Comments from the Devs

[Groovebox]

It utterly and totally kills the community. You play with people you will never see again. Instead of having a tight server-based community where people get to know each other, it's just a big mess of a PvE co-op content like in some online RPG with no real communities. All this will do is make us play with our friends and not give a shit about anyone else.

That's not what this game needs, ever.

Finally something to disagree with. He really has to do something special if he wants to pull this off without shitting on the community.

You only play with people you will never see again IF you use the dungeon finder. You're making it sound like people are going to be forced to use this. This will be a tool for the casual players who don't want to spend hours reading shouts and looking for pugs. It's that simple. Yoshi has already stated that they are making things for all types of groups, and pugs are going to be one of them.

EDIT: As far as having a tight-knit community... if the only thing a game has to tie a community together are dungeons, then it's going to be a failure anyways.

[Hyan]

You only play with people you will never see again IF you use the dungeon finder. You're making it sound like people are going to be forced to use this. This will be a tool for the casual players who don't want to spend hours reading shouts and looking for pugs. It's that simple. Yoshi has already stated that they are making things for all types of groups, and pugs are going to be one of them.

If you need to spend hours reading shouts and looking for pugs, that's the fault of the game design. This is just a cheap solution that makes this game closer to something like Monster Hunter without actually taking advantage of any good things that kind of game can accomplish, like improved gameplay.

If they wanted to make a hub-based online RPG they should have done so from the beginning. Now we seem to be getting an online RPG-lite with worse everything. Can't wait to experience it.

And just how easy are they planning to make this game? A group of completely random people thrown together by the game need to be able to clear this shit, imagine how that would been like in just about any event in XI (and that game wasn't hard by any means).

[Vuitton]

The dungeon finder has already proven to have killed server community (or severely crippled it) in World of Warcraft. It is not a hypothesis. However, that game is built around dungeons, so it could be different for FFXIV. However, while people can "choose" to not use the dungeon finder, most people will use it because it often creates instant groups. People choose the convenience of instant parties, and in return the server community becomes crippled. This is true for bustling servers, not for already crippled servers that FFXIV has already. So, we're speaking in the future tense when we discuss FFXIV and dungeon finders with the assumption that the servers will one day be bustling and that there will be enough dungeons and incentive to run them daily/weekly.

[Groovebox]

If you need to spend hours reading shouts and looking for pugs, that's the fault of the game design. This is just a cheap solution that makes this game closer to something like Monster Hunter without actually taking advantage of any good things that kind of game can accomplish, like improved gameplay.

If they wanted to make a hub-based online RPG they should have done so from the beginning. Now we seem to be getting an online RPG-lite with worse everything. Can't wait to experience it.

If it's a fault of the game design, then this game is destined for failure. They are implementing dungeons, and they aren't solo...

[Hyan]

However, that game is built around dungeons, so it could be different for FFXIV.

The only thing that can make this work is if they do it differently somehow. Yoshida doesn't seem like a guy who knows what that could mean, so hopefully this is his only brainfart.

There's gotta be something uniting content-wise for every server to make up for this sort of system, IMO. Companies can fill that hole, now it's just a question of if that's what Yoshida's intention are.

And as for the delivery box, while the excuse is pretty shit I'm glad they are taking the server issues seriously. I feel like everything server-related is pulling this game down atm.

If it's a fault of the game design, then this game is destined for failure. They are implementing dungeons, and they aren't solo...

The cross-server tool can make up for it, but it's not that good of a solution. Next in line: Hub-based gameplay so that casuals don't have to travel anywhere to experience all the content there is!

[Lordender]

lets be fair about how realistic cross-server LFD will see the light of day given the current situation.

They don't even have a mail box system, AH system, i'd say the server software is a piece of shit right now, cross-realm parties are so far away who knows if the game even makes it that far.

[Hyan]

lets be fair about how realistic cross-server LFD will see the light of day given the current situation.

They don't even have a mail box system, AH system, i'd say the server software is a piece of shit right now, cross-realm parties are so far away who knows if the game even makes it that far.

Of course we are here assuming that the game will get that far, otherwise we might as well forget about it.

I'd say that everything they have said thus far is something they plan on implementing this year. It's not that far away.

[Groovebox]

The only thing that can make this work is if they do it differently somehow. Yoshida doesn't seem like a guy who knows what that could mean, so hopefully this is his only brainfart.

There's gotta be something uniting content-wise for every server to make up for this sort of system, IMO. Companies can fill that hole, now it's just a question of if that's what Yoshida's intention are.

And as for the delivery box, while the excuse is pretty shit I'm glad they are taking the server issues seriously. I feel like everything server-related is pulling this game down atm.



The cross-server tool can make up for it, but it's not that good of a solution. Next in line: Hub-based gameplay so that casuals don't have to travel anywhere to experience all the content there is!

I'm hoping companies are going to be similar to campaign; an alternative way to rank up and earn rewards. I'm not asking for hub-based gameplay, especially since the anima system pretty much takes care of that.

[Alderaan]

Not kidding. Present a negative aspect that is exclusive to cross-server dungeon groups. I really don't see how server transfers in FFXI are related to this dungeon system.

Hyan mentioned most of the faults of a cross server dungeon system.

What i was getting at with the whole server transfer thing was that it did the exact same thing to the XI community. I preferred it the way it was before where your actions had actual consequences. Gonna be a dick and ninja stuff? Well you were most likely excluded from any endgame activities. I enjoyed knowing everyone on my server. This is what made the community in XI one of, if not the best at the time.

Having said all that, i don't know if the game can survive without one at this point. Pick your poison i guess.

[Corrderio]

Yeah, this excuse is just pathetic. Not much else to say really.

Eh, not really. He is right about the network being pure shit.

[Lordender]

The server software is completely shit when it can't even support a mailing system and the mailing system in FFXI was crappy too.

Cross Dungeon Finder is a very slippery slope, it can be a great thing or it can be a very bad thing. There needs to still be events that need server interaction, the game can have both co-exist but only if done right and we know SE isn't the greatest at implementation.

Yoshi-P needs to be extremely careful when throwing that idea around.

[Hyan]

If they want to proceed with it, IMO some key features need to be in place to avoid the worst negatives.

Firstly, bad behaviour should be punished one way or the other. When the server community doesn't exist to do that (exclude the player from doing the content), the game should handle it instead. Maybe a time penalty for dropping the group, and a visible reputation to make, if not the insteant dungeons, other server-based content harder to do when people see how badly you behave in the instant dungeons and decide to exclude you from doing other sort of content.

Also, I think it would be a good idea to make it so that you are more likely to team up with players you have teamed up with before. If none are around, you end up with a random group instead. The point is to make the people little more than random people you will never meet again, even if it is only in a dungeon-related content.

Maybe make it so that your own server is searched first, then the others?

Lastly, they should make us communicate inside the dungeon. If you don't plan, you lose.

[miokomioko]

I don't think punishments for disconnecting is even a possibility...

[Hyan]

Most likely not, yeah. Dropping the group just to look for another is what I meant.

EDIT: In a way the prospects are interesting. If the game is designed differently there may be some interesting outcomes even if the feature itself is not that different. As lordender said, though, it's a delicate road.

In the future they could also promote more cross-server activities, kinda like in the ballista royale. It may be even possible to promote the identity of the residents of a single server and strengthen the bonds of its community that way (kinda like being part of a sports team competing against each other). While this feature may not be one to do that, it opens up possibilities for other sort of content that is.

If it is possible to create a community that is larger than anything we've experienced so far in-game (from a small tight-knit linkshells to larger companies, to servers as a whole and lastly all the servers together), that would be interesting to see. All groups would have their own content (content for loners and individual linkshells as well as friends to do, things to accomplish as a larger private company (which could be a sum of every linkshell doing their thing), more server-wide activities like what Campaign was (which ties to Grand Companies), and lastly cross-server activities with their own consequences, individually (instant dungeons etc.) or in a small group (server vs. server team PvP etc.)).

When doing an instant dungeon (or any cross-server content), perhaps there could be a title and a world-related "flag" to show your origins in-game. Like "Hyan of Selbina" for example. Or an option to party primarily with people from a world of your choosing. If there was any way to create a situation where server-wide "alliances" or "rivalries" could be made that would be pretty awesome. If they can tie to the lore somehow, even better. I guess it's pretty hard to make it sound believable though.

This all sounds slightly far-fetched I guess. Maybe I got a bit too excited.

[Kenshiin]

A linkshell mate reported that he saw some upcoming battle/quest where you will fight with only the abilities from the class you enter with. I haven't seen anything about it and it sounds too similar to the Maat fight anyway. Has anyone else seen anything on this?

[Corrderio]

A linkshell mate reported that he saw some upcoming battle/quest where you will fight with only the abilities from the class you enter with. I haven't seen anything about it and it sounds too similar to the Maat fight anyway. Has anyone else seen anything on this?

Nothing on the dev tracker ATM.

As for the cross server dungeon thing, seems a lot of people are against it, so maybe Yoshida will decide not to add it.

[vadre]

Just copy-pasting what I said on the forums about cross-server LFG:

I'm really not a fan of cross-server. Having played WoW prior to the LFG system and now, I can say that whilst the LFG system is fantastic in terms of convenience, it's totally delivered the finishing blow to any community that game once had.

I think alternatives such as maintaining versatility of job roles and ease of class switching (but still being able to work towards the same goal through faction reputation rewards etc as well as pure class xp) can help alleviate the need to gather people from different servers, as job roles are easier to fill. (The smaller party size helps too)

[Shuichi]

Not in favor of the cross server LFG. I hope Yoshi P. opts out on this one.

[Corrderio]

Found an interesting topic:

Here's another (brief this time, only two posts) summary of what the devs/reps said in the Japanese forums.
As usual, feel free to correct possible mistakes and consider this just a sneak peek of the official translations that will come at a later time.
Click the text below for the original posts.

-They responded to a user that asked what was of the roadmap published long ago under the "tanaka administration" (mostly about the delivery NPC), saying that as Yoshida mentioned in one of the producer letters, the contents of those roadmap needed to be reviewed with the changes in the team, and each point requires individual consideration.
The delivery NPC is one of those points and it's one of those that they decided to actually implement.

-They also explained that the team is considering the effects of the interaction between anima and the fact that they will implement other means of movement that don't force the players to run around the whole place.

The compatibility between the two systems is being examined, because of the concern that teleporting might make other vehicles obsolete.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...April-the-21st)

[Grey Jorildyn]

The 8 player party size is wonky. I know they are going to make content based on that party size and all that but it's just a strange number. It also doesn't make things line up at all. Take for example that in XP parties you never need more than 5, but with the current HNMs they're designed for 8 comfortably. All can be done with 5 or less though, so what's the point of party slots 6-8? Just to accomodate leve-linking? That's what it feels like (I won't even say 'seems' since we know that's pretty much a fact). The game would be more challenging with a party size of 5. It would make better players or separate the men from the boys. This mmo is already so divided where casual v hardcore is concerned. Might as well just swing one way for end game content and let the casuals catch up later.

I dunno, it's disenchanting sometimes. Went out to grind 20-24 last night and did it in about 2h15m with a group of 4. The game felt like XI or another mmo where you can go out and make progress on the downswing (read: between leve cycles), but not enough people are willing to do it, and they might be if there was a better way to communicats across the server. Like a global chat or something. Lack of in-game communication totally slows down players and that should not be a roadblock in a modern day mmorpg.