FFXIV needs an update

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Graphics are literally a small part of the experience.

The main reason i couldn't take in the character of Hien was the ugly textures of his clothes. It took me away from the narrative immersion at a mere glance - And often does in parts when the lowres textures become too evident or the shading/lightning of the game doesn't work (blocky shadows on instanced content for example)
To say graphics are a small part of any VIDEOgame is beyond me. It is literally the main receptive sense a VIDEOgame both estimulates and uses to convey most of their information - All related to fluidity, quality and design of the images being presented.

Just as a bad take on graphics can lead you to think that good graphics = high res textures/photorealism or RTX/Post-processing. An undervalue of graphics lead you to ruin precious developing time of excellent art assets and ultimately ruin a presentation, a visual experience for many.

Graphics DO Matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyjyWUrHsFc

"They say graphics are unimportant, but every game i've played has had them."

[Kolsykol]

Personally I think that FFXIV looks incredible until you zoom in on certain things.
The textures could be updated to be sharper.

But overall the game is really pretty to look at and doesn't feel dated imo it's mostly an issue with texture resolution that stand out to me.

[DBriggs304]

And I ain't talking about content. I'm talkin' about an update to its engine, servers, and an entire overhaul of its basic combat and raid design.
So let's say a major overhaul like that is in the works. BUT, the project is massive and will require an entire expansion's worth of waiting (2 years) for it to be completed.
Now think of a problem you've had with the game. Be it housing, additional sliders, no loading zones, interchangable music and so and so forth. All those problems will be fixed, but will require 2 years of waiting.
Would you wait for it?

No, it doesn't.
It wouldn't be FF then.

[Vidu]

While I do see all of those issues that people bring up - inventory, housing, loading times, to a degree the quality of the graphic - and experience some of them myself, they're not a huge deal to me. Or at least not as huge a deal as people make them out to be.

Take the graphics for example - yes, there are a lot of better looking games out there, but the game still looks pretty to me. Maybe its because I tend to still play older games aswell, despite them looking like they're the 10 years old that they are (which is true for FFXIV aswell), but high res textures arent everything and I like the overall style of FFXIV, so... what gives if there are some ugly textures? It doesnt really spoil my experience enough to warrant not getting to play a game that I love and made many friends for 2 years.

Inventory is the same thing - even if we had more space, you'd still be required to manage your inventory. You'll always be required to do that, to look through your bags and decide whats worth keeping and what isnt... for me keeping the game running is far more important than a couple hundred more slots. So... I'll keep that.

Housing is not only a problem in terms of code and server space, but also in terms of design and idea - Yoshida stated several times that he wants to keep the neighbour hoods, so even if they'd get 2 years to update the game, nothing is to say that they change anything about the underlying concept in terms of housing. (And, as a sidenote... I dont think housing is as big of a problem as it sometimes sounds here on the forums... I took a stroll through a neighbourhood yesterday, visited a couple of houses, maybe 10 or so, and of those only 3 or 4 were actually decorated with more than random stuff that was thrown on the floors... quite sad, actually).

Loading times are not fully in their control in the first place, seeing how your connection and your machine play a roll in that aswell - and I'm not sure that saving a couple of seconds for loading is worth waiting 2 years... only to then discover, in some cases, that your PC might not be able to run the game anymore at all.

This game has flaws, theres no need to sugar coat that. But at least to me non of these flaws make me not want to play the game or even just give me real struggle enjoying and playing the game. Certainly non of them - and not even all of them combind - are worth taking the game down (which would also be a bad idea from a buisness persepective, I'd assume? Specially now with the huge influx of new players?). The things that I cant find in this game, I can always find in other games, while enjoying this one for what it is. Maybe I'm not "passionate" enough about things like this, I dont know. Maybe I'm to cynical, assuming that even if they'd fix all these flaws, people would find new things to complain about. And maybe I'm to tired of hearing those complaints, because to me they seem rather insignificant - and nothing I'd like lose acces to a game that to me is really enjoyable over.

TL;DR.: No.

[Enkidoh]

Those wanting a graphical update probably will be disappointed because Yoshi stated in the past it was an obssession with high end graphics which is exactly why the original version of FFXIV (1.0) failed - that SE had what he termed "the graphics disease", that fancy graphics took priority over everything else - and that any issue could simply be patched later.

ARR was thus designed to be more mid ranged graphic wise and thus playable on a much wider range of PCs and systems, even people with department store OEM systems with a low end video card - I mean, the barest minimum system requirements that the game will run on is FFXIV ARR is Windows XP SP3! - and before you pass judgement, FFXIV's predecessor FFXI still runs in it's original PS2 era engine (that still uses Direct X 8 running emulated in DX9!, and yet it is still going strong).

It's clear to SE that graphics are not everything, and although they certainly will make improvements here in there, you're simply not going to see a full replacement of ARR with a new engine (and lets face it, the way technology is, in a few years what is current "high end" graphics.. will become yesterday's news soon enough anyway, constantly chasing the latest graphics in an MMO is a zero-sum game that will eventually be unattainable, that's just being realistic.

[Sotaris]

Those wanting a graphical update probably will be disappointed because Yoshi stated in the past it was an obssession with high end graphics which is exactly why the original version of FFXIV (1.0) failed - that SE had what he termed "the graphics disease", that fancy graphics took priority over everything else - and that any issue could simply be patched later.

Don't have to be 1.0 graphics. But I would like to see better than 16 bit res on crystal exarch cloths

[Snorky]

I don't see anything that would warrant what the OP suggests. Improvements sure but nothing that warrants a complete overhaul of this game. I have to say it, if you are that unhappy there's the ---} door. There are lots of games out there that are pretty with no substance.

[Illmaeran]

Nah, XIV doesn't need those updates. SE needs to make a whole new MMO to take advantage of modern technologies and address problems XIV currently has.

Until then I'm going to sit here and stay in love with this incredible game.

[Kes13a]

I get it, you want it top be pretty and all that.

might I remind you that FFXIV 1.0 was graphically very pretty for its day.

I think we all remember how that turned out. be careful what you wish for

[HollowedDoll]

Actual antialiasing would be nice, and like.. textures need a bit of care