Letter from the Producer, XXXV (08/30/2012)

[JillyBean]

Help me out here, I just want to get this straight.

Alpha testing begins soon, simultaneously while we continue to play 1.XX.

Our characters get a final save on November 1, 2012.

They shut the servers down on November 11 (not sure why the wait) and may bring them back for pointless 1.XX play/socializing (vote pending). (I vote no.)

Beta commences... when the servers shut down?

We get to play our old characters again... when?

It sounds like it will be months before we have ARR and can resume with our current characters.

I'm not complaining (well maybe a little). I do want them to get things right and have the time to do so.

I guess I didn't expect the game to be on hold for more than a few days, a month tops.

TL;DR Am I understanding this correctly? The game, for all intents and purposes, ends November 1 with no real estimate of when we will play ARR with our current characters?

[leomike35]

Your guesses sound the most in line with how i understood it to read. I dont know where all this alpha in Nov stuff came from if anything Nov will be beta. Guess we will have to wait and see like always.

[Biggs]

My only real question is, of the stuff that's going away, is there anything I should definitely go after or that I probably won't want to miss out on?

I don't know about you, but there are some killer titles I am after from achievments that won't be in ARR.

Sword of the Coast is the one I am after right now from LL. Do 20 battle leves at each LL camp. Similar ones outside each city too. Behests of course won't be around after either and there are achievments and titles to be earned for those as well.

[Colino]

Alpha testing begins soon, simultaneously while we continue to play 1.XX.

Yes.

Our characters get a final save on November 1, 2012.

Yup.

They shut the servers down on November 11 (not sure why the wait) and may bring them back for pointless 1.XX play/socializing (vote pending). (I vote no.)

Yes. They probably wait because they want players to have time to experience whatever final event may happen. They'll give you 10 days to login and experience whatever the end of the 7th umbral era is, at least that's what I'm guessing.

Beta commences... when the servers shut down?

Probably soon after. I would assume December at the latest.

We get to play our old characters again... when?

Last thing we heard we will be able to play our current characters in beta and make progress.

It sounds like it will be months before we have ARR and can resume with our current characters.

I don't think that's the case based on what they've said so far.

TL;DR Am I understanding this correctly? The game, for all intents and purposes, ends November 1 with no real estimate of when we will play ARR with our current characters?

Pretty much.

[Themis]

It's nice to have an idea of how long before no more character progress will matter.

I'm all for bringing back up the servers, too.

They shut the servers down on November 11 (not sure why the wait) and may bring them back for pointless 1.XX play/socializing (vote pending). (I vote no.)

(Using the quote as an example, not as a particular attack or anything - just happen to be the easiest to quote)

I don't really get why anyone would say no, unless they just want to annoy other players. If you don't want to play in a pointless game, then you have the option of not logging in. It's not as though it will cost you anything. But some people have friends that they play with, and maybe they want to just randomly go do some content together for no reason other than socializing.

But yes, after the 1st November maintenance, anything you do in the 1.xx game is irrelevant to 2.0 and any progress you do make will have to be done over again.

Also, I'd assume that we will be able to play our current characters when the final release comes out with new characters for the purpose of alpha/beta testing. I believe that was hinted at in an earlier letter. My guess is that after the 1st November maintenance occurs and current data is saved, a copy can then begin being configured and transferred into the 2.0 system.

Your guesses sound the most in line with how i understood it to read. I dont know where all this alpha in Nov stuff came from if anything Nov will be beta. Guess we will have to wait and see like always.

I'm pretty sure that both versions (1.xx and Alpha/Beta stages of ARR) can be run simultaneously. And considering that Alpha is primarily stress testing, that might start prior to even November. It'll be easier to maintain and improve the game post alpha, though, when version 1.xx no longer received updates/fixes or any attention whatsoever.

The only thing you can guarantee is that Yoshida-san knows what he wants and what he expects before he will allow a stage to transition to the next. When he is confident, I think we can all be confident. If that means waiting a little longer, that's not going to be a bad thing.

[neorei]

[Dannythm]

I'm a bit disappointed that no info on patch 1.23b was revealed on this letter, after finishing with 1.23a quests I was left with the feeling that something more was coming, with the twelve and dalamud and the 7th army and stuff (basically the events happening in the trailer more or less with stuff falling from dalamud and all that).

Ah well, I guess Yoshi is keeping the card of the last patch/grand finale for after TGS so people talk more about 2.0 than the great final even of the current version.

[Payadopa]

/sigh
Two more months. And that's only till the servers are shut down.
While I totally understand that these things need time, it's totally disappointing. ,_,

Go, Yoshi~

[Felis]

As Yoshi-P is going to do this the right way there is no sense in speculating. The only thing we know for sure is that Alpha testing will begin shortly after 1 Nov.

Nowhere in the letter I read something about the alpha date.

[Rizon]

Nowhere in the letter I read something about the alpha date.

Yoshida has stated on numerous occasions that Alpha testing would not be conducted while the current game is live. If I am incorrect about this I apologize.