Well mainline offline new ff pick more people interest
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There are almost 300 Square Enix employees on Final Fantasy XIV excluding outsourcing
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I wonder if they ever incorporated any of the mounds of feedback I gave on the game over the past 1.5 years.
It's a completely new game. Like, literally. lol
- New engine.
- New servers.
- New storyline.
- New infrastructure.
- New maps (since the current world is technically getting destroyed, storywise).
- New UI.
It's really too much to list. Look up the 2.0 PDF files so that you can get the gist of it.
APZonerunner
Member
The funny thing about this interview is it didn't come through the traditional PR channels. They approved it, but it never would've happened had we just gone the traditional routes.
Its using a sibling engine to Luminous designed around strengths of the current console generation (PS3) as well as the scalability required for MMOs. They don't have a name for it yet (They just call it around the office as "The Engine" lol). The engine is being created specifically for this game and no other game. High to low end scalability improvements, a vastly improved lighting engine, greater LoD optimization, completely overhauled ambient occlusion affects. Recently we heard settings to configure 30, 60, and uncapped FPS settings. They are also changing the overhead the current game has where it depended on shading technology for the bulk of its terrain generation to make graphics weight of the game less and thus more scalable with lower end system. On top of all this it will now have an uncapped setting for instanced objects, specifically around mobs, NPC, and players for the PC version.
Yoshida's claim was that the Crystal tools and how it rendered objects was one of the biggest road blocks they had for the future of the game as it was heavily restricted and was more designed for a more scripted single player experience on the console and was complete inadequate for an MMO. Because he planned to scrap/overhaul the overworld and the server for 2.0, he got Hashimoto to help produce a new graphics engine with his particulars in mind while they were working on other facets of the games overhauls.
Thanks, cool stuff. Have they mentioned anything about the next-gen consoles? It's nice to see it coming to PS3, but PS4 isn't that far off, it'd be nice if we see it coming to at least one of the new systems too.
EDIT: I ask because I could imagine it being mentioned in the context of engine development.
EDIT: I ask because I could imagine it being mentioned in the context of engine development.
Damn.
I'm very curious about it, since i kinda dig the art style, too bad i cannot possibly get back into an MMO ever again, it's too time consuming (after quitting Star Wars Galaxies, in 2005 i never touched another one again).
cpp_is_king
Member
One thing I'm not clear on regarding 2.0. It says they're redesigning all maps and adding more zone boundaries so that there are more unique themes to the different zones.
What about assets? Are they reusing all the 1.0 assets or creating a completely new set of assets to go along with the graphics engine?
It's hard to imagine that they would be able to use the same assets with a completely redesigned graphics engine and world design, but at the same time I don't see how they could rebuild all the assets in the game in just a year, even with 1000 people. It's just too much.
What about assets? Are they reusing all the 1.0 assets or creating a completely new set of assets to go along with the graphics engine?
It's hard to imagine that they would be able to use the same assets with a completely redesigned graphics engine and world design, but at the same time I don't see how they could rebuild all the assets in the game in just a year, even with 1000 people. It's just too much.
From what Yoshi-P has been saying is that they're new assets. Some older assets have been modified to work with the new engine but for the most part they're new. Hes constantly saying how impressed he is that they pretty much remade the game in a little over a year.
We'll get a closer look on August 16th when the game is demoed at Gamescom.
Completely new assets, especially the terrain part of it since the previous terrain depended so much on shader technology to look good. Think they will use stuff they know they can reuse like instance objects (and they will just reconfigure the texture management to fit the theme of the new areas), but as far as over world is concerned outside of the cities its getting completely scrapped from a design standpoint. You should see some of the concept maps they released in the 2.0 PDF's last year. They are turning Northern La Noscea from an irish plains style area near a Volcano into a hybrid subtropical, acid spewing, lake overwhelming territory with new cliffs, new connecting zones and new assets like a dungeon on the lake, lots of ruins in the shallows and little hot springs etc. This is on top of completely new areas not present in the old game and because of Jump they are adding a vertical element to some parts of the zone like a huge rock bridge going up a cliff over some water. They are also not just splitting the regions into small zones, they are adding brand new transition zones and dungeons between them.
When asked Yoshida basically says "We want to get our product to as many platforms as possible, but right now I must get it out on the platforms I promised to put it on, ask me again after that has been accomplished." From the sounds of it they hope to put it on the eventual PS4 and if Microsoft can get its act together on live policies maybe even 360/next gen xbox. A recent interview seemed to imply the 360 live policies is still the main thing keeping it from going on that system and it hasn't been resolved.
cpp_is_king
Member
I wonder what the crunch there is currently like. With this kind of ridiculous progress I can't help but think that they probably have all 300 people working 6-7 days / week at 15-18 hour days for the entire year that 2.0 has been in development. Pretty brutal.
I did the math, and 350 people working 15 hours / day at 7 days a week (which wouldn't surprise me at all) is about the same amount of work as a 150 person team working normal 50 hour weeks for 5 years
So from that perspective, maybe they're just packing a 5 year dev cycle into 1 year.
I did the math, and 350 people working 15 hours / day at 7 days a week (which wouldn't surprise me at all) is about the same amount of work as a 150 person team working normal 50 hour weeks for 5 years
So from that perspective, maybe they're just packing a 5 year dev cycle into 1 year.
Yep. They are going full hilt on this. Hopefully it doesn't burn them too much because, despite vowing never to touch a subscription MMO again, I'm looking forward to playing it.
GoofsterStud
Member
I am curious why they didn't just release a new game at this point, and give everyone who bought the old one free access to the new game?
The old one still has a negative persona. It just perplexes me, or are they at least going to call it remake?
The old one still has a negative persona. It just perplexes me, or are they at least going to call it remake?
Meccanical
Member
I wonder how many people are passed out from exhaustion right now.
cpp_is_king
Member
What you described is exactly what they're doing. It's just that they're keeping the name FFXIV. Actually, that's not entirely true. The name is officially going to be Final Fantasy XIV v 2.0 from what I can tell.
It has to remain in the same brand, and I don't think it would have made sense to call it 15 or 16. So 14 v2 it is.
Femmeworth
Banned
SE really doesn't know when to give up. Goddamn.
LunaticHigh
Member
It's the first time they've ever shown this kind of compassion for their fans. Let them do it.
Femmeworth
Banned
Compassion? I doubt that is what drives the higher-ups.
LunaticHigh
Member
It's certainly what is driving the developers, more so than any group of people i've ever seen. the sort of community driven development, constant fan feedback and appreciation, and personal attention that SE has been delivering with this game has been simply unmatched by any major publisher. Someone up there A-oked this sort of relationship and I cannot help but commend them for it.
2.0 is both the product of the development teams love for what they want to accomplish, and the fans and supporters tireless effort to let those developers know. it's a mutual project, we're all being a part of the progress.
Judging by the new website, it looks like they're going with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
There is a lot of blind spite being thrown about in this thread, I would suspect more than half of the people claiming this game to be nothing but garbage have no experience with the game to begin with and are simply following the trend a la I hated Final Fantasy before it was cool to hate Final Fantasy.
It seems like they are actually in the real crunch time now, or at least according to Soken from the sound team. He often tweets about his ventures and recently tweeted about how it'd be really bad to fall asleep in an important time right now, following that was "ニー祖堅 ‏@SOKENsquareenix 合宿開始" - "boot camp has started". (edit for clarity: This means they basically just sleep at work, like a camp over thing. He does this a lot apparently.)
It's no news to me that those guys take their job seriously (they get paid quite a bit though, there was a recent article in famitsu about SE having a median salary of ~120k if I recall correctly) and the fruits of their hard labour is starting to show, those in the media will no doubt know what I'm talking about.
It seems like they are actually in the real crunch time now, or at least according to Soken from the sound team. He often tweets about his ventures and recently tweeted about how it'd be really bad to fall asleep in an important time right now, following that was "ニー祖堅 ‏@SOKENsquareenix 合宿開始" - "boot camp has started". (edit for clarity: This means they basically just sleep at work, like a camp over thing. He does this a lot apparently.)
It's no news to me that those guys take their job seriously (they get paid quite a bit though, there was a recent article in famitsu about SE having a median salary of ~120k if I recall correctly) and the fruits of their hard labour is starting to show, those in the media will no doubt know what I'm talking about.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Dunno why people would hate a game they have seen nothing of.
Besides this title is gonna be a big fanservice game. And the music is AWESOME.
It just needs GILGAMESH.
Besides this title is gonna be a big fanservice game. And the music is AWESOME.
It just needs GILGAMESH.
Red Sutter
Banned
This pretty much.
All of the people screaming "lolol this game was shit at launch, has never improved, and can never be saved" are very annoying, especially since ten seconds of reading the Lodestone can prove otherwise to them
And people saying SE has lost their way with making games, yet ignore everything they do on portables, or Dragon Quest, or their cracking the whip on their western studios also does them a disservice
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Some only acknowledge the games on consoles. Portable games and MMO's don't exist in their eyes. It's pretty ignorant.
Femmeworth
Banned
I'll take your word for it, I'm just bitter that these resources aren't being put towards Versus. :\
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I wouldn't expect a probable Versus release until late 2013.
Crystal Tools is long gone from XIV, and for good reason. It was an unoptimized piece of crap really.
Separate teams.
Meccanical
Member
Versus is fine.
What you are really upset about is the fact that it's been well over a year since you've seen the game.
Red Sutter
Banned
It is amazing how chuggy XIII-2 and XIV get when you are in Yaschas Massif/Uldah. Going on the kind of gameplay Type-0 and Versus have, wasn't this supposed to be optimized for action RPGs with a lot of shit going on?
Femmeworth
Banned
Surely the grunts get transferred around, unless the production team for the online entries in Final Fantasy always has a high number of employees.
Meccanical
Member
Well Type-0 uses the CC/Third Birthday engine I think.
Versus chucked Crystal Tools a long time ago, they aren't even using it now.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Type 0 uses a improved combo of Crisis Core and The 3rd Birthday's game engines.
And Tabata worked on both of those games as well.
Mostly cutscene work and gameplay. Which he is good at.
Anuxinamoon
Shaper Divine
Wow I hate to use this image again but it sounds like another one of them inverted management pyramids.
the bigger you get the less productive you become.
the bigger you get the less productive you become.
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/teaser/index.html
that said, they have met every task they have set out to do so far.
we are currently at version 1.23 which concludes the current version's main scenario (Grand Company stories), subsequently 1.23a and b will be released soon to include some more goodies and boss fights. Then the game will finally be suspended and transition into 2.0 beta testing for probably 2-3 months.
you can see what was implemented by reading the pdfs at the above link.
This. Something like what Double Fine are doing would be super engrossing.
There's enough content right now to keep most people busy until 2.0/ARR rolls in.
However the content is mostly end-game, so if you get to play and expect to see lots of quests and things to do as low level, of that not so much, since Yoshida focused on giving the existing players things to do.
The good thing is that to reach lv50 is extremely easy, soloing is alright, but after lv20-30, partying will take you to 50 in just hours. So as far as you manage to reach 50 within a short period of time (1-2 weeks), depending your playtime, you'll have several story quests, jobs, company quests, primal fights, dungeon instances, and some other stuff to do.
If people want to have an early start and take advantage of cheap deals for the current retail versions, then they'll find enough content for a few months. Just don't expect a perfect game which it's not. It is a game running on an awful engine, but has been fixed to make it playable and even enjoyable to thousands of people.
It seems like no matter what Square Enix is trying to push ahead with the plans they outlined back in 2005, which have just about fallen apart. They planned for XIII to be an entire franchise of its own like VII eventually became, and it's already been noted how they probably banked on an eventual cash-flow from XIV.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Hello FF14GAF!
I was going through my old FF14 feedback posts to see if I had any good FF14 ideas that I could apply to Diablo 3, and in one of my searches I discovered that all the threads except for one that bears the tag "elitism" was started by me, lol. (other people can add tags to threads).
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/tags.php?tag=elitism
edit: goddammit this isn't the community thread <.<
I was going through my old FF14 feedback posts to see if I had any good FF14 ideas that I could apply to Diablo 3, and in one of my searches I discovered that all the threads except for one that bears the tag "elitism" was started by me, lol. (other people can add tags to threads).
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/tags.php?tag=elitism
edit: goddammit this isn't the community thread <.<