4.0 Expansion

So if I remember correctly SE said they wanted to release one expansion per year post Heavensward (which took 2 years total?), if my memory is correct (and it could be 100% wrong) does that mean we'll be getting a new expansion this year O_O?

I wonder what they'll add, what'll it revolve around, where it'll take place (Come on ala mhigo), what classes we'll get?

Hype?

Well they can by all means WANT to do it, whether they are actually able to/have enough resources is another thing.

Yeah idk how'd they be capable of doing it I just distinctly remember them saying something of the sort. Actually now that I think about it wasn't the final set of major patches in ARR attached to 2.5? If my memory serves in this case 3.5 would be achievable by September and an expansion being released at around December

I think they were planning HW to only reach patch 3.4 but I have no source. Nope it's 3.5 after all. In any case I find 1½ years to be a comfortable time frame for an expansion. 2 years is too long and 1 year would be a little rushed and we would likely end up with less content. 3.3 is coming in late spring / early summer and 3.4 will probably be early autumn with the current pace. My guess is that we're getting an expansion just in time for Christmas for extra sales. Leaving it for after the holidays would be a big loss. Expac next spring is my new guess.

I am completely oblivious to any FF lore from previous games but I hope we get an ocean region and a volcanic region. I would also love a rainforest area with huge trees and weird plants. Melee healers and melee dps with some long range casts would be fun. More hybrid play of some kind without breaking the trinity. Perhaps a class with two stances like AST that could swap between melee dps and ranged dps.

EDIT. What I mean by melee healer is not necessarily a healer that melees to heal or heals in melee range, but perhaps a job without access to Cleric Stance that has their own dps stance (Swaps MND and STR?) and melee attacks. They would solo things with physical skills and during dungeons and raids their healing would be hindered in the dps stance just like it is with Cleric Stance. So they would have to carefully pick the times to contribute to damage and move to melee range.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

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I'm pretty sure the next expansion will be the beginning of the war on the empire and taking back Ala Mhigo, based on how the story has been moving forward. Also I didn't know that they only planned to go until 3.4 that's interesting if true.

Also if we get Ala Mhigo monk would probly be the poster child of that expac since Monks originate from there

To Reinha: as far as i know there isn't any melee healers from past ff games ( unless they make dancer a healer, then theres going to be your enemies blood on the dance floor) and the only possible long rang dps with some magic skills I'm able to think off would be a blue gun mage ( from ff X-2). And towards the region thing, if we have a fat chocobo that can fly, then anything for the new region is possible.

They mentioned the Dragonsong War will come to a conclusion in 3.3, so theoretically they could go with an expansion after that. However, 3.3 will introduce the next Void Ark, which would leave a 3.4 for the last Alex and a 3.5 for the last Void Ark. That is, if they're going the same route as the 2.x patches. Who knows, maybe Void Ark will only have 2 raids instead of 3, and 3.4 will be the final patch before an expansion.

They have also mentioned that accessing whatever content will be added with 4.0 doesn't require Heavensward story completion, which would mean 4.0 would go an entirely different direction story wise.

Most likely chance of 4.0 will be around this time next year post all the fan fests I'd say. I don't recall them ever mentioning 1 year expansion but I do recall mentioning that 2 years is a bit to long to something like 1.5 years being just right.

I like the time that heavensward took to get out - felt just about right. Had time to catch up on old stuff that I didn't manage and other such stuff.

why do you think we do have a fan fest this years? because next year we have an expansion. look at what did say yoshida...
he did say that the 3.3 was right before we reach the climax of the actual story, means with the 3.4 we will finish the dragonsong war... the 3.5 will bring the link to the next expansion.

now let's look at the time:
3.3 will arrive in may, 3 month later 3.4 in august/september and 3 more month later december/january 3.5... like for before HW.

about the story, yes it lead to the third war against the empire.

There's no actual proof it'll lead to the third war against the Empire (though I agree it's somewhat likely), especially as it's also been said that you won't be forced to do all the 3.x story to get to 4.x content, so any foreshadowing in 3.x is not necessarily proof. After all, you won't need to get that foreshadowing to get to 4.x, so... ^^; It's a bit like having two spin-offs from one series, and saying "well, in spin-off A, it totally foreshadows this thing happening, especially close to the end of it, so we already know it's going to happen in spin-off B, even though they theoretically take place at the same time and thus can't really be foreshadowed like that".

They already said 3.X will go up until 3.5. After 3.5 4.0 comes. According to the maths with every patch coming in a 3 month period 4.0 will arrive Spring 2017. Also do not forget the last Fan Festival of the 3 is the one in Europe in February 2017. No chance expansion will come earlier as they will uncover some info and teaser trailer during the Fan Festivals.

I would rather have an expansion in 2 years rather than sooner if it meant that it wouldn't be such bare skeleton as 3.0 was.
4.0 will be another chance to get some old players back to the game (+ attract a few new) and if they will get bored in 2 weeks, it won't really help.

Ala Mhigo or riot!

Looks to me like the first fanfest will be the expansion announcement and a little bit of info, followed by more information in subsequent events with the last event essentially being a prelaunch if all goes well with development and timing.

I expect that it will deal with the empire and won't require Heavensward completion. SE mentioned trying to implement some sort of 'recap' quest or cut scene to fill people in on anything important if they hadn't completed the previous story content. With Heavensward the empire is there, but a lot of it seems to be SE just reminding us that they haven't gone away, so maybe when starting 4.0 without doing 3.0 they'd fill you in on the succession and a couple of other tidbits, but really not much has happened (at this point).

Will see how they also handle level increase if HW not required in general. How do you get the 10 levels from 50 to 60 and the skills associated with the job quests.

I just hope this expansion actually progresses whatever's needed mechanically to make steps towards an envisioned final product (e.g. 6.0 or 7.0), rather than merely being the best payout for another rehash. Ala Mhigo is where I wanted to go next, until I thought about how much cooler that place especially could be if we had more gameplay developed to really bring out the setting. Now I want a Sharlayan setting in between, if only because it seems less likely that we'll hit Garlean lands and not keep progressing either into the Garlean mainland or Doma, thereby wasting whatever opportunities we have left on our own continent.

I'm not as looking foward to a war against the empire as many others, unless it has some SEVERE turns in plot. "we break their superweapons and bring them to their knees with pluck and ingenuity." just seems...blah.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

I just hope this expansion actually progresses whatever's needed mechanically to make steps towards an envisioned final product (e.g. 6.0 or 7.0), rather than merely being the best payout for another rehash.

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QFT , i hope SE enhance gameplay somehow.....3.0 has been a step back for me , maybe because i play BRD as main....

2 new dungeons, 6 new quests. Please look for it in the future!

As far as 4.0 goes. It's likely being worked on already. Very Hush hush internal stuff right now. But Almost Everything with SE is Hush hush.

But I would think. summer 2017..

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Originally Posted by Sephorai

So if I remember correctly SE said they wanted to release one expansion per year post Heavensward (which took 2 years total?), if my memory is correct (and it could be 100% wrong) does that mean we'll be getting a new expansion this year O_O?

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As far as I recall, their stated reason (shortly after the first round of FanFests) for not having a FanFest every year was that there was no way they could produce content fast enough to have an announcement on the scale of a new expansion every year.

As other people have said, we'll likely get the 4.0 announcement at this year's FanFest, with the expansion coming ~6 months later.

Wow seems like it was yestarday when HW came out and now we are talking about another expansion. Time please slow down hahah

Didn't they say somewhere that 4.x will involve going to the moon? Or was that just mentioned as a possibility?


But, knowing SE and looking at the calendar, they'll probably announce 4.x tomorrow. It'll involve the WoL realizing it's all just a dream and waking up to find they were actually Yoshida. The Primals were a metaphor for insanity, and the Mother Crystal a metaphor for mommy-issues. Zodiark represented reality, the enemy to be feared and fought. For the entire expansion, you play as Yoshida, wandering the streets of Japan in a daze, with everyone else looking just like Yoshida too. You get small bonuses for your main class, like summoners get a dog and black mages get a cool hat, but other than that, the classes are all totally balanced by having all skills removed (except Sprint). The expansion will also finally introduce open world pvp, but if you attack anyone, you are immediately arrested and thrown in jail for 1-5 years.

Doesnt the Dragonsong War end in 3.3. With 3.4 being the end of alexander and 3.5 being the end of the void ark series. With 3.6 or 3.7 beginning the new storyline ark and possible new job samurai along with the hint at new grand company ranks later this year.With a series of minor patches of story like 2.x towards the end to lead up to 4.0 which is the next expansion which BTW wont be on PS3 so it will be interesting to see what they do considering many of the limits they currently had for HW wont be there for the next expansion.

All we can hope for is to wait for fanfest where all will be revealed, or at least most will.

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Originally Posted by Derio

Doesnt the Dragonsong War end in 3.3. With 3.4 being the end of alexander and 3.5 being the end of the void ark series. With 3.6 or 3.7 beginning the new storyline ark and possible new job samurai along with the hint at new grand company ranks later this year.With a series of minor patches of story like 2.x towards the end to lead up to 4.0 which is the next expansion which BTW wont be on PS3 so it will be interesting to see what they do considering many of the limits they currently had for HW wont be there for the next expansion.

All we can hope for is to wait for fanfest where all will be revealed, or at least most will.

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I'm not sure where people keep getting that the war will end with 3.3. Maybe it was a weird translation, but I thought I read that 3.3 will be the climax of the conflict. Given the predictable nature of releases, we have to go to 3.4 at least for Alexander to wrap up, and a 3rd Void Arc related 24 man raid is very likely for 3.5. I would expect 3.x to mirror 2.x closely and not have a 3.6 at all.

SE did say (recently) that they're planning to release new GC ranks (probably just 1) with 3.4 I think. SE has NOT confirmed that PS3 support will end with the 3.x series. They merely confirmed (quite a while ago now) that it would at least continue through the 3.x series and would not confirm whether support would be dropped or continue with 4.x

Well, we do have some unfinished business with Ilberd, so I would guess that Ala Mhigo would be the most likely direction the game will take us. I don't see us going to Doma or Sharlayan just yet.

I just dont see them launching a new expansion on PS3. 4.0 support perhaps, but not the actual expansion itself.

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Originally Posted by Derio

With 3.6 or 3.7 beginning the new storyline ark and possible new job samurai

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I feel like Yoshi-P said at some point that adding a class/job via a patch was such a ridiculous amount of stress and extra work that they probably wouldn't do it again.

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Originally Posted by Derio

I just dont see them launching a new expansion on PS3. 4.0 support perhaps, but not the actual expansion itself.

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While they may not drops support completely I do remember them saying that PS3 will not be getting expansions starting with 4.0. Though I don't have any links on hand for that, just memory.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

While they may not drops support completely I do remember them saying that PS3 will not be getting expansions starting with 4.0. Though I don't have any links on hand for that, just memory.

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they stated quite clearly that PS3 will be getting the expansion after Heavensward but not the one after than. I'm 100% sure my memory serves here

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Originally Posted by Sephorai

So if I remember correctly SE said they wanted to release one expansion per year post Heavensward (which took 2 years total?), if my memory is correct (and it could be 100% wrong) does that mean we'll be getting a new expansion this year O_O?

I wonder what they'll add, what'll it revolve around, where it'll take place (Come on ala mhigo), what classes we'll get?

Hype?

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Like some people have pointed out the end of 3.5 will be somewhere in September. Fan fest is in October I think. It will probably be announced then. I'm guessing it will come in spring 2017. It will another 2 years since the time heavensward was released. I hope it's sooner and we do not have a huge lull between 3.5 and 4.0. So every 2 years we I'll have an expansion I'm assuming due to resources and man power.

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Originally Posted by ruskie

Will see how they also handle level increase if HW not required in general. How do you get the 10 levels from 50 to 60 and the skills associated with the job quests.

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Heavensward will be required. All they said was that you won't need to have finished the Heavensward story to start the 4.0 story. The stories will also still be directly linked as well. Yoshi specifically mentioned having a catch up cutscene to tell people what happened if they skipped prior story stuff. It would be like going into 3.0 as soon as you reach 50 and having a special abridged cutscene version of the 2.1 to 2.55 story.

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Originally Posted by AureliusDraconium

Like some people have pointed out the end of 3.5 will be somewhere in September. Fan fest is in October I think. It will probably be announced then. I'm guessing it will come in spring 2017. It will another 2 years since the time heavensward was released. I hope it's sooner and we do not have a huge lull between 3.5 and 4.0. So every 2 years we I'll have an expansion I'm assuming due to resources and man power.

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3.3 should be around May/June, with 3.4 around September/October... 3.5 shouldn't be until sometime in early 2017... and if the game takes the same schedule we'll get a 3.55 three months later, followed by 4.0 three months after that, give or take.

All speculation at this point, but I'd venture a guess we'll see 4.0 in June 2017. :)

Early Spring 2017 is my vote. June seems too late, would make HW 2 years old.

Three months per patch. So, 6*3 = 18 months after 3.0's release. Add in two months for their two month vacation and you get 20 months. 20 months from... June 2015, was it? would be February 2017. So, my guess is March 2017. Unless, of course, they do a "major" x.55 patch again, in which case I'd say April/May 2017.

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Originally Posted by Sephorai

they stated quite clearly that PS3 will be getting the expansion after Heavensward but not the one after than. I'm 100% sure my memory serves here

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If so, that is depressing.

if only the 3.5 patch hit b4 ff15 was released would give me more time in my man cave playing that til 4.0 :P well looking like ff15, ff7 and 4.0 being released end of year/ start of next so good time for us fans :P