Legacy 1.23b story

[Alien_Gamer]

I finally got around to watching the E3 Q&A, in particular the question about remaking the FF14 patch 1.23b server to allow players to experience the story. Yoshida's response was basically that the old server was scrapped and it would need to be recreated almost from scratch and that doing so would go counter to one of their goals of providing a closing experience for the existing fans of that time.

It made me think about how much effort and development time would go into that and I wonder if there's a different way to achieve the same result that wouldn't infringe upon what they did before.

What about instead of rebuilding the old server code they made a movie for it in the same vein as Kingsglaive or the Brotherhood short series? It wouldn't be the same as being there and participating but it could effectively tell the story of 1.0.

Probably not a huge moneymaker for them but I'd be interested in watching it.

Thoughts?

[tymora]

People will be up in arms because their character design isn't in the movie though.

[Hakuro89]

People will be up in arms because their character design isn't in the movie though.

Pretty much this. If I can't experience it through my own character there's no point, there'd be no difference between that and watching someone else's playthrough on YouTube.

I'd be super into it though if they could release like a short solo player standalone game covering it, somehow.

[Paladinleeds]

I'd be super into it though if they could release like a short solo player standalone game covering it, somehow.

Actually, I have a different proposal. Since it seems almost guaranteed we're going to Garlemald next expansion and the Garleans were the force behind the meteor that finished off 1.0, I would like to propose this:
Consider that for HW 3.1-3.4 (I think 3.4, either that or 3.3) the story arc was about the Warriors of Darkness (completely unrelated to the previous parts of the main arc), and for SB 4.1-4.3 was about the aftermath of Doma, what about for 5.1-5.3 it's about the events that unfolded in 1.0-1.23 and how it has affected the present day, and how we move on from it. Tie it in that way. Make it a part of the game.

[Issac]

Take a page from XI like Wings of the Goddess?

[Vhailor]

Thoughts?

I think the easier approach would be to release some official resources and reference docs, and leave it to modders. As I understand it, there are already groups aiming to reboot FFXIV 1.x on their own, without any assistance from SE whatsoever. Why not release the assets and such, boost their efforts? The whole thing would be nearly free-of-cost, and might even turn into a useful test bed for new ideas as modders play around and implement new things that could apply to modern-day XIV.

[Ameela]

People will be up in arms because their character design isn't in the movie though.

It'd make sense though.
Lorewise, if you never played 1.0, your character never experienced those events.

Personally I think it'd be fine if they made a cutscene compilation with the Derplander they use in the trailers, in fact I kind of wish someone (not necessarily Square) would do that even for the 2.0-4.0 stuff.

[HyoMinPark]

I'd like to experience it. But the best way would probably be as Vhailor suggested: release more source code so private servers can form. It wouldn't be the same if my character was illustrated as a Derplander fill-in. I couldn't play 1.0 despite owning a copy someone gave me because of system requirements so. Would still be nice to at least experience the story, and after watching a lot of the Speakers Network videos, to walk around the areas (particularly Coerthas) because I like that sort of thing.

[Alien_Gamer]

People will be up in arms because their character design isn't in the movie though.

I have yet to see any player express concern over any of the existing trailers or promotional movies using the derplander, I don't expect this to be different. The basic idea is to start with the existing cut scenes and add some scenes for things that weren't originally cut scenes so it all makes sense as a story. Overall its less work than rebuilding a server and you still get to experience the story.

as Vhailor suggested: release more source code so private servers can form.

I won't deny there are some talented modders out there that could do wonders with it but as ARR is still heavily based on the 1.0 server code I don't see this ever happening. Even if ARR was a brand new engine with no ties to 1.0 I would have a hard time believing SE would release their assets for free use like that.

[HyoMinPark]

I have yet to see any player express concern over any of the existing trailers or promotional movies using the derplander, I don't expect this to be different. The basic idea is to start with the existing cut scenes and add some scenes for things that weren't originally cut scenes so it all makes sense as a story. Overall its less work than rebuilding a server and you still get to experience the story.

I think for something personal like the End of 1.0, people may feel differently, especially if they would like to experience on an avatar more like their character as opposed to a fill-in. I’ve watched 1.0 cutscenes, and they just don’t feel the same with it being someone else’s character—I know a lot of people from 1.0 say the story was really lacking until about 1.2x, but I can’t help but be interested in it all the same.

At least for me. 1.23b was so pivotal and emotional in terms of the development of this game (and end of one era of it), that I think it would be a bit different than promo trailers.

I won't deny there are some talented modders out there that could do wonders with it but as ARR is still heavily based on the 1.0 server code I don't see this ever happening. Even if ARR was a brand new engine with no ties to 1.0 I would have a hard time believing SE would release their assets for free use like that.

Likewise it’s unlikely, I think, that they would ever provide a 1.23b experience for people, even if it was in high demand. Considering the impact 1.0 had on Square Enix as a company, and the Final Fantasy name. For the most organic of experiences, it would have to be a private server created by a third party, I think. There’s already a bunch of code that people have from the game files, and there have been quite a few attempts to get a Classic FFXIV server running. Sadly, I think they all lacked manpower, and have more or less died out because of that; or there are coding issues that they have attempted to work out that just take too much time to mess with (such as getting actual monsters to spawn on the map—I don’t know how complicated that actually is, but I remember reading a blog from someone trying to start a private server about having issues with that). I’m not heavily into any of this stuff, so I can’t say for certain. I’m just making assumptions based off of blogs I’ve read about it.