Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Naoki Yoshida talks about the big changes coming.
AmbrosiaAmor
Member Posts: 915
Naoki Yoshida talks about some changes coming this year (hopefully) to Final Fantasy XIV.
It seems fair to say that Square Enix would have liked Final Fantasy XIV's launch to go a tad more smoothly. The MMO, which debuted on the PC in September, met with poor reviews and annoyed players worldwide, eventually leading to producer Hiromichi Tanaka's ouster in December. Most of the core development team has since been reshuffled, and the PlayStation 3 port -- originally announced for early 2011 -- has now been put on indefinite delay.
"The decision [to make the team changes] was officially made in late November, although we had been talking along those lines with what are now the core members of the new team," new producer/director Naoki Yoshida told Famitsu in an interview published this week. "I was in a position of responsibility within the FFXIV directorial team, and the state of the game is something that's been concerning me for a long time, so it's not as if this came out of the blue. Ever since we launched last September, we've received a great deal of requests and complaints from players. That certainly played a role in the reshuffling, but there's also the fact that if we're going to call this a Final Fantasy game, then the entire company needs to pitch in and raise the standard of quality."
Yoshida's name likely isn't too familiar to overseas gamers -- outside of his involvement with FFXIV his main credit in Square Enix is the Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road line of Japan-exclusive arcade trading card games. Since officially taking over as leader of the MMO in December, Yoshida's been actively linking with the user base via questionnaires and discussions posted on the official website.
How much change does he want out of the game? "My policy is that I'll never do a total wipe of the game," he told Famitsu. "Players have a lot of memories wrapped up in their characters; wiping that out would be unthinkable. It's possible that we'll make adjustments that dramatically redefine skill ranks and player levels, but if so, we would allow players to reroll their parameters."
One possibility that came up in the player questionnaire was implementing an auction house -- a popular feature in Final Fantasy XI that was omitted from the new game. "Up until now, we were too preoccupied with making FFXIV as different from FFXI as we could," Yoshida commented. "However, players plainly need an easy-to-use game play system that encourages a healthy in-game economy. If an auction house is that system, then I say we should implement it. Making everything new and original isn't necessarily the right thing all the time."
But what's going to be changed first? "The user interface," Yoshida said. "We can work on other things all we want, but if we don't fix the controls at the same time, then players will be too frustrated to fully appreciate the other improvements. Also, changes to the battle system. Right now, Eorzea is a little too peaceful, isn't it? I'd like to see more chances for players to work together and take down stronger enemies -- more of that Final Fantasy style of play."
How good a leader Yoshida proves to be will be shown in how FFXIV improves and expands in the coming year? In the meantime, though, PS3 owners probably shouldn't be holding their breath for the console port. "I don't think we'll give a firm release date for it until we improve the game's quality," the producer said. We want it up to the point where current players are saying to us 'This is fun!' before we do give one. I promise that we will give PS3 owners a game that's truly worthy of the Final Fantasy name."
Comments
And that is the #1 problem where all developer's mistakes begin. Stop trying to make an entirely new game, especially if your first one was a massive success. Take what was already amazing, and greatly expand on it, don't toss it all away and start from scratch!
Group content is fine. I never begrudge people who enjoy that but damn I hope this doesn't turn in to yet another gank-a-boy game where hard = bring a bigger blob. It's lazy, over done and restrictive if they dont get the numbers they want. I like MMO's I like to play a social game but that doesnt mean group to take a shit. Grind is not fun, it is not a group thing and too many games drive top tier toward gank the shit out of everything and people can piss and moan all they want, grief solo players. They are a part of the MMO industry, they aren't going away, they need content that is at par with the gank content.
I can play a hundred polished MMOs that expect me to gank shit. I dont need another one.
He's right, the UI needs to die. Mash enter. In combat, in craft. The only thing that isnt a mash enter is Conurer and it would be too if the timers weren't as long as they are.
I pretty much agree with you Khrymson on that same statement. One thing that I think that was inaccurate about the 1UP article was that “Yoshida's been actively linking with the user base via questionnaires and discussions posted on the official website.” He did give us that questionnaire but that was it. Some forums have people asking almost every day when is Naoki Yoshida going to give us updates. I think we may get tidbits here and there but considering how many changes are eventually going to be made (which sounds to me like a major portion of the game) I don’t think we will get that Lodestone updated with relevant news till March at least. I am hoping I am wrong and they actually become more active with discussions via the Lodestone or their official forums if and when they implement that.
Like I said earlier in one of my posts, 2011 is the “it” year to make drastic positive changes to the point that folks will give this game another chance, and possibly a release date for the PS3 (In the interview Yoshida did not want to commit to a release date and considering how much works needs to be done I don’t see it being released till Q4 of this year at the earliest). They will have quite a bit of new competition for 2011-2012 which includes: Rift, Guild Wars 2, TERA Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blade & Soul and Diablo III(some or most are also going to be in Japan as well as debuting earlier than in the U.S. like TERA Online). They might not all be MMOs but they all share some sort of online interaction as well as being time consuming games and possibly taking away players from FFXIV permanently. The game is still currently free to play and possibly so for the rest of the year, but you still have players quitting or deleting their accounts. For example you have some people that have supported this game since Alpha and have recently taken the sidelines playing other games/betas till this game has something to offer more than what constitutes grinding for the most part. Square Enix is going to have to make enough positive changes and give a reason for players to want to play this game instead of those other games.
People want to have fun when they play video games when they turn the power on or log on (there are a few people out there though that don’t play video games for fun) I am not saying any of those games are the Holy Grail or the second coming of Gary Busey. But if any of those games end up being decent/good/awesome in the ‘fun” department from the get go, that is where people will go and spend their time and money, regardless of whether the diehard Final Fantasy fan base says those games are inferior or that everyone i.e. the so called “uneducated masses” have chosen those games for the wrong reasons like easy mode. I’ve played over half a dozen P2P MMO’s and it is sad to say the FFXI community is probably the most arrogant from the bunch which is clearly seen on most fan sites and from my years spent in FFXI as well as my time spent in FFXIV (I am not saying however that arrogance is absent in the other games). Square Enix is going to try as much as possible to make sure that their player base extends much more than just the diehard fan base from FFXI.
So far if we look at a summary of this article and the poll we are looking at: Possible drastic changes to skill level ranks, player level ranks, in-game economy, user interface, controls, armor system, battle system, combat system, quest system, maps, server response times, lack of any real in-depth content. Naoki Yoshida wants to bring this game to the point where the majority of the players are saying “this is actually fun!” Hint: Most people are feeling the grind post level 20-25 maybe they will do away with the SP/EXP system and make it into one or something else, and hopefully where it does not feel like a grind that most people feel with the current system.
*Looks at watch.*
Time is ticking away MR. N.Y. get to it!
It's funny, because I've been thinking that for a long time 'Man, it seems like they were almost EMBARASSED about FFXI, and they want to change everything they can, from names to gaming conventions'.
Turns out my paranoid fantasies were true! Weird.
I wonder what he means by 'fixing the UI'?? a completely new one, in-line with current gen expectations and ease of use? Do anyone know what they plan to do with it?
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
-Writer
-Professional Amature
SE already said it will be a new PC only UI, with drag n' drop features for spells and abilities as well as the inventory. Think more like all other MMOs, just hope not too similar.
First 2011 Update...
User Interface:
* Changes to main menu display format
* Changes to inventory list display format
* Improvements to various user-interface layouts
* Improvements to the Interactions menu
* The addition of a help text window
* The reorganization of on-screen information
* The reformatting of existing widgets, allowing for access of multiple windows at the same time
* Improvements to Actions & Traits menu response time
* Improvements to mouse and keyboard controls
* Improvements to character controls
* The addition of drag and drop functionality
* The addition of mouseover popup help text
* The addition of right-click menus
* The addition of a feature that will allow the cutting and pasting of macro buttons from the macro palette
The UI will also be undergoing several additions and adjustments aimed at creating more intuitive and user-friendly controls. Furthermore, a new UI geared towards users playing with a mouse and keyboard is currently being designed, and will hopefully be ready for implementation in a coming version update. The current in-game UI will remain available for those users who prefer to play via controller, while the newly designed UI will be available as an option for those who wish to use a mouse and keyboard.
Oh nice.
The King thinks these are glorious features, that sort of should have been added already.
So when will FFXIV launch? 12-20-2012?
Just right at the end of things. Tis a pity.
I'm glad Square Enix is making good on their mistakes. This should make PC users happy and perhaps I will play the PS3 version when that comes along.
They should also allow different payment options that just accept credit cards without buying that funny currency or using paypal that would go a long way to accessibility . I for one would have bought this game if they did.
What do you mean you hope not too similar? Those other UIs you refer to work great, which is why they format is used so often. Being difference for the sake of being different us why FFXIV got its ass kicked upon launch :-)
That said, the changes sound great....however, I hope everything gets faster...not just prettier or a different layout.
Remember that three-minute youtube video where someone sells 20 items in World of Warcraft and FFXIV? 10 seconds of the video is all that is required for the WoW interface to do this job...the other 2:50 is someone doing the exact same thing in FFXIV. click-wait-click-wait...delays on everything. check retainer inventory, wait, check my own inventory, wait
That to me was the biggest problem with the UI, the format would not have bothered me if it was simply responsive. It they re-arrange it, but its still insanely slow between commands, they problem has not been solved.
I sincerely hope this gets dealt with in the new update.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
-Writer
-Professional Amature
This is pretty much my only problem with the UI. I've been using a controller with the game since launch, and it works really well once you get used to it. However, the delays for every. single. command. you. enter. are simply obnoxious. Second place goes to the 2 seconds it takes you whenever you want to take out or sheath your weapon.