Special Dev-Team Interview (Game Watch)

[Aksannyi]

I'm glad to hear they want to work on more inventory spaces. Really good informative article to read, thanks so much for posting it Elmer!

[Xno Kappa]

Isn't Level Sync a complete contradiction to why that guy wants to nerf Campaign xp?

[ronin sparthos]

Isn't Level Sync a complete contradiction to why that guy wants to nerf Campaign xp?

Exactly.

Level Sync already allows you to hit 75 in the dunes if you really want to play the grinding game so i dont really see how Campaign is "too fast". If your skills are gimp you'll seek out ways to cap them and if you dont the playerbase will shit all over you for it. Maybe they could make skilling up certain things less of a hassle (parry, guard etc) but beyond that its basically player initiative.

By his logic anything over 5k/hr (GL getting 5k/hr consistently in Campaign pre-75) is too "fast" which is laughable when you consider what ToAU has raised the bar to in terms of "typical EXP pt".

I just saw that response as a huge slap to the jobs that are simply just not designed to grind out EXP as fast as possible in the typical run-and-gun party.

Campaign EXP needs to be boosted, 5k/hr is garbage in terms of todays standards.

[Aristio]

I laughed at the campaign gives too much exp comment. If anything, lower levels should recieve increased amount of exp due to lower accuracy and defense, ect. If they're worried about combat skills being lowered, they should implement an instanced Campaign Ops that has a much higher chance of recieving skillups when in the fight. If they should ever try to fix the exp system to fit more of the traditional SC/MB system, they should add an increase of exp when a SC/MB happens.

An example:

Player A uses X WS.
Player B uses Y WS.
Skillchain
Player C uses magic that MB with SC.
Monster dies.
Party recieves three times the amount of experience.

Let me further explain this idea. When a skillchain happens, of course the mage will MB. But, the experience point bonus will only occur when the magic from the MB kills a mob. If the skillchain itself kills the monster, the party recieves a normal amount of exp, or if anything else other then the MB kills the mob. If the damage from the magic done, kills a mob, the party will experience the extra exp.

Another example of it(Failed to get bonus):
Player A uses X WS
Player B uses Y WS
Skillchain
Monster dies
Party recieves normal exp

This limits the party to try to fight harder mobs, in order to build tp and have the monster at a resonable HP% in order for the SC not to kill the mob. Could give it another restriction by saying T1 SC gives 50%, T2 gives 150% and T3 gives 300% exp bonus. Limiting lower players from taking full advantage of it.

[Arthars]

no questions about relic damage boost/ws boost after asking so much about mystics

pffft

but nice interview

[Izzy]

no questions about relic damage boost/ws boost after asking so much about mystics

I was sad about this too

[Qeomash]

I'm guessing because they'd then have to allocate memory for that as well. The problem is it loads your entire inventory into memory when you zone, sorting it into categories like that is still not going to fix the problem they're having. It's still going to have to load all that stuff as you zone.

Exactly. There is actually room for 160 inventory slots in memory at once. However, this is already reserved for one important thing: swapping items in your MH. That's where there is a small delay when you open a new inventory type in your mog house: it's loading that one into the 80 open slots beyond your individual inventory.

Having more sets of 80 open at the same time is impossible. They could, however, add (potentially) an infinite number of Mog Lockers.

[Cleverness]

Someone good at photoshop make a sig size pic of Kanye saying "SE doesn't like American people".

That aside, great interview. A lot better than the questions that we got during Fanfest.

[Arthars]

SE just totally forget about relics XD

they playing their new mystic toy now +_+

just read the part they planning to buff drakesbane...........it seems no intention to buff relic drg ws lol

maybe when SE mentioned last year that "we will keep relic WS the premium WS" thing, they mean that those WS is only for animation purpose, even they suck, but hey, only relic holders got it, so its gimp/sucks but premium!

edit: nvm at least metsu >>> kamu, and catas >>> insurgency ._.

[Tarage]

Thank you Elmer, fuck you SE.

Let me repeat that last part.

FUCK YOU SE.

[mackerel]

How do you define "instance"? And explain me how getting better server and increasing the limit on the number of group would help in Splitting Heir?

I'm not trying to argue about what "instance" means. We have enough translation problems talking to SE anyway. I mean in whichever way they can figure out how to do it, they need to let any number of groups enter a battlefield at a time.

SE's original concept limited us to 3 groups inside a battlefield at a time. We don't see it so much anymore, but there were waiting periods in Waughroon Shrine when competing KS30 groups and people trying to do KS99 and Bastok missions all needed to enter. SE reused this setup with the arenas in La Vaule etc. When Splitting Heirs first became public knowledge, it was not uncommon to have 3 groups inside and 5 more spamming enter outside for a chance to get in. That's 30 people waiting, some of them trying to get in for hours before they finally get lucky. SE either doesn't know this is happening, or regards it as Not A Problem. They're going to continue implementing battlefields limited to 3 groups at a time until they understand that this is a serious problem.

They did something different with Salvage, and almost got it right. That's a unique zone per group, SE could let a virtually unlimited number of groups enter at a time, but at busy hours you can still be refused entry. Whatever limit they put on that number of groups needs to be removed, whether the limitation is hardware or software.

We're paying to play this game, not to wait while their servers consistently struggle to keep up with demand. If there's an occasional wait because a server's messed up and something broke, we can be patient and understanding. When there are consistent lines at Nyzul and other battlefields because SE arbitrarily decided only 3 groups should be allowed to enter at a time, there's a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

Dynamis and Limbus are a whole extra problem. We'll probably never get those events instanced, even if the solution was as simple as making an hourglass know which instance it's for. Maybe there's a cultural difference involved, and Japanese people don't mind waiting 4 hours for random strangers to move out of the way. I know it frustrates me to notice Apollyon 100% empty, and in the ten minutes it takes to get a small group together 3/4 of the zones fill up. It's an annoyance and there's no good reason to design their system this way.

[Jingseng]

Kick ass, that interview is awesome. They actually dont say "we will look into this" or " I don't know loll".

Elmer rocks.

Yeah... notice that sundi didn't say very much in the interviews? COULD THERE BE A CONNECTION? =)

I swear, everyone keeps posting "back line job is supposed to be in the back line!". Everyone should look at it as "back line job should be back line when the situation requires it", and there are plenty of situations where it's not going to hurt a WHM or RDM melee'ing the mob.

You aren't necessarily seeing the big picture then. It isn't always about AoE. Keep in mind that every weak hit is feeding the mob tp... allowing it to potentially spam a strong Tp move, that in turn eats up more mp to heal.

If the solution is to increase the dmg done by backline melee, that typically comes at the cost of stats backline jobs need to do their jobs properly... MP for instance.

If it sounds retarded to you that a war/whm is fine for main healing and should stick to the backline and heal, then maybe you might consider how that's not so different.

In any event, not a discussion I care enough to continue.

PUP has been nerfed before, anything is possible.

What caught my eye was a "different way to summon" in reguards to the new avatars. I wonder if this isnt something like, get 4 summoners together to group-summon something friggen huge like bahamut or alexander?

Uhm. Dare I remind you that drg was nerfed before pup was ever even announced? "Anything is possible" is an odd statement to make..

My take on the avatars (without getting into whether this is the right move for smns) is that Ixion and Alexander are completely out of the question, on the basis of what was said. "Feel free to anticipate (laugh)." sounds like a polite way of saying "Haha, that shit ain't never happening, keep dreaming suckers".

If you ask me, I think a viable candidate is Phoenix. Having finished CoP already, and not wanting to make spoilers, I understand the arguments for why Phoenix should be unavailable... but therein lies the rub. That makes phoenix perfect precisely because it's unanticipated. It's a surprise. It wouldn't take much writing and a few quests... and "oh, you must clear CoP" (something they seem keen on anyway).

As for costs and budget, keep in mind there are other mundane things to consider... salary for artists, programmers, writers, 3d modelling, music, PR, advertising... as well as physical server equipment, space to store said equipment, technicians, maintenance, repairs.

And that's probably weighed against other projects that they have at the same time, and expected return on profit/playerbase considerations. On the whole, it's probably a whole lot more complicated than beating AV.

maybe.

I am excited, however, that Maze is tentatively scheduled to begin on ~16th. Wish they'd relayed that information in the update when they said they are delaying it.

[Ophannus]

out of all mythic ws they buff the strongest one

[Kaylia]

I'm not trying to argue about what "instance" means. We have enough translation problems talking to SE anyway. I mean in whichever way they can figure out how to do it, they need to let any number of groups enter a battlefield at a time.

SE's original concept limited us to 3 groups inside a battlefield at a time. We don't see it so much anymore, but there were waiting periods in Waughroon Shrine when competing KS30 groups and people trying to do KS99 and Bastok missions all needed to enter. SE reused this setup with the arenas in La Vaule etc. When Splitting Heirs first became public knowledge, it was not uncommon to have 3 groups inside and 5 more spamming enter outside for a chance to get in. That's 30 people waiting, some of them trying to get in for hours before they finally get lucky. SE either doesn't know this is happening, or regards it as Not A Problem. They're going to continue implementing battlefields limited to 3 groups at a time until they understand that this is a serious problem.

You seem to have a poor understanding of programming and server architecture. The solution you propose are design solution, not actual fix to the technical problem they have now.

[grimrising]

The "melee WHM" as the solution for WHM being the only mage job without a way of getting MP back quickly confuses me too.

BLM has aspir, high clear mind and their playstyle allows them to /heal
SCH has sublimation
RDM has refresh
SMN has siphon
WHM has... a big paddle to run up and hit the mob with. WTH.

It's almost as if they ran out of ideas.

Maybe the change to RDM and WHM is allowing those jobs some "DD" potential, since amongst the jobs listed above, these two are the weakest in that aspect (if we disregard that RDM solo) outside of just farm-level mobs.

But seriously, nobody was asking for it, and to approach it from this perspective is just outright stupid. They really couldn't tweak WHM as a healer job and give it some method of MP recovery and not be outshined by SCH or RDM?

I'd like to add that RDM (duh) has convert, smn auto-refresh aaaaaaand even though they're not generally 'mage' jobs, drk has aspir, pld has auto refresh, blu has both.

Every job with that white underline under their name has something except for whm, so that even absolutely naked and without a sub, they could still get mp back.

[4evrDRG]

I hope that they misspoke and meant that they are thinking of buffing DRGs relic ws. Aside from being strong as it is, it seems silly to buff mythic when relic has been hurting for so long.

[mackerel]

You seem to have a poor understanding of programming and server architecture. The solution you propose are design solution, not actual fix to the technical problem they have now.

You seem to be only interested in picking a fight with me, and not offering a solution to the problem. Talking to you serves no purpose, so I'll stop trying now.

[vinelle]

I'm disappointed that the interviewer didn't respond to

"Ogawa: The original concept was to make it equal to that of Relic Weapons."

with

"So how did that go so very wrong?"

[hexagram23]

out of all mythic ws they buff the strongest one

Exactly....why don't they buff an "eh" like Insurgency....or half the new WSs really.

[Guitarman]

Exactly....why don't they buff an "eh" like Insurgency....or half the new WSs really.

At this point, I chalk it up to, "eh, this is SE". Sometimes i wonder if they play their own game, other times i wonder wth they're thinking. Maybe i'm just so jaded by bad updates and "fixes" at this point that i grasp at anything, but this gives me hope:

Gondai: Well, with Dragoon we’re thinking of improving the damage output of their Weaponskills, specifically buffing their Mythic Weaponskill. After that, there are various minor tweaks we are tossing around. I can’t say what order this will all be done in, but we’re always looking at all jobs. We aren’t really looking to nerf anything.

I'd rather they not touch DRK at this point than to screw with it.