Ask Questions for Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXV! (Item Team Lead Hayashi)

[EveK]

Even brand new items are still plagued by engine problems that have existed since launch. What are your thoughts on when an overhaul of equipment models will take place? Even new armor like the level 60 paladin chest armor just uses the model of a basic robe for the skirt in the back, for example. And this model has never been properly built for all race/gender combinations (Midlander female feet clip with it when running, for example). I am aware that the answer has historically been that fixing pre-existing equipment is not viewed as important as introducing new equipment, but the issue here is actually framework used by ALL equipment, new and old. And as technology advances and what are today's high-end systems become more commonplace, there is the inevitable advent of a system with optional more robust physics that allow, for instance, a staff on a mage's back to actually interact with her hat and push one aside rather than going through the other.

[Enthy]

Could we have a Glamour Catalog or an NPC that would at least save the appearance of the gear we obtain? I think it would be really fun to collect them all.

[Nymeria2x]

Considering all of the new housing items constantly being added even as event rewards, SE advertising player housing " for everyone" as a big draw for new players, as well as the fact that there are only enough houses per server for only about 1-2% of the server population without counting FC's. Taking away unused houses still only allows for the small 1-2% plus FC's to compete for a house. No matter how many times houses are repossessed, over 95% of your player base will remain homeless with absolutely no way to use the housing items they get or the chocobo stable to help train or dye their chocobos. There's also the PR standpoint. Players who worked hard to gain a house and paid the millions in gil to purchase and build their house will lose it if for whatever reason they are absent from the game for an extended period. There are people who get sick, get injured, have financial crisis, people who deploy for months at a time, have their equipment breakdown and they have to save up for a new computer or gaming system, people who take a break from the game so they can focus on school, or the people who just get burnt out and take a break so they can refresh themselves before diving back into the game. For a player who worked hard for their items and housing, to come back after having an extended time away from the game and they discover that all their hard work has been stripped from them. It will be a PR nightmare with players unsubbing like crazy out of anger for being swindled out of all that work.

Taking all of this into consideration, how on earth does SE possibly hope to fix this so that all players have a realistic ability to gain housing without having to worry about being stripped of their hard work if real life forces them away from the game for a time?

[Nymeria2x]

Will there ever be a solution for this such as a Glamour Armoire or a Glamour Book where we can "register" cosmetic items without using inventory space?

I really like this idea. Kind of like cataloging all of the glamours you've "unlocked". Wildstar has a system kind of like that where you can unlock a costume set either by finding the gear or by paying for it through their ingame store. You get a certain number of costume slots and can buy more slots. You just save an unlocked set to a costume slot and can switch between them with a click of a button. Something like that where the glamour prisms act as reagent for either unlocking the set or for using the set when you want to change glamours would be really awesome.

[Nymeria2x]

Will there be an overhaul to the glamour system? It seems a waste to have so many grades of prisms - and if inventory is at a premium, it makes sense to overhaul this somehow.

Especially since its the exact same recipe to make all the different grades of prisms.

[DeviFoxx]

The "Orchestrion" item that allows players to have a Jukebox-like furniture inside their Free Company / Personal Houses to play music from the game inside one's own personal space. Yoshi-P mentioned working on it before, a few Live Letters back. Is that still in the works?

[Nymeria2x]

will we see sub weapon slot items for jobs that do not use shields? such as ammo for brd/mch which adds a chance to infict an enfeeble but does not add additional damage

I dunno about ammo or a coating, just too many possibilities so we'd end up carrying 15 different kinds of ammo so we could switch depending on the fight. Maybe something like a quiver/ammo belt or a scope for stats

[DeviFoxx]

I have to maintain all four of my Free Company's airships, and it's like pulling teeth to get them to go out on a gathering class and farm up some Dark Matter Clusters just so I can make Airship Repair Materials to fix the ships. All I want to do is fix the Airships with minimal fuss. Will there be an easier way to obtain these other than unspoiled nodes? Like an NPC or something--similar to what was done with the Broom items needed to clean up the Chocobo Stables?

[Friske]

In regards to itemisation, are there any current plans to implement additional secondary stats other than the ones currently in the game? If not, would you consider it in the future?

[DeviFoxx]

Grinding out alternate jobs to Lv. 60 from level 50 is extremely grueling and time-consuming with the amount of EXP required. Have you considered making an item similar to the Grand Company's Engineering / Field Manuals for Battle Classes to use to make the grind a little bit less grueling on players with limited time?