Interview - Cost, Hiring, FT, Hardcore and Casual, Ultimate, Cosmic, Future of FFXIV

[Exmo]

I want to believe it can be pulled off somehow as several other Final Fantasy games on PC right now have toggles that can make the game easier or harder at a player's choice, and even within this game we have things like MINE and unsync.

It's just that, while there are options to allow players to adjust the difficulty of things within FF14, they're very limited in scope, and certain mechanics and entire modes aren't affected at all.

They dipped their toes into allowing players to decide which variable mechanics they'd have in a boss fight through variable dungeons. That was likely to sample how players would feel if allowed to choose mechanics based on preference, without difficulty being an impactful factor. People were generally satisfied with the result.

[Valence]

Is there evidence of this somewhere? They deck them out with every insurance and company perk imaginable.

You mean like Ubisoft and a lot of other big companies? They flaunt those big buildings with amenities, creches, gym rooms, etc when they post their recruitment ads, and then you look at what actually matters like the salary, the social benefits and working conditions and it's enough to make Marx turn in his grave.

Like, I don't know how it is at SE's, but not gonna lie they'll never make me believe they aren't crunching like crazy when you hear the leads talk about how they're always crawling under work.

[Asari5]

there is a convenient language called english. a lot of people use it to communicate with each other...

i know its not as easy as it sounds but their insularity mindset on their island is not only limiting them in manpower and experience but also in creativity.

[Jeeqbit]

This here really worries me, as it sounds like a one-size-fits-all approach.

They mean that the difficulty will be adjustable, like the new DD last boss will be. I believe they are implying that the variant dungeon will allow you to scale difficulty as well, which might actually avoid the need for a Criterion dungeon by way of allowing you to enable Criterion-like difficulty in the variant dungeon.

The forums are full of complaints that the game is already too easy, so making dungeons easier seems out of the question. But when they raise the dungeon difficulty, they will no longer be doable by the people that already struggle with normal trials.

If this extends to dungeons, which is unlikely, it will be great because it will allow us to scale up the difficulty of dungeons if we find them too easy.

[Veritas-Ancora]

there is a convenient language called english. a lot of people use it to communicate with each other...

Let's not get xenophobic, shall we?

We play a Japanese MMORPG. They speak Japanese. It's just as easy for an English person to learn Japanese as it is for a Japanese person to learn English.

There's an expectation and obligation to abide by the rules of formality, especially when the game was created/designed/built by the Japanese, and not make everything about you.

[TaleraRistain]

As someone who only collects cards when I get them, this really doesn't affect me, personally. I also had no idea there was a TT card behind blood. Admittedly, did also forget about the all notes reward we're likely to get come north horn.

Besides that, doesn't actually change my point, as ignoring it was with the idea that you're only after the story, as neither TT nor the (presumed) achievement reward are 'story'.

Again, is it good design? No, it's not, and only exacerbates the issues behind the design of Forked Tower Blood in its intent and execution being so poorly thought out that it's leaving me wondering if QA touched anything within Occult Crescent.

People looked at me as if I were crazy to say I disliked phantom jobs and wanted logograms back in the one prog run of FT I did due to the versatility of being able to build around the job I play, and if Phantom Freelancer could fill that niche, it probably wouldn't leave me so confused. What's the one people are hoping for to fill that niche? Phantom Mime or something? I only know FF11, 14, and 16 so I genuinely have no idea. Either way leaves me with little hope for south horn as it stands. I still find Eureka to be more engaging and the last things i've been doing there was bunny farming for 6 hours straight.

Yeah there's a TT card :/ We have to hope it comes to a vendor or to an NPC at some point (I prefer playing the actual TT game to get my cards instead of drops anyway)

I don't know that we know for sure nothing about Forked Tower will affect the story yet. It may not be required but there may be significant lore missed out on that could leave some missing pieces of the puzzle by the time we get to the end.

The notes are honestly just baffling. They really screwed up there. IIRC even the duel one in Bozja has another RNG way to get it.

[Atma]

He says overseas developers are interested, but it's challenging because they need to be able to speak Japanese, which obviously most of them can't.

This is a problem with a simple solution. Which is easier to find, translators or developers. There is no 'absolute need' for developers to be able to speak Japanese when translators exist.

Fix the problem.

[Alice_Rivers]

Let's not get xenophobic, shall we?

I don't see anything xenophobic about the observation that English is a ubiquitous (if not universal) language and that if you want to hire more people then hiring English speakers is going to avail you of the widest possible audience. There's no hatred, no superiority or inferiority in that, only fact and logic.

We play a Japanese MMORPG. They speak Japanese. It's just as easy for an English person to learn Japanese as it is for a Japanese person to learn English.

Here, you're not wrong, however I'm not sure I see the relevance. If, as others have suggested, the requirement of developers to speak and/or be Japanese is the biggest problem with regard to hiring new talent then relaxing that requirement and facilitating with translators is logical.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Yeah there's a TT card :/ We have to hope it comes to a vendor or to an NPC at some point (I prefer playing the actual TT game to get my cards instead of drops anyway)

I don't know that we know for sure nothing about Forked Tower will affect the story yet. It may not be required but there may be significant lore missed out on that could leave some missing pieces of the puzzle by the time we get to the end.

The notes are honestly just baffling. They really screwed up there. IIRC even the duel one in Bozja has another RNG way to get it.

The notes and the card being Tower specific are my main reason for wanting a Normal mode. Bozja didn’t lock any notes behind DRS, you could get them from Normal; Eureka didn’t have field notes so it seems like they didn’t realize it would be a problem to put them in BA the sequel! As for the card, Bozja had them in the cluster shop, so by all rights this card should be purchasable for Sanguinite anyway, but it’s random drop in the Tower. Which, if they don’t add Normal or make significant changes to the existing Tower, will be a one and done for me in the far future.

But as someone who loves the lore of the game, I am worried there are little bits and pieces here that I will miss if I don’t do the Tower. I’m a story enjoyer with no story mode here! lol

[SkankyRoe]

This is a problem with a simple solution. Which is easier to find, translators or developers. There is no 'absolute need' for developers to be able to speak Japanese when translators exist.

Fix the problem.

Honestly it seems like they are outright averse to hiring translators considering they'd rather continue letting Yoshi P's words get mistranslated than hire one for the liveletters