Julia wrote:
Is this happening because Windurstians can't get r10?
The core of it is probably that Windurstians have a much harder time getting to Valkurm than anyone else when they're getting started. Memories of retail alone are enough to give players an incentive to pick somewhere else, and the OWNM camping the Buburimu road and the sometimes-buggy ferry are extra surprises on top of that. (This despite Windy being the actual best town to start in because crawlers and mandies are amazing when you're scrambling for gil.) I'd be interested to see the numbers on how many players get to level 12 and just never log in again, grouped by starting nation.
Beyond that it's just a feedback loop. Windy's bad at conquest because we have the lowest population, so when someone decides to switch nations they tend to switch away from Windy, instead of towards it. r10 being broken is just an extra disincentive on top of that.