Do we want another 10 years of FF14 on this engine?

[PirateRyanG]

Why? FFXI still runs on the same old PS2/DX8 era engine 20 years after it was launched. Why should FFXIV ARR be any different if it's reasonably stable?

Incidentally this game was never designed to have 'instant' combat in the first place, so if you're expecting that, you'll forever be unsatisfied I'm afraid, and that is completely unreleated to the graphics engine.

Besides, this whole arguement is pointless anyway because Yoshi revealed ages ago they actually are working on a graphical enhancement for the game. Just have patience.

FFXI isn't a great example here.

It is great FFXI is still running. However, the game is running on donated PS2 dev kits now. As soon as those PS2 dev kits bite the bullet (and they will), there are barely any working ones out there in the wild. The game is dead. It has come close to dying several times, but each time they have been able to source more dev kits. However, there are only so many times that can happen.

At some point, the engine will chug along but there is zero way to update it. As soon as it cannot be updated, it becomes a security risk and then POOF. Gone.

[Fawkes]

Why? FFXI still runs on the same old PS2/DX8 era engine 20 years after it was launched.

And FFXI desperately needs a remake. But it will never have the budget for that to happen.

[Gemina]

They say they have a 10 year plan for this game.

But the server ticks, housing limitations, animation limitations, spaghetti code, etc etc etc.

Devs will often say they can't do xyz because of limitations of the engine. They acknowledge that they can't make the game better because of it.

Do we really want another 10 years in this? Or would we rather get FFXIV-2?

I'm fine with it. Obviously with some improvements along the way, but what some players are asking for will never happen in FFXIV's lifetime. It's just the way of it. You're basically asking for another mmo.

[IkaraGreydancer]

I mean they could do that and with it bring sweeping changes but then you risk what happened with Pso2 to Pso2NG. It pretty much killed the playerbase

[Reap00]

I'm fine with it. Obviously with some improvements along the way, but what some players are asking for will never happen in FFXIV's lifetime. It's just the way of it. You're basically asking for another mmo.

They don't want logical responses on these forums. They just want to complain. Laugh and nod.

[Renalt]

They don't want logical responses on these forums. They just want to complain. Laugh and nod.

When it comes to human beings don't count on logic or consistency.

[Katt_Felista]

The code is actually very well optimized for when you enter dungeons or raid instances to maximize performance, hence why you are cut from the outside world and can't whisper other players while doing them. Yes it was with console limitations in mind, but still, that specific area is allowing raids / dungeons to run extremely well even on very low spec hardware.

I know the envy to see Square Enix's talent unleashed on almost unlimited POWER hardware like pc's, but seeing the turn of philosophy even from polyphony digital that look more and more comfortably to launch their gran turismo Titles on pc platform... The mold is slowly breaking, unfortunately, it is very slow and japanese mentality about this is still in a mix of traditional rigidity but it goes hand in hand with overly professional care for their craft.

[SigmaOZ]

@OP Nooo!.


Lots of beautiful-looking games coming out in the next years, I doubt players will continue to subscribe to an old MMO that refuses to change visually.


Be it a remake or a direct sequel I would welcome a new Final Fantasy XIV as I'm getting tired of this one, I don't think an MMO should last more than ten years and to expect to have players subscribed for so long is absurd.


If I were Square-Enix's CEO I would have started making the next MMO two years ago, they'd wish they had done it when the player-base begins to thin.

[Jeeqbit]

Why does everyone have this assumption that the engine is the problem?

It's not. It's related to decisions surrounding infrastructure (dedicated servers vs cloud servers), separation of server machines (such as how you transfer from one server to another for dungeons and the inventory has to be "transferred" with you). These are decisions they made regardless of the engine used and they have pros and cons.

A lot of people attack the graphics, but these are intentional as well and not related to the engine at all. They made higher poly models in 1.0, but they didn't look good next to the lower poly models so they decided to make them all balanced somewhere in the middle with a poly limit they all decided on. The resolution of textures is something that increases with time and the game is 10 years old. A new engine would not mean higher resolution textures. The detail on models and textures is unrelated to the engine because they showed us some very realistic pictures that the engine is capable of and how they are going to increase the light and object limits they had imposed on themselves to support older player machines. The shaders scripts don't ask as much of the graphics card to support older player machines, but they could if SE decided not to care about old machines.

Don't forget that the engine adapted for this game was also used for FF15.

Do we really want another 10 years in this? Or would we rather get FFXIV-2?

The engine can be changed without making an entirely new game. They did it in the transition from 1.0 where a lot of things were preserved including characters.

[PirateRyanG]

The engine can be changed without making an entirely new game. They did it in the transition from 1.0 where a lot of things were preserved including characters.

It is insanely costly to just change a game engine without making a new game. If the relaunch of FF14 failed, Square would have been seriously in the hole.

Switching game engine is costly anyway. Most companies stick to a single engine for a reason. Bethesda have been using Gamebryo (which evolved into Creation Engine) since 1997.

It is rare that companies will just switch engines. Mostly, they use an upgraded version of the previous engine so you don't have to retrain your staff.

Changing engine (and the costs of developing one) will deliver absolutely no benefit.

Upgrading the current engine will.