Time, Budget, Manpower, and Scope

[Kahnha]

TBH Idk why they spent extra resources on the Oceanian server people there complaining about not being able to que for mandatory content like CT. Dynamis is in the same situation it takes longer to get into content so end up going to primal or crystal. Even the graphics update that was basically just 2x sizing the textures could have put those resources into making more housing wards, or improving the environment for the DCs.

maybe even spending into improving the game engine itself that would clear so much of the issues on how the game feels but eh we'll see :3

[Halivel]

TBH Idk why they spent extra resources on the Oceanian server people there complaining about not being able to que for mandatory content like CT. Dynamis is in the same situation it takes longer to get into content so end up going to primal or crystal. Even the graphics update that was basically just 2x sizing the textures could have put those resources into making more housing wards, or improving the environment for the DCs.

maybe even spending into improving the game engine itself that would clear so much of the issues on how the game feels but eh we'll see :3

They spent resources on OCE DC because people asked for one for almost a decade. The issue with any new servers, however, is that people are always reluctant to mover over, as majority of them have established FCs and connections where they currently are. Which shouldn't be as much of an issue with FF14, that has server travel infrastructure, but people still cling to the servers they're on.

They spent resources on Dynamis because people, surprise-surprise, were asking for it, as other DCs are overpopulated. Same issue happens however, because no one actually wants to move over. As result, with both OCE and Dynamis, it will take a relatively significant amount of time to fill them with players, either new or old.

They spent resources on graphic update because... oh yes, people asked for it to happen, for years.

Now that all that is done, people are suddenly "you should have spent those resources elsewhere".

Point of the day is, I guess, is that there's no win, and people will be never happy regardless of what devs do.

[plasmacutter]

They spent resources on OCE DC because people asked for one for almost a decade. The issue with any new servers, however, is that people are always reluctant to mover over, as majority of them have established FCs and connections where they currently are. Which shouldn't be as much of an issue with FF14, that has server travel infrastructure, but people still cling to the servers they're on.

They spent resources on Dynamis because people, surprise-surprise, were asking for it, as other DCs are overpopulated. Same issue happens however, because no one actually wants to move over. As result, with both OCE and Dynamis, it will take a relatively significant amount of time to fill them with players, either new or old.

They spent resources on graphic update because... oh yes, people asked for it to happen, for years.

Now that all that is done, people are suddenly "you should have spent those resources elsewhere".

Point of the day is, I guess, is that there's no win, and people will be never happy regardless of what devs do.

Every region should have unified party finder.

This is not hard to do, I'll explain how:

1 - people queue up
2 - the system makes a match
3 - the system determines the datacenter where the majority are located
4 - the system spends 45-60 seconds transferring people to a "staging" server in the correct datacenter
5 - the system loads them into dungeon.

This greatly reduces overall stress on congested datacenters and load balances stress with more agility.
It could actually save them hardware costs, because right now a LOT of people just camp on Aether while Party Finder empties on primal, and especially crystal and dynamis.

[Halivel]

Every region should have unified party finder.

This is not hard to do, I'll explain how:

1 - people queue up
2 - the system makes a match
3 - the system determines the datacenter where the majority are located
4 - the system spends 45-60 seconds transferring people to a "staging" server in the correct datacenter
5 - the system loads them into dungeon.

This greatly reduces overall stress on congested datacenters and load balances stress with more agility.
It could actually save them hardware costs, because right now a LOT of people just camp on Aether while Party Finder empties on primal, and especially crystal and dynamis.

This I agree with, they should do something like that.

I can understand the reluctance to make cross-region queues for "ping and culture" reasons, but in-region ones should be totally fine. And OCE should be probably queued with JP, as that's where the majority of their players seemed to be prior to DC creation.

[Absurdity]

Even the graphics update that was basically just 2x sizing the textures could have put those resources into making more housing wards, or improving the environment for the DCs.

The graphics update did quite a bit more besides the obvious texture upgrades, unfortunately it's something most people won't even notice.
Hands and feet models were updated to no longer be square blocks.

All head meshes were completely remade with a uniform texture layout, roughly 50% more polygons and about 50 extra bones for better facial animations.
For example the new faces actually have tongues that can be animated while the old faces just had a static mesh rigged to the lower jaw, they just haven't really made much use of them so far.

[Daralii]

The graphics update did quite a bit more besides the obvious texture upgrades, unfortunately it's something most people won't even notice.
Hands and feet models were updated to no longer be square blocks.

All head meshes were completely remade with a uniform texture layout, roughly 50% more polygons and about 50 extra bones for better facial animations.
For example the new faces actually have tongues that can be animated while the old faces just had a static mesh rigged to the lower jaw, they just haven't really made much use of them so far.

People absolutely noticed the head mesh changes because they've been complaining about facial features being homogenized for over a year.

[Absurdity]

People absolutely noticed the head mesh changes because they've been complaining about facial features being homogenized for over a year.

They noticed that they looked different, but not any of the actual improvements. Or rather, they didn't want to see it.
Especially baffling were the people asking to get the old models back, you could often see some jarring jagged edges on the low poly models. Not to mention the fact that they had to redo all the facial animations for the new faces already to account for the additional bones.

Are they perfect? Obviously not since they couldn't replicate the pre-7.0 look one to one.
But I gladly take my face looking slightly different over chapped lips, plastic lipstick and obvious polygon edges around the chin, nose, cheeks and mouth.

[plasmacutter]

They noticed that they looked different, but not any of the actual improvements. Or rather, they didn't want to see it.
Especially baffling were the people asking to get the old models back, you could often see some jarring jagged edges on the low poly models. Not to mention the fact that they had to redo all the facial animations for the new faces already to account for the additional bones.

The graphics improvements are great and very noticeable in terms of poly count.
The lighting engine and texture overhaul are considerably better.

The game still needs settings for contrast, local contrast, saturation, and bloom, all of which are relatively cheap computationally.

As a 4k gamer on the best hardware, I'd have loved more, but there are other ways to compensate.

[theunhappypotato]

The graphics improvements are great and very noticeable in terms of poly count.
The lighting engine and texture overhaul are considerably better.

The game still needs settings for contrast, local contrast, saturation, and bloom, all of which are relatively cheap computationally.

As a 4k gamer on the best hardware, I'd have loved more, but there are other ways to compensate.

the graphics updaate was a mistake and i'll die on this hill

[MayuAmakura]

the graphics updaate was a mistake and i'll die on this hill

Am with you. Graphical "improvement" made a lot of bad things with our characters. A lot of faces got ruined, eyebrows missing or badly made. A lot of weird scaling that look like its done with AI cheapest thing. So many faces have awkward smiles now or even eyes are acting super weird. Just take a look at Hyur 1 face. Stupid eye bags ARE STILL NOT REMOVED. They just made them "less visible" but are still there. Why no other face has these eye bags? Why face 1 has such stupid smile that makes your eyes look super thiny now. What's the point of this?

So much of improvement.