New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Wolfie]

Regardless of who designs the features, it is someone's job to decide whether or not to implement them. Yoshi decides to implement crap all besides crap.

Got anything to back up those claims, or are you just flinging insults at Yoshi thinking that's a valid form of logic?

Oh as if. It is probably the one selling point of the game. And I don't know how long you've been on these forums but plenty of suggestions have been bandied about to create definitiveness within the armory system.

It's a "selling point" of the game, because the marketing team tried to push it. But as it turns out, it's a bad system that the huge overwhelming majority of customers hated. Fluid classes and class definition are mutually exclusive concepts; to have class definition, a given class must have skills or a play style that is unique to it. That's what the job system is designed to do.

If you have an example of the contrary -- that is, class definition while maintaining fluidity -- I'd love to hear it.

Oh no, heaven forbid crafting classes rely on each other for recipe components. This is an MMO, FYI, some degree of social interaction is expected. The interdependency between crafting classes is not ridiculous. It is an asset to the game and facilitates social interdependency. FFS.

I think my exact words were "ridiculous interdependency", which kind of implies that it's too much. There's a difference between a few recipes needing ingredients from 1-2 other crafts, and 3 out of 4 recipes requiring ingredients from 3-4 other crafts. There's also the fact that some recipes require a higher level to craft than the end result, stupidly rigid recipes which you did not address, boring minigame which you did not address, and the dumbing down of the main game because of crafting classes ALSO which you did not address.

And for the record, FORCING people to socialize doesn't foster good community. Making socializing accessible and rewarding does.

Implementation matters.

You said Tanaka was better than Yoshida because he brought new ideas to the table, even if they weren't implemented or designed properly. So which is it? Does implementation matter or not?

Ten years ago.

And they still are. Mouse control for video games became a standard in the mid 90's -- that never went out of style. Just because something became a standard a long time ago doesn't mean it's no longer a standard.

[kukurumei]

Oh as if. It is probably the one selling point of the game. And I don't know how long you've been on these forums but plenty of suggestions have been bandied about to create definitiveness within the armory system.

Umm heck no...shown by how badly the community abandoned from the so called "selling point". We didn't want it, goes a long way to show the differences of producers.

Tanaka with whatever faults is the biggest failure as a producer compared to YoashiP. Strictly as a job description, the producer should be the last person to be forcing his views onto others. The producer should be the one on the outside looking in, not the inside looking out.

[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.

[Lignum]

Sounds like some Great things are to Come I can't Wait!!

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

If you are against so many systems the game will be implementing in the future, why argue them? Especially when you are mostly alone in your argument. Why put so much effort in something you have absolutely no control over?

[Reika]

I hope his next letter is about the Jobs . . . and he had better mention dark knight, or im goin after him, with a scythe!

Better be readin this Yoshi!

[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?

[Biggs]

So, if I understand correctly, what we can expect in 1.18 is a reduction in SP from leve linking so that our #1 means of ranking up in the game is potentially severely lessened? Didn't they just state somewhere they wanted to keep leveling the same difficulty as it is now...? Unless there's a replacement in the patch, how can this be good for the short-term?

I would just go ahead and brace yourself for the fact that the time inbetween patch 1.18 and patch 1.19 is going to suck ass for combat job leveling. Giving us half a combat system in 1.18 and not finishing it until 1.19 (which i understand) means you should prob focus on crafting for a while lol.
They said they plan to impliment a better party search function soon, so it looks like the new way to party in groups for a while besides doing dungeons will be to make an old school Xi party and go roaming.

[Physic]

In all honesty the armory system is pretty cool, i like being able to cross class skills. for me class uniquness comes from the unique playstyle mechanics that each class offers, and how that interacts with thier abilities and skills when used in main class for full effeciency.

however i will admit, mages kind of are missing it. the only mechanic they really had that was unique was aoe cone or bomb, but that isnt enough to differentiate,

i mean archers use of multi shot and archer specific WS with cooldowns makes them genuinely different, pugilist light strike, flurry pummel mixed with thier on evade skills, and high evasion make them play unique, gladiators use of sentinel skills and glad skills make it unique. marauder is kind of basic, but the use of steadfast and trying to whore aoe is a bit different although generally annoying and difficult to use to great effect.

but thaum and con, ehhh their playstyle dif seems to have been left out. they should come up with some interesting and unique playstyle differences for con and thaum, so they feel like at a basic level a different style of playing.

that said, armory is fun. Static pure classes bore me. If yall had your way we d only have 4 classes, dd tank healer buffer/debuffer game done. oh yeah and you want to make sure all hybrids suck, so you feel better about yourself. lame.

[CapnBash]

In all honesty the armory system is pretty cool, i like being able to cross class skills. for me class uniquness comes from the unique playstyle mechanics that each class offers, and how that interacts with thier abilities and skills when used in main class for full effeciency.

however i will admit, mages kind of are missing it. the only mechanic they really had that was unique was aoe cone or bomb, but that isnt enough to differentiate,

i mean archers use of multi shot and archer specific WS with cooldowns makes them genuinely different, pugilist light strike, flurry pummel mixed with thier on evade skills, and high evasion make them play unique, gladiators use of sentinel skills and glad skills make it unique. marauder is kind of basic, but the use of steadfast and trying to whore aoe is a bit different although generally annoying and difficult to use to great effect.

but thaum and con, ehhh their playstyle dif seems to have been left out. they should come up with some interesting and unique playstyle differences for con and thaum, so they feel like at a basic level a different style of playing.

that said, armory is fun. Static pure classes bore me. If yall had your way we d only have 4 classes, dd tank healer buffer/debuffer game done. oh yeah and you want to make sure all hybrids suck, so you feel better about yourself. lame.

I totally agree with you here. I love the armory system very much so, but I personally think jobs are better suited over the armory system in parties. That being said, I think it's a great system; I love being able to mix and match abilities, and it's a good thing they're keeping it.