Making FFXI An Offline Game.

The storm will end as storms always end. However, there will be people out there who will want to ride the storm for the rest of their lifetime. When FFXI ends, could it be possible to make the game an offline game? If so, how would this be possible.


Even with the game as soloableish as it is with most of the content and the trust system readily available, why don't they turn to the fans to see what kind of ideas can spring forward from this? Make the game somewhat open source so we can 'fix' the game for efficient offline play for that nostalgia kick. Better yet, what if we could make some type of co-op patch that would allow you and friends to log into the same game with a preselected PC to serve as host. The ideas are endless.

Hell, you can even borrow mechanics from other FF games. For instance, the gambit system from FF12 for full Trust NPC control.

Thoughts?

I think those idea's are great having a full version of FFXI that is offline where everything can be done solo with trusts. It would be great so we can keep our charecters and progress once servers go down my guess ffxi probly last another 3 to 5 years tops but that might be pushing it. never know what SE might do though

I mean, the easiest way to do that would be to package up a micro-server that the client would connect to. You wouldn't need to open source it, and the zone instances could be done with much lower resource requirements since there's only going to be one player there.

Almost any content can be soloed as it is - the last remaining holdouts would be adjusted, either via smarter trusts (like the gambit system, droooool) or cranking the item level.

That'd be the simplest way, anyway - package up a microserver and bump the ilevel cap.

Custom assaults
Or
Besieged with actual waves with objectives
Or
Coliseum/gladiator mode and fight hero/bosses one after another until time/death
Or
Summon full alliance of trusts.
Open more zones for trusts. Custmize gear? Make adventurer pearl do more. Mules as custom party members. Etc~

The story telling would have to be adjusted. Right now it's told in a way for an MMO, receiving bits and pieces in updates. I think if the transition points were smoothed out so it doesn't feel bumpy (each update marker), the story telling would work.

The story content would need to be adjusted to be more of a focus point that dramatically affects Vana'diel as you progress through the story.


You could fill the "empty" towns with wandering NPCs, add some ambient soundtracks to fill out the day time, and at night have the npcs go home, which would probably be as simple as sending them to the residential zone line and they just disappear.

The battle system is one of XI's strongest qualities, both battle and equipment systems. With that said there would have to be a few adjustments to adapt to a single player game.

I'd like to see traveling adventurers you could meet as you progress through the story, some of the more intelligent AI being more expensive, also the better geared NPCs. Pretty much like one of those classic RPGs where you hire NPCs, but made for FFXI. They would have a friendship level with you, based on how often you talk with them, how you treat them in situations, if you're holding your own (healer, tank, dd, etc) and so forth. If your bond is strong enough they stay with you until they sustain a huge injury or die in battle, and I mean die, not KO. If you don't really treat them well they'll thank you for the adventure and part ways after a few hours of playing with them, or during friendship checks where things start to get serious in the story, and they decide to leave while they have a chance.

I'd like to see a type of invite your friend to fill a party slot, with either an NPC character or their own character form their game. The enemies would get harder to balance out the addition of an additional player, up to 3-4 people I'd say, no more than that or AI will never stand a chance.

The game would most likely have to start out going back to it's roots, very little quick travel options, just the airship after you get your license, or chocobo license, etc. The main focus would be exploration, and adventure, not getting from one place to another to do repetitive content.

Instead of the AH, there would be a higher focus on NPC merchants, with their inventory rotating based on a pattern (like weather), with some rare items popping up every now and then.

You know, out of all of the mechanical aspects of XI, this is the one that I will miss the most, because we're never going to see an MMO with in-combat gear swapping again.

I thought of that kind of NPC interaction, Kali. Perhaps in a single player game, there are 50-100 adventurer NPCs who run around the world and level by themselves or with each other and your interaction with them will boost a friendship or hatred level depending on each NPCs playstyle.

This would also keep the need for the Auction House too because these NPC Adventurers would toss up items to make some cash to things you may need. Or even perhaps have a timed event to where certain number of equipment is stocked and the price is marketed via supply/demand.

This. I don't think I've actually played another non-FF game that allowed this. I know there are some games that prevent you outright from changing gear during battle.

I would like to see a game come out with in gear swapping, but XI sure was an ambitious project. I'm just glad SE turned out a profit out of all that work, and I can't even imagine all the work that went into XI.

I think it's also the fact that the fighting mechanism of FFXI was slow compared to other MMOs. You actually have time to think and wait out during a battle. In other MMOs, you have to think fast and quickly zerg the opponent before they zerg you.

First moment playing XIV, I got the error message of not being able to change gear during battle. That disappointment I felt...

Why throw away such a good idea

One of the reasons why I can't play FFXIV anymore. It just doesn't feel like Final Fantasy.

Even XII you could D;! Yea you paused the game... but still!

I'm actually one of the people who actually take advantage of that damage mitigation. If a magic wind based attack was readying, break out the windbreakers!

The idea was genius, yeah. Not only is it fun, and allows players to customize to deal with situations, but it also keeps alot of content relevant for a very long time.

The gear swapping restriction in XIV is definitely a big change from XI, but in some ways I like it. Changing between jobs is far more simple because you don't have the massive amount of situational pieces clogging your inventory and storage slips.

Edit:

That's the downside to XIV, though. Gear becomes obsolete much more quickly.

Synthesize weaposkills.
And combine existing ones.

Should require a fancy long quest. Merits/job points and capped skill.
But like... Imagine being able to do something like asuran fists with detonator. With a hexagun and be like pow-pow-pow-pow-pow-pow-pow-pow.
Or some cool single shot ws. Be like
#mlg420noscopeblazeit

I could totally imagine doing a torcleaver mixed with a resolution. And and ws modifiers could be augmented.

Resolution + tachi:kasha get a decent augment that deals some elemental/status effect with ??% stat mod. Be the bees knees if you could mix relic ws together

I took a few months break from XIV and none of my gear is relevant anymore, not even the rings.

XI you felt so much more connected to your gear and gearsets. You used that Noble's Tunic / Aristocrat's Coat for years until it finally got replaced. I remember saving up 14,500,000 gil to buy a Noble's Tunic, held on to it for like 2-3 years, sold it for 100k to buy a 300k Aristocrat's Coat, then replace that a year after.

I've been thinking about how they could make the game offline for a while. One of my more crazy ideas is the ability to switch to a job that has access to all of the job abilities/spell/traits/etc. that you've earned by leveling other jobs. Basically with this super-hybrid (and perhaps Trusts to help) you might be able to defeat a lot of the higher-tier content without having to adjust the difficulty.

FFXI: Prepare to Die edition???

Wake up in a forest ~ location unknown. You wander aimlessly until you find an outpost. You're given some baffling dialogue and a weapon. You head north and encounter a hopping rabbit. Boss music plays. Epic 3-5 min fight against a forest hare. You slay the foe and get a earth crystal. You continue north and enter a castle city. You walk through the gate only to be trampled by a chocobo.

You died

there is always the private server I guess, from what I've been reading quite a few hnm encounters are in rough shape, but there is dedicated people working to improve it regularly

Where does one homepoint to....if you dont ever set a homepoint...

That's not a reason it doesn't feel "Final Fantasy" because you couldn't do it in any of the old games.


Maybe switch a weapon in one or two but not all your gear at once like in 11.

To be fair, they hadn't had a level cap increase in years whereas 14 will likely have one with each new expansion.

Not saying I disagree with what you felt (I feel it too) but it's different because we won't be stopping at 50 or 60 and just raising mob levels/gear stats.

It would be amazing to have an offline FFXI similar in gameplay to FFXII but we all know it won't ever happen. The best we could get besides the Grandmasters would be more Vana'diel spin-offs, a puzzle game or whatever.

Edit: To be honest, Vana'diel Project doesn't sound exciting at all. I am already very disappointed on them for wasting resources on WotG (took forever to finish, no real end game content) and SoA (rushed, lacking and filled with plot holes) instead of working on far north, east and south. It doesn't really matter anymore if they are planning to make them in a few years for the native app if it ever gets released. They were just too confused about what to do with their own game after ToAU and I don't expect much from their supervision for the Nexon game.

Problem with taking ideas from players is they don't give good ideas 98% of the time. Even in this thread you already see people suggesting not ways to improve FFXI soloability, but mechanics that make it another game entirely...if you want a true FFXI single player the game should remain the same, just scaled down because there would be only one person with npcs(and coop at best).
If you change the game then it's not FFXI, just make a new one entirely.

edit: not that SE has had awesome ideas either lately..

You're full 110, I was around 87~ when I came back. You're still close enough to contribute.

Don't even get my started on my disdain for quickly making gear obsolete.

It helps that it's quite easy to gear up in some of the new gear when it comes out so you're not going to be left behind

Even if you come back after an extended break you can usually get pretty good gear to help you with new content