Feed back for the devs and a compromise from the community.

[Krotoan]

They can higher a company to handle the coding for them. This will allow the current dev team to focus on patch cycles without delaying them.

Yoshi-P stated in many interviews "XXX can be done if we had more staff."

Outsourcing is what destroyed 1.0

Just.. saying.

[JunkhogMakison]

Outsourcing is what destroyed 1.0

Just.. saying.

Among many....MANY other things lol

[Lersayil]

Proof?
Do you really think the budget is the same as ARR? Please.

There is no official source on this one, but it has been a popular rumor amongst the community. Not that the budget isn't growing per expansion, but that its not growing linearly with the players and money the game brings in. Source of the rumor seems to be mostly YoshiP's ramblings about lack of resources when spagetti code comes up.

[Mistyregions]

If it didn't cost as much as a stand alone game, then sure. Expansion selling points are the content it comes with, and if it doesn't come with much, then I would want to pay less.

Not only that but no matter what content they choose to "cut", the community will throw a bitch fit over it anyway.

You would be getting your value from the back end changes, just because we dont get a 24 raid let's say and a new beast tribe wouldn't mean the QoL stuff and engine changes wouldn't be worth 30 bucks alone.

[Aramina]

You'd never get a consensus on what QoL things would be worth delayed content. So no, I'd rather them focus on the new things and add the little things as time allows.

[Vidu]

You'd never get a consensus on what QoL things would be worth delayed content. So no, I'd rather them focus on the new things and add the little things as time allows.

...I imagine you'd also never get a consensus on what content to delay - remember: This is a theme park MMO and not everyone plays every content. Most people actually dont bother with certain aspects of the game at all - for someone who does do everything, missing one piece of content might not be a huge deal.
But what about the people who are only doing a fraction? If you're only running dungeons and 24-man-raids you suddenly lost like 50% of whats intresting to you.
If you're not into instances to much and there are no beast tribes... what to do?

Besides certain content - like raids and beast tribes etc. - giving an incentive to log in daily or at least weekly. Doing away with that in order to introduce some QoL at some point...? Doesnt seem like a good idea...

[Kazrah]

Would you be willing to have an expansion with less upfront content, but more back end and quality of life updates.

Honestly, I feel like we did that with this expansion. Fewer dungeons compared to Heavensward, fewer new gear models introduced compared to Heavensward (that aren't from Mog Station), technically fewer jobs if you want to be REALLY nitpicky, and fewer incentives to play the game more regularly from start to finish. In exchange though, we got things like the glamour dresser (with a doubled storage capacity and extra plates on the way), the world visit system and other enhanced cross-realm systems, ultimate fights to make the tryhards happy, and increased inventory storage on multiple levels via extra bag slots and the chocobo saddlebag to make crafters and gatherers happy. Pretty sure we also got an upgraded back end to allow for some of the battle changes for Stormblood as well.

If anything, I feel like we should be asking the opposite question: would we be willing to have an expansion with less quality of life adjustments, but more overall content?

[Krotoan]

Among many....MANY other things lol

Most of the problems stemmed from the fact that not only was it outsourced, it was outsourced to several different companies who really didn't have any knowledge or stake in the FF name. Chocobos were "horsebirds" because the companies who wrote the script had bad translations to go off and no education as to the lore. Maps were repetitive as hell because they were outsourced to a company that cut and pasted geometry to fulfill reqs, monsters were recycled assets. Even the engine I think was licensed from another company and then when everything was mashed into it to get it into one game it required crazy patchwork code to get working. When you have a game running on all these cobbled together things, it's hard to get anything good out of it.

[Kaedan]

Just curious OP, what exactly do you mean by "back end and quality of life updates." Like, please give some examples of things you like in exchange for content.

[Eli85]

So, let's start with the most obvious problem with this compromise: even if you could get the entireity of active forum goers to agree (you can't) it would still not be a compromise from the community. The forums are such a small fraction of the FF XIV community. We really do need to drop this whole, "We'll do this for the community." You nor anyone else can possibly speak on behalf of the community.


That said, the proposed solution of less upfront content and more back end fixes would kill the game. In gaming (and virtually every other business in the entertainment industry), content is king. I don't have a source for this, but I guarantee if you polled the active player base, most would be unaware of any significant back end problems. Why? They just play the game when there is either new content or the current content engages them, and they care little about anything else. There is a reason that very, very few MMOs ever do back end fixes, and this is why. Players want content. When back end fixes are done, it's only because the game makes a ridiculous amount of money and that additional back end is a great investment (WoW) or the game is struggling so bad that it must do it to make a return on the initial investment (FF XIV 1.0).


We all want back end fixes. There are numerous issues on the back end with this game (my personal pet peeve is the bad net code). But with a live game, these really can't be done. Players, no matter what you think or your friends think, will not support a game that results in less content. The only way you are going to see any back end changes is the subscriber base has to grow—and keep growing—to convince investors that additional money to alleviate back end issues will result in continued growth.


But we're not there yet. Not even close.