FFXIV Windows 8 Surface and other W8 Tablets

[Alhanelem]

Windows 8 is terrible (seems every other version sucks) and it needs to die in a fire. Games are terrible on touch screens unless the game is specifically designed for it. I'm honestly really tired of some of the recent tech "advancements" that really don't improve anything but get forced on us.

They should definitely have future tablet support in mind if they want this game to be future proof and highly accessible.

Tablet input is not the wave of the future. It is purpose built for certain functions. It's terrible for most games. a mouse and keyboard offer far more control over a game than a tablet. On-screen buttons do not have any kind of tactile feedback whatsoever and make a terrible form of input.

Desktop and laptop comptuers are not going away anytime soon. When a device is not forced to be ultra portable, it can be equipped with more powerful hardware than smartphones and tablets. The bleeding edge will still be on desktop PCs for a long time to come, since it takes time to make that same technology more portable.

[Chinook]

Desktop and laptop comptuers are not going away anytime soon. When a device is not forced to be ultra portable, it can be equipped with more powerful hardware than smartphones and tablets.

I personally would enjoy a lighter version of the game playable from a tablet where I could craft, sell shit, etc ... when not a home.

Your point is valid from today's perspective with a close-minded point of view, but who knows what's coming and what market SE is after.

[Defmetal]

It's not meant to be necessarily for the hardcore gamers, although I suppose people could get really good at it.
I meant more along the lines of, having another UI that is acceptable to people playing on one of those windows 8 pro tablets.

Because, while that ones on an intel gpu, in like 2-3 years we'll probably see an ASUS one with the equivilent of an nvidia gtx 650m.

So, if we had a touchscreen-friendly UI, we obviously still have the keyboard and mouse support, but designing an optional UI to facilitate portable gameplay would open up new doors to FFXIV most people here can't imagine.

Being able to be on a train and pulling out your tablet, pushing On (and its on about a second later) and loading up FFXIV and being able to do a few crafts, talk to your LS, maybe do some casual EXPing before you get back home. Or even on Vacations.

It's just another possiblity for gaming, and FFXIV already has a Controller UI mode, in fact these tablets have USB and therefore could easily just plug in a controller - but who carries a controller with them at all times?

This idea came from me being at Club Humidor and wanting to play FFXIV while I had to kill about 2 hours. I have a 4G iPad and while iOS won't get FFXIV, an equivalent windows machine would run it. So is it that far-fetched that the trolls must say "NO" ? It's just another control scheme, and maybe some additional work to specialize it if necessary.

If ARM version is not an optional, so be it. If it was ported to ARM processors it would be able to then be ported to Android devices though ~ And yes, it's very unlikely people would be RAIDING on a touchscreen device, but Android, Tegra, and this Windows 8 Pro tablets DO have joysticks .... and bluetooth support.

[Quesse]

I understand that just about all old games, like FFXI, will not work on the new Surface tablet which is running the ARM Windows 8, but the game should be able to easily be ported over to it because it is still windows and programming should still be very similar from what I've seen in the dev kits.

You do know they are releasing regular x86 non-ARM Surface tablets as well, right? No need to port it to ARM (not like that would ever work anyway).

But my point is that the community could develop an interface for Metro, esp since 2.0 is supposed to support addons. No need to make it so complicated.

[Zumi]

MS always has a history of having bad and good versions that alternate. We are due for another bad version it looks like.

Windows 95 -bad
Windows 98 -good
Windows ME -bad
Windows XP -good
Windows Vista -bad
Windows 7 -good
Windows 8 ???

[Alhanelem]

I meant more along the lines of, having another UI that is acceptable to people playing on one of those windows 8 pro tablets.

Even if you're using one of these windows 8 tablets, anyone with any kind of gamer sense will find a way to plug in a gamepad or mouse and keyboard to play it. On-screen touch UIs suck, you have to cover up part of the screen with your hands and that just ruins it for me.

[Rau]

If anything, this would be awesome for managing retainers/wards, and crafting on the couch or something.

I can't imagine actually playing the game with a tablet.

[Asiaine]

Windows 8 will support x86 not just ARM.
Windows 8 Surface/Tablet will support both x86 and ARM.
You can buy software for Windows 8 x86 from anywhere in the world, not just the market place (despite what Steam might want you to believe).
You can run Windows 7 software on Windows 8.

If there are any problems with FFXIV on Windows 8, more than likely its an issue with Graphics Drivers so go bug Nvidia/AMD to fix it ^^;

Not sure why they would want to take advantage of the 'Metro'/Tile UI as that is just for loading up stuff, not how the application works internally.

Not sure this game lends itself well to a touch screen, although I can see it useful for inventory management, equipping items, moving around windows. But not for actual combat/crafting/etc.

I do not think adding support for it is worth the effort, as the target audience would be very small and exclude PS3 users.

[Catapult]

Touch screen replicates use of a mouse with the left-botton click.

Done.

And I'm talking Windows 8 in General. Tablets... if you like.

[Aminore]

it should not be much of a problem. the microsoft surface tablet has usb ports. you might look like a fool pluging in a xbox pad on a tablet but i guess it can work. after seeing the new UI for 2.0 FFXIV will work very well on the surface. im planning on getting the pro tablet when it launches. my gaming rig is perfect with windows 7.