Thoughts on the new Letter from the Producer? (May 20)

[Rentahamster]

New letter is up.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11012-Letter-from-the-Producer-X-(05-20-2011)

What say you?

edit: Apparently the Japanese community managers are implementing new dev tag categories right this moment.

let me put it this way—the theme of the overhaul to the battle system is reward effort, reduce monotony

GOOD.

in-game achievement system related to Lodestone character histories

This sounds a lot like my achievement suggestion thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ge-Competition

...new modes of transport to address the mobility issue... (We’ve been giving chocobos a lot of thought, but it’s hard to establish a timeframe before we define exactly what needs to be done.)

Yay chocobos! I'd be very pleased if they took the good things about Chocobos from all the other Final Fantasy games to make an enjoyable gameplay experience for us in Final Fantasy 14, like what I proposed in my Chocobo thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/10792-DevTalk-Chocobo-Thread.-Riding!-Raising!-Racing!-You-Know-You-Want-Your-Fix

[Sephr]

New letter is up.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-X-(05-20-2011)

What say you?

Does the whole 'Bold Summer 2011' thing mean things coming in 1.18? I'm not sure why else he'd emphasise it so much

[Grundy]

-NEW-
Adjustments to the attributes of existing equipment

Please make my Barbarians Bardiche worth all the hassle it took to get. i.e. not shit.

[Sephr]

Market Areas

-NEW-
Stage two of radical improvement measures

This interests me muchly.

Adjustment of range of effect for actions (single target or area)

Does this mean changing spells etc to be one or the other? I wouldn't be against this.

-NEW-
Implementation of command centers in the three city-states

Glad to see this, part of me was worried we'd only see the majority of company info via the lodestone reports..

NEW-
Ifrit battle

WAT!

[Rentahamster]

Please make my Barbarians Bardiche worth all the hassle it took to get. i.e. not shit.

I feel your pain.

Some of the items in this game are really not worth the effort required to get them.

[Physic]

Does the whole 'Bold Summer 2011' thing mean things coming in 1.18? I'm not sure why else he'd emphasise it so much

prolly means coming before fall, or at least plans to complete all that before summer is over.

[Steggun]

NEW-
Ifrit battle -NEW-
Development of Ifrit battle quest -NEW-
Implementation of Ifrit battle quest
-NEW-
Development of cutscenes for Ifrit battle -
-NEW-
Finalization of details for Ifrit battle -NEW-
Balance adjustments for Ifrit battle

I'm liking this.

[Adol]

Under the mount system it says: "Examination of mount system (including chocobos)".

As it says "including chocobos" could this mean other mounts besides chocobos? I'd have a hard time believing we could mount any other mob in the game but it's a fun idea to think about nonetheless.

Ifrit battle sounds great. I remember when I came across that cut-scene for rank 46, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Am I going to battle this now?". Unfortunately, you don't battle him in that which was a disappointment in some respects. I'm hoping with this particular battle quest that they won't turn it in to another faction levequest but let us access it at any time at rank 50 as an actual story quest.

[Munba]

Best letter so far? I think so.

Now, in contrast, imagine a person who, with only half his heart in the battle, struggles to dispatch the enemy. This kind of range in experience is what we’re aiming for with the reformed battle system—a system that rewards effort and innovation.

This is awesome to read.

So also,

- Development of unique motions and effects for certain weapon skills
- Implementation of beastman strongholds
- Ifrit Battle
- Mount System

..that "including chocobos" means we'll have other type of mounts? :0 (Adol beats me lol)

It'll be a nice summer indeed.

[Lenneth_Valkyrie]

Implement the default setting of class-specific actions when playing as that class, and define conditions for setting the actions of other classes.

How much this sounds like "goodbye cure II to all other classes than CON"...
Prepare to be suddenly unable to solo as you did before..