Letter from the Producer, XXXVII (10/26/2012)

[Gokulo]

An exclamation point? I know it meant seek party in XI, but don't count your chickens yet.

That's the icon for journal.

[xopher]

Yeah "!" is quest notification in modern MMOs. Remember this game is trying hard to be WoW.

[Raldo]

Ah, that explains it. I've never played any other MMO besides FFXI, so that's why I was confused. I'm very glad to see a shortcut to the journal as well, then!

[Lordender]

Yeah "!" is quest notification in modern MMOs. Remember this game is trying hard to be WoW.

Which will be the ultimate troll considering how much bashing of WoW I saw in my XIV LS and all across the FF community for years and years. I know XIV will have WoW elements, there is a reason why Yoshida went to Blizzard HQ after E3 to talk to WoW dev's and he's said Blizzard is his favorite gaming company, We also know the current XIV dev's were told to play WoW at some point early on. The question is how many elements did he borrow from Blizzard and other MMO's?

[xopher]

Everything except the aesthetics.

[Waraji]

Everything except the aesthetics.

Thank fkin God.

[Psion]

Mandragoras, Goobbues, Bats, Imps, Cactuars, Raptors, Adamantoise, Bombs, Opo-opos, Apkallu, Peistes, Birds, Flans, Goblins, Qiqirn, are all cloned straight from XI, and i'm sure there's a few more (not counting player races). It's fun and nostalgic to see these "in HD" but they should at least extend this concept to pull models from VII/VIII/IX/X/X-2/XII/etc. if they are going to port over designs as much as they are.

Original is definitely better though.

(IX's mandragoras are underappreciated!)

Monsters in the game or coming in 2.0 that aren't direct copies of FFXI or have no FFXI counterpart:

zombies/fomor, ghosts, skeletons, aldgoats, antelopes, boars, buffalos, coeurls, moles, rats, sheeps, wolves, cockatrices, hippogryphs, drakes, puks, cactaurs, funguars, landtraps, morbols, treants, coblyns, spriggans, antlings, beetles, chigoes, diremites, fireflies, gnats, swarms, yarzons, ahrimans, ascians, elementals, gargoyles, ogres, plasmoids, wisps, snurbles, aurelias, crabs, efts, slugs, toads, amalj'aa, ixali, kobalds, moogles, sylphs, juggernauts, magitech armors, ifrit, garuda (similar to ffxi but more evil looking), titan, succubi, deathclaws, amon, yellow dragon, behemoth, ultima weapon, chardnooks, hydra (now with 5 heads!), siren, demon wall, khimara, axebeaks, odin, iron giants, sahagin, and cyclops/whatever the fuck coincounter is

Monsters in the game that are very similar or exactly like the ones in FFXI:

opo-opos, apkallus, bats (sorta...), birds, raptors, goobues, bombs, flans, imps, orobons (not quite the same, but close), goblins, qiqirns, fenrir, carbuncle, ramuh, mandragora, peistes (similar to ffxi, but again, not a direct HD clone), adamantoise, rafflesias, leviathan, cait sith, atomos


That's 70 original models, vs 22 FFXI ripoffs.

And i'm pretty sure more belong in the original model category, as i'm probably missing a monster or two in 2.0 screenshots or concept art. Of the original models, theres quite a few that are indeed similar to models from previous FFXI games, such as deathclaws and yellow dragon, chardnooks and amon,... stuff like that. Oh, and coeurls <3 Those resemble FFX's coeurls quite a bit.

I really thing you're over-exaggerating the influence of FFXI on FFXIV models, especially since many of the models in the game that are similar to FFXI were there at the very start of FFXIV. Sure, goblins and flans came later, as did a couple others, but many of the models that came later were original or from previous FFs. And as far as 2.0 goes, there's like... adamantoise, rafflesia, and mandragora. 3 models, vs at least 16 concept art/models of new monsters.

[Gokulo]

If you wanna know what most of these icon mean you can use the old explanation from S-E, although there are some changes:
http://zantetsuken.net/wp-content/up...-lftp2-ui9.jpg

What I still wanna know is what's that

http://i.minus.com/iME2WXzEvtiqO.png

Also, Shop&Repair at one npc - cool + nice there are npc descriptions.

[Waraji]

Those are quest/achievement pop ups. IIRC they mentioned you would be able to display such things on screen. Although I would guess these are only quest related ones hence the "!" icons next to all of them.

[Gokulo]

I know about the quest tracker, but that blue thingy in the front is the first time we see that and I was wondering what's that. Might be achievement related I guess ?.?

[Stromgarde]

Lame. Hopefully the new party/content system is simplified enough that you can flag with a text command at least.

[miokomioko]

That's 70 original models, vs 22 FFXI ripoffs.

I still think ~25% recycled (so far) is pretty high for a new game.
Their throwbacks should be mostly of older titles not just their previous MMO.

Maybe I just want to see Doomtrains and Atma Weapons... and maybe a Fat Chocobo.

[xopher]

I could have spent a bit more time on this but I don't care that much. I just like to lol at shitty SE obfuscation methods.

I'm enjoying the name "Tatsumaki Senpukyaku" and all the QA people. QA Takagi, QA Heitsugi, QA Sugiyama, etc.

[solracht]

I really thing you're over-exaggerating the influence of FFXI on FFXIV models, especially since many of the models in the game that are similar to FFXI were there at the very start of FFXIV. Sure, goblins and flans came later, as did a couple others, but many of the models that came later were original or from previous FFs. And as far as 2.0 goes, there's like... adamantoise, rafflesia, and mandragora. 3 models, vs at least 16 concept art/models of new monsters.

According to your post, a fourth of the enemy models are pretty much ports. I'd say that's somewhat significant and warrants comments such as the one you quoted.

Personally I don't think porting the models is a bad thing, but let's not act like there are "just a couple" XI ports.

[Croy]

I still think ~25% recycled (so far) is pretty high for a new game.
Their throwbacks should be mostly of older titles not just their previous MMO.

Maybe I just want to see Doomtrains and Atma Weapons... and maybe a Fat Chocobo.

I don't mind models looking similar, what I (and I think you) have a problem with is most of the FFXI models have nearly zero alteration, they just look like higher polygon, higher res versions of the FFXI versions. Now that still means they had to actually 'make' the models but modern 3D model suites have the ability add scaled polygon deformation based on dividing a models polygons by factors of two allowing for smoother models based on pre-existing low polygon count. In other words, very little work at all, in fact creating the updated texture and new animation bone rigging is probably the hardest part.

Part of the 'joy' of past and new final fantasy games is seeing what is similar and what is the same and each game had a different take on conventional look of most mobs (except maybe cactuar and couple other well used mobs like bomb which actually took the most noticeable alteration in FFXI but returned its standard look in FFXIV). Even the races of Eorzea, which were designed to mimic FFXI, got enough alterations to become their own entity, the monster designs from FFXI do not have their own identity. I can take Goblins from FFXI, even Mandragora as it feels like they are aiming for a new 'standard' look but creatures like Adamantoise have notoriously had their image changed in each game as a pseudo high end mob that looked like it could wreck you up and was designed to fit in its new environment. Its honestly the only one of the FFXI ripoffs that bother me because each FF game has made it a tradition almost to create a new 'look' for them even if minor.

[Raldo]

Let us not forget all the playable races. That really makes it feel like they did a bit too much XI porting, since you have to see it everywhere.

[Psion]

According to your post, a fourth of the enemy models are pretty much ports. I'd say that's somewhat significant and warrants comments such as the one you quoted.

Personally I don't think porting the models is a bad thing, but let's not act like there are "just a couple" XI ports.

As my post you quoted already mentioned, for 2.0 models added its 3 vs 16+. thats 18% at the max, and quite frankly there's probably a few i can't recall, and there's almost certainly monsters they haven't shown us yet. Most of the models that are FFXI ports were stuff that the game started with, which makes sense as it was a "spiritual sucessor" to ffxi. plus, several of the ffxi ports aren't exactly carbon copies either. Peistes for example, are a different color, have different spikes around their head, and other minor changes. flans come in different colors and change color in battle, that sort of thing. I don't expect them to do more than the occasional import from FFXI for 2.0 and beyond, for nostalgia's sake, especially since by then they'll have more breathing room in their schedule to come up with new models.

[Hyuudo]

Little late to the party, but...

what the fuck is this lol
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...n_FFXI_Art.jpg
skeleton kobold?

Old original skeleton model, which should look familiar when you look at:

At least that's what I saw when I looked at it, anyway.

And by no means am I saying they deserve a pass on using XI models (which, tbh, I agree that they're not using that many), because certainly they don't, but I'm willing to give them a little bit of a break if it means they can focus on other, more important stuff.

[xopher]

I hope they use more XI models to be honest. They were fantastic.

[brozy]

I'm just happy that they made Cactuars look like Cactuars for 14, was so dissapoint by how they looked in XI