SnakeLinkSonic

@nycnewyork: We've tried it a few times before they expanded the number of CWLS we're allowed to have. They usually die off because people wind up transferring over to Ultros eventually.

Some of our mods are going to give it another try this time though. The best place to keep up with that is over Discord, as it's kind of an awkward process getting people into it.

Honestly? No. Sometimes a few worlds on Primal open up in the morning, but they were pretty aggressive on preemptively locking our world down a month before Shadowbringers even launched. I can't say whether or not that's a hardline lock as we're still getting new people joining the company on a daily basis. They may have already been here though, there's really no way to tell. Just from personally tinkering around though, I haven't seen Ultros open in over a month.

Only when new expansions drop. Given how smooth the experience was for people playing through, my guess is they prioritized stability over space, as main scenario questlines broke in the last expansion when everyone piled in over server capacity. I assume they'd prefer that not happen again and just locked off the populated or crowded servers completely this time.

The early access period and launch week this time was pretty good this time for people already on playing, not so much for new people just trying to get started.

Yup, it's even harder than I predicted it would be to get on Primal. We're still managing to get a steady stream of people trickling into the free company, so I dunno if most of those were already on Ultros or if they were incredibly determined. The Discord has been blowing up this week, and by comparison to that, I can imagine a lot of people are irritated.

At the moment I don't think anyone can even make a fresh character on any North American server.

Anytime I've tried to get another server Free Company going it never seems to last. I definitely support getting one going on one of the preferred worlds if someone can manage it. However, even that seems unrealistic at the moment, as every single NA server is off and on when accepting new characters.

Honestly, the problem isn't us specifically being unable to support more people, it's simply that our server wound up becoming the hub for a lot of internet communities. It will die down, but the first few weeks were always going to be rough for new people trying to get on our server during launch week.

We're able to be in up to eight cross-world linkshells now, so as long as someone can manage to get on a Primal world, we can build up one of those for off-world people at least.

@zomgfruitbunnies: A suggestion I would make is to go play around with Deep Dungeon when you get a chance. It's not a perfect solution, but it's effectively the quickest way to see how a class works with all or most of its abilities the further you progress in, as it has its own unique leveling system. It also gives decent EXP outside of the dungeon.

Honestly, the A Realm Reborn quests are different for everybody. This is a discussion that comes up each time a new expansion comes out and people find themselves trying to power through it. For many people, there's enough world-building and setup in there to where everything is justified, for others it's a long bloated slog in their way to get to the good stuff. The legacy players have a much better opinion of it because we were fed the content at a controlled and digestible pace, but it can be rough for a new player getting 200+ main story quests dumped in their lap to even get to the first expansion.

The developers know it's an issue, but they haven't really committed to a long-term solution outside of players buying a jump potion to immediately level to 50 and through the A Realm Reborn story quests.

Also, unless you're just super-determined, I wouldn't count on getting onto Ultros for a few weeks. Our server is essentially locked right now. They do open it up, but it's never very long, and we don't know when it happens. It's so packed they're giving people bonus incentives to leave to less populated servers and set up roots elsewhere. For your own sanity, I'd just keep playing wherever you are now and transfer over when the expansion wave settles down.

@zomgfruitbunnies:

1. This is a common complaint from people coming in from other MMOs. It's typically remedied for most people post-level-50 once you get your first "whole" toolset and a handful of off-GCD abilities to weave in between rotations/combos. I have heard some still say it's too slow from them, but usually it's just the first thirty levels that tend to be the worst for people. It's very rare that I still see people complaining about the slow pace after that point, but that start can be a bigger chore for some than others.

If it still seems sluggish to you in the 50-70 range, you may just be in the camp for whom the game will always be a little slow for.

2. Have you been doing your main-story quests? They have a unique icon and will always have this border:

There should also be a little guide in the top left that tells you what current main story quest you're on. If you run into a situation where you're under-leveled to take the next story quest, there's a few ways you can catch up. I typically run the highest-level dungeon I have available to myself a few times and that's usually enough to level. There are are also roulettes you can run via the duty finder that give huge EXP bonuses and things like Palace of the Dead.

Either way, the main story quests gate almost everything in the entire game, so you should prioritize it over everything else.

Your every-five-levels quests are simply your class quests, which also have their own unique story that progress up to level 30, at which point it transitions into a job, which usually give you a new trait or ability every five levels as well.

3. It's definitely gotten better, but no---the map isn't the greatest and it will get even goofier once quests start asking you to account for things like altitude. You tend to just get used to it after a certain point and it stops working against you.

@chapanoid: The discord is very helpful if you're just starting out. Feel free to join: https://discordapp.com/invite/ZdCCysj

I think the biggest pain for people over the next few weeks will just be getting on the server. Let us know if you need help with anything.

I don't know how many people we have here that aren't already in the Discord, but with the World Visit now being a thing, anyone on the primal center that's interested is welcome to be a part of a regular pre-expansion photo. We're currently seeing who will be available when and will announce the date we're doing it probably late this week.

You can sign up here: http://whenisgood.net/3xrxz5r

@pardalis: Always room, the list is swelling again pre-expansion, but there's always someone to clear out who hasn't logged on in years in case we hit the limit.

Usually what people have trouble with is actually making a character on Ultros, but the restrictions are all over the place and usually depends on the time of day you make a character.