Dev Tracker: Discussion

[dasva]

Don't forget him saying he feels sick and watch out for the flu

[Nyarlko]

Don't forget him saying he feels sick and watch out for the flu

I purposely ignored the preamble and didn't bother with the recap for 2016 (since we know what happened already. XD) Just giving a super basic summary while Kincard is MIA in RL somewhere most likely. :3

[Kincard]

The devs are pretty quiet over the New Year since they're probably with their families and whatnot. Nyarlko did a good job summing up the post Fujito made about their general plans for 2017. All I have to add is that the "Adoulin additions" refers to the story quests they've added now and again.

[Draylo]

Still hoping for a new expansion to far east with new jobs time mage and chemist >.>

[Kincard]

Eh, I know it's fun to dream, but I seriously doubt that. They've given us like 3 new weapon models over the past year or whatever, you think that kind of manpower could give us a new expansion? Even the VW era gave us a couple cool new armor models every once in a while.

Plus if they made a Far East expansion now I doubt it'll be satisfying. Adoulin was already a pretty below par expansion to me in terms of areas and whatnot. I mean, it's a shame because I think they have a better grasp than ever on how to create varied encounters and desirable loot drops (though their dungeon design has gone downhill for a while, Salvage was the peak of that IMO). Lore-wise they certainly tried their best in Adoulin, a lot of it felt really rushed and underdeveloped though, like they had a ton of ideas and only had time to put in maybe half of them (I mean, they're still working on putting addendum minor story quests in Adoulin so that's a pretty good indication right there).

But I guess if we just wanted to shoot out wishlist ideas I guess I would've liked for them to stick to being lore-centric with the major expansions as usual, so something like Oracle/Onmyoji would probably fit better in the Far East (Drawing a blank for a second job since we already have Samurai and Ninja). Then again, if I could have everything I wanted we would've had a Eastern Aht Urhgan expansion expanding on the war and then a Far East expansion.

[Damane]

What happened to the mobile version of XI? its like it faded into non existence and got eaten by the emptiness!

[Kyte]

I'd settle for another chapter or two of SoA, like they showed in the concept art but had to drop presumably due to Rhapsodies.

[Isiolia]

What happened to the mobile version of XI? its like it faded into non existence and got eaten by the emptiness!

Does seem conspicuously absent at this point, though I guess there's a chance they pushed it to 2017 in order for it to coincide with the franchise anniversary?

[dasva]

Adoulin was already a pretty below par expansion to me in terms of areas and whatnot. I mean, it's a shame because I think they have a better grasp than ever on how to create varied encounters and desirable loot drops (though their dungeon design has gone downhill for a while, Salvage was the peak of that IMO). Lore-wise they certainly tried their best in Adoulin, a lot of it felt really rushed and underdeveloped though, like they had a ton of ideas and only had time to put in maybe half of them (I mean, they're still working on putting addendum minor story quests in Adoulin so that's a pretty good indication right there).

tbf other expansions had similar things happen. Like was I think 2 years of CoP to be finished and they just leave last verse hanging there. Au mission wise felt a bit rushed as well they were rushing to get to wotg the next year but continued adding quests and such. Like I believe mythics didn't come out for a good year after wotg came out and alex/Odin quest came out couple years after that. Wotg was kind of an exception they had nothing to rush to and just dragged things on forever and ever with the 2+ years to get missions finished and then all the various other quests added. Difference this time instead of rushing to something new but still have all the support and resources they were rushing to downsizing the game for good

[Destinye]

What happened to the mobile version of XI? its like it faded into non existence and got eaten by the emptiness!

Considering Nexon is running the show technically, probably won't hear much of anything until a week before it's set to go out. Two companies that love to be as tight lipped as possible about future projects working together is the ultimate silence. As far as expansions and such goes, I guarantee the only time we'll get a "push" on XI is if XIV completely screws the pooch with Stormblood because it's no secret it's "all hands on deck" for their current pet MMO.

[Kyte]

I think CoP probably got the resolution that was planned, but ToAU almost certainly had some parts left out such as information on the other 1-2 civilizations that occupied the same space. There's also another, unnamed as far as I know, capital city to the west for that half the Empire that we never see.

[Damane]

I think Adoulin was the best expansion so far with all the QoL adjustments they made during the expansion and what the expansion offered. Delve was imho one of my favourite events when it was new and fresh. So much challenge for an 18 man alliance o.o

[Draylo]

I think so too, Delve was the most fun I've had in the game for alliance based stuff. They did get a bit lazy with a bunch of things though but sadly I guess that was because they were working on XIV. For example all the Delve dungeons being the same design pretty much, they could have made it themed to the element of the boss like icy type area for tiger or wind type area for bee, but they just made them all the same. I actually enjoyed the story and it had some of the best CS they've ever done.

[Kyte]

I was okay with the first three being how they were, but they definitely got lazy on the dungeon design for Delve II. 

[Xantavia]

Still hoping for a new expansion to far east with new jobs time mage and chemist >.>

If they were to ever introduce a new job, I would see them adding mime. Make it like monstrosity where you select traits/abilities based on what you have leveled. No new animations needed.

[Kincard]

tbf other expansions had similar things happen.

I will agree except for CoP, looking at how that expansion was released, how the staff shifted from CoP to ToAU and various interviews gives what I think is a pretty clear picture of what happened. CoP was well-planned right from the get-go which is why it had story missions stretching as far as Chapter 6 the moment it launched. The stuff after The Last Verse was just bonus stuff IMO, the main story had already wrapped up at that point. It was Koumoto and Satou giving a last hurrah before they left the XI staff to work on the ill-fated XIV 1.0, and Satou has mentioned that they used the final ideas laid out by Kato for XI before he left SE. It was the culmination of everything in XI's story up to that point.

While the other expansions obviously had their share of unresolved things as well, I think it was much clearer with Adoulin because it felt like an entire section of the story had been cut out hastily (which, it turns out, they confirmed). The quality of what we got was fine, of course- we know Satou returned partway into Adoulin (when exactly they've never specified as far as I know), and at the very least they got her to be the writer to finish it all off in RoV.

[Damane]

I will agree except for CoP, looking at how that expansion was released, how the staff shifted from CoP to ToAU and various interviews gives what I think is a pretty clear picture of what happened. CoP was well-planned right from the get-go which is why it had story missions stretching as far as Chapter 6 the moment it launched. The stuff after The Last Verse was just bonus stuff IMO, the main story had already wrapped up at that point. It was Koumoto and Satou giving a last hurrah before they left the XI staff to work on the ill-fated XIV 1.0, and Satou has mentioned that they used the final ideas laid out by Kato for XI before he left SE. It was the culmination of everything in XI's story up to that point.

While the other expansions obviously had their share of unresolved things as well, I think it was much clearer with Adoulin because it felt like an entire section of the story had been cut out hastily (which, it turns out, they confirmed). The quality of what we got was fine, of course- we know Satou returned partway into Adoulin (when exactly they've never specified as far as I know), and at the very least they got her to be the writer to finish it all off in RoV.

its clear alot of stuff got cut out of Adoulin. The devs even said so themself. Siren was supposed to play a major role in Adoulin story (and prolly was considered to become a new summon for SMN) but got cut out and used in RoV. I mean her Concept Art existed before Adoulin even got released. The Devs even wanted us to enter Tartarus as an Endgame kind of area, that got cut out too. Still i am happy how SoA turned out, most fun expansion ever. So much stuff was added just in one expansion, Delve, Skirmish Wildkeeper Reives, Reives, Vagary, Incursion list goes on. Considering Endgame SoA was imho the best expansion ever. no expansion offered so much endgame content

[Seha]

I will always stand by the opinion that ToAU is the overall best expansion. I loved the lore, the story, the endgame, everything!

[Sechs]

I'd settle for another chapter or two of SoA, like they showed in the concept art but had to drop presumably due to Rhapsodies.

Doubt that's the reason.
SoA's longer ending (we were originally supposed to go into that other dimension and fight a different form of Hades. The final fight was supposed to take place there with the help of August and blahblah) was cut way before RoV even came into their minds.

I don't agree with Kincard that SoA is the worst expansion.
Considering the budget available I'd rather say it was actually the best expansion for me?
Sure areas weren't particularly jaw-dropping, I'll agree on that (but at least they weren't "corridors" like some ToAU areas), but I liked pretty much everything else of the expansion.

[Seha]

but at least they weren't "corridors" like some ToAU areas

What are you even talking about, they are exactly the same. There's as much corridor walking in Adoulin as the rest of the game.