Letter from the Producer LIVE 53: Ask Your Shadowbringers Questions!

Housing Question
Are the plans to change stages and platforms to act like floors instead of table tops ?

Housing Question
Is there any way you could make it so chandeliers can be moved or removed ?

DANCER QUESTION

Dancer main oGCD abilities, Fan Dances, are locked behind 2 layers of RNG (Flourish proc > then getting the Feather). Sometimes when you're unlucky your rotation feels very dull for a while because you have nothing to weave in between the GCDs - This is something that you guys are planning to address? Also You have plans to make Improvisation more useful?

Orchestrion

Is there any possibility for getting the field themes of the Empty (Blue Fields) and the Syrcus Trench as orchestrion scrolls?

Greetings. You mentioned briefly in the past that you were considering adding in the crafting Beast Tribe earlier. Are there still plans for that to happen?

Can you please remove the glamour restrictions? If I can equip an item, I should be able to glamour it to any job (Except weapons and maybe AF gear)

There is already heavy metal armor that mages can use (Odin set and some MSQ rewards) and bikinis etc that tanks can use.

Please explain the naming conventions of the sin eaters and lightwardens.

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Originally Posted by msoltyspl

When are you going to fix decade old bugs such as extremely slow moving backwards over SW and SE diagonals, while having the character running normally in N, S, W, E, NW and NE directions (in "legacy" - essentially the only usable - camera mode) ?

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You can remedy that by binding the side buttons back to turning instead of strafing.

Didn't see this question asked already, or topic talked about much in general, but apologies if I missed it.

GNB is currently experiencing an issue where it's possible to be KO'd by using Superbolide. It seems that there is a window between your HP being reduced to 1 and the invulnerability effect taking place where you can take incoming damage and die.

Is this the intended function of Superbolide or is the Dev team addressing a fix?

(Meant Superbolide, of course, I personally haven't played GNB yet but have seen it happen a few times while leveling SCH recently. My bad)

Could you add an option to pass (maybe even automatically) on every piece of loot which you cannot obtain, due to weekly restrictions or already having it?

Could you add the option to sample combat voice sounds during character selection? They're the voice sounds you will hear the most, after all.

Could you add an NPC where we can store full gear sets like the Porter Moogle system from FFXI? (Storage slip #6 was one item and it would allow you to store all Artifact armor obtained in Dynamis, a total of 120 items) there are currently 26 storage slips. Thats a ton of gear we can store in FFXI!

Can we be allowed to change skin tone and eye color in the Aesthetician? The character creator view lighting isn't accurate on how my character will look in game. And it would just be nice to pop in some contact lenses and get a tan once in a while :p

In Shadowbringers there have been a lot of skills that were changed from being their own skills to skills that get "upgraded" into new ones as you level through traits. Such as Rage of Halone Mastery turning Rage of Halone into Royal Authority and the machinists shot combo becoming the heated shot combo. However, I know a few people, myself included, who liked the look of the animation of the skills before they got upgraded more than their upgraded versions and was sad to see them disappear once they got upgraded.

My question is if it would be possible to implement a system wherein we could toggle which of the two animations is used for these upgraded skills? So that we can see the animations that we may prefer in current content instead of only level synced content? Essentially a very limited "glamour" system for skills. I would want it only to be the animation that would change, so for example, at level 60 when you get Royal Authority, you would be able to choose to use Rage of Halone's animation but still get the potency/effect from Royal Authority.

I think this could offer people a way to differentiate their characters a little bit flavor-wise. I know it may be confusing at first but since the potency/effects of these skills wouldn't change could you maybe at least consider it?

Is it possible to change how Leveling Roulette works when a fixed light party queues? Meaning, the party will get a dungeon that is suitable to the person with the lowest level. I cannot tell you how many times me and my friends have done Leveling Roulette together, but we end up in Sastasha, even though we were all level 50+. :)

Since Viera look so nice in their high heel RSE feet could we have more shoes like that that are not thigh high? More high heel shoes for all races would be nice.

Are there any plans to allow players to upgrade the floor plan if their apartment to match a small, medium, or large house’s interior?

(Since apartments are more plentiful than houses it would be wonderful to be able to do this. I would happily pay the same as or very close to the same price as buying one of those houses costs. It would make a great gil sink and allow players who are unable to get a house to be able to achieve their dreams without having to add entire neighborhoods to the game.)

Will we see Lyse or Small Minfillia's hair on the mogstation anytime soon?

In future expansions, will jobs be updated in ways other than new actions?

The reason I ask is because jobs may someday be developed to a point where they are fun and engaging to play, and further changes to the job in terms of adding new mechanics or actions may actually DETRACT or errode the quality of the job's design.

I also ask because, in some ways and with some jobs, we seem to have reached that point or are nearing it. Take the fact that some actions are removed, only to be added back later in a slightly altered form. For instance, Nascent Flash is my favorite new warrior action. I love it not because of the action's ability to shield another player, although that is also really cool, I find that I love it mostly because it gives me back a form of Bloodbath which I felt was really integral to the Warrior's design.

In the 5.01 patch, GNB sound effects received substantial changes. The feedback from the community thus far seems to be overwhelmingly negative, both in the official forums and on social media. Is this feedback being acknowledged, and can we expect to see any further tweaks or even a complete reversion to the old sounds? Additionally, can you help explain the thought process behind the decision to make this kind of change so soon after launch? It feels like it was very rushed.

Hello Yoshi P. In an old Live Letter from Heavensward it was asked if we could have a Dhamel mount. Your response was "I think our mount team could handle that." Can we please have a Dhamel mount? It could be a Poetics cost. A certain amount of Rowena Tokens that adds up to a few thousand Poetics.

I don't want to be shady or something, but
does the dev. team have anyone who plays healers?
If so, why do you keep promising a balance to this role (you actually didn't give us a new healer for that reason) if you came up with this huge unbalanced mess we have right now?

Scholar changes feel like they go against and have removed what the class has been about since ARR do you have any plans to change this?

When it comes to upcoming content, there is a usual cycle that is followed and has been the same since Heavensward. Are there any plans to shake things up? Maybe follow a different path towards new content because somethings are becoming so predictable.

Will I be able to run Trusts with a friend? The Trust system reminds me of Kingdom Hearts party system. It'd be really cool if I can queue Trusts with my sister.

Thought of one more question. Lol. As a style request, can we please see caster gear that isn't robes? Especially for as physical and dashing Red Mages are, robes seem out of place, and I'd love to wear some awesome magitek or darklight armor as a spellcaster, rather than just robes and gowns and similar.

Can 1x1 PVP Duels outside Wolves Den Arena become real someday?, like be able to invite someone for a Duel in any place or create new Arenas in different places? ( just like it happens about Triple Triad Duels outside Gold Saucer )

Can we apply glamours from glamour plates in any area soon? All my tanks share gear, but are linked to different glamour plates so that they each have their particular job aesthetic. It stinks that when switching between my tanks in the overworld, all but one of them have to stick with the generic Scaevan armor underneath the glamour. I also like my red mage to have its own different look from the other casters.

On that note, isn't it a bit strange that dancers' first two limit breaks use crossbows? I wonder how gear meant for bards and machinists will also look appropriate for dancers going forward. Dragoon and ninja still have endgame gear all to themselves, maybe dancer should be like that too?

Would it be possible to queue for multiple duty roulettes at the same time?

Can dark knights' Plunge be given more than the 200 potency every other tank has, in honor of them being the original gap closers? And, you know, it's a giant sword coming down at you and cleaving you apart. Also, it would seem that warriors' gap closer might need to be adjusted, since it is the only one that uses job gauge and the only one that can't store 2 charges.

When can we expect new blue mage actions and content? Are we gonna be getting all those 100+ actions that have been hinted at all once in the next batch, or will all those actions that are already done be spread piecemeal over the longterm? Do you think blue mage can ever have a unique job HUD?

Do you think crafters and gatherers could have unique job HUDs too? Will fishers ever get a new spear to equip? Could you show the fishers wielding spears instead of fishing rods the entire time they are swimming underwater, instead of switching back and forth from fishing rod? They're only ever gonna be using the spears down there, after all.

Could you restore Apocatastasis and Mana Shift to caster DPS role actions? Those were my favorite. Palisade was also good for physical ranged DPS. I figure it would be nice to differentiate the physical ranged DPS's damage mitigation abilities a little bit, since it seems they are currently exactly the same. And in general, I think instead of taking away certain jobs' utility, you should give EVERY job SOME sort of utility. Bard can have at least a 1% crit gain with their songs, right? Just for the feeling? Please?

And with that, dancers and astrologians having constant damage up buffs is a bit much. What I liked about these jobs was that they had a variety of esoteric effects beyond just flat out damage buffs. Speeding up weaponskill time was cool. Each bard song used to have its own part-wide effect, then it became just flat constant crit buff across the board, and now it would appear that bards are the only ones who can hear their own music. I think we can get a bit more creative with this kind of stuff.

Can red mage one day have Veresuna?

Can we have a "Pass All" button added to the loot window?
(With functionality of passing on everything left in the window that you have not rolled Need or Greed on.)

The role quests are an amazing addition. I love learning about the WoD from the First!

With that being said, once we returned to the source, the job quests that followed were a bit...lackluster and short.
Though I did enjoy visiting our old friends and seeing what they've been up to since we were kidnapped, I would love to know more about how we got our abilities from this expansion. For example, how did Summoners learn how to summon Phoenix? Does the Card System from AST work differently now since the constellations from the First mean different things?
In summation, will the job quests be continued in the future 5.X patches, like "episodes" of some sort?

The story line of the First seem to be wrapping up with Eden raid... This means that the rest of the MSQ until the end of the expansion will happen back on the Source to deal with the latest stuff happening there?

Can we flirt with the Crystal Exarch in future story content?


(I feel a bit embarrassed to be the one to ask, but at the same time, it does have a thread! There's real interest in him. And I do support the idea, so... biting the bullet and asking for the fangirls/fanboys. lol)

Also, I would like to actually be able to play the Feast PVP, but every time I queue for it seems like an endless queue, waaaaay beyond 30 minutes. What am I doing wrong?

Hello,

Thank you for the amazing expansion!! I noticed a new hyur midlander face preset used by generic NPC's, would you be willing to make this available for us to use for our characters? Attached picture:

https://i.imgur.com/qzYDT0X.png

https://i.imgur.com/9kYxKwa.png

Can we please get a potion or something to increase the drop rate of mats dropped by open world enemies, or just increase the drop rate from the enemies? I understand fates makes this easier, but I don't always want to do fates.

Any plans to give a "Performance" action for Dancers as well? It can work like an interactive dance.

Would you ever be open to the idea of doing raids/dungeons where DoH/DoL would be able to be used? So for a raid they could gather materials, make cannon balls and fire cannons at mobs or help provide buffs to the combat classes? It would be really fun to have other content for DoH/DoL. I love crafting in this game and it would be great to see it utilized elsewhere!

Can we get more outdoor furnishing like garden plots available indoors as well for people that own apartments/FC rooms? Or give an expanded apartment system like a balcony to allow gardening. Flower pots are nice, but you can't crossbreed with them.

Currently healing potions have little to no use at higher levels, even when engaging in solo play. Are there any plans to adjust potion effects?

As a SMN main since 2.0, I commend you and your team on how you're able to thematically separate SCH and SMN with each expansion!
In Shadowbringers, it looks like the two job's bitter divorce is finally coming to a head.

Following this, will we see more Primal based attacks?
The Bio/Miasma seems out of place with SMN, as it derives from the ACN arcanima, which SCH feels closer to in terms of lore.
Changing the Bio/Miasma to something more thematically uniform to SMN like maybe "Frostbite" from a Shiva attack/animation and "Thunderstruck" from a Ramuh attack/animation. Maybe Tri-disaster coming from The Warring Triad?
This way, we get to see more, and use multiple Primals without us having to change our Egi all the time, and you don't have to worry about adding in more Egi glamour in the future!

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Originally Posted by whiskeybravo

Is this the intended function of Superbolide or is the Dev team addressing a fix?)

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HP reduction is the "Cost" like MP is.
Invulnerability is the "effect" after the animation.

They wouldnt have done that, unless there was some issue that came up, preventing it to be otherwise.
(but using your HP to invuln sounds more DRK than GNB. Then living dead seems more WAR, with WARs original healing potency increases, self healing, and refusal to die in the job quests. And Holmgang coulda been GNB. Even more so with the bind, since its meant to be the "anti artillery" job.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Caduagm

why do you keep promising a balance to this role (you actually didn't give us a new healer for that reason) if you came up with this huge unbalanced mess we have right now?

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You actually believed them?
They literally made a 4th tank.
They tried to hide behind the idea of 2 Ots and 2 MTs as the reason why, and not only did they not do it, they went ahead and did the very thing they said was impossible, balancing the 4 tanks as both MT and OT. (its why they didnt make a 4th tank in SB they said, and the same thing they said about healers in SB/SHB.)

This is just the cover story for w/e actually happened behind the scenes.

If i were to guess, id say jobs with excessive simplicity were designed with healing or tanking in mind.
As they played around with the idea, they ended up canceling their original idea, either due an unforseen problem, or liking another idea they felt better suited a DSP.
Look at how DNC/RDMs resources arent in a constant state of depleting.
I personally think both were designed with the idea of being DPS or healer, and after some tinkering, decided to make them both DPS based on various factors.
(also, since controller users are taken into account, the amount of buttons a controller presses, to heal between GCDs, can be alot. my hands hurt more on healer, than on NIN. (NIN having the highest 55 APM)
essentially having to press nearly a maximum of 7 presses between GCDs, depending on the situation. (targeting 4 slots away from ur current selection is 4 presses, then 1 to switch back to boss, and possibly 2 more for oGCD uses. Though this isnt the normal)
If you notice DNCs "mudra" is on the GCD, because it would be too hard for controller users to be a healer with mudras.
DNC uses ranged attacks, due to "healers shall not ever be designed as melee!"
Plus the longer dance animation before attacks went off int he original job trailer. (an invisible cast bar animation, that was reworked into the basic animation)
Heck, even a healing mechanic, thats far more thought out than a basic DPS healing ability.

There's no real proof, but looking at it from a design standpoint, they actually did try to make healers, but decided against it, and the reasoning wouldnt sound too good to those upset, so they made a typical corporate response. (that is even more insulting)