To the Devs: Communication is failing!

[Airget]

but...isn't the whole game essentially a test right now?

There's a difference between a beta and a test server. With a test server you can test concepts before implementing them into the game however as it stands now the concepts are just implemented into the game and they just hope the playerbase will enjoy it. With something like class abilities, there should be a stronger input from players who have said classes at 50, they should have the ability to test out the new way it works before they just throw it into the game and say to bad, if you liked it the old way.

While some classes don't have it as bad as others, mages get pretty jipped in this process. Overall the melee classes aren't hit as hard but as a mage, you lose access to the shield abilities, and as a THM your role is pretty much rewritten. I think another thing people might not realize is the sudden decrease of healers in the game with THM losing their healing abilities, so while before there were 2 classes that had the abilities to learn curative spells, we now only have one. This in itself is pretty bad cause while THM could learn the one cure spell that THM offers it pretty much says CON always has to be in the party regardless of the situation.

Before you could have a THM or a CON to heal but that is no longer the case, even with the option of 10 other abilities, THM can only grab 1 curative spell and just hope that's enough to keep people alive. While sure the abilities do gain potency as you increase in level, no one will deny that as soon as these new class abilities are implemented they'll prolly have to work out a lot of bugs on the actual potency increase with level.

There may be cases where the potency is to low, to high, or doesn't work at all. There's no doubt that this ability change will have a lot of kinks to work out, even the combo system might have a few kinks to work out ranging from the window of opportunity not being the right amount of time, to different abilities comboing with one another that shouldn't be comboing.

There is just a lot that could go wrong with the changes being added to the game, it would be easier to swallow if the idea that they want to charge around this time wasn't in the air, I think then people would say, "Well this is to be expected it's still in a beta phase" But once you say "We'll beging to charge after the release of 1.20" Then you have to take a step back and think, "Well if we are going to be paying for this why should we expect a change like this with blind faith, I'd like to have a more hands on feel with the changes rather then hoping for the best."

But ya, it's all based on the timing, I just think when it comes down to something like this they should really try to get a more hands on opinion with the community rather then just putting it in the game and hope it works.

[Jinko]

While some classes don't have it as bad as others, mages get pretty jipped in this process.

My mains are mages and I don't feel this way, although I do agree with your suggestion on test servers.

As you say there will no doubt be minor bugs and could be issues with potency and enmity which could have been resolved before going live if it had been in testing.

That being said what with the uncertainty of the letter and the skills in general prior to the letter I doubt the dev team are far along enough to have these things in testing, they don't even have names for them yet.

As Sephrick said the whole system and announcement sounded completely rushed and unprepared.

[Sephrick]

THEY ARE NOT DONE YET! Not a mind boggling concept yet so many ppl on the forums demand a fully detailed outline of every single change to come.

Well, if Yoshida wasn't blowing smoke when he said QA takes two weeks they very much better be done. Their own deadline for releasing 1.20 is at maximum early December.

Guess how long until we're beyond the "early" December period? That's right, two-and-a-half weeks. Which means if they're going to save face and meet their own deadline for once that means they have their two weeks for QA and can release the patch Dec. 8.

If they don't have things like names, durations, recasts and costs ironed out by now then there's no hope for 1.20 to be out in December.

And this reaction to request more info isn't baseless. Yoshida said in August they were going to release this info when 1.19 went live because they wanted or feedback. But we can't offer any substantive feedback because we have a fragment of the bigger picture of the class changes. So not only is it late, but it feels like it was just cobbled together and tossed out there to appease us when all they should have done was said "sorry, we're not ready to release it."

Sure, some would still have belly ached about it, but respect earned from honesty goes a lot farther than tossing out scraps to fulfill empty promises.

[TinnySnips]

Sure, the information could be a bit more fleshed out, but I wouldn't dare make it complete. Can you imagine what would happen to these forums if casting costs were listed; casting costs will be based on current class level. Imagine for a moment that they posted the casting cost for cure, which would be a formula, probably resembling this:

15 + 1.8*cLvl

I just imagined it, here's what it looks like:

SE, please give us an actual number for casting costs!

This new system is stupid. We shouldn't have to do math to...

OMG! Why should my cure cost over 800mp at level 50!?

So if my conjurer is level 20, but I'm on my level 50 warrior...

I think they probably had an internal meeting regarding the communique and decided not to list formulas for potency, casting cost and duration in an effort to avoid confusion. As for the absence of the names, I think it's possible that they haven't decided on names for everything yet, so they listed no names for the sake of consistency of presentation. I do agree that traits were noticeably absent, but I'm sure there was a good reason for it (such as them not yet being completed).

I personally don't see where SE made communication errors which warrant the type of reaction we're seeing from the community. Except for 1 exceptionally vague communication regarding water, SE has been pretty clear on the nature of the changes as well as the purpose. If they have made a big communication mistake, it was in thinking that we could receive this information with a measure of patience and maturity. Of course, a large part of the community, on both sides of the issue, are quite capable of being mature and patient, but there is a very vocal minority creating quite a clamor.

[Jinko]

Tinnysnips they wouldn't have to do that they could give examples of the cost of cure at lvl 4 (or whatever level you learn it) at lvl 20 and at lvl 50.

The player could then extrapolate between the lines, sure some may not beable to do that but its a whole lot less confusing than giving us a calculation.

Of course, a large part of the community, on both sides of the issue, are quite capable of being mature and patient, but there is a very vocal minority creating quite a clamor.

This is true the disgruntled will always make the most noise.

[LuxLex]

Mage changes make me a sad puppy. Am I the only person that gets excited about learning new spells as I level up? sorry but 5 spells at 50 is {too weak}

[Lucifer]

Mage changes make me a sad puppy. Am I the only person that gets excited about learning new spells as I level up? sorry but 5 spells at 50 is {too weak}

Welcome to the new age of mmo gaming.
Oh but they are going to add more stuff a whole year from now. Hurr.

[Sephrick]

Imagine for a moment that they posted the casting cost for cure, which would be a formula, probably resembling this

Or they could say, "Cure (Sorry, 'CNJ Mag 1') costs a base 100 mp and an additional 5 mp for every level over (what ever level it is attained). At 30, CNJs receive A trait that reduces the cost to 2 additional mp per level. It's base heal is X hp and gains an additional Y hp per level. CNJs receive a trait at 10 that boost amount healed by z."

No formulas to confuse people, just facts for us to discuss and clearly understand.

The more concise the information we get is, the more likely we are to have a quality, rational discussion about it. Releasing partial information is troll fodder because all we can do is debate "what ifs" without any facts other than "in FF#, SE did this."

[Kinghoran]

The reason you feel like you're being ignored is because 20 people just like you see a similar rant, repost it with their flare and then whine when nobody answers them directly.

[Burn]

"It will be fixed in 2.0"

2.0 will be full of miracles. 2.0 will cure cancer and diabetes.