Comments from the Devs

[blythe]

Yeah it would probably help if I had a shell

Right now I log on once in awhile, pick up the good leves, shout a bit for a leve-link party. If I can't get one, I log. Cause I know leveling in any fashion that isn't a 4-link dunes/rr/aoc etc. party isn't worth the effort. I don't think my character has left Thanalan since the beginning of the year tbh

[Kaylia]

so, let's not confuse a slower (more balanced) paced 1-10 or 1-20 in the same areas, with a poorly designed world. making all 3 cities close to each other was bad design because it funnels all the players into the middle city (Uldah), for instance. and this just excacerbates the whole problem (players stuck in the same boring area).

Making them far would just amplify the problem.

The only reason why Ul'dah won the popularity contest is because the region is much more coveniant for everything, and the markets works in such a way that spreading the population across the world hurt you. People would have converged in a single place no matter what in a game where everything take fucking forever.

[Lordender]

I don't have a problem with Uldah being the popular spot because no matter what happens people will be migrating to go to Ishgard when it comes out. They do need to fix the flow of leveling though, hopefully we'll see some of that in quest hubs but i'm really not holding my breath that those are going to be anything more than just basic tasks we already have atm.

[CrstyCptSteveWitherspoon]

Still don't understand the whole 'grinding to get to max level' thing. Seems so old and stupid. Would rather do some stupid quests or have grinding be 1/5(R30+) of what it is now and have a 'level cap' quest every 5 ranks.

[Meko]

I don't mind questing for leveling but I like the idea of grouping. I know it's hard to make those go hand in hand but with the leve linking and the option to toggle the difficulty of leves, I feel like it's a better option than just grinding, whether it be quest grinding or mob grinding.

[CrstyCptSteveWitherspoon]

I like the leve linking as well. The only problem is there's 5 leves that give the best SP and the leves you get every reset is random. It'd be different if all leves gave near the same SP (+/- 2k) and instead of random leves for everyone they gave the same leves to everyone every reset. No more need to abandon my dunes/ranine/levin/inferno/lightsome every time(unless I have doubles). They could also build on faction leves giving good loot as well or add other types of rewards when people are actually completing them.

[Jamison]

What's absurd is that they designed their own game to "nerf" their own content : Anima transport kills the idea of moving to different, equal camps in other regions simply because it's much cheaper to stick to the usual ones.
It should had worked the opposite : say I'm in LL, after the first leves in my r20 camp, the game/plot should make me move from there to Uldah r20 camp. First, by making the trip easy, second by rewarding this somehow. Then Gridiania and then, hopefully, I shouldnt be in need of any more r20 camp, off to LL r25 (just an example).

Something that would be really nice then is if they worked some lore into the game about why the r10 camps all have some connection through their aetherytes (r20,30, and so on), then offered a quest where afterwards you could teleport between those camps for a reduced cost. Add some nice story to the game, gives some content to do (even if it is a one-off, you'd do it for each rank when you reach it) and give a tangible benefit to the player who completes the quests.

[Meko]

So uh....rmt?

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Capture-19.png

[Corrderio]

Not much, but confirmed gathering leves are going to be useful outside of guild marks in the future:

After speaking to the dev. team regarding the difficulty of obtaining SP via gathering-related levequests, they have informed us that they will be adjusting gathering-related levequests to reward significantly more SP than they do currently. Now you can level quicker to obtain that Star-Spangled Subligar you always wanted!

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post164061

[Hyan]

If Yoshida is coming out with a delay letter he should really consider releasing it today instead of waiting for next week.

And even if he isn't, he should consider it either way :0

[Dooom]

So uh....rmt?

They're all over Kashuan at Drybone and Horizon, see them in town a lot too around leve reset time. I remember seeing them at one of the rank 30 level camps around LL a month or so ago (I remember joking about the RMTaru with my friends), but haven't been back there since.

[Alkar]

I guess no letter today

[Kurokikaze]

Yep... :/

[Hyan]

Nah, he's saving his "Mid-July LOL" bomb for next week!

[Meko]

I'm baffled by this. I don't know if they are ignorant (I wouldn't think they are) or if they just think no news is good news, I don't know. If they would open up the lines of communication, they'd have so much better feedback. They could still release something today (maybe) but the fact that they aren't even stating "it's delayed" or anything is baffling.

[Lordender]

This is why I didn't get my hopes up.

[Lucavi]

C'mon guys, its just another week.

[Hyan]

I'm baffled by this. I don't know if they are ignorant (I wouldn't think they are) or if they just think no news is good news, I don't know. If they would open up the lines of communication, they'd have so much better feedback. They could still release something today (maybe) but the fact that they aren't even stating "it's delayed" or anything is baffling.

i can't say I was aware of Friday being the fine line between "having no communication" and "opening up the lines of communication" either, but thanks for letting me know!

After next week's fiasco they should know better than to release producer's letters every 2 and a half weeks instead of every two weeks...

But yes, we have found a new threshold to bitch at. Coming up: "no Q&A for four weeks straight?! Unacceptable." "Why didn't the reps say anything today?" Etc. Hmm, we kind of have done the latter already though.

Let's see how far they'll go to appease us!

[Meko]

Dude, Hyan....wtf is your deal? You literally take all context and spin it in some way to defend all things SE and FF it would seem. The point is other MMO's are constantly active with their respective communities providing information and updates pretty much daily while SE is CLEARLY not in any rush to release ANY info. It's like they are guarding the shit from us.

[Corrderio]

Isn't it Saturday in Japan?