FFXIV "When is it coming?" Thread

[Agito]

I just exclusively heard that FFXIV will not make it until the 70th bloody moon of wobbly arm man. It will really be perfect with 9 months of beta testing, the game itself is already finished pretty much.

[Malumultimus]

Everyone is aware that our knowledge of the game so far comes from the alpha build, right?

SE has a lot more of the game completed than we see. They said 2010 because they were confident with 2010 - even with a rocky beta.

And games don't just become better just because you work on them longer. Production isn't a straight line, it's a curve - at some point, you're wasting tremendous amounts of time just to patch things up and pull shoddy ideas out of your ass.

The game already is what it is and the small details aren't going to make or break it.

This is also the reason why the NDA doesn't make sense from a gamer's perspective. If someone sees something in the beta that they dislike, it's not going to be bugs or game concepts, it's going to be mechanics that will be in the game whether we like it or not. Some things can be changed to make a game better; some things can't because...well, then it's a different game. And those are the things that matter.

[Loaar]

I can't speak for AoC, but Warhammer didn't fail because it was released early, it failed because Mythic failed.

Sure the general bugginess of the game didn't help, the fact that their servers didn't cope with the mass PvP didn't help, but in the end, content is > all.

Content wise, it had 2 "endgame" events:

1. Forts. They never ever managed to make these work properly, so they just removed them. Easily the most fail decision I've ever seen a developer make.

2. City Sieges. The game has been out for 18months and this is still the be all and end all of endgame, and its complete and utter rubbish. What are they doing to fix it?

Removing it. Replacing it with a new version of EXACTLY the same content.

The only other content that has been added in 18 months is a PvE zone for a PvP game.

Then there is class balancing, which they can't make up thier minds on leading to sweeping changes to the underlying mechanics and a major nerfs/buffs cycle in every major patch.

Mythic failed everyone by being bad at their jobs. If they had released it 6 months later it would have still failed because its poorly designed and they can't make up their minds what to do about it.

[Vacht]

I can't speak for AoC, but Warhammer didn't fail because it was released early, it failed because Mythic failed.

Sure the general bugginess of the game didn't help, the fact that their servers didn't cope with the mass PvP didn't help, but in the end, content is > all.

Content wise, it had 2 "endgame" events:

1. Forts. They never ever managed to make these work properly, so they just removed them. Easily the most fail decision I've ever seen a developer make.

2. City Sieges. The game has been out for 18months and this is still the be all and end all of endgame, and its complete and utter rubbish. What are they doing to fix it?

Removing it. Replacing it with a new version of EXACTLY the same content.

The only other content that has been added in 18 months is a PvE zone for a PvP game.

Then there is class balancing, which they can't make up thier minds on leading to sweeping changes to the underlying mechanics and a major nerfs/buffs cycle in every major patch.

Mythic failed everyone by being bad at their jobs. If they had released it 6 months later it would have still failed because its poorly designed and they can't make up their minds what to do about it.

They should have just made DAoC 2.0, mythic was good at making DAoC

[Corrderio]

Sooner it comes the better, I got the urge to play XI agian.

[Khamsin]

This is also the reason why the NDA doesn't make sense from a gamer's perspective. If someone sees something in the beta that they dislike, it's not going to be bugs or game concepts, it's going to be mechanics that will be in the game whether we like it or not.

That's all the more reason to have an NDA, don't want to hurt the bottom line when it launches. Let people buy the game only to find out it sucks afterward, don't let them hear about it from beta testers and then not spend the money on it in the first place.

Although I realize you said from a gamer's perspective, but then there's lots of things I'm sure we wish we could have. Still, it's their game, their NDA.

[Lucavi]

I can't speak for AoC, but Warhammer didn't fail because it was released early, it failed because Mythic failed.

Sure the general bugginess of the game didn't help, the fact that their servers didn't cope with the mass PvP didn't help, but in the end, content is > all.

Content wise, it had 2 "endgame" events:

1. Forts. They never ever managed to make these work properly, so they just removed them. Easily the most fail decision I've ever seen a developer make.

2. City Sieges. The game has been out for 18months and this is still the be all and end all of endgame, and its complete and utter rubbish. What are they doing to fix it?

Removing it. Replacing it with a new version of EXACTLY the same content.

The only other content that has been added in 18 months is a PvE zone for a PvP game.

Then there is class balancing, which they can't make up thier minds on leading to sweeping changes to the underlying mechanics and a major nerfs/buffs cycle in every major patch.

Mythic failed everyone by being bad at their jobs. If they had released it 6 months later it would have still failed because its poorly designed and they can't make up their minds what to do about it.

Any MMO that fails fails in-part because its company fails. That's stating the obvious. I wanted to play Warhammer for like one week because I thought White Lion was going to be this awesome pet job - something like what Drg should have been, but yeah, haha, yeah right.

[Vacht]

Any MMO that fails fails in-part because its company fails. That's stating the obvious. I wanted to play Warhammer for like one week because I thought White Lion was going to be this awesome pet job - something like what Drg should have been, but yeah, haha, yeah right.

lol youre not the only one!

[Katlan]

That's all the more reason to have an NDA, don't want to hurt the bottom line when it launches. Let people buy the game only to find out it sucks afterward, don't let them hear about it from beta testers and then not spend the money on it in the first place.

Although I realize you said from a gamer's perspective, but then there's lots of things I'm sure we wish we could have. Still, it's their game, their NDA.

If the game sucks, NDA won't protect the company because Open beta... you know, no more NDA

[Loaar]

If the game sucks, NDA won't protect the company because Open beta... you know, no more NDA

The game is a long way from open beta, so saying the NDA is pointless because in 6+ months everyone will be able to see a polished game is just plain silly.

[loyaltrekie]

Just because they confirmed 2010 doesn't mean they have to stick to that date, developers fall behind and change release dates all the time.

SE will release the game when its ready I'm sure, most people who are remotely interested in the game will make their decision in Open Beta or probably long before that.

I think you have a little too much faith in SE, they won't release the game when it's 'ready' - they will release it when they think they can make the most money. Then just patch in the things they wanted to do pre-release that they couldn't fit in.

[Jinko]

I think you have a little too much faith in SE, they won't release the game when it's 'ready' - they will release it when they think they can make the most money. Then just patch in the things they wanted to do pre-release that they couldn't fit in.

What I meant by when they are ready was the main parts of the game.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the game launch without any sizable end game and being patched in several months down the road, depending on the speed at which it takes to level, most people will be too busy leveling several classes and gearing up to even look for end game content.

As long as they let us know its coming then players have something to work toward.

[Lucavi]

lol youre not the only one!

Pissed me off. The damned wiki didn't even have all of the attacks and skills for the WH half a year after the game came out.

I'm so glad I didn't waste my money trying that lump of crap. So much potential, but I'm sure the walls of hell itself is built upon the foundations of good intentions.

[brand]

11 didn't really have a first two weeks. It was basically the only MMO to exist in Japan at the time of release, so there was no alternative, and it's a FF game, huge fanbase. We in the US didn't get the game until the level cap had been raised 25 levels and there was already extensive end-game (3 kings + sky) released, with Dynamis hitting before anyone hit 75 too. There was a WHOLE LOT of content in FFXI at US release that we probably won't be getting at FFXIV release in comparison.

For the record, the level cap was still 70 at US release, and was bumped to 70 during the US beta test; the same patch included the introduction of long-spawn HNMs. This was a year after release, and a few months after the first expansion. Imagine what it was like being the original audience, back when this (notoriously undocumented) game had no realistic min/max. People running around in awful gear with awful job combinations doing awful damage and squealing at chain 5 before sitting down to rest for 5 minutes.

I'm sure I have rose-colored glasses on when I say this, but meleeing as a WHM in a leveling group that comprised a pld, a blm, a whm, a refresh, and 2 predetermined skillchain dpsers, without knowing that the crab/lizard would be able to do more damaging special effects so that every 8th pull you could Hexa Strike, was fun and exciting. That brief week when everyone discovered that the 999 delay Relic Maul could return more than 100% TP from Hexa alone, allowing you to chain spam it before the Skillchain-TP return was changed (it was because of the relics, btw, and well polearm samurais) was also awesome.

Anyhow, any mmo that comes out in this era is going to have a 1 MONTH yea-or-nay (based on the 'free' time that comes with the purchase). Like you said, the community back then was largely inexperienced, and the platform was pure PS2; no datamining, no live streams, no wikis. It's pretty fast work today to determine just how much depth a game is likely to have the moment public playtesting begins. There are expectations. Even if they have to patch it in later, the average mmo player (now) expects that more than just a story while leveling is in/coming.

[levish]

^ relic knuckles too iirc

[Rokku]

^ relic knuckles too iirc

Relic Knuckles with Asuran, Hexa with the relic maul (provided all six hits landed), and Samurai Penta with the Relic lance all returned over 100% TP, so yeah.

Shit was broken as hell, but man was it ever fun while it lasted.

[naninani]

Those were some good times...

Infinite Asuran + KRT =

And segueing back on-topic, there's a lot of 2010 left, so it's well within the realm of possibility and probability, but I won't weep over a delay.

[King Zuca]

they took so long to get they should of left them with the friggin infinite TP.

[Eaglestrike]

they took so long to get they should of left them with the friggin infinite TP.

It didn't take long at all to get stage 1 relic weapons bud, that's what gave them infinite tp.

[King Zuca]

It didn't take long at all to get stage 1 relic weapons bud, that's what gave them infinite tp.

even that took a long time without a good dynamis group that went often.