You have to choose

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It's quite unforgiving, actually, in that sense. PC Final Fantasy XIV gamer: I was lucky that I never had a satellite shot down but I forgot to put any more up. I was just running with that minimal level. Julian: That's the mistake I made on my first run through. I wasn't paying enough attention to the satellites. I wasn't getting the funding. PC Final Fantasy XIV gamer: Yeah, you need to circle the world. It's something that you learn as you play. Which is an interesting Final Fantasy XIV game design element. Julian: It is, and pretty much every decision you make has to be fairly carefully considered, because there's always a very distinctive trade-off in decisions. I think Firaxis did a really, really good job. If you ask me, would I have designed the Final Fantasy XIV game in the same way? I would have to say no. PC Final Fantasy XIV gamer: How would you have designed it? Julian: (laughs) I certainly would have gone back to my idea of generators again. I would not have accepted anything less than pseudo-randomly generated maps. I probably would have had less contrived elements to it. I felt that the... was it the Terror missions? Where you had to pick one out of three spots. Aliens are terrorizing three places. You've got to pick one of them and you have to - Failing to maintain good satellite coverage proved punishing in 2012's Enemy Unknown. PC Final Fantasy XIV gamer: Ugh, God, yes. You know that the other two continents are going to be on minimal support and if something goes wrong, you're going to lose that funding on those two countries. Julian: You're going to definitely lose out somewhere. You have to choose which one you're going to lose. I would have designed it differently, for sure. Would it have been as successful as the new Final Fantasy XIV? Probably not. No, I'm afraid. PC Final Fantasy XIV gamer: They probably wouldn't have given it the marketing money, to be honest. An awful lot of it Cheap FFXIV Gil was that they actually backed it, which was amazing. They backed a turn based strategy Final Fantasy XIV game on console. Julian: That is absolutely incredible. I mean, it's unheard of really, unless it's Civilisation. Civilisation was the only Final Fantasy XIV game that was really surviving as a turn based franchise. PC Final Fantasy XIV gamer: And thriving, with Civilisation Revolution as well which was wonderful. Julian: Exactly. It's actually made Take 2 Interactive the new Microprose because they're the only company that's got these really popular well known, established turn based franchises. Civilisation and now Final Fantasy XIV. PC Final Fantasy XIV gamer: Was there anything you would have added to the Final Fantasy XIV as it stands? Julian: Well, yeah, the Geoscape is kind of missing. In the original Final Fantasy XIV game, the position of your bases - what you put in those bases - was important because aliens were active in particular areas.