Letter from the Producer, XVI (08/15/2011)

[Chione]

I was also hoping ... that the Beastman Strongholds would be open world leveling areas with Bosses, not instanced raids.

This right here is the only rain cloud on the parade of 1.19 for me - the addition of more instanced only dungeons. When they mentioned strongholds it brought back memories of exploring Davoi, Beadeaux and Castle Oztroja in XI. As it stands, I've wandered all across Eorzea. I like to explore and see what kind of danger I can get myself into (and out of!). So this is pretty disheartening. If all new world content is going to be instanced like this, what hope for us have-sword-will-travel folks to have new lands to explore?

Instead, couldn't these have been open world strongholds with instanced parts within? Say like a boss area on they very top or very bottom floor where only those teamed with others would dare enter? I would have loved to nose about in a beastmen stronghold, at my own peril of course, without needing to find a party and play by the team rules while under a time limit.

[TheVedis]

are you people seriously whining about the term end of summer again?
geeze i swear


the patch is gonna be huge, if its a week or so past the official calender end of summer so be it, dont complain about it

you people pick at everything

[Kiara]

Hi All,

Our next patch, 1.19, looks to be EPIC!

Good job Yoshida-san! My favorites include:

• Giving New Players better guidance with simplified opening tutorials.
• Low Rank Dungeons for new players to adventure in. (Note while these 2 items may no longer be valid for high level players, it's still a great thing they're doing to ensure New Players / PS3 Launch is as welcoming / helpful as possible.

• IFRIT Battle / Storyline!

• Beastman Strongholds! Joy! (^_^) - I can't wait to see if these surpass places like Castle Oztroja or Castle Zvahl, etc.

• Chocobos & Airships! Finally, some more Final Fantasy flavor to the game.

• New Grand Company Quests & Items. Hopefully some cool storylines involving the 3 Leaders of the 3 Nations.

• "Adjustments to ranged attack algorithms of enemies" - I wonder if this means we can kite enemies now?

• XP Chain Bonuses! Finally, some fun back in Grind Parties.

• Redistribution of Actions / WS / Abilities for All Classes (List) - This will be exciting and I think very necessary. To get our classes to be more in line with future Jobs that they turn into, and to make them more viable / better defined, I can't wait to see what they're planning.

• The End of Physical Level - Joy! I hope that 1.19 at least lifts the restriction on the ~3 hour wait per "Reassign" until we get the automated Stat Switching in 1.20. It's ridiculous to properly play more than 1 class at once right now without waiting ~a full day to reassign all stats you want.

• Simplified Recipes! Hopefully no more recipes that require 7 Final Parts (and each Part requiring ~5 - 8 Sub Parts, etc.).

• Materia System! It looks so innocuous on paper, but thinking about it, this alone can change / really revitalize all of our Equipment / Weapons we have in the game!
  
  I hope we can get into stuff like Aeolian Scimitar with Double Attack Materia or an Aeolian Scimitar with Counterattack Materia, etc.

and Yoshida-san saying 1.19's notes alone are 3 to 5 TIMES as large as 1.18. 1.18 delivered in spades, so I can't wait to see 1.19 now.

It's a bit of bummer it's 1.5 months away, but it looks like it'll be worth the wait.

[Volsung]

GREAT IDEA. MAKE THE GAME MORE EASY DURRHURRHURHURHURRR!

That was a very childish response without taking anything into consideration. On lower population servers its not extremely easy to gather 8 people, especially with smaller linkshells whose members are not all 45+. This suggestion was to help groups with fewer get in to do content other than going for the final boss. A cap on participants is fine, I didn't think I would need to point that out, but there is no reason fewer than 8 can't go in.

If you need reasons: SP, treasure chests, strategy refinement

[Kaizlu]

It's not coming TODAY? Ugh! That's it! FFXIV is going to fail! No no! This is horrible. I quit, this game is the worst game of all time!! Quit quit!

.-.

Anyhow, impressive list of changes and additions. I have to be honest, when I saw the screenshot of the [My Little] Chocobos, I got all excited and even got some chills.

[nRosenberg]

easily the best Producer's Letter ever.

[Perrin_Aybarra]

That's exactly it.

The fact of the matter is, wether 1.19 comes out in the Summer or not, it doesn't really matter because that overall "end of summer" schedule just won't be reached, no matter what. Which is extremely dissapointing, at least for me.

I really was hoping 1.19 would be August and 1.20 would be September... I'd even sacrifice some of the content in this 1.19 just to get it earlier, but I really don't see any of that happening.

Now I understand the comment better and yes they will not meet the end of summer schedule for the "planned summer updates" that was stated in letter X (I think).

But the content of this patch still is awsome and covers almost everything that was planned. Just missing some battle tweaks and the regimen rework.

[Shikaree]

More Primal battles after 1.19

[Perrin_Aybarra]

This right here is the only rain cloud on the parade of 1.19 for me - the addition of more instanced only dungeons. When they mentioned strongholds it brought back memories of exploring Davoi, Beadeaux and Castle Oztroja in XI. As it stands, I've wandered all across Eorzea. I like to explore and see what kind of danger I can get myself into (and out of!). So this is pretty disheartening. If all new world content is going to be instanced like this, what hope for us have-sword-will-travel folks to have new lands to explore?

Instead, couldn't these have been open world strongholds with instanced parts within? Say like a boss area on they very top or very bottom floor where only those teamed with others would dare enter? I would have loved to nose about in a beastmen stronghold, at my own peril of course, without needing to find a party and play by the team rules while under a time limit.

this could be done and would be nice to have as well. They can really add a lot of different open world and instanced content mixed together. Also, they could revome the party member requirement (can keep the limit) for entering an instance as well as the 60min timer, tha way you could enter the instance alone if you wished.

[Kailok]

Was a wonderful letter! I'm really excited! I actually thought 1.19 was going to be smaller than 1.18, but I'm jazzed to find out it's going to be 3-5 times bigger!

Also, for all the knit-pickers out there. Seriously? It's coming out a month later than you thought it would even though it has pretty much triple what you were expecting. lol. I say it'll be a nice present for FFXIV's anniversary because once this patch comes out this game WILL be completely different.

Now we just gotta wait for more LS options.