FFXIV devs provide update on Cross Region Data Center travel in Dawntrail

Final Fantasy XIV developers have revealed plans for Cross Region Data Center travel going forward into the new expansion of Dawntrail.

The Final Fantasy XIV developers have detailed plans about what is happening to the Cross Region Data Center travel going into Dawntrail and beyond. The system allows players from other data centers to travel outside, allowing them to visit servers in other countries and make new friends there.

This was tested in Endwalker by enabling all data centers to visit the Materia server, giving the less populated server a bit more life. Overall the community seemed to resonate well with the changes, and it seems the devs are willing to have it stick around.

As announced in an 18th June blog post, the developers have stated that they’ll be continuing Cross Region Data Center travel but only to the Materia servers. This means all servers can still visit Materia, but Materia will not be able to visit others.

This means in Dawntrail, you’ll still be able to come and visit the OCE servers, letting you maintain the friendships you might’ve made there. The devs have not stated how long this will be the case, but it seems that they’re more willing to make Materia the permanent destination for voyagers.

This decision has come partially due to the devs wanting to avoid the culture clash that many of the servers have, as each server has its own dedicated culture and etiquette. This includes several facets like raid strategies, politeness when doing roulettes, or even what loot players should take.

However, since Materia is such a new server, only being launched in January of 2022, the devs are more willing to test the waters here. That and the Materia servers aren’t extremely populated, which helps the servers feel a bit livelier and assists with queue times for duties.