Are the developers of XIV out of touch?

[Sapphire_Dianta]

The crap coded base of the game that prevents those QoL advancements is the same reason we can't have cooler content like more dynamic dungeons and fort-sieges type of content.

I'm with this guy. It's all well and good if you wanna add a new wing and a greenhouse to your fancy mansion, maybe install a pool for those hot summer days. But it's all meaningless if the mansion's foundation is cracked, the wooden framework is rotten, and there's a bat colony in the attic. In my opinion, the devs should focus on stabilizing the foundation of the game before piling more stuff on it. Ultimately it's in their best interests, yet they seem either unwilling or unable to do so.

[HyoMinPark]

the code is not crap, it was planned for use console and not for this much player....

This game does have bad coding, because so much of it is built upon the foundation of 1.0 code...which in and of itself was a nightmare. The game was meant to be played on both PC and Console, but the coding was made to cater to the lowest common denominator. There is a reason behind the “PS3 limitations” meme.

the game was means to be played by 600.000 player at best and we are more of 5M....

This game has nowhere near 5,000,000 active subscriptions. I’d say even 800,000 is a bit generous. The game hit its lowest numbers during Patch 4.1 — I don’t think the subs even topped 650,000 according to the LuckyBancho’s census. While it’s unofficial, I can say with certainty that this game has never had 5 million active subscriptions at the same time.

they need to work on this all the time, they did improve the server and continue to improve it.... the game engine is far to be shitty too....

It’s my opinion that the servers could still use quite a bit of work. When they say that we can’t apply Glamour Plates outside of city states, because it’s “too hard on the servers”, or that we can’t have more character creation options because, again, “it’s too hard on the servers”, that’s not a mark of an improved or strong game engine.

plus they did improve the engine, by adding more stuff over time, it not super change, because the engine was very good from the start.

It absolutely was not a good engine. FFXIV ARR used a slightly improved engine over the one they used in 1.0, but the engine is no where near the standard it should be.

the only complain we can have is about the texture.... outside this the game is gorgeous.... anyway, they already planned to improve graphism, but not for the 5.0....

They have stated repeatedly that they will not provide HD texture packs to PC users because some consoles (PS4 proper) or lower end gaming PCs cannot handle them. They have also given no indication of going back and updating map textures in any of the existing areas, and Stormblood’s areas have just as many pixely rocks as ARR and HW do, sadly. I won’t deny that the zones are beautiful, but there is still tons of room for improvement.

Complaints far exceed textures—there are complaints for more character creation options, more housing, instanced housing on top of ward housing, better glamour system options (a proper Glamour Log), interactive housing item culling, character load culling, better battle content in general... the list goes on. It far exceeds just textures, and a lot of the other complaints I’ve seen have their own merits.

[Penthea]

Complaints far exceed textures—there are complaints for more character creation options, more housing, instanced housing on top of ward housing, better glamour system options (a proper Glamour Log), interactive housing item culling, character load culling, better battle content in general... the list goes on. It far exceeds just textures, and a lot of the other complaints I’ve seen have their own merits.

I really think upgraded textures are and should be way down the list of their priorities because they're technically not content (you can't really interact with them), and it's certainly not something everyone can enjoy. Whereas everyone can enjoy a more updated glamour log, more character creation options, combat content, etc.

Not saying I don't want the game to be prettier, it would be nice if it was...but I'd much rather have more things to do than have an unneeded graphics update that only some players could experience.

[Kaliesto]

Makes me wonder if they could just ask for technical help from people who made WoW since they were so inspired from it.

[Penthea]

Makes me wonder if they could just ask for technical help from people who made WoW since they were so inspired from it.

I don't think ability is the issue. It's whether SE see something as a priority or not.

[RiyahArp]

This game does have bad coding, because so much of it is built upon the foundation of 1.0 code...which in and of itself was a nightmare. The game was meant to be played on both PC and Console, but the coding was made to cater to the lowest common denominator. There is a reason behind the “PS3 limitations” meme.

That's honestly a strength. A lot of pc only MMOs have horrid optimization unless they specifically design for the lowest common denominator. The recent game Bless Online was notorious for dismal frame rates, and even PBUG got unthroned mostly because Fortnite (also designed for consoles) was so much more stabler. The flip side of high end textures would be low end framerates on a lot of pcs, especially considering these days many people are gaming on laptops with integrated graphics cards.

And to be honest, a lot of people trot our bad coding like ps3 limitations. We dont see or proofread the code to know how good it is, and goodness is often a function of things like how readable it is or how stable it is. Bad coding is more of an excuse in the way "god did it" is...its teh catch all we use to explain why something bad happens or something we like isnt here. Ps3 limitations is eh...I've played MMO experiences on the Nintendo DS that probably had as much depth as this game, like phantasy star Zero, and Mabinogi could probably have been ported to the PSP and retained most of its features.

[Ameela]

The thing is, at what point does completely rebuilding and redoing the game's code and infrastructure become more worth it than just making a new game entirely?

[Vhailor]

The crap coded base of the game that prevents those QoL advancements is the same reason we can't have cooler content like more dynamic dungeons and fort-sieges type of content.
The game can't even handle a darn FATE with more than 40 people around and game engine can't even handle showing those PC/NPCs and starts culling them despite us having the hardware to do so.
For an MMORPG this game can't handle the MMO side of things and this is the big irony.
It bottlenecks itself. They never fixed that and they will probably never will.
Aside those tech limitations it's their management as well. They are scared to allocate more recourses to XIV development.
So they stick to the formula that works and they do not move an inch away from it. To be fair though this formula kinda works as XIV is healthy and has steady population.
The only issue with that is that it prevents the game to further grow and evolve.
But if you wanna be successful you must never settle down and relax. You must always look how to improve and advance.

Fair points, but I honestly think there's more at play here than just the bad underlying engine. I mean, FFXI had more limitations, and managed to have much more varied and longer-lived content. A lot of this goes back to design decisions, rather than technical limitations. I mean, Besieged work in FFXI, despite a similar inability to see more than 40 people around at once; Campaign worked. For that matter, Hamlet Defense worked in FFXIV 1.x as well. There are options here.

I feel like the bigger barrier is SE's design strategy. This isn't a situation they can't design around; it's one they don't want to design around. In my estimation, anyway.

I really think upgraded textures are and should be way down the list of their priorities because they're technically not content (you can't really interact with them), and it's certainly not something everyone can enjoy. Whereas everyone can enjoy a more updated glamour log, more character creation options, combat content, etc.

Not saying I don't want the game to be prettier, it would be nice if it was...but I'd much rather have more things to do than have an unneeded graphics update that only some players could experience.

I'd tend to agree with this. FFXIV's visuals are going to age. So long as the visuals of the game aren't 75% of its appeal (which I'd say they currently are, given that Glamour is the true end-game...), this isn't a massive problem. It's something SE can fix via better design decisions for content.

[Rufalus]

RE: tech limitations. well this game was designed to be able to run on PS3. they increased some stuff after the demise of PS3 like more information on HUD and faster mount speed, but we're still restricted in some ways and supporting Win32 although persuading users to upgrade to 64-bit Windows.

I would like this game to evolve and thrive, keep up with the new generation of MMOs. In a few years it would be good if they could begin working on the new rendering engine and enhanced character creator, upgrade to minimum spec and larger more ambitious content. Meanwhile keep the existing stuff ticking over in a way that is low on resources to keep players busy while awaiting the large-scale tech improvements.

[Adelaide3]

I seriously think it's time for YoshiP to step down from his position and any involvement with this game as his content desighn philosophy is sucking all the life out of ffxiv. I would even go so far to say that Tanaka was a much better game producer when he was in charge of ffxi but his reputation is gone with the 1.0 fiasco.

Please give us Akihiko Matsui because all of his work on ffxi is very good and he's done alot to take that game in a nice direction and it's still thriving because of him.