New Interview With Naoki Yoshida on Final Fantasy XIV's Graphical Update, Solo Play, and the Future

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New Interview With Naoki Yoshida on Final Fantasy XIV's Graphical Update, Solo Play, and the Future | MMORPG.com

With Final Fantasy XIV's Newfound Adventure era well underway, the PlayStation Blog has a new interview with Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida on the long roadmap of plans the team has for the game, and more of what's coming in the near future.

Read the full story here

irnbru69

make pvp better.

Vercin

irnbru69 said:

make pvp better.

Absolutely...I've been raging so hard at the new Crystal PVP. So many loses. It's way worse than the Feast.

Scot

"making the game more playable for soloers"

A clear direction of travel, the last AAA grouping MMO is on its way to solos first.

Odi101

Scot said:

"making the game more playable for soloers"



A clear direction of travel, the last AAA grouping MMO is on its way to solos first.

I may be in the minority here, but I think this may actually be a good thing for FFXIV. I think for any other mmo it probably wouldn't work, but it's been known, since the beginning, that there are a LOT of Final Fantasy fans that just won't even try FFXI or FFXIV because of the multi-player aspect of those games.

FFXIV's story has been noted as being the best in the franchise, and Squeenix wants those single-player-game fans to be able to experience it.

A couple things to note - 1: only dungeons and trials (not 100% sure about trials) that are part of the msq will be part of the trust system and soloable. No side dungeons, side normal/extreme trials, 8-man raids, or alliance raids will be included. 2: of the dungeons and trials that will be soloable, you will still have to do with other people if you want the rewards from them, as in tomestones and poetics....the stuff you need to progress gear at end game.

I think it's actually a win. You get people that wouldn't normally play mmos to actually play and get them a little exposure to an mmo, maybe even turning them into fans of mmos too.

Kratier

the queues for story dungeons when i first started ffxiv was over 5 hours long
it was so bad i leveled up paladin instead

Scot

Odi101 said:

Scot said:

"making the game more playable for soloers"



A clear direction of travel, the last AAA grouping MMO is on its way to solos first.

I may be in the minority here, but I think this may actually be a good thing for FFXIV. I think for any other mmo it probably wouldn't work, but it's been known, since the beginning, that there are a LOT of Final Fantasy fans that just won't even try FFXI or FFXIV because of the multi-player aspect of those games.

FFXIV's story has been noted as being the best in the franchise, and Squeenix wants those single-player-game fans to be able to experience it.

A couple things to note - 1: only dungeons and trials (not 100% sure about trials) that are part of the msq will be part of the trust system and soloable. No side dungeons, side normal/extreme trials, 8-man raids, or alliance raids will be included. 2: of the dungeons and trials that will be soloable, you will still have to do with other people if you want the rewards from them, as in tomestones and poetics....the stuff you need to progress gear at end game.

I think it's actually a win. You get people that wouldn't normally play mmos to actually play and get them a little exposure to an mmo, maybe even turning them into fans of mmos too.

I take your points, but the whole idea of a MMO which favours grouping is to attract players who want to group, not those who want to solo. If FF had population issues I could understand the desire to get soloers in, but it doesn't if anything it is increasing its base. Finally going solo is always in steps, it does not happen all at once, they never used to have a Trust system and each year it includes more content, eventually it will include nearly everything.

ShinyFlygon

Scot said:

I take your points, but the whole idea of a MMO which favours grouping is to attract players who want to group, not those who want to solo. If FF had population issues I could understand the desire to get soloers in, but it doesn't if anything it is increasing its base. Finally going solo is always in steps, it does not happen all at once, they never used to have a Trust system and each year it includes more content, eventually it will include nearly everything.

On the contrary, it seems they are being very careful to keep solo content separate. You'd have a point if solo players could earn the rewards needed to participate in group content, but they cannot. There's no real incentive for a group-oriented player to solo other than personal enjoyment.

It's just a smart business move to attract as many players as possible without making solo play the default easiest way to get gear. Having more solo players in the game is not going to hurt the rest of the population.

Scot

ShinyFlygon said:

Scot said:

I take your points, but the whole idea of a MMO which favours grouping is to attract players who want to group, not those who want to solo. If FF had population issues I could understand the desire to get soloers in, but it doesn't if anything it is increasing its base. Finally going solo is always in steps, it does not happen all at once, they never used to have a Trust system and each year it includes more content, eventually it will include nearly everything.

On the contrary, it seems they are being very careful to keep solo content separate. You'd have a point if solo players could earn the rewards needed to participate in group content, but they cannot. There's no real incentive for a group-oriented player to solo other than personal enjoyment.

It's just a smart business move to attract as many players as possible without making solo play the default easiest way to get gear. Having more solo players in the game is not going to hurt the rest of the population.

Well they have a clear demarcation between PvP and Solo gear which is necessary but not seen in all MMOs these days. So thats good. What about raids which are group content, quicker soloing must get you to raids quicker, can the raid gear be used in PvP?

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Odi101

Scot said:

ShinyFlygon said:

Scot said:

I take your points, but the whole idea of a MMO which favours grouping is to attract players who want to group, not those who want to solo. If FF had population issues I could understand the desire to get soloers in, but it doesn't if anything it is increasing its base. Finally going solo is always in steps, it does not happen all at once, they never used to have a Trust system and each year it includes more content, eventually it will include nearly everything.

On the contrary, it seems they are being very careful to keep solo content separate. You'd have a point if solo players could earn the rewards needed to participate in group content, but they cannot. There's no real incentive for a group-oriented player to solo other than personal enjoyment.

It's just a smart business move to attract as many players as possible without making solo play the default easiest way to get gear. Having more solo players in the game is not going to hurt the rest of the population.

Well they have a clear demarcation between PvP and Solo gear which is necessary but not seen in all MMOs these days. So thats good. What about raids which are group content, quicker soloing must get you to raids quicker, can the raid gear be used in PvP?

All this does is allow you to get through the msq without having to rely on group queues for certain content, like the dungeons and trials. You can't earn the rewards needed to acquire the gear that's needed for endgame raids through solo play. 

Edit: Yes you can wear your "raid gear." there is no PvP specific gear in the game, because gear doesn't matter in PvP in the game. 

QuarterStack

Scot said:

"making the game more playable for soloers"



A clear direction of travel, the last AAA grouping MMO is on its way to solos first.

FFXIV, like FFXI, is in a different situation than other MMOs, though. They're both numbered titles in a well-known series. SE may well want to make sure the games remain playable, in some form, after the "MMO" part has waned in popularity, so the series remains "unbroken".

I'll be honest, I think the MMOs should have been created aside from the main series, and leave it as just single-player games. But that ship has sailed. Trending the games toward soloable gameplay, while maintaining online/multiplayer capability, is really the only choice they have.

Scot

DarkZorvanReturns said:

Only graphic upgrade I'd accept as an actual upgrade is if the new graphics cannot be run on any console without frying it. Otherwise, it's merely a slight facelift.

They don't have to do that much, I would say as long as its as good as the first Lotro graphics update, that was quite an overhaul. Mind you that would mean we don't have to play with console players.

Scot

I was wondering has FF had graphical updates before, what did players think of them?

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finefluff

Scot said:

I was wondering has FF had graphical updates before, what did players think of them?

I didn't play 1.0 but comparing images and video from 2.0 the graphics and UI looks significantly different. I like the new graphics better and I think they will do in a good job updating them again in the future.

1.0



2.0

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