Letter from the Producer, XIX (09/27/2011)

[Karinastar]

Hello everyone! Yoshi-P here.

Sorry to pester you all with another short post, but I had some info to share concerning the release schedule for patch 1.19. I wanted to make sure that it got out to all regions, so figured a letter was the way to go.

It’s now looking like we’ll be able to get the patch out the evening of October 4, some five days later than we originally intended.

The main reason for the delay is the balancing and debugging needed to ensure the stability of both all-new content and the overhauls being made to battle algorithms. Rather than rushing an earlier release and risking unnecessary player inconvenience, I’d rather spend a few more days balancing the combat and materia systems, and squashing as many bugs as possible.

Also, the following features have been pushed back to patch 1.19a:

Ixal stronghold (Natalan)
Guildleve history evaluations

After some testing, Natalan and the evaluations still have some balance issues and other bugs, so we’ve decided it best to reschedule them for a 1.19a release.

The patch notes for 1.19 will be released on September 30. The dev, ops, and loc teams are working to get them out as soon as possible, so please hang on for just a few more days.

But despite the five-day delay, the time for Eorzea’s adventurers to take up arms against Ifrit, that mainstay of the FINAL FANTASY series, is near at hand! And while it certainly doesn’t make up for the delay, I thought I’d drop a li’l teaser vid from the upcoming Bowl of Embers.





I promise my next letter will be longer! I think I’ll have some details to share with you on our one-year anniversary event, too. See you next time and/or on the forums!

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Ifrit battle looks pretty cool, sucks about the delay but I think most of us saw it coming. :/

[Celeras]

Fight looks pretty awesome from a mechanic perspective. Not surprised this time around though since they did some good things in DH. Can't wait to try it out and see what they have in store from the story-side of the game, haven't touched on that in too long.

[Xanthe]

Ifrit fight looks pretty hot (pun intended). Also interested in what's up with the Garleans interspersed throughout the video.

[Tomino]

I see charging/path mechanics, "dont stand in fire"s and something related to its 2Hr.
People will probably label them as old school, which they acutally are, but I'm still glad they're working on making boss battles more dynamic. The strong, epic atmosphere feels like the icing on the cake.

Can't wait to try it out and see what they have in store from the story-side of the game, haven't touched on that in too long.

You definitely should.
Can't tell you how much I'm enjoying the world lore. It's full of different elements and shades of gray... there's so much more than just "Evil Garleans".

[Reapz]

Sad about the delay but the Ifrit fight is looking awesome, has me hyped for future primal battles if they are as epic as this

[Balb]

Bad.Ass

[Elcura]

(Insert obligatory bitching about delay)

[Datonare]

I was more interested in the fact that the Gladiators had 3200 hp? I'm pretty sure that was nowhere near obtainable pre-1.19? Thaum also had 1400 some MP and was missing about 15-20% of its MP. I don't believe it's materia making up for most of it, when they said, I think, that the max value you can have for HP was like 280.

[Jamison]

Even with the delay, *really* glad to have a date. Also, nice job with vid... that looks awesome! With the ranged fireblast and the line-of-sight, I would hate to be a mage on this fight.

[Corrderio]

So how long til we go ARC only for this? Joking aside that does look pretty damn awesome.

Also, anyone notice around 1:53 there are some red pillars of light that you can target?

[Hyan]

Ifrit looks BOSS.

I only care about the patch notes anyway.

[Xanthe]

Also sad about Natalan being delayed until 1.19a. That stronghold easily had the best music, not to mention Coerthas as a region is awesome.

[sceptre]

So how long til we go ARC only for this? Joking aside that does look pretty damn awesome.

Also, anyone notice around 1:53 there are some red pillars of light that you can target?

Maybe his 2hr ^^ either way this looks pretty sweet.

[Tomino]

Also, anyone notice around 1:53 there are some red pillars of light that you can target?

When I saw those and what appears to be Ifrit 2h happening right away, I thought they could be part of some unique mechanic to protect players from Inferno. Or just pointless speculation!

[Corrderio]

Too bad it's too blurry to try to read. Was hoping Reinhart could give us the name.

[CaptainN]

October 4? Same day as Dark Souls, SE FUCKED UP.

[Vuitton]

I was more interested in the fact that the Gladiators had 3200 hp? I'm pretty sure that was nowhere near obtainable pre-1.19? Thaum also had 1400 some MP and was missing about 15-20% of its MP. I don't believe it's materia making up for most of it, when they said, I think, that the max value you can have for HP was like 280.

Jobs aren't in 1.19, so that must be a result of the stat system being overhauled + materia. Or, they just buffed their hp and mp super high for the video.

[Jamison]

Maybe the full party buff is made stronger, too.

[Celeras]

Theyre removing physical levels this patch, those are the default values it would seem.

[Kurokikaze]

Yeah I was just gonna post about the HP/MP values. That's pretty fucking boss considering they did away with physical.

Fight looks badass from a mechanics point of view. Wonder if the fire around the edges also deals damage to players or if that's just there as the border for the battlefield.

Same day as Dark Souls. Daaaaaammmnnn.