Final Fantasy XIV - Version 2.0!

https://member.eu.square-enix.com/si...c79c467b46.jpg

So they just released some awesome documents about their "Version 2.0" development for the game.

FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

All these changes look incredible, but... the complete overhaul is going to take them until this time next year to complete. At which we'll be seeing the PS3 release shortly before Christmas according to the timeline.

Check out the PDF's at the bottom of the page, especially the art bible. Looks incredible. Where was this team when they were first developing the game? The interface looks heaps better, and it seems like it's going to be a drag-drop system which is most ideal.

EDIT: Just to make things clear, this is a remake of the entire game. New engine and everything. The downside is it's going to take a year...

Excited but skeptical..D: Ima be safe for each game SE releases now just cuz...

Looks cool, but man, how expensive this is gonna be for them.

The changes they are looking pretty impressive. A few of my favourites:
Redesign of UI
Lagacy FF items
Voices
Rearing Chocobos
Wandering Odin primal, who grows in strength and drops greater treasure with every defeat.

That last one sounds very cool

Holy crap. That picture looks amazing. *gets impatient for his lunch break so he can view the forums, let alone Lodestone*

I had no idea they were doing anything like this. This is a big surprise. If it wasn't on Lodestone I'd think this was fake.

Looks pretty ambitious. :o

Wow can't wait. The new team is really kicking it in gear, glad the old team got the boot. PS3 version here I come! No more fighting for time on the "good computer". VOICES?!?!?!? OMFG THANK GOD . Fully-voiced MMO's are becoming the norm (Star Wars TOR and Blizzard's Titan said hi). The writing for XIV was/is garbage. And it only get's compounded when you have to read the nonsensical crap.

Finally looks like things are getting back into shape, but don't be surprised if 2.0 brings subscriptions along for the ride!

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Originally Posted by nirojan

The writing for XIV was/is garbage.

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Have to say I totally disagree with this. I personally like the immersion you get from characters who talk like real characters would - swear words, dirty talk, the lot. Writing is one thing I feel they did extremely well. Shame it wasn't voiced... but I'll be very interested in how well it ends up being voiced. I mean, voice acting - for me, at least - can make or break a game. Not having it is a safe choice, and having it means you have to get it right. A good example of not getting it right for me would be FFX, which included three leading characters which I could not stand listening to.

well we obviously have a difference of opinions, but your starting town was Uldan right? Mine was Limsa and I had to suffer through all the "arr"s and "matey" and all that other pirate talk that was just down right pathetic.

Looks like I was wrong about Subscription fee's they're starting next month :eek:. Bad move SE, should have waited to recoup your losses AFTER 2.0. Instead your whoring out your fragment community on a still unfinished project. tsk tsk :mad::mad2:

Next month? Idk man, I'm not made of money.

SUBSCRIPTION FEE's NEXT MONTH! Damn, I was hoping to compare this game to Star Wars TOR before I made a solid commitment to one.

Well I have to admit, I won't be continuing the subscription if they are going to charge for it. I'll happily pay for 2.0 though. They should just shut the game down so they can work on it faster.

I understand their plight though, they can't spend another year developing something with no money and what little funding is probably being trickled out to them. It costs a titload to make these kinds of games at a AAA standard, not to mention doing it within a year with an already broken game.

Honestly, I can not wait a full year. Just looking at the art bible they posted, I want it now. :(

We (Danielle and I) will probably pay for it - we really want to see the changes as they happen, since it's a one-off event. We were talking the other day and agreed that if the game was as it is now at the time of release, we'd have paid for it then instead of having a year of free gaming. So we're at the point that we feel it's worth our money and we know there are going to be solid changes such as jobs coming in soon and we want to experience that sooner rather than later. It is always annoying to go from F2P to P2P, but it was inevitable. People are finally saying they are happy with the game and when that happens it was always going to signal the reintroduction of charges to the game.

It would be nice if it was half price or at least discounted until 2.0 goes live, but I don't see that happening. Again, if the game was as it is now at the time of release, I'd have paid then, so I can't really complain too much. I'm here for the Final Fantasy aspect as much as I am for other reasons, and obviously other MMOs can't offer me that, so I'll take what I can get. We enjoy it, anyway. Despite spending a week or so crafting and gathering, we're still happy. xD

Another problem with the idea of shutting it down so they can work on it faster is that they need player feedback in order to know if it's going forward the way that the playerbase desire. I think it's a neccessity to keep the game open.

Going by a quick survey in the forums, SE stands to lose just under a third of the forum-visiting population. To keep over 70% of the current population would be quite the achievement. I just hope they improve the payment options as the existing ones were trout.

I understand where you are coming from.

It's just that even Yoshi admited that the game is only at least 50% of what they had envisioned for the game, and it's still missing the majority of solid features other MMO's have (like managable guild options, auction houses, delivery system, bank system, etc.). Not only that, but we all wasted $80+ to buy the collector's edition only to just shove the game whilst not being able to get a refund. So if you weren't willing to keep playing a bad game that only really just started to get up to standard in the last month or so, then you miss out completely.

I'm not too fussed about playing through all the changes though, so I guess that's where we differ.

Wouldn't it be more beneficial to have 25,000 players advertising the improvements of the game, than to only keep maybe 30% of that and having to make up for it with a massive PR push? Either way I'll be keeping my eye out for this game when E3 rolls around.

Just in case you misinterpreted - of the survey done in the FFXIV forums, around 70% said they would pay when subscriptions came in. 30% said they would quit. Not the other way around. :)

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Just in case you misinterpreted - of the survey done in the FFXIV forums, around 70% said they would pay when subscriptions came in. 30% said they would quit. Not the other way around. :)

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Because the entire player base post on the forums. :p It's very evident that the real diehard fans that see no wrong post on those forums. I've seen so many cases of someone giving some good constructive critisism on the game only to be told to get the hell off the forums because the game is perfect how it is. Most of them don't even see why people were angry as all sin when the game was first released.

In fact, I have seen so many threads recently on there saying that 2.0 is stupid because it's just going to be like WoW and that the game is fine how it is.

This also happened in Vanguard. It's as if the community gets so jaded that they don't want change, even though the game completely sucks.

EDIT: Just looking at the forums now and I just see heaps of displeased threads about having to pay to play. The reply they get is generally "Good, leave you troll!" which doesn't make sense. It's like the diehard fans want to have an abominally low population (most MMO's go under with more players than FFXIV has right now) which makes no sense. And it's not like these people are trolls, paying a subscription for an MMO that doesn't even have half the functionality as other MMO's that are still in beta is downright robbery, especially when a lot of us paid for the collector's edition last year.

How intriguing.

If they hadn't given this game a Final Fantasy number, I think they would have benefited from completely scrapping the original game, and re-releasing the new game under a new name.

Don't get me wrong, the changes sound FANTASTIC. I mean, this is exactly the direction they needed to go. It's a big huge change, and I give them props for taking the plunge. It's all very exciting. It's just that I worry about the game from a business standpoint. I think it maybe too late for the game to be successful on a large scale, even with the 2.0. I will play the 2.0 version for sure. But I'm a big fan of FFXI and I keep up with the FFXIV news. Lots and lots of people don't and most likely won't even understand what the hell a 2.0 version of a game even means. It will look like an upgrade as opposed to a completely revamped game. But seeing as how they gave it a numbered title, there is no way in hell they could have scraped the current game and re-release it with a untarnished name. What a conundrum for Square.

I hope this does work out in the end for them and the game does become something of a success.

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Originally Posted by Rostum

In fact, I have seen so many threads recently on there saying that 2.0 is stupid because it's just going to be like WoW and that the game is fine how it is.

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I actually find this really confusing. There are people angry because the game is becoming more like WoW and there are people angry because the game is becoming more like FFXI. I mean, I thought those two games were extremely different. Are both sides stupid, is one side stupid or...?

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EDIT: Just looking at the forums now and I just see heaps of displeased threads about having to pay to play.

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While I really hate these threads purely because of the sheer number of them...

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The reply they get is generally "Good, leave you troll!" which doesn't make sense.

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I hate the replies that are like this. People need to be a little more constructive where possible. It's possible that the original few threads would have got valid replies but the later threads have been far worse purely because people are getting sick of reading the same thing over and over (and it goes without saying that some members are making more than a single thread, which in itself is irritating). But yeah, I'd rather people just left threads to die than to make snide responses. Sometimes I wish that place could be moderated in the same way that EoFF is, but sadly SE can not get away with such methods.

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It's like the diehard fans want to have an abominally low population (most MMO's go under with more players than FFXIV has right now) which makes no sense. And it's not like these people are trolls, paying a subscription for an MMO that doesn't even have half the functionality as other MMO's that are still in beta is downright robbery, especially when a lot of us paid for the collector's edition last year.

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There are a massive number of trolls (or at least, it seems that way) on both sides of the fence in those forums. It often takes a little effort to filter through the trollposts to find those with maturity.

This is going to make me sound like a complete noob but what the frak does troll me? Sorry, but I missed the meeting about the latest internet slang.Anyway, although I'm slightly dissappointed with how the game is right now and the fact that they showed off version 2.0 then told us to wait for another year but p2p right now. I'm still going to pay. Im not a die hard fanboy or anyhing its just for me, this game is better than WoW. (I played it for like 3 months) Controversial, maybe. But Im sure that there is a hell of a lot of people who prefer this kind of game and will pay for it. Unfortunately, people with negative views always shout about it and so gain everyones attention, while the people with the positive views just carry on enjoying the game.

A troll can be defined in different ways depending on who you ask on the internet, but the general consensus is described on urbandictionary.com as "One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument" - I think that's a pretty accurate description. Basically people who post things with the intention of upsetting or angering people.

There are a bunch of good descriptions here: Urban Dictionary: troll

Ok, so its (Flamer + Going off topic + insulting the poster = Troll) But why the word troll? Is this one of those times were the origin of the word is unknown?...

What I really dont understand is why they brought out races that dont have an opposite sex counterpart? Although I'm a big fan of the Elezen race, if I was able to become a male Miqo'te I would have. I hope, but I doubt this will happen, that during the release of version 2.0 they will give me the option of changing my race. I'd rather not have to pay for a second character.

And while I'm on about races, I feel like the game has made each race less unique by equally distrubting them through the three main cites. Surely the wildwood elezen were called so because they mainly live in the woods. And yet there is no more of them in Gridania than any other race.
Or at least dot a few villages around the place, like the Plainfolk Lalafell are said to live on grassy plains, so give them a small settlement of their own on Limsa Lominsa. I know its not really a big deal, but it would make the game seem more real and why invent the lore if your not going to base the game around it. But that was probably the first teams fault.

You will have the chance to change race, gender and appearance when the new races/genders are brought in.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I actually find this really confusing. There are people angry because the game is becoming more like WoW and there are people angry because the game is becoming more like FFXI. I mean, I thought those two games were extremely different. Are both sides stupid, is one side stupid or...?

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Yeah, no wonder the developers can get confused at times. Both arguements are stupid, and for the most part it's generally "This 'really fundamental feature that just makes life easier' is in WoW so the game is trying to be WoW!" which is just retarded.

I've only played WoW for about an hour in total, probably, so I can't say much for that, but as for FFXI, hey, I enjoyed it well enough, although it did have it's flaws as well. I never really compare FFXIV to many other MMOs, though. I just think "Do I enjoy this?" and "Is it getting better?" and if the answer is yes to both, then that's great.