With all of the limitations holding FFXIV back, why not make a new FF MMORPG?

[linay]

Look for signs of features being clipped or rushed out of a game, and you'll see resources being shifted elsewhere. Which is why I predicted Square might actually be moving resources to a new game. To me, Shadowbringers seems to be a significant drop off from past expansions. I like much of what it has to offer, but when I saw they were pushing incomplete races and not implementing a new healer, the first explanation that came to me was not incompetence but rather a lack of resources.

Shadowbringers has 1 more dungeon than Stormblood at the start (and possibly will have 1 more Ultimate fight), it has 2 additional race options than Stormblood, it adds world visit system and new game+, it expands on AI combat companion with trust system, it will provide continuing end game content for DoL/DoH, and there will be another exploration content like Eureka. About the only thing Stormblood has over it is deep dungeon and new travel form (swimming and diving).

I am not seeing this "significant drop off" you're talking about, especially for an expansion that we haven't experienced. Based on the announcement, it already has more than the current expansion.

[Daralii]

Shadowbringers has 1 more dungeon than Stormblood at the start (and possibly will have 1 more Ultimate fight), it has 2 additional race options than Stormblood, it adds world visit system and new game+, it expands on AI combat companion with trust system, it will provide continuing end game content for DoL/DoH, and there will be another exploration content like Eureka. About the only thing Stormblood has over it is deep dungeon and new travel form (swimming and diving).

I am not seeing this "significant drop off" you're talking about, especially for an expansion that we haven't experienced. Based on the announcement, it already has more than the current expansion.

We also don't know anything about the battle system changes, especially the healer and DRK overhauls.

[AlliciaCapulet]

What are these limitations?

The PS3 limitation was largely due the fact that the PS3 had only 512 MB RAM.

But what exactly are the PS4 limitations?

Yoshi-P mentionned those, but mainly, it's a memory problem at the moment. PS4 or even the PS4 Pro only have 8 Gb of memory, which limits how many things you can put on a map. That's why we still have limitation, for example, on the housing sector, and that you can't add "at will" items on your land. They did double it since PS3 are not used anymore, but they can't allow many more because of the memory limitation. Also, they don't plan to upgrade the graphics on a short term, they've been asked for it especially with the new technology from the RTX series, and they still uses the old technologies that they used when the PS3 was here. Yoshi-P already answered that it will be a lot of work to upgrade every texture, but it won't be impossible for them to do so with the new generation of playstation, so we will probably have to wait until PS4 are not supported, so they can uses the latest technologies to upgrade the graphic. You can read more details here : https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._and_soken_at/

I'm not saying that PS4 or PS4 Pro are bad, but, they are getting old. And the oldest or lowest stats are the thing that will limit the developement. Same things goes with PC gaming, after 4-5 years, you need to upgrade it. At the moment, having 16 gb of memory on a PC is the standard for normal user of PC, but PC gamers will have 32, 64 or even 128 gb of memory, which is way more than the 8 gb of the PS4. And even if you only have 16 gb, remove maybe 4 Gb for Windows and OS stuff on PC, you still have more than the PS4.

They will also drop with ShB the 32 bits support on PC, which is a good thing. It's a minority of people who actually uses that, so... it's time for them to come in 2019 and upgrade.

And just to be clear, for now, I'm not seeing lots of limitations right now, but they keep adding stuff to the game, improve things and make the game better. My first comment was telling it too, I still think that the PS4 won't be a problem for the next 4 years, as a limitation. But, in 4 years, PS5 will be there, PC will be even better, and the competition on the market will be better too, so the game will have to improve to a point where the PS4 won't be able to keep up, like it did with the PS3. It's just a normal thing to have to upgrade at some point the hardware so the software can keep getting better. And for the XIV engine limitation, I don't think we'll reach those soon, but I was saying that one day, maybe in 2030, we will be close to it. It's hard to tell how fast things will evolve.

[Imsoangry]

But Shadowbringers looks like the thinnest expansion of the three they've done.

Must be awesome that you had a chance to play it before everyone else. Seriously though, keep your salt for other threads where people express their disappointment about gender locked races. It's the only real purpose of this thread really as you gotta be blind to not see how much has been improved over the last few years in this game, and there's more to come. The fact you think this game is going downhill with its limitations does not really have much to do with the truth as has been pointed out by some here.