Comments from the Devs

[Kurokikaze]

Yeah copy pasting it fucked it up a bit. :/

[solracht]

I don't see a problem with small parts of an area becoming "FATE-only" while the FATE is going on, either way: If we have a dynamic open world, this is one of the consequences. The FATE is directly affecting the game world: Are you going to complain if you can't talk to an NPC in Hyrstmill while it's under attack by beastmen? Is it so terrible that the small group of ixali you were farming can't be farmed for the next 20mins because the Garleans are wiping them out? Should you not have to take a small detour when Odin appears if you don't want to die?

I don't really agree with the "not-FF" comment from the last page either. It's not like XI had many things that could be considered dynamic events, but for example, you couldn't use Al Zahbi while beastmen attacked. SE clearly believed back then in dynamic events having an impact on the players.

[Cichy]

I liked how those events happened in RIFT it just got annoying after a while when people moved on and zones were abandoned. I remember sometimes I was the only person around.
I hope that the dev team thinks about how they can improve that. XI was pretty good at re purposing the zones and I think that's the key to make this successful. In many MMOs once you finish the quests at a given hub there is no point at all to go back to the zone. In XI there was always some reason to go back to a zone. I hope that same thing happens in XIV and obviously we need decent reward for participating.
The storyline is set up perfectly to explain all the different events that can happen. Would be great if the Garlean campaign would be shown in a way that makes sense for an invasion or military campaign. Just rambling here but it would be great if overtime we repeal the invasion and go on the counter offensive into Garlean Empire.
Anyways, I forgot how used to the shitty interface I've gotten. In Rift if you dint wanna participate you could just drop in couple clicks or decline I believe. So as long as XIV makes it that easy, we should be fine. I just keep thinking "omfg, gonna need to wait forever for shit to register" because of 1.0.

[Spider-Dan]

In Rift, GW2, WAR, you're never forced to join. You can keep roaming around doing what you were doing if you don't wish to participate.

Do those games automatically join you into that content if you are nearby? Do they automatically level cap you based on said content? These are sincere questions.

Automatically joining anyone nearby to FATE makes a huge difference. If there is a limited entry window (or there is some way to turn off your FATE flag/decline entry) then I'm sure it will be fine. But so far, it reads as if FATE takes over areas.

[Lucavi]

GW2: Level-capped zones, no auto-party, auto-scaled dynamic events that increase in difficulty/health with the amount of people around, auto-participate in events only to the extent where if you hit someone, you get credit. There are very few, if any, quests that are overridden because of an event occurring, typically because the "quests" you're doing involve such a large variety of tasks for a hub that you'll wind up "completing" the quest through doing the events.

Rift: Non-level capped zones, auto-party, auto-participate in that mobs will target and attack you if you're in the area or in the way. A few times where a quest may become uncompletable until a rift has closed, but not often.

GW2 is a completely different beast from any other game in that you don't need to party with anyone for anything, ever. Anything you do will help others, and you can revive others without needing to be in a party. 2.0 will be nothing like GW in that instance, because, by nature, GW2's experience is the polar opposite of "that Final Fantasy feeling".

War: No idea.

[xopher]

In the beginning of rift, yes you auto partied but there was no level sync. Now there's a button you can press to join the event party. Even if you don't join, you can still attack the event monsters and get prizes based on contribution.

GW2, no one joins parties at all but everyone contributes to the events. You can party up if you want to. Level syncing is here.

[Spider-Dan]

In GW2, are those (lowbie?) zones level-capped fulltime, or just during that event?

The specific thing I'm thinking of is you are in a zone (on a high-level job) for anything but FATE (e.g. gathering, farming, PLing) and then FATE starts. Being automatically level-capped (without an opt-out) generally means you have to stop what you were doing and go do something else. Without the level cap, none of that matters; as long as the normal mobs/gathering points are still there, lowbie events are of no concern.

[Deuce]

I don't think FATE is intended to cover or include an entire zone. My guess would be certain areas will be designated for the occasional FATE event. Then if you are in said area of the zone you will have the option to join in. Only speculating though.

[xopher]

I imagine it's areas too, just like in GW2. In GW2 though, if you enter a zone even without an event going on, you get level capped, from what I understand.

Its dynamic events take place in specific, marked areas of the zone. I imagine this is how FFXIV will be and you will only be level capped if you enter that specific marked area for the FATE.

I have no reason to believe FATE will be zone-wide.

[solracht]

Areas in GW2 have level caps, yes. There are also multiple caps per area, and you just get scaled up and down seamlessly as you move within the area.

[miokomioko]

I have no reason to believe FATE will be zone-wide.

I'm not quite certain how anyone has made that assumption from the information we have been given.

[Sephiroth]

There really is no way you will be force level synced and joined into the content. There will surely be a popup window at least. And if there isn't people are going to point this out in beta and get it changed.

[Kurokikaze]

I'm not quite certain how anyone has made that assumption from the information we have been given.

Dudes don't play other MMOs. They're so used to the mentality of zoning into Sacrarium and being dropped to 50 (FFXI) or being in the northern portion of Sacrarium and having only that area get capped during dynamic events (every other MMO).

*You're too far from the battlefield. Now leaving FATE*

[Burningthought]

I'm not quite certain how anyone has made that assumption from the information we have been given.

The game watch interview mentioned it was zone wide and would replace your current objectives: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/f...#threads/58343

Just to not sound super misleading, fate will only replace your objectives list when you are near the marked location.

Honestly I have every reason to believe it will work exactly like live events in guild wars 2.

[Stanislaw]

A report from a XIV/Luminous Engine conference. Apparently nothing interesting in terms of info, there's a couple of screenshots, but too small/low quality to matter ;<

Watched the live stream of the conference, and while it didn't cover any new info it was pretty interesting. It basically discussed the problems of legacy FFXIV and Yoshi-P's journey to fix the big pile of mess he was tasked to correct. Watching Yoshi-P talk about how he went about this made me like the guy even more.

One interesting thing I picked up during the video was that in order to assess just how much the legacy FFXIV engine was capable of, they actually put FFXI maps into it and see how much stress it put on the engine. Turns out, it wasn't any different from the FFXIV maps!

Another thing of note was because of how it was coded, legacy FFXIV made it impossible to have any pet classes whatsoever.

Goes to show just how horrible coded legacy FFXIV was.

Anyway, for those who understand Japanese, it's definitely a worthwhile watch:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/27232571

[Deuce]

Sounds awesome! Wish they would put up a video with translations, but I doubt that will happen.

[Spider-Dan]

I don't think FATE is intended to cover or include an entire zone. My guess would be certain areas will be designated for the occasional FATE event. Then if you are in said area of the zone you will have the option to join in.

The ability to opt-in (or at least, opt-out) is the crux of the issue.

If it is truly automatic then you should have the ability to click out of it (ideally, this would be an available setting for "do not auto-join FATE"). If you can't opt-out then it's a timed, enforced level cap, which means you need to plan anything you're doing in that zone around said event.

[Wurtbad]

Sounds to me like you zone, the FATE event triggers, and you participate or you don't. Your reward is based on how involved you were. I wouldn't imagine there is an opt in or opt out. It sounds to me like a spontaneous event that you choose to participate in by simply participating.

[Enygma55]

Another interview translation by Soukyuu

FATE

• Rewards won't be useless (like, "here, have a potion"), but won't be anything rare/powerful either
• Rewards will have something to do with the type of FATE cleared. For example, completing a chocobo escort will yield a reward related to chocobos.
• The claiming system is disabled while in a FATE
• Once a FATE starts, everyone on the zone will get that huge FATE message and the location will be marked on the map
• When you get close to the FATE location, your normal objective list will be replaced with the FATE one. Once cleared, the normal objective list will become visible again.
• Planning to have 5-10 different FATEs per zone
  

FATE will message everyone in the entire zone that an event is happening. FATE is also localized to a specific part of the map. You only auto-join in the event once you are close enough to said event.

Auto-join means you are part of the event without having to do anything else other than approaching said event. Everyone who is at the FATE location share the same objective (choco escort or hamlet for example)

Opting in = going to the location
Opting out = GTFO of said location

[Kurokikaze]

Opting in = going to the location
Opting out = GTFO of said location

Like in FFXIV... If you didn't want to participate in Atomos shenanigans just run away from the camp.