To the devs: What are your plans about these inconsistencies? >QUITE LONG<

[Rutelor]

I have some questions concerning consistency between what many people assume is part of the game, and what actually will get carried into V. 2.0.

I have presented most of these questions as queries in the forums since their inception. To this date, none of these queries has been answered. Some others have risen recently, as a result of changing infrastructures in the game.

Some of the items I refer to below were half-implemented stuff that Hiromichi Tanaka's team probably envisioned, but never managed to make fully functional. Some others were clunky, slapdash implementations that never allowed for the full promise of the feature to bloom. Still some other was stuff that, we were told, "would be implemented in the future," but so far hasn't been.

In the player surveys the present team conducted to determine the course of the game, we gave carte blanche to the developers so that they could change the game drastically. We don't need for Tanaka's concepts, and his team's, to come back or to be implemented. But as long as the world is peppered with shrines and airship landing platforms (chocobo chariots were just removed,) and as long as the leves given to us at the Adventurers' Guild separate themselves from each other by virtue of the graphics of the leve cards, and as long as we are casting spells with elemental names, and paying attention to weather and mob elemental biases, these quetions remain valid.

These things are present in the collective consciousness of the player base, and many assume at least several of them will be duly and fully implemented still. Furthermore, these systems--some of which were present in FFXI--are considered by a vast swath of the playerbase to be legacy FF/MMO stuff and to contribute positively to the feeling of depth these games have always had. Well, now.. Will they be implemented? Here's a list of the most egregious:

-Deities and the influence of their favor, other than increase exp. Their shrines, once assumed to be means to increase favor, are still scattered all over the world. Mention has been made recently of the mythos of the Twelve.

-Different categories of leves, as illustrated by the design of the leve card. If I recall correctly this categorization was planned to have an effect on the type of skills needed and developed, and the strategy of the leve. This must have been dropped due to the rush to finish some content, however dismal, to launch the game with.

-Infuence and effects of Weather, Day, Hour, and Moonphase on players, mobs and combat and crafting.

-Elemental bias of players, actions, spells, and mobs. A structure of elemental adroitness, strengths, and weaknesses. Methods to alter the elemental biases have been expected to become a central part of the strategies of battles and crafting sessions. And then, there are those pesky elemental points that increase in perfectly equitable distribution, as we advance in level, but seem to do nothing.

-The Elemental Spells themselves, and their action over the foes, is right now in salient disarray. The elemental wheels have been disrupted, Water does not currently figure as a spell, and there are differences between the several elemental spell families. This does not allow for the symmetry of the wheel to stand. (You can cast Thunder on a single target, whereas you cannot do the same with Fire; the opposite is also true, you cannot choose to cast fire on a single target--which means that if you're in a densely populated dungeon fighting ONE allegedly fire-weak mob, you'll have to look for another spell.)

-A distinct and consistent relationship between all the disparate parts of the material that is also terse and lore-based. FF means this to many of us and NOTHING else: Credible universes that we can penetrate, inhabit and feel a part of. Universes that have inner consistency and not-so-evident, yet discoverable, rules that apply to most everything that happens or that we do.

Please, feel free to add your own items to this list by posting below.

R

[Mihana]

I've got a question regarding things like retainers. Initially retainers had a "level" associated with them as if they could be leveled up. Yet their use and purpose was never explained. Then there's the "companion" you can choose to join with in the main scenario quests. After the last scenario quest it's left at a cliffhanger as what happens to them, and to us regarding the Echo. Now I understand that companions were likely placed in for people who did the quests as DoH/DoL, but with Yoshi-P's changes to making content combat-class only it leaves question as what happens from here on out. That story ends, and we're thrown into the the Grand Company scenario and impending doom of the Seventh Umbral Era. Aside from using the Echo in varying moments there's no more mentioned about the group you join in the main scenario or your companion.

Personally I'd like to know if my companion is okay, and even see them make appearances perhaps in different quests. Maybe they too joined the same Grand Company as you and there's quests that take place with you giving them orders being a higher ranking than them. Now Parley, what is the entire purpose of this? A couple quests (And the main scenario quest line.) use this feature. That I know of there are 2, maybe 3 NPCs that you can parley with outside of questing which offer virtually nothing. Hell you can beat them without even trying so it seems like a half-baked idea that was abandoned over time. Please either make Parley useful or remove the ability altogether. If I recall, by Eorzean tradition Parley was used when attempting a peaceful and non-violent way of dueling. Or something like that...

[Sephrick]

I've got a question regarding things like retainers. Initially retainers had a "level" associated with them as if they could be leveled up. Yet their use and purpose was never explained. Then there's the "companion" you can choose to join with in the main scenario quests. After the last scenario quest it's left at a cliffhanger as what happens to them, and to us regarding the Echo. Now I understand that companions were likely placed in for people who did the quests as DoH/DoL, but with Yoshi-P's changes to making content combat-class only it leaves question as what happens from here on out. That story ends, and we're thrown into the the Grand Company scenario and impending doom of the Seventh Umbral Era. Aside from using the Echo in varying moments there's no more mentioned about the group you join in the main scenario or your companion.

Personally I'd like to know if my companion is okay, and even see them make appearances perhaps in different quests. Maybe they too joined the same Grand Company as you and there's quests that take place with you giving them orders being a higher ranking than them. Now Parley, what is the entire purpose of this? A couple quests (And the main scenario quest line.) use this feature. That I know of there are 2, maybe 3 NPCs that you can parley with outside of questing which offer virtually nothing. Hell you can beat them without even trying so it seems like a half-baked idea that was abandoned over time. Please either make Parley useful or remove the ability altogether. If I recall, by Eorzean tradition Parley was used when attempting a peaceful and non-violent way of dueling. Or something like that...

I asked about a lot of this a while back, here's what SE had to say:

Just wanted to chime in...

You guys are absolutely right with your assessment of the situation. Similar questions were answered by Yoshi-P just last week when he was in L.A. to do a slew of interviews with the media and various websites. Basically, the main scenario (the Echo, the Ascians, the Waking Sands, your Path companion, etc.) will continue once the people of Eorzea have figured out how to deal with the coming calamity first.

[Seif]

I've asked the op's questions many times and would like to see them answered.

Leves I don't care about. Doing them seems to benefit absolutely no-one and they're all exactly the same and incredibly badly designed.

What and where is the content that was promised 6 months ago to replace them as the main content of this game?!
Even the npc-quests turned out to be just more leves, will the game have only leve questing in leve format or can we excpect more immersive complex questlines like the ones in XI in the future?

[Rutelor]

[...] can we excpect more immersive complex questlines like the ones in XI in the future?

This is an important question as well. Thanks for adding to the thread.

R

[Deli]

I was thinking they will throw some spice at us right before the billing period,
you know that's how you grab people...but ya... it's kinda quiet.

- can we have the weather effect on/off option? it's really annoying I see it rainy or windy all the time. For some other friend, the weather effect really kills their computers...

[Urthdigger]

-Different categories of leves, as illustrated by the design of the leve card. If I recall correctly this categorization was planned to have an effect on the type of skills needed and developed, and the strategy of the leve. This must have been dropped due to the rush to finish some content, however dismal, to launch the game with.

Umm, leves DO differ based on the graphic.

For example, Valor leves (Showing a lancer attacking a dragon) simply require defeating a set number of foes.

Tenacity leves (Showing an elezen on a chocobo) will have the last enemy run off for reinforcements.

Diligence (Showing a lalafell holding two dead marmots) requires getting a set number of items.

Wisdom leves (Showing a bard, with an ogre in the background) are all the Necrologos leves, requiring you to get a set number of pages either by defeating foes or checking glowing spots, which summon a boss after each set.

Veracity leves (Showing a lalafell leading a dark blue... roegadyn I think?) involve finding the true target that's hiding as an innocent. Fighting the target forces a change in all versions, though some allow you to collect items to reveal targets without engaging them.

Temperance leves (Showing a mi'quote carrying a jug of water) involve heading to various areas on your map and defeating enemies that spawn as part of a patrol. This leve currently seems bugged, as you do not need to defeat the enemies for a patrol to finish, meaning that the boss that spawns after finishing all the patrols will spawn while you're still fighting the last group of monsters. Only the boss need actually be defeated, despite the leve descriptions making the patrol mobs the actual targets.

Promptitude (Showing... someone mounted on an antelope? Purple and white color scheme) are exclusively for company leves, and involve defeating as many opponents as you can during the course of the leve.

Piety (Showing a Mi'quote at a dock with a fishing pole) is exclusively for fieldcraft leves, and involves depleting a given number of nodes of their resources.

Munificence (Showing a lalafell carrying a large basket of goods) is exclusively for fieldcraft leves, and involves getting a set amount of a given leve-specific item.

Justice leves (showing a balding man kneeling in front of a bearded wise man) are battlecraft leves, but I've yet to do one of these so I can't specify what their focus is.

Ingenuity leves (Showing a woman handing out bread) are local leves. You receive your materials immediately, and your target is a given aetheryte camp.

Industry leves (Showing a man panning for gold) seem to all be Horn and Hand faction leves. They involve no combat, merely going around and examining glowing spots to collect materials.

Hability leves (Showing a lalafell leading sheep) also seems to just be for Horn and Hand faction leves. It involves following someone or something while avoiding detection, so you can claim what it leads you to.

Devotion leves (Showing a red toned gladiator) involve going to a specific area and killing all monsters that approach. Leve is completed when you defend the area for long enough, even if monsters are still alive.

Constancy leves (Showing a roegadyn working a forge) are the other local leve type, and differ from ingenuity in that you need to talk to an NPC to get materials first. The benefit of these leves is they are all done in the city (With the exception of the level 1 leves that involve helping out the innkeeper, these are done at the level 1 camp), which can save on travel time.

[Rutelor]

Umm, leves DO differ based on the graphic.

[...Snip...]

Thanks so much for such an informative reply. I had not been made aware of this differenciation anywhere.

Having said that, I wish that differentiation had ever meant anything to me. Evidently it never did, but that's probably another thread's topic.

Thanks, again, Urthdigger.

R