ShadowSoldier89
Member
One of the greatest things about FFXI was its "Well, here you are, now fuck off and figure it out" structure
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Future of Final Fantasy XI press conference ended [OP updated with details]
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DrROBschiz
Member
Yeah but back when i started there was a logic to how a player branched out, progressed and explored.
Now its all sounds like they put a bunch of shutes and ladders everywhere to just rush players to the end so that they can play with others
I quite enjoyed my adventures where I moved at my own pace and took in the scenery
Hyrule Warrior
Member
Yeah, end game content was never really the goal or reason I played FFXI. It was the journey of leveling up and exploring new areas, and it took me forever! I played that game for so many years, and never even had a maxed level character for a while. I still loved my time with it though, each party was a new experience, and it was fun socializing with new groups of people along the way.
If it's a EOL annnouncement, it wouldn't just be an announcement of the servers shutting down. It would be an announcement of a termination date (probably a year from now) and a roadmap leading towards that date, giving existing players enough of a heads up to enjoy the content in the remaining period. There'll probably be rewards for long time players, major events leading to the end of the service giving everyone a chance to get as much exp and gil as possible, etc.
This is a press conference about what comes next for FFXI, so termination is definitely a possibility. Obviously not the only possibility, but just because it's not the best news doesn't mean they wouldn't announce it this way. For a MMO which has been running for 13 years, deciding to end it would be a major newsworthy event.
Hyrule Warrior
Member
I just can't handle thinking about FFXI shutting down
sure I haven't played it in a while, but man...it was part of my life for so long.ShadowSoldier89
Member
even 1 year until termination wouldnt make much sense. They have had an extensive 1 month patch cycle lately thats added new events constantly including a new one releasing this month. I find it hard to believe that termination is imminent
DrROBschiz
Member
I just can't handle thinking about FFXI shutting down
The worst part of it would be the lack of a real successor
XIV does not carry the spirit of XI in any sense of the word
Squall5042
Member
Would love some sort of single player announcement but not getting my hopes up.
aspiegamer
Member
However awesome a PS4 and/or Vita thing would be I have no idea how that would work. Vita especially. FFXI is heavily rooted in needing to use command line styles of prompts and having communicate with others. This has grown a lot over the years since original release, too. It's not terribly hard to figure out or anything. It just is what it is.
Finally dropping PS2 support would be good. The game is still designed around a 56k internet connection and a 32MB RAM pool. Inventories are sooooo big now (talking 500+ items available on fairly short notice + a ton of other storage) that it all takes about 30 seconds to load after entering a zone. Dropping PS2 standards would make these types of very real and very annoying problems fixable.
Ending the service would be shocking. There's new development and content added almost monthly and a game about to end doesn't get that sort of support. Also no reason to end a service with incredibly low upkeep that rakes in easy money continuously.
Edit: This isn't mean to sound discouraging, but the amount of content in total is mind-blowing after this long. 8 full-length storylines + 3 mini-stories + hundreds of quests + quest lines for each of 20+ jobs and you get the idea.
Finally dropping PS2 support would be good. The game is still designed around a 56k internet connection and a 32MB RAM pool. Inventories are sooooo big now (talking 500+ items available on fairly short notice + a ton of other storage) that it all takes about 30 seconds to load after entering a zone. Dropping PS2 standards would make these types of very real and very annoying problems fixable.
Ending the service would be shocking. There's new development and content added almost monthly and a game about to end doesn't get that sort of support. Also no reason to end a service with incredibly low upkeep that rakes in easy money continuously.
There is no completion. Ever. This is not an exaggeration. There's too much stuff to do. Tons of people that have played a decade+ can't say they've "completed" everything.
Edit: This isn't mean to sound discouraging, but the amount of content in total is mind-blowing after this long. 8 full-length storylines + 3 mini-stories + hundreds of quests + quest lines for each of 20+ jobs and you get the idea.
They just have to give everyone a kraken club lol
XI has changed so much since its inception, namely after Abyssea was launched that I don't think even it carries the spirit of XI anymore, really.
I really miss the Zilaart/ToAU days.
Hyrule Warrior
Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXWb5v-mZnY
lol i laughed when i first saw something like this
yeah, that's mainly why i stopped playing...it just had changed so much that it didn't play like I was used to anymore.
They never clear characters.
Glorious Ownage
Member
Damn dude. Takes me back. Loved loved loved beast master. Nothing like being out there alone soloing some insane notorious monster for 1h + fights
DrROBschiz
Member
Well
The problem with making a JRPG styled MMO is the issue of Fatigue. You can only Tier things up and escalate things so far before you hit a ceiling.
You see this a lot on just about every RPG that pushes its content that Endgame arena.
Eventually there has to come a point where everything maxes out and by then the player is already starting to see the limits of how much more challenge can be presented and shiny loot that makes the already beaten game trivial just ends up being a cool toy to show off for a while (and runs the risk of trivializing future content).
Its a tricky balance board when trying to keep an RPG interesting for the long haul.
I know of one potential solution to such fatigue that I have seen glimpses of in other games but it might need its own post to explain. Hell I am not even sure if you guys will follow what i am talking about here
Ok, that'll make me play it all over again instead of wasting time on ARR.
Camping Dragon's Aery in HD and hi-res textures., can't wait!
It hasn't been for years, at least XP wise.
Hyrule Warrior
Member
Let's have a pre-abyssea servers available for old school FFXI fans to transfer their character too...that would get me to return lol
Shouta
Member
I think they could do it with a few additions and some tweaks to existing stuff but if they really wanted to make it an SP experience, they'd need to add in a lot of various other stuff to make it more cohesive. The game, as it is right now, has a lot of stuff that is solo friendly so a lot of work has been done already.
Not just the gear treadmill but the secondary systems that make the gear treadmill more appealing.
There are basically two FFXI, before-Abyssea and after Abyssea.
Modern FFXI is pretty similar to FFXIV.
Glorious Ownage
Member
I would absolutely pay full price for a pre abbysea remade FFXI. Greatest game I've ever played by a large margin
Hyrule Warrior
Member
It was overwhelming, and it just changed the nature of the game in a blink of an eye, which didn't sit well with us who had been playing it since launch.
Modern FFXI is not really that similar to FFXIV. Yes, it's a far cry from the way it used to be, but let's not go crazy here. It's just that some of the harshest edges have been rounded off by now.
I see people wishing for pre-Abyssea servers fairly often, and I just don't think it would work. Yeah, a lot of people say they'd resub for that, but how long would that actually last? I think what people really want is the sense of community that the older FFXI iterations, and that's surely not coming back, even if they make old-style servers. Ultimately, pre-abyssea FFXI is a game that I don't think can exist in the modern MMO world.
I see people wishing for pre-Abyssea servers fairly often, and I just don't think it would work. Yeah, a lot of people say they'd resub for that, but how long would that actually last? I think what people really want is the sense of community that the older FFXI iterations, and that's surely not coming back, even if they make old-style servers. Ultimately, pre-abyssea FFXI is a game that I don't think can exist in the modern MMO world.
The sense of accomplishment was totally lost in Abyssea. It was like turning on infinite health in Dark Souls.
Spoony Bob
Member
If this ever happened, I would buy it in a heart beat. Hell, I'd dreamed of this and wondered if anyone had ever thought the same.
Agreed. I have fond memories of the years I spent playing, but looking back at all the time wasted either doing nothing or slamming my head against a wall when my friends weren't available... I don't really want to ever go through it again.
this.
Still the best Monster structure in gaming history. Only one chance in a week to get Nidhogg, check!
Glorious Ownage
Member
I didnt hate it but it did take away a lot of accomplishments. What I disliked the most was that you could level in it. Destroyed traditional XP parties which I loved and replaced them with a spam fest similar to xiv where you'd join when you were level 30 and afk
I'd want remake of FFXI during the level 75 cap era... which will never happen. I have no interest in the current version of the game.
Shouta
Member
I played since launch and I loved Abyssea. It was a breath of fresh air when compared to what we had to endure before it came, especially if you were one of those neglected jobs in the meta. It was horrid that you couldn't enjoy all the content on your favorite job if it wasn't in the spotlight in the meta. Best of all, it did it without changing the base game outside of those areas too much.
Yeah, folks want the community but that can exist without going back to pre-Abyssea though it's unlikely.
Pai Pai Master
Banned
Yeah Abyssea was where the game lost me. I still barely know wtf I was doing there, it was fun for short bursts but I didn't like that it basically took over the normal progression system. It was like FFXI Super Turbo Hyper Edition but I didn't feel any sense of accomplishment in there.
Not sure how the game played after that point, but it just felt like such a huge departure from the gameplay I was used to. I would have loved to go back and give it another shot, but I'm happy with the direction FFXIV is going. Maybe this news will make it more enticing.
Well good news then, traditional parties are currently more in vogue, only for capacity points instead of experience. (Think new merit points, basically.)
I think on top of this the 'story' related to the content was near non-existant/not good to accompany it, it literally felt new game + for an MMO with content that completely eclipsed the old. On one hand I felt it breathed amazing new life into the game, on the other hand I would have preferred a more traditional expansion with new story and 'less' radicalization of the new level cap. It just killed so much content while not adding nearly enough to replace it nor was much of it compelling. I think if they didn't go to such great lengths on upping the cap so quickly to 99, like abyssea finished at say lvl 85 or 90 and added new equip more slowly that didn't completely eviscerate the old content it might have registered a bit better. But the change was too radical and parts of the community struggled to keep up with the changing times that before the new 'standard' could get established, a ton of people moved on to other things.
For me though what killed the game wasn't abyssea, I actually came back to the game after abyssea launched and enjoyed the first patch or two of the new expansion, what killed the game for me was the login campaign, and specifically the login campaign tied to Trust NPCs. Once I knew I missed the opportunity to participate in content I know I would have wanted to have, I stopped caring about coming back. And I likely won't come back till I know there is a way for me to get that old content in some form (even if I have to work for it).
Gentleman Jack
Member
Damn. Must resist temptation to go back to XI. Haven't played in over ten years I can't imagine all the things I left undone and would have to catch up to. I wonder how it would run on my current computer, though.
ShadowSoldier89
Member
Community is still pretty strong in current FFXI. Not nearly as strong as when everything required a group (still miss that) but it is still the strongest of any MMO I have tried
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
Abyssea saved the game after it had been ground into the dust by the WoTG era. Yes, DNC and SCH were great additions to the game, but practically everything else from that expansion sucked. Even the main storyline -which is actually pretty cool- is undercut by endless filler-missions and the most worthless rewards ever for an expansion.
Pretty much nothing from that era "stuck" with the playerbase, it was an unmitigated disaster. The 3 mini-expansions weren't much better either.
Abyssea, and the whole Magian Trial system basically dragged the game from a 3 year-long rut. An insane length of time if you consider what was added in the 3 years preceding WoTG.