If you’ve been struggling to fill a PF in the last few months of Dawntrail, your life just got a little easier. One of FFXIV’s most anticipated features announced this year, same region matching, is now officially live for North America and Europe data centers. Here’s the breakdown of how it works according to Square Enix:
How the New System Works
In FFXIV there are two sides to data centers: the logical and physical. Physical data center compose of the servers and other components needed to host the game, while the logical center hosts 5-8 worlds actually running XIV. For example, the Primal data center hosts 8 worlds, in which players could travel and join party finder listings with relative ease. However, if you wanted to play with someone on the Aether, Crystal, or Dynamis, you’d have to resort to Data Center travel.
But with Tuesday’s update, those headaches have been removed, at least within a region. And it’s not just party finder that’s been impacted.
What this Affects, and What it Doesn’t
While a lot of in-game features have been changed with the update, not everything will be usable across the DC. Here’s the breakdown:
Updated for Regional Data Center Functionality
- Duty Finder
- Party Finder
- Crystaline Conflict Ranked Matches
- Cross-world Linkshells
- PvP Teams
- Fellowships
- Friend List (You can now /tell and invite people, just not within a duty)
- Free Company Chat (FC still locked to Home World)
No Changes/Locked to Home World
- Free Company
- Linkshells
- Retainers
- Housing
- Market Board Listings
- Delivery Moogle
Cross Data Center Travel Improvements
The update also includes a welcome change to visiting another data center. In the same way players can visit another world by using the Limsa, Gridania, and Ul’dah aetherytes, the world visit feature now includes the option to select which data center you want to travel to. When accessing the menu, a dropdown now displays listing the logical data centers, as well as their associated worlds. For North America, the data center travel feature accessed from the character login screen now only works for European and the Oceania DC.
Duplicated Names and Linkshell Caps
While the data center news is welcome, Square Enix did give a heads up about some potential issues. Cross-world linkshells, PvP Teams, and Fellowships have all been consolidated into one database per region. There’s a possibility of duplicate names for the aformentioned groups, and Square Enix’s solution for the time being is to include a number at the end of each name. This does not affect names linked to individual worlds, such as character names, retainers, Free Companies or linkshells.
Finally, as cross-world linkshells have been consolidated, Square Enix gave a heads up about those belonging to nine or more linkshells as a result of DC travel. The number of linkshells you can keep active caps out at eight, and any ones you’ve joined after will be deactivated. However, they will not be erased, giving players the opportunity to take stock and consolidate their own chats before disbanding.
That’s the rundown! Here’s hoping your party finder listings fill quicker. For more FFXIV news, make sure to check back with us regularly!