Time, Budget, Manpower, and Scope

[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.

[Larirawiel]

If you look it up, DX12 is significantly more work for developers and usually they don't need its features so a lot of games just don't bother with it. DX11 is easier to work with and causes less problems.

In general though, there are a lot of problems that there shouldn't be, especially given the number of employees they have. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

I doubt it, that DirectX 12 is so much more work for developers. Even smaller Studios like Larian have their own DirectX 12 capable engine, see Baldur's Gate 3. The most obvious reason why FF14 runs on such an ancient technology is lazyness and waste of ressources.


Cheers

[Moqi]

They can't. Because they demand you understand japanese and speak it. Which makes sense as its a JP company, but at the same time they COULD outsource some tasks to another team, pay them and see what happens. To fix specific issues. They are reaching the point of nothing to lose.

They won't*. If they wanna act like a small indie company with no international audience, appeal or resources, that's on them.

[Exmo]

"Why should we listen to the customers"

Aaand ignored.

"Players opinions are interesting and valid"
*immediately misreads an opinion and flips out*

Ok

[Exmo]

Players tell what is fun for them and what is not. Blizzard had to do a 180 on Legion Remix now because they got overwhelming feedback on what people want and don't want. They added new stuff, experimented with others, but the feel had to be changed because players did not want the original version (as in really bad). The goal is not to get design decisions from players but to get a rate on the content and adjust accordingly.

That's getting feedback, which is fair. It's a world apart from treating the player base as a creative team.

[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.

[Hallarem]

That's getting feedback, which is fair. It's a world apart from treating the player base as a creative team.

I aint saying I'm a writer. All I'm saying is that I could write a better story than Dawntrail and the patches while half of my body was paralyzed.

[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.

[Themarvin]

increase the price of the subscription... it is like how prices was 25 years ago, with inflation and everything... it should add up.