DEV: request to push out changes which still need future balancing and testing

[tachikoma]

Clearly the players who log in day in and day out are here to stay. We have shown the loyalty that most companies would kill for. One thing holding FFXIV back currently is the rate of changes. Many times I see "We'll look into it, we'll have a focus group and test the changes internally, we'll then put it to our private test servers and see if it imbalances other parts of the game, then we might push out the changes to production.." This mentality needs to stop NOW. SE no longer has the luxury of sitting around holding back progress worried about game balance. Trust me the game is not balanced now, I can go out and THM solo what is supposed to be the toughest NM out there /cough dodore.

<DEV: request to push out changes which still need future balancing and testing>

Let the largest group of free testers have at your newest changes and ideas. I'm not suggesting that SE needs to dump every single half brained idea out there but rather they speed the development cycle along giving us a chance to share the burden of new content sooner. So many things need fixing I would gladly deal with some glitches and imbalances in favor of faster larger changes. Especially when dealing with battle content/sp balancing/party mechanics/job traits/job skills

This would serve a dual purpose, not only would we see changes sooner which would make everyone happy it would help bring a transparency to the future direction and changes.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

And to whine better.
Seriusly, nobody release something without proper testing. It's like opening a nuclear plant without verify security system because investors want concrete results immediatly.
You can imagine how exploit and bugs can bring an untested feature ? Without consider security problems for servers and YOU.

If you really want untested patches, better for a test server, which should come up sooner or later

[tachikoma]

imo we are in a testing environment, we don't pay for logging in, we don't have any semblance of game balance, we have even been told "When things are in a good state we'll start charging and begin selling for the PS3".

I never said "release untested patches" I said release content sooner then their current dev cycle dictates especially when it pertains to battle content/sp balancing/party mechanics/job traits/job skills. Tell me a good reason why they should not hasten the release of this type of content? Is it going to upset our perfect balance we live in now? It could not possibly get any worse then what we have.

example: <adjust sp to incorporate a chain bonus>
25% bonus on 1 kill, 50% bonus on 2 kills, 75% bonus on 3 kills 100% bonus on 4 kills +
release this patch: players take advantage of this and stack with a linked buffed dunes and sp goes crazy ppl spam dunes for 3-4 days resulting in 40k sp per run. Devs get feedback that sp is a bit out of control with chain bonus on leve's
release a hotfix: chain bonus no longer affects parties taking part in an active leve-quest.

BAM now we have a viable mini-game system running quickly encouraging party play, other issues can be take care of as they arrive.

My point was over-testing and polishing should have been done years ago, were at a point where they can't afford to spend 6months for every major release of changes.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Then again, releasing an unpolished and hasted mechanic it's a really bad idea, for security,bug,exploit, general complain ecc.this don't haste anything, if not the downfall of this game.

[Morticous]

screw all this releasing untested BS... Put more people on the work and get it done faster!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need some REAL releases! no more of this egg hat hunt whatever! Get on the ball!

[Roaran]

Baaad idea; more people will be unhappy when unfinished/unpolished/untested/unproven mechanics end up making the game less playable.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

screw all this releasing untested BS... Put more people on the work and get it done faster!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need some REAL releases! no more of this egg hat hunt whatever! Get on the ball!

more ! = more serius.
Seriusly man, they are already working fast as they can. I would really see faster updates, but real content need a lot of time. Just look wow's major patches: before they put it live, they take at least 4 moths. And release an half.assest content don't do happy no one. not even you, if that would happen

[Morticous]

more ! = more serius.
Seriusly man, they are already working fast as they can. I would really see faster updates, but real content need a lot of time. Just look wow's major patches: before they put it live, they take at least 4 moths. And release an half.assest content don't do happy no one. not even you, if that would happen

dood, if they have more people to build, then there is less time to wait for each release. Quicker build means more work done means getting it faster to testing. How is this hard to understand? If you have a line of people brining buckets of water to the fire instead of one person, you get the fire put out quicker......................... They have enough stuff to develop, so put more people on it and get more of it out the door! RE PURPOSE THE FFXI TEAM! THAT GAME IS OLD!

EDIT: Wow can take 4 months to release content because they already have good content released. This game doesn't have the leisure of taking its time for putting out content because it doesn't have any good content as it is! The release was a flop, people are leaving, if the game loses too much of its fan base there is a chance the game will be dropped all together.

[Gold_Lion]

While there havent been any substantial changes since yoshida has come in,
there are legitimate reasons why-
A) you are not paying for the game-SE are under no obligation to hastily implement change.
B) Proper development on the battle system, ie the core of the game only started after the february battle survey where the dev team could assess their direction.
C) Families of people on the development team were affected by the tsunami,
Yoshida himself said it took a month to get back to a normal schedule.
Be a bit sensitive and dont forget there are more important wordly factors.

Put things into perpspective, this is only a game, you are not paying for it, if you dont like it go play something else, I'm sure you will come crawling back when they release epic end game gear anyway.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Wow can take 4 months to release content because they already have good content released

You live in a strange world man. Wow have content, but don't mean they can develop new raids and class balancing in a snap. They do the same routines every developers do, at the same time.
Also, using caps don't make your argument any more true.