Single Player Future

[Tanitha]

I have played this game solo for 8 days and 9 hours (in my /playtime) on and off for years. It was not really that fun at all until trusts got introduced, just to damn hard. I mean I tried to get somewhere but realized at a point it was impossible, not worth the time.. fast forward to all the new things added in the last couple years; Now I have beat the Shadow Lord, about to take on Maat for my limit break,have checked out every expansion a little, got my relic armor.. I feel more accomplished then most games I play even though I am not *That* far. .... I love this game, music, story etc etc.. I have probably partied with random people for about 8 hours total of my play time and I sill love this game. I still love exploring, questing, auction housing etc... I guess I may be a mega dork but its still really fun single player.. I think the realize the demand for it as well when the introduced the trust system... Anyways, I like the idea of playing with people but not many are doing the stuff from 10 years ago like me haha.. Unless I x-fer my character to the Asura server and play on there... this game is better then MOST single player rpg's as it is..

[Bluestar2kx]

Since we already have a thread for it, i'l post here^^

(0:38:58～)
Q: Is there any possibility to release an offline version of the game?

A: We have talked about plans for an offline version several times; however, every time we start looking into the cost it is too high and we end up dropping the plan. We do want to make it available, but it is impossible to make the entire FFXI game something that is playable by one person, so we would have to take away specific parts. For these reasons we currently have no specific projects for this.

I can understand this to a degree.

But might I make a suggestion:

Take the server data, and create multiplayer internet/lan kit out of it, and sell it to us to cover creation costs. I don't know about anyone else, but if FFXI truly sunsets, I would definitely pay for that kind of access. And don't forget crowdfunding for titles and development can be huge, fans will pay to fund beloved titles, just look at what Star citizen has made from it's following, they've made 77 million dollars for that game.

Compile all the needed data into an easy to setup program the user can run at will, if possible allow game master settings like: player restrictions to stats, amount of players, level, drop %'s (such as a direct multiplier, say x2, x4, x10), items, or other things like atma's and such, set it up as a dedicated personal server like you would for any other game, and this way, you reduce the cost of making a true single player game, and let friends play together, because, isn't that why we all play FFXI?

In addition to that, see if it's possible to allow trust NPC's to form alliances with players.
Say one player in each alliance able to summon trust NPCs to fill it as needed (since your already trying to see if they can fill a whole party before development ends), each controlled as they are now, by the summoning player in that party.

It's set atm so only party leaders can, but each party has an independent leader in an alliance.
This would allow small groups of friends to do all of the game, even content requiring 18 members.
And if the game master could set say a level max, people could also get their current request for a lv 75 server, because you could artificially limit it. Sure, adoulin is set for lv 95+, but this would be by player choice, and easily adjusted at the reset of the server if they wanted to move up.

It creates a lot of possibilities, and it keeps FFXI alive for decades.
There's a lot of games players have kept alive for sooo long. This could be one.

If it becomes possible to rebuild the FFXI developer kit for PC and sell it, players could create an enormous amount of mods for FFXI while giving Square enix funds for further development, or to put into other titles (FFXI-2? ^.~), and modded games live for AGES, that kind of thing could be huge for Square enix and FFXI.

Just look at all the Elder scrolls and fallout games by Bethesda, Dragon Age by Bioware, look at more simpler games as old as total annihilation which still has a community patching the game themselves, and creating huge total conversion packs.

No Final Fantasy game has ever died.
I don't want FFXI to be the first for any reason, and I'll do what little I can to help, but i'm sure I'm not alone.

Square enix is working to help indie developers get off the ground. Why not let your fans help keep something alive even longer, or even breathe new life into it? Something that's been a centerpiece for tens of thousands of players (if not a lot more), and I'm sure, is at the heart of all the staff at Square enix who's worked on FFXI.

[Alhanelem]

No Final Fantasy game has ever died.
I don't want FFXI to be the first for any reason, and I'll do what little I can to help, but i'm sure I'm not alone.

It's not going to die, but it is going to reinvent itself. I'm still not clear what the deal is with the mobile version though. It sounds like its going to be the same game, but a seperate entity (not connected to the PC servers)?

So according to them, the primary reason for current events is a lack of functional development tools/kits (Because the game's codebase is on the PS2) and that they can't get new ones because the hardware is no longer supported by sony. That's understandable, but I think this goes to show why MMOs should not be based on fixed hardware systems. FFXIV has gotten around this problem by basing the game on PC and branching out to other platforms, which they can and are prepared to drop if they can no longer keep up with the game's requirements or if the development hardware no longer exists.

The reason this is going to be hard for many people to accept is simply because it's been around so long. I've had a subscription to this game for nearly half my life now. I now also play FFXIV and it has a lot going for it, but FFXI has a sort of old school charm that just can't be matched by anything else.

[Draylo-]

Those answers are all BS, it all boils down to dollar bills or yen or whatever. I find it highly unbelievable they couldn't redo the game just like they did for XIV, it the cost that stopped them and potential profits weren't there.

[Alhanelem]

Those answers are all BS, it all boils down to dollar bills or yen or whatever. I find it highly unbelievable they couldn't redo the game just like they did for XIV, it the cost that stopped them and potential profits weren't there.

Dollar bills are what makes any business go round, so how is that BS? It's just the way things work.

They could redo the game, but it would cost just as much as making a brand new game, and there's no guarantee that would get them enough players to be worth it. What FFXIV pulled off is extraordinarily rare for the industry.

While they may be stopping major development next year, they're not shutting the game down. And especially for people who have not played the full span of the game's life, there is more than enough content in the game to keep someone playing for a very long time. FFXI has more distinct areas and peices of content than just about any game I know to date.

[Draylo-]

I meant the answer of "we can't continue updates due to PS2 limitations" is BS. The real answer is "we don't see any profit so we are winding things down"

[Bluestar2kx]

I meant the answer of "we can't continue updates due to PS2 limitations" is BS. The real answer is "we don't see any profit so we are winding things down"

Well of course, they could likely redesign the code to run off a PC development kit, but that too takes A LOT of money, and isn't feasible for FFXI or SE without a promise of funds to do so. If players helped pitch in, then maybe they could get it done.

At that point, FFXI development could continue, and perhaps even ported to PC like platforms like the PS4 to increase the playerbase with much smaller development costs.

But like any business, they need a strong knowledge that it won't be a money sink.

FFXIV is an example of SE not letting a FF title die, and is further proof of my requests validity.
But they also did so by revamping it into a more casual friendly title to sell to a wide audience, and it got lucky and worked well, but that kind of casual play that XIV uses is something that would utterly kill FFXI, so SE has to be more careful with plans for FFXI, that's why they said themselves they weren't taking that route in their digest.

We have a devoted fan base, but it's not a massive one.

It's not going to die, but it is going to reinvent itself. I'm still not clear what the deal is with the mobile version though. It sounds like its going to be the same game, but a seperate entity (not connected to the PC servers)?

Well, I didn't mean die anytime soon.
But we all know it will happen someday. There just won't be enough players to fund servers, and staff to keep going. Esp if the mobile version is similar but separate from PC.
That day is likely years off, but, if FFXI took a turn at it's worst point then, it could become highly profitable for SE again, and fund other developments, esp if players helped do so.

I really don't understand the mobile version, and I get that phone/tablet games are hot these days, but it's not something I want to play to replace FFXI, I like my PC for gaming mostly, my phone barely sees me ever even turn on angry birds. So I'm offering suggestions and plans to help fund those worst case scenarios for the PC version.

[Alhanelem]

I meant the answer of "we can't continue updates due to PS2 limitations" is BS. The real answer is "we don't see any profit so we are winding things down"

If you don't have access to the development hardware, how are you supposed to change anything that requires a code change? Granted, things like balance tweaks, items, etc can be changed by merely updating datafiles, but they explained that they are inposession of many of the development machines that remain, and when they fail, they can't work on it anymore (I suppose they could use an emulator/virtual machine if one exists but agreements with Sony might not allow that)

[madmartin]

It's not going to die, but it is going to reinvent itself. I'm still not clear what the deal is with the mobile version though. It sounds like its going to be the same game, but a seperate entity (not connected to the PC servers)?

pretty much yeah, they gave it away when they said the mobile version would likely start with promathia content and eventually have the new rhapsodies content. They also said it will probably have exclusive content down the line, obviously some things will be a bit different to suit the mobile platform.

[bungiefanNA]

I meant the answer of "we can't continue updates due to PS2 limitations" is BS. The real answer is "we don't see any profit so we are winding things down"

PS2 development kit limitations, they say they're down to about a dozen left, and that's after acquiring every dev kit they could get their hands on from around the world, Sony doesn't make them anymore. The gist of their explanation is that the resources like graphics, music, sounds, zones, etc, are made on PS2 dev kits, and then ostensibly converted to DirectX-compatible data from there. They don't have tools to just make such content for PC, it has to be converted. making new tools or overhauling the engine, they say is as expensive as making a game like FFXIV from scratch.

I do find it weird the DAT-modding community has been so easily able to make new models (but then not so much in the way of new animations), while SE says it would be hard to do themselves. Still, when the last dev kit dies, they lose the ability to make new content. They might as well draw a line in the sand while they still have working units, rather than have them fail in mid-development and release of an expansion.