Vana'fest live stream questions.

[Septimus]

So Camate and Bayohne on the Vana'fest Community livestream were taking questions from different sites. What better chance to get something read live on the air than to make a thread for questions here.

Keep it civil and serious. I would hate to regret this.

Let me start the ball off:

Since the next expansion involves building up resources, what is being planned to keep this process from becoming tedious the way that Campaign did?

The legendary Prism staff seems to be on the way to becoming a reality, are there any plans to combine Magian staves to help weary mages' inventories? If there are not, what can we do to make it a priority?

[Sumy]

With the recent anoncement of the redesign of the Enfeebling Magic system, can we hope to see a redesign of the Emnity system as well?

[Tarage]

Is there any chance of fixing the issue of Avatars auto-attacking sleeping mobs? This has caused problems and it would be nice if they wouldn't automatically awaken mobs...

[Spira]

i'm gonna ask questions i think they have answers for..

- Will they be showcasing the new 2hrs and other job adjustments tomorrow?

- wheres the other 2 community reps?

[Churchill]

What is a Taru's favorite food?

What is the second word in Final Fantasy XI?

(Going by Spira's caveat)

[Septimus]

What is a Taru's favorite food?

What is the second word in Final Fantasy XI?

(Going by Spira's caveat)

OK, have we not learned a lesson about joke questions after the Cheese Sandwich incident?

[ronin sparthos]

Are any plans in the works to move the game away from the fast paced zerg content that makes certain fights winnable only under heavy abuse of Embrava/Perfect Defense?

It's pretty clear that certain jobs do not excel in this environment and are subsequently marginalized because of this.

[Cantih]

Basically, unless you re a PLD or a MNK, approaching any kind of of mob is a death sentence due to AoE TP/Magic spam (so this is seperate from enmity even), regardless of if you have healing. This promotes zergs, essentially requires them.
Can we expect a rebalance of survivability?

(Anyone feel free to more properly explain what I'm tying to get at. Words aren't my forte.)

[Atoreis]

Are any plans in the works to move the game away from the fast paced zerg content that makes certain fights winnable only under heavy abuse of Embrava/Perfect Defense?

It's pretty clear that certain jobs do not excel in this environment and are subsequently marginalized because of this.

Remember that changing fights 180 degree will abuse using other jobs and marginalize other. Like none will want MNK again because why MNK when you can take SAM and do tactical SC at 500% higher frequency? Why take DRK WAR or anything when you can go with hate free Annihilator RNGs? etc. Its really MUCH harder to balance than you think it is. Actually the best idea is to just make tactical fights and zerg fights allowing to use both method for different fights and making ppl lvl both type of jobs - zerg friendly and tactical friendly.

[Indalecia]

Will there be any attempts to fix Summoner and make it at least viable for something other than looking cool?

[noodles355]

With Geomancer and Scholar (And Summoner's Perfect Defence making their niche of Chainspell Stunning less important on many fights), will Red Mage have any use whatsoever in any event in the future?

[SargentRemora]

Along similar lines to Indal's question:

This was announced/speculated upon last year for Summoner:
"A new ability that expends an additional amount of MP to shorten the recast time for blood pacts."
SE gave more info on it at one point, but nothing after that. Is it still happening, and if so, when?

[Churchill]

OK, have we not learned a lesson about joke questions after the Cheese Sandwich incident?

Oh, I remember. Hence the reason for my post

[Spira]

more impt question:

please explain why PS2 support is dropped on EU/NA release and what they intend to do about players from these regions who may still be on PS2

[Buffy]

more impt question:

please explain why PS2 support is dropped on EU/NA release and what they intend to do about players from these regions who may still be on PS2

Wait what? I saw a PS2 icon on the artwork. I'm confused.

[Ratatapa]

more impt question:

please explain why PS2 support is dropped on EU/NA release and what they intend to do about players from these regions who may still be on PS2

Stop living in the past

[Salodin]

i thought we already figured out that support isn't dropped, it's just that not enough people in NA/EU play on ps2 to justify the costs of releasing all those dvds for playstations that probably already have broken disk drives. Expect a DD release, while japan who still uses ps2 a lot more will get actual disks. this isn't a big deal?

[Spira]

thing is.. if its going to be DD, wouldn't that mean PS2 is supported as well?

the website clearly categorises the other 2 under "supported systems", not "physical release"..
so what i get from this here is them saying to NA/EU players "no, you won't get SoA on your PS2s at all, not even a DD.",
to which I'm thinking.. they should at least make a clear statement about discontinuing PS2 support outside Japan if they're gonna do so

[Buffy]

thing is.. if its going to be DD, wouldn't that mean PS2 is supported as well?

the website clearly categorises the other 2 under "supported systems", not "physical release"..
so what i get from this here is them saying to NA/EU players "no, you won't get SoA on your PS2s at all, not even a DD.",
to which I'm thinking.. they should at least make a clear statement about discontinuing PS2 support outside Japan if they're gonna do so

I agree with Spira on that. Its going to be the first set of questions they get, because if they move to stop supporting PS2, auto-translate and inventory increases need to be an immediate area of focus.

Set clear expectations about what to plan on SE. If NA are going to have a digital download, then the platform should be supported. If no digital download and no disks, what is the plan for ending PS2 support.

[Sci]

Since the next expansion involves building up resources, what is being planned to keep this process from becoming tedious the way that Campaign did?

This is probably the most important question that can be asked/answered. New jobs are nice, but they aren't the core of the expansion. Is all the resource collection/camp building going to just give some minor buffs like the Astral Candescence did? Is it going to unlock battlefields like Campaign did in WoTG? SE has shown that they're able to build massive PvE systems, but the effort:reward ratio has always been off. Not to mention the fact that Campaign could be ignored most of the week, and only the last day before the tally is all that mattered. Hopefully they can build this new system where it feels like each fight matters. And hopefully organized tactics are actually required, instead of random people participating for skill ups.