Interview of Yoshi-P at French Japan Expo by Secrets of Eorzea website
Source : http://www.ffxiv-eorzea.com/en/news/...apan-expo-2014
Naoki Yoshida was at French Japan Expo early July and gave several interviews.
Here is the one of the Secrets of Eorzea website :
2.3 / 2.4 content:
Secrets of Eorzea : Many players were very disappointed to see the name “Rogue” and not “Thief” in the E3 announcement. Respecting the lore of the game was understood but is it really the end of our hopes to see the “Thief” one day in FFXIV: ARR? Maybe, like the black mage who had a bad reputation in the history of FFXIV, the Thief might become the second job of the Rogue class?
Naoki Yoshida : It was a really, really tough decision for us as well because we are long time Final Fantasy fans. There was a heated debate internally as well to make this decision. But Final Fantasy is full of classic fans like myself, but we need to think about those new to the series as well, so it needs to make sense. In Final Fantasy XIV, every class has a guild, and just because we want to have that traditional role, we want it to make sense with the in-game lore. Especially when we want the game to run for ten years or longer, we need to make sure the relationship between the classes and jobs make sense.
We didn’t want to break the lore by naming classes based on our personal feelings, we wanted it to make sense with the story. So if you see Rogue in game, just in your mind, replace it with Thief. The class and the job and the way it works is really close to Thief, so just think of it as that. Thief won’t be coming as a name. In the story, it will be explained that these Rogues were at one time called Thieves. So it is definitely clear that Rogue equals Thief in the game.
Secrets of Eorzea : Some NPCs accompanying Yugiri seem to allude to another fighting style and equipment similar to the Samurai… Is that a hint for the next upcoming class(es)?
Naoki Yoshida : Actually, that was implying Ninja.
Secrets of Eorzea : With the arrival of the individual rooms in the Free Company house, what becomes of the room if the FC leader is expelled from his/her Free Company?
Naoki Yoshida : We changed the rules for the FC in Patch 2.3 where someone must vacate their free company house before they can leave. When Patch 2.35 comes out, when you leave or are expelled from the free company, your room is deleted or you can wait until they move everything out. It will be up to the leader to decide the system, but until 2.35, when they leave the free company, they have to vacate the room beforehand.
Questions on FFXIV future:
Secrets of Eorzea : For the release of the Gold Saucer, have you considered to include a mount or any other items in connection with this event?
Naoki Yoshida : There will be chips and coins that you get from playing the games where you could exchange for mounts and other rewards. Please look forward to it!
Secrets of Eorzea : You've mentioned before that you don't want to release the Gold Saucer until there are enough mini-games to keep the players satisfied. Do you have a timeframe for releasing the Gold Saucer? Will it be part of the main game or come with the expansion pack?
Naoki Yoshida : It will be in 2.0’s lifetime, before the expansion. The dev work is going well, so it’s almost there.
Secrets of Eorzea : Did you manage to create the card game that players have asked for since the beginning of the Gold Saucer announcement?
Naoki Yoshida : We actually started working on it. So you can actually start wondering what card game is it going to be like.
Secrets of Eorzea : How will we use airships? Who will maneuver them? Will we need several players to make full use of them? That would be awesome and would motivate people more to work together.
Naoki Yoshida : To build an airship, you’re going to need manpower and time. You’ll need to craft a boating, and an engine. You’ll have to combine the two. We will definitely ask for cooperation of the players. The airship will have one captain, if everyone tries to drive it, it will crash. That’s as much as I can tell you today.
Secrets of Eorzea : If every FC brings its airship out, I can see the map becoming quite a mess visually. Will there be a different view for airships, like instanced travels in Final Fantasy XI? Or Actual inter-city travel? What about the option of free-world travel?
Naoki Yoshida : Just flying above Eorzea will be a bit boring. I think the exciting thing is adventure. It will be totally different than what you’re thinking about.
Secrets of Eorzea : In a near future, are you planning to add musical instruments that players could play? Like Lord of the Rings Online and its many concerts, for example.
Naoki Yoshida : Technically, it’s not difficult, but it’s up to us on how we want to prioritize it. Probably at some point, but it would need to pass various sound checks. So in the future, you might see it.
Secrets of Eorzea : During the PS3 version presentation, in an interview, you said there was a possibility that jobs could use completely different weapons than their classes and altered basic skills. Do you still consider it or are you thinking of a new game-play system?
Naoki Yoshida : For the 3.0 expansion pack, we already know what jobs we want to introduce. We already decided, and already started working on it. The example I gave earlier [regarding jobs that alter existing skills] doesn’t fit with 3.0. If we’re talking longer future, I don’t know, and I haven’t decided, so it might be possible. That would be nice.
Secrets of Eorzea : When can we expect the arrival of the second jobs of existing classes? Do you not fear to be limited in the future with such a system? Do you imagine the possibility to completely change the class/job system in a next expansion?
Naoki Yoshida : I am not allowed to say anything about 3.0 because if I talk about it before Fan Festival, I will get talked to by several people so sorry I can’t get into further details. At the moment, Arcanist goes into Summoner and Scholar but the allocation is the same, so that’s something we would need to solve before bringing secondary jobs to other classes. So, that’s about as far as I can tell you.
Miscellaneous:
Secrets of Eorzea : Do you have plan to make Guildhests more attractive? Like adding coffer chests with equipment or minions at the end, in addition to experience bonus and gil?
Naoki Yoshida : We don’t really have anything in mind, since Guildhests are meant for beginners. It’s meant to move on to new content and not to try again. To be honest, we’d rather bring other rewards to other content.
Secrets of Eorzea : In Version 1.0, a system allowed us to directly compare the stats of two pieces of equipment, such as strength or intelligence... Do you think you’ll incorporate the same system soon?
Naoki Yoshida : It will be sometime in the near future. It’s something we’re working on.
Secrets of Eorzea : Many people like to use a “DPS meter” to help them improve their choice of equipment. It might be interesting to add this function to training dummies. It might limit some conflicts in dungeons while letting players make their calculations without breaking the Terms of Service.
Naoki Yoshida : Actually, we have no intention of introducing a DPS meter. We have plans to introduce beginner content so they can learn how to DPS, but not show it directly in battle content. We don’t want to introduce a DPS meter into battle content because it would incite conflicts between the players but maybe, one day, why not on training dummies.
Secrets of Eorzea : Since the last patch, we can finally show our titles: Thanks! But would it be possible to show how a player got their title by hovering over it when we check a character’s profile? Like “Cleared three hundred dungeons” for the “Dungeon Master” title.
Naoki Yoshida : Right now, you know what achievement is needed to get the title, but not the other way around. I’ll let the Dev Team know about the suggestion. I don’t think it’s that difficult to implement, and it may be shown in a future patch.
Secrets of Eorzea : Would it be possible to add an option to keep displaying the names of characters when we remove the HUD to take a screenshot?
Naoki Yoshida : This would be a tough one because the plate name system is quite complex, it shows or hide name, free company name, and title. I’ll definitely pass it on to the dev team.
I always appreciate feedback and ideas from our fan base, feel free to communicate them to us !
