Letter From the Producer IX.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

Level30 dungeons are low level, yes. 1-20 takes less than a day, 20-30 might take a few days. Low level. Low level NM's are ok because they aren't COPYING ANOTHER GAME. Seriously, does everyone just want to play and do the same things over and over and over and over and never change? I'd like them to reinvent the wheel personally, I'm not up for another SOLO QUEST 1-LEVEL CAP - > grind dungeons! - > grind heroic dungeons! - > grind raids! - > AFK until next content patch! game. Might just be me though, who knows.

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i really think that your overthinking things. yes we dont know much about whats being released but you shouldnt make it what it isn't. ffxiv tried to reinvent the wheel and failed. if SE keeps this a story-based driven game, then i think people will be happy even if the otherside of it is doing dungeons for gear cause guess what, thats exactly what we did in ffxi. dynamis, limbus, assault, sky, sea....grind for gear

but the difference was that ffxi was a story driven game.

Story driven and not 100% instanced is why FF11 was good, tons of different end game content was why FF11 was good, merits, difficulty, extremely challenging content is why FF11 was good.

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Originally Posted by Victor

Quality, huh? Did you just happen to forget their trackrecord for the last 7 months of development? I don't even feel like arguing, this game is eating my soul.

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Seen FFXI lately?

Seen The World Ends with You?

Seen Kingdom Hearts games?

They can indeed produce something of quality, which will take time rather than going and throwing everything out the door any second it can, which is why XIV needs a redesign now.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

But why do we need to copy another game with content? Why couldn't they added content to the game that wasn't leeching off another? Why are all MMOs turning into the same thing? Can't we get something different, something unique, AND fun, for once? Please?

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You obviously have no idea how important low level content is, low level content is what will capture most new players and get them to stick around. Also, if you read the poll results, most players WANT instanced dungeons.

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Originally Posted by GabbaGabba

Rift thought about doing instanced dungeons before WoW even came out so technically it was Rift's idea, WoW just came out with it first

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Ah so the turtle didn't win this race huh?
Nah i'm just messing around it just seems like no matter what SE do it gets related to WoW some how like it's the grandfather of MMOs.

I'm both excited and concerned over the update, it's still up to speculation with little details that we are given. Patience is a virtue but I think we've been patient long enough by Mid-June how many of us will have more than 4 R50's, will the R30 Dungeons be capped like FFXI who knows. I've never played WOW but i've seen my cousin play and honestly it doesn't look like it's much fun or challenging. I don't want this game to be easy, I want to immerse myself in the world and it's lore (yes I have a life outside this game) I want to development alongside my character and find challenges that use skill and coordination with group members. None of this Guildleve crap that really doesn't allow you to fully understand your class where you have R50's that don't even know what they're doing. FFXI was challenging and you always went in with a game plan BCNMS COP Promy's all of it was a challenge. As for AF i'd like that to be handed those Quest by our perspective guild Archers Guild, Lancers guild etc.. in which they tell you a story about Rare Items that forge special equipment unique to the specified guild that identify you to the guild and your class. The Playerbase came to play Final Fantasy not WOW-tasy XIV.

i just want something that was similar to sky...i dont mind if it was instanced, i would prefer it not be instanced because i liked watching other LS's wipe to kirin and suzaku lol

Man I wish SE would just tell us exactly what is being added and how they are planning on it working... would stop these debates before they even happen >.>

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

But why do we need to copy another game with content? Why couldn't they added content to the game that wasn't leeching off another? Why are all MMOs turning into the same thing? Can't we get something different, something unique, AND fun, for once? Please?

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FFXIV was released as a very different and unique game and we all know how it turns out.

FFXI was a very good game and i loved it but it was never meant for casuals, which is why it never hit WoW's number of subscription. This game however have always been advertised as casual friendly.. always.....

I just want some enjoyable and challenging content that isn't made up of timesinks to try and "look" like a challenge.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

Low level NM's are ok because they aren't COPYING ANOTHER GAME.

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Final Fantasy XI.

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Originally Posted by Chardrizard

FFXIV was released as a very different and unique game and we all know how it turns out.

FFXI was a very good game and i loved it but it was never meant for casuals, which is why it never hit WoW's number of subscription. This game however have always been advertised as casual friendly.. always.....

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FF14 was rushed, it has a ton of good ideas, but they were poorly implemented and rushed. If they had more time all the ideas in this game would have turned out to be AMAZING. FF11 also released in WORSE shape than this game, can you imagine that? Look at how it turned out. We do not need to copy WOW to be a successful MMO, I wish some dev would grow balls for once and learn that, sigh.

There's also many other better casual friendly MMOs, and pretty much ZERO hardcore MMOs. Do we really need more? This is like there being 9000 different types of mc donalds or burger kings or taco bells. We already have a taco bell every 5 minutes, do we really need 17 more taco bells inbetween those, just called different things?

Hopefully, I'm completely wrong and these dungeons and quest hubs are nothing what I think they are ^_^;

Mid-june at the earliest.
To see the START of battle changes.
Still no signs of companies outside of lodestone lore.

epic failure all around

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Originally Posted by Xatsh

Man I wish SE would just tell us exactly what is being added and how they are planning on it working... would stop these debates before they even happen >.>

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Don't worry. We are working on turning Yoshida into a Tanaka soon enough. There's a reason Tanaka did what he wanted and ignored the players. Yoshi will learn this lesson also.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

Well in the Core interview they did say the dungeon is more like western MMOs than FFXI, which sucks but eh it's what people want. I rather have dungeons that are found in FF games though. Guess we'll see.

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The leveling scheme of FFXI never supported dungeon crawling for a variety of reasons. I'd reserve judgment to see how their approach to dungeons pans out.

I am curious about the quest hubs, though. You don't have hubs for quests unless you're looking to have those quests do something for the player (items or other rewards). Definitely want to know what that's all about.

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Originally Posted by Akumu

Don't worry. We are working on turning Yoshida into a Tanaka soon enough. There's a reason Tanaka did what he wanted and ignored the players. Yoshi will learn this lesson also.

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I wouldn't have agreed with you if i hadn't spent 5 minutes reading these forums. >.>

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Originally Posted by RexSkyborn

Mid-june at the earliest.
To see the START of battle changes.
Still no signs of companies outside of lodestone lore.

epic failure all around

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read again, grand company dungeon is coming at mid-may.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

There's also many other better casual friendly MMOs, and pretty much ZERO hardcore MMOs. Do we really need more? This is like there being 9000 different types of mc donalds or burger kings or taco bells. We already have a taco bell every 5 minutes, do we really need 17 more taco bells inbetween those, just called different things?

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You are talking about multimillion projects MMO here, it's kinda of stupid if you only want to cater for minority.

Amazingly not everyone is rank 50 in multiple jobs, many have either RL responsibilities that limit their available playtime and quite a few people got bored with the game and left. Those screaming for "End Game" content (at level 50 as if it's the end all be all cap) I am assuming you think that content should be developed only for those at max rank and everyone else just needs to grind out and do things like intentionally fail leves for MAX SP gains.

It would be nice to have little quests or battle areas to collect gear along the way without having to hit max rank to basically "start" the real game.

Interesting idea to keep these dungeons relevant, I imagine they will be taking the rank to 75 at least. Similar to Salvage gear you could possibly collect special pieces that will be decent for their intended rank and maybe once you have the 30-50-75 pieces they could be combined into an ultimate piece of gear.

As for the quest hubs, didn't every single one of us ask for the zones to have more character, encampments, small villages perhaps some old ruins? This seems to be a step in that direction, for all we know it could very well operate similar to Campaign. The encampments could come under attack as well as they could send you out on Company related battle missions to assault a beastmen stronghold. In times of war you don't just have your base set up in town, you need to spread out to meet your enemy before they get that close.

I also see that they have gardens of a sort and crafting facilities so the DoH and DoL jobs can lend a hand to keeping battle operations running smoothly :)

It's also stupid if you constantly try to steal people from other games that do what you're trying to do tons better.

@ Wobi, if you played this game since release and don't have a 50, you have no excuse really. Doing leves(2-3 hours per 36 hours at most) will get you 1-50 in a month or so. I also want content for ALL levels, but I don't understand why we NEED dungeons, of all content to add, at low levels.

We. do. not. need. to. copy. WOW. to. be. successful.

-_________- I want to drill this into some MMO devs mind sometime, maybe that will finally make a MMO that isn't a WOW clone exist...

edit: I like the "combing low level dungeon gear to get good gear like salvage" idea. THAT is unique and cool.

Like the new hubs around and beast tribes villages, more life to Eorzea. But i hope they release something about GC in between this long wait until mid-june... also we need concrete info about new battle system as well.

They Say Quest Hubs, You Guys say Wow Clone, They Say Dungeons, you guys say Wow Clone.
Seriously? Because they are adding something to do other then f*cking grind, its a wow clone? what can we do in this game? rank up, kill nms? For all you guys know these quest could be interesting, look at the quest so far? they all lead to the impending doom of eorzea, so you think these quest will do the same? For f*cks sake, the quest are probably better than world of warcraft STORY. These quest could be very thought out, but you guys instantly become pessimistic. Fourteen has the worst community ever, always look at the bad side, never looks at the good. I wish you guys would encourage something then rather discourage it. Retainers for example, very unique, but many people say to get rid of it. Why not Expand upon it? You think of a route most traveled by, and are resistant to change, you all need to grow up.

(of course you might all be right, but honestly, the quest are fantastic and are very nice, these quest hubs and dungeons? you think they are going to be empty of the storyline?)

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Originally Posted by Chardrizard

read again, grand company dungeon is coming at mid-may.

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No, its not.

"Come mid-May, the vanguards of the Grand Companies will be the first to brave Eorzea’s newly discovered dungeons. Their preliminary reports will be made available on the Grand Companies page on the Lodestone, so be sure to check it out!"

the VANGUARDS are getting the first look at the new dungeons, and they're going to post their 'reports' of on the lodestone in the grand companies section. basically just more lore and hints at what to expect in the dungeons. No dungeons mid may.

I'm just really really hoping that I'm completely wrong about quest hubs and instances being exactly like WOW. It'll destroy me if I'm right, but I'll be so happy if I'm wrong.

We certainly don't need masses of content adding at Rank 50. Adding dungeons at level 30 gives another way to get exp at the point that the exp curve starts to get steep. Add them at a lower level will burn through them quickly. Add everything at rank 50 and there's nowhere else to go from there. Adding new ways to get equipment at rank 50 is good, but most people will only go for the best gear skipping most of the content and complain about the lack of content and that the game is just a grindfest until you reach rank 50.

What i get from that sentence is we are going to be part of the vanguard, but again like most of the posts in this thread, they are only ASSUMPTIONS..

We getting dungeon doesnt mean we'll get dungeon-wow-style.. will people be happier if they call it "insertdifferentname", none of us have any idea what it will be like. NONE.

I am in no way saying I don't want low level content, I LOVE low level content and encourage them to add it! I just don't like them copy/pasting the same thing from other games.

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Originally Posted by Aeru

They Say Quest Hubs, You Guys say Wow Clone, They Say Dungeons, you guys say Wow Clone.
Seriously? Because they are adding something to do other then f*cking grind, its a wow clone?

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Exactly and if you think otherwise GTFO! I sir am a 7 year vet of FFXI and I got to haz my xp grindz on the worlds inhabitants. Eorzea is a good girl and we don't needz nobody showing herz dungeonz off and being explored.

I think SE should make a challenge that is on par with Vanguard: SoH. Take some ideas from it, etc.

That's just me tho. :/

Mid June? Man...such a long wait. Funny how there is no word on crazy doomsday guy in his letter though.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

Story driven and not 100% instanced is why FF11 was good, tons of different end game content was why FF11 was good, merits, difficulty, extremely challenging content is why FF11 was good.

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I agree with every point made there. XI is rewarding as hell when you finally get something done. Every achievement in XIV is bound to eventually happen as long as you put in enough hours.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

@ Wobi, if you played this game since release and don't have a 50, you have no excuse really. Doing leves(2-3 hours per 36 hours at most) will get you 1-50 in a month or so. I also want content for ALL levels, but I don't understand why we NEED dungeons, of all content to add, at low levels.

We. do. not. need. to. copy. WOW. to. be. successful.

-_________- I want to drill this into some MMO devs mind sometime, maybe that will finally make a MMO that isn't a WOW clone exist...

edit: I like the "combing low level dungeon gear to get good gear like salvage" idea. THAT is unique and cool.

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While I'm glad you appreciate my idea, my excuse for not having a rank 50 is that I'm trying to keep a fairly even spread of my jobs with the limited playtime my job affords me. There are plenty of reasons to have engaging content before you hit max rank. They could also be level capped so when new or returning players come along anyone could join the fun in running the quest/mission/battle with them.

SE is a business, they sort of make games to make money so their employees can keep roofs over their heads and food in their bellies. They have to take into account the entire player base. The so-called hardcores running about this forum have dwindled into a niche group. I like many others just don't have the amount of time to dedicate that we used to and it's nice to be able to make some progress if you only have a few hours a day. There are a great deal many more people in that boat than those who can literally play the entire day ( which I do on occasion on the weekends if I can get away with it).

You seem determined to bring back the glory days of Uber-Elitest FFXI days, when people would be kicked from parties for not parsing high enough or never get an invite as they weren't the right job or didn't have the most perfect gear. Where people would literally sit there and talk smack at each other for hours waiting for a HMN to pop at 5am in the morning NA time. People would be regularly ridiculed for trying anything new that deviated from what became the standard way to play the game. Where your LS commanded as much of your time as your RL job if not more. I know these are the things the "hardcore" crowd get off on and I have to ask, do we really need that again? Wasn't 8+ years of that enough for you?

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Originally Posted by Chardrizard

What i get from that sentence is we are going to be part of the vanguard, but again like most of the posts in this thread, they are only ASSUMPTIONS..

We getting dungeon doesnt mean we'll get dungeon-wow-style.. will people be happier if they call it "insertdifferentname", none of us have any idea what it will be like. NONE.

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At the beginning of the post, Yoshida said the R30 and R50 raids were due mid-june.
It was worded poorly, but not poorly enough to walk away thinking that no nevermind, mid-may.

You'll get a report on the lodestone by a fake company scout team about what the dungeons are like in mid-may. Or two weeks.

They probably should not have even said that and just let it be a surprise.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

If you played this game since release and don't have a 50, you have no excuse really.

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Work, school, friends, multiple family deaths. It's been a trying year for me.

@Wobi, sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was insulting you for not being 50, I'm really tired and I just meant that it's easy to get 50 in this game and no one has an excuse for "IM NOT 50 ITS HARD TO LEVEL!" or something, everyone can eventually get 50 no matter what. OMG...I feel like I'm talking about wow, that hurt my head. Anyways, I WANT low level content, I don't want all the content to be at the level cap, that's lame.

I also despise HNM's and never killed or camped one. I loved sea, sky, VNM's, ZNM's, limbus, and nyzul. I only liked lowmanning all those events(Besides nyzul of course, 6 man was required).

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

But why do we need to copy another game with content? Why couldn't they added content to the game that wasn't leeching off another? Why are all MMOs turning into the same thing? Can't we get something different, something unique, AND fun, for once? Please?

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Unique for the sake of being unique is a terrible way to go through life. You have to bite the bullet and go with what works if it comes down to it.

Also, please take off the rose-colored glasses. It's not doing you or us any good. Open world mobs, open world dungeons, grinding on the same mohbs over and over ad infinitum, RSE, AF (which were hit or miss storywise) are NOT the pinnacle of MMO design.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

@Wobi, sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was insulting you for not being 50, I'm really tired and I just meant that it's easy to get 50 in this game and no one has an excuse for "IM NOT 50 ITS HARD TO LEVEL!" or something, everyone can eventually get 50 no matter what. OMG...I feel like I'm talking about wow, that hurt my head. Anyways, I WANT low level content, I don't want all the content to be at the level cap, that's lame.

I also despise HNM's and never killed or camped one. I loved sea, sky, VNM's, ZNM's, limbus, and nyzul. I only liked lowmanning all those events(Besides nyzul of course, 6 man was required).

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Fair enough, I just hope they roll with the more progressive content. That time spent completing goals = progress. If you were unlucky you could spend hours farming Diorite against other shells and walk away empty handed, sometimes the drops rates were so bad even uncontested you could throw away 5hrs up there with nada to show for it. ZNM was brilliance, the drop rates were decent enough and sometimes you got a nice piece of situational gear from the NM's you battled along the way. All the while collecting pop items to progress to the next tier and once you did the last one you went back to the start. However you could take different branches each time fighting various monsters and could adjust which ones you battle if the team you had that evening was more suited for one over the other.

Einherjar also had a system of progression but man was it hard sometimes :)

WOW's design also isn't the pinnacle of MMO design either, but every MMO seems to think it is. So copying it is the new cool thing. I want unique to be different and not play the same game until I die of old age. It shouldn't be unique just to be unique, it should be unique AND fun AND challenging AND awesome. I'm sick of WOW, I'm sick of casual games, I'm sick of single player lobby "RPGS", I'm sick of dungeon gear grinds, I'm sick of beating MMOs in a month.

It sucks, it really does.

Instance and world changing events isnt locked down by World of Warcraft. Im pretty sure anything Yoshi's team does will still be pretty different, since no matter what (for better or worse) every Final Fantasy title is pretty different from the last and definitely different from any other game in its market.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

I'm sick of casual games

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Better find a new game, then, as FFXIV was marketed as casual.

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Originally Posted by Shiyo

Waa waa WOW waa waa

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Please stop your complaining, Yoshi-P presented us with polls, we voted, and what ever was the majority is going to be considered or implemented. So either deal with it or stop playing.