Ask Questions for Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXV! (Exploratory Missions)

Greetings, everyone!

We're pleased to announce the next Letter from the Producer LIVE, Part XXV! This next Live Letter will take place on Sunday, October 25, 2015 at 3:30 a.m. (PDT) / 10:30 (GMT)!

In this thread we'd like you to pose questions regarding exploratory missions. In addition to collecting your questions in real-time via Twitter, we will also use this thread to gather your questions ahead of time and answer them during the event.

When submitting your question, we ask that you follow these steps:

• Please post your question(s) as a reply to this thread
• Please limit posts to your question(s) only and do not use this thread for discussion
• If another player already asked a question you had in mind, simply click the "Like!" button instead of re-posting the question
• Please post only one question per reply (of course you are allowed to post several replies!)

For more information regarding the Letter from the Producer LIVE, please read the following: <a href="http://sqex.to/AnK" target="_blank">NA</a>/<a href="http://sqex.to/7if" target="_blank">EU</a>

Please note that once the event is over, we will be closing this thread.

Will there be lock outs on exploratory missions?

How do we access this content if we don't have a free company airship? Is there a cost of some sort?

What advantages comes with having a free company airship?

Is there a time limit on this content? Or can we take it slowly without being kicked out?

What Sort of Vanity Gear will drop and what is the item level range for said gear?

Will notorious monsters have a rage timer?

Are the notorious monsters only attackable by the party/alliance that claim them, or can anyone attack it? If anyone can attack, how are rewards rewarded?

Can we use our chocobos to fight with us in this content?

Will esoteric tomes be rewarded for this content?

Will more to Exploratory Be added in 3.2 along with the next tier of Alexander?

Are there any plans to balancing this so it doesn't add any more toxicity than what hunts already do?

Will we build base camps or will our airship serve as a base so we could repair our gear if needed?

A question was asked in another thread on if we would be flying the airships our selves will this be a thing?

Given the high level and difficulty of the enemies in this content, will it be possible to progress far without an alliance, or is it necessary to form a large group of players in order to obtain the best rewards?

Does the quality of the FC Airship matters?

Will we see any encampments in the Sea of Clouds? locations for races like the Goblins in 2.0, or even more Vanu Vanu?

We have been told that there will be teleportation in the Sea of Clouds. Can you elaborate on how this will work regarding existing teleportation in the gamespace?

More of a long term question:

Will we see expansion of the Sea of Clouds into more areas? I personally would not expect to see an update till patch 3.4 to 4.0 at the earliest.

Speaking of Expansion, Would we also see Mor Dhona expanded in the future, or will it be "retconned" as part of Coerthas?

If the airship is the base for our party, will our airship have summoning bells and an FC Chest so we can access mats and not have to carry them in our inventory?

Will people outside your party/alliance be rewarded for helping your group?

Will the class of the airship affect the quality or rarity of the rewards?

For instance, using an enterprise class airship over a bronco class airship would yield greater, more valuable rewards.

Will we be able to personally (or as a group) find rare materials on these islands that currently only airships can bring back (dusk leather!) or possibly rare items that normally spawn for gatherers (ooids, rare herbs) ?

Will we be able to gather from nodes or fishing spots during exploratory missions?

Quote:

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** Airship will have a captain, and other roles to steer the ship. (Secrets of Eorzea; 07/18/2014)
*** Airship experience will be different from flying around on map. (Secrets of Eorzea; 07/18/2014

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Can you show us what you meant by this? How do ship roles work and how do we fly it around as a team?

When out on these missions, it was said we will be able to see other Free Companies. Since their will be hunt mark enemies out here, will it be like a "Claim first" for FC's, or will other Free Companies have to work together? And will it be server based (EX: Goblin FC's only in the area)?

With the Sea of Clouds being added to the gamespace, will we see any additional side quests (or side quest storylines) come that require exploring the Sea of Clouds?

When Yoshi-P first brought up the Sea of Clouds content coming in Heavensward - paraphrasing:

"You will travel by FC Airship into the Sea of Clouds. However, if you come to an Island and the monsters are gone, it means another FC got there before you did."

Now we are being told that the FC airships and an airship landing at Ishgard will make it accessible to everyone.

Please provide us with explination on how the Sea of Clouds has evolved so that we aren't potentially looking for things that are now in the landfill of the creation room floor.

For Exploratory Missions, will there be any Weekly Lockouts / Restrictions? Please consider NO penalties, to allow friends from other Free Companies / Linkshells to join in on this activity as many times as possible each week.

This has the potential to be a fun activity that isn't as severely restrictive as current End Game events are (pushing players to only play with a static).

Do our DoLs have to be level 60 in order to get items in the Exploratory places?

(If applicable) What will the respawn timers of NMs be like?

Would really just like to have a fleshed-out explanation of this feature, because from the outside looking in, it's just larger scale hunts.

As for the question: Will each NM/HNM have distinct loot tables or will it be a random grab-bag from the whole zone?

The Fact that we will be able to encounter other people and Free Companies when exploring the islands. Won't this create unnecessary competition and turn Airship Explorations into Hunts / Centurio Seal Hunts / NMs & HNMs in Final Fantasy XI all over again? I can easily see this frustrating a lot of people who will fight over monster spawns.

Could you elaborate on how loot and gathering will be handled?-

If players are in an alliance vs. 1 party, does the chest's contents become open for the entire alliance to roll on or does each party get its own loot pool? If each party is receiving its own loot, will the drop be completely random for each party?

How many players are necessary to participate in this content ?

If I use my FC airship to access the content, does this mean that only a party/alliance consisting of my FC members are allowed to participate, or can I invite friends from outside the FC as well ?

Will you have to be all lvl 60 in order to participate in this? Can this be a way to help new FC members lvl, atleast from 50-60.

How is this going to work without a claim system? It is not going to be hunts on islands, I hope?

Can you explain the differences between accessing the content via FC airships and non-FC airships ?