Horizon Strikes Again

Dead game???

Been feeling very dead to me of late Shoiban, only shouts I see are for eco warrior or wtb/ wts

Basically always 2k+ online and nonestop shouts of content to do, but yes game is still stuck in COP era until rebase is done then TOAU will probably have server crashing with 5k+ playerbase. Once you 'beat' cop you kinda of just spam HNM or grind a relic, not much else to do until then.

Eh, 2k+ at peak times but these days it seems to be lower than 2k more often than not. I honestly think the rebase and time delay associated with it will be the death of the server. Too many people hit the wall and call it quits.

Wont disagree that them delaying due to rebase has caused some population decline (-500 tops from like 1.5 yrs ago), but it is not as drastic as some make it out to be. It is ALWAYS and I need to emphasis ALWAYS above 2k pop during NA primtime, and generally during afternoon hours it goes over 2k and during what you would consider normal hours of playtime. Right now for example would be considered pretty much dead time and there is 1615 on a monday at 10am pst and I am confident in 2-4 hours it will it 2k+ like clockwork, because ffxi players treat this game like a second job.

When the weekend rolls around it basically never drops below 2k and generally spikes above 2500 when you would expect it to.

This has been extremely consistent over the last year, I think this is more or less the pletaue of people who are just HNM grinders or relic seekers at this point who are playing. There will always be a good handle of new people trying out te server too as it is by far the best private server option available if you want that era experience of playing with a good chunk of real people. Other private servers may offer more content but they wont have enough playerbase for most.

I also think its important to realize this is 2000 actual people, not 2000/6 like on other servers or retail. It also is going to massively boom come TOAU launch which WILL happen, its just a matter of time. If the LS's I am in are any indication from people who are "taking a break until toau" population will 2-3x easily, and I know other players on other private servers who simply didnt make the move yet due to no toau who will probably end up on Horizon long term once that does happen. That will create a slippery slope causing those PS to have massive population decline and ultimately close, and all those players will ultimately end up where?

Would not suprise me seeing Horizon with 6k+ active players, however I think long term 4k will probably be more realistic but you never know, No one expected as much success as it had already.

Don't expect too much from TOAU. TOAU was on EDEN and Whitegate would always be empty, nothing to do there do really. People will probably come but leave cos nothing better than relics to grind. XP is so easy right now, you don't need toau for good meripo or basic leveling.

The chance TOAU beeing a success is if they bring good loots to toau HNMs and release salvage/einherjar/Nyzul quickly.

Why does there seem to be some kind of animosity between official server players and private server players? I played on Horizon a back when it launched, and while I enjoyed myself it made me realize that I simply didn't have the time to really dive in like I did as a kid. Which is why the official servers are more tailored for someone like me.

I understand the appeal of both. What I don't understand is this weird rivalry. Very good chance the Venn diagrams for Public server and Private servers overlap very little, so one doesn't really affect the other, no?

The animosity is not necessarily all private servers but it is very much there for horizon, there was either lots of over zealous supporters or an actual ad campaign resulting in horizon being injected all over the place on retail focused content. in addition to that you have ninja (the streamer) rumored to supply them with a large sum of money to run/develop their server.

back to the perceived ad campaign, responding to posts on retail video where the post says something like "oh wow ffxi is still around?" and the reply is "you should try horizonXI it is just like the old times". People perceive this as stealing a person who might have resubbed to retail, whether that is an accurate perspective of the situation who really knows.

In addition to all that there is the exploitation of server by the admin group and their friends, whether that be by leveraging their inside knowledge of bugs or upcoming changes or their authority as administrators, playing on the server you run obviously creates a conflict of interest.

And lastly a lot of people stream playing it rather than playing the actual game, so that is annoying.

Self-centered people worry about one thing. Their brains are unable to comprehend the distinction between two different concepts.