Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XLVII Digest (11/29/2018)

[Zhexos]

We are pleased to present the full digest of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XLVII that was delivered from the North American Fan Festival in Las Vegas! If you missed the live stream, or if you just want to watch it again (and again), check it out below! As this event was broadcasted from North America, the full event was translated live to English on stage.

https://sqex.to/arC

* Don’t forget to select 720p option to watch the video in HD!

Patch 4.5 Special Part 1

◆Patch Title


00:05:38
Patch 4.5—A Requiem for Heroes is the final major update before the release of the third expansion pack, Shadowbringers! Patch 4.5 will be released in two parts, and the digest below will cover content that will debut in both parts.

◆Main Scenario Quest


00:08:48
Characters from the Garlean empire will be taking an active role in the main scenario quests.

◆New Side Story Quest


00:10:20
The patch brings the finale to the Four Lords story and the Even Further Hildibrand Adventures.

◆New Job Added - Blue Mage


00:12:25
Blue mage will be introduced in Patch 4.5, and we talk more about it in the second half of the show with our special guest, Lead Battle System Designer Tsuyoshi Yokozawa.

◆New Instanced Dungeon - The Ghimlyt Dark


00:13:32
The Ghmilyt Dark is related to the main scenario. The leaders of the Eorzean Alliance will appear in the upcoming main scenario quests, and they will be voiced as well.

◆Return to Ivalice - The Orbonne Monastery


00:15:42
The final chapter of the Return to Ivalice alliance raid series will arrive in Patch 4.5. The story is very serious and filled with surprises so we'll avoid disclosing any information. However, we did show some sneak previews of the reward gear items, so be sure to check out the video.

Alongside that reveal, we also introduced the new mount that'll be available when you collect all of the 4.x trial mounts!

◆Seiryu - The Wreath of Snakes


00:22:10
We should be able to show live footage in the next Letter from the Producer LIVE scheduled for December.

◆The Forbidden Land, Eureka - Hydatos Expedition


00:23:55
The final installment of the Eureka series, the Hydatos expedition will be added. Hydatos is a Greek word that means water.

Aside from the normal playstyle of Eureka we've seen thus far, we've prepared a high-end difficulty challenge that can be undertaken by a large number of players. We're planning to show gameplay footage of Hydatos in our next Patch 4.5 Special Part 2 broadcast.

◆Second Installment of the Rival Wings - The Hidden Gorge


00:27:05
As you can see from the above screenshot, you can see the goblin train running on the railroad tracks.

◆Gold Saucer Updates / New Custom Deliveries Client

00:29:22
We're adding new content and a new GATE: Air Force One. In this new GATE, players will mount the Air Force mount available as part of the Omega: Sigmascape reward to shoot targets along the course. There will be new rewards that'll be available for exchange with MGP as well, so please look forward to it!

Additionally, we'll be introducing our forth custom deliveries client.

◆Word Visit System


00:33:10
We're planning to introduce the World Visit system in the latter half of the Patch 4.5 series. With this system, players can move freely between Worlds on the same Data Center via aetherytes in Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, and Ul'dah. You open the subcommand menu by targeting the aetheryte, select your Destination World and the system will check to see how congested the Destination World is. If there aren't any issues, then you'll be able to visit that World similar to how you would enter a duty through the Duty Finder.



Your current World is called your Home World, and the destination World is called the Destination World. You'll be able to visit other Destination Worlds while visiting another Destination World. There isn't any time limit when you're visiting the Destination World, and you'll be logged into that World even after logging out. Therefore, if you wanted to, you could reside in that Destination World as long as you like.

Since there are various things that can be done while inside the Destination World, we went over the restrictions you have while visiting another World.



As for the market, we discussed whether or not we could introduce a universal market board; however, this would require a major overhaul to the foundation of the server, therefore, this would be difficult to do.

Players will be able to receive mog letter notifications while visiting a Destination World, but if you would like to open your mail, please head back to your Home World.

While this is currently unavailable, we would like to continue looking into making the following possible while visiting other Worlds.

• Linkshell Chat
• Attend a Ceremony of Eternal Bonding

[Zhexos]

◆Data Center Expansion


00:56:05
We're adding a new Data Center to both the North American and European Data Center. With this addition we'll be splitting the Worlds, so we ask players in the North American and European Data Centers to pay close attention. We understand that splitting the Worlds will separate the community from those that have formed together, and those that utilize the Cross-world Linkshell and Party Finder features. However, please note that in order to maintain the stability of our servers as we anticipate more players in the future, we had to make this decision.

As for the separation of the Worlds, we have observed the communities in each of the Worlds for the North American region, and we looked at what languages are used most in those European Data Center Worlds and tried our best to put them together in the same Data Centers.

Additionally, we're planning to add one new World per Data Center for the European region. Once the new Data Centers are added, players that are within the North American and European Data Centers will be able to utilize a free World Transfer and we'll be temporarily removing the limit on how much gil can be transferred.



Details on the New Job - Blue Mage
In the second half of the show, we brought over our Lead Battle System Designer, Tsuyoshi Yokozawa and introduced the new job, the Blue Mage that'll be implemented in Patch 4.5.

First, check out the trailer for blue mage!

https://sqex.to/Brp

01:12:15
Blue Mage is the first "Limited Job" coming to FFXIV. A Limited Job is a job that is meant to be enjoyed in a solo environment and is not suited for parties.

We believe one of the unique traits of the blue mage is the ability to learn and use the monster's abilities that could potentially break the balance of the game. In order to bring out this uniqueness as much as possible, we have made the Blue Mage into a Limited Job that can be enjoyed alone. By Learning, you can enjoy collecting the abilities and also mixing abilities for different situations. The concept behind the blue mage in FFXIV was based on making these three core features possible.

The calculation for the amount of experience points earned in the field is unique for the blue mage, therefore, it would be more effective to hunt monsters in the field to level.

The Masked Carnivale is a unique blue mage-exclusive arena where you fight through 25 unique challenges, each with one to three rounds. As the blue magic that is effective in each of the challenges is different, you'll need to learn those effective abilities and combine them with other abilities to triumph. For example, similar to previous FF titles, flying enemies are weak to lightning.



Players learn enemies abilities by actually seeing the ability in which you want to learn, and defeating them. You don't have to be hit by these abilities. These abilities are learned rarely.

We'll continue to add new blue magic spells in future updates.

We would like players to exchange information to find out what abilities can be learned. Also, if there are several types of monsters that use the same ability, the rate at which you learn differs based on the monster.