Offline Mode

[All_Nonsense]

First and foremost, I'd prefer if they could raise the quality of their net-code to, at the bare minimum, a passable standard for the modern day. I consider a passable modern-day standard as something comparable to live-service dependent games released since 1/1/2020, or something similar in quality to Steamworks SDK's networking API's developed by Valve and provided to devs as a solid groundwork for building their own multiplayer net-code. Or really any production-ready API developed since 1/1/2020. I feel like that's not an excessive mark to hold an MMO to.

Obviously this would be expensive, take a lot of time, and require some hardware adjustments - to say the absolute least. But it's not like they literally haven't had the opportunity to do this while they were treading neck-deep in pure cash. Instead, the money got pissed away for some of the worst gaming flops in the company's history.

If you want to experience an "offline mode" then go to Dynamis and have a blast. That DC is so dead that you basically have Limsa to yourself on some worlds

[Exmo]

Telling a client program to talk to {server over here} versus {server over there} is actually relatively trivial. The real trick would be convincing the FFXIV launcher to actually launch the server program locally in addition to the client we all know and love.

It's not launch the server locally, it's host the server locally. It would mean running all the notoriously spaghetti server code client side without actually behaving as server code, eg no load balancing, no instance management, etc.

[RedLolly]

You know what is the core problem with the mobile version to me? that it is on mobile, I detest playing games on phones, I did for a long time because I liked the games themselves, but my experience is that even playing them could get physically painful to me, not in a hyperbolic "the experience is so bad" way, but rather because phones tend to heat up when you run games on them, and because they are so small, it's your screen that is going to get really hot, the same screen your fingers are constantly tapping and rubbing against, an hour in and my fingers started to feel like they were bleeding just from the heat, more than that was just not possible for me, and I've played FFXIV for a lot longer than that in one sitting, I couldn't imagine possibly playing this game on mobile as a result, unless I played extremely sparingly.

This would be a different matter if it were to get a global release PC port, as PC ports of mobile gacha games are very common nowdays, but that might not even be possible depending on the deal they have with with SQEX, as that would put them in much more direct competition with the retail version.

Also as a side note, I don't see how changing Alliance Raids to just Raids is a positive, but that's besides the point.

The Mobile devs are actually making it bluetooth controller compatible for players like us that detest touch screen controls, but yes. If that thing hits a console or PC and has crossplay like we currently have, it's jover man.

We getting all the horse girl players making Miqo'te and it will be magical.

[RedLolly]

According to her they stripped out a lot of the beginning quests to fit with mobile game expectations (i.e. fast progression w/ little time investment). She started in Ul'dah with Summoner (unknown if that was a 2.0 decision or they just decided to switch things up with mobile) and did the intro quests (learning how aethers work, markets work, etc.) but after that it felt like she had only been playing for 30m-45m of story before already going to visit the other main cities (without even going to the Waking Sands or meeting the grand companies). You don't fight Ifrit and you skip Tam-Tara and Copperbell. Satasha you still do but they slot it in at level 10 now. You skip learning about materia and retainers and guildleves as well.

So the flow for the beginning is: character creation -> normal introduction quests -> extremely summarized version of your main city questline (like 6-7 quests tops, there's 23 in the PC version) -> unlock chocobo randomly -> go visit Limsa and New Gridania -> stay in Limsa and do Satasha

Edit:
She just brought up something else I forgot to mention. There's no push or reminder that class/job quests exist until after Satasha. So either they are just lazy and forgot to add that into the tutorial/pre-Satasha bits or they've redesigned class quests to where they're pointless now for progression outside of lore. She hasn't dove too deep into them yet because crafting/gathering testing took up her attention lol, but that really stuck out to her as something that was "off". There are also a lot less cutscenes than there are in the PC version, they turned them into simple like...half-cutscenes where the character just kind of stands there and you go through their text.

Extremely interesting. It's very strange since all I heard from beta players that tried it that the game's reaction time and flow is very snappy, the UI is clean and pretty, and that jobs actually fall into their identities and gimmicks very early.

I was under the impression putting everyone in Ul'dah was a beta thing for Lightspeed's version. (ARR's public beta forced us all to start in Gridania, for example.)


This is the first I've heard of the story being truncated like that. That feels a little gross, and that really bodes badly for when they get to Heavensward.

[NanaWiloh]

Not as simple as people think.

[Kelg]

Personally I don't think they should waste the resources to try to make this game have an offline option. A lot of work would need to be done to achieve this. If you want to play an offline game, play an offline game that was designed to be one.

[Dellita_of_Mtek]

Extremely interesting. It's very strange since all I heard from beta players that tried it that the game's reaction time and flow is very snappy, the UI is clean and pretty, and that jobs actually fall into their identities and gimmicks very early.

I was under the impression putting everyone in Ul'dah was a beta thing for Lightspeed's version. (ARR's public beta forced us all to start in Gridania, for example.)


This is the first I've heard of the story being truncated like that. That feels a little gross, and that really bodes badly for when they get to Heavensward.

I don't know what to really say about all of that as she only recently got involved in the game and I'm not sure how long the beta has been going on. All that I can say is that she definitely got to Satasha without going through the usual story beats leading up to there. You still do your little intro to your city's Scion but after that it trails off pretty hard and gives a watered down version of the rest leading up to you going to Limsa/NG and starting Satasha at level 10. I wonder if that's part of why lore got cut, to have dungeons happen earlier since Satasha is typically a level 15 dungeon no?

[Shistar]

tbh, I play this game because it's an MMO. If it was a singleplayer RPG, I likely would have never played it (like all the other FFs I've also never played xD) I think an offline version would be nice after the online service is over and for the sake of nostalgia, but otherwise I'm not interested at all. I want them to pour as many resources as possible into making the current, online version of the game into something better.

[ShadowyZero]

Personally I don't think they should waste the resources to try to make this game have an offline option. A lot of work would need to be done to achieve this. If you want to play an offline game, play an offline game that was designed to be one.

i don't think that would be case, they already bar alot of features with world hopping and the free trial an lots of content ingame is already barred from access unless you meet specific requirements, alot of the new servers they've invested in as well have been reported as being empty and unused it would be a simple matter for them to re-route those unused spaces to host an offline version of the game, and as i said with the exception of housing nothing else would be need to be reworked everything else would remain the same and as another poster mentioned they would simply just need add duty support too main story trials which is something they've already been doing since shadowbringers.
its possible for them do it with in their resources and time its just a matter of whether they have the staff to dedicate towards it. which probably isn't the case as of this moment since most are working on 7.5 and beginning the early phases of 8.0-8.1 but after that they could probably bring up for discussion with their project leads and management.

[Iscah]

going to visit the other main cities (without even going to the Waking Sands or meeting the grand companies).

That much isn't "skipping story", it's how the game has always gone. City quests up to level 15 where you catch the attention of the relevant city leader, get assigned envoy and receive the airship pass to visit the other two cities; that leads into Sastasha and the other two dungeons and then you get approached by whichever Scion you previously met with an offer to join their secret club. Joining a grand company doesn't happen until after that and I think not until you're partway through the Camp Drybone / Ifrit storyline.

How far past Sastasha has she played?