At a press event in Western France, new information regarding the future of Final Fantasy XIV has been revealed. One topic was also the announced EU servers, which Square Enix has kept quiet about recently.
So far, the data centers are only located in America and Japan. Players from Europe have to deal with a higher ping. This means that the sent data packets take longer to reach the server. This can lead to delays, briefly referred to as lags. In an MMORPG like Final Fantasy XIV, this doesn’t have to be as big of a problem as in a shooter. Especially the combat system places only low demands on the MMO players’ reaction time with a cooldown of 2.5 seconds.
The Mogry is buried elsewhere. Players complain about the void zones: these are orange-colored areas that signal a threat. Players should get out of them as quickly as possible to avoid taking damage. Those coming from Europe often have problems with synchronization because the commands reach the server too late. The character’s location remains in the danger zone, without the player being able to see it.
This leads to the player still taking damage even though they appear to be in a safe position. In rare cases, “rubberbanding” can occur, causing the character to be suddenly teleported back: a rubber band effect.
What we knew so far: In autumn, Square Enix announced that the EU server would receive a new location. Moving from Montreal, Canada to Europe. However, all of this was still early planning, as stated.
What’s new now: Work is currently being done on the data center and server equipment is being purchased. The transfer is to take place as soon as the equipment arrives. This is expected to happen this year; the new EU servers will arrive in 2015.
Players have waited a long time for this. Since the release, many contributions on this topic have piled up. Better late than never, is probably the motto. Could it be that the game is now to become more appealing to Europeans?
