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

[AlexNiculaie]

as glad as i am to hear all the good things in this patch, id like to take this time to say, I TOLD YOU SO, about the end of summer plans becoming the end of winter plans. This will respectively put 1.20 til December. Im not hatin though, its actually the opposite. More f2p time for me.

Last part of September still includes summer in the northern hemisphere. Additionally, 1.20 was never promised in that timeline. Pretty much everything that was included in that timeline will be in 1.19. Acting like they are somehow wildly off their previously stated schedule is a bit out of line with the facts. Now, if it gets pushed to October/November, then toss your "I told you so" fanfare.

On the subject of Ishgard, I can't see any reason for it to be treated as Sea or Sky. It's just a city, like others have said.

Also, I can agree that PS3 release would be the more rational timing for starting up p2p services. 1.20 is when they are slated to introduce jobs. I can't see them wanting to start charging at the same time as introducing a feature that will most likely need to be balanced and fine tuned.

[northernsky]

Somehow people assumed that 1.20 would be delivered before the end of the summer. Rather, this list represents what was supposed to be delivered by the end of the summer.

By having a quick look at it, it may seem that they will even be in advance of schedule (based on amount of content added) if they make everything that was listed today, along with what was in 1.18, come the end of september, regardless of the number of the patch or whatsoever

[Archadius]

Ishgard is nothing like Sea or Sky because its a city, you didnt need to do anything for access to jeuno in XI, Ishgard will be XIV's version of jeuno. All you could compare it to is Whitegate, but that was access to a region not a city, there is no logic in a quest to allow access for another city, if it was an endgame area, or an entire region then I would agree with you. Also a quest would not stop RMT, they would do the quest because it would be somwhere else to make money.

Also why would a quest stop people afking? The only characters that arent playing who are afk are mules that they use to bazaar.

tl;dr a quest for access to a single city is stupid and does nothing except make an unnesiserry timesink, a whole region or endgame areas is understandable but a single city makes no sense.

It's not the fact that it's a city, it's the ACCESS to boundless content that comes with it. That is something to be unlocked, not just handed over, that's why it's like Sea/Sky.

This is going to be a lot bigger than just another Jeuno. Jeuno/Whitegate are the way they are due to the convenience of a central AH, nothing more. Ishgard may or may not even have it's own market wards, that is IRRELEVANT.

Making access super easy with no effort required only invites everyone (and I do mean everyone) to literally pick up from Ul'dah and move to Ishgard. This is unacceptable. By forcing some sort of requirement to be fulfilled, it limits players to actually earning access, and reduces the flood of trash that will inevitably hang around just for the sake of being there.

It is by no means an anti-RMT measure, but it is an RMT-deterrent, they have to do more work to get access to what Ishgard has to offer (no rank 10 Lala trains earning gil through Ishgard content).

AFKers would inevitably build up over time, but it would be far less if people had to rank up and actually do something to get Ishgard. You won't have r20 players and people's mules running to Ishgard thinking "I'll just AFK here since this is new content and everyone will be here".

Do you understand yet?

[Holland]

It's not the fact that it's a city, it's the ACCESS to boundless content that comes with it. That is something to be unlocked, not just handed over, that's why it's like Sea/Sky.

This is going to be a lot bigger than just another Jeuno. Jeuno/Whitegate are the way they are due to the convenience of a central AH, nothing more. Ishgard may or may not even have it's own market wards, that is IRRELEVANT.

Making access super easy with no effort required only invites everyone (and I do mean everyone) to literally pick up from Ul'dah and move to Ishgard. This is unacceptable. By forcing some sort of requirement to be fulfilled, it limits players to actually earning access, and reduces the flood of trash that will inevitably hang around just for the sake of being there.

It is by no means an anti-RMT measure, but it is an RMT-deterrent, they have to do more work to get access to what Ishgard has to offer (no rank 10 Lala trains earning gil through Ishgard content).

AFKers would inevitably build up over time, but it would be far less if people had to rank up and actually do something to get Ishgard. You won't have r20 players and people's mules running to Ishgard thinking "I'll just AFK here since this is new content and everyone will be here".

Do you understand yet?

I dont know about that. Making an introductory quest to know more details about the city? sure, but a rank requirement in an area that already anyone of any rank has access to (Coerthas) does not sound good. The city itself, would be opened to anyone, but the content the city leads to, that would be rank restricted. The amount of high level content jeuno has is staggering and anyone from lv 1 to 75 has free access to the city, not the actual content.

[Delsus]

It's not the fact that it's a city, it's the ACCESS to boundless content that comes with it. That is something to be unlocked, not just handed over, that's why it's like Sea/Sky.

This is going to be a lot bigger than just another Jeuno. Jeuno/Whitegate are the way they are due to the convenience of a central AH, nothing more. Ishgard may or may not even have it's own market wards, that is IRRELEVANT.

Making access super easy with no effort required only invites everyone (and I do mean everyone) to literally pick up from Ul'dah and move to Ishgard. This is unacceptable. By forcing some sort of requirement to be fulfilled, it limits players to actually earning access, and reduces the flood of trash that will inevitably hang around just for the sake of being there.

It is by no means an anti-RMT measure, but it is an RMT-deterrent, they have to do more work to get access to what Ishgard has to offer (no rank 10 Lala trains earning gil through Ishgard content).

AFKers would inevitably build up over time, but it would be far less if people had to rank up and actually do something to get Ishgard. You won't have r20 players and people's mules running to Ishgard thinking "I'll just AFK here since this is new content and everyone will be here".

Do you understand yet?

They can have requirements on the content, but anyone can go there, remember the quest for access to aht urgan, remember how many rmt teleport mules were there? remember how many level 1 mules were bazaaring imperial silver pieces, quests do not deter RMT or afk mules, lets think about this rationally, if everyone moves to Ishgard, how will RMT mules and afk mules sell thier things, oh yeah take less than 1hr to get access, when Ishgard opens for abit atleast Uldah will be almost dead so nothing will sell there making it more that worth it to get mules access, why not even make a party with all your mules and get it done at the same time, no time lost.

[AlexNiculaie]

It's not the fact that it's a city, it's the ACCESS to boundless content that comes with it. That is something to be unlocked, not just handed over, that's why it's like Sea/Sky.

This is going to be a lot bigger than just another Jeuno. Jeuno/Whitegate are the way they are due to the convenience of a central AH, nothing more. Ishgard may or may not even have it's own market wards, that is IRRELEVANT

Wow, that's a lot of baseless speculation on which to base restrictions on. Just what "boundless content" are you referring to? Just what makes you think it will be "bigger than just another Jeuno?" I'll have to agree with Delsus in that there will probably be high level required content in the city, but nothing seems to suggest that only high levels will be able to enter and walk around the city.

[Zanfire]

it really seems like our Jeuno. For them to ristrict it would be stupid. They would be smart to handle it like jeuno...a more centralized area that leads on twords higher leveled zones, a gathering place for higher levels, story content leading up to having you go there...ect.

[Chione]

You can't honestly believe they're going to just GIVE YOU Ishgard, can you?

Considering I paid full price pre-order on my FFXIV collector's edition... I don't think I'm being given anything in this game.

I don't think anything should stop folks from entering Ishgard when it opens except for the sizable expanse of Coerthas and the Black Shroud that that must be traveled through to get there - if they haven't already.

Honestly, If AFK players bother you that much, perhaps you shouldn't be spending your time in cities at all. :/

[Biggs]

im pretty sure that they are not going to start charging after 1.20....they would be stupid to do so and it would pretty much destroy the game. Until the ps3 release i would expect it to stay free. And i wouldnt expect the ps3 version until things like the job system/world re-design changes are done with.

To be honest, I can't see them charging until they fix the maps, which they said would take the longest.

[Biggs]

it really seems like our Jeuno. For them to ristrict it would be stupid. They would be smart to handle it like jeuno...a more centralized area that leads on twords higher leveled zones, a gathering place for higher levels, story content leading up to having you go there...ect.

I think everyone should get comfortable with the fact that they prob wont be opening Ishgard until the Ps3 release. I say this because its what they did in XI with Jueno. In order to avoid congestion in the main 3 cities with the influx of new players from the console base, opening Ishgard will move all of the higher level players from their home towns out to Ishgard, which then free's up space for the new people to get comfortable with the cities.