Next visual improvement: Status icons

[Sesh]

Hiring and Firing isn't the issue though SE is the 9th largest game company in the world. I think that if they needed to hire more programmers it wouldn't bother them, certainly not to the extent of having to fire ppl to pay the salary. I think it's more about a disconnect or a stubborn mentality on SE's part. They are not really concerned about FFXI anymore, yes it makes them money but they have tons n tons of other sources for money. If they wanted to I would wager they could put a team the same size as 14s or bigger without a sweat but they won't because the coding is old, they're too involved in other projects, and XI is riddled with so many problems that they are content to do mini version updates all the way until the game dies. So in the meantime at least they can give us a better looking game since it's obvious 80% of the changes the player base asks for aren't gonna get done.

[Rafien]

But what about the PS2 users?

Will somebody please think of the PS2 users?

We're thinking about the ps2 users.. Get a new system and stop holding FFXI back!

[Korpg]

Yeah, those damn artists. Always using up our money for good reason. Fire the lot of em!

Give me a godforsaken break. If you were running this game, it wouldn't have graphics at all. it would just be a text based game.

Nice assumption.

I didn't say fire all artists, I even said that they should fire some to free up the money for more developers and programmers to help make this a better game. You are assuming that I said fire all artists. You need to read the whole post before jumping the gun.

I know the benefits of having an art department for a game, but considering that their latest "great contribution" is a nicer title page, I don't see the point in having as many artists there now. One artist could do that work in the month between updates. Can you honestly say that the art department has earned their keep with this last update?

[Alhanelem]

It's already a fine game. They don't need to revamp their staff to keep it that way.

One artist could do that work in the month between updates.

You're absolutely right, and it likely didn't interfere with any of the other changes in any way whatsoever.

Really- You probably have no idea how small the art team most likely is- just a few people probably. Working with older technology, even when creating new items, it doesn't take 1/5th as long to create even a new model and textures compared to a more modern game like FFXIV (Where Yoshida menitioned a single full armor set can take up to 6 months to create)

You also need to remember that these guys make the new items and gear that are the meat and potatoes of any major update.

quoting myself because I doubt you saw it.

Many other older MMOs have recieved graphical overhauls over the years, and these did not interfere with their ability to release new content or balance changes. D&D online came out not that long after FFXI, and it's recieved MULTIPLE graphical overhauls, including adding directX 9 and 10 support. If SE REALLY wanted to, they could do stuff like this. The real problem here is SE not wanting to commit too much in resources to this game even though it's making money for them, and that even if they wanted to devote more resources, they feel like they can't do a whole lot because of the PS2 which they feel they need to maintain support for for some reason.

Instead of reorganizing, they should simply devote more resources to the game that's making them money. I won't knock FFXIV and I know they really want to turn it around and they think they can do it, but it shouldn't come at the expense of damaging what's actually bringing in the bacon.

[Korpg]

Hiring and Firing isn't the issue though SE is the 9th largest game company in the world. I think that if they needed to hire more programmers it wouldn't bother them, certainly not to the extent of having to fire ppl to pay the salary. I think it's more about a disconnect or a stubborn mentality on SE's part. They are not really concerned about FFXI anymore, yes it makes them money but they have tons n tons of other sources for money. If they wanted to I would wager they could put a team the same size as 14s or bigger without a sweat but they won't because the coding is old, they're too involved in other projects, and XI is riddled with so many problems that they are content to do mini version updates all the way until the game dies. So in the meantime at least they can give us a better looking game since it's obvious 80% of the changes the player base asks for aren't gonna get done.

I know its not about the money, it is about the budget put into this game.

For this game to be successful in the future, Square has to plan ahead. One of Square's tools to plan ahead is a budget, and having a set amount for development costs. I'm suggesting that they take some of the funding from the art department and put it into development costs for future updates. The art department has been very lackluster lately on updates, and unless they are developing a whole new set of zones for gameplay, they are not earning their keep as far as I'm concerned.

[Alhanelem]

Again, you don't seem to realize that its going to take more than fixing bugs to keep people interested. They want new content, new features, new pretty looking gear. You need programmers, project managers, and also the artists to make that happen. All of it is important as a whole, even if only one piece of it is important to you.

[Korpg]

You're absolutely right, and it likely didn't interfere with any of the other changes in any way whatsoever.

Opportunity costs. Example: You have 10 bucks, do you go see the movie or go get something to eat. What you are giving up is the opportunity cost, if you go watch the movie, you miss getting something to eat (cost). They have limited resources for this game, remember that.

Really- You probably have no idea how small the art team most likely is- just a few people probably. Working with older technology, even when creating new items, it doesn't take 1/5th as long to create even a new model and textures compared to a more modern game like FFXIV (Where Yoshida menitioned a single full armor set can take up to 6 months to create)

Even if they have 2 people, one of them is still being a waste of space. You admitted that also.

You also need to remember that these guys make the new items and gear that are the meat and potatoes of any major update.

They make the skins for the new gear, which 90% of the time are just reskins of older gear. 1 person, seriously, one person could make those 3 new sets of Aztec armor in less than a week.

Instead of reorganizing, they should simply devote more resources to the game that's making them money. I won't knock FFXIV and I know they really want to turn it around and they think they can do it, but it shouldn't come at the expense of damaging what's actually bringing in the bacon.

That is what I'm saying! Instead of paying 2+ "artists" a salary each month, fire half and spend the money on other things, like fixing programming bugs and developing newer content (heck, you can transfer the "artists" to the development stage, and then they would be useful again).

[Korpg]

Again, you don't seem to realize that its going to take more than fixing bugs to keep people interested. They want new content, new features, new pretty looking gear. You need programmers, project managers, and also the artists to make that happen. All of it is important as a whole, even if only one piece of it is important to you.

Why do you assume that I'm saying to get rid of the entire department? I'm saying spend the money that is being wasted on something more productive.

[Alhanelem]

It's entirely your opinion what's "more productive."

To me, a total overhaul of the visual experience would be extremely productive. But since the people who work on stuff other than the visuals would still be there, it doesn't have to come totally at the expense of technical immprovements.

They can have their cake and eat it too, they just need to be willing to invest a little more in their baby.

[Korpg]

That's fine by me. Gives those "artists" something to do with their time.

Think they are going to do it?