Freshly Picked Vana'diel 23 Digest

[Camate]

Greetings,

To coincide with the December version update, Producer Akihiko Matsui held another "Freshly Picked Vana'diel" to go over some of the new content and discuss other topics pertinent to adventuring. The following is a digest of what was discussed.

Hello, everyone. Matsui here.

This time around for Freshly Picked Vana'diel we tried incorporating some new aspects and segments into the mix, so I hope you enjoy the new content.



Table of Contents

• Aeonic Weapons
• Geas Fete Additions and Adjustments
• Unity Concord
• Equipment Adjustments
• Emote Additions
• Directly Picked Vana'diel
• What If Vana'diel...
• Campaign and Event Announcements
• Conclusion

[Camate]

Aeonic Weapons

(3:43～)
As a special guest we’ve invited the item team lead, Kasa, on the show who gave an overview of Aeonic weapons.

With the addition of a new quest, you can now obtain Aeonic weapons once you have completed it.

These weapons have high damage, high combat/magic accuracy skill, and when compared to other existing item level 119 weapons, they are quite superior. Additionally they all possess the Store TP and TP Bonus traits and are tailored towards using weapon skills.

The new ultimate skillchains, “Radiance” and “Umbra,” can be activated while under the effects of each weapon’s aftermath in the following manner:
With level 1 aftermath: Any skillchain -> any skillchain -> level 3 skillchain -> level 3 skillchain -> ultimate skillchain.
With level 2 aftermath: Any skillchain -> level 3 skillchain -> level 3 skillchain -> ultimate skillchain.
With level 3 aftermath: Level 3 skillchain -> level 3 skillchain -> ultimate skillchain.

Also, currently as of Dec. 10, 2015, we have confirmed an issue with the Marsyas. The “March+” bonus upon equipping the instrument is not being applied to the song “Honor March” that is usable by having the instrument equipped. We are planning to fix this issue.

[Camate]

Geas Fete Additions and Adjustments

(5:52～)
In regards to the adjustments to battle area sizes, we have received all of your feedback, and we decided to temporarily implement the first option to decrease the battle area size.

The team’s structure may change in the future, and we would like to implement this and have you try it out while the content design lead is on the team. If there are any opinions and feedback asking to revert it back to the original size, we will adjust it as needed, so we thank you for your cooperation.

Also, as we noted in the version update notes, the effect of the Key Item “radialens” now persists even if the character is not logged in. The effect duration will deplete even while logged out, but originally the effect ran out the moment the user logged off, so we have implemented this as a way to fix that.

The temporary item “Revitalizer” is a powerful medicine and leaving it as is would necessitate the need to nerf it, so it has been replaced with the “Super Revitalizer” that does not reset SP abilities.
Additionally, as a special treat, we would like to reveal some hints for the hidden notorious monsters that were added in the November and December version updates. The key items and materials required are listed below (some item names are hidden).

Notorious Monster Type	Key Item	Trigger Item	Quantity	Trigger Item	Quantity
Siren	Teles’ Hymn	Siren’s Hair	1	●●●●●●●●	1
		Void Crystal	3	Voidsnapper	3
Botulus Flan	Zerde’s Cup	Chunk of Flan Meat	10	●●●●●●●	1
		Void Grass	3	Ashen Crayfish	3
Naraka	Vinipata’s Blade	Bone Chip	10	●●●●●●	1
		Void Crystal	3	Duskcrawler	3
Caturae	Schah’s Gambit	Leisure Table	1	●●●●●●●	1
		Voidsnapper	3	Gravewood Log	3
Adenium Mandragora	Albumen’s Flower	Vermihumus	1	●●●●●●●	1
		Void Grass	3	Ashweed	3
Sandworm	Onychophora’s Soil	●●●●●	1	Titanite	10
		Void Crystal	3	Void Grass	3
Sanguiptere Amphiptere	Erinys’s Beak	●●●●	1	Mistmelt	1
		Voidsnapper	3	Ashweed	3

[Camate]

Unity Concord

(13:22～)
Equipment sets for Unity have been added. Summoning the corresponding Unity leader while wearing the equipment will apply a small status bonus. The bonus will increase with higher ranking.

Also, all of this equipment can be stored with the Porter Moogle, so try your hand at collecting them all.

[Camate]

Equipment Adjustments

(15:09～)
Certain items of the following sets have been adjusted.

Lustratio Gear / Souveran Gear / Argosy Gear / Rao Gear
Apogee Gear / Carmine Gear / Emicho Gear / Ryuo Gear
Adhemar Gear / Amalric Gear / Kaykaus Gear

The gear obtained from Reisenjima Geas Fete battle content is powerful, so we have adjusted some of the abjuration equipment to hopefully catch up to it. With these adjustments, the gear strength should fall in the following order: HQ abjuration equipment > Reisenjima equipment > NQ abjuration equipment. However, it should be noted that some pieces may not follow this order.

[Camate]

Emote Additions

A jump emote has been added. This is something that was suddenly created, though not quite as sudden as the adjustment to the beetle’s right front leg. However, this does not function as a means of movement within the game.

Similar to the “/sitchair” emote, this is a special emote, but please give it a try.

[Camate]

Directly Picked Vana’diel

(18:14～)

This is a new segment of the show that utilizes the questionnaire feature of the Nico Nico Live Broadcasting. Users are able to answer questions on various topics with the questionnaire, and the development team explains directly on in “Directly Picked Vana’diel.”

Making his second appearance on the show, Lead Event Planner Saito aided us in giving answers.

Now for the first question.
“When augmenting gear from Reisenjima with Arcane Glyptics, what items do you most often use?”
Below are the results of the questionnaire:

1. Pellucid Stone: 29.6%
2. Fern Stone : 13.3%
3. Taupe Stone: 17.0%
4. Other: 40.1%

There were a lot of viewers who chose “Other” as their answer since they have yet to obtain this gear.
Pellucid Stones allow for high values of attack and accuracy, Fern Stones have higher values for ability-related properties, and Taupe Stones allows for a high value of STR to be added.

Also included in “Other” are those that choose to trade in Dark Matter with their equipment and gain a special Arcane Glyptic. Among them is “Treasure Hunter” which is a property that cannot be obtained through normal Arcane Glyptics. Also among the best results include having “Double Attack +5%”, “Triple Attack +4%” and “Quadruple Attack +3%” all at the same time. Dark Matter also has a chance to yield higher stat gains than other stones. For example, a Pellucid Stone can give up to +40 but Dark Matter can give up to +50.

Since Dark Matter is an item in low supply, we have thought of implementing a new campaign that would let the user use Dark Matter for their Arcane Glyptics up to 3 times in a day, but there have been requests to let the user use them even more than that, so we will implement a campaign that will let you do this up to 6 times a day--meaning you use this for a weapon and 5 pieces of gear. Please look forward to this!

Onto the second question.
“Which of the following holds the highest sway in the power balance of Vana’diel?”

The following is a tally of the answers we received:

1. Altana: 40.3%
2. Promathia: 5.4%
3. Bahamut: 5.4%
4. Crystals: 48.8%

Crystals do in fact hold the highest sway in the power balance followed by Altana, Promathia, and finally Bahamut. However, this is only speaking in terms of the Vana’diel that you see in the game today. Had it been in the world as it was originally, Altana and Promathia would be at the same level. Provenance Watcher would also be somewhere in between Altana and Promathia.

This is all in terms of their deific hierarchy and not related to their actual strength and power. For example, when it comes to Cait Sith and Bahamut, godhood-wise Cait Sith is higher ranking, but in a battle Bahamut would like win. One thing to note as well is that Abyssea is a world where the borders of the world no longer exist, so all beings are even.

[Camate]

What if Vana’diel…

(37:34～)

This is another new segment that we started where we’ll discuss aspects and ideas for Vana’diel that didn’t quite make it into the game.

The first for today is that there was actually one more chapter for the Seekers of Adoulin story.

Separate from the ending for Seekers of Adoulin that everyone is familiar with, there was actually a different ending planned. We determined that it would be difficult to implement this, and instead we adopted the ending that you can currently play. If you look at the video, we showed off some images of Tartarus, an area that we planned on adding. This is a realm that was created by Hades, though he has no knowledge of the fact that he made it. Additionally, we showed off an illustration of the boss that awaited in Tartarus, which is a manifestation of Hades absorbing August’s power. Another idea we had was to create a boss that was a fusion of Balamor and Omega.

Next is how we were going to originally implement Empyrean armor as different color Artifact armor.

About one year prior to implementing Abyssea we had planned on implementing new equipment based on Artifact armor with modified colors and pieces. However, we ultimately ended up completely redesigning the equipment.

As a matter of fact, the original design for Masamune was completely different at first. Since there were a lot of great katanas that looked similar, we ended up redesigning it to what it is currently.

Finally, we originally had plans to make it so Galkas could have two food effects active at the same time.

When we were designing the system for food, we originally had two slots for effects, but the effects at that time and what we ended up implementing were quite different, and we determined that it would be too powerful to have two effects at the same time. We thought to possibly reduce the effect duration to compensate, but ultimately decided to scrap this idea.

[Camate]

Campaign and Event Announcements

(50:42～)

We’re planning to hold a variety of campaigns and events both in and out of the game, so please look over the schedule.

• New Year Adventurer Assistance Campaign
  This campaign is set for a slightly longer duration, so please take advantage of it during the holidays!
  It’s active from Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 12:00 a.m. (PST) to Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 6:59 a.m. (PST).
  
  
• Starlight Celebration
  By using the Leaf Bench item that can be obtained from this seasonal event, you’ll learn a new sitting emote. It works great with the Astral Cube item that can be obtained from the December Login Campaign, which makes it possible to seat three people at once.
  
  
• Rhapsodies of Vana’diel Ending Song Video
  We’ve released a promotional video for the Rhapsodies of Vana’diel ending song. Many of you contributed to the chorus, and those who did were added to the credits. Be sure to watch the video!
  
  
• Shantotto joins Dissidia FINAL FANTASY
  Shantotto has been added to the Dissidia FINAL FANTASY arcade game. As her HP gets lower she starts to become enraged and becomes more powerful. If you have the opportunity, please be sure to try her out.

[Camate]

Conclusion

(54:32～)

Thanks to everyone’s support, we were able to usher in the ending to Rhapsodies of Vana’diel. During development while performing checks on the scenario, we were becoming teary eyed as it made us think about everything that we had made over the past thirteen years. I’m sure you can all feel this too. If you haven’t yet, please experience the climatic ending of this scenario.

As I mentioned in my message on PlayOnline, from April 2016 onward we will be placing a focus on battles and story content. Around that time as well, we will also be planning on adding in mounts other than chocobos. Though we are still touching this system up, I showed off a demo of the raptor mount during the stream. Naturally we are planning to add other monsters as mounts as well, so stay tuned.

The next version update is schedule for February, so I’ll see you again around then!