Little disappointing?

[Khrno]

Yes, that would be the "out of the box" data sizes, as "content that came within the disks" implies. They can add new content through updates, yes, but up to date SE has never released a single area that wasn't within the disk data (Al'Taieu, Nyzul Isle, all different scenarios for the different assaults, the Salvage areas... were present on the expansion discs). Unless that changes, we are not going to see more areas than the ones present on current data, for example, for instanced content.

That means Xarcabard (s), or somewhere among those lines will be the end-game area probably.

[Gere]

Frankly, it would have been much wiser to have finished the product than to release an incomplete one. Also, your argument that the registration is congested can be solved with one simple statement: SE prolly has shitty codes for that part. They can handle a 32 servers of 2000-3000 but are fucked when maybe 20-40% of those numbers are trying to register their incomplete expansion. Let's not kid ourselves, SE isn't smart, far from it.

A) Yes they should have delayed the expansion to finish it but do you have any idea what kind of a bitchfest that would have caused? They delayed it for ONE FREAKING DAY and people wouldn't stop QQ -ing. That's how the software industry tends to be, better to release something incomplete on-time then fix it with a patch than to be late but perfect.

B) yes they have 32 servers handling 2000-3000 players each,

now count with me:
32 servers *3000 players = 96000
40% of 96000 = 38400

now how many registration servers does SE have? Lemme give you a hint it's not 32, quite likely it's 1 (considering how they say server instead of servers).

So don't you think that one server handling roughly TEN TIMES the number of traffic a play server typically handles would cause an itty bitty mite bit of congestion?





*note: I am aware that a play server is not always one physical machine, neither is a registration server

[Sagacious Sundi]

Yes, that would be the "out of the box" data sizes, as "content that came within the disks" implies. They can add new content through updates, yes, but up to date SE has never released a single area that wasn't within the disk data (Al'Taieu, Nyzul Isle, all different scenarios for the different assaults, the Salvage areas... were present on the expansion discs). Unless that changes, we are not going to see more areas than the ones present on current data, for example, for instanced content.

That means Xarcabard (s), or somewhere among those lines will be the end-game area probably.

Yeah, there's a good chance the Northlands or some parts of it will be the endgame area. I'm guessing the 3 areas that have beastmen in them (Orcish Hollow place, Quadav Silvermines place, and the Yagudo place) will house a Salvage-esque event, and the Walk of Echoes will have an Einherjar-like event.

[Khalil]

A) Yes they should have delayed the expansion to finish it but do you have any idea what kind of a bitchfest that would have caused? They delayed it for ONE FREAKING DAY and people wouldn't stop QQ -ing. That's how the software industry tends to be, better to release something incomplete on-time then fix it with a patch than to be late but perfect.

B) yes they have 32 servers handling 2000-3000 players each,

now count with me:
32 servers *3000 players = 96000
40% of 96000 = 38400

now how many registration servers does SE have? Lemme give you a hint it's not 32, quite likely it's 1 (considering how they say server instead of servers).

So don't you think that one server handling roughly TEN TIMES the number of traffic a play server typically handles would cause an itty bitty mite bit of congestion?

*note: I am aware that a play server is not always one physical machine, neither is a registration server

If you look at my entire post, you would know that I'm against releasing an unfinished product to the public and I know SE has a shitty server database. The fact that they couldn't predict this would happen says a lot, as well as other things.

I can certainly understand of QQing about game being late by a day or whatnot. But, if the amount of content was doubled or even tripled in the span of a month or two, it would make it worthwhile. Buying a product 10% done then waiting the updates is nonesense. That 10% is worth 30$, nice.

[Stolin]

The expansion will be unfinished for much longer than a month or two. I don't see whats wrong with SE letting people tryout the new jobs and getting a head start on missions. Even if everything was released at once it would be kind of overwhelming for both the playerbase and the developers. For every new in-game event there comes an in-game problem that needs fixing.

[Khalil]

The expansion will be unfinished for much longer than a month or two. I don't see whats wrong with SE letting people tryout the new jobs and getting a head start on missions. Even if everything was released at once it would be kind of overwhelming for both the playerbase and the developers. For every new in-game event there comes an in-game problem that needs fixing.

My understanding is that a product should be finished when it's put on shelves. And how is it overwhelming for the playerbase if we're recieving a product that's fully finished? If SE simply redirected their attention from releasing sub-par content to releasing finished content and fixing several parts in their game, such as Einherjar, 3 Kings, and several others, I'm pretty sure we'd have a lot less QQing about lack of content...

Edit: spelling

[Sho]

Hmmm, never once did I say I was satisfied, content, or happy with the amount of content provided with this expansion at the moment, I said I find it funny that people expect more at the very beginning (see: "epic shit"). People much like you. I laugh at people like you because you obviously don't know how SE runs this game. From Zilart to WoTG, SE puts out a bare-bones expansion, and with time they add content and flesh it out. The way the flesh it out is beneficial to us usually (can't be said of Zilart), as they build the expansion around the player's playstyle/wants (this can at least be said for much of ToAU, and some of CoP). Apart from that, SE puts out these expansions early in part to kill the coming monotony of constantly playing previous expansions.

Aside from that, I'm so happy that you sidestepped a expansion purchase because it's incomplete, cookie for you. Obviously from the congested server, many more people don't share you sentiments. So kindly go away and play your other games. (hey man, this isn't the only game most of us play, kudos for totally missing that) Also, thanks for calling me a SE fanboy, but you missed it a bit-- I'ma Final Fantasy fanboy, and proud of it, so shut the fuck up on that note.

What a lot of people are mad about is the lack of content in this specific expansion. If you look at the "out of box content" on the other expansions, they offer roughly twice as content when they were first released. The fact that you feel happy about paying for an incomplete product its full retail price says a lot.

Frankly, it would have been much wiser to have finished the product than to release an incomplete one. Also, your argument that the registration is congested can be solved with one simple statement: SE prolly has shitty codes for that part. They can handle a 32 servers of 2000-3000 but are fucked when maybe 20-40% of those numbers are trying to register their incomplete expansion. Let's not kid ourselves, SE isn't smart, far from it. The only reason half of us still play is because we're addicted to a shitty game and the half is because of the friends we have acquired.

Dammit, I never said I was happy for paying for an incomplete product. >.> I just realize that there will never be an instance where they would put out a fully complete expansion... just won't happen, so I deal.

[Isiolia]

I keep poking around to see if there's really anything to care about yet with WoTG...really doesn't seem that way. Feel kinda silly for paying for overnight shipping, preordering, all that for something that seems to really be a ticket to get into new content when SE gets around to actually adding it.

I don't mean a completed expansion, and I don't think anyone else is either.

The kinds of things I was expecting at release...

- At least one new spell for every mage class, if not PLD and DRK as well. We got one for WHM only.
- New weapon skills. Seriously...why Nyzul weapons to get these?
- A point/reward system for Campaign with 3-4 decent 70+ armor sets/weapons/etc as rewards, a la Assault when it was released.

etc...

You know, things that were promised (IE, they knew to start working on) months and months ago, or that would be reasonable to expect based on prior expansions.

You can preach how we should know what to expect from SE by now. To a point, I agree. SE, on the other hand, should be learning too. IE, it should not take them a year of updates to make a job functional anymore. They should know what it takes for a job to be valuable, an event to be attractive, or a piece of gear considered worthwhile. That's a reasonable assumption, right? That after 5 years, they should know what makes their customer base happy? That maybe they'd try to not make the same mistakes again?

[BRP]

When you purchase an expansion, what you are buying is map data and the ability to download more content than usual with updates. It's not a normal game and shouldn't be compared to one. To anyone who's surprised by this, I'm going to guess this would be your first FFXI expansion launch.

[Gladiator]

I don't think the new expansion is dissapointing at all. I've always wondered what the zones looked like during the crystal war and I think they did a great job for the most part. Sure it has its pros and cons but its just been released so there's sure to be alot more to come. Personally I feel WotG really brought back the adventuring aspect of the game, I've explored each zone thorougly as if being in it for the first time. After going through garlaige and doing the Vunkerl Inlet map quest I headed there omw to sandy finding it at the old carpenters landing entrance. This zone is awesome I must say, theres tons of mobs ranging from ep to impossible to gauge. Burgards, orcs, gigas, tigers, this zone will quench your exp/merit mob needs.

http://www.ffxi-atlas.com/maps/vunkerl-inlet/general/

In the future I imagine they will open up such areas as sanctuary of zitah and possibly expand on the history of how sky was made, possibly in missions. I'm excited to see what will come next, there's so many possibilities.

[Paegan]

A) Yes they should have delayed the expansion to finish it but do you have any idea what kind of a bitchfest that would have caused? They delayed it for ONE FREAKING DAY and people wouldn't stop QQ -ing. That's how the software industry tends to be, better to release something incomplete on-time then fix it with a patch than to be late but perfect.

People were not complaining about the one day delay by itself, they were complaining because one section of the playerbase (NA/EU PC users) were unable to access the new content at the same time as everyone else. There's a big difference.

[pohibaba]

My understanding is that a product should be finished when it's put on shelves. And how is it overwhelming for the playerbase if we're recieving a product that's fully finished? If SE simply redirected their attention from releasing sub-par content to releasing finished content and fixing several parts in their game, such as Einherjar, 3 Kings, and several others, I'm pretty sure we'd have a lot less QQing about lack of content...

Edit: spelling

Releasing an expansion at point of sell in its entirety is a dumb idea from SE's point of view for two main reasons:

1) Imagine all the shit that could possibly go wrong with the game and think about how much time it would take to fix it. As an example, just look at the last patch they did. It fucked up like 6 different things, and as far as I know they still haven't fixed all of them. Now, think about the size of an entire expansion. There would be thousands and thousands of errors in it, and there's no real way around that unless they wanna BETA it, and it's clear they don't, and I agree with them on that point.

2) Most people would finish the expansion in 3-4 months. Then what would they do for the next year while waiting for another expansion? Most likely they would get bored with the game, delete their content ID and move to another game. If they had done this from their first expansion, I can guarantee you that the game wouldn't be running still. People constantly need new challenges to keep them interested in an MMO, and SE's way of doing that is by releasing content slowly over a period of a year to a year and a half.

[Dustybrown]

Releasing an expansion at point of sell in its entirety is a dumb idea from SE's point of view for two main reasons:

1) Imagine all the shit that could possibly go wrong with the game and think about how much time it would take to fix it. As an example, just look at the last patch they did. It fucked up like 6 different things, and as far as I know they still haven't fixed all of them. Now, think about the size of an entire expansion. There would be thousands and thousands of errors in it, and there's no real way around that unless they wanna BETA it, and it's clear they don't, and I agree with them on that point.

First off, SE should not be releasing any content which is so buggy it makes the game unplayable. Them releasing an expansion which hasn't been beta tested to the point it makes the game unplayable is a failing on their part, not something we should simply 'learn not to expect'. I mean we pay these guys $15/month or so and $30 for an expansion pack. If they can't spend time or resources to beta it that's a huge failing for them and should be looked at. At very least the game should be playable and I'm not accepting that as an excuse to release an expansion with the bare minimum of content.

[Ace-o-fire]

Look at what the last 3 expansion packs offered when it was first installed.

Nothing much more then this one, we just have to sit and wait for them to open other crap up.

[Aerin]

Look at what the last 3 expansion packs offered when it was first installed.

Nothing much more then this one, we just have to sit and wait for them to open other crap up.

I think this is what's setting most people apart in this topic. A lot of people think that there is a huge difference in content first offered between this new expansion and the rest, and other don't.

[Haud]

I think it also has to do with the fact that, with what's been added, very little of it is new. What has been released is 18 finished areas (based off of ffxi-atlas), 14 of which are rehashes of older areas with a few new doodads here and there, and 4 of which are brand new. There are more areas floating around and will be added, I know, but the fact that the new area count is 4 is pretty sad. What's worse is they didn't even go to the trouble of making new maps for the old areas. On top of that, WOTG comes with a new form of Besieged and Assault, but the luster has sort of worn away. I think there are three missions now too? All of the ToAU areas were new and exciting; nothing up until that point looked like Wajaom or Zhayolm. Most of the new areas...well, we've been there before.

I will agree that all of the expansions are never finished and usually lacking at first, but there's just a giant feeling of deja'vu here. There's little "new" here; the majority of the "new" areas could hardly be called new. I will say that I haven't purchased the expac for a variety reasons (and maybe my views are skewed), but my brother has and I've been avidly reading BG and watching him play, but I've been seeing him spend less and less time in the new zones and more time back in the old areas. And it's depressing because I really don't feel think I'm going to spend $30 for two new jobs and to see Bastok with cannons and Jugner with walls.

[Dawin]

When you purchase an expansion, what you are buying is map data and the ability to download more content than usual with updates. It's not a normal game and shouldn't be compared to one. To anyone who's surprised by this, I'm going to guess this would be your first FFXI expansion launch.

Being an MMO is not an excuse for lack of content. My only other MMO was everquest, and the expansion launches were pretty close to complete. Exceptions were generally high end stuff people wouldn't have access to for a while anyway (kind of like not finishing a zone like sky or sea for a month or two since it would take people that long to get access anyway).

[Ryko]

Like how most of you forgot how ToAU began... with nothing.

When one is making a point it is in said one's best interest to not flat out lie.

[TacoTaru]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't ToAU come with 11 zones and 15 assaults and 1 HNM. WotG currently has 17 zones, the mini campaign missions (8 to start with?), and 1 title NM. Doesn't WotG actually have more than ToAU did?

[Sho]

Like how most of you forgot how ToAU began... with nothing.

When one is making a point it is in said one's best interest to not flat out lie.

A shame it's not a lie, good sir.