What would you do if you had control over FFXIV?

[Awha]

My guess working on this game as a Dev is not the easiest, given the amount of technical debt they have to work around and subsequently most likely the amount of non traditional workarounds they have to use to get around said debt is already an arduous task, let alone the language barrier making that even worse.

[Kiurai]

I recall reading somewhere that Yoshida said throwing more money at the problem won't do any good. They are trying to hire more people but can't get anyone. It's not a lack of funds, it's a lack of devs.

I agree with this sentiment as throwing more money at ffxiv wouldn't get you 30 high end raid bosses & 10 ultimates per expac or whatever since you still have to train each person to specifically design encounters at that level, have people on the team who can clear said fight to play test it, all while meeting deadlines, XIV isn't having it's money siphoned because that doesn't matter (if it did MMOs with bigger budgets than XIV at thier respective launches wouldn't have as many issues either) We can speculate through cynical goggles all we want but we need proof to back that up other than "it's so obvious that x reason is the case!"

[Dragonblanco]

Delete Balmung and Mateus

lmao, ok. I've been seeing that enough but never spent time to Google it. What's the story with that joke about deleting Balmung?

[Dragonblanco]

Do you like this game or not?

Do you have some sort of criticism with the people in charge of this game?

Yes and no. We all have heard where they have even admitted they want to do things but are holding off, such as getting a new gaming engine. We also have seen where moderators never speak here in the forum really and we've had lots of issues with players in-game, but it often feels like GM and moderators don't exist.

In addition, there are lots of features that people have collectively been griping about for several expansions. So we know that people in various places are "dropping the ball." It could just be that they aren't doing their jobs or it could be they lack the manpower but are trying their best. Regardless of what's happening, there's a lot of work to be done.

I suppose a way you can look at it is we might all love pizza. They start offering Cheese pizza and players say they want variety, as there should be pepperoni and other toppings. Does that mean they don't like pizza? Heck no, they just like it better with those toppings or maybe a different crust. People see those options and additions as improvements. So it's saying as much as you love pizza (FFXIV), what changes or additions would you make? But then it went one step further to tell people to not only think of the game but of the company as a whole.

We'd need more profit for things to happen. Would need to encourage more players to join or pay into it so those things could be done. Then looking at idea for long login times and stuff to be reduced, you need more servers. For people to respond to posts, hackers, GM reports, etc then you need to have enough manpower. There's a lot to consider. So in thinking about it all, you share what you'd like to see and what you'd do, but it can also help you reflect on maybe what makes it so challenging for it to be done. You're also able to see answers from other players of people who agree or disagree with your way of thinking, which offers even a better perspective.

[TeraRamis]

More emphasis on reinvestment in hardware/infrastructure. No more 5 hour Mogstation delivery delays, or ridiculous pit fighting over housing. Nearly every system in the game is gummed up by antiquated design stacked on top of antiquated design - that needs to be torn down and rebuilt, not just layer-caked until the servers shut down for good.

Also, I'd like to see an expansion devoted to more traditional regions (more zones added to the original three kingdoms), and a fight against the Empire directly (rather than some proxy war staged in, say, Doma).

[Dragonblanco]

i love the tags for this thread. But I'll bite because why not

Lol, I didn't even notice tags or even know how that works. Definitely funny the things people put. Sad part is it's that type of thinking that stops forward progress. It doesn't say things have to be right or that we're bashing people. It's just talk about what flavors we'd like. It's been really interesting to see some of the responses. It would be really awesome to actually see people from the dev team to pop in on threads like this to acknowledge some desires and explain why it can or can't happen. And if it came down to money, start up a GoFundMe system or something. Tell players if they can raise enough money for it, they'll make it happen. That would let people put up or shut up. But that type of thing will never happen. lol

[StriderShinryu]

I largely think the game is in a pretty good place so I wouldn't likely change too much, and too much change wouldn't likely be possible within the existence of the game anyway.

1.) Rethink the removal of extra dungeons and instead expand the idea to potentially include the deep dungeon and exploration area content to allow for extra combat areas, including instanced areas, that had some additional challenge and rewarded more than just combat skill. It could be as simple as the return of Hard Mode dungeons or as complex as a completely new take on a randomly generated dungeon like space.
2.) Revamp the companion system to include everything from your Chocobo to Squadrons to Trusts. Leave main story NPCs as Trusts for specific instances but let you take your Chocobo into dungeons, let you take a Squadron member out into the world, etc. Just fold them all into one comprehensive system that works from level 15ish all the way through the game
3.) Add a Hall of the Novice and Hall of the Veteran to teach more advanced mechanical systems and role oriented tasks. Make completion of these a requirement at specified parts of the MSQ.
4.) Investigate what it would take to refresh the visual engine, the glamour system, the housing system, etc. Maybe these would never be able to be truly updated or revamped but lay out exactly what the challenges are and what the timelines are for giving them the fixes they deserve.

[Dragonblanco]

Has the team ever specified that money was the reason why they couldn't implement things or why things get cut as people say? Because I don't think Yoshi P or anyone else in the dev says money just "resources" or "time" right? I see everyone say that we must be losing stuff or whatever because "All of XIV budget is clearly being siphoned into some other game!" with little to no evidence other than speculation from what I've seen but I don't mind being proven wrong here

Agreed. I've never seen anything about lack of budget. What some speculation has been though is that they are putting more of the budget on a future game. When we saw that they announced the graphics engine needs upgraded but they want to wait, combined with the idea of them having been recruiting for a project following FFXIV, it might be that they "end" FFXIV with Endwalker and then move on to something else that will have the better graphics and other things involved. If they do that, it'll be interesting to see if we start off from scratch or if they'll build it on top of what we have somehow.

Btw, sources of what I'm talking about are
https://www.rpgsite.net/news/9790-fi...s-as-fake-news
https://gamingbolt.com/final-fantasy...engine-someday

[Lauront]

Add in playable Ivalice Moogles and I’d vote for you.

We could always trade the spiteful midgets for them. I'd be game.

I recall reading somewhere that Yoshida said throwing more money at the problem won't do any good. They are trying to hire more people but can't get anyone. It's not a lack of funds, it's a lack of devs.

I'm not entirely sure I buy it tbh. Yes, perhaps for the specialised niche that is MMO combat design in raids, that is true, but that isn't what the hold up is on many projects people keep asking about (e.g. the conversion of the low res to high res textures - something they are apparently slowly starting work on now.) I suspect it may have something to do with how willing they are to parcel out certain work to contingent labour, really. They do engage with third parties for some work, like voice acting, to my knowledge, but their hand is forced there.

I would LOVE a graphics overhaul, especially for textures.

I don't need this game looking super shiny but some of the textures are really, really bad.

We dropped PS3 a long time ago, can we at least get a texture pack we can toggle on or off based preference? It's time.

By the sounds of it I think they are beginning to work on that. I posted some links on hints of it here.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Agreed. I've never seen anything about lack of budget. What some speculation has been though is that they are putting more of the budget on a future game. When we saw that they announced the graphics engine needs upgraded but they want to wait, combined with the idea of them having been recruiting for a project following FFXIV, it might be that they "end" FFXIV with Endwalker and then move on to something else that will have the better graphics and other things involved. If they do that, it'll be interesting to see if we start off from scratch or if they'll build it on top of what we have somehow.

Btw, sources of what I'm talking about are
https://www.rpgsite.net/news/9790-fi...s-as-fake-news
https://gamingbolt.com/final-fantasy...engine-someday

They kind of completely denounced the claims of another game when they said they got the okay form higher ups to keep the game going for at least around 10 more years so... dont see another game on the horizon. Only thing i do know is that a lot of the team behind HW was put towards ff16. Which is highly unfortunate considering how already scarce the dev team is.