Is most of FFXIV's failings due to their choice of engine?

[gifthorse]

So what do you want them to do GH? Abandon their inhouse engine and recreate from the ground up and pay licensing fees to a 3rd party? not to mention it would take years to convert their assets over to a new engine.

They will do much better implementing new and improved versions of crystal tools and updating the client if possible.

and to answer your question more directly,
No it's not their choice of engine that ended FFXIV in such a sad state. It was the production team, and lack of direction and proper system implementation.
They coded this version of crystal tools to their needs, and they can continue to change it. I hope we see improvements and optimizations to the code so it preforms better on lesser PCs. In the future I think we'll see more detailed animated environments.
I think the real question is what happened during production of this game?
there was 4-5 years of development, and it just doesn't show.
My money is on they abandoned a project 1/2 way through and started over to create FFXIV to- close to a deadline to really fully envision the game they wanted to create. I mean 4 years of dev time and you have closed "alpha" tests?
We've seen more changes in the past 5 months since Yoshi-P took over than we did from the 8 months alpha-Tanaka dismissal period.

Technically, you saw 4 new zones and a boat ride between alpha and Yoshi... so... I don't know what you're smoking, but resized mobs don't really compare to 4 new zones.

And no, I don't imagine that SE can abandon their in-house engine. But, be that as it may, I hope they are still trying to improve their engine so that one day it might compare with the features of others.

[Physic]

I dont know why you assume something about korean games, they have a pretty robust gaming market, with RO being one of the most popular/long lasting mmos out there. The company that made that game is pretty highly ranked, NCsoft.
The art direction on the game is also one of the most famous korean artists/designers. It also has been in development for some time, and i dont think its finished yet.
Since its not finished, i also dont know why you have decided its a "grinder"
anyhow i dont know if its related to the engine, it would seem to be a design issue more than anything.

[gifthorse]

I dont know why you assume something about korean games, they have a pretty robust gaming market, with RO being one of the most popular/long lasting mmos out there. The company that made that game is pretty highly ranked, NCsoft.
The art direction on the game is also one of the most famous korean artists/designers. It also has been in development for some time, and i dont think its finished yet.
Since its not finished, i also dont know why you have decided its a "grinder"
anyhow i dont know if its related to the engine, it would seem to be a design issue more than anything.

I just said "Korean Grinder" in a bid to appeal to the fanboys out there who would accuse me of thinking Blade & Soul is the next coming. I didn't want this thread to descend into a "Blade&Soul is so crap" contest. I figured I would get it out of the way first.

Anyways, contrary to what you think, the reason we see so much "copy and paste" is due to the engine they used. SE officials said themselves that they had to use repeated objects to lessen the load on people's computers. It was a conscious choice brought about by technical limitations. And these limitations result from the fact that Crystal Tools graphics engine doesn't facilitate gameworld streaming technology (i.e., it doesnt load in the surroundings as you move) and this is why we have loading screens and conveniently placed tunnels. To give the illusion of a big world, they just loaded in a small world and repeated it three times within each "zone".

Other games can create big, individualised worlds without compromise because they use engines that allow them to do so.

[SirEdeonX]

I can't help but wonder why a game by SQUARE ENIX of all companies doesn't really even compare to the environmental visuals of a Korean Grinder.

Not only they compare, but graphically FFXIV is way above that game. It's not really an engine thing, but a level design thing. A lot of detail was put in that game with the shadowing and wandering NPCs that wasn't in FF.

[Gramul]

I'd rather have smaller zones.

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

I'd rather have smaller zones.

I rather have multiple big zones. Sadly out of the 5 we have only 3 have stuff to do in them.

[gifthorse]

Not only they compare, but graphically FFXIV is way above that game. It's not really an engine thing, but a level design thing. A lot of detail was put in that game with the shadowing and wandering NPCs that wasn't in FF.

FFXIV is better than Blade&Soul in some areas. FFXIV has more high resolution textures and more detailed character models. But B&S has three-dimensional trees, moving grass, realistically rendered water (interactive too), objects cast shadows etc.

THey both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Overall, I would have to say that in Blade and Soul, the overall effect is more visually pleasing, even if the graphical quality of certain things is less than its FFXIV counterpart.

[gifthorse]

If you read articles like this:

http://www.aaportal.net/en/world-of-...id-forest.html

And look at the pictures also, you see Blade & Soul is not alone in huge, richly detailed worlds. Archeage has absolutely ZERO zone lines either. Everything is loaded in seamlessly, and you can interact with everything, even sailing the oceans. How, in comparison to these games, can one say SE's engine is the better?

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Then again, crystal tool can be crap, but they aren't aimed for console

[Gramul]

Because none of these work on consoles.