Is 1.18 the final straw?

[Mireille]

We will add content, just give us time' phase, and I think most of the players are at that point. It's now or never!

Agreed that people are at that point. I'm just not sure its a realistic expectation. Introducing content that gets invalidated by game mechanics changes, or becomes too weak when the jobs system is implemented, won't win them any points with the players who enjoy that content.

End this crap and give the xi team the funds and support to create a master piece in the vision of xi and I bet they would turn out a game far more successful then this, even in the begining with their exp i bet it would be solid, the fundamentals would be there at least and xiv didnt even get that right.

There is nothing left to do in XI. What can be accomplished has been, ergo the level cap increase to 99 in order to set a new bar of accomplishments. And in so doing they invalidated a lot of other content like Beseiged, Campaign, Sky, and Limbus. They are also out running out of room on the PS2 hard drive hence the content updates that reuse old zones. Two server merges in the last year show that the XI player base is leaving. Not because XI isn't great, but because they have essentially beaten the game to a point that it holds no more interest to them. Now an XI-2 set 300 years in the future where you start over from scratch might be interesting, but I don't think that's what people mean when they say they want XI-2.

I won't lie though. The tenth letter from the producer pretty much set my timetable in stone. If the game isn't up to speed by the end of summer, then I'll probably stop following it.

I've seen a few people post that letter X outlines stuff they are putting out this summer. Letter X outlines a lot of things that they are working on 'up to this summer,' but a great many of those things were planning with implementation at a later phase. I took the letter to mean that a lot that of that stuff, like the mount system being planned, won't be out until after the summer is over. Potentially long after the summer is over depending on the work involved. Don't be surprised if some of it it is story driven as well, meaning content updates taking place prior to the introduction of those updates. For example consider the possibility of a mount system something like what the summons were in FF XIII. If they did something like that you would need content, like the primal battles, leading up to it. If it doesn't say implementation in phase 1 then don't set yourself up with an expectation you will have it by the end of August.

In comparison to XI in a way we are playing a game whose boundaries are the equivalent of having all the outdoor zones directly between the three cities up to but not including Jueno. We haven't begun to scratch the surface of what this game may encompass. I also get the impression those three cities are the boonies, and not the major metropolis of this game. When we get to see the empire the technology level of this game may change drastically. I think SE stated that this game was going to have a much higher level of technology than XI, but I have yet to see any player usable item that didn't in concept exist in XI. No weapons more modern than a muzzleloader for example. The Empire has high tech to be sure though. The storyline at this point seems more about creating a connection between the player and the region encompassing the three nations. The stars of the story have yet to appear on stage. Look at the world map, and you only seen one continent, oh but up in the corner is another landmass enshrouded by clouds. Notice that some of the ocean names are cut off by the edges of the maps too. Where is the polar ice or the tropical regions? We're living in a tiny corner of the world, and we don't even have full access to that corner yet, but we want to judge things as if that corner is all that will ever be.

I'm not trying to argue that we shouldn't expect then to make good on the promise of this game, but its going to require more patience imo. If you want date X to be the end all be all moment that your dreams get realized don't be surprised of those dreams get shattered by the code monkeys. Again we are playing a free game, so you can take a long break and come back when they say it is ready. Better to do that than burn out and never return in my honest opinion.