[Dev] FINAL FANTASY XI 2012 Roadmap

Can I get all my posts nuked too? I don't like talking to myself.

We has them now >_>
or will
... at least 1...

Indeed, in this current lifespan of an MMO, it is to be expected that SE is looking for a very favorable ratio between cost and effort, with projected longevity for existing players. FFXI has been out too long, and blew their marketing opportunities in the past to appeal to new players. Their best bet is to do small things to stretch out playspan of acolyte players with minimal impact on their budget.
Perhaps an expansion is an unrealistic expectation and wishful thinking. However, with the noticeable trend of consistently putting out minimal efforts, in addition to in all probability, a diminishing player base, wouldn't an expansion be an ideal remedy to a slow and inevitable death? Or am I still having difficulty coming to terms that in the fading days of our game, rehashes, patch ups, and minimal content additions will be as good as it gets from here on out?

Cheap filler like Abyssea is better than the frustration level content that SE has been putting out with things like Voidwatch.

Look, I get the company has to pinch pennies as the game is dwindling but even with that considered SE isn't doing it right. Something like a revival of competitive content using the Ballista engine would be something that gets buzz over the game going and would be simple to implement. People want competition and what better way than PvP?

Even on the PvE front things like random Voidwatch drops could be replaced with content that rewards for the effort put in. Point systems are a great way to do this but even on that front SE couldn't do it right failing with the delayed ticket system that will fail on arrival and Legion which arrived in a bodybag.

Instead of people telling me why SE can't do something ambitious like a new expansion someone tell me why SE can't even release ***-tier rehash content right.

inb4 ban'd for life XD

edit: too late, damn LoL XD

Not sure how you think this, WOW hasn't gotten any new content in literally 7+ months, and won't get new content for 10 months or more(when MOP comes out, hi +$40 expansion) yet they charge $15/month for that game.

This game constantly gets new content, and the content lasts longer than WOW's. Whenever we get a content update the stuff lasts us months, plus we generally still have tons of other stuff in our backlog to do WOW content lasts like, a week at most, and raids get boring after you clear them in 2 days, hardmodes maybe extend that to 2 weeks if you're with bad players.

This is pretty much the same for all other current MMO's,SWTOR is the exact same.

I get much more content for my money in this game than any other MMO.

Really, to all the people complaining about "lack of content", have you ever played another MMO? You would get bored in any other MMO in a month or less.....

The roadmap is looking good.

These UI adjustments are definitely awesome as well.

Hopefully WoE goes back to how it used to be.

Yeah I don't wanna hate on XIV for no reason. I just hate that SE basically dumped XI overbaord in the effort to save XIV. They could have handled the situation better imo, while still keeping XI profitable. They just compounded their aggregious release of XIV with letting their tried, and tested MMO fall to the wayside, and become obsolete when it still had a solid following.


That about sums it up... So many cost effective avenues they chose not to explore that could have kept XI relevant while they devoted their main focus to repairing XIV.

Honestly, I think they're backtracking and putting effort back into FFXI. I think they're realizing it's possible to maintain still.

Other mmo sucking is not a good argument.

So basically when you push all of their updates back by at least a month its safe to say...get used to Voidwatch and uh..well nothing. Can hope that they tweak NIv2 some more so that its actually possible to reach floor 100 vanilla, but I have no faith in that given the last NI update. PvP will never happen btw.

When I think of the possibility of an expansion, the first thing that comes to mind is the nature and quality of our last expansion, WotG, and how it already basically geared us up (down?) towards the twilight-era rehashes that we've all come to despise. Granted, the story was phenomenal, and more people might have taken notice if they didn't stretch it out over 4 years, but that's really all they had to offer over a whopping 6 new zones, 3 of which you might have had the pleasure of being in for 20 some minutes before your BF fight ended.

If that's what we're backed up against, if that's what the FFXI heretofore legacy has built up to, what could possibly be expected of a 5th expansion pack?

Let's shift for a moment and look at Cataclysm. I know it's not in the style here to contrast against the 800 lb gorilla in the room, but allow me a moment to temporarily defect. I had a free trial on WoW right on the precipice of Cataclysm's release, allowing me to see the game both pre- and post- operation. There is no short set of words or phrases to express the awe at the world they completely destroyed to path way for a brand new one that was both the same and vastly different. The easiest way I can put it is that it made WotG look like an amateur 3DCG artists hobby project, if we're to compare the differences between present and past Vana'diel.

I remember reading that the development of Cataclysm cost more than the development of the original game, and it figures completely. Graphical models of characters and their environment have been updated multiple times to match the ever increasing computational power our computers are capable of now vs 6 years ago. And the prettier things get, the more expensive it is to add to that framework with something that fits; more polygons, more textures, and ultimately more money spent developing.

FFXI in a way has an ace in the hole in that it's limited by the PS2 (in a surprisingly good way in this aspect) since it can never exceed the graphical prowess of the PS2... or at the very least, that creates for them an exceptional excuse. Could they completely revamp the Windows version without changing "balance"? Certainly, and it would probably cost them more than developing FFXI and all of its expansions combined. No one from SE wants to come forward and say "that's not in the cards, yo", since smashing hopes and dreams is generally not a great marketing tactic.

They're limited by their most certainly diminishing userbase, a mere fraction of the revenue a giant like WoW can produce. A new expansion, with actually brand new zones, brand new content, (brand new jobs --I will contest anyone claiming this to be a good idea), and the like would surely bring people back, maybe even attract a handful of new players (not so much relying on this; the new-player FFXI experience as it stands is tantamount to having a huge sign in starter cities reading "NOT WELCOME"), but it's ultimately going to cost them more than they wager the return they'll get on it.

So what may seem contradictory and almost as if they're inciting the death of their game, I view as the most calculated approach to making a good thing last as long as possible without taking unnecessary risks.

So to address my question of "what would a 5th expansion be like if it were ever to be released?" I'd say it would probably be an almost entirely story based expansion that takes place in existing zones with maybe one final new zone. I won't say it's out of the cards, I do believe they could easily do it, but it's not what people want, particularly because I get the impression that in general, story is something people couldn't care less about.

I do suspect FFXI draws in a significant amount of revenue despite what I assume to be sub-200k subscribers. Unfortunately, as SE exists as one entity and not a single game, I imagine most of this is being used as "cover" for the gigantic loss FFXIV is causing, and thus we're probably getting a lot less new content than we really deserve. The day FFXIV was announce I was the first to call them asinine for creating a project that would and could only eat into their own market share, but alas that is the subject of another conversation.

Play as a monster was the only thing on that timeline that I got excited about lol. How bad is that.

To be honest I have always wondered what it would be like to play as the mobs in the game. I bet it will be in some kind of controlled area though. I'd quite like to take on the role of a quad or something and sneak up on noobs lol.

Only idea I could think of for a possible 5th expansion is expanding more into the ToAU area, mainly the area where Tenzen came from. We've only seen a part of this world and maybe an expansion could explore diffrent parts. The Yagudo have a homeland somewhere east, why not go there?

yay for salvage 3.0 after seeing new nyzul gear stats i can't even think how crazy good the new Salvage/Limbus upgrades will be

Am I the only one that liked the direction of the roadmap? A lot of those things are pretty cool. This of course depends on how they revamp Einherjar, Salvage, etc.
The one thing that really bothered me is how the adjustments are stretched out over several months... I can see why the Dungeon Crawling thing will take time, but if they're going to make simple BST adjustments, you don't have to wait until August to do that. That gives me the impression that they are indeed trying to stretch this stuff out, and this makes me kind of sad.
However, I will remain optimistic, because there's nothing really to lose.

or the team they have working on revamping content for ffxi is small and limited on what they can do on a week-by-week basis

there are a lot of areas the can open up to us, based on the existing storylines... not sure where this map was pulled from, but it shows the "entire vanadiel world"

Did you still need 3K alex, or was it 27K?

That map is fan-made; however, all the continents are legit. The only thing that is made up is the shape of the continents.

Needed 14k. But its moot now.

WoW just got a brand new expan with a new panda race

I do enjoy the new stuff they plan to add, especially the UI changes and the become a monster thing. I think they really need a new expansion though in order to pull people back in, even if its mini ones like Abyssea.

Besides, any comparison to WoW is unfair. Blizzard would have way more resources to draw upon when developing new content than SE.

The UI changes are far overdue. Yay! /evilgrin

still an amazing map, what's Tsahya

It's... (an actual honest-to-goodness real spoiler)...

That's the Mithran homeland.