52 Minutes of Yoshi-P unleashed :D Here's my interview with our fearless leader

[Abriael]

As some of you may know, I got a chance to interview Yoshi-P at gamescom.

I apologize to those whose questions I didn't manage to ask, but I had to share Yoshi-P with two others, so the number of questions I was allowed wasn't super-high.

Here is it:
http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/08/...and-much-more/

Still, some pretty interesting stuff IMHO, including the tease that the expansion is gonna come sooner than players expect.

Yoshi-P talked a lot, laughed a lot, and was pretty much unstoppable, like our usual Yoshi-P.

You can also hear me making a complete fool out of myself by thinking we were gonna get another class/job besides ninja/rogue before the expansion. I'm not sure where I picked that up... but I guess my memory is faltering. I'm not getting any younger

[Morzy]

Awesome!!!!!!!! I didn't watch it all, i might not watch the rest. Think I'll just wait and see what happens as i usually do. BUT I was going to write down the questions/answered that were transpired. but as i said, i got bored and stopped. enjoy what I have.

Please note some might not be accurate. i did the best i could. Thank you for the video.

Q1: What is new these days. what is the most exciting part of final fantasy XIV for you?

A1 I'm a huge MMO fan and a PVP fan. Having these 3 large groups fighting against each other and sharing experiences is something i really enjoy. one thing that is good about pvp is you enver have the same sitation happening. each time you participate you have a different scenario. And seeing people from all over the world having fun really makes me happy as a developer, as well as a player. I'm really enjoying myself. nearly 250 battles i've participated in The Frontlines. To be honest, I haven't proceeded with the main quest line. So I'm really enjoying frontlines.
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Q2: So, uhh, very soon we will have Ninja and Rouge. Would you say there are more classes coming before the expansion? And if so will one be a tank. Can you ensure anything about it? at least the philosophy(i think..) behind it?

A2: I just want to clarify, because there might be some misunderstanding. There won't be any new jobs or classes added during the 2.0 series. 3.0 is the expansion what we are calling so before 3.0 there won't be any new jobs or classes other than Rouge or Ninja. The reason behind that is 3.0 will be comign very soon. i think sooner than the players anticipated.

A2.5 So of course with this new expansion pack 3.0 we want to make sure tehre are many surprises waiting the players, including the deep stroyline and many new "feels", a lot fo content and uh, there will be new classes and jobs. but that kind of information we would like to save for later expecially the festival will be happening soon in the 3 big cities all over the world. so until then please bare with me. In the mean time the ninja and rouge jobs and classes i decided to bring in because i always saw the scout class, the rouge class was missing from FFXIV and thats why i wanted to bring this job and class in now. And this is gonig to bring really new experiences to PVE and PVP. And with the frontlines we're going to add this "stealth" uh, actions for this class. so that will bring new tactics and new way of fighting in the frontlines. So players will be able to experience a new type of battle for both PVP and PVE. So before I talk about other jobs coming in the future i really hope you iwll enjoy this new ninja and Rouge class.
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Q3: Are there going to be stealth trains at the main gate? I know you know what I mean.

A3: that being said if everyone is going to be ninja then no one will get their outpost so maybe you will lose the battle so you will need to have good balance.
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Q4: Ok kool so I wanna come back to PVP for a moment. We see Frontlines being very popular. So have you given any thought to perhaps opening up any point of "world PVP" or even having PVE and PVP on two different servers(<--I believe this is correct.. but I was not completely sure.). Having a whole world that is just PVP.

A4: I don't have any plans at the moment, uhh but, uhh it all depends on the FEEDBACK I RECEIVE FROM THE COMMUNITY. Because I'm sure there are a lot of FFXIV players who are playing because it is a "Final Fantasy" game. And to those players if we open up their field for the PVP they might think "oh, this is not the Final Fantasy I was looking for..". so that's the reason I am very cautious and I'm very careful at making that type of decision but maybe if the players say "oh you're being overly cautious, it's fine. if you can open up but one server for PVP we WILL enjoy it!". So if I do receive a lot fo feedback from our players then yes we may consider it but it all depends on the feedback we receive from the players.
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Q5: As a PVP clan(<-- I think. not positive), would you like to be?

A5: Yes, I definitely like the idea.
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Sorry, but as much as I love to provide information, I'm not just about to spend the whole night transcribing 52 minutes of audio. I'm sorry for those that can't hear, but it simply isn't feasible, and I'm sure that those that can hear can easily make the minimal effort necessary to understand the (perfectly understandable) audio of the video.

This was my initial thought after trying for about.. 15 mins. it just takes too long. If you want to try like i did go right ahead. Hell I even reserved 2nd post for my would-be transcript. ._.

[Shake0615]

Ninja will have stealth in Frontlines? No thank you.

[Lego3400]

Ninja will have stealth in Frontlines? No thank you.

It's a key mechanic to the class. It's like asking a summoener not to use DoTs.

[Tupsi]

It's a key mechanic to the class. It's like asking a summoener not to use DoTs.

You mean warlock - a summoner's key mechanic is their summons in the FF series. We have Warlock

(I get what you were saying though.)

[Elven]

Did you ask when or if it's coming to Xbox?

[Abriael]

Did you ask when or if it's coming to Xbox?

Yes, I did. And Yoshi said he'd love to do it right now and they're ready to do it whenever, but for now Microsoft's being stubborn, so it won't happen until they accept cross-platform servers, and Yoshi thinks it won't happen at least for this year.

[Elven]

Yes, I did. And Yoshi said he'd love to do it right now and they're ready to do it whenever, but for now Microsoft's being stubborn, so it won't happen until they accept cross-platform servers, and Yoshi thinks it won't happen at least for this year.

Hey thanks yeah I kind of figured that be the case.

[Risvertasashi]

• Yoshi's favorite feature right now is Frontlines (He personally is a pvp fan and likes having 3 different factions battling); he likes that each round is unpredictable and different, and that players all over the world enjoy it. He's done over 250 frontlines battles, falling behind on the MSQ even.

• No new classes (besides rogue/ninja) before 3.0. 3.0 is coming very soon, probably sooner than players anticipate.

• Many surprises for the players in 3.0, many new fields, deep story line, new classes and jobs. But he wants to save specifics for later. He's bringing in rogue/ninja before then because he felt it was missing from the starting game. ninja/rogue will bring new strategies to both PvE and PvP (stealth tactics).

• If everyone's ninja, you'll probably lose your outpost in frontlines; you'll need a balance.

• Yoshi doesn't feel open-world pvp appeals to the Final Fantasy fanbase and FFXIV playerbase. However, if there's enough feedback from the community, he would consider a single open-world PvP server. (He personally likes the idea of openworld PvP)

• If the interviewers think there's no difference between the PS3 and PS4 graphics, Yoshi thinks that means the PS3 is still very good. He will let the dev team know that some people say that.

• It's not only about graphics quality, but also loading speed, number of characters that can be displayed on the screen, and UI limitations. However, he believes that the PS4 can provide a comparable gaming experience to a PC at a much lower price. (Note: He gave an example in yen, probably referring to Japanese prices)

• He can't disclose specifics about what % of players are on the PS4, but it depends on the country. In Japan, however, consoles are about 50% of the user base; there is not much PC gaming culture in Japan. In the US, it's around 25%. A lot of console players in Europe too.

• They're ready to go ahead with an Xbox port if MS agrees to cross platform servers. He thinks MS's strategy is to focus on new titles with the holiday season coming and is still focusing on beating the PS4, and after that might consider reaching out to the larger community. But Yoshi doesn't see MS agreeing to it this year.

• (Does Yoshi think MS just doesn't want Xbox players mingling with PS3/4 players?) Yoshi thinks MS wants exclusive content to build their community. He doesn't think MS wants content where people go, "Oh you can also play this on the playstation." Yoshi doesn't think gamers particularly care, and they just want to play with their friends; from this viewpoint, cross platform servers makes sense and, Yoshi thinks, would help the industry. MS wouldn't even allow Xbox & Windows cross platform when they asked.

• They are considering bringing in a character from a previous FF (They can't reveal which) from top to bottom; players will be able to do a cosplay of that character. What he can reveal: A character that lost their life in the previous series will not be returning. He doesn't want to ruin the memories player have of the original game, when the characters' lives (and deaths) are very dramatic. Aerith's posture might make it to the game.

• Yoshi personally particularly likes Shadow from FFVI. In the end of FFVI, you don't know if Shadow lives or dies... this excludes Shadow from appearing, since he doesn't want to spoil that mysteriousness.

• Other criteria for bringing a character in: They have to be able to return to their own world and the scenario writers have to be able to come up with something that makes sense. But no matter what, Yoshi understands some players will love it and some players will hate it.

• Yoshi's noted the popularity of Lightning's hairstyle and costume in the game.

• DX11 version is in progress. Yoshi thinks it looks pretty good, but hard to tell the difference unless you specialize in graphics (He doesn't think the average player will notice). The water looks especially good, however, and players that pay special attention to graphical detail will enjoy it.

• For players that think the PS3 and PS4 version look the same, he doesn't think it will make a difference.
  The graphics are done, but there's some coding that affects the performance that needs to be optimized and they're getting help from nVidia engineers. DX11 client will be ready at the end of year at the earliest.

• Yoshi has indeed read articles and such about subscription model MMOs being on the decline, but FFXIV is doing fine as a subscription game. He doesn't think F2P is the only future of MMOs and it's about making the right choice for the right games and business models. He has no plans to shift to F2P currently.

• He does not have any plans for a longer free trial or a tiered service where the lower tier is closer to F2P. However, Yoshi is getting feedback from the community that they would like to buy previous seasonal event items, so there is the possibility they will offer that in the future.

• Yoshi has noticed a tendency for players to prefer to pay for things they have enjoyed and know they enjoy now, rather than put down money for something they might enjoy.

• If Yoshi ever were to change the business model of FFXIV, it would be to bring in more players so more people could enjoy FFXIV. He doesn't think F2P and subscription are the only options. But whatever the business model, he wants to make sure fans can enjoy the game.

• (Very long question about hunts, community division issues, etc) 2.35 will make many adjustments to The Hunt.
  The intent was for hunts to be something for a different audience of players. For example, the B rank hunt wasn't meant to target "server players", but individual players, and give them a steady flow of seals. For S ranks, the expectation was for ad-hoc party forming through /shouts. And the A rank somewhere in between.

• They don't want hunts to be something you have to party up in advance for. They want it to be more for casual players. They believe this is not just because of Sand/Oil rewards, but because all hunts rewards seals and only the amount changes.
  Yoshi doesn't want to detail the changes before the patch because he worries that it might cause more conflict in the community now or after the patch is applied.

• Yoshi isn't planning to do an exclusive claim system because he is concerned (from what happened in FFXI) it will favor players will multiple accounts and lots of time and money disproportionately.

• Technically autoscaling most UI elements is not that difficult. However, because they support the PS3, PS4, and PC, each update pushes about 50,000 UI files. Although they use macros to assist with preparing the files, it still takes them a week. This makes it difficult for them to identify which elements would have the option of autoscaling and which would not. They are working on it, please bear with them. He will definitely make it happen and understands resolutions are getting higher and higher.

[Gardes]

• * He does not have any plans for a longer free trial or a tiered service where the lower tier is closer to F2P. However, Yoshi is getting feedback from the community that they would like to buy previous seasonal event items, so there is the possibility they will offer that in the future.

...Huh? Wha..?