The Vanafest announcmentFollow

So the future of FFXI seems to be riding quite heavily on what happens at Vanafest for a lot of players, given the rather uninspiring new road map it seems even more important than ever.

What do you think it will turn out to be? A new expansion, new dev team or maybe even free to play with cash shop?

If its no expansion im done i think nothing is worse than standing still and thats what the game is doing right now, again.
Feels like pre abys allover nothing new to do nothing to see and grindy content all over.

XI was originally going to be ported over to PS3, but Sony said "not with those graphics" and so SE dropped the plans. However, now that they're in serious negotiations to get XIV on the PS3, and they're applying major UI overhauls to the PC version, the time is ripe to run it out to the PS3.

The graphics engine for XI is capable of looking pretty darn good once the resolution is plumped up to HD levels. but the sticking point has always been the UI, which just feels dated. Cleaning up and modernizing the UI while allowing the game to run at 1080p might convince Sony to allow it as a legacy port after all.

I would love a new expansion... and add-ons too.

I would love to see new areas.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a283/Airhead69/complete_world_full.jpg

I bring this old map into view again... I only wish that they would have expanded the world like this... instead of rehashing the old areas. Lots of history exists all over Vana'diel and we've only seen a fraction of it... sure we get passing mentions of "other" areas in the story, but hey let's go to them...

Also, for pete's sake... I wana go to that old city in the intro someday dammit! :)

I feel the roadmap planned is the actual roadmap and anything they will say on the Vanafest will be small changes to stuff that already exist. They said on the last Vanafest they had a surprise that would shock everyone (the level 99 cap that was). On this Vanafest they haven't mentioned anything besides celebrating the 10th year of FFXI. When it comes to PSVita port I already know from the past that SE are very vague when they say "we're looking into something" as it might never happen or it will take at least 5 years to implement.

Actually, the road map is just what the development team is currently working on for this year. It's an internal document. Note that it doesn't go past December of this year?

They tend to announce expansions between 6 months and one year in advance. If they announce an expansion at Vanafest, it'll probably be planned for a spring 2013 release - well past the end of the current "road map."

I'm torn, and I mean really torn, because I desperately want some new content and I know it probably won't come. I want a new full-sized expansion. I want something I can sink my teeth into once again, something that takes time and effort to attempt/complete, something where a small group is needed so I can actually get to meeting new people again. I don't know if it's just me but I've been feeling quite isolated on XI for some time now. I took a break for around 6 months or so for school, came back, and now every shout I'm seeing is for emp/relic only jobs. Hell, LS are forming which are shouting for relic/empy members only. Whatever it is (Voidwatch, maybe) which has caused this behaviour needs to be toned the f*** down. No one wants to help with missions anymore because they can all be solo-ed now (mostly) and, as always, there's little to no reward for people who've already completed missions to go back and help others, which is why I don't blame people for not helping. I know that if I saw a shout for a mission which was going to take maybe 2 hours of my life, and I get squat for it, I would ignore it. Even offering rewards isn't as effective as it used to be since everyone and their mother has gil now.

Anyway, I digress, and what I want is something similar to the original missions, i.e. Not too long, not many JP Midnight waits (though there shouldn't be any!), good story, fun, and not impossibly hard. Just something where a group of players get together and complete the missions for the sake of the story, and whatever the reward is at the end, however good it may be, isn't the primary focus. Failing that, just f****** add something to get people to repeat them so everyone can get them done! 1000 exp, 10,000 gil etc., SE, these are not rewards anymore! Make it worth someone's while to go back and help someone. Gil/1000 Exp are no longer issues for anyone, so up the stakes and offer a merit point or two as a reward, XXNM Seals, upgrade items like Ifritite or something, anything, just make it useful.

Secondly, I want new jobs. I just do. I want something new injected into the game, anything at all, just something new and exciting. The problem with doing this now is that Abyssea exists... Any new jobs that are introduced would be 99 in days and, while that's fine for jobs we've had for near a decade, it would probably lead to people playing a new job incorrectly/inefficiently. As much as I was new jobs, new mechanics, new systems etc., I'm not holding my breath. I know SE can do it, I mean damn, Abyssea was fantastic, but yeah... dev team... whatever.

/rant off

Edited, Apr 26th 2012 1:48pm by Diamondis

Eh...is there anything that the PS3 would stop them from doing that the PS2 already doesn't? They don't seem to have an issue with giving out PC-only updates now, so if the PS3 version was just a straight PS2 port with access to the PS3's increased memory (bye-bye 80 inventory limitations!), it would probably end up being pretty nice.

However, I'd wager less than a 1% chance of them actually doing that, and I play on PC, so meh; if there was a time for them to do this, it would have been somewhere between the 360 version release, and the release of XIV.

Better be something flipping great because I have basically not been playing, by choice, for the first time in 8 years. I've logged in twice in nearly two months and I'm letting the sub run out this month because I can't be bothered to rush to the store for gaming cards. Instead I'm actually enjoying my MMO time with another game. So. It's pretty much do or die for them in June as far as I am concerned.

It would be, but unfortunately it seems to be par for the course based on past Vanafest gifts.

I anxiously await the announcement of Bacon Mage.

My inner chaotic thinker would like to see a F2P announcement just to see all the chicken littles realize the sky won't fall. Honestly can't get much worse than the "pay for little attention" model they got going nowadays, and with a lack of global channels, it's not like "Barrens chat" or whatever allegedly post-WoW spawned evil will be prevalent. Hint: Anonymous people sucked on the internet before Blizzard made a game.

Edited, Apr 27th 2012 2:45pm by Seriha

Yes, because the 256 MB of system RAM the PS3 is quite a lot today. /sarcasm