FINAL FANTASY XI 2012 Roadmap Follow

I'm hoping it's actually a queue system to play as "the" monster. For example, you login and register to be a Botulus Rex. Then the next time someone spawns it, you get a 1 minute notice that you will be transported there. You select "Yes" and then get to play as Rex against an alliance of 18, choosing the moves you will do with each tp, and the magic you will use, etc.

I've even thought it would be fun to chose droprates, but that would be abused.

I think the biggest issue is that, aside from the UI stuff, the entirety of this roadmap is either smallscale **** that wouldn't even take up half of the normal version updates anyone who's been playing since before abyssea is used to, stupid fixes for **** that should have been fixed years ago, and instead might get fixed in a few months, or promised level ups and rehashes of old content we've already done a thousand times. The only people who are excited about this **** are people who haven't been around long enough to realize how little there is on this roadmap, and people who are still in denial about the current state of the game

I'll wait for Vana'fest. I'm not impressed by any of this.

And I say this as a player that really misses Vana'diel. I was heartbroken to see all this stuff. It seems they're adding a lot of fluff, but no meat.

Exactly...

Exactly the point I was trying to make, and it was way before WoTG. How long did it take to finish ToAU, and what did we get for updates in those couple years? A few job ability changes and ZNM. Woohoo! >.>

I dearly miss the days when the release of new missions would be the most exciting part of the update.

I stopped playing after the last Add-on Scenario, and was sorely hoping they would add some sort of new story content in this road map. Hell it didn't even have to be a full blown expansion. Just a full scale elaborate mission line, that would last a few weeks.

What are their storyboard and Cutscene staff even doing right now?

WoW isn't older than FFXI...

I posted that post 10 minutes before i had to leave so let me expand on my line of thinking on this one without a time limit. While I agree that feeling great at the begining of expansion where everyrthing fresh and new but think about it. Given our current exp situation the only way to keep players in a new zone for a great deal of time is to have GoV from the get go and that means their dungeons would only be used consistently after launch. The new central city hub would only be used after that new area smell wears off to get to the new areas if there an incentive for it.

What I am saying is that once the dust settles on a traditional expansion. What's to keep us there? If it's new end game content what's to stop them from just releasing end game content with new battlefields in our existing world to reach the same effect?

A mini expansion with 3 new areas each with the whole map in mind to be an end game challenge would be a much better bet in my opinion. If you think about it name one expansion mini or otherwise that has shown the staying power of abyssea. They hit so many of the right notes with abyssea series of mini expansions the only one they really missed was a proper storyline and ACTUAL new zones. Where as a new expansion would loose it's new area appeal in less then 2 weeks.

I had several ideas involving areas people mentioned the most and I like to share one as an example. A 3 series mini expansions involving the mithran homeland to the far south. Accessed by Khazam by a not so traditional chocobo caravan through the jungle. The 3 mini expansion would feature 2 outer areas and 1 inner area. Each outer area would feature a mithran tribe similar to that fund in khazam. You will have to challenge their warriors, however they will not fight you until you are proven worthy by defeating various nms in their region. Once you defeat the warrioes you can challenge the head chieftain. Once you cleared both outer areas you will gain access to the inner areas with a more expansive town but similar challenges. Once you gained the respect of cheftains it will unlock shops and various quest barred previously. Explaining more about the area and their society. Once all areas are cleared in each mini expansion you gain access to main city where the... Good lord I forgot what their ruler title is,, Can be found. The whole city is completely hostile. You must defeat your way up the ranks of her army and challenge her to finally gain the respect of mithras everywhere.(at this point you will get a key item that makes any mithra enemy non aggressive.) The nm system would work similarly to how it did in the first expansion of abyssea.(in terms of tiers)

Anyways I think this would be a better route then releasing a completely new expansion where most areas only serve as exp spots.

There are ways to make zones useful beyond EXP or the occasional NM. Need a minimalist example? Cruor. Everyone can get it. Every mob in Abyssea drops it. No, not everyone will get it in the same amounts, but it can later be converted to rewards not arbitrarily locked by cooldown timers, JP midnights, or whatever. Stock these "vendors" with enough goods to keep people playing even after they get their directly desired goods and you're off to a good start. And just because it's something anyone can do at their own pace, for the love all that's holy, don't make the actual rewards ****. That is part of what kills an event before it's even figured out. The community needs less worrying about what the other guy's wearing and more having fun getting everyone the things they want to wear.

Things can get more complex from there. I'm not particularly keen on Lax's idea, as it introduces disparity between those who complete content and those who haven't (especially when introducing non-aggro mechanics). The whole gating areas behind certain requirements was also one of the more poorly received aspects of CoP, much as some try to justify it as motivation to partake in the missions. But really, one objective I'd take in making new zones more interesting is making them more dynamic. Campaign could be perceived as a baby step in this mechanic, but its biggest flaws are stagnation (one objective point) and the weekly tally reliance.

My mistake then. I'd assumed it was slightly older due to the larger fanbase (And the fact that whenever anyone mentions MMO's, WoW is the only one that's ever brought up). However, I can still point out that Runescape saw a total HD makeover and has been around since 2001. Now if THAT doesn't make a case, then nothing will.

Hmmm, after finishing reading the roadmap, i don't see anything there that will entice me to come back to the game, with POL demise, my account went inactive (yup, i'm one of those who didn't make the account transfer), again, but this time i'm going to leave it like that, i never liked the so called "end game" scene, and since almost everything they are adding lately to the game is end game related, there is nothing here for me, with all my friends gone, what's there to do... the last time i logged to the game was in early February, and what i did? i just was standing idle in Port Jeuno, looking at the shouts, gave a couple of teleports, then i started to run... i ran from there to Windurst... and it was... fun.

I warp back to Jeuno, went idle again for a while, then i just shut down the game...

I wanted to at least finish ToAU and Wings, but right now i don't care anymore.

Than you very much to all the people here at Alla, you are all great, peace :)

This pretty much. Updating the UI to something every modern MMO already has isn't new, its the dev's finally taking off the ****** hat for once.

I how many people realize this game is still using DirectX 8 for it's graphics rendering. Most modern cards don't even properly support it anymore and it's being emulated in DX9 instead. They need to update the graphics code to DX9 at a minimum, maybe even 10/11 if they can swing it. This doesn't require texture / resources updates, those can stay the same, going to DX9 alone would vastly improve the game's appearance. Lighting / shadows and special effects would look so much better in DX9.