General Questions for the FF14 Staff & Yoshi-P

[origamikitsune]

Yoshi-P and the FF14 Development Team,

First and foremost, we have been promised a lot with this game, and then it came out. Then we were promised it would get fixed, and it sort of was... But not really. And then we got Yoshi-P and The New Team. And we were made more promises.

I have to admit that at first, I was wary of continuing to play even with the new direction and new promises. I am sure a lot of people were. It is very reassuring to actually see progress being made. We are still wary, but every week it seems like some new step has been made in the right direction, and every week it becomes easier and easier to believe in the game again.

Thank you very much for keeping your promises to us, and continuing to do so. I personally believe that this, as much as the actual changes to the game, is what is restoring goodwill between the 14 staff and the player base.

Yoshi-P, recently you visited the west and granted interviews to some of the fan sites. They were very enlightening, but I am sorry to say somewhat dissapointing. To me it seemed like everyone asked the same questions! I do not know if they had to submit questions before hand, and only a few were picked to answer, or if the interviewers asked questions off the cuff (I admit, I would have been star-struck!) Either way, it didn't seem to me that we learned anything new.

There are still so many questions to ask! So I would like to ask you and the Final Fantasy 14 staff (or the community, if they can point me to the right interviews!) a few of those questions.

I'm just one person, so I do not actually expect a direct response to this. But what harm is there in trying? Maybe I will get lucky, right? What can I say, I am the eternal optimist!

2.) You have expressed an interest in bringing life to the world, such as a /jump emote. Are there any other specific ideas to address this? Examples might be the ability to /sit in any chair, or /sit on the edge of a fence or on a barrel. A /sleep emote to lay down on the ground. Might we see whether in the city, or some NPCs that change locations depending on the in-game time of day or wander around in set paths?

3.) Final Fantasy 11 players are familiar with the requirement of having to have multiple people to finish a quest. An example of this would be in 11 where you need a white mage, a red mage, and a black mage to stand in specific places to open a door, or in CoP where it was simply impossible to solo some of the bosses. Will we ever see team-work required content of either type (combat or non-combat co-operation)?

4.) I hate to use Final Fantasy 11 as a comparison so many times, but it did set a standard that 14 has to meet (though not necessarily in the same way). One of the things that seems lacking in 14 is the uniqueness of zones. Specifically, there do not appear to be many places in the world that are just really cool to see. For example, in La Thiene Plateau in 11, there were giant dandelions that rode the air currents, and in Jugnar Forrest there were giant mushrooms that shot spores into the air. These features were unique, visible only in one place in the entire game. Might we see more environment features like this in the future? It seems somewhat of an oversight, considering that this is a player v. environment game!

5.) You have mentioned in the past that there is a trend in MMO games towards smaller guilds. The linkshell I am in currently has about 90 active members. We have our own micro economy (holding "market day" twice a month) to support our crafters and make sure our combatants are fully equipped. Under the assumptions that his is the type of teamwork that you like to see in 14, the question becomes what measures are being taken to keep these sorts of in-game communities intact while considering "smaller" guilds? For example might we see the option for /l1, /l2, /l3, chat?

6.) It seems to me that there is a lot of role-playing in 14; more so than in any other MMO I have experienced. I frequently see people talking in-character in the cities and even when I am out exploring. While role-players may not be the largest sub-culture in the game, if they are noticeable on a daily basis, then they are fairly significant in numbers. Are there any plans or ideas in the works to make the game more role-player friendly, or to encourage more role-playing? Examples might include automatically doing a /chuckle emote when you type "lol" (or "www") in /say or /p chat.

7.) There has been a lot of discussion and mention of improving the UI. I would like to ask specifically about the re-binding of keyboard keys, and a full-screen window mode. Currently, some keys are are not re-bindable, and there is no option for a full-screen, borderless window. The first is simply limiting, the second sometimes critical - especially for those of us with multiple monitors. Are there adjustments in the works for these specific issues? Or are there other specific issues we will see addressed beyond the general importance of freeing up screen retail? Along similar lines, it is often awkward to adjust configuration settings. It is fairly standard these days to not have external configuration programs. The settings can be adjusted in-game, and those requiring a re-launch state as much. Might we see better integration of the external configuration utility?

8.) There has been a lot debate, often heated, about crafting in general. One of the more heated aspects of these discussions has to do with the output of Normal Quality and High Quality items. The problem as players see it (in general) is that the HQ system appears to be broken. For example, it is often as easy to HQ an item using Hasty Hands with NQ mats as it is to HQ using bold with +3 mats. My question is threefold: Is the NQ/HQ system working as intended? If in fact the system is working, does the development team see a need to address the issue given that it is widely perceived as being broken? And if it is in fact broken, what are some of the ideas the development team is considering to correct the issue?

9.) This question goes hand-in-hand with question 3. I think that it is very awesome that Square-Enix has chosen to make Gatherers and Crafters their own, fully fledged classes. This is a unique way of doing things in an MMO, and is something that brings a lot of potential to Final Fantasy XIV. The idea of Gathers and Crafters as main classes is one of the things that Square-Enix is absolutely spot on with. There has been a lot of concern, however, about the fact that the main story quests seem "dumbed down" to account for the non-combat classes. While the difficulty of the quests seems very appropriate for say, a Fisher, it has been entirely anti-climatic as a Lancer. Is the development team considering any options to improve main story missions in later content to make it more suited to the two class types (DoL/DoH & DoW/DoM). For example, might we see one plot-line from two separate perspectives, one being combat light, and the other being combat heavy?

10.) Since it has been confirmed that UI Mods are being considered, there has been a lot of debate as to whether or not that is actually wanted by the community. There are a few who want no mods, a few who want mods that change functionality (such as mouse-over healing, or mods that script boss battles and tell you when to use certain abilities), and a lot of people who are okay with visual mods only (skins that don't add functionality, just change how things are displayed.) The debate is getting pretty heated! Can we get some indication of what is meant by UI Mods being allowed? Are you considering graphical changes only? Are you considering mods that add functionality? Will mods need to be "approved" in any way? Or simply restricted by an API? Do your UI mods include the possibilities of interfacing with webpages (such as displaying retainer inventory on websites)? Or are we completely off base with our guess?

Well, that was much more wordy than I intended, but it touches on some the questions that seemed to me to be left unasked.

Thank you very much for your efforts in making 14 worthy of the Final Fantasy name; I think many of us are eager to see the future you have planed for us! Thank you also for your time and consideration, should you choose to answer my questions!

-Pooka Pucel, on behalf of the Sanctus Refero Linkshell, Besaid

EDIT: The following questions have been answered, either on these forums, in an interview, or revealed in-game or via updates already.

1.) The back-story for Eorzea is interesting. Yet the plot seems to deal very little with the Garlean threat. There has been lots of talk about improving content. Is this content going to reveal more of the Garlean menace, or are you considering an entirely different direction?

Answer.) This question has been answered through in-game content. I will leave the details out to avoid any spoilers, but I will suggest that people interested in learning about the Garlean threat check out some of the new quests that were added in patch 1.17.

[Heartfire]

Those are some very interesting questions. I particularly liked your question on unique zones. I feel like even though we have roughly the same amount of space that FFXI had pre-Zilart, we only have five zones, and there's nothing to see in them.

He did say that he's reworking The Black Shroud, as it is simply is a poorly designed zone. Not to say that there wasn't a lot of craftsmanship in it. Or that it wasn't creative to make a labyrinth type zone. But the zone is horribly impractical, and actually very boring. The only time it stops being boring is when it's frustrating, such as the rank 34 scenario quest. If you're walking through the Black Shroud, you have to go by some very high level, aggressive mobs that there is no possible way to get around. I was lucky enough to have a friend run ahead of me and aggro everything. I just ran after and kept running when they died. xD

But I do like all of your questions. They're very well spoken. Who knows? Maybe they'll browse the forum and decide to give us a brief answer?

[origamikitsune]

^^ Thank you. I pestered a lot of people trying to come up with questions from across the board. I was trying to ask as few questions as possible but get as broad of a picture as I could from any potential answers. It was easy to come up with stuff that hadn't been asked, but surprisingly difficult to make the questions broad enough to be answerable yet specific enough to be productive.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

I think once stuff settles over there with the earthquakem tsunami, and now a hear a nuclear power plant isn't doing so well. We might get replies.

But I would like to ask a question as well.
When will the game be considered ps3 launch ready?
It seems alot was added, and more will be added. And seems we have a good plan in place. I'm not trying to be impatient, just an Idea of time frame everyone is thinking.

[origamikitsune]

I thought about asking that again, but honestly, I wouldn't want them to answer that question more than they already have. There is so much to do right now in terms of re-working that game, that giving any answer beyond, "We don't know," is just begging to create the same situation we have now. I don't think this game can survive a promise to deliver PS3 on a specific date and failure to do so. Right now at least, I don't think they can even safely say, "this year" or "next year." In six months though, I would expect to start asking that question again!

[Kimahri]

Great thread.

[Forlorn]

We need more threads like this. Very well written and thought out questions. I'd like to hear some answers to these and many more. I'll be sure to check back from time to time and see if you get any response.

[Rowyne]

I thought the questions were well thought out and presented. Very nice.

[origamikitsune]

I appreciate all your comments. ^^ I probably shouldn't have posted this at the start of the weekend. Now we have to wait for a few days for them to even have a chance to see it. Oh well! Gives other people a chance to chime in, I suppose.

[Tenchi]

I can't wait to hear the replies to these questions. I am also curious about the re-mapping of the game.