FFXIV needs an update

[Catwho]

And I ain't talking about content. I'm talkin' about an update to its engine, servers, and an entire overhaul of its basic combat and raid design.
So let's say a major overhaul like that is in the works. BUT, the project is massive and will require an entire expansion's worth of waiting (2 years) for it to be completed.
Now think of a problem you've had with the game. Be it housing, additional sliders, no loading zones, interchangable music and so and so forth. All those problems will be fixed, but will require 2 years of waiting.
Would you wait for it?

Nope. At that point I'd rather they keep the current team pumping out content, and if they're going to build a new engine and game system, do it with a fresh IP and a wholly different team.

[Holystyle]

Why do you defend comapny?

As customer it is on them to improve product.
People like you is what stops them to push forward many of you are okay with status quo while meanwhile me cant unsee like there is 0 antialliasing which would be biggest noticeable graphical upgrade they could do.

[Daeriion_Aeradiir]

I've seen the truth.
The ugly, beautiful truth.
Do whatever you want, for I have seen all.

Clearly not, for the simple, absolute truth is this:

FF14 will not receive an engine update for an extremely long time, if ever. When the game is at the height of its popularity and raking in the giant swathes of $$$, the CEOs would be literally insane to let Yoshi-P put the game into maintenance mode for a year or two to re-write the engine and then spend intense amounts of time QAing every piece of content from ARR to EW to make sure everything is compatible with the new engine. It would be financial suicide to grind the immense hype of the game currently surrounding it to a screeching halt.

FF14 is inside a catch 22. The only way FF14 is ever going to be put into maintenance mode for an engine re-write is when the game's popularity fizzles out an the playerbase majorly dwindles, but by that point, they won't be doing an engine re-write because they'll be working on the next FF MMO.

That's the simple truth.

While there's definitely a lot of QoL features I want that I know the development team has a lot of hurdles to try to implement in no way would I want the game to stop its service in order to add them in. I am willing to let resources from other content to suffer while they add them in, however.

Yeah, no.

It took them several expansions to do basic re-works of ARR. It's been an entire expansion cycle and they haven't fixed the multitude of issues surrounding Viera & Hrothgar. You realize just how tight their deadlines are right? They barely get any time to do extra work they want. If they were going to implement a brand new engine without bringing the game down into maintenance mode, they'd have it done by 10.0+ at the earliest with the amount of free time they have.

Also as a point-out: They had to take down the game for 1-1.5 years for a single expansion of ARR, which ditched basically all content from its predecessor outside of items & characters. If they were to ever do it again, they would have to add on Compatibility with literally every system, instance, combat, etc they've added since the beginning of ARR into the engine update, which only grows as they release more expansions, exponentially increasing the amount of work an engine re-write would demand.

TLDR, it's not realistic or feasible to re-write FF14's engine at this late stage of the game. If FF14 ever reaches the point where they could afford to dedicate the time due to hit in profit the game generates being so small, they'll already be R&Ding the next FF MMO, rendering a FF14 engine rewrite obsolete.

Why do you defend comapny?

As customer it is on them to improve product.
People like you is what stops them to push forward many of you are okay with status quo while meanwhile me cant unsee like there is 0 antialliasing which would be biggest noticeable graphical upgrade they could do.

There's a difference between asking for ideas that fall within realistic dev op goals and wishing upon a star. Too many people do the latter due to having no experience in professional game development environments.

[Shougun]

There's a difference between asking for ideas that fall within realistic dev op goals and wishing upon a star. Too many people do the latter due to having no experience in professional game development environments.

Counter point I think too many people play accountants and max scope developers for companies as well. We don't know the strengths and weaknesses or budget, people, general resources, nor the future potentials (present cases are different than future), we're relatively uninformed, even those who have more experience in the field.

Not to disagree that some things are relatively impractical, but that both impractical things have and can be done (they're just... impractical lol), and that it is in some ways a two way street of people knowing too little or acting too much.

SE of course is going to do what SE is going to do, if we want something that is impossible it doesn't matter how much one wants... Not going to happen cause it can't. If SE can, even though other players says it can't be done for whatever reason (happens quite often), then they will.

All to say we know very little, even those who know more than usual, and it's more or less about wants or perhaps sharing the likelihood of those wants, but yet still the helpfulness of someone asking of the impossible is about equal to someone who acts as if they're Yoshida themselves. Maybe the former is more helpful because at least then SE knows about desires for other content.

[TroySoFab]

Why would I play all zoomed-in in the first place. Why would I care if a texture looks bad while I'm all zoomed in?

There are many jarring cutscenes where there is a close up of him. It looks straight out of a ps1 game. There are various other asset and textures that are of very low quality. The community has been wanting a high res texture pack for a while, another change that would help some and not require a full engine update. However, in the coming years if this game is to continue in the future, a larger graphical update would be needed.

Let's shut down the game for a couple of years so I can have more tail options for my catgirl waifu.

No one implied the game should be shut down while the updates take place. It wouldn't need to be anyway. So yes, I will patiently wait for the game to be updated (if it ever will be) while I am still playing it.

[Moonlite]

There's a difference between asking for ideas that fall within realistic dev op goals and wishing upon a star. Too many people do the latter due to having no experience in professional game development environments.

I wish all companies could run like people allow SE. They do some work but if anything comes up they get a pass because it would just be more work. No company ever hires more workers or subcontracts to complete other goals outside of the main running of the business. It isn't like people aren't discussing issues that are closing in on a decade now.


At this point to expect anything more out of the game is wishful thinking on anyone's part. Coming here and saying it is bad is fine just don't expect anything more then we get, and maybe even a little less then what we had in the past.

[Neoyoshi]

So many people these days are self-proclaimed experts in game design.

[Vidu]

Why do you defend comapny?

As customer it is on them to improve product.
People like you is what stops them to push forward many of you are okay with status quo while meanwhile me cant unsee like there is 0 antialliasing which would be biggest noticeable graphical upgrade they could do.

Because I actually already like the product - and while updates to the graphics or small QoL-additions (like more inventory space, Viera hats/hairstyles or egi-glamour - to me those are all small QoL-additions, I ackonwledge that someone else might feel differently about some of them) would be nice, for me they dont warrant what OP is suggesting: No new actual content or maybe even access to the game for two years.

I like the game the way it is, believe it or not. Specially the graphics look absolutly fine to me (maybe because I also tend to play a lot of older games aswell). The trade off that would be needed simply isnt worth it to me.

[DPZ2]

It's actually 570. And all of those inventory slots don't do a whole lot of good when the sheer amount of crafting materials takes up space.

Ah, there is the center of the problem: omni-crafters are inconvenienced because there are only 570 inventory slots to place crafting materials. At a guess, this would be those who also play the Market Board and complain when prices drop due to non-entrepreneurs going for the quick sale.

To be fair, as one is leveling crafting jobs, there is little reason to maintain a vast inventory of crafting materials, certainly not more than the 350 retainer slots one gets for free can handle. Personally, I have eight retainers and most of those have crafting materials that I haven't touched in anywhere from two to six years. My glamour dresser is maxed out. Two of those eight retainers have kept leveling gear (no longer needed, as every job except two tanks have hit max level).

I am not a crafter who makes items to sell on the Market Board. I have alts with two retainers. Those alts have no inventory pressure, since I've gotten much better at refusing to horde everything and anything.

[Darkpaw]

I love how everyone rushes to the white knight accusation if anyone points out basic logic. Like if we dont force the big evil corporation to make our dreams reality we are all doomed.

Calm down. This ain’t racoon city and SE aint umbrella.

No one is ever going to be fully happy. Yes there are some valid criticisms of XIV and they should be heard, there are some nice wishlist changes, some are pipedreams and even the posters know it they just need to acknowledge it.

Fact is you dont need to know game development or the budget situation or anything to offer ideas or criticisms the dev team is actually pretty transparent with what they can and can do and what limits them.

Needless to say they have never complained about the game engine or server structure.

They’ve acknowledged one. ONE. Flaw that hinders them. The spaghetti code the game is built on from the initial rebuild of 1.x..

As for graphics, during an interview in a lead up to shadowbringers Yoshi-P expressly said they could but they do not want to as it would prohibit a significant portion of their PC player base who play on outdated equipment.