Aren't holiday quests a waste of development time and effort right now?

[Peregrine]

I personally wish they'd stop making them until the game is fixed. 60% of our new content in the game has now been these pointless holiday events. It just feels like they're focussing too much on piddle-content that is easy so they can get content points with the players. Unfortunately they don't *count* for anything at this point in time as far as I'm concerned. Holiday events are things that developers make when there's nothing to do in downtime, for silly style points, and they don't feel like they affect release of any other component of the game. Now is not the time to be releasing holiday event after holiday event while the spell animations look like they do and the areas of real content are what they are.

Developmental points earned for:
Starlight celebration: 0
Valentione's day: 0
Heavensturn: 0
1-shot Fetch quests: 0

Time those took to create could have developed one solid, permanent area of content of value IMO. Feels like they're wasting their time and effort on so many things that don't matter in order because they're quick and easy when that's not what the game needs.

I think they should stop developing holiday events and quests with no goal-oriented ends until they develop content that does.

[TheVedis]

They are groundwork for future versions of it too
once its in, its in and they can just activate it next year and so on

while not everyone enjoys them, there are quite a few who do

and while it does take some development time, im sure it doesnt take too much

[Shikyo]

They are groundwork for future versions of it too
once its in, its in and they can just activate it next year and so on

while not everyone enjoys them, there are quite a few who do

and while it does take some development time, im sure it doesnt take too much

At this point i would rather know that all time is being spent on the major content changes/additions, not little none essential events that will have very little to contribute to the game in the long run and very reward. Why side track for something so miniscule..... Focus on the big task at hand , stay on course...

[Elexia]

Not really.

Know what is?

Making content when the game's foundation need a lot of work, if that isn't considered a waste of development time, then holiday events aren't.

[Peregrine]

Crafting, gathering and some new rank quests and quest story arcs are content that are all healthy enough to be added to without whitewashing the bad fences. We're not ready for food and raid content until the battle system is overhauled. We're not ready for major story arcs until the job system is overhaulled. But we're ready for something better than the effort and time spent on 3 lame holiday events and 18 useless quests that are hit and quit.

[Kaedan]

Umm... seeing as the holiday events take very little effort to develop? Nope, not a waste at all. It's not taking anything away from the development of other content.

You ever heard the expression, "Too many Chefs spoil the soup?"

They can't and don't have EVERYONE working on the same content. So those that can't work on one piece of content are free to work on another.

Besides, the seasonal content was already planned at release, so again your point is moot.

[Rutelor]

Umm... seeing as the holiday events take very little effort to develop? Nope, not a waste at all. It's not taking anything away from the development of other content.

You certainly can say that again! It's not like placing identical sets of bells on the same spot event after event, and rehashing powdered sugar as a reward will make much of a dent in their schedules.

C

[Peregrine]

So they didn't have chocobos, airships, quests, more than 4 animations per job, spells that aren't tech demo quality, a funcional market system, and NMs...but they had these holiday events just ready to go?

I don't give a damn what they had planned at release. Clearly that plan failed.

As holiday events make up the *majority* of our new content, I'm left to assume that they in fact do take up most of the time and effort.

7 months in guys, with next to no new content that matters. Time to stop piddling around with holiday items, gear, and animations.

[Elexia]

7 months in guys, with next to no new content that matters. Time to stop piddling around with holiday items, gear, and animations.

I hope this doesn't give you a heart attack:

Typical game, offline or online takes 1-2 years of research and planning alone, up to 2 months just on one monster design and model alone and a good quarter of year or more on the soundtrack depending on the scope and if it's completely tied to the game to the letter.

Then comes the debugging process and advent of engine updates or even new platform release which your stockholders or c.e.o can say "Make the game for the new platform with the new engine instead", guess what you'll have to redo that can push a release date back or force a foundation rewrite?

You're impatient, however if they didn't have to redo the FOUNDATION you could expect we'd have our first expansion pack by now, if you were to compare XI's development timeline, we'd be getting our first glimpses and preparatory updates for it.