6.1 Speculation (maybe spoilers)

So looking around the biggest feedback that I see Square Enix and the dev being given no matter where I look is the PS3 limitations caused ARR to have plenty of issues.

As we know this dev team previously burned down the world and restarted the entire thing after 1.0. Yoshi P gave the impression they were not done revamping ARR. The current revamps are not exactly smooth as none of the zones were really designed with flying in mind.

When we look at the Endwalker trailer the entire world is on fire. After 6.1 how is that going to be represented to people who are caught up to 6.1. Like will we see a revamped world and new people still see ARR?

One example is right now people caught up to 5.55 see big towers in most of the zones that none of the sprouts know are there.

Is it possible we are going to see that expected real ARR revamp in 6.1? Maybe later?

Depends what you mean by a revamp. If we're going to see a ARR type of revamp (from 1.0 to ARR) we will need a whole new game engine. Currently game is limited by both engine and 1.0 code base. A new expansion will not fix that.

Mind you all of this is a huuuuge time and cost investment and SE as a company don't seem to be the kind that likes to reinvest in this game other than saving face for ARR.

We might end up with a world in flames that is not in flames for people earlier in the game, yeah. Maybe we can traverse to "not on fire" through some sort of echo power or time travel. In WoW some zones have Bronze Dragons that will send you backwards in time to a pre-Cataclysm version of the zone.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sotaris

Currently game is limited by both engine and 1.0 code base.

---

Nah they chucked almost all that out, which is ironically enough partially to blame. You don't whip up near enough an entire MMO in roughly 2 years without cutting some corners.

Doubtful. The fire is likely there in the trailer as a more symbolic gesture to the current state of the world than any actual physical thing that'll be going on in the ARR zones when EW goes live.

If they do any revamping to the zones in the future, it'll be for all players to see like the 5.3 ARR rework did, since running two individual zone meshes based on MSQ progression would be pointless when the two sets of players (pre-EW & post EW) will still have to interact on the same map, so any changes they could actually do would purely aesthetic & aesthetic OOB stuff, which would be extremely pointless to not make visible by everyone.

As far as your towers bit, that's easy to do & change because of the fact the towers are way out of bounds. Same with skyboxes for special weathers, they can always edit the OOB to their whims since players can't interact with anything they do out there. The few times they actually do changes in the zones itself (Alexander in the Hinterlands) you'll notice they placed rocks that look suspiciously like Alexander's body parts where his normal parts are so that way non-unlocked Alex players don't see the unlocked ones landing on thin air or non-unlocked phasing right through Alex's body parts for the unlocked people.

Beyond that, they already just got done re-working the ARR zones 3 main patches ago. Knowing they plan stuff literally expansion cycles in advance + my own dev experience from software projects, if they hadn't planned the current ARR rework to last for a long time, they wouldn't have bothered to go through with it in 5.3. It'd have been a literal waste of dev resources to do such a big rework in 5.3 if they knew they were going to be doing a 2nd major rework later that could easily undermine the work they just did; they'd just do it all at once.

We might get some instanced fights in those areas with added fire, but probably nothing major. Maybe we'll get something like the towers but instead it's fires/smoke/flying tentacle women.

For 6.1 I'm kinda expecting to be in a new area. Like it'll be entirely based in Radz-at-han or something. Maybe the secret final zone of 6.0 will actually be the first zone of 6.1's story. Because if we're just doing fetch quests in Ul'dah with the scions then it won't feel like a new story. So there's no point in revamping ARR zones because we shouldn't be spending time there at all if they're actually serious about 6.0 being the end of the current story. If it's the same characters and the same zones it will just feel like a continuation of the same story.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daeriion_Aeradiir

Doubtful. The fire is likely there in the trailer as a more symbolic gesture to the current state of the world than any actual physical thing that'll be going on in the ARR zones when EW goes live.

---

Yeah I tend to agree with everything you typed but if I were Yoshi P and was looking for an in game lore reason to burn ARR down to the ground I wonder if they would use this as an excuse. This is also the first time in FF14's story they will be completely ending it by 6.1 and moving onto something completely different afterwards.

My main guess is because they have done it before with the entire MMO so why not the base game? I figure if they have not started obviously it would be too late but if Endwalker does not do it I wonder if 7.0 would do it. It just seems so interesting that on the map it shows it all burning.

Not sure how you would possibly make it work in a narrative fashion but I do know WoW does change entire zones for people far enough in the story and give an option to revert the zone to whatever pre calamity event like that big Sword thing. They had it also so you could go back to the zone before Undercity got flooded with gas.

The biggest issue with ARR is continuous narrative and how do you change ARR to be more modern without blowing a massive Retcon into the entire MMO lol

I'd like to see the engine upgraded, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon. What gives me hope though is that they seem to be putting a lot of their eggs in FF XIV's basket lately. It's not impossible, just unlikely.

I don't think there will be a revamp, no, it's not really needed.

One thing to note is some ARR zones are not separate in how they were created. For example, Upper La Noscea and Outer La Noscea are one zone, but is copy and pasted to split you into one section or the other. It would still be complicated to merge them because it would present problems like with hunts.

What has been done already is things like AI upscaling of textures.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Puremallace

So looking around the biggest feedback that I see Square Enix and the dev being given no matter where I look is the PS3 limitations caused ARR to have plenty of issues.

As we know this dev team previously burned down the world and restarted the entire thing after 1.0. Yoshi P gave the impression they were not done revamping ARR. The current revamps are not exactly smooth as none of the zones were really designed with flying in mind.

When we look at the Endwalker trailer the entire world is on fire. After 6.1 how is that going to be represented to people who are caught up to 6.1. Like will we see a revamped world and new people still see ARR?

One example is right now people caught up to 5.55 see big towers in most of the zones that none of the sprouts know are there.

Is it possible we are going to see that expected real ARR revamp in 6.1? Maybe later?

---

You will see nothing. No more than you do after ARR. After HW. After SB and after ShB.

If there's any major revamping to be done, it won't be in a patch. It'll be an expansion launch, because that's a huge hype generator.

That said, I'm hoping for some big changes by 7.0. The game's age has been showing for a while now, and it's not getting any younger.

I am expecting a new story with most of the original Scions retiring or going to another place or possibly back to the First. With the Ascians gone, there will be no more primals so the original need for us is gone. I also expect us to sacrifice our crystals of light during the final fight. With those gone, we’re back to being an adventurer but we do keep the Echo as that’s our Ancient heritage. I would not be surprised if G’raha becomes our traveling companion.

My guess is that Mericidia will be our next destination as our dragon friend has a lot to catch up. After that, on to the new world or the other shards.

ARR zones have only just been revamped. Sure it was 9 months ago, but in dev time that's only a couple of patches ago. If they ever get another major overhaul it won't be for another couple of expansions.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hyperia

I am expecting a new story with most of the original Scions retiring or going to another place or possibly back to the First. With the Ascians gone, there will be no more primals so the original need for us is gone. I also expect us to sacrifice our crystals of light during the final fight. With those gone, we’re back to being an adventurer but we do keep the Echo as that’s our Ancient heritage. I would not be surprised if G’raha becomes our traveling companion.

My guess is that Mericidia will be our next destination as our dragon friend has a lot to catch up. After that, on to the new world or the other shards.

---

We still have Almost all of Islabard to go to since we are really only going to Garlemald, the rest of the continent is still clouded, I think after 6.0 they may try a more down to earth story and i imagine after all the destruction wrought in 6.0 and the power vacuum left in the wake of the Garlean Empire's collapse that some of the next expansions storyline might be about rebuilding in Islabard, that is just me i still really want to go to Islabard and I really cant justify anywhere else until those clouds are finally gone. There is also Hingashi and the rest of Orthard as well, we might at some point get a full far eastern expansion instead of just half of one. There is also a lot of development in Dalmascus and Yoshi P. hinted that it might be the next area we see a housing district restoration questline added.

Aside from a few aesthetic things you will probably not even reach, I doubt anything will be changed by the story.

I wish in future patches or expansions they'd revamp the ARR maps to combine each nation into a single map again though. This isn't 2013 anymore and PS3 got dropped long ago.

I'd love to see a huge revamp, more so into the engine, both graphical and structural, like of course I'd like to not see shimmering objects, have greater draw distances, be unable to count the pixels on an object pressed against the camera screen, etc, but there are other things like glamour, mog station account bound, limitations in combat that would be interesting to see stripped away, storage / memory limitations in general (race / creation, housing). A large note of caution for combat of course- more action like combat for a new mmo would be cool, but it would be a great way to alienate current players if done here so.. not a suggestion, but I would think smoother movement would be cool (movement abilities glide and feel more snappy, like in a MOBA, less invisble walls, more accurate collision, no kugane tower floating on nothing nonsense).

One wonderous element of it being a new mmo is that you get that new experience again, something kind of long gone for many without at least some wild revamp to everything (which provides it's own danger), at the same time though... the game is clearly not at fault of 'needing' such a thing. Just a personal thought, at the close of this 6.0 saga.. There are certain characters or things that I might feel have been 'old' and not as interesting again. While I know WoW has stumbled so it's not entirely that, I also think much of what WoW is having issue right now is it's just too dang old - little can reignite the child like excitement now that it's electric boogaloo part 50. The FFXIV team is skilled enough I'm sure they might be able to squeeze some more out, but at least personally I know I greatly want to get to see end of 6.0, but my mind is not 'pre-sold' on 6.1. I've faith they might figure it out, but I self recognize I'm not pre-invested like I am currently for 6.0. Something that is of course going to shift person to person, some people still play Age of Empires I or Total Annihilation daily.. I really enjoyed those game but I am not going to do that thanks lol.

That said I think it's why I hope / think they will at least do something significant. Not that I know they will, just a thought. Because it's easy to make your lembas bread turn into stale characters if you don't mix up something once in a while.

Temporary changes based on your progression like with Doman Enclave, Rhalgr's Reach and The First? Quite possible, they seem to like doing it lately. Permanent overhaul? Unlikely, tbh, though not impossible.

As for 6.1, there's still a good half of the world we didn't visit. All story we had so far was in a northern semisphere, which isn't complete yet, and then there's southern semisphere with Meracydia and god knows what else.

Visually FFXIV looks good and I don't understand how it is dated. There are a lot of games produced even now with worse graphics because not all games care about graphics resembling real life.

An MMO is not likely to require too high-end of a computer because they need to be playable on a wide variety of specs to attract the maximum amount of users.

There is capability to make higher polygon models with more detail than they currently have, but they restrict polygons on purpose because if 30% of the models have high polygons and the rest don't then the inconsistency is weird and it's noticeable. This was one of the problems with 1.0 and one of the reasons the game had to be remade.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

Visually FFXIV looks good and I don't understand how it is dated. There are a lot of games produced even now with worse graphics because not all games care about graphics resembling real life.

An MMO is not likely to require too high-end of a computer because they need to be playable on a wide variety of specs to attract the maximum amount of users.

There is capability to make higher polygon models with more detail than they currently have, but they restrict polygons on purpose because if 30% of the models have high polygons and the rest don't then the inconsistency is weird and it's noticeable. This was one of the problems with 1.0 and one of the reasons the game had to be remade.

---

I think what concerns most of us is that such an overhaul takes a lot of time and money. We want to hear that they are starting the graphics overhaul for two reasons. First, we know it’s coming and second is that they believe so strongly in the games future that they are willing to spend such resources on its future.

According to Yoshi-P, the game was designed with the flexibility to improve graphically as specs increase, such as the detail on the bones. What we do have to remember is that the graphics are limited by PS4 and will most likely be for some years.

I'm curious what graphics actually need changing, because again they already did an AI upscale of ARR textures and UI icons with manual modifications for the ones that looked weird after those changes.

It's been a common suggestion for years for the character models to be updated and for character customisation to be expanded. I think that some of the older character models do look very dated at this point. Just the other day a friend and I were laughing at how a basket of apples in my character's house had better and more detailed textures than his Highlander's face.

I expect a new game engine come 7.0 with the success of EW.

I fully expect 6.1-6.55 to be them cleaning up storylines that havent been finished and 7.0 being us going to the new world with new scions, or perhaps even joining a new group entirely.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theodric

It's been a common suggestion for years for the character models to be updated and for character customisation to be expanded. I think that some of the older character models do look very dated at this point. Just the other day a friend and I were laughing at how a basket of apples in my character's house had better and more detailed textures than his Highlander's face.

---

One thing I kind of wonder is I was watching Pyromancer play yesteday a Twitch streamer and he had GShade that made ARR look like Shadowbringers. I wonder if that could be a simple idea to make it look updated without actually doing anything lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theodric

It's been a common suggestion for years for the character models to be updated and for character customisation to be expanded. I think that some of the older character models do look very dated at this point. Just the other day a friend and I were laughing at how a basket of apples in my character's house had better and more detailed textures than his Highlander's face.

---

https://i.imgur.com/LGutKRm.png

Hey there friend, did you lose a few polygons on the way over?