To the Devs: Communication is failing!

[Answa]

Which is why I think they should change the way they give information. Referencing other games, Star Craft II has amazing patch information, they give you all the details (sure maybe they are not changes that some may like) but regardless they list it all. I don't understand why its so hard to think that Square-Enix is not capable of something like this, and not sacrifice work potential.

They have a multitude of different employees that all have different tasks (they all don't make the game). If they don't change the way they release information (like you said) it will always cause CONFUSION* its in our nature to ask "why" when the answer isn't given. Also the fact that the context of the forums is on 2.0 and drastic changes coming I feel that its most important now that Square-Enix be as transparent as they can be, people are watching how this is developing. If they don't play their cards right this game will NEVER succeed not even with the release on the PS3.

*I say confusion and emphasize this because you claim its whining, and sure maybe to someone who only wants to see it from their point of view it would, but honestly its confusion that it all stems from, take a step back and view the situation from a third party point of view; and not bias your opinions and refrain from such accusatory tones. Sorry if this part sounds preachy, but I felt it needed clarification.

It's not preachy, it's just your opinion on the matter. My opinion is different. This is how things work. You claim a nerdy science thought process, I'm actually working on my PhD--this is how I go about my thoughts in a day-to-day basis. I never pass judgment on anything until I have a clear big picture. I speculate, but never actually "feel" anything regarding these speculations. I don't freak out about confusing things, because, in the context of the game, I'm willing to wait until things are ironed out before they're released.

[tachikoma]

Also the lack of details given: MP costs, Recast Timers, COMPLETE INFORMATION, will always lead to confusion, there is no if, and or but about it it will lead to confusion.

The scope of the changes planed for 1.20 and 1.21 is astronomical imagine any MMO where they take every single action/trait/spell ability and throw them out the window and redo the whole thing from scratch. I can certainly understand why we didn't get incredibly detailed class action notes... 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.

Its without question that they will release new jobs/classes in the future weather that is 2.0 or sooner is to be seen but more mage classes with enfeebling skill sets will surely make their way into FFXIV in due time. For now the enfeebles are tied into combo's and added effects by the mele classes. Lets at least wait till 1.20 to pass judgement on the changes set forth.

[Geesus]

If you want the complete version of something, you'd have to wait more. Waiting more equals more whining from the forums. It would never stop. Actually, I take that back. It will never stop.

Which leads you right back to this ...

No it's entirely the fault of the community. If they can't resist pointless speculation and whining then how is it anyone's fault but their own?
If this community had proven itself mature and capable I could understand blaming SE for being needlessly opaque but I've been here since day 1 and this community has done nothing but whine and moan even when they got their way.
This community is like a spoiled, petulant child upset that their new toy isn't three new toys.
I can't believe SE even bothers to post because it's not like anything constructive is coming out of this forum.

This ^ and ...

Pretty much this.

This ^

[Jinko]

Agreed they seem to be giving us half the information and then they wonder why there is so many people complaining based on assumptions.

I'm starting to get a bit fed up with the canned response of "2.0" aswell, we don't want or need to hear anything more about 2.0 at this point we want to know what will take place in the next 8 or so months.

What to expect in 1.20 and why you have decided to make these changes and what impact they will have in the upcomming months.

Hopefully the upcomming letter will touch on these subjects enough to leave us without a need to speculate any further, thats not to say that there won't be people displeased, there will always be those people and they will always make sure they are heard.

[Airget]

With a change as big as this, they definteiyl should have considered creating a test server to get player input before they are set on using this 15 abilities, 12 traits, 10 other ability system. With how drastic these changes are, they are basically asking for blind faith when they implement this on 1.20. Which to me sounds like a really bad plan if they want to start charging around the same time. The risk they are taking seem unnecessary where said risk could have been prevented if they allowed a test server to recieve input from people of x class to see if the changes were deemed to drastic or if they could get into the flow of things.

I think if there's one thing the community should push for is to convince them to actually open up a player test server since if this class ability change turns out to be a horrible idea, it could really be bad for the future of the game.

[Jinko]

Totally agree that a test server would have been a much better way to do this.

[PrettyPrincess]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.