Discussion for Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XX

[Rizon]

/snip

That said, don't worry! We still have all the questions we gathered for this round that we can use in an upcoming Letter from the Producer LIVE.

It is becoming ever more apparent that SE is using the Live Letter as a promotional tool only and will do everything possible to avoid answering the questions that concern ppl. If SE was truly concerned about transparency they would set aside time each month to address these matters (i.e. RMT prevention). Does not have to be a live letter and Yoshi-P need not be the sole commentator. Correspondence in these forums by appropriate members of the Dev team and management works.

[BlaiseArath]

Certainly possible and complaining about that would be legitimate. But since we don't know, I choose to believe that Heavensward's story will follow along the same level of quality as the last few patches. Which is absolutely fine with me.

Let's not complain about a story being bland until we see it.

I think the last patch had one of the biggest offenders for me. the 10~ second wait at Tataru's desk to confirm that she was in fact not there. I don't hate the story just how they go about it sometimes. personally my biggest complain is the arbitrary "Wait" interactions. Idk about you but they add nothing for me in terms of suspense or whatever they're going for. It just seems needless. Let me click the spot and move on if thats all thats accomplished. But also, the last patch addressed a lot of my biggest complaints about FFXIV story. The sh*t cutscene camera work, the boring verbal interactions... it seems like this last patch really felt like they worked on it. Like they cared about what was happening and put effort into the Camera work and mood of the cutscenes.

Still, I also really feel like we're not he main characters of our story sometimes. I mean, all of out interactions in cutscenes simply consist of us being swept up in the actions of those around us. Our cutscene responses and interactions with people in cutscenes consists of little more than head-nods and head-bobs. They could replace our characters with a cardboard cut-out and there would be almost no impact whatsoever to how the events play out. Maybe they're going for the Silent protagonist feel but that really sucks in an MMO. I'm not silent nor do I want to be. Even FFXI had dialogue options, i mean they did little to nothing in most cases on how events would play out but at least you got to input something into the cutscenes which lead to different dialogue from NPCs. So even if they're telling the story they want to tell and we have nothing to say about it, like most RPGs, let us at least pretend to have some input.

[Rumpelstiltzkin]

It is becoming ever more apparent that SE is using the Live Letter as a promotional tool only and will do everything possible to avoid answering the questions that concern ppl. If SE was truly concerned about transparency they would set aside time each month to address these matters (i.e. RMT prevention). Does not have to be a live letter and Yoshi-P need not be the sole commentator. Correspondence in these forums by appropriate members of the Dev team and management works.

It has been like this since it started, even when they actually have the Q&A. The Q&A threads have often had questions with a huge amount of likes more than any other question, but it does not get asked at all. They pick and choose just what they want to answer and usually it is the question that is completely irrelevant.

[Rizon]

It has been like this since it started, even when they actually have the Q&A. The Q&A threads have often had questions with a huge amount of likes more than any other question, but it does not get asked at all. They pick and choose just what they want to answer and usually it is the question that is completely irrelevant.

I have no problem with the Live Letter in its current format. The written Letter From the Producer is the form that used to contain relevant information. That is now a thing of the past. It needs to be revived in some form that addresses our concerns.

[Balipu]

Makes sense since its a job. But If they use a soul crystal like other jobs then does that mean, Drk, Mak, Ast can walk about with out the need to equip a weapon? If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

Definitely not without weapons. Either they just forget about soul crystals or they make the 3 new soul crystal equippable with any base class and make the main hand weapons equipable only when the soul crystal is on, so the crystals themselves don't change your class.

[Spawnie]

was there any new videos on the new classes gameplay?? i wanna see exactly how machinists turrets work P

[Kuwaitum]

Makes sense since its a job. But If they use a soul crystal like other jobs then does that mean, Drk, Mak, Ast can walk about with out the need to equip a weapon? If so what base class is required for the new jobs. Or will they have their own pre lv 30 skills?

They'll be treated as Classes (currently), you don't need a Soul Crystal to be (Arch/Pug/Lnc/Arc/Thm/Cnj/Rog/Gla/War).

I don't see why the name 'Job' must be connected to 'Soul Crystal'.. Plus, in a review of the New 'Jobs'.. I recall seeing the name on screen 'Class' not 'Job'.. either way.. there won't be a 'Soul Crystal'... that means 'ready to use' and being it at Lv.30 makes it easier to new players to catch up.

[kyuven]

It is becoming ever more apparent that SE is using the Live Letter as a promotional tool only and will do everything possible to avoid answering the questions that concern ppl. If SE was truly concerned about transparency they would set aside time each month to address these matters (i.e. RMT prevention). Does not have to be a live letter and Yoshi-P need not be the sole commentator. Correspondence in these forums by appropriate members of the Dev team and management works.

Of course it's a promotional tool. I really don't know why you would expect anything less...
Just because they're not commenting on an issue doesn't mean they're not addressing it.
There's a cultural divide here, too: Japanese players aren't asking about RMT issues because they're not really experiencing them on the same level as us. Since the developers speak Japanese as their first language, it stands to reason that the questions would be ones that appeal to the Japanese players.
For the next live letter, I would recommend people going to the Japanese version of the thread and posting a question regarding it there. I might even come up with the question myself (provided I find out what the Japanese word for RMT is) and post it here so people can copy and paste it into that thread.
You'll also note they don't take the time to answer questions unless they're assured of the answer, and the answers they DO give all tend towards things that are positive. This is how Japanese companies handle things like this. It's foreign to us as we demand complete transparency, whereas corporate culture in Japan...well, let's just say it's very frustrating for non-Japanese people. Things that are negative will get swept under the rug and not publicly addressed.
This has been quite a problem for Japanese companies as of late when it comes to dealing with American customers.

[Felis]

Definitely not without weapons. Either they just forget about soul crystals or they make the 3 new soul crystal equippable with any base class and make the main hand weapons equipable only when the soul crystal is on, so the crystals themselves don't change your class.

They don't need job stones.
The moment you equip a star globe you change to Astrologian.

[rwyan]

They don't ned job stones.
The moment you equip a star globe you change to Astrologian.

I kind of hope that it is more than Astrologian/Machinist/Dark Knight are both job and class at the same time. At a minimum, I hope...
1. Turn "classes" into "jobs"
2. Conceptually, you now level the weapon/magic skill that each job relies on (ex: Gladiator and Paladin have levels associated with Sword/Shield)
3. A job is now defined by its weapon/magic skill, its cross-classing rules and any additional job abilities
4. Job stones are no longer necessary, job selection via a simple gui mechanic or armory
5. stats are per Job, not per "skill" or "class" as we've been calling them.

This would solve some of the awkward conceptual/mechanical problems with the current system. It would also solve the problem of having multiple jobs use the same weapon/magic skill (ACN/SCH/SMN).

The current "classes" would regain some relevance. For example, a player whose primary Job has been Paladin could allocate stats differently for Gladiator to better suit soloing efforts. Her Paladin stats would remain as is. What makes the Gladiator Job special is its flexibility via cross-class skills and options. Likewise, the Paladin Job is special because it gives up flexibility for a stronger tanking role.

From a design standpoint, this would free them from the pattern of having a class and then a job. They simply add a job either tied to a weapon/magic skill already in the game or a new one all together. It would also help them explain how some Jobs automatically start at level 30. After we reach Ishgard, some how we get crash courses in new magic/weapon skills (guns/turrets, great sword, tarot globe). Because of that, when we choose to play as any of the new Jobs, we are already level 30.

Basically, if they don't use the expansion as an opportunity to polish up the Job/armory system nuances - it will just be awkward in general. That is why we keep seeing players wanting the new Jobs to start at level 1. The game established that first there is a "class" and at some point you unlock a "job" somewhat related to the class. They are both different yet and one and the same. Some classes actually have 2 jobs and yadda yadda yadda... 3 new jobs? No new classes? Start at level 30? With the current status quo, it just doesn't make sense.