6 months to create ONE equipment set!?

[Delsus]

How about retexturing with slightly different colors and minor model modifications?

Because that's what they do.

They do that because it takes so long to make a completly new gearset, reskinning takes no time and the community is so impatiant and want new gear overnight its the only way they can do that. Beleave it or not the devs dont just snap their fingers and things get done, like most people I have seen on this forum seem to think

Try this...
1) Conceptual design ( artist sketch on paper/ hand draw ) for all races = 3 weeks
2) Model that concept design with simple wire frame/few texture for ALL RACES = 3-4 weeks
3) Detailed sculpture for 3D model for all race = 2 months
4) Texture creation and lightning = 2 Months ( can start after #3 finish for 1 month )
5) Apply armor physic and touch up = 2 months

I think it's reasonable timeframe for their design effort. I'm not sure what is the real development lifecycle for make new gear is but I'm sure for 1 things.... there are 8 races to make and that's why it take time a lot.

Try imagine above work yourself before complain....

This is a reasonable time frame, there is alot of work that goes into making a new set of gear.

[Petdo]

lol I'm not in game industry, above timeframe is my guess + some time to approve each step from Producer/team leader ^^;

[Seirra_Lanzce]

Im an artist 3-4 weeks to design one armor set is an insane luxury, I have done that in 1-2 days. though if i was doing it for work, id prolly take like 1 week or 10 days and tell them thats how long it takes, but a month? na thats crazy

Ofcourse it doesn't take that long unless your boss is someone who say "Make me another one"

[Felis]

Can you run us through the typical creation of a new piece of armor/weapon, etc.? Where does it start, then who does it go to, and where does it end up. Basically from start to finish.

Yoshida: The process of commissioning new equipment/weapons is largely split in two. The first is 'what's required from a game design point of view', e.g. it goes without saying an ultimate weapon players can only get when reaching the maximum level for a certain job should look unique. The other side entails 'equipment in the form of a reward' for 'content' that players must aim to clear. For both cases, a full time Item Team was established and they are accepting offers from the whole project. As there are so many unique designs that are essential to game planning, the production costs really add up. We then proceed with commissioning reward-based equipment after we decide whether it should be made with existing adjustments + parameters built-in or by redesigning the look. The character design team are the ones who get the actual request. Akihiko Yoshida's team creates the artwork used for character modelling and then modelling work starts based on this. Work proceeds to sculpting and when it's ready, it takes about 6 months to create one full set of equipment that maintains FFXIV's high standards of graphics. We can't get a good supply of these items ready if we don't establish a long-term plan for creating them. This is the most important part. Finally, the staff responsible for each content adds the items to the in-game item database and we're done!

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post225712

[Verecund]

They have to be having technical issues.... I would expect something like this from a smaller studio (which is part of the reason why no one can release enough content and make enough changes to really compete with WoW), but this is SE... they aren't exactly a new industry face....

[Preypacer]

Im an artist 3-4 weeks to design one armor set is an insane luxury, I have done that in 1-2 days. though if i was doing it for work, id prolly take like 1 week or 10 days and tell them thats how long it takes, but a month? na thats crazy

The process involves the creation of a number of different concept sketches, reviews, modifications, approvals. They could be picking and choosing between a number of different possibilities, perhaps mixing elements from one concept with that of another. It's not a straight-forward process where one person is drawing away in their studio for a couple days, turning the work in as "finished" and moving on to the next one.

[Delsus]

The process involves the creation of a number of different concept sketches, reviews, modifications, approvals. They could be picking and choosing between a number of different possibilities, perhaps mixing elements from one concept with that of another. It's not a straight-forward process where one person is drawing away in their studio for a couple days, turning the work in as "finished" and moving on to the next one.

I would like to know on average how many concepts get thrown out making the artist have to start again as well, if somthing isnt up to scratch for the devs it will get scrapped. I could imagine its atleast 10 sketches for each piece of gear, because it needs to work with all models.

[Kaizlu]

Try this...
1) Conceptual design ( artist sketch on paper/ hand draw ) for all races = 3 weeks
2) Model that concept design with simple wire frame/few texture for ALL RACES = 3-4 weeks
3) Detailed sculpture for 3D model for all race = 2 months
4) Texture creation and lightning = 2 Months ( can start after #3 finish for 1 month )
5) Apply armor physic and touch up = 2 months

I think it's reasonable timeframe for their design effort. I'm not sure what is the real development lifecycle for make new gear is but I'm sure for 1 things.... there are 8 races to make and that's why it take time a lot.

Try imagine above work yourself before complain....

And we also have to add the time it takes to determine the in-game details of each piece. Like ranks, recipe (if applicable), price, etc..

[Reika]

On a related note. There are a lot of people that want realism in crafting.

Maybe it should take 6 months to synthesize a set of armor One month per piece.

[Victor]

6 months is an unforgivable amount of time for one equipment set. How long would it take to make a zone, 5 years?