Grand Companies page update + Dzemael Darkhold

[Spira]

Exactly, and the way 14 runs I will not be surprised if they are using the same server tech/programming used in 11.

i'm not even playing XIV anymore, but i don't suppose you've seen how guildleves, battlefields, cutscenes and the escort quests work.

XIV already uses a lot of instancing.. which means to say it was built with that already taken into account. whilst the game isn't resource efficient client side, we don't exactly know how the server load is handled as far as instancing goes but i've never heard anyone get denied of doing their escort quest or entering the pub because of server load.. so I doubt it's an issue.

If instancing of raids can accommodate multiple parties successfully then theres no reason to use that as an excuse to bitch about time limit. If it can't, then its there for good measure.

besides, my belief is if its instanced, it should be time-restricted, otherwise u might as well be playing an offline game - especially when people venture in there alone or something

[Sagacious Sundi]

What people call instances is an entity that is created on demand, and is generally disconected from the rest of the game. Pre-ToAU, you would be able to go inside any BC simply by changing your x,y,z position. You could literally fly from one fight to the other, and watch differents groups in one of the 3 areas.

Something like this was not possible in Salvage however. You were listed in the same zone, but you were not able to teleport yourself to another group's salvage. Every teams were in their own universe, and the server would simply create one more layer for every groups who wanted to get in.

Also, the .dats don't list 3 copies of the same mobs. So yeah, Assault/Nyzul, Salvage, and Everbloom/Ruhotz/Ghoyu's were truly instanced.

[Lucavi]

When the demand is low, why should supply be exponentially higher "just because"?

Uhhh... because if they don't, they're looking to sit at losing the millions they've invested into the initial product, instead of putting out money to fix it, fixing it, then eventually hitting the black again? They should be pouring the resources into the fixing the game when nobody's looking, because that leads to far less scrutiny then once the media gets ahold of the game again and starts re-publicizing the fact that the game was shitty, and still is shitty (since they'll have been in the act of rebuilding publicly).

They should have been working non-stop to change the game within its first year; have you ever seen any other MMORPG on the market make some long-winded, multi-year turnaround into profitability and success? At all? Ever? This simply shouldn't have taken this long for what we currently have, and for what we know is coming down the pipe (but how far down remains to be seen, what with the massive delays). I know what you're thinking; "it doesn't matter how long as long as its eventually fixed", but it does. Even with SE's massive coffers (of which some people in this very thread are starting to question), the longer it takes to finish revamping a big project, the less the big bosses at the top are willing to keep throwing money at something that's seen very little in the way of a return. That goes far beyond SE's "pledge" to "continue to steer the ship in the right direction".

[Spira]

I think SE is coping rather well already.
Considering that FFXIV hasn't been charging a monthly, it means that it the game itself hasn't been churning any revenue for itself for the past ~9 months when it should have been, so as helpful as throwing more resources into XIV seems to be what it in fact does is realize bigger 'expenses' coming from XIV. At the same time, the company simply cannot afford to drop XIV - they can't and they don't want to... but they also know that they can't turn it around overnight. It might be a pride thing, it might be a heritage thing. I'd think a number of investors would highly disapprove of diverting more resources to XIV as well - in other words, theres a high likelihood that based on its corporate position, XIV is not able to take either of an All or Nothing resolution. Other than that, they know that once it turns around it will be able to cover for the costs/opp costs they lost before

What we have now in effect is what they would still have had, had the game taken off. After all, these costs would already have been accounted for - they're necessary infrastructure to the game at any point in time.. sunken costs, so to speak - and that may be all that they're able to work with. Otherwise, its possible that they've gotten budget increases to turn the game around but they're just not showing clearly. I'm not going to begin to pretend I know how money spent on gaming development works and how it shows up - theres a good likelihood that much of it won't show at all... but we can tell that some do, like the UI improvements and effects - I think they were things that found their way into the game as a result of its failure.

[Alderaan]

I'd be interested to know how much was actually spent on development of XIV before this whole fiasco, because it didn't feel like a whole lot.

[Lucavi]

Didn't Bioware/EA throw some 40-80 million figure or something for the upcoming Star Wars MMO? I can't recall but I know it was a pretty penny. I remember FunCom spending a metric ton as well for AOC, but that game was waaaaaay ahead of the curve graphics-wise for its time. One of the earliest games to really use DX10 as well. I remember there being a ton of hype for DX10.

[Kensaki]

I for one is out after reading that thread about the mechanics. Seems I'll be applying to TERA beta or something this train is going to derail and I'm getting out while there's still time.

[Ropeydonkey]

Looks pretty good - better than I expected even.

I know SE fail at server load/instancing and concurrent connections etc but...

I'm sat at the Rift login screen:

[Server] is full. Position in queue: 258. Estimated time: About 48 minutes.

So its not just SE failing /sigh

[Lucavi]

Damn, what server are you on? Oh nevermind, I forgot they had server hop-a-longs now, so the initial server data is obsolete.

[Cichy]

I guess I'm the only one who thought "boring" while watching this video

[Amastacia]

I guess I'm the only one who thought "boring" while watching this video

I thought it didn't really show much of anything.

It's clear that little teleporty circles are how they implement at least part of the "multiple paths" of the dungeon.

It's clear there are some trash mobs, and tiers of boss mobs (assuming giant toad is a sub-boss).

No indication at all if everything is going to be FFXI clone gameplay (smash it until it dies) or if there is any environment scripting to make fights more engaging. That is what I was really hoping to see, because that's the kind of gameplay FFXIV needs to have.

[Foxer]

There is obviously a time limit because there is only 1 instance and they don't want 1 group to spend 5 hours in there cock blocking the rest of the server.

lol?

FFXIV still uses that outdated piece of shit system where only 1 group can enter? No reason at this so called dungeon should have a time limit.

I guess I'm the only one who thought "boring" while watching this video

I did too, don't worry. The video looked like an open world EXP party.

[Lordender]

I'm going to speculate!

Ahirman flying around is the megaboss, progressing through the dungeon killing mini bosses will weaken it. Aggroing or hitting the Ahirman = 8k + dmg AoE before it is properly weakened. The teleporters will lead to different mini bosses, we will only be able to weaken the megaboss so much by either lowering its damage or locking some of its abilities.

[Lucavi]

I guess I'm the only one who thought "boring" while watching this video

I was hoping for some movement or something, but I'm going to assume that the only movement we're going to get (from what was shown in the vid) is a "GTFO when this person casts something" deal. No environmental hazards or anything. It looked like XI with a fresh coat of paint, but we've all known and somewhat expected that.

[Groovebox]

I thought it looked pretty boring too. Recycled mobs: *snooze*

[Foxer]

XI with a fresh coat of paint sounds about right. It's too bad 9 years later, a fresh coat of paint ain't sufficient anymore. : (

Edit:

my belief is if its instanced, it should be time-restricted, otherwise u might as well be playing an offline game - especially when people venture in there alone or something

I didn't see this 'til now, and don't assume I don't know what you mean, but in all honesty, soloing in FFXI was probably 50% of the my hype. Sometimes I wished there was no initial time caps on Dynamis or a 100 minute limit on Salvage, especially on a game where you know you won't be able to enter for a few days(lol). That and the minimum amount of people to enter shit was the reason I gave up on them.

[Lucavi]

I don't even mind recycled mobs, as there isn't a MMO out there that didn't use stock sprites for its first instances; I was just hoping for more variety. I mean, take WoW's first isntances; Shadowfang Keep was pretty good looking, visual-wise, had a decent set of bosses with different strats, had "hidden" bosses, a nice loot pool, and the instance itself was pretty varied. Dungeon here, horse stables there, mess hall here, and so on; you even went outside and fought on the upper reaches before heading up a tower, into a wolf-pen, through a crazy library/lab, and finally to the main boss.

This looks like its going to be a trek through a cave/tunnel, through a cave/tunnel, and ending up fighting a big guy at the end of a cave/tunnel.

I hope I'm wrong, though. I'd like to see what this engine can put out, environment-wise, not simply making Mithra look hot while they swing their pointed sticks. I think even TERA has SE beat in that market now.

[ascalon]

I know its not really a game that's mentioned here at all, especially after the screwuppery that was Age of Conan, but the latest "dungeon walkthrough" vid from Funcom about their new "The Secret World" mmo looks quite appealing to me. Trash mobs that actually teach you skills and mechanics you'll need to know for the final boss of an instance strikes me as pretty good design.

But yeah... Age of Conan... Hnnnnngh!!

[Lucavi]

The game had a number of good ideas, but yeah, when Funcom is in charge, things are always going to go wrong.

[miokomioko]

Trash mobs that actually teach you skills and mechanics you'll need to know for the final boss of an instance strikes me as pretty good design.

That sounds kinda' similar to how Dynamis Qufim/Buburimu/Valkurm bosses worked.