Japanese dev posts today (April the 21st)

Here's another (brief this time, only two posts) summary of what the devs/reps said in the Japanese forums.
As usual, feel free to correct possible mistakes and consider this just a sneak peek of the official translations that will come at a later time.
Click the text below for the original posts.

-They responded to a user that asked what was of the roadmap published long ago under the "tanaka administration" (mostly about the delivery NPC), saying that as Yoshida mentioned in one of the producer letters, the contents of those roadmap needed to be reviewed with the changes in the team, and each point requires individual consideration.
The delivery NPC is one of those points and it's one of those that they decided to actually implement.

-They also explained that the team is considering the effects of the interaction between anima and the fact that they will implement other means of movement that don't force the players to run around the whole place.

The compatibility between the two systems is being examined, because of the concern that teleporting might make other vehicles obsolete.

Thanks for the posts Abriael. I think they should keep the anima system in place but perhaps cut our Anima in half once Chocobos are implemented and or other means of travel, maybe even cut it more than half, but it is useful to the players who don't get to play as much.

I'm in agreement with keeping the anima system, or anyway keeping some means of limited teleportation. But they didn't take a decision yet.

Good find abriael, please continue to keep us posted on whats goes on in the other forum! ^^

I agree dargoth, I don't think we will need as much anima as we currently have when other means of transportation are introduced. It would be a shame to eliminate the entire system totally though, and thankfully I don't think they'll go that route.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sojiro

Good find abriael, please continue to keep us posted on whats goes on in the other forum! ^^

I agree dargoth, I don't think we will need as much anima as we currently have when other means of transportation are introduced. It would be a shame to eliminate the entire system totally though, and thankfully I don't think they'll go that route.

---

I think they should keep it with limitations, like it already is. Maybe reduce the anima to 50 or something.

I'm interested how the airships will work.... there are random little airship ports scattered all over Eorzea as well as the main ports in the cities.

Id keep anima, get chocobo mounts, Airships as city to city transport & teleport as region travel. (kinda like FFXI)

Do you speak JP or are you google translating this stuff?

I don't really feel like the size of the Anima pool matters so much as how often it can be used.

I think making it a spell that all classes get and giving it a cooldown would be much better. It would make it something that always had to be thought about wisely.

I dislike game systems that are front loaded, and this game has many of them. Being able to do something a bunch at the start and then hardly at all afterwards is frustrating.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

Do you speak JP or are you google translating this stuff?

---

I can read Japanese quite decently. I use GT (and other translation tools) for the Kanji that I still can't recognize.

I appreciate the translations Abriael. I had made a post saying they should do it the other day and then here you are doing it for us. Assuming you have the timing and the will to do so.

An easy way to deal with Anima is that possibly some new worlds/areas that open up are more hostile and don't support instant teleporting. So I could say, maybe instant travel around the 3 civilized worlds, but not necessarily directly access all of the more hostile environments without a little planning. (Otherwise, what would prevent us from teleporting an entire army into a Garlean city...). Like you could teleport to the front lines of battle, but from there you have to ride your Chocobo.

Railroads (maybe even extending into the air above ground a little bit) can i have it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Abriael

I can read Japanese quite decently. I use GT (and other translation tools) for the Kanji that I still can't recognize.

---

That's cool, thanks for keeping us updated. The google translate can be mysterious sometimes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dargoth_Draconia

Thanks for the posts Abriael. I think they should keep the anima system in place but perhaps cut our Anima in half once Chocobos are implemented and or other means of travel, maybe even cut it more than half, but it is useful to the players who don't get to play as much.

---

I agree. Anima is a good substitute for the time being, but having it cut down would add weight to the need for chocobos (and maybe some airships.....wishful thinking? hehe). However, getting rid of it completely might be a kick in the teeth for some players.

Originally they was going to add several forms of travel, Stage coaches, Airships, Chocobos, boats etc etc etc

I always thought the Anima system would be removed completely once legit transportation modes were introduced. Perhaps keep the Anima for Aethryte>Aehryte Gate traveling.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tezz_Xivectro

Railroads (maybe even extending into the air above ground a little bit) can i have it?

---

I would think that railoroads would look extremely out of place in eorzea. The level of technology simply doesn't fit them. Eorzea isn't a steampunk setting. It could fit the garlean empire, if we'll ever get to see it, but railroads in Eorzea (no thanks).

Well I have been doing a lot of exploring in Coethas today and found an airship dock near Falcons Nest. They are airship docks for sure as an NPC in falcons nest confirmed it and also said that Dragons from Dravania are attacking them much more frequently now. Guess when they do come we will have Dragon attacks like Sea Horrors on the boats from FFXI.

I think they should keep anima when other travel means are released, but do something a little different with it.

Maybe they could limit it to teleporting to capital cities and aetherial gates (not aethyrite crystals), making its function similar to what it is now, but placing more emphasis on using anima to ease population overflow from popular behest camps. Or they could place a cooldown on how often you can use anima when porting to certain places.

They could always just raise anima costs... surprised no one mentioned that

If they do raise anima costs it won't be until after those vehicles are introduced. They used to be more expensive but a couple of months ago they reduced the cost of them, as I'm sure you know about.

I personally think they need to change the system to some sort of crystal system or something along the likes. Seems to fit the game more with the whole Aethryte theme. They don't really explain why you're able to use Anima to go practically anywhere you've already been. Also I think they should make it so you have to hit level 10 or something before you can use it and then introduce it as a "special ability" of sorts so that new players will know it's there and how to use it.

Could use the crystal as some sort of resonance stone which allows you to set it to the frequency of the stone in the place you want to go and allows you to teleport there. I feel like there should be lore behind an ability to teleport >.>

As for battling the problem of making other transportation obsolete, they could just make it a timer ability. Instead of using anime, you use the "Resonance Stone" or whatever you want to call it and use it like once every half hour. Lets it take you anywhere. Then people could make the decision whether to use that or choco or ships.

Even with Anima the way it is, I would still spend gil to take airhsips from city to city. I hate spending it to jump between he other cities. In fact I would probably spend more time in them as saving the 4 Anima takes a while.

anima was meant to speed things for low playtime. And it would still serve that purpose, the reason people dont run out of anima is they dont play that much, you only get like what, 6? anima a day. thats one big teleport or 3 small teleports, the fact that is enough for most people suggests they arent traveling much. I would welcome chocobos and airships as forms of travel, because anima aint all that.

I dont understand how you people don't run out of anima since release ive been sitting at 0 anima. The addition of chocobos and airships would be amazing but don't cut out the anima it's extremely usefull.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JpOnry

I dont understand how you people don't run out of anima since release ive been sitting at 0 anima. The addition of chocobos and airships would be amazing but don't cut out the anima it's extremely usefull.

---

OMG win post.... why would anybody want to walk? or better yet why would anybody want to take away other peoples abililty to teleport? If YOU wonna walk then walk. But do NOT ask SE to take away my anima......

Dont even ask to half my anima.... We NEED boats and chocos along WITH anima... either alone is just silly. FF11 has whm spells to tele, Outpostwarps, Homepoints, Recalls, Chocos, airships, warp spell, warp 2 to tele other people, and then it had countless equips to make each job run faster.

Stop being silly anima does not hurt your gameplay.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rydin

They could always just raise anima costs... surprised no one mentioned that

---

Or have an anima penalty upon using return while dead.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ll=1#post33989

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ll=1#post61696

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Verecund

I think they should keep anima when other travel means are released, but do something a little different with it.

Maybe they could limit it to teleporting to capital cities and aetherial gates (not aethyrite crystals), making its function similar to what it is now, but placing more emphasis on using anima to ease population overflow from popular behest camps. Or they could place a cooldown on how often you can use anima when porting to certain places.

---

This is what I was thinking as well. Some of the runs between Crystal Camp and Gate take time, perfect for a chocobo. Cut the ability to teleport to the Gates, and chocobos can take us from camps.

They could also limit the number of Camps in new areas yet to be released, once we're well into expansions, the areas Anima can access could be significantly limited, compared to what we have now. The lore being that some of those areas are less developed/more wilderness, since they're further away from the developed cities, and the infrastructure isn't there. For areas surrounding Ala Mihgo (also possibly Limsa/Ul'dah/Gridania) maybe the Empire destroyed some of the Camps in their attacks, rendering them useless. It'd be pretty awesome to come across a few damaged camps, with the Crystals broken in pieces on the ground. Airships could be used to take us into these areas, a la Kazham Airship, or perhaps we could make the long trek via Chocobo.

I also think Airships should be used for much more than just transportation between the 3 main cities. Usage for deep expedition (like mentioned above) and air-based combat events (similar to the Ferry in XI) could make their presence in the face of the Anima system both practical and popular.

I could care less about anima, give me a fast black horsebird from hell!

Anima´s good because it makes traveling easy for every single class. I agree that it´s a little too convenient and if chocobos or airships are introduced, we´ll (or at least I´ll) only look into those options once we deplete our anima. But I´m sure they´ll find a way to make us use the other transportation methods. They can make it so that you can only use anima to get to gates from crystals and not to crystals from anywhere in the world. Or decrease it to a really low number, to be used only on extreme situations. I´m looking forward to more options.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Abriael

I would think that railoroads would look extremely out of place in eorzea. The level of technology simply doesn't fit them. Eorzea isn't a steampunk setting. It could fit the garlean empire, if we'll ever get to see it, but railroads in Eorzea (no thanks).

---

Not saying I want a train, but in Limsa there are these coal engine type things scattered through the landscape, and in the dat files there is a picture of a coal cart like in mines in XI (not sure if there in the mines in XIV or just dats)
So the technology for trains (steel and coal, basic combustion) is there, we've even seen things reminiscent of trains

I say with the event that ushers in the 7th Umbral Era the Anima system is changed. Meaning not everyone can teleport only say magic users (Mages) and they have to train to get the spell and its very limited at first. Anima teleport is great for casual players, but it feels like I've entered in a cheat code. Have us run to the next camp, hire a chocobo, or an NPC that can teleport us. Not make everyone teleportation gods!

Thats exactly how I feel. I feel like it takes away from the immersion of the game. I get that casuals wanna save time, but even casuals in other games have to take the time to travel. Just dont make the trip as long. Consider how close the 3 nations are it should only take 5 minutes round trip to get to one city to another on an airship.

Best solution would be to just leave the teleport system how it is and in new maps and areas, avoid making camps, so in the new areas you would be forced to use chocobo/airship/etc in.

As the years go by people will be more thankful as new players who start in uldah/limsa/grid can get aroudn quickly with their 100 anima then as they progress to the new areas they have to rely on the birdies and ships.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Abriael

I can read Japanese quite decently. I use GT (and other translation tools) for the Kanji that I still can't recognize.

---

Btw, there's a plugin for firefox called Rikaichan that lets you translate kanjis and compounds on the fly. I've found it quite useful during my studies.