The FINAL FANTASY XI Team Answers Your Questions! (12/22/2010)

[shadee]

Since the release of the December version update, the community has been abuzz with talk of the latest added content. Today, the FFXI team would like to take the opportunity to address some of our players' most pressing questions and concerns.

Q: The new update saw adjustments to existing content such as Salvage, Einherjar, and Dynamis. Can we expect periodic refinements to these and other existing content in the future?

A: Yes. Our plan is to continue to tweak entrance cost, minimum party size, and other restrictions so that the widest variety of content can be enjoyed by the widest audience of players. While we cannot go into specific detail yet, we are closely monitoring player feedback, and will work to address the areas of greatest demand on a priority basis.

Q: A new recipe was added for Pet Food Eta, but the ingredients are terribly difficult to obtain. Will there be any adjustments to this recipe in the future?

A: Yes. The team shares players' concern that this recipe is disproportionately difficult compared to existing pet food recipes, and we plan to ease the requirements to make it more readily obtainable in the future.

Q: Since the installation of the version update, it seems that certain enemy attacks that were previously unable to reach me are now doing damage. What happened?

A: To resolve an issue wherein terrain features in Wings of the Goddess and Abyssea areas could be exploited to one-sidedly attack enemies, adjustments were made to the vertical range of enemy abilities. We apologize for failing to properly mention this in the version update release notes.

Q: After the recent maintenance, the cost of augmented items increased from 1,000 Dominion notes to 2,500. I understand the need to control gil flow, but was it not possible to just lower resale prices instead?

A: Lowering the resale price of these items was an option we considered as well. As the items in question are augmented versions of equipment obtainable via Synergy, however, we came to the conclusion that such a measure would have undesirable effects on crafters. Raising the cost in Dominion notes was deemed to be the fairest solution.

Q: I tried to install the version update on my PlayStation 2, only to have it fail due to insufficient HDD space. Eventually, I was forced to perform a clean reinstallation. Can PS2 users expect a fix for this problem in the future?

A: It is true that FFXI is approaching the limits of the PlayStation 2 HDD, resulting in insufficient storage space errors for some players. As there is no means by which to defragment the HDD, performing a clean installation of the game is currently the only effective solution. We are working on an upgrade to the update process that will lower the amount of HDD space required, which we hope to implement in future version updates.

Q: I very much enjoyed having the opportunity to have questions directly answered by development team members via their Twitter accounts. Recently, though, responses have grown scarce. Will there be no other venue provided for players to correspond with the FFXI team?

A: We understand that players value the opportunity to communicate directly with the development team, and appreciate your feedback tremendously. However, the use of personal Twitter pages for this purpose is somewhat problematic. Our plan is to establish official FFXI Twitter accounts for each supported language early next year, with an official discussion forum also under consideration for further down the line.

[Alkar]

Ok, these answers are nice and all but how about answering the more important ones like:
What the hell is going to happen now?
Lol.

[Khamsin]

I spy some literal PS2 limitations in there. It's a shame that PS2 players won't have room to install anymore expansions or add-ons.

[Kaisha]

Perhaps it'll finally be their excuse to ditch POL as that'd save up a good 300mb of space for them, which would allow another round of add-ons.

[Klaatu]

I spy some literal PS2 limitations in there. It's a shame that PS2 players won't have room to install anymore expansions or add-ons.

A shame? I think it's stupid. A person who's running PS2 with internet capabilities, has that internet for a reason and that reason being a PC. People need to stop holding everyone capable of enjoying this game to full extent and switch over already. One of the questions should have been "Are you planning to drop PS2 support in the near future?" lol

Unless you were being sarcastic <_<

[Divinius]

Meh... Post deleted.

[Tifrece]

Did SE just say that they plan to have actual lines of communication between the players and the Dev team? That's freaking awesome! The possibility of a forum is all the more sweeter.

[ringthree]

Did SE just say that they plan to have actual lines of communication between the players and the Dev team? That's freaking awesome! The possibility of a forum is all the more sweeter.

The idea that they are finally opening a discussion forums (assuming it is modded by the community team) is way overdue, but it is one of those things that is just another nail in the coffin of the "FFXI is a dead game" argument.

[Greyman]

Perhaps it'll finally be their excuse to ditch POL as that'd save up a good 300mb of space for them, which would allow another round of add-ons.

This.

Honestly though, I do think we've reached the point where dropping support for the PS2 is a viable option or as listed above, getting rid of useless stuff such as POL. How many people would it honestly effect if PS2 support was dropped? I'm not against PS2 users but personally, if the option is to stop major content updates like those we've been getting or drop PS2 support and inconvenience some players then I'd be in favour of the latter.

On another note, I'm quite interested in this forum idea, Twitter I dont care for but if implemented correctly then the forum could be an excellent way to discuss stuff with the Dev/Community Teams.

[TehKerm]

Although i do agree that maybe dropping ps2 would allow them to give us better updates without the ps2 limitations issue coming into play but i doubt they want to drop part of their playerbase for the benefit of the other half, they already did this by making abyssea a lvl 30 entry req. hence fucking all new ppl who join the game cause no exp pts can be found pre 30 anymore. Time to fix your fuckups SE pr watch your game die.

[ringthree]

This.

Honestly though, I do think we've reached the point where dropping support for the PS2 is a viable option or as listed above, getting rid of useless stuff such as POL. How many people would it honestly effect if PS2 support was dropped? I'm not against PS2 users but personally, if the option is to stop major content updates like those we've been getting or drop PS2 support and inconvenience some players then I'd be in favour of the latter.

On another note, I'm quite interested in this forum idea, Twitter I dont care for but if implemented correctly then the forum could be an excellent way to discuss stuff with the Dev/Community Teams.

I am sure it is possible, but I believe that since POL is tied to your FFXI account, getting rid of it might not be that probable.

[Greyman]

I am sure it is possible, but I believe that since POL is tied to your FFXI account, getting rid of it might not be that probable.

I agree and I'd be surprised if they did remove POL. I was moreso trying to highlight the fact that if they want this game to continue then dropping PS2 might be an option since space really is a limitation, that is unless they've already got some grand plan that doesn't involve going back to the 2009 style addons.

[The Blackrose]

Perhaps it'll finally be their excuse to ditch POL as that'd save up a good 300mb of space for them, which would allow another round of add-ons.

Not going to happen once you think of the logistics behind migrating account management to the SEA site, creating a new login system, what to do about the messaging and email systems and a bunch of other issues that would crop up with the elimination of the POL interface. Not to mention you have the probability of SE creating something even more bloated that what currently exists to the point where it consumes more resources than necessary.

POL is a piece of shit, but sadly it's also convenient (at least with respect to a PS2 player). I wouldn't so much ditch it as trim the shit out of it.

[Gwynplaine]

That's nice that they started doing these Q&A things they originated in FFXIV here now. And I'm pretty sure that they did mention the terrain fix in an update somewhere.

Anyways, I think an official forum would be a big waste of their time. They can always just read player forums which have the freedom of not having to stick to a businessy all-ages rigor. It would only wind up with lots of terrible un-modded or over-modded discussions that incite nerd rage. Just look how the FFXIV beta forums were for example.

[EvilTheCat]

I'd like an answer as to why they feel they had to put some jobs seals for Heroes on such dumb quests. Seriously? Killing a friggin nm for a rare or key item then trading it just to hope for a slight chance you might get a seal. Not only that you have to zone to just flag it again...

[dannyl]

I'm very curious what the PS2 population is vs PC population. I wonder if these statistics have been public in the past.
That being said, if the PS2 population is low compared to PC, why not come up with some grand plan to help those PS2 users into a new platform. free PC's for PS2 users lol. Just throwing that out there. You can't simply scrap PS2 users, but at the same time, it feels the game is being held back because of PS2 'limitations'

[Kaisha]

Not going to happen once you think of the logistics behind migrating account management to the SEA site, creating a new login system, what to do about the messaging and email systems and a bunch of other issues that would crop up with the elimination of the POL interface. Not to mention you have the probability of SE creating something even more bloated that what currently exists to the point where it consumes more resources than necessary.

POL is a piece of shit, but sadly it's also convenient (at least with respect to a PS2 player). I wouldn't so much ditch it as trim the shit out of it.

I was thinking of rather than fully ditching POL, SE would just keep it, but use it solely as a log-in client, which then has the option to either go straight into FFXI, or check your messages/mail. All the music/frills can be removed which is the bulk of the POL filesize.

Something like that is a lot more feasible for NA. I can't recall if POL is still used for any other titles over in Japan though, at least on the PS2 platform.

[Outlaw]

The idea that they are finally opening a discussion forums (assuming it is modded by the community team) is way overdue, but it is one of those things that is just another nail in the coffin of the "FFXI is a dead game" argument.

Still, better late than never. The new Dev team sound like some cool people.

[Spira]

is FFXI on ps2 reaching close to 40gb already? thats the capacity of the PS2 HDD unit right?

[miokomioko]

I think only some people with other shit on their HDD are going to be running into the problem...