So completely ignoring musketeer questions to the producer?

[Duelle]

So what you are saying is that there priority is for 3 mages 3 tanks a scout class ( which i completely agree with ) and just gonna keep the 1 ranged physical dps? Do you see what im saying? We have 2 tanks 2 magic dps 2 melee dps and 1 ranged dps and 2 healers.

Number parity has never been a good way to look at class and role distribution.

The issue is more where physical ranged DPS will fall in the long run. The precedent archer is setting is that you do less damage than a BLM or SMN to justify all attacks being usable on the move, but that picture gets muddled when you take into account ARC's job is BRD (I'm one of those who think BRD was fine at launch, but the devs are bent on making BRDs selling point utility). There's also the issue of the physical ranged DPS limit break (because a musketeer shouldn't be using a healer LB). On top of that, they'd need to design musketeer to be mechanically different from archer (even in FFXI there wasn't much of a difference between a RNG that used bows and a RNG that used guns). That's not even getting into lore for the musketeers, quest design for the class quests as well as what jobs they should get (my sig notwithstanding). There's quite a bit of work that would need to go into making musketeer possible. Most of it does have a "new expansion" feel to it instead of something that would be implemented with a content patch.

As far as being annoyed at the waiting...I should be on the same boat seeing that the closest thing to a class that I like is PLD. Healing makes me drowsy and long range nukes don't do much for me. I'm not into fist weapons, lances and axes. Except I'm not and still subscribed. I simply just wait for them to come up with something I want to play as. (like a functional melee red mage)

[NoctisUmbra]

Xander, he said a scout class is his next priority and that musketeer would be in eventually. That much is known. It may be right after said scout class, but not before.

[HeroSamson]

Here you go guys.

[XanderOlivieri]

Xander, he said a scout class is his next priority and that musketeer would be in eventually. That much is known. It may be right after said scout class, but not before.

In what context? That was something I remember being said with the Dark Knight, which was after the interview/letter where he said Musketeer had priority due to it already being in the game. As far as memory serves, there has never been context relating Musketeer's priority with another class type. He also never said there was priority to the scout like classes, only that he wanted to implement them.

In terms to the specific post:

[0:27:07]
Q: Can you give us any information about possible new classes or jobs like thief, ninja, samurai, or musketeer?
A: We definitely want to add more classes in future patches. For melee classes, I believe scout-type classes are somewhat lacking. By this I mean classes that can move around stealthily and attack from behind or steal items from monsters. The lack of magic classes needs to be addressed as well. We've received requests for ninja and samurai, especially from overseas, but we can't give out any specifics yet. Rest assured that new classes are definitely coming.

There was never a priority stated. He said New classes are coming. He felt there weren't enough Stealth Like Melee classes or enough Mages, both equal in priority based on how he chose to word it. Something they were looking into, but no specifics given. Definitely never said there was priority.

Looking further to see other mentionings of Scout based classes and only find one other mentioning.

Q: In 2.0, will head and face gear slots be separated so that players can equip a hat and glasses at the same time? Also, will back gear and dual wielding be available?

A: Regarding separating head and face gear slots, this may be a bit tricky due to memory restrictions. This is not in our plans for the release of version 2.0. However whether it is doable or not in the long term, it's a bit hard to confirm at the moment.
The problem with capes is deciding what quality to settle with. In a FINAL FANTASY world, both we and our players expect the highest quality in graphics. This means that if we do decide to implement capes, we have to make sure the animations are as smooth as possible. Honestly, implementing capes in that manner will be a very, very difficult task for an MMO. This might be a little technical, but if we create high quality animation using shape animation, the CPU will end up taking a hit. Even if we do decide to go with rods, who knows how many rods it will take to achieve our goal. If everyone can settle for a stiff board-like cape, then we can do it.

I have some good news regarding two-handers and dual-wielding. Regarding two-handers, we're currently discussing a system where a gladiator can swap between one- and two-handed swords depending on the situation. Regarding dual-wielding, we're discussing whether we want to implement a class that branches out from the gladiator, or implementing a stealthy scout-type class (e.g. thief) that can perform sneak attacks. If we decide to go with the latter, we may set the job as ninja. The only problem is that gladiators are currently able to equip daggers, but not many rely on them. What we might end up doing is making the dagger available only for the scout-type class and make it able to dual-wield daggers. We have been discussing additional classes, but looking at the current roster, there's a lack of casters. Therefore, we're going to prioritize implementing a new mage class before we implement anything else.

This was from a Live letter dating 11/11/11...so its fairly old and the "Caster" mentioned seems to be Arcanist, though the issue then that took higher priority than Thief Class was add more Mage. Mage is still out numbered by Physical classes, so the priority on more magic classes can still exist, pushing Scout like Thief class further down the list still. Also supposed theoretical confirmation THF -> NIN. They intended to make it like that, could still happen with the base jobs. GLD losing Daggers would hurt and at the same time...possibly won't hurt at all. Can't really imagine any PLD that uses Daggers over Swords.


Likewise relevant Musketeer remarks are as follows:

Q: When will you implement musketeer?

A: Well, we haven't really decided when. We’ve been talking a lot about samurai, ninja, ranger, and thief, etc. but first we're looking to add the class that will be most interesting and effective from the perspective of battle balance. We still don't know which one will be next.

For A Realm Reborn, we're revamping everything. As you can see here, armor and weapon slots will be separated to be on the left and right of the interface. In the case of musketeer, a double-barreled gun is a weapon that requires both hands, so it takes up two slots. But sometimes you might want to dual-wield, so we're making a more flexible system that lets players do this. Naturally, these changes will be introduced properly with major updates in future, so please rest assured.

This one is a bit wonky. He mentioned Thief and Ninja as well as another fan favorite Samurai, but right afterwards he says "but first we're looking to add the class that will be most interesting and effective from the perspective of battle balance" Then goes into detail about how they were working with ideas for the Musketeer. They seem to have thought more upon the idea of the Musketeer than the others with the remark he made. The Flexibility stated I do not believe we will see until all classes are given more weapon choices. I mean they can make it the same as CNJ and THM's Two handed/One handed weapons. Give different programmed animations for both. I don't believe we will ever have a true Dual-Wield function so the dual-wielding we will have will be just as PUG is, one weapon in the main hand and appearing in two hands on the players.


So far, the only thing that shows real priority is more mage classes. They are practically always mentioned when "new classes" are mentioned.

It took almost an hour but I finally found the quote I was looking for!

GE- With ARR we’ll see Arcanist added with Summoner shortly after the game launches. Are there any other classes or jobs you’d like to see added? And will these be added in patches or expansions?

Yoshida- What I would like to see right?

First of all, we are planning a new race for an expansion pack. For the classes and jobs, we will introduce them through patches because all of the Legacy players have level 50 jobs anyway. When we introduce new classes and jobs we will probably increase the level cap at the same time.

About what I want to introduce- it’s more like what I think I have to introduce. Something related to guns because the (musketeer) guild in the game. Something related to that I think I have to introduce.

Also I do feel that scouting classes are lacking so I want to bring in Theif, Ninja and those that have to do with stealth. Also more casters like Blue Mage and Red Mage are something I would like to add.

Whatever the players want, I want too.

In this one, and really its only relevant because it mentioned his personal feelings towards what he feels needs to be implemented.

Gunner like class: Mandatory (I think I have to introduce)
Thief/Scout: Not high priority (lacking and so I want to bring in)
More Casters: even less priority (I would like to add.)

This is an older interview from 2012 I think. Its the only time I saw priority given to the "gunner" class in base wording. Doesn't necissarily mean that the priority is there, but the wording infers to priority. Its really the only time where priority hierarchy was given outside of Magic > Scout with the last one I found.

At this point, there is no priority for any type of classes. Taking the final bit from the last quote: "He wants, what ever we want." Depending on what's more vocal, it can show what's wanted more. More Vocal also doesn't mean positive as this thread and others show. There definitely isn't any real priority in adding new classes, they have shown that they are juggling various ideas. But from the constant flipping of wording on what they'd like to put forth first, you can tell there isn't any serious push for anything new like this. They'll focus on other content before adding more. The New Race has been shown to have more priority over a new class. Race is aesthetic only.

[Tupsi]

They'll talk about it when they are good and ready to. There was never a promise to release it by a certain point in time. Patience is a virtue.

4 years isn't good enough? They clearly had time to REDO/FINISH Arcanist and even add TWO jobs for it, one being a complete surprise (SCH.)

[EdwinLi]

Meh I never expected them to mention anything about new classes quite yet since 2.X is only reaching its second update.

I'm guessing the only time Yoshi-P will mention any new class/job is if the new class/job is ready to be added into the game so they can keep any hype for a new class/job at a minimal of 1 month or less before release during a live letter since long term hypes tend to cause people to over exaggerate what the content is.

[Pibz]

It's been said over and over that there will be no job/class until expansion. Why are you still surprised?


Edit: Yeah this wrong, please ignore :/

[nintendo414]

It's been said over and over that there will be no job/class until expansion. Why are you still surprised?

Source please?

[XanderOlivieri]

It's been said over and over that there will be no job/class until expansion. Why are you still surprised?

That has never been said in any official statement. More than once it has been said that a new Class/Job will be implemented before the first expansion. This is because of Legacy Players already having everything else maxed out and Yoshida wants to give Legacy Players more to do between content additions.

[Sheer]

Even if they told us their entire plans for the rest of 2.0 and 3.0, what good would it do for us when we can't play it?

I'm just as excited for new content as anyone else, but I'm not tempted to know what I can't have. At best, it silences rumors. At worst, it brings on players flooding forums with, "NO! STAHP SE, U R DOIN IT WRONG", builds distrust in the community because the content is most likely still being worked on (thus subject to change; what was true yesterday may not be true today), and the whole inflate-deflate hype balloon that follows every game. And what fun is new content if the hype behind it is gone?