you may have seen in other mmorpgs too. 

 

Speaking for myself but also as a moderator here, I know we'd like to do what we can to help people get to the right places - We see a very big volume of new RP'ers come by these forums for help and resources. 

 

 

So in the light of all of this, it might be an idea to create a discord or a thread here (or both) that people can organize in. It doesn't strictly have to be with the intention of going to Jenova, but there may be more people willing to put alts in new places like you are. I mean honestly, I could see myself doing it too (moreso than I have already.)

Went and did that. Info here.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

 

There are presently established communities.

 

The problem is that it's very small communities on a dozen or more servers, and most players don't find the idea of a small pool of roleplay partners to be very appealing compared to the potential of a larger pool. 

 

IMO, the best thing that could happen would be for the leaders of those communities to get in touch and coordinate, and to poll the roleplayers on their server to find out how many of them would be willing to transfer off their current server if a major exodus were to occur. Determine a destination server (which could be one of the ones which already has a community - but should ideally be one that has a lot of open housing available, for obvious reasons) and collectively start getting people to migrate to it. 

 

Math makes the concept clearer: If you have 10 servers with 50 roleplayers each, and 20 roleplayers from 9 of the servers would be willing to transfer to the 10th, now you have a server with 230 roleplayers (and 9 servers with 30 roleplayers who may reconsider their choice not to transfer, in light of the larger community that's banded together on the destination server).

[Swanmay]

I think this is a very double edged sword.

 

Yes, it sucks that Balmung was locked down and that our friends can't get on to play with us. I was hoping my boyfriend irl would be able to join me in-game. But alas that is a pipe dream that will have to wait. On the other hand, I sincerely hope it encourages other RP communities to pop up and subsequently thrive. Which I'm sure it will given time.

 

For example, I'm an EU player and my ping has likely gone through the roof, but there isn't an EU server for RP or we would all be on it. Maybe now we can start another community on a low pop EU world. Of course, there is a lot that square Enix could do to help this, starting with actually designating worlds for their purpose. Having a list in game like;

Balmung - RP (high population)

Gilgamesh - RP (high population)

Mateus - RP (low population)

For once I am advocating for copying the WoW style of things, because at least they give us plenty of info from the get go.

 

I also agree with what has been said about people coordinating on these other severs, and I would love to help with that. But like many others, I have connections on Balmung that I'm not willing to let go. Which gives us another problem, how do we entice people to transfer off Balmung? Unless entire FCs up and move, it's unlikely anyone will want to for the aforementioned reasons. The only plus side to this is that new players don't have any choice anymore.

[Cassandra]

players who to transfer to or create new characters on designated Worlds across all data centers will receive special bonuses as described below.

* Pleased be advised the bonuses planned for implementation are subject to change.

Bonuses

 

Transfers to designated Worlds will be free of charge.

EXP bonuses will be applied to designated Worlds (up to level 60).

Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on designated Worlds.

EXP bonuses will be applied to newly established Worlds (up to level 60).

Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on newly established Worlds.

 

This part leaves me a bit... uncertain? It's listed under the EU section but does seem to imply all worlds. If it turns out to be the latter, I really can't take issue with this decision. There's a much better chance PvE oriented players will try out other servers, especially for housing. Whether roleplay spreads though... remains to be seen.

[Flynn Bladebreaker]

All SE needs to do is just tag one server each in NA, EU, and JP. They've already given us the player tags, no reason to stop there. And this will help ease up congestion. PVEers will likely move away, new RPers will know where to go, and for us EU folk? Well, I'm completely down for moving if I had a solid answer on where all the EU RP would be. I'm constantly hearing multiple servers and that makes it even harder to decide.

[Deneve]

All SE needs to do is just tag one server each in NA, EU, and JP. They've already given us the player tags, no reason to stop there. And this will help ease up congestion. PVEers will likely move away, new RPers will know where to go, and for us EU folk? Well, I'm completely down for moving if I had a solid answer on where all the EU RP would be. I'm constantly hearing multiple servers and that makes it even harder to decide.

But then Balmung would just get that tag, wouldn't they? If not, what would Balmung be after they tag a different server? "The actual RP server but not the one you can get into?" And TBH I don't agree with "PvErs will (or should) move away." That's their home and whatever minority RP community it has is just that, a minority. Otherwise it's prolly all OOC socializing and PvE/PvP; not really fair to them to chase them out of a server they made home and helped build

 

edit: i figured my point wasn't very clear as much as i was just being a negative nancy. what i was trying to say mostly is that designating a single regional rp server is going to do more harm than good for that server's pre-existing community and it'll just inevitably lead to congestion on that server.

 

maybe tagging multiple might be better, but tbh a lot of it is just us figuring out where we want to be if not balmung. i heard jenova and mateus, right? it's more a matter of just a few leaders stepping up and going 'we'll go to X together' and advertising it on the servers they choose, honestly.

[Swanmay]

All SE needs to do is just tag one server each in NA, EU, and JP. They've already given us the player tags, no reason to stop there. And this will help ease up congestion. PVEers will likely move away, new RPers will know where to go, and for us EU folk? Well, I'm completely down for moving if I had a solid answer on where all the EU RP would be. I'm constantly hearing multiple servers and that makes it even harder to decide.

 

I think Moogle was the one I heard of when I first started playing, not too sure now. Maybe start something on here?

[Rash'ka]

I'd definitely be interested if a new server was being targeted for RP. Been wanting to start RP for a while in FFXIV. I got caught by this transfer block this morning. With the maintenance scheduled I said I'd wait to see if I could create a character on Balmung before I bought a server transfer. Unfortunately I didn't create it quick enough and then found out the hard way that Balmung server transfers had been cut off

 

Curse my cheapness! But maybe I can use this as a characteristic for a new character on a new RP server :dodgy:

[savail]

My spouse has been playing with some friends on Phoenix. 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). Apparently, there's a decent-sized linkshell for RP over there that he got an invite to.

 

My go-to test of throwing snowballs with and without /motion didn't elicit any reactions or impromptu snowball fights, though, sadly. Maybe I just had bad luck, but I don't know. However, I have three remaining characters I can just as easily go to whenever I want to dick around on Bal.

 

Anyway, if I do, there will be an apartment spot in Mist opening up soon. I'd want to move before Stormblood to avoid all the congestion problems...Just trying to work out the financial aspect of it since I'd need to move my Phoenix character of the same name off before I moved this one over there, and that's $36 right there. :dazed:

[Kage]

To add to the OP here's the lodestone link.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/fee198ff2f37cd22f5b138f7672360440abe9651#_ga=2.14455735.1694938568.1495006447-1964040259.1484653876

 

 

On the release of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood on Tuesday, June 20, login restrictions will be put in place on highly populated Worlds which may result in players having difficulty logging in.

 

In light of this, a number of preemptive measures will be taken in order to ensure players have an enjoyable experience playing FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood.

 

We will also begin taking steps to encourage an even distribution of active players across all Worlds.

 

Suspension of World Transfers to High Population Worlds

 

Transfers to the following Worlds will be suspended until their active player populations have stabilized.

 

Gaia

Bahamut

 

Mana

Chocobo

Mandragora

Shinryu

 

Aether

Balmung

Gilgamesh

 

 

Suspension of Character Creation on High Population Worlds

 

Character creation on the following Worlds will be suspended until their active player populations have stabilized.

 

Gaia

Bahamut

 

Mana

Chocobo

Mandragora

Shinryu

 

Aether

Balmung

Gilgamesh

 

Increase to Gil Limit for World Transfers

 

To better accommodate players moving from high population Worlds to low population Worlds, the amount of gil that can be transferred with characters and retainers has been increased as follows (Please note this also applies when transferring to high population Worlds):

 

Players Before: 1 mil to Players after: 10mil

Retainers: 100k to 5mil

 

If players are able to transfer characters without problems after these changes, we will consider removing the gil limit on character transfers.

 

Addition of EU Data Center Worlds and Improvements to Population Distribution

 

All Worlds on the EU data center are presently experiencing high levels of player congestion. To resolve this issue, new Worlds will be added at the release of 4.0.

Moreover, players who to transfer to or create new characters on designated Worlds across all data centers will receive special bonuses as described below.

* Pleased be advised the bonuses planned for implementation are subject to change.

 

Bonuses

 

Transfers to designated Worlds will be free of charge.

EXP bonuses will be applied to designated Worlds (up to level 60).

Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on designated Worlds.

EXP bonuses will be applied to newly established Worlds (up to level 60).

Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on newly established Worlds.

For players who own personal housing, we are planning a number of provisions including a reimbursement for the full price of the estate, and compensation for the cost of furnishings which we will add in subsequent updates moving forward. We also plan to accommodate free companies members that plan to move together with or without a free company estate.

 

We thank you for your patience and understanding as we strive to create an enjoyable playing environment for players on all Worlds.

[Kylin]

Honestly, this was definitely needed. There's a difference between being "crowded" and "overcrowded." Balmung is the latter. The RP community has grown too large to sustain itself in a healthy manner. It's unfortunate that SE had to walk the path of total lockdown to get things back on track, but it's a necessary evil at this point. Up to this point, everyone has continued to keep urging new RPers to come to Balmung every single time. There has been minimal encouragement to move them elsewhere to help our stability.

 

I do hope and continue to believe that cross-world play is still on its way since SE has already mentioned cross-world tells, friend lists, linkshells, and FCs being in the works. It's just probably a ways off. In the meantime, it's our responsibility to see to it that RP is capable of continuing to grow, rather than be stifled by Balmung's unhealthy devouring of every single RPer. I see this as a 'forced diet,' and it's definitely needed.

 

That said, it's up to the other servers to up their game to ensure every new RPer gets the solid experience they deserve. I've been to Siren and Mateus both. Siren has a lot of work to do. A LOT. Mateus is in better shape, but also needs to up its game considerably with more varied event types, more open world RP, and less strict policies that needlessly stifle growth. It's essentially doing what we did here with the  RPC Council/Charter type of deal, which does not work in coalition environments like this. Gilgamesh was born out of contempt for Balmung/Besaid, and I personally would never consider it for that reason alone. However, it does have the name recognition and really needs to work on its internal issues and presence in the larger community. The forced cutoff may be what they need to accomplish that and become a force to be reckoned with again. Basically, it's up to these communities to seize this moment and run with it, and we should be as supportive as possible through it all.

[BumblingSeaBiscuit]

Addition of EU Data Center Worlds and Improvements to Population Distribution

 

All Worlds on the EU data center are presently experiencing high levels of player congestion. To resolve this issue, new Worlds will be added at the release of 4.0.

Moreover, players who to transfer to or create new characters on designated Worlds across all data centers will receive special bonuses as described below.

* Pleased be advised the bonuses planned for implementation are subject to change.

 

Bonuses

 

Transfers to designated Worlds will be free of charge.

EXP bonuses will be applied to designated Worlds (up to level 60).

Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on designated Worlds.

EXP bonuses will be applied to newly established Worlds (up to level 60).

Gil and free play time will be awarded to newly created characters that reach a certain level on newly established Worlds.

For players who own personal housing, we are planning a number of provisions including a reimbursement for the full price of the estate, and compensation for the cost of furnishings which we will add in subsequent updates moving forward. We also plan to accommodate free companies members that plan to move together with or without a free company estate.

 

We thank you for your patience and understanding as we strive to create an enjoyable playing environment for players on all Worlds.

 

Re-reading this a few times, it does sound like people will receive the listed benefits if they transfer off Balmung and onto a designated server. Their wish-washy use of, "All Worlds," really flip flops and adds confusion but what clarifies it for me is, "Moreover, players who to transfer to or create new characters on designated Worlds across all data centers will receive special bonuses as described below." 

 

If that's true and say, I transfer off Balmung and go to Jenova, and receive the listed benefits that's. . .  That's not bad. That's pretty nice. Especially if you can take entire Free Companies / there's some sort of deal there. I think after that, it's trying to get the community to "choose" a secondary roleplay server and/or an EU roleplay server (to which people are already discussion, I might suggest a poll hosted here on the RPC or Discord. Honestly, I'd use the RPC because not everyone wants an off-site medium).

 

Edit:

Added the lodestone & Kage's post to the OP. Also stated that it appears transfer benefits will be a thing come Stormblood.

 

Edit 2:

Added the EU server poll to OP and linked here. 

[Rash'ka]

My spouse has been playing with some friends on Phoenix.  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).  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.

[BumblingSeaBiscuit]

[align=center]EU RP Server Discussion & Poll[/align]

 

To keep things concise and so that people aren't going back and forth between topics trying to talk about the same thing and losing context, I'd like to see people move the EU RP Server discussion to that thread and poll if no one particularly minds! Keeps topics nice and smooth. ♥

[EliBallard]

To call the groups on servers like Lich or Phoenix 'RP communities' is highly disingenuous. It's a few people who RP, that's all. So far of the ones I've checked only Mateus and Siren have had actual communities of RPers on them.

[Haven's Fox]

Well this is a pretty interesting surprise. Locking a server down 100% seems like a pretty poor idea in the long run and long run I hope this is not.

 

SE should have taken this chance to continue with the high pop world character creation limits. It would be just as before but offer worthwhile incentives to create characters on all mid/lower pop servers. With what they listed in the post I have a feeling it may only apply to the new and very bottom low pop servers. But it is a start with the bonuses in the end and I wonder when it does start.

 

Also damn that gil transfer hike. Quick napkin math puts a full 8 characters with retainers at lugging 160m gil around now versus 9.6m gil. That would have been amazing to have at the start... issues notwithstanding.

[Kailani]

My comment really only has to do with the preventing of new players transferring to avoid the irate mob that won't be able to log in on the day Stormblood launches. Coming from a game where an expansion release caused servers to crash nonstop, people being unable to log in for hours if not days, and the idea of pissing off many loyal subscribers... I get it and I appreciate it. It really ruins the whole feeling that a new expansion initially brings when you sit at the login screen for hours and hours, only to be kicked out of queue and to start all over. Instead of them being able to focus on account issues and bugs in game, they will have to take on the immense amount of emails and tickets of infuriated players simply because of a queue and disconnects.

 

Though saying all of that, I absolutely agree that the transfer restriction should not last more than the inception of the expansion itself because as most people here have said, this server has deep roots and the only way for it to continue to flourish is through new blood. I myself have brought over four or five friends since I started playing and would hate to think that others couldn't be granted the same right to play on Balmung.

 

But I'm not going to get my tail feathers in an uproar right now since we have no idea how long it'll last and it seems they are already trying to give perks to those who play on other worlds. If I was a new player who came here to play on Balmung, I would just start on one of those other worlds and hang tight (not to mention, take advantage of the perks). Learning the game and leveling up with friends on your screen absolutely does enhance the experience but I wouldn't let that stop me with the possibility that transfers could open up again after the madness ends.

 

I really do hope to see another server take on the enthusiasm people have for Balmung's RP community though. It would be fantastic to have such an obvious showing of players who are here for the roleplay. Tagging just a few servers would help immensely.

[EliBallard]

What's more likely to happen is that nobody from any of the smaller communities is willing to make the jump as they all wail into the void that theirs is the true "other" RP server. Hell, the Discord made for people to discuss these issues gets prickly at the mere mention of actual community size to avoid hurting peoples feelings.

 

If people aren't willing to be cold and logical about naming an unofficial second RP server and admit that maybe their FC being open to RP doesn't necessarily make it a real RP community for new people nothing will change.

[ExAtomos]

Thinking out loud... I kind of wonder if it would be a good idea to plant a solid RP community for the EU RPers whose ping has gotten bad on one of these new EU servers that's coming in. Start at the start, so to speak.

 

Like others have said, part of the problem is that RP on Balmung is so established. It's everywhere; it's a high percentage of the player base on the server; RPers don't have to feel weird RPing out and about cause it's the norm. Every night there are 3-8 publicized RP events; this isn't counting FC/LS events that aren't put on the calendar. Hell, I even had a small group of roleplayers back on Atomos... but I wouldn't transfer back there to foster it; I have a veritable buffet of RP just handed out to me on Balmung. Running events on Balmung is enough work. Trying to grow a new community from scratch (by oneself or with one other person is where I'm coming from here, so ymmv) just makes me cringe.

 

A major problem is that you don't have any sort of consolidated offering of regular RP anywhere but Balmung. You have Siren, Mateus, Gilgamesh (? I thought all RPers left once it became the hardcore raiding server and some problems happened in the RP community), Phoenix, Shiva, Jenova... each with a small group saying "Come here!" Are any of these groups willing to move to ONE server to work together on this and offer what I see as a viable alternative to the big city that is Balmung?

 

(edited for clarity. I don't mean move all of the RPers to an EU server, lawls. I mean an actual viable EU RP server.)

[Erah'sae]

I saw mention up above that Balmung has gotten too large to be healthy.  

 

I'd say the opposite.  Balmung is above that critical mass point where RP starts to just happen and the community becomes near self sustaining.  This as opposed instead of having everything segregated and insular.  There's enough variety and enough breadth to where you don't see the cliquishness and infighting that's constantly plagued "that other game" because of it's raw size, everyone has the ability to just 'be somewhere else' and have something to do.  FC leaders aren't as worried about people stepping on their ideas because there's room, population wise, for more then one group to do a gimmick.  

 

I do see the need for other RP servers but mostly because we have a scarcity of resources in the form of housing.  If Square ever fixes that, I'd almost argue they should work on increasing world capacity instead of adding new servers.  Bring more people together instead of trying to split them apart.  Maybe with the direction they're going with cluster wide friends lists and the like it won't matter in the end.  

 

I do agree with a lock down at the start of the expansion though.  Expansions bring an influx of returning and new players who will be itching to 'play with their friends' during what is already the highest player concurrency times in a game.  Queues suck both log in and otherwise, extra overcrowding as everyone rolls a red mage/samauri in the open world is going to be interesting as well.   At least in this game we don't have to 'get the tag' to get quest credit.