FFXI deserves and needs an Expansion Pack announcement similar to Seekers of Adoulin

[Alhanelem]

FFXI deserves an expansion, stop trying to cover up for the billion dollar company

There isn't a soul here who doesn't think it deserves an expansion. I'm right there with you.

All i'm trying to tell you is that for a big corporation to do something like this, it has to make good business sense. That doesn't mean it doesn't suck, it's just the reality of any corporation. You don't do things that cost too much for too little gain.

And I can tell you straight up, that aside from getting another $30 from current and some former players of the game, they aren't likely to gain a lot of *new* customers, which is what would be needed for a new expansion to be financially justifiable.

[Demonviper]

games still profitable; to an extent that most non-wow and XIV mmos would be happy with; there's enough people willing to buy and play new content that it would make sense if they don't spend way too much developing it. I think any other MMO developer with XI's sub numbers would work on some moderate expansion; hell it's not like XI has lost many subs since the last one.

I personally think there are two problems; 1) YoshiP being in control of business unit 3 when XIV is his baby and he has no real love for XI, I suspect XI doesn't get the share of the budget it deserves based on subs.

2) I think SE is in financial trouble based off recent IP sales at very low rates.

[Alhanelem]

2) I think SE is in financial trouble based off recent IP sales at very low rates.

They're not now but they probably will be if they stick with their current plans- they think crypto/NFT games are going to be the next big thing (they're not) so they sold studios who make not that kind of thing in order to buy or establish ones that do.

As far as FFXI's profitability, yes, it is, but not in any remarkable way for an OG era MMO, and it's unlikely that the current number of users * the typical sale price of an expansion > the likely cost of development of said expansion to a great enough degree for them to consider another one. I mean, I'm not saying it can't happen, and maybe in a few years you'll be saying "I told you so," but again, unless SE is totally incompetent they do CBAs and I think right now, those CBAs didn't produce a good enough result to consider something like this.

[Elliander]

I'm really looking forward to an expansion too, but I'm more concerned about what we'll do in the expansion and what end game content it will have.

Character progression

The cap level would have to be raised. I'm talking about real Levels and Master level -> 175/87 to avoid "Power creep" I would give them 1 STAT + 1 Combat Skill per Level/Master level. This would be to cover the level up. An expansion without character progression feels very flat and boring, like WoTG. Could be cool have something like APEX-PARTIES from lv100-lv175 with enemies taking 95% less AoE damage and enemies hitting really hard like in odyssey high floors.

History

The story, I would do something like RoV, scenes, good music, more direct narrative, battlefields that you can do with your Trust. Something that can be ENJOYED and not be a TORTURE or suffering for the player. Playing the FFX story is wonderful and entertaining.

Areas

The areas I would like variety, a forest like ronfaure, a beach like Valkrum, an area of ​​snow like xarcabad, a jungle like yuthunga, a volcano like ifrit cauldron etc. Without HORRIBLE key items like the ones in SoA, that just interrupts the exploration of the areas. SIMPLE is always better, more enjoyable, overcomplicating everything and making it tedious will only make players go back to WoW-Modern or FFXIV in days.

Teleports and exploration

Completely remove in expansion: Warp between teleports, survival guides etc. Let the player explore the area in his mount and in the city the player must WALK to all the places, only puting CRYSTALS like teleport-dem, holla, mea, etc. Another thing is to make the player go to the area where the end game, exp party, etc. will take place. Not pure WARP-WARP-WARP-TELEPORT this is terrible for that I better go play FFXIV.

Ultimate weapons

Explain to the player until he is lv175/87, complete the Merit points II category, he will not be able to access the next upgrade of his ultimate weapons, all the materials will be obtained in the end game of said expansion.

End-game

I would like a battlefield like dynamis, einherjar, delve, bosses like ultima, omega, KSNM99. Content obviously for 12-18 players.

Battle-Combat

I would give all the jobs SKILLS like DRG. Yes, after 20 years ENOUGH of pure WS-SPAM. DRG is the only job in FFXI which has rotation with the jumps and requires a lot of mechanical skills, in order to correctly time those skills and increase the damage. All the DPS jobs would play more like "DRG" ​​you will have to combine the WS-SPAM with the abilities to increase the damage you do and that will take you many hours of practicing your correct rotation. You would have to lower the JA-DELAY to 1 sec, that is already done by an external program which puts JA-0 delay, so don't tell me that you can't.

This would be the elements that my expansion would have.

I agree overall, although I'd like to see any new gear come from crafting primarily. Give people a reason to develop their skills. I also agree with taking out all the teleports. Like, what's the point of having any teleport or warp spells when it's quicker and easier to warp all over the place? I'd like to feel like the game is big and dangerous again. Also, make areas that actually require people to get into parties to go through. And on that note I'd like a reason to play with others or, lacking that, I'd like them to just make a single player version of the game with simulated player interactions since there's no point playing an online game alone.

I've read interviews saying that it would take an entire development team to make it offline, but I've also seen videos of people playing the game offline via mods so I don't think that's the reason.

They make their decisions based on reports from the accountants over there.

That's funny actually when you consider the origin of the entire franchise. You see, once upon a time, a small software company wasn't doing too well. By all accounts there was simply no way they'd survive as a company even if their next game did well. As a consequence they decided to make "Final Fantasy" - so named because it was their final fantasy. Since there was no pressure to turn a profit all motivation was on making something that they themselves would enjoy to play and that single event shaped an entire genre of games for decades to come.

Of course, ordinarily, you do need to do a cost benefit analysis. The failure to do so with the first Final Fantasy movie (although I did like it) simply because it cost too much to make than could reasonably be made back. This was what ultimately led to Square to be eaten by Enix forming the Square Enix we know today. Betting the entire company on one product is rarely a good idea, but on a smaller scale the fact is that a "labor of love" has a general tendency to be a huge success more often than not.

Think about some of the most successful software projects over the past few decades, and consider how many were done by people who made a game just because they wanted to play it and share it with the world. Some of which literally made billions of dollars.

In contrast, when a company looks at what someone else is doing and copies them it may look good on paper, but it has disasterous consequences for the existing playerbase. Before FFXI I played Everquest. I loved the simple UI and spent hundreds of hours in that game, but then they looked at what Warcraft was doing and decided to replace the entire User Interface with disconnected objects that were all over the place. Maybe on a modern multi monitor desktop like we have today that would be acceptable, but my response was to quit. I moved to FFXI primarily because of the simple user interface. I loved how it all fell away while exploring the world, but SE also fell into the trap of copying WoW with their new baby. In the closed beta the User Interface was horrible and while a realm reborn is at least playable, they showed no respect for those who were in the beta by making it impossible to use those characters if they were unfortunate enough to die before gaining access to the ability to respawn. Which was weird. But their excuse was that they didn't have experience making an MMO, which made me wonder what they thought FFXI was, and as I watched things change I found myself less and less interested in what they were doing. There were and still are so many things wrong with that game, but that's from the perspective of someone like me who likes to get lost in a world. They even based the game clock around the assumption that people will only spend a half an hour in the game at a time so if they released an expansion at all I'm afraid it would just make FFXI more like that. Of course, I for one would buy a new FFXI expansion in a heartbeat whereas I have no intention of ever buying any more content for a realm reborn no matter what they do to that game.

If they don't want to release new content, here's an idea: Officially support graphical mods. (i.e. HD graphics) and even facilitate it's integration. Some platforms actually make money doing that and it would also give them control over what kind of mods are popularized. Let the people who are already doing that kind of thing expend the effort to make the game "modern". Also, how about open a "classic" server which has the classic game balance intact? Where it actually takes time to level up, and where transportation is a literal journey rather than a zip around the globe. It could even just be a copy of the server file backups from 10+ years ago.

[Monsuta_Man]

I keep reactivating Beastrizor, instead of Monsuta Man, because the characters name & login passwords are similar (& you know your not getting a refund from SE...nor would you want to go through such a process over a few bucks).

Probably already posted on this thread as Beastrizor as a XI addict with 2 accounts, but whatever.......

I have no issue with them letting let XI sunset. It may have ran its' course, and is the FF GOAT. The most profitable game in the series. It took WoW & XIV communities to dethrone XI, very impressive.

However, I also understand the people who want another big expansion, due to the points I mentioned above.....

..... I would like to move on.....

...Finish XI Mobile. When I 1st seen those screenshots, I imagined new fresh XI memories.



Those RE remake fans can tell you a thing or 2 about Remake Nostalgia. It is new, but old. Familiar, but different.

That remake gets my vote. All those great assets just chilling in spaces....... but I would accept the OP choice as-well. XI does need some attention. How do you hate your best title in your respective franchise is beyond me......XI must have a Kojima within their ranks or something.

[Alhanelem]

The mobile remake was cancelled. It will never get finished and whatever work was done on it has probably been lost or repurposed.

[Immortal]

Nobody wants a mobile game, they are trash

[Catmato]

Nobody wants a mobile game, they are trash

Do you guys not have phones?

[Sirmarki]

Nobody wants a mobile game, they are trash

I agree. Outside of the odd puzzle game, I absolutely hate mobile gaming and wouldn't even contemplate a MMOPRG on one.

[Pixela]

All attention should be on the main game, not mobile garbage.

It's just sad ff16 is taking up any spare capacity to add anything to 11, however maybe in a year or so that will change.