Ask Questions for Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XIV!(Lead Designer Takeo Suzuki)

[leteton]

Four part post -

So far the relic quest line requires players to put in a lot of time grinding dungeons, doing beastmen dailes, treasure maps, roulettes to accumulate enough Tomestones of Mythology to first buy three Thavnairian Mistletoe to upgrade to Zenith then later to acquire all 9 books to upgrade to Animus. This is in addition to the large FATE grinding required to upgrade to Atma. The system as it is rewards players for perseverance, continuing to do almost all of the content in the game. I understand that this system brings the community together and keeps lower level content alive for new players or players leveling new jobs.

What I would like to know is if there will ever be a system implemented in the Relic Quest line that rewards players on their skill instead of only commitment.

[leteton]

I could imagine a system similar to Final Fantasy VII's Golden Saucer Battle Arena which yielded some very powerful items to players. In this system, players would first enter a similar instanced area and be required to do a gauntlet of sorts through parties of 8. After completing this, a player would then be able to enter a gauntlet with a party of 4 making it more difficult and placing a greater emphasis on individual skill. Lastly after completing this gauntlet, a player would be able to enter a solo gauntlet designed specifically for their certain job.

A healer role would enter an instance where they would be required to keep NPCs alive while large waves of enemies swarm ahead. A DPS role would be required to kill an enemy with a very large amount of hit points before an enrage timer killed the player.

[leteton]

A tank role would need to hold enmity from various mobs while NPC DPS killed them, all while having to either mitigate as much damage as possible, or restore as much health as possible based on your job. BRD as a role of its own could need to balance DPS with songs to buff NPC at appropriate times.

After completing this you could be rewarded with a special currency that allows you to buy a unique/untradable crafting item in which a player would need to request to be crafted by a DoH. It could also require a DoL unique/untradable item that needed to be part of a three-way crafting request, requiring each type of role in FFXIV to come together. A system like this would be so much more rewarding and would require players to really learn how to play their jobs well.

[leteton]

Worried that some players won't be able to do it? Perhaps each level of the said gauntlet yields a certain number of this currency, but only defeating either 8 or 4 man gauntlets would yield you significantly less, requiring that a person spend more time learning how to play their job as best they can.

Of course Golden Saucer would be holding an incredibly rare item!

I see that this is entirely too long to be asked or discussed during the live letter, but Mr. Suzuki please consider a system like this! The community would really enjoy it.

Best,
Pierre Leteton

[Alex_fletcher]

Given the current state of crafted materials (armor, weapons, accessories, etc.), from launch to current, are there any plans to broaden the spectrum of materials required to craft in an effort to reduce the amount of clutter (inventory, retainers, Market Board) caused by idle materials? Namely lower level materials. If so: Is an effort being made to improve community relations by encouraging users who make their crafts or materials easily available to others, via market board, to ensure that materials are readily available to all appropriate levels and *ahem* Gil budgets?

[reploidx]

Will we be seeing the mainland (into the imperial lands and beyond) anytime in the future?

[PersonOfAPerson]

Is there any chance of adding "Co-op" emotes?

Something like a "/highfive" where you will actually connect to another player character if they use the emote as well.

Other examples would be /hug, /sit with, or /coopkiss.

A more advanced co-op emote would be /carry, where you would actually carry someone around.

[coldreactive]

Will the AOE Indicator animation change to be similar to Wildstar's so that the AOE ground indicator also shows AOE Cast time? Because as it stands now, the current AOE Ground animation is worse off than the old one. Sure, it looks prettier, but it would seriously confuse me when coming from an MMORPG such as Wildstar, where the same AOE Animation means the AOE Cast is complete.

Is there any chance of adding "Co-op" emotes?

Something like a "/highfive" where you will actually connect to another player character if they use the emote as well.

Other examples would be /hug, /sit with, or /coopkiss.

A more advanced co-op emote would be /carry, where you would actually carry someone around.

The main reason this isn't in: China. Because In games like Perfect World International, which are developed by chinese developers, co-op emotes (Such as carry) can only be done between a man and a woman (and can only be initiated by a male character.)