"Freshly Picked Vana’diel 4" Digest

[Camate]

Greetings,

To coincide with the February 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. Below is a digest of what was discussed.

Hello,
Matsui here.

I had a ton to tell you all about for this version update, and while it might have seemed a bit rushed, I hope you all enjoyed it.

Below are the different topics that were discussed.

Table of contents

• Ongoing Campaigns
• New Area and New Skirmish
• Relic Reforging and GEO/RUN Relic-Equivalent Equipment
• Adjustments to Delve
• Battle Content
• Addition of New Trust Alter egos
• Job Adjustments
• Records of Eminence and Other Adjustments
• Heading Towards March

[Camate]

Ongoing Campaigns

(06:23～)
The currently running campaigns were introduced.

• Repeat Login Campaign No. 8 is underway
  This time you can exchange your points for Naja Salaheem’s alter ego. She's a monk that wields a club and will continue to be your partner, just like in the Aht Urhgan missions.
  
  
• I Dream of Mog Bonanza 2014 prize redemption period
  Prize redemption will conclude on Thursday, February 27, 2014. Marbles can no longer be redeemed after this date, so be sure to redeem them before this!
  
  
• The Doll Festival seasonal event
  Read up on the story here and enjoy this seasonal event.

[Camate]

New Area and New Skirmish

(09:09～)

We’ve released the new area, Outer Ra’Kaznar, which I showed off during the previous Freshly Picked Vana’diel. You can participate in new skirmishes in this area as well. The concept of this content is to collect items known as “Fenestral Fragments” by defeating the monsters that appear in this area.

For these skirmishes as well, you’ll be able to adjust the difficulty based on the rank of the simulacrum segment, so please try out the content and find the proper difficulty for your group.

Also, you’ll be encountering a subspecies of the Chapuli family of monsters in these skirmishes, and we’ve made slight adjustments to their invincibility time.

[Camate]

Relic Reforging and GEO/RUN Relic Equivalent Equipment

(13:23～)
It’s now possible to reforge the head, hands, and feet of relic equipment to item level 119. We are planning to add the body and legs in the next version update.

If you've been upgrading relic armor to the various stages previously, depending on how far you've come along, the required number of materials to reforge equipment will vary. The further along you are, the less you will need, but you can also reforge right to item level 119 from the regular relic equipment with a greater amount of items.

Regardless of how you reforge your equipment, the end result will be the same and the final stats will not be different. Until now there were both players who upgraded relic equipment to have augments and those that did not; however, reforging will enable you create equipment that is augmented.

Additionally, there are quests to obtain relic-equivalent equipment for geomancer and rune fencer, and we hope you enjoy these as well.

[Camate]

Delve Adjustments

(16:28～)
Based on everyone’s requests, instead of reducing the size of Delve down to six-person parties, we made adjustments so that the content is more flexible and can be enjoyed by parties of six up to 18.

In particular, Delve field NMs have had their strength adjusted so that they can be defeated with a party of six players, so please check this out first and get a feel for the content.

[Camate]

Battle Content

(18:12～)
Just as I’ve mentioned multiple times in the past, we will be keep item level 119 as the cap for a while, and will be introducing more equipment variations. We’d like you to have fun obtaining the equipment and choosing which equipment you’d like to use.

With the new skirmishes and relic reforging, we’ve expanded the choices of item level 119 equipment.

I feel that, comparatively, a really nice way to progress is to procure item level 117 equipment from Records of Eminence, then next obtain skirmish armor and weapons, and gradually enhance them to get item level 119 equipment.

I’d also like to mention again that the bug with the Beatific Shield +1 will be addressed in the maintenance on 2/20.

* We've prepared an item level overview that can be found here.

[Camate]

New Trust Alter Egos

(23:44～)
We’ve added Prishe, Ulmia, Iron Eater, and Gadalar to the line-up of Trust alter egos.

Of these, we had the most trouble developing Ulmia's alter ego, as I mentioned a bit during the stream.

With Prishe around, the battlefield is sure to get cheerful. Iron Eater may seem plain, but he is strong. Finally, Gadalar is a flashy alter ego. Please have fun using each of these characters!

During the stream we also showed off using Trust alter egos for the “Beyond Infinity” battlefield, which has now become possible.

In the event you wish to take a Trust alter ego into a battlefield, don’t forget to summon them before entering!

[Camate]

Job Adjustments

(44:27～)
We’ve made adjustments to rune fencer, dancer, and puppetmaster.

• Rune fencer
  In order to allow rune fencer to play a better role in parties as tank, we added a self-healing ability. By using dark elemental runes you can actually recover your MP as well, and depending on how you use this ability it will make it easier to do battle.
  
  
• Dancer
  We made it easier to use waltzes and improved dancer’s ability to heal. However, as we do not want to make dancer a healer role while in parties, we will also be improving their ability to enfeeble enemies. One example of what we are looking into is increasing the effect of steps.
  
  
  
• Puppetmaster
  We adjusted Overdrive as previously promised. As pet jobs in general still lack accuracy, we will be supplementing this with new food.

We’d like players to have fun playing together in parties and would rather not limit changes to make it so you are stronger solo as opposed to not being able to function well in a party setting. Moving forward we will continue to make adjustments to jobs that have a difficult time joining parties while we preserve their special qualities.

[Camate]

Records of Eminence and Other Improvements

(47:58～)

• New objectives for Records of Eminence
  We’ve added synthesis-related objectives to Records of Eminence.
  
  
• Addition of the new “/checkparam” text command
  With the newly added “/checkparam” text command, you are now able to check parameters that you could not previously confirm. I think this is pretty big for pet parameters in particular.
  
  Magic accuracy varies depending on the type of magic, so this is something that will be looked into for the future.
  
  
• Auction house listing fee reduction and elimination of bazaar taxes
  As long as there are no issues, we will not be imposing taxes moving forward.
  
  
• Easing of restrictions for the Ashu Talif quest line
  I think this is a place that evokes a lot of memories for all the puppetmasters out there.
  We’ve made it possible to enter these battlefields solo.
  
  
• Enmity adjustments
  As the balance between static enmity generators such as Provoke and the damage being done with high item level equipment, we made adjustments to enmity. Instead of increasing the enmity cap, we’ve made adjustments to have a more appropriate amount of enmity generated from damage.
  
  
• Easing of the death penalty
  The amount of experience lost when being knocked out has been reduced to one-fourth of the previous value. Moving forward I’m thinking to get rid of experience loss completely, but how do you all feel about this? Also, if we do this, we are also thinking to have different weakness times in order to add value to the different tiers of Raise.

[Camate]

Heading Towards March

(54:58～)
For next month’s Repeat Login Campaign, we’ll be introducing Lehko Habhoka’s alter ego. We showed him off a bit in the video, so please be sure to check it out.

Additionally we’ll be implementing the March version update!

We’ll be adding a feature to check the winning bid history when putting items up on the auction house, adding a system to temporarily set the appearance of your equipment, and a lot of other convenient elements.

We’re in the midst of developing a brand-new system for character growth, but the development of this is proving to be challenging and it will likely be pushed to April. We’ll be announcing details and the latest status in the future.

I hope to see you all during the next Freshly Picked Vana’diel that will take place with the March version update!