Comments from the Devs

[LD]

There isn't a lot of lateral thinking in SE. You'll notice that a lot of the changes are of the "quality of life" variety and added elements are still pretty normal (honest question: what's the most innovative mechanic in FFXIV right now?). That's critical thinking and it's good when you need to fix something that's broken, but not so great when you need to come up with something new. In this case "new" would mean "something I haven't used before" rather than "completely original".

Edit: Funny thing, when SE does do lateral thinking, we get the old days of Absolute Virtue. Something intractable and impenetrable.

[Priran]

I always felt that Dynamis should have had some sort of mechanic like that (especially CoP dynamis).

uh? there was nothing stopping you from walking up to cirrate christelle, apocalyptic beast, etc right after loading the zone and fighting them as is. you didn't get a reward per se for doing it (less time wasted killing the mobs to weaken the boss is more time to farm I guess), but you did have a choice about how hard you wanted the fight to be.

even now, the effect of the option to lock subjobs on white procs can be considered a hard mode with special rewards.

[miokomioko]

I was mainly referring to the idea of earning better loot or better drop rates based on how much you didn't weaken the boss.

[Lucavi]

Pririan doesn't get it. Its alright.

[Priran]

I'm sorry, by "some sort of mechanic like that" I thought you meant "some sort of mechanic like that", not "that mechanic exactly".

[miokomioko]

I'm sorry, but having-5-more-minutes-to-farm-in-the-zone-because-you-spent-5-less-minutes-doing-something-else isn't "some sort of mechanic like that" to me.

That exists in any timed raid where there are optional objectives.

[Fievel]

He said "You didn't get a reward per se for doing it"....you guys seriously start the stupidest arguments.

[miokomioko]

He said "You didn't get a reward per se for doing it"

Exactly, which makes me wonder why he even posted at all. It was pretty obvious I was talking about being rewarded for doing things the optional hard way because that's... you know... what we were talking about (Ulduar).

I can't imagine who wouldn't be aware that you could walk right up to a CoP Dynamis boss right off the bat.

[Fievel]

you guys seriously start the stupidest arguments.

^

[LD]

You guys pick the funniest times to decide when being technically correct (the best kind of correct) is more important than what the other person may have meant.

[Spider-Dan]

LD, your sig takes on a completely new meaning in this phase of XIV.

[LD]

That makes me wonder if you actually read Minus, cuz...heh.

[Alkar]

Check your e-mails. Legacy confirmations are being sent out.

[Ratatapa]

Yup just got it!

[Izzy]

I just got one too! Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.

[TacoTaru]

Been awhile since anyone dumped comments, so I'll go ahead.

This was posted a couple of weeks ago about limitations of character creation, I'll post the original and the follow up.

Greetings,

Yoshida posted a bit of background information on the current situation to let everyone know what is actually happening behind the scenes and why some of the servers had to be closed to new characters. Whenever we have additional information, we'll be sure to follow-up.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida
Hello! Producer/Director Yoshida here.

I’d like to update you on the current status and what’s planned for the future in regards to the current inability to create new characters on certain worlds.

First off, the core cause of character creation limitations is due to heavy lag in Ul'dah A-zone during the peak time in Japan.

There is a lot of NPC control going on in this town and also due to the current FFXIV server code, various player processes are being performed rigorously on the server. As a result, there are cases when the lag during specific peak times is more than the server can handle.

At the time of FFXIV’s launch, the number of concurrent users was around 4000/1 world, so looking at the entirety of the game, there is still some room to accommodate new characters.
However, looking at only Ul'dah A-zone, the limitation is being reached and if the population for this zone increases any more than the peak time numbers, it won’t be possible to play in Ul'dah.

We already have high-spec servers prepared for version 2.0 and we are measuring the stability, but the current server process code is still the current FFXIV version, so it reaches the maximum quicker than the version 2.0 server code (more than the capability, the thread works much more efficiently).
If characters are focused more in Ul'dah than this, since the server capability alone will not be able to handle it, we have limited the ability to create new characters.
(Regardless of how much we increase the capability for optimized version 2.0 code and threads, if the physical limitations for character lag in a single zone is hit, the result would be the same. The limitation would have more of a margin than currently, however.)

Below is how we are currently addressing this:
Implementation of measures to decentralize the population of Ul'dah in patch 1.22.
Expanded arrangements to further enhance server capability (Arrangements completed/need time for hardware delivery)
Preparations for introducing a new World (make it possible to address quickly based on the conditions)

First, after the implementation of patch 1.22, we will be checking how much the flow of players changes and implement countermeasures based on our estimates. If the decentralization effects work well, we will be removing the character creation limitations.
(As stated previously, the only problem is with Ul’dah A-zone concentration.)

Finally, as I am sure you have already guessed from the above text, Ul’dah is structured on the server by splitting the area into two zones: Ul’dah A-zone and B-zone. The zone that is heavy with lag is only A and B actually has quite a large margin still open.

I am praying that with patch 1.22 there is an effect for dispersing the concentration to B-zone.
(If there are a lot of comments from players saying “if you tell us about the zone split location we will cooperate!” then I will proactively look into this)

By the way, in a separate thread I saw a discussion going on about not being able to process 200 people in a raid, but there are not only players in raids, there are monsters, gimmick controls, and other things, so there is a lot of processes running at the same time.

Currently, even for the current FFXIV servers, we have been expanding so that instances are running on multiple servers. After maintenance, the number of simultaneous raids increased and the somewhat comfortable conditions are a result of this. It has also become possible to switch the number of instances and how they are split on multiple servers based on content.

We deeply apologize for these inconveniences.

Greetings everyone!

As Yoshi-P mentioned a few weeks ago , Ul’dah is split into two zones and the problems related to congestion was stemming from zone A.

In order to give everyone a better idea of exactly how these zones are separated, we prepared an image to offer a good visual representation.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/a...1&d=1336395687

• Zone A = Red color
• Zone B = Blue color

As you can see, zone A is the often congested aetheryte and market entrance area. Please take and if possible, consider positioning your characters throughout zone B. Please note that shouts made in zone A will not be heard in zone B and vice-versa. We apologize for this inconvenience, but appreciate your help in working toward alleviating Ul’dah’s server issues.

2.0 will feature pop-up notification for when retainers sell anything.

Howdy!

We have been seeing quite a lot of feedback asking for notifications when your retainers make a sale.

We are planning to address this in version 2.0 and if you take a look at the version 2.0 UI image , there is actually an alert icon that will give you information about sales and other things. Also, we are planning to make it so that when selecting that icon you can confirm this information

A comment from the Localization Team. Worth the read if you like the sort of thing.

Hello all,

For those of you who don't frequent the Localization forum, this is Fernehalwes, one of three members who make up the FINAL FANTASY XIV English Localization team stationed here at Square Enix headquarters in Tokyo.

First off, I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to voice their opinions here in the forums. I know it sounds cliche, but we truly do appreciate all the feedback we get, whether it be positive or...not-so-positive. An MMO is a living being that grows and evolves with every patch. And just as the game evolves, so too do those of us working on it. Knowing what issues concern you, the users, helps us to evolve in the right direction.

When it comes to the overall writing style employed in the game, it looks like there's a clean split between those who enjoy it and those who find it either overwhelming or overbearing (or a combination of both).

There does appear, however, to be one thing that a majority of you agree on--and that is that there is a tendency for most NPCs to fall into the trap of over-exposition, and how this can, at times, seriously bog down the game's flow.

Currently (in the pre-2.0 scheme of things), when text arrives in our hands, the Japanese has been finalized (meaning the story content is set, the cutscene is done, and the number of tags (or in other words, the number of 'text advances') has been fixed). While decisions on individual characterizations, speech patterns, word choice, etc. are left to us, there are certain things we are powerless to change--one of those being the number of tags used. If the original Japanese uses 10 tags explain that you need to go fetch 5 hippogryph hides from the Coerthas highlands or nana won't survive the winter, we also must use 10 tags...even if it is much more natural to do so in 2 or 3. There is always the option to simply cut text and see that each tag is shaved down to one simple sentence, but doing this puts us at the risk of leaving EN version users in the dark on certain story points that may or may not be relevant in the future.

The LOC team, however, hasn't been completely silent on this issue. We have voiced our concerns regarding dialogue length, as well as relayed to the higher-ups user opinions found in this and similar threads (the "Brevity is the Soul of Wit" post being the first to come to mind). And, while I don't believe that XIV will ever be called 'light on text,' I do genuinely believe that some changes are in store for 2.0. There are those among us who realize that while there is a place for a good, meaty yarn, there is also a place for quick, concise storytelling.

In the meantime, the LOC team will continue to tweak our own writing styles, knowing that though we cannot please everyone, we should always be making an effort to please as many people as possible. And if that includes removing a handful (alright, a barrel-full) of apostrophes from Limsa Lominsa's pirate-speak or polishing the speech patterns of a major character, then so be it

Now only if I could have said that all in one paragraph instead of seven...

Thank you again, everyone, for your continued support, and we look forward to your future comments.

About Hamelt Defense:

Hey everyone!

I’m bringing you a few questions that were answered by the dev. team about the Hamlet Defense battles.

It’s hard to tell whether Hamlet is in supply phase or defense phase, as you need to physically go there to check.

We are currently looking into whether we can integrate some sort of display to show which phase Hamlet is in.

Hamlets are too far away. Can you put aetherial gates nearby?

If we placed an aetherial gate nearby it would be too easy for the supply phase, so we have no plans to place them nearby.

Once the other two city-states’ Hamlet battles are added, everyone will disperse to each of them making it harder to get the level 2 rating.

We will be adjusting the rating settings based on the fact that we will have one for each city-state. However, once these are released we would like to look into easing the ratings after we hear everyone’s feedback and take a look at the situation.

[Niiro]

A server wide chat channel would solve the congestion issue pretty much entirely (a completely unified AH/wards would help as well).

But no let's go the convoluted route and not actually solve the problem since the things that make Ul'dah so congested are all still going to be in the same sub-zone.

It's bad enough that the shout range is so small that people who aren't even doing things that require them to be near the wards/adv guild will still remain in the area anyway otherwise they won't see any shouts.

[Fievel]

A server wide chat channel would solve the congestion issue pretty much entirely (a completely unified AH/wards would help as well).

This really would fix the entire problem.

[Raldo]

I guess you missed the many instances where they've stated that they cannot do that with the current server architecture, and they're doing the best they can?

[Croy]

I guess you missed the many instances where they've stated that they cannot do that with the current server architecture, and they're doing the best they can?

Yeah why exactly would they put man power into 'fixing' something that is going to get completely nixed in 6 months? They put more effort into the alleviating the problem then I expected them to pre 2.0. Some of you guys are expecting a revolution that they can just pop out and do correctly when they have said time and time again that basically all the work they do on the current UI and server architecture would be a band-aid fix that would be tossed out in the near future. I take positives and run with them. All I know is that for the first time since launch I have actually felt like constantly playing, I have gone 3 straight weeks of continuous play where I feel compelled to play instead of looking at it like a chore. This all do to some of the 'band-aids' they have made with the game in the past 2 big patches. Its enough to keep me around and waiting patiently for whats to come.