The latest Endgame activity for crafters in Final Fantasy XIV is causing servers to become overwhelmed. Now, Director Naoki Yoshida has spoken on the matter and is taking action.
What is happening in FFXIV right now? New content for crafters was introduced with Patch 5.11 in FFXIV. The reconstruction of Ishgard is driven by players from an entire server delivering items to specific NPCs. This process helps to rebuild the area of the Sky City in Ishgard.
Each server has its own progress bar, which is steadily filled by deliveries. Once it is full, an event will start in the respective area on that server, which works similarly to a F.A.T.E.
Participants will receive a significant amount of EXP for their crafting classes and many tokens that they can exchange for cosmetics.
Why is this a problem? It quickly became apparent that this content is very popular. In Final Fantasy XIV, players on a data center can freely move between servers. So, if such an event emerges on one server, the Sky City there is literally overrun by players.
This led to players on their own home server being unable to participate in the crafting event because the Sky City zone was overcrowded with players from other servers.
Players who contributed significantly to filling the progress bar were suddenly excluded from the event and did not receive any rewards. This caused heated disputes in the chat. Crafters from foreign servers made fun of players who could not access the zone on their own server.
On the official forums and on Reddit, many complaints about the system emerged, along with calls to restrict the Sky City zone for wanderers, or players from other servers.
The developers respond quickly
This is what Director Yoshida says: Two days after the issue arose, FFXIV Director Naoki Yoshida made a post on the official forums.
He explained the reasons why the development team allowed players to visit the Sky City on other servers.
According to him, the number of crafters on each server fluctuates greatly. The world travel system that allows players to switch servers freely was designed to help weaker servers catch up with the strong ones.
However, this did not go as the developers had planned, and the system is now being changed.
Yoshida also addressed the complaints that the so-called “endgame content for crafters” was far too easy. He said:
[…] The reconstruction of Ishgard will be released over the course of multiple patches. […] What was released in Patch 5.11 is just the first of several contents.
I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize the concept behind the reconstruction of Ishgard once again. This content is tied to the story that unfolds in the main scenario and was mostly developed to ensure that as many players as possible can enjoy it.
Yoshida apologized to the players for the inconveniences and asked for their understanding.
What are the consequences? As a result of the server overflow, Square Enix has closed the Sky City to visitors from other worlds starting today. Crafters will only be able to enter the city on their home servers.
Players who are currently in such a zone on a foreign server will not be kicked out. The change will take effect once they leave the Sky City.
What is the purpose of this reconstruction anyway? The endgame content for crafters offers several advantages:
- There is a lot of EXP and it helps level the crafting classes.
- You can earn special tokens and exchange them for cool cosmetics, such as a flying monkey mount.
- The reconstruction efforts will likely unlock the housing area in Ishgard at the end.
Although Director Yoshida has not explicitly stated that the zone will be the Ishgard housing area to be inhabited by players, many fans see the layout of the area and hints in the story as a hint.
Especially the layout looks very much like a housing area, as seen in other areas in FFXIV.
Have you already participated in the reconstruction? What do you think of the content?
