New Info/Dev Post Aggregator, And How To Use This Forum

[Rentahamster]

Latest update 07/20

LIST OF ALL NEW INFO, PLUS HOW TO USE THE FORUM

(bookmark this)

I'm seeing a lot of confusion around these parts, so here is a giant recap of all the new info in a convenient location.

First of all, though, I have a feeling that a lot of you are not using the forum to its full potential.

The two most important links you can check to see all the new stuff are the "New Posts" and the "Dev Tracker" links.

The "New Posts" link is in the top left corner of the page, and will show you all the threads that have been updated since the last time you checked. It's a good idea to keep checking that link, and you can clearly see which threads have new posts in them.

The "Dev Tracker", obviously, is a listing of all the dev posts that the community reps make. However, it does not filter by language, and therefore it gets filled with a bunch of posts in a language you cannot understand.

Update: Actually, you CAN search for only the English posts. Here is the link to do so:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/s...hoice[]=12


Additionally, whenever you see a quoted post, there is a little icon next to the quotee's name that will take you to that quoted post if you click on it.

For example:

In honor of YoshiP being a Street Fighter 4 fan (like me), I propose a Producer Dream Battle. Ono vs Yoshida.

http://i.imgur.com/Nsmk6.jpg

Clicking on that little blue icon takes you to the quoted post.

Those little blue icons are also handy when looking at a list of threads on the main page or from the "New Posts" link. Clicking on a blue icon will take you to the first unread post of that thread.

One more thing. Another way to sort dev posts is to just search for all the posts that our community reps make.

Bayohne's posts: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/s...st&showposts=1

Rukkirii's posts: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/s...st&showposts=1

Hvinire's posts: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/s...st&showposts=1


Yoshida's Letters from the Producer: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/f...ost&order=desc

Matsui's Battle Reform Blueprint: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...form-Blueprint

The latest JPN dev posts translated by Reinheart: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-to-English%29

Now, onto the latest info.

07/20 - Gamer Escape Interview:

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/2011/07...18-and-beyond/

06/26 - 4gamer developer interview:

Reinheart's translation: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-%28Famitsu%29

More detailed translation: http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/2011/06...iew-june-2011/


06/26 - Famitsu Connect On developer interview:

Reinhert's translation: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-%28Famitsu%29

Kristina's translation: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...azine-Aug.2011


Gathering Q&A links:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...265#post170265

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...266#post170266

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...499#post173499

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...500#post173500


Battle System Q&A:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post155331

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post155460


Features Confirmed for Patch 1.18:

• Initial implementation of Auto Attack
• Rank 25 and Rank 45 Raid Dungeons
• New items and gear
• Guildleve rebalancing
• Action bar always visible (optional)

Features Confirmed for Patch 1.19

• Refinement of Auto Attack
• Initial implementation of Airships
• Initial implementation of Chocobos
• They hope to add a leve ticket system
• Materia Craft System
• Removal of physical levels

Dev Posts:

We confirmed with the development team that along with the implementation of instanced raids, they will be looking into enhancing the convenience of the party member search system. A raid search option will be added along with a feature that allows players to indicate they are searching for a party outside of raids.

We are currently performing thorough tests to ensure there are no problems for implementation.

Confirmed with the dev. team in regards to increasing the maximum capacity in the trade window above the current four slots. After we complete the planned overhaul of item-related data/adjustments, we will move on to addressing trade, bazaar and other system-related edits.

Great suggestion that you brought up, Adol! We forwarded your feedback to the dev. team to let them know and we got a response right away! What the dev. team informed us was that the current system would make these changes difficult due to the fact that these features are server-related, so once the server adjustments have been implemented they will be looking into being able to change prices of items in personal and retainer bazaars.

Thanks for your feedback!

Hey everyone! We forwarded your concerns about this topic to the dev. team. They let us know that they too have been discussing the small selection of 35+ leves and will be addressing this after the adjustments to recipes are carried out. These changes should help with ranking up your crafting classes quicker. I know I’ll be looking forward to it!

I prodded for some more details about the system to hopefully give you guys a better understanding at what the current plan is. The current policy of allowing spells to be cast both as an individual-target and AoE will be done away with. During the armoury system improvements spells will be evaluated and determined whether they will be an individual target spell or an AoE spell on a case by case basis.

Spoke with some of the dev. team today to ask about this for you guys. Along with the elimination of physical levels, they agree that the importance of leveling up will change, as perhaps should the visualization of that achievement. They said they'll be changing many animations as part of a step by step overhaul, so they'll be looking into making changes to the rank up animation/fanfare at that time.

Regarding the question I gleaned from the original poster (Can you generate materia from gear that already has materia attached to it?), I checked in with the dev. team and they said that isn't the current plan.

Spoke with the dev. team to get some answers on a few of the questions that have been popping up in the thread.

Are there level restrictions for instanced raids?
There is a minimum level required to enter, but not a maximum level. Therefore, if it’s a level 25 raid, as long as you are 25 or above you will be able to enter.

How often can you enter an instanced raid?
After entering once, you will need to wait a period of time before you can re-enter. (The time has yet to be finalized)

Can you gain SP while battling in raids?
Yes.

What happens if you disconnect while in the instanced raid?
You'll be able to reconnect and rejoin your party. If the party has exited by the time you return, you will be placed outside of the dungeon.

Are four players required to enter rank 25+ raids? And 8 for 45+?
Currently, yes. Rank 25+ raids will require four players to enter, and rank 45+ raids will require a full party of 8. This is a result of the balancing that is done inside of the actual raid, along with ensuring proper load on the servers are maintained. With the release of patch 1.18 we will monitor the comments and feedback from the community and re-evaluate as necessary and implement variations as needed.

But... are these raids gonna be tough? I want a challenge! I CRAVE A CHALLENGE!!!1
Rest assured... When speaking about the current raid dungeons, we can sum it up in one word: difficult.

Checked in with Yoshida to get try and get some hints on the future implementation of player titles. One aspect of the titles that we are able to reveal is the fact that they are planning to tie titles to the upcoming achievement system.

[Rentahamster]

Continued....

This was posted in response to asking about support for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11, specifically. When taking into consideration the performance of the PlayStation 3 version, we currently have no plans of supporting DirectX 10/11. However, in the event that large changes or alterations take place to the graphics, or if DirectX 10/DirectX 11 continue to grow in popularity, we will begin to support them.

Greetings everyone,

I apologize for the delay in getting a comment to you all about this. We are aware it is a hot topic in the forum, but it’s one that is difficult to provide a satisfactory comment on. Firstly, I want to bring attention to the following comment was posted by Yoshida on the Japanese forum back in March:

Hello! This is producer/director Yoshida.

I appreciate you bringing up your concerns in regards to the map.
Just like you, I am keenly aware of the concern, and even though it is going to be a lot of work, we are drawing up plans for a proper rebuild. However, as you have all pointed out already, these fixes are related to the core of the game itself, so it is going to require quite some time.

Therefore, we are also making long-term plans alongside of this to alleviate the current map collision in a step-by-step fashion. This is an answer to the fundamental structure of the maps as well as the specs as a whole, so please note that the level design of a single area as well as other things are included in this.

We brought up the concerns being presented by the community, as well as the comment made above, to Yoshida again today.

In regards to the overall direction, he said that nothing has changed and he is still dedicated and moving forward with the edit work.

Next, in regards to the main focus of this thread, that the game is just a single area filled with monsters of different levels; the necessity to revamp this has not changed and we feel stronger than ever that along with the edits, each area should have its own specific theme.

However, as stated by Yoshida in the comment before, please understand that there is a large amount of work to be done and it will take some time before we can even share the information with you. Once the new designs start to take shape, we will make it our top priority to share them with you.

While I can't offer too many new details, another thing I wanted to clarify about the upcoming job system; jobs won't be unlocked at rank 50, but when leveling a class up and it hits a certain rank you'll be able to unlock the related job.

Jobs won't have levels and as such won't need to be leveled up. Jobs are an advanced form of the class that unlocks them. So for example purposes, a level 50 Gladiator would be a level 50 Paladin. (Example only!)

Also we can confirm that we'll be changing the term "ranks" (as in rank 50 Pugilist) to "levels" (as in level 50 Pugilist) along with the removal of the physical level. We'll also be changing skill points to experience points.

In summation:
Rank > Level
Skill points > Experience points

A few more answers to "auto-attack"-related questions we've seen pop up:
- Disciples of Magic will have an auto-attack when in close combat range
- Attack speed will differ based on the weapon used by each class

In Patch 1.18, we will be increasing the max number of retainers that can be set up within each area. However, by simply increasing the number of allowable retainers, the fact remains that it could again reach the capacity limit. Therefore, as a precursor to that we will be planning some type of system of checks and balances in order to reset the retainers that have been setup.

Checked with the dev. team regarding questions about archers and their ability to auto-attack. Auto-attack as a system will initiate when the player is fighting an enemy in close range. While archers will be able to auto-attack enemies while in close range it won't be with arrows. New animations will be implemented to make this all happen!

A quick note regarding the comments about the slow auto-attack speed, dullness, etc. presented in the video, etc. In line with the comments made in Matsui's Battle Reform Blueprint, this is only the first wave of the auto-attack implementation with the second wave including the motion/animation updates and adjustments.

For the first stage, we will implement the core mechanics of auto-attack and perform provisional adjustments to the accompanying damage algorithm. The next stage, planned to take place after the aforementioned crowd control and action/skill revisions, will involve a fine-tuning of the auto-attack algorithm. Other algorithms will also undergo revisions, which will be explained further below. In so doing, we hope to further draw out the unique flavor of each weapon. At this same time, we will also carry out motion and other graphical revisions to accommodate auto-attack.

The dev. team let us know that they are uncertain whether or not Beastmen currency will have any specific use in the future.

It’s up to you if you want to hold onto them or sell them!

There are some great points in this thread so we brought them up to Yoshida and he said he will look into making the crafting process easier. We want crafters to have fun analyzing the market, searching for demands and creating products for sale, rather than the crafting process in and of itself.

Hey everyone! We know this has been a very popular topic on multiple occasions and the dev. team wanted to let you know that they have began working on increasing the key mapping settings. This will include being able to set the camera controls to the arrow keys!

I apologize for the late reply. The dev. team let us know that they are improving the item search feature and this should include an easier search for HQ items.

This alternative solution is a great idea in the mean time and I see it catching on in the Market Wards. Even I have been listing my HQ sales up like this.

Spoke with Yoshida regarding the discussion taking place here. While the chat system is one of the many core edits planned along with other systems, due to the fact that server fixes are higher in priority, we are not able to delve into the specific content right now.

With this said, please continue to give us feedback on this topic and we will make sure to keep it in mind for our future discussions. I know there are a lot of "this way works/this doesn't/don't do this/make sure you don't do this!!1!" so let us know your thoughts.

Spoke to Yoshida himself about this idea and he said that he would like to implement a bestiary if they can make the appropriate parameter adjustments during the battle fixes.

Matsui let us know that this would be an idea (Overdrives) that they will look into after the battle adjustments take place.

Checked in with the King of Battle himself, Matsui. He said that once the future battle-related edits take place, he believes there will be a need for specialized weapons, so at that time he will be looking into it while he discusses ideas again.

We discussed this with Matsui to see what he thought about the idea. He thinks that random/roaming bosses and such are definitely necessary, and he himself would like it, as well! After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

Catalysts (for Materia) will only be obtainable via gathering methods.

We checked in to get some more answers based on the discussion going on thus far. Of course this isn't an exhaustive list, but should give some more insight into the system.

Are there any unique/untradeable gear that you can’t attach materia to?

While unique/untradeable gear is not directly related, there are some items that cannot have materia attached to it. Also, there are some items that you cannot convert into materia as well.

Will materia be stored in your inventory? I’m worried about running out of inventory space again.

We are considering storing them in your inventory.

Will you be able to sell equipment that has materia attached to it?

You will be able to trade, etc. the same as before you attached materia. If you could trade it before, you can trade it after attachment.

By attaching materia to lower rank armor/weapons, if the stats on the item get too high wouldn’t it destroy game balance?

We have prepared a feature to prevent this. Specifically, you will not be able to attach high stat materia to low rank items.

At this time, there aren't any plans to separate Fieldcraft leves from the shared reset timer with Battlecraft leves.

[Rentahamster]

Continued...

After speaking to the dev. team regarding the difficulty of obtaining SP via gathering-related levequests, they have informed us that they will be adjusting gathering-related levequests to reward significantly more SP than they do currently. Now you can level quicker to obtain that Star-Spangled Subligar you always wanted!

Got some new tidbits regarding the upcoming Materia system implementation to share with you straight from the dev. team!

By using the armor and weapons that you equip yourself with, you will generate "attachment points"* and when your attachment points reach 100% you will be able to convert that weapon or armor into "materia." This is known as "materia conversion." "Materia" is a crystallized form of the weapon and armor’s stats that the player has used and formed an attachment to.

During the materia conversion process, there will be fluctuations that result in NQ stat materia, as well as HQ stat materia, even when using the same type of item. However, even the NQ stat material will have beneficial stats.

Also, you will be able to purchase and trade materia freely.

Crafters will be able to utilize the catalysts that gatherers obtain and attach a single materia to an item (there is no chance of failure). The materia you will be able to attach will depend on the type of weapon and the type of stat that matches the equipment slot. There are a variety of different combinations of materia that can be attached to each equipment slot’s item, so each player will need to decide what they want to pursue.

In addition to this, you will also be able to remove materia from items that have had materia attached to them. However, upon removal you will lose the materia, so you should probably only remove it when you definitely have a better upgrade to replace it with.

Finally, rumors tell of a forbidden technique with a high risk of failure to attach another materia to an item that already has a materia attached to it…

We're looking forward to hearing feedback on this!

*Rep note: Similar to "affection" not "attaching" something.
(Please note that some terms may not be final and may be subject to change in the future.)
(*Updated: 5:30pm PST to clarify)

Thanks for your feedback everyone! We shared this idea with the dev. team and they said they will try to add the guildleve titles to the auto-translate as soon as possible.

All really great points here and we submitted your concerns to the dev. team. They informed us that they are aware that this is a large problem and in order to add an in-game configuration tool they will need to fix the core programming-related data first. The dev. team wanted us to let you know that they will take care of it but cannot give a specific time frame at the moment.

Hey everyone, I know you're all excited to see how allocating stats will change in the future! While we can't give away too many specific details, we did confirm with the team that on class rank up the process of allocating points will still be controlled by the player.

Fret not, as the dev. team is well aware of the large, gil-laden purses of the populace. The team knows about the abundance of coinage that fills the markets, and also about the storages filled to the brim with currency! The team knows that inflation is a serious issue if left unchecked and you can bet that they have plans in place to address this in the future.

Rest assured that the team is in the process on stabilizing and improving the current retainer system. Something that I want everyone to keep in mind is that even if we simply changed the current system over to an auction house, that doesn’t mean it would solve all of our problems overnight. There are more things that would still need to be adjusted if that were to happen. As such we aren't currently planning on switching over to an auction house system as of yet.

We do know that there are many color dying materials that can take up the majority of your inventory and the dev. team is planning to improve the process of color dyeing. These changes alongside the adjustments to recipes should make your inventories very happy!

We heard back regarding the possibility of implementing speech bubbles as a chat tool. The team let us know that there are no plans to use speech bubbles in the game, but that they are working to improve the chat windows, and chat system, so if you have any feedback I'd be happy to pass it along. (I don't think this thread works for those kind of suggestions, so perhaps a new one?)

Putting aside my hilarious comment from yesterday, we did make an inquiry about this! The dev. team liked the idea, and know it's a popular one for many reasons (such as those listed in this thread), and they do want to implement it. However, items currently place a huge load on the server, especially the Market server, so this isn't something that can be implemented immediately. Once server-related issues are resolved, which plans are in motion to do, we can start working on implementing signatures, etc.

Sorry that it's not a technical breakdown of what the exact programming-related issue is, but hopefully we'll continue to get good ideas for future additions, regardless of any current technical hurdles (that are being addressed).

Ah, sorry I missed that. Regarding what Foxclon said on the JP forum was the fact that in the 1.18 patch, the anima cost of "Return" will be lowered to zero. He also said that while it's a bit off, they're gathering their thoughts regarding future modes of transportation and once we have something concrete to share, we'll let you guys know.

Got word back from Yoshida about the changes that they're planning to implement. Like I assumed, there aren't concrete details on what precisely is being done that I care share, but he said that along with the PS3 version development, they are performing optimization work to overall the core engine to make improvements.

[Rentahamster]

One more bit of info that isn't old yet:

Hey all,

Hvinire here with an update from Yoshida on this very topic. Sorry for the delay in responding but please check out the comment that Yoshi-P himself made regarding the community concerns over the current death penalty in Eorzea.

Death Penalty Implementation Ideas
This is Producer/Director Yoshida.

Thanks for the large number of comments! I’m sorry for taking so long to respond!
(I prioritized the preparation of the Producer letter and other scheduled tasks. ^^

After reading through all of the comments, I would like to tell you about the current plans for the death penalty.

• The death penalty is important (For the purpose of creating a sense of nervousness regarding battles)
• Thinking of 2 kinds of death penalties

1. Definite occurrence of a ”Temporary status down” effect upon recovery of death (Wears off after a set time OR by paying gil to an NPC)
2. Occurrence of an ”equipment degradation” effect only when using return after death (Recovered by repair)

• Not currently planning on having a loss of SP/XP at this point in time
• Equipment repair cost relief countermeasures will also be made alongside this.

In regards to the status down effect, we feel that it is necessary to prevent the classic MMO “zombie attack” (Attack > Die > Revive > Attack > Die). There are some players that have touched upon status recovery through NPCs in various threads and comments.

However, we are also planning the below changes to raise at the same time

• Introduction of raise tier system (Raise I/Raise II/Raise III *Temporary names)
• Raise I (After being raised, status down effect, no equipment damage)
• Raise II (After being raised, weaker status down effect or a shortened status down time, no equipment damage)
• Raise III (Perfect raise, no status down effect *Recast time and/or high MP cost)

In other words, even if you die you can get a raise and just take the hit of a temporary status down effect.

However, we determined that it would be necessary to make multiple raise tiers that can be acquired at different ranks since raise is acquired at rank 38 and it is not possible to raise at low-mid ranks.

In addition, in exchange for the death penalty we are looking into making the return cost 0. (This is for regular return, not for when use return when you die.)

Of course we plan to add a 10-20 minute recast timer, but by making the return cost 0:

• It eliminates the need to death warp in order to conserve anima
• Equipment damage when dying will only be occur in the instance of a full party wipe with no one available to cast raise
• Will be a fair amount of risk by relieving the labor of equipment repair (revamp of repair recipes)
• By spreading raises over the low-mid ranks the frequency of revivals will increase (=reduction in party wipes/reduction in death penalty frequency through camaraderie.)

Personally, I would like to see a lot more people tossing out raises as they pass by.

In this regard, I feel that the death penalty is something that creates balance and gives rise to the feeling of nervousness. We have already begun cost evaluation and are planning to implement this in the near future.

In any event, my goal is to create a proper sense of nervousness and not make it so harsh that people log out because they are fed up with the penalties imposed upon death. (Fatigue will be dealt with in another thread)

Please discuss the above points and any comments such as the below would be really helpful:

• This penalty is weak!
• This is perfect!
• Do something else!

Thanks!

There you have it, now back to your regularly scheduled discussion.

[SIZE=5]LATEST DEV POSTS:[/SIZE]

I know this is an old topic, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get further details for a response, but I wanted to confirm that you will need to be wearing the equipment that you want to transform into materia.

Hey, gang. I wanted to bring you the official details that Yoshida has recently posted (at crazy hours mind you!) this morning on the Japanese forum. Here's what he had to say on the topic of the upcoming job system.

Hey everyone, this is producer/director Yoshida.

I seem to recall there being a discussion about what each class will become job-wise in a previous thread. While it's still a bit too early to talk about the specifics, I will let you know a bit about the plan. Once it becomes possible to publicize the specs, I plan on making a post in battle mechanics section, but since job implementation will be taking place post-class balance adjustments, it is going to take some time. (Planning for post patch 1.20.)

Matsui, Gondai, and myself, are creating this plan, and the early jobs are based on "party balance."

In other words, here is the basic premise:

• Tank
• Attacker
• Damage Dealer (Nuker)
• Healer/Crowd Controller　
• Buffer/Crowd Controller

The above are just the foundation, and of course it doesn't mean that these are the limit of what types of roles we'll feature. I hope that this gives you something to discuss and speculate about.

Got another (late night!) post from Yoshida that I wanted to share with you all. The thread that Yoshida was addressing had questions asking about whether or not leveling up will be necessary based on some comments he stated in a recent interview.

I suggest that if you want to discuss specific points in the below post, you may want to start a separate thread so that this thread doesn't become further off-topic (than I'm about to make it!)

Without further ado, here's the official translation...

Hi all, this is producer/director Yoshida.

First off, I’d just like to say that I am not by any means saying that characters shouldn’t have to level, or that we should get rid of leveling up itself, or that leveling is boring. If there was anyone that took it this way, I apologize. I myself am a huge role playing gamer, I love MMOs, and I’ve even worked on a recent Dragon Quest title, so I understand the pleasure and fun aspects of character growth. With that said, this does not mean that we are getting rid of it.

Of course, when you consider the unique characteristics of MMOs, planning to reach the level cap within a week isn’t entirely accurate. The ideal image is one where if you play every day for 2 hours or so, you will be able to reach the max cap on one class in about 3-4 months. Naturally, if you make detours or spend a whole day just chatting with friends, the distance and time to reach the cap will increase. One of the important things we would like players to think is “if I keep playing, I too can reach the highest rank.”

I was a hardcore EverQuest player and I know of the struggles involved in getting to that point. Truth be told, I really loved it. However, dying and losing 2 weeks’ worth of EXP, going insane trying to make EXP parties... I don’t think those features are important in the future of FFXIV.

While this is only concept phase right now, we are planning to increase the rank cap for growth once every 1-2 years, and will be implementing elements such as additional classes and jobs in the future.

However, I think what you’re all really concerned about is whether or not the end-game content and reasons for growing your character are going to be worthwhile or not. All I can say to that is that I will give it my utmost best!

Additionally, in the midst of the current battle adjustments, I think that rapidly inserting content (specifically battle-related content), when taking into account the overall situation, can be considered a pretty rash decision under normal circumstances. Since the foundation of game design is usually to first focus on finalizing the battle system, and then to implement content that utilizes the finished system, we are running a lot of risks launching the instanced raids and the Ifrit battle at this time. ^^;

I want to state just how much we appreciate all of you that are playing in these conditions, and let you know that we’ll continue with our best effort to implement content alongside the battle and foundational-related fixes.

[Jynx]

Thanks for a nice agregated list of Dev posts in the past month or so.

[Acydcross]

Thanks, will bookmark.

[Munba]

Nice work. Bookmarked.

[Matsuki]

Great post, I've missed some of that info

[Gun_Anam]

The "Dev Tracker", obviously, is a listing of all the dev posts that the community reps make. However, it does not filter by language, and therefore it gets filled with a bunch of posts in a language you cannot understand.

Just to note that you can get the dev posts filtered by language. Go to Forum Top, scroll down to the header of the forum section (i.e. English Forums), and in that header bar you will find a Dev Tracker button to view all dev posts in that particular section of the forums. To refine the search further you can click on 'English Forums' then click on Dev Tracker at the header of a particular section of the forum.

[Teknoman]

Wow Renta. Respek Knuckles indeed.