Comments from the Devs

[Evane]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Tes...128#post813128

Thank god. I went that whole test wanting L2+R2 support. Not nearly enough action slots available without for some of the classes.

And another post on the subject:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Tes...203#post813203

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md...9d7mo1_500.gif

[Rocl]

Not sure where to put:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Tes...629#post814629

same bat channel, same bat times
no duty finder

[Rocl]

Also:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/post/433

In other news, Yoshi-P made an exciting announcement at the IR conference held immediately after today's annual Square Enix stock holders' meeting. Supposedly, the FINAL FANTASY XIV beta test registration numbers have hit...920!

I mean...

920 THOUSAND!

[Seiji Okita]

Also:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/post/433

You'd think hanging from the Yggdrasil for 9 nights would have made him taller.... >.>;;

[Elcura]

That's almost exactly what COR did... did that make them any less of a corsair/gambler?

Except COR took a more active roll in using buffs. It wasn't just fire and forget. You had to make judgement calls that BRD never did, and the wrong choice would penalize you and your party. I don't know how they could be less of a gambler when their main fucking mechanic was gambling. Geez.

How is it that you praise the new mechanic for supposedly being more involved (even though it takes far less positioning and planning), then immediately praise it for not being overly distracting, and then go right back to needing a more engaging role?

You think it requires some awesome degree of skill to "position" yourself and "plan" what song you want to use? You're giving it far more credit than it deserves. You ran over to a place and sang the song you obviously needed. There was no consequence for using the song, what did you need to plan? Oh mages need Ballad, I need Ballad, melee want Paeon etc. Real tough.#

At least now in order to give melees an effect you have to be near them constantly, which is dangerous to you. Or do you suppose running in for 5 seconds and then back out is more engaging and involved than having to stick around and deal with the monster's attack? Or you stick around with mages and keep their MP up, all the while you're doing damage and changing position, actually planning what song you might need, when you need to stop singing etc.

I don't know how you don't see this as being a more involved and engaging role. Are you really so stubborn that you can't see the benefits?

The old song system involved much more actual singing of songs than the new one. The new system is more about MP management than it is song strategy.

Wait, are you implying that 2.0 you don't sing songs? What does this even mean? Are we just stroking the harp with our dicks while we shoot arrows? How is this any less singing? Sorry that you can't just play the job blindfolded and now you actually have to do some thinking.

WELL WHEN YOU PUT IT THAT WAY

Because when you think about it, the only way to have BRD in battle is for them to not really be like a BRD. That is, they shoot stuff for the most part now. The more BRD you get the less you actually have to do. Did you like XI's BRD?

[Churchill]

1.0's Bard easily took more skill to push to an acceptable level of play at end game but it was also never needed to be played at an acceptable level. Bard could get by singing songs and not much else. Everything else a Bard did while in a group was icing, extra, etc. and if played at an acceptable level it had many tools to make specific points in instances much easier.

But

Spider Dan's issue is that he thinks he will be in a party and not full timing songs. This is silly. My only issue with Bard is that you are essentially required to have 2 of them in every group.

[Jamison]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md...9d7mo1_500.gif

Love that they are working so hard on the controller scheme, and it's already really damn good. I think they are all potentially good ideas, so I'm not worried about whatever direction they go although mostly I'm a fan of additional button combinations. I am intrigued by the idea of a changing layered crossbar.. that's one of those that will take some setting up (and difficult to explain to new players) but it has the potential to be *insanely* useful.

Whatever they decide for tooltips, I do hope it's optional (or they go with the toggle version) because I don't want to see input get slower for any reason. As a sidenote, in the next beta I was going to replace a lot of abilities with macros that had a better descriptive name so that I'm glancing at the text and not icon.

Edit: Back to the layered crossbar for a moment, I'm trying to think of how often you'd need to immediately access a 2nd or 3rd WS in a combo (without setting up the combo). From what I've seen (and that's by no means exhaustive) anything that's a good emergency WS to use exists outside the combo system already.

[Spider-Dan]

Except COR took a more active roll in using buffs. It wasn't just fire and forget. You had to make judgement calls that BRD never did, and the wrong choice would penalize you and your party. I don't know how they could be less of a gambler when their main fucking mechanic was gambling.

So the "main mechanic" of COR (a hybrid support/DD) was "gambling," yet the main mechanic of 1.0 BRD (a hybrid support/DD) was not "singing"? Arbitrary.

You think it requires some awesome degree of skill to "position" yourself and "plan" what song you want to use?

It requires more skill in "positioning" and "planning" to maintain two songs on different people than it does to maintain one song on yourself.

You're giving it far more credit than it deserves. You ran over to a place and sang the song you obviously needed. There was no consequence for using the song, what did you need to plan? Oh mages need Ballad, I need Ballad, melee want Paeon etc.

I guess it's a good thing that everyone standing near the mob all needed the same song, and everyone not standing near the mob all needed the same song, and everyone not standing near the mob would always stand in the same spot, right?

At least now in order to give melees an effect you have to be near them constantly, which is dangerous to you.

And by "near them," you mean "5' in from your max firing distance." So risky!

Or do you suppose running in for 5 seconds and then back out is more engaging and involved than having to stick around and deal with the monster's attack? Or you stick around with mages and keep their MP up, all the while you're doing damage and changing position, actually planning what song you might need, when you need to stop singing etc.

Because 1.0 BRD never had to deal with any of that, right?

Wait, are you implying that 2.0 you don't sing songs? What does this even mean? Are we just stroking the harp with our dicks while we shoot arrows? How is this any less singing?

Quick, which involves more singing?

a) maintaining at least 2 different songs on different people for nearly every party
b) maintaining one song solely on yourself

Because when you think about it, the only way to have BRD in battle is for them to not really be like a BRD. That is, they shoot stuff for the most part now. The more BRD you get the less you actually have to do. Did you like XI's BRD?

Let's try this again:

Because singing a song every 3 minutes doesn't really make you a bard, makes you a guy who shoots stuff and sings occasionally.

2.0 feels even less like a BRD, but honestly what's the big deal with BRD anyway?

Is being a BRD a good thing, or a bad thing? Make up your mind.

It's nonsensical to bash 1.0 BRD for "not really being a BRD" and then turn around and say that 2.0 BRD is "even less like a BRD, but why do you guys even care?"

[Spider-Dan]

Spider Dan's issue is that he thinks he will be in a party and not full timing songs. This is silly.

...unless you have actually played the job and have realized that it's impossible to fulltime any song in battle, in which case it is not so much silly as it is fact.

[Melena]

Purchase link for pc collector's edition.

I know it can be done from the SE store, what i'm trying to find out is if it's going to be in a brick and mortar store so I don't have to deal with shipping since I live in an apartment and don't really want to have a package left sitting outside.

[Deuce]

So, apparently world transfers have been closed for Aegis (JP) and Masamune (JP) servers, not that many of us would care; however, with Excalibur (NA/EU) already at the three star rank of "crowded" it may be best for anyone interested in transferring there to do so ASAP.

[Voyage1970]

Wouldn't it be cool if BRD worked like Hunting Horn in Monster Hunter. Like Archer would learn some combo strings leveling up, then at 30 when they unlock BRD they get a trait that adds notes to skills of a combo. After you get so many notes you strum a little tune and get a buff depending on which notes/skills were used.

The Job Skills BRD could learn would be new combo finishers that would determine the overall effect. For instance your normal combos would determine whether its a buff or debuff and the finisher would determine the effect. So you could do Single Target > Debuff > Defense and it would give an effect that would lower the defense of one enemy, or AoE > Buff > TP Regen etc. Make the buffs have a short but sustainable lifetime and allow them be boosted by casting the same song twice. Now you have to balance your DPS rotation with your buff/debuff rotations and choose between having multiple buffs/debuffs or having a 1 or 2 good buffs/debuffs.

[Tokitoki]

Wouldn't it be cool if BRD worked like Hunting Horn in Monster Hunter. Like Archer would learn some combo strings leveling up, then at 30 when they unlock BRD they get a trait that adds notes to skills of a combo. After you get so many notes you strum a little tune and get a buff depending on which notes/skills were used.

The Job Skills BRD could learn would be new combo finishers that would determine the overall effect. For instance your normal combos would determine whether its a buff or debuff and the finisher would determine the effect. So you could do Single Target > Debuff > Defense and it would give an effect that would lower the defense of one enemy, or AoE > Buff > TP Regen etc. Make the buffs have a short but sustainable lifetime and allow them be boosted by casting the same song twice. Now you have to balance your DPS rotation with your buff/debuff rotations and choose between having multiple buffs/debuffs or having a 1 or 2 good buffs/debuffs.

I like this idea, partly because I think Hunting Horn was/is a cool concept, but then people will probably start complaining about their DPS suffering because they have to use an inferior WS to do the good buff/debuff. I think it's a fair sacrifice though.

[Headspace]

I know it can be done from the SE store, what i'm trying to find out is if it's going to be in a brick and mortar store so I don't have to deal with shipping since I live in an apartment and don't really want to have a package left sitting outside.

Leave a note that you'll pick up at fedex/ups/usps store. That's what I do when I'm expecting either a lot at once or very expensive items.

[Melena]

Still not very convenient for me as the last time I did that with ups I sat at there building till after 9 pm as the truck was late getting back. Much easier to do a five minute detour to gamestop / best buy then killing an entire evening trying to pick a package up.

[Iremire]

Can't you just pre-order it from gamestop and set it up for instore pick up?

[Stromgarde]

The PC CE can only be ordered direct from SE. It's explicitly stated on one of the product pages.

[Ratatapa]

The PC CE can only be ordered direct from SE. It's explicitly stated on one of the product pages.

then it's gonna be shipped by Digital River and the Ni No Kuni Wizard edition war is back on again!

[Melena]

The PC CE can only be ordered direct from SE. It's explicitly stated on one of the product pages.

That is what I was trying to find out. Figures ps3 center can be bought anywhere but not superior version.

[YukonWildAss]

then it's gonna be shipped by Digital River and the Ni No Kuni Wizard edition war is back on again!

Oh god, I never wanted to be reminded of that again.