Why Cant Final fantasy 11 get the same treatment?

[Sinister]

I understand your feelings about the differences between FINAL FANTASY XI and FINAL FANTASY XIV. Please understand that these games are very different entities and just as it was stated before, the operational policies as well as the size of the development team are very different as well.

Just to clarify one misconception I have been noticing for a while now...

"PS2 limitations" is not a factor for adding new areas to the game and we will in fact be adding new areas in the future, so please do not worry about this.

Then knowing this, can voice chat be put in or offered as a 'paid feature'? For people that run event linkshells that sometimes typing can be a hinder in mid game play. Considering both PC & PS2 can support this and the idea PS2 is not a limit or set back based on your statement Camate, could this be added in the future? Granted event linkshells have found work around to this simple problem but as i almost playing for as long as the game been around since NA release, almost 8yrs. Do you think you can find out why this has not been added yet as of date? mainly lets say reserved for LS chat only or again, a paid feature that a LS Leader would have to opt-in for per LS. My first post ever on here so look forward to your timely reply.

Thanks.

[Sesh]

Don't hold your breath, they only reply if it's an auto-translate from the JP forum, or they'll stick some random info in a forum that is somewhat close on topic to the message they want to give. The only exception is a thread like this where people are frustrated, then we are graced with a vague response like the one above, that only raises more questions than it answers.

[Spero]

Camate,is there a chance for ffxi, to be ps3 compatable in the near future?

[Sevokevo]

Great News Everybody!



Your moblin maze monger zones will be ready soon!

ROFL Nice one there. :P

[Moonracer]

Can you elaborate on this? When I and a few others (maybe more than a few) have mentioned "new areas" we are talking 100% unique zones not a rehashed zone such as Abyssea and WoTG was full of.

I believe partly that what Camate means by this is the new Dungeon crawl type endgame element thats mentioned in the "Final Fantasy XI Roadmap". If the pics for it serve as any basis, its certainly something i have yet to see in FFXI as of this point. (Honestly, it looks like it has something to do with the 5 crystals of Vana'diel, but thats imo). It is well within the scope for them to make new areas. Perhaps its not quite another parallel world, or some new unexplored continent, or a fully developed expansion, but if you think about it, each expansion has added maybe only a couple of new areas. Until a full blown expansion, i would not see the need for a slew of new areas.

[CapriciousOne]

yea because you want to run around the game /checking every single monster that you are going to run past. Get real.

actually I do especially in new areas i'm not familiar or old areas I dont frequent often and especially if i hadn't been around for a while, that is just common sense but I guess you dont have any of that huh? Apparently neither do they if they think this is a game to run around blindly hacking and slashing. This isn't Devil May Cry or Resistance. I guess it would be safe to say neither you nor them ever heard the saying "Look before you leap" either. At this point of playing though I pretty much know most of the zones and where the mobs are because I routinely make it my business to know when I hear the word "redistribution"

[Alhanelem]

I do especially in new areas i'm not familiar

Thing is, these are not new areas, and not all of them are so rarely visited that people would forget what they're like.

[Catsby]

The number of deadend zones in this game is kinda saddening.

[Aselin]

I understand your feelings about the differences between FINAL FANTASY XI and FINAL FANTASY XIV. Please understand that these games are very different entities and just as it was stated before, the operational policies as well as the size of the development team are very different as well.

Just to clarify one misconception I have been noticing for a while now...

"PS2 limitations" is not a factor for adding new areas to the game and we will in fact be adding new areas in the future, so please do not worry about this.

I do believe you are contradicting yourself, especially if you are representing Square-Enix on the official forums. This goes against everything Square-Enix has said in the past especially regarding "PS2 limitations."

You have to remember that Square-Enix along with the previous FFXI director said the following during a previous Fanfest/game convention (e.g. E3, etc.)/interview:

1. Square-Enix decided not to update the graphics engine to DirectX 9 from DirectX 8 prior to Wings of the Goddess release. This is the one of the many signs that Square-Enix is back-pedaling from promises to add changes to the game. DirectX 8 is already proving to be a problem with newer systems. There are noticeable graphical issues present in both Nvidia and AMD graphics card-based systems under Windows Vista and Windows 7 because they use DirectX 10/11 and soon DirectX 12.1 (Windows 8). These vary from texture flickering, disjointed textures, and other graphical glitches.
   
   Windows XP displays little to no issues since it still uses DirectX 9. DirectX 10 and 11 are much different architecturally than DirectX 9 and earlier. It also deprecates DirectSound and especially DirectInput. Why DirectInput? As said in Wikipedia:

   Microsoft recommends that new applications make use of the Windows message loop for keyboard and mouse input instead of DirectInput... and to use XInput instead of DirectInput for Xbox 360 controllers...
   
   Microsoft has not made any major changes to DirectInput since DirectX 8, and introduced XInput later in DirectX 9...
   
   An Xbox 360 Controller with the default Microsoft driver with DirectInput has the following limitations compared to with XInput:
   - the left and right triggers will act as a single axis representing the signed difference between the triggers, not as independent analog axes
   - vibration effects will not operate
   - querying for headset devices will not operate
   This has caused issues with using the Xbox 360 controller where the trigger buttons (LT and RT) do not function. Vibration does not work properly. Some players, such as my friend, have to resort to third party software and drivers to get full functionality out of the 360 controller. It is up to the developer of the application and the game to add support for this. Seeing as the game has not been updated from DirectX 8, this will not be fixed.
2. As for the dated graphics of FFXI, SE stated themselves that they wish to keep the PC and 360 version the same as the PS2 version. SE didn't want to do anything that would make both versions of the game different from each other. This is called laziness and unwillingness to do anything with the game because it would be too much work to upgrade one version of the game.
3. Square-Enix has said it themselves that any resources upgrading or expanding FFXI would be better spent on making another game. We got Final Fantasy XIV which, after over a year, isn't feature complete. It isn't until version 2.0 that FFXIV will finally get a new graphics engine. What does that say about Square-Enix regarding adding new areas?
4. Square-Enix has taken half the FFXI team to work on FFXIV. It unfortunately backfired when FFXIV was released unfinished and broken last September 2010, with many concerns voiced during Beta not being addressed at launch. Square-Enix has again taken more people off FFXI to work on FFXIV.

Square-Enix would say one thing and promise this, then back-pedal on it. This has been a recurring theme that many players with myself included have experienced in the last several years.

Everything I mentioned above seems to me that Square-Enix does indeed acknowledge in some form or another that there is a "Playstation 2" limitation. And, I am very sure Square-Enix knows that there is only so much you can do to expand FFXI at this point without using programming tricks or recycling/re-texturing previous graphics assets.

There are players who know there is a limit to the maximum accessible space in this game already. 80 for inventory. 80 for secondary inventory that can be opened simultaneously (Sack, Storage, Satchel, Mog Safe). And, a single space for Gil. That's 161 total spaces that can be opened simultaneously at any one time. Compare this to FFXIV. It has a higher number of inventory space compared to FFXI. This is a very obvious example that there is a limitation caused by allowing the game to be one-to-one (1:1) feature parity with the Playstation 2. 32 MB of RAM on the PS2 compared to 256 MB on the PS3 and a much larger amount for the PC.

There are players who already know there is a limit to the number of Delivery Box items that can be held in there.

There are players that know that re-texturing and re-skinning armor, monsters, and environments doesn't save space. Case in point this very good blog explaining it: http://parchmentpaper.blogspot.com/2011/03/explaining-why-reskinned-graphics-dont.html

There are also certain players who know and believe that there is a hard limit of approximately 10 GB on the PS2 hard disk out of its 40 GB maximum size. This hard limit can only be expanded under express approval of Sony because of the DNAS security check that the Playstation 2 and FFXI must abide to. Remember: DNAS is a hardware and software security check done to be sure that the game AND system isn't modified, that players aren't cheating, and that the game remains within its pre-specified limits and hardware usage.

It has already become very evident that the past several releases, the so-called add-ons, have been very small. The upcoming "new area" may also be a small addition to the game, but not a full-blown expansion. On the PC, the game stands just above or near 10 GB in size. So, the belief that there is a hard limit set on FFXI's partition on the PS2's hard disk becomes more believable.

You also have to realize that when comparing Square-Enix to other MMO game developers, other game developers have been willing to expand their game long after it has been released.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) continues development for both Everquest and Everquest II. Everquest II has also received a graphics engine update several years ago. Both games also get new expansions and areas, and EQII has ten expansions to its name.

CCP Games with EVE Online updated the graphics engine in 2007, four years after its release in May 2003. And, that is about five years after FFXI's release on the Playstation 2 and PC in Japan. The graphics engine was updated from DirectX 8 to DirectX 9. CCP also continues to update the game each year. And, get this: one of CCP's parent owners has $1.6 billion in assets. This is about the same amount of revenue earned by Square-Enix last fiscal year. CCP plans to update the ship models in a future update, a so called "V3" (for version 3) ships update. (Version 2 was from Trinity.)

Let's not forget Blizzard Entertainment with World of Warcraft. The game received a minor graphics update several years ago. They also plan on upgrading the character models in the future. Even the game is almost as old as Final Fantasy XI but continues to get expansions and new areas.

Now, they may or may not be good examples, but they are the best examples of game developers willing to not let their projects and games stagnate. (For WoW, I digress given recent criticisms regarding Mists of Pandaria...)

However, what makes myself or any other player believe what you say?

There are still fixes to be made to the game outside graphical issues. How about the Playstation 2 version of FFXI? I have had several friends in the game playing on the PS2 suffer from black screens, disc read errors, and game crashes in certain areas that have not been fixed yet. This can also be attributed to the fact that the PS2 is an aging system. You can fix a junk car only so much before you can junk it. Now, there are players who probably have no issue at all. However, when you think about the fact that there are no more PS3 systems with backwards PS2 compatibility being manufactured anymore, a game developer must step back and think about what must be done to fix current issues on an aging system. How much longer can you support the PS2 when Sony stops the DNAS servers and moves on?

Can you still say with a straight and honest face that there is no Playstation 2 limitation and that it is not a factor in adding new areas?

The game world, Vana'diel, is considered approximately 25% complete according to the team behind FFXI. Any guarantee we will be seeing the other areas to the game?

Will there be a guarantee from Square-Enix to provide needed fixes to the game as well as upgrades to FFXI?

Also, is it worth the calculated risk to spend all the resources on FFXIV which probably has much less concurrent players than FFXI? Are you willing to stagnate one game to improve another?

Is it even worth it for Square-Enix to even expend more resources to develop a third MMO that is to be announced on the next fiscal year in March 2012?

Maybe someone from Square-Enix can answer them directly instead of a Community Representative.

[Buffy]

Aselin,

Stop talking.