I imagine the linked auction houses were originally intended to stimulate the economy in the early days of the server. There may now or soon be enough players to replicate the "era" experience of separate auction houses for each nation. Is the goal to replicate "era" as closely as possible or is it to create something reminiscent of era but "better"?

I guess I really don't see the appeal of Jeuno as a hub. To me it feels much nicer now to be have all the starting cities remain active.

Exactly what he said.. the ONLY thing he needs to do is put an OP NPC in jeuno and about 80% of the population would set their HP to jeuno. Right now I keep it to bastok because I can get anywhere very quickly aside of whitegate which isn't a priority.

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~Respect is earned~

What about making a hub of Whitegate? It has an Auction House, a free port to somewhere around Jeuno, and a paying port (1 silver piece) to each nation's OP warp dude.

The area is rather large and divided into squares to spread the population, instead of annoying long-ass corridors (Jeuno).

That does sound really convenient. You can either pay your silver piece or go to Jeuno and wait on an airship, or whatever.

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Baleful Badger

Problem with that, I feel, is that the game will feel empty for everyone below lvl50 which is the majority of the population, if Whitegate is the hub. They won't even be able to visit Whitegate at all until they're in the 50s and get access since there's nothing to do there pre-50s I like the idea of having the starter cities be active to a certain point to help create an environment that's welcoming and engaging for new players. Where they can see activity and also get teleports. One of the first things that drew me into Nasomi when I started was the "Wow! This server is packed!" feeling that made me want to progress and discover more about the community playing it.

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In-game name: Mello

That's a good point, I love that Bastok Mines is full of busy people crafting, peddling wares and making groups. Maybe the current situation is for the best.

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Baleful Badger

One more, please. For a friend.

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There won't be a jeuno hub without separate AHs.
I'm not saying this as a solution or the only reason that made Jeuno the main hub in the old days. I think the 3 warps should be restored and Kaiduru-Haiduru fully activated with Ru'lude Gardens & home city warp, also leave the free al zahbi > almost jeuno warp. That will allow players the opportunity to idle in the place of their choice at some cost and have all these zones populated.

If Jeuno hub is the desired result there are actions you can take. At the moment Jeuno is a drag to get to, as you have to OP to qufim, and Jeuno has no way to get to other places aside from choco and airship.

Two actions that would help jeuno be a hub and still help the playerbase would be

OP warp npc in ru lude gardens (at consulate).

Aht urgan warp in port jeuno.

This allows for Jeuno to offer more ways to get to places, and divides the pop up into multiple zones, this would help prevent major congestion.
Major close AH is still lower, rulude doesnt usually have much traffic, and port could use a boost.