FFXI Outline and Future

[Huckster]

Hello all,

I've been playing FFXI since Nov 2003 (wow! 8 years - time flies!). I saw ups and downs of FFXI - Abyssea sure gave a new kick for the game, now the content is good although in my opinion it lacks new storyline and the vision for the future.

Last year I tried playing FFXIV but didn't find it attractive enough so I stayed with FFXI.

Yesterday a 2 year roadmap was released for FFXIV:
http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/download/en/FFXIV_2.0_Outline_EN.pdf

It shows the major UI overhaul, change of graphics system, new functions, new server design (one world), and new content.

I remember that this April a roadmap for FFXI was also released:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/4937-The-FINAL-FANTASY-XI-roadmap-for-the-twelve-month-period-commencing-April-2011

So my question is devs - can we expect the similar roadmap as for FFXIV? (graphics engine overhaul maybe? vana'diel + eorzea merger?) Or at least some update of the roadmap previously released? The graphics for the roadmap ends on September - show us the future of FFXI!

[Selzak]

Hey there fellow veteran!

I think our best hope for FFXI is the rumored Vita port. This game is a sort of hidden gem because of its slow beginnings. It's aged well, it's established, and a lot of Final Fantasy and MMO fans in general who aren't aware of FFXI would love to be a part of it but they don't realize it yet.

The potential is there (however unlikely) for FFXI to get a big revival with that port, and that would open the opportunity for a new focus on keeping it up and refreshed as the stronghold of SE's established MMO while FFXIV tries to become a future, next-gen successor for a more graphically-focused and casual base. There's room for the games to co-exist, and I believe (perhaps controversially) that FFXI has a lot of room to grow. The Final Fantasy name, and the playability that this game has achieved over the years (combined with its beautifully aging graphics) could make it as big as it's ever been if SE pushes it to become the handheld MMO. I just hope they realize how significant a title like that would be financially and in many other senses too.

Right now, I think SE sees FFXIV as a successor to FFXI, but despite their plans they're stuck with FFXI because it works and FFXIV doesn't. I think it would take the situation above (and that's really the last hope) for FFXI to see significant new content like full expansions going forward. Otherwise, I suspect it will continue in much the same way it has been.

[svengalis]

Still no mention of an actual auction house which is one of the major reasons I gave up on that game such fail.

[Vold]

I hope they do new music in the reboot of the reboot of FFXIV. For some reason that music got on my nerves... maybe it was too repetitive. But then I say that assuming I ever bother with the game. Also, when they say the games will co exist I wish they meant it and not 14 gets 250 people working on it while 11 gets like 10. It's just fricking wrong to not want to conserve your success in the other MMO. I'm just wondering how long will it be before they wake up and realize, oh shit we dropped the ball not only on 14 but on 11 too by ignoring it. Too late.

[Buffy]

I hope they do new music in the reboot of the reboot of FFXIV. For some reason that music got on my nerves... maybe it was too repetitive. But then I say that assuming I ever bother with the game. Also, when they say the games will co exist I wish they meant it and not 14 gets 250 people working on it while 11 gets like 10. It's just fricking wrong to not want to conserve your success in the other MMO. I'm just wondering how long will it be before they wake up and realize, oh shit we dropped the ball not only on 14 but on 11 too by ignoring it. Too late.

These repeated tin-foil hat posts complaining about the # of people developing ffxi or programming the future or creating new content are getting beyond old. This game is 10 years old (roughly from Beta in Japan), which means 15 years ago someone had an idea for a great game, and then made it happen. You've had fun playing, SE has made a killing off subscriptions.

They aren't going to invest a DIME (or more accurately, a yen) into the game they aren't going to get back. They haven't dropped the ball on XI, the last update was considered lame because the previous 3 updates all included abyssea, which also had a cost associated with it. So in return for your normal subscription fee, you got a new level cap increase, new magian trials, and new levels to voidwatch, expansions to GoV and tweaks including the automatically repeating GoV option, a host of new items, and a revamp of the CoP Dynamis system (Which if you jumped on it early, should have made you 15-20m gil or about 25% of a stage 5 for a relic, before they adjusted drop rates).

You're getting new content, and varied content for people of different play styles and difficulties. It wasn't another abyssea add-on, because it wasn't supposed to be.

FFXIV has 250 people because they are trying to make it work right. Its rare to say a single game can turn a company's fortunes, but SE has a lot of eggs in that basket, and they have a responsibility to their shareholders to make that game turn a profit at some point in the next five years.

What *I* wish SE would do is release more add-ons like abyssea (not the abyssea style, just additional content). I don't mind paying 20-30$ a year for new content with the length and breath of abyssea. Think about it - abyssea changed ffxi permanently. How we level, what's a proc, jobs, balance, everything. And it happened over the course of 9-12 months for 3 $10 add-ons. Charge me that much extra every year for new content, and I'll happily keep buying crack. The monthly fee maintains the game, extra charges pay for additional content - this makes sense to me.

[Dew]

We will see amazing "Major" version updates with stuff like, 100 skill levels with no new ws's, AV like hnms with tunnel worm like drops, copy and paste of amazing new mobs we killed 10,000 of before, and very challenging trials for +1 dmg and +1 stat. The future looks bright. :) lol

In all reality wouldn't except much update wise now. Tho some word on if/when we will see stuff like +2 relic armor, salvage updates, homam/nashira updates, and other things.

[Laraul]

They game is nearly 10 years old... it needs to come to an end... adding content on top of the enormous amount of content that already exists is a bad idea.

[Seriha]

What *I* wish SE would do is release more add-ons like abyssea (not the abyssea style, just additional content). I don't mind paying 20-30$ a year for new content with the length and breath of abyssea. Think about it - abyssea changed ffxi permanently. How we level, what's a proc, jobs, balance, everything. And it happened over the course of 9-12 months for 3 $10 add-ons. Charge me that much extra every year for new content, and I'll happily keep buying crack. The monthly fee maintains the game, extra charges pay for additional content - this makes sense to me.

And why should we have to pay more just to get what we should be getting as subscribers? I doubt that $20-30 would magically materialize a new team to work independently of the current. Rather, it'd just pull from what's currently there to do whatever. Overall, SE's been terrible about releasing expansions in incomplete states, and while the collective whole of Abyssea is good for what it did, it's also a reflection of the lacking team size with a "second" expansion of rehashed zones, WotG being the first... and it needing years to run its course.

So, qq on BG to your heart's content, but people wanting their money's worth is the customer's right. An individual subscriber pulling their support with no voice leads to next to nothing when dealing with hundreds of thousands. Organizing mass cancellations is probably next to impossible since people who visit any kind of XI forum regularly is a minority with some accounts logging in minimally, and SE's willingly pulled team members from the game when it was doing better than it had been in a while in both content and perception. So, it's not entirely surprising that enough people choosing to quit in protest would harm the game's future irreparably and those realizing it aren't so quick to close their wallets. Like it or not, us "whiners" have helped give things you've also enjoyed in the game over time with our subs. And if Voidwatch (casual unfriendly) and poorly thought out magian trials (too much for too little) are FFXI's future under the current team, then concern is warranted. Eventually even the dirty casuals will exhaust Abyssea content pertaining to their interests. Then what? GoV (leveling is finite) and Dynamis (not everyone will chase a relic for months of daily work) certainly can't and won't satisfy these people in the long term.

SE basically has two choices here to encourage customer satisfaction: 1) Give us more than they currently are for our money. If over 4 mil a month with 350k subscribers is not enough to do this, I don't know what is. 2) Dramatically lower the subscription fee. I'm talking like 50% or more. Low-budget service does not justify premium cost. Personally, I'd guess #1 the more profitable route, as even if a larger production team sapped 1 mil a month to its thing, 3 mil is better than 2 mil at #2's rate. And with XIV set to start charging its own fee soon, they've got little excuse to not look into either alternative short of just being greedy, uncaring bastards. Given the current global economic climate, that's not a PR image you want to be conveying.

[Buffy]

SE basically has two choices here to encourage customer satisfaction: 1) Give us more than they currently are for our money. If over 4 mil a month with 350k subscribers is not enough to do this, I don't know what is. 2) Dramatically lower the subscription fee. I'm talking like 50% or more. Low-budget service does not justify premium cost. Personally, I'd guess #1 the more profitable route, as even if a larger production team sapped 1 mil a month to its thing, 3 mil is better than 2 mil at #2's rate. And with XIV set to start charging its own fee soon, they've got little excuse to not look into either alternative short of just being greedy, uncaring bastards. Given the current global economic climate, that's not a PR image you want to be conveying.

SE hasn't raised their rates since the game was released. Name another company that hasn't raised prices in 10 years.

[Seriha]

Other companies also don't charge per character and tend to offer discounts for bulk subscription purchases. Some have even gone F2P while adopting cash shop models, but I'm sure that's anathema to some since "free" offers no filter to block out the kiddies.

Like I said, they're options. Just as MMOs are meant to grow and evolve based on the subs we pay, the companies behind them also need to adapt. There is nothing going on within FFXI now that warrants an increase in subscription fees, and if C&B charging little bits of extra got people uppity, well, I'd hate to see the fallout here if they tried.

[Arcon]

SE hasn't raised their rates since the game was released. Name another company that hasn't raised prices in 10 years.

You can spin that one any way you want it. I'm paying over 30% more now than when I started, while I'm technically, in one way, still paying the same price.

[Behemothx]

They game is nearly 10 years old... it needs to come to an end... adding content on top of the enormous amount of content that already exists is a bad idea.

lol, What?? ;)

Since when is lots of contents bad?

[Airget]

It would be nice to get some update on the future of XI, when you consider how a game like Everquest is still around it's a tad troublesome how when SE claims that Final Fantasy is an important franchise to them they in a sense neglect XI in favor of XI with a V. I do hope in the next few days they might say something but seeing how they are putting so many resources into XIV it does appear they are trying to kill their own MMO. Before they said they wanted to make another mmo in which you would still be able to play both and have unique experiences, but with all the changes coming into XIV it looks like they are trying to defeat their own product.

I still wish they'd at least tell us why they had that survey it's kinda annoying that they ask us the survey yet don't even release the numbers or make an announcement over it. Something as simple as that would be nice even if it came down to why they can't cut ps2 support. Content wise the game has just been one dimensional challenge after another, there hasnt' really been any "new" places to explore just reskinned mobs and 1 or 2 new NMs to fight in an instance that you have 30 minutes to complete. To me the voidwatch concept isn't to compelling with how NM oriented it is with a true lack of adventuring, it's just hey we can warp you to think location and you can fight the NM right away. I hope in the next VU we could see some more intriguing content, with the last LB I imagine the Ki recieved may prove to make it an interesting quest to reach 99. But ya just seeing how much effort is being put into XIV should make it discouraging to those play XI since you don't see a game that has had a loyal fanbase get much respect when they still pay and play in hopes that there may be a true expansion we can look forward to.

[Atomic_Skull]

They game is nearly 10 years old... it needs to come to an end... adding content on top of the enormous amount of content that already exists is a bad idea.

CCP would like to have a word with you.

[Jackstin]

lol, What?? ;)

Since when is lots of contents bad?

I sort of agree.. I've been playing off and on for a few years, and one of the things which makes me give up is the sheer amount of things like story-missions that it is difficult to get a party for nowadays.

I think new content is an excellent thing, but I also feel that they should replace some of the old content. A 2.0 reboot for FF11 would be very welcome in my eyes, not least because they could re-do the server and make the possibility of playing on future platforms more likely. After all, one day, there will probably be a Windows platform that FF11 doesn't work on.

[saevel]

Well with Tanaka back to directing things you have a 50/50 chance of seeing something new in last summer / fall of 2012. They designed the latest batch of content to stretch the lv 99 update out to late spring / early summer, they'll more similar content then to stretch it out to fall time 2012. Right now it's about making you pay as much as possible for as long as possible while investing the least amount of money into FFXI's development. Their down to a skeleton crew again like back in 09. You can actually *feel* it now, when comparing to the sudden wealth of updates / additions / content available over the Abyssea time frame (job adjustments, gear introduced, act..) to what we've got in the last updates. The new JA's are mediocre at best with ridiculous cool-downs to prevent them from changing game strategies (and thus not having to spend dev time ensuring fights aren't broken), the new gear is side-grades or just plan down-grades to whats in abyssea, the new "end game" event is just Salvage version 2. They got away with this in the past because we had this snarky believe that "SE doesn't care or listen" and pretty much treated everything they do as thought they were the most incompetent people in the world. But under different leadership suddenly they were acting like a regular MMO company, back under old leadership their no longer acting that way, so we now KNOW the failures are being done on purpose and not as a side effect of incompetent developers.

[Atomic_Skull]

I sort of agree.. I've been playing off and on for a few years, and one of the things which makes me give up is the sheer amount of things like story-missions that it is difficult to get a party for nowadays.

I think new content is an excellent thing, but I also feel that they should replace some of the old content. A 2.0 reboot for FF11 would be very welcome in my eyes, not least because they could re-do the server and make the possibility of playing on future platforms more likely. After all, one day, there will probably be a Windows platform that FF11 doesn't work on.


From what I have heard Windows 8 does not include DirectX 8 emulation like Vista and Windows 7 did.

[kewitt]

I would like to see a new road map for FFXI as the last one is pasted the last date of info.

But WOW. I think SE may have highered people from Wow. or maybe consulting with them because 2.0 just gave me new hopes for FFXIV..

[Atomic_Skull]

I would like to see a new road map for FFXI as the last one is pasted the last date of info.

But WOW. I think SE may have highered people from Wow. or maybe consulting with them because 2.0 just gave me new hopes for FFXIV..


Honestly I hate the new UI, it looks way too cluttered.

[svengalis]

Honestly I hate the new UI, it looks way too cluttered.

How? Is FF XI/XVI the only MMOs you ever played? The new looks just every other MMO out there that isn't on consoles LOL.

I actually like the new UI design never understood why they went with circles on the command bar instead of squares like everyone else uses.

[svengalis]

Also did I see male Mithras? It takes a failed launch for them to finally add them oh man. Game is basically still in beta mode. Man everything would have been fine if they just waited to release it instead of rushing it to market.

[Jackstin]

Honestly I hate the new UI, it looks way too cluttered.

I agree but this is what all MMOs do nowadays, so Square's choice was either to reinvent the wheel, or just improve upon it.

I would LOVE a full remake of FF11 for the Vita, with simplified UI, and a touchscreen keyboard. A handheld MMO would pretty much be a new market I think.

[Atomic_Skull]

How? Is FF XI/XVI the only MMOs you ever played?

Because I've been playing FFXI exclusively since 2003?

I don't like that UI for the same reason I prefer Lightwave 3D's UI over 3DS Max's. Needless complication and on screen clutter annoys me.

[Arcon]

Honestly I hate the new UI, it looks way too cluttered.

Agreed.


How? Is FF XI/XVI the only MMOs you ever played? The new looks just every other MMO out there that isn't on consoles LOL.

Yes, I hate most other MMO UIs as well. I loved that FFXI's UI was always compact and showed only necessary information. I don't need there to be an icon on the screen for every ability I can use, a display for everything related to my status (EXP, CP, IS, AN, etc.) like other MMOs do, it just takes away from your view. I don't need to be spammed with information I don't immediately need and which I can look up with two pushes of a button. I think FFXI's UI display on the main screen is amazing. The only thing I think they could improve is show advanced stats in the status or equipment menu (acc/eva, ratt/racc, matt/macc/mdef/meva, and possibly other things like base crit rate, current haste, etc.) and possibly a mini map. Apart from that, I'd love if they kept FFXI's style over any other MMO's.

[Secondplanet]

my biggest problem my wife and i have with XIV is it looks like SE tried to please both the FF:XI players and the WoW players and made the game that was the bastard child of the both which is 2 systems that don't mingle well....

[svengalis]

my biggest problem my wife and i have with XIV is it looks like SE tried to please both the FF:XI players and the WoW players and made the game that was the bastard child of the both which is 2 systems that don't mingle well....
My biggest problem with XIV was there was like nothing to do.

[wildsprite]

From what I have heard Windows 8 does not include DirectX 8 emulation like Vista and Windows 7 did.


everything seen about windows 8 shows that it is mostly a frame for using other operating systems and not an actual OS, it runs mostly xml and silverlight code, and uses virtual PC for everything else

ofcourse all I have seen is an unfinished beta, but usually when MS puts something in their head as a good idea they go with it even if it is terrible, I wont be using it unless they do something spectacular with it, and even then I'll be keeping my copies of XP and 7 as well as ububtu ready to use

[FrankReynolds]

everything seen about windows 8 shows that it is mostly a frame for using other operating systems and not an actual OS, it runs mostly xml and silverlight code, and uses virtual PC for everything else

ofcourse all I have seen is an unfinished beta, but usually when MS puts something in their head as a good idea they go with it even if it is terrible, I wont be using it unless they do something spectacular with it, and even then I'll be keeping my copies of XP and 7 as well as ububtu ready to use

You won't see the first PCs shipping with windows 8 for another year or more, and it will probably be another 2 years after that (if ever, its more of a bridge os for portable devices) before it starts actually picking up major market share. I wouldn't worry about anything being backwards compatible right now.

[Phen]

To comment on the UI screenshot im pretty sure thats got every possible thing you could up. Seeing as they are developing plugin support I assume it was to show you can pull all those values. Even right now in ffxiv alot of those menu exist (if you turn them on) you can move those windows around or make smaller or turn them off completely. It was weird coming from FFXI where the thought of moving the compass to be visible most of the time was a pipe dream.

[Mirage]

Win8 will probably just be a NT 6.3 with a fancy interface.

[Huckster]

Thank you SE! :)

[Atomic_Skull]

Win8 will probably just be a NT 6.3 with a fancy interface.

Early reports say that memory efficiency is greatly improved. It's supposedly almost as much of an improvement over windows 7 as windows 7 was over Vista.

[svengalis]

Hello all,

I've been playing FFXI since Nov 2003 (wow! 8 years - time flies!). I saw ups and downs of FFXI - Abyssea sure gave a new kick for the game, now the content is good although in my opinion it lacks new storyline and the vision for the future.

Last year I tried playing FFXIV but didn't find it attractive enough so I stayed with FFXI.

Yesterday a 2 year roadmap was released for FFXIV:
http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/download/en/FFXIV_2.0_Outline_EN.pdf

It shows the major UI overhaul, change of graphics system, new functions, new server design (one world), and new content.

I remember that this April a roadmap for FFXI was also released:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/4937-The-FINAL-FANTASY-XI-roadmap-for-the-twelve-month-period-commencing-April-2011

So my question is devs - can we expect the similar roadmap as for FFXIV? (graphics engine overhaul maybe? vana'diel + eorzea merger?) Or at least some update of the roadmap previously released? The graphics for the roadmap ends on September - show us the future of FFXI!

I seriously doubt they will give us a new road map for FF XI until the one they gave us earlier this year is completed.

[Jamesruglia]

Wait, this might be released on the Vita?

I just can't stop hearing things to like about that thing. I would buy a a Vita solely to play this game.

[Arcon]

I seriously doubt they will give us a new road map for FF XI until the one they gave us earlier this year is completed.

Except, they released one just yesterday (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/16211-FINAL-FANTASY-XI-Roadmap-for-October-2011-%E2%80%93-March-2012).

[Atomic_Skull]

Wait, this might be released on the Vita?

I just can't stop hearing things to like about that thing. I would buy a a Vita solely to play this game.

Supposedly they were "looking into it".

An interesting thing about a possible Vita port is that they can't just port over the windows version like they did to the Xbox 360. To get it working on the Vita they would have to rewrite the renderer for OpenGL.