Comments from the Devs

[Spira]

i like exploration, but when you're playing a game that will last years, the repetition of exploring the same place may bog you down, which is why we need things like telepoints and aetheryte warps to keep sanity.

using XI as an example
for the most part it started very slowly on this. The general rule there is that you always have to have been to the place at least once on your own before you can get 'speedy access'. It started with telepoints, moving on to airship travel, outposts warps, runic portals, campaign warps, abyssea and voidwatch warps, and finally BC teleport.
but there is still a balance to be observed.

the warp points themselves act like hubs, and then everything around should be accessible to it. if the speedy access is too easy to obtain, then chances are people will only truly visit a zone once, which is a pity. reference to WotG, people barely ran through areas because they never needed to - no one bothers with interzone travel when OP is that much more accessible and none of the content ever required people to stray too far out.
rehased/recycled zones is definitely not an issue if enough content is put in those areas. Abyssea made me understand zones like Tahrongi and Altepa terrain-wise way more than i should.. and i think that speaks for its success at providing content and drawing people there.

back to XIV. The curent Aetheryte system is pretty ok. The whole camp -> node thing is pretty good, but when 2.0 rolls by we'll likely see changes since zones will get smaller and probably more accessible. Yoshi P seems to want travel time to be a non-issue for repeated events.. like he mentioned the group finder thingy allows you warp to dungeon entrances so long as you've been there once. I quite like this, and see it akin to runic portal -> assault entrance.. but I defiinitely hope they don't overdo it and allow it for all sorts of events.

Content that utilizes exploration as a mechanic should still have a place. I'm not suggesting people aren't using guides to look for various ??? spots or whatever they may be called, but there should be reason to explore the terrain and run about. Roaming Primals seem like a good start... kinda like FFXI's VNM / DI / Sandworm - at least concept-wise.

[Alkar]

They're not removing fights from the game. Yoshida already said that Ifrit (Extreme) is not going and following the same logic Garuda is here to stay as well.
If Garuda is staying I don't see why Ifrit and Moogle would get different treatment. I'm sure the roaming primals will be extras to what we have now and the normal ones will remain for the others. This is also sort of confirmed in the 2.0 screenshots.

[vadre]

Purely speculation, but I think based on the 2.0 odds we're probably going to end up with a couple of aetherites per zone and then different modes of transport around the zones to move about (I believe there was a boat route across a lake on 1, we've seen magitek trains etc). So it should be pretty easy to get around, perhaps they're trading off getting rid of requiring points to teleport for slightly fewer teleport locations. Just a guess though.

[Gadritan]

GW2 kinda gets around foot travel by allowing you to remain at the level of the zone you're going through and scaling your power so that the fights are always relatively thrilling, if not meaningful. They also upscale the drops to your max level so that you can still grab a few goodies for your level 60 while dicking around as a level 25, or even a level 5. While there will still be problems even if XIV adopted a similiar strategy, you take a lot of the "ugh" out of things like mandatory foot (or chocobo) travel when you find ways to keep things fresh, and to continue to allow a player to feel a sense of progression.

I'm cautiously optimistic about GW2. That being said, this is why I'm cautious.

It sounds neat at first. But months down the road how much fun will this be? What about when you just want to get from point A to point B and not have to dick around with killing shit. Are the drops that are scaled up even going to be worth a shit, or is it going to be generic-gear-you-already-have-number-87?

Games always seem great before they're released. Yes, GW2 has a lot of potential, but it's nothing more than that. Things that seem great can turn into a grind like whoa.

On the topic of travel, I really wish they'd eliminate crafting leves at aetherytes and just give us more @the actual guild itself and in town. I mean, what purpose does it serve anymore? Anima is a moot point with hamlet now. It's really more of a minor inconvenience that doesn't add anything to the game.

[Zzsark]

GW2 has an ass ton of telepoints if you don't want to dick around.

[Lucavi]

I'm cautiously optimistic about GW2. That being said, this is why I'm cautious.

It sounds neat at first. But months down the road how much fun will this be? What about when you just want to get from point A to point B and not have to dick around with killing shit. Are the drops that are scaled up even going to be worth a shit, or is it going to be generic-gear-you-already-have-number-87?

Games always seem great before they're released. Yes, GW2 has a lot of potential, but it's nothing more than that. Things that seem great can turn into a grind like whoa.

On the topic of travel, I really wish they'd eliminate crafting leves at aetherytes and just give us more @the actual guild itself and in town. I mean, what purpose does it serve anymore? Anima is a moot point with hamlet now. It's really more of a minor inconvenience that doesn't add anything to the game.

GW2 has billions of teleports. I'm not even lying. If you're on foot somewhere, its either because you haven't accessed the waypoints (they're all visible on the map, so just walk to them), or because you're choosing to be on-foot.

I really do think that every good game is a grind, its just that the fun masks the grind. When I was loving BF3, I was grinding the same maps, but since I had so much fun, things felt different each time. TF2 was the same. Need for Speed Underground was the same. FFVII was the same. Hell, Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the biggest grinds you can get in a game, and yet I love EVERY SECOND of grinding in not only FFT, but its adopted father, Tactics Ogre.

Don't think of it as being a grind so much. Think of how much you can do in the game, how you can change things up each time you do something, and think about improving your performance each time. If a game can make you focus on those things while doing the same type of task (seriously, shooters do this all the time - you're either holding objectives or SHOOTING for hundreds or thousands of hours of your life on earth), then it probably means you're having a blast and not caring about any sort of grind.

[Gadritan]

I'm right there with ya. That's what I mean though. GW2 looks great and seems fantastic from everyone I've talked to that played the beta. No one knows if it's going to be a fun grind or not until a few months into the game.

I mean ya, games are time-sinks in and of themselves. It's just a matter of if it's an appealing grind.

Like I absolutely despised grinding ARM after release. Now though, crafting is pretty fun. I've been "grinding," by just trying to HQ mats and final products to sell with town leves in between to snag free mats and get a little xp bonus. Even when I'm doing primals I still get a little progression on my crafts from the xp reward. Hell, I took leather from 32-38 off moogle after it was released.

[Cichy]

I think crafting is very good right now. You can level for free and even make money off rewards.

[Insanecyclone]

I suppose this is the correct place

http://andriasang.com/con1vl/ffxiv_update/

Next Final Fantasy XIV Status Update in August
Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida hopes to have new benchmark program out in time for alpha test.

Our next major status update on Final Fantasy XIV's 2.0 reboot will come in mid August, producer and director Naoki Yoshida revealed in an interview with Dengeki PlayStation this week.

That may seem like a long wait, but Yoshida assured that once the information starts rolling out, Square Enix will be doing weekly updates.

The start of updates will lead to the game's alpha, and then beta test. Around the time of the alpha, Yoshida hopes to release a benchmark program.

2.0 will offer better initial pacing than the original FFXIV, promised Yoshida. When you first access the game, you'll enter into a tutorial. This will guide you through the game, with the adventure gradually expanding before you.

The reboot also promises to offer a greater sense of "Final Fantasy," something Yoshida said PS3 owners should look forward to. This includes things like Crystal Tower, which gets its name from Final Fantasy III, and the dragon knight design which looks like Final Fantasy IV's Kain. The staff is being careful to preserve the Final Fantasy series image, said Yoshida.

Visuals are getting a major revamp for 2.0. From the planning stages, that team has put effort into real time shadows and lighting. Dengeki was apparently shown the game running on a non-gaming notebook PC, which allowed Yoshida to assure that the PS3 version would look pretty much the same.

[Spira]

If you're hoping for big announcements in the next few months, theres a likelihood of it being at the Final Fantasy 25th anniversary event. On Sept 1, Yoshi P will be giving a special talk show on FF14... and it also hints at new info being reveal there..

the blurb

2012年9月をもって、サービス開始から2周年を迎える「ファイナルファンタジーXIV」
そしてこの冬、PlayStation3版と共に、すべてを一新した「新生FFXIV」がついに登場します!
プロデューサーの吉田直樹自らが、様々な資料を用いながら新生FFXIVを詳細に解説します。
このイベントで初公開となる新情報も!?

from http://www.finalfantasy.jp/special/

[Kurokikaze]

In case anyone is curious whether it’s a weapon’s damage value or DPS value that puts the punch in a WS, I’d like to give a brief explanation of the system.

As you all know, with our Armoury system it is possible for actions to be used on different classes.

With that said, in the case that we made only the damage value affect a WS’s power, those classes that are able to equip themselves with weapons that have high damage values would become more powerful than the classes that could originally use those abilities.

In order to avoid this situation, we set the DPS value to dictate a WS’s power and we have no plans on changing this in version 2.0.

Thought this was important.

If music plays a big part of your adventuring experience, you should definitely check out this patch 1.23 BGM digest that Masayoshi Soken from the sound team put together on the SQUARE ENIX MUSIC BLOG.

Apologies that the whole thing is in Japanese, but if you scroll down to the bottom you will find the music player! Hope you all enjoy it and start to get amped for patch 1.23, which is right around the corner!

http://blog.jp.square-enix.com/music...v_123_bgm.html

^ musics.

[NeoForte]

Sweet! They are finally adding in what I assumed would be the "final boss" theme to this game! I love that song :D

[solracht]

Sweet! They are finally adding in what I assumed would be the "final boss" theme to this game! I love that song :D

Assuming you're not talking about Answers, the theme was already used for Coerthas faction leves (until last patch).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr-DsD7NmsE

[NeoForte]

Assuming you're not talking about Answers, the theme was already used for Coerthas faction leves (until last patch).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr-DsD7NmsE

Wait what? I never did leves in Coerthas but that's a waste of a battle theme...

That and the normal battle music. They sound more like awesome boss fight music :/

[Kurokikaze]

Wait what? I never did leves in Coerthas but that's a waste of a battle theme...

That and the normal battle music. They sound more like awesome boss fight music :/

Yeah no kidding... Glad they removed that track and are hopefully using it in a more fitting scenario.

[Lordender]

I think that song that was in corethas is terrible, Nobuo Uematsu has really lost a step after going with more rock like themes. Hitoshi Sakimoto produces better music for SE now in days(He's the guy that did FFT, FF12, Valkyria Chronicles ost)

[LD]

I think that song that was in corethas is terrible, Nobuo Uematsu has really lost a step after going with more rock like themes. Hitoshi Sakimoto produces better music for SE now in days(He's the guy that did FFT, FF12, Valkyria Chronicles ost)

I totally agree with this. The main theme of XIV sounded good until the cheezy electric guitar and low-rent organ. Frankly, the only person I think did a good job in XIV from start to finish was Akihiko Yoshida. Some of his clothes are frilly, but he sets a good visual tone.

[kisada]

arghh 2.0 can't come out soon enough. actually anything to get me away from the monstrous failure of diablo 3.

[Therin]

I think that song that was in corethas is terrible, Nobuo Uematsu has really lost a step after going with more rock like themes. Hitoshi Sakimoto produces better music for SE now in days(He's the guy that did FFT, FF12, Valkyria Chronicles ost)

Are you sure about that?



While FFT's music was amazing, and XII's was extremely high quality (the fact that a lot of it was actually done by a full orchestra), XII had no memorable themes and overall it was very boring. It was atmospheric, but that's it.

[xopher]

I generally dislike most of XIV's music. The only song I really enjoy is the one that plays in the dungeons.