The Letter is up

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

Mortals, let us not make excuses for them. We are all fans, or we wouldn't be here. But denying the simple truths will not make these problems go away.
The warlock has spoken. Now present your counter arguments, or forever admit defeat.

The fact that you're emulating charlie sheen doesn't really help anyone to take you seriously. No matter how much truth is in your posts.

[Physic]

People overwhelmingly dislike anything because they are ignorant. You are a minority if you are a person of intelligence in ANY everyday group or situation. A crap load of people disliked the party recruitment system saying that they couldn't type in comments and specifics or have class/rank requirements. Oh.. are all those things in the party recruitment? Hmm... I guess people are that gullible and believe the loud mouths (you) in threads like these.

Saying that most people think the way you do means nothing for that very reason. The FFXIV development team is loosely going to get your feedback, but they are not making the game for irrational people. I dislike some systems in FFXIV too and we are past looking at this game as being perfect. So, while you're unimpressed and hardly ever satisfied, ask yourself. Should you really stay? Cause all you're doing is complaining. I'm just trying to save you from yourself being a bitter gamer that makes it impossible for anyone to really like them.

once again whether i stay or not is irrelevant to this thread, or this game. The reasons why people may choose to leave, and how they feel about this letter are relevant. Dont get mad at people for stating their opinions on the letter, or saying why they are happy or not happy about it, the point of the forum is to do that.

The reason i bring up other people is not to say they are smart, i bring them up to let you know, this is not one random crazy person.

My point was that AA really wasnt the problem with battle, and adding AA isnt going to make battle entertaining, some people felt like it was, but now with the video in their face it doesnt seem like it will. Hopefully the other changes with monsters, and npc groups, along with rebalances will, but this video doesnt make it seem that way. the damage is the same as normal, If anything it makes battle seem even less complex, i get the feeling that the goblin was basically a programmed training dummy, but still, its not really making battle look more challenging.

btw, dont really care if people really like me, and if im bitter im bitter. People will complain, when things arent up to snuff or they will leave, the person who is complaining is more useful to you as a creator, because even though they rain on your parade, they give you tangible feedback, that is useful. Im here to give real feedback, not just be encouraging and optimistic.

The good
Unique WS animations
The bad
AA seems to add little to combat, and from the video, seems to even take away some excitement

you dont like my opinion, i dont care, im posting so that the devs can get a real response, whether they do something with it is up to them.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

once again whether i stay or not is irrelevant to this thread, or this game. The reasons why people may choose to leave, and how they feel about this letter are relevant. Dont get mad at people for stating their opinions on the letter, or saying why they are happy or not happy about it, the point of the forum is to do that.

The reason i bring up other people is not to say they are smart, i bring them up to let you know, this is not one random crazy person.

My point was that AA really wasnt the problem with battle, and adding AA isnt going to make battle entertaining, some people felt like it was, but now with the video in their face it doesnt seem like it will. Hopefully the other changes with monsters, and npc groups, along with rebalances will, but this video doesnt make it seem that way. the damage is the same as normal, If anything it makes battle seem even less complex, i get the feeling that the goblin was basically a programmed training dummy, but still, its not really making battle look more challenging.

btw, dont really care if people really like me, and if im bitter im bitter. People will complain, when things arent up to snuff or they will leave, the person who is complaining is more useful to you as a creator, because even though they rain on your parade, they give you tangible feedback, that is useful. Im here to give real feedback, not just be encouraging and optimistic.

The good
Unique WS animations
The bad
AA seems to add little to combat, and from the video, seems to even take away some excitement

you dont like my opinion, i dont care, im posting so that the devs can get a real response, whether they do something with it is up to them.

The problem with your assessment is assuming that AA is the only thing geared towards fixing the battle system. Are there a lot of people not impressed with it? Yeah, of course. Are the people who like the looks of it? For sure. We can all state opinions all day long but only time will tell. AA is the priority for patch 1.18, but it is not the end of the battle system overhaul. That has been said before so if you are waiting for 1.18 to fix all the problem with the game, you are waiting only for your own disappointment.

[Gramul]

This isn't as simple of a change as it may appear.
You can't just slap in Auto Attack and rip out the Stamina Gauge without restructuring how stats work, how enemies behave, the effectiveness of certain attacks, and pretty much everything that has to do with the battle system. Once that's done, they can move on to adding content that will complement the system. There's a ton of math and planning involved and I'd rather they not rush it.

[Belial]

Posted this in another thread several days ago, it applies to the new letter:

The problem is, the patch probably, as per SE's history, is not on schedule.

I (and many others) do not want some terribly worded/translated PR letter from some development team leader who in all likeliness, doesn't even write said letters.

What I (and others) want to see, is this example:

Patch 1.18 Progress Check List:
- Dungeon Implementation Complete
- Class Re-Balancing Complete
- Terrain Clipping Incomplete- further adjustments required
- Hardware Taxation Issue Incomplete- further investigation is required

I don't give a flying hell when the patches come, but to actually see a visible progress report instead of some inane, cloak-and-shadow letter, would be far more beneficial to the community than the crap we've been getting. We were promised updates, we are getting PR checks and formatted copy+paste replies. This is not helping their situation.

And again; cloak-and-shadow letter, no real progress report, subpar video of Auto-Attack (y'know what Diablo III has for a video of it's combat system? A fucking boss fight... Jesus.); lack of real communication with the playerbase; delayed patch, etc.

The one, and only thing that has been saving this game: "Final Fantasy"
Not innovative game design. Not good graphics. Not great controls. Not interesting content. Nothing, but the name on the title screen. And believe me, the majority are getting sick of that, too.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Posted this in another thread several days ago, it applies to the new letter:



And again; cloak-and-shadow letter, no real progress report, subpar video of "new" content; lack of real communication with the playerbase; delayed patch, etc.

The one, and only thing that has been saving this game: "Final Fantasy"
Not innovative game design. Not good graphics. Not great controls. Not interesting content. Nothing, but the name on the title screen. And believe me, the majority are getting sick of that, too.

Thank you for your opinion.

[Molly_Millions]

Um, guys? The patch isn't delayed. Am I the only one that payed attention to the part of the 9th letter that said patch 1.18 would be released in mid-June AT THE EARLIEST? According to that, nothing is late, it's not even the 15th yet.

Here it is for everyone who missed it:

1.18 is going to be relatively bigger than previous patches. This means that balancing is going to take more time than usual, and so we’re anticipating a somewhat longer period between patches. Even if we break off some of the content and release it ahead of time in a 1.17b patch (which me might!), 1.18 will still go live sometime in mid-June at the earliest. Sorry for that.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Um, guys? The patch isn't delayed. Am I the only one that payed attention to the part of the 10th letter that said patch 1.18 would be released in mid-June AT THE EARLIEST? According to that, nothing is late, it's not even the 15th yet.

Reading comprehension +3! Good Job Molly, your leagues ahead of most people visiting these forums.

[Kiara]

This video just made it more obvious to me that AA was a waste of time. The best thing was the new WS. If AA really took this much time to plan and execute, id rather them have spent it making more of the WS cool and unique, and adding actual content. AA doesnt seem to improve battle, pace, or anything really from that video.

Hi Physic,

Definitely empathize with you here. From the video, it seems like Auto-Attack is something underwhelming, but IMHO it's the foundation for a bunch of other things that are important, like developing "class uniqueness" that Yoshida-san has stated a few times (ever since Player Poll #2 results came out).

Starting at the core foundation of a new Battle System (with Auto-Attack and removing Stamina Gauge), the Player can now focus on Positioning in Battle (Lancer staying Mid-Range, Disciple of Magic staying Mid-Far Range, and Archers being really far, etc. We saw in the video the Pugilist stunning the Goblin and then running to the back of the Goblin to deliver another Weaponskill to kill it); In Letter from Producer X (and previously) there's been "Revision of crowd control actions" so who knows what this entails? It could be important where one stands in Combat in the future, and when to execute moves.

Add to the new importance on Positioning, you can focus on meaningful Buffs, Debuffs, Spells and Weaponskills and the timers for them, which is more interesting and important than one's basic "Light Attack" (1, 1, 1, 1, etc.).

Also, they've stated they're changing Battle Regimen (joy! ), so if it's more like FF XI's SKILLCHAIN (Renkei) System, or something more active and require Timing (or something like Chrono Trigger's Combining different skill/spells to create something bigger and devastating), then this, also, is another reason Auto-Attack is a good thing. In other words, you don't have to worry about hitting "1, 1, 1, 1" ("Light Attack") all the time while you're doing the above.

There might be new Weaponskills, Buffs, Debuffs, that have different distances individually as well (in the latest Table of Changes, it's listed as "Adjustment of range of effect for actions" for Disciples of War and Magic). So maybe Weaponskill X is a Mid-Range Attack that will do massive damage, but if you're too close or far, it's ineffective. So you want to position yourself in battle to perform it. This benefits from Auto-Attack as well.

Could all of the above be done with our current Manual Attack? Sure. I think there are enough veteran gamers out there that they could spam "1, 1, 1, 1, etc." while moving around and positioning themselves, and then are adept enough to stop (hoping the game didn't buffer an extra Light Attack they were spamming), to wait for a proper time to jump in on a Skillchain, etc., but Auto-Attack makes it easier for those that aren't as adept.

Now if it turns out 1 year down the line, all we got is just an Auto-Attack, and everything else was the same (all the classes felt the same, same weaponskills, same, easy automatic Battle Regimen), then "yes," I agree that this Auto-Attack would seem to be a bit unnecessary and underwhelming.

But I'm hoping this is the start of the big changes to the New Combat System that Yoshida-san's been talking about for a while. Here's to hoping!

[Isaaru]

Reading comprehension +3! Good Job Molly, your leagues ahead of most people visiting these forums.

No, not reading comprehension +3. It was delayed from it's earliest planned date. It's still delayed :P