Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXVIII (10/10/2024)

We are pleased to present the full digest of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXIII which was live streamed from Tokyo Game Show 2024! If you missed the live stream, or if you just want to watch it again (and again), check it out below!

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* Don't forget to select the 1080p option to watch the video in HD!

Patch 7.1 Preview Part 1

Patch 7.1: Crossroads

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We began the broadcast by revealing the title and artwork for Patch 7.1. The artwork depicts various figures, each representing a different piece of content that will be added in Crossroads.

If you’ve been to Vana’diel, you may recognize the character in the foreground or might be wondering if the crystal in the “A” of the logo bears any significance. Hmm…

Patch 7.1 is scheduled to release in mid-November. We hope you’ll look forward to the patch as we begin revealing more details in late October!

New Main Scenario Quests

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These screenshots are a sneak peek at the beginning of the 7.1 main scenario.

In 7.0-related feedback, players mentioned they wanted to know more about Zoraal Ja and Gulool Ja, whose backgrounds will be supplemented in this story.

As a broad overview of what’s to come, the first half of 7.x will wrap up the Dawntrail storyline, after which the story will build momentum towards the 8.0 main scenario.

New Allied Society Quests: Pelupelu

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These new quests will involve a Pelupelu dressed in a bright shade of blue. The Pelupelu seemed quite popular in the 7.0 main scenario, so we’re happy to reveal that we’ll be learning more about them!

The Pelupelu quests will be for Disciples of War and Magic. There are quite a lot of jobs now, and so we hope these quests will give you another option for leveling them up. The EXP rewards per level will be similar to those of the 6.x allied society quests. They’ll be available as daily quests and may be a convenient means of leveling when you can’t sit down and play for extended periods of time.

Custom Deliveries: Nitowikwe

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We briefly went over the upcoming new custom deliveries client. Nitowikwe’s associates seem similar to their counterparts on the First, and it may be interesting to see how they lead different lives in Shaaloani.

Additional Role Quests

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As mentioned in a previous Letter LIVE, additional quests will be available for those who complete all five role quest lines added in Patch 7.0. If you haven’t finished them all yet, you still have some time to finish them before Patch 7.1!

The antagonists in the role quests were quite... quirky to say the least, so you may be wondering what their leader is like. (Or how their story ends!) We made sure to spend the resources necessary to make this a grand finale, so we hope you’ll look forward to seeing how the role quest story concludes!

Additional Wachumeqimeqi Quests

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Additional quests will also be added for those who completed all 7.0 crafting and gathering quests. The Wachumeqimeqi quests revealed much about Tuliyollal’s colorful shops, and their individual stories will be threaded together in this epilogue.

Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures

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Our favorite inspector will be back in Patch 7.1!

Hildibrand’s misadventures in Dawntrail have only just begun, but you can expect the usual antics! Grabbing a bomb by the fuse is hardly the safest way to hold something so explosive, but you’ll have to progress the story yourself to see what happens next!

New Game+ Support for 7.0

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The 7.0 main scenario will be added to New Game+, allowing you to revisit it after completion—a perfect solution for those longing to re-experience the final area!

Duty Support

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Now that Duty Support is available for all dungeons available as part of the main scenario, we will be gradually adding support for non-main scenario dungeons as well. Some of our newer players may not have even unlocked any dungeons that were unrelated to the main scenario, but they have quite a lot of worldbuilding going on as well, so we hope you’ll give them a try!

With that said, our older dungeons have mechanics that were made back when we were still testing the waters, which don’t fit our current design standards. Adding support for these dungeons is quite the undertaking, so we’ll be implementing them little by little from Patch 7.1 onward.

Hall of the Novice Updates

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While Producer & Director Yoshida attended various gaming events around the world this past year, he noticed more attendees were asking for an intermediate version of the Hall of the Novice to teach mechanics for slightly harder content, as well as a new feature to teach players how to do their rotations.

The latter would be extremely difficult to implement and maintain through updates, so whether such an implementation would be possible is still being debated.

In the meantime, we are pleased to share our upcoming update for the Hall of the Novice which will help players learn certain battle mechanics. This hands-on training will explain the meaning of common visual indicators and how they should be handled.

There will even be reactions for failing mechanics, so we hope you’ll give them a try! Of course, certain mechanics will be taught differently based on your role. In addition to the mechanics shown in the screenshots, there’s also training for “look away” and “tower” mechanics.

There will also be a sort of “final exam” which will test if you can handle multiple mechanics at once.
Completing it won’t be necessary for participating in content, but it’s intended to be something players can learn from as they play, so we hope you’ll give it a try! The mechanics will also be explained through readable descriptions, which might come in handy as well.

We hope that in the future, we’ll be able to expand this training even further with tutorials for raid mechanics, such as tank swaps.

PvP Update

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Before talking about PvP, we gave a brief overview of upcoming PvE updates. The objective of our balance changes will be to avoid drastic nerfs in favor of strengthening the jobs that are lacking compared to others within the same role, as well as keeping parameters within expectations for those attempting the new Ultimate trial. These adjustments will be covered in the next Letter LIVE and patch notes.

As for PvP updates, Patch 7.1 will change how the game processes PvP actions when they are activated or land a hit.

One example is machinist’s Limit Break, Marksman’s Spite. Currently, even if you notice a machinist crouching to fire their Limit Break, it’s already too late to Guard the attack. After 7.1, its hit detection will be changed so that if you can react as the machinist starts their Limit Break animation, you’ll be able to Guard the attack in time.

Another example is the stun effect on warrior’s Primal Rend, which will instead be inflicted when the animation shows the warrior rushing headlong into the target.

These changes should result in fewer situations where Guard or heals don’t go off in time. The gameplay will feel quite different compared to before, so we hope you’ll look forward to trying it out!

Most jobs will receive new PvP actions and adjustments; the new actions will affect the job’s feel and functionality. There will be no new actions for pictomancer and viper since they were added in 7.0, but they will still receive action adjustments.

As for Crystalline Conflict, we will be making extensive changes to the Red Sands and Cloud Nine based on the feedback we received regarding the terrain and special mechanics in those arenas. If you could try the new versions and let us know what you think, it would be greatly appreciated.

Frontline and Rival Wings duties will be adjusted for balance. We will be fine-tuning each job, such as adjusting their inherent PvP stats by percentage increments and charge times for Limit Breaks. These changes will be preparing for the revamped rules and content updates that are scheduled for Patch 7.2.

Patch 7.2 will introduce selectable role actions to large-scale PvP. Their addition will help set large-scale PvP apart from Crystalline Conflict, which involves fewer players per match.

Furthermore, PvP Series 7 will begin. We are planning to try something new with ranked matches, which we’ll explain in the next Letter LIVE.

New Dungeon: Yuweyawata Field Station

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Here are some sneak peeks at the upcoming dungeon, which appears rather futuristic with its mysterious purple structures and large glass panels. You can expect the final boss of this dungeon to run wild and feature new mechanics!

New Alliance Raid Series: Echoes of Vana’diel

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Jeuno: The First Walk will be the first alliance raid in the Echoes of Vana’diel series. Of the team members who recreated Jeuno in FFXIV, some of them worked on the original in FFXI! We imagine fans of the original Jeuno will be eager to see how faithful this recreation is and hear what the background music will be like!

The other screenshot features another location. Considering we’ll be taking on this alliance raid in parties, perhaps it’s only fair if our adversaries formed a party of their own! Be sure to keep track of who is protecting who!

Of course, we made sure the alliance raid will still be fun even if you’re unfamiliar with Vana’diel. With that said, we would be delighted if Echoes of Vana’diel inspires you to experience the wonders of FFXI for yourself!

As a heads up for players on the Japanese version, enemies in these alliance raids will have alphabetical names, as an homage to how names are displayed in FFXI.

We hope to make this an enjoyable alliance raids series with plenty of surprises, so we hope you’ll look forward to both the story and battles!

New Extreme Trial – The Minstrel’s Ballad: Sphene’s Burden

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The Extreme version of the Interphos will be added in Patch 7.1. Seeing as the arena and scenery shown in these screenshots are visibly different from the normal version, perhaps we can expect the Extreme trial to take a different turn! As for the rewards, they will be featured in the next Letter LIVE.

The Jade Stoa (Unreal)

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The fearsome Byakko makes a comeback in the upcoming Unreal trial! In 7.x, Unreal trials will be balanced for level 100 players. As you may have guessed, the next Unreal trials will feature his companions from the Four Lords series.

Chaotic Alliance Raid – The Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic)

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This new duty is designed for 24 players and will be close to Savage in difficulty. Since Chaotic alliance raids require a lot of resources to develop, we don’t have a release schedule for future iterations, like “one per patch” or “every other patch.” It’s a new endeavor for us, so if our players show interest in these Chaotic alliance raids, that’s when we’ll start planning a new one. For now, we hope you’ll enjoy the Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic)!

Although we’ve called it an “alliance raid,” the duty features a boss battle with no enemy encounters along the way. We imagine our players have become quite familiar with the Cloud of Darkness through the normal alliance raid, but this Chaotic version has quite a few tricks up their sleeve.

This Chaotic alliance raid will have unique rewards and a reward system that will be friendly for those looking to help others clear, as well as features to make matchmaking easier. Details will be announced alongside gameplay in the next Letter LIVE.

New Ultimate Raid - Futures Rewritten (Ultimate)

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Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) will be added in Patch 7.11, so we hope you’ll give it a try after you’ve had time to enjoy the content coming in Patch 7.1.

Showing too many screenshots may give too many hints about the mechanics, so here are two screenshots for now. Please look forward to seeing powered-up versions of your favorite mechanics from the Eden series!

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Doman Mahjong Update

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With this new feature, it’ll be like having the Scions spectating your Doman mahjong games and cheering you on!

We played back some of Alphinaud and Alisaie’s voices in Japanese, which you can check out from the timestamp above. We’ve prepared a wide range of dialogue to provide various reactions!

We’re excited to hear that some of our players are mahjong enthusiasts who play FFXIV solely for Doman mahjong. Perhaps this new feature will inspire you to try the main scenario and see the Scions in action!

Housing Update

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The next Letter LIVE will cover the housing updates in more detail, but we wanted to introduce some of the larger points.

First, we will be adding a new feature that allows you to replace your estate’s interior design.

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Up until now, interior designs were determined by your estate’s housing area, but moving forward, you’ll be able to choose any design regardless of where your estate is located. This new system will also come with new interior designs.

New Interior Design

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Current Interior Design

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The new interior designs will allow you to remove the pillars from the rooms and walls.
Our housing enthusiasts have always amazed us with their creativity, and we hope these new options will help them achieve even more creative freedom.

Using this system will not require gil, so feel free to change them as you see fit!

Changing interior designs will require you to remove all furnishings first, but they will be automatically placed in your storeroom and will not need to be dismantled manually. Just be sure to have enough room in your storeroom first!

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Another update, which is currently under consideration, would allow players to expand the interior size of their estate; for example, a Small estate could have a Large-size interior. This change too, would hopefully allow players to enjoy decorating their estates more freely. In our current concept, expanding the interior will require gil. We do not have an implementation schedule for this feature yet, so please look forward to hearing about our progress in the future.

Finally, as we’ve previously announced, we are currently working to increase the maximum number of furnishings that can be placed in an estate. We expect it to be ready by Patch 7.2 or 7.3, so please look forward to it!