Live letter fail

[Jennestia]

Are people seriously complaining about a dev team telling us any nuggets of information? Really?

Welcome to the community, there's punch and cake on the table to the left -- Sadly people continually complained that the punch was tropical punch and the cake was ice cream cake.

[Sephrick]

Welcome to the community, there's punch and cake on the table to the left -- Sadly people continually complained that the punch was tropical punch and the cake was ice cream cake.

Comparatively, it's like they told us there'd be soda and cake accept the soda was flat and the cake was moldy.

In other words, the live letter was stale!

I've said it a dozen times and I'll say it a dozen more: they spent 10 or so interviews hyping 2.0, this was their chance to speak to the core of players who already play the game about what's going to change over the next year in a game they already enjoy.

[Delsus]

Comparatively, it's like they told us there'd be soda and cake accept the soda was flat and the cake was moldy.

In other words, the live letter was stale!

I've said it a dozen times and I'll say it a dozen more: they spent 10 or so interviews hyping 2.0, this was their chance to speak to the core of players who already play the game about what's going to change over the next year in a game they already enjoy.

I'll tell you exactly whats changing in the next year EVERYTHING, the 7th umbral era is going to shake the very foundations of Eorzea, the primal fights are 7th umbral era content as well, if they told you everything they want to change in the next year, well the live letter would have been about 24hrs long. which is why they pick the questions they answer.

[Sephrick]

I'll tell you exactly whats changing in the next year EVERYTHING, the 7th umbral era is going to shake the very foundations of Eorzea, the primal fights are 7th umbral era content as well, if they told you everything they want to change in the next year, well the live letter would have been about 24hrs long. which is why they pick the questions they answer.

Again, Yoshida circled the globe talking about 2.0. This was said to be a retrospective on 1.19 and a look forward at 1.20 with the notion that he's speaking to the current playerbase who spent weeks dropping questions on a 60-page official thread.

That's great, everything is changing in 2.0 and we're playing that story.

Will bard mean that archers never shoot a single arrow in endgame?
Will shield gladiators ever parry?
What's up with that insta-synth crafting for NQ/ minigame for HQ business he mentioned? How will it differ from Hasty Hand?
How will class changes alter/balance things?
What are the DoL treasure maps?
How many more recipes are coming?
Is anything being done about gaining exp in the final 10 levels of DoLs?
How is Thm/Blm going to be balanced against melee DDs?
Is beating Ifrit/Moogle/Garuda mandatory for progressing in pre-2.0 story content or are they ends of individual roads?
Are there methods planned to buy Crysta direct from SE without a third party involved?
What kinds of Materia are being considered for addition?
Any plans on changing the success rate of additional materia or changing it to depend on item condition and materia grade?
How about that "any DoH can repair anything" notion mentioned in a previous interview?
Any plans to allow any DoH to meld materia onto any item (seeing as how melding is done with a special universal key item and not the tools of the trade)?
Are future primal battles being designed with the severe server latency in mind since it can't be fixed till 2.0?
What's up with that party search feature?
What's up with the linkshell management function?
How bout those Alchemy changes?
How bout those Cooking changes?
What Action House "features" are coming prior to 2.0 and how will the affect the current ward system?
What kind of balancing is being done to leves?
What ever happened to that notion of recharging Guardian Aspect by logging off in a specific area?
Stealth is great, but what about those 51+ mobs that like to sit on nodes like the raptors in Glory?
Any improvements coming for targeting, especially since Stronghold bosses require more than one party and, thus, cross-party healing?
Any word on the relationship between U/U items and conversion?
Will hamlet defense be open world or instanced? GC or general? Capped participation on a timer or open to all?
Does the dev team still consider GC seal acquisition rate ideal?
DoH guilds offer crystals, can shards be added given that DoHs need to do a drastinc number of synths to level up?
When will DoH guild mark abilities be removed?
When will DoH leves use current recipes?
Any plans to adjust the distribution of DoH leves?
Any plans to allow DoLs more than two leves per trip?
Are the battle algorithms complete or is there more to be done?


Just a few additional topics off the top of my head that will impact current players which are far more pressing matters than what we recieved. But what did we get? Half-developed jump, undecorated mog house interior, 2.0 UI rehash, wireframe models of potential mounts and a priimal battle cutscene spoiler.

Not an effective use of 90 minutes. I didn't expect a step-by-step plan of the next 14 months, just some stuff that was a little more current.

[Delsus]

Again, Yoshida circled the globe talking about 2.0. This was said to be a retrospective on 1.19 and a look forward at 1.20 with the notion that he's speaking to the current playerbase who spent weeks dropping questions on a 60-page official thread.

That's great, everything is changing in 2.0 and we're playing that story.

Will bard mean that archers never shoot a single arrow in endgame?

That will be up to the players basicly, we all know they get a bowharp that transforms, so they will have the ability, but if they players dont want it doing it wont.

Will shield gladiators ever parry?

I expect its coming in the class balancing.

What's up with that insta-synth crafting for NQ/ minigame for HQ business he mentioned? How will it differ from Hasty Hand?

Could have just been I missed somthing but this is the first I heard of it, but it could easily mean the end of hasty hand

How will class changes alter/balance things?

These will add to having multiple classes to do all events, but with thier own little quirks, currently its ARC only for DH and LNC only for Ifrit

What are the DoL treasure maps?

You really need to know this they are maps that tell DoL where treasure is, 99% certain gathering points

How many more recipes are coming?

1652198329868240389472834732048276, is that enough for you? the number of recipies doesnt really matter

Is anything being done about gaining exp in the final 10 levels of DoLs?

Class balancing will probably address this, but I havent seen many people complain

How is Thm/Blm going to be balanced against melee DDs?

BLM always does more damage because they have a finite amount of MP, also the higher MP a spell does usually it does more damage for DD spells

Is beating Ifrit/Moogle/Garuda mandatory for progressing in pre-2.0 story content or are they ends of individual roads?

Will new players after the launch of 2.0 be able to play the current scenario? Also, how about the Instance raid? How about the Primal battles? Also, you said something along the lines of "fights with current adventures will be engraved.” What does that mean?
A: As for the main scenario, yes it will be possible, as it will be different from Seventh Umbral Era. As for the Primal battles, it will be taking place in Seventh Umbral era, so it may be only possible to challenge now. Anyway, in order to play everything you have to play as it goes on now.
From the live letter, therefore obviously not or people cant start again after 2.0

Are there methods planned to buy Crysta direct from SE without a third party involved?

They are changing the payment options because players dont want to use C&B

What kinds of Materia are being considered for addition?

You really want to be spoon fed everything, think stats, and anything else that can be influanced by gear

Any plans on changing the success rate of additional materia or changing it to depend on item condition and materia grade?

Yoshi-p said before materia was released he wanted it to be a big risk to use forbidden materia

How about that "any DoH can repair anything" notion mentioned in a previous interview?

Any plans to allow any DoH to meld materia onto any item (seeing as how melding is done with a special universal key item and not the tools of the trade)?

Are future primal battles being designed with the severe server latency in mind since it can't be fixed till 2.0?

There probably being designed like the content we have had up to now

What's up with that party search feature?

[b]I believe that was said to be in 1.20 or 1.21
What's up with the linkshell management function?

How bout those Alchemy changes?

How bout those Cooking changes?

What Action House "features" are coming prior to 2.0 and how will the affect the current ward system?

An AH is coming, well probably buying from the item search, so they will be the same system

What kind of balancing is being done to leves?

What needs to be done

What ever happened to that notion of recharging Guardian Aspect by logging off in a specific area?

Never heard that before source please

Stealth is great, but what about those 51+ mobs that like to sit on nodes like the raptors in Glory?

Reps said this is being looked into

Any improvements coming for targeting, especially since Stronghold bosses require more than one party and, thus, cross-party healing?

Any word on the relationship between U/U items and conversion?
Will hamlet defense be open world or instanced? GC or general? Capped participation on a timer or open to all?

Well hamlets are in the open world, and its about the 7th umbral so GC probably

Does the dev team still consider GC seal acquisition rate ideal?

Appart from the low leve rewards there fine, just increase the GC leves a little, but not too much

DoH guilds offer crystals, can shards be added given that DoHs need to do a drastinc number of synths to level up?

MWs and get people that can break them down simples

When will DoH guild mark abilities be removed?

When the rest get removed

When will DoH leves use current recipes?

They changed most of em because you cant get some of the mats that were needed in the old ones now

Any plans to adjust the distribution of DoH leves?

Explination please

Any plans to allow DoLs more than two leves per trip?

Are the battle algorithms complete or is there more to be done?

I think they are supposed to be complete, but some changes may be done to to bring it up a little bit, because it seems broken atm

Just a few additional topics off the top of my head that will impact current players which are far more pressing matters than what we recieved. But what did we get? Half-developed jump, undecorated mog house interior, 2.0 UI rehash, wireframe models of potential mounts and a priimal battle cutscene spoiler.

Not an effective use of 90 minutes. I didn't expect a step-by-step plan of the next 14 months, just some stuff that was a little more current.

Answering some of these in the quote cos i cant be bothered to break it up.

Most of were easy to answer, some you worded badly and I would need more information about whats wrong, and some I do agree we could have some info about.

[Sephrick]

Answering some of these in the quote cos i cant be bothered to break it up.

Most of were easy to answer, some you worded badly and I would need more information about whats wrong, and some I do agree we could have some info about.

Nothing of what you said extends beyond "wait and see." All you're doing is reaffirming the fact that we know as much as what I asked and then attempt to respond to it with guesses.

Will bard mean that archers never shoot a single arrow in endgame?

That will be up to the players basicly, we all know they get a bowharp that transforms, so they will have the ability, but if they players dont want it doing it wont.

It won't be up to the players if the "bowharp" is a bow for archers and a harp for bards. Which is why we need clarification. People love archer, but if they're destined to only sing post-1.21 I'm sure they'd like to know that now as opposed to six months from now.

Additionally, what happens to all those bows 30+ that aren't "bowharps?" Will they be trash? Archers still will be used outside of endgame, but it'd naturally be wiser to have a bowharp over just a stand alone bow.

Will shield gladiators ever parry?

I expect its coming in the class balancing.

You expect it. I expect it. Only SE knows for sure. Maybe it's working as intended. Which is why it should be touched upon.

What's up with that insta-synth crafting for NQ/ minigame for HQ business he mentioned? How will it differ from Hasty Hand?

Could have just been I missed somthing but this is the first I heard of it, but it could easily mean the end of hasty hand

Sonomaa (BG): What are you planning on doing about the monotonous crafting mechanics? People literally sit and press enter for hours on end. Why was this specific crafting style chosen over something simplistic and automatic ala World of Warcraft? I hate to keep going back to World of Warcraft, but they're winning.

Square-Enix: It's a matter of priority so far. For the past 10 months, we prioritized all of the things we thought we needed to get fixed first. On the top of that list: UI, Battle System. Also, Content, where the content was based on Guildleves. So, over the past 10 months, it has been fixing the things that needed fixes and adding more content. With the Crafting System, again, we prioritized what needed to be fixed first. The first thing that needed to be fixed was that the Recipe System was way too complex - way too many ingredients, way too many steps to get to your final product. Something that was way too difficult for the novice player to get into. You would have to be hardcore if you wanted to make something. So getting those things fixed first was our priority.

[Yoshida speaks more]

And he's going on more; it's the amount of materials you needed. It wasn't just pressing Enter, it was having to get ALL of these materials before pressing Enter. And so the next step, which we hope to do really soon, is now shorten the number of steps to actually do the crafting. Instead of, you know, sitting down, doing the thing, standing up, getting your stuff, etc. Consolidate all of it and cut down on the steps is the next step being taken.

And one of the things we're planning is two different crafting systems. One that's very simplified and that you're going just for the item you need without having to worry about High Quality, with a small chance of High Quality. Then there's the other system, where it will take more time and effort, but the chance of getting that High Quality item will become higher. So the people who want to spend more time and do it carefully will have the higher chance of a High Quality, and then the people who want to get it done, they have the consolidated system.

So there's an insta-craft and an HQ minigame. But how does that affect exp? As we know now, Hasty Hand halves exp. So since they're essentially removing the minigame and the chance of breaks, does this mean exp will be nerfed?

How will class changes alter/balance things?

These will add to having multiple classes to do all events, but with thier own little quirks, currently its ARC only for DH and LNC only for Ifrit

Wow, I should just come to you whenever I need some info. How will they alter/balance classes?

"They'll alter and balance them."

How couldn't I see that?!?

What are the DoL treasure maps?

You really need to know this they are maps that tell DoL where treasure is, 99% certain gathering points

Again, no kidding. But are we talking DoL leve level treasure where you get a half stack of blue cheese and a handful of Gil? Will other classes care we can find these maps and chests? No specifics needed but just in general what are the purpose of these maps and their chests? Obviously to find treaure, but how do they affect the rest of the game world?

How many more recipes are coming?

1652198329868240389472834732048276, is that enough for you? the number of recipies doesnt really matter

It does when you're trying to adhere to the new gear system and can't put proper gear on. Been leveling a lot of DoH and DoL classes through the 20s and 30s lately and have found that there's a significant lack of gear 25-35.

I've been using pants from the teens because there's nothing with pertinent stats.

"How many more" would give us a general idea of how far along we are into the number of new recipes as the old ones are phased out. I was just trying to be general so people wouldn't single this question out and say "omg, they won't give us specifics, waa waa, wine with cheese blah blah."

But you did anyway, so thanks.

Is anything being done about gaining exp in the final 10 levels of DoLs?

Class balancing will probably address this, but I havent seen many people complain

I have. It's one of the few complaints about DoL. Even DoH has 51-60 recipes now, but DoL is stuck grinding. Imagine if battle classes had to do their last 10 levels on level 45 mobs. That's essentially how it has been described. Thankfully, with the changes to gathering there's no point in being higher than 40 anyway.

How is Thm/Blm going to be balanced against melee DDs?

BLM always does more damage because they have a finite amount of MP, also the higher MP a spell does usually it does more damage for DD spells

Well, with the new battle algorithms, spell damage generally blows. I hear Ancient Magic is getting some love, but that's six spells out of how many.

Plus DoTs enfeebs are a joke. They're a mage's true auto attack. Where melees have auto attack and weapon skills, mages have DoTs and nukes. But DoTs last for mere seconds. Basically, most of what thaumaturges/black mages may get isn't worth casting.

Plus, now that CNJ/WHM will be the healer, THM/BLM essentially needs to keep the pace with AoE spam fests to not be the same "lol" status as XI BLM circa 2006-2010.

Is beating Ifrit/Moogle/Garuda mandatory for progressing in pre-2.0 story content or are they ends of individual roads?

Will new players after the launch of 2.0 be able to play the current scenario? Also, how about the Instance raid? How about the Primal battles? Also, you said something along the lines of "fights with current adventures will be engraved.” What does that mean?
A: As for the main scenario, yes it will be possible, as it will be different from Seventh Umbral Era. As for the Primal battles, it will be taking place in Seventh Umbral era, so it may be only possible to challenge now. Anyway, in order to play everything you have to play as it goes on now.

From the live letter, therefore obviously not or people cant start again after 2.0

Well, chief, the key item in my question was pre. Pre-2.0. Meaning before.

Will we have to beat Ifrit to proceed in the Grand Company quests that lead to Dark Moogle, or will Dark Moogle be its own series of quests?

We know that the Seventh Umbral Era will change everything. And that 2.0 is a clean slate story-wise. But before that. And, again, -- because I need to clairfy every time or someone derps out and jumps on it -- I'm not saying we need specifics. It'd just be nice to know how much urgency there is to beat this stuff.

Basically if they're all seperate stories, then cool. I'll do them all at my leisure.

But if we have to beat Ifrit to fight Dark Moogle who must be defeated to fight Garuda who must be defeated to fight the final big battle, well then I'm going to try and do these battles a little more frequently till victory is attained.

In a normal MMO world, it wouldn't need to be asked. But we only have a year to complete this stuff as is. It's just a unique circumstance that deserves clarification.

Are there methods planned to buy Crysta direct from SE without a third party involved?

They are changing the payment options because players dont want to use C&B

They said months ago that they're changing payment methods. That's what prompted the question. But the fact is we're now about a month away from having to choose to give them money and there's still no word on what the new payment methods are.

If my only choice is to use a third party to pay SE, I'd like to research who I'm giving my information to. I take my Internet security very seriously. I have an awesome credit score and don't want to chance it on anything. I'm an existentialist when it comes to my money, so I'm just very proactive when it comes to this. I know some people will toss their credit/debit card numbers in any old site, but this is one of the more serious questions. Especially since I spent seven years giving money directly to SE without Crysta or Click and Buy or Pay Pal or Gamer Cards. Just good old fansion EFT right to the people providing me with a service. I'm confused why that method had to go.

From a business standpoint, I guess I can understand. People don't see Crysta as money. They forget its value. Someone might not buy a plush moogle for $30, but "3,000 Crysta" might seem like a "reasonable price" even if it's the equivalent of $30.

That's a tangent though. tl,dr: I take my online security serious and would appreciate being able to learn who my money and information is going to.

What kinds of Materia are being considered for addition?

You really want to be spoon fed everything, think stats, and anything else that can be influanced by gear

Again, for the millionth time. We don't need details. Just a little more teaser info. "Accuracy + Dex"? "Accuracy + Str"? "Craftsmanship + Magic Craftsmanship"?

The possibilities are endless. It'd be nice to be able to plan a little since the system still is in development.

Any plans on changing the success rate of additional materia or changing it to depend on item condition and materia grade?

Yoshi-p said before materia was released he wanted it to be a big risk to use forbidden materia

Accept no one is risking it. I've yet to see a piece of gear with more than one piece of materia on it. Items just cost too much because of how difficult boring it is leveling DoHs. There's so few crafters that people are charging absorbent prices for gear and materia. It's awesome seeing 2 mil+ explode because you tried to attach a second materia. 25% is kind of a steep risk for the price. So if there's no plans to change the risk, what are they planning to do about the high prices of gear? Obviously that's the other side of the coin. People will be more willing to take the risk if it doesn't cost them so damn much to buy the items in the first place.

Are future primal battles being designed with the severe server latency in mind since it can't be fixed till 2.0?

There probably being designed like the content we have had up to now

"Probably." Which is to say, you don't know but you're going to assume anyway.

They obviously had no clue how bad it was, or they wouldn't have found out via interview questions on their little Tour de 2.0. So it's a reasonable question. Now that they know that people far from their servers are getting destroyed by latency -- a latency they can't fix till 2.0 -- are they at least designing around the issue?

What's up with that party search feature?

I believe that was said to be in 1.20 or 1.21

Just like the majority of the other issues I mentioned in my posts. It was just an example of what they should have talked about.

What Action House "features" are coming prior to 2.0 and how will the affect the current ward system?

An AH is coming, well probably buying from the item search, so they will be the same system

Obviously. But what "AH" features are coming? Is a price history the extent of it, or will be be able to buy/sell from the search menu. If so, why are they even keeping the wards? Nix them, make it an AH and free up some server space by getting rid of a few thousand NPCs per server.

What kind of balancing is being done to leves?

What needs to be done

It's been mentioned that some leves are impossible to complete solo. Given that leves are now to be a solo endeavor. They respond by saying "we're aware of it and working on it." Just another thing they could have updated.

What ever happened to that notion of recharging Guardian Aspect by logging off in a specific area?

Never heard that before source please

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post356556

【その他】
・神符をもっと神聖なものにしたい　1.19にリーブ改修に合わせて今後何かしら検討したい
・たとえば、都市国家の宿屋で祈りポーズでログアウトすると次回ログイン時に神符をえられる、などのゲームらしい部分も作っていきたい
・グラパンリーブは他のギルドリーブと同じ枠で、最大９９枠の中にストック可能
・アイテム名でのリテイナーサーチ実装予定
Other
- Want to make guardian aspect more sacred, with leve changes in 1.19 would like to look into this one
- For example add a game like feature where in each country inn go into /pray pose and logging out and when coming back gaining more guardian aspect
- Grand Company Leve can be stacked till 99 just like guild leve's
- planning to be able to item search in the retainer search.

Especially now that leves stack to 99, GA is gone and, once depleted, gone for good mostly.

This is just a prime example that with all these questions, I'm not hating on the game or trolling. I've soaked up every little nugget of information. I've read all the interviews.

I love this game.

I'm just bummed that they seem to be trying to pull slight-of-hand and jiggling the shiney 2.0 stuff in our face like a carrot on a stick while they slowly implement things to the game that will make more sense when 2.0 is out.

Stealth is great, but what about those 51+ mobs that like to sit on nodes like the raptors in Glory?

Reps said this is being looked into

As they did most of the things I'm mentioning. A live letter would be a good time for a status update on things meant for 1.20-1.23. If there's no update then there's no update. But they have to have made some progress on 1.20, right? I mean, it was Yoshida who said quality assurance is two weeks long. So 1.20 is internally finalized and just has to have the bugs worked on. So even if there are some major bugs that make things miss 1.20, at least we'll have some info about whatever the item is and know it's coming within the next three version updates.

Any improvements coming for targeting, especially since Stronghold bosses require more than one party and, thus, cross-party healing?

Any word on the relationship between U/U items and conversion?
Will hamlet defense be open world or instanced? GC or general? Capped participation on a timer or open to all?


Well hamlets are in the open world, and its about the 7th umbral so GC probably

Doesn't mean that they can't just have you take to a "defense warden" which kicks you into an instance. And who said hamlet defense have anything to do with the Seventh Umbral Era?

It's only been described as possibly Beastmen attacking. For all we know they could be coming to steal supplies just for shits and giggles.

Does the dev team still consider GC seal acquisition rate ideal?

Appart from the low leve rewards there fine, just increase the GC leves a little, but not too much

So you're saying it's fine but they need to increase it? Thanks for agreeing and disagreeing with me in the same sentence.

DoH guilds offer crystals, can shards be added given that DoHs need to do a drastic number of synths to level up?

MWs and get people that can break them down simples

Well, the reason I ask is because the recipes being phased out relied heavily on crystals. Now shards are the prime item. Just wondering, wouldn't hurt to have found out.

DoHs already have to gather so much. I spent four hours gathering for every level and a half on my weaver from 28-34. Only reason I stopped is because I ran out of lightning shards.

I really don't want to have to level Fisher and Alchemy to be able to level my other DoHs. I'd just buy the shards but they run about 150-200k for 999. At 34 weaver that about 333 synths or about 100k exp. What other classes aside from DoH have that kind of exp per Gil return? Even Archer is cheaper than that since three synths make 999 arrows.

When will DoH guild mark abilities be removed?

When the rest get removed

"It'll happen when it happens."

Great. Again, it'd be nice to have an estimate from SE. If they're staying till 1.23 I'll put some effort into obtaining them so I can complete certain leves with a little more ease. If they're going out in 1.20 I'd rather not waste my time.

When will DoH leves use current recipes?

They changed most of em because you cant get some of the mats that were needed in the old ones now

They haven't changed any. DoH leves make dated items. None of which require you to already have the items in advance. But the difficulty of some of these is ridiculous under the new system.

I think you're confusing leves with quests.

Any plans to adjust the distribution of DoH leves?

Explination please

Have you done any DoH leves, becuase it's starting to seem like you haven't.

DoH leves are random. You have three categories from which to choose: Level 1, Level 20 and Level 40. Say you're a 26 Carpenter and you want to do some leves. You select the Level 20. This is where it gets crazy. Sometimes there are leves. Sometimes there aren't. Sometimes theres six, others there's just one. Sometimes their requested item is level 20, others it's 35+.

It's been suggested by many people that it should be broken down to five level intervals with static leves that always are available. This would solve the shards issue without having to inject more into the system.

It's just that DoHs can't really plan to use leves like the other classes.

Are the battle algorithms complete or is there more to be done?


I think they are supposed to be complete, but some changes may be done to to bring it up a little bit, because it seems broken atm

You think. But enmity is wacked. Curing is a spamfest whilst trying to keep the pace. Block rates are dismal. Evasion tanking -- part of what a Pug is supposed to do -- is impossible.

There's a lot still wrong with the way battle go. It seems like they're designed encounters that are intended for changes farther down the line. It'd be nice to know if they're going to tighten things up in 1.20 or if we have to wait till jobs in 1.21 for the algorithms to make sense.