How is it only...

[MicahZerrshia]

uhm, its always 8 to 12 months drought between x.5 patches and new expansions


nothing new here :c

2.5 Jan 2015
3.0 June 2015

3.5 Jan 2017
4.0 June 2017

4.5 Jan 2019
5.0 July 2019

5.5 April 2021
6.0 Dec 2021

6.5 Oct 2023
7.0 July 2024

It'S aLwAyS bEeN 8 tO 12 MoNtHs, PaTcH cYcLeS hAvEn'T cHaNgEd

pre-covid were always around 6 months from .5 to .0, now we are looking at a year. But do keep making excuses for the CEOs, they love it when the common folk do that for them

[Kozh]

pre-covid were always around 6 months from .5 to .0, now we are looking at a year. But do keep making excuses for the CEOs, they love it when the common folk do that for them

If 7.5 is june 2026 and 8.0 is december 2026/januari 2027, technically it is 6 months (ish) XD

[MicahZerrshia]

If 7.5 is june 2026 and 8.0 is december 2026/januari 2027, technically it is 6 months (ish) XD

I get what you are saying and that you were tongue in cheeking it, but that would put 6 months+ between .4 and .5 when the standard before was 3 months. So they are just shifting the time without adding anything worthwhile for us to do in that time.

Mainly because so many ppl either don't understand math, Construct 7 taught us that all too well lol, or because someone is always going to make an excuse for them, like the person I quoted.

[Valence]

If the explanation is that they're not working their teams to death anymore, i'm fine with it (is it by the way?).
I'm less fine with the fact that they're not trying to compensate by taking up measures to keep up through other means.

[Reimmi]

I logged in this morning and got the notice that we are having maintenance for patch 7.38 on Tuesday.

And I thought to myself, by Altana, how is it only patch 7.38? And we still have over 5 months, nearly half a year still, before even the first fanfest where we get the first hints of 8.0 which means at least another year of the wet fart that this expansion has been.

Yawntrail feels like it is never going to end. The extended time between patches, the lackluster and lacking content, further crippled by the jobs themselves being in the worst state they have ever been is really hitting hard and it feels like SE didn't just drop the ball with DT, but put it down and walked away. I am trying real hard to stay optomistic while I play other games, but man its to the point of rediculousness now.

And the worst part is the wall of silence coming from SE. It makes it feel like they really just do not care at all anymore. And as a legacy, who remembers the time when we had a great community team, Yoshida was actually excited about XIV and there was a feeling that we actually had something to look forward to, it's just beyond perplexing that this is the stance they are taking when the game is at it's lowest point since 1.x

The mind just boggles.

On the plus side, sounds like expansion launch will be right after or near right after fanfest from the teasing
No guarantees of course, but we might not have THAT long of a drought after the last raid tier.

[SalamanderIX]

Mind you, 7.38 is the *unlock* patch. That means we can do savage fights as much as we like for the loot.
7.1 months of locked, followed by 5 weeks of unlocked, then we're onto the new tier where this one doesn't matter anymore.

This system has been broken forever, regardless of the increased patch cycle (that also sucks). If there is 8 months between raid tiers, we should have 5 months of lock and 3 months of unlock.

[RedLolly]

What does Square Enix firing staff in the US and Europe have to do with the quality of FFXIV?

Okay.

The prevailing thought is that SE is moving away from using Western consulting groups (IE Sweet Baby Inc and Black Girl Gaming) when designing games for audiences around the world. This theory stems from the series of financial flops to underperforming games over the past few years. Most games made with such groups pretty consistently have the critique of "safer, simpler writing" or "over-simplified gameplay" as they all gear themselves towards making games media more friendly to mass audiences of all tastes and skill levels.

This will allow SE to save money by keeping everything in-house, in Japan, and also hoping that their future creations being helmed entirely by Eastern devs and their tastes can help reclaim the reputation as the best publisher for JRPGs and other media like manga and anime.

[RedLolly]

I get what you are saying and that you were tongue in cheeking it, but that would put 6 months+ between .4 and .5 when the standard before was 3 months. So they are just shifting the time without adding anything worthwhile for us to do in that time.

Mainly because so many ppl either don't understand math, Construct 7 taught us that all too well lol, or because someone is always going to make an excuse for them, like the person I quoted.

One detail to note is that Yoshi-P has already stated that 8.0 is launching closely after the final Fanfest in Japan next year. The dates are 10/31 and 11/1 of 2025, so the the Dec/Jan date seems on the money unless it drops November. (Which would make us Western fans happier as it dodges Christmas earlier).

But yes, the longer patche cycles since Covid are just the standard now and it sucks.

[Daralii]

If the explanation is that they're not working their teams to death anymore, i'm fine with it (is it by the way?).
I'm less fine with the fact that they're not trying to compensate by taking up measures to keep up through other means.

They are still working their teams to death, it's just that the workload now includes multiple games instead of XIV exclusively.

[Raikai]

And the worst part is the wall of silence coming from SE.

To me, I feel a bit lost when the only times we get - vague - news about the game is once every 4 months or so with the Live Letters.

Not saying that is a good system or that XIV needs exactly that, but in WoW, the PTR/open Beta kind of fills in for me this itch about getting news of what's coming in a near future. Yes, you'd get spoiled easily, but on the other hand you can get hold of non-spoilery stuff like class changes, or even cosmetic items that are to come.