Greetings, everyone!
We're pleased to present the full digest of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXXVII!
If you missed the live stream, or if you just want to watch it again (and again), check it out below!
◆Q&A (After Playing Patch 4.0)
A: We have received feedback from tanks regarding continuing to equip item level 270 accessories. This puts more stress on the healers, and a lack of vitality may become an issue as we enter Savage. However, top players may be able to clear even under those conditions, so we worry that it will become the norm.0:08:18
Q: Currently some tanks stack STR on their accessories to increase their DPS, are changes planned for tank accessories themselves?
As a result, we have decided to add a minimum amount of strength to accessories in 4.05. I think there are people who are wondering why we haven’t addressed this until now despite the fact that requests have been made before. The reason is that if you add strength to a vitality accessary, only the tank will have increased strength stats when level syncing. We wanted to keep stats as simple as possible, but in 3.X, tanks were dealing quite a bit of damage, and we’ve decided to accept them doing that much damage.
The item level will increase in coming updates, but strength will not scale the same as vitality, so we would like you to keep that in mind. There are some people who suggested that we make it so that item level 270 accessories can only be equipped by certain roles, but even if we did that, there’s a chance that characters that already have these item equipped will just leave them equipped. We did not place equipment restriction on them in order to avoid any differences that might arise due to this.
A: If we were to make this more effective, the only attribute option players will select will be tenacity; therefore, we currently have no plans to change this.0:12:02
Q: The tenacity attribute for tanks affects the attack and healing potency, and is very powerful; however, it feels like the effectiveness is somewhat held back. Could you please explain why it is set up this way?
I believe players will be able to feel the effects of tenacity in Omega: Deltascape (Savage).
A: We made adjustments in 4.0 so that the three tank jobs can equally perform as a main tank or off tank. However, paladin has a tendency to be too strong in terms of DPS, so we increased the potency of warrior/dark knight actions and increased their base damage.0:13:17
Q: Currently paladin feels like it excels both in offensive and defensive capabilities, are there any plans for adjustments to warrior/dark knight?
Making the cast time for paladin’s Holy Spirit so short made it too powerful, so we will be making adjustments around that point. We’ll also be removing the reduction in the Oath Gauge when switching oaths.
For warriors, we will remove the halving of the Beast Gauge when changing stances. Up until now, the consensus was that you’ll waste your Beast Gauge if you didn’t use it up first because of the halving. Therefore, this change is to address this.
Warrior’s Shake It Off will be adjusted, so that effect will be something different. We already have ideas for the adjustment, but the implementation will be sometime after Patch 4.05.
Dark knight will see potency increases in combo damage and the effects of “Quietus” will be adjusted. We made as many adjustments as possible by Patch 4.05, so we would like for your to please try out Omega: Deltascape (Savage), and continue to give us your feedback.
A: There are no such plans at the moment.0:18:47
Q: With role actions, each of the jobs are now able to take various actions; however, for healers, there are important role actions such as Protect and Esuna, so I am having trouble deciding on what to set. Do you have plans to increase the amount of role actions that can be set?
For Protect, it’s becoming increasingly rare that it’s not used. We debated until the very last adjustments were made discussing if it makes any difference if we kept or removed this spell. For this, we would like to make considerations based on player’s feedback.
A: I believe this is a situation that will likely to occur when matched using the Duty Finder.0:19:57
Q: From Patch 4.0, cards you draw and your Aetherflow stacks aren’t displayed on the party list anymore. Because of this, if the party has two astrologians or scholars, we cannot check each other’s status and this is very inconvenient. Do you have plans to revert this so, the status can be checked through the party list?
The difficulty is set so you do not have to be particular about the status of other players; however, we did receive requests to have this reverted back from those who play these jobs as their main. We won’t make the same adjustment to all jobs, but we’re checking each job individually. We are currently working to display scholar’s Aetherflow, and astrologian’s card status on the party list. However, since this change is quite big, we’re planning to address this around Patch 4.1. In addition to this, we received feedback that when there are two white mages in the party, it is difficult to tell which confession stack is which, so we would like to look into this as well.
A: After balancing the three healing jobs, the faerie's healing was still too powerful. Therefore we decided to go in the direction of lowering the faerie's healing potencies.0:21:50
Q: Scholar went through many changes, having lost a DoT, the damage lost from AoE due to the Bane rework, and nerfs to the faerie healing. In comparison to the other healers, it feels that they have lost quite a bit. Are there any plans for adjustments?
However, by limiting what they could do, we received feedback on how the available options for AoE was reduced, and that their job feels boring now. For this reason, we’ll make various adjustments in Patch 4.05.
We will also make adjustments to white mage and astrologian.
*Please see the 4.05 patch notes for adjustment details.
A: One of the main concepts when creating a job is that “even if you played a job from the same role, they will have a different gaming experience.” So with this base rule in place, we check to see whether the job is fun to play or not. And of course, there will be situations where one job may feel easier/harder to play than others.0:25:14
Q: It was explained that in Patch 4.0 the focus was to reduce the large DPS disparity, but certain jobs feel more reliant on player skill than others. Are certain jobs intended to maintain that difference?
Until now, we increased the damage output on jobs based on the difficulty. However, moving forward, we’re thinking to balance the difficulty to control for those that are much more difficult than what we assumed.
A: For damage output, we’ll make adjustments by expanding on aspects following the above mentioned concept.0:26:22
Q: When comparing dragoon to other DPS jobs, for the amount of difficulty there is to play them, their DPS seems low. I understand that dragoon has strong support actions such as Battle Litany, but do you have plans to make adjustments so that dragoon can deal strong damage on their own, similar to how it was in 3.x?
*Please see the 4.05 patch notes for adjustment details.
There are some requests to make it easier to perform combos from the flank/rear, but if we decreased the amount of positionals any more than it currently is, it will end up where you’re only attacking from the rear. In Patch 4.06 we made adjustments to dragoon and ninja so that their loss of damage from missing positionals is decreased by lowering the bonus given from positionals. They have been buffed to some degree, so we would like you to try it out and leave any additional feedback you may have.
A: We considered Greased Lightning IV, but felt it would become too fast and widen the gap between player DPS even further. We understand that you may feel more stressed about the recast time increase rather than the buff itself; however, I’m sure players will see the effect of this from prolonged battles, such as those from Omega: Deltascape (Savage). Despite this, if we do receive more requests, then we’ll consider it; however, we believe it’s somewhat complete, so we would appreciate if you could first try it out.0:28:27
Q: The new monk skill “Riddle of Fire” is a very powerful buff, but because the effect increases the GCD, it is very stressful to play. Monk had a feeling of speedy combat, so if adjustments are possible, please implement them.
A: Perspectives vary from player to player regarding what they would like to see done for machinist.0:30:28
Q: I’m a machinist main, but I am concerned because despite the difficulty of the rotation and managing the Heat Gauge, my DPS is not very high. Machinist itself is enjoyable, but in comparison to Bard, it feels lacking in support abilities as well as DPS. Please let us know if there are any adjustments planned.
Machinists are better suited for certain content compared to others, and due to the current difficulty of Heat management and how it is affected by fights, as well as the visible difference between Machinist and Bard in content, we have made it easier to manage the Heat Gauge. In addition, we will be raising their overall base damage.
*Please see the 4.05 patch notes for adjustment details.
A: I know that there are requests to make it translucent, but this is would be difficult to do, as the amount of processes increases greatly when two translucent objects overlap one another. For this reason, we’re currently looking into a text command which can be used to change the size of Demi-Bahamut. I’m sure there will be players who would like the size to remain as is, so we’re making it so that players can adjust the scale on their own. However, please note that this process is quite complex, so we’ll need some time until this can be implemented.0:32:33
Q: Demi-Bahamut is quite large. Do you have any plans to make adjustment to his size or transparency?
A: We had it set so that pets would take reduced damage from enemies, and the policy was to reduce the number of actions as much as possible, so we decided to remove it. However, there were some players that used it quite a lot, so we would like to discuss some more with the dev. team.0:34:31
Q: Sustain was very useful in some content. I would like to know why this was removed.
A: Red mage was born from both white and black magic; however, summoner is different. Each of the jobs have their own roles. If all jobs were made equally, that would basically make every job the same. From a gaming perspective, I believe it would be more fun to have differences, so we carefully made adjustments so that the jobs do not become the same.0:35:35
Q: Red mage’s Vercure is affected by the intelligence attribute, but would it be possible to change summoner’s Physick so that the cure potency changes with intelligence?
A: We’re going to start looking into this, but this requires making changes to the core of the system, so it will take some time.0:42:46
Q: Because Sprint no longer consumes TP, it is easier to use in combat. However outside of combat, the increased cooldown is inconvenient. Would it be possible to make adjustments, such as lowering the cooldown in cities?
A: This idea was on the table when we were making PvP-related adjustments in Patch 4.01. We discussed how it’ll create a situation where the players are earning experience points for a job they didn’t play, which goes against the entire point of earning the experience points. We want some more time to continue discussions regarding this.0:44:09
Q: For PvP, would it be possible to change the system so that you can earn experience points for the job you entered with, rather than the job you finish the match with? I think this would help those who participate in the content for leveling purpose, so they can still change their jobs inside to meet the needs of the party.
A: If adjustments are made for each job, it will ruin the overall balance, so there are no plans at the moment. However, when compared with 4.0 dungeons, it’s true that 2.X dungeons don’t feel very comfortable, so we plan to make adjustments that will allow players to proceed at a faster pace such as adjusting monster HP.0:45:19
Q: Due to the large amount of job action changes in 4.0, some jobs may feel very different when level synced in dungeons level 50 and below. Concerning tanks, in 4.01 it became easier to maintain aggro. Will other jobs see similar changes?
The policy we will be following for this adjustment is to make all dungeons up to level 49 easier and make all dungeons after that up until 3.X require a little more time to complete. There are no plans to make changes to 4.0 dungeons.
A: We’re currently working on an alliance raid roulette. Players will also be able to make alliance raid parties across other Worlds as well. These are scheduled for Patch 4.1. As for Labyrinth of the Ancients, we’re making adjustments so the party structure will only require one tank rather than two; however, we may not be able to make this adjustment in time.0:47:32
Q: It's hard to get a group for alliance raid content, such as the Crystal Tower. Do you have any plans to address this?
A: We’re currently estimating the amount of development workload needed, but we’re considering changing the rule every week. However, this means introducing a new rule to the servers, so more time is needed to make a decision.0:48:56
Q: I would like the rewards for Seal Rock achievements, but queues take a very long time to pop. Would it be possible to make it so these achievements can be earned from the Fields of Glory (Shatter) as well?
A: Thank you! In FINAL FANTASY V, Omega’s lore was set in a way where you didn’t know where it came from; therefore, people thought it came from the void. As for the bosses, they aren’t the same bosses from that game, but those recreated by Omega’s memories.0:50:08
Q: As an FFV fan, I was really excited to see how Omega: Deltascape was recreated. I’m really curious to find out if there’s any backstory for this. Could you please tell us anything?
Also, there’s a rumor that there will be a V5.0, but there is no V5.0. We did mention that we’ll prepare a difficulty for those who complete Savage mode of V4.0; however, this isn’t V5.0. While we cannot go over the details just yet, I believe it’ll be something people can enjoy.
A: It’s been said that there is little variety in FFXIV side quests, so we looked into including a new mechanic. What we came up with this time was “blow darts”. We plan on adding as many new games as possible in the future. Just note that, there are no plans to use blow darts in a battle content.0:54:54
Q: The blow dart quests were very fun! Are there plans for the mechanic to return in future content?
A: There are requests on the forums as well to make it so past event battles can be replayed, so we’re discussing it with the person in charge. But there are a great number of them, and they were made on the premise that they would only take place once, so it will be difficult to do this for all of them. However, we have been discussing making the popular ones replayable, but we would like more time on this.0:57:26
Q: We liked the showdown scene in Azim Steppes. Will we ever be able to replay event battle instances, just like dungeons?
A: Yes.0:59:15
Q: Are there plans for a Namazu minion?
A: There might be a quest with Magnai and Sadu, but only the Dawn Father knows.01:01:48
Q: Do you have plans to implement quests where Magnai will find his moon?
A: I lost a lot of my play time right in front of a save point in FINAL FANTASY V...01:03:27
Q: I really liked the performance from the last boss in the main scenario quest. Was this done to bring back the experience from the Super NES days where you lose your precious play time from not saving?
The manager from the design team, Takai, also lost his precious play time to this trap, and the debug team said we should make some adjustments to tone it down (referring to the Tidal Wave mechanic in the first phase of the battle) but Takai told them “I fell into this trap before as well” and left it alone.
For the overall battle itself, we were worried about the difficulty level, but since it’s the last boss, we made it strong. We also talked about how we won’t make anything stronger than that.
A: We’ve had many requests from people who want to take screenshots.01:06:13
Q: I really liked the area where we had our showdown with Zenos, and I would like to visit it again freely after the main scenario quests!
Later on in the storyline, players will revisit this area once again. We set collisions in place, so that players can walk around; however, the time is locked to evening. There are other areas such as the Archbishop’s room that are only visited in events, which are heavily requested to be visitable outside of quests, so we’ll consider these as well.
A: We mentioned we’ll observe the situation after 4.0 to decide on the timing; however, this has created more stress load on the servers than we assumed, so we would need to rethink our method before expanding any further. For things related to items, there are other factors such as the item sorting feature through the app, so we’ll follow-up on this once we have any update.01:08:12
Q: Please let us know if you’ve finalized the number of slots that will be added in the second Inventory and Armoury Chest expansion.
A: The number of items available has increased in Patch 4.0. We’re making sure that important data isn’t lost, and also that it can’t be exploited, so it’s difficult to just simply add more slots. Currently, the disparity between those who use a lot of item space, and those who don’t, is quite large, and we’re a bit worried about this. We would like to observe the amount of items being used post the launch of 4.0 before we make future adjustments.01:09:34
Q: The inventory and Armoury Chest expansion has helped a lot, but would it be possible to increase retainer’s inventory as well?
A: There would be some amount of cost required for the team to be able to make the Elbst available underwater, but we would like to work on these as we can. As for Adamantoise, you see, he’s actually not swimming underwater, he received the belessing from Warrior of Light and is able to move about the same way they do on land or in air. Is that a bit far fetched...?01:11:07
Q: As a turtle lover I was concerned and it feels strange to me that the Adamantoise spins rapidly and emits fire underwater. Also, it would be nice if the Sahagin's Elbst mount could swim.
A: The reason is “Because it looks cool.”01:13:13
Q: Is there any particular reason why Zenos’ scabbard spins so rapidly? Is it spinning by force of will or some kind of switch?[/B]
Also, as katanas quickly degrade as they cut, Zenos keeps many of them on hand so that he can always use a new one.
A: When I got the request to do the final check on Kugane, I discovered that the team made it so you could only get up about half way. It wasn’t that difficult to create a route to go up higher, but in order to make the stress load from the graphics as low as possible, we had to simplify some parts. We checked over to see whether or not any portions of the graphic were cut off, such as the ocean, and then extended it so you couldn’t see this. The background team worked very hard to create this, and I believe it turned out really well. I would like to like to add some more in future and I would like to increase the number of jumping puzzle games in Gold Saucer as well.01:14:39
Q: The jumping challenge in Kugane was really fun. Could you please tell us how this was created?
A: Perhaps there is a chance if everyone wishes for it. Personally speaking, I feel he is a member of the Scions, but he isn’t the type to directly interact with them. My image of him is that he helps members in need from the shadows.01:17:18
Q: Estinien was really cool! Will there be an opportunity to meet him again?
◆Regarding Rewards from Omega: Deltascape (Savage)
01:19:51
There were be more opportunities to obtain weapons in V4.0 (Savage).
◆The Lost Canals of Uznair
01:25:14
More updates are planned for patch 4.1.
We’re thinking of adding something like a hidden room.
Special Guest Section
Guest: Art Director Hiroshi Minagawa
A: Minagawa: During A Realm Reborn, as a Lead UI Artist, I was in charge of the UI mainly; however, from 3.0 I adjusted the lighting in the field, and also managed the staff of the Background Art team. In 4.0, I was also looking at field lighting and such. I am also in charge of various things outside of the game as well, such as editing the package CG.01:42:16
Q: Your title has changed to Art Director, but are you now able to work on a wider range of things? Please tell us about your current job!
Yoshida: Since 3.0 he made overall graphic adjustments fitting my design orders, such as making lighter areas lighter, darker areas darker, so we matched his title to this.
A: Minagawa: We are working together with the Battle team, and based on the stats the party members cannot see now, we are looking into which stats to revert back to buff display. At the same time, we are also working on a simplified version of the job gauge. We will follow-up on the specific details of the adjustments.01:44:25
Q: With the job gauge, we can better manage the buffs; however, we still need to check the buff and debuff section for any specific changes. For some jobs like bards, I feel that we need to pay attention to more sections now. Would it be possible to check the Procs from the job gauges?
In addition to this, we received comments where players have trouble deciding where to place the current buff/debuff status information because it is displayed in a single row. Along with the job gauge improvements, we are looking into the separating the buffs and debuffs, and those that are not directly related to battle, such as company actions.
A: Minagawa: As mentioned in the previous question, we are currently moving forward with the development, and we are hoping to implement this in Patch 4.1. We also received requests to adjust the transparency, so we are considering this as well.01:47:09
Q: Please tell us implementation plans regarding the simplified version of the job gauges that Yoshida mentioned in previous Letter from the Producer LIVE.
Yoshida: As a priority, we are looking into which information to include in the job gauges, and then we will apply that to the simplified version, which is currently being developed.
A: Minagawa: Yes, we do. Please wait just a bit longer.01:48:29
Q: Do you have plans to add an option to turn on/off the job gauges?
A: Minagawa: We are currently looking into separating the buff and debuff display from the target information, so we will consider that after this.01:49:04
Q: In regards to the Focus Target, would it be possible to add a setting where the buff/debuff you used are prioritized? Also, are there any plans to add a setting where you can display the buff/debuff into separate HUD elements?
A: Minagawa: At this moment, we are not able to filter desired requirements; however, we did receive requests to hide the locked content, so we are looking into an option to hide these. We are also making locked content show on the bottom of the list as a default. We are planning to implement this sometime around Patch 4.1.01:50:03
Q: I would like filters in Party Finder that would allow me to narrow down results to groups that I can join and meet my requirements, would this be possible to implement?
A: Minagawa: For User Interface, we caused an inconvenience for those playing on the PlayStation®4 version and I would like to apologize for that. For this reason, it felt like we were probably busier after the release than during development.01:51:28
Q: I would like to know if there were any major difficulties during the development of 4.0!
A: Minagawa: I tried hard to make it look like I was not involved too much on the project. I was invited over at the start of the development, and have attended about 10 meetings to discuss overall objectives and such. As for graphics, the original staff was in charge, so I let them handle those, and in the later half, I was creating the logo.01:52:15
Q: As you were part of the original staff of FINAL FANTASY XII, how much were you involved in the FINAL FANTASY XII: The Zodiac Age? It’s not an FFXIV related question, but I love FFXII, so I would like to know.
Yoshida: The quality of the original FINAL FANTASY XII was very high, and since it is very detailed, I believed it could stay strong years after. I was honestly surprised we were able to make a HD version out of what was already high quality.
Minagawa: In cutscenes you can see fine details, such as character’s eye movement, but this was already in the data on the original version. At that time, most of us were still using CRT TVs so we were not able to notice the minor details, but I was able to notice them this time. That person behind these cutscenes is currently in the FFXIV team.
Yoshida: In Patch 4.1. we are introducing the Return to Ivalice, so be sure to try it out.
Q: I would like to set unlearned actions on my hotbar. I would like to get used to my final hotbar layout by level 70, so it would be very helpful to be able to set them earlier!01:55:33
Q: Alongside Return to Ivalice, I would like to see Matsuno and Minagawa conversing! Do you two go out to drinks often?
A: Minagawa: Until now, we thought it would be confusing to have all skills visible from the beginning, so we limited it. Starting in 4.0, we have made all actions visible to make it easier for players to see the difference. Since we already show them, we will look to see if it can be set.01:58:25
Q: I would like to set unlearned actions on my hotbar. I would like to get used to my final hotbar layout by level 70, so it would be very helpful to be able to set them earlier!
A: Minagawa: We have had this request since 2.x, and back then, we mentioned this was very difficult to do. However, while working on cross-world features, such as adding players from another World to the friend list, we may be able to make this adjustment.01:59:54
Q: Do you have plans to implement a feature where we can change the order of our linkshells?
A: Minagawa: We have not made any progress. Will discuss once again with the person in charge.02:00:48
Q: In a previous Letter from the Producer LIVE, during the test broadcast, you mentioned about a feature that will display the chat log only when it has been updated. Has there been any update to this feature?
A: Minagawa: 2D objects (such as nameplates) visible in 3D are processed together. For this reason, it would be difficult to scale specific UI elements. We will see if we can do this by scaling all UI elements together.02:01:41
Q: Will it be possible to adjust the size of player and NPC names? It can get difficult to see depending on the resolution of the monitor, so it would be appreciated.
A: Minagawa: We have no plans to implement this as it creates a lot of stress on the server. If we were to download the retainers’ data locally, then it may be possible; however, it will not be consistent when looking from a different client. If we tried hard, it may be possible to just view the inventory, but it would be difficult to do more than that.02:03:44
Q: Do you have plans to implement a UI where we can see the inventory from all retainers at once?
Yoshida: However, we are planning to make big adjustment/changes to glamour, and considering features such as recalling the appearance from equipment you previously owned.
A: Minagawa: I moved out for my entrance exams, but I did not go to school, and my first place I worked part-time became my first workplace. At the time, the game industry was not as big, and my relatives were worried. That was the hardest time of my life. The good thing is that it turned out okay.02:05:47
Q: Please tell us about your biggest mistake in life, and how you overcame it.
A: Minagawa: This may be possible if we touch the base section of the event script; however, there is a possibility that a retainer is processed in a completely different way, so I will confirm this.02:07:41
Q: When calling out a retainer, you are forced to face towards the retainer, but would it be possible to add an on/off setting so we can change this?
A: Minagawa: It would require some resource, but I think it is possible. Until now, it was difficult to secure the VRAM needed to render on low-end machines, but since we are able to make some adjustments now. While we have to check if this is possible or not, we will consider it.02:08:18
Q: I would like to be able to preview equipment in a larger window. Will this be expandable in the future?
A: Minagawa: With Ala Mhigo and Doma, the new world map is about twice the width of the previous one. The Art team worked hard to create this. For the standard maps, the method for creating them is set, so it was not that difficult; however, we struggled a lot for the expanded region maps. This was relatively easy for 3.0 and 4.0 areas, but there were lots of unused space for 2.0 areas, so it was difficult to put them together.02:09:58
Q: The map in 4.0 is very large, but please let us know what improvements or difficulties you had when creating the 2D map.
A: Minagawa: This is very difficult to do, so we have no plans to do this. If we were to address this, we would have to do a major overhaul of how the memory is created and such.02:11:09
Q: Are there any plans to make Lodestone event functions and journal entries available in-game?
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08-10-2017 12:11 PM #1
Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXXVII Digest (8/10/2017)
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