Technology in FFXIV + Visual Style

[Black_Rose]

i allways thought that FFXIV was allready a bit ahead of FFXI with all the garlean empire stuff and such, heavy airship fleets etc.
but i agree, i wish we'd be able to see all this stuff allready!

[Shikaree]

I just remembered something from when I got into open beta!

Now I was testing in closed alpha/beta and only got to see Limsa and Los Noscea at that time. I remembered reading something about "large seamless zones" and thought maybe the zone layout would be similar to how it is in WoW, you have your different areas and they try to seam together as you go from one to the other (I know some of this is crap in WoW, you can clearly see the visible line between areas).

When open beta started and you could see the other areas, I was expecting going from The Black Shroud to Thanalan to see a bit of transition going from a forest to a desert. Nope, hit a zone line and saw instead what FFXI did and you couldn't tell you were gradually going from one region to another.

This isn't quite the same as what we're just talking about with what the world is lacking is detail, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[Vesperia]

http://ffxivonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/gridania.jpg Simply beautiful [/URL]


Gridania in-game

http://www.ffxivorigin.com/content/attachments/227d1282007650-gridania1-jpg/

Like everything else in the game... it's lacking life. Where's those huts we see in the arwork, built in those big trees. Where's those huge 1000 years trees? Those beautiful lights guiding your path?

when comparing the ingame screenshot to the artwork it looks like they didnt have enough time to finish the main building... the 2nd and 3rd floor are missing. It's also missing lights, decor and paint...


Can we realistically hope all this will be fixed? I would love for FFXIV to turn more like it's artwork. To me it seems that they didn't understand Yoshida's art and couldn't reproduce it or they just lacked the time to do it? I hope one day we will see Eorzea come to life and maybe have a world resembling FFX and FFXII's worlds. [/B]

Gridania is pretty disappointing when comparing the concept art. But this usually happens in all games. Concept art always looks better than the 'real' thing.

That said, the gridania we have in-game is not really living up to potential. But I guess that's what happen when you use an engine that can't render shadows! It would have been interesting to see the concept art for gridania brought to life using different engines.

And can SE please fix Depth-of-field already! The sharp line separating low and high res textures is most irratating. Most!

[Onidemon]

This is why I picked Lindblum as a server, FFIX was a great game. I think Memoria was a great endgame dungeon as well.

Something else I don't see in FFXI/V are areas that present large objects that scales out the area more. I'm talking like 100+ foot high up giant overhead rock structures or very tall trees that make you able to see right up close, run around or under, and just say 'wow!'. I'm not talking how it is in Gridania, I mean somewhere more like Los Noscea or Coerthas. The land just feels very flat with a bunch of walls and maybe a level change that stays consistent for one side of the zone. Can't really call anything landmarks out there, it all looks the same.

They forgot to add landmarks everywhere on the map. You can't tell where your characters is simply by looking at the surroundings, everything looks the same.

[Onidemon]

Does anyone else think that the areas that are still off limits, are being redesigned from scratch? They look like they were almost finished when the game launched and 8 months later they are still closed.

[Lilith]

Digging up this thread because I'd like, as many others, get a dev comment on this. Are we getting more technology (Like in many previous FF's) as in a new continent(s), enemies/bosses, equipable gear, etc?
Is this something that is still planned (short or long term)?

[Rowyne]

Onidemon, not trying to troll, but your posts are hard to read when you type everything in bold. It's like you're shouting. I got halfway through your OP before I gave up.

I will say that one of my biggest points of excitement about this game was that Tanaka originally said it would be inspired by FFVI, which was set in sort of a steampunk world of technology mixed with magic. I'd like to see more of that emerge.

[zaviermhigo]

I personally don't like the technological aspect of some of the FFs, but I did think the Garlean's technology can lead us to some stuff. Obviously they already tried to appease fanboys with gunblades and such.

[Sephr]

I personally like the approach they've taken thats a mix of technology and magic, similar to FFXII (same art director). However I agree that its just bland right now, hopefully in the future they might try and jazz the cities up a bit. When we have airships going in and out in the future that might also help make them feel a bit more alive too.