[Stormblood Budget] Where all the money's gone ?

I don't want an entire new game, but man, an expension with no real new features is pretty miffing.

Sure their will be a big map like Heavensward and you'll be able to dive and all but I'm talking about "don't boring players" contents.
Problems pointed by players are here and I think it smells like a lazy way of launching a "new" expansion.
Only the environment changes so what ? I know it's a lot of work but why priorities are to make such huge map with nothing in it instead of thinking about creative resources to offer something really new to players ?

You could call it Heavensward 2 actually instead of Stormblood. What will make Stormblood, Stormblood and not Heavensward 2 ? I really hope they have new stuff for us to say until the release date...

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

A lot of the budget will go towards hardware for the NA datacenter move

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Thing with that is that it doesn't concern at least half of the player base so all the player not concerned are looking to other things.

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Originally Posted by Arutan

Thing with that is that it doesn't concern at least half of the player base so all the player not concerned are looking to other things.

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Same can be said for the eu datacenter at the start of 3.0.

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Originally Posted by Arutan

Thing with that is that it doesn't concern at least half of the player base so all the player not concerned are looking to other things.

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Maybe it should actually concern more than half the playerbase though - I might be wrong here, but even as a german player I can see that its important to update those old servers into new ones so the old hardware wont hold the game back at somepoint. So even if its not directly affecting me, in the long run it acutually might.

I do understand the concern about Stormblood, well kinda - on the other hand threads like this, when the game isnt even out yet and we cant actually judge the quality of what is promised, remind me of Dudley Dursley whos crying over only getting 36 presents instead of 37 without even having unwrapped one.
Maybe thats just me, as a person who isnt getting excited about almost anything (puppies are an exception), but crying over something that you havent even seen yet...? Just because its not as much as the last one was? Who knows - they might actually spend more time to polish things (remember that one of the HW-jobs, the astrologian, had massive problems at release and had to be patched and balanced out afterwards?) and improve the game in ways that we wont see directly.
I remember them saying that three new jobs for HW were a bit much for the team - so I'm perfectly fine with them cutting that back to two and have those properly done (something we cant judge yet)

I'm not saying their is not work done for this extension but the way they sell it to us is kinda strange and when you heard they've got way more money to make the game than Heavensward, and heard again that features are potentially not new but just needed (inventory and skill fusion for exemple), it's true, I doubtfully think of what did they put all the resources in?
It's not crying over but i'm a little afraid of the expansion and things that were anounced didn't reassure me on the fact that Stormblood is a kinda of re-use of Heavensward with other graphics.
And if I want to be pessimistic, I can even say that I might think the job for the raise of ARR is done, and now, we're not a community anymore but some cash in their pocket.
It's a feeling I have 'til the middle of Heavensward and which grow up with time, unfortunately.
I trully hope I am wrong but I wanted to hear feelings of other people. If they have same feel than me or not.
I will not judge devs choices more than I did but if the feeling is shared, so why couldn't we talk about it ? It's because poeple talked to devs that the game had raise, so I think, we can talk to make it better again.

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Originally Posted by Iromi

Also for those asking about the budget, it was in the Vegas fanfest paid stream keynote where Yoshida said the budget is much higher.

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He said they were able to reinvest more into upgrading the infrastructure, as in a new datacenter for the NA servers, upgrades to the inventory, etc.

It's never been said that they have tripled the budget for Stormblood, that came from a rumour that it was stated in the JP version of a financial report, a number that never ended up appearing in the English translation of it.

I think even Yoshida would agree that 1 new race and 3 new classes is already better than what stormblood is bringing.
That doesn't mean stormblood isn't great but I really hope they understand that the excuse of "too much work for them" is not true at all. Ok, if 3 classes was a lot of work then where is a new race or new customization for existing races?
Stormblood will be amazing but compared to heavensward there's something missing. All I and some of us that wanted more customization can do is hope 5.0 brings new customization/new race again.

These threads are very helpful in a way even if they disagree.

If you was expecting something totally different from was is the game now... I think it is your fault for expecting too much. The game will be more or less was it is now, even graphic wise. For example, they said the extra RAM/VRAM memory is for bigger map assets (more number of objects models like trees, rocks, NPC etc) and things like that instead of put hyper realistic graphics as people is expecting (and we already saw screenshots that show the game is more or less the same graphic wise). Graphic engine cannot change drastically or they risk lost big part of low end computer player (like laptop players) from one day to another. They already are losing people due to the PS3 drop. Also, a game cannot change drastically from one version to another, because you risk broke the entire game. This is only a example graphic wise,but you can extend to toher areas like battle engine, crafting or whatever. Changes will be implemented slowly.

Changes will come gradually, adding new things of changing ones while correct problem that will happen in the process.

Also, calm down. We barely know anything about the expansion aside some areas and the jobs.

I agree with OP, but we are forgetting something, we just know about QUANTITY of content, but we know nothing about QUALITY of content.

With Heavensward we got:
--New Zones
--3 new jobs
--Flying
--1 new race
--1 new 8-man raid
--8 new dungeons
--New skills/mechanics for old 10 jobs
--New MSQ
--New Beast Tribe Quests
--New Side Quest
--etc...

Its more than Stormblood amount of content, for sure, but we dont know how good or bad will be this content until release.

Heavensward quality was not the best imo, i mean.
--3 new jobs, but AST and MCH had a lot of desing issues at the release.
--New job mechanics just for 4 old jobs (Enochian, Dreadwyrm Trance, Blood of the Dragon and Wanderer Minuet. (changes from desing side, its not about gameplay side).
--Alexander first raid, Goardian, was not really good but A3S (The Arm of the Father, the best Alexander encounter imo)
--8 dungeons, just dungeons with nothing new.

Stormblood can easily be better than Heavensward if they're working "Quality Over Quantity" mindset.

if they're working "Quality Over Quantity" mindset, they have a lot of window to improve and Stormblood could be better than Heavensward:

--They have 13 old jobs, if they adjust every mechanic on every jobs its a lot of work, i mean: Aetherflow, Dreadwyrm Trance, Enochian, Blood of the Dragon,Wanderer Minuet, Ammunition/Wildfire, Mudras/Huton, Deliverance/Defiance, Grit/MP, Cards, etc...)
--They have 13 old jobs and they have to add new skills from 60 to 70.
--They can improve MSQ.
--They can improve Side Quest and Best Trives Quests,
--They can release a really good 8-man and 24-man raids.
--They can give us better dungeons.
--etc...

BUT, we know nothing atm about quality, we have just a few screenshots and it's not enough to determinate what level of quality we will see.

If they got a lot of money for develop Stormblood, they can make Stormblood better than Heavensward with less amount of content, for sure, but who knows.