Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida
This is Yoshida, the producer/director.
I’m sorry that this post is late and I apologize for writing another long post.
First of all, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused by an item’s color affecting its stats in the new recipes. I have read all of your feedback and I would like to speak about the future of colors and their effect on stats.
The fundamental idea behind colors in FFXIV was to create differences in stats for gear. We wanted to separate gear, which was limited in number, into higher and lower tiers. However, we would like to alter this foundation of gear to:
・Color is for individuality
・Shape represents strength
However, we were unable to bring our data up to speed with this new model, which is the reason for our problems now.
Although I informed the team about the new specs earlier, I am the one who gave the go ahead, so I am responsible for the error in planning.
I apologize for my mistake.
(Also, I have come across some posts that suggest that certain developers have been responsible for specific developments, but this is false, and the developers aren’t even correct. Please keep this in mind.)
We would like to adjust the specs based on everybody’s feedback, but please take a look at the following first.
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The reason that I have avoided speaking in detail about colors is because the spec for creating color variations has been performed simply through texture changes. I have mentioned this in a different thread, but I would like to have 24 or 32 colors available for use on any gear item. I would like to accommodate the demands of all players; players who would like to wear all red, players who would like to wear all black, and players who want to have a different color for each piece of gear equipped.
However, if we create all of these colors using texture only, whether on the PS3 version or on a low spec PC, we would face some serious technical problems. Thus, we would like to make adjustments to the item data files themselves.
This is a bit technical, but we will perform color changes by changing the material color and separating the dyed colors from memory. We were able to confirm this with QA recently. Once this has been finished, players will be able to dye their gear in any color. Using the recipe “finished product + dye,” players will be able to freely change color variations as many times as they want.
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The reasons that we have encountered our current problems are:
・The color variations currently set up for each gear item are not uniform
・The colors have been prepared using textures, so more colors cannot be prepared
・In terms of data, the same items with different colors are treated as different items, so it is difficult to add additional colors
・Eventually, gear stats and color will be re-implemented as unrelated entities (data will be eased through a Color ID system)
・We wanted to allow crafters to create items with different stats by altering similar recipes
Our biggest mistakes were implementing colored items although the colors were not uniform and mixing colors with the concept of allowing crafters to create similar items with different stats. We should have spent more time developing these specs, and I apologize for the mistakes.
There are 2 ways we can fix our mistakes.
1. Add recipes for “Finished product + Dye” and add items for each additional color
⇒This is a temporary solution, but color and stats will be clearly separated
⇒The only problem is that it will take a long time to add all of the items
2. Remove class restrictions for colored gear until the Color ID system is ready
⇒The number of items will not increase greatly, so this could be implemented more quickly
⇒Stats will have to be sacrificed for color choices (this can be balanced by Materia)
We are considering the costs of the above two solutions.
Personally, I prefer the 1st solution, but it would be implemented with patch 1.20 in this best case scenario, so at least until then, the current situation will continue.
(This will also negatively affect our ability to add other content and recipes)
The 2nd solution cannot be implemented in time for patch 1.19a, but it can be implemented soon after.
(We are looking into the cost of this solution as well)
We are sorry that we will continue to inconvenience you, but we will do our best to handle this issue as quickly as possible. Information will be posted as soon as decisions are made.
Please continue to submit your feedback!
