Translations (JP to English)

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

No, he is talking about animations that are used to blend different movements making them seamless. Them missing is the reason why there are no transitions between running/jumping/standing atm.

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And this should calm down the fix animation meme


Nah, i'm working with imagination

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

Please refrain from posting comments here, this thread is meant for translations

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As oxymoronic this is, come on guys..... I'm refreshing the crap out of this and every new post I see I get excited, but end up getting depressed cuz all I see are you all chatting about...

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

• Apparently, 1.0 servers were running on LUA scripts, and the biggest problems were instability and memory consumption.

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I can't believe that. LUA? Seriously? It's way too much hyped, yes, but an experienced team of developers shouldn't even consider using it in an environment such as an MMO server.

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

• He's thinking about including a "no cut" [end of era + opening] version of the movie on the ARR CE

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All my money for this.

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

Gamewatch interview is up, here's a quicklink

Yeah, I couldn't remember the English term for that.

Probably that people will pop into your field of view in a matter that doesn't make feel like the number of people are limited... idk. That's all he said about that anyway.

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You are an Awesome Lalafell!! :D

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Originally Posted by Recycler

I can't believe that. LUA? Seriously? It's way too much hyped, yes, but an experienced team of developers shouldn't even consider using it in an environment such as an MMO server.

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I know it might be asking a lot but can some one do there best to explain what lua scripts are and why it was a bad idea to run them on the 1.0 servers? I'm not that familiar with the term.

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Originally Posted by Griss

I know it might be asking a lot but can some one do there best to explain what lua scripts are and why it was a bad idea to run them on the 1.0 servers? I'm not that familiar with the term.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_(programming_language)

For the sake of this thread I won't go into detail, but the biggest issues with LUA are that it is dynamically typed, parsed / interpreted at runtime (if not compiled to some sort of bytecode) and it doesn't scale nearly as well as well written C or C++ code.

It is certainly fine for some tasks (especially GUI related) or even for small / medium scale server applications. I don't know for what parts they used LUA in the server, but I wouldn't write for example the AI in it. I happen to be the designer of a script interface for a game server and made some extensive research on this topic on my own / at university, so that's why I'm a bit shocked that SE developers chose LUA.

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Originally Posted by Warlock

You are an Awesome Lalafell!! :D

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Not as awesome as the Subligar King though xD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Griss

I know it might be asking a lot but can some one do there best to explain what lua scripts are and why it was a bad idea to run them on the 1.0 servers? I'm not that familiar with the term.

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LUA is an interpreted script based programming language. Interpreted means the code is not compiled into machine code and executed on the CPU, but executed indirectly by an interpreter runtime. Obviously, this poses a certain disadvantage from the performance standpoint. I don't know how high the overhead is compared to a compiled language like C++ is, but looking at the amount of data a game server has to handle, I don't think LUA is well suited for MMOs. There should be no problems for normal games though and since Crystal Tools wasn't originally written with MMORPGs in mind, I guess they thought LUA was ok.

IMHO that just shows how bad the decision to use Crystal tool for FFXIV was. BTW, in case my summary gives off the impression of Yoshida-san lashing at the dev team with a whip, it's not really like that. From what I gathered, they're working together and if there are problems, they're discussing how they can be solved. Both the dev team and Yoshida-san are very happy about the positive feedback on alpha.

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

Not as awesome as the Subligar King though xD

LUA is an interpreted script based programming language. Interpreted means the code is not compiled into machine code and executed on the CPU, but executed indirectly by an interpreter runtime. Obviously, this poses a certain disadvantage from the performance standpoint. I don't know how high the overhead is compared to a compiled language like C++ is, but looking at the amount of data a game server has to handle, I don't think LUA is well suited for MMOs. There should be no problems for normal games though and since Crystal Tools wasn't originally written with MMORPGs in mind, I guess they thought LUA was ok.

IMHO that just shows how bad the decision to use Crystal tool for FFXIV was. BTW, in case my summary gives off the impression of Yoshida-san lashing at the dev team with a whip, it's not really like that. From what I gathered, they're working together and if there are problems, they're discussing how they can be solved. Both the dev team and Yoshida-san are very happy about the positive feedback on alpha.

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I'm not sure if there is a relation but I'm guessing they're working with a virtual cloud for the servers? It has the benefit of being able to create virtual enviroments that can be moved around on the physical servers depending on high work load. It's very flexible, buuuuuuuuuuuuut in order to do that there is a wall separating the physical machine coding (cpu) and virtual enviroments (that handle the game). I'm guessing that's why the LUA is needed.

Can we please keep the translation thread clean... if you wish to talk about something please create a new thread for that and then put a link in it back to here so if people need to see what was said in the translation then can come look... or quote the translation in the OP of the new thread... but please lets not clutter this thread much more with discussion.

Thank you Soukyuu for the summaries...

The cat is bemused =-.-=

A reportage (to translate XD) about the today's FF14/Luminous conference here:
http://metenyo.blog15.fc2.com/blog-entry-6953.html

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Originally Posted by Munba

A reportage (to translate XD) about the today's FF14/Luminous conference here:
http://metenyo.blog15.fc2.com/blog-entry-6953.html

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This is just a conference from the technical/developer side of things a la "how we dealt with the failure, what we have done to come this far", but not really any info about the game itself. As Yoshida-san said at the beginning "This presentation will probably won't be of any use to the most to you." Level is a bit too high for me with all the technical terms, so I'm not going to provide a summary this time. I'll leave it for Rein to decide whether he wants to translate that or not...

Just want to say thanks for all the translations being done here =) Been enjoying the information and appreciate it greatly!

Famitsu interview: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201211/26024671.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

This is just a conference from the technical/developer side of things a la "how we dealt with the failure, what we have done to come this far", but not really any info about the game itself. As Yoshida-san said at the beginning "This presentation will probably won't be of any use to the most to you." Level is a bit too high for me with all the technical terms, so I'm not going to provide a summary this time. I'll leave it for Rein to decide whether he wants to translate that or not...

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I see. Thanks anyway. :)

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Originally Posted by Arshy

Famitsu interview: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201211/26024671.html

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Yea I can't 100% understand it from Google translations. It does sound like it has some great information however.

Thanks for the info.

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Originally Posted by Velhart

It does sound like it has some great information however.

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Nothing on the game. This interview is more of an overview about how the decision making went behind the scenes, a few questions about rivals (not seeing DQX or FFXI as one), how the response about the alpha is and that beta will be on a large scale. Nothing really that interesting if you ask me...

Added translations Soukyuu did for us on the OP so it's easier to find/read. Again thanks for the translations Soukyuu :)

As for the JP rep posts, right now they are just replying to those JP players asking to open up more positions for alpha test and that they can't wait, Foxclon telling them they are planning to open up more slots so hang in there.

Not sure if this applies to non JP accounts as well but...

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Originally Posted by Foxclon

こんにちは。

本日この後、αテスターの追加を行なって、当選メールの発射が行われる予定です。
発射はもう少し後のようですので、無事に当選されますよう祈りつつ、その時をお待ちください……

メールを発射したタイミングでTwitterでお知らせがポストされると思いますので、厳密なタイミングは
そちらを見ていていただくと良いかと思います:cool:

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Foxclon saying at the time the alpha invitation mails are sent out they post a twitter feed... so I checked the NA twitter account and saw this

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FINAL FANTASY XIV ‏@FF_XIV_EN Update: Now Delivering Alpha Tester Acceptance Mails! #FFXIV
10 Hours ago

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So most likely those who got invitation should of gotten them already, if you don't see them.... /comfort there is still more invitations + beta

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...F%BD%97/page17

Would Rein or someone else mind translating Yoshi's post on this page please, Thanks! :)

And Rein thanks again for all you do!

Quick google translate appears to indicate it includes "why isn't the entire boards in the alpha" question everyone should not even have ever considered asking.

Yea I kinda gathered that from google translate... like he is trying to make himself clear. One of these days he's gonna snap and rip someone on the forums lol

Good morning, reading through YoshiP's post right now I'll post the translation in here in a bit but for that long one he's planning to get officials translate and posted on forum section for all regions as everyone seems to want to know what is going on with alpha.

Let me finish reading through it first~

Appreciate it Rein.... we need like a Subligar Signal to flag you down for stuff like this =P

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For upcoming alpha test

Is the producer/every Yoshida.

Your patience has been. We will report further new FFXIV alpha testing plans,.
However, contents of the first alpha tests without description
And personally intent correctly, so I follows orders （ sorry long ）.

Please report any previous producer letter streets, and MMORPG alpha-test
"A non-server load testing" should be objective development / management side alone.
And just what the load test itself, images would help, so I
We will explain in the next section ease.

■ new FFXIV server configuration summary and load test ■

Emerging around the world 1, FFXIV is designed as average peak simultaneous connection of 5,000.
Simultaneous connection of course can create is so the world has more character.
Maximum of 5,000-strong world, 1 housed peak times playing at the same time,
I think what you might be able to remember and.

So, this is just 1 world per "whole at the same time accommodating"
New FFXIV 1 World consists of approximately 40 zone has,
People scattered in each zone, are logged in is assumed.

So, to accommodate 5,000 people as 40 server that is
1 Zone server capacity is significantly less than 5,000.
Minus the playstyle, balancing content, character-level variation.
All the players concentrate in zone 1 is because it is virtually impossible.
（ in possible if you deliberately trying to make the situation... ）

1,000 Inmates as possible new FFXIV, still 1 zone is designed
Simply put "safe zone 1 in 1000 people! "For testing.
Can you frog and has also conducted the test.
（ also conductor and checking whether more than 1000 characters so gathered on the content, also.
In that case, each zone to instantiate this into perspective ）

Also battle happens some at the same time load validation?
Collection number occurring by at the same time, some monitoring of the quest is running, and
Not only the circumstances that simply people there are many zone server, validation.

Of course there too.

• Zone transfer 300 400 people in done at the same time have no problem?
-The problem does not occur when accessing centrally to the patch Server?
If client crashes on specific hardware is not.
-Monster POP/DEPOP control operates successfully under high load or

Such as cooperation with our tester, has a large.

■ why many people can't participate in alpha-test? ■

If the players through alpha test would assume server load testing
Compared to the retail version, playable range is extremely narrow.
Graphics are usually rough and provisional implementation of many present UI
Quest also scenarios exist and only battle at the same time often carry out many.

Display range is limited the following newborn FFXIV alpha testing.

And tribes can use midlander hyur man and only the miqo'te / Sunseeker woman
And all respond only to create a new character
And that Cap each class-level 20
-Countries can start only gridania
-バトルクラス is only LNC, arc, CNJ
/ Crafter/gatherer is only Carpenter, Leatherworker, BTN
Opening of the alpha test only temporary ones
Cutscenes are not implemented (black mask view)
-Dungeon is mausoleum of TAM-Tara deepcroft only (for Lv15-Lv20)
-Conductor quest Lv1-Lv10 until （ there Lv10 and thereafter implementation way of ）
Of guildleves are Lv15 until （ produced Rives is Lv20 until ）

Zone is to play mostly playable alpha test of it is I think
Focuses the 4 zone level (visibility is 8 zone).

New FFXIV is quite stick to the early lead, created for the
Login at the start of one city thousands of people and at the same time, start playing
High load is getting into the zone always with level up.
Also, other area does not have the content, to reach Lv20 CAP but
You tend to just accumulates in the initial zone.

To get put load on your intended purpose is server load testing, so
Might makes right in this as alpha-test, is to refine zone.

But for 1000 compute 1 zone around peak loads as I mentioned,
More players stay in simply increasing the number of players, and endlessly the same zone,
Will to no longer play overload usually happen.

Also received long-awaited elected to Alpha-test is now happy to not play well.
The only possible solution is that only have the.

Also, traditionally play limited alpha test, character data
Because is wiped on the alpha at the end (erased), there are login rate tends to decrease.
Therefore, sequentially distribute account, and logged in a new Tester
To continue the validation is customary.

See it nascent organisers login rate would be 20% for the account distribution, and
That's expected, for login rate remained still at 40%-50% less than at present,
While to calculate the load is gradually increased testing accounts.

■ progress in alpha-test ■

New FFXIV alpha-test enters third phase of all 4 phases of tomorrow.

Phase 1 is a basic test in 1 world production.
Tester to test thanks you guys very advanced,
At the same time at this one zone per connection 850, battle 270-280 in the same degree,
Could uncover critical bugs in load, etc, to fix the immediate.
In addition, processing high load to which starts at the same time that testing was followed by the
Can you list, finely focused on high speed processing.

Alpha test phase 2 opened the second world, increasing the tester
Did a test for simultaneous operation of multiple world.
Problems were, fortunately, and during this time of fast response,
German French global test start the final check was in parallel.

Phase 3 tomorrow, operational endurance test starts global operational test + for a long time.
Also added to distribute 11 / 26, according to phase 3, all region test account.

After phase 4 being world integration testing will
Our schedule is to plan looking at phase 3,, I am going.
However, until near the strong request from customers at the end of times as possible,
Looking to have released the alpha test world （ is no longer this alpha test... ）.

■ number of Alpha test account distribution and future distribution plans ■

Please note that the current alpha test account deliveries not to disclose an exact figure.
However, as a percentage of Japan if, in 11 / 27 1 / 4 of the total number of tendered distributed,
Because North America's global test vol. 1 the total number of original less so is 1 / 6 of the total EU
Is approximately 1 / 3.

There is additional plans for the future, and stability testing of phase 3 until 12 / 2
We will add more Tester 12 / 3.
Also, for testers load, initially was no plan.
Will let me open third world for alpha testing from 12 / 3.

We will add to the Tester from time to time while watching login rate once, almost 2, 12 / 3 or later,.
Where NS is the number of additional will add thousands each week, or
Will be watching how busy the judgment. Please note that.

■ increased percentage of Alpha test account request ■

から 、 ご 要望 皆さん の が 強く 、 かつ 現行 運営 が した 終了 こと. 新生 FFXIV チーム として も 、 from request from customers strong current operation completes can... new FFXIV team as well
Believe many one people with your application, and to pass to the account.

Then ask who elected to test is, as far as possible,
Join us alpha test when they play in the second world, third world
I think if you ask.

And players to focus on specific world on open range of the alpha test mentioned
Become a load is usually impossible in operation and test accounts increase calculation.
Freaky would it artificially.

Now has operations in two different "Moogle", "Chocobo" world
I think first of all character creation / and I would appreciate and play possible "Moogle" in.
Also if you participate to Alpha-test 12 / 3 or later
And choose please added to the third world, and very helpful.

Will be over! （ So ended up letter States, can be translated as soon as rush, up to the letter! ）

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more or less

People just need to realize they will add more testers as soon as they can.... "patience is a tough pill to swallow"

Since it seems like there is going to be official translation... basically.... blame alpha version of the game being so damn good and people not wanting to leave to open more slots for others to come in... lol

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

プロデューサ/ディレクタの吉田です。

皆さんとても悲観されているようですので、本日夜中には今後のαテスター追加について、
このスレッドに状況や意図をポストします。もう少々お待ちください！
（グローバルにお知らせするために、フォーラムだけにではなく、数日後にレターも出しますね）。
Producer/Director Yoshida here,

Since many are disappointed, I would like to post in this thread the current situation and the goals future of adding new testers to alpha. Please wait just a little more!
(Need to explain this globaly so not only on the forums but in few days will put it in the letter as well) [most likely meaning producer letter]

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

プロデューサ/ディレクタの吉田です。
Producer/Director Yoshida here,

お待たせしました。今後の新生FFXIVαテストの予定について、ご報告させて頂きます。
ただし、そもそものαテストの中身について説明がないと、
正しく意図が伝わらないと思いますので、以下ご一読ください（すみません長文です）。
Sorry for the wait, I would like to report regarding future plans of ARR FFXIV Alpha test.
However I believe that if there isn't the details about alpha test the message won't get delivered correctly so please read below (Sorry it's long)

以前のプロデューサーレターでもご報告している通り、MMORPGのαテストとは、
開発/運営サイドだけでは不可能なサーバの「負荷試験」が目的となります。
ただ、負荷試験自体がどんなものなのか、イメージが湧かないと思いますので、
次項で簡単にご説明させて頂きますね。
As I mentioned in the previous producer letter, alpha test for MMORPG is to test the server load which is not possible to do just from the development/operation side. However I believe saying that alone won't give clear image to what the server load test itself is so I would like to explain this one briefly.

■新生FFXIVのサーバ構成概要と負荷試験■
ARR FFXIV Sever structure summary and server load test

新生FFXIVは1ワールド辺り、同時接続者数5000を平均ピークとして設計されています。
同時接続者数ですので、当然そのワールドにはそれ以上のキャラクターを作成可能です。
プレイのピークタイムには同時に5000人強が、1ワールドに収容される最大人数、
と覚えて頂ければよいかと思います。
In ARR FFXIV we have structured 1 world to have about 5000 people online simultaneously at an average peak. It's number of people online simultaneously so of course it is possible to create more characters that this number for that world. Just remember it where at peak time there are about 5000 players in one world.

ただ、これは1ワールド当たりの「全体同時収容人数」ですので、
新生FFXIVの1ワールドは約40ゾーンで構成されるており、
各ゾーンにプレイヤーの皆さんが、分散してログインしていることが前提となります。
However, this number is total number of players in all the zones for that one world; in ARR FFXIV one world is made up of about 40 zones and all the players are logged throughout these zones.

つまり40のゾーンサーバで5000人を収容するので、
1ゾーンサーバの収容人数は、5000を大きく下回ることになります。
キャラクタレベルのバラつき、コンテンツへの分散、プレイスタイルの幅から、
1ゾーンに全プレイヤーが集結することは、事実上あり得ないためです。
（故意にその状況を作ろうと思えば可能ではありますが……）
So with 40 zone servers to handle 5000 players each zone server's wthin each zone will be a lot less than 5000 due to character level differences, separation due to the content [people doing content in different zones], or due to players play style in reality it's not possible to have the entire player base to concentrate on just 1 zone.
(but if we tried to make that type of situation it is possible....)

新生FFXIVでは、それでも1ゾーンに対して1000人の収容が可能なよう設計されており、
簡単に言えば「1ゾーンに1000人入っても大丈夫！」をテストするために、
αテストを実施している、とも言いかえることができます。
（また導線やコンテンツ上、1000以上のキャラクターが集まりそうかどうかも確認しています。
その場合には、ゾーンごとインスタンス化することも視野に入れています）
Still in ARR FFXIV, it is structured to be able to handle 1000 players in 1 zone, so basically it can be said that we are running the alpha test to test "it's ok to have 1000 players in 1 zone!". (Also we are checking to see if more than 1000 characters will gather when they follow the storyline or following the content, in that case we are even thinking of making the individual zones instance based as well.)

またこの負荷検証は、バトルが同時にいくつ行われているか、
採集が同時にいくつ行われているか、クエストの監視はいくつ動いているかなど、
単にゾーンサーバに人がたくさんいる、という状況だけでは検証になりません。
Also this server load test will include those currently engaging in battle simultaneously, gathering simultaneously, also observing how many of the quest is running. The test isn't just where it's checking where many players are in zone server.

当然他にも……
Also we got the following major scale checks going with support of the testers.

・ゾーン間移動が300人/400人で同時に行われても問題がないか
・パッチサーバへのアクセス集中時に問題は発生しないか
・特定のハードウェアでのクライアントクラッシュはないか
・高負荷発生時にモンスターのPOP/DEPOP制御は正常に動作するか

• Will there be a problem when 300/400 people move between zones
• Will any problems occur when there is many access to the patch server
• Will there be any client crashes for specific hardware
• Will the monsters pop/depop control work fine when there is heavy server load.
  

など、テスターの皆さんにご協力頂いて大規模な検証を行っています。

■なぜ沢山の人がαテストに参加できないのか？■
Why many players can't participate in alpha test?

αテストはサーバ負荷試験が前提となるため、プレイヤーの皆さんから見た場合、
製品版と比べてプレイ可能な範囲が極端に狭くなります。
通常の場合グラフィックスは荒く、UIも仮実装が多数存在し、
クエストもシナリオも存在せず、バトルのみを同時多数行って頂くケースが多いです。
The main goal of alpha test is to test the server load, so when looking from players point of view, compared to product version there is not much to play.
Even at regular the graphics is rough, and the there are serveral UI which is just temporary release and there isn't much quest or scenarios. In most case we would just ask to go through battles simultaneously.

新生FFXIVのαテストも以下のようにプレイ範囲が制限されています。
Also in ARR FFXIV alpha test we have following restrictions on what you can play as following:

・使用できる種族はヒューラン/ミッドランダー男とミコッテ/サンシーカー女のみ
・全員新規キャラクタ作成にのみ対応
・各クラスレベル20でキャップとなる
・スタートできる国はグリダニアのみ
・バトルクラスは槍術士、弓術士、幻術士のみ
・クラフター/ギャザラーは木工師、革細工師、園芸師のみ
・オープニングはαテスト専用の仮のもの
・カットシーンは未実装（黒マスク表示されます）
・ダンジョンはタムタラ霊廟のみ（Lv15-Lv20向け）
・導線クエストはLv1～Lv10まで（Lv10以降も存在しますが実装途中のもの）
・ギルドリーヴはLv15まで（製作リーヴはLv20まで）

• You can only use Hyur/Midlander Male or Miqo'te/SunSeeker Female only
• Everyone has to create a new character
• Each class is capped at level 20
• You can only start from Gridania
• For battle class there is only Lancer, Archer, and Conjurer
• For crafter/gatherer there is only Carpenter, Leather worker, Botanist
• The Opening is temporary one just for alpha test
• Cut scene's aren't released yet (displays black masked screen)
• Only dungeon available is Tam-tara Deepcroft Mausoleum[Thanks for pointing the name out, didn't know NA version name :) ] (Aimed toward Lv15-20)
• Only Lv1-10 chained [continuing] quests (There are other quests post Lv10 but it's only half way released)
• For Guildleve it only goes up to Lv15 (For crafting leve up to Lv20)

αテストの割には結構プレイ可能とは思いますが、主にプレイするゾーンは、
4ゾーン程度に絞られます（公開範囲は8ゾーン）。
For an alpha tests I think you can play as much but for the most part you will be playing in about 4 zones (We have 8 zones released)

新生FFXIVは初期導線をかなり拘って作成したため、
1都市スタートで数千人が同時ログインし、プレイを開始すると、
レベルアップと共に、常に同ゾーンに高負荷がかかるようになっています。
また、他のエリアにコンテンツがないため、Lv20キャップに到達しても、
どうしても初期ゾーンに溜まってしまう傾向にあります。
In ARR FFXIV the starting line is created so it it's all connected so when few thousand players start in one city simulatneously and level up it will put a lot of stress at all times on the same zone. Also there isn't any content in other areas so even if you reach the Lv20 cap it tends to be where everyone gathers in the starting zone.

本来の目的はサーバ負荷試験ですので、負荷をかけて頂くために、
ゾーンを絞っていることから、αテストとしては、これで正しいことになります。
Our main goal this time is the servers load test, and to we have narrowed down the number of zones so for an alpha test this is the correct thing to do.

ですが、先ほども述べた通り1ゾーン辺りの最大負荷は1000で計算しているため、
単純にプレイヤー数を増やしていくと、延々同じゾーンに留まるプレイヤーが増え、
通常では起こり得ない負荷により、まともにプレイできなくなってしまいます。
Howerver, like I mentioned earlier we have calculated the maximum load for each zones to about 1000 players so just by simply increasing number of players it will just increase more players in the same zone and will end up in a situation where the load will go over the cap which will never happen in real sitaution and end up where you can't play normally.

せっかくαテストに当選して頂いても、これでは満足にプレイもできません。
唯一の解決策は、αテストワールド数を増やすしかない、ということになります。
Even if you were selected for the alpha test you won't be able to play satisfied.
To solve this sitaution we would need to increase the amount of alpha test worlds

また、従来ですとαテストはプレイ範囲が狭く、キャラクターデータも、
αテスト終了時にワイプ（消去）されるため、ログイン率は低下する傾向にあります。
ですので、順次アカウントを配布して、新たなテスターの方にログインして頂き、
検証を続行するのが通例となります。
Also up until now for traditional alpha testing the playability is really narrow and at the time of alpha test is finished the character data will be wiped so it will lower the rate of players logging in so with that we distribute accounts to the next to have new testers to log in and continue the testing.

新生運営側でもそれを見込んでおり、アカウント配布数に対して、ログイン率は20%程度になるだろうと、
予測していたのですが、現状でもまだログイン率は40%-50%弱で推移しているため、
負荷を計算しつつ、順次テストアカウントを増加させている状況です。
For ARR operation we were looking at it same way and we were expecting the login rate will drop to around 20% for those accounts distributed, but, currently the login rate is still around 40-50% and we are in a situation where we are calculating the load the increasing the test accounts gradualy

■αテストの進捗
Progress of alpha test■

新生FFXIVのαテストは明日より全4フェーズのうちの3フェーズ目に入ります。
Starting tomorrow ARR FFXIV alpha test is going into the 3rd phase out of the total 4 phases.

1フェーズ目は1ワールド運用での基礎負荷試験。
負荷試験はテスター皆さんのおかげで非常に順調に進み、
この時点で1ゾーン当たりの同時接続850、バトル270-280同時発生程度で、
クリティカルな負荷バグ等を発見することができ、即時修正することができました。
また、続いて行ったテストにより、同時起動されると高負荷を生みやすい処理を
リストアップすることができ、細かく処理の高速化を図ってきました。
The 1st phase was base load test operating 1 world.
Thanks to all the testers the load test went smoothly and at this time we had about 850 simulaneous connections with about 270-290 battles going at same time and finding a critical bug for load and address the issue right away. Also with continuing tests we were able to list up those tasks which will cause heavy loads when conducting at same time and we have been working on close details to increase the speed.

αテストフェーズ2では、2ワールド目をオープンしてテスターの方を増加、
複数ワールド同時運用のテストを行いました。
幸いにも目立ったトラブルは殆どなく、この間に処理高速化の対応と、
英独仏のグローバルテストスタートの最終チェックを並行しました。
2nd phase of the alpha test we opened the 2nd world and increased the amount of testers to test operation of several worlds running simultaneously.
Luckily there wasn't any troubles that stood out and in this time we were able to work on increasing the processing speed and work on the final checks for the global test start.

明日からフェーズ3となり、グローバル運用テスト+長時間運営の耐久試験が始まります。
また11/26には、フェーズ3にあわせて、全リージョンにテストアカウントを追加配布しています。
Starting tomorrow we are going into phase 3 where we are going to test the operation globally and endurance test for long hour operations

以降フェーズ4は、ワールド統合試験などを行う予定となっており、
こちらのスケジュールはフェーズ3の状態を見ながら、決めていくつもりです。
ただし、皆さんのご要望が強いことから、可能な限り年末近くまでは、
αテストワールドを解放しておくことを検討しています（もはやαテストとは呼べませんが……）。
For phase 4 we are planning to test stuff like world integration tests and for this schedule we will decide after looking at the situation of phase 3. However since many are requesting we are looking into releasing the alpha test worlds as much as possible to be available till near end of the year. (We can't call it alpha test by then.....)

■αテストアカウント配布数と今後の配布予定
Amount of alpha test accounts distributed and future plans for distribution■

現状のαテストアカウント配布数は、正確な数字を公表できませんのでご了承ください。
ただし、割合としては日本の場合、11/27現在で応募総数の1/4に配布済み、
北米はグローバルテスト第一弾なので総数の1/6、EU圏は元の総数が少ないので、
おおよそ1/3となっています。
Please understand we cannot release the accurate number for the current alpha test accounts. However for ration for Japan's case at timing of 11/27 for the total number of applications 1/4th has been distributed and for NA it will be first test for global so from total it is about 1/6th and for EU region the total amount is not much so it's about 1/3rd.

今後の追加予定ですが、12/2まではフェーズ3の安定性テストとなり、
12/3よりさらにテスターの方を追加させて頂きます。
また、テスター追加の負荷に対応するため、当初計画にはありませんでしたが、
12/3からαテスト用に3ワールド目をオープンさせて頂きます。
For future plans on increasing, up till 12/2 it will be phase 3's stability test and from 12/3 we will increase more testers. Also to address the load issue from adding additional testers we haven't had this in our official plan but fom 12/3 we would like to open a 3rd world for the alpha test.

12/3以降は概ね2日に1度、ログイン率を見ながら、随時テスターの方を追加させて頂きます。
追加数は週単位で数千を追加していきますが、どこまで足せるかは、
負荷の状況を見ながらの判断となります。ご了承ください。
Post 12/3 once every two days we will look at the rate of login and will add more testers from there.
We will add few thousand per week but how much we can add will depend on the situation of the server load so please understand that.

■αテストアカウントの増加割合についてお願い
Our request for increasing alpha test accounts■

新生FFXIVチームとしても、皆さんのご要望が強く、かつ現行運営が終了したことから、
ご応募頂いた方、一人でも多くアカウントをお渡ししたいと考えています。
For us ARR FFXIV team, we have strong demand from everyone and sicne the current version operation finished, we would like to give as much accounts out as possible for many of you that applied.

そこでテストに当選した方にお願いなのですが、できうる限り、
αテストにご参加の際には、2ワールド目、3ワールド目でのプレイを
お願いできたらと思います。
So this is a request for those that got selected for the test, when participating in the alpha test please play on the 2nd world, 3rd world.

前述したようにαテストの公開範囲の都合上、特定ワールドにプレイヤーが集中すると、
通常運営ではあり得ない負荷となってしまい、テストアカウント増加計算に、
慎重にならざるを得なくなってしまいます。
As mentioned earlier due to the amount of content released for alpha test if many players concentrate on specific world it will cause a server load which is unusual in normal operations and will require us to make more careful decisions to planning the test account increase.

現在は「Chocobo」「Moogle」という二つのワールドで運営を行っていますが、
可能な限りまずは「Moogle」の方でキャラ作成/プレイして頂ければと思います。
また12/3以降にαテストへご参加いただく方は、
どうぞ追加された3ワールド目を選択頂けますと、大変助かります。
Currently we have two worlds operating under 'Chocobo' and 'Moogle' world but as much as possible please start by creating character and playing on 'Moogle' world. Also for those of you participating in the alpha test post 12/3 please select the 3rd world. This will help us a lot.

以上になります！（レター状態になってしまったので、翻訳でき次第、急いでレターにも上げます！）
That's it! (It ended up like a letter but once the translations is up will put it up in the letter!)

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinheart

Since it seems like there is going to be official translation... basically.... blame alpha version of the game being so damn good and people not wanting to leave to open more slots for others to come in... lol

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Thanks for your translation! I wish I saw this before I just sat through trying to read google translate on all of it. XD

Quote:

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For ARR operation we were looking at it same way and we were expecting the login rate will drop to around 20% for those accounts distributed, but, currently the login rate is still around 40-50% and we are in a situation where we are calculating the load the increasing the test accounts gradualy

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It's good to hear this. Even if people can't play right now, we can take it as a good sign if so many people are logging in just to play alpha. Means we're going to be getting an awesome game.

Thanks for the translation!

damn you yoshi for making such an awesome alpha version xD thanks for the translation, hope a lot nagging will stop now

Thanks for all the translations, Rein! I've been following you religiously ^^ <3

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinheart

Quote:

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Only dungeon available is Tamtara Mausoleum (Aimed toward Lv15-20)

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Just wanted to point out that this The Tam-Tara Deepcroft, which was in version 1.0 just as a random cave. Seems they've redesigned it so that it has an actual use =)

Thanks for the translation. It's nice to know what's going on in the background. :)

done, sorry it took a while...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinheart

done, sorry it took a while...

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Thanks!

*turns off sublimen-signal*

More replies from YoshiP to players on that same JP thread.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhiteCate

クローズまで残り1週間強でα稼動は5日間（予想）ってとこでしょうか？
当選しても日程的にα触れないかたも結構発生しそうな気もします。
So for close it's about 1 week and alpha to run about 5 days (guess)?
Even if we get selected it would seem there will be many that wont be able to touch alpha.

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フォーラムにポストした通り、できるだけαテストオープン期間は粘ります。
また明日より長時間稼働テストになりますので、初期のデイリー2時間程度のメンテナンスチェック以外、
αテストワールドは開きっぱなしで、常時プレイ可能になります。
Just as I posted on the forums we will try to extend the alpha test duration.
Also starting tomorrow we will start the extended operation test so aside form teh daily maintenance checks for about 2 hours we will keep the alpha test world open and it will be possible to play normally

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nutrocker

現αプレイヤーのβテスト優先採用についてはスルー？
No information on priority status for current alpha players to get selected for beta test?

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まだ検討中ですので、正式回答ができない状態です。
また、βテストはそもそも、αテスト負荷試験後の実施となり、
αテストよりアカウント配布数は多くなりますので、十分にカバー可能範囲と思います。
We are still looking into this one so currently we can't give any official answers yet.
Also the beta test is released after server load test in alpha test so the amount of accounts distributed will be much more than alpha test, pretty sure it will be enough to cover as much.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Quote:

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Originally Posted by looser

αテストを無駄に延長する意味はあるのでしょうか？
延長した分、βや正式サービスも将棋倒しの如く遅れるということにはなりませんか？
順調に進んでいるなら、計画を前倒しするべきではないでしょうか。
Is there any meaning to leave the extend the alpha test?
By extending would it delays the beta or official service?
If it's going smoothly I think it will be better to follow the plan.

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開発はブランチと呼ぶ開発進行を分割する手法で進めているので、
既にβテストはαとは別のブランチでガリガリ作業が進んでいます。
αテストを延長するのは、あくまでテストとしてではなく、αワールドを開けておく期間だけ延長になります。
（それもβ用のワールド構築にハードウェア的な支障がないところで閉じます）
よってαテストは順調ですが、βテストが前倒しできるかと言えば、それは別問題なのです。
In the development we are taking steps called branching so the work for beta test is already being worked on aside form alpha. To extend the alpha test is not mainly for test but just to extend the timing on how long the apha worlds are open. (Even that will will close once there is no hardware issue for the beta world structures) So alpha test is going smoothly but when saying that will affect beta test, that's a different issue.

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OK that's it for today's YoshiP posts~
Looks like Bay and them working on the official translations on these quickly too :)

Thank you as always Rein, you're one of the pillar of the community ;)

The subligar is strong with this one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shougun

Thanks!

*turns off sublimen-signal*

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Isn't subliman that other crazy dude always wearing a subligar with a red dunce hat?

Just an idea: like = thanks

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/27232571

This is the recording of the live stream about Square-Enix open conference - "what it means to rebuild a game" session done by YoshiP is interesting... no new information regarding FFXIV ARR but it's really good information regarding how YoshiP took over the FFXIV project and went into rebuilding this game.

*** NOTE ***
This might not interest some people so just ignore it if you don't like reading long stuff LOL. For people like me who dreamed of becoming/helping game development this may be good read (if you can understand my translation lol)

The main talk is about how to rebuild a game and YoshiP is using FFXIV as an example. He talks about what it means to rebuild the game but in the beginning he mentions that in normal gaming industry once the game fails like it did for FFXIV, the company will 'normally' not even decide to rebuild and rather dump the entire project.

• When he took over FFXIV the first impression from the media + players was very bad.
• During beta test we received many feedbacks but didn't apply anything from beta and this made players feel that they have been ignored totally.
• Players felt that for this being a Final Fantasy there reaction was "what the hell is this."
• Many concerned that this was the end of Final Fantasy series.

But when I (YoshiP) took over no matter how much I complain about how this game ended up this way, this was a result of what Square-Enix did and complaining about it wont help the situation at all.

• He needed to figure out how to bring players trust back
• figure out what is wrong with the game, why was it called 'kuso-ge' (JP term used for crappy games, he said it himself in this interview lol)
• how would he communicate with the customers
• Also as this game being a Final Fantasy series he had to figure out how they bring it back to Final Fantasy feel back into this game.
• Also players called this game 'owa-con' (JP term for game that's finished, no way of saving) so they had to figure out how to get that feeling out from the players.

In order for these to happen in his position he needs to be calm and think over carefuly instead of running around and trying to jumping into the problems and fixing. (Personal note: If you remember when it was Tanaka in charge his goal was to fix everything right away, but after learning how much problems FFXIV servers had this wasn't even possible in reality so if Tanaka's team tried to do it back then without YoshiP taking over, most likely FFXIV would of really been a dead game 'owa-con' by now.)

Next his goal was not to jump into the problem but look everything over and figure out the goals first and figure out what needs to be done first, so he had to rethink of why people said this was said that it had no feel like a Final Fantasy title and to rethink the concept of FFXIV. If you know Final Fantasy series they follow a tradition where each title is built under a new world with brand new story but since it was 25th year anniversary it would of been good to bring back many features from previous FF series and give as much fan service out to those FF fans out there, he wants to bring as much of it in as possible.

Also since this is a MMORPG he had to think what kind of MMORPG this needs to be so he didn't see what FFXIV is at that time but looked at what a general MMORPG features are required to be an MMORPG.

He also was asked from media's overseas if this was going to become F2P with micro transaction, he needed to think of which business scheme to go by (F2P or P2P) to meet the current gaming industry market and current generation player base.

He had to think of what type of technology will be required to be able to operate this game long term.
By looking at all these you start seeing the clear image of the goal. If at this point if you think that you don't have enough knowledge to make this happen, only thing you can do is to go learn it.

Up until here isn't that bad since it's basically similar to creating a new game.
Next issue was to figure out what kind of problems current game have. By having a goal set up first
he was able to have try and come up with a solution to that problem at same time figure out how to reach his goal. By looking at both together you can start seeing how much this game was lacking compared to his ideal goal. Also as an business he had to figure out stuff like credit cards, payment methods as some countries doesn't use credit cards as much compared to other countries. For example in Germany they still have many stores that can't accept credit cards and because of that not many people own credit cards there. He had to figure out how to get those customers to be able to play their game. He don't want to have a situation where players want to play their game but can't just because they can't pay for it so he had to prepare a payment options for these players.

They also had to figure out how many subscription is needed for the project to figure out how much the project is going to cost.

When checking/listing up the issues/problems say if there is one problem that is so big that it too hard to fix and feel that there is nothing possible to do to fix this problem instead avoiding this problem entirely it's important to listing this as well and listing every problems in details. And in the end say you end up with over 10,000 problems found if you can get 10 hours per day to work hard and go through 100 issues each day you can get it done it done in 10 days. Since the problems were there and not going anywhere it's better to just get all of it out and not giving up half way.

From there you can start looking for people for help, it's no use trying to face the problem on your own so it's good to get the right key people in your team.

1. Professional person who you can trust on technology part. You will need at least one person who can do this in any type of situation .
2. Core staff who can make decisions on what direction this game needs to take.
3. Specialist who's good at battle system.
4. Specialist who's good at user interface.
5. Get the staff who knows the most about the current issues and can be calm and point out the existing issues. Pointing fingers at who's fault at this point won't help at all, you can do all that later, what needs to be done at this point is have these members who can look through these issues.
6. Also you will need a strong management staff who is willing to keep up with the current issue.

Without these 5-6 key people, most likely your project will not work out. You have to pick out these core members rather than having a lot of staff who can't take part in these tasks.

While looking over the problems he needs these members to review his goal and see if it's possible technology wise, if it will be possible to get it done from designers point of view. When looking from business just getting high end spec players won't be good for business so they need to draw a line to what point is good for it being Final Fantasy without dropping quality too much. Also make sure the UI isn't over fetched and can be done. And adding the management to talk about the cost.

Yoship then goes off saying as side track this can be applied to new game still but to make sure not get too much staff into a project as it's going to cost a lot and it isn't really required in many cases. They have to figure out if it's even possible to do it from technology point of view. Don't create something just from feeling when you do that it may end up different from the original goal was. Make sure the goal can really be said that it's the goal. Will this work as a business. Also this is common keyword in the industry but say you got 80% fixed and 20% is remaining at this point saying "We can fix that later" by saying that and running away from the problem is just putting it off for later. That problem will still exist so you have to figure out the solution first instead of putting it off for later where the situation may be much harder to resolve.

How to fix the issue - to spend as much time as needed.

• - what is needed to show as much characters possible?
• - Can the servers be made worldless?
• - Can the server stand the search overload stress?
• - Can the battle system be changed? Can this be done while running the current version
• - Can the interface be fixed?
• - Can the copy/paste maps be fixed?

These are not good examples as they are just problems and not takling about what solution is.

• - What is current spec of the rendering engine? What is the cost to fix this?
  For FFXIV they borrowed the tech team specialized in this section for 2 weeks and asked theteam to borrow map from FFXI and figure out where the bottle neck is. Using FFXI's map is to use a map which is much lighter to find the solution faster. But in reality doing this it didn't change anything at all which was a disappointing result but by not trying these we wouldn't of known these issues as well.
• - What kind of server specs does current have? what's the cost to fix this?
• - What kind of server system structure the current have? What's the cost for this one?
• - Is it possible to replace the resources and calculation/formulas used in the battle system?
• - What is the cost to to fix the UI? Can this be done while running the current version.
  We looked into this we talked about changing but it will take at least 3 month to switch and 3 month for debug so we decided we can't update it. Even this is getting the answer out so it's good.
• - Would it be possible to add new non copy/paste maps on top of current map?
  We also looked into this by adding new zones and keeping new maps on top aside from existing maps but doing this it will end up where it uses 2 rendering engines on two separate maps and becoming a weird game so we decided to not do that. But our first part was to try it out to see how it goes since no one tried it.

But after carefully deciding with the team we have decided that

• - Rendering engine - Need to replace everything
• - To make server worldless we had to restructure everything
• - To make the server where it can handle the stress from search handling
• - It's possible to fix the battle but will need to rebuild from the core.
• - Remake the user interface better
• - Not go with the 2 map engine system as if done so looking long term you will need to look at these two every time.

So once all the situations and goals were talked over only thing left to do is not to wasting time but setting the final direction here. When looking at the solutions it meant to rebuild the entire game.
There isn't any way to fix the current existing version, we had to rebuild it and this was our decision to start ARR project. Many may think it's faster to make a new game and winning over with this new game but the main goal is to figure out how to get the players trust back, this was our main goal. If we can't get this done there is no point in doing FFXIV. This was bigger goal for the company than the profit it will make, we had to make sure not to disappoint the players any more.

Say those existing players who logged in every day hoping that it will be fixed one of these days by giving up now as a numbering title in Final Fantasy series it is against our pride. The game needs to be fun for the customers and not to disappoint the existing players, therefore after looking at all those we decided to

1. Not to stop the current game but rather make major changes on current version.
2. Make sure to communicate with the customers.
3. Avoid doign any PR's to get new players in the current game and put those current existing players first priority, then once the ARR is rebuilt bring that up to get those customers to hope once again for this game.

We're just bunch of people with brains to build games so only thing we can do is to try out best and deliver a fun game.

So with this we started a development of ARR while going through major scale fixes on the current version at same time.

There was a time I called current version of the game "genkou-ban" (Current version) as "Konjou-ban" on the live letter and players thought it means to stay strong (strong spirit) and play the game but that's not what I meant here. This Konjou-ban is what we discuss in the development team where players want these fixes in the current version but no matter how much we tried there is nothing we can do to fix on the current version so we had to have a strong spirit in the dev team to keep on developing, this is the reason why we called it "konjou-ban".

There are staff in here that knows this but because we have ARR development going writing the source codes for the current version is meaningless as the entire current version is going to be dumped in the end. I know this and what I requested to the development team is really hard for them to do. That is why I told them lets keep on going with strong spirit (konjou)

Now there is one major problem remaining this is the part that will be our challenge but how will we overcome those with negative comments, even in the development team at beginning there will be situation where they will be negative thinking what is there to do to fix it. We have to get this negative image out and have the customers look back at FFXIV. There were many players who touched FFXIV and didn't get good impression so I believe the only method is to have them touch the ARR again, but with this negative image being there they would probably not even touch the game again so they need to figure this out. Even for the development team they had to figure out how to keep the motivation up and make it a fun environment or they can't give in their full power. If we did simple map connection with the existing maps will just make players disappointed so we talked about destroying the entire world.

At around this time in 2010 there were lots of TV shows that talked about mayan prophecy about end of the world in 2012. In there they talked about different catastrophy that could happen such as ice age, or a meteor crashing into earth... at that time he thought... Hey there is "Meteor" in Final Fantasy and in FFXIV there was a red planet he asked around if he can drop it since it looked like Meteor form Final Fantasy series.. at the same time he said not to bring up any information on this, let the players figure out gradually that the red planet is getting bigger every update... then once players started talking about it to start bringing in the Meteor story. But at this time everyone would expect that planet is going to drop and that's going to be it... and just dropping it would be kind of boring so then he thought of the meteor was round shape... round shape.... ball.... egg....... egg... make it look like Meteor and bring up Bahamut up. As playing through Final Fantasy series in his earlier ages Bahamut shoots lazer outside of the planets atmosphere... so if that's it it will destroy the entire planet... so thinking of that he thought this is going to work.

So at this time he wanted to deliver a story to the players where the players needed to stop the forces from dropping the meteor but in actual meteor was just a exterior but there was Bahamut inside and burn the entire world. He needed to make sure this information will never leak out and keep quiet about it all this time since this was the grand finale of the current version. Once the players seen that and say "so it was Bahamut all this time!" then look back and look at the hints they gave out. Also doing this was able to deliver Final Fantasy like feel and since they tried this they may want to touch ARR FFXIV.

As I mentioned earlier for the development team to dump the entire current version project out is a really hard deal and it's unusual and haven't been done before so it's fun, and since it's fun the development team will follow through since they can try something that is unusual and crazy and that fits in a Final Fantasy.

So now that meteor dropped only thing we have left to do now is bring out the entertainment in ARR.

It is true that Square-Enix caused a major failure with FFXIV but to get that back for us is to by creating games so we believe that's what we must do. There are many supporters for FFXIV and people looking forward. We want to keep on staying as a company creating games. Honestly I haven't thought much until I started FFXIV not only the players but the stores as well which announced that PS3 is going to be out then having to tell their customer that it got delayed, we caused inconvenience to all of them so I want everyone to remember even a little that there are customers out there that is looking forward and waiting. However for rebuilding... I want this to be the last and not have to go through it again.

That is it, thank you very much.

EDIT: 00:19 am finished translation - fixed up some parts from earlier translation since it was bit unclear (was just typing as I was listening to the video)