Categories of Questions for Letter from the Producer LIVE, Part V!

[Matsume]

PART III. NEW CONTENT:

Behest a.k.a. Guildhest

You said months ago that behest would be completely redesigned, to the point that it might even be renamed. Could you give us some new detailed information about this change?

Question:
What exactly are Guildhests/how are they different than behests?

Card Game

So... How's the in-game card game coming along? Will it be ready for launch?

Will be implemented in the future a mini-game as triple triad or tetra master?

Chocobo Breeding

Will we be able to use our chocobo from 1.0 and legacy chocobo for breeding purposes? (both are male of course. the female chocobos is in the dragoon city :P )

When do we get baby chocobos? Are we getting them at launch?

Can you share some information about chocobo breeding? If not now, when can we see this?

Can you share some information about chocobo breeding?
Do we catch chocobo's in the wild and wait for them to mate or something? Or do we have to go to a stall and buy an egg?

Cock Fighting

In the original 2.0 "Concept" Screenshot you've introduced the idea of having your Chocobo Companion fight along side of you. Since then you've shown a few concept art pictures with gear your Chocobo can use (like White Mage, Dragoon and Behemoth gear)

Can you show us more about this feature, like in-game footage?

Crystal Tower

Can you tell us anything about Crystal Tower how will be implemented? Like:

How many floors and paths will get at launch?
How the difficulty would escalate in each floor as we reach to the top?
How many floors you have planned to add in each patch/expansion?
If you add a new floor in a patch/expansion, would make that make each patch/expansion Crystal Tower harder due the length of number of floors to complete?
The semi-bosses and final bosses of each floor would get harder as we progress through the floors, and of course the last boss of top (present) floor on an different level?

can we see more info about crystal towers?

Dungeons

Are there any other Dungeons you can show us (next to the Tam-Tara Deepcroft Dungeon we've seen in the previous trailers)?

Are you planning to implement secret areas in dungeons? i.e run against a specific wall, find out it was a mirage, explore a new previously unmapped area. Alternatively, can be accessed by secret sequence of switches, or even doh/dol actions.

Will each Dungeon have more than one type of "run"; for example, normal mode, hard mode, boss mode, story mode, class/job quest mode, solo mode; with each type of "run" having different mobs and objectives.

End Game

will the game gonna have hardcore stuff

Can you describe your vision for the 2.0 end game boss battles? How are you planning to make "classic FF elements" vs. "current MMO standard elements" meet so that the players who are used to either one will feel comfortable? Will the 2.0 end game battles be similar to the 1.0 boss battles, namely Garuda and Van Darnus Hard Mode, in terms of mechanics and difficulty?

What are the plans for the longevity of end game gear pieces? When a player obtains a current best-in-slot piece, how long will it last as such before something better will be added making that piece obsolete? Are there going to be pieces that will be very difficult and slow to obtain but which will last a long time?

Checked the thread and didn't see this posted:
Will there be any other mean of character progression different from gear upgrades at max level, similar or alike the merit system of ffxi? There could be class/job quests to unlock special skills, or armor sets that when complete can add a new ability, and not just stat upgrades.

Can you tell us about some new bosses that may be in wait for us?

Titan, Odin, Ramuh and Shiva have been announced via concept art, through the "End of an Era" and "A dawn to a new Beginning" trailers and the official Final Fantasy XIV Blog. Will all 4 of these Primals be available at launch? Or soon after?

Do you believe that the hardcore content is present in ARR as well as the casual?

What other Primals can we expect to see besides the ones shown, and will the be any new ones unique to FFXIV?

is there plans for lots of large scale events? will we ever have full linkshell events like sky or hnm's?

if 100 is the max players in endgame company does that mean we might get 100man endgame at one point?

When the looking for group tool is implemented, with there be any restrictions on it such as only grouping with people from your country or language etc.
Will there also be a looking for group tool for end game content as well?

Question: Will we ever take the fight to the Garleans?
So far, we've been on the receiving end of this invasion. Will the Eorzeans mount a counter-attack in ARR? Maybe visit Garlamald?

Over the course of 1.0's span, we saw dramatic improvements in terms of endgame encounter complexity and difficulty. Can we expect endgame encounters at ARR's release, i.e. Bahamut's Labyrinth and Crystal Tower, to pick up where Rivenroad (Hard) left off?
Part of the joy of playing an MMORPG at endgame takes the form of reaching a high skill ceiling, represented by: extensive planning around mechanics and itemization; having to make many decisions during combat that have consequences; and raw reaction speed. What steps are the designers taking to implement a high skill ceiling in ARR?

will we have any kind of content that will involve full company linkshells?

Why make linkshells casual and free companies hardcore/endgame...in XI linkshells served both uses, cant you make free companies part of the storyline for grand companies...kind of like secret missions?

Will the main story line been more epic and awe-inspiring than that of 1.0?
One thing I hated in 1.0 was that the main story was entirely solo and mostly underwhelming. No epic shadowlord style battles or even low level dragons in giddeus style fights. Just a great big solo walk in the park that felt like you hadnt really done much at the end of it.
You finished the main story in 1.0 and felt kinda dissapointed or "is that it? surely there must be more" Will ARRs main story be something more challenging and gripping. (dare i say something like CoP standards, one of the best ff storylines both online and off)

Given the failings of other recent MMOs in lacking endgame content, can you reveal to us more endgame event types and their timescales for inclusion?

F.A.T.E.

Will the ABTS be announced server wide when a ABTSE (active battle time system event) is underway? And will skill chaining/magic bursting return to the game?

Can you tell / show us more information on how F.A.T.E will work with things like hamlet defence? I had envisioned it as some kind of besieged / campaign style event would that be close?

Will there be a special FATE that everyone gets to participate in at launch?

Amazing work as usual, I cant wait to play. Will you be able to give us more details on the F.A.T.E system? I'd love to see some of the new content in action!

Can you explain how FATE and HNMs work so we finally end that debate? Will there be NMs outside of FATE? What can we expect for respawn times on NMs OUTSIDE of FATE?

When FATE events are underway, are we forced to actually party with people, or can we just all go up and fight the NM, like in Guild Wars 2?

Sorry if my questions are posted already, I don't have time to read 30 pages, and I wanted to make sure my questions had a chance to get answered.

Free Company

Free Company Reputation System.

Any comments about what kind of task, rewards, and perks this system will involve? Will Summoning Primals be linked with this?

Free Companies:

Do the initial 4 characters starting a Free Company need to be from 4 separate Square Enix Accounts?

If 4 people create a Free Company, and then 2 leave or are removed, will the Free Company dissolve, or remain with just 2 members?

Is it going to be possible, when you make a new Linkshell or Free Company, to customize the design, colours, form, etc of crests to be unique instead of default ones and get repeated?

Because is a little annoying to see like 2-4 LS/FC with same crest and colour.

#2 Its understood that Free Companies are going to take over being more "event" and "endgame" type content groups and it was said that 100 was the limit on the amount of members (which is less than the amount allowed in a current ver 1.0 linkshell). Again taking into consideration that we have a fairly large current linkshell community, is there any plans to increase that number, or to allow formal alliances between Free Companies?

Since we can only be a member of one Free Company, choosing one will be very important decision. Will we be able to resign/quit/leave a Free Company and join ANOTHER one (right away?)

Will there be costs associated with free companies for creation and/or upkeep of either the FC itself or for FC housing?

Why make linkshells casual and free companies hardcore/endgame...in XI linkshells served both uses, cant you make free companies part of the storyline for grand companies...kind of like secret missions?

Can you reveal any further information concerning how Free Companies will operate, their administration, and what ingame features there will be to encourage players to join up together besides any features already revealed; for a guild should operate like a community in all of its aspects to live in essence "an online life" as opposed to purely being "other players who you need to group with for that hard boss"?

What type of organization or interface do Free Companies have? Ranks, Rank Names, Rights, and Et Cetera.

Future Content

Is there anything being purposely postponed until later release of expansion packs?

This might be something for a bit down the road, but after a lot of the fan service is over, will we be seeing unique never before seen summons/jobs/monsters/bosses(e.g Van darnus)/abilities/magic/etc. Just something unique only to FFXIV 2.0 and maybe its content/lore. I'm all for bring back old classics and everything, but would like to see some new creative stuff.

Once the things already mentioned have been completed (gold saucer, crystal tower, various jobs, etc.), have you thought of what to do next?

Not sure if this one has been asked.

Do you know how often you will release new updates/expansions after ARR initial release or how often you would like too?

Gear Sets

For gearsets, will there be an option to 'share' a given piece of equipment across multiple gear sets? In the past, to use the same piece of armor or accessory between two gear sets, you had to have two of the item. One for each set. Will you be able to now only have one item to share between multiple sets?

Gold Saucer

Are there any updates to the Gold Saucer type area that you can pass along, such as location, types of minigames, etc.?

With regards to the Gold Saucer(or however you wish to name it) area. Will fan favorite mini games be making a return? Possibly with little twists?

Housing

Will it be possible for Disciples of the Hand to craft furniture to use in A Realm Reborn's housing? Do you have examples of such furniture?

Could you give us more details about housing? Whats the difference between Free Company housing and personal housing? Will they both be available at launch?

Can you show us some in game footage or even concept art of the inside of housing, with furniture/decoration that's movable/non static and has been crafted etc?

Will there be a fishable pond in either private and/or free company housing?

I would like to know more about housing. I know way back when, In Ultima Online when you bought a house you were able to give certain people "Permissions". Like for example if you were in the same guild, you could set up chests that only a few people would have access to. And then another for like community. I was curious if it was going to be similar.

Can you tell us a rough estimate of how much housing will cost, both private and for free companies? You said a level 50 would have to put a lot of their money towards it but most of the people playing previously probably have at least 1 capped class and their playing style (and thus their resources) vary wildly from player to player. An actual rough gil estimate would be great!

Will it be possible to store thousands of items in your fully upgraded personal house (or your quarters in a free company house, not counting shared storage with others) or just dozens of items or something in between? Assuming you have whatever cupboards and other storage items it will be possible to craft or buy of course.

♥ Can we expect to see more expanded housing/items along the road? (i.e. will be be getting rare drops for trophies or furniture from dungeons and mobs in order to fill a house?)

Question#9
Will there be mannequins as a furniture item in BETA or after launch?

Can you give us some more information on the availability of land for our homes? If I miss out on the initial large land plots will I never be able to acquire one?

Will there be airship guild housing, navigable airship housing, and being able to dock at floating-city-PvP arenas? Thanks!

Will Couples be able to share housing?

Will Housing be available to our other characters we create on the same server or just one house per character?

Can we see some in-game footage of what player housing will be like?

For housing, will we get weapon & armor racks to show off our gear? (think Skyrim!) Even if top gear becomes obsolete over time, it would be nice to be able to show off gear that was hard to get in it's time.

Loot System

Could we get information on the Need, Greed, and Pass system being implemented for ARR. Will it be available for testing during any of the Betas?

Can we have more specifics on the tokenised loot system? In 1.0 I would often repeat 1 piece of content 100s of times just trying to get one specific item from the list of all possible rewards from that content. How will tokens alleviate this?

Will the chances of actually getting the item we want from chests and coffers instead of the annoying frequent "dark matter 4" be more prominent in ARR? Higher drop rates on items please!

will we see very low drop rate items in ARR? items with very long progression to get? ?

Will you use the Garuda loot system in 2.0 for more similar content (guaranteed progress + small chance of direct drop) ?

Materia

Can you tell us more information on the new materia system?

Will it be possible to request secondary (and beyond) melds of other players without trading, like the single meld request feature that existed in 1.xx?.

How will materia be changed in ARR? Will it continue to merely just be stat-stacking, or will it actually bestow us with unique abilities, like in FF7?

Is there a possibilty of scaling down the materia to just 3 tiers instead of 4 and limiting melds to just 3x not 5x. How about rewarding materia orbs for guild leves, quest or even from behest, the orbs would be scaled according to level/rank of the quest or mission or leve?

Will we see materia expanded to grant or enhance abilities and spells like in FF7 as well as simply boosting raw stats?

What does Yoshi-P think of reducing all gear to only have 1 materia slot, HQ to have 2 slots?, and certain boss loot to have 3 slots?

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New Jobs

The Red Mage is one of the most classic and iconic jobs of the Final Fantasy saga. Is there any chance to see it implemented in A Realm Reborn in the near future?

Besides Arcanist, will any other new classes be available at the official launch of ARR?

Are there any plans for a class that uses the Gunblade as a weapon?

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is the only MMO to my knowledge without a stealthy assassin type class available for play. Are there any plans to implement an Assassin / Ninja like class that offers this style of gameplay anytime soon ?

Good morning,

You previously have mentioned a possability of implementing more classes/jobs like samurai, ninja and dark knight. Would the implementation of additional classes/jobs be coming in an expansion or would you possibly add more in an update/patch?

Thank you very much for any insight on this subject.

When will a third dow or dom class be added in limsa? So all three cities have 3 choices?

Where the hell is Thief and Ninja! <3

Will we see the addition of a proper thief-like job, specializing in daggers and high-output melee dps?

I'm not here to ask a question.. I just want to say..

Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight! Dark Knight!

I think I got my point across.

As far as the Dark Knight (DRK) job is concerned...

We are aware that it will probably be implemented in the future, but what weapon will it use and will it be able to cast any kind of magic, i.e. dark magic?

Thief and/or Blue Mage, one day any day, Can we have it?!

In an earlier Live Letter, you mentioned that you wanted to lock the Classes until you reach level 10. From level 1 to 10 you would be a "Class-less" character, a "Squire" if you will (like in Final Fantasy Tactics). Just so that they can get used to the interface before selecting a class.

In the Character Creation pictures i've seen so far, it would appear that you will be able to select a class after all?

Do you still want to use the "Class-less" "Squire" approach for the first 10 levels when ARR launches?

Are there any plans down the road to incorporate a Beastmaster job / class to the world of Final Fantasy XIV?

When is thief and puppetmaster going to be added?!?!?!?!

Blue Mage in the future?

When is dancer going to be added?

You've given mention of various jobs (NINJA, Thief, Samurai, etc.) through surveys, concept art and interviews, but will you give us a clear cut answer on what jobs will be available at launch and which jobs will be implemented later on; also to add to that information on how to obtain certain jobs. (Example: what class would Ninja derive from, or Samurai?)

Can we have a Gunblade job?
Can we have a Necromancer job?

1 - My favorite class in FFXI and in other MMOs is the Thief or Assassin type. Is there a chance that this job will be implemented after the summoner? If that's the case or not and if some work has been done on it already can Yoshida san show us some designs or early artworks of it?

2 - If my question 1 is replied positively would the skill Treasure Hunter be implemented?

Are there any plans for introducing more DoL or DoH classes in the future?

Any plans for a new job for the Archer class? Bard is weak sauce!

Obviously there are several ideas for both new classes and new jobs. Can you give us an idea how wide the scope for classes/jobs extends? How many classes/jobs are in development/testing/consideration? How many will potentially be available at launch?

Arcanist

Can we see some gameplay footage and analysis of Arcanist in the live letter?

Arcanist was revealed the better part of a year ago. Can we see some in game footage of arcanist/summoner?

will at any point in the beta test arcanist be available?

What role will Arcanist play in the party and how many avatars/pets will we be able to obtain?

Summoner

Will the summoner job be available at launch?

Could you tell us more about the summoner job? Will we have a personal pet, or will the pet appear as attack animation then disappear (Yuna in dissidia)? Can we see some pet artwork or screenshots?

Arcanist was revealed the better part of a year ago. Can we see some in game footage of arcanist/summoner?

What are some examples of summons that will be available when the Summoner job releases, and how will they be obtained? If not through leveling up, will there be a solo option for obtaining summons?

What role will Summoner play in the party and how many avatars/pets will we be able to obtain?

What type of skills will SMN have? Will summoning a Primal have an effect on the world in any way?

Musketeer

Are there any plans yet for when Musketeer will make it into the game? Will the Musketeer guild still be in the new Limsa if it's implementation has been indefinitely delayed?

What are the plans for musketeers and their guild? Will the guild still be in Limsa Lominsa in ARR or possibly added later with the class?

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New Zones

Can you tell us more about the following locations?

NMs/HNMs

How will HNM's be implemented in ARR? It would be nice to get more information on the topic so that we can finally end the speculation.

How will Notorious Monsters be handled in A Realm Reborn? Roaming NMs will be removed in favor of F.A.T.E. ?

Can you explain how FATE and HNMs work so we finally end that debate? Will there be NMs outside of FATE? What can we expect for respawn times on NMs OUTSIDE of FATE?

Since there is an NPC based off of Yoshi-P, can we have one based off Soken? Like a BRD that sings songs about knee socks Or an NM Hyur, whom upon defeating drops a pair of knee socks

Will we be able to have the lottery NMs, timed NMs, etc. like we had in XI that I spent years total camping? If there are NMs that we work to get to..... will we be able to make a living off of those drops without the R/EX restrictions? Those are some of my fondest memories from XI and I would just LOVE it to be able to have something like that.

Past FF Content

can we expect to see any references from Final Fantasy IX cropping up? We know of things like the Crystal Tower from III and the Golden Saucer from VII, as well as there being talk of something from XIII making its way in, but with the 'high fantasy' setting, I'd love to see more from IX! A Tantalus theatre troupe, perhaps, or the Knights of Pluto?

Will there be special guild leves/instances that allow you to do battle against past final fantasy characters/bosses?

will the phoenix appear in ARR?

The the magitek armor, mandragoras, primals and other aspects from other FF games are there other characters, or game elements you have plans for integrating into XIV in the near future?

Pets

Will the 40 new pets (such as baby Behemoth) fit within the current lore of the world? For example, will we find that baby after slaying its mother and take it in as a young but wild creature? Or will pets just be sort of tacked onto the side of the game, not really integrated beyond perhaps a shop keeper in Uldah?

PVP

Can you give us more information on PvP frontlines and arena? In what ways will PvP be "meaningful"? Will their be level brackets?

could you tell us about how you think to implement PVP contents? FFXI was really poor of it

With PVP content. Will you be separating the pvp skills from the pve skills?

ie: lancer has true thrust. True thrust does 192(X variable number) damage to monster targets and 192(Y variable number) damage to player targets. This allows tweaking to happen to the skills on 2 sides, meaning pvp and pve can be balanced separately and players don't have to feel punished if they pvp and are hit with a pve nerf, or vice versa.
As a result if players are doing ok against monsters, but they feel they are doing too much against players. You can reduce the Y variable number only and leave X where it is.

How work the pvp, is group our duel?

Will there be a Capture-The-Flag PvP mode?

I would like to expand on this.

Team Based:
Capture the Flag?
Territory Control? I liked Ballista and Brenner Just not having to meet that days lvl requirement / alignment with certain city . . . specially before lvl sync. But by that time no one played pvp in 11 at least on my server.
Attack vs Defence?

Single Player:
Some type of death match?
King of the Hill ~ Start match with X points, Lose points for being at the top of a hill, first one to reach 0 points wins?

Will there be PvP specific battle stats and PvP specific gear?

Will there be, at the start or in the future, zones which mix both PvE and PvP?

Can you allow PvP duel requests in any zone?

Can you allow Linkshell/Company Leader duel requests that will automatically flag all Company members in the zone so Linkshells/Companies can have showdowns?

Races

Will there be any more playable races and if so how many and what are they?

Do you have any plans to give the races and clans more presence in the game world ? Right now there's really nothing in the game environment to define the culture of the individual races/clans such as architecture, clothing, dialect, or nationality.

I'd like to see cities or villages implemented that are considered the native homelands of each race/clan so that I can visit them and experience the culture of each race/clan.

Are there any plans for such places ?

Awhile ago the localization team mentioned a lore book, including race/clan naming conventions and history throughout 1.0

Can we expect this before the official release of ARR?

Retainer Tasks

Can you give us more information on retainer tasks? I am especially interested in more information on retainer gathering!

There has been mention of levelling up retainers. How will this be done and what will be the costs and benefits of doing it?

As someone who was NEVER able to put a retainer in the marketplace (hence I am for an auction house), is there any comforting news you can give to help relieve my fear that I will not be able to add my retainer to the marketplace because it is flooded?

Skirmish

Will Skirmish be in Version 2 or was that simply a Version 1 event? If so will you be greatly expanding it to cover low, mid and high level Skirmish, and opening up a lot more battlefields?

Spiritbinding

The new spiritbonding system is a hot hot topic on the forums! Can you give us more details on how our equipment becomes bound to our characters?

Can you please explain the rational behind adding the spirit binding system? I have noticed there are some players passionately against this system, if you explain why you think it's important it may alleviate some concerns.

With the introduction of Bind on Use to all our non U/U gear, will there be more valuable methods of disposal of said gear aside from turning it into materia (which is great, don't get me wrong, but isn't always an option) or NPC'ing the gear for a handful of gil or throwing the items away? Ideas proposed by the community include desynthesising and trading more gear in for some sort of reward like fame or points or lesser items of some sort (that are still less of a waste than the other luck based or immediate options).

Treasure Chests

What does yoshi-p think about treasure chests in final fantasy ? I always liked exploring the world's of classic final fantasy to find all the treasure chests hidden in the world. In online final fantasy most treasure chest just appear from monsters or in instance raids.

I want to explore the world to find the treasure chests like classic final fantasy.