Realm Reborn = downgrade?

[Zaireeka2025]

This is a good set up for what I was going to say. Go look at a pre finished refined Pixar movie, (omg ugly) then look at that final product and OMFG that looks amazing it is all there.

Now on your comment on your basing off what you saw in FFXIV 1.xx thats the problem that is a finalized on the shelf edition, and for all purposes in this discussion, ARR is at the same stage as 1.xx was in pre release alpha stage, in development. You can't expect them to be on a new engine and code to be at the 100% already in development when they have stated they are far from it and working hard to get there. In some (not all like yours) posts I have read in this long train of thought we have developed, that this stage should be at 100% and they should already be working on patches and expansion packs and going for that 150% complete feel. We can't expect that till they have had their testing started and underway with feedback.

Again Zai, I am not saying you, because you admit it and show logical understanding... Sadly most have not, and with the past 8-10 pages specifically from the OP they are not... Like really... comparing that masterpiece to a Korean MMO???? They are reaching far now to try and win this discussion, on a alpha video.... I look at it right now and see nothing like a Korean MMO I see expertise that puts games like Aion and Tera to shame. So it is offensive to me and to the rest of us who have faith in Yoshi-P and a huge insult to him to call all this work he and his team have worked the past 1.5 years on for US to enjoy, and turn around and call it a Unreal engine, 5 minute copy paste build Korean mass produced MMO... That as much as it shouldn't... really upsets me... I appreciate the work this team has put into this game to make it amazing playing experience for us... and have someone that is trying to find a footing in a discussion, to call it a poorly thought out and hastily made Korean MMO... just makes me discredit the idea that this person is actually arguing for the better.

Because again, I think we can all, well almost all, agree this does not look like the games the OP is saying it does....

.... sorry that turned more long winded than I originally planned... lol

I understand where you're coming from. I remember reading the Korean MMO slippery slope comment. Whoever made that comment was probably overexaggerating what they fear the game will appear like to them. I personally don't feel that way because I know Square Enix is making this game. I also appreciate the hard work the team has put into the game, and it will be a masterpiece of graphical achievement regardless of whether they implement the missing animations or not. What made FFXIV 1.xx so unique compared to other MMO's was it's stellar and unique animation quality. We simply want to preserve that for ARR as well if at all possible.

My concern revolves mostly around the fact that the pre-alpha footage from Gamescom 2009 of FFXIV shows that animations are what gets done very early in development. And this is the animation we got for FFXIV from that point on.

[SwordCoheir]

Round infinity: Um, they also said in this video they are still working on it all right now, so we still have 2 weeks or 3 of fine tuning adjustments, before we get into Alpha. I think they can make a lot of changes in that time, since ( I am going out on a big sturdy tree limb here...) Look what they HAVE accomplished on a new engine and coding in a year and a half, what usually takes a company 4-6 years to do.

They can, you would be surprised just how much stuff can change and be redone during both the Alpha and Beta phases. In some cases they actually scrap entire sections of code and rebuild it from the ground up just to make it work.

Let's not forget were dealing with an entirely new development team here with a new guy at the helm that's made it a point to listen to the concerns and woes of his customers, not Tanaka who's had a notorious history of "my way or the highway" customer service quality that dates back to the early years of FFXI.

(And yes I realize you addressed this in a later post, but I already had it written up. XD)

My concern revolves mostly around the fact that the pre-alpha footage from Gamescom 2009 of FFXIV shows that animations are what gets done very early in development. And this is the animation we got for FFXIV from that point on.

Having Animations done and having the engine to implement those animations are entirely different things when it comes to the development of a game. Animations are done very early in the development phase, however they can't do much else with them until the main engine (what controls other engines such as movement) and all the other parts of the game is developed enough where they can establish boundaries, conditions, and effects attached to that animation, and most of that isn't fully developed till about the start of the Alpha Phase.

Considering the Alpha is still at least a month away and the footage is around a month old now the playable demo Yoshi shown may be the absolute earliest workable form of Alpha, IF it wasn't specifically created and put together as a demo which wouldn't include full features. There was a reason I underlined that, specifically because demos are a far cry from a finished product. Want an idea what I'm talking about, take any demo that was released before the final game came out, play it, then go play the finished product. I could probably safely bet 100 bucks alot changed.

In either case, to be perfectly honest there is no real win-win situation where you try to make smooth transitions and quick, precise, and responsive gameplay and they're probably struggling to find a good compromise between the two, especially when they said animation lock is going to be eliminated in ARR.

[Zaireeka2025]

Having Animations done and having the engine to implement those animations are entirely different things when it comes to the development of a game. Animations are done very early in the development phase, however they can't do much else with them until the main engine (what controls other engines such as movement) and all the other parts of the game is developed enough where they can establish boundaries, conditions, and effects attached to that animation, and most of that isn't fully developed till about the start of the Alpha Phase.

Considering the Alpha is still at least a month away and the footage is around a month old now the playable demo Yoshi shown may be the absolute earliest workable form of Alpha, IF it wasn't specifically created and put together as a demo which wouldn't include full features. There was a reason I underlined that, specifically because demos are a far cry from a finished product. Want an idea what I'm talking about, take any demo that was released before the final game came out, play it, then go play the finished product. I could probably safely bet 100 bucks alot changed.

In either case, to be perfectly honest there is no real win-win situation where you try to make smooth transitions and quick, precise, and responsive gameplay and they're probably struggling to find a good compromise between the two, especially when they said animation lock is going to be eliminated in ARR.

Well put. If you're right, then I hope something gets added (during alpha testing) into the animation for stopping, landing, and leaning unique to the new engine.