Is there secrecy over the 20th anniversary?

[Haldarn]

I had an expectation for something significant for the 20th Anniversary after it was announced that they'd be working towards it two years ago, but reading back on it I wonder if the community has read more into it than we perhaps should have.

There doesn't seem to be a sensible reason to hide a big surprise like an expansion pack, HD upgrade/engine change or UI modernisation, especially this close when the work would have to be virtually complete.

Don't get me wrong, I am loving We Are Vana'diel and am looking forward to the incoming storage changes and the conclusion of The Voracious Resurgence. But, other than the full rollout of the new levelling system and an Empty+3 battle system, that's seeming most likely to be all we should expect this year. Is that enough?

FFXIV announced the end to their 11yr arc with the release of Endwalker, and in a fortnight Yoshi-P is broadcasting a Live Letter detailing what's in store for the future of the game. Are we not to be shown similar courtesy from Matsui-P? Or is FFXI simply being planned one year at a time?

Will we at least get an official explanation as to the circumstances surrounding the third part of 2015's Vana'diel Project ("FFXI Mobile") failure to materialise? Especially after Yoshi-P announced in 2017 that they were fine-tuning the battle system and would make a "big announcement" when the time was right.

If SOE/Daybreak can commit to both EQ and EQ2, why is S-E so scared of giving FFXI a better share of its MMO market? Especially as XI and XIV could be maintained as two very different experiences with their own strengths and appeal.

Apologies, this subject is on my mind much more than it probably should be.

[Alhanelem]

Is there secrecy over the 20th anniversary?

I had an expectation for something significant for the 20th Anniversary]Well, obviously yes. They're planning to do something, everoyne knows that much. But nothing has been said specifically. The only thing I can really hypothesize on is the conclusion of the Voracious Resurgence.



Will we at least get an official explanation as to the circumstances surrounding the third part of 2015's Vana'diel Project ("FFXI Mobile") failure to materialise?The project was officially cancelled quite some time ago, it is rare for any comment to occur beyond that. And the anniversary is supposed to be a celebration,m so I doubt they're going to disguss or dwell on anything negative like that.

FFXI is being maintained by a handful of people, so it is unreasonable to expect some kind of wild and exciting news blitz. But again, we know nothing, so even anything I can say is only conjecture.

[Pixela]

There will be no paid expansion, or at least I highly doubt it because if they were going to do that they would not of given us the missions as they have been and would of saved them for that. They are not going to do this because the division is already too busy with XIV and the new FF game they are working on.

There will be no HD remaster, the people asking for this have no idea the scope of what they are asking for, why it would not happen and they would not like it if they did. XI is an old school MMO, updating that to look like modern games goes against that completely. Not even taking into account the demands to censor textures and change them in a way people may not like.

The things we used to get from expansions are being added for free as was done with Rhapsodies, story, some new zones and endgame.

Literally Rhapsodies is there, you know what they did with that and that's what they are going to do again.

They have been continuing to add content all these years instead of saving it all up, with the new VR missions and other things such as new XP systems and updates to Ody (including new gear).

The mobile game was cancelled by Nexon because XI didn't actually shut down when it looked like it was going to, which they were banking on happening and hoping to make money from with a trashy mobile game.

[Alhanelem]

The mobile game was cancelled by Nexon because XI didn't actually shut down when it looked like it was going to, which they were banking on happening and hoping to make money from with a trashy mobile game.I'll give you that it's possible but that's total conjecture. I don't really believe that they started the mobile project *because* they thought they'd be shutting down.

[Sfchakan]

There's no real secrecy at all, they've made enough comments for us to know what's up. The Voracious Resurgence will open up a new battle content. They've outright stated it.

The Master Levels cat is already out of the bag and in progress.

Reforged Empyrean armor will be available this year.

We're getting some changes to allow for more inventory.

[Alhanelem]

The Voracious Resurgence will open up a new battle content.I mean its pretty obvious that's going to happen, but where did they explicitly state it?

[Haldarn]

and am looking forward to the incoming storage changes


We’re pleased to announce that the long-awaited expansion to storage systems is coming your way in the form of additional Mog Wardrobe slots. The Mog Wardrobe is a premium service, so those of you in need of extra storage may be interested in signing up.

/sigh10char

[Immortal]

First, don't listen to any of these armchair devs as they have no idea what this company is planning. I can't even count the amount of times I was told "SE will never remake FF7! They lost the assets and its impossible!"

Second, I completely agree that they should focus on BOTH mmo's and be more transparent about XI related things. It makes my blood boil to see how much care and dedication they pour into XIV yet over here (paying the same or MORE money as XIV legacy is cheaper at 9.99) we get whispers and rumours still... Like this is still 2005 and we are all speculating on the next avatar and XIV gets a full 1~2hour live broadcast with all the new bells and whistles of a modern age. The company really doesn't care for the game that much in my opinion... Even that old star wars MMO is getting new expansions regularly. All the modern MMOs have reached old ages, including XIV, and they still get more support and love it feels like.

I personally feel they do have something big planned like an expansion or HD remaster. They have been remastering a LOT of older games, even recently bringing something super obscure like that chocobo racing game to switch... I wouldn't write off something big for XI but I also would not be surprised at all if they decided to finally axe the game after the recent success of XIV. I just won't get my hopes too high.

You know what also bugs me? That XIV sends players surveys on how they could improve if they cancel subs, or why they havent logged into the game in x amount of time... They are pouring constant streams of money into XIV and yet we are paying monthly subs for not even 1% of that effort lol. I get this game is old (altho XIV is also very old in modern age) but cmon, you can have two successful MMOs, nostalgia sells very hard just look at the recent spiderman. You could revamp XI and have people play a different type of MMO when all these companies are coming out with copy and paste models of successful games.

[Sfchakan]

I'm literally posting information from the developers themselves in official postings and interviews. Go ahead and believe whatever you want.

[Immortal]

and? They've "officially" stated the game was ending updates and no new story or anything, yet here we are? They are not to be believed. They have always treated this like some mystery thing where they can't tell the public their plans, since day 1. I have no idea why but they don't do that in XIV, only here maybe its some tradition.

[Haldarn]

There's no real secrecy at all, they've made enough comments for us to know what's up. The Voracious Resurgence will open up a new battle content. They've outright stated it.

The Master Levels cat is already out of the bag and in progress.

Reforged Empyrean armor will be available this year.

We're getting some changes to allow for more inventory.

That's all I meant. Is what they've announced truly all that we've got in store? As it doesn't seem much more than we've had in previous years, and they had repeatedly said that the 20th was a big anniversary (not that they said they were intending to do anything big with it). Or will there be something announced that they haven't talked about openly, like FFXI mobile, before it was cancelled, where an announcement was made for the project but those interested had to scour the internet or rely on reviewers to put the question to Yoshi-P during interviews about XIV.

As Immortal was saying, it's hard to tell with FFXI because they're often tight-lipped about their plans, which is frustrating, as it keeps the possibility open. Also, there was good reason to think that they might choose to capitalise on the uptick of new subscribers a couple of years back.

[Pixela]

First, don't listen to any of these armchair devs as they have no idea what this company is planning. I can't even count the amount of times I was told "SE will never remake FF7! They lost the assets and its impossible!"

Second, I completely agree that they should focus on BOTH mmo's and be more transparent about XI related things. It makes my blood boil to see how much care and dedication they pour into XIV yet over here (paying the same or MORE money as XIV legacy is cheaper at 9.99) we get whispers and rumours still... Like this is still 2005 and we are all speculating on the next avatar and XIV gets a full 1~2hour live broadcast with all the new bells and whistles of a modern age. The company really doesn't care for the game that much in my opinion... Even that old star wars MMO is getting new expansions regularly. All the modern MMOs have reached old ages, including XIV, and they still get more support and love it feels like.

I personally feel they do have something big planned like an expansion or HD remaster. They have been remastering a LOT of older games, even recently bringing something super obscure like that chocobo racing game to switch... I wouldn't write off something big for XI but I also would not be surprised at all if they decided to finally axe the game after the recent success of XIV. I just won't get my hopes too high.

You know what also bugs me? That XIV sends players surveys on how they could improve if they cancel subs, or why they havent logged into the game in x amount of time... They are pouring constant streams of money into XIV and yet we are paying monthly subs for not even 1% of that effort lol. I get this game is old (altho XIV is also very old in modern age) but cmon, you can have two successful MMOs, nostalgia sells very hard just look at the recent spiderman. You could revamp XI and have people play a different type of MMO when all these companies are coming out with copy and paste models of successful games.

The main reason XIV is the flagship MMORPG is because they have managed to monetize their players to a level that has never been seen before in this industry, if you told me 10 years ago that someone would bring out an MMORPG with a sub, a cash shop, paid expansions, punishments for unsubbing and all the other things I would of laughed. However, not only have they managed it but the players LOVE the cash shop and see it as content additions now. They beg for new outfits and mounts to pay $20 for and complain if outfits are brought out for China exclusively, the developers aren't ashamed of it but show new cash shop stuff off proudly on the streams. XIV could and will add NFTs and most of the players would swoon over them, showing them off on their twitter profiles.

This is why that game is the flagship title, if they could find a way to shut down XI and shunt us all on that game to be highly monetized payers they would do it in a heartbeat (and they tried mutiple times btw). The reason they keep XI running, and will continue to do so for a long time is because we won't move to XIV if they do tgat, and they have finally accepted that as a fact so closing this game would be a complete loss of revenue.

Closing a product that brings in a lot of money when you have near no chance of converting them to your other product is bad business, Square Enix is a business first and foremost becasue they have to answer to the share holders.

As for you mentioning the ff7 remake, ff7 was not remade for fans of the original. It was made for a new audience, which is why they made it action combat. If they spend 10-20M on remastering XI it would not be for us, which is why I don't understand why anyone that plays the game would want it. The only way they could justify spending that much money would be if they could add a cash shop, would you accept a cash shop for higher res textures?

[Haldarn]

would you accept a cash shop for higher res textures?
I mean is this not what the Mog Wardrobe is, but with minimal effort?

[Shouk]

Honestly I don't think we should expect anything good or interesting from the 20th anniversary, they do not care. FFXI is just an easy cash grab for them at this point.
I love this game with all my heart but I can also say that I despise SE with all my heart, they are one of the most disgusting gaming company on the market and they get away with a lot of awful things. The game deserves better than SE and we deserve better than SE.

The new paid wardrobes are taking it way too far for me, the original ones were already too much so it's time for me to part ways, I have been thinking about it for quite a while now. It won't be easy but they know all too well that we are addicted to this game.

I'm not even sure this game would have made it this far without the amazing support of the third-party community that care more for this game than SE themselves.

[Pixela]

I love this game with all my heart

For me, this entire argument is centered around grown adults not understanding how inflation works. Almost everything I pay for, has increased with inflation....except XI. Instead of just increasing the sub fee as they should, they offer a totally optional way to increase revenue to offset inflation to the people who use the service the most.

The horror.

You managed before they added it, you can pretend it doesn't exist and keep managing just fine if spending a little extra on something "you truly love" is so repulsive to you.

[Dragoy]

Is what they've announced truly all that we've got in store? As it doesn't seem much more than we've had in previous years, and they had repeatedly said that the 20th was a big anniversary (not that they said they were intending to do anything big with it).

Without digging up the posts at this time, my memory is telling me that they pretty much said that they've got funding to work for a certain goal over three years, more or less concluding with the anniversary.

I, too, took that as a 'thing' that would be unveiled at, or around this anniversary, but at some point I also started thinking that maybe it's just that they got funding for at least three years more now (instead of the usual 1 year or so that they normally get), and what we've seen during these years are part of that goal (instead of there being one bigger additional thing).

I haven't looked at the Japanese version at all, so I wonder a little if translation could have played a part (I bet if there was any considerable difference people would have brought it up pretty soon though).

In any case, I do appreciate the work they're still allowed to put into XI, and am still very interested to see what will happen during this year as a whole. I did very much hope that the new inventory space would be free, and not just for equipment, but they did mention early on that it will likely require an additional fee... so, eh. I shall continue to struggle with the non-payment kind.

Edit:

Having gone through the version update digest videos and more, it does seem more like they were talking about the things we now mostly have (with some more still on the way of course), although they would like to also hold some special in-game event(s) for the anniversary time itself as well.

[Grailhawk]

FFXI was the most profitable FF for a long time. SE has been remaking/remastering all FF for a long time. I can see a scenario where someone talks the bean counters into funding a engine update (possibly with an expansion) for this game by calling it a HD Remaster with a rerelease on modern console.

I can also see a scenario where they build hype for the 20th anniversary and its a bunch of hot air.

[Immortal]

Yeah thats my point, I can see it going both ways. They have remastered such obscure games and why? Who asked for Chocobo's Racing? Maybe we'll get a switch port

[Alhanelem]

First, don't listen to any of these armchair devs as they have no idea what this company is planning.Excuse me, armchair dev? No one here said they knew for sure wh at was going on, this thread ias all about speculation in the first place. We can, however, make logical conclusions about certain things, where information is available and / or precedent.


I love this game with all my heart but I can also say that I despise SE with all my heart, they are one of the most disgusting gaming company on the market and they get away with a lot of awful things

Clearly you've never met EA or Activison, both of which are infinitely worse in virtually every way.

[Alhanelem]

Honestly I don't think we should expect anything good or interesting from the 20th anniversary, they do not care. FFXI is just an easy cash grab for them at this point.
I love this game with all my heart but I can also say that I despise SE with all my heart, they are one of the most disgusting gaming company on the market and they get away with a lot of awful things. The game deserves better than SE and we deserve better than SE.

The new paid wardrobes are taking it way too far for me, the original ones were already too much so it's time for me to part ways, I have been thinking about it for quite a while now. It won't be easy but they know all too well that we are addicted to this game.

I'm not even sure this game would have made it this far without the amazing support of the third-party community that care more for this game than SE themselves.

The devs themselves have mentioned in the past how this paid service has helped them continue operations for the game. A lot of people use it. You're salty that they want more money (and it's totally optional, not everyone needs it, I'm getting by just fine with the free wardrobes), but the reality is, in 20 years, the price of just about everything has risen considerably but the subscription fee has remained the same. The cost to play the game has decreased relative to what most people earn. You say you truly love the game, but it seems that it isn't worth a couple bucks more, which equates to still less than the overall cost of the game 20 years ago.

SE chose to offer this optional service. They could have raised subscription fees instead. Would you have preferred that? I didn't think so. Raising the cost to everyone would have gone over far worse than offering an add-on feature for money.

Frankly I'm stunned they haven't implemented an optional item store like FFXIV. You should be thankful, not angry. I'm not using the paid wardrobes because I don't need them, but I don't mind that they exist.



and? They've "officially" stated the game was ending updates and no new story or anything, yet here we are?And? That doesn't mean anyone was wrong for citing SE/the devs. Times change, things change, plans change. They were correct at one point.

[Immortal]

sry but I disagree with you :)

[Alhanelem]

sry but I disagree with you :)
You can disagree with whatever you like, but it doesn't make you correct :)

[Immortal]

yea well it wasn't correct at any point, cuz here we are today. My point was, don't trust the company itself with the information they put out. We can know that because of the evidence in history.... over many many years. Leave the facts to the veterans ok? :)

[Sfchakan]

Did Mr. Rogers say hi to the kingdom of make believe today?

[Gwydion]

For the 20th anniversary, Kazham will get it's second Home Point, awkwardly placed near anything remotely useful....and we all should be grateful for the experience.

[Fawkes]

There doesn't seem to be a sensible reason to hide a big surprise like an expansion pack, HD upgrade/engine change or UI modernisation, especially this close when the work would have to be virtually complete.


https://i.imgur.com/1q0P5uD.gif

If they did do a remaster, the point would be to appeal to people who are NOT currently playing. So you'd probably want to debut it at E3 or something to get the most eyes on it.

[Pixela]

Yoshi P is not going to allow a HD remaster of FFXI.

[Immortal]

Why not? They are two completely different games, all the WOW kiddies can stick with 14

[Alhanelem]

Yoshi P is not going to allow a HD remaster of FFXI.
Yoshi P isn't a squeenix board member and has absolutely no say over projects he's not assigned to. And even if he did, he has nothing against 11 and wouldn't stand in the way of any such projects. I know you like to vilify 14 as the reason of all your/XI's problems, but let's try to keep opinions rooted in the facts.

[Pixela]

Post from Wikipedia.


Creative Business Unit III is led by Naoki Yoshida, who was the head of Business Division 5 and focused primarily on MMORPGs, transitioning in 2020 to the single-player Final Fantasy XVI. It mainly comprises the former Business Division 5 (Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIV, Dragon Quest Builders series).

Yoshi is in charge of all MMORPGS, everything from funding to buissness strategy. If he said XI was going to get an expansion, it would get one. They are not allowed to make any on his say, even if players would pay for them.

He is actually also on the board of directors.

https://www.jp.square-enix.com/company/en/officer/

The reason I say he won't do this, is because graphics are a major concern for XIV players and that would push it into competition with that game.

[Alhanelem]

Post from Wikipedia.



Yoshi is in charge of all MMORPGS, everything from funding to buissness strategy. If he said XI was going to get an expansion, it would get one. They are not allowed to make any on his say, even if players would pay for them.

He is actually also on the board of directors.

https://www.jp.square-enix.com/company/en/officer/

The reason I say he won't do this, is because graphics are a major concern for XIV players and that would push it into competition with that game.
It really wouldn't, but believe what you will. If he really had it out for XI, it would already have stopped existing. Your own quotation also says that business unit has shifted to a single player game. But I'll give you the board of directors, I was unaware.

You know, three different versions of Runescape all exist at the same time. the original, "Old School (which is ironically newer) and a newer one than that. The franchise has more players than it would likely have if they decided to terminate one of those projects, and they could easily make more money with a new one. This environment is not as black and white as you make it out to be. While FFXIV has some players (such as myself) who played XI, they are entirely different kinds of games and a remaster of FFXI is not going to take business away from FFXIV. Even if it were to, that's just moving a customer from one service to another, that isn't lost money. So I don't see Yoshida as having any reason (relating to 14 at the very least) to block a remaster of XI were one to be proposed. Improving FFXI's graphics wouldn't in any way increase competition between the two games, which have pretty different clienteles (which isn't to say there isn't any overlap, but again, players moving between different projects in the same company is not a loss)

[Pixela]

I have a friend that plays XIV, and she is always going on about wanting a hd graphics upgrade on that too.

Ain't gonna happen there either.

[Alhanelem]

I have a friend that plays XIV, and she is always going on about wanting a hd graphics upgrade on that too.

Ain't gonna happen there either.
It isn't going to happen there because the disk space required would be insane. FFXI"s graphics are considerably lower fidelity and could be improved to FFXIV's level without being a massive download that would take ages over PlayOnline's antiquated network system.

Of course, that would be one of the primary benefits of any sort of remaster- the opportunity to ditch playonline entirely.

[Immortal]

Graphics overhaul would help this game so much, people are so vain in this age. Just look at 14 and how much time and money people spend on glamour. The sad part is that XI already has beautiful graphics that have aged well, but its not enough for most gamers these days that spend thousands on PC and TV upgrades.

[Epiihyran]

I think if they're not going to improve the graphics, they could at least provide some new clothing regularly. Along with this be more compelling for players as well if there were more sweet little opportunities for social things in the game. If you're not going to provide much content, at least have something the fans can make fun for themselves. Theres thriving bars, clubs, coffee houses, etc. in FFXIV for example.

[Alhanelem]

I think if they're not going to improve the graphics, they could at least provide some new clothing regularly. Along with this be more compelling for players as well if there were more sweet little opportunities for social things in the game. If you're not going to provide much content, at least have something the fans can make fun for themselves. Theres thriving bars, clubs, coffee houses, etc. in FFXIV for example.
I mean, it isn't likely in any way but we can both dream, and let it be known we want things like that.

[Pixela]

If they were going to attempt to upgrade the graphics they would have to do a lot of work, they would have to update the entire file system for a start and then update every dat file with images in it. XI broke industry standards due to PS2 hard drive size limitations.

They would have to increase install size by 40-50%+

They would increase load times of zones by about 50-100%

This isn't even counting the graphics artists that would have to make these improved graphics assets.

It's such a huge deal, that honestly not as many people care about as you think.

[Alhanelem]

If they were going to attempt to upgrade the graphics they would have to do a lot of work,If they wanted to do the bare minimum, they could give us better textures at little to no work. Heck, the community has already done that. Art is generally created at the highest quality technology allows and is then downscaled for the target platform. That means, theoretically, they should have higher quality art assets that could be used for a remaster.



This isn't even counting the graphics artists that would have to make these improved graphics assets.As I just explained, that isn't necessairly the case.

But having said all that, a remaster or some similar project would mean a new budget and a new budget means they can create new things.



They would increase load times of zones by about 50-100%The load time of zones has virtually nothing to do with the graphics and everything to do with the online data transfer. Need proof? Just sit at the game's title screen. It periodically cycles through different zones. Since you're not actually connecting to a server, none of that data transfer is taking place. The actual loading of each zone takes maybe 1 second. And when you consider games today can load ten times more data in the same amount of time, they can clearly upgrade the assets a lot without affecting loading performance. The game was designed and built on the PS2. Almost everyone playing the game today has a far better PC than what the PS2 was capable of at the game's launch. And many games today dynamically load the textures in at a low quality and bump them up as the loading process continues, so you get in quickly and it might look ugly for a second or so but you don't have to wait as long.

Man I've been accused a lot of being a debbie downer on these forums just shooting down stuff for the sake of it (which isn't really true from my point of view....). What do you think you're doing here?

[Pixela]

I think people have a wild idea what a remaster is, did you play the dark souls remaster?

[Alhanelem]

I think people have a wild idea what a remaster is, did you play the dark souls remaster?
Yes. The exact idea of what this means though, varies greatly from studio to studio as much as it does from person to person. The one thing typically agreed upon is that in general, it means making various improvements or revisions to an original project without changing it wholesale.

Also for the record, FFXIV's live letter today announced that the next expansion will introduce a graphical update to the whole game. i.e. higher res textures, etc. Nobody seems to be panicking about the possibility of load times increasing.

Bizzarely, they even mentioned FFXI, calling it "solo friendly" in a discussion about trying to improve the solo experience in FFXI.

[Catmato]

I think people have a wild idea what a remaster is, did you play the dark souls remaster?

I'd be thrilled if there was a FFXI remaster on par with DSR. Locked 60fps, improved lighting and effects, better support for modern hardware. Sign me up.

[Haldarn]

Don't know about y'all, but I'm pumped for the 25th Anniversary.

[Divinas]

Well, obviously yes. They're planning to do something, everoyne knows that much.
Possible but to be honest, I would not really have high expectations. Vorace is taking extremely slow to develop, and it's known the game has very small tiny team. Developing monthly ambuscade probably takes half the resource as it is. My honest two cents.

[Immortal]

What a complete letdown this anniversary segment was. I am so upset and SE should be ashamed of themselves for treating this amazing game in the way they have these years. You have so many loyal fans and people rooting for this game and you give it less than the bare minimum while increasing pricing. I am just so disgusted I don't even know what else to say.

[Fawkes]

At the end of the show we mentioned that starting next fiscal year, we're going to focus our development and operations on a long-term goal of the twentieth anniversary. As such, there may be some time where the version updates may feel a bit lighter, but we're hoping to be able to deliver something that can surprise everyone later on.

I wonder what this was about... :confused:

[JKap_Goat]

What a complete letdown this anniversary segment was. I am so upset and SE should be ashamed of themselves for treating this amazing game in the way they have these years. You have so many loyal fans and people rooting for this game and you give it less than the bare minimum while increasing pricing. I am just so disgusted I don't even know what else to say.

I agree I was very disappointed. FFXI is an amazing game and I've been playing it for three years, I was hoping for a remake, Updated UI, POL remove, texture update, party finder like FFXIV to make it easier for people to group up and do content with. Anything and nothing, they hyped up the 20th anniversary and got nothing.

like FFXIV is getting a graphical update and FFXI isn't? FFXI doesn't deserve love? I'm super like disappointed I let my hopes get the best of me

Even a Fantasia to change race or the ability to change hairstyle would have been more exciting

[Alhanelem]

Just repeating since he posted it twice.

Letdown over events? Nothing's even happened yet.

What do you want, to have them announce a bunch of expansions and new jobs or something?
Seriously, you expected way too much if you were looking for some big announcement or confetti to be raining down from the sky across vana'diel or something. Come on.

As far as the "surprise" from before, I'm pretty sure that was The Voracious Resurgence.

Nothing at all is happening until this version update tomorrow (which has new title music, apparently, and they don't just do that for nothing) and on the 16th which is the actual anniversary date, which has, at the absolute minimum, an update to WE ARE VANADIEL in store.

Back then I said to hold back expectations, it seems some people failed to do that lol

[Tarmarkvar]

20 is a big round number so I can't blame people for having high expectations. Disappointment was inevitable.

[Dragoy]

Yeah... is there an announcement or something I'm missing but others are seeing? ^^;

I've only seen the recurring Adventurer Appreciation and A.M.A.N. Trove ones, which are things of old, and I'm sure those are not the events special to the 20th in any way (don't think I've seen the A.M.A.N. Trove Gazillionaire Campaign before (part of Adventurer Appreciation Campaign), so that might be it (not really), but it might have been there before).

In any case, like I mentioned here before, I still imagine what they were talking about were the things we've been getting during the few last years, but almost surely there will be special events and such to be had as well (and I don't mean the ones announced to this date unless I really did miss something).

(Edit: Okay, maybe they didn't have time for more special events after all... though I guess they could be announced on the day, still.)

[BST]

I'd like to talk about the Insane lengths required to have this game Operational on Monitors with 144hz to 500hz refresh rates.

Honestly, this game needs to have 60FPS, which it already has with a 3rdparty plugin, but not Official.
This is crazy. Has anyone tried to play this game with such Monitors?

Jitter city, 29FPS game (locked by SE) on 360hz refresh rate Monitor, do it and make your eyes Bleed until your brain explodes.

SE need to address this!

[Alhanelem]

I'd like to talk about the Insane lengths required to have this game Operational on Monitors with 144hz to 500hz refresh rates.

Game works just fine on my 144hz monitor. I suspect your issue lies elsewhere.
(I mean yes, the game itself doesn't run at anything other than 30fps max without illicit tools, but it doesn't have any compatibility issue I can see with monitors set to higher refresh rates)

And in general, there shouldn't be any unusual issues running low FPS games on high refresh rate monitors. You just see the same image for more than one refresh of the monitor screen.

GPU sync features can help with any issues that do arise. It's not a fault of the game itself.

[BST]

I thought maybe so, but I have gotten friends to try the game and everyone of them have the same issue.

V-Sync, G-Sync make no difference with the Native client, 29fps is way too low, it needs 60fps, even that is very low. I know its an PS2 game, but the fact is, there is a 60fps plugin which I know for a fact lots are using, along with dgvoodoo.

What is the reason SE can't add an option for 60fps, because lots of players already use a 3rdparty 60fps plugin?
We need updated options.

[Alhanelem]

V-Sync, G-Sync make no difference with the Native client, 29fps is way too low, it needs 60fps, even that is very low.This is how the game was designed. It's not your PC, while the animations etc were made at 60 FPS, they had the game divide that by 2 becuase the PS2 couldn't do it. But then everything else in the game was designed around 30 FPS. Obviously external tools have shown you can increase the fps to 60 without issue; However, going higher than that the game doesn't work correctly, the animations were made at 60fps and if you go higher than that, it makes the animations play faster.

[Beastorizer]

Paid race, name and gender change would make the anniversary worthwhile to me.

Long overdue.

[Alhanelem]

Paid race, name and gender change would make the anniversary worthwhile to me.

Long overdue.
They've previously said it won't happen. Don't think a memorable date is going to change that.

[Lortheron]

Always the same old excuses not to update the game rightly...

SE had a lot of time to address that already instead of coming with excuses. Sad truth is that FFXI never trully ever got back all the money it generates over the years most of its profit since FFXIV went into XIV, right after XIV they should've thought about modernizing XI since it's a very different genre. SE definetly has the money to do it, and more and more people are wanting old game genres revivals and more challenging old school gameplay, nostalgia is a huge market that little by little is finding a faithful audience into every genre, from old school retro FPS games to things like Elden Ring for example. It's a matter of time before it reaches the MMO genre as well and people start wanting more classic MMO experiences instead of the current norm that is FFXIV style. Think of FFXIV as Call or Duty and FFXI as Doom, we need a Doom 2016 : ) . Compleatly different type of sub genre, can't compare and doesn't compete directly against one another.

I know MANY people that would love to pay and play XI bur can't get past all the barriers together: PlayOnline, resolution, 30FPS limit, very bad targeting and graphics, interface, instalation, account creation, UI not supporting mouse use nor having a basic shortcut bar, lack of hability to alt tab, etc., it's just too much altogether really. If it was just one of those, it would already be annoying but bearable, alas combining every one of those together is just too much. They should really incorporate some mods functions into the game already. At the very least. All those things truly are not much, not asking for huge changes or improvements, many games before XI did that and more with ease, many ports from consoles to PC improved games well beyond all I listed.

I'm just tired of SE always coming up with the same lackluster excuses not modernize XI, same goes for their "demasters" of VIII, IX and Chrono Cross. They should sell the old Final Fantasy and other IPs they don't care about to smaller companies that would do justice to them.

It's trully embarrassing and shameful the way they treat anything that doesn't make huge amounts of money like XIV or close to it, even if it once paid their bills and is an important part their heritage.

XI needs a Daybreak behind it, for all it's flaws, it treats EQ1 and 2 much better than SE does XI.

[Lortheron]

I'd like to talk about the Insane lengths required to have this game Operational on Monitors with 144hz to 500hz refresh rates.

Honestly, this game needs to have 60FPS, which it already has with a 3rdparty plugin, but not Official.
This is crazy. Has anyone tried to play this game with such Monitors?

Jitter city, 29FPS game (locked by SE) on 360hz refresh rate Monitor, do it and make your eyes Bleed until your brain explodes.

SE need to address this!

Yes, it's ridiculous. Only current solution are mods.

[Kalimairo]

I have a friend that plays XIV, and she is always going on about wanting a hd graphics upgrade on that too.

Ain't gonna happen there either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkkpp1gyxGs&ab_channel=AsmongoldLive

its happening, so yea they need to stop Ignoring XI FFS

[Lortheron]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkkpp1gyxGs&ab_channel=AsmongoldLive

its happening, so yea they need to stop Ignoring XI FFS

Where there is a will, there is a way.

PS: maybe SE is waiting for FFXI players should come up with a crowd funding champaign for a XI remake, lol.

[BST]

So, about the 20th Anniversary.

Is that the big announcement, the Producer's recap of everything we already know that has been discussed in previous statements?

[Lortheron]

So, about the 20th Anniversary.

Is that the big announcement, the Producer's recap of everything we already know that has been discussed in previous statements?

Basically just that.

[Delmania]

Where there is a will, there is a way.

PS: maybe SE is waiting for FFXI players should come up with a crowd funding champaign for a XI remake, lol.

The difference is that XIV ui isn’t tied to the ps3 like XI’a is tied to the ps2. They’d have to remake the entire game.

[Lortheron]

The difference is that XIV ui isn’t tied to the ps3 like XI’a is tied to the ps2. They’d have to remake the entire game.

Do they expect us to crowdfund it?

[Zenion]

Do they expect us to crowdfund it?

Knowing Square-Enix, if the fans and players tried to crowdfund a Final Fantasy XI remaster, it'd be hit with a cease and desist three hours before the fundraiser closed.

[Lortheron]

Knowing Square-Enix, if the fans and players tried to crowdfund a Final Fantasy XI remaster, it'd be hit with a cease and desist three hours before the fundraiser closed.

Hell at this point they could launch a pre order program for an "expansion pack" to be released 1~2 years from now containing just some basic improvements(*) and not much more that I belive most players would gladly pay 50~60 dollars upfront each to have said updates made to the game.

*: basic UI, mouse controls, a PlayOnline free game launcher (altough you can put PlayOnline music tunes somewhere else in the game and make them available in Spotfy, etc.), and some minor graphics updates (mostly things already available via mods: such as higher resolution support, higher reolution textures, unlocked/60 FPS support, and the insane crazy hiper innovative ability to alt tab) would you do it?


PS: all above changes would surely bring many players back and new players alike. Many people that want to try out the game don't start for lack of above listed (basic) "features".

[BST]

I feel, this game would be dead in the water without the 3rdparty tools that make this game playable.

I don't use them but have seen the difference they make. Which is why I haven't been subscribed for months, this game runs like a crack-whore with special needs.

I can't survive more than half an hour with 21 to 29FPS on my RTX 2060, I am obviously used to 144pfs in FF14, which is over ten years old now and getting a complete Overhaul including Higher resolution textures, better animations, better lighting (lets hope DLSS with Ray-Tracing probably never, but damn the new lighting so far is Insanely good) not to mention Character textures and possibly polygon upgrade.

I have been around since 2002 with the JP PS2, played on it until they pulled the plug in 2016, never cared about PC and pretty-but god damn, it wont even run as good as it did on PS2, on a modern PC.

I would re-sub if only SE would add an option for 60fps, I mean, adds 4k background resolution, 29fps, start a battle and it becomes a slide-show, even in town it jitters, 21 to 29fps.

They can do this, its been around for years, and from what I have seen you can also max the draw-distance, two things they could address surely.

But they never will.

[Lortheron]

I feel, this game would be dead in the water without the 3rdparty tools that make this game playable.

I don't use them but have seen the difference they make. Which is why I haven't been subscribed for months, this game runs like a crack-whore with special needs.

I can't survive more than half an hour with 21 to 29FPS on my RTX 2060, I am obviously used to 144pfs in FF14, which is over ten years old now and getting a complete Overhaul including Higher resolution textures, better animations, better lighting (lets hope DLSS with Ray-Tracing probably never, but damn the new lighting so far is Insanely good) not to mention Character textures and possibly polygon upgrade.

I have been around since 2002 with the JP PS2, played on it until they pulled the plug in 2016, never cared about PC and pretty-but god damn, it wont even run as good as it did on PS2, on a modern PC.

I would re-sub if only SE would add an option for 60fps, I mean, adds 4k background resolution, 29fps, start a battle and it becomes a slide-show, even in town it jitters, 21 to 29fps.

They can do this, its been around for years, and from what I have seen you can also max the draw-distance, two things they could address surely.

But they never will.

Yeah, it's sad. Again, they always come up with the same old excuses not to do anything for the game. Things that should have been addressed back when they had ~500k paying accounts, XI more than generated enough money to justify and pay for anything needed for such changes to happen, but SE never cared, they preffered to take all the money remake XIV from scratch. XI is always getting the (much) shorter end of the stick since forever.

[Lortheron]

What a complete letdown this anniversary segment was. I am so upset and SE should be ashamed of themselves for treating this amazing game in the way they have these years. You have so many loyal fans and people rooting for this game and you give it less than the bare minimum while increasing pricing. I am just so disgusted I don't even know what else to say.

I wonder how japanese audience reacted to the 20th anniversary announcements.

[Lortheron]

I agree I was very disappointed. FFXI is an amazing game and I've been playing it for three years, I was hoping for a remake, Updated UI, POL remove, texture update, party finder like FFXIV to make it easier for people to group up and do content with. Anything and nothing, they hyped up the 20th anniversary and got nothing.

like FFXIV is getting a graphical update and FFXI isn't? FFXI doesn't deserve love? I'm super like disappointed I let my hopes get the best of me

Even a Fantasia to change race or the ability to change hairstyle would have been more exciting

Exactly this. No love for XI, really, that's a problem which goes way back even when the game was one of the top popular MMO. Great people working on it, sure, but zero to no real investment from SE as a company back into the game after the initial expansions. Meanwhile XIV gets compleatly remade with XI revenue money and now is getting a full in depth graphical update...

[Alhanelem]

Again, if you were expecting some massive announcement, I could have told you years ago when this was all set in motion that you were going to be disappointed. And surprise surprise, nothing terribly dramatic happened and everyone's disappointed, even though they should have set their expectations low in the first place. Silly as it may be, I'm happy that empy will finally return to relevance again in a new battle content. The new high tier weapon line might excite some of the bigger masochists among us.

The biggest thing that gets in the way is even though it's gone, this game was developed both for and largely on the PS2 as the primary platform. Even though it's gone, there are few people left that would have the expertise to fully move it away from that. FFXIV was developed entirely on the PC and for PC as the primary platform. While it is on console, it was never limited by it in any way, as if the console no longer becomes capable of running the game properly, they can end support for that console no problem and make it available on the next gen one relatively easily since the consoles we have today are much more similar to PCs than the earlier generations. For FFXI, they could certainly redevelop the game entirely, but odds are it would have to just be FFXI-2, with everyone starting fresh as maintaining compatibility with our existing data would likely be a hellish nightmare. And I'm not sure how much of our playerbase is that willing to give up everything to get that modernized version of the game, or how many new people will play it. Because if you promote it as an updated FFXI and not as a brand new game, it's going to be hard to bring in players.




I would re-sub if only SE would add an option for 60fps, I mean, adds 4k background resolution, 29fps, start a battle and it becomes a slide-show, even in town it jitters, 21 to 29fps.You can do all this yourself if you know where to look, just don't tell anybody you're doing it.

The engine itself is already fully capable of 60fps and the animations were designed at 60fps, the game actually deliberately divides the frame rate by a factor to bring it down to 30, and what happens is this actually magnifies any slowdown i.e. a couple frames lost at 60fps+ becomes many frames lost when scaled down to 30 (which is why it dips so low in some circumstances). This was originally done for a few reasons, first was fairness with ps2, but it was also because of the upper limit of 60fps the way the game was designed- if it went higher it would cause the animations to speed up. This is actually something they could basically change with the flick of a switch (technically) but because there are possible issues it would take some work to verify it doesn't break anything.


very late edit:

The Voracious Resurgence marches ever forward to its conclusion, and as of the May version update we're at just about the story's halfway point.
This surprised me, i thought, given how long ago it started, that it was going to end on or around the 20th anniversary, but apparently we're only "halfway through" after the 2 years-ish since they first discussed the 20th anniversary and TVR. So it sounds like this is going to advance for a while longer yet.

[BST]

I wasn't expecting a complete remake or even an expansion, though they would be nice.

But they did say they would have some big surprise for the 20th anniversary, I was hoping a new type of content to go with the Master Level system at minimum.

However, my main concern is the locked Frame rate, this may seem silly, but let me tell you and SE for that matter, from my own personal experience, trying to get friends to try, to play this game, the moment they get it installed, which by the way is so much better with the updated Install and Config app, its not perfect but its getting better, they load up the game and instantly I get asked, how to change the Camera settings and the Jitter when moving it.

This is such a serious issue, which by the way, isn't quite as bad using a mouse for the Camera, but its still bad enough for them to notice instantly.

The game doesn't have Camera speed options for Controller users, this needs attention. (Camera speed = Left and Right Analog Sticks for movement of the character and the camera)
The game is locked to 29FPS, this has been addressed by 3rdparty tools unlocking it to 60FPS, the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions are now defunct, so they cannot use that as an excuse anymore.

I feel with the FPS addressed Officially, possibly more people will give it a go, and at minimum its a huge QoL improvement.

Is there any place on this forum to post requests that get read by SE employees?

[Alhanelem]

I was hoping a new type of content to go with the Master Level system at minimum.There is. There's new battle content coming that will enable the empyrean +1/+2 we've been begging for for years, plus a new line of super weapons.
Master level will rise to a max of 50, that plus 10 subjob levels is a fairly notable increase in power, so obviously we need something that assumes we will have at least some of that power.



Is there any place on this forum to post requests that get read by SE employees? Anywhere on the forum. But it is preferred that if, for example, something concerns a particular job, you post it in that job's section.
They also seem to take note of comments on the monthly digest threads.
There is at least one community staff member I've spoken to who clearly reads the forums based on my interactions with them on Twitter; Just because they aren't posting doesn't mean they aren't reading.

Anything posted by them would be deemed official by the community, so them posting is limited to facts which have been cleared by SE, and customer support matters (like helping people who didn't get their event prizes).

They can't simply chit chat, because anything said by a community rep would be taken as gospel.

[BST]

So I just turned on my computer and what am I greeted with?

A Temporary Ban on the Official FFXIV forums. Me, Temporarily Banned.

What did I say to get this you ask?

I simply noted that, Women give birth to children, not Men.

And apparently someone found that offensive.

Anyway, I might survive long enough on this forum to post a request in the Digest thread.

Though after this, I don't know if I want to bother.

[Alhanelem]

So I just turned on my computer and what am I greeted with?

A Temporary Ban on the Official FFXIV forums. Me, Temporarily Banned.

What did I say to get this you ask?

I simply noted that, Women give birth to children, not Men.

And apparently someone found that offensive.

Anyway, I might survive long enough on this forum to post a request in the Digest thread.

Though after this, I don't know if I want to bother.
Many people have gotten suspensions over the years, and in particular on the FFXIV forum it's incredibly easy to get permabanned. I'm not going to comment on the potential reasons for the action other than to say, regardless of whether anyone is offended or not, it doesn't seem like it's a subject that has any relevance to this forum. Disclaimer: I didn't report you and I generally don't report anything other than blatant and obvious harassment.

And generally, on any forum you visit, complaining about your ban and discussing why you got banned on the forum where it happened is generally not a good idea.