A call for transparency

[Dreamer]

PTRs in other games are used more for hype and for player structures to learn new content before it's released. Very little testing actually gets done on them. With that in mind, I personally don't see the need for a dedicated test server.

[Elexia]

Well thanks Mack but it's

Best to really skim over his posts, he's prone to attacking points for no reason.

[Meridian]

PTRs in other games are used more for hype and for player structures to learn new content before it's released. Very little testing actually gets done on them. With that in mind, I personally don't see the need for a dedicated test server.

So when those players are learning new content - they're not testing the encounters or features? Do the devs not look at all the logs and outputs from these "learning" encounters and tweak things as required? I believe you just put forward an argument fora PTR, rather than against.

[Nipa]

I think that whatever they think they've got to hide, they need to just humble themselves and get comfortable with us. I think that the remaining playerbase is willing to accept whatever they do, since 60% of them are white knights anyway, lol.

Well, even though you are most certainly right on the playerbase, you have to factor in the little tiny detail of the game still being free. And I'm pretty sure they are more afraid of the damage the switch back to a subscription model will do, than of any other negative criticism we can imagine.

At this pace, can we seriously expect a game worthy of a subscription in one year?

So maybe they are simply trying to hide that, hoping one day some players will be unconscious enough to subscribe (and buy some excuse of an expansion or a PS 3 version).

[Sephr]

At this pace, can we seriously expect a game worthy of a subscription in one year?

So maybe they are simply trying to hide that, hoping one day some players will be unconscious enough to subscribe (and buy some excuse of an expansion or a PS 3 version).

There is no logic to this theory. Thinking that people will stumble into subscribing makes no sense, and you think they've settled to simple keep their fingers crossed and keep quiet? We are talking about the same multinational corporation here aren't we?

Honestly, they really haven't been that quiet recently, the gatherer Q&A literally just went out in the japanese forum, so that'll be here today or tomorrow.

I'd say if anything, info's been picking up a lot. Remember the good 2 months of silence we had earlier in the year?

[Lerris]

A test server makes sense when you have a pipeline of content and changes to release. SE is in the position of having their pipeline drastically shortened. Since they claim they are committed to bringing out the changes ASAP, a one-week run on a test server delaying the release of the content/battle changes to the live servers by a week is out of the question. They don't have a version waiting for a release date; when they do it will go straight to the live servers.

I want one of SE programmer, one who is actually able to understand exactly why, for instance, adding mailboxes or LS remote control is so hard, to explain the broad workings of their whole client-server architecture, as well as their development chain.
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More transparency. Way more transparency.

Releasing architectural information to the public is out of the question. Among other things, making such information public gives the inevitable network hackers a starting point, and is not in the best interests of the company, the players or the shareholders. There may not be anything innovative about their architecture, but releasing such detailed information to the competition is also potentially damaging.

Private corporations lack transparency in these regards for very good reasons.

You know you have a point. The battle system blueprint, released a couple of weeks ago, shows a surprising lack of finalization. How it could take the team more than 7 months to complete their analysis of the battle system baffles me. What else is a good example of something very slow going that might be unrelated to programming?

@Neptune: I think they only really started with the battle system revision around 4 months ago, when the player poll # 2 came out, since I believe that where they got the information from. (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't looked at the past topics on the lodestone in a while). Since that's where most of the 'community' cried out for a new battle system, and seeing how SE acts, I don't think they would have noticed how bad the battle system was until the community vied for it. As such, it leads me to think they started probably only 4 months ago. Just a thought. Not saying you're wrong, just adding a different perspective. ^^

It's true that it wasn't a main priority until 4 months ago but according to the interview with Yoshida above, the new team was in place before the announcement in November and they had already started problem-solving then. So the question is, 7 months later, why is there a "blueprint" for battle instead of a finished list of changes? The blueprint didn't even indicate that the changes were final and that programming was the only thing incoming. A lot of stuff was very vague, as noted above, and completely up in the air. 7 months later.

It's not finalized until it's been implemented and tested.

Inputs from the community regarding the battle system were received less than 4 months ago. Mid-June would be a 4 month turnaround; until then, they had to analyze everything, not just the battle system. And the team is split up, to develop the battle system and the related content in parallel.

[Mack]

Actually I think one major factor that has never been recognized is that the FFXI team and the FFXIV team are the same team. In other words, our team is busy working on FFXI and that is detracting from the manpower put into FFXI. I wish I was wrong but they never indicated that the team ever split, and I think at least 90% of the teams are composed of the same people.

Well if this is the case this is the problem then.

[Neptune]

PTRs in other games are used more for hype and for player structures to learn new content before it's released. Very little testing actually gets done on them. With that in mind, I personally don't see the need for a dedicated test server.

So in other words, based on PTRs in another game, you don't see a need because this is exactly like other games. You should take into account the immaturity of this game. PTR would not be used for hype in this game.. come on, think about it.

A test server makes sense when you have a pipeline of content and changes to release. SE is in the position of having their pipeline drastically shortened. Since they claim they are committed to bringing out the changes ASAP, a one-week run on a test server delaying the release of the content/battle changes to the live servers by a week is out of the question. They don't have a version waiting for a release date; when they do it will go straight to the live servers.





It's not finalized until it's been implemented and tested.

Inputs from the community regarding the battle system were received less than 4 months ago. Mid-June would be a 4 month turnaround; until then, they had to analyze everything, not just the battle system. And the team is split up, to develop the battle system and the related content in parallel.

Damn, that was some good white knighting.

It's my proposal that they need to not rush anything out "ASAP". ASAP is the problem right now. Ever since the beginning of the year they have been releasing patches that have left people questioning the direction this game is heading. They need to treat this like a real beta period.

Your use of the word inputs is very misleading. I think people would like a lot of input on the battle reform blueprint. And when I said finalized I meant the ideas in the battle reform blueprint. Most of the blueprint presented ideas in the early stages. Anyway, I know you're a white knight and therefore you care nothing about what I meant or what I'm saying right now!

[Lerris]

It's my proposal that they need to not rush anything out "ASAP". ASAP is the problem right now. Ever since the beginning of the year they have been releasing patches that have left people questioning the direction this game is heading. They need to treat this like a real beta period.

So, you mean they should implement a test server, let us try it out, and ignore the feedback like they did in beta?

[Asmeret]

ITT; Neptune shows us over and over that he doesn't know the meaning of white knight.