Comments from the Devs

**miokomioko** · 2013-03-12 23:49

Yeah, the Phase-3 page on the roadmap has all the goodies. Here's it in a nutshell:

Phase 1 Testing Period (2-4 weeks)
• Japan-based servers
• All races/genders/clans available (limited customization)
• All legacy members & Alpha testers invited
• Lv.35 cap
• Content: Main scenario (partial) / Gridania leveling path / Sidequests / Class quests / Full Active Time Events / Hunting Log / New behest / Dungeons (up to level 35) / Opening event (excluding CG movie) / Cutscenes / Player Search / Markets / Item Search (text strings, HQ, materia, etc.) / Other

Phase 1 Debugging (1-2 weeks)

Phase 2 Testing Period (1-3 weeks)
• Character data from Phase-1 wiped
• Gamepad control implemented
• BARANSU
• Content: Grand Companies / Grand Company exchange items / Private chocobos (chocobo raising unavailable) / Additional sidequests / Additional class quests / Additional Full Active Time Events / Other

Phase 2 Debugging (1-2 weeks)

Phase 3 Testing Period (1-3 weeks)
• Character data from Phase-2 wiped
• NDA lifted
• Internationally-based servers
• All character customization available
• Preexisting 1.0 characters imported
• Lv.50 cap
• PS3 testing begins
• All account holders invited
• Content: Limsa Lominsa and Ul’dah leveling paths / Additional sidequests / Additional class quests / Additional Full Active Time Events / Additional dungeons / Free companies (Formation and management) / Free company points / Linkshells / Limit Break / Materia crafting / Other

Phase 3 Debugging (1-2 weeks)

Phase 4 - Open Beta (1-2 weeks)
• Character data from Phase-3 wiped
• Characters created will carry over to release
• Content: Duty Finder / Level Sync / Player Housing (stress test) / PVP Coliseum

edit: fixed phase 2

**Takiwaki** · 2013-03-12 23:51

Also to add that is not there, is alot of balancing will take place in phase 2 also.

**Lucavi** · 2013-03-13 00:20

Originally Posted by miokomioko

I was going to say it's more of a dress code. But yeah.

To be honest, though, I shouldn't feel like I'm completely wasting my time when I stop to kill something I've aggro'd. Right now I do.

You still get crafting drops from them, so its not a complete waste. If you want it to be less of a waste, then have mobs have a shot to drop gear that can, at the very least, be either AHed for a small profit or NPCed for a small profit. Old-school FF's had regular mobs with item drop loot tables anyway, so it'd be a combination of appealing to old-school purists (not XI OF imbeciles) and embracing the modern concept of having mobs drop low-quality or trash gear for a small, sellable profit.

Currently it feels like somewhat of a waste to me (even though I still love randomly beating the shit out of mobs just because; I do it in every MMO I play) because I have no desire to craft in the current beta, so the mobs, aside from granting their tiny XP, literally have no chance to drop anything or provide anything I could ever want. Giving them a loot pool that included trash gear or low level gear would alleviate some of that.

**Pooky** · 2013-03-13 00:45

Originally Posted by miokomioko

Yeah, the Phase-3 page on the roadmap has all the goodies. Here's it in a nutshell:

Spoiler: show

Man if they keep up with that, you think the tears are bad now? Pffft. Testing new servers (international servers), two entirely untested regions, character imports AND all accounts getting an invite? They really shouldn't be lifting the NDA until phase 4, the tears and bitching about bugs and lag are going to increase exponentially. Unless they nail everything and hotfix any bugs immediately they're going to get shredded on the forums and in the media.

**Jinn** · 2013-03-13 01:59

Phase 4
Character data from phase 3 wiped

Does that mean progress we make in Phase 3 will just be reset again to our imported 1.0 character?

***Makwa*** · 2013-03-13 02:02

Yeah. You'll just be importing em to see if it works and if it does, to test some endgame content.

**Gokulo** · 2013-03-13 02:03

Originally Posted by Jinn

Phase 4
Character data from phase 3 wiped

Does that mean progress we make in Phase 3 will just be reset again to our imported 1.0 character?

Yes. In Phase 3 they want to test the whole export character system to see if everything works and are probably expecting problems. Phase 4 the export will be performed again.

**Jinn** · 2013-03-13 02:03

neat :D

**Gokulo** · 2013-03-13 02:26

Originally Posted by Stanislaw

And now the shitstorm on the Beta Forums begins. Dev response on the whole "Field Monster Experience Points" issue.

Oh man, lol. Surprised the forum is not exploding already. I guess it's too much to expect them to read the dev tracker so need someone to point that out for them

**Kami** · 2013-03-13 06:31

Originally Posted by Sigmakan

I keep telling myself that the vendor screen is just a placeholder. Seems very out of place

lol, its 1.0 Alpha/Beta all over again

Re: open fields party grinding: I get it, all you guys with your 2005-2007 registration date somehow hated FFXI. Hated dynamis, hated HNM camping, hated pre-nerf CoP missions that required a somewhat specific setup and last but definitely not least: hated the leveling. I'm always having a hard time understanding how you've all decided to stick with a game you hated but whatever. Please don't tell me it's about the people because even though mmorpgs are a lot about the people, there are other ways to keep in touch with the friends you made. Now something you need to understand is that there are people that actually loved FFXI, and that years after quitting can look back and say that their feeling toward "old FFXI" didn't change a bit. Sure, the game was far from being perfect: no need to go over the list here, it's been done 100 times the last few months on these forums. Yet, many of us loved this game and party grinding as a big part of it.

Again, I get it, this is 2013 and the mmorpg scene changed a LOT. Now people want to be able to get shit done fast and on their own. Like it or not, it is how it is. But when it comes to the way you're leveling there is a definitely a way to make everyone happy: You want to talk to a NPC, go kill 10 rats and go back to said NPC to complete quest for a nice xp bonus? Fine! Why should that bother me? What bothers me is that Yoshi-P thinks that it would be a bad idea to let people party grind outdoor BESIDES the "WoW quests leveling system".

As for many aspects of the game you can't make everyone happy. But when it comes to leveling I just don't see why you couldn't offer many alternatives, one being the XI system that a lot of people loved, mind you guys

**arus2001** · 2013-03-13 06:51

Yeah, I'm not seeing why permitting grinding is a bad thing aside from curbing the rate of RMT/Bot progression, as questing would at least require a bit more involvement. However, I've never really liked the philosophy of screwing the player because of what the RMT/Bots (might) do. At the moment, leveling is sounding like, "Blow all your quests with your first 50, then dungeon grind everything else after..." which doesn't sound terribly appealing because of the party shackling. Enter Warming Jeuno Pavement 2.0 with respect to the trinity and likelihood of DD slots being oversaturated.

**jwang** · 2013-03-13 07:06

Open world grinding seems pretty viable to me, just not as good as running dungeons. Just find a FATE location, and grind the mobs around there. Up the occurrence of FATEs while lowering its lower level limit and it'll be like XI grinding again with FoV pages.

**Elcura** · 2013-03-13 08:06

Originally Posted by Achitophel

Err.. okay? My issue was the idea of people being so self-important that even if they think something doesn't effect them, they presume that they know what's best for people's subjective opinion. That's some Westboro Baptist shit.

Not rocket surgery.

Holy crap, how are you not getting the point of my post? Do you even internet? I'm saying it does affect them. That's all. I don't give a shit if you feel they're being self-important assholes. I purposely ignored that because it was stupid.

Again, real complicated.

Originally Posted by Kami

Sure, the game was far from being perfect: no need to go over the list here, it's been done 100 times the last few months on these forums. Yet, many of us loved this game and party grinding as a big part of it.

You can love a disabled, ugly, stupid ass rat but it's still a disabled, ugly, stupid ass rat. No one cares if you loved FFXI, hell, no one cares if you hated FFXI. The point is the game needs to move on. You know this so stop clamouring for outdated methods and mechanics that do nothing but bring the game back to the stone age. I don't care what the alternative is, but having open-world grinding is just a waste of time for the players and even for the developers to implement, balance and get right.

You think grinding on crabs for 6 hours will be beneficial? No one (sane) gives a crap. No one cares if you'll meet your new best friend or the love of your life. There are other ways to interact with people, other ways to level, hell, other ways to have fun.

If XI hadn't ruined you eternally you could jump into other games and maybe even like another method. But you want what you want so you can be in your little bubble and never change. NEVER CHANGE!

Originally Posted by Kami

As for many aspects of the game you can't make everyone happy. But when it comes to leveling I just don't see why you couldn't offer many alternatives, one being the XI system that a lot of people loved, mind you guys

A lot of people loved XI style grinding? Are these people who never plan to go back and play XI like it's 2004? Are you sure?

Originally Posted by Achitophel

No, Kami. There can only be one way, no matter what.

Post here? Must be the WoW way.

Post in beta? Must be the FFXI way.

The other side is always wrong, no matter what. There's no insanely ideological zealots in this debate , though, no way.

Pot, kettle, etc. The only reason you say shit like this is because you're in the minority and probably feel like you're being victimized. It's funny to read at least.

**Hyan** · 2013-03-13 08:47

What bothers me is that Yoshi-P thinks that it would be a bad idea to let people party grind outdoor BESIDES the "WoW quests leveling system".

Maybe just me but this argument seems a bit pointless. Afaik open world grinding is already possible in the beta? So wtf is the problem?

Oh yeah, it should be "slightly better to make it truly viable" or w/e. Then the devs make it a bit more viable, but its still worse than the alternatives, so the bitching continues to make it "slightly better" etc.

Sure sounds like a bottomless pit to me.

**CasualPlayer** · 2013-03-13 09:21

Funny argument going on here....as usual.

Edit: Fuck it I'll weigh in. What's the dif between open world grinding and grinding a dungeon a 100x if we're just talking about xp?

As already mentioned, after your first max toon you've blown all your quests so...

**Mina** · 2013-03-13 09:27

Originally Posted by Hyan

Maybe just me but this argument seems a bit pointless. Afaik open world grinding is already possible in the beta? So wtf is the problem?

Oh yeah, it should be "slightly better to make it truly viable" or w/e. Then the devs make it a bit more viable, but its still worse than the alternatives, so the bitching continues to make it "slightly better" etc.

Sure sounds like a bottomless pit to me.

^

I look at this from Average Joe's shoes.
Make grinding effective: "I'll just chew through mobs all day. Why should I do quests/dungeons/etc. lol?"
Make grinding less effective: "Why should I grind? I should do other things inside the game! Do FATE, quest, leve, dungeons, blah blah blah."

It's not like monsters don't give exp. It's just a lot less effective than doing you know... everything else. I would complain if monsters gave absolutely 0.

Originally Posted by CasualPlayer

Edit: Fuck it I'll weigh in. What's the dif between open world grinding and grinding a dungeon a 100x if we're just talking about xp?

Not sure which way you're weighing in but grinding in a dungeon = potential drops and seems a lot more fun than sitting in a single spot for hours just killing the same repopped mobs. I suppose there's also a boss fight which is cool too. Other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.
Edit Edit: OH are you talking about the exp AMOUNT difference? *headdesk* wakeupminait'salmost10:00. I can't exactly log in and tell you but you can tell from the bitching/what Yoshi-P has said, that it's weighted towards dungeon grinding, right?

Edit: Personally the only reason why I want to kill the same monsters over and over is to collect their hides and make a fabulous sweater out of it. Or to complete my hunting log because I have completionist tendencies.

**Sigmakan** · 2013-03-13 09:40

Originally Posted by Kami

lol, its 1.0 Alpha/Beta all over again

Haha

On the beta test schedule, UI revisions are listed for Phase 1 and Phase 2. If some of these UI issues are no resolved by next phase I'll be very alarmed.

**Gokulo** · 2013-03-13 09:41

Originally Posted by Sigmakan

Haha

On the beta test schedule, UI revisions are listed for Phase 1 and Phase 2. If some of these UI issues are no resolved by next phase I'll be very alarmed.

Well, from what they are saying now most of the stuff won't be fixed until Phase 3.

**Raldo** · 2013-03-13 09:45

Did they ever clarify what this means?

Phase 4: Characters created will carry over to release

When I read this, all it means to me is that any beta names will be reserved names in release. When other people read this, they read that all progress will be saved.

**Mina** · 2013-03-13 09:46

Originally Posted by Raldo

Did they ever clarify what this means?

When I read this, all it means to me is that any beta names will be reserved names in release. When other people read this, they read that all progress will be saved.

I read it as all progress saved... But now I'm questioning that.

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