Thread: JP interviews [pre-6.5]

Zero as a character was planned from the start of Endwalker, but was left as a patch-only thing.

I absolutely loved Zero. I hope we see more of her sooner than later, and with her aloof personality intact.

The last Alliance Raid might be stronger than usual this time.

I recall him saying this about the other two alliance raids and Final Day Extreme and they all ended up being a joke. I'll believe it when I see it.

Both the scenario writer and battle team for Myths of the Realm were made up mostly of younger/newer people.

Not to sound harsh but I think they could use more guidance from the veteran team members.

Yoshi and some development staff did feel bad at times for changing/removing mechanics for Trust support, but felt that it was important both in terms of maintainability and playability in the future as well as giving a better on-boarding process should 4 new players all match into the same dungeon.

Mostly I'm fine with this but I did lament the changes to Keeper of the Lake. Those bosses were actually kinda fun and I don't think they were unreasonable for new players to figure out. Now they are extremely braindead and boring. Not the end of the world since it's just a dungeon from quite some time ago but still unfortunate.

There is an inherent conflict between people that "enjoy weapon enhancement as content" and people that "want a system that makes it easy to obtain weapons". Satisfying both is very hard.

They will take feedback into account for 7.x's relic series.

He's exactly right, and this is one of the major difficulties in designing an MMO. You have millions of people with different preferences and you have to try to keep as many people as possible happy. For every person that thinks X there's another person that thinks the opposite.

Personally I have no problem at all with the current implementation because I never found the mindless grinds of the previous weapons fun at all and prefer to get the weapons doing content that I actually enjoy. For reasons beyond me, other people loved the grinds, and they're not wrong for thinking that way. I can empathize with the pickle Yoship finds himself in.

Perhaps in the 7.0 series they could alternate, so one step is tomes and the next is an annoying grind, then go back and forth to the end.

PvP iteration will continue into 7.x, including CC, Frontlines, and Rival Wings.

Awesome, the PvP redesign is one of the best parts of EW.

Island Sanctuary will get small updates in 7.0, but there are no plans for that to continue through 7.x. They have other lifestyle content in mind instead. If feedback is different, they might reconsider.

Thank god. Let that island sink into the ocean and never speak of it again.

"We already have tomestone weapons"

No, we don't. We have tomestone/raid weapons. Which would be fine, except that the drops from normal raids are limited to once a week. I'd like to get an upgrade to my green gear on all four jobs I play without having to wait a literal half year. So either keep relics as they are or uncap the drops from normal raids.

Originally Posted by PredatoryCatgirl

"We already have tomestone weapons"

No, we don't. We have tomestone/raid weapons. Which would be fine, except that the drops from normal raids are limited to once a week. I'd like to get an upgrade to my green gear on all four jobs I play without having to wait a literal half year. So either keep relics as they are or uncap the drops from normal raids.

The solution would have been to just remove the need for the raid token to buy the tomestone weapons and keep the relics as they were, set to their own questline with various different steps and a new exploratory type zone. If the excuse is that it takes too long to get the existing tomestone weapons due to the weekly cap on the top tier tomes then either remove the cap or double it permanently instead of just doing it the last month or so before the new paid expansion launches.

Originally Posted by Noumenon

The last Alliance Raid might be stronger than usual this time.

Oh really? Haha, alright, guys, there's a vague hope that at least last Alliance Raid is gonna be the promised "Return to Ivalice" level of difficulty!

...

...

Just kidding. Knowing SE, there probably will be ONE SINGLE specific mechanic on ONE SIGNLE specific boss (I think, the 3rd one) harder than usual and they will call it a day.

Because putting players against any resemblance of a challenge in normal difficulty content is strictly forbidden.

Originally Posted by Remember_The_Name

Oh really? Haha, alright, guys, there's a vague hope that at least last Alliance Raid is gonna be the promised "Return to Ivalice" level of difficulty!

...

...

Just kidding. Knowing SE, there probably will be ONE SINGLE specific mechanic on ONE SIGNLE specific boss (I think, the 3rd one) harder than usual and they will call it a day.

Because putting players against any resemblance of a challenge in normal difficulty content is strictly forbidden.

My expectations aren't high..the bar isn't very high considering Aglaia and Euphrosyne. I'd like to be pleasantly surprised, but do I think it'll be the tier of Ridorana and Orbonne when they were current content? Not a chance. No matter how hard we screech about it.

It's why I'd like to have ex alliance raids to provide them but harder.

Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

I really wish they could go back to form and take a page of some of the less grindy steps from the ARR relic chain where you had to do a unique trial, or had a book that required you to run certain content or go on a treasure hunt, or do Fates where you only needed one item per zone (rather than the bullshit 20 of 3 types of memories like in the Shb relic....) Like literally give us SOMETHING different and a tad long lasting rather than making it too boring and quick to get or making it too boring and grindy to get a single one. There has to be a sweet middle and he's not aiming for that.

This. I'm okay with a task list to fill out, but not with the "do the same task a hundred times" grind.

The best thing about ARR and Heavensward relic design is that it was designed to ensure that people unlocked all the optional content by requiring completion of specific dungeons, not just running the easiest option into the ground.

(On a side note, I don't understand why people insist on running the Antitower for their six green tokens. Maybe it's fractionally faster than other level 60 dungeons but at the price of the music making it feel twice as long. Give me Sohr Khai or Xelphatol any day.)

Originally Posted by Noumenon

This sounds harsh but I don't think they did a good job. The raids were very, very bland, and Euphrosyne in particular is the most boring alliance raid, possibly even more boring than Syrcus Tower in terms of mechanical complexity and innovation.

Harsh, but fair criticism. When you compare Euphrosyne to other second 24man raids like Wiping City, Pop Quiz Lighthouse and Puppet's Bunker... it's disappointing (much like Syrcus Tower on release).

They had an interesting idea with Althyk and Nymeia having a hard enrage at 7 minutes, but then made that fight extremely "nothing," especially when compared to other duo boss fights like Hansel and Gretel (makes you change target), Omega M/F (gives you a debuff that makes it so you can only damage one or the other), etc.

There's "more stuff" planned for the gap between 6.55 and 7.0 than they covered at NA Fan Fest.

All the seasonal events and FF15 crossover and so on. Not expecting much, frankly.

development staff did feel bad at times for changing/removing mechanics for Trust support, but felt that it was important both in terms of maintainability and playability in the future as well as giving a better on-boarding process

Proof of what I've been saying then. The mechanics weren't just altered for Duty Support but to provide a better on-boarding experience for new players. I'm glad they at least feel bad about this.

No concrete plans on making old 8-man content doable with Trusts

The lack of an announcement on this at fanfest made this clear to me. It seems we won't get it until 8.0 or later, if at all.

Criterion dungeon will receive an increase in rewards compared to the past two

Alright so they listened.

Relics have the highest completion rate of any relic so far. The more elaborate they make the relic content/grind, the fewer people make one

Well duh, if you make something easy of course everyone will do it. That doesn't mean that everything should be easy.

conflict between people that "enjoy weapon enhancement as content" and people that "want a system that makes it easy to obtain weapons". Satisfying both is very hard.

No it's not. We have crafted weapons for the people who want it to be easy.

Island Sanctuary will get small updates in 7.0, but there are no plans for that to continue through 7.x. They have other lifestyle content in mind instead

They need to make housing available in Island Sanctuary or at least the 7.x lifestyle content. Otherwise it seems like a waste of development time.

I think the relics would have worked better for everyone if each Relic had a story quest behind it with its own boss to defeat.

I don't know how else you can please this relic crowd.