Any Plans For A Server Merge?

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Any plans for a server merge?
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 Lakshmi.Cadant
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By Lakshmi.Cadant 2015-09-30 09:23:28
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I returned last week to play through the WotG story and new RoV story. I noticed that the server population during the week is rarely over 400 and I think I saw ~650 during the weekend.

While I don't mind solo play, it would be cool to have a full server again. There's what, 17 active servers? Is there any reason they couldn't reduce that down to 5-10?

Has there been any mention of a server merge for their last update to the game in November? It would be beneficial to know before I spend money to jump to a more populated one. If there is no merge planned for the game, what server would have the largest active population currently?
 Sylph.Parshias
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By Sylph.Parshias 2015-09-30 09:32:30
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SE has stated that they won't consider any mergers until after the last update in November. Up to you whether you'd want to wait that long to be on a more active server.
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By Jetackuu 2015-09-30 09:40:24
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Please, no.
 Lakshmi.Cadant
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By Lakshmi.Cadant 2015-09-30 09:50:18
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Jetackuu said: »
Please, no.
No what? You're against a server merge?
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By Jetackuu 2015-09-30 09:51:10
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Lakshmi.Cadant said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Please, no.
No what? You're against a server merge?
Yes.
 Lakshmi.Cadant
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By Lakshmi.Cadant 2015-09-30 09:55:54
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Jetackuu said: »
Lakshmi.Cadant said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Please, no.
No what? You're against a server merge?
Yes.
Whats the normal population look like on Bahamut?

Playing a MMO with 400 people on the server and probably 30-50% of whom are afk bazaars/mules seems sad to me.
 Sylph.Shadowlina
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By Sylph.Shadowlina 2015-09-30 09:58:52
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You'll be extremely surprised. Sylph most people will immediately point to as being the lowest populated server. But yet with an average pop being in the 300s, frequently regardless of content, stuck in a queue just to be able to enter.

Slyphs the lowest populated, but pop to activity ratio is just silly.
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By Jetackuu 2015-09-30 10:01:38
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Lakshmi.Cadant said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Lakshmi.Cadant said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Please, no.
No what? You're against a server merge?
Yes.
Whats the normal population look like on Bahamut?

Playing a MMO with 400 people on the server and probably 30-50% of whom are afk bazaars/mules seems sad to me.


Considering the content is mostly geared to low-man situations I can't say I agree with that assessment. To each their own.
 Asura.Smoky
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By Asura.Smoky 2015-09-30 10:21:02
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Asura had about 600 to 800 people on during the week. Been about a month since I played though. Things may have changed.
 Asura.Loire
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By Asura.Loire 2015-09-30 10:26:37
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Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
You'll be extremely surprised. Sylph most people will immediately point to as being the lowest populated server. But yet with an average pop being in the 300s, frequently regardless of content, stuck in a queue just to be able to enter.

Slyphs the lowest populated, but pop to activity ratio is just silly.
Being locked out of a battlefield because there is only three total available battlefields doesn't constitute a high activity ratio. All it takes is three soloers.
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 Asura.Masrur
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By Asura.Masrur 2015-09-30 10:31:16
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NA, EU, and 日本 servers, arigatou.
 Sylph.Jeanpaul
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By Sylph.Jeanpaul 2015-09-30 10:38:10
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According to FFXIAH, Sylph has the smallest active population. At a given time, a search usually shows over 500 people, and of them maybe 100-150 are in town, the rest are out and about. Figuring maybe half or 75% in town are afk, that's still over 400 people (not counting extra mules) actively doing something at a given time.
 
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By 2015-09-30 10:48:48
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By Aeyela 2015-09-30 10:53:04
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As a recently returning player who left Lakshmi for Odin, I have nothing but sympathy for the OP. Let's remember that somebody who has been gone for awhile has plenty to catch up on and finding there's nobody around makes it all the more daunting. For a large percentage of people, MMOs are as much about the social side as getting things done. It left me personally quite nostalgic and disappointed to find my server so dead and at a loss how to get things done. My friends list of 176 had nobody on for days on end.

On the subject of merges and considering how brutal SE's monetization of Eorzea is, it's strange they haven't done it yet. From a financial perspective it'd quite dramatically lower their costs and offset the vast piles of dosh they seem intent on milking from XIV. This combined with the fact that content design on XI has revolved around the lack of players for years now, I was quite surprised that merges have not happened.

Sylph.Jeanpaul said: »
According to FFXIAH, Sylph has the smallest active population. At a given time, a search usually shows over 500 people, and of them maybe 100-150 are in town, the rest are out and about. Figuring maybe half or 75% in town are afk, that's still over 400 people (not counting extra mules) actively doing something at a given time.

Classic government-esque estimates there, bravo.

Asura.Masrur said: »
NA, EU, and 日本 servers, arigatou.

After playing on an NA XIV server for two years, I actually missed Japanese players. The average players on said XIV server were complete halfwits.
 Sylph.Shadowlina
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By Sylph.Shadowlina 2015-09-30 11:01:47
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Thing is though despite a lot of people openly protesting they WANT server merges there are a lot of camps consisting of people who do not want that.

I'm sorry but Dynamis and salvage and battlefields being consistently contested does not appeal to me. As well as other things like Camping Warders would be Horrid on a high population server, it's already bad as it is. 3 people at any Warder camp makes it difficult to compete. A solid No thank you, for many people who play this game in their own time, with their limited play hours.

I respect that there is a demand for server merges but in the long run, there will be a lot of events which would become unbearable with server merges for those who have for the last 2 years just done things at their own pace and in the very little time they have. Realistically it would be nightmare for EU's, who will just be logged on between NA/EU post work hours and will just be stuck between the entrance times for NA or JP times.

This conversation has been had enough i feel as it is, with a lot of arguments. But at least consider that there are people who would not enjoy this in the slightest.
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By Aeyela 2015-09-30 11:10:35
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Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
You'll be extremely surprised. Sylph most people will immediately point to as being the lowest populated server. But yet with an average pop being in the 300s, frequently regardless of content, stuck in a queue just to be able to enter.
Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
I'm sorry but Dynamis and salvage and battlefields being consistently contested does not appeal to me.
Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
I respect that there is a demand for server merges but in the long run, there will be a lot of events which would become unbearable with server merges for those who have for the last 2 years just done things at their own pace and in the very little time they have.

Your only real motivation for not wanting a merge is coming across as "I want less competition on things". I feel it's my duty to remind you you're playing an MMO and that social interaction is typical of this format.

Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
Realistically it would be nightmare for EU's, who will just be logged on between NA/EU post work hours and will just be stuck between the entrance times for NA or JP times.

I've been in EU prime time my whole XI career and I've found it's actually the best for finding things untouched. All the JPs have gone to bed, all the NAs are out working. Maybe it's other Eurotrash you've been having problems with? Certainly on Garuda and then Lakshmi EU prime time was glorious huntin'.

Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
This conversation has been had enough i feel as it is, with a lot of arguments. But at least consider that there are people who would not enjoy this in the slightest.

Ultimately, it will come down to raw numbers. When SE feels there's too few people actively playing on X amount of servers they'll merge. I don't think we'll have the slightest bit of influence over it unfortunately.
 Sylph.Jeanpaul
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By Sylph.Jeanpaul 2015-09-30 11:20:32
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Aeyela said: »
Sylph.Jeanpaul said: »
According to FFXIAH, Sylph has the smallest active population. At a given time, a search usually shows over 500 people, and of them maybe 100-150 are in town, the rest are out and about. Figuring maybe half or 75% in town are afk, that's still over 400 people (not counting extra mules) actively doing something at a given time.

Classic government-esque estimates there, bravo.
The 100-150 number is usually what I get when I narrow the searches down to towns. No way to know who's really there though, but whatever, I don't care, my server rules and *** the rest.
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 Sylph.Shadowlina
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By Sylph.Shadowlina 2015-09-30 11:21:43
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Ofc we will have no influence over it. They have at least acknowledged a desire for this to occur but ave very openly stated no plans till post November. A time when many people will be quitting once they finish the missions.

Aeyela said: »
I've been in EU prime time my whole XI career and I've found it's actually the best for finding things untouched. All the JPs have gone to bed, all the NAs are out working.

Many NAs and JPs on this server have lots of freetime, this causes extremely high server competition towards JP/NA Change over. With Many EUs left in the middle. It's not a question of "Eurotrash". It's just many JP NA players play time overlaps right then when many EUs come home from work.
Different server's different people, different Server boom times.


@Jeanpaul
Nailed it.
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By Aeyela 2015-09-30 11:27:20
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Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
Different server's different people, different Server boom times.

Indeed:

Sylph.Shadowlina said: »
But at least consider that there are people who would not enjoy this in the slightest.

Consider that there are plenty of people who would appreciate merges because they are not on Sylph and feel their servers would benefit from said merges.
 Sylph.Dravidian
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By Sylph.Dravidian 2015-09-30 12:14:27
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Sylph needs to be merged. Not till I finish my escha sky torques though.
 Sylph.Jarvick
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By Sylph.Jarvick 2015-09-30 12:17:38
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I'm not in favor of merging servers myself. I know it's crazy to enjoy playing an MMO by myself, but I'm okay with being crazy :D

On the plus side, I'm in Jean's LS, so there is usually something going on if I feel the need for company.

On the flip side, for all those complaining that they want merges, why not just group together, pick a server and transfer the next time its $9. Since you say there are so many people that want to merge, you should easily be able to get all the people you need to do the things you want ;)
 Quetzalcoatl.Ninjaface
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By Quetzalcoatl.Ninjaface 2015-09-30 12:22:40
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The night I transferred to Asura I did more events than I did the preceding two weeks on Quetz. There is something to be said for server population. If you are on a low pop server but can't get into a good/active shell, you're going to stagnate quickly.

EDIT: this isn't a point in favor of or against merges; It's a criticism against the premise that low server pops aren't bad since whatever arguer is arguing the point doesn't experience the lack of activity.
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 Leviathan.Krysten
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By Leviathan.Krysten 2015-10-02 15:53:49
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coming from levi we need a server merge big time. you bigger server might be happy and its possible theyll just merge smaller ones but either way it needs to happen.
 
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By 2015-10-02 16:05:16
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By ibm2431 2015-10-02 16:58:00
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Please no server merges. I know enough NA and JP players to get whatever I need done while almost never having to shout. Most of the time, I only need to shout when the people I'd privately invite are already in their own SR parties; it's not from lack of people being online.

Meanwhile, if I want to camp a Warder for 5 hours, I can do so without someone else showing up. If I want to enter Salvage, I just walk up to the door. I don't know the last time I saw someone in Dynamis to compete against.

Sure, I'll admit it'd be interesting to see more shouts for 18-man Vagary, or any shouts for Neo Sky Gods. But the people you get from alliance shouts tend to suck, so the run would probably fail anyway. And Vagary can be 6-manned, so between my 3 friends and our 2 mules, we've got it covered.

People on low population servers just need to adapt. Get an event linkshell, make connections, keep a list of who is interested in doing what content, play multiple jobs that are useful, and generally don't suck. I can't go a day without getting at least 3 invites for Vagary/Escha/SR/UNMs/etc.

It's not that there isn't activity going on. It's just that the activity takes place in /tell rather than /yell.
 
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By 2015-10-02 17:00:49
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 Lakshmi.Lenus
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By Lakshmi.Lenus 2015-10-02 17:31:55
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Ain't gonna happen anytime soon. Maybe after SE drops PS2 support and bone most of its JP player base.

A merge now would cause some congestion to current battlefields we do today, as in Dawn, O/U or SR. ***I even have to wait on 3-4 solo's when I go to either O/U or Dawn, so a merge would even make that worse lol. If you aren't happy with your situation, either jump servers or make friends, thats all I can say.
 Bismarck.Johnb
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By Bismarck.Johnb 2015-10-02 18:48:17
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You should try getting people for events and linkshells when only 330 people on the server (yes during non-peak time but I wanted to do events). It's very difficult. Server merges need to happen.
 Asura.Chrssy
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By Asura.Chrssy 2015-10-02 19:13:48
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Server merges will happen but it won't be for a while.

With the final chapter being released in November + another sale coming with it, we will have a handful of people coming back to finish their stories up.

Doing a server merge before or around that time would only result in problems because of names, battlefield congestion, etc.

Just be watchful of their sales. Last time they were also selling server transfers for cheap. Would be wise to snatch one of those up rather than wait an unknown amount of time to save $10 (price of transfer).

Just be sure to check which servers actually have people on them. I know Asura is one but that isn't the only option available to you.
 
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