Final Fantasy XI Version 2.0?

[Elphy]

Final Fantasy XI version 2.0 is kindda what Im getting from the producer posts. Aside from them not redoing graphics, giving us shiney new regional servers that is.

Is that basically it or am I reading to much into it?

[Mirage]

You're reading too much into it.

[Moppet]

Yeah, I think this is a bit off-base.

To me it sounded like the producer is a little overwhelmed. His post seemed to be to just confirm that stuff is in the works and a possible new direction for future content and reworking of old content, like with the mention of solo content, etc.

Also that a lot of the FFXI team has been shifted to work on the expansion.

[Elphy]

Ok, I wasnt sure how exactly to read that. I know it wasnt going to be a complete redo like xiv but it sounded like he wanted to put the game through so many changes it was going to be close to a reboot.

[Tennotsukai]

Doesn't matter. This sounds like an amazing idea that I hope gets worked on after ffxiv v2. Updated graphics, major overhaul, but noooo nerfs.

[Elphy]

There are going to be nerfs. There has to be nerfs. There are a select few jobs that are way to overpowered and a select few they could do away with completely with as worthless as they have become. So they need to tone down the overpowered and throw a bone to the underdogs

[Vold]

I get a vibe along the lines of "this is a lot of work my homies but we're doing all we can, hang in there" but yeah it seems they are committed for the long haul. Just not necessarily the way we want them to be.

[Totema]

I can honestly only see this happening if ARR flops, and even then only after they fix the balance in the game first. But hey, a guy can dream right?

[JouriStarz]

I think they eventually will do a 2.0 not anytime in the near future but if this game lasts for another 10 years there would be no reason not to at that point.

One of the main reasons the decided to do it for XIV is because they didnt want it to become a "lost" Final Fantasy and if they dont do something then it will happen to XI. The only other route i can see them taking is making an offline single player version of the game.

[Demon6324236]

The only other route i can see them taking is making an offline single player version of the game.http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081102182403/es.finalfantasy/images/6/64/Logo_Final_Fantasy_XII.jpeg



No really though, I would like them to find a way to basically turn the game single player when the servers eventually die. I like going back and playing my older Final Fantasy games, being back in that world again, with all the same familiar characters and reliving the story, it would be sad for me to see the one I have spent the most time on, be the only one which I could never go back and relive the experience of just because of the servers going down.

[Teraniku]

Final Fantasy XI version 2.0 is kindda what Im getting from the producer posts. Aside from them not redoing graphics, giving us shiney new regional servers that is.

Is that basically it or am I reading to much into it?

They don't need to redo graphics. They just need to update the directX wrapper the game runs under. Updating it to at least DX9 (Preferrably 10 or 11) would do wonders for compatibility with current graphics cards, and could add shiny water to the Windows / 360 version.

[Mirage]

Yes. It's not as much the poly count and texture resolution that bothers me, but the complete lack of hardware antialiasing, glitchy graphics close to the "seams" where different objects meet (feathers, hair, etc.) and at times inconsistent texture filtering. I dunno about everyone else, but to me it seems like when looking at surfaces from a low angle, you go from good texture filtering closest to the camera, then no filtering at all (blocky textures), then texture filtering on the textures further away than that again.

Additionally, shadows seem to eat away a disproportionally huge amount of resources too. I'd love a game where you could run at 60 fps, 8x (or more) antialiasing, really nice texture filtering, better shadows, and shinier water, all without the game ever dropping below 60fps even in events where you have over 30 character models on screen.

Oh yeah, and maybe some updated sky textures here and there too. I know the devs know how to do it, because some of the WotG skies look absolutely fantastic, but at the same time, some other textures in other areas look very bad. An excellent example of this would be one of the nearly cloud-free during daytime in the past, and then look back at the clouds seen when it is thunderous in pashhow in the present, where you can clearly see color patterns in textures to make up for a too small color palette. Additionally, the resolution of the clouds in Riverne is also very low and looks very much out of place compared to other areas.

I also dunno if I'm the only one experiencing this, but I also saw a significant decrease in graphics performance when going from WinXP x64 to Win7 x64. I only managed to get it back to the performance I had on XP x64 when I upgraded my CPU to something about 30% better.

It would also be nice if they fixed the "glow" effects that we have on avatars, maws, and so on. This effect actually looks pretty neat at the resolution the game was originally made for (on PS2), but becomes increasingly blocky and ugly as the game's resolution is increased. At low resolution, the effect actually manages to emulate a HDR bloom-like effect pretty nicely (which is kind of impressive for a PS2 game). It is too bad that it doesn't look nearly as good for most players.

I would also like to see an official setting for greatly increasing draw distance. The game can look very pretty in some areas with the draw distance increased several times more than the game initially allows for. There is however one problem with increasing the draw distance more than the game is made for, and that is that environmental fog and weather effects that are meant to set the mood in an area are also affected by this, making these effects often become much weaker or farther away. Some areas really look a lot cooler when weather effects are allowed to do their thing. I bet it would look even better if we had both increased draw distance and the correct application of these effects.