Translations (JP to English)

[Rane]

Regarding the timing of the map changes, I think one of the most enlightening pieces of information I've read about it was in a post that Yoshida made in June of this year. In it, he referred to the area redesign as a 年単位の作業 (nentan'i no sagyou). "Sagyou" usually translates to "work" or "operation", but most native English speakers would probably use the word "project" in this case. "Nentan'i", however, causes trouble, because there's no real English equivalent that I can think of. I believe Rein translated it as "long term", which is probably about as good a translation as you can get.

Just because we don't have a word for it doesn't mean we can't get at what it means, however. "Nentan'i", literally translated, breaks down to "year unit". So (if we were to use weird and misleading English), Yoshida called the map redesign a "year unit project". The usage of the term "nentan'i" suggests that when all is said and done, the length of this project will be measured in years.

Please don't jump to conclusions yet, however. Beyond the actual meaning of the word, what's more important is what time frames it suggests. I speak Japanese, but I learned it as a second language, so I make mistakes, and there are all sorts of words I don't know. I had never heard a length of time referred to as "nentan'i" before, so I asked my wife, who is Japanese, to take a look at the post. "Nentan'i", she said, could indicate that the project will take anywhere from just under a year to three or even four years.

However, next you need to consider the position Yoshida is in, the audience he was talking to (us), and what would be considered a reasonable time frame in which to complete the ongoing revamp of FFXIV. The FFXIV team doesn't have three or four years (starting in June 2011) to finish repairing this game. That much is obvious. And Yoshida is talking directly to his consumer base, who is chomping at the bit to get out and experience the new Eorzea. So his usage of "nentan'i", while vague, indicates the following:

1) If the map redesign is completed in under one year (counting from June of 2011), it would be faster than expected. People would be really happy.

2) If the map redesign takes a year and a few months, it would be par for the course. Expectations would be met.

3) If the map redesign takes two years or more, people would be really disappointed. If Yoshida had thought the map redesign would take THIS long, he probably wouldn't have chosen the word "nentan'i".

Again, this "analysis" comes from my wife, not me. Taking what Yoshida said into account, however, I'm guessing that the area redesign will hit sometime before Christmas of 2012. That's a really rough estimate, but I'd bet that they'd want to get the areas done and push the PS3 version out the door in time for the holidays (of 2012), hoping to breathe new life into the game when people pick it up for Christmas. In the same post Yoshida referred to the area redesign as the greatest, most large-scale change coming in the "revamping" of FFXIV. (He includes the system in which players move from city to city as their level increases, eventually choosing a "base city" as being paired with the area redesign.) So it will probably be one of the last things we get before our game finally comes out of "beta"

I'll go ahead and add the post I'm quoting in a spoiler at the bottom of this message. It's all in Japanese, but for those who are interested, 年単位の作業 (nentan'i no sagyou) can be found midway through the fifth paragraph. His reference to the redesign being the most large-scale change in the FFXIV revamp can be found in paragraph seven.

Anyway, I hope that the guesswork in this post become irrelevant soon. Yoshida said he'd be talking about the map and server issues sometime after 1.19 goes live, so with any luck he'll give us a rough time frame to set our expectations to.

FFXIVプロデューサ/ディレクタの吉田です。
少しパッチ1.18の作業も落ち着いてきたので、ポストさせて頂きますね。

この3国の過疎問題は、吉田も非常に大きな問題と認識しています。
皆さんが挙げて頂いているように、都市そのものの利便性、周辺コンテンツの有用性が
そうさせているものと思います。

これを調整するためには
「ウルダハの利便性を下げるのではなく、他の2国の利便性を上げる」
「それぞれの国の特色（=コンテンツ,ギルドの調整）を出して調整する」
の2つの要素が必要になります。

ただし、3国独自のコンテンツ実装は、やはりバトルが絡むものが多くなり、
かつ、MAPそのものの改修とも切り離せません。
場当たり的にウルダハの利便性を下げることだけは絶対にしたくありませんので、
（結果的に全部利便性が悪くなる、皆さんに不利益しかない）
かなり時間をかけさせて頂くことになります。

全マップの改修でもREPを通じて回答させて頂いていますが、
3国の都市を含め、全MAPの「根本的なテコ入れ」は既に計画して、
仕様の作成も終わっています。年単位の作業になりますが、
必ず実施しますので、そのタイミングに合わせて3国バランスも
根本調整を行います。

その際、3国はランク50に至るまでは、ランクに従って拠点とする都市を変え、
ランク35-40辺りで、それぞれの国の特徴に従い、プレイするコンテンツにより、
拠点をチョイスするという方針で導線を設計してます。

かなり長期プランにはなりますが、特に重要と認識していますので、
FFXIV立て直しの最も規模の大きな改修ポイントとお考えください。

最後に3国の飛空挺移動（実MAP上を飛行するシステムではないです）はMAP大改修前になんとかします！
パッチ1.19に間に合うよう、頑張りますので、今しばらくお待ちください！

[Aenarion]

Regarding the timing of the map changes, I think one of the most enlightening pieces of information I've read about it was in a post that Yoshida made in June of this year. In it, he referred to the area redesign as a 年単位の作業 (nentan'i no sagyou). "Sagyou" usually translates to "work" or "operation", but most native English speakers would probably use the word "project" in this case. "Nentan'i", however, causes trouble, because there's no real English equivalent that I can think of. I believe Rein translated it as "long term", which is probably about as good a translation as you can get.

roughly translated, that means year-unit, as in the project is something that progress on a yearly basis.