Letter from the Producer, XXXII (07/23/2012)

[Kurokikaze]

They already said towns won't change much.

[vadre]

Yoshida's also explicitely stated that the present story will run to its completion as well as the creation of a new story that'll incorporate things like Ishgard and the large scale pve content he's talked about.

So little has actually happened in the storyline so far, they could really do with cutting out some of the shittier missions, reducing level requirements and basically getting it out of the way by lv30, ready for the next arc. They should also really do some more missions for individual cities, although that could be in future patches or whatever.

I'll try and find the interview when i get home but it's certainly been said recently.

Edit:

For the new players, once you make your character then you start going into the storyline, experiencing the scenario, and completing quests, you will not really progress in the game, you would gain experience points and level up your character first, once you've experienced the storyline, you will realise that your character is leveling up at the same time.

For the level 50 players, of course they can try out the new main scenario of 2.0 and complete the battle against the Garlemald Empire, or try out the new Crystal Tower content; so, you can start trying out the end content if you want to, or, of course, if you can try the new scenario from scratch, there'll be several options given to players.

http://ffxiv.jeuxonline.info/article...the-japan-expo

This is about the closest indicator I can find without backtracking through loads of interviews, sort of supports the idea of the present story being tailored more to the levelling up process and learning a backstory of the cities / garleans etc, with a new arc (scenario) opening up at 50.

It goes without saying that the old story needs a lot of work if it's going to keep people interested and motivate new players to get to 50 though, it's a pile of piss in its current state.

[Lucavi]

Def. rolling a new character for it, then. I might as well wipe everything clean if I'm going to wipe the slate clean in terms of how SE's handled 1.0.

[Kurokikaze]

Def. rolling a new character for it, then. I might as well wipe everything clean if I'm going to wipe the slate clean in terms of how SE's handled 1.0.

We all will for Alpha and early Beta. The data transfer won't be ready until sometime after the Beta has started. From my understanding... ;o

[Croy]

We all will for Alpha and early Beta. The data transfer won't be ready until sometime after the Beta has started. From my understanding... ;o

My understanding is we won't get to use our old characters period till the official client release

[Niiro]

I'm expecting a cross between FF7's meteor impact and FF13's Cocoon falling as far as the aftermath. They can easily handwave drastic changes to the land at large by the fact that Mor Dhona has that super Aether well underneath it and the aether flows everywhere, so shit far away can be effected even if the actual impact didn't.

Also for some reason it never occurred to me that this zone



was Mor Dhona before the big opening CS catastrophe. We mostly saw it in purely promotional materials and in the CS you only really get to see the landscape briefly when the 3 other guys and the choco are looking at the battle going on from the ground, I never really recognized it since it's night and there's a lot more goin on at the time. Kind of lame because it's a really beautiful zone and after seeing it in the promo images for so long and running out to find the zones we actually got was a bit of a boner killer back then.

[Spira]

Def. rolling a new character for it, then. I might as well wipe everything clean if I'm going to wipe the slate clean in terms of how SE's handled 1.0.

i'm doing this too. I'd use alpha/beta to play around on various classes and experience everything from the start and all, but I also want to do it again officially with 2.0 and my actual character.

[xopher]

They already said towns won't change much.

Yeah, no. They will.

Also, Dalamud will fall.

[Jamison]

Will it or won't it? STAY TUNED!!!

Since they've said they plan to complete the 1.0 main scenario (something I wish they'd have chosen not to do), I hope they lower the level requirements and, as said above, make it something that wraps up around level 35-40. I think they've said they want tutorials and quests to take a new player to level 20 before the world "opens up", and that'd be a nice way to knock out the next 15-20 levels doing main scenario. Then whatever new story arc they introduce can be the higher level stuff.

[Rocl]

Actually, Niiro, I believe that's Silvertear Falls which is near Mor Dhona, between Mor Dhona and Sharalya I think?

also it looks like there will be moogles on the back of the yukata lols

edit: http://ffxivmaps.com/img/region-eorzea-small.png

iirc it's supposed to be Silvertear Falls so it's between Ishgard and Mor Dhona then? '~'

[TacoTaru]

Yeah, no. They will.

Also, Dalamud will fall.

Going to go with Kuro on this one as fairly certain he said towns will change very slightly, but not in the way any of the other zones are changing.

[Gokulo]

Yeah, no. They will.

Yoshida said they won't be changing towns too much. Maybe separating them into smaller zones and stuff.

And I'm in the camp more inclined it won't fall but affect the world in a different way.

[xopher]

Yo, cite sources.

[Gokulo]

You're lucky it was repeated during on of E3 interviews because I wouldn't bother looking back to find all the other instances it was mentioned before.

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/2012/06...cks-and-rocks/

With the large changes we saw to Thanalan right outside of Ul’dah we wanted to know how the cities would be impacted by the events of 2.0. Changing the layout of the cities would require a lot more development cost, however they are looking to tweak the existing maps to make them more convenient and adding things like new paths to make it easier to get around or having it so you can select a location when you exit an area. Other than that the city maps won’t change that much.

[Croy]

Yo, cite sources.

It was a rep comment on the official forums.

They said the towns would not be getting large overhauls similar to the outside world but that didn't mean they were changing nothing. They talked about maybe making paths through the towns easier and we already know from some of the concept art new additions are coming to the cities. Yoshida reinforced this point in an interview fairly recently by basically restating what a rep said but can't seem to remember which one it was.

Edit: Well there is the interview I remembered lol.

[Niiro]

Actually, Niiro, I believe that's Silvertear Falls which is near Mor Dhona, between Mor Dhona and Sharalya I think?

also it looks like there will be moogles on the back of the yukata lols

edit: http://ffxivmaps.com/img/region-eorzea-small.png

iirc it's supposed to be Silvertear Falls so it's between Ishgard and Mor Dhona then? '~'

I was under the impression that Silvertear was in Mor Dhona and got nuked along with everything else.

The airship crashes in a lake and that's the only body of water around.

[Jamison]

If they are worried about having an in-game reason, they can simply have each city erect a magical barrier that will shield it from the most drastic changes. Or something. Hey, if I were doing the writing I'd have taken the cheap way out. Last 1.0 cutsceen would be those Asceon (sp?) folks creating a portal to a parallel dimension that you escape through at the last moment before Dalamud flattens Eorzea once and for all.

Then you don't need a reason for things to be different.

[shepardG]

The imarim hedge will be activated, the beastmen will be affected due to exposure. It's going to be epic

[Spira]

I'm gonna go with xopher on this one.

If Dalamud didn't fall, I doubt the land would have been transformed as drastically as it did. therefore it has to fall.

we know for a fact that at least for all the open areas, we won't be playing in the same world anymore. I honestly think there'd be some kind of fast-forward in time at work here. because based on concept sketches and screenshots, the zones like gridania look nice and green and lush.

whereas, we know that since Gridania is going to be majorly overhauled, it needs to be hit by the meteor and should have been burning and scorched as fuck. theres no way the trees could grow back that quickly. or the new buildings/camps miraculously appear immediately after the cataclysm..

then again, we as adventurers don't seem to be affected at all, so maybe Jamison's a wizard did it / alternate dimension scenario isn't too unlikely.

[Rocl]

I was under the impression that Silvertear was in Mor Dhona and got nuked along with everything else.

The airship crashes in a lake and that's the only body of water around.

http://images.wikia.com/ff14/images/..._Dhona_Map.jpg

For some reason, on the big Eorzea map they mark Silvertear Falls but not Silvertear Lake. idk why

There's a few NPCs who mention the Falls so I'm assuming they're just famous (but considering what happened to the Lake--wtf); Silvertear Falls looks like it's just out of our reach, iirc the bottom of the cliff around that area in Mor Dhona is green instead of weird purple.

that said, as a friend said: lol1.0lore&maps


my favourite theory of the 1.0->2.0 jump is the "we're using the Echo and then using the Echo within the Echo" cuz it makes me laugh at the absurdity of it all before i realize i'm pretending to slay giant dodo birds with a gas problem and fucked up living flowers that float and are ugly