Why not get rid of Chocobo Circuit and the race area?

[radar]

These two zones really do next to nothing, outside of RoE objectives.

In a game with a limited number of zone options (database limitations), why not just drop these two areas and add two new ones? We have been told numerous times there are zone limitations in the development environment (this was why old Limbus was removed, and the new version put in its place)

We could have two large new zones, if these are removed.

Feretory also, could at least in theory be added to the 2nd areas of the mog garden?

[radar]

There are also two dedicated PVP areas barely anyone even ever uses.

Diorama Abdhaljs-Ghelsba
Abdhaljs Isle-Purgonorgo

[Alhanelem]

These two zones really do next to nothing, outside of RoE objectives.

Because there are people out there who actually like doing certain things "for fun" and not just because it advances their character.

There are also two dedicated PVP areas barely anyone even ever uses.

Diorama Abdhaljs-Ghelsba
Abdhaljs Isle-Purgonorgo

OVER MY DEAD BODY.

Entirely ignoring the fact that the PvP grounds have been instrumental in testing many game mechanics and deserve to exist just for that, again, there are people who enjoy doing things for fun, why should that be taken away from them?

Seriously, where's the dislike button?

Why do we need new areas at all? There's so much unutilized space in so many areas it's not even funny.

I'm generally vehemently against removing unpopular content. Somebody enjoys it, why ruin the game for those people? I quit League of Legends after playing for many years after they twice removed my preferred game modes (and also lied about their intent to keep in one case, after they found that ripping off someone else's idea was making them lots of money in China).

If you really want to talk about useless areas, what about that zone in Khamir Drifts that can't even be walked in, is purely used for cutscenes? They could do those cutscenes anywhere and they wasted a zone for that. That wouldn't even necessitate the removal of content. You don't see anything in that zone anyway. Just recreate the cutscenes using the drifts or even a different snowy area as the backdrop and no one will notice the difference.

[radar]

Barely anyone uses them, and they have limitations which is why they can't keep adding new zones.

I don't want to remove anything, but common sense dictates you remove if it means getting things that are more useful to more people.

[Alhanelem]

Barely anyone uses them, and they have limitations which is why they can't keep adding new zones.

I don't want to remove anything, but common sense dictates you remove if it means getting things that are more useful to more people.

No, common sense dictates you fix the underlying problems that prevent you from doing what you want to do. I.e. upgrade the database, the data structures the game uses, recompile the game as a 64 bit binary (really needs to be done anyway) and use higher level variable types where necessary. Yes, it would require a lot of work, but so do new areas.

The number of people who enjoy a particular content is irrelevant. Nothing deserves to be removed just because you don't do it. These "database limitations" are arbitrary and the only reason they are a problem is SE's lack of interest in investment.

[radar]

No, common sense dictates you fix the underlying problems that prevent you from doing what you want to do. I.e. upgrade the database, the data structures the game uses, recompile the game as a 64 bit binary (really needs to be done anyway) and use higher level variable types where necessary. Yes, it would require a lot of work, but so do new areas.

They are not going to do a low level re-write, it's not going to happen and so they have to work with the limitations.

Read this:

For instance, Fujito reveals that the development team is currently constrained by a shortage of available IDs used to manage in-game areas, making the addition of a new world impossible through “conventional methods.” He says the team has been investigating ways to reorganize and free up resources since last year, and has already begun restructuring some of the game’s internal assets. If those efforts succeed, “some kind of project” could potentially move forward, he suggests.

Fujito also says that staffing remains another major challenge for the game. Although his team wants to work on new story-related content following The Voracious Resurgence, the staff capable of handling that kind of work are currently busy with other projects within Square Enix. Still, there are plans to potentially bring former FFXI team members back onto the project in the future, while engineers are also working on middleware improvements related to graphical resource management. According to Fujito, resolving those issues could eventually make it possible to create new cutscenes and other content again, but for now, he would like players to think of it as a preparatory phase where “we’re continuing to lay the groundwork for that sort of future development.”

https://www.famitsu.com/article/202605/75074

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/...er-limitation/

[Alhanelem]

They are not going to do a low level re-write, it's not going to happen and so they have to work with the limitations.

Yeah, I know they're not going to, but that's still what common sense would dictate.

Other long running MMOs have done this. If SE wants to add major new content (which new zones would entail) they're going to need to upgrade the game's internals. Otherwise, there's no point in even adding new areas. And even without major upgrades, there are sitll ways it could be "hacked" in, like one entry in a nametable that points to a second one they can fill up with more things, that wouldn't necessarily require any existing system to be revamped. Nothing is impossible in game development, it's only a matter of what's in scope of what you're willing to do.

Just be aware if you're going to suggest the removal of things that matter to me, I'm going to defend them to the death (in the arena if necessary!)

Doing so would likely lead to me quitting the game, even though it's not a thing I do every day.

[radar]

Players that have neat ideas how to get around the limited ID situation where they don't have enough database entries to add new zones should suggest things, remember you're not suggesting things to a mega company with thousands of employees but you're suggesting things to a handful of developers that are still assigned to XI. Most of SE work on other games.

The only reason we got SoA was cause a chance meeting between two developers brainstorming in a hallway lead to a suggestion that allowed them to add a ton of a new zones.

Increasing the amount of area numbers allowed the world to expand

Now I'd like to ask you about Seekers of Adoulin. There was DLC available at the time in the form of the Abyssea series, so I imagine even the players felt like there wouldn't be the usual expansion disc levels of new content, but I think everyone was surprised when Seekers of Adoulin was announced out of nowhere at Vana★Fest 2012. What was the process behind the development of the new expansion disc?
Ito

I was actually working as the director for the updates at the time, and the general feeling on the team was that the Abyssea series would be the last large-scale area added to the game. On top of which, we had already exhausted the numbers that were used to register areas on the map. The limit for the area numbers was 255, which was a number that everybody felt would be more than enough when FFXI was first designed. However, we ended up reaching that limit approximately ten years into the game's lifespan. So even if we wanted to add new areas, there was no available area numbers for them. As a result, we figured that we'd just have to continue on with the usual version updates.

So your hands were pretty much tied by the game's specs.
Ito

I knew it was impossible, but by chance, I happened to be talking to a server programmer by the name of Shinichi Tanaka, and I asked him if there was truly no way to increase the area number count. He replied that we might be able to fake it by adding a value to the area number and then placing it in a separate container with the use of a programming flag that would tell the game whether to add the value or not. Using that method, we could get up to 512 maps.

So you instantly doubled the possible map count. (laughs)
Ito

I felt that it was something we had to do, so I immediately went to speak with Mr. Tanaka* and request that we get the maps team together.* Hiromichi Tanaka, FFXI's first producer.

You didn't waste any time.
Ito

No, not at all. We borrowed people from the FFXIV maps team and named a leader for the group, but we still didn't have enough people, so we turned to Matrix* for additional assistance. From there, we started working on the map for Seekers of Adoulin behind the scenes while development on the version updates proceeded as usual.* Matrix Corporation. They worked on the additional scenarios: "A Crystalline Prophecy," "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat," and "A Shantotto Ascension," as well as assisted with the development of Seekers of Adoulin.

[Alhanelem]

if that's accurate, then we went from a 256 zone limit to a 512 zone limit. SoA (and subsequent contents) didn't add that many zones so how are we at the the limit?

And a limit of 256 implies an 8 bit value for the zone index, so who's going to tell us why they can't simply make it a 16 bit value (max 65535) instead? When you have memory limitations (i.e. ps2 era) it makes sense to keep values small if you don't need them to be bigger but we're not supposed to have that limitation anymore.

[radar]

https://we-are-vanadiel.finalfantasy...id=764&lang=en


It's difficult to know exactly what they mean. It's possible they mean the actual visual maps and not the actual zones? Cause many zones have multiple maps, there are probably way over 500 visual maps and we have all noticed they have not been adding maps to some zones.