Comments from the Devs

[Elcura]

Aww baby, SE takes the leap into the industrial era with Rested XP~!!

You seem so bi-polar when it comes to XIV lol

[Lucavi]

I am. Part of me wants it to fail horribly to finally run SE's upper management into the ground and force a revolution within it, but part of me wants it to succeed so that hopefully, by God, they can allocate some of the budget to younger minds within the company and make some fresh, new IPs. Two sides of the same coin, really. Its the same as me loving Japan as a whole, but hating its ass-clenching adherence to tradition and rampant xenophobia.

Much like being bi-polar in real life (based on what I've seen from the awesome super times they have at the bars on Friday nights~!", its super fun!

And no, I don't consider Yoshi-P to be any sort of "new talent". Even if he is young and full of fresh ideas, there's still obviously enough of the old SE board lingering over him to keep pumping those classic core tenants of Japan business savvy into him: "Never talk to the consumer, never trust the consumer, and never make a game for the consumer. Act on your own desires, for your own interests, and for Heaven's sake, never take advice from the people that are supposed to pay you to enjoy your product!"

[Elcura]

never take advice from the people that are supposed to pay you to enjoy your product!

This is generally good advice. Listening to your fans/customers is sometimes a good idea, but generally it isn't because people are idiots. It's tiring to wade through a sea of shit to find a nugget of gold (though more than tiring, it actually fucking sucks). You can't blame a designer for wanting to go his own way 90% of the time. Pretty much the only time you need to listen is when the base can basically agree on the things that make your game shitty. But you only need to listen to where you need to improve your game, taking advice on how is generally a terrible idea.

[Lucavi]

After reading that, I'll ask you; has SE done an acceptable job of practicing what you preached? Have the results spoken for themselves?

[Elcura]

Have the results spoken for themselves?

You're going to have to elaborate or explain what you mean. The player base has identified what they hate and what's shitty, and Yoshi is trying to fix that (sometimes with more or less input from players, sometimes none at all). I dunno what else there is to say or do except wait to see if he's successful. It's hard to tell how things will play out until 2.0 at least, then we'll see if it was all worth it. You can't polish a turd, and Yoshi knows this but is trying anyway while working on 2.0. For now all we have is our love/hate and speculation.

My personal feelings is that the game isn't so bad any more, but the relics of the Tanaka age are still present and bog the game down. I don't hate it for that though, and I don't hate Yoshi for trying to make everyone happy either while trying to make his own game. That's probably where most of his mistakes come from, and it's what makes him seem less professional to me. But shit, what can you do with such a train wreck, you can't handle it like any other IP.

[Lucavi]

You could have summed all of that up with your "train wreck" statement (it describes the entire process of what's transpired, not so much the current state of things), but nevertheless, I enjoyed the read.

[Elcura]

You could've summed up your initial response with "I am" but we're not really going there are we?

[Lucavi]

Oh God, lets go there. It -is- Valentine's day, after all.

[Elcura]

Oh God, lets go there. It -is- Valentine's day, after all.

Sorry dude, I don't like you that much. Let's see where our relationship is in a year or so.

[Kurokikaze]

New Interview: http://www.videogamer.com/pc/ff14/ne..._audience.html

[vadre]

Is there anything new at all? Seems like they pretty much just answered a few of the more vague questions that were asked back when 2.0 was announced sadly.. (Thanks for posting anyways)

Really hoping some new info comes out soon, it's been pretty quiet this year so far with the exception of 1.21 tidbits.

[Takiwaki]

Doesn't it concern anyone that everything we hear about 2.0 is all about interface and graphics but nothing about actually gameplay changes?

[Seravi Edalborez]

I would say that's something that will be saved for a big event like E3; also there's a bit of unspoken promise in all of the things they say are not possible in the current engine because of design limitations or whatever. If they wanted to waste their time doing all of the same events they're doing now in their brand new 2.0 client, then it's their funeral.

[TacoTaru]

Some stuff popping up from translations. Reinheart has been posting quite a bit so there's probably more to come later in the day.

Happy Valentines Day! - To all the ladies...

Going to translate all the short ones on this one post
------------

This one is just repeat post from Foxclon regarding what the reps posted in the past about gathering points for those areas which have the nodes far apart.
All it says the dev teams will make adjustments later and will balance them out.

This one Armanya asking if there are plans for items that give HP/MP regen effect like Juice or Milk from FFXI and Triairy responded the devs have no plans at the moment for this one.

This one is regarding crafting - Siho asking HQ for Cobalt Preserve [RD] recipe the red color dye is included with original recipe unlike others which have 1st craft then dye. Foxclon says for all the color dye they are NQ and no HQ is available BUT the color dye wont affect the quality of the materials/craft so as long as you have other materials all HQ you can start from 500 (around 480) Also says for HQ crafting you don't have to have everything HQ so don't worry about that.

This one is about caravan quest - Gridania seems to be getting more CS reward than Limsa/Uldah and players said it's not fair and wants the reason behind this (they get 10 more CS...WOW!...　＼(°o°；）/ )

First off Triairy responds to that one saying the NPC explains it and says something will make sure you get some more reward since there are bandits and you may get lost. So that's why they get the extra 10!! + where you obtain the Caravan quest and starting point is farther out compared to other locations.

but Triairy also mentions caravan quests will also get modified when the planned Hamlet Defense is released in game.

-----------------------------------
And whole bunch of YoshiP post yesterday since he went on posting spree and wanted give as much support to players to keep them calm regarding the server merge on the JP side of the forums... most of the responses in there are just repeat of what he posted + from original server merge information posted on the topics which was missed to mention on YoshiP's post, but these should get fixed and the new updated details with yesterdays YoshiP's long post should get posted.

As for the server names he's not planning to add Japanese related legendary weapons orz... I wanted Masamune (or Excalibur) I'm reading through them again to see if any other bits of info should be mentioned, but overall it's just repeat since some players don't know how to read thoroughly before posting negative feedbacks...

--------------------------------------

Rep Response - 02/14/12 Food/Potion changed Q & A
JP side have a thread talking about the new food/potion effect which was posted in the topics and Foxclon answered some of the questions asked.

Originally Posted by Foxclon
Hello,

Thanks for the feedbacks, going to answer few of the questions asked

Originally Posted by Grain
1．What's going to happen to current existing food/potions?
Would they have the dated (JP has icon) in front and treated as different item?

2．Regarding reuse time for potions
Would like for the devs to fix where you have to use the potion again to find out how long u have to wait to reuse the item. Would like for it to show up as icon with time remaining.

1. The items wont be different they will retain the same item name (excluding few) and the effect of the items will be changed.

2. With current system it's not possible to display the remaining time and we apologize for the inconvenience however we are planning to make this possible in 2.0

Originally Posted by Grain
The reuse time is going to be adjusted so could you please increase the total stack quantity?

Originally Posted by Aruhya
Regarding stack amount, pumpkin cookies and blessed heart chocolates are 99 so it will be 99! I trust you the person in charge of culinary in the dev team!

In 1.21 all current items with stack limit 12 will be 99, and for those items you can't stack at all will still remain the same.

Originally Posted by BLESS
It's stated you can't use healing items to other PC but how about status curing items? Is that included in this category?

You can use status curing items to other PC's.

Originally Posted by Teiler
In the released information it says it says reuse item is short so thinking you can overwrite the effect; this is the part that concerns me.
(He also posted in another post saying in FFXI they had to make NPC to talk to get rid of the food effect so wants to make sure FFXIV can overwrite.)

When food items effect is still ongoing if you use the next food item it will overwrite the previous.

Originally Posted by BLESS
１：Food status needs to be matched with the level but what's going to happen to bonus effects for food which tasted good (the one where you see the message stating the food was good, bad, etc)

２：Are there food for Gatherer/Crafter? (Currently can't find status up for gatherers)

３：Even with same meat food the status is different, can we see this from crafting recipe page or are we supposed to check on every one of them ourselves?

1. With the changes this time there will be no optimal food for status, and bonus feature will be changed as well.
2. There will be items that will increase crafting and gathering status up.
3. You won't be able to check the stats through The Lodestone crafting page but planning to post them in the patch notes.

Originally Posted by tamae
Whats going to happen to alchemy lv20 class quest item (item is hard to obtain, need blind fish to make that stuff...) What's going to happen to this? sure you can craft using dated recipe but the material (fish) required grade 4 and up to obtain so it's a little bit difficult.

It's stated that the recipe will be changed and the materials will be related to those of that crafting level. I'm guessing this only applies for culinary but is that true?

As posted in the topics, potion recipes will also apply, and also the mentioned quest recipe will also be modified.

Originally Posted by Hencyan
For strength potion is shows STR+22(max 20) physical damage+26%(max 45) but is it just missing the % after the STR+22? Or is the max supposed to be (max 22)?

That's a error on our part like you mentioned and have been fixed.


If there are any other questions please leave a feedback

[Ambrosia]

New Interview: http://www.videogamer.com/pc/ff14/ne..._audience.html

Some key things caught my eye in that interview:


I.


Q: What is one specific aspect of version 2.0 that you are specifically looking forward to?


"We're particularly looking forward to being able to open up XIV to a much wider audience"


While I understand companies (especially large companies that make P2P MMORPG games) do want more of the greenbacks, when they use the term "wider audience" or rather "much wider audience" it usually does not end well. Only a handful of companies have been able to bridge that gap (specifically talking about everything under the rainbow: server/world 1st hardcore, hardcore, mid-core, casual, very casual). How big of a chasm are we talking about?


II.


Q: We're seeing so many free-to-play titles do well after adopting the model. What is the incentive behind returning to the subscription model?


"I do think creating a hybrid from different business models is an interesting proposition, and this may be something we investigate further down the line."


Q: Would you ever consider embracing a non-subscription model in the future or is that not feasible now?


"Of course I am very interested in F2P as an alternative business plan, and I will continue to look into it. However adopting a F2P model means changing certain aspects of the game design in order to fit to the model since the prices customers have to pay for F2P are different to those they pay for subscription-based games. Therefore, if we do decide to change the business model in the future, it will also be necessary for us to adjust the game design so that it works accordingly."


I called it. Chances are if Version 2.0 only ends up being average or above average it probably won't make the cut. According to Wada for FFXI they had over "200,000 subscribers to Final Fantasy XI, allowing the company to break even and start making a profit." Chances are FFXIV will need 250k or 300k minimum to break that even point. They may end up using various degrees of the F2P model if things don't pan out 6 months after Version 2.0's release.


Funny how from the April 2011 interview with Gama Sutra Yoshida said "And when the money stops flowing, the development teams have to make their development team sizes smaller, which means they can't get enough content for the fixes, or they have to go to a different payment model like free-to-play." This was in regards to the question on why western developers cannot recover from a bad launch.


III.


Q: Can you talk about the new graphics engine, what affect will it have on the game? What were the difficulties developing a new engine?


"Adjusting the memory for the PS3 version has been a challenge for us, but we're very happy with the results we're now seeing."


For me translation: PS3 limitations INB4 PS4 limitations. This seems like PR talk.


IV.


"Wow, Version 2.0 is simply mind blowing".


Pretty much this is the (only acceptable) level that must be reached by the masses. (This may potentially include mouth breathers).

[Lucavi]

SE, you are so fucking retarded sometimes. The reason why no other goddamn modern MMO came out on consoles (to include AoC, which wisely decided that limiting their PC audience by releasing on haxbox was a terrible decision) is just for that goddamn reason. Now we're getting the PS3 limitations bullshit before 2.0 even launches.

Good. Fucking. Game.

[Raldo]

Are there any other MMOs that originate out of Japan? I was always told the reasoning behind it was that the Japanese are far more likely to play things on consoles instead of PCs. I don't know how reliable that factoid is, but being a Japanese company, they obviously want to appeal to their nation.

[Lordender]

They should just shut their mouths, stop doing interviews about "the promise of 2.0". Let us see a real actual gameplay video that says Version 1.0 then has gameplay footage then flashes to 2.0 showing the difference.

Let the videos of 2.0 speak for themselves instead of mindlessly trying to hype an already skeptical audience that they'll be able to deliver what they say they will. I hope 2.0 is a success, but right now the hype machine grows as each new interview he does gets ever more unrealistic.

[Siatdiat]

Are there any other MMOs that originate out of Japan? I was always told the reasoning behind it was that the Japanese are far more likely to play things on consoles instead of PCs. I don't know how reliable that factoid is, but being a Japanese company, they obviously want to appeal to their nation.

When I lived in Japan, people I was friends with usually had a console system and some kind of laptop, sometimes just a netbook. So I think that is a pretty valid factoid. Most of them also lived in a gerbil cage sized apartment, even if they were doing pretty well financially. I had a friend that was rich as shit, she lived in Hiroshima and her house was considered huge there, but was smaller than the majority of houses I grew up in. Halls are narrow, Ceilings are low, Rooms serve multi purposes. So they aren't likely to have a PC, laptop, several consoles, huge tv and surround sound shit like we are.

If they are going to adapt the game so that old computers can play it, I don't think it will be as much of a problem this time around.

[Lucavi]

Are there any other MMOs that originate out of Japan? I was always told the reasoning behind it was that the Japanese are far more likely to play things on consoles instead of PCs. I don't know how reliable that factoid is, but being a Japanese company, they obviously want to appeal to their nation.

We've all heard that, and if that's the case, then stop releasing your terrible games worldwide (post-WoW), because the average player isn't going to put up with your bullshit. Go figure, the average player isn't putting up with their bullshit at this point.

If Japan wants to go all "NIPPON FOREVER~!!" on us, then that's their right, but its also their right to have failed MMO after failed MMO (post-WoW) so long as they cling to what's comfortable for the Japanese over what's comfortable for the entire world of which they're attempting to release to.