gathering in nature

[Tonan]

Currently the highest node a Botanist/Miner can gather from is Grade 5 while Fishers have Grade 10s, giving them a huge advantage over Miners/Botanists for skilling up. Will we be seeing a balance to this in the future?

In regards to fishing, we have been looking into lowering fishing spots Grade 6 and above to Grade 1.

First of all, thanks Bayohne for the tedious work of grouping the questions and conveying answers from the very developer(s) in charge of gathering content who seem so lack of enthusiam to develop further, in contrast to Matsui-san who is believed to bring constructive changes to the fighter/mage battle contents.

Personally I feel mortified to read the "Gathering Q&A" threads on both the Japanese and English forums. Take example of the above quoted answer, seriously I don't see the logic of eliminating Grade6+ fishing spots instead of implementing some for mining and harvesting.

In FF11, we used to know the full name of the responsible developer for certain contents, like from dengeki/famitsu magazine interviews. I would also like to know the full name of the person(s) in charge of gathering contents and see if he's/they're courageous enough to admit "sorry, it's far too troublesome to define and associate new item lists for higher grade gathering points for the 2 classes than to simply duplicate existing grade 1 item lists for multiple fishing points" openly on magazines very soon.

Meanwhile I would love Bayohne from the customer rep team to help convey the message to the person/people responsible for gathering contents that "If you don't like what you do, please quit. You are merely disappointing those who still support this game when many others are harshly criticising it."

[Sorel]

[FONT="Verdana"]Personally I feel mortified to read the "Gathering Q&A" threads on both the Japanese and English forums. Take example of the above quoted answer, seriously I don't see the logic of eliminating Grade6+ fishing spots instead of implementing some for mining and harvesting.

I understand why they are doing this. Grades were designed with target Ranks in mind. Which is why players get the surveying abilities for a particular Grade at a particular Rank.

Grade 1 = Ranks 1-9
Grade 2 = Ranks 10 - 19
Grade 3 = Ranks 20 - 29
Grade 4 = Ranks 30 - 39
Grade 5 = Ranks 40 - 49
Grade 6 = Rank 50

The presence of Rank 7+ fishing points is clearly a mistake on the part of the Development Team, as they should only be available to those of a Rank that is currently higher than the current cap.

The Development Team has two possible solutions.

1. Raise the Rank cap on Disciples of Land to 90, create Grade 7 thru 9 points for miners and botanists, and provide the appropriate survey abilities to all DoL classes.
2. Change the Grade 7+ fishing point to Grade 6 or less.

It looks like they are going with the second option.

I can't say I find fault with that, as the first option would take longer to implement, and cause some serious balance issues in the game.

As for the reason they just didn't explain this ... well they had a lot of questions to field. So it is understandable that they would just state what their fix is for the issue ... instead of penning a 20 line response like I did.

[popdai]

Words, words, always only words.

Nothing on the game yet....

GG SE

[Betelgeuzah]

I feel like my sarcasm has gone unnoticed, but it makes this ultimately funnier.

[Bayohne]

We received the responses from the dev. team to the questions that were brought up in our second round of polling the forums. We are going to be addressing the questions generated in the EN forum first, and then adding in the additional, internationally-gathered questions later today hopefully, but it might slip into tomorrow.

I do ask that you please keep in mind the format and style of this Q&A. We received a ton of questions and it'd be difficult to give huge, and in-depth answers to each and every one of them. It may come off kind of cold to have so many similar responses, but that was the style of Q&A we chose to do with such a large volume of questions.

Will gathering jobs ever be needed for dungeon content? Example: clearing boulders or brush to an optional boss or an optional route which leads us to the end of the dungeon; or even fishing up an optional boss?

Similar suggestions have been brought up, but nothing specific has been decided.

How do you feel about the leveling speed of gatherers compared to other classes?

We have been looking into ways of increasing the leveling speed.

Currently the highest node a Botanist/Miner can gather from is Grade 5 while Fishers have Grade 10s, giving them a huge advantage over Miners/Botanists for skilling up. Will we be seeing a balance to this in the future?

In regards to fishing, we have been looking into lowering fishing spots Grade 6 and above to Grade 1.

Will gathering classes be included in the new job system?

There are no plans for this.

Can the nodes for all DoL classes be simplified to contain only two or three different kinds of item? I want to be sure I have found an "Iron/limonite" node or a "Yew lumber/branch/swan feather" node.

Along with fixing crafting-related recipes, we plan on optimizing the items obtained through gathering.

Any chance we can have more mines for miners to mine at, more fishing pools for fishers, and more logging camps for botanists?

We are seeing if this can be solved through adjusting the placement of these spots.

Will Chocobo's be involved with gathering classes in any way?

We have no plans for this currently.

Will we be able to select which item we are focusing on gathering?

We'll take it into consideration.

Will you implement some kind of "party gathering" system in place? Right now, gathering is a very lonely activity.

Currently, gathering is meant to be played solo, but depending on the content we think it would be OK to allow gathering with other players.

Will we ever be able to group up on gathering jobs to complete a fieldcraft leve or join up on a gathering node?

Currently, gathering is meant to be played solo.

Instead of BTN always destroying the landscape why cant we also mend and fix plant life?

The development team is considering this as well, but this will not be implemented for a while.

Are the current dungeons going to receive gathering points?

We will look into this, along with items that correlate with the risk of gathering in dungeons.

Will there be gathering competitions (Ex. Who can catch the most or biggest fish!) ?

We have not made any specific plans for this, but similar suggestions have been brought up by the developers.

The speed of gathering animations has increased greatly, but connection latency seems slow down gathering significantly. Will this be addressed and fixed?

We believe this will be solved when the server adjustments are completed.

Are there plans to implement side quests for DoL/DoH?

We have no plans for this currently.

It was initially claimed that all disciplines (War/Magic/Hand/Land) would be of equal focus in regards to content/gameplay. Is this statement still accurate?

It will still be possible to enjoy the game just as a gatherer, but the battle content and main scenarios to be added will make it necessary to obtain ranks and skills/actions for battle-related classes.

Are there any plans to reintroduce FINAL FANTASY XI's Fishing mechanic of possibly fishing up monsters?

Similar suggestions have been brought up, but nothing specific has been decided.

Are there any plans of making the gathering jobs a lot more interactive and engaging with their own special abilities?

We will look into adding more abilities.

Are there any plans to have Arbor Call, Lay of the Land, and Gulleye ping or mark the mini-map (and main map) with an arrow to follow instead of it indicating the location via text?

We are looking into this.

Any plans to alleviate inventory stress for gatherers?

We are looking into this, but we first plan on optimizing the items obtained through gathering.

Crafters currently have gatherers under their thumbs in terms of who holds most of the economic value in their relationship. Any plans to strengthen the economic power of gatherers?

We are looking into ways of increasing motivation for gatherers.

Can we get R48-50 primary tools soon?

There are no plans for this anytime soon.

Are there plans to reward effort and innovation in gathering, just as in the battle design?

We are looking into this.

Harvesting gear is very limited. Are there any plans to add more/higher level harvesting gear in the immediate future?

We have plans for this.

Currently there are very few gathering points on each map for botanist and miner, requiring more movement than compared to battle classes to skill up. Are there any plans to add more harvestable points per map square?

We don’t have any plans of adding more botanist points, but there is a possibility that we will adjust the placement of these spots.

Will there be more DoL leves in the future?

Adding other content takes priority over adding leves at the moment.

The current DoL leves are few, and the time and SP rewarded for completing them is rather small. Are there plans to lengthen the leve requirements from say 3 logging points to 6?

We plan on reviewing the rewards for all types of leves.

The input lag between hitting enter and the cursor stopping is problematic, is this being looked into?

We believe this will be solved when the server adjustments are completed.

Could a pop up be added after harvesting an item requesting "Would you like to keep this?" or "Toss it out"?

We'll take it into consideration.

Will you give gathering classes other activities to do besides gather with their main hand and off hand tools? For example: gardening for botanists (like in FF11), or aquariums for fishers.

We are looking into adding more activities.

Will you please get rid of the +1 and +2 items in gathering? It is redundant and takes up too much inventory space.

We are looking into the complex relationship of obtained items and inventory.

Will you implement hybrid guildleves and quests that require a mix of Disciples of Land/Hand/War/Magic?

We'll take it into consideration.

It is very inconvenient for Regional Leves to share both gathering and battle leves. Will you give gathering leves its own category?

Similar thoughts have been brought up by the development team.

Most items that are gathered have no value due to supply being way higher than demand. Is there any plans to limit the supply of certain items like what was done with gold, gems and mahogany?

Along with fixing crafting-related recipes, we plan on optimizing the items obtained through gathering.

Are there any plans for other gathering classes beside Miner, Botanist, and Fisherman?

There are currently no plans for this.

Will gathering classes (and crafting classes) get their own storyline quests moving forward?

There are currently no plans for this.

Will we ever see actual resources at gathering points rather than only sparkling lights?

There are no plans for this.

Will the gathering animations ever be reworked or redone through motion capture to improve the realism and fluidity of the animation?

The animations are already made using motion capture...

Can we manually mark the map with different types of icon as mining, fishing, and Logging point in the future update?

Similar suggestions have been brought up, but nothing specific has been decided.

If a monster attacks a player while gathering, why can't we use our weapons instead of a stone?

Similar thoughts have been brought up by developers.

When I hit a sweet spot I still get random items, why is this?

We believe this may be because certain requirements (such as not being the proper rank) have not been met.

(Post character limit reached, posting the remaining in next post.)

[Sorel]

We received the responses from the dev. team to the questions that were brought up in our second round of polling the forums. We are going to be addressing the questions generated in the EN forum first, and then adding in the additional, internationally-gathered questions later today hopefully, but it might slip into tomorrow.

I do ask that you please keep in mind the format and style of this Q&A. We received a ton of questions and it'd be difficult to give huge, and in-depth answers to each and every one of them. It may come off kind of cold to have so many similar responses, but that was the style of Q&A we chose to do with such a large volume of questions.

Thank you very much Bayohne. Your efforts do you and the rest of the Community Team much credit.

I do apologize for the mostly negative reaction of the player community. It is not due to the Community Team's efforts at getting them answers, I assure you. It is simply human nature to be upset when they get answers they do not like.

So keep up the good work and continue to relay our questions and constructive comments to the Development Team. Despite the current negativity, we do actually very much look forward to the information the Community Team provides to us.

Thanks again!

[Neptune]

The speed of gathering animations has increased greatly, but connection latency seems slow down gathering significantly. Will this be addressed and fixed?

We believe this will be solved when the server adjustments are completed.

Later that day... it has been adjusted to last twice as long!

Currently the highest node a Botanist/Miner can gather from is Grade 5 while Fishers have Grade 10s, giving them a huge advantage over Miners/Botanists for skilling up. Will we be seeing a balance to this in the future?
In regards to fishing, we have been looking into lowering fishing spots Grade 6 and above to Grade 1.

In other news all camps above Rank 30 have been reduced to rank 1.. congratulations!! Have fun leveling!!

What a bunch of BS. I wish I had asked this question:

All of the abilities gathers get only have a slight change of taking effect and they are all mutually exclusive.. can we please be able to use them all at the same time?

Suspected answer.. "We have no plans for this."

[Bayohne]

Here's the 2nd half of the above questions gathered from the EN forum. Stay tuned for the internationally-gathered questions either later today, or tomorrow.

Gathering classes appear to have half the "useful" amount of guild mark choices when compared to battle classes. Will adjustments be made to provide useful abilities and traits that enhance the classes?

We are looking into adding more abilities.

Can you please allow the use of Eluder abilities on DoW/DoM? It doesn't make sense that they cannot use them.

We are looking into it.

Why can we can fish in the fountain in town, but we can't fish in natural water sources like Sorrel Haven?

We'll take it into consideration.

Will the mini games become different for each gathering class?

There are no plans for this.

In the future, will I be able to fish up mobs on the ferry rides? If so, and I'm KOed (dang you, Anglers!), would I return to the last aetheryte I touched, or complete the boat ride?

Similar suggestions have been brought up, but nothing specific has been decided.

Can there be a feature gatherers can purchase with guild marks to scan for harvesting, quarrying, and spear fishing nodes?

There are no plans for this.

Currently for botanist and miner we have skills that say increased chance at certain crystals i.e. Byregot's Ward but these skills do not provide us with crystals at all. Are these skills mislabeled or is there plans to readjust them?

It will not be 100%, but the chances will be raised.

If you have to keep Gathering Fatigue, would you consider a new activity like "Restoring" to let all Gatherers continue to gain Skill Points (SP) without gaining items?

We'll keep it under consideration.

Can we raise our Chocobo to excel in gathering, or perhaps a skill?

There are currently no plans for this.

Why can Wrist Flick stun level 60+ NMs (Uraeus, Great Buffalo, Dodore, Haughtpox Bloatbelly, Elder Mosshorn) with ease and consistency?

While this does work for NMs, the effects will differ based on level.

What does Mind do for mining?

The higher the character’s Mind, the more items are gained.

All items that can be gathered so far seem pretty common, will there be rare ores/logs/etc that can be crafted into great gear?

We are looking into it.

Are there factors such as Moon Phases, Time of Day, and Weather Conditions that affect the Drops Rates and Quality of items obtained through gathering?

Similar suggestions have been brought up, but nothing specific has been decided.

[MHB3000]

"Are there factors such as Moon Phases, Time of Day, and Weather Conditions that affect the Drops Rates and Quality of items obtained through gathering?"

Similar suggestions have been brought up, but nothing specific has been decided.

Hey Bay! Please let the Devs know that I appreciate the answer to my question.. This answer leaves me to think that the mechanics aren't "broken" but rather complex.. the mystery behind it cant be summed up with a simple answer.. In a world, there are laws and rules that govern that world.. and this answer follows the laws and rules of Eorzea.. if you question how many Suns and Moons there are in the Final Fantasy XIV Universe.. then this answer should have sent chills down your spine.. remember that Socrates was the wisest philosopher only because he continually asked why

[Rentahamster]

the mystery behind it cant be summed up with a simple answer..

...and that simple answer is, "we didn't have time to implement anything like that because we weren't finished making the game when we launched it".