XVI and XIV implications

[Ath192]

Empty world design is a result of the over abundance of fast travel. It's far easier to get away with when very few people actually explore or travel around areas to see it. The initial ideas and incentives didn't work out the way they hoped and it was decided no more effort was needed because people just teleport everywhere and only stick around in most zones long enough to connect the quest marker dots.

100% agree. Fast travel is the reason the game is so barren and design is so poor. Everyone does it so no need to put effort. This is like cities designed for cars in America, they barren and unwalkable because everyone drives everywhere. The consequence is there are very few places to see.

[CStrife912]

100% agree. Fast travel is the reason the game is so barren and design is so poor. Everyone does it so no need to put effort. This is like cities designed for cars in America, they barren and unwalkable because everyone drives everywhere. The consequence is there are very few places to see.

Part of me wonders if they didn't do fast travel newer players would be turned off or people wanting to play it and not fancy doing the wow method of flight paths etc. We have to in some way understand the old style of play isn't as popular anymore and that's because the times have changed and gaming has changed. Most people that like the old systems are likely early to late 30s or in the 40s. We are a diminishing player group and games must try and foster new interest, that doesn't mean they couldn't compromise a middle ground because I agree the world needs it, they craft these spaces and as soon as you've done the 'story' of that area and your aetherial wind spots then the rest of your time spent there is purely an aerial view...unless your hunt training which even then is stop and go. 16 proves they can craft super detailed landscapes that are very pretty (not going into linearity here just the visual storytelling of the map) I hope with the graphics update and with 7.0 they design areas that make people want to explore and they improve on systems like FATEs and treasure maps to get people to want to spend more time in them. Only gatherers spend the most time in it and that's laughable if you think about it.

[Lufir]

Unfortunately to me XVI has reinforced my belief that CBU III or whoever is making all the decisions for this unit, maybe Yoshi P is solely responsible, maybe not, is better suited to making single player titles than MMOs.

I agree and I actually believe because the success of CBU3, it could very well be a division that gets shifted away from XIV and into making more single player games in the near future. Who knows, maybe CBU2 and its merged Luminous Productions (FF15, Forspoken) will be a better fit for XIV? I guess that could be a good or a bad thing depending on one's opinion on the current state of XIV. Just my early morning thoughts.

[CStrife912]

I agree and I actually believe because the success of CBU3, it could very well be a division that gets shifted away from XIV and into making more single player games in the near future. Who knows, maybe CBU2 and its merged Luminous Productions (FF15, Forspoken) will be a better fit for XIV? I guess that could be a good or a bad thing depending on one's opinion on the current state of XIV. Just my early morning thoughts.

Its not how that works though...like if they weren't suited to making 14 what it is we would be in constant decline and we aren't its just a vocal minority on the forums saying their piece. If we take before WoW exodus numbers to now its a steady increase because the wow inflation doesn't really count as natural growth. On top of that....CBU3 is big enough to house multiple projects or as many as Yoshi P is willing to take on. It would also be years before you would see anything again because pre-production etc could be years and that's even if they do go onto anything else. I think for this they saw an opportunity to spread their wings and make something and that will give them experience etc that can come back into 14. People assume just swapping people would make an impact when it would take multiple years to see any effect and I can honestly imagine the 14 team to be loyal to Yoshi P so it would cause more damage then good and that would reflect in work place and into the product.

I sort of wish it was all doom and gloom because then I could actually agree with people however with the knowledge of the industry from friends who are developers, artists etc I'm just more middle ground reasonable...trying to understand both sides rather then everyone trying to be it must be X or Y.

[Lufir]

Its not how that works though...like if they weren't suited to making 14 what it is we would be in constant decline and we aren't its just a vocal minority on the forums saying their piece.

I could be wrong, but the people on the forums are more referencing a drop in quality of content in EW, not really player population.

I think for this they saw an opportunity to spread their wings and make something and that will give them experience etc that can come back into 14.

I think they already have more than enough experience from their years with FF14. FF16 is more of a show to SE that YoshiP can make them the big bucks.

People assume just swapping people would make an impact when it would take multiple years to see any effect and I can honestly imagine the 14 team to be loyal to Yoshi P

People swap all the time:

FFXI changing its producer again.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...85/detail.html

This article mentions FFXI's dev team downsizing while most move on to bigger things. I wonder where they are going or what they plan to work on?

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fu.../1100-6512609/

Wouldn't it be crazy if FFXIV got the XI team and CBU3 moves on to single player games?

Again, just theories and what ifs. I don't want it to come off as doom and gloom.

[Catwho]

I finished XVI and the game is as difficult as you want to make it.

The skill tree hearkens back a bit to the old sphere grid used in FFX, but sections of it are not visible until you get past the hard locks on the story.

Think the combat is too easy? Take off all the assist rings and slap on the damage bonus and cooldown reduction ones instead. Add in manually controlling the dog. (I'm going to do this on my second play through because Torgal landing auto Precision Sic seems to block a magic burst.)

The combat feels less about easy/difficulty and more about optimization. You can one button mash your way through every boss you want, but it'll take you 10-15 minutes if that is all you are doing. (And you still need to dodge, or you will die.) Play with an optimized build and you'll get it down in five minutes. And look stylish doing it.

[MoofiaBossVal]

Besides, if you made people walk/fly everywhere, the only thing that would happen is people would take the shortest possible route. They wouldn't explore the zones anyway.

In Final Fantasy XI, you might be running through a zone to your destination when you see (or hear about in shout chat) some powerful rare mob or notorious monster spawning, so you would detour to go fight him. There you would join a party, and after the mob died you might wind up helping some players out with whatever task they were pursuing.

[Shinkuno]

In Final Fantasy XI, you might be running through a zone to your destination when you see (or hear about in shout chat) some powerful rare mob or notorious monster spawning, so you would detour to go fight him. There you would join a party, and after the mob died you might wind up helping some players out with whatever task they were pursuing.

Or in WoW: you take a flight point, see a random treasure pop on your minimap so when you land you get on your mount and go there. Then you see a rare spawn while questing and go do that. Or you see a cave on the map and you go explore it because there may or may not be a secret in there. FF14 players are too used to static dumbed down gameplay i guess to ever imagine that. Its clear that most people that defend this game at this point just want to watch a TV Show without looking like a "lazy person that just sits on their couch watching tv all day" so they pretend there is any gameplay left in this "game".

[Atelier-Bagur]

Or in WoW: you take a flight point, see a random treasure pop on your minimap so when you land you get on your mount and go there. Then you see a rare spawn while questing and go do that. Or you see a cave on the map and you go explore it because there may or may not be a secret in there. FF14 players are too used to static dumbed down gameplay i guess to ever imagine that. Its clear that most people that defend this game at this point just want to watch a TV Show without looking like a "lazy person that just sits on their couch watching tv all day" so they pretend there is any gameplay left in this "game".

Question? So how quickly does that sense of wonder and exploration fall out once you've done it multiple times to notice a pattern and it starts to be lackluster?

Because let me tell you, that only ever happens when the game is all magical and new to you but then reality kicks in and you start to develop your own endgame agenda and go about playing the game optimally.

Call me jaded but I'm pretty sure that sense of adventure is so easy to fall off in this day and age.

[Shinkuno]

Question? So how quickly does that sense of wonder and exploration fall out once you've done it multiple times to notice a pattern and it starts to be lackluster?

Because let me tell you, that only ever happens when the game is all magical and new to you but then reality kicks in and you start to develop your own endgame agenda and go about playing the game optimally.

Call me jaded but I'm pretty sure that sense of adventure is so easy to fall off in this day and age.

Does it matter? You are literally excusing lazyness with "but what if i dont look at every treasure 100 hours in?"

Feel free to continue to whiteknight and excuse for a company that couldnt care less about you. May as well go buy the next store item too. You are not jaded, you are just prime target for FF14. People that want to put in 0 thought, 0 effort, just sit there and watch badly animated cutscenes.