Discussion for Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XX

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Originally Posted by rwyan

Agreed - a 50-hour campaign is very substantial. I hope its a very entertaining campaign... at that!

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Originally Posted by Callinon

Yeah, a 50-hour main story is NOTHING to complain about. I'm thrilled when an rpg lasts that long, and usually they require tons of sidequesting to get there. Don't know what that guy's smoking.

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Its not about Quantity its about Quality... Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if 25 hour of that was Running from point A to point B to click a spot and "Wait" to be told to return back to Point A with almost no progression made. Though I actually enjoy the story when actual story is happening so I can't complain. it was entertaining and I'm certainly not disappointed. But good god there was a lot of "Go to this spot so nothing can happen and you can return" filler quests.

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Originally Posted by kyuven

That explains so much.
Aside from boss encounters, a lot about the game feels like it was designed on paper and no one in testing was listened to, in addition to the developers clearly not having a fixed direction for content.
Say what you will about the idea of HW following directly from ARR and requiring it, at least you're told exactly where to go and have reason to be there.
In FFXI (and some older MMOs, like EQ1) expansion content is plopped down on top of the existing content, only really activating when you seek it out. During my recent return to FFXI, the only reason I even figured out how the WoG zones work was because I wanted to unlock Dancer, which requires it.
There are pluses and minuses to both, but the lack of direction in FFXI definitely says it was born in a committee meeting without thought to how it would feel.

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anotherr fine example of things not thought out fully was the Colibri in the ToAU areas, most parties completely shunned Black mage because of these insidius little pain in the back side. even if one of the devs was sadistic enough to come up with something like that. the fact that it made it into the game as is shows it was not designed with the players using it to level up in mind. I'll give you a fine example of this. party has a PLD tank and a DRK in the DPS with me as healer. I warned the DRK not to use his magic damage spells against it but he did not listen. he cast one of the nastier spells a DRK can do. the Colibri then turned around and used that exact spell and killed the tank with it.

I'm happy about the new infos about the expansion, but what happened to the Q&A for ARR?

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Originally Posted by BlaiseArath

Its not about Quantity its about Quality... Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if 25 hour of that was Running from point A to point B to click a spot and "Wait" to be told to return back to Point A with almost no progression made. Though I actually enjoy the story when actual story is happening so I can't complain. it was entertaining and I'm certainly not disappointed. But good god there was a lot of "Go to this spot so nothing can happen and you can return" filler quests.

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Certainly possible and complaining about that would be legitimate. But since we don't know, I choose to believe that Heavensward's story will follow along the same level of quality as the last few patches. Which is absolutely fine with me.

Let's not complain about a story being bland until we see it.

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Originally Posted by Ramien

So new jobs start at level 30... going to be some teething issues as people learn the new rotations and abilities, but it's better than having to start from 1.

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Makes sense since its a job. But If they use a soul crystal like other jobs then does that mean, Drk, Mak, Ast can walk about with out the need to equip a weapon? If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

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Originally Posted by Kotemon

If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

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this is a question on my mind as well

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Originally Posted by Kotemon

Makes sense since its a job. But If they use a soul crystal like other jobs then does that mean, Drk, Mak, Ast can walk about with out the need to equip a weapon? If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

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Odds are they'll have their own set of skills and not be tied to any class (elsewise they would start at 50 for a lot of people, which is not a thing). My assumption is that they'll be controlled by the equipped weapon like everything else is and just won't involve a soul crystal. They'll basically be treated like classes except they'll be called jobs.

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Originally Posted by Kotemon

Makes sense since its a job. But If they use a soul crystal like other jobs then does that mean, Drk, Mak, Ast can walk about with out the need to equip a weapon? If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

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It'll most likely work like Tera and WoW's added classes. They'll start with a number of skills about equal with the classes.
They will not use a soul crystal. There's no mechanical reason for them to exist for the new jobs, and SE would jump at the chance to save adding more unnecessary inventory slots.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

XI use to be great, they have changed it too much from what made it memorable but then again it that don't have the big enough player base nor current day gamers mindset to keep that format going anymore.

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While it was good in the past, it was never intended to last as long as it had. At best the original main story was meant to overlap through or up to Chains of Promathia. It was the only known thing to me to sell a Hard drive for the PS2. By then Sony already had began to phase in the slim PS2. The lack of support by/for the ps3 ultimately doomed the title to being stuck in time. The Mini expansions was a cost cutting move to buy time because they were not planning to keep it running as long as it has after WoG.


A lot of folk said to kill off the PS2 support and just remake a whole new standalone expansion that upgraded the game to the modern era. Both Wow and Everquest did that, they're still in service. By the looks of FF14 and its original concept, they tried to do that but went with a standalone title that was only loosely based on FFXI for logistical reasons, the PS2 framework in FFXI.

The game field has changed and FFXI has sort of become a brick wall where all you have to dig through is a pair of chopsticks. Unless you invest the excessive amount of time to far and ilevel a shovel. How ironic they mildly tried to include or beta test concepts from FFXIV in FFXI to act as a new coat of paint on a realy old house with signs of dry rot.. (I level, pulse weapons, level sync, field/grounds of valor to name a few)

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I think people complain about things in FFXIV because they think it'll make it more for the hard core elitist that had filled FFXI, or make it to streamline and mind numbingly simplistic for people who played a lot of MMORPG's. Getting over the Job class issue, I just think a lot of it has to do with how it was partially carried over from 1.0. Despite not working out as intended. (should have looked more to tactics and maybe FFX for skill/class trees and the like)

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Originally Posted by Wildsprite

that being said I wouldn't mind seeing versions of some of the end game content added to XIV.

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I'd actually would like to see the inside of Atomos from Wings of the Goddess as a big M.C. Escher (think Relativity or that castle in Labyrinth) inspired zone or area for multiple raids. It seems like inside of Atomos for FFXI could have been so much more with the various Walk of Echo's. Heck the concept of it eating bits of realities can make it into fan-service for raids of featuring various place and bosses from the franchise.

But Aside from that I'd like to see the Pulse weapons (alternative to the current glow effect) and some of the Adoulin weapons like runes Great swords, Great Axes, daggers, Oat, and so on.. It might be lower resolution on XI's skins but the designs looked really great for the most part on some of them. At very least the Naakuals alone would be a great 30 minute fate battles at the least.

new raid loot system. THANK GOD YOSCHI. hopefully they get rid of the rng factor or atleast reduce it. normal mode raid has no weekly lockout either. good to know. hardmode coming 4 weeks later than launch. and weekly caps aswell. good. more time to gear that DRK up.

he said he will show more details of new raidloot on a later letter. looking forward to that. current system needs to go. its just wrong to reward people 100% based on luck than effort.

unlimited playable content can stay random loot. idc. but weekly locked needs a change.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

/snip

That said, don't worry! We still have all the questions we gathered for this round that we can use in an upcoming Letter from the Producer LIVE. :)

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It is becoming ever more apparent that SE is using the Live Letter as a promotional tool only and will do everything possible to avoid answering the questions that concern ppl. If SE was truly concerned about transparency they would set aside time each month to address these matters (i.e. RMT prevention). Does not have to be a live letter and Yoshi-P need not be the sole commentator. Correspondence in these forums by appropriate members of the Dev team and management works.

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Originally Posted by Callinon

Certainly possible and complaining about that would be legitimate. But since we don't know, I choose to believe that Heavensward's story will follow along the same level of quality as the last few patches. Which is absolutely fine with me.

Let's not complain about a story being bland until we see it.

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I think the last patch had one of the biggest offenders for me. the 10~ second wait at Tataru's desk to confirm that she was in fact not there. I don't hate the story just how they go about it sometimes. personally my biggest complain is the arbitrary "Wait" interactions. Idk about you but they add nothing for me in terms of suspense or whatever they're going for. It just seems needless. Let me click the spot and move on if thats all thats accomplished. But also, the last patch addressed a lot of my biggest complaints about FFXIV story. The sh*t cutscene camera work, the boring verbal interactions... it seems like this last patch really felt like they worked on it. Like they cared about what was happening and put effort into the Camera work and mood of the cutscenes.

Still, I also really feel like we're not he main characters of our story sometimes. I mean, all of out interactions in cutscenes simply consist of us being swept up in the actions of those around us. Our cutscene responses and interactions with people in cutscenes consists of little more than head-nods and head-bobs. They could replace our characters with a cardboard cut-out and there would be almost no impact whatsoever to how the events play out. Maybe they're going for the Silent protagonist feel but that really sucks in an MMO. I'm not silent nor do I want to be. Even FFXI had dialogue options, i mean they did little to nothing in most cases on how events would play out but at least you got to input something into the cutscenes which lead to different dialogue from NPCs. So even if they're telling the story they want to tell and we have nothing to say about it, like most RPGs, let us at least pretend to have some input.

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Originally Posted by Rizon

It is becoming ever more apparent that SE is using the Live Letter as a promotional tool only and will do everything possible to avoid answering the questions that concern ppl. If SE was truly concerned about transparency they would set aside time each month to address these matters (i.e. RMT prevention). Does not have to be a live letter and Yoshi-P need not be the sole commentator. Correspondence in these forums by appropriate members of the Dev team and management works.

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It has been like this since it started, even when they actually have the Q&A. The Q&A threads have often had questions with a huge amount of likes more than any other question, but it does not get asked at all. They pick and choose just what they want to answer and usually it is the question that is completely irrelevant.

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Originally Posted by Rumpelstiltzkin

It has been like this since it started, even when they actually have the Q&A. The Q&A threads have often had questions with a huge amount of likes more than any other question, but it does not get asked at all. They pick and choose just what they want to answer and usually it is the question that is completely irrelevant.

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I have no problem with the Live Letter in its current format. The written Letter From the Producer is the form that used to contain relevant information. That is now a thing of the past. It needs to be revived in some form that addresses our concerns.

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Originally Posted by Kotemon

Makes sense since its a job. But If they use a soul crystal like other jobs then does that mean, Drk, Mak, Ast can walk about with out the need to equip a weapon? If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

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Definitely not without weapons. Either they just forget about soul crystals or they make the 3 new soul crystal equippable with any base class and make the main hand weapons equipable only when the soul crystal is on, so the crystals themselves don't change your class.

was there any new videos on the new classes gameplay?? i wanna see exactly how machinists turrets work P

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Originally Posted by Kotemon

Makes sense since its a job. But If they use a soul crystal like other jobs then does that mean, Drk, Mak, Ast can walk about with out the need to equip a weapon? If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

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They'll be treated as Classes (currently), you don't need a Soul Crystal to be (Arch/Pug/Lnc/Arc/Thm/Cnj/Rog/Gla/War).

I don't see why the name 'Job' must be connected to 'Soul Crystal'.. Plus, in a review of the New 'Jobs'.. I recall seeing the name on screen 'Class' not 'Job'.. either way.. there won't be a 'Soul Crystal'... that means 'ready to use' and being it at Lv.30 makes it easier to new players to catch up.

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Originally Posted by Rizon

It is becoming ever more apparent that SE is using the Live Letter as a promotional tool only and will do everything possible to avoid answering the questions that concern ppl. If SE was truly concerned about transparency they would set aside time each month to address these matters (i.e. RMT prevention). Does not have to be a live letter and Yoshi-P need not be the sole commentator. Correspondence in these forums by appropriate members of the Dev team and management works.

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Of course it's a promotional tool. I really don't know why you would expect anything less...
Just because they're not commenting on an issue doesn't mean they're not addressing it.
There's a cultural divide here, too: Japanese players aren't asking about RMT issues because they're not really experiencing them on the same level as us. Since the developers speak Japanese as their first language, it stands to reason that the questions would be ones that appeal to the Japanese players.
For the next live letter, I would recommend people going to the Japanese version of the thread and posting a question regarding it there. I might even come up with the question myself (provided I find out what the Japanese word for RMT is) and post it here so people can copy and paste it into that thread.
You'll also note they don't take the time to answer questions unless they're assured of the answer, and the answers they DO give all tend towards things that are positive. This is how Japanese companies handle things like this. It's foreign to us as we demand complete transparency, whereas corporate culture in Japan...well, let's just say it's very frustrating for non-Japanese people. Things that are negative will get swept under the rug and not publicly addressed.
This has been quite a problem for Japanese companies as of late when it comes to dealing with American customers.

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Originally Posted by Balipu

Definitely not without weapons. Either they just forget about soul crystals or they make the 3 new soul crystal equippable with any base class and make the main hand weapons equipable only when the soul crystal is on, so the crystals themselves don't change your class.

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They don't need job stones.
The moment you equip a star globe you change to Astrologian.

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Originally Posted by Felis

They don't ned job stones.
The moment you equip a star globe you change to Astrologian.

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I kind of hope that it is more than Astrologian/Machinist/Dark Knight are both job and class at the same time. At a minimum, I hope...
1. Turn "classes" into "jobs"
2. Conceptually, you now level the weapon/magic skill that each job relies on (ex: Gladiator and Paladin have levels associated with Sword/Shield)
3. A job is now defined by its weapon/magic skill, its cross-classing rules and any additional job abilities
4. Job stones are no longer necessary, job selection via a simple gui mechanic or armory
5. stats are per Job, not per "skill" or "class" as we've been calling them.

This would solve some of the awkward conceptual/mechanical problems with the current system. It would also solve the problem of having multiple jobs use the same weapon/magic skill (ACN/SCH/SMN).

The current "classes" would regain some relevance. For example, a player whose primary Job has been Paladin could allocate stats differently for Gladiator to better suit soloing efforts. Her Paladin stats would remain as is. What makes the Gladiator Job special is its flexibility via cross-class skills and options. Likewise, the Paladin Job is special because it gives up flexibility for a stronger tanking role.

From a design standpoint, this would free them from the pattern of having a class and then a job. They simply add a job either tied to a weapon/magic skill already in the game or a new one all together. It would also help them explain how some Jobs automatically start at level 30. After we reach Ishgard, some how we get crash courses in new magic/weapon skills (guns/turrets, great sword, tarot globe). Because of that, when we choose to play as any of the new Jobs, we are already level 30.

Basically, if they don't use the expansion as an opportunity to polish up the Job/armory system nuances - it will just be awkward in general. That is why we keep seeing players wanting the new Jobs to start at level 1. The game established that first there is a "class" and at some point you unlock a "job" somewhat related to the class. They are both different yet and one and the same. Some classes actually have 2 jobs and yadda yadda yadda... 3 new jobs? No new classes? Start at level 30? With the current status quo, it just doesn't make sense.

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Originally Posted by Kuwaitum

They'll be treated as Classes (currently), you don't need a Soul Crystal to be (Arch/Pug/Lnc/Arc/Thm/Cnj/Rog/Gla/War).

I don't see why the name 'Job' must be connected to 'Soul Crystal'.. Plus, in a review of the New 'Jobs'.. I recall seeing the name on screen 'Class' not 'Job'.. either way.. there won't be a 'Soul Crystal'... that means 'ready to use' and being it at Lv.30 makes it easier to new players to catch up.

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They can keep the soul crystal and it would work just fine,equip a SCH weapon ( or a relic weapon ) and the soul stone is automatically equipped, it's already in the game so there is no issue.

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• The Au Ra are split in two tribes like the other races of Eorzea. The Raen are close to the Domans, and have a culture similar to Japan. The Xaela are a nomadic tribe.
• You can level past 50 without any particular quest or unlock if you have the expansion.
• The speed of flying mount on the ground is 0.9 according to the development team’s internal speed measurements. In the air the speed is 2.0.
• There are no enemies in the sky, so it’s safe to fly around.
• Buddy chocobos gain the ability to fly after fulfilling a certain condition in the expansion.
• You’ll need to gain the ability for each area in order to fly in it. Conditions for that haven’t been revealed yet.
• There’s no flying in Ishgard.
• The new Scrip system allows crafters and gatherers to exchange the tokens for items. That will remove the need to meld equipment in order to craft the best items. Crafters that still want to meld to be even better will be able to do so.
• Scrips also allow to change crafting specializations, that will be available for up to three classes after level 55. Specialization allows to learn special actions.
• “Regional folklore” will be the endgame for gatherers.
• The basement required for the free company workshop can be acquired with gil, and it will be necessary to craft advanced housing items and airships.
• Airships will be crafted by combining four elements: sail, hull, bow and stern. Changing the combination will change the stats of the airship, and each free company will be able to have multiple airships. The content related to airships will be updated with each major patch.

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http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/04/11/359998/

^Sweet! Liking what I hear about the Live Letter soon far!

Quick question, do you think we'll see more "modern" equipment in the future? I like to have something akin to sneakers, baggy Cargo shorts and a short-sleeve sweatjacket/hoodie for my character or something similar to Sora's outfit from Kingdom Hearts 2. I like to have more clothing options to glamour with to make my desired look for my character.

Also did the explain how much the three new jobs will work? I remember Dark Knight will use MP for its skills but not much beyond that.

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Originally Posted by Kassiekane

Did you even see how tired Yoshi was? That man needs sleep, yet instead he's working his ass off to keep things moving along. I believe everyone can survive a missed Q&A. The most important thing is for the expansion to hit on schedule with minimal issues, and, even though we are paying customers, we must also exercise a degree of consideration for the team of developers that service us instead of acting like a complete tool.

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I think he was fine from the start. It was during his interview in the CS's creator that he started to nod off to sleep. Also, it was much, much longer than he is used to doing these LL for. Most of the time they last for 1 hr and that's it.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

As you no doubt saw, the show turned out to be a lot more packed than we anticipated with the Heavensward presentation taking up quite a bit of time.
That said, don't worry! We still have all the questions we gathered for this round that we can use in an upcoming Letter from the Producer LIVE. :)

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I guess all I can say is that I'm looking forward to it.

Yoshi-P is great and it's terrific to hear from him and even for him to answer questions live when he has time, but there's no need for Q&A to be limited to the (admittedly packed) letters from the producer!! (I would also urge him to get more sleep if at all possible.)

I echo all of the other suggestions that it would be great for the powers that be (probably community team, as it's kind of their job to engage the community, along with help from dev team as needed) to periodically answer questions right here on the FFXIV forums!!

People have tons of important questions that lack official answers (like "how are you going to prevent spam from destroying the game?") and there's no need to wait until Yoshi-P has time to answer them in a letter from the producer.

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Originally Posted by rwyan

Basically, if they don't use the expansion as an opportunity to polish up the Job/armory system nuances - it will just be awkward in general. That is why we keep seeing players wanting the new Jobs to start at level 1. The game established that first there is a "class" and at some point you unlock a "job" somewhat related to the class. They are both different yet and one and the same. Some classes actually have 2 jobs and yadda yadda yadda... 3 new jobs? No new classes? Start at level 30? With the current status quo, it just doesn't make sense.

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Honestly that is one of my main complaints about the game right now. The whole class/job system just feels messy with little coherent pattern. Though I think it wouldn't actually be that hard to fix by shifting around a couple "oddballs" like making Rogue a starting class and pulling Scholar away from Arcanist. The result would be nine starting classes, each of which transitions into a job at level 30 while having four "extra jobs" that start at level 30. Clean and simple.

However, I think it's pretty unlikely that SE will want to take the time to rework the split job situation with Arcanist. Based on what's been said, combat classes will no longer gain new abilities beyond level 50 and what you gain from that point on will be strictly job abilities. I believe that approach was decided so that Scholar and Summoner could develop independently thus removing the need to split them apart. We're still left with a system that has only one class that splits into two jobs which is awkward, but oh well.

Reworking old systems usually actually takes a lot more work than is obvious. Note that they have said that just adding a new Job takes a year. Now obviously a rework isn't going to take that long but while your not starting from scratch you do have to deal with the fact that your going to be screwing around established systems that my not have been designed to be screwed around with. Things like that can add a lot of time to the process.

I think they would love to come back and streamline their current structure if they had the time but any time they spend on that effects development of new stuff. Reworking just the SCH/SMN thing could push back the next Job to become available a year. Generally new jobs are going to interest players more than modified old ones.

Can you add something to allow TP to be seen by party members?

And no I don't want to download a freaking ADD-ON just to see it.

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Originally Posted by JohidenWolf

Can you add something to allow TP to be seen by party members?

And no I don't want to download a freaking ADD-ON just to see it.

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they already said they plan to during one of the 2014 Fan Festivals

Extending the current tomestone system in 3.0 is a huge disappointment for me.

Honestly I don't think I can put up with any more tomestone grinding and weekly caps. This really, really drains my excitement for the expansion.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

Extending the current tomestone system in 3.0 is a huge disappointment for me.

Honestly I don't think I can put up with any more tomestone grinding and weekly caps. This really, really drains my excitement for the expansion.

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its a time sink thing, while I agree they should find a better way they seem to think this is a good idea

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Originally Posted by Wildsprite

its a time sink thing, while I agree they should find a better way they seem to think this is a good idea

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Of course it's a time sink, but they have managed to develop one with zero excitement and lacks anything that resembles a good risk:reward ratio.

I mean another whole expansion of killing bosses for completely intangible, static rewards until a number in one of the menus is high enough to exchange for a piece of gear though another menu? Ughhhhhh.

I mean, would it kill them to have dungeon boss directly drop gear I'm going to actually use for once? Or hell, at least make some kind of salvaging mini-game that has you collecting actual drops from dungeons to convert into the better gear and randomize the yield a bit so I don't have to do the same number of runs every week for something. They are really starting to lose the concept of playing a game for this quest to make a 'zero stress' MMO.

What i would loooooooooooove to know is, how prepared SE team is for the 3.0 launch date.
As in, even as recent as 2.51 with Saucer caused quite a bit of hassle with duty servers (zodiak farmers) and congestion in the Saucer area. Now, with a whole new city drawing in even more populace on every server, will they be prepared for it?

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Originally Posted by zandervont

What i would loooooooooooove to know is, how prepared SE team is for the 3.0 launch date.
As in, even as recent as 2.51 with Saucer caused quite a bit of hassle with duty servers (zodiak farmers) and congestion in the Saucer area. Now, with a whole new city drawing in even more populace on every server, will they be prepared for it?

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aslong as its not like it was at launch lmao that was dreadful ._.

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Originally Posted by zandervont

What i would loooooooooooove to know is, how prepared SE team is for the 3.0 launch date.
As in, even as recent as 2.51 with Saucer caused quite a bit of hassle with duty servers (zodiak farmers) and congestion in the Saucer area. Now, with a whole new city drawing in even more populace on every server, will they be prepared for it?

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I can bet they won't be ready. Servers are going to die once 3.0 comes out because a large amount of people will be coming back to try the expansion. I don't want to be negative but I can see this happening.

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Originally Posted by Spawnie

aslong as its not like it was at launch lmao that was dreadful ._.

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the Launch we had is why we now see a world is full queue message, proof they werent prepared was the message we got at Launch "the world is full, please try again later when the world isnt full" or something along those lines. that message made me raise a brow and go "and just how am I supposed to know that information?"

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Originally Posted by Remus

I can bet they won't be ready. Servers are going to die once 3.0 comes out because a large amount of people will be coming back to try the expansion. I don't want to be negative but I can see this happening.

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This will definately happen. Please look forward to it.

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Originally Posted by Wildsprite

the Launch we had is why we now see a world is full queue message, proof they werent prepared was the message we got at Launch "the world is full, please try again later when the world isnt full" or something along those lines. that message made me raise a brow and go "and just how am I supposed to know that information?"

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they did well with the compensation tho not many companies would go to the lengths SE did

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Originally Posted by Ladon

I mean, would it kill them to have dungeon boss directly drop gear I'm going to actually use for once? .

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Erm, they do? I mean don't get me wrong I find tomestones as boring as the next guy, but you have raids that drop the same ilvl gear so you have the option.

Dungeons drop subpar gear, because dungeons are ridiculously easy and spammable, so they have gateway gear that helps you get up a little more into the higher content that then drops better gear and the tomestones that also give you better gear.

SE can't win in this one.

Raids drop the best gear, not everyone likes raiding.
Tomestones allow you to get equivalent ilvl gear, not everyone likes grinding
Dungeons drop shitty gear, but if they raised the dungeon difficulty and increased the rewards then people would complain they are too hard and if they wanted to do harder content they would do end game raids.

So the game has options for raiding for drops or grinding for gear.