The Importance of Consolidating RP on Balmung and Having One RP Hub

[Kage]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

[Vexander]

 

Still waiting for your answer! Also, maybe if you didn't act like you were the smart guy trying to convince us poor, blind sheep of the truth we'd be more receptive to your arguments. Makes you think.

 

I was going to offer to give you an answer when you manage to draft a post that isn't inflammatory, but I'm feeling generous (and believe that drafting such a post would prove difficult).

 

I've mentioned the answer numerous time -- if you physically can't access Balmung, select whatever alternative RP community best suits your tastes, and transfer to the central RP hub [balmung or official RP server if designated] the first opportunity you get.  There are communities to pick from on numerous servers (Maetus, Farie, Lich, etc.).

 

Don't split the party.  Stick together.  For reasons why, see OP.

 

And most of all, you're welcome (insert Moana music here).

One of the most significant reasons the RP community of Balmung has remained there so long is that simply ripping out your roots and transferring is not as easy as it sounds. FCs, LSs, Friends, Houses, etc... you're suggesting that -when- Balmung is opened up, people should do all this and move to Balmung, when there are many on Balmung who are not willing to do this for the same reasons.

 

Don't you think there's something of a double standard in this? The RP community should stand united, I agree, but if its come to the point where we can have more than one stable server, I don't see the issue. When Balmung opens up, I don't see an issue in making alts there, just as some folks from Balmung do not currently see an issue in making alts for Mateus/Faerie/Siren.

 

If you're advocating that we do not split the party, that we stick together, perhaps you should campaign for Balmung's RP'ers to leave Balmung and be with the rest of the RP community, rather than on a server no one can join anymore.

[Leggerless]

So... um. Question. And I'm not really keen to reading through the walls of text yet.

 

Isn't the RPC designed to be a unifying hub (even if out of game) for all servers in FFXIV?

 

Not just Balmung? I mean. It could be used to host events, spread messages, put up signs for linkshells and FCs, across all servers.

[Sig]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

The 25 thumbs up have to count for something?  And yes, a fine petition, I daresay.  I'm surprised the PVEers didn't burn me alive.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

So... um. Question. And I'm not really keen to reading through the walls of text yet.

 

Isn't the RPC designed to be a unifying hub (even if out of game) for all servers in FFXIV?

 

Not just Balmung? I mean. It could be used to host events, spread messages, put up signs for linkshells and FCs, across all servers.

 

Yes.

[Mercer]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

So he did make a thread and didn't want to link it because it's a flame war just like this thread?

 

Why are we even in this thread again?

[Sig]

 

Still waiting for your answer! Also, maybe if you didn't act like you were the smart guy trying to convince us poor, blind sheep of the truth we'd be more receptive to your arguments. Makes you think.

 

I was going to offer to give you an answer when you manage to draft a post that isn't inflammatory, but I'm feeling generous (and believe that drafting such a post would prove difficult).

 

I've mentioned the answer numerous time -- if you physically can't access Balmung, select whatever alternative RP community best suits your tastes, and transfer to the central RP hub [balmung or official RP server if designated] the first opportunity you get.  There are communities to pick from on numerous servers (Maetus, Farie, Lich, etc.).

 

Don't split the party.  Stick together.  For reasons why, see OP.

 

And most of all, you're welcome (insert Moana music here).

One of the most significant reasons the RP community of Balmung has remained there so long is that simply ripping out your roots and transferring is not as easy as it sounds. FCs, LSs, Friends, Houses, etc... you're suggesting that -when- Balmung is opened up, people should do all this and move to Balmung, when there are many on Balmung who are not willing to do this for the same reasons.

 

Don't you think there's something of a double standard in this? The RP community should stand united, I agree, but if its come to the point where we can have more than one stable server, I don't see the issue. When Balmung opens up, I don't see an issue in making alts there, just as some folks from Balmung do not currently see an issue in making alts for Mateus.

 

If you're advocating that we do not split the party, that we stick together, perhaps you should campaign for Balmung's RP'ers to leave Balmung and be with the rest of the RP community, rather than on a server no one can join anymore.

 

We must sadly defer to utilitarian realities.  There are too many RPers entrenched in Balmung, with on-going plots, real property, etc., for a community wide transfer to a new server to take place.  The only thing that could every accomplish that would be an official RP designation.  Again, it doesn't matter what server we're on: what matters is that we're united in one centralized RP hub.  This benefits everyone for the reasons stated in the OP.

[Kage]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers'>http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

The 25 thumbs up have to count for something?  And yes, a fine petition, I daresay.  I'm surprised the PVEers didn't burn me alive.

 

I've had better with less page count.

 

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

So he did make a thread and didn't want to link it because it's a flame war just like this thread?

 

Why are we even in this thread again?

Maybe?

[Sig]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

So he did make a thread and didn't want to link it because it's a flame war just like this thread?

 

Why are we even in this thread again?

 

The thread I made on the official forums is a broader argument against the server restrictions in general and encompasses more than the RP community.  I didn't want to bore PVEers to death with the intricacies of the RP community.

 

Although terminating the server restriction would be ideal, it is far more probable that SE would designate an official RP if we could get our ducks in a row and advocate for that course of action collectively.  Hence, that is why I linked Nero's thread in the OP, and why I believe effort is best spent seeking the official RP server designation.

[Mercer]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

The 25 thumbs up have to count for something?  And yes, a fine petition, I daresay.  I'm surprised the PVEers didn't burn me alive.

 

I've had better with less page count.

 

Never mind the fact that posters just below him disagreeing have 4 times the thumbs.

[Sig]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

The 25 thumbs up have to count for something?  And yes, a fine petition, I daresay.  I'm surprised the PVEers didn't burn me alive.

 

I've had better with less page count.

 

Correct ideas are not always popular.

[Mercer]

What have I become Kage? What have I become?

[TheLastCandle]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

The 25 thumbs up have to count for something? And yes, a fine petition, I daresay. I'm surprised the PVEers didn't burn me alive.

 

I've had better with less page count.

 

Correct ideas are not always popular.

 

Hoooookay.

 

Time to get off the high chocobo.

[ArmachiA]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers'>http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

The 25 thumbs up have to count for something?  And yes, a fine petition, I daresay.  I'm surprised the PVEers didn't burn me alive.

 

I've had better with less page count.

 

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

So he did make a thread and didn't want to link it because it's a flame war just like this thread?

 

Why are we even in this thread again?

Maybe?

 

It's me.

[Vexander]

We must sadly defer to utilitarian realities.  There are too many RPers entrenched in Balmung, with on-going plots, real property, etc., for a community wide transfer to a new server to take place.  The only thing that could every accomplish that would be an official RP designation.  Again, it doesn't matter what server we're on: what matters is that we're united in one centralized RP hub.  This benefits everyone for the reasons stated in the OP.

I disagree that an Official RP Designation by Square is the only way it could happen. I think the players can make it happen.

 

I don't think we can really stress enough that Balmung is closed and locked for the foreseeable future, possibly forever. If it is unhealthy to keep the RP community split, and the RP community cannot consolidate on Balmung, then logically the onus of keeping the community united is upon the RP community of Balmung. Having been a Balmung RP'er for over two years, I left it recently for Mateus to do just that. I don't expect everyone to follow in my wake, nor do I ask it of them. I would ask, however, that players keep an open mind, and if they're feeling adventurous, to seize the opportunity and join the new unofficial RP server now, while resources such as housing are available, while the ground foundation is still new. Now is the time to strike out and make a new server, and to make it amazing.

[Flynn Bladebreaker]

Get this through your head.

 

Balmung is full. They can't simply lift the restrictions. Even if they did people would still have to pay to transfer in. An official tag would be nice but until then we need to take action. We have a centralized hub, it's this website. RP can exist on more than one server, it doesn't all have to be on one. I wish it were but the server is simply full, and people exist on the other side of the lake.

[EliBallard]

Genuinely wondering if we're being trolled at this point. What's lame is that people who don't know better may actually listen to this and be deterred from joining a very real community on Mateus because of it. That makes me pretty ornery.

[Kage]

We must sadly defer to utilitarian realities.  There are too many RPers entrenched in Balmung, with on-going plots, real property, etc., for a community wide transfer to a new server to take place.  The only thing that could every accomplish that would be an official RP designation.  Again, it doesn't matter what server we're on: what matters is that we're united in one centralized RP hub.  This benefits everyone for the reasons stated in the OP.

I disagree that an Official RP Designation by Square is the only way it could happen. I think the players can make it happen.

 

I don't think we can really stress enough that Balmung is closed and locked for the foreseeable future, possibly forever. If it is unhealthy to keep the RP community split, and the RP community cannot consolidate on Balmung, then logically the onus of keeping the community united is upon the RP community of Balmung. Having been a Balmung RP'er for over two years, I left it recently for Mateus to do just that. I don't expect everyone to follow in my wake, nor do I ask it of them. I would ask, however, that players keep an open mind, and if they're feeling adventurous, to seize the opportunity and join the new unofficial RP server now, while resources such as housing are available, while the ground foundation is still new. Now is the time to strike out and make a new server, and to make it amazing.

 

We don't need to wait for SE to make it happen. While I agree in the short term that choosing an RP server to go to for those without a place now is a damn good idea. Going further I really hope that there is a concerted effort for some on Balmung, some communities in the other servers to join in on a designated world. A thriving, flourishing RP server will come to fruition.

[Leggerless]

So... um. Question. And I'm not really keen to reading through the walls of text yet.

 

Isn't the RPC designed to be a unifying hub (even if out of game) for all servers in FFXIV?

 

Not just Balmung? I mean. It could be used to host events, spread messages, put up signs for linkshells and FCs, across all servers.

 

Yes.

 

Neat. Anyways!

 

I wanted to post some important results from my Tumblr polls I ran throughout the weekend. Beware, the results may shock you. Maybe.

 

Server Choice Poll || To make or not to make a new RP server

 

Note: This is from a small sample of a whole population. The purpose was to gather information, not to designate a server at the time.

 

Poll #1: Server Choice

 

Rankings:

 

1. Mateus

2. None (Balmung Only as the RP server)

3. Sargatanas

4. New world at SB (Square makes this, but EU servers only confirmed?)

5. Jenova

6. Cactuar

 

Poll #2: Designate or not?

 

Rankings:

 

1. Yes (With an astonishing 77% of votes)

2. Not at this time

3. No

 

Alright, got my information in! I'm satisfied.

 

Carry on, party people.

 

EDIT: These results I reported as of writing this reply to the thread. There's my timestamp.

 

EDIT 2: Jesus. Yes. Unnamed is very much correct on his logic related to servers and specifically on the network connection part (aside from hardware requirements for servers).

[Kaiser]

Hoooookay.

 

Hooplah? Someone please lock this thread or just toss it to the endless abyss known as the Void.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Hoooookay.

 

Hooplah? Someone please lock this thread or just toss it to the endless abyss known as the Void.

 

No. The thread has valid points. And like any large group, people don't need to agree. (Even if I'll keep fighting to tell people how servers work.)

 

The latter option isn't even an option. If a thread is locked here, I believe there's a specific rule going "don't remake locked threads here."

[Sig]

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers'>http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

The 25 thumbs up have to count for something?  And yes, a fine petition, I daresay.  I'm surprised the PVEers didn't burn me alive.

 

I've had better with less page count.

 

One was made. It got shit on in the official forums.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/324984-Petition-to-Terminate-Restrictions-on-Transfer-to-%E2%80%9CHigh-Population%E2%80%9D-Servers

 

So he did make a thread and didn't want to link it because it's a flame war just like this thread?

 

Why are we even in this thread again?

Maybe?

 

It's me.

 

Me too.  Trust me, I don't enjoy engaging in circa 1999 forum discussions, and wouldn't do so unless these issues were critical to the long term health of the FFXIV RP community (which is something awesome and worth raising a ruckus over).

[Val]

The idea that you need everyone on one server for RP to be healthy is simply untrue. WoW has two thriving RP servers, Wyrmrest Accord and Moon Guard, as well as several medium-to-smaller servers with a handful of active guilds, even if they're not on the scale of the big two. The RP scene in WoW is mostly split between two servers, not one megaserver, and neither of them somehow suffer for it. 

 

There are probably other MMOs with multiple healthy RP servers but my only experiences are with WoW and FFXIV so they're all I can accurately talk about.

 

The fact of the matter is we're in a situation where the "Wyrmrest Accord" that is Balmung now needs a "Moon Guard" at its side, because Balmung is locked for the foreseeable future. New players that Stormblood will bring have no way to get into Balmung at all, so if they want to RP they're simply out of luck.

 

And what many of us are saying is: YES, we need a new RP Server, BUT we would like it be officially sanctioned. That is the big difference between what you are comparing our situation to. Those servers are official RP servers designated by the company, if that were the case here, we would just choose a second server to occupy and be done with it, RP tagged servers draw RPers on their own, so it would make things a lot easier for future RPers.

 

People have been saying this for 2+ years now. We're telling them that while it's cool to wish it, expecting it isn't gonna make it happen any faster than it already has been. OP just seems to love to gloss over every fact/statistic thrown his way in light of unrealistic expectations.

[Mercer]

So, thank you Kage for linking the official forum posts. It allowed me to go a bit deeper on the current problems facing Balmung on a hardware level.

 

I refer to this post from 2013:

 

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/dba4c2a0cdfc83e184ee0eaac3ab27ba2fe51b35

 

This post details what we currently know of the queue system and login information. 7,500-7,800 simultaneous logins. To put that into perspective...

 

That means that right now Balmung has over 7,500 people logged in at all times. There is always a queue, no matter how minor. We know the current active population to be around 22,000 players thanks to previous processing of characters on the lodestone cross referenced with achievements and changes between patches.  There are flaws in such an estimate, but they are usually seen as being on the low end of estimation. It is also inline with the login limits compared to where the other locked servers are sitting at. 

 

If we take the hopeful approach that SE doubled their server ability to 15,000 in the span of three years, we are still looking at a huge number of people trying to log in. And considering the 7,500 limit is close to what the smallest locked server is, I can't see that even being possible.

 

So we're looking at during the biggest down time in the expansion 22,000 active players or more. That is going to increase with Stormblood and more people will be on for longer.

 

I want to hammer that point down. 22,000+ trying to log on to Balmung at the same time. The queue times alone would be staggering. The stability of the realm and data center is going to be flaky. We have seen this happen with Heavensward. The population has grown by over 6,000 since 3.0.

 

To be perfectly frank, I think shit is more real than we've given credit for.

[Leggerless]

So, thank you Kage for linking the official forum posts. It allowed me to go a bit deeper on the current problems facing Balmung on a hardware level.

 

I refer to this post from 2013:

 

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/dba4c2a0cdfc83e184ee0eaac3ab27ba2fe51b35

 

This post details what we currently know of the queue system and login information. 7,500-7,800 simultaneous logins. To put that into perspective...

 

That means that right now Balmung has over 7,500 people logged in at all times. There is always a queue, no matter how minor. We know the current active population to be around 22,000 players thanks to previous processing of characters on the lodestone cross referenced with achievements and changes between patches.  There are flaws in such an estimate, but they are usually seen as being on the low end of estimation. It is also inline with the login limits compared to where the other locked servers are sitting at. 

 

If we take the hopeful approach that SE doubled their server ability to 15,000 in the span of three years, we are still looking at a huge number of people trying to log in. And considering the 7,500 limit is close to what the smallest locked server is, I can't see that even being possible.

 

So we're looking at during the biggest down time in the expansion 22,000 active players or more. That is going to increase with Stormblood and more people will be on for longer.

 

I want to hammer that point down. 22,000+ trying to log on to Balmung at the same time. The queue times alone would be staggering. The stability of the realm and data center is going to be flaky. We have seen this happen with Heavensward. The population has grown by over 6,000 since 3.0.

 

To be perfectly frank, I think shit is more real than we've given credit for.

 

Welp.

 

Shit.

 

That's basically what this means to me the more I read it again and again.

 

Also OP, hope you didn't skim over those poll results

 

EDIT: Don't forget about Gilgamesh's population *and* the other servers all on the same datacenter. Not just Balmung players connecting in either.