Would you trade new ingame content for an engine upgrade?

[anhaato]

Lots of people here have been talking lately about their desires for a grand update to the game to bring it up to modern MMO tech, but that will definitely come with a tradeoff. An engine upgrade will most likely mean less game content, period, there's no escaping that. So how would you rather they go about it? If one year Square were to announce "no expansion this year, instead we're focusing on a big upgrade to the game's engine for X.0," would you be happy with that? Or would you rather they try to slowly work on an engine upgrade over a several years in a manner similar to 2.0's release while simultaneously keeping up a patch/expansion schedule, that may be slower or come with less content?

I personally would prefer the former. I know many people would be upset at an extended content drought, knowing how badly people were itching for new stuff in the wait between 5.2-3, but if, say, 7.0 ended up being a complete facelift for the game instead of giving us any new content, I'd be pretty hype.

(None of this is me making demands of how I believe it should happen. I want them to upgrade the engine at some point, and however that happens, I'll be happy regardless.)

[Kaurhz]

I'd say yes, but it depends entirely on the content that it is being swapped with. Some pieces of content are really just too integral to the game to be swapped out with, without people kicking up a fuss about it

[Krotoan]

Yes. The longer we put off any sort of fundamental upgrades, the more unlikely an upgrade in the future becomes and the more likely another abandon/remake becomes.

[Shuuli]

I was thinking the other day how this game would run with unreal engine V. Unreal really outdone themself with this engine honestly. Made it super easy to design games.

I personally would be open to see the game on new engine for loss of content for the old one, if that does not mean that the old servers would be shut down. So If i can still go back and play the old content until I wish to fully migrate to the new one, it would be nice.

However, I am not sure of what new engine they would use. Not sure if Unreal 5 is an option to them or if they have something similar over there.
I am also sure that many people would be pissed as fuck to not get new content. But after seeing what the new engine can do and how it looks like they would change their mind.

Many people say that the true endgame is glam and housing and both would benefit incredibly from a new engine. If they would promise these two to be massively upgraded, I am sure people would be willing to make some "sacrifices"

[SenorPatty]

Depends on what kind of engine upgrade we're talking about and all that it entails as well as what kind of content we're slashing.

[Gemina]

I could go either way. I try not to be too invested in any particular aspect of FFXIV in order to facilitate adaptation when its required to continue to enjoy the game.

I think it would be helpful if they were as transparent as they can possibly be with the playerbase if this was direction they wanted to go. It seems like a move to make past the peak of an mmos popularity, rather than during.

[anhaato]

I was thinking the other day how this game would run with unreal engine V. Unreal really outdone themself with this engine honestly. Made it super easy to design games.

I personally would be open to see the game on new engine for loss of content for the old one, if that does not mean that the old servers would be shut down. So If i can still go back and play the old content until I wish to fully migrate to the new one, it would be nice.

However, I am not sure of what new engine they would use. Not sure if Unreal 5 is an option to them or if they have something similar over there.
I am also sure that many people would be pissed as fuck to not get new content. But after seeing what the new engine can do and how it looks like they would change their mind.

Many people say that the true endgame is glam and housing and both would benefit incredibly from a new engine. If they would promise these two to be massively upgraded, I am sure people would be willing to make some "sacrifices"

I don't foresee them shutting down servers to update the game at this point, but they did have to do that for a while for ARR so who knows. They'd want to make the most financially wise decision, so I think keeping servers up with a bit of content here or there might be what they attempt.

As for the glamour and housing part, that's what I'm saying man! All these glamour updates everyone so desires just simply can't be done with the current state of the game's spaghetti code and outdated foundation. Casuals, gposers, RPers, etc are the largest portion of the playerbase, and I think Square could really sell them on a system that can support a better glamour and dye system, expanded housing, and modern era character customization.

[Kes13a]

the ever present elephant for these kinds of things are, its an old game, people play it on potatoes. not everyone, but the danger they run is, lets say that they upgrade everything, and suddenly all those old machines/consoles cant run it. sure, you might be able to turn down the graphics settings or what have you, but people in general do NOT like doing that if they are used to things looking a certain way, they do not want, ever, to turn down graphics settings, even if it makes things run more smoothly. some will, but lets face it, few people will want their game to look less pretty.

so, it will boil down to either SE saying "this is the direction, if you want a new engine, you will have to put out cash to upgrade your computer, plain and simple", which I cant see SE doing, because they arent a NA game company. The other option is developing 2 versions of the game, one old engine, one new, which I also dont see SE doing because from a cost perspective, makes no sense.

would it be awesome? sure would. is it possible? sure is, but its a very tricky slope.with the way the dev team works to make the game accessible to everyone however, I dont see them really upgrading things enough to keep some happy with new HD components etc, if its going to drive off the people on potatoes.

[van_arn]

Dunno. I don’t know we should hold the devs fast to a 5 patch cycle, though. If they need more time for bedrock changes, then I’m fine enjoying more patches.

[Imoye]

Yes. I would be willing to sacrifice content for an engine upgrade. I really think the game needs it and it would vastly improve it. Glamour, inventory, textures etc. basically everything would be improved, and it'd be a massive boost to the social aspects of this game.

I also think they should do something about server tick rate, because it's one of the reasons why the game feels so unresponsive and slow.

the ever present elephant for these kinds of things are, its an old game, people play it on potatoes. not everyone, but the danger they run is, lets say that they upgrade everything, and suddenly all those old machines/consoles cant run it.

An engine upgrade doesn't mean the game will be harder to run or look worse on low-spec machines. With proper optimization, it might even run better.