Famitsu Translation - Heavensward Interview - (EU Media Event 5/18-5/20)

[Niiro]

The more this conversation goes on the less I'm buying the whole "backend storage" excuse.

Tell you what Yoshi, give us the option to disable achievements for our character entirely and in exchange we get to store all the things.

[Thiefami]

Storage is tied directly to a service, additional retainers. Inventory is not a /problem/ to them per say, especially when consider they want and fully expect that you will come out of pocket for it. For some, that's tacking on two extra dollars per sub. They are getting back.

Interestingly enough they took one of the more controversial features from 1.0 and held on to it.

As long as there are retainers there wil never be a meaningful resolution from SE regarding inventory management and space.

[Byrthnoth]

Yeah, there is really no reason to restrict inventory space from a memory standpoint. Item statuses in inventory seem to be immutable, so they could be clientside. That leaves inventory position, item ID, spiritbound, flags, and number of the item. I am sure they have some extra shit in there, but you are still looking at less than 24 bytes per item (as few as 12) + header even if they built in a huge buffer for the future. You only load 100 item icons (or whatever) graphically regardless how many you have, so that burden does not increase with increasing inventory size.

The only situation where the client iterates over all inventories (AFAIK) are when you search for items and they throttle that. Any time an item is displayed, you also display the count of all NQ/HQ versions, which they probably have a secondary memory structure for but would slightly expand with more inventory. Quest flags are determined by your current inventory, but that is all done on the server with no client burden.

It is probably just for extra retainer money.

[Raldo]

That leaves inventory position, item ID, spiritbound, flags, and number of the item. I am sure they have some extra shit in there, but you are still looking at less than 24 bytes per item (as few as 12) + header even if they built in a huge buffer for the future.

+ dye color, glamour item ID, crafter name. I doubt it's <24bytes

[Niiro]

+ Durability

[layoneil]

+ Melded Materia
+ Custom Stats On Relics?

[Raldo]

The relic custom stats is probably re-using another unused field (like the data space for melded materia and/or crafter signature that would never be used for relics), similar to how they store the light values (which takes the place of spiritbond data, you'll notice those weapons don't have a bond listed), but yeah, the list just keeps growing.

Quantity would be another value for stackable items, but it probably shares the space of some of the gear data, since you'll never have quantity and glamour data on the same item.

[Thiefami]

Attempting to quantify this is essentially moot. They could increase inventory size and storage options, no problem. With 0 detriment to game performance or load. They simply will not because it's tied directly to a service charge.

We're facing the fact that you're paying premium but using cash shop means to obtain increased bank space. At least in other games that bank space is a one and done service charge and it's yours forever. Square charges per month. I doubt the outrage will ever reach a level where this will be changed, but outrage and refusal to use it would be the only way SE would possibly change their stance and then actually fix the storage issue this game has.

[Niiro]

I mentioned it before we are getting another retainer with 3.0 so it's not that bad.

[Cutriss]

I mentioned it before we are getting another retainer with 3.0 so it's not that bad.

Possibly multiple. They said they were still trying to figure it out.

[Destinye]

Possibly multiple. They said they were still trying to figure it out.

"After reviewing the pre-order sales and how many people will pay $170 for a plastic dragon, we decided to only unlock one retainer when you access ishgard but increased the number of retainers you can purchase at the mog station by 7."

But yeah, honestly nothing stopping them from "increasing the backend load times' without affecting gameplay.

[Lucavi]

^ I'm still clinging to overall Japanese incompetence in working with non-console hardware, but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise!

[Slycer]

Skai just ruined my Saturday (kidding) by pointing out a new article published by Famitsu with more in depth information about the new jobs and changes and additions for existing jobs.

Here's the original: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201505/30079773.html

Working on translation now... here's the intro, full translation with job specifics will follow (in a different post):

-----

On May 18 to 20, 2015, the European media tour for Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward was held in Nantes, France, with media from Japan also participating. We'd like to provide some new information that we learned by trying out the expansion pack as we know everyone is looking forward to the start of service on June 23.

In this article, we'll write in detail about the new jobs and the new actions for existing jobs learned between levels 52 and 60. There has already been a lot of discussion around the producer letter, so please check that out first - you may get a slightly different take when you read it in combination with the information here.

Producer/director Naoki Yoshida mentioned to us that it's possible that things like the duration or power of individual actions may be adjusted, as well as the effects themselves. When asked what the general progression idea was behind the new actions, he told us that it's intended to be an evolution.

For all of the jobs, the following hold true:
>The maximum number of additional actions does not increase past 5.
>No traits are learned at level 51 or beyond.
>All new actions are job actions located in the job list, not class actions.
>Actions past level 50 are learned in increments of two levels starting at level 52.

[Slycer]

Yeah this article's gonna clear up a LOT of questions around the new jobs... I'm gonna post DRK part in a minute and I'll post other parts as I translate.