The Letter is up

[Elkwood]

Come On Guys Seriously what is with all the Hate today. This is by far the biggest update in the history of the game and still a vast majority of what I read on these forums is people whining that it is not enough. If you guys knew anything about programming then you would know redesigning game mechanics and animations is a HUGE update, due to the amount of time and effort it takes to capture the animations, have the graphic designers touch them up, do the 3-D effects, implement the effects into the game, design the new weaponskill animations, implement those into the game, then test said changes to ensure nothing else was jacked up during the update. You have no idea on a program this big just exactly how much time and effort this takes, it is not a simple create graphic and insert here thing to do.

This is the same principal of auto attack, when you remove something as massive as manual attack and then add the algorithms and calculations for auto attack there is a very good chance that a vast majority of the game was jacked up and needed to be debugged before that video could even be shown.

2 weeks to wait for the patch is really not that bad of a delay and he gave us a lot of good information in that small letter.

Confirmed for 1.18

2 Endgame Dungeons
Auto Attack
Proper Enmity Calculations
New Weaponskill Animations
Active/Passive Mode switch while Moving
Stamina Gauge Gone

Then he added there is still more to come on top of that, so again why all the hate because truly this is shaping up to be one hellva patch just on what he confirmed today not including other things to be added into the patch. 1.18/1.19 are going to be fantastic patches of hopefully many more fantastic patches, and this is the first true update from the new development team so i would think a little more gratitude would be in order.

Has it been a long trying wait, yeah it has, is it annoying yeah it is, but good things come to those who wait and after today's letter i am glad I waited.

[CrstyCaptin]

Come On Guys Seriously what is with all the Hate today. This is by far the biggest update in the history of the game and still a vast majority of what I read on these forums is people whining that it is not enough. If you guys knew anything about programming then you would know redesigning game mechanics and animations is a HUGE update, due to the amount of time and effort it takes to capture the animations, have the graphic designers touch them up, do the 3-D effects, implement the effects into the game, design the new weaponskill animations, implement those into the game, then test said changes to ensure nothing else was jacked up during the update. You have no idea on a program this big just exactly how much time and effort this takes, it is not a simple create graphic and insert here thing to do.

This is the same principal of auto attack, when you remove something as massive as manual attack and then add the algorithms and calculations for auto attack there is a very good chance that a vast majority of the game was jacked up and needed to be debugged before that video could even be shown.

2 weeks to wait for the patch is really not that bad of a delay and he gave us a lot of good information in that small letter.

Confirmed for 1.18

2 Endgame Dungeons
Auto Attack
Proper Enmity Calculations
New Weaponskill Animations
Active/Passive Mode switch while Moving
Stamina Gauge Gone

Then he added there is still more to come on top of that, so again why all the hate because truly this is shaping up to be one hellva patch just on what he confirmed today not including other things to be added into the patch. 1.18/1.19 are going to be fantastic patches of hopefully many more fantastic patches, and this is the first true update from the new development team so i would think a little more gratitude would be in order.

Has it been a long trying wait, yeah it has, is it annoying yeah it is, but good things come to those who wait and after today's letter i am glad I waited.

I think mine, and a lot of others beef, is what do you see this patch all about? Battle related system/overhauls? Ok, we need that desperately, but do you remember when we were told that we were to get major updates from time to time while also getting smaller ones on weekly intervals? Do you remember the talk about 'multiple teams working on different aspects of the game'? So far all we've heard is talk about the battle system, which again is a huge issue. What about the server latency issues? Crafting recipes? In-game bugs? The list goes on, but why no mention of these issues being addressed?

As far as I'm concerned push back your patch another month or two if you really need the time to get it right, but patch in some stuff for the other aspects of the game. While I admit that the game does revolve around combat there are other aspects that could be addressed to keep people interested/provide feedback. Waiting two months for an 'epic patch' which won't be epic isn't the way to go. I just don't understand why this battle patch has to be the first thing to come out. It's like their 'battle team' actually works on every aspect of the game. How cool would it be to have 8 slots to trade stuff instead of 4? Little stuff like this would keep me happy in between your 'game changing' patches. I'm sure others would feel the same.

[Elkwood]

I think mine, and a lot of others beef, is what do you see this patch all about? Battle related system/overhauls? Ok, we need that desperately, but do you remember when we were told that we were to get major updates from time to time while also getting smaller ones on weekly intervals? Do you remember the talk about 'multiple teams working on different aspects of the game'? So far all we've heard is talk about the battle system, which again is a huge issue. What about the server latency issues? Crafting recipes? In-game bugs? The list goes on, but why no mention of these issues being addressed?

As far as I'm concerned push back your patch another month or two if you really need the time to get it right, but patch in some stuff for the other aspects of the game. While I admit that the game does revolve around combat there are other aspects that could be addressed to keep people interested/provide feedback. Waiting two months for an 'epic patch' which won't be epic isn't the way to go. I just don't understand why this battle patch has to be the first thing to come out. It's like their 'battle team' actually works on every aspect of the game. How cool would it be to have 8 slots to trade stuff instead of 4? Little stuff like this would keep me happy in between your 'game changing' patches. I'm sure others would feel the same.

As far as we know some of that stuff may actually be in this patch we don't know yet. As far as the content issue of things goes from a development standpoint, there is a crapload of content ready to be implemented we know this from Tanaka, Yoshi has said he refuses to implement content until the battle content is completed and working, which makes sense because there would be even more things to fix if he did this.

From what i can see as frustrating as it is, the wait is almost over and we can expect a lot of good things from this team once 1.18/1.19 are out and the battle system is done.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

I think mine, and a lot of others beef, is what do you see this patch all about? Battle related system/overhauls? Ok, we need that desperately, but do you remember when we were told that we were to get major updates from time to time while also getting smaller ones on weekly intervals? Do you remember the talk about 'multiple teams working on different aspects of the game'? So far all we've heard is talk about the battle system, which again is a huge issue. What about the server latency issues? Crafting recipes? In-game bugs? The list goes on, but why no mention of these issues being addressed?

As far as I'm concerned push back your patch another month or two if you really need the time to get it right, but patch in some stuff for the other aspects of the game. While I admit that the game does revolve around combat there are other aspects that could be addressed to keep people interested/provide feedback. Waiting two months for an 'epic patch' which won't be epic isn't the way to go. I just don't understand why this battle patch has to be the first thing to come out. It's like their 'battle team' actually works on every aspect of the game. How cool would it be to have 8 slots to trade stuff instead of 4? Little stuff like this would keep me happy in between your 'game changing' patches. I'm sure others would feel the same.

The problem is they CAN'T just push back these patches. If all they did was keep adding and adding and adding stuff on top of stuff, all of that new stuff is going to be broken when they change the systems. Why create MORE work for the Dev team to have to go back and redesign all the old stuff when they could just wait and have the systems ready for the new content? You can see how slow they are moving already, imagine how people react when they have to push back NEW content to go back and fix OLD content.

On top of that, crafting has been mentioned multiple times as being worked on, especially the recipes. The crafting system is again another system that they are working on adjusting and they can't go and adjust a whole bunch of recipes and add new ones when they have to fix the whole system.

On the issue of server latency and in-game bugs I agree, but is that really something that needs to be touched on in every producer letter? Or isn't that something we should just assume they are always working on? I know a lot of people are having problems in this area, but I am not. Even in the cities my latency is next to zero. Maybe that is because I have Fios, I'm just saying.

Also, by my count they have been pretty good about entering smaller patches every few weeks. They may not contain the stuff we WANT to see, but they are there.

[CrstyCaptin]

The problem is they CAN'T just push back these patches. If all they did was keep adding and adding and adding stuff on top of stuff, all of that new stuff is going to be broken when they change the systems. Why create MORE work for the Dev team to have to go back and redesign all the old stuff when they could just wait and have the systems ready for the new content? You can see how slow they are moving already, imagine how people react when they have to push back NEW content to go back and fix OLD content.

On top of that, crafting has been mentioned multiple times as being worked on, especially the recipes. The crafting system is again another system that they are working on adjusting and they can't go and adjust a whole bunch of recipes and add new ones when they have to fix the whole system.

On the issue of server latency and in-game bugs I agree, but is that really something that needs to be touched on in every producer letter? Or isn't that something we should just assume they are always working on? I know a lot of people are having problems in this area, but I am not. Even in the cities my latency is next to zero. Maybe that is because I have Fios, I'm just saying.

Also, by my count they have been pretty good about entering smaller patches every few weeks. They may not contain the stuff we WANT to see, but they are there.

I'm not asking for battle related content that they'll have to go back and rebalance. Just asking for things that will need to get done regardless. I may be short sighted/uneducated in saying this but how would changing crafting recipes 'now' make them have to go back and change things later? As far as the crafting system goes the only change I forsee in the future is adding an 'instant synth' button to speed up the grind while still keeping the current system to boost your chance for HQ rate. Whats the big deal with adding four more slots to the trade window? How come we still don't get sp for yellow mobs(I admit this might be harder than it sounds to fix). As far as server latency I'm talking about the wait time between hitting "Sell items" and your inventory popping up, the time it takes for your item to move to your retainers list so you can move another, the time it takes for macros to swap six pieces of gear, and the time it takes to re-equip actions using macros for each class when you change. Again, these might be 'hard' things to fix but let's all agree that as soon as battle changes are in effect these things will be the next wave of complaints. My problem is there is rare mention of these. A simple bullet in the letter with "Crafting recipes: 60% done with the revamp", "Server Latency: Still taking longer than expected but we're at about 40%", etc would suffice. Lastly, 'if' they do have a ton of content to roll out after 1.18(kinda thinkin a big if) why not say so? It would give the players hope and something to look forward to.

[Elkwood]

I'm not asking for battle related content that they'll have to go back and rebalance. Just asking for things that will need to get done regardless. I may be short sighted/uneducated in saying this but how would changing crafting recipes 'now' make them have to go back and change things later? As far as the crafting system goes the only change I forsee in the future is adding an 'instant synth' button to speed up the grind while still keeping the current system to boost your chance for HQ rate. Whats the big deal with adding four more slots to the trade window? How come we still don't get sp for yellow mobs(I admit this might be harder than it sounds to fix). As far as server latency I'm talking about the wait time between hitting "Sell items" and your inventory popping up, the time it takes for your item to move to your retainers list so you can move another, the time it takes for macros to swap six pieces of gear, and the time it takes to re-equip actions using macros for each class when you change. Again, these might be 'hard' things to fix but let's all agree that as soon as battle changes are in effect these things will be the next wave of complaints. My problem is there is rare mention of these. A simple bullet in the letter with "Crafting recipes: 60% done with the revamp", "Server Latency: Still taking longer than expected but we're at about 40%", etc would suffice. Lastly, 'if' they do have a ton of content to roll out after 1.18(kinda thinkin a big if) why not say so? It would give the players hope and something to look forward to.

Instant synth is already in the game just add hasty hand to your ability bar

[Laiferr]

I think mine, and a lot of others beef, is what do you see this patch all about? Battle related system/overhauls? Ok, we need that desperately, but do you remember when we were told that we were to get major updates from time to time while also getting smaller ones on weekly intervals? Do you remember the talk about 'multiple teams working on different aspects of the game'? So far all we've heard is talk about the battle system, which again is a huge issue. What about the server latency issues? Crafting recipes? In-game bugs? The list goes on, but why no mention of these issues being addressed?

As far as I'm concerned push back your patch another month or two if you really need the time to get it right, but patch in some stuff for the other aspects of the game. While I admit that the game does revolve around combat there are other aspects that could be addressed to keep people interested/provide feedback. Waiting two months for an 'epic patch' which won't be epic isn't the way to go. I just don't understand why this battle patch has to be the first thing to come out. It's like their 'battle team' actually works on every aspect of the game. How cool would it be to have 8 slots to trade stuff instead of 4? Little stuff like this would keep me happy in between your 'game changing' patches. I'm sure others would feel the same.

You're basically on the same level as me, this is what I'm trying to get at. I know people will disagree with me but I do not think this patch is exciting. I think this patch is basic. A fun battle system is basic. Some simple dungeons is basic. I don't even feel like we're waiting for fun content, we're waiting, 9 months in, for things which should have been there at the start. Now, I do realise they need to fix it and this is the right path to go down, no point whining about what didn't happen etc, but they need to start throwing us bones more often. I can't get excited about such simple things. Maybe since I've been playing since Alpha I'm a little more ... well, bored, than some of the newer players.

As for them saying there would only be two dungeons, sorry, I must have read something wrong as I thought they meant 'Rank 30 and 50 dungeons' as in more than one of each, not one of each. But I may have read it wrong, I'm not the most thorough reader.

[normalforce]

Come On Guys Seriously what is with all the Hate today. This is by far the biggest update in the history of the game and still a vast majority of what I read on these forums is people whining that it is not enough. If you guys knew anything about programming then you would know redesigning game mechanics and animations is a HUGE update, due to the amount of time and effort it takes to capture the animations, have the graphic designers touch them up, do the 3-D effects, implement the effects into the game, design the new weaponskill animations, implement those into the game, then test said changes to ensure nothing else was jacked up during the update. You have no idea on a program this big just exactly how much time and effort this takes, it is not a simple create graphic and insert here thing to do.

...

Has it been a long trying wait, yeah it has, is it annoying yeah it is, but good things come to those who wait and after today's letter i am glad I waited.

Thank you, +∞ to this! I feel the same way.

[VydarrTyr]

2 weeks to wait for the patch is really not that bad of a delay and he gave us a lot of good information in that small letter.

Confirmed for 1.18

2 Endgame Dungeons
Auto Attack
Proper Enmity Calculations
New Weaponskill Animations
Active/Passive Mode switch while Moving
Stamina Gauge Gone

Then he added there is still more to come on top of that, so again why all the hate because truly this is shaping up to be one hellva patch just on what he confirmed today not including other things to be added into the patch. 1.18/1.19 are going to be fantastic patches of hopefully many more fantastic patches, and this is the first true update from the new development team so i would think a little more gratitude would be in order.

I've seen this said a couple of times by different people in this thread. So I wanted to correct it.

Patch 1.18 will include auto-attack, and (probably) 2 dungeons. One of the dungeons will be end-game, one will be mid-level content.

New Weaponskill animations will NOT be included in 1.18. Those will be included in 1.19. Here's the quote from the letter:

Attack motion diversification and fine-tuning are planned for 1.19.

Given their history of content-related patches, that will probably come a month after 1.18. So August, at the earliest (if there are no further delays).

We don't know when active-passive mode switch while moving will be added. I'm hopeful it will be in 1.18, but the letter doesn't say that.

He did not say that there would be "more to come on top of that" in 1.18. In fact, there's probably less. For example, auto-attack will be implemented in 1.18, but not fully implemented. You know how most classes have more than one kind of basic attack? Like "Heavy Strike" and "Broad Swing"? Well, those will probably not be implemented in 1.18. Here's the pertinent quote:

Multiple attacks during auto-attack is also being planned for the future.

So that probably won't be included in either 1.18 or 1.19.

I think this patch will actually be smaller than you're suggesting here. And I wanted to see if I could avoid further belly-aching by people ramping up expectations despite what the letter itself actually says.