Final Fantasy XIV has major plans for the future of their server structure. The developers will introduce a system that allows players to move freely between the servers of a single data center. This further blurs the boundaries between individual servers.
What is the World Visit System? The boundaries between individual servers of a data center in FFXIV are being dismantled. Players from different servers have been able to chat directly and go together into raids and dungeons until now.
With the World Visit System, the development team takes a step further and allows players to travel directly to other servers. Until now, this was only possible for a fee.
How does the system work? If a player wants to travel to another server, they must first go to a teleport crystal in one of the three starting cities. The procedure then goes as follows:
- Right-clicking on the Aetheryte opens a menu with a list of available worlds that can be visited.
- Once a server has been chosen and the player agrees to the teleportation, a window similar to the content search will appear.
- This means that the system prepares the character to teleport to the target world.
- Once the system determines that the target world is not too crowded, a confirmation will be received and the player can teleport.
There is no time limit on how long a character can stay on another server. Players can permanently be on foreign servers and will not be teleported back when they completely log out of the game.
What restrictions are there? Visiting other servers comes with some restrictions, which mainly serve to keep the economy of individual servers as stable as possible. The following restrictions will apply:
- No use of helpers
- No selling items on the market
- No buying houses or apartments. However, players will be able to enter residential areas.
- Most guild features will not be available
- Contact circles will not be usable, with the exception of the World Cross-Server
- Getting married will not be possible
- No access to in-game mail
- Legendary gathering spots will not be available
- Tournaments and the Jumbo Cactpot in the Gold Saucer will not be available
Players will, however, be able to use the market board on other servers to purchase various items.
The community should not be separated by server boundaries
What does this mean for the players? As is often the case with MMORPGs, communities often use external platforms to communicate with each other. In forums, on Reddit, and especially on social media, new acquaintances and friendships often develop. However, these players had only limited opportunities to play Final Fantasy 14 together until now.
With the World Visit System, players are also given the opportunity to experience open-world content like treasure hunting or hunts together with their friends “on the other” side or simply hang out together. Players no longer have to completely leave their possessions on the home server to play with friends on another server. Even though the anticipation has been somewhat clouded by the division of servers.
What does it mean for the servers? In the stream, producer Yoshida also stated that it could be a measure to relieve individual heavily populated servers. Upon the launch of Stormblood, there was the issue that certain new zones were overcrowded and sometimes crashed because too many players were in them.
This problem will now be circumvented by allowing players to teleport to servers with lower populations and continue their tasks there. Yoshida even explicitly asked players to take this measure if the crowding issue arises again.
Additionally, players will be able to shop on other servers. This will lead to the selling prices on a data center leveling out over time. Smaller servers especially would benefit from this, where prices are often much higher.
When will the World Visit System come? The development team plans to release the system towards the end of patch 4.5, around spring 2019. It is to be tested first to ensure there are no problems at the launch of the Shadowbringers expansion.
However, the “proper” switching of servers with all possessions will still remain fee-based.
All information about the upcoming expansion Shadowbringers can be read here:
Final Fantasy XIV: AddOn Shadowbringers fulfills fans’ wishes
