52 Minutes of Yoshi-P unleashed :D Here's my interview with our fearless leader

[Shougun]

I just did this while I was listening to it. I imagine there will be a better one out in a little bit. I did change sentence structure but I don't think I changed meanings. Sometimes my own comments are in there lol but they are in ( ).

Y: JP ONRY (intro is in Japanese, I picked up like 5%.. I can write that for you if you'd like )
T: Its nearly the anniversary of FFXIV for us we would like to thank everyone for your support, ask questions nao.

Q: What is new these days? What is exciting aspect of the current version?
Y: Personal Opinion, PvP (Frontlines). Huge MMO and PvP fan, having these three large groups fight with a great experience is really enjoyable- one thing that is great about PvP is there are new scenarios each fight (human aspect). I really enjoy this content myself. I’ve nearly participated in 250 Frontline battles.

Q: we will have ninja and rogue soon (rouge ), there is a tank class coming too right?
Y: Nope. Abriael wanted to be cute here. 3.0 will be expansion point, before this point no new jobs or classes. 3.0 will be sooner than players are thinking, I have a lot of great surprises (deep story, new fields, new classes and jobs, new features) that you will have to please look forward to it *insert evil laugh*. We will have some information for our fan event though. I decided to bring in Ninja and Rogue because I felt the class was really missing, and it will bring new experience to PvE and PvP – specially because of stealth mechanics.
Q: There are going to be giant stealth parties in PvP destroying players. Lol
Y: lol, you will need good balance for capture points.

Q: World pvp.
T: A world server?
Q: World PvP, PvP everywhere.
Y: I don’t have any plans at the moment, but it depends on the feedback from the community- I’m sure there are a lot of Fantasy fans who aren’t playing for PvP. But if there is interest we will think about it. I would like it.
Q: I won’t be playing pvp because Yoshida will kill me.

Q: PS4, some players are saying it hadn’t changed much from PS3. Graphics.. or something.
Y: I think that means PS3 is so good then! (Being positive, laugh). Continues onto saying if a person has bad eyesight they may need to get glasses (rofl). But there are other differences like number of players, interface numbers on screen, loading speeds. PS4 is better.

Q: What kind of % players are playing on PS4- in a previous interview SE is now looking into Xbox one version, are those thoughts processing? What kind of progression do we have on consoles?
Y: I can’t really go into detail about % of players, we don’t disclose this normally but it depends on country. In Japan there is very small PC culture, almost 50% of the player base is on consoles- North America is a bit more than 25%. For Xbox we are waiting for them to say cross platform is ok, then we are ready to do it.
Q: Do think they will do it?
Y: I’m not sure, I feel they are really focusing on the ps4 vs xbox one, exclusives, new games, and once they are settled in I think they might consider it. But I don’t think it will happen this year before the holidays. Mac version will probably come out first, lol.

Q: would you consider the bigger obstacle- not wanting players together or xbox wanting players who play cross platform to also be on live (pay per month service). Didn’t really try to transcribe this, its silly question . . .
Y: I think they want exclusive content, like Apple- they want their community to have exclusive content within themselves to force buying the brand. “Only on this product, buy this product only”. They don’t want it to be an option. So there isn’t a real reason if the business is doing well for them to try, but I think it is healthier for the game industry if they allowed it.. I made my point to them. They don’t even want cross platform between Windows and Xbox.

Q: We did a survey which FF game that you would like to see in FF- result was not clear as everyone wanted to see everyone except lightning. Will we see any other characters? (Yoshida laughed and is smirking lol).
Y: I do get similar questions often, what I can say is that before having a “particular” character in the game we will bring costume of that “particular” character in the game, I can’t say from what game of course. If there is a character that has died in a previous FF, they will not appear in FFXIV. I think that will disappoint players worldwide because we would be changing their stories dramatically, I don’t want to destroy any beautiful memories. However, talking about Aries- she may appear (she has life stream afterlife back up story so it makes sense). Also I really like Shadow from FF6, so for those mysterious ending characters and how they ended I won’t be ruining them either (for characters that were left with a special ending). Other than those characters, if it makes sense and form scenario point and if they can go back to their world then I it may happen- we are considering bringing other characters in.. I can’t tell who yet, I’m sure whoever I bring in there will be some who love it and others who hate it.
Q: Like lightning, laughs.
Y: Laughs.

Q: What is the status of DX11.
Y: I have been checking the status of the client, all the options are there. (Being well worked on basically).
Q: Does it look good?
Y: It looks good, but it is hard to tell the difference if you’re not specialized in graphics. The water is really special, the difference is big. Textures, shaders, there are many differences but if you have a normal player they may not be able to tell. It will definitely make sense for players who love graphical details, it will be good for them (Me, me, me).
Q: Timeframe?
Y: Earliest is the end of this year. Earliest, maybe later.

Q: Fantasia potions, micro transactions, Different subscription options? (It was hard to hear, this isnt accurate at all.. sorry guys).
Y: I have no plan to go free to play, on other the hand we might offer micro-transactions to obtain previous seasonal items since it has been a popular request. If I will change the business model it won’t because of big income in one go or because of subscriptions decreasing but because I want more players to play—and this business model will likely be a new business model. I have no plans to change it in the near future, I’m just wanting to say P2P and F2P are not the only model options. The model I will choose is the option that ensures players can play comfortably.

Q: Hunts, causing a divide in the community, friction, and frustration. Some people pull as soon as they get there, and there are some players who like to wait for everyone and share the hunt. The problem is that even if I get there first and I would like to share, I have no way to stop others from “not sharing”. Is there any way we can setup a system to mend this division being created?
Y: First of all we will make many adjustments in 2.35 patch on the 19th of august. Our intention was to have different types of ranks, each rank having different type of players and communities, each rank reaching a certain type of player (except instead players went around and killed everything.. :P). B rank for solo players so they don’t have to wait for other players- they can just attack it and get allied seals by themselves at a constant pace.. this was our intention (but B ranks got boosted in HP and now are bad party fodder). S rank was for players to shout in the same zone and fight together (not for the whole server to come running lol). A rank was meant to be in-between, if you had a party you could fight it. But because this was on the public field we wanted to make it more casual (more like a FATE – hue hue hue)... However it made no difference to the players if it was S, A, or B and players just wanted to get them all. In 2.35 we will make changes to solve issues, but I can’t go into more details as I don’t want players to be able to anticipate it (hunting now if it is a nerf, or waiting if it is a buff).

Q: The UI doesn’t scale to the resolution on PC, are there any plans to change that?
Y: Just to clarify, some can scale. For the other items it is technically not too difficult, but we have so many files (50,000 files from all the options lol, that takes weeks to update) it takes time to find all the options that need modified. But I will make this happen.

FIN

Summary:

-Yoshida loves frontlines, he wants us to look forward to the Rogue/Ninja stealth feature in PvP (and PvE). He may consider a PvP server (single server) if players demand it enough.

-A lot of Japanese players are playing on consoles. North America not so much.

-Would like an Xbox version, but can't do it without the Xbox greenlight.

-Yoshida will bring in more famous FF characters, but he wants to be careful not to ruin any story elements or bring characters back to life that weren't sort of already doing that (Ares is gone, but not really). We should look forward to some costumes of famous characters soon too.

-DX11 is looking good but non-graphic enthusiats may have a hard time telling the difference. Yoshida made special comment on water being better. DX11 wont be out until at least the end of the year.

-Patch 2.35 will make a lot of changes to hunts, wont say what changes because he is afraid players will respond to it one direction or the other (stop playing if it is a buff in the future patch, or play too much if it is a nerf).

-Some UI doesn't scale to resolution, Yoshida will make this change happen (but it will take time).

[Parodine]

First of all we will make many adjustments in 2.35 patch on the 19th of august. [to the Hunt]

Interesting. And he doesn't want the playerbase to 'anticipate' the changes? Hmm. Wonder if it will have to do with the price of things allied seal wise...changing spawns, etc.

2.35 may be more significant then we think. Maybe, anyway.

[Welsper59]

Interesting. And he doesn't want the playerbase to 'anticipate' the changes? Hmm. Wonder if it will have to do with the price of things allied seal wise...changing spawns, etc.

2.35 may be more significant then we think. Maybe, anyway.

Given the recap on what audience the hunts were for, I'd suspect it's enough that it'll break the current zergfest that it is. I'm sure there'll be some aspects about it that you could, like if As and Ss were up, but I'm going to assume major changes to at least Bs, if not As.

[Parodine]

Given the recap on what audience the hunts were for, I'd suspect it's enough that it'll break the current zergfest that it is. I'm sure there'll be some aspects about it that you could, like if As and Ss were up, but I'm going to assume major changes to at least Bs, if not As.

I certainly hope so. I grinded through a few of the zerg-fest parties and it simply isn't very fulfilling. Although if they really expected only one person to kill one B mob in each zone per hour, I imagine their whole perception of how many allied seals were going to be generated per day must have been amazingly low. Crossing my fingers for those major changes!

[Rath]

Quick loose paraphrasing of Yoshi talking below. Numbers are not question numbers. Also, the background noise doesn't mess up the interview, fix your sound.

1. Yoshi likes PVP more then anything else currently. He has done over 250 battles. He has been doing it instead of the new storyline.

2. 3.0 is coming quite soon and no new classes/jobs will be coming prior to the expansion besides rogue/ninja as Yoshi-P feels the rogue/ninja class is missing in the world. They are not spoiling this until at least fan fest.

3. No current plans for a PVP server or PVP fields. He will look at this again if the player base wants it, but that will depend on the feedback given by fans.

4. PS3/4 difference question. PS3 and PS4 version seeming the same just means the ps3 was done so well or you may need new glasses.

5. PS4 version will load faster and will give players more of a PC feel for that sort of thing compared to ps3 in NA ps3/4 users are about 25% of the playerbase, this is higher in other regions.

6. Microsoft is against cross-platform servers. Microsoft needs to change its policy and once Microsoft stops focusing on gaining a larger market against the ps4 or increasing it's exclusive lineup talks may go forward. Mac version will probably come first at this rate. Microsoft wants to make games that they can say exclusively on xbox, not play on the xbox or ps4. This business model does work for them. They are even against a windows/xbox version of a game.

7. He won't tell people about what character he wants to bring from another FF game to 14. Do not expect to see any other characters as he doesn't want to ruin people's previous experience with those characters. He personally loves Shadow from FFVI, but doesn't want to spoil your experience by bringing Shadow (or any other character) to FFXIV. If somehow it makes sense for them to be here...and then return to their world, it will be considered. Sounds like it must be a character that is in current games as he cannot ruin their story if it is built into their own world/game like Lightning.

8. Directx 11 checks are done and it looks good and pretty. Unless you have good graphics and know about graphics, he doesn't expect you to really see the differences. Those players that can't see the ps3/4 differences wont notice and he laughed. They are optimizing it and the earliest is end of the year.

9. Some media outlets feel the subscription model for the MMO market is going down and becoming difficult, but FFXIV is doing fine with this model. The FTP and micro-transaction model is not in any current plans. They will not have any tiers of subscriptions such as extended free trial or the like. Micro-transactions may become possible in the future for items that are no longer obtainable in the game for those starting later, such as seasonal items from past events. If he ever changes the business model, he does not feel it would be like any current option out there right now as they do not feel right to him. No current changes planned though.

10. Hunts are going to be adjusted in 2.35 on the 19th of Aug. The intention of the mob hunt was to have each rank drawing different types of players B (solo) A (party that finds it or FC members) S (server shouts). But because it was in a public field, it was designed without a claim system. The problem is people decided to hunt every rank the same way. Because the allagan tomestones also drop, people just decided to do hunts over everything else. In 2.35 they will be adjusting them to alleviate some of the current problems. He doesn't want people to feel they need to rush out and farm hunts now because of the planned changes. Also a claim system was used in FFXI and it caused people to make multiple characters and accounts to claim these mobs.That system is not something they will not implement in FFXIV.

11. They have to change about 50k files for the UI currently with every patch and they do not have the staff to isolate and adjust the UI scaling settings so that it changes with your screen settings. They will get it fixed though.

[Vermilion]

Nothing about what gear/stats Ninja will use? Stocking up on both STR and DEX gear. I don't see the harm of them telling us, as many of us want to take ninjas in to the Third Coil of Bahamut on week 1, which means having a full set of i110 gear prefarmed. (Yes I know i120 and i130 will likely be out but we won't be able to get that all in a week or two and will most likely be a piece a week or so, like current soldiery, So No it's not entirely obsolete)

[Abriael]

Nothing about what gear/stats Ninja will use? Stocking up on both STR and DEX gear. I don't see the harm of them telling us, as many of us want to take ninjas in to the Third Coil of Bahamut on week 1, which means having a full set of i110 gear prefarmed. (Yes I know i120 and i130 will likely be out but we won't be able to get that all in a week or two and will most likely be a piece a week or so, like current soldiery, So No it's not entirely obsolete)

Yoshi didn't say anything about it, but mostly because I (or the others involved) didn't think to ask.

Sorry about that.

[Shougun]

Yoshi didn't say anything about it, but mostly because I (or the others involved) didn't think to ask.

Sorry about that.

I didn't hear anything about the Tackle box either... Pretty sure you didn't ask about the tackle box!

Tackle box or riot... つ ◕_◕ ༽つ !!



Could some interviewer please just ask why Fisher takes up half its inventory just to gather to take up the other half... just to be a casual class that once wasn't.. or hoped not to be.. I want to know what happened to my baby *wails*.

[Enkrateia]

Greetings!

I've provided a bullet-posted summary of this discussion, leaving in the parts that actually relate to the content of the interview. Hopefully this helps summarize what was otherwise a very long thread that was largely off topic.

Most of the discussion about transcription has been removed, as everyone seemed to express their views and read what other people thought. So that discussion should be considered closed. Please keep the discussion on topic as it relates to the content of the interview, as well as civil between each other. This will allow for a better discussion of the topic, as well as preventing forum account actions.

LGM Enkrateia

[kidvideo]

3.0 confirmed!