Rumours suggest expansion announcement on Friday, what are your predictions?

[dope_danny]

So fanfest is this Friday and its looking very likely that the 4.0 Expansion Pack for FFXIV is going to be revealed as 3.0's Heavensward was last time around. Theres some info from in game and in interviews and media but what are you expecting this Friday?

What we know:
-Square Enix has recently trademarked the name "STORMBLOOD" with no new ip announcement related to it suggesting it is an update to an existing product.
-The story very, very strongly suggest Ala Mhigo is the Ishgard of 4.0
-When deciding on the sky focussed Heavensward there were also debates over an ocean based expansion and the only areas left for us on the Eorzean continent outside Ala Mhigo is the eastern coast down to Paglth'an and the islands of the Jade Sea
-Yda will be a focus, possibly as part of the dehtroned Ala Mhigan royalty
-Ala Mhigo is the human capital that has never been in game even in 1.0, described as a pacific northwest style coastal pine forest and craggy hills its the border between the lands of the Padjal, Elezenn, Ixali and The Garlean Empire

My prediction is the ocean story is coming back and our manacutters will be made sea worthy. I think Geomancer as dps for Conjurer is the strongest possibility but still think Dancer might be our next healer class. For tank i have no idea. Stormblood has people thinking Viking which was a 2 hand dual wield tank in FF3 but a lot of people want Samurai or Red/Blue mage to be the tank.

I also think its the time to retire the PS3. Square Enix no longer releases games on it as its focus shifted to ps4,vita,3ds,xbone and pc. its 12 year old hardware that makes up like 5% of the playerbase and i think this is the sad confirmation that the PS3 is finally getting out of SE's production focus after a decade+ long run.

What are you expecting/predicting this friday?

[Eleccybubb]

If Red Mage doesn't happen then I'll cry for a bit, get over it and then go chase some Lalafells. Although if it does I would like it as a dps personally. Also yes on the ps3 version. Hell offer PS3 users a free copy of the PC/PS4 version if they have to but just drop that piece of crap already.

[Anzaman]

If and when we get SAM, it better be damage dealer instead of tank.

I'd like to see more Au Ra, at the moment they feel a bit out of the place - but maybe we'll see that in expansion after next one.

[dope_danny]

Also yes on the ps3 version. Hell offer PS3 users a free copy of the PC/PS4 version if they have to but just drop that piece of crap already.

Thats the thing, right now just before this reveal its on sale on ps4 and the add specifically says "time to upgrade from ps3 to ps4 for cheap!" which is interesting timing for it no?

[Eleccybubb]

Thats the thing, right now just before this reveal its on sale on ps4 and the add specifically says "time to upgrade from ps3 to ps4 for cheap!" which is interesting timing for it no?

Tbh I imagine out of good grace they will do PS3 players some sort of offer. That 50% off is a nice carrot but imo it should be a free upgrade so people aren't just left out in the cold. Yeah ofc profits understandable but it wouldn't hurt to offer it for free as a good grace.

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Uhm ok Daish you ok?

[dope_danny]

Tbh I imagine out of good grace they will do PS3 players some sort of offer. That 50% off is a nice carrot but imo it should be a free upgrade so people aren't just left out in the cold. Yeah ofc profits understandable but it wouldn't hurt to offer it for free as a good grace.

Its exactly what they did with Destiny last month to upgrade ps3 users being dropped.

[Jtbrig7390]

Ill keep a eye out for it. I need to go back and play Heavensward more I didn't even reach 60 lol.

Loved the game but stopped paying $15 a month to play a game. Knowing me ill buy the CE for Ps4 and a normal copy for PC and play it for a month or two.

[Keltas]

New jobs for existing classes simply won't happen. They've said they won't ever do it again multiple times. All new jobs will only be jobs with no class.

They have hinted heavily at a rune fencer or mystic knight job through the 3.4 main story, so likely that. Another possibility could be a necromancer type job with a scythe, as they have said they aren't afraid to make entirely new jobs, and POTD has one with her own unique skillset and animations.

Otherwise they'll pull out the samurai to print some money, but I'm not sure it fits unless they use the Doma area.

[Kazgrel]

It would be a bigger surprise if the next expansion wasn't revealed at Fanfest.

- Stormblood...not crazy about the name but really wouldn't give a shit what the name of it is, so long as it's fun to play.
- Can almost guarantee it will feature Gyr Abania along with Ala Mhigo.
- No idea if there will be boat riding or water combat or such.
- Ah, the ever so popular "new jobs" topic; they won't be built off of the current classes. If anything, they will be added like the HW jobs were.

[Remilia]

They've done PS3 to PS4 free upgrades before, wouldn't surprise me if they do it again.

[Graeham]

My predictions:

- PS3 support will be dropped for 4.0.
- Release date will be early-mid Spring.
- No new race but existing races will have updated character creation options.

[Eleccybubb]

My predictions:

- PS3 support will be dropped for 4.0.
- Release date will be early-mid Spring.
- No new race but existing races will have updated character creation options.

I think early Summer again for 4.0 personally. I think they will split 3.5 into parts like they did with 2.5 to keep a flow of content over the months.

[Lillpapps]

I think early Summer again for 4.0 personally. I think they will split 3.5 into parts like they did with 2.5 to keep a flow of content over the months.

Something that speaks in favor for spring is that they have said that they were behind schedule on Heavensward but are currently on schedule for 4.0.

[Graeham]

Yeah. I read somewhere - but can't recall where - that they were pretty much done with the MSQ's and just needed to get the voice acting sorted.

[Eleccybubb]

So basically if they get this out before June then Heavensward won't even be 2 years old. Just how do they pace content so quickly but keep it refreshing? There has to be some secret or something.

[Remilia]

So basically if they get this out before June then Heavensward won't even be 2 years old. Just how do they pace content so quickly but keep it refreshing? There has to be some secret or something.

They're not human.

[threads]

ala mhigo and the surrounding seas most likely.

for jobs, who knows? i really just want a sword dps to be added which could be samurai or red mage, though adding another support dps after MCH would be disappointing. tank could be anything..rune knight, viking with hammer maybe? if dancer could be some melee type of healer then red mage could also.

definitely think dropping PS3 will happen. hopefully they show off some new things they can do now that they don't need to support that version.

[Kazgrel]

I'm not expecting 4.0 until May/June-ish:

3.45 - around the time people start getting 260 scripture weapons (week of or the week after)
3.5 - Seeing that most patches since 3.1 have been on a 3.5-4 month release, not expecting this until after the holidays (early-mid January)

Figure there will be a 3.55 wedged in there between 3.5 and 4.0, too.

As for what jobs exactly...until I know more of the setting, it makes it harder to guess what they could be. But thinking back on HW, I don't recall there being anything from Ishgard (in terms of it's background at the time) or the way the story was going that hinted at DRK/AST/MCH. That said, I only started playing this game a year and a half ago, 2-3 months before HW release.

[dope_danny]

There was no hints at all. Astrologians of a sort were ingame at the observatory in coerthas central but machinist had nothing and the only hints we got were Yoshida wearing batman and james bond shirts at fan fest to tease "dark knight" and "gun class". That didn't go over too well in the long run since the only info they held back last time was the spoiler stuff about potato princess from the end of ARR and there was no reason to hold back jobs and people complained -more constructively than bitching- that some of the hype of the expansion reveal was lost when there was no job info. So people jokingly say "if Yoshis wearing a red shirt RDM confirmed!" but i think people are hoping they reveal the jobs tomorrow along with the expansion for a proper glut of info.

Plus its now the longest period between new jobs since dreams of ice and heavensward dont feel too far apart at all. People at this point are really stuck leveling jobs they arent that interested in for completionists sake or they have no interest in these jobs at all and it really is time for news on some new jobs already.

Personally i just want to see a new close combat job. Maybe if Red Mage is a fencer that uses low level white and black spells.

[threads]

I think we'll definitely get atleast 1 job announcment/overview tomorrow. Last fanfest, NA and EU were only a week apart, so the t-shirt hint was kind of acceptable. This year the next fanfest isn't until end of December in Tokyo.