Blitzball .....where is blitzball

[Con_Carne]

I would prefer a Physical Ranged DPS that fights with a Blitzball Ball instead of Blitzball as minigame. xD

[Frizze]

I would prefer a Physical Ranged DPS that fights with a Blitzball Ball instead of Blitzball as minigame. xD

Hmmm... a blitzball-like glamour weapon for dancer wouldnt be all bad. Would fit the saucer aesthetic too one would think.

[Gojin]

They gave up and played mahjong instead then just added mahjong instead so they could play mahjong while pretending to work on in game stuff.

[Kaiserdrache]

What in the world should be so complicated about implementing BB in its FFX style into this game? seriously



Just make it a direct FFX copy where 1 player controls the whole team, where your own character is the team's captain akin to Tidus was that in FFX and the 5 others are just recruited NPC.


Add to the game like 100 NPC that players can recruit for their team, similar to how we recruit npcs for the squad gameplay system.
Whenever we play Blitzball then sgainst other players based on our actions in the match it might happen that recruitable npcs want to join our team and our character as captain decides then, which of them may join or not.



Give each recruitable character a base set of stats with varios strenghts and weaknesses, so that they are for different gameplay styles and tactics more or less interesting for you to recruit and let them have like vermillion pets have all different abilities to complement each characters uniqueness, so that they can even still be different, if they eventually have same stats.
Add to that then team roles ( Keeper, Defender, Supporter and Offender) so thst you can specialize them for various positions within your team, including yourself, if 6v6 will be a thing, not neccessary if designed 1v1 with players controlling everyone.

Awesome would be, if blitzball would get its own gear definetely to have on it many digferent customized glamors so that each team can look different in thei team glamors with players be sble to equip each team member individually with Blitzball-materia to give them this way Stat Boosts and wventually new abilitys to use in matches, that they'd normally not be able to use without the materia in thei blitzball gear



If the minigame would end up as 1v1 minigame - and we have something like that already with triple triad and lord of vermullion, abd even chocobo race and leap of jump are pvp orientated minigames, there should be no problems for SE blitzball with pvp gameplay


The fun aspect of blitzball IS rhe tournament, the playstel of it like soccer to determine which team was over a season the best
The only problem i can see where SE struggles with most likely with this, is the huge amount of potential competion, which could mske tournaments make feel like an endless slog, if there are kust way too many participators.


In FFX there existed only like 5 teams or so, making tournaments for a 1 player game naturaly a fast done thing, within a hour or two players were sble to do their tournaments at their own pace.
In an mmorpg thats not possible, it requires much more organisation if you want to make tournaments with thousands over thousands of players if 1 player is equal to 1 team

[Frizze]

What in the world should be so complicated about implementing BB in its FFX style into this game? seriously

All of what you described is a lot more work then you think. Mahjong got added because one of the programmers built it in his spare time. This is orders of magnitude more work.

[Kaiserdrache]

Blitzball is only complicated if you want to make tournaments, definetely not at all, if implemented as either FFX style single player minigame or maximum like triple triad designed for two players playing against each other, while controling the whole team self either, or only your own character, while all others are AI controled via an gambit AI system that tells the AI what to do in certain situations to simulate this way a tactical strategy for your team, where the npcs just react on the actions of the two players, as long you dont switch to them to control them manually, while the AI takes then temporally over controling your character for you.

The basics do exist all slready, they need to get ported and rebalanced only over to the FF14 hameplay mechanics and game engine, so that the stuff will work on the PS4, just like in the past on the ps2 and by now also ps3 and 4 as the game got HD remasters as we know.


It gets only more complicated and reqires effort, the moment new content gets added for it in form of new features, new abilities ect and eventually new body models, unless SE wants to make out of blitzball for FF14 something completely new, that is uncomparable with the OG

[Frizze]

Im going to go out on a limb here(if any professional programmers want to jump in, feel free) and assume that you couldnt just lift the code from the most recent version of FFX and drop it into FF14 and have a playable mini-game. Someone would have to re-write the whole thing. The only animation we have that would translate is "generic swimming", so all new animations are needed for everything else in the game. You asked for 100 NPCs, so they each need a visual design and a stat profile that make them distinct(if they look the same or have the same stats why have that many different ones?). You asked for "its own gear definetely to have on it many digferent customized glamors", so the gear modeling people have to come up with... what, a dozen? new outfits. This patch(5.2) will see ilvl increase, which means we're getting new gear. There will be a crafted set, a raid set, a tome set, and i believe a dungeon set. Thats somewhere between 12 and 24 unique looks, and theyll probly have 1-4 glamour only sets that find their way in too. So youre asking for maybe half of a major patch worth of new glamour options. Then on top of all that, you asked for a way to make your team members have customizable stat boosts and new abilities. Without even getting into tournaments this is a TON of work. And you havent asked the first question that came to my mind about blitzball. In FFX our teammates leveled up as we used them. Are we keeping the leveling system? Because if we are, then the first thing every new player needs to do to even remotely enjoy playing against other players is grind their way to the level cap in hundreds of meaningless games against NPCs. Oh right, we also needed someone to set up a handful of generic NPC teams that you could play against when other players arent around. They probly cant have any of your recruit-able teammates on them(individually tracking for thousands of players which NPCs are and arent on the gold saucer goblins and wolfs den wannabes is probly a step too far in terms of data transmission), so theres another couple dozen NPCs that need stats appearance and some more uniforms to put together. Are we putting any rewards in this mini-game other then MGP? If yes, then someone has to make those too. Then decide how theyre getting handed out(probly via achievements). And on top of all that, you need to work out some net stuff. What happens if player two disconnects during a match? Does the match just end? Does the AI take over for him until he can hopefully get back? How long does the game wait to have the AI take over if new inputs arent coming in? Does player one still get full credit for winning? Is there a penalty for player two dropping(like the one for missing ques perhaps)? Does all the action on the field still freeze when you decide to initiate a pass or shot? If so, how do you stop someone from using that to troll other players?

All of that, and im sure im forgetting or glossing over some aspects. That sounds complicated too me. And like a lot of work.

[Avenger]

Someday, if we are lucky,
Blitzball will be introduced into FFXIV
and become nearly as popular as
Lord of Verminion.

[Shivania91]

Blitzball. Beautiful and stylish game in concept. It works well in FFX and its story.

I loved Blitzball and played it probably more than the Main story of FFX, but...

In the years when it was first hinted at I made myself a few thoughts about it. As a Manager I would most certainly never touch it, FFX-2 version was terrible.

But if they make it a 1 to 1 copy of FFX it wouldn't be too interesting either, it would only be 'eh, alright'. I think the game deserved more than that.

In short? If you can't make it better than it was on FFX? don't bother. FF14 is also an MMO so it should have multiplayer, NPC+player to bridge a possible lack of players for a full team fine enough option as well.

What I personally think it HAS to be so it even has a chance of not being ignored:

1.)-Multiplayer, ideally more than just 2 players. 6 vs 6 might be a bit ambitious, but if you have the option to replace missing players with NPCs(Probably party leader controlled or something)? There shouldn't be an issue.

2.)-It has to be REWARDING. Most minigames just don't feel rewarding at all, and become more of a tedious work, than actual fun playing. So extra glams, emotes, mounts, minions or even weapons (maybe FFX inspired?) and lots of MGP? heck maybe even straight up Gil prizes for tournament wins or even exp won't hurt its just alternatively spend time instead of running a dungeon for a 100th time you spend 15 mins playing blitzball. Give it a daily roulette to be certain that its at least worth something and you got the base covered.

3.)-It has to be more in-depth than FFXs version, needing to feel more fluid overall. Over all it needs to feel like an upgrade, not a cheap copy. Just rewatching the Zanarkand scene from FFX with sins attack and the Blitzball game and how fierce and brutal it was? Gave me goosebumps, that game is badass. So it needs to capture this feel somehow.

4.)-Balancing and challange. if you played FFXs Blitzball enough you know at some point you become a powerhouse so strong that the computer can't win, you can literally swim and fetch the whole enemy team swim back to your goal and shoot to their goal across the field with each of the enemy players trying to block it and still got a solid chance of scoring. In short a powercreep needs to be stopped or at the very least matched.

All of this is lots of work, with today's technology probably much easier possible than back than with FFX, but still. Bottomline is, as much as I love to see it...Do it right or don't do it at all.
No one wants it to be a manager only game, for that the sport is too cool and action loaded (In concept) that you do not want to take part in it. Or combine active and passive playing, if one really think it has to be a manager.(It doesn't)

I agree that many games feel relatively half assed because they are meant to be "Acessable for everyone"....Sometime stuff needs to have depth and a bit of a skill curve to be entertaining. Pleasing everyone is impossible either way.

Blitzball certainly remains a dream I have for ff14, since I do not even like the normal dungeon/trial/raid gameplay. I play ff14 for other reasons, having other things that are fun and rewarding, would be nice. But dreams often remain dreams!

[Aer_We_Breathe]

Here's how I would do it:

-Add a Blitzball Square area to the Gold Saucer. A good spot would be a new area near the Chocobo/Minion Square.
-Add an unlock quest with an NPC at The Ruby Sea: Sui-no-Sato area. To make sure people can only unlock it after they have the ability to breathe underwater.
-Add a new "Blitzball" section to the Gold Saucer Menu. Here it could display similar data to the Race Chocobo Menu Section. With Blitzball Rank, Show your Hotbar moves, etc.
-Add NPC's to the Blitzball Square who you can buy training manuals to teach yourself Blitzball hotbar moves. Similar to Race Chocobo Training Manuals. Moves like: Poison Tackle, Ject Shot, etc.
-Duty-based Blizball match up to 8 players. Similar to Chocobo Races. NPC's fill in any spots not taken by players. 4 vs 4 plus an AI NPC Keeper for each side. Any Blitzball specific stats synced to the lowest player's rank. Similar to Chocobo Races. Can re-use the already in-game Chocobo Race NPC's for the fill-in spots.
-A pre-match countdown will start while allowing players to select which side to play on and which role they want other than Keeper. Random Rolls will break ties in role assignment.
-Manually swim around like in FFX. Play a quick cutscene each face-off, pass, tackle, or shoot that pauses each Actor's movement like in FFX.
-Give the Ball Carrier Shot and Pass hotbar moves they can use anytime while they are moving.
-Give the Defense side players a "Block" hotbar AOE, similar to the Chocobo Race Briars AOE, make it slightly wider than how collision detection is done in FFX to account for the distance gap caused by server latency, any other Defenders in the triggered Block AOE will join the Tackle cutscene to challenge the Ball Carrier, like in FFX. In the Tackle cutscene a timer will start, the Ball Carrier chooses to pass or shoot, like FFX, with their Hotbar for FF14, while the Defenders can choose a Tackle move with their hotbar. After the countdown is over, the Tackle cutscene plays out like in FFX and movement is unpaused for all players when leaving the cutscene.
-Grade each Actor with a Performance Score at the end of the match. Implement a fair and balanced Scoring system for each role.
-MGP-based rewards. Similar to Loses/Ties/Wins with Triple Triad Matches or Chocobo Races. Bonus MGP to the "Star Player" of the match who has the highest Performance Score of the match.
-Tournament Leadership Board based on Performance Score during "Tournament Matches". Similar to Triple Triad Tournaments and Verminion Tournaments.
-Add Blizball Glamour outfits, Emotes, Orcestrion Rolls, and Minions as MPG Prizes and/or Tournament Prizes. Maybe different colored and designed Blitzball "Parasol"-like items.

I would be satisfied with this. They could easily add this. They can build onto it later with things like: A Blitzball Class, 5 Vs 5 Plus NPC-Only Keepers, 6 vs 6 like FFX with player controlled Keepers, "Venture"-like or "Squadron"-like NPC Team Training, etc.