New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Ashthra]

Prosper? I've seen nothing but systematic destruction of the MMO Yoshi was supposedly put in charge to help save.

Job system? LOL. Wrong game yoshi you fool. At least make it work within the confines of the armory system instead of replacing it!

Who put these ignoramuses in charge?

They don't even have the courage to delete the armory system that they obviously hate so much. They hear some people want jobs so they try to fit an incompatible system on top of another.

You want to hear about mangling an MMO, look no further than Yoshi P.

Im not saying Tanaka is good. Im saying Yoshi has no freakin idea.

I hear taking a job system that is bland and uninteresting, and adding another layer to it for those who enjoy a more specific style of play, is completely removing that bland and uninteresting system point blank. Because Final Fantasy has never had advanced classes before. Nope. Yoshi has TOTALLY JUMPED THE SHARK, MAN. >

I hear that overhauling a lag-prone and unenjoyable battle system that promoted mindless spamming and replacing it with something that makes more sense (and would be more forgiving to people with higher latencies -- like pretty much everyone that isn't in Japan) is ruining the game.

I hear that wanting to add things that even free to play MMOs wouldn't be caught dead without is a decision that only clueless knuckle-dragging troglodytes would ever think of.

I hear that wanting to change overly large, lifeless maps that serve absolutely zero purpose beyond trying to make the world look bigger than it actually is into places you would actually want to go is a terrible idea, and whoever thought of it should be fired.

I hear that trying to save a game that was DoA before it even left open beta -- a game that is now a litmus test for just how badly a major, AAA-title can fail -- by continually trying to jam the square peg into the round hole while screaming, "IT WILL WORK BECAUSE I SAID SO DAMN IT," is clearly the course of action, here!

But hey, what do I care? SE isn't charging me a monthly fee because the game currently sucks. Nope. This MMO was totally fine before that damned Yoshi got his hands on it!

True story.

...Okay, I think I just pulled something from that amount of sarcasm I just maintained there. I'm going to go get something to eat and hope the headache wears off.

Typical, just typical. You guys still think FFXI and WoW are the games to emulate in 2011. Get with the times.

News flash, these games are old generation crap and are getting replaced by newer games that offer much much more. Meanwhile, over at Squarenix, SE are falling further and further behind trying to copy games that are already past their expiration date.

Failure.

As opposed to FFXIV, which tried to be NEW AND INNOVATING OMFG and fell flat on its face because it didn't even have amenities that those "old generation crap" games had from the word go? There's a recipe for success, there.

[Ashthra]

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Really? I thought the armory system was, "You equip an item and you become this class," not, "You can take a mishmash of abilities from other classes that bear no resemblance to this class and call it your own." At that point, why bother having weapons tied to skills? My THM and CON feel the same. They're separate classes, supposedly, that use the exact same skills, because why not? I have abilities from both. Believe you me, I'd prefer it if they simply got rid of the entire system, because it's complete garbage and a job system can only be better. But an advanced class system cannot possibly be worse than what we have right now.

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No, latency is an issue when you're playing with a crappy stamina system that is tied directly to said latency. I can play around it, but at that point, it's like I'm playing with my eyes closed -- I'm not actually watching what's going on on the screen, because I have to anticipate an extra 1.5-3 seconds of lag attached to whatever ability I use. Auto attack doesn't magically make that better, but the lack of relying on stamina means combat will feel a little more responsive. Once they get that set up, they can go about fixing combat in a more comprehensive manner.

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Where do I start? Like:
- Genuine group content, instanced and/or non-instanced, preferably both.
- Genuine solo content, the main/side quests are cute, but they're downright skeletal. It needs to be fleshed out.
- A combat system that doesn't suck.
- A transportation system of any kind, preferably one that doesn't suck.
- A mount and/or taxi system, not necessarily required, but would be nice.
- A bazaar/AH system that doesn't suck.
- Mailboxes. Seriously.

And also, if those F2P quality crap games have this, and FFXIV doesn't, where exactly does that put this game on that particular totem pole?

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But you just alluded that we don't need stuff like that, because it's F2P quality crap. However, ignoring your hypocrisy, they could give us chocobos and abilities to build our own castles, and the zones would still look like copypasted crap. Zones that large waste nearly all of its real estate, and very few, if any, would ever actually want to traverse through any of these zones, mounts or no, because said wasted real estate makes it an exercise in tedium. Thalanan is one gigantic dustbowl of monotony, Black Shroud is one gigantic maze of infuriation, and La Noscea is one gigantic ripoff of the Highlander. Of the four zones we have, only Mor Dhona has any kind of flavor to it, and its significantly smaller size gives that flavor a lot more punch to it. The other three zones need to follow MD's example, and evidently, the developers agree.

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To be fair, I'm not sure most of the players understand the premise of the armory system, either. Adding another 'tier' of classes overtop the current system encourages people to level up certain classes, because now those classes have a unique, distinct direction. It's not just "Generic Mage Type #1", and "Generic Melee DD #2", it's "THM gets WHM, so I'll level them first," or, "LNC gets DRG, so I'll focus on that instead of MRD." But this ties back into my first response. As far as crafting goes, I haven't seen him announce any major alterations to it, just the addition of Materia and apparently some revisions, whatever they actually are.

Sufficed to say, I think you're wrong on every point you could possibly be wrong on concerning this, but if you want to defend a broken system, who am I to say no?

[ApplePie]

Tanaka just needs to make another CoP (pre-nerfs and uncaps) like expansion. He's good at making fun/difficult content! ^-^

[Ashthra]

The thing, gift, isn't that they're trying to offer nothing new -- it's that they're trying to put in things that everyone else has. Do you think they're going to entice players with OMFGNEWSTUFFSZZLIKEWTFDUDES!!!1! without having a battle system that works? Or mail? Or transportation beyond running? Or...you know, anything at all?

The OMFGNEWSTUFF that Tanaka added was unfinished donkey crap. Maybe it could've been good, but not only was it NOT good, everything else that comes standard with every other modern MMO was left out at the expense of this OMFGNEWSTUFF that wasn't even finished properly. You want the game to flounder around even more so we can get the OMFGNEWSTUFF that probably won't ever work "working"? "Hey, guys, we know these systems are crap, but we're intent on seeing it through and making it the shiniest, most rosy-smelling crap you guys have ever seen!" Oh yeah, you're really winning people over now, yes sir.

Afraid that in tearing Tanaka's poor unfinished dream down that they're turning the game into a generic copypasta of WoW and/or FFXI? Well, those are successful. Guess what isn't? FFXIV.

Bring on the bulldozers.

[Fleur]

Wow, long thread! I was feeling kind of pessimistic about this game, but this letter gave me a little hope. I am happy to see that the devs understand how, um, disliked the whole leve-based leveling thing is by many people.

And getting people into other cities by making marks for each class only available in the city with the guild is a really neat idea! I do have a small worry about that though when it comes to gathering classes. As a miner, I find that different regions tend to have an abundance of different items. For example, if I want silver (which I do, as a goldsmith), I will go to Humblehearth. Granted, a dedicated gatherer will probably do leves and gathering in at least two regions each cycle. But I do wonder if this could potentially skew the supply of gathered materials in favor of those more common in the region with the associated guild.

And on another note, the stealth ability sounds great. Quarry spots tend to be in caves, which are often filled with skeletons, bats, and other such unfriendly critters.

[Richard]

If the PS3 version is a dud and the revision of FFXIV is unsuccessful, not only will this game be cut off, so will Yoshida. This is as fair as what happened to the previous director.

Exactly. PS3 is the defining point of XIV.

[AlphaLion]

Being a fan of FFXIV, and currently enjoying the game, even if it has limited content, I'd like to add my 5 cents.

At the launch of FFXIV we joined old MMO friends from FFXI (old LS mates), WoW (friends of friends), and other MMO guys into a nice social LS doing weekly guildleves together and SP party to lvl our chars.

Some of us also have been crafting and gathering and also one or the other solo guildleve, if Guild Marks so required. All fine with that.

The problem now, and it is both induced by the latest letter from Yoshida, as well as the outlines for the game changes:
- where is the group play going?

Yes, we will get raids, all good. Leve-linking of the same 4 guildleves is boring, and we all prefer interesting SP partys to group guildleves.

But there are major problems with SP party grinding at the moment, and none of this has been addressed so far:
- there are only 5 types of mobs that are suitable for party: efts, eyes, peiste, raptors (all 150 base SP), and drakes (200 base SP) - see http://ffxiv-invictuscodex.com/forum_threads/752024 for more info
- add in some fast-killed mobs like buzzards
- still there are only very few party camp locations:
=> 27-29: Antlings in lower Copperbell Mines (pretty slow SP)
=> 29-33/34: Efts and buzzards at Nine Ivies (4 camps)
=> 33/34-39: Efts at Treespeak (1 good and 1 bad camp)
=> 39-44: Efts at Silent Arbor (3 camps)
=> 45-50: Raptors at Boulder Downs (1 full party fills out all camp), and Ever Lakes (max 2 parties)

Soooo, atm Lindblum server is a good place to level, there are very few ppl playing actively. I except (and hope) this to change once the games gets on track. But with the removal of the leve-link reward and the desire of many (probably most people) to socialize and play together with their friends (duo/trio/party whatsoever). WHERE ARE THE SP CAMPS?!

My suggestions to resolve this:
- add more camps with the same mobs as now
- increase base SP / kill time of other mobs and group them to SP camps
- increase the repop time / make the repop time stable - atm it varies a lot,
that is a major problem with SP parties, since u will lose the "flow" often

I have no problems with casual players not playing often to have their stuff to do. But there is not enough focus on group play, I am very likely losing my online friends if this wont be fixed. We have no other game to go to, since all the other major MMOs have the same solo-focus. That is sad and it might be a big mistake, if not addressed quickly.

[TheVedis]

why is everyone in here bothering with arguing with gifttroll?
hes already had several accounts banned for a reason on here

[Petori]

why is everyone in here bothering with arguing with gifttroll?
hes already had several accounts banned for a reason on here

Because everyone takes a game way too personally. Giftforce included. If he didn't care he wouldn't be here. Like those who argue with him care too much for an individual's opinion.

[Ashthra]

Because everyone takes a game way too personally. Giftforce included. If he didn't care he wouldn't be here. Like those who argue with him care too much for an individual's opinion.

Severe and brazen stupidity pisses me off. I can't help it. It's this, basically.

I really ought to learn sometime.