New interview from JP 4gamer site

[Betelgeuzah]

What? Explain yourself.

The servers, the engine, the combat system, the area design, the economy, the class system, and the UI all need a major rework.

Nobody should be doing anything else before these issues are addressed completely. Building another floor to the building when the foundation is rotten would be insane, regardless of if all the other buildings in the neighbourhood all have 3 floors each and a nice backyard.

Especially when the only people who care about another floor are few homeless people who aren't even paying for the rent, much less paying the expenses to build the second floor.

[Shura]

The servers, the engine, the combat system, the area design, the economy, the class system, and the UI all need a major rework.

Nobody should be doing anything else before these issues are addressed completely. Building another floor to the building when the foundation is rotten would be insane, regardless of if all the other buildings in the neighbourhood all have 3 floors each and a nice backyard.

Especially when the only people who care about another floor are few homeless people who aren't even paying for the rent, much less paying the expenses to build the second floor.

Your a bit wrong there. It's more like we are residents who paid down payment for a new luxury apartment but only to realize after having paid and moved in, as you put it the building " foundation is rotten" and the owner can't repay that initial payment. To make up for this mistake, the owner is letting everyone live there for free until the foundation is fixed and it becomes a luxury apartment again.

The reason i use the word luxury is most ppl had to pay a lot of money to upgrade their systems to be able to play this broken game, on top of having paid for the game itself. I also wouldn't consider any of us homeless who can't pay, since everyone who bought the game, bought it under the assumption it would be p2p, only to realize how broken the game was. Who in their right minds would pay for an apartment that is broken and has a "rotten foundation" when the monthly fee for a brand new one is the same?. ppl who paid the down payment is left with 2 choice, accept your loss and leave or believe the owners words, that he would repair and wait patiently.

Also you normally don't pay the plumber to do the roofing or build the 3rd floor, you call separate specialist for each repair. In a similar fashion there is a team working on the battle aspect, one for the UI, one for the story and so on; they can easily work on more then one thing. Unless they plan to let the plumber do the roofing and the 3rd floor. if that's the case, he can only do one thing at a time and i doubt this building will ever get finished in time, and even if it does, doubt it'll be proper.

[Physic]

The servers, the engine, the combat system, the area design, the economy, the class system, and the UI all need a major rework.

Nobody should be doing anything else before these issues are addressed completely. Building another floor to the building when the foundation is rotten would be insane, regardless of if all the other buildings in the neighbourhood all have 3 floors each and a nice backyard.

Especially when the only people who care about another floor are few homeless people who aren't even paying for the rent, much less paying the expenses to build the second floor.

the only one of those things that is foundation in an rpg is the area design, the foundation of the game is the engine, and online is the servers. The truth is battle class system etc, are not the foundations of an rpg. Just because you do something a alot doesnt make it a foundation.

the foundation of any rpg is progression, story and adventure. you can swap any and many battle systems in. Alter it, change it, add to it whatever, its not required.

the foundation of something, is something every building has, and cannot do without, without not being a building.

The fact is battle class systems and econmoy are all features, and they are things they can change on the fly as long as they have the other things. You could litterally swap out the entire battle system from one ff title to any other, battle is just a feature of an MMO, and it is a feature they decided to do first because they wanted to. In fact neither the class system nor the battle needed a complete rework for this game to succeed. It does however need content.

At this point all they are building is leveling game, and a battle game. I have played rpgs where you tell people to attack, and you see a flash, and a pixel image shakes. that is not the foundation of the game.

[Holland]

the only one of those things that is foundation in an rpg is the area design, the foundation of the game is the engine, and online is the servers. The truth is battle class system etc, are not the foundations of an rpg. Just because you do something a alot doesnt make it a foundation.

the foundation of any rpg is progression, story and adventure. you can swap any and many battle systems in. Alter it, change it, add to it whatever, its not required.

the foundation of something, is something every building has, and cannot do without, without not being a building.

The fact is battle class systems and econmoy are all features, and they are things they can change on the fly as long as they have the other things. You could litterally swap out the entire battle system from one ff title to any other, battle is just a feature of an MMO, and it is a feature they decided to do first because they wanted to. In fact neither the class system nor the battle needed a complete rework for this game to succeed. It does however need content.

At this point all they are building is leveling game, and a battle game. I have played rpgs where you tell people to attack, and you see a flash, and a pixel image shakes. that is not the foundation of the game.

Battle system is one of many foundations of RPG's. How the mobs are created, how to beat them, how they react, how you react to their attacks, spells, abilities, how to traverse through dungeons and clear stages, etc. Is based on the battle capabilities of your character. So if you were to suddenly swap a battle system for another, you would need to redo the design of a dungeon, how monters deal attacks, cast spells, activate abilities, you would need to redesign how your character clears dungeons. One of the main content-related features an MMO has, revolves around battles. Seeing all these ramifications (me listing just two, shows how fundamental a battle system is.) is quite obvious Yoshida and his team decided to do the right thing. I am no game developer, I just play the games, I dont understand how, based only on common knowledge, can you say what part of a game is fundamental or not. If you are indeed a professional game developer, my apologies.

Edit: What makes me, a person who is not a Game developer, be so sure that is a fundamental part. Well, the FFXIV Director/Producer said so. So why not?

[Elexia]

Battle system is one of many foundations of RPG's. How the mobs are created, how to beat them, how they react, how you react to their attacks, spells, abilities, how to traverse through dungeons and clear stages, etc. Is based on the battle capabilities of your character. So if you were to suddenly swap a battle system for another, you would need to redo the design of a dungeon, how monters deal attacks, cast spells, activate abilities, you would need to redesign how your character clears dungeons. One of the main content-related features an MMO has, revolves around battles. Seeing all these ramifications (me listing just two, shows how fundamental a battle system is.) is quite obvious Yoshida and his team decided to do the right thing. I am no game developer, I just play the games, I dont understand how, based only on common knowledge, can you say what part of a game is fundamental or not. If you are indeed a professional game developer, my apologies.

Edit: What makes me, a person who is not a Game developer, be so sure that is a fundamental part. Well, the FFXIV Director/Producer said so. So why not?

He knows they're the foundation, he's just one of the people who firmly believes just because it's FFXIV, an RPG and Yoshida, Battle System is no longer a major part of an MMORPG and yoshida is wasting his time "doing nothing" instead of catering to his needs. I mean, if my RPG was titled "Battle Arena" and I spent 99% of my time battling, I'm pretty damn sure the foundation of that game would be the battle system. If my game is called Street Fighter and I spent most if not all of my time fighting, I'm pretty sure the fighting system is the game's foundation.

If my game is called Dance Dance Revolution, pretty damn sure the rhythm mechanic is the foundation of the game. If I'm playing an MMORPG where you have to progress through killing and leveling...I'm damn sure the battle system is a big part of the foundation and no one plays MMOs just to read/hear dialog, they play to fight and get loot, even the most jaded cynical soandso can't argue this.

of course no mention of Auction house, mog house, mailbox, chocobo's, or airships

Auction house un-needed. Mog House they already mentioned they have something in the works soon, mailbox is honestly unneeded, most MMOs that have one people barely utilize and it's largely used by RMT anyway. Unless you mean a delivery box, i.e retainers sell something and you get the money or item, yeah they already mentioned that would be happening. They also mentioned by 1.19 they hope to get Airships functioning.

Do you even read? Or just skim then complain?

[normalforce]

Mog House they already mentioned they have something in the works soon, mailbox is honestly unneeded, most MMOs that have one people barely utilize and it's largely used by RMT anyway. Unless you mean a delivery box, i.e retainers sell something and you get the money or item, yeah they already mentioned that would be happening.

That brings up thoughts of contract boards, where people put up contracts for items they want, and what prices they are willing to pay for it. Crafters come along, look through the list and make what they want, turning in the finished item gets them the payment. I know that you can seek items in the bazaars, but as I haven't used the market wards search feature all that much, I don't know if you can search for what people are seeking, or even for people looking for repairs. Can you?

[Physic]

He knows they're the foundation, he's just one of the people who firmly believes just because it's FFXIV, an RPG and Yoshida, Battle System is no longer a major part of an MMORPG and yoshida is wasting his time "doing nothing" instead of catering to his needs. I mean, if my RPG was titled "Battle Arena" and I spent 99% of my time battling, I'm pretty damn sure the foundation of that game would be the battle system. If my game is called Street Fighter and I spent most if not all of my time fighting, I'm pretty sure the fighting system is the game's foundation.

If my game is called Dance Dance Revolution, pretty damn sure the rhythm mechanic is the foundation of the game. If I'm playing an MMORPG where you have to progress through killing and leveling...I'm damn sure the battle system is a big part of the foundation and no one plays MMOs just to read/hear dialog, they play to fight and get loot, even the most jaded cynical soandso can't argue this.



Auction house un-needed. Mog House they already mentioned they have something in the works soon, mailbox is honestly unneeded, most MMOs that have one people barely utilize and it's largely used by RMT anyway. Unless you mean a delivery box, i.e retainers sell something and you get the money or item, yeah they already mentioned that would be happening. They also mentioned by 1.19 they hope to get Airships functioning.

Do you even read? Or just skim then complain?

take it for however you want to take it. Im not even arguing about it, it just occured to me the other day, when my friend was playing, he was played beta said it was too unfinished even to play free and stopped, he recently gave it a chance, and hes having a little fun early, but as he continues to level finds all the problems most people find.
any number of members higher than 4 makes battle so easy it becomes unfulfilling
leves and the anima system make you feel like you should only play once in awhile,
blah blah
but basically he was like i like the battle, but still the game feels like any other f2p mmo, except some of them have even more engaging and entertaining battle systems, but the problem with them, and ffxiv is thats it. all it is, is leveling, and fighting. thats empty. I realized the battle system isnt what makes a great rpg, or mmo, i didnt like ffxi battle system much, it was by an large less entertaining than an offline rpg battle system, less entertaining by far than aion battle, and even RO battle was overall more entertaining, but i played it longer, and the game was entertaining over all.

Its not the battle, its everything else, you adapt and get used to whatever battle system is there if the game is good in other ways. Its not catering to my needs, I just realized battle aint really the selling point of rpgs.

youd be right battle is the core element of a fighting game, racing is the core element of a racing game. the best rpgs arent great for the battle, was ff6 battle great? have people been playing dice rolling rpgs for 20 years because dice rolling is awesome? does even the best FF battle system compare to street fighter alpha? devil may cry 4? Man if i could jack devil may cry 4 battle for a sword user, SF2 for pugilist and copy and paste them in to ffxiv that would be awesome, but that still wouldnt make it a sucessful RPG.

They got korean online games with battle systems that blow ffxi, ffxiv out of the water, but thats not what you really get from an rpg, thats not what these other f2p mmos are missing, many have excellent leveling systems, and engaging battle.
there is a reason why UO, and EQ are still being played, and its not because of the best battle systems out there. There is a reason why ff still sells huge numbers on a portable, with a battle system from 1989.

[Holland]

take it for however you want to take it. Im not even arguing about it, it just occured to me the other day, when my friend was playing, he was played beta said it was too unfinished even to play free and stopped, he recently gave it a chance, and hes having a little fun early, but as he continues to level finds all the problems most people find.
any number of members higher than 4 makes battle so easy it becomes unfulfilling
leves and the anima system make you feel like you should only play once in awhile,
blah blah
but basically he was like i like the battle, but still the game feels like any other f2p mmo, except some of them have even more engaging and entertaining battle systems, but the problem with them, and ffxiv is thats it. all it is, is leveling, and fighting. thats empty. I realized the battle system isnt what makes a great rpg, or mmo, i didnt like ffxi battle system much, it was by an large less entertaining than an offline rpg battle system, less entertaining by far than aion battle, and even RO battle was overall more entertaining, but i played it longer, and the game was entertaining over all.

Its not the battle, its everything else, you adapt and get used to whatever battle system is there if the game is good in other ways. Its not catering to my needs, I just realized battle aint really the selling point of rpgs.

youd be right battle is the core element of a fighting game, racing is the core element of a racing game. the best rpgs arent great for the battle, was ff6 battle great? have people been playing dice rolling rpgs for 20 years because dice rolling is awesome? does even the best FF battle system compare to street fighter alpha? devil may cry 4? Man if i could jack devil may cry 4 battle for a sword user, SF2 for pugilist and copy and paste them in to ffxiv that would be awesome, but that still wouldnt make it a sucessful RPG.

They got korean online games with battle systems that blow ffxi, ffxiv out of the water, but thats not what you really get from an rpg, thats not what these other f2p mmos are missing, many have excellent leveling systems, and engaging battle.
there is a reason why UO, and EQ are still being played, and its not because of the best battle systems out there. There is a reason why ff still sells huge numbers on a portable, with a battle system from 1989.

Well, the battle system is not the only foundation, and everyone can agree the game is lacking on content. It is something the development team is aware off, and have already indicated they still decided to fix the battle system first before adding the content that will revolve around the new battle system.

By the time FFVI was released, the slight alteration to the atb system it had, was indeed something extraordinary. No battle system is without its flaws, but when is this flawed, like XIV is, where the hate is crazy, the stats have close to no effect, and every other complaint there is for it, after asking the playerbase at the time what we wanted, there was no other way for them to respond differently than a full change.

[Betelgeuzah]

the only one of those things that is foundation in an rpg is the area design, the foundation of the game is the engine, and online is the servers. The truth is battle class system etc, are not the foundations of an rpg. Just because you do something a alot doesnt make it a foundation.

the foundation of any rpg is progression, story and adventure. you can swap any and many battle systems in. Alter it, change it, add to it whatever, its not required.

the foundation of something, is something every building has, and cannot do without, without not being a building.

The fact is battle class systems and econmoy are all features, and they are things they can change on the fly as long as they have the other things. You could litterally swap out the entire battle system from one ff title to any other, battle is just a feature of an MMO, and it is a feature they decided to do first because they wanted to. In fact neither the class system nor the battle needed a complete rework for this game to succeed. It does however need content.

At this point all they are building is leveling game, and a battle game. I have played rpgs where you tell people to attack, and you see a flash, and a pixel image shakes. that is not the foundation of the game.

"Gameplay mechanics are not the foundation of a game."

Cool story, bro.