A recent panel at PAX West 2024 about FFXIV’s UI presented upcoming changes coming in the patch cycle for the Dawntrail expansion. Unlike other games, MMOs are highly reliant upon growth and new features to keep the fanbase willing to pay into the game long-term. Let’s look at what is being offered to players in the coming years of the game’s updates.
Chat Bubbles
Highly requested by players in the past few years is a simple feature left by the wayside: chat bubbles. FFXIV’s in-game chat is as robust as any other MMO, but it has left out a popular feature of its competitors. Chat bubbles in this case refer to small UI elements that appear above character’s heads when they talk. While this has been something that occurs with NPCs, player characters have not had the pleasure of this feature. This is widely considered to be a bit of a blunder, as being able to track what people are saying around you without staring at your chat box is a helpful boon.
After players were admonished for using mods to accomplish this feat, the developers were pressured to add chat bubbles to the game. After pestering from content creators, promises were made that this would be done. At PAX West 2024 we were given our first screenshot of this happening in-game. While still in testing, it looks about as everyone expected it would. While not the most exciting from a technical standpoint, it is good to see heavily requested features added. The team has promised to try to add features that players have been using mods to add to their gameplay experience.
Raid Planning
Players have long relied on external tools to help with complicated fights in MMOs. With FFXIV being popular on consoles, however, it can be frustrating for non-PC players to access these easily. As such, the developers have committed to trying to level the playing field between PC and console as much as possible. While the game’s controls have long been well-designed for both controller and mouse and keyboard setups, there are still hurdles to overcome. A feature announced previously to bridge this gap was shown again in this UI panel. Being referred to as a “strategy board,” it is a feature that allows players to plan for difficult fights.
It is common in MMOs that lengthy fights will require significant pre-planning and coordination. This strategy board would seem to allow you to place icons on a visual representation of the game’s battlefield. These icons represent players, enemies, and waymarks. The waymark system has long allowed for coordination, telling players to move to certain locations at certain points of a fight. With the strategy board implemented, players will now be able to see in-game what the purpose of these waymarkers is ahead of time. Provided these strategies can be shared across characters, this will hopefully allow popular strategies to be easily taught and replicated.
Conclusion
FFXIV has had successful growth over the past few years, but they aren’t content to rest on their laurels. Feedback to the Dawntrail storyline has been mixed, the developers admit, although the battle content has been widely praised. With more updates to the UI allowing for accessibility and cross-platform parity, more players will be drawn to trying out the game’s myriad content. The Dawntrail expansion has only just begun, with many patches due in the next few years. While the biggest announcements will still be for new storylines or raids, we can look forward to smaller announcements like this one that show the gradual improvement of the game’s finer details.
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