Letter from the Producer IX (5/2/2011)

[Hyan]

Well, we are creeping up on Golden Week here in Japan—a weeklong vacation packed with some of Japan’s finest holiday offerings. But for now it’s still business as usual in the office for Yoshida and crew.

Patches 1.17 and 1.17a are good and done, and we’ve started work on the next patch—appropriately named 1.18.

1.18 is going to be relatively bigger than previous patches. This means that balancing is going to take more time than usual, and so we’re anticipating a somewhat longer period between patches. Even if we break off some of the content and release it ahead of time in a 1.17b patch (which me might!), 1.18 will still go live sometime in mid-June at the earliest. Sorry for that.

But good things come to those who wait! Dungeons designed for ranks 30 and 50 are on their way, and 1.18 will see the start of our reworking of the battle system, as we bring in some changes to that area.

Also, we’re planning to introduce various new encampments that will serve as quest hubs. We’re in the process of testing these now on our development servers, and I strong-armed one of the designers in charge into handing over some screenshots for me to post here.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/a...3&d=1304316370

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/a...4&d=1304316371

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/a...5&d=1304316371

From top to bottom, those are encampments in the Ul’dah, Limsa Lominsa, and Gridania regions. In this way, we’re going to gradually increase the number of public areas with quest hubs. We also have some beast tribe versions in the works, but it’s looking like those will have to wait until 1.19.

By the by, this is still under development, but here’s what the beast tribe equivalent is looking like.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/a...6&d=1304316419

I’ll continue to drop more details on future patch content on the Lodestone forums, and in these letters as well. Akihiko Matsui, our lead battle planner, will also be posting on the forums in the near future regarding some of the new battle concepts we have planned.

Come mid-May, the vanguards of the Grand Companies will be the first to brave Eorzea’s newly discovered dungeons. Their preliminary reports will be made available on the Grand Companies page on the Lodestone, so be sure to check it out!

Instanced dungeons will provide a means to further solidify the bonds of the Maelstrom, the Immortal Flames, and the Order of the Twin Adder. The Grand Companies are large-scale organizations that will play an active role in the events going on in Eorzea as they happen, so be on the lookout!

In my next letter, I’ll be sure to update the list of game changes. (Sorry it’s been so long...)

Until then! And for players in Japan, I hope you enjoy Eorzea over your Golden Week!

Oh, and one more thing, I’ve seen some auto-translations of some of my posts going up on the forums. A recent one concerning synthesis actually starting spreading some misinformation before our official translation came out. I know I post at crazy hours sometimes, and that there are time lags, but ask that you please refrain from posting these translations in the forums. Thanks, and talk to you again soon!

[Ansems]

Hmm I should at least get one job to max lvl before this comes into play.

[Lazytowner]

Nnneat.

Too bad I log on after fixing my GTX 280 and my linkshell has been deserted. Fffff.

Alone on Llindblum, minan.

[Cichy]

So wait, whats going on?

[Hyan]

Too bad, did not expect so long of a wait.

Looks like O'ghomoro, Pagl'than and Xelphatol are coming in 1.19.

'Quest hubs', though? What the hell are they planning?

[Hiroishime]

at least we get a kinda-fixed-date for when are we getting'em, in the mean time i hope the grand company instances can keep us busy enough for a month.

[Corrderio]

June is going to be a pretty interesting month. Although I was hoping to hear about the job system in this letter.

[Burningthought]

... 1.18 will still go live sometime in mid-June at the earliest. Sorry for that.

Well, fuck.

[Waraji]

Yay fresh new thread to soil.

[Tomino]

Beastmen hubs? Now that's interesting.

BUT

If 1.18 is going to be more than a month away, then what about all the Umbral Era in May buzz?

[Zettofaia]

Looks very promising, I'm actually really excited this time!

[Gulkeeva]

Same I'm looking foward to what they have in store for the combat/class balance/changes etc!

[Reapz]

Damn that's a long wait, better be epic as hell making us wait that long! Screenshots of the quest hubs and beastmen hub look cool, should take away some emptiness from the world

[Kensaki]

Mid June earliest... Lots of time to level I guess.

[Corrderio]

If 1.18 is going to be more than a month away, then what about all the Umbral Era in May buzz?

If I had to take a guess I'd say it's in the game now, or at the very least we'll get a ninja patch to add the Umbral Era event.

[Celeras]

I pretty much expected their 'end of may' timeline to get pushed back a few weeks by the tsunami shit anyway, so not too surprised.

Logged on consistently this week for the first time in 2011, hammered out most of the sidequests and even did a little SPing. These minipatches have done a lot of good imo. I'm almost ready to say that all content gaps have been filled, except for endgame of course. May 2011, the day FFXIV became an average launch-MMO?

Either way, they have my attention until mid-june for the combat changes/overhaul. I'm eating up the Umbral Era thing.

[Draylo]

Yawn, dunno why I bother checking these every time with hope of major changes... I need to see change!!!

[Scythiroth]

Still waiting on my job/combat change info. =/ These new additions are nice for whenever they fix the other stuff and I can actually play this game again.

[Draylo]

Same, job/combat changes should be first and they should try talking more about that.. So many people here clinging to every piece of info they shit out with such optimism, I guess its cool that they have a mini fan base here.

[Cureslime]

Dungeons, areas in the world that are actually inhabited, combat changes...seems pretty good to me! Game should be in release-able quality around the 1 year anniversary.