Famitsu interview with the XI producer

[Castanica]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHMLvNquyAY

Some very interesting things in the video, including plans for 120 gear.

[Rydal]

While the game is considered content complete, there are many users who are clamoring for a reason to jump back in (myself was included, once I saw the recent steam sale for FFXI I happy jumped right back in!)
Will there be more balance adjustments for classes/encounters to make every thing viable to a point? Will there be class overhauls to make them more up to par with the current powerhouse classes? ie. BLU, GEO, BLM, PLD/RUN, WHM
Are there plans on adding more to the old lore/adding more areas mentioned in the history of FFXI?
What's the future for ilvl gear look like, will 119 be the cap? Will there be higher and higher levels added as more content gets scrounged up?
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[–]FFXI_DevTeam[S] 4 points 15 hours ago
Q: アイテムレベル装備は今後どうなるのでしょうか？上限は119のままになるのか、もしくは今後、 新しいコンテンツが追加されると同時にアイテムレベルを上げていく予定でしょうか？
A:アイテムレベル119の中にも幅がありますし、いまは引き上げることは検討していません。
There’s a wide variety of options that exist within the item level 119 gear, so we aren’t considering increasing the item level at this time.

Taken from the AMA. So which is it?

[Castanica]

If you watch the video and read this:

Greetings, everyone.

We realize that the implementation of Master Trials has been a largely discussed topic both here and on other forums, and we’ve been passing along your feedback to the development team.

In order to facilitate better discussion around this topic (and also to get more feedback for the team), I wanted to start by sharing the overall concept of this content.

Master Trials were created as difficult end-game content for those players who have just about completed all other aspects of the game and are looking for challenging content to tackle. However, this is not pointing to only right now, this goes for the future as well. While many are busy at the moment putting the finishing touches on their Aeonic weapons or completing other outstanding in-game goals, once those are done, the team would like Master Trials to exist as challenging content that you can take on when you are ready. The team is very aware that only a small population of players have been undertaking the challenge, and they feel that once more players have geared up and enhanced their characters further that this content will be challenged more frequently. Thus, with each version update lately, they have been gradually implementing new Master Trials so that they will exist in the future for players to take on when they are prepared to do so.

In regard to the rewards that Master Trials offers, to better fit the overall concept, the team decided to go the cosmetic route instead of including weapons (or other items) that can be put into use in battle so that they do not become the sole goal of completing this content.

Hopefully this serves to get a better grasp of how the development team views Master Trials, so with that said, we’re looking forward to further feedback and comments about this content.

It sounds like 120 gear is coming and that the master trials are the content they expect players to do with that new OP gear.

[BurnNotice]

That was a great interview. I do like the idea of adding small quests every now and then to keep things going. The coolest thing to know is that ilvl120 gear is coming soon to be used on more difficult content and long with some other good stuff. I just wish the trust system had came like 5 years ago or something. Other than that, this game is definitely far from over.

[Rydal]

If you watch the video and read this:



It sounds like 120 gear is coming and that the master trials are the content they expect players to do with that new OP gear.

Camate's comment has no bearing on 120 gear. He's just clarifying that they're making Master trials so people can do them in the future when they're fully geared up and can handle them with the current gear available. The interview was posted 2 months ago and the AMA was less than two days ago. It's a blatant contradiction.

[Zeldar]

He did say " I THINK theres even a level 120 piece." He didn't seem to be all that sure, lol.

[Svens]

I'm sure when he's referring to level 120 armor, it's probably related to the relative strength of i119 gear, just as there was a definite difference in gear quality back at level 75.

level 119 - 119 delve equipment, base skirmish gear, reforged JSE armor, early unity gear, base escha equipment, nq ambuscade armor
level 120 - augmented Escha armor, max augmented skirmish gear, late unity gear, +1 ambuscade sets, nq escha abjuration, 119 RME weapons I/II
level 121+ - dark matter/max augmented Reisenjima gear, +1 escha abjuration armor, 119 RME weapons III, Aeonic weapons

These are just my personal tiers, so I'm guessing for the video, he only had two tiers of 119 and 120+ instead. As for why they won't update ilvls to a more accurate value, it's probably due to trusts being influenced by ilvl and the fact that in some cases seen above, the ilvl would vary simply based on the augments lucked out on. It would suck if you had to take a less than desirable augment just because it raised your ilvl higher.

[Shyles]

I agree with Svens. I don't think he was saying "there are plans" for ilvl 120, but was referring to the relative strength of the existing 119 gear. There are some already existing 119 gear that is already equivalent stat-wise to 120+ gear. A fully upgraded RME weapon has ilvl 121 stats in comparison to other weapons, even though it's still labeled 119.

I was going to write more on this, but I realized that I am probably regurgitating what Sven said (because I secretly like to read my own posts). I would add though that I think the reason why they're "stopping" at 119 and relying on augments is probably for more favorable perception of continuous play. For example, they could have done Reisenjima armor a couple ways, like:

Release it as unaugmented ilvl 121 gear, but with an extremely rare (~2%) drop rate, and the continuous play comes from trying the same fight over and over and get nothing most of the time. (Frustrating)

Release it as augmentable ilvl 119 gear, with a rare drop rate (10%~20%), but let you augment it for a rare chance to make it equivalent to ilvl 121 with taylor fitted stats. The continuous play comes from multiple sources as you can get stones from many Reisenjima NMs, and there is a perceived smoother path to gear improvement. (less frustrating).

Or the third alternative would be to just make it 120/121 gear with a high drop rate, but then that would quickly invalidate all of the existing 119 gear, much like the explosion of easy 119 gear invalidated 115/117 gear.

So TL,DR: We already effectively have 120+ armor and weapons, but through a flexible augment system rather than outright giving them to us through extremely rare drops. I personally find it a bit more satisfying that way. It reminds me of how Diablo III became more fun after they made a similar move. (sorry that I still wound up writing an essay)

[Rydal]

The interview is misleading if taken at face-value, if only because of the slight vagueness of the Japanese. For all we know, the devs could use "120" for talking about high-end gear like Ambuscade, Abjurations, Reisenjima, etc, despite being labeled as 119. The interview and AMA definitely illustrate a disconnect between the development staff and the players, especially the latter.

[Castanica]

If they are planning 120 gear they would not tell us in advance, maybe the interviewer got them to admit something they didn't mean to. We will see in the next couple of patches I guess, unless the new content from here on out will have no new gear and will just be changing monsters each time it's going to be hard to add new gear people will want to do on a monthly basis without going up a level.