The Letter is up

[Shai]

AMAGAD GUYZ, ALL DEY BEEN WURKIN ON FOR 6 MONTHZ IS DAT 2 MINUT VIDEO?!

I AM UNDRWELMED.

This forum never fails to amaze me.

The faith of the loyal never cease to amaze me.

This is pretty grim news, bro. I like everything in the letter, too, but it's about 1/1000th of what the game needs. The auto-attack looks like slow motion fighting as if it were the Matrix / 300 special effects and not a real time battle. The WS look cool and are much needed.

I'm basically annoyed he thought this would be done within the next week or so and only has 1 dungeon to speak of and the crap in that video. I can see a lot of work went into it (the animation changes and such) and I'm a bit worried his idea of "tremendous" is more on the technical side of the house than on the "noticeable to the players" side.

It's pretty underwhelming news. It's downright disappointing to me.
I don't know how long I can put up with this, sadly.
I feel and fear I am about to join the ranks of people who move on and check for updates periodically.
It will be better for my mental health, I think... and certainly more fun.

[TonyMontana]

The faith of the loyal never cease to amaze me.

This is pretty grim news, bro. I like everything in the letter, too, but it's about 1/1000th of what the game needs. The auto-attack looks like slow motion fighting as if it were the Matrix / 300 special effects and not a real time battle. The WS look cool and are much needed.

I'm basically annoyed he thought this would be done within the next week or so and only has 1 dungeon to speak of and the crap in that video. I can see a lot of work went into it (the animation changes and such) and I'm a bit worried his idea of "tremendous" is more on the technical side of the house than on the "noticeable to the players" side.

It's pretty underwhelming news. It's downright disappointing to me.
I don't know how long I can put up with this, sadly.
I feel and fear I am about to join the ranks of people who move on and check for updates periodically.
It will be better for my mental health, I think... and certainly more fun.

But BRO he didnt have to stop running to pull his weapon out, this is cutting edge shit!

[Rau]

But BRO he didnt have to stop running to pull his weapon out, this is cutting edge shit!

I ain't your bro, pal.

[Shai]

But BRO he didnt have to stop running to pull his weapon out, this is cutting edge shit!

Yeah and that gives me an e-boner, too.
Too bad it didn't come in 17b so that patch was actually worth a damn.

I'm not a game designer so I don't know what I'm talking about (keep that in mind as I'm about to get flamed by the 10,000 game designers/developers on this forum) but delays for testing and balancing sound like a BS reason to me. I know things need to be tested and balanced, but it's not really what you want to hear after a 6 month hiatus on any updates and 4 weeks of no news. I'd prefer something like "We have some real kickass ideas for our unfinished dungeon so we will have to hold off just a bit longer to squeeze them in!!!!" even if it's a lie. Haha. Just sounds better, more worth the wait.

Also... what kind of jerk says "mid-June at the earliest" then comes out the eve of June 15 saying "Wait longer." It's like he couldn't put it off for any moment longer. He should have told us a while ago there were delays, imo. Everything about this line of communication is BS.

Bring it, forum. Flame on.
I'm just sharing an opinion, not trolling, but feast on it like the sharks you are.

[Sephr]

It's pretty underwhelming news. It's downright disappointing to me.
I don't know how long I can put up with this, sadly.
I feel and fear I am about to join the ranks of people who move on and check for updates periodically.
It will be better for my mental health, I think... and certainly more fun.

Well, bro, you don't have to put up with it. Just head off and come back after a few months.

Aside from that, I was more pointing out the fact that we have no idea just how much is going into 1.18. We know they're working on recoding a lot of the shitty foundations of this game and rebuilding a lot from scratch. This means (and I can't believe how much this has to be restated) that they cannot physically pump out the content you need RIGHT JUST NOW because the game was designed so poorly.

Rather than bitching about every little feature (Yoshi even said IN RED that this auto-attack stuff was WIP), just accept that it's going to take a while to get better, and come back later.

You have no commitment to this game, you're not paying for it anymore. Just go with it.

I'm not a game designer so I don't know what I'm talking about.

Don't worry, I won't flame you like you apparently want, because I stopped reading right there. At least you recognise you (and the rest of us) don't know how to make a game rather than the idiots on these boards who want SE to mail all their equipment to them so they can do a better job with a couple of their nursery buddies.

[Shai]

Well, bro, you don't have to put up with it. Just head off and come back after a few months.

I don't want to be one of those people. I like the game and I like playing it, but those 20 NMs wore out their welcome after about 2 weeks and it's been 4 weeks since then of grind grind grind grind. No news, nothing to tease me or tide me over, nothing. Literally nothing. Even the most fun thing you can think of in the world gets stale eventually if it stays the same too long, or you do it too much. I'm bored as hell and I'm actually one of the people who likes this game. It just can't stay this way much longer (in my opinion). I probably will leave and come back. It's the right thing to do (for my mentality right now) but later I will wish I hadn't because I won't have X class to Y level like I would if I had stayed (and I'm neurotic about that crap for no known reason, so it will grate on me for a long time - I wish it wouldn't, like it doesn't bother most of my friends but I know myself better)

This means (and I can't believe how much this has to be restated) that they cannot physically pump out the content you need RIGHT JUST NOW because the game was designed so poorly.

I was singing this same song just a week ago. Trust me, I know what you're saying. I know Yoshida asked us most politely multiple times to please give him a chance to make the foundation better before he could add things for us to play with - I can quote it if you want (I have to throw it around so much on this forum, I have certain Letters book marked for quick reference). I get all that... but if 1.18 is auto-attack (which I never wanted and no one ever asked for) and 2 dungeons... I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed with how long it takes them to change things. I'm not impressed with how long it will take at this rate for this game to be remotely fun. It's disappointing to say the least.

I expected 1.18 would be a tad underwhelming. I expected it to be delayed. I didn't expect to be told on the week it was "at the earliest" due, though. Some prior warning would have been nice. I'm sure it didn't dawn on him this morning that it won't be ready in the time frame he hoped originally.

Rather than bitching about every little feature ...

Well I'm praising all these features except auto-attack which looks like people fighting while stuck in tar pits. I said from the get go if the animations had some flash this game would be more exciting. I also can't stand passive/active and how much time it wastes switching between the two. It's a tedious blight on the streamlining of gameplay. I'm excited for those changes, to be sure, but I don't consider them tremendous. Maybe he's comparing it to 17c.

You have no commitment to this game, you're not paying for it anymore.

Time is money and I'm very invested on that level. You can say this if I weren't playing the game like I assume most of the jackasses on this forum aren't, but I am playing it for several hours a day (and as I said, up until very recently, enjoying it). It's a commitment and its an investment. I could commit to something else and invest time in something else (and I may from now on) but that's called quitting which I don't really want to do.

Don't worry, I won't flame you like you apparently want, because I stopped reading right there. At least you recognise you (and the rest of us) don't know how to make a game rather than the idiots on these boards who want SE to mail all their equipment to them so they can do a better job with a couple of their nursery buddies.

I don't want it. I just know how forums work. Mark my words, those guys you mention (and I'm glad you know who I mean) will wake up any minute now to tell me to shove my opinions where the sun doesn't shine as if their opinions are better because they have insight into the world of developing. I'm simply saying (to them, mostly) I don't give a rat's ass. This game has held my attention, and despite criticism I have enjoyed my time, but I'm not sure how long I can hold out. Six months of promises and this is it. Round one of Yoshida's foundations.

I'd gladly trade that video for some real content.
Content found here: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...f018ec5fb504d2

[CanteJondo]

2-4 more weeks then we get hopefully enough dungeon content to keep us happy for 3-4 months by which time battle system will be done, jobs and job quests implemented, hubs... yadda yadda

This is a marathon, not a sprint. This game will be worthy in 2012, and hopefully there'll be just enough for us to do in game until then.

[Shai]

2-4 more weeks then we get hopefully enough dungeon content to keep us happy for 3-4 months by which time battle system will be done, jobs and job quests implemented, hubs... yadda yadda

This is a marathon, not a sprint. This game will be worthy in 2012, and hopefully there'll be just enough for us to do in game until then.

Dood, I can only hope, dream, wish and pray dungeons keep me entertained for that long.

I mean, right now I'm just hoping they're "fun" but if they actually take time and are fun to do repeatedly that would be like a XIV wet dream - like nutritious food erupting from the mountains of starving 3rd world countries. Oh, that would be excellent. I would weep tears of joy.

[Sephr]

I'd gladly trade that video for some real content.
Content found here: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...f018ec5fb504d2

Man, you just made me a sad panda, reading through all that

I really hope it wasn't actually all thrown out the window, but rather put on the backburner till the basics are done.

[Shai]

Man, you just made me a sad panda, reading through all that

I really hope it wasn't actually all thrown out the window, but rather put on the backburner till the basics are done.

Supposedly, it's not thrown out the window.

The only thing is - it would all be in the game by now, but Yoshida asked us to wait for ... well what you see in the video. That's why I'm so distressed. I won't give auto-attack a final verdict until I get some hands on time with it, but it looks ... fark... I hated it in XI and I assumed I'd hate it in XIV, so I'm set up with a biased opinion, but so far it doesn't do anything for me. I'd rather push 1 and I've said that all along, but the masses over ruled me.

Anyway, all that stuff was on hold so Yoshida could have his way with the "foundation." He's confirmed a lot of that stuff is ready to be worked on once the battle system is done so they know what they need to change to begin working on it (content). Personally, I'd just rather have taken that content.