Developers, SquareEnix: What are the REAL chances of us seeing NEW areas?

[Karbuncle]

In the other thread about new zones, The Reps basically told us "We've got a lot planned, Theres no room For a new expansion."

I asked one of them "IS there any chance we might see an Expansion after this timeline finishes out? or next year, year after?"

I got no response

Its safe to assume that no, We'll never see another new Expansion or Continent/Zone ever.

Maybe 1-2 Re-colored Battlefields (The Concept art of the Giant Crystal Area comes to mind, My bet is a recolored Avatar Arena, or something similar to Riverne), but i don't think we're every going to see another Expansion-level amount of new Zones ever again.

[Octaviane]

Not 30 either, but it's all good and I have a life outside of FFXI too. My original post was constructive and realistic. Again, I have better things to do with $300/$400 dollars than spend it on something that will give me more problems than my PS2 ever does. I am happy for those of you that have the kind of money available to spend on every gadget/game/system. Long live PS2!

[Karbuncle]

I can respect someone in financial situations where they cannot afford 300$ Systems. But if money is so tight you can't find a way in the budget to afford 300$, Why not cancel your FFXI account for 3 years !

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(I don't know If I'm being serious.)

[Thicrobrian]

I'm sorry but everyone who saying that they would quit ffxi when they drop FFXI on ps2. Are you using a pc to talk on here? i mean i'm sure it would play ffxi without problems then with 14$ you could get a PS2--> USB and play it just how you did on your ps2. Seeing how you got a month free there your $ for the thing itself.

Even my 2002 can play FFXI on a 64mb mobo video card on pretty much high setting without issue.

[Darkhaund]

For me, it is not about the PS2 or this or that... it is about actually seeing new stuff. If no mayor interesting story is added and new, totally new, areas are included, once i finish WotG storyline, it is goodbye for me

[Kuvo]

For me, it is not about the PS2 or this or that... it is about actually seeing new stuff. If no mayor interesting story is added and new, totally new, areas are included, once i finish WotG storyline, it is goodbye for me

Ya I'm with you. We do need more story content but to be honest i haven't even finished CoP or any of the add on's other then the 3 abyssea ones. So i still have a lot of contect to work on but I'm with you on adding new areas and more content. The point started to turn to anger with the PS2 issues, since thats the reason why SE can't add new content due to the PS2 storage and processor power.

We can only hope and wish SE removes the old technology to make room to expand the world and gameplay.

[Greatguardian]

This might be right, but i'm not too sure how SE does it. I never really looked into it. I have worked on many games for local developers and when creating new zones and areas it does take more storage on the users end. But Greatguardian is right about the areas being reskinned. These only use a small amount of extra user memory because they are using already used space. Unless SE somehow uses things differently I think that if they add entire new zones the user will need more storage space hence why the PS2 is reaching capacity. Again I can't speak for SE but from the game projects I have worked on adding new zones will take more space that the ps2 can not do so removing those users will help to increase the games spectrum.

By the way Greatguardian, where did you get that sig?

While the zones are reskinned, they don't draw upon existing resources to generate in-game. Everything it just copy-pasted into a new zone .DAT, taking up the same amount of space as the original. This largely has to do with the way FFXI .DATs are packaged. You can't draw individual pieces from any particular .DAT for use in game, only the whole thing or none of it at all. Reskinning on their end just means they can unwrap an existing .DAT, change the textures, add/subtract objects, sometimes even adjust the terrain (eg, Gustaberg [S]), and then repackage their finished product as an entirely new .DAT.

Reskinning FFXI zones doesn't save any hard drive space for the end-user, but it does save a hell of a lot of development time. Instead of going through conceptualization, the creation and tweaking of the map, the implementation of terrain and mob placement, and so on, all the Development Team has to do is take a pre-made Map and change the monster placement.

Honestly, I'd love new zones. I really would. But I really don't think FFXI is receiving very much support from Square Enix in the personnel department. We do have a core Development Team, but it may or may not even include people who are experienced in the creation of new zones. As is, they're probably pumping out as much content as they can manage with the people and tools afforded to them. Unless SE is willing to hire on additional Developers, I doubt we'll be seeing another fullscale Expansion or Continent in the future.

As for my sig, it's a parody of an English translation of a very old JP sig. I think Tsukino_Kaji posted a thread in General Discussion a week or two ago with links to the "Blank" versions after mine was custom-made by Phear.

[TwistedAx]

So I just checked my PS2's Hard Drive's free space. Out of 38,144MB, 24,441MB is still free... More then half.. Hard drive space issue? And with the fairly recent update to how the PS2 updates the files for FFXI? I smell a pile of Bull Sh*t somewhere nearby. They have plenty of room to expand, if they wanted to. Even if other games are installed on the Hard Drive, there would still be an abundance of room left over.

[Catsby]

So I just checked my PS2's Hard Drive's free space. Out of 38,144MB, 24,441MB is still free... More then half.. Hard drive space issue? And with the fairly recent update to how the PS2 updates the files for FFXI? I smell a pile of Bull Sh*t somewhere nearby. They have plenty of room to expand, if they wanted to. Even if other games are installed on the Hard Drive, there would still be an abundance of room left over.

There are other parts of your PS2 besides the hard drive that do important things so you can play your games. You understand that right?

[Greatguardian]

There are other parts of your PS2 besides the hard drive that do important things so you can play your games. You understand that right?

^ This. There were also significantly more games that utilized the PS2 HDD released in JP-only than those that made it to the states. The problem is not the total size of the HDD, but the size of the FFXI partition which is capped at 8GB. Changing that partition size, if it is even possible at all, is a Sony issue. Square can't just decide to do it on their own.