Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LIII Update Thread

[Bayohne]

At the start of the broadcast, we'll be using this thread to post the summary from the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LIII!

Watch the stream live on Twitch and YouTube.

As we'll be updating this thread throughout the show, make sure to reload every so often! We'll be posting the Q&A summary exclusively in this thread, but there will be some delay while we transcribe and translate the responses. Therefore, we ask that you please keep in mind that updates won't be occurring in real-time and there may be a delay.

After we create the full summary, it will be posted in the "Letter from the Producer LIVE" forum.
* Please note that all summary information posted in this thread, including terminology, is subject to change.

See you here at 4:00 a.m. (PDT) / 7:00 a.m. (EDT) / 11:00 (GMT) / 12:00 (BST)!

[Bayohne]

Q1:
As a ninja player in Savage, when comparing DPS with other melee DPS I feel like the potency increase to Gust Slash was not enough for our overall damage. Our damage feels lacking for the amount of difficulty when playing the job. Any plans for ninja adjustment?

A1:
Many players provided feedback regarding ninja, so we touched on the topics via a presentation slide.

The development team believes the following three points are the main issues

◆Ninjutsu and mudra combinations being disrupted by GCD timing causes clunkiness.

Ninjutsu is easily influenced by lag, and we were reaching a limit as to how we could adjust it, so we are planning to restructure ninjutsu itself. The playstyle of putting together mudra will remain, but they will not be weaved between GCDs.

Instead, we are thinking the playstyle will be something along the lines of:
Use a combo > use ninjutsu > return to combo

However this adjustment would require readjusting ninja’s entire DPS, so we were unable to make the adjustments in time for patch 5.05. Therefore these adjustments will be made in patch 5.1.

◆Too many inputs are required to perform rotations for maximum damage output.

We are reconsidering the combo rotation.

◆The party utility of Trick Attack and ninja’s total damage output need to be balanced.

We will be increasing ninja's personal damage in patch 5.08. However, Trick Attack has a lot of influence over the party’s DPS, so the values will be adjusted with this in mind. Additionally, as mentioned above, please keep in mind that these adjusted values may be readjusted again in patch 5.1

[Bayohne]

Q2:
As a samurai, a pure DPS without party utility, I feel like we should be able to output more DPS. Also conditions to use Shoha is difficult to use in real situations. Hagakure's effect is bit lacking as well... Please let us know what your plans are moving forward.

A2:
First, in regard to Shoha, we agree that there are very few situations where it can be used. In patch 5.05, we were unable to make technical adjustments to the programming, so we are scheduling changes for 5.1, and we are hoping to allow Meditation stacks to be accumulated through a different means.

We believe Hagakure was the cause of the skill rotation becoming too difficult, so we intentionally did not want to return Hagakure to the skill rotation. However, it was added back with its current values to address the requests regarding controlling Sen for cases such as dungeon boss fights.

Samurai’s burst is designed around benefitting from receiving party buffs from other party members. Black mage is balanced around being the only caster without Raise and party buffs, and we believe samurai is also in a similar situation so its potencies will be slightly adjusted in patch 5.08. However, please bear in mind the possibility of it being readjusted again in patch 5.1.

[Bayohne]

Q3:
Summoner has many buttons to press and is very busy. Additionally, it bothers me that refreshing DoTs at the timing you activate Dreadwyrm Trance/Firebird Trance causes DoTs to fall off for a few seconds even when using Tri-Disaster. Are there any plans to reduce the amount of button pressing or the adjusting the duration of DoTs?

A3:
The dev. team is working on adjusting the difficulty of needing to press so many buttons. Regarding DoTs, we've received lots of feedback saying that players would like DoT durations extended, but we are instead considering reworking the potency of Ruin spells to be higher dependent on the number of DoTs inflicted on the target.

This is still only being considered, but if we decide that it would be effective, we will implement it in 5.08. Ninja, samurai, and summoner are high priority for changes, but these are still in progress so we cannot go into too much detail.

[Bayohne]

Q4:
Bard was made easier to manage in 5.0, but since the number of songs hasn't increased, the job seems to be lacking in party support. Do you have any plans to add songs that'll support the party?

A4:
In patch 5.0, we removed most party synergy effects, but left actions such as Nature's Minne to differentiate it from machinist. Giving bard more party utility would make bard closer to dancer, and would require bard's damage to be lowered. The current situation is that it has some party utility, and has decent damage, which is hard to balance.

However, we would like to consider player opinion, so please continue to provide feedback on the forums so we may reference it for future adjustments.

[Bayohne]

Q6:
Thanks for major updates made to PvP through 5.0 and 5.05! I'd like to hear any future PvP adjustments that are planned, and anything about next season you can share.

A6:
We've received lots of feedback that there aren't enough actions, and so we plan on increasing the number of actions for each job to about 16 actions in patch 5.1. These changes will include giving tanks group defensive abilities, healers group healing capabilities, and giving all jobs self-healing actions in the form of charged actions.

Additionally in patch 5.1, we are planning to introduce a new PvP content that the dev. team is currently calling it "Seal Rock 2" internally. However, this may be slightly delayed depending on the situation.

[Bayohne]

Q8:
Shadowbringers was incredible! I was amazed by how it answered some of the main mysteries, such as the Ascian's objective, the past of the Warriors of Darkness, and the Crystal Exarch. How long have you been thinking about this story?

A8:
Please note this answer has spoilers!

Thinking back to when the Warriors of Darkness first appeared (in the patch 3.x series), we didn’t have any of these plans set. When we were thinking about how to wrap up the foreshadowing for the Warriors of Darkness, we decided that it would involve Minfilia of the Source traveling to the First to become its savior, and from there we decided that the Warrior of Light would eventually travel to the First, and came up with the proceedings, including saving the First.

However even at that point, we hadn't decided when we would do this.

We wanted to mark a conclusion to the stories of Doma, Ala Mhigo, and Garlean Empire in patch 4.0, so we finally decided we would do this about two weeks after Stormblood release.

[Bayohne]

Q10:
I thought there were lots of cool things that combined the system and lore, such as how the Crystal Exarch calls forth the heroes before fighting the last boss, Feo Ul taking on the role of retainers, etc. How did these ideas come to life?

A10:
World Lore Creator/Main Scenario Writer Banri Oda will be coming to gamescom, and Main Scenario Writer Natsuko Ishikawa and Lead Artist Takeo Suzuki will be visiting PAX West. We might touch upon those types of topics at those events, so we’ll only touch upon it lightly for today.

Regarding the lore of the First, Oda and I discussed what the Warrior of Light would be able to carry with them when crossing over to the First, and decided that the WoL could bring over items that they considered personal belongings (think "carry on luggage"). This would not include retainers, and so Feo Ul was born in their place. Oda will probably talk about the finer details at gamescom.

[Bayohne]

Q12:
In the future, will we be able to to take our Trusts into 5.1 and later main scenario quest dungeons? I really liked Crystal Exarch, so I'd like to fight alongside him once again. Also, I would like to see new NPCs, such as Estinien and Hien added too!

A12:
Regarding Trusts, we had many ideas such as fighting primals together, or changing Castrum Meridianum and Praetorium into a 4-player instance and battling alongside Raubahn. However we cannot possibly implement all of them, so in patch 5.1 we made it so you can go to the new MSQ dungeons with Trusts. We also plan on making MSQ dungeons work with Trusts in future patches as well. As a side note, while progressing the MSQ in 5.1, they will come with you as part of the story mode, and so you won’t have to worry about having to level them up through the Trust leveling system.

[Bayohne]

Q5:
Thanks for the adjustments made towards astrologians! Both the controllability and heal potency has increased and it feels much better. Do you have any plans to add new effects to the cards?

A5:
We are truly sorry about the initial issues with the feel of the job. That said, card effects were changed to their current iteration because we received feedback from all regions that players did not want "useless cards." It does indeed lower the feeling of "drawing a good card," but if we make certain cards significantly more powerful than others, then we'll just return to fishing for the good ones, so we decided to simplify it. We plan on continuing with this style for now.