Give ff14 a single player mode?

While I love FFXIV it seems to be failing as a multiplayer MMO. So why not make part of it single player? They have the basic code, they have the graphics, they have the ai, etc. All they would need is a few more graphics, a new story, and some cutscenes.

Imagine an epic cutscene-based movie like expansion that makes it feel like you're playing a -normal- final fantasy. And when i say movie like i don't mean 40 min long cutscenes. I mean an epic save-the-world storyline with actual reoccuring characters that help you fight, backstories to the chars, in-depth lore, and LOTS of zones. The zones can even be instanced as long as they are somewhat new and creative (in order to prevent the costs of expanding servers or making them server compatible). The world is so huge that they could choose from different areas to hold the story. For example you might be responsible for liberating ala-mihgo. Or maybe you have to save the world from the threat of a dragon war. Or they can just make an entirely new area and have the story there.

I know it seems like a stupid idea for an MMO but think about how many non-mmo players it would pull in who might stay -after- finishing the story. Essentially you should be able to do the entire single player (30-50 hours gameplay?) with one job and by the end have that job near max. So current players would get to level up another job while experiencing the single player mode, and new players would be able to level up and get to end game without boring grinding.

Main point is if SE markets the game as a single player mode with a different name + 1-month free, they could easily draw in 800k+ new players overnight. And a large amount of those would probably stick around to play the MMO part afterwords.

It would also make FFXIV unique compared to every other MMO.

People seem to be missing the point. Yoshi P has said you should be able to play casually and choose to solo in this game. So I'm arguing that instead of having all solo as grinding and repeated leve quests, they create a 'solo expansion' that allows you to take one job max via solo through a deep storyline comparable to non-onlne ff titles. If you think thats a bad idea then explain why people would rather grind the same mobs for 40 hours over playing an interesting story for 30 or 40.

So... make a brand new game with the same crystal tools engine is what you're saying? E.G. FFXIII?

I dunno...i'd rather they finish Versus XIII / work on non-XIII related projects and actually get some games out...maybe new properties.

Also thats what got FFXIV into the bad spot its in...and probably why they only limit story missions to 2 or so people, and try to force your companion on you.

no.
No.
NO!

you left out a shitton of rebalancing.

i dont even...

no im saying make a single player game IN the game as an expansion and advertise it as an online single-player game to distance it from the FFXIV failure launch. So its still FFXIV. Its part of the game. But its a single-player part of the game that you -can- choose to team up on but dont need to. And its more focused on storyline and stuff than it is on boring grinding or MMO play.

They just need to put a tutorial in at the start of the game that explains people can either play the MMO part or "go talk to xxx to start the single player part"

The goal would be to attract non-mmo people to the game and then hope that a lot of them decide to stick around for endgame stuff. I mean people go and grind for hours to kill the hardcore bosses in the normal ff's even though they dont really drop great stuff. So there should be a number of ppl who will want to experiance the MMO part and will agree to pay monthly for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chardrizard

you left out a shitton of rebalancing.

i dont even...

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you wouldn't need -any- rebalancing. The single player part would be separate from the main part. Mobs in instanced zones could be variable-based to match your level to give an average difficulty with certain optional solo areas that provide a greater challenge. You could also make potions play a larger role in solo-dungeons which would stimulate the MMO economy. Theres a lot of different ways to do it.

Don't we already play single-player most of the time?

badum-tish.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Don't we already play single-player most of the time?

badum-tish.

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thats the point. The game is casual and fails as a typical-mmo. So SE should capitalize on it. Make a -REALLY- good single-player part to the game and use it to draw in players and subscriptions.

Might be worth making the single player part get someone to level 50 and upping the cap to 60 or so. That way when they finish the single-player part there is an incentive to play the MMO part. Or they can do both at the same time.

Single players games tend to have a story 'arc,' that begins, ends, and doesn't leave a lot of loose ends.

FFXIV's lore is gargantuan in size (seriously.) and we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. Frankly, I think it's going to take the entire life of this game to get all of the "Once upon a times" they've given us to their respective "the ends."

Though... I wouldn't mind... if they started working on a separate, isolated storyline that revisits the land of Vana'diel and gives us a replay-able, revisit-able adventure to give the Children of Altana a proper send-off....