Here we go:
Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida
プロデューサ/ディレクタの吉田です。
Producer/Director Yoshida here,
皆さん、多数のポストありがとうございます。
全リージョンの関連するスレッドにも目を通させて頂いています。
今回の件については、コミュニティ全体に対して、非常に大きな動揺を与えてしまい、申し訳なく思っています。
Thank you for many comments/posts.
I have looked through related threads in all region; I apologize for causing a major stir to the community with this issue.
現状、開発/運営チームでは、非常にフィードバックの多い②案を更に調整し、
④案のメリットも生かしたものにできないか、
皆さんのフィードバックを参考にさせて頂きつつ、検討を重ねています。
技術的な確認事項、スケジュールの確認もあるため、恐縮ではありますが、
このまま週末に突入し、週明けまでお時間を頂けると助かります。
We are currently looking into making it possible to go by plan #2 which received many feadbacks and keep the merit from plan number 4. We need to check and verify the technical side and schedule so please give us until beginning of next week.
トピックスについては、一時取り下げも検討しましたが、
仕様が見えなくなると、話し合いの際に、内容齟齬の可能性があるため、
少なくとも週明けまでは、このままとさせていただきます。
We thought of bringing down the topic on the topics section but if we take it down when people talk about this there might be issue where wrong information is given so we would like to keep it at least till beginning of next week.
繰り返しにはなりますが、現段階で非常に大きな懸念の声を挙げられている方が、
多数いらっしゃる中で、ワールド統合を強行するつもりはありませんので、
その点は重ねてご理解頂けますよう、宜しくお願い致します。
This is repeating what was mentioned before but at current timing there are few saying we are forcing this server merge but please understand that we are not
––
Reinheart's Translation (post #563)
––-
Officially dev translated version:
Hello everyone, Producer/Director Yoshida here.
I’d first like to thank you for all of your posts.
I’ve been looking at the threads across all regions and I’m sorry that this has caused a huge disturbance amongst each of the regions.
Currently, we're seeing a lot of feedback that favors plan ②, and we're considering revisions that use plan ② as a base while retaining the merits of plan ④. The operations and development teams will continue to gather everyone’s feedback while we investigate further. This is also a technical matter and we also need to confirm schedule timing, so I’m sorry to say that we’ll need some additional time and that this will continue through the weekend and into the start of next week.
For the Topics announcement, we considered temporarily taking it down, but we decided against that as we feared that if players were unable to see the information, you wouldn’t be able to discuss it with the same background knowledge. Therefore, we’ll be keeping the current announcement up as we go into next week.
Just to reiterate, there are a lot of players that are voicing their concerns, and we will strive to find an acceptable balance as much as possible before moving forward. Therefore please keep this in mind and try to understand our reasoning
Post 616
last edited 689 weeks ago by Asulamur
Hello. This is Producer/Director Yoshida.
I am sorry for creating problems for everyone with the World Merge.
In regards to the World Merge specifications that were announced the other day, we have received a large amount of feedback from everyone and I would like to share with you the results of our re-exploration of the specifications. Since this is a forum post, and not the specifications itself, this is more of a concept, but until the official announcement is released, please check over these two posts in regards to the direction of the specifications.
■Simple Digest■
The specification overview is an extremely large amount of text, so I wrote out a brief version. If you just want to get a grasp of the content, then please just read over this post.
The foundation of the World Merge will be based on consolidating multiple existing Worlds as below:
A + B = New World
For both existing Worlds, Linkshells, Friend Lists, and Blacklists will remain intact. The Worlds will be consolidated from the current 18 Worlds into 10 Worlds, which includes a completely new World recommended for players in the EU time zone. The 10 new Worlds will have completely new names.
Also, at the same time as the World Merge, we will be temporarily accepting “World Transfer applications,” so if you are looking to change to a new World, take this opportunity to do so.
In regards to character names and Linkshell names, I have written about the handling of those at the end of the next post, so please check it out.
I am sorry for creating problems for everyone with the World Merge.
In regards to the World Merge specifications that were announced the other day, we have received a large amount of feedback from everyone and I would like to share with you the results of our re-exploration of the specifications. Since this is a forum post, and not the specifications itself, this is more of a concept, but until the official announcement is released, please check over these two posts in regards to the direction of the specifications.
■Simple Digest■
The specification overview is an extremely large amount of text, so I wrote out a brief version. If you just want to get a grasp of the content, then please just read over this post.
The foundation of the World Merge will be based on consolidating multiple existing Worlds as below:
A + B = New World
For both existing Worlds, Linkshells, Friend Lists, and Blacklists will remain intact. The Worlds will be consolidated from the current 18 Worlds into 10 Worlds, which includes a completely new World recommended for players in the EU time zone. The 10 new Worlds will have completely new names.
Also, at the same time as the World Merge, we will be temporarily accepting “World Transfer applications,” so if you are looking to change to a new World, take this opportunity to do so.
In regards to character names and Linkshell names, I have written about the handling of those at the end of the next post, so please check it out.
Oh, and the new worlds will be named after Legendary Weapons from previous FF titles (ie. Masamune, Gugnir, etc)
Long version of previous post.. with something interesting squirreled away in the wall-o-text..
"Also, as we look to expand FFXIV, some of our visions for the future, such as releasing content based in Worlds from previous FF titles, will require us to use names previously reserved for Worlds as names of cities and other locations instead."
What the deuce?
––––––––––
Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida
World Merge Specification Changes (Detailed)
■World Merge Specification Overview Details■
The following are the specifics of the World Merge concept and specification overview. There is a lot of text, but I’ve made the explanations in-depth so that you can properly understand all of the information. Please read over everything when offering feedback.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Concept ■
The main purpose of the World Merge is largely based on the idea of providing a suitable community size to all active and currently playing players for every bit of content. In other words, the goal is to make each World’s population adequate so that parties can be formed sufficiently in each time zone.
The important factor here is not the total number of active players (= number of characters), it is the amount of people from each time zone that can gather together.
Even if the number of active players is large, FFXIV is operated on global servers, so we need an environment that will allow players from each of the three time zones (Japan, North America, and Europe) to gather together.
(Though the total number of active characters for a world may seem the same, looking at it for each time zone, the number of peak players changes.) The facilitation of making each population the proper size is the main objective of this World Merge.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Method ① - Basic consolidation-■
Below I will explain about the basic World Merge using letters. The below is an example.
(A-R = Existing worlds 1-18)
・A + B ⇒ New World 1
・C + D ⇒ New World 2
・E + F ⇒ New World 3
・G + H ⇒ New World 4
・I + J ⇒ New World 5
・K + L ⇒ New World 6
・M + N ⇒ New World 7
・O + P ⇒ New World 8
・Q + R ⇒ New World 9
・Create New World 10 (*World recommended for those in EU time zones)
By consolidating existing Worlds, each time zone’s community size will be made appropriate. With the consolidation of the existing worlds into 9 Worlds plus the addition of one completely new World, FFXIV will operate with 10 Worlds.
The newly constructed “World 10” will be a totally new World and will be the world that we recommend to the small sized community of EU time zone players. (Of course this is not a world only for the EU time zone and it will be possible for players of other languages and other time zones to choose it.)
How Worlds will be consolidated and which Worlds correspond to the new World will be announced on Topics in the coming days.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Method ② - Community Preservation - ■
In the case of merging two Worlds together, the problem has been that it was not technically possible to preserve one of the world’s Linkshells, Friend Lists, and Blacklists; however, during tests that took place alongside the exploration of specification adjustments, we gained solid technical proof that it will be possible to completely preserve the communities of both Worlds.
In other words, regardless of the number of currently active characters on the World that is formed after merging 2 or 3 Worlds together, it will be possible to preserve the below community information for every world.
・Current Linkshell information
・Current Friend List information
・Current Blacklist information
With this, those players who elect to do nothing during the World Merge will be able to continue playing within their community as before even after they merge. Also, the same will be true for those players who are not currently subscribed.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Method ③ -Freely select world to transfer to-■
Along with the basic merging of Worlds, all player characters will be given the opportunity to transfer Worlds within a certain time frame. In other words, players will be able to either remain in their current World or apply to transfer to a different World.
Players will be able to request a transfer to any World, not just the newly created World 10.
However, once a World Transfer is requested, players will not be guaranteed the ability to return to their original World. For example, suppose a player decides to try to return to his original world after requesting a transfer, but the number of players in the original world exceeds the limit, that player will not be able to return to their original World.
Also, when a player transfers Worlds, the player will be removed from all Linkshells they were a part of in the original World and will also have their Friend Lists and Blacklists cleared.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World transfer requests and the world character limit■
World transfer requests will be handled during 2 different periods, in a method similar to the method posted in a previous Topics article.
1. World Transfer Period A (Possible to re-select a new destination World as many times as desired)
2.World Transfer Period B (Players in Worlds that have reached the limit cannot re-select a destination World)
The development and operations teams will determine a maximum number of active users per time zone for each World. This number will represent the total players from a specific time zone, rather than total players overall, and will differ for each World. The extent of player migration in each World will be represented by the following symbols on a special page on the Lodestone:
○= Possible to transfer to
△= Possible to transfer to, but the limit is fast approaching
×= Not possible to transfer to
By setting maximum limits for active users in each World, we would like to even out the populations on each server as best possible. Populations will be monitored by the development and operations teams, and players will be notified whether or not it is possible to transfer to each World.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■The recommended EU time zones server and other special measures■
World 10 will be the recommended EU time zones server, but it is not limited to players in the EU time zones. Players from other time zones, as well as players who speak languages other than French, German and English can still freely transfer to World 10. I would like to make it clear that this server is not set up for players who all speak the same language. Rather, we would like players in Europe to consider joining World 10 in order to be able to play with fellow players from similar time zones.
Since World 10 will be a new World, some players may worry that this world will be severely underpopulated if few players desire a transfer to this world. With that in mind, we decided that as a special measure, we will look into either allowing players to transfer another time or merging underpopulated servers, in the case that there is a significant disparity in the numbers of players on each server. Therefore players should have no worries when considering World 10 as a potential destination.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■Absolute reform of world names■
Until now, Worlds were named after historical towns/cities from the FINAL FANTASY series, but heading towards the release of 2.0, we decided that this World Merge would be a great opportunity to change the names of all Worlds.
The World names currently in use may be unfamiliar or difficult to understand for those who are not hardcore players, so we wanted to change these names to be more familiar to casual FINAL FANTASY players, as we approach the release of 2.0. Also, as we look to expand FFXIV, some of our visions for the future, such as releasing content based in Worlds from previous FF titles, will require us to use names previously reserved for Worlds as names of cities and other locations instead. (For example, we feel like Midgar has too powerful of an image associated with it to be used as a name for a World. Also, we would like to reserve the name Gold Saucer for the casino, not a world.)
With that said, we would like to select the names of Worlds from the “Legacy Item List” which represents the history of the FINAL FANTASY series. Here are a few world name candidates:
・Ridill
・Excalibur
・Ragnarok
・Aegis
・Balmung
We understand that there are players who have a deeper connection and attachment with the current World names, but we hope you understand that we decided to change these names with the future development of FFXIV in mind.
We will reveal the new World names along with the Topics announcement for the revised World Merge specifications.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■Clashing of character and Linkshell names due to the World Merge■
With the World Merge, it is possible that characters and linkshells with the same name end up on the same world. Here is how we will be dealing with these cases:
1. Character name overlap
The character that was created earliest (based on creation timestamp) will retain the name. All other characters with the same name will have to choose a new name.
2. Linkshell name overlap
The linkshell with the most active characters at the time of the world merge will retain the name. All other linkshells will be temporarily renamed to have a number (such as “01”) at the end of their current name. Players can then request to have their linkshell renamed through GM support.
We understand that the above issues can cause a severe inconvenience for players, but we will do our best to handle these cases as smoothly as we can.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■Conclusion■
That is all for my explanation of changes to the World Merge specs.
Due to these changes, it is possible that our planned schedule for the World Merge will be pushed back a few days. We will let you know on Topics when we have a finalized schedule.
We are very grateful that we received lots of feedback from players all over the world.
"Also, as we look to expand FFXIV, some of our visions for the future, such as releasing content based in Worlds from previous FF titles, will require us to use names previously reserved for Worlds as names of cities and other locations instead."
What the deuce?
––––––––––
Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida
World Merge Specification Changes (Detailed)
■World Merge Specification Overview Details■
The following are the specifics of the World Merge concept and specification overview. There is a lot of text, but I’ve made the explanations in-depth so that you can properly understand all of the information. Please read over everything when offering feedback.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Concept ■
The main purpose of the World Merge is largely based on the idea of providing a suitable community size to all active and currently playing players for every bit of content. In other words, the goal is to make each World’s population adequate so that parties can be formed sufficiently in each time zone.
The important factor here is not the total number of active players (= number of characters), it is the amount of people from each time zone that can gather together.
Even if the number of active players is large, FFXIV is operated on global servers, so we need an environment that will allow players from each of the three time zones (Japan, North America, and Europe) to gather together.
(Though the total number of active characters for a world may seem the same, looking at it for each time zone, the number of peak players changes.) The facilitation of making each population the proper size is the main objective of this World Merge.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Method ① - Basic consolidation-■
Below I will explain about the basic World Merge using letters. The below is an example.
(A-R = Existing worlds 1-18)
・A + B ⇒ New World 1
・C + D ⇒ New World 2
・E + F ⇒ New World 3
・G + H ⇒ New World 4
・I + J ⇒ New World 5
・K + L ⇒ New World 6
・M + N ⇒ New World 7
・O + P ⇒ New World 8
・Q + R ⇒ New World 9
・Create New World 10 (*World recommended for those in EU time zones)
By consolidating existing Worlds, each time zone’s community size will be made appropriate. With the consolidation of the existing worlds into 9 Worlds plus the addition of one completely new World, FFXIV will operate with 10 Worlds.
The newly constructed “World 10” will be a totally new World and will be the world that we recommend to the small sized community of EU time zone players. (Of course this is not a world only for the EU time zone and it will be possible for players of other languages and other time zones to choose it.)
How Worlds will be consolidated and which Worlds correspond to the new World will be announced on Topics in the coming days.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Method ② - Community Preservation - ■
In the case of merging two Worlds together, the problem has been that it was not technically possible to preserve one of the world’s Linkshells, Friend Lists, and Blacklists; however, during tests that took place alongside the exploration of specification adjustments, we gained solid technical proof that it will be possible to completely preserve the communities of both Worlds.
In other words, regardless of the number of currently active characters on the World that is formed after merging 2 or 3 Worlds together, it will be possible to preserve the below community information for every world.
・Current Linkshell information
・Current Friend List information
・Current Blacklist information
With this, those players who elect to do nothing during the World Merge will be able to continue playing within their community as before even after they merge. Also, the same will be true for those players who are not currently subscribed.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World Merge Method ③ -Freely select world to transfer to-■
Along with the basic merging of Worlds, all player characters will be given the opportunity to transfer Worlds within a certain time frame. In other words, players will be able to either remain in their current World or apply to transfer to a different World.
Players will be able to request a transfer to any World, not just the newly created World 10.
However, once a World Transfer is requested, players will not be guaranteed the ability to return to their original World. For example, suppose a player decides to try to return to his original world after requesting a transfer, but the number of players in the original world exceeds the limit, that player will not be able to return to their original World.
Also, when a player transfers Worlds, the player will be removed from all Linkshells they were a part of in the original World and will also have their Friend Lists and Blacklists cleared.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■World transfer requests and the world character limit■
World transfer requests will be handled during 2 different periods, in a method similar to the method posted in a previous Topics article.
1. World Transfer Period A (Possible to re-select a new destination World as many times as desired)
2.World Transfer Period B (Players in Worlds that have reached the limit cannot re-select a destination World)
The development and operations teams will determine a maximum number of active users per time zone for each World. This number will represent the total players from a specific time zone, rather than total players overall, and will differ for each World. The extent of player migration in each World will be represented by the following symbols on a special page on the Lodestone:
○= Possible to transfer to
△= Possible to transfer to, but the limit is fast approaching
×= Not possible to transfer to
By setting maximum limits for active users in each World, we would like to even out the populations on each server as best possible. Populations will be monitored by the development and operations teams, and players will be notified whether or not it is possible to transfer to each World.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■The recommended EU time zones server and other special measures■
World 10 will be the recommended EU time zones server, but it is not limited to players in the EU time zones. Players from other time zones, as well as players who speak languages other than French, German and English can still freely transfer to World 10. I would like to make it clear that this server is not set up for players who all speak the same language. Rather, we would like players in Europe to consider joining World 10 in order to be able to play with fellow players from similar time zones.
Since World 10 will be a new World, some players may worry that this world will be severely underpopulated if few players desire a transfer to this world. With that in mind, we decided that as a special measure, we will look into either allowing players to transfer another time or merging underpopulated servers, in the case that there is a significant disparity in the numbers of players on each server. Therefore players should have no worries when considering World 10 as a potential destination.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■Absolute reform of world names■
Until now, Worlds were named after historical towns/cities from the FINAL FANTASY series, but heading towards the release of 2.0, we decided that this World Merge would be a great opportunity to change the names of all Worlds.
The World names currently in use may be unfamiliar or difficult to understand for those who are not hardcore players, so we wanted to change these names to be more familiar to casual FINAL FANTASY players, as we approach the release of 2.0. Also, as we look to expand FFXIV, some of our visions for the future, such as releasing content based in Worlds from previous FF titles, will require us to use names previously reserved for Worlds as names of cities and other locations instead. (For example, we feel like Midgar has too powerful of an image associated with it to be used as a name for a World. Also, we would like to reserve the name Gold Saucer for the casino, not a world.)
With that said, we would like to select the names of Worlds from the “Legacy Item List” which represents the history of the FINAL FANTASY series. Here are a few world name candidates:
・Ridill
・Excalibur
・Ragnarok
・Aegis
・Balmung
We understand that there are players who have a deeper connection and attachment with the current World names, but we hope you understand that we decided to change these names with the future development of FFXIV in mind.
We will reveal the new World names along with the Topics announcement for the revised World Merge specifications.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■Clashing of character and Linkshell names due to the World Merge■
With the World Merge, it is possible that characters and linkshells with the same name end up on the same world. Here is how we will be dealing with these cases:
1. Character name overlap
The character that was created earliest (based on creation timestamp) will retain the name. All other characters with the same name will have to choose a new name.
2. Linkshell name overlap
The linkshell with the most active characters at the time of the world merge will retain the name. All other linkshells will be temporarily renamed to have a number (such as “01”) at the end of their current name. Players can then request to have their linkshell renamed through GM support.
We understand that the above issues can cause a severe inconvenience for players, but we will do our best to handle these cases as smoothly as we can.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■Conclusion■
That is all for my explanation of changes to the World Merge specs.
Due to these changes, it is possible that our planned schedule for the World Merge will be pushed back a few days. We will let you know on Topics when we have a finalized schedule.
We are very grateful that we received lots of feedback from players all over the world.
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Asulamur replied
689 weeks ago