Letter from the Producer, XIV (07/20/2011)

[Gokulo]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/16855?p=238481#post238481

Hello everyone! Yoshi-P here with another post for all you FFXIV-ers.

I’m sorry to have kept you waiting so long, but patch 1.18 will finally be going live this week! This version marks the beginning of big changes being readily visible on-screen, such as the auto-attack feature, as well as a number of others, both big and small. It took a while to get it all ready, but we hope you all enjoy this first wind of change sweeping across Eorzea!

Japan’s been baking hot, with Tokyo getting up to just over 30°C (86°F) lately. But everyone knows what it means when summer hits… Beaches! Pools! Swimsuits! Events!

And so we’re preparing some festivities for Eorzea to really bring the heat! Here’s a li’l sneak peep for those of you taking the time to read this letter...

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/86/97/949_0.jpg

[Female version: http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/86/97/949_1.jpg]

Yup, you just saw a Roegadyn dude in a swimsuit. Try unseeing that! Hold on, before you start flaming the forums, g’head and click on the screenshot to see an alternate-gender version.

What better way to celebrate summer in Eorzea!? Rumor has it that the coming festivities, entitled Firefall Faire, are going to feature a certain type of FF monster known to heat things up…

I get that it’s not summer everywhere (tilt of the Earth’s axis and whatnot), but never mind all that. It is summer all over Eorzea. So let’s get this party started!


I outlined a lot of new changes in my twelfth letter, and have seen a lot of posts on the forums about them. I ‘m going to pick out a few of those topics from the barrel and talk about them here.

Play However You Like
For 1.18, we’ve decided to get rid of the fatigue system after so many of you voiced your displeasure with it. Also, on a related note, we’ll be changing the way guildleves work in 1.19 to do away with the feeling that you’re somehow being penalized for not filling the daily quota of levequests.

We’re also going to be balancing in-game means of transportation. Our main focus will be on the already existing anima-based teleportation system, but new forms of high-speed travel are on the way as well.

All of this means big changes to the game’s balance, aimed at giving players the freedom to play however they like. I know there are players out there who are too busy irl to spend a lot of time playing during the week. No problem! Use your anima to get you where you need to go. Maybe you have more time to play on the weekends? Great! Mount up and travel around Eorzea with your companions on chocoboback, or grab an airship! This is the kind of freedom I want you to have—the freedom to choose your own style of play. And it is going to be a major focus of FFXIV’s development from here on out.
The Future of Ranking Up
Ever since I posted on the forums, we’ve been receiving feedback from players worrying about whether or not we’re going to be nerfing the ranking up process. The simple and emphatic answer to this, just as I posted in the forums, is no.

FFXIV is an MMORPG. But before the MMO-ness, it’s an RPG at its core. So it goes without saying that it should be fun to see your character develop and grow. There should be clear-cut goals, and a sense of accomplishment when you achieve them. No need for worries on that front! :)

I don’t want there to be a huge loss of skill points imposed for dying, or for players to have to grind 5–6 hours a day for 8 months to get to the high ranks. I do think ranking up should take longer in MMOs than in non-MMOs, but I plan to make the process both possible and enjoyable for players willing to invest the time, even if they’re solo, and even by doing quests and guildleves.
Public Areas and Party Play
We’re hurrying to bring in adjustments to enemy distribution, respawn timers, linked-enemy bonuses, and party bonuses to make skill point awards in public areas even tastier when playing in a party. Regarding linking, the current specs for fixed “enemy groups” will see large-scale changes towards a system more capable of addressing the combat potential of parties.

In attempting to cover the expansiveness of some zones, the current distribution of enemies left some wide gaps between them. This is another area high on our list of priorities that will see heavy adjustments.

Putting together a party isn’t all ponies and rainbows—there’s the time and effort spent getting the setup right and traveling to a camp, the risks involved when battling strong enemies, and so on. It’s an investment on the part of players, and we’re going to make sure skill point awards reflect that. More instanced raids are on the way, as well. I hope you’ll enjoy choosing between light and full party raids based on whatever kind of groups you find yourself in from day to day. And don’t forget about public dungeons, because we sure haven’t! :)

Derp, looks like I got a bit carried away there, and now I’ve gone and written a wall of text. Well, look forward to 1.18! In my next post, I hope to talk about 1.19 and have some more details for you on the changes in store. Until then, enjoy summer in Eorzea! And don’t forget to keep rocking those swimsuits even after the faire is over! (Square Enix and its affiliates are in no way liable for raid wipes resulting from adventurers entering boss fights armored in bathing suits.) :P

Alright, that’ll do ‘er for me. Talk to you next letter, or on the forums. See you soon! :)

[miokomioko]

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/86/97/949_0.jpg
LOL

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/86/97/949_1.jpg

ohmy.


p.s. I like everything he says. I just really hope he is supplied with the means to realize these goals.


Derp

[Gokulo]

Itt: Yoshi's derping.

[Lucavi]

:EWBTE: Not much to say. The guy's good with his words and the direction for the future sounds solid. Now to find a time machine...

[Grey Jorildyn]

Sounds like EXP Chains are on the way or is that just me? It all sounds very good and hopefully we see this before September. We haven't forgotten that "by end of summer" promise Mr. P!

[euph]

am i aloud to pop a chubby for my own mi'qote?

[kisada]

that derp is like a huge, awesome FU to all the people who don't think he's professional enough

[Waraji]

Sounds like EXP Chains are on the way or is that just me? It all sounds very good and hopefully we see this before September. We haven't forgotten that "by end of summer" promise Mr. P!

iirc, can't sauce as it's been a while, they have mentioned (beating around the bush) in either an interview or dev-rep posts that EXP chains would be making a come back some time in the Future.

[Anthonystar]

We need more derping from him and the game will get better on that alone.

[Gulkeeva]

Miqo'te swimsuuuiitttttt

:AwwYeah:

my wish came true

[Grey Jorildyn]

EXP chains alone would make the better and best camps that much more worth the time. Everyone always compares time doing leves vs. time grinding and it's so difficult to get grinders sometimes, even between leve cycles, because of the huge differential in gains across most levels.

[Corrderio]

Like the swimsuits and him clearing some things up. Though I do wonder why he avoided the debate about ranged AA.

[sruon]

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/86/97/949_1.jpg

Hmm...

[Elcura]

am i aloud to pop a chubby for my own mi'qote?

You certainly wouldn't be the only one...


Miqo'te swimsuuuiitttttt

:AwwYeah:

my wish came true

[Foxer]

Approve.

FFXIV sex appeal was ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ in comparison to other games.

Thumbs up!

Edit: Oh, and the girls look pretty cute, too.

[Celeras]

FFXIV sex appeal was ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ in comparison to other games.


http://www.razorbites.com/celeras/eventitems.jpg

The fuck you smokin, dildos strapped straight on the hip!

[Foxer]

That's new, right? Post initial 30 days? I remember seeing pics of that and thinking to myself it's about time I see cleavage. Still subtle for my taste, but a definite improvement.

[miokomioko]

Yeah, I think those were only added a few months back. The set is very... 60's flight attendant-esque.

[Lucienne]

Sounds like EXP Chains are on the way or is that just me? It all sounds very good and hopefully we see this before September. We haven't forgotten that "by end of summer" promise Mr. P!

linked-enemy bonuses
That's what it looks like to me.
This made me happier than most of the announced changes for whatever reason.

[Elcura]

That's new, right? Post initial 30 days? I remember seeing pics of that and thinking to myself it's about time I see cleavage. Still subtle for my taste, but a definite improvement.

By "still subtle" do you mean "still clothed"?

[Hyan]

FUCK

He's doing it all wrong. DERP INDEED!

Open world mob grinding ftl

[Foxer]

By "still subtle" do you mean "still clothed"?

Hahaaa! I am used to more now, sure, but I meant it primarily when the game was fresh. For Miqotes and, well, Elves, they dressed rather bland, especially compared to the dusk and RDM leg armor or many many years ago. But yeah, you're probably right. lol

[Meko]

My fav part was the idea of having a 'mount'. Fun letter to read and hopefully 1.18 and 1.19 live up to it all!

[Kurokikaze]

Damn now I'm upset I didn't pick a Hyur female character... lol

Sounds good, I just hope he doesn't take a step backwards and make open world mob grinding the best way to advance. There should be multiple ways to progress imo. Sidequests, levesquests, dungeons, open-world mobs, etc.

[Amastacia]

Based on his previous comments, sounds like he wants a combination of leves, quests, dungeons, and grinding as possibilities.

There is a depressingly large and depressingly loud chunk of the FFXI player base that genuinely liked party grinding as a mechanism for leveling up, so I guess it's a bone thrown at them that the mechanic makes a comeback. Hopefully it will be just one option, with others offering similar leveling speed with less monotony.

Also, the only thing whiter than I am is my miffwa (keeper of the moon), no one will be able to tell that I'm wearing a swimsuit, because looking straight at her will be like looking at the surface of the sun.

All the same, I don't usually get that excited about event gear (especially stupid egg hats), but swimsuits are whimsical and fun, which is how casual events should be.

[Toth]

Great letter.

However, for all his mention of partying, he should realize that the server population has been too low to even find 1-2 people of the right rank and class let alone 3-4 to actually party with...

[Hiroishime]

Probably preparing for the PS3 players.

[Gulkeeva]

Hahaaa! I am used to more now, sure, but I meant it primarily when the game was fresh. For Miqotes and, well, Elves, they dressed rather bland, especially compared to the dusk and RDM leg armor or many many years ago. But yeah, you're probably right. lol

you know, there are mods to have (namely miqo'tes) be wearing less :P
http://forum.neko-sentai.com/showthread.php?t=10293&page=8
NSFW miqo'te images! :P

Many of the current mods are done by a great Jp modder. With the coming of the swimsuit, we should be seeing a much greater "full body" soon (then the unshaded/uncolored body model form thats been around) like more chest bounce detailed body etc. He's also been working on what looks like a model editor, adjusting chest size.

You probably won't see many .DAT edits outside miqo'te though for gear (and other stuff) since miqo'tes the most favored race :P

[Aro]

Why must time be the greatest enemy in all walks of life..

[Foxer]

you know, there are mods to have (namely miqo'tes) be wearing less :P
http://forum.neko-sentai.com/showthread.php?t=10293&page=8
NSFW miqo'te images! :P

Many of the current mods are done by a great Jp modder. With the coming of the swimsuit, we should be seeing a much greater "full body" soon (then the unshaded/uncolored body model form thats been around) like more chest bounce detailed body etc. He's also been working on what looks like a model editor, adjusting chest size.

You probably won't see many .DAT edits outside miqo'te though for gear (and other stuff) since miqo'tes the most favored race :PAlways loved your site. Would be lying if I said I haven't been there a few times before. lol

I've always been a fan of just barely covering up enough though.

00:26
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrFog_4JuV4

/derail

New skin dats on swimsuits gonna make for some nice mods I see. Can't complain.

[Kaylia]

Awesome letter, but useless events and open world grinding is kinda lame. It's still an improvement over what we got I guess, but leveling up need to be more streamlined. I don't want to spend 1h30 building xp party every time I'm out of leves.

[Cichy]

It's still "in the next patch"

[Foxer]

I think the day people realize solo content til cap is a good thing, the world will be a better place. It doesn't make a game any more challenging to have to seek for a party every time you wanna do something. It also can't be boring as shit either.

[Amastacia]

Solo content as a competitive option until cap is a good thing. There's nothing wrong with allowing group content (even grinding) as another option, though, as plenty of people just like the social aspect first and foremost.

The trick is to avoid the pitfalls of things like 90 minutes spent LFG through good game design rather than just asking everyone to solo to cap.

[Hyan]

Or thinking both can be equal????

Bullsheit.

[Agito]

I don’t want there to be a huge loss of skill points imposed for dying, or for players to have to grind 5–6 hours a day for 8 months to get to the high ranks. This is exactly what i want. Grinding for 10 hours a day with a 6 person party in FFXI was the best thing about the game and i'm serious.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I also don't feel open world grinding should be the primary way of leveling, just one of the options. However we're going to have to accept that, at least for a little while, it is going to be the most accessible form of gaining EXP and so I welcome any positive changes to it in the interim.

[Hyan]

This is exactly what i want. Grinding for 10 hours a day with a 6 person party in FFXI was the best thing about the game and i'm serious.

The 1 1/2 years I spent getting to 75 were the best times spent in the game for me too. Endgame was bleh after I cleared CoP.

Don't ask how I managed to take so long!

[Lucavi]

Or thinking both can be equal????

Bullsheit.

Both will never be equal. One will always be faster than the other (which people will bitch about), and one will always lead to better equipment than the other (which people will also bitch about).

The best a company can do is to strive to make both enticing in their own way, while never abandoning one or the other. Partying through instances tends to provide faster XP and better drops, but the downside is that the player is at the mercy of the server and other people to attain the XP and drops. Solo typically moves slower, and with worse drops (quest or random drop only), but the player can always work at a steady pace.

[Hyan]

Even if they were as fast, it would turn out in soloers favor. Less hassle, unpredictability, etc.

Usually it turns out in soloer's favour either way. When it takes as little as <1h to level up solo, and better equipment/group doesn't really provide much of a difference (45-50mins per level instead?), it's easy to not bother, especially if you're unfamiliar with the grouping mechanics, aren't sure about your playskills etc.

If campaign was more consistent for xp I'd be glad to see this game work the same way. You get steady results soloing but you'll always want to group and have a flag up if you have the time, because let's face it: it's a slow exping method especially in the 60+ range.

[Lucavi]

Honestly I prefer instance-grinding, but a lot of that stems from my love of A) grinding fun events with skilled friends again and again and B) my love of having high quality gear for my character at all times; preferably something I earned in a fight. If this game had a working AH and some honest-to-God WORLD DROPS I'd have been playing it again for awhile now. The lack of world drops frustrates me because there's never any random factor out there while fighting. You always know what you're going to get, loot-wise, and there's never that thrill of randomly fighting something while grinding/farming/xping and suddenly you're about to either get a fantastic item to use or a LOT of money on the AH.

I know random drops are nonexistent in XI, but I'd love to see them make their first entrance onto a SE MMO. Remember the old days in single-player FFs where just about every mob had a chance to drop something really, really good? Whatever happened to those days? They weren't random (mobs had their own weapon/armor/item loot tables) but it was still better than what we had in XI; a forced single-mob camping cluster-fuck where the best bot won, and even winning the pull didn't ensure winning anything more than an earth crystal.

[Hyan]

It's probably more appealing once the game basically forces you to group, and give a shit about your gear.. for better and worse.

I think people are much more likely to choose the grouping option for second class and beyond.

Doesn't seem like the genre is pulling in that many new players lately though, so that probably carries from game to another. They're all carbon copies of one another either way.

[kisada]

if there's mob grinding, so what? he just basically said his focus from now on was going to be on allowing wide range of character building. obviously there will always be the case of what is optimal vs what is not, but if yoshida seems intent on making more than one viable avenue of leveling, then i can't imagine they're not gonna try to balance as much as possible.

[avelle]

I don't really mind grinding to an extent. I did really enjoy the old days of exping in parties in FFXI. You know, the days when you didn't sit in Jeuno all day lfg. Combat was fun in FFXI though and in FF14 it's just mind numbingly boring. I hope 1.18 goes a long way towards addressing that.

[Alderaan]

Honestly I prefer instance-grinding, but a lot of that stems from my love of A) grinding fun events with skilled friends again and again and B) my love of having high quality gear for my character at all times; preferably something I earned in a fight. If this game had a working AH and some honest-to-God WORLD DROPS I'd have been playing it again for awhile now. The lack of world drops frustrates me because there's never any random factor out there while fighting. You always know what you're going to get, loot-wise, and there's never that thrill of randomly fighting something while grinding/farming/xping and suddenly you're about to either get a fantastic item to use or a LOT of money on the AH.

I know random drops are nonexistent in XI, but I'd love to see them make their first entrance onto a SE MMO. Remember the old days in single-player FFs where just about every mob had a chance to drop something really, really good? Whatever happened to those days? They weren't random (mobs had their own weapon/armor/item loot tables) but it was still better than what we had in XI; a forced single-mob camping cluster-fuck where the best bot won, and even winning the pull didn't ensure winning anything more than an earth crystal.

I agree. Party grinding is so much more fun when you're moving from 1 area to the next while fighting some bosses, as apposed to camping in one spot in the open world. If there was a way to incorporate that into an open world then i'd be all over it.

[Anthonystar]

I agree. Party grinding is so much more fun when you're moving from 1 area to the next while fighting some bosses, as apposed to camping in one spot in the open world. If there was a way to incorporate that into an open world then i'd be all over it.

Cap a chain of kills on one set of mobs then move to another near by to get your chain higher till it caps. Maybe killing enough of one type of enemy make a HQ/NM version spawn that gives equipment, bonus XP, or a point system that you can use to trade for equipment so they don't need to create unique items (same idea as lottery spawn but not time/chance based just straight kill x # of this type). Getting cap would spawn the HQ/NM one for you to know after it dies to move to another group to continue chaining. The chaining could be time based or not, it really depends on how hardcore you wanna get with it.

[Alderaan]

In theory sure, until 10 other groups show up.

[Sigmakan]

Used to be a huge fan of open-world mob grinding, but I've been converted to leve-type grinding.

Just recently tried to do a raptor grind and just about blew my brains out from boredom.

I think what I enjoyed most about grinding in FFXI was the sense of strategy and teamwork, not the actual endless grinding. If this sense of teamwork can be incorporated more aggressively into the SP-leveling schemes then I think we'll be all set.

[Anthonystar]

In theory sure, until 10 other groups show up.

That's why you make it viable in most areas through lots of spawns and quick respawns. You also have more content to supplement groups. This type of content would need to be more time consuming of the player, but yield higher rewards in the long term. Dungeon/Raid XP would be short term group. Guildleve / Quest is quicker solo XP. XI's camping issues were that there was only 1 single way to XP efficiently.

They just need to give people viable options for XPing and make the XP / rewards scalable to the time commitment / difficulty.

[Anthonystar]

double post

[Lucavi]

Cap a chain of kills on one set of mobs then move to another near by to get your chain higher till it caps. Maybe killing enough of one type of enemy make a HQ/NM version spawn that gives equipment, bonus XP, or a point system that you can use to trade for equipment so they don't need to create unique items (same idea as lottery spawn but not time/chance based just straight kill x # of this type). Getting cap would spawn the HQ/NM one for you to know after it dies to move to another group to continue chaining. The chaining could be time based or not, it really depends on how hardcore you wanna get with it.

That sounds a little complicated for SE to do, and yeah, what happens when other parties want to camp in the same exact spot? SE hasn't had a great track record with fast respawns, and with the linking aggro system in place, if mobs spawn -too- quickly, it can throw off the balance of the fights. Also, what happens when lots of groups want a higher shot at these "points" or equipment bonuses and camps all over one another and starts the drama that we saw with NM-camping in XI? Obviously a little competition is a good thing, but people love being idiots and trying to train shit ontop of groups. Does anyone remember the wolves at Grid during beta and launch that people would train all over one another, just for the lulz?

That's what's so good about instances. Yes, you lose a bit of that worldy freedom to just run around and see lots of groups doing lots of things, but you have to remember that all of those players are controlled by humans. Humans are assholes and dicks. Humans will screw one another over without so much as a second thought, and will laugh about it. In a game where you can't really get "revenge" through any sort of PVP, its frustrating being greifed or otherwise annoyed by other players when you can't do shit about it. Instances allow groups to focus solely on the goal, so, once again, the devs are free to jack up the difficulty since they're cutting out nearly every form of distraction.

Tl;dr: You have to factor the human element into all of these wonderful ideas, and the bottom line is that humans are lying, cheating, kill-and-loot-stealing assholes. You make a system easy to abuse and players will abuse it.

[Hyan]

That's why you give each group its own mobs.

Like... Like... Shit...guildleves!!!!

But no. FFS.

[Lucavi]

So... semi-instanced, respawning mobs that will re-spawn endlessly until the party decides that they're finished XPing for the day? And you think SE would do that for the players?

Tell you what, Hyan; make a post about it on the official forums and see where it goes. Seriously. It'd take the "freedom" of assholes to be assholes right out of the equation, while still allowing for people to see other people (the main gripe non-instanced purists have against instances), even if they couldn't interact with them enough to steal their mobs.

[Anthonystar]

That sounds a little complicated for SE to do, and yeah, what happens when other parties want to camp in the same exact spot? SE hasn't had a great track record with fast respawns, and with the linking aggro system in place, if mobs spawn -too- quickly, it can throw off the balance of the fights. Also, what happens when lots of groups want a higher shot at these "points" or equipment bonuses and camps all over one another and starts the drama that we saw with NM-camping in XI? Obviously a little competition is a good thing, but people love being idiots and trying to train shit ontop of groups. Does anyone remember the wolves at Grid during beta and launch that people would train all over one another, just for the lulz?

That's what's so good about instances. Yes, you lose a bit of that worldy freedom to just run around and see lots of groups doing lots of things, but you have to remember that all of those players are controlled by humans. Humans are assholes and dicks. Humans will screw one another over without so much as a second thought, and will laugh about it. In a game where you can't really get "revenge" through any sort of PVP, its frustrating being greifed or otherwise annoyed by other players when you can't do shit about it. Instances allow groups to focus solely on the goal, so, once again, the devs are free to jack up the difficulty since they're cutting out nearly every form of distraction.

Tl;dr: You have to factor the human element into all of these wonderful ideas, and the bottom line is that humans are lying, cheating, kill-and-loot-stealing assholes. You make a system easy to abuse and players will abuse it.

I can clear it up later, but a lot of your issues I have a fix for, busy atm and will take awhile to type.

[Hyan]

Tell you what, Hyan; make a post about it on the official forums and see where it goes. Seriously. It'd take the "freedom" of assholes to be assholes right out of the equation, while still allowing for people to see other people (the main gripe non-instanced purists have against instances), even if they couldn't interact with them enough to steal their mobs.

Of course they won't agree when the players(mouthbreathers from now on) are all like HURRDURR OPAN WORDL GRINDAN YEAY and HERPGUILDLEVES SUX CANT MAEK ANYTHEN GUD OF DEM while Yoshida is all "Sup fellas, we here at the dev team agree with y'all and decided to make guildleves less of a focus because they're just no good and never will be! See ya at the forums, derpin' and herpin'!"

What really sucks is that even if I wanted to I can't deny that some people here are the exact same.

It wasn't a long stretch to make guildleves function exactly like you described, with the same changes that are on the way to open world mobs right now. BUT NOOO. Guildleafs sux0rz plz give us an AH nao

[Grey Jorildyn]

XI's real problem was not camping, but more deeply rooted. They did not allow you to progress during their "instances", leaving the only way to level up be grinding, thus the camping issue. Mobs gave 0 EXP in Dynamis, Salvage, Limbus, etc. It wasn't until Abyssea that it changed, and look at how well-received it was in general. Yoshida recognizes this and we're gonna be getting XP for killing in dungeons, which is great. It's like SE needed to have a revelation about obvious shit like this and it's sad that it has taken so long in the modern age of MMOs.

@Lucavi: they can have mobs respawn in their instances. They are going with time-restrictions this round so it's feasible imo. This would be great in instances where you have to double-back to take different routes or what-have-you.

[Cichy]

I hope we're getting some good gear, I'm not even going to touch the instances if there's no good loot

[Vuitton]

Camping EXP spots in XI was an issue because the whole server used the same 2-3 spots for every level. So you'd have multiple groups at one spot. Which is more a problem of laziness than anything because all it takes is a few moments on a database to find mobs in the level range you want, note their locations, and head on out. Instead, people found these spots by following others and only ever knew of those spots, and asking them to find a new unknown spot was like completely offensive.

SE can make all the EXP spots they want. The players are still going to pick 2-3 out of all them they prefer the most and then ignore all of the others.

[Hyan]

SE can make all the EXP spots they want. The players are still going to pick 2-3 out of all them they prefer the most and then ignore all of the others.

Or they can regulate it by making guildleves act as the exp spots and randomize the mobs.

The devs let us choose, we will go with the path of least resistance. They won't let us choose, well, at least the mob variety will go up. It's wasted freedom..

It's just a bad design choice to encourage open world camping and discourage guildleves. But at least they have the community's backing this time...

[Vuitton]

Or they can regulate it by making guildleves act as the exp spots.

Aren't they already being use that way? Every leve party I've been in has been a mobile exp grinding group.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Right now there's a few exp camps at 43+ for sure, but there is a pecking order. That's just inevitable though. There will always be a good-better-best when it comes to open world grinding. This is why it is crucial to offer many ways to level up and not pigeon-hole players only into grinding. SE needs to know this and it appears to be the direction Yoshida is taking us already. Let's keep our fingers crossed that future content like settlements, beastmen encampments, and hamlet defense keep the promise of providing us with content that is progressive both along the leveling curve and the gear-game.

[Ragns]

Yoshi and Sundi working on the same game sounds like a nice team.

http://images.bluegartr.com/bucket/gallery/c1718fddc6ef35df620c329271da4d47.jpg
http://images.bluegartr.com/bucket/gallery/6e3386088be7811fe9b0b11a251b9596.jpg

[Kirbyprime]

Humm, I went "meh" at all the changes and stopped playing a month after release, but I'm updating now because of the swimsuits. Yay for sex appeal <.< that and choosing Mithra as my char

[shidobu]

This is exactly what i want. Grinding for 10 hours a day with a 6 person party in FFXI was the best thing about the game and i'm serious.

WEED OUT THE WEAK ONES EARLY ON I HEAR YA BRO!
This was only acceptable cuz i could watch tv while my mele jobs swung at shit.
/lurks again

[Kurokikaze]

Dunno where to put it but whatever..

If you're on Saronia and will be on after update lemme know. I wanna round up a group for testing/dungeons/shenanigans.

[Meko]

I will be but I'm not high enough for anything nor do I have a shell. Maybe I can find one once people start playing...

[Lucavi]

Dunno where to put it but whatever..

If you're on Saronia and will be on after update lemme know. I wanna round up a group for testing/dungeons/shenanigans.

I won't be back until Sunday evening; Philly trip, yo.

[avelle]

Where do I go to sign up for a Miqote swimsuit?!

[Waraji]

Wish you luck Kuro, see ya out there on the battlefield.

[Insanecyclone]

Enough to make me reactivate now. Is the updating still slow as hell or did it improve?

[Waraji]

It's never been slow. μTorrent.

[Kurokikaze]

It's always been slow. Thats why you gotta use μTorrent.

FTFY

[Insanecyclone]

I remember doing that during beta. Forgot exactly where the files for it were but I'll look it up again.

[Corrderio]

Even with a torrent my DL speed is still crappy

[sruon]

I'll have the files most likely on a dedicated by the end of the maintenance

[Insanecyclone]

I assume the patch today will patch in everything else without having to dl each patch? Hurr question but I just did a clean reinstall.

[Kurokikaze]

That might be the case.. It's been the case for all updates after January. Incoming 1.5GB download.

Btw... Sruon has all the patches on his dedicated server so you can download from there.

[Insanecyclone]

Alright cool.

[Corrderio]

I'll have the files most likely on a dedicated by the end of the maintenance

Please say you have it. I can only get ~15 KB/s on BitTorrent and the Installer.

[Niiro]

I'm getting 100-300 (usually ~200) from the official client, you need to let it run for a bit for it to pick up connections.

[Corrderio]

Exact opposite happened to me. I had 100+ KB then awhile later I just sunk to under 25 KB