FFXIV needs an update

[KizuyaKatogami]

FFXIV has already had a massive redesign from the original content - that took about a year during which the game was shutdown.

FFXIV does not need to change to be like anything else thanks - its doing fine as it is.

Uh except it isn’t. Literally the most basic of things people ask for the devs can’t deliver on because of engine limitations. Where have you been?

[KizuyaKatogami]

Uh, what in particular about the combat and raid design?
I think they're both incredible...

There’s a reason many people have expressed annoyance at this expansions raid tier. Not to mention raid design just…being the same over the years and not really changing. Players begging the devs to change healers and either have raids require actual healing or give healers a dps rotation, not continuing to simplify the jobs for the extreme casual crowd etc.

[Catwho]

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

There is a second flaw they've acknowledged, and that's a lack of available experienced Japanese game programmers (or programmers that speak Japanese passably enough to be hired full time. Those guys are worth their weight in gold, and the only one I know of works for ICE at Naughty Dog - not the US agency, the graphics development division for Sony.) SE doesn't like to outsource because every time they try it, it blow up in their faces and they end up bringing it back in house half the time anyway.

Instead what they've had to do is hire people slowly for the XIV team and train them up, and it could be a full expansion cycle before their new people are experienced enough to strike out on their own projects. Brooks Law is alive and well in 2021: Hiring additional programming staff for an already late project will only serve to make the project even later.

[TaleraRistain]

I absolutely love these wish lists from people who are clearly not engineers or software developers.

I have an idea. Let's just make the whole game better.

No I'm not going to elaborate just make everything better. better graphics more inventory less loading times faster internet. Yeah also Make the whole internet faster too.


What? dev work? technical limitations??? Minimum system requirements for older PCs?
Budget??? Manpower?
Deliberate design choices??
Screw all that just make it better.

Especially the vagueness. "I'm not going to to give you any specific areas to look into tweaking, just fix it now!"

[Darkpaw]

There is a second flaw they've acknowledged, and that's a lack of available experienced Japanese game programmers (or programmers that speak Japanese passably enough to be hired full time. Those guys are worth their weight in gold, and the only one I know of works for ICE at Naughty Dog - not the US agency, the graphics development division for Sony.) SE doesn't like to outsource because every time they try it, it blow up in their faces and they end up bringing it back in house half the time anyway.

Instead what they've had to do is hire people slowly for the XIV team and train them up, and it could be a full expansion cycle before their new people are experienced enough to strike out on their own projects. Brooks Law is alive and well in 2021: Hiring additional programming staff for an already late project will only serve to make the project even later.

You are right, i did forget about that. Yes that is a second thing.. but despite what the people on this thread seem to claim, not once have they ever said anything about the game’s engine being lacking in any way shape or form. So that false narrative just needs to die.

[Fyrebrand]

belts have needed to go for a long while. They are the only piece of gear that has no glamour purpose, really don't add much stat wise, and have honestly done nothing but needlessly clog up loot tables since at least HW. I am pretty sure we can all easily recall those times where nothing but belts dropped in an instance. So them realizing if they do away with a useless gear slot they can then give us more inventory isn't a bad thing.

I agree 100%, but those are all reasons why they probably didn't need to exist for the past 11 years, not the reason they're getting removed in Endwalker.

SE doesn't like to outsource because every time they try it, it blow up in their faces and they end up bringing it back in house half the time anyway.

*cough* FFVII remake *cough*

[Assirra]

People really have no clue about game development in here.
For an engine update as in switching engine they need to remake the game completely from scratch. Yes, all the content from 2.0 has to be completely remade, over 8 years.
You cannot just port it over and things work. That seems a huge point of unreal 4 to unreal 5.
Then we also have the issue that working with a new engine and just relearning that.
Needless to say, you only do this in very rare cases where you have no other option.

Now there is another thing called engine upgrading which is basically bolting things onto it. Yes you will be still limited but you would be surprised how much you can add.
A perfect example here is World of Warcraft which runs on a heavily modified warcraft 3 engine. This comes with limitations of course (like the forever 16 slot backpack) but they added a lot of things to it, including DirectX12 and Raytracing.

[StriderShinryu]

People really have no clue about game development in here.
For an engine update as in switching engine they need to remake the game completely from scratch. Yes, all the content from 2.0 has to be completely remade, over 8 years.
You cannot just port it over and things work. That seems a huge point of unreal 4 to unreal 5.
Then we also have the issue that working with a new engine and just relearning that.
Needless to say, you only do this in very rare cases where you have no other option.

Now there is another thing called engine upgrading which is basically bolting things onto it. Yes you will be still limited but you would be surprised how much you can add.
A perfect example here is World of Warcraft which runs on a heavily modified warcraft 3 engine. This comes with limitations of course (like the forever 16 slot backpack) but they added a lot of things to it, including DirectX12 and Raytracing.

In before you get called out for white knighting and just being defensive about the game/company/YoshiP/Japan/birds in the sky/etc.

Anyway, yeah, and as we've seen the old code they're working with isn't anywhere near as expandable as the code in WoW is. They're doing what they can with what they have in terms of time, money and resources. Simply stating facts isn't being defensive or making excuses, it's just stating the facts. Unless you really believe that YoshiP and the team have just been lying to our faces all of the time. In which case, why are you even still playing the game if you really believe the developer will just lie to your face while making the terrible game that some people seem to think FF14 is?

There's nothing wrong with making requests, even big ones. Sometimes enough people saying they want something is what tips the developers in a specific direction on how they will allocate their resources. But sometimes things really are just either impossible or are too resource intensive for the team to consider them worthwhile. Remember, they are the ones who actually have the analytics on what in the game actually gets done and used. Just because there's a few loud people on the forums screaming about something for years doesn't mean the developers see the value in making that change.

Now, as for actual design issues like class design, encounter design, etc. Consider for a moment that, and I know it's hard, maybe the developers are not inept or deaf to the cries of the forum dwellers. Maybe they, I dunno, just prefer the game they're already making and have been making for years?

[MilkieTea]

In before you get called out for white knighting and just being defensive about the game/company/YoshiP/Japan/birds in the sky/etc.

Anyway, yeah, and as we've seen the old code they're working with isn't anywhere near as expandable as the code in WoW is. They're doing what they can with what they have in terms of time, money and resources. Simply stating facts isn't being defensive or making excuses, it's just stating the facts. Unless you really believe that YoshiP and the team have just been lying to our faces all of the time. In which case, why are you even still playing the game if you really believe the developer will just lie to your face while making the terrible game that some people seem to think FF14 is?

There's nothing wrong with making requests, even big ones. Sometimes enough people saying they want something is what tips the developers in a specific direction on how they will allocate their resources. But sometimes things really are just either impossible or are too resource intensive for the team to consider them worthwhile. Remember, they are the ones who actually have the analytics on what in the game actually gets done and used. Just because there's a few loud people on the forums screaming about something for years doesn't mean the developers see the value in making that change.

Now, as for actual design issues like class design, encounter design, etc. Consider for a moment that, and I know it's hard, maybe the developers are not inept or deaf to the cries of the forum dwellers. Maybe they, I dunno, just prefer the game they're already making and have been making for years?

*Points to me making reasonable points about most peoples inventory issues being an issue of poor inventory management, and multiple people accusing me of white knighting and implying i had a reason to defend SE's "poor choices"*

Anyways, all of what you said is agreeable.

[AlyaNimfa]

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.

To redo a games engine, the entire game needs to be remade. What you are asking for is a new FF game.
The servers are being worked on already.
What's wrong with the combat?
What's wrong with the raid design? I find it more fun than other games raids.

BUT, the project is massive and will require an entire expansion's worth of waiting (2 years) for it to be completed.

Two years from scratch for a new game of this scale is being really optimistic.

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?

Some people waited 16 years for some of those features and they never came in other games. And in all honesty I don't have a problem with any of those things.