Would you trade new ingame content for an engine upgrade?

[MintnHoney]

As others have similarly thought before me, I don't know if expecting 10 more years for FFXIV is realistic without some major engine and/or system upgrades, so I think it would be in their best interest to postpone content for said upgrades if that was a choice that needed to be made.

[dspguy]

I played FFXI for 8 years. In this player's opinion, Wings of the Goddess was the last "real expansion." It became a different game entirely after that. In my mind, the expiration date for FFXI was set the moment Abyssea came out. And that was at the 7 year mark. FFXIV is past that 7 year mark already. Of course, FFXIV isn't FFXI. Their expansions (in this player's opinion!) have only gotten better with time. So this game might have more longevity than FFXI did.

I think if they work on a new engine, it should be one that they can leverage in the future for another game entirely. Whether that be an MMO or not.

[ZedxKayn]

There is nothing I want more for this game than an engine update.

[KuroMaboroshi]

The few people who seem to be confusing an "engine update" with an "engine swap" in this thread seem to midjudge just what amount of effort that would entail. Sure, (insert your favourite engine here) is a nice engine, but switching engines is not a thing any sane person does for an ongoing project. You can't simply take code and copy-paste it from one engine into the other with some changes. Instead, it would be more like rebuilding the game from scratch in the new engine, to the technical specifications and limitations of that new engine. That's already basically developing a fully new game in terms of development, especially if the graphics are updated at the same time. Add to that the fact that it would have to be backwards compatible with whatever their current data structures are if you don't want the upgrade to also reset everyone's current state and progress. This means you might not even get much improvement in terms of server architecture out of it, depending on what the limiting factors are, while hugely complicating the requirements instead of playing to the strength of a new engine. It's not worth it for anyone, players or developers. Should FF XIV ever nears the end of its life cycle in a decade or two and SE makes a new MMO, they can make or use a new engine for it. Any improvements to this game will have to come from updating the current one.

But it will be as they have always done: Silently, bit by bit, in the background. Historically they have prioritised server improvements, physics and other such things over graphics when it comes to prioritising changes, because those will keep the game's look consistent and probably only be a marginal raise on the system requirements. I'd expect this trend to continue into the future. As they have stated repeatedly, the limitation on their ability to improve is know-how, not budget. I therefore also wouldn't expect the scope of the upgrades per patch to ever increase.

As for delaying content to free up time, this very thread is the perfect example as to why that would go over poorly, as no one can agree what should be cut in favour of what. To me you could remove dungeons and nothing in terms of content would be lost since those are a snorefest from the second time on when there is no new and shiny story and lore in it anymore. For others that might be the main content they run and they'd instead remove Exploration content or raids in a heartbeat cause they don't do that content. No one would ever agree and the odds of any one person ending up getting exactly the content the find expendable cut in favour of updates is next to nil.

[sharknado]

Sure, (insert your favourite engine here) is a nice engine, but switching engines is not a thing any sane person does for an ongoing project. You can't simply take code and copy-paste it from one engine into the other with some changes. Instead, it would be more like rebuilding the game from scratch in the new engine, to the technical specifications and limitations of that new engine. That's already basically developing a fully new game in terms of development, especially if the graphics are updated at the same time.

FF14 won't use Unity or Unreal Engine. What people want is gradual update of part of the game and that what MMOs can do. WoW right now has a highly modern backend and frontent for the game, they even have native Windows ARM client not to mention Apple ARM. And when auction house could not perform well after expansion launch they just implemented a new, better one and launched in one of subsequent patches. Such games are composed of distributed services and aren't a bit monolithic block.

So there is no excuse to keep old limitation, old client when they want the game to run for next 10+ years. This will eat some cash and time but that's the point of current state of the game - sproutbringer and EW happened and now they have the cash and player momentum to pull it off. If not with time people will just go to newer, more modern games. Lost Ark, Elder Ring, Ashes of Creation or even WoW, New World are competitors that aren't sleeping.

If another game gives better cat girls and glams the result will be obvious

[MidnightEquinox]

Yeah of course. It is also a big financial risk to leave your game as is and hope people don't unsub and move on to newer games when they come out.

Show me your evidence. I've seen no indication whatsoever that graphics is what causes people to leave MMOs. It's just not that important to players and a lot of people play on potatoes so their graphics settings are low regardless.

Old school Runescape and WoW Classic have older graphics and do fine. New World is a beautiful game and that did fuck all.

I've seen the opposite much more often: inaccessible graphics requirements reducing player population. Rift had this issue significantly at launch.

FFXI still looks like it did in 2005. As a consequence it has lost the majority of its playerbase.

I seriously doubt people are leaving FFXI due to graphics lol

This is a nonissue for the vast majority of people. For a new MMO to come out and grab players in an established MMORPG, it would need considerably more than graphics, I assure you.

[Raikai]

I would, but... when that would happen though?

Realistically, now would be the perfect time for it. Since EW wrapped in the .0, content patches with less features so 7.0 could launch with this and the new story arc.

[Nyxn607]

My two cents: postpone 7.0 for 6 months or a year. During this time frame, have pre-planned releases of events to help keep some people playing for a short time. Maybe bring back some older events like Garo or Yo-kai that take time to get all the items. This game could go so far with an updated look/customization options. I would love to see the engine get upgraded at some point.

The only alternative (that I can see) to not upgrading the engine, is to make a brand new MMO on a newer engine down the road.

[sharknado]

Old school Runescape and WoW Classic have older graphics and do fine. New World is a beautiful game and that did fuck all.

WoW Classic SoA died pretty quickly, now is left with some raiding guilds while wannabie casuals moan no one else plays the game while hardcore don't want them in their guilds/raid groups. Original Classic launch was a success but just like private servers before it players where there for the progression and since around AQ they started to fall off to then go to TBC which now evolved into few mega-realms and all others dying forcing Blizzard into free transfers from all those dying realms. And TBC since like month or two after launch is just raidlogging.

Graphics aren't some mega-essential part of an MMO but they do play a role. The game with a better boob slider will have an advantage, especially among games where extreme raid progression is part of the end game Xeno won't quit playing FF14 tanks due to graphics quality but your local Limsan girls can Yet edge case scenarios of RTX 3090 level of detail is not something that people really want here. Just less pixelisation as an option.

[Ath192]

Show me your evidence. I've seen no indication whatsoever that graphics is what causes people to leave MMOs. It's just not that important to players and a lot of people play on potatoes so their graphics settings are low regardless.

Old school Runescape and WoW Classic have older graphics and do fine. New World is a beautiful game and that did fuck all.

I've seen the opposite much more often: inaccessible graphics requirements reducing player population. Rift had this issue significantly at launch.
I seriously doubt people are leaving FFXI due to graphics lol

This is a nonissue for the vast majority of people. For a new MMO to come out and grab players in an established MMORPG, it would need considerably more than graphics, I assure you.

Here is an article of a study saying that around 75% of gamers do think about graphics when buying a new game. MMO or not bad graphics will prevent new players from wanting to try it out and make old veterans want to try new games with new graphics. So long as the gameplay is good.

https://www.cinemablend.com/games/75...ame-64659.html

Me and my friends left FFXI for FFXIV because it looked much better. Unfortunately it wasn’t too good at the beginning but we waited for the game to be re-released and it paid off big time.

We would do the same if another FF MMO came out that looked better.

Eyeballing this thread it does seem the majority would put off content to improve the graphics engine and all the system improvements that said work would bring to the rest of the game. (Glamour dressers)

I do not see the opposite more often. And you are confusing the reasons better looking MMOs have failed. New World, PSO2 NG launched with great anticipation and healthy playerbases but it was the unpreparedness of the game and gameplay issues that so far have tanked them.

Finally Nvidia and AMD combined cannot supply the world with enough new next gen GPUs for new PCs and consoles throughout the world right now even with shortages (they said demand was unprecedented). A high indication people are ready and investing in new graphical technology. Presumably to not play RuneScape.

Old games have fans that make them do “fine” yes.

Now I need to see your evidence that people prefer worse looking games please, and that they wouldn’t leave said games if a newer and better looking version of them came out.

By your logic everyone would still be running the PS2 because all newer consoles bring to the table is more horsepower for better graphics. Gameplay can be good or bad in any device after all. But that isn’t the case is it?