The feature was introduced at "FINAL FANTASY XIV Fan Festival 2026 in Berlin" and is planned to be implemented during Evercold (not on release).
I'm a little bit disappointed. A few years ago, when I first downloaded the game I was impressed by the environment. I enjoyed exploring the world and had so many deviations along the way to my quests just to see what else the game has to offer. The story(MSQ) is one of the strongest selling points of the game. Part of it is traveling and exploring the world, getting lost, interacting with players, doing things out of curiosity etc.
As of now the game is on easy mode anyway. There is no constant threat of being killed by another player in the open world like in World of Warcraft. There are no hand-breaking mechanics as well. The game is primarily being played for the story.
The market is flooded with cheap korean/chinese idle games where everything is on auto mode. A few months ago I downloaded such a game and for 8 straight minutes I did not have an opportunity to play the game. It was playing itself: auto-pathing, auto accepting quests, cutscenes, auto combat etc. I got annoyed and deleted it.
My point is - yes, you can definitely automate the whole game but what will be the consumer experience? The game will be open on the second or third monitor. The players will not explore the world, they will auto travel from quest to quest. The dungeons will be completed easily because of the slow mechanics where the player has 3 business days to dodge the attacks. Being on the second monitor the players will not be engaged in the story because they do something else on their primary monitor or chores at home.
I don't understand why FF14 will shoot itself in the leg by neglecting their strong selling points - exploring the open world and story engagement. The transition from place to another contributes positively to the journey and builds up to the culmination of events. Imagine doing chores at home and seeing your character randomly appearing in front of NPCs or mob zones. You just fast click to skip the dialogue or click some spells to kill the mobs and continue with your chores at home or some other stuff unrelated to the game. Will you feel engaged? Will you feel satisfied? Did you spend quality time playing or talking with your family, for example doing both activities at once?
I always thought SE is targeting people who are willing to follow FF14's story and feel engaged. However it feels like they are shifting their focus to people who will neglect most of what was built with love and passion.
What does the community feel and think about this new feature?
Edit: It was mentioned during the event a lot of resources (time, money and personal) will be needed for this feature and that's also a reason for the delayed implementation. Is this distribution of resources justified?
It was mentioned a toggle option will be available. I wrote my thought with this in mind.
Continue reading...
I'm a little bit disappointed. A few years ago, when I first downloaded the game I was impressed by the environment. I enjoyed exploring the world and had so many deviations along the way to my quests just to see what else the game has to offer. The story(MSQ) is one of the strongest selling points of the game. Part of it is traveling and exploring the world, getting lost, interacting with players, doing things out of curiosity etc.
As of now the game is on easy mode anyway. There is no constant threat of being killed by another player in the open world like in World of Warcraft. There are no hand-breaking mechanics as well. The game is primarily being played for the story.
The market is flooded with cheap korean/chinese idle games where everything is on auto mode. A few months ago I downloaded such a game and for 8 straight minutes I did not have an opportunity to play the game. It was playing itself: auto-pathing, auto accepting quests, cutscenes, auto combat etc. I got annoyed and deleted it.
My point is - yes, you can definitely automate the whole game but what will be the consumer experience? The game will be open on the second or third monitor. The players will not explore the world, they will auto travel from quest to quest. The dungeons will be completed easily because of the slow mechanics where the player has 3 business days to dodge the attacks. Being on the second monitor the players will not be engaged in the story because they do something else on their primary monitor or chores at home.
I don't understand why FF14 will shoot itself in the leg by neglecting their strong selling points - exploring the open world and story engagement. The transition from place to another contributes positively to the journey and builds up to the culmination of events. Imagine doing chores at home and seeing your character randomly appearing in front of NPCs or mob zones. You just fast click to skip the dialogue or click some spells to kill the mobs and continue with your chores at home or some other stuff unrelated to the game. Will you feel engaged? Will you feel satisfied? Did you spend quality time playing or talking with your family, for example doing both activities at once?
I always thought SE is targeting people who are willing to follow FF14's story and feel engaged. However it feels like they are shifting their focus to people who will neglect most of what was built with love and passion.
What does the community feel and think about this new feature?
Edit: It was mentioned during the event a lot of resources (time, money and personal) will be needed for this feature and that's also a reason for the delayed implementation. Is this distribution of resources justified?
It was mentioned a toggle option will be available. I wrote my thought with this in mind.
Continue reading...