Stop band-aid fixing the glamour system and just fix it for real

[SeverianLyonesse]

Part of the reason I hope they are going to have another MMO being worked on not "AT 10 years from now" but sometime from now to then, such that it's well and ready when it's time to phase FFXIV like they did to FFXI. It's not a statement of death to the game, as the game is going to be fine for quite some time longer- just like WoW was, but as it ages it'll get harder for multiple reasons (competition, difficultly implementing features, too much familiarity making everything seem like an 'old idea' even if it's not (you can see this as increased rate of burn out), etc. But the game easily has a few more successful years even if they didn't do well, so again it's not the death of the game in a general sense, heck look at FFXI still making them money lol.). Alternatively they may try to make it work in FFXIV, it's possible- just sounds extra scary. But then again releasing a new mmo is probably also extra scary. Everything is scary XD.

I think it will be hard for the devs to make another successful MMO after XIV. They've used every shred of referentiality they could pull from past FF games, so they can't really achieve that a second time without players dismissing it as having been done before. And they have such a backlog of content and glamours that whatever new game they released would be *years* away from approaching a comparable scope.

We are also in an era where franchises are living or dying based on how long they can sustain building on their extended universes. None of them are really allowed to start from scratch anymore because they would be too small to compete against the existing juggernauts: Marvel, D.C., Star Wars, LotR, etc. So there is every incentive not to abandon the huge extended world XIV has crafted.

I think they are more likely to (and this would be smart of them) do something similar to how they gave XI players some extra benefits in transferring to XIV. Although in the case of the next MMO, I think they should just make it "FF XIV-2" and make it a contiguous experience with FF XIV. Keep it in Eorzea (or another shard). Let players transfer over their their characters, and maybe some glams, and just continue the experience with updated graphics, mechanics, etc. Let new players have retrofitted access to XIV to keep them interested while the new game is being fleshed out in real time.

It would be a novel approach to the MMO genre, but one I think SE might be willing to risk because it would respect the thing that has made XIV so successful: having a very large and vibrant online casual community. By preserving the community across XIV and the new game, they would have a ready playerbase for the next game while minimizing dropoff, something which many iterative video game franchises struggle with every few years.

[Avatre]

Hopefully. I wouldn't expect anything like that until after the engine upgrade though, unless that is something they have planned to go along with it. Not gonna get my hopes up, but I would like for it to happen someday.

Oh, I agree. Quite likely if they do get it done it will be after the majority of the engine upgrades are done and implemented, unless they end up dedicating a few people to just getting it to work.

[Soge01]

My Retainers buried under mounds of glamour: "How long have I awaited for this moment..."

[technole]

I called it months ago, he can likely just increase the slots and call it a day.

Sanctuary requirement is simple reasoning from a development perspective. Not every zone has the same resources as others. It's no different than why you can't open your gear coffer outside of one. All that coffer data isn't available in some desert zone, in order to keep server loads down it's put in those places where there is more resources.

Imagine if 300+ people were able to use the glamour plates on the Chi fate platform around the same time, let's just croak the servers when it's not necessary.

[Vrankyl]

One thing that may be holding them up I suspect, is two facts about our gear that doesn't plague WoW.

1) We can dye our gear. Not only can we dye our gear, but we can dye the original and then apply the glam without reusing the dye at anytime. I imagine a glam log system would at the very least take that last aspect away considering things that go into the armoire lose their dyes. Now, I am uncertain if GW2 has a fix for this or not, or if their glam system is similar to what people want. So there is a possibility that it could work but that is definitely a hurdle.

2) Every single piece of gear can be used by a single character. The WoW system doesn't need to have that information on hand any time their Transmog stuff is queried. They can limit it based on wearable armor type and weapon type. The FF14 glamour log would need to be able to access a database with every single piece of gear in the entire game any time it is accessed. Even if it isn't immediately pulling the data for the gear that is likely a huge amount of data, and add that to the fact that our characters already contain a shit ton of data already with the fact that they have to have the information for every single job loadable at all times, plus our inventories, our BLU spell book, our mounts, our pets, triple triad cards, and various other things.

I would love a glamour log, but it may be a bit before we see one as they do have unique hurdles that other games don't. About the only game I can think of that has a work around with similar hurdles is ESO. Though they mitigate it by having the styles only accessible at crafting and outfit stations and no where else.

[Larirawiel]

All that coffer data isn't available in some desert zone, in order to keep server loads down it's put in those places where there is more resources.

Sorry, but this is speculation and it makes no sense at all. Because if you open that coffer in another zone and carry the items to the desert zone, then this would increase the server load. Because now the server has to load all the items in you invertory. This would not relieve the server.

My speculation for this limitation is: every zone has its own specific persistence model. And some persistence models are not compatible with coffers. To fix this they must update them. But if their persistence layer is a mess then it will be very time consuming. Updating the persistence model is easy. Updating the persistence model without breaking something is not so easy anymore.


Cheers

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Interpretation:

"Adding more space (as requested by many players) + allowing use of plates outside of major cities (as requested by many players) is a BAD THING, because it doesn't work like World of Warcraft's Trasmogrification system."

Glad Im not the only one that kinda read it this way lol
The Glamour system isn't "Broken" its just Flawed.

[LisSquid]

Interpretation:

"Adding more space (as requested by many players) + allowing use of plates outside of major cities (as requested by many players) is a BAD THING, because it doesn't work like World of Warcraft's Trasmogrification system."

WoW isn't the only one with a glamour log. There's a reason the "hold item to use its appearance" got hazed out pretty quickly, and it's because of the problems SE is working with right now.

[technole]

Sorry, but this is speculation and it makes no sense at all. Because if you open that coffer in another zone and carry the items to the desert zone, then this would increase the server load. Because now the server has to load all the items in you invertory. This would not relieve the server.

My speculation for this limitation is: every zone has its own specific persistence model. And some persistence models are not compatible with coffers. To fix this they must update them. But if their persistence layer is a mess then it will be very time consuming. Updating the persistence model is easy. Updating the persistence model without breaking something is not so easy anymore.


Cheers

No, you're just looking at the end result, personal inventory is the same no matter where you go.

A weapon coffer is the best example. You only get 1 item, but it has to go through the inventory system to get one of the battle job weapons, there is no reason for persistence lists of inventory eligible for every coffer in places that don't need it. The towns have a lot more allocation, and rightfully so.

[Vahlnir]

Glad Im not the only one that kinda read it this way lol
The Glamour system isn't "Broken" its just Flawed.

Yeah. It works, but I wouldn't call it a good system by any means.