Comments from the Devs

[mightyg]

I'm guessing they have much better access to user info about characters and their behavior than they did in ffxi, I'm guessing they're going to do one massive gil seller wipe when the time is right. There's really no reason to do it just yet, since the impact gil sellers can have on the game is pretty minimal.

[Kurokikaze]

Big post by Foxclon on JP forums addressing some specific questions that came up in the thread. Only got a google translate of it but there was one part where it says:

Action Bar (where you side by side action) will not go away. Go away is "action gauge" is. On the action bar, easy to use, viewing the information you need, we will repair it in line.

Good bye Stamina Bar ya?

Other thing that caught my eye:

Attack while moving (casting) may be cool if
Magic is activated when movement stops
Two points above the melee attack will continue to be modified to include the action while moving. Go on and spell casting, so I will introduce various booklets and will be announced separately.

Sounds like Auto Attack while moving. Thank god cause that shit woulda been annoying.

[Hyan]

I'm more interested about this:

Hello. Following yesterday Reidodanjon information please! ! I tried to tuck Yoshida Otoa and P, and then just for a moment. While the introduction and "auto-generated map is not fixed." And saying that "this route is one strategy that is not." Able to get a comment. Conditions can change significantly in either case in a day is not so, please tell a little more time for more detailed information to you. I do my best to make you wait for them we are excited

[Kurokikaze]

I think those fools got the concept of Random Dungeon confused and are talking about randomly generated map dungeons (terrible if true).

[Kaiyoko]

Moblin Maze Monggers FFXIV EDITION?!

[Kurokikaze]

As I said... Terrible. -_-

[Hyan]

Nyzul isle is the best event ever. You guys make no sense to me.

[Corrderio]

Rep said yesterday that the devs want to give more info on the battle system soon. I tried to get him to define soon, but I know I'm falling on deaf ears.

[Gokulo]

Big post by Foxclon on JP forums addressing some specific questions that came up in the thread. Only got a google translate of it but there was one part where it says:



Good bye Stamina Bar ya?

Yep, only cool-downs on skill now.

[Hyan]

They need to do the same to guildleves. And any repeatable content.

Randomize the fuck out of the events in this game.

Although now I feel like I'm missing something obvious. Nothing made repeating events more enjoyable than ToAU's randomization. MMM isn't really "random" in that sense.

Matsui is in charge now,so it's less surprising than I thought. If it's not a mistranslation.

[Lucavi]

Yep, only cool-downs on skill now.

What kind, though?

Old style: Long-ass cooldowns with limited application.
New style: Short cooldowns allowing for on-the-fly applications.

You also have to factor in what type of ability it is: is it a reactionary ability? A single-target buff? Group buff? Debuff? Snare? Is it a direct damage ability? Can it be "talented" or "modified" to decrease recast or become insta-cast in certain situations? Can it be "refreshed" by other abilities/situations/circumstances?

I wish everything wasn't so vague a year in from the game's launch.

[Tomino]

I wish everything wasn't so vague a year in from the game's launch.

Must be a cultural preference.
There's no chance that something meant to be released within a month is in such rough design state that they can't even list new abilities / new mechanics. Same with the dungeon overview being a few screenshots, or the battle system re-work being all in form of a wish list.

[Lucavi]

Well, based on the surveys and forum posts and whatnot, I'd say that the Japanese playerbase is starting to catch up with the rest of the world's expecations. I admit that after playing XI for so long and talking with the JP (that seemed to just accept everything SE threw at them), it was refreshing to see that they, too, were starting to wear thin of SE's slow, plodding, secretive design.

[Lordender]

Well, based on the surveys and forum posts and whatnot, I'd say that the Japanese playerbase is starting to catch up with the rest of the world's expecations. I admit that after playing XI for so long and talking with the JP (that seemed to just accept everything SE threw at them), it was refreshing to see that they, too, were starting to wear thin of SE's slow, plodding, secretive design.

Well to be fair I remember when 14 released my friend translated some of the reviews from the Japanese players and some of them said they wanted to slit Wada's throat for such a bad product. I think 14 is so bad it actually hurt the pride of the Japanese gamers who are loyal SE fans. I also remember a few comments he translated to me that a lot of Japanese players bought PC's just to get a jump start over the PS3 players and all of them felt as if they wasted their money on this game plus the PC they bought to play this game.

Japanese people were flaming this game right out of the gate, it seemed a hell of a lot worse than the flaming that went on here, some of the posts were death threats.

[Corrderio]

Well to be fair I remember when 14 released my friend translated some of the reviews from the Japanese players and some of them said they wanted to slit Wada's throat for such a bad product. I think 14 is so bad it actually hurt the pride of the Japanese gamers who are loyal SE fans. I also remember a few comments he translated to me that a lot of Japanese players bought PC's just to get a jump start over the PS3 players and all of them felt as if they wasted their money on this game plus the PC they bought to play this game.

Japanese people were flaming this game right out of the gate, it seemed a hell of a lot worse than the flaming that went on here, some of the posts were death threats.

Not surprising, my friend sent me a URL of FFXIV on Amazon Japan and it had between 1 to 2 stars out of 5. And this was within the first month.

[Corrderio]

That JP post just got translated: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post155331

EDIT: Posting here if anyone wants to see.

Spoiler: show

Greetings!

My goodness! Thank you for the incredible amount of feedback. I think I underestimated you guys. I've gone ahead and gathered responses from the Development team, mainly from Matsui, Takai, and Minagawa and compiled them here. Though I don't think we'll be able to respond in this manner very often, I'd like to seize the opportunity to do so when it presents itself

Well then, let's get down to answering your questions...I believe I collected them midday Thursday, so I may have missed a few. I tried to collect every relevant post, excluding those that didn't seem to either pose a question or express an opinion, but please accept my apologies if I missed something (I'm making excuses for myself). There were quite a few posts to go through, so the answers are sometimes brief, but that doesn't mean they weren't considered carefully!

Also, though I'm afraid it's my fault for setting things up, everything ended up clumped into one thread, so I'd appreciate it if you could make separate threads for each topic moving forward.

Server load related
As previously stated, the programmers are looking into a fundamental reworking of the system, but this is a long-term development goal. We're working on improvements to reduce the number of unnecessary data searches and function calls related to battle calculations.

How about suspending all commands while performing actions, and then having them go into effect after actions are completed?
We'll look into it, and if it works out better than what we have in place, we'll make the change.

I want to be able to perform actions and cast spells immediately.
Although you'll still have to wait while in the middle of performing actions and casting spells, we're looking into allowing instant execution of actions and spells while in auto-attack mode.

Because of the restrictions of the stamina gauge, I can't execute actions with various special effects when I need to.
We are planning to remove the stamina gauge. Like before, TP and MP abilities will still be affected by recast times. There will also be cooldown times between actions.

After mistakenly choosing an action, or deciding to use a different action, there's no way to cancel a previously selected action.
This is somewhat related to the items brought up above in that once we change over to a gameplay style that allows for immediate execution of commands, this should no longer be an issue (since there won't even be an opportunity to cancel something to begin with).

I'm too busy manually managing my own actions to be able to pay attention to what actions others are taking.
I think the situation should improve once auto-attack has been implemented.

According to the Producer's Letter, the action bar is to be modified; is it actually going to be removed completely?
The action bar will not be removed. What will be removed is the stamina gauge. The action bar will be improved so that it is easier to use and easier to see important information.

The action gauge fills too slowly.
As noted above, the action gauge is scheduled to be removed.

Especially during party battles, the effects are too flashy and it is hard to look at the screen. I would like effects to be removed for regular attacks and the action to be played out more clearly.
This will be adjusted.

Raise has no visual effect, so sometimes other characters and I cast overlapping raise spells.
We are looking into this.

It is hard to distinguish whether spells are cast on enemies or allies, so I would like the effects of spells being cast to be accentuated.
We recognize this as a problem. We are looking into fixing this problem.

During battle I have to be running around constantly, and that leads me to only look at the mini map during battle.
Is this because the enemy is moving or because you want to run away? We are looking into fixing the problem of the enemy moving.

During battle I automatically move closer to the enemy. As a marauder Mind over Matter II disappears sometimes, and monsters go out of range for area of effect attacks.
For regular attacks, this will be fixed when auto attack is implemented. We are looking into fixing actions.

The attacking motion is small, so it is hard to see what my enemies and allies are doing.
We are looking into fixing the player motions and would like to make adjustments in the near future.

Some battle motions are repeated frequently, so I would like to see more new motions.
For some actions, we plan to add new motions/effects.

It is weird that characters can still move while they are asleep.
We are looking into this.

I would like more attention to be paid to the motion when receiving a special attack from a monster.
We have no specific adjustments planned, but we have taken note of your input.

It's frustrating that the action bar is not displayed unless something is targeted.
We are looking into displaying the action bar at all times.

Instead of having to go through multiple layers of actions, I would like to be able to view all my actions at once.
We are currently looking into being able to display multiple action bars at one time.

There should be an easier way to identify when counter-type actions can be used.
Due to the technical issues we have to address first, it’s not something that we will be able to implement right away. However, we are looking into being able to easily identify when certain actions can be used. An example would be to have the action in a halftone color when it can’t be used due to being out of range, etc.

When will be able to use cool spells and skills like the ones from the opening movie where the characters are fighting the Malboro, or the barrier-like spells used in certain cut scenes?
Although we are not able to provide you with a time frame, we can promise you that we are currently working hard to address the current issue at hand. Once these issues are addressed, we would like to start working on implementing additional spells and skills.

I would like to be able to either see the range of my actions or have my character automatically move into range in case I’m out of range.
We will look into it.

It takes forever for the macro pallet to show with a gamepad.
We will look into it when we revamp the macro pallet.

I would like to be able to claim more than one group of monsters at a time.
We are planning on revamping the claim system.

I find it strange that all monsters have a ranged attack. There’s no point in binding monsters in the current state of the game.
We will look into it.

It’s difficult to position myself around a monster when they are constantly moving around.
We will speak with the person in charge. Please note that we may decide to keep the movement of certain monsters in its current state.

I find it annoying when you fight a NM with a group of players and the NM makes a sound every time a player attacks it.
I could see how that could be annoying.

I don’t like how the character takes a few extra steps after you stop.
We may look into it down the road, but they are currently no plans of addressing this matter.

The timing of the attack motion, damage display, and the damage taken is off.
I completely agree that it does seem strange in the current state. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to provide you with a detailed response regarding this matter.

You are currently able to target monsters that are claimed by another party.
We will look into this while we revamp the battle system.

Just a lot of "We'll look into it" crap sadly. Although it did confirm a few things.

[Tomino]

For how much I wish this game to succed, this Q&A is embarassing at most.
Six months have passed and I wonder if they're still defining priorities over what to fix and what not. All these "we'll look into it" would had been nice around January, for ex.

[Hyan]

What would you like them to say? Use more colorful vocabulary to state the same thing: "we're working on it"?

[Vuitton]

Its just a bullshit Q&A for mouth breathing players asking dumbass questions. With a few kernels of info tossed in. Call it an exercise in communicating with the player base. Not every communication is meant to be a letter from the director with embedded tables containing everything that is being worked on and implemented and planned for the future. Sometimes you just get a few bones tossed your way so you preempt the most obnoxious tirades from emotionally immature players who expect the world in a day and on a silver platter on a weekly basis.

You would have thought the world was ending because they did not talk to the player base for two weeks because of a week long national holiday. So what do you expect when they learned from that? You get aknowledgements of existence that show you that they're aware of your fucking whining about the same shit week after week while they work towards improving the game.

Just replace "we're working on it", "we're working to address this", "this will be worked on during", with Blizzard's "soon".

[Tomino]

More like finding out what they *worked* on up until the day they tell me they're about to work on something else.

Anyway, my latest rant like everything else concerning FF14 can be answered picking one between:

A) "Just wait, the game it's almost there before awesomess hits"
B) "FF14 suckz lol"
C) Any kind of clever remark aimed to both A and B stating we're all be dissapointed and pleased at the same time.