FFXI Patch History

[Mystiana]

I've been reading about how rough FFXIV's patching has been. I managed to dig up this gem from FFXI's past. Check out all the headaches the NA market missed before we got the game:

http://zeusls.llima.net/download/ffxiupdatehistory.html

[Asphe]

Thing is, we really didn't feel to put upon. It was the first FF online, the majority of people were on Windows PCs that could barely play or on PS2. If anything, there was a shared camaraderie (if you played before ZM got put in or before the first NA invasion, you might have experienced this) between players, devs and GMs. It was even a thrill to discover what certain foods and drinks did (whereas in FF14, we know they do something but we just don't care). Everything was new and shiny and the major bugs and glitches were just something to deal with (try spending hours and even days online to patch stuff up). We knew SE was working very hard and it showed.

More than that, it was FF. The was the Jobs sytem from FF3, and the world seemed larger. It takes longer to walk from Windurst to Jeuno, then it takes to walk from LL to Gri and the Missions were already put in. Beating the Shadowlord when everyone is only level 40 at best... There is really very little of that in FF14. It is still FF but the sense of something going on, somewhere is missing. It's Groundhog Day (or Guild Leve Reset) all the time.

[Mystiana]

I'm not going to disagree with that. I also recall that we had months in beta together to get closer, and that didn't happen in FFXIV for whatever reason. Even now, it seems harder to work with just a few friends, let alone something bigger and better.

I think Square Enix doesn't want to repeat the "overwhelming epicness" of Vana'diel. Being in the same two zones for a good 20 levels? It took months before someone could even defeat the final mission. This will take its toll on an audience that can't stick around for three months. At the same time, they want the players to explore, but didn't even give us enough to look forward to. I wonder what Vana'diel would be like if Jeuno had been closed when you got there.

I'm just making the point that the large list of patches for FFXIV doesn't seem as shocking or drastic as FFXI's. Also, no one cares because we've all been trained from FFXI, WoW, Aion, EQ2, etc, to just wait and see when the info we want appears on a wiki and then decide what to do from there. A lot of soul of a true adventurer has been lost over the years. We don't want to struggle, we don't want to fail. Easier to wait and see then try something. Even I catch myself thinking like this now and again and have to fight against it.

[Keerith]

Also, no one cares because we've all been trained from FFXI, WoW, Aion, EQ2, etc, to just wait and see when the info we want appears on a wiki and then decide what to do from there. A lot of soul of a true adventurer has been lost over the years. We don't want to struggle, we don't want to fail. Easier to wait and see then try something. Even I catch myself thinking like this now and again and have to fight against it.

Ehyea, definite point there. Back in the Beta, I was all fired up to be on the cutting edge of the crafting community; I wanted to be one of the first people making top-end gear, know how it all worked, and all that. Between the costs, repetitiveness, and early instability I just took a step back and said to hell with it; it's a lot less frustrating to follow a path than to be the one blazing the trail.

I remember a point where someone was offering 200,000+ gil for one piece of canvas cloth, since nobody could make it yet and everyone wanted it; now, when I finally get to a point where I'll need it, I can pick it up for 10K or less. All the gear I need for my classes is out there now and waiting for me, instead of me having to wait for it. I figure that if I can get to max level before the end game content is patched in, I'll still be doing pretty well.

[MikaMeow]

I just wish they'd move faster with patching these things in. Some of the things sound like they'd be simple to patch in at any time, instead of having them wait a month or so for some big patch that has a ton of stuff. I really -need- a new retainer or more inventory space, and they're taking forever on that x_x if I leave town for a single leve, I get a few drops that fill up my inventory. I can't even think about trying gathering because I just don't have the space for it.

And you say they want us to explore.. but theres really not much worth exploring at this time.. most of the zones are pretty cookie cutter. Very few unique landmarks or interesting areas to explore, and even if you find somewhere cool looking, your not going to actually find anything actually useful there. They just did a really half assed job on that kinda stuff =/

[Asphe]

I just wish they'd move faster with patching these things in. Some of the things sound like they'd be simple to patch in at any time, instead of having them wait a month or so for some big patch that has a ton of stuff. I really -need- a new retainer or more inventory space, and they're taking forever on that x_x if I leave town for a single leve, I get a few drops that fill up my inventory. I can't even think about trying gathering because I just don't have the space for it.

And you say they want us to explore.. but theres really not much worth exploring at this time.. most of the zones are pretty cookie cutter. Very few unique landmarks or interesting areas to explore, and even if you find somewhere cool looking, your not going to actually find anything actually useful there. They just did a really half assed job on that kinda stuff =/

There is nothing new, left to explore. Frankly, we've been everywhere. The last week of beta, I got each and every gate there was, just because. Mobs in FF14 have a comfort zones so provided you survive the first hit, you can make it to almost anywhere. They should never have put in anima too, it is far too easy to get separated into those with anima and those who ran out of it. I'm exploring jobs at the moment. I never got a craft beyond level 15 in beta, not to mention gathering.

In FF11, you made a point of talking to each and every NPC you could find. How many of us bothered to do this in FF14? I started to do this but stopped months back. FF11 had a lot more quests on launch, the updates and additions were so frequent we would periodically check on NPCs (quite a bit of it would be added without any fanfare or at least, little mention on the patch notes). The only other game I know off that had this many quests was EQ2. I hit 3000+ quests completed in EQ2 within a few months. Yes, 3000+. But I still felt there was more 'quest fun' in FF11. FF11 may have had fewer quests, but they made up for it in character.

The dev team for FF14 is the same for FF11, which is to say, the same team that gave us the 'Windowed Mode' in FF11 (does ANYONE actually use it?). I have never had much admiration for the devs that do the coding. They are simply not as good as other teams in the industry. As usual, it's the more artsy-fartsy folk/design folk that pulls SE's bacon out of the fire every time. Considering how much collaboration SE has with both Sony and various Korean devs.... you have to wonder if the entire programming team was made up with nepotism in mind.

I think they are this slow because they have a lot on their plate, management overruled the community manager's feedback on what players wanted and turned many 'bugs' into features, they overestimated their ability to do timely modifications and worst of all, they underestimated the community's anger over being repeatedly having our feedback ignored. I bet they are all hoping that this will all blow over. It probably will too, but at the cost of FF14 being just one of those MMOs, permanently pegged at 600k subs and never higher. The should can the coding and management teams, and head-hunt Sony's or NCS's teams while keeping the design and art teams.

----------

Also, no one cares because we've all been trained from FFXI, WoW, Aion, EQ2, etc, to just wait and see when the info we want appears on a wiki and then decide what to do from there. A lot of soul of a true adventurer has been lost over the years. We don't want to struggle, we don't want to fail. Easier to wait and see then try something. Even I catch myself thinking like this now and again and have to fight against it.

Ehyea, definite point there. Back in the Beta, I was all fired up to be on the cutting edge of the crafting community; I wanted to be one of the first people making top-end gear, know how it all worked, and all that. Between the costs, repetitiveness, and early instability I just took a step back and said to hell with it; it's a lot less frustrating to follow a path than to be the one blazing the trail.

I remember a point where someone was offering 200,000+ gil for one piece of canvas cloth, since nobody could make it yet and everyone wanted it; now, when I finally get to a point where I'll need it, I can pick it up for 10K or less. All the gear I need for my classes is out there now and waiting for me, instead of me having to wait for it. I figure that if I can get to max level before the end game content is patched in, I'll still be doing pretty well.

First week of retail, I bought a bronze hauby of Coyote for 85k. A month later, I could buy it for 85k. In between, I saw it reach 450k. This happens when everyone's levels are reset to nought and so we all compete for the same resources. If their coding teams had kept up with their design teams, players might have actually loved the bazaar system. And it would make RMT just that much more difficult (yet easier to track). In the meantime, we find ourselves in a situation where deflation is in the double-digits every week, while even casual players like me are millionaires multiple times over. I paid 100k for my canvas hat because it was blue and +1. A normal hat is 35k. I fully expect Velveteen to his this price range in about 2 more weeks. Hey, I was right about the 60 day free trial extension?

Alas, the problem brought on by 'wiki' can't be waited out and just makes every misstep by SE more noticeable. Worse still is that any new content is digested far faster than if wiki had not existed. Yet, we don't dare not use 'wiki' or we might slow down fellow member's progress as well. Getting rid of 'wiki' only works when everyone stops using it. Yeah, right.

In my other LS, got a gal who insists that 'spoon-feeding' is good. She really expects her seniors in the LS to hold her paws. She is truly representative of the most common player in FF14. Very, very different from what we were like in FF11. Pity SE never caught on to that.

[xaresity]

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[xaresity]

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