[Stormblood Budget] Where all the money's gone ?

[Kling-Klang]

I have to agree with OP. I am not impressed with the information we have got so far.
And one job less, no new race or new character creation options makes me really wonder where all the mog station $$$ goes to.

Also... the "new content types" we have seen in HW are very poor. Diadem is a joke and the pet battle system: Well, I was actually interested in it and excited when they had mentioned it, but what they delivered was just a big "why" and a huge waste of dev time (in my opinion). I will never understand why they just didnt copy pokemon like other mmos, instead of reinventing the wheel with it.
POTD is just boring, I do not feel excited doing that content. Only reached to 50, perhaps its less boring to 100.
Aquapolis was okay, I liked that it felt like an adventure. So that would be the only new content type I actually liked.
So with that I am not expecting anything good for any "new content types" time they might try to do.

I like the boss battles this game has and wish they would give us raids with more than just "one room one boss" design. Similar to the 24 raids but for 8 people. From interviews I have read it doesnt seem like they plan to do it though.

[AsahinaMyLove]

I still hope they add 1-3 more classes to play >.>
only 2 is really low..
We are on old Japan like content in Stormblood! That age had LOTS of martial arts with weapons!

[Remus]

Went into the Omega/Shinryu fight.

[Kazrah]

I still like the game, don't get me wrong, but spicing up would be nice. It feels like a complete linear setup they are putting us through. Saying I should leave because I disagree with how the next expansion is going to be, well I'm not saying all of it but some, doesnt make me hate the game? Look at the other threads in here, people mentioned something from FFXI, yells at them saying ''dont make this another ff11 v2''. Ever occured to you FF14 have a lot of elements of the older FF games? Besides BLM isn't BLM anymore and SMN have trolls as pet?

I like BLM because it's BLM in FFXIV, not because it's some outdated relic from a system that doesn't work in a reasonable MMORPG setting. I like SMN because it's NOT the SMN of FFXI, and although there could be some more desirable systems for it, I like because I know it still more or less works in FFXIV.

I'll give another example. I actually hated the thought of having SAM in the game with a burning passion. I felt it was an uninspired, uninteresting and utterly unimpressive concept because the people that kept demanding it wanted that idiotic armored shogun look. When I saw the announcement video for SAM though, I had a change of heart. I actually liked seeing SAM because it WASN'T that armored shogun of FFXI, but rather something new. Something different.

Yes, there are ideas from past FF games, but there seems to have been almost painstaking measure taken not to let those take center stage on a mechanical level. Proof of that would be in knowing the concept of "Final Fantasy Syndrome".

Does it make you hate the game for disagreeing with implementation of dungeon and raid layouts used for years now? Of course not, even though it's not really a broke system and doesn't really NEED fixing. Does it make you hate the game for casting judgments on content we haven't seen 100% of though? That's why I ask why you're still here.

[Duelle]

Although we had three jobs in Heavensward, at least two of them were close to useless. Astrologians weren't strong enough healers overall and Nocturnal Stance back then was next to pointless, while Machinist was found to be the absolute worst dps at that time due to the RNG component in their core combo and a more complicated rotation compared to what they have today. With two jobs, even though no fine details have been released on them, I'll gladly take solace knowing quality is taking precedence over quantity.

Of those two jobs, one was designed to chase a pie in the sky (AST) and the other looks slapped together (MCH). That speaks more of their approach to design rather than time/resource constraints, because if I had been present when they decided to make a weaker healer with RNG buffs to compensate for the lack of healing power, the first thing to come out of my mouth would be "scrap it and go back to the drawing board; that's a shit idea". Moreso if they actually mentioned the job would be a love child of WHM and SCH.

The next deep dungeon will look nothing like PotD, the next version of Diadem won't be the same load of floating landmasses

This defeats the purpose of making such a big deal about potD and Diadem, since both were introduced as content that would be built on over time. It's one thing to say "x expansion will make additions to Diadem/PotD", and another to say "X expansion will have its own version of Diadem/PotD". With the latter you're getting more of the same, but with a different coat of paint.

Mind you, I've taken issue with both since they were implemented, since they're nothing but content built on a gimmick (PotD) or under the guise of trying to be different (Diadem).

Sure, they might feel the same to the typical pessimist, but when a game like WoW starts borrowing ideas from it (i.e. more cutscene-based storytelling, elaboration of crafting and gathering professions), it doesn't look like there's all that much that needs fixing.

Borrowing elements of presentation (cutscenes) and returning some of the value to professions (which was taken away with WoD and was one of the things that expansion was panned for) is not much of an argument. If you'd mentioned the biggest thing they borrowed from FFXIV (relics), you might have an actual point. Though then I would add WoW did it better since at least to get the artifacts you have to do heroic things instead of doing animus books or farm FATEs to placate a washed out drunk and his ex-wife.

And trust me, there's plenty that needs/should be fixed, looked at, revised, or redesigned in this game.

Here's a short list, in case you're curious:

- Bonus Stat Points: this needs to be repurposed or removed from the game. The points serve no purpose other than to be put into that job's main stat.
- Stats in general: We've all heard the stories of how Parry is useless or how Accuracy is a binary stat.
- Materia: this needs a redesign. The assimilation system has proven to be unsustainable since materia acquisition is so RNG the devs ended up having to add NPCs that gave you materia in exchange for currency. That's a huge red flag.
- Tank and healer gameplay: Either redesign all tanks and healers to focus on their roles, or remove the limitations so that both can seamlessly switch between damage and healing/damage mitigation. Especially in the case of tanks, whose stances serve little purpose when tank gameplay in raids involves not using them most of the time (if at all).
- Passive Utility being king: AKA, why WAR and DRG have guaranteed raid spots. Leading to,
- Active Utility being nearly nil: Thanks to Wanderer's Palace speedruns, all dungeon mobs are immune to sleep. In turn, this means encounter design is poorer for it because things like Sleep and Repose get no use (no dangerous adds in raids that need to be slept, no mind-controlled raid members that need to be controlled until the MC wears off). By the same token, you don't see much in the way of added CC/other utility that could prove useful in fights. At least stuns and BRD/MCH resource regen and debuffs see some use, I guess.
- Raid instances: These are corridors leading to a boss. I know Yoshida mentioned bigger instances and more bosses per raid would delay the update schedule, but would that be a bad thing?
- MCH: As I mentioned, this thing is a slew of mechanics thrown together. Ammo was a missed opportunity. The entire job pretty much hinges on turret debuffs and Wildfire.
- Other job-specific issues: This would cover things like BRD with WM, why the devs stick to a two-healer meta, why the devs gave nearly every job stack mechanics or buff timers instead of unique resources and systems, and so on.

Any and all of the above mentioned could be good selling points for an expansion if SE were to acknowledge the problems and say "we're fixing this with Stormblood". While you may mention the tired "next expansion will fix it" WoW meme, every one of the things above is big enough that would require an expansion to address. I certainly can't expect SE to deal with the materia systems crap design mid-expansion, for example.

[LalaRu]

OP's question seems something like "what a company does with its money?".
It surely funds next expansion, no doubt, but thinking all and everything needs goes there is quite naive thinking of how a company works.

The only reason this or that is not implemented, it is because it has been decided not to do it, or thinking about it later. So far, I didn't see any SE employee tell us things are not done because a missing budget. Hell, after the 1.0 debacle SE did put on XIV new budget and effort to redo game from scratch. And we all are happy of that.

We all have our own things we like it being implemented, but to make everyone happy is plain utopistic. If things are to be done, them will have to be good for the whole game.

[Niyuka]

Well, pretty much all of HW content has been crap as everyone knows. Diadem, PotD, Aquapolis, Miniongame, much of the PvP stuff is just useless filler content to keep you clocking time. A handful of good bosses (and only the Savage/Extreme versions, the rest is really just scrub content anyway) and a few cutscenes everyone skips anyway (dont think anyone in my guild knows the story lol. Its not like you have any influence on it anyways so who cares?).

2.0 had much better dungeons (AK original was great for its time, I really enjoyed seeing people work for that demon wall, and its always good when not everyone and their dog can complete any content), Twintania, Titan Ex, those were fights where you didnt just outgear it to hell from release, and rezzed the scrubs that died to avoidable mechanics to zerg down the boss.

But that stuff you cannot buy with budget. Budget buys pretty fancy graphics, voice-overs and more useless cutscenes in a raid game (whoever thought this would be a good idea?). You buy those things by allowing your content designers to create something that is not an easy-mode copycat version of the last patch.
SE is afraid of the dumb scrubs crying, as many (if not most) MMORPG companies become after a few years of time. Quickly, much budget and time is spent on mechanics that make content obsolete, speed people up, help them to succeed despite low skill, and generally spending money to ruin stuff you spent money on 6 months ago.

Dont you see how many people just skip most content? Only resub for a few days or weeks at the end of a content cycle to pick up everything in a quick farm run? But sure, lets put an even bigger Echo buff on the latest content so Joe McScrub and Skilless O'Standinflame can get dragged through it, because that is how you should spend developer time.

[akaneakki]

I like BLM because it's BLM in FFXIV

I don't think you get it, when I said SMN, I didn't mean FFXI SMN, I mean SMN from the whole FF universe. They are supposed to be summon the primal itself not some plush toys. Which FF games before this one have summoned babies?
BLM doesn't feel BLM enough for me, idk about others, this isn't really the topic here but I'll make a last post about it. Anyways, BLM has 2 elements or 3, fire, thunder and ice. a BLM in older FF games not saying only fFFXI, was a BLM. They had thunder,ice, fire,water,stone etc. They simplified the classes.


Back on topic, as others stated here, so far the info we gotten is purely poor, there is no ''expanded'' things we yet to see before. Swimming will mostlikely be gimmicy as flying because what's the point of flying when there is nothing that we could interact it with? Back before HW was out, Yoshida said there would be airship fights with FC's, did it happen? No. There is bunch of concepts and great ideas they mentioned while back too, like Summons would roam free and people who killed it would have it's power for a week, did it happen? No

[Claymore65]

I will agree that, on the surface at least, there does seem to be less or equal new content available than Heavensward. I'm primarily comparing the websites of both expansions. To go into detail:

Heavensward: 1 new race
Stormblood: No New Race

Heavensward: 3 new Jobs
Stormblood: 2 new Jobs

Heavensward: 3 New Beast Tribes (though only two Announced on the Website)
Stormblood: 2 New Beast Tribes (although once again, there could be a third one)

Heavensward: Six new Zones to explore (Coerthas Western Highlands, the Sea of Clouds, the Dravanian Forelands, the Churning Mists, the Dravanian Hinterlands, Azys Lla)
Stormblood: Four (Listed!) new Zones to Explore (Gyr Abania, Azim Steppe, Yanxia, Ruby Sea) though once again, there will probably be some unannounced ones

Heavensward: 8 new 4-man Dungeons
Stormblood: Unknown

Heavensward: 1 new 8 man raid, 1 new 24-man Raid
Stormblood: 1 new 8 man raid, 1 new 24-man raid

Heavensward: Diadem/Company Workshops
Stormblood: Eureka

Heavensward: Flying
Stormblood: Swimming

That said, I'd hate to judge the new expansion too harshly before digging deeper into it. Despite us being almost exactly two months away from release (June 20th), there are still plenty of unknowns about the expansion. We only have a few glimpses at the upcoming Job ability changes, which could be potentially significant. The new abilities each Job are receiving may drastically change up the gameplay in ways we can't yet predict. There is a potential that secondary or primary stats will be altered, which could have a major impact on gearing. We still have very little details about Eureka, which could be the sort of "Open World" style content a lot of people are clamoring for. There may be some hidden features they're keeping under wraps, such as a difficulty levels for 4-man dungeons, or a large expansion to "Deep Dungeon" style content. Compared to most MMOs on the market, FFXIV does a great job with large content updates, so by the end of the patch cycle for Stormblood it may turn out incredible.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still irritated by the lack of new Tank/Healer jobs, and I have a large amount of concerns, such as the story ending up spread thin, or the Job changes either ruining jobs I already enjoy or being so inconsequential it's barely a feature. I still feel like, on the surface, Heavensward is offering more (especially since Flying will likely be more useful than swimming) to the players, but I think we should at least wait to learn more before passing all of our judgement. Criticism is perfectly appropriate, don't misunderstand me, but reserve some of it until we see the full picture.

[Talraen]

Saying the game wil be worse because ideas from older FF games is ''weird'' considering FF14 copied a whole bunch of older FF games. I think people tend to forget that Anyways about FF11 I agree I didn't like the changes that much, however me or others NEVER mentioned a whole overhaul,we are asking for new things that would make the game more interessting. There are floating amazing ideas everywhere, but when someone sees them, they have to be so extremely negative.

I feel like I'm missing these ideas. I've seen a lot of people say we should get rid of the tomestone system, for instance, but the suggestions for replacing it are either random drops (which, no), some half-baked and completely impractical system, or no suggestion at all. And many ideas, including several in this thread, are just "make the game harder." The simple fact is, if an MMO wants to make a lot of money, it has to stay accessible. That's the nature of the beast.