Balmung Transfer Restriction Megathread

[Nodem]

There's a lot of good weight and reason to consolidating those who weren't able to get into Balmung. I also think it's far easier and far likelier to get SE to give us more compensations and reimbursements for those who are willing to do that.

 

You're 100% correct, and SE has already mentioned this before in the most recent Letter from the Producer live, aired on May 1st. They will offer us stuff to leave our cozy nests, so to speak.

 

Letter From the Producer XXXV

Q: In an interview, I read that the number of data centers for Japan may change. I'm currently gathering members to run the Omega raid, but are there any plans to change portions of the Elemental or Mana data center?

A: In preparation for Patch 4.0, we are looking at various data, such as the number of active players and their progress in the main scenario.

 

For the Europe region, the Chaos data center population is increasing across all Worlds, so in anticipation of a large increase in traffic, we may open up one or two new Worlds.

 

For Japanese and North American data centers, we see deviations in the populations from World to World. Instead of increasing the number of data centers or adding more Worlds, we're considering incentives for players that transfer to specific Worlds. These are also in consideration for Patch 4.0, so details will be released at a later date.

[Kage]

When I read that part of the translation of the digest morning, this is what I take from SE's stance.

 

All worlds in EU Data Center are being populated at a relatively high but not like the locked worlds numbers. Population is spread out etc. Thus, it makes more sense cost-wise to add another world to even out character population distribution.

 

For Japanese and North American Data Centers, population distributions are extremely scattered and thus they want to even it out before adding worlds.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

I'd rather if they just split the server, as long as they did it intelligently:

 

1. No need to transfer or deal with housing. Players simply opt, on Mog Station, to select one of two new servers their character will be migrated into automatically as of an SE-determined date when the migrations will occur simultaneously.

 

2. On the migration day, they have a server downtime for the day. The database for the origin server gets copied to the two destination servers, and any characters who didn't opt for that server get dummied out in the same way they would if they'd transferred off the server (so their friends' friends lists would say (Unable to Retrieve), etc). Since the database was copied, anything relevant to the character should remain intact - if the character had a house, they still have the same house, same ward, same spot, same decor, etc, just on the new server. If they led an FC, their FC would be right there (albeit missing any members who didn't opt for that server). Members' private chambers would be waiting and still decorated, etc.

 

3. Any players who didn't make a server choice for some or all of their characters by the deadline would lose any housing/chamber/FC they'd owned on that character (though they could pick up their decor items at the broker in the housing ward, as usual). Upon logging into the character, the player would be asked to choose between the two destination servers for the character, and it'd be essentially the same as a server transfer at that point (except for the gil restriction would be lifted, for that situation only). 

 

Sounds simple on paper, but it'd be a bit labor-intense on SE's end. Still, it'd be a fairly clean split. They could even take the opportunity to make the decision easy on the community by labeling one of the destination servers as an RP server. No need for additional rulesets, etc, just because it's an RP server. The only point would be to make, basically, a big sign that says "If you don't care, cool, pick whichever server, but if you do care either way, then go to that server if you want RP and the other one if you don't want to be around it".

[Arrelaine]

Why would they do all that labor when they can just open up free transfers and incentives/reimbursements for already existing servers? Picking another server for RP is essentially already what you're suggesting, without forcing it on people. They're giving people a choice to move or to stay. New players have to pick somewhere else, while people who have had characters here can stay here. -Forcing- people to move is even worse.

[Val]

Why would they do all that labor when they can just open up free transfers and incentives/reimbursements for already existing servers? Picking another server for RP is essentially already what you're suggesting, without forcing it on people. They're giving people a choice to move or to stay. New players have to pick somewhere else, while people who have had characters here can stay here. -Forcing- people to move is even worse.

 

Pretty much this. Forcing people to move never ends well and will cause more problems. People that are tired of the restrictions will inevitably give up and bail, as will others that just want a server to play on that doesn't have the awful pricing of Balmung. And no, having low marketboard prices is not a good thing. It's one of the side effects of how godawfully overcrowded this server has become because SE wasn't intelligent enough to block server transfers ages ago.

 

Honestly, they've been far too good to Balmung players and should have done something about it long before now.

[Kilieit]

I was honestly astounded when I learned FFXIV didn't have an AFK timeout to start with. I also think it's a bit silly to have a character creation limit when a server goes above a certain population, but no AFK timeout. You would think the two measures would go hand-in-hand...

 

This was posted earlier, but I didn't see anybody post a reply about it. Balmung has a LOT MORE active players then other servers.

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/luckybancho/imgs/b/9/b98042e2.jpg

 

Yes, that's my point. The problem is active players (calculated based on who had the Aymeric minion from the 3.3 MSQ), not number of characters... so why do they restrict the creation of new characters (even for players already on the world!) without also restricting how long an AFK player can remain connected to the server?

 

Like, I can't think of a single legit reason why someone would need to stay online but AFK for over an hour, let alone over two or even more.

[Blythe]

Why would they do all that labor when they can just open up free transfers and incentives/reimbursements for already existing servers? Picking another server for RP is essentially already what you're suggesting, without forcing it on people. They're giving people a choice to move or to stay. New players have to pick somewhere else, while people who have had characters here can stay here. -Forcing- people to move is even worse.

 I agree with this. 

 

It's a wonder to see how it will go, but forcing people to move should only be the last possible scenario. Splitting it may not be good either as it may end up having the same thing happening a couple years down the road with the same issue or makes enough people quit to the point that it isn't the same as it was. And to be honest, I don't even think they would give people a choice if they didn't even give a fair warning for this lock out.

 

Right now we are at a very thin line and S.E. is doing as much as they can right now before a server split. (And the fact we are still near Gilgamesh with a server split is kind of frightening to be honest with how many people we have.)

 

Since we don't have enough information yet on these server bonuses, it's a wait and see game until SB comes out anyway. :T

[Leggerless]

Maybe relevant to this topic?

 

In any case, still don't mind the block to Balmung.

 

It's managed to force people into action and devise new plans moving forward. Even if the majority of players won't do much anyways.

 

P.S. I can assure you most of whom I talk with about FFXIV stuff these days are not on Balmung, but also here for the RP part.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Why would they do all that labor when they can just open up free transfers and incentives/reimbursements for already existing servers? Picking another server for RP is essentially already what you're suggesting, without forcing it on people. They're giving people a choice to move or to stay. New players have to pick somewhere else, while people who have had characters here can stay here. -Forcing- people to move is even worse.

 

Pretty much this. Forcing people to move never ends well and will cause more problems. People that are tired of the restrictions will inevitably give up and bail, as will others that just want a server to play on that doesn't have the awful pricing of Balmung. And no, having low marketboard prices is not a good thing. It's one of the side effects of how godawfully overcrowded this server has become because SE wasn't intelligent enough to block server transfers ages ago.

 

Honestly, they've been far too good to Balmung players and should have done something about it long before now.

 

I'm not sure what point you're making. If you dislike Balmung why are you on it? Have you considered that SE doesn't have to be the one to step in and incentivize departure - that if some people on the server are genuinely unhappy and would go ahead and transfer off, maybe that alone would resolve the apparent population issue?

[Lydia Lightfoot]

I'm feeling like the ones who've responded to my comment about a split didn't read any further than my first sentence. The reason people typically rally against splits is because they lose things in the process of them. I've been through it a few times myself in different games and that's been the typical complaint. The idea I put forth is one in which players stand to lose nothing. From the player's perspective, the only differences would be that the server they're on has a different name, and, there'd be less people on it.

[Mercer]

I would like to post an update over here on the state of alternative servers. There's been a lot of talk of what should have been done, but at the moment I think it's best we move forward.

 

We've had the pleasure of several players stepping up and speaking for their communities over on the discussion thread, with many resources in one spot for people looking for a new server. I have also been seeing individual threads being posted announcing where people are going and what communities they are joining.

 

Tomorrow I plan to open up a poll to start whittling down the list of servers. As it stands right now nearly all servers have some kind of small or growing RP community. It's a rather overwhelming choice. Even if no definitive server is chosen, having one or two preferred secondary servers will greatly help the community begin to grow in new ways.

 

I ask you all to please be kind to one another during this poll. There is a lot of effort that companies and communities have put into their servers. It is in no way invalidating the work that has been done growing these servers but rather what the community in general feels will be the safe and secure growth into the future.

[Val]

Why would they do all that labor when they can just open up free transfers and incentives/reimbursements for already existing servers? Picking another server for RP is essentially already what you're suggesting, without forcing it on people. They're giving people a choice to move or to stay. New players have to pick somewhere else, while people who have had characters here can stay here. -Forcing- people to move is even worse.

 

Pretty much this. Forcing people to move never ends well and will cause more problems. People that are tired of the restrictions will inevitably give up and bail, as will others that just want a server to play on that doesn't have the awful pricing of Balmung. And no, having low marketboard prices is not a good thing. It's one of the side effects of how godawfully overcrowded this server has become because SE wasn't intelligent enough to block server transfers ages ago.

 

Honestly, they've been far too good to Balmung players and should have done something about it long before now.

 

I'm not sure what point you're making. If you dislike Balmung why are you on it? Have you considered that SE doesn't have to be the one to step in and incentivize departure - that if some people on the server are genuinely unhappy and would go ahead and transfer off, maybe that alone would resolve the apparent population issue?

 

Have you considered the idea that maybe SE doesn't owe you anything? Speaking of people not reading past the first sentence, it looks like you didn't read past mine. As I mentioned, people that are tired of the restriction will inevitably leave. That will help. People that want to be special snowflaked and complain about quitting? Quit. That'll help solve the issue, too. No one cares and all it's really doing is helping the rest of us, so I appreciate that.

 

As for the split in general? It's a horrible idea. There's no point in doing a split, no point in forcing people off of servers. If you ask them to make two new servers, or even one new server, that's way more OH than just closing one off until people bail (and again, they don't owe you or me or anyone anything).  If you force people to be moved to one server then you have to consider people with: housing already in the plots where people are being moved, how it's going to effect the economy of those servers, character names being used, FC names being used, FC houses already in place where others are, etc etc.

 

In short, it's a mess, and that's not even talking about the technical aspects of it.

[Momoka Yukuharai]

Honestly this was something that bound to have come at some point. There is only so much..water you can put in a bowl before the water just starts to overflow over. 

 

This does suck for those that really wanted to get rp and really do want to rp. Heck I would be more then willing to give up some of the many rp trolls we have for some people that actually want to participate.

 

It is going to really suck for the smaller rp fc's on Balmung on the recruitment angle. I mean even with the new players most people just want to join your linkshell or drop an alt in your fc that they ever really plan on playing. So no new players will surely see some smaller fc's suffering for a little while.

 

Though all and all despite this I'm think I will stick to Balmung anyway. I mean I've been rping on it since 1.0 so unless the entire rp community up and moves server. I think I am likely gonna stay.

 

Honestly this if anything is a lesson that the community as a whole has to work harder in the whole alternative rp world idea and not putting all our eggs in one basket. 

 

Hopefully the lock isn't for to long! At this moment the options are really to transfer to an alternate server or bare with it and see what happens.

[Faye]

I honestly can't comprehend how there are people who are shocked and offended that SE isn't allowing transfers before an expansion to a server that is completely congested (and suffering for it in numerous ways) when their site has been saying for a very long time now, however erroneously, that you can't transfer to Balmung. And it sucks, I get it. I have real life friends who were considering picking up the game with Stormblood, and I know that they won't be arsed to play on another server without us for months and then shell out money to transfer over here when the option is available again after they've already made ties on their original server. It's disappointing. But I also totally understand.

 

Balmung crashes a ton (and sometimes takes the whole data center with it) and has huge log in queues during launches like this, the housing situation is abysmal and SE apparently has no grasp on how to fix it, and the economy on the server is absolutely horrible. The population and stability of the server are not in a good place when the only way you could make a new character for years now is to transfer onto the server. It's not a bad or unpredictable move on SE's part, just one that likely came too late--which is perhaps why some people are getting their jimmies so rustled after being spoiled for so long.

 

But with all that amazement and bitching out of the way, I think it would be a good idea to designate another single server as the secondary RP server rather than just branch off into small groups across half a dozen servers. You'll still have teeny-tiny RP hubs on other servers like always, of course, I just think it would be good to give a specific server the title so people looking for RP could know where to gather while Balmung is locked and form an alternative little community in the meantime.

 

However I wouldn't advise anyone get too comfy there. Most of us remember or have heard about the RP community "split" onto Gilgamesh... and how short-lived and uneven that split was. I think it's pretty normal for RPers in MMO's to want to gather in the most complete and cohesive community they can make. I really think this issue will be an extremely temporary one. As soon as the flood gates to Balmung open again, people will start trickling in and ultimately all but a few groups of stragglers will migrate back.

[Virella]

Don't think people mind the temporary lock. Personally? I completely understand and don't mind at all.

 

However if it proves to be lasting for longer then just a couple of months... That's what my worry is.

 

What seems to be a common misconception though... they did NOT lock transfer to Balmung with Heavensward. I transferred my main to Balmung on the... second day of the Heavenward expansion (early access). I just had hit AST 50 on Ceberus EU, said my goodbyes to my old FC and levelled 50-60 with my friend on Balmung after transferring.

 

Anyhow. My issue would be if they locked it for longer then just a couple of months. But hopefully 1-2 months after Stormblood, it will open again. Who knows!

[Faye]

Don't think people mind the temporary lock. Personally? I completely understand and don't mind at all.

 

However if it proves to be lasting for longer then just a couple of months... That's what my worry is.

 

What seems to be a common misconception though... they did NOT lock transfer to Balmung. I transferred my main to Balmung on the... second day of the Heavenward expansion. I just had hit AST 50 on Ceberus EU, said my goodbyes to my old FC and levelled 50-60 with my friend on Balmung after transferring.

 

Anyhow. My issue would be if they locked it for longer then just a couple of months. But hopefully 1-2 months after Heavensward, it will open again. Who knows!

 

Yeah, I definitely hope it will be a short lock. More than a couple months will be annoying.

[Leggerless]

A couple months, huh.

 

 

Someone that can be arsed to math this out besides me, tell me how long it would take for Balmung to "balance" out according to these recent numbers. #31 in the list.

 

EDIT: Also consider the other servers locked are... roughly half the population of Balmung as well. Maybe 60-75%.

[Virella]

Yeah, I definitely hope it will be a short lock. More than a couple months will be annoying.

Quite so, because a lot of roleplayers, including myself, like big communities. New blood might just not be joining the game due to Balmung being locked.

 

Whereas I agree it would be nice to have another server, or even a smaller one, for people who enjoy smaller communities, it doesn't take away the majority of (new) roleplayers want to join the big hubs, or else just... not join the game at all.

 

If I were to come to this game purely for roleplay, I'd never continued if Balmung was locked. Just because we are safe and well on Balmung doesn't mean we shouldn't try to stress to SE that this is of importance to our roleplay community that it doesn't remain locked. Like it or not and even if people might not care about new people joining us, we need a heap of various types of roleplayers to fuel the community with new ideas, stories and what not.

 

People also somehow seem to think because we all are roleplayers we like roleplaying with one another on top of that. As we all know, that's really not the case. I'd claw my eyes out if I were forced onto a server with a heap of fanon NPC rpers, and that being the only roleplay available.

 

Anyhow... They really will need to come up with a better long term solution, in case they will use the 'temporary' lock as a not so temporary one.

[Zhavi]

Don't think people mind the temporary lock. Personally? I completely understand and don't mind at all.

 

However if it proves to be lasting for longer then just a couple of months... That's what my worry is.

 

What seems to be a common misconception though... they did NOT lock transfer to Balmung. I transferred my main to Balmung on the... second day of the Heavenward expansion. I just had hit AST 50 on Ceberus EU, said my goodbyes to my old FC and levelled 50-60 with my friend on Balmung after transferring.

 

Anyhow. My issue would be if they locked it for longer then just a couple of months. But hopefully 1-2 months after Heavensward, it will open again. Who knows!

 

Yeah, I definitely hope it will be a short lock. More than a couple months will be annoying.

 

More than a couple months is, imo, the only way for a secondary rp server to gain enough entrenched membership to really become something on its own. I mean, part of what reduced Gilgamesh was Reddit and griefing, right? FCs became insular, and all of that. Not even counting the nasty Balmung vs Gilgamesh sentiments that lead to most of them leaving these boards in favor of their own.

 

My biggest concern with another rp server is whether or not people will be uh...willing to share the rp community bounty once Balmung reopens. Cuz I do enjoy options, but the snark and snideness that grew out of misplaced competitiveness over which server was 'better' did no good for anyone.

[Val]

Judging by that screenshot, it looks like the lockout may be longer than a couple of months unless there's a mass exodus. And it sucks, but as Zhavi mentioned above, I think it would be a necessary evil. The community on whatever server is chosen (I'd say Mateus looking at the other thread alone) would be shortlived if people go and then just hop right back over when the restrictions are lifted. It needs to be long enough for people to go/roll there, gain some sense of family/home, and feel the desire to stay.

[EliBallard]

*Sits with his 8 characters on Balmung, surrounded by other RPers as far as the eye can see, gazing down from his tower at the throngs who desperately want to be a part of that community. Ignores the fact that MMOs like all games are a fickle business and first impressions are incredibly important, and that some people have friends that were trying to get on the server.* Heh. This will be good for them. All they have to do is be patient or make their own RP server! People need to stop whining and expecting the company they pay to consider them! Hohohoho!

[Kage]

The lock will take more than a few months. Balmung and Gilgamesh essentially needs to half what it is currently.

 

 

So, if you look at these images we have one of the last unofficial census data taken from the lodestone. Based off whether or not there were changes in lodestone data along with minion obtainment from the MSQ. It’s not precise but it’s a good approximation.

 

North America had 2 Worlds locked indefinitely for character creation and transfers: Balmung and Gilgamesh. Balmung has over 13k active players and Gilgamesh is at 11k. The third highest is Leviathan at 7.2k. Balmung is nearly DOUBLE the third populated. Some worlds are as low as 3k to 2k.

 

Japan’s four worlds locked were Bahamut (9.2k), Chocobo (10.2k), Mandragora (7.2k) and Shinryu (9.9k). Tonberry is 7.7k. My surprise is Tonberry not being closed.

 

EU is getting new worlds. Unconfirmed how many. But look at the near even distribution. 6 of 8 worlds are at 7-8k while the other two are 4.5k

[Blythe]

As I have discussed with one of my other friends on how long this lock out might stay on, it depends. And with what Kage just posted, yeah, that sounds about right with the numbers.

 

I doubt it will be within the first month of Stormblood that is for sure, and there is a good chance it will be after the housing addition of Shirogane. At the earliest, that would make it... August or maybe September? We are seeing at least 3.5 months right there with a server lock if it ends up being the case. But this can be much longer with the numbers that have been posted. 

 

I do agree with all that say there needs to be a long enough time to make a smaller community thrive and sense of family for transfering/newer players.

[Virella]

*Doesn't roleplay at all. Never has. Never will have interest in it, and only does PvE content. But still feels the need to comment despite not being aware of how their community works. In fact they don't even like roleplayers and just sees them as gross nerds.* Heh. This will be good for them. All they have to do is be patient or make their own RP server! People need to stop whining and expecting the company they pay to consider them! Hohohoho!

There, the OF version for you.

[Kage]

*Doesn't roleplay at all. Never has. Never will have interest in it, and only does PvE content. But still feels the need to comment despite not being aware of how their community works. In fact they don't even like roleplayers and just sees them as gross nerds.* Heh. This will be good for them. All they have to do is be patient or make their own RP server! People need to stop whining and expecting the company they pay to consider them! Hohohoho!

There, the OF version for you.

Add ERP and you have the subreddit version.