On the subject of patches

[Betelgeuzah]

While the community rep involvement on the forums is remarkable and quite satisfying, and getting a producer's letter every 2 weeks or so is quite awesome as well, there is still one aspect of communication that I feel could be improved on.

That is, letting us know what the upcoming patches entail. Yes, we have The List delivered by the productor which lets us know the rough plan for some time to come, but even then we have only little idea about what's in 1.18 and what is saved for 1.19 and later, for example.

I do realize that as the patches come in a faster succession and as you're all working in a parallel it can be hard to pinpoint what exactly can make it into a specific patch- but surely you have some features that you know will make it, which could even cause delays to the patch date if not fully prepared? For example the dungeons and Auto-Attack, job system and materia.

Every larger patch so far has come with an outline, but only few days before the patch hits at best. I think that you could start talking about the features that will make it in earlier than that.

I would be content with some kind of a note that specifies which features are left for 1.19 and beyond and which are planned for 1.18. Now we know some details, but they come in bits and pieces through rep posts and some producer's letters. Something more... "official" and clear cut would be nice.

Yoshi-P doesn't want to promise what he can't deliver, but surely there is some room for adjusting the current process?

[Richard]

At the current state of rebuilding a lot of the game I doubt we'd see strong defined patch notes ahead of time. Like you said they just can't make promises at this point in time that have the chance to do even more damage to the reputation of the game within the community. For now I think getting the patch notes an hour before servers restart on the day of the patch is sufficient enough and I wouldn't really ask for more. Maybe in a year when the game is more solid can they start being a little more flexible with their information.

Yoshi said they'd give us an in-depth description of the new battle system in his next producer letter so I'm really looking forward to that.

[Betelgeuzah]

Yeah, just throwing it out here. I can see why they couldn't do this at this point in time, but if they can improve, they should.

[Alixandir]

I think it would be in the devs best interest to do this. It would help against people hyping the patches up like crazy, then getting disappointed and raging over xyz not being in said patch.

[Richard]

I think it would be in the devs best interest to do this. It would help against people hyping the patches up like crazy, then getting disappointed and raging over xyz not being in said patch.

Nothing is going to please this forum community. I know that sounds a little harsh but it's the honest truth. You can't please everyone and especially with the FFXIV community it's even worse. The Devs are already receiving flack everyday about 100 things.

Let's say they post on June 15th what's going to be in the June 25th patch. Then when the June 25th patch rolls around item A and item B get pushed back to a July patch just because they had some more bugs to work out - this community would crucify a) Yoshi for "lying and stringing us along with a carrot on a stick" and b) the Dev team for "not working hard enough". That is the mindset and the mentality of 80% of the people who frequent these forums. I'm not saying it's not all justified by this games 9 month "Beta/Retail" but it's still ridiculous how people act on here.

SE is going to go with the lesser of two evils until they can, with 100% certainty bring solid information to people ahead of time where they know it will positively be released in a patch. I give it another year before that is even one of their focus's.

[Warlyx]

would love to see a "test server" to test new things coming out ....... kinda like eveyother mmorpg nowadays , players can help , reporting bugs ect

[Betelgeuzah]

would love to see a "test server" to test new things coming out ....... kinda like eveyother mmorpg nowadays , players can help , reporting bugs ect

This isn't realistic given the current state of development. I doubt the game they're working on behind the scenes is even playable, much less testable, as they work on the very core of the engine, servers and game data.

But giving rough outlines ahead of time would be, imo. Do they intend to release materia system in 1.19? Job system too? Are companies intended to be released in 1.18? Ifrit battle?

Yoshida already mentioned that frontier hubs are coming in 1.18 while beastmen hubs will be saved for 1.19, and that the guildleve balancing will go into full swing in 1.18 I bet he can go further than that.

[Felis]

would love to see a "test server" to test new things coming out ....... kinda like eveyother mmorpg nowadays , players can help , reporting bugs ect

It should than be like a closed beta server. Not that everyone play the testserver only to play the new things and not to test them

[Richard]

would love to see a "test server" to test new things coming out ....... kinda like eveyother mmorpg nowadays , players can help , reporting bugs ect

FFXI finally got their Test Server going and I think I remember a quote from either Yoshida or Tanaka about a test server already in the works for XIV. I don't expect it to be anytime soon though. Maybe around PS3 Beta test.