New Development Team Rolls Out Patch 1.15a

[Ouch!]

Here's our first patch on behalf of the new development team. Read up on the exact details here.

Not much in the way of the additional content that everyone wanted. It's more just cleaning up. It's probably a good thing that they're not trying to tackle both content and functionality issues at the same time. While one will certainly always be disappointing without the other (what does it matter if everything is streamlined if there's still nothing to do? what does it matter if there's more things to do but the mechanics are an impediment to doing them?), it's good that they've made a decision and just moved forward with it.

Hopefully someone can weigh in on how substantial some of these changes are. It doesn't look like they've altered anything fundamental to the game, but rather just made a number of more small fixes that will improve the general game play experience.

Thoughts?

[Loony BoB]

A bunch of the ongoing things I would still class as "old group" promises. The companies aren't even implemented yet. I'll say it over and over - until you can access Ishgard, it's not substantial enough.

Still, happy with the changes and delighted that things are moving forward. Mentioned to Danielle that we should probably pick up the game again after the next patch and see how notable the improvements are.

[Rostum]

Can I just ask, what do you expect out of Ishgard? I ask this because I haven't been following this game or any of the storyline content.

[Del Murder]

In Ishgard there is a neverending trove of thrilling quests with rewards beyond imagination. And the streets are paved with gil.

[Carl the Llama]

I think its a good thing that they fixed these errors before releasing the content, don't forget they said there were going to roll out 2 patches per month, its my thinking that they will be releasing the next patch in about 2 weeks time, time enough to let players come back and see the improvements they made to the game and get used to the new system and all its improvements, my suggestion to you guys is to come back asap and get used to the game again, it would be a good thing to get used to the games mechanics once again, to level up a little bit more and be prepared for the content.

I am also willing to bet the 2 patches per month will be 1 general improvements and 1 content patch per month, as Ouch! said, its probably not a good idea to tackle both at the same time.

[Roogle]

Can I just ask, what do you expect out of Ishgard? I ask this because I haven't been following this game or any of the storyline content.

You can read about Ishgard at Eorzeapedia. It looks like it is another nation in the story of the game that is bound to be full of higher level content and quests.

[Mirage]

The update didn't fix the bug that makes buying, comparing prices, and selling items to other players a complete nightmare, so I'm not really satisfied.

Seriously, market wards need to disappear forever.

I also wish there was a way to lock your UI, so that whenever a target you want to click is partially obstructed by the UI, I would click through it and select the target instead of grabbing an UI item.

I honestly can't see a single update note that I think is important, or should be a priority.

[Lionx]

I expected more, but this patch really changes nothing about the game, just smoothing out stuff. Meeeh.

[Rostum]

What do you really expect? It's not like they can develop a lot overnight. It's a step in the right direction.

[Lionx]

Maybe a lil more on UI designs and convenience. Alot of it they listed felt like small things you can do overnight.

[Ouch!]

Maybe a lil more on UI designs and convenience. Alot of it they listed felt like small things you can do overnight.

You seem to have absolutely unrealistic expectations about how long it can take to develop and implement some of these changes if you think "overnight" is even fair as an exaggeration.

[Loony BoB]

Can I just ask, what do you expect out of Ishgard? I ask this because I haven't been following this game or any of the storyline content.

A better idea of what this world is like. In FFXI, Jeuno is the central location that people spend most time in and the highest authorities are (at least, in my short time playing). In this game, it's in a constant battle against dragons. The fact that the game was released without Ishgard being enterable and still to this day lacks any way of getting in was always the biggest sign to me that the game was incomplete. It's one thing not to have additional maps added in beyond the original grouping of areas, but to not have the main city of the game available to enter for me is a big sign that they aren't ready for you to really immerse yourself in the world.

I'm not saying Ishgard is all that is needed, but I'm saying that it's such a major hole in the current game that until it is implemented (and there is no discussion surrounding it at the moment at forums or by the devs, it should be noted), the game is not something I would consider to be ready for reviews. When playing the game, seeing Ishgard from the outside but not being able to go in, makes it feel like you're a very unimportant part of this game and that your character is, well... unimportant. Basically you're just a nomad who wanders from town to town, never really getting to the pinnacle.

Was Jeuno open at the start of FFXI, even if at the later English release?

[Lionx]

I will give that the exp and maybe search might take some time. But alot of text in the patch notes was about color changes, some minimap doodle, item placement changes, and things like that. Thats not that unrealistic to be overnight changes.

The way they announced it made it seem big, but its not that big at all what i meant. Maybe i do have too high expectations, but when like a Patch drops i honestly felt there should have been a lil more. Maybe hotfixes is a better thing to name it for the majority of changes here.

[Loony BoB]

I do agree that it wasn't as big as one might have hoped, but it should be noted that they always stated that it would be "sometime after the beginning of February" that the quests/mini-quests were going to be brought in. Hopefully amongst other things.

Regarding UI designs and convenience - out of curiosity, are you still playing? Genuine question as I'm not sure if you ever returned since you decided it wasn't up to standard months back. If you haven't been back since November, then it might be at least worth checking the UI out. I personally found the UI to be absolutely fine in my most recent session.

It's content and purpose I found lacking. This seems to be backed up by the player poll. 8.6% said UI needed most work, over 60% went for either the combat system or in-game content. So them focusing on those two things over the next months rather than the UI will probably be something you can expect.

[Mirage]

I played yesterday and I definitely think the UI still needs work.