Questions and Feedback on the Future of FINAL FANTASY XIV

[Lienn]

Start billing when 2.0 hits. Anytime before that is too early, IMO.

Diablo III is coming out soon.

This. Start charging exactly by the time Star Wars: The Old Republic is about to be released is, at least, an extremely reckless decision. IMO the correct is they only charging after 2.0 is out. IDC much if they need money or whatever...charging for a game in the curent state will just get even more players away.

IMO, start billing now is a death sentence. Would be better just turn servers off...probably would have a better monetary return than start billing and then only resume at 2.0. I predict some tremendous backfire coming from this decision.

[Reliquia]

I understand that the focus at and long term goal at the moment is to reboot and re-launch FFXIV with FFXIV version 2.0, and that therefore it is vital that you manage to create a satisfying product that once launched will get enough attention. Therefore we work as your beta and paying customers while you keep us busy with improvements and content until the game is ready to redeem it's name and is ready to successfully market itself and recruit a wider playerbase.

Seeing as there are already many players with multiple lvl 50 classes I am wondering how you are going to keep them striving for time consuming content, so my questions are naturally:
- Are there yet any plans for the implementation of more classes/jobs by version 2.0 or after?
- Are there yet any ideas to when the lvl cap is going to be raised?

[Zantetsuken]

Are there plans for Summoner and Thief Jobs/Classes?

Apologies if this has been asked a million times already.

[Amsai]

I'm overall pleased with the direction of the game, and I will P2P and continue to support the games new direction. There are a couple of areas that I'm worried about, but nothing that would keep me from playing the game.

1. Will you be able to successfully ballance PvP and PvE and keep them seperate, such as class ballancing and gear?

2. The mention of UI Add-Ons seems like it would put PS3 users at a disadvantage. Will they be only cosmetic, or will you NEED them to do challenging content, or worse yet will they be able to play the game for you?

3. I saw no mention of new classes/jobs. Will you be implementing them in the future? Everyone has their favorite, and I'd like a Ninja (non-tank).

4. Could you elaborate on the possible new races of Dragons and Demi-humans? Will these be the only new playable races added, if any are added? What is a (FFXIV) Demi-Human anyway? Could we possibly have playable Goblin and Qiqirn races?

5. Could we get some feedback on the lack of ballance between Gladiator tanks vs. Marauder Tanks, as well as the future direction of the Paladin Job? The way I currently see it isbasically this:

Gladiator: Good defense/defensive skills, Poor AoE damage/Good single target damage, Good Single Target Enmity skills/Bad AoE enmity skills/Slow enmity build up.

Marauder: Good defense/defensive skills, Awesome AoE damage/Awesome single target damage, Good Single Target Enmity skills/Good AoE enmity skills/Fast enmity build up.

I would like to see at least good trade-offs, so that Marauder doesnt so greatly outperform Gladiator. Particularly with content that seems to be 90% AoE tanking!

Also if as mentioned before Paladin gets high defense and low attack and loses a lot of cross-class abilities and traits, it better be significantly beefy and have defensive and enmity skills that make it THE super tank. Otherwise all I see Paladin being is a highly survivable solo class, or a good off-tank/support class. If the overall goal is to make Marauder an awesome DPS/Tank, just let me know now so I can start building my Marauder/Warrior Tank.

[Sypherblade]

Love the outline for v2.0

Question

With all the new changes, it seems like a completely different game. Will guild leves be changed completely as well? Will we still have crystals at each camp to activate leves. Or will it be done differently?

(ex) Get leve from counter...go to a farm...talk to npc who put up the request to have squirrels killed who are eating their crops...leve activated...kill off the squirrels in the crops....level complete.

or will it mimic closely to what we have right now?

[Davorok]

Psst...Hey Buddy.... Wanna Free Pass?

Perhaps give each remaining paying customer a 1 year Buddy Pass (expires when 2.0 goes Live). We played free for a year, now as we pay, allow us to invite a friend to play free until 2.0 goes Live. You might just get more people hooked with the right lure. Heck some folks might use the Pass for an Alt and then keep both accounts after 2.0.

If they only keep 1 acct, or even quit after 2.0, at least you get 1 years worth of subs but I am guessing the vast majority will renew (assuming you guys can deliver...which I believe you can).

Just a thought anyway. ;>) I'm trying to bring peace to the realm while you guys tear it apart (for the greater good).

[Lienn]

Another question:

I noticed the new maps are only covering a smal part of the current ones, like Black shroud area seems to cover from that lake from Gridania, going south past bent Brush and, possibly, going until Tranquil. Also, i saw that the new lake in La Noscea seems to be replacing Iron Lake, Bronze Lake and the O'ghomoro...

Are the darkened parts of the old maps really a reference of the new ones' position, indicating that only parts of the maps will change, or are they just as random background? I really believe that you guys always do this kind of stuff on purpose, as hints (or also we wouldn't have some of the area names erased from images...probably the already known names i guess), but it does is worth asking.

[Chezen]

First off, overall the changes sound good. I'm especially interested in the treasure maps found by gatherers. Those sound like a lot of fun. But I do have a couple of questions/comments.

Like a previous poster pointed out, there is a line that says all dungeons will be converted into instanced raids. Does this mean all non-instanced dungeons will be taken out and converted? I would be sad to see this happen. Hopefully you just mean making raid versions of instanced dungeons?

The picture you showed doesn't really give a firm look at the new graphics. Just how much of a hit (if any) will the graphics take with this new engine? I understand that this change is necessary to make the game better and more efficient, but the graphics is something I really, really love, so I'm just wondering.

I'm one of the few that loved the maps as they are, seemless and vast, and didn't mind the "copy and paste" at all. Will all of the new maps be small with loadscreens now? I'm sure they will still be beautiful, I'm just wondering how much of a hit they will take compared to now.

Would you perhaps give us options to play whatever language we want for the voiceovers, or even maybe an option to turn the voiceover off please? I'm one who likes to watch anime in Japanese and I have been dissapointed in the past when spoken SE games have not included language options. In the case of gaming, I think I might even like the option to turn it off and read like the older games.

Thank you for your hard work.

[Travesty]

My question:

In the concept screenshot, how much of that is concept, and how much of it is actual screenshot? How much of that is just conceptual artwork, and how much, if any, is actually rendered models and in-game graphics?

[leomike35]

Thanks for being more transparent with your goals, but, to start charging me for your beta is revolting. I won't bother to log on anymore if it's gonna cost me valuable meal tickets. You will lose a lot of players in an already tiny community come December.

It's funny. I'm not even surprised that the subscriptions are being restarted. I almost expected it even if it's a bad choice. To be real: I'm starting to see SE as a maker of bad choices. You know Stars Wars: The Old Republic releases in December? I will be playing that, Diablo 3, and GW2 until the mythical version 2.0 is functioning. I'm shaking my head right now thinking about how SE is gonna compete with the heavyweights. Did you know GW2 and D3 won't even have monthly fees? All this disappointment and frustration is coming from a longtime FF fan who wants the game to succeed. Imagine what the non-fanboys must think about paying for this game.

Speaking of successful free games, if the plan is to take ideas from other places, learn to make money without charging monthly fees. There are some fine examples to emulate like League of Legends, AoC, or GW.

Take care. See you again! December 2012. Yes, please.

Yeah you're a fan allright. A fan of the games you mentioned you will be playing. Good luck to you good sir.