ffxiv Square Enix Provides Updates Regarding FFXIV Data Center Expansion

[Alhena 215]

Earlier today, Square Enix released two notices regarding FFXIV data center expansion plans for both Japan and Europe. The posts explain the plan to add a new logical data center to Japan and announce the upcoming implementation of new worlds in Europe's Chaos and Light data centers.

You can read the separate announcements in their entirety below.

Regarding the Expansion of Japanese Data Centers (Source)

In Patch 6.18, a new logical data center, Meteor, will be added to the Japanese data center, and certain existing Worlds will be redistributed within it.

This announcement will review the schedule for maintenance and the period during which eligible players may use the Home World Transfer Service free of charge. Additionally, effects of World redistribution on certain in-game features will be explained below.

Patch 6.18 will also introduce the Data Center Travel system, which allows players to temporarily visit other logical data centers within their physical data center.

For more information, please refer to our announcements on World Regrouping and Data Center Travel.

Patch 6.18 Scheduled Maintenance

Tuesday, July 5, 2022
* Maintenance for Patch 6.18 is expected to last 24 hours due to the Japanese/European data center expansions and the implementation of the Data Center Travel system.

Using the Home World Transfer Service Free of Charge

Schedule

Access to the Home World Transfer Service will be suspended temporarily prior to maintenance for Patch 6.18. We will restore access after verifying that the Japanese/European data center expansions and the Data Center Travel system are stable. At that time, eligible players may use the Home World Transfer Service free of charge for approximately two weeks. For the latest updates regarding Home World Transfer availability, please visit the Lodestone.

Overview

During the time period described above, all characters in Japanese data centers are eligible to transfer Home Worlds free of charge.

Furthermore, the following bonuses will be awarded at the time of transfer:

• Owners of private estates will be reimbursed 100% of their plot's buying price, plus additional compensation of 3,000,000 gil for non-recoverable furnishings.
• Owners of apartments will be reimbursed the standard buying price of 500,000 gil, plus additional compensation of 500,000 gil for non-recoverable furnishings.

* Please apply for a Home World Transfer after removing your furnishings, but DO NOT relinquish your land or vacate your apartment. If you have relinquished the deed to your plot/rights to your property, you will not be eligible for the bonuses listed above.
* Please note that any gil exceeding the maximum of 999,999,999 will be lost.
* Players may not transfer to a Congested World.
* When transferring to a Preferred World, applicable bonuses will stack (excluding duplicates).
* Characters that have transferred Home Worlds may not transfer again for 3 days. Additionally, characters that have transferred to a Preferred World will be restricted from using the Home World Transfer Service for 90 days.

Effects of World Regrouping

Cross-world Linkshells

• Should a cross-world linkshell member transfer to the Meteor data center, a channel with the same name will be created in Meteor without deleting any members. By using the Data Center Travel system, members may communicate via that linkshell while in the same data center.

* If a cross-world linkshell with the same name already exists, a number may be added to the name for purposes of differentiation.
* Changes made to the duplicate cross-world linkshell will not be reflected in the original channel, and vice versa. If new members are added, they may use the Data Center Travel system introduced in Patch 6.18 to join the cross-world linkshell in each logical data center, thereby maintaining an updated roster in all iterations of the linkshell.

PvP Teams

• Should a PvP team member transfer to the Meteor data center, a PvP team with the same name will be created in Meteor.

* If a PvP team with the same name already exists, a number may be added to the name for purposes of differentiation.

• Members belonging to different data centers will be automatically removed from the team.

* This removal will not be displayed in PvP Team Activity.

Fellowships

• Should a fellowship master transfer to the Meteor data center, the fellowship itself will also transfer to Meteor. Members belonging to different logical data centers will be automatically removed from the fellowship.

Deep Dungeons

• Players will be unable to resume save data that includes members who transferred to a different data center. We ask that you either complete your campaign before the implementation of Patch 6.18, or use the Data Center Travel system to challenge these dungeons in the original data center.

In addition to these effects, please note there may be instances where World names have been saved locally (such as in the Contact List) and are no longer correctly displayed.

 

Introducing New Worlds to the European Data Centers (Source)

Producer & Director Naoki Yoshida described a major server expansion of the European data centers in the announcement, Regarding the Expansion of FFXIV's Operations. This expansion is planned to be carried out in two phases, the first of which will be covered in this post.

Implementation of the first phase is scheduled to take place during maintenance for Patch 6.18 on Tuesday, July 5. Four Worlds will be added in total, with two Worlds being added to each data center as listed below.

New Worlds in the Chaos Data Center

• Sagittarius
• Phantom

New Worlds in the Light Data Center

• Alpha
• Raiden

* Maintenance for Patch 6.18 is expected to last 24 hours due to the Japanese/European data center expansions and the implementation of the Data Center Travel system.

New World Bonuses

You may earn a variety of bonuses by creating a new character on a newly established World, or by transferring an existing character to a newly established World.

Please note that access to the Home World Transfer Service will be suspended temporarily prior to maintenance for Patch 6.18. We will restore access after verifying that the Japanese/European data center expansions and the Data Center Travel system are stable. For the latest updates regarding the availability of Home World transfers, please visit the Lodestone.

Character Creation Bonuses on New Worlds

Bonuses awarded to new characters on first login

• Double EXP bonus (until level 80 is reached)
• Gift of 10 silver chocobo feathers, exchangeable for low-mid level gear to improve the leveling experience

Bonuses for characters created during bonus period that attain level 30 in any class

• Gift of 1,000,000 gil (*1)
• Gift of 15 days of free play time (*2)

*1 Limited to once per service account.
*2 Limited to once per service account when creating a new character on either a New or Preferred World.

Bonuses for Transferring to a New World

• Home World Transfer Service is free of charge (*3)
• Double EXP bonus (until level 80 is reached) (valid for 90 days following transfer)
• Gift of 10 gold chocobo feathers, exchangeable for special rewards such as rare mounts
• Owners of private estates/apartments are entitled to a certain amount of compensation in gil (*4)

*3 Transfers from a New World to a different New World are not eligible for this bonus.
*4 For private estates, DO NOT relinquish the land but remove all furnishings and your estate hall and then apply for a Home World Transfer.
For apartments, DO NOT vacate the apartment but remove all your furnishings and then apply for a Home World Transfer.
Please note that if you have relinquished the deed to your plot or the rights to your property, you will not be eligible to receive gil compensation.

Read on for details regarding World Population Balancing Incentives.

These incentives will remain in place until the active player populations of the Worlds in question have grown to a specified number. Please note that once a World has been removed from the "New World" category, the bonuses listed above will no longer be applied. In the case of newly created characters, these bonuses will continue for 90 days (including the day of creation) regardless of any change in World status.

Regarding the Purchase of Housing

The purchase of housing will be unavailable on the newly established Worlds at the launch of Patch 6.18. Before we can resume the sale of plots, we must first verify that the Japanese/European data center expansions and the Data Center Travel system are stable, then re-enable the Home World Transfer service. For the latest updates regarding the availability of housing on the new Worlds, please visit the Lodestone.

All land purchases on the newly established Worlds will be carried out under the housing lottery system.

The various residential areas on these Worlds will be inaccessible until the purchase of housing has been made available. Please use the World Visit system to complete the following side quests on another World while the housing area restriction is in place.

• Where the Heart Is (Mist)
• Where the Heart Is (The Goblet)
• Where the Heart Is (Lavender Beds)
• I Dream of Shirogane
• Ascending to Empyreum