Ask Your Questions for Letter from the Producer LIVE Part IX!

[B001GM74BO]

Don't you think this game is heading toward a wrong direction? It became more of action RPG than RPG that is Final Fantasy.

Making Primal fights and dungeon bosses require a strategy is a good thing. But in reality it's not about strategy, it's about reaction and latency. After 1-2 trials, most people know what to do, but they just can't do it. If we need to Stun Eruption, I'll let other players who live in Japan or Canada do it. Not because I'm not confident. Some people don't know that the latency is there and plays a big part.

Actually maybe I should ask you that do you feel that this game will chase away RPG gamers (and many of them are female) who are loyal Final Fantasy fans? Do you think majority of them enjoy AoE dodging party?

I really miss the Final Fantasy where fighting summon is all about elements, not reaction.

[SethWilliams]

In FATES and sometimes, in 8 people dungeons, a considerable and noticeable frame drop happens for the ps3 players. Since you said in previous letters that 20-25 (I don't remember the exact number) players had to participate in the Crystal Tower, which will be implemented in 2.1, in order to complete it.. do you plan on optimizing the rendering on ps3?

[Antanias]

After seeing the drastic changes to Fisher, can we expect to see new DoL classes with their own unique mechanics?

[Tetsaru]

Is the upcoming housing update meant only for free companies, or will individual players be able to have their own houses as well? If not, when can we expect to earn our own personal houses?

[mbncd]

Please remember folks, this is going to be a housing special. So questions for this one should be housing based if you want them to be answered on a housing special.

Now, onto my question:
Will the FC have to be a certain rank (as in 1-5 based on points from members doing quests, FATE's, etc) to unlock housing? Or will certain FC ranks increase access to housing features (like increased storage, similar to the company chest that becomes bigger at a higher rank)?

[Hikozaemon]

Why does monk have to work to do great DPS while other classes can just derp about and hit macros... seriously? The stats on gear is very boring. what happened to the "increases x affects" on old AF armor. Why did u make relic so easily obtainable and primal weapons junk as soon as u get a relic. Why was the primal loot drop system reverted back the the same exact one that people largely disapproved of? Why does monks tool tips still have text from 1.0???? (fist of wind etc) Monks stances are too weak (fire/wind/earth). Monk does the best single target dps but only if they can continually chain. Most bosses have constant actions that make it hard or sometimes not even possible to keep up your rotations leading to BAD DPS. The promise of a token system was greatly exaggerated its not what was promised to us.

[Ashren]

Is the barber shop still planned for 2.1 and will we be getting new customization options to go along with it? I want true long hair for my character!

[Tetsaru]

When ARR was released, certain recipes such as Darksteel and Rose Gold Ingots were changed to require 9 of a certain item (Cokes, Peacock Ore, etc.), which can now only be obtained through a large investment of Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy, meaning players must extensively grind dungeons or primal battles in order to obtain these items for crafting. However, it would be much easier to use said Tomestones towards Darklight gear, which has similar stats to HQ Darksteel/Vanya/Gryphonskin gear, aside from materia, which tier IV's are now difficult to obtain or ridiculously expensive. Do you have any plans to address this, such as being able to obtain Cokes, etc. or Tomestones in an alternative method, or reducing the required number of Cokes, etc. per recipe, so that avid crafters such as myself can make their own gear without having to constantly do dungeon/primal runs and end up with better gear anyway?

[Tetsaru]

Aside from trial and error when attempting various melds with different types and tiers of materia, is there a method to determine the exact stat caps on a piece of gear for materia-melding purposes prior to actually melding it?

[Tetsaru]

Do you have any plans on implementing some sort of system in which players who are max level in every class/job (or just the ones they want to level) can still utilize experience earned from quests, mob kills, etc. towards some other form of character progression, such as FF11's merit points, or perhaps some sort of currency, such as Tomestones?