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

[Matsume]

INTRODUCTION:

This is meant to be a compilation of the recent Questions from the official Questions for Letter from the Producer LIVE, PART V thread. As you can see I separated them into 5 general categories: Cosmetics, Progression, New Content, Technicals, and Miscelaneous. Each category is then broken down into subcategories regrouping individual questions.

Keep in mind that I included the majority of the questions thus far posted. This will inevitably include duplicate questions. You will also notice some questions appear in multiple subcategories, as these tend to incorporate multiple game elements. However, I did omit a number of questions from one specific recent poster (JSexpert?), for appearing as troll posts.

If you see a specific question that you are particularly interested in seeing answered, then simply press on the >> button in the top right hand corner of that quote (at the end of the quoted players name) and it will take you to that players original post where you can "like" it as desired by ARR's dev team.

For questions that may have already been answered please reference Zantetsukens thread: Producer Live Letter V questions - already answered.

PART I. COSMETICS

Appearance Change

Will the appearance change and remodeling of our old characters be available during phase 4 or will it be enabled at release?

Will male Highlanders have the option to have eyebrows?

Will there be a better Mithra-like nose option for Miqo'te characters in ARR? The option available in 1.0 was hardly noticable and tied to only one face type.

For the Lalafell males, have they been slimmed down? I loved the race as it reminds me of Link, but they are far too fat. I was looking at the Lalafel screen shots but could not get a good look at their girth. I cant seem to find if this has been stated, will we be able to change race/appearance upon launch of ARR.

How many more options for hair will there be, or is only cross race hairstyles planned for launch?

Will it ever be possible to change other proportions in character creation such as making females more muscular and shortening Elezen necks?

Cutscenes

Will our characters be less useless in cutscenes and actually do something? I hate being continuesly saved by other NCPs who then take over the entire cutscene with us in the back.

Any chance to have our character voiced? Only for the Cutscenes that are voiced, not EVERY cutscene =)
Something really simple. Just a few different accents for each language.

Any plans for some action-y cutscenes? To rephrase, will we see our characters/party in a chocobo chase before getting dismounted by the bad guy then it switches to a fight on foot. Or a cutscene showing our character/party fighting a bunch of bad guys then the game switches to fighting mode where we gain control of our characters for the ensuing battle?
PS. I hope you count that as one question, I just rephrased it a few times for understanding =D

Are there any plans for further focused storytelling (such as the Dalamud related content of 1.xx) or will the game go in somewhat all directions now that the time limit of the previous story is no longer an issue?

Can we expect to see the full cutscenes in the beta? I mostly want to know if my computer can handle that aspect. Will this be thoroughly tested in the benchmark?

Will Bahamut be full voice acted in cut scenes or just roar like a beast?

Flying

will there be real flying mounts like in other MMO's, and not just "hovering" mounts?

I'd like to complement this with another question:

- Will the monsters be real flying monsters in ARR, as opposed to hovering ones as in 1.0?
(I always hated how the monsters were not flying and simply hovering while following the terrain in 1.0...ugh)

Lore/Localization

What kind of plans do you have for making the game world feel alive and interesting for players? For example, will there be reasons for players to actually travel through areas instead of instantly teleporting and how much open world content is there?

I'm also hoping for paying attention to detail when planning different areas and all areas having their own atmosphere (XI did this extremely well), and NPCs being alive and doing something instead of just standing still and waiting for the player to talk to them.

What do the following have to do with each other?

*Tomb of Xandes I (per Cid questline, located at the great underground Aetheryte with the symbol of Thaliak, the Scholar. Located Southwest of the lake.)
*[Powerful energy signature] (Lore discussed by Erik in Ul'dah, the same NPC who you speak to for Monk quests. Located EAST of the lake.)
*[Seal broken by Ceruleum explosion] (1.0 Intro movie depicting an echo of the Battle over Silvertear Falls depicts a cataclysmic crash which broke the seal in the lake, both releasing Primals and decimating Mor Dhona. Allegedly dead center of the lake, where Midgarsormr resides in 1.0)
*Crystal Tower (Only visible reference has it piercing the clouds as seen from a cliffside with Behemoth. Is it also in Mor Dhona?)

Will NPC's have dialogue? Not just blurps you read, but real voice acting? And not just a few key characters, but all of them? I just detracts from the game to not hear voices. They could all speak Japanese and I would be happy!

Role of deities in storyline… Will there be content geared towards the deities? i.e. Deity specific quests, gear blessed by specific "gods", etc…

Will it be possible to re-devote ourselves to a different deity in game (aside from the one time recreation which may or may not include this)? Even if it requires a quest or something, not everyone likes being forever locked into their early decision, especially with such little known about the Twelve so far.

Will guardian/nameday have any effect on our character or is it just for RP ? If there is an effect will the information be available on character creation so we can choose the effect we want ?

In FFXIV 1.0 primals were linked to beastman tribes. Since the primals will be under a new 'wondering' system that was mentioned, will the primals still be linked to specific beastman tribes as they used to be?

If primals are still associated with beastman tribes in ffxiv ARR as they were in ffxiv 1.0 ... which beastman tribe will Shiva be linked with?, and Rumah? ... It is hard to imagine them linked to any existing or mentioned beastman tribes.

(ifrit -> almalj'aa)
(garuda -> Ixali)
(King Mog -> Moogles)
(Titan -> Kobalds?)
(Leviathan -> Sahagin?)
(Siren -> Sylph?)
(Shiva -> ?????)
(Ramuh -> ?????)

Out of pure curiosity. This question is regarding the dark lore between Ul'dah, Sil'dah, and inside the Thaumaturge guild. Can you please share any secrets? More to the point, is Necromancer being considered as something new for the franchise in a later expansion?

Will we get to see our agent of inquiry, Hildibrand, again soon? I simply loved his quests and appearances in Final Fantasy XIV 1.0.

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?

Mounts

will there be real flying mounts like in other MMO's, and not just "hovering" mounts?

Will the legacy chocobo be its own mount or is it a skin for the regular chocobo?

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?

Can we get Dodo Mounts?

Will it be possible to tie Goobbue to our account so that characters created in 2.0 can still unlock it on their level 30+ classes if that account previously unlocked it on an older character? Many people will be rolling new characters with 2.0 launch and don't want to lose their friendly mountains

A while back, we saw concept art for job-related gear for chocobos. Will goobbues and other possible future mounts be able to use the same job-related gear that chocobos can, or at least have some unique form of their own barding? Also, will they be able to fight alongside us as well? I would personally love to see my goobbue decked out in plate armor tanking mobs for me!

Will Goobbues jump?

When, if ever, will we see different color chocobos?

Name Changes

Will we able to change our old character's name?

I asked same question last time but...will we get our one time name change option?

Will we be able to change are name?

New Map

Could you show us some sneak peeks of Limsa Lominsa and Ul'dah? Screenshots or, even better, in-game footage?!

Will the maps be recognizable from what they were in 1.0, or can we expect everything will look different? How much bigger is the world of 2.0 compared to 1.0?

How mutch new regions will it come if it will come? Like Mor dhona, La Nocea, Black Shround Will there come new citys?
(Sry for my bad English)

How big is the overall game map going to be? FFXI, WOW and GW2 all have expansive maps with varying methods of transportation. From what ive seen of ARR via the released videos the gaming region of the Black Shroud seems rather small, with a camp being literally under a minute away at any given point. This kind of negates the need for Chocobo, Airships and whatever else is devised. Travelling needs to be an integral part of the game. Id hate for ARR to simply become tele to an aetheryte point then run 20 secs to the nearest dungeo, rinse repeat. I do understand this is just the basic game and expansions may come later!

Do you have any more pictures of Thanalan and La Noscea that we can see? Besides concept art.

Vanity

Before the final save we recieved confirmation on vanity slots from the devs. is there any idea of when we will see this? and again for gear dying.

Can you explain the changes made to the dye system? How expansive and varied is it?

With the new graphical and server systems, will it be possible to introduce full flowing capes in 2.0? It was said that this wasn't feasible with the old systems, that it would be too hard to do capes that flowed and fluttered (like the already existing flags in Limsa), but the new systems seem to counter many of the problems of old.

In the past, it was mentioned that there would be slots for vanity/appearance gear. Does this include "vanity weapons" as well?

Will we have an accessory slot that is purely for looks? I want a Black Bow on the end of my tail...

Weather Effects

Will ARR be featuring Dynamic Weather Effects such as thunder and lightning, storms, gale force winds etc?

I'm curious about snow or rain weather effect.
Will the snow covered trees and waterfall around Black Shroud area have a visual frozen display or just have another snow effect like in previous version?

Is it possible to reflect the passage of time in-game through environmental growth physics? Such as the sprouting of a seedling tree, the growth of a young sapling, the maturing of a tree (loggable), and finally it's decent and decay (harvesting mushrooms off the decomposing log).

will be implemented any sort of weakened status caused by weather? (ie.: if there's a lot of snow, our pg will move slowly and if it's too hot our character will need to drink something, i mean something like a mix of assassin's creed and monster hunter)

Question:

Will we see different weather seasons in different parts of Eorzea?

For example...since Thanalan is a desert, will it only rain a total of 5-10 days per Eorzean year? If the Shroud is a rainforest, will it be rainy most of the year? Will an area like Limsa see snowfall towards the end of one year and the beginning of the next?

What dangers, if any, will there be at night time such as aggressive nighttime monsters, undead, bandit raids, etc?

What sort of non monster related content will night time effect? Will NPC's still be standing/sitting (or roaming, as has been stated will be introduced in 2.0) in the same spot all day and all night? Or will they have actual sleeping patterns and certain types of NPC's only coming out during the day or only during the night? Will stores and services only be accessible at certain hours? Etc.

Running

Has the Lalafell running animation been changed?

Zones

are the zones going to be level ranged specific or will there be mixed content so you have content to do at any area when in max level?

Will we see something like "fame" for certain areas or cities again?
Like say if you quest (and therefore help the people) in an area you gain fame or reputation and unlock more or rather better quests or content from associated NPCs?

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

Will zones contain both low, mid and high level content; so there is a reason to return to a previous zone as you become high level; and so to keep traffic coming into all zones as opposed to leaving "newbie" zones to become like graveyards as the MMO matures.