LIVE Letter (05/24/2014) Summary and ScreenshotsFollow

Here, a TL;DL version for you, without even altering what I said.

There must be some pretty horrible data centers out there. I've never run into this issue.


Misunderstood my statement. The insinuation that accessibility automatically equates to lack of depth in content is where you're being jaded and groundless, or that the content is in fact, accessable to everyone.




These are accessible to everyone as no one is barred from this unless they simply can't get past content and quite honestly, if you still can't get past T5 and been trying to, even with 15% buff..this definitely shouldn't be accessible to you, and I mean "you" as a general statement, hence why it's a reason they're adding it to CT2.

Actually, they barred from the content, it is inaccessible to then. This is the CoP argument all over agian. But yes, they should be hadding it to CT2, and should have had alternatives before CT2 came out, in my opinion. The fact that they stopped Echo at 15% was also a frustration to me. There are factors impeding execution that are not matters of lack of player skill. This is clearly identified to our group by Titan, who, right now, is still struggling due to lack issues. A single miss-timed Divebomb in Twintania can also whipe the party.





The game won't sustain itself on its hardcore community alone either, nor those who purely enjoy crafting. Your argument is a red herring. Not all content released will appeal to all peoples, or even most peoples. Some aspects of a game does not do anything for your gamplay or progression. Ex. - Vanity systems, minions, Hildebrand side-quests and so forth. Not all of this game has to deal with your character's bottom line to be considered valid content. Not everyone wants to touch Coil either, which is why there was an outcry to find end-tier gear elsewhere.

That does not make Coil Useless because some people don't want to high-end raid. The exact same policy applies here. Different playstyles are being appealed to in different content update. Your mileage on them will vary - the validity of that content is not based on which niche is better than another. That sort of logic is a quick way to ignite my temperament.



Calling Bullsh*t. Citation absolutely needed on this statement. First off, Musketeer Guild was something that existed in 1.0 version, just unused.

Additionally, unused content that is not released is not a valid form of argument against release scheduling. We recreated all of the out and existing classes twice over in the peirod between 1.0 and now. First was the reconstruction previous to the release of the Job system, which no, it did not exist prior to release. The skills you're referring to were unused raw dats with no stats adhered to them and the skills were renamed and purposed before release. They had about as much 'content' to them as the dats in FFXI that remained unused for years and years on end.

Additionally there are all of two abilities, from the launch version of FFXIV, Thaumaturge or Conjurer, that are actually utilized in Arcanist's Kit. That is Bio/II, and Resurrection from Thaumaturge. No other ability carries over directly. See for yourself if you think I'm kidding. I have this stuff for reference. The second closest call you can possibly make was a combination of Syphon MP and HP spells turned into the Energy Drain skill.

It's blatant misinformation to state that Arcanist is what was pulled away from THM and CNJ. The skillset is nowhere similar to either of them.




Given that there is already pictured released of CT specific Gear, it's likely that Sands/Oils will be contested drops with a good bit of rarity to them. Not that I'm complaining about the additional accessibility, but the realism here is that 'accessibility' took a substantial hit in the last patch, and the current comments don't seem to have it improve even with the next patch.

But yeah, it is kinda baseless. Accessibility has nothing to do with depth of the Chocobo system, at all. Its potential will be hampered more by the extent of work than can/will put into it than the whole accessibility excuse. My thoughts is that it will be simplistic to start, and then be expanded upon, like every other system created thus far.



"Artificially" is a misnomer Content in use is content in use. There's no artificial at all. Also, Tiers 1-5 are not weekly lockouts. Second Coil is. Not a fan of the try lockouts, I would be ok with Loot Lockouts.



What is the obsession of having an impact on gameplay performance? *sigh* I'm done. It's all about the numbers...


Edited, May 27th 2014 11:42pm by Hyrist

God no, titles are going to be displayed under names in 2.28....

Be ready for:

                  Rargoijaerig Avjoaiff 
        <<Random Title that's super super long>> 
            [Unoriginal Freecompany #344433] 
                               __ 
                           ___(  )_/ 
                              |__| 
                              /   \ 
 

It's going to be hell simply walking around town with mountains of text... I wish they didnt do this.

Edited, May 28th 2014 8:09am by KojiroSoma

Titles will actually mean something now? It must be tough trying to cope, but we're here for you. Especially now that it has been explicitly stated that you cannot hide player titles in the config settings.

ITT: Players ******** that the MMO pumping most content out of any game out there is not pumping out enough content.

See they are not meant to be beat really till later.. They are walls put up to stop peoples progression because there is not enough content because they make everything else tooo easy. The last expansion I liked all 3 dungeons but cleared them first try and our party only wiped once, thats not once per dungeon that is once overall.. There is no balance in difficulty in this game, it is either too easy or nearly impossible.

If the rest was not so easy people would not hit these walls nor would there be a need for a wall.

Look how hard turn 1 was and only one expansion later it is way easy, not a little easier- way easy... there is no middle ground in this game. People fly through content and then hit this wall... This is what get people down on the game...
That was the whole atma thing too, it was meant to be a wall..

Another thing is why does this game rely so heavily on dodge mechanics? I am tired of it too... Time for something different.


They got me for the same 6 months.
Which reminds I have to go change Tesee and my accounts so they dont get us like that again..

You probably know I tried the 2 week off thing.. It really dont help.. All I get on for now really is do roulette so I can keep up on the books. Now I feel like i have too get on, not that I want too..That is not a good feeling to have about a game. Funny how many people are starting to feel like that too...

Look at our FC most of the people that were there from the beginning have quit or slowed down playing massively since last update. We have allot of new people though, I think the PS4 really helped out this game..

I do play less in the summer though and a lot more in the winter so maybe it is a good thing there is not allot to do... I do wish they would get rid of the walls and make the rest a little harder.



That is 100 percent true, Most people that step away from a game dont come back..
Only time I see mmo players come back is because they left because they were overdoing it.. If they leave because lack of content they usually dont.




Edited, May 28th 2014 9:47am by Nashred

Have a nice vacation, i could use one too..
I have not been keeping up on anything much with he game lately which is the opposite of before..
What sand stuff? Is this the weathered stuff?

Edited, May 28th 2014 9:52am by Nashred

I play video games for entrainment. I don't play to watch digital numbers to go up. Gameplay is gameplay regardless of how it's utilized to my character's bottom line. If its something that gives me a pleasant pastime, I couldn't care less if it works towards my progression - it still counts as content.

Which was my point. It may or may not get used, but SE told us that it was coming and we had obvious data to show that, which is why the data that was used, which were for certain NPCs at the time including one of the Scions, we knew some skills Arcanist had and if you had the appropriate software you could actually swap them into the game and they didn't completely break, meaning they were indeed programmed and not just "data in limbo" like some game's unused data.



From the data I'm looking at on the 2010 client vs 2012 client (1.23) they didn't actually have any data for Musketeer in terms of class, just a few pointers to tell which NPC should have a gun or not. In the 2012 client, they have no actions. ARR has more musketeer data than XIV 1.x ever had, I get what you were saying but my point was in comparison to Arcanist, it's about time we'll finally start learning about an actual new class, something not found in XIV currently, especially if it's not going to be in a 'basic form' like Yoshi hinted.

[quote[There was a screenshot floating around of about 20 different classes, many of which were never instituted, yet almost all still had dats associated with them, several even had abilities as well. [/quote]

Indeed, some were actually enemy only data though, e.g Moogles.



It was, hence the technically. We already had NPCs, with skills, that were Arcanist, we just had no control over it at the time.


Edited, May 28th 2014 1:28pm by Theonehio

If the players in an mmorpg can't play the class themselves, how can you consider it a finished product? I'm not saying it' never existed, I'm saying it's not a released class, and therefore you can't say that it "technically" wasn't new, especially considering it didn't even have the same abilities... or you know, that whole pet thing.

Whatever was in the dats in 1.0 isn't what an Arcanist became, so technically it was brand spanking new when it released. Simply having the job title Arcanist and slapping a few buffs on an NPC does not make it a class. That's all I'm trying to point out.

Here's the thing: SE didn't seem to want my feedback when I chose not to renew back in December. They have nothing to glean from that other than that I wasn't satisfied. At the time, I'd certainly posted in a few OF threads regarding the CT loot locks, but that was simply one aspect of discontent toward things we at least knew we were getting. As well, XI has taught me that the language barrier is a very serious deal. Can we truly say we're past the point an issue only gets addressed if the JPs ***** about it enough?

While I didn't mention it in my initial post you quoted, the big thing for the whole "never coming back" deal is that the negative aspects that encouraged someone to depart need to be overcome with a promise they won't be a trap again. Now, it's not a secret that I'm craving more open world content with progression equal to Coil. Yes, I'm quite aware of reasons why people might ***** that it shouldn't happen, but if they're taking that route, odds are they're content with what they have now. No, I'm approaching this from a perspective that will ideally widen the customer base while giving people things to do outside of the whole time gating/weekly cap BS the game's been thriving on for "longevity" since launch. I've said it before, but this dynamic totally contradicts the all-on-one-character feature that's supposed to be one of the game's strengths.

Should I revisit the benefits of F2P vs. P2P for the player? No, I doubt anyone really wants to go down that road, but even looking from the outside in, SE isn't going above and beyond with their content delivery. Which was part of the justification from Yoshi to begin with.

Analyzing content more directly, focus is going way to heavily into dungeons and then hard modes. These all may have a quest or two associated with them at first, but soon enough people are only doing/speedrunning specific ones because the repetition really isn't all that fun despite the perception of worth for rewards at the end of the tunnel. And the moment we hit a cap increase, or even a significant ilvl increase, really, all of this becomes one giant dust collector outside the random roulette. Is this good for a game's health? My Rift experience as a similarity tells me no, no it's not. Come, say, 60 in XIV, we'll then have people wanting Haukke Extreme or something instead of legitimately new stuff.

Now, you brought up Castlevania and other older games reusing assets. You simply can look at these games the same way. One, disc and cartridge space was limited. Sometimes it was a matter of budget. MMOs, however, are not bound to the same rules. They are free to grow and evolve, and this case, we pay upfront for the hopes of that evolution. Regardless of cost efficient one may think the MMO sub to be relative to other titles, one is still free to the perception of whether or not they're getting their money's worth. I don't feel I was, so again, we're back to me having no real feedback outlet alongside no promise that that will ever change.

Of course, I'm still here or even lurking on the XI boards hoping that that might change. That there may be some kind of epiphany within the MMO scene that raiders aren't the only people you can pander to and still achieve success with some riding their coattails a year or so later. And while this group might not like hearing it, it's not the PvPers, either. I know you like to RP, but can you say with a straight face that SE has done all they can to facilitate and encourage people to RP? No, no they haven't, and you can bet the activity is more likely to be mocked by other players who don't "get it" as it were. I like XIV's crafting. It's probably the most entertaining form of crafting I've found in MMO, but when it's relegated to second-class status for overall gear potential, you kill a lot of motivation. I put this after the RP point because crafting can be a factor there, too. Yes, housing, but I'm thinking bigger: User generated content. Why just build a house when you could literally build an area to challenge players, give them fresh vistas to explore, and help fill in those gaps in content between major patches? The only game that's ever really come close to this, I feel, is DDO, but the rest of the game had its own issues to turn me off from it. Of course, I'm not against the idea of SE-designed randomized dungeons, either, but let's not shackle that to the 4/8/24-man paradigm. People do like to explore, feel challenged, and not pressured to rush by being on their own.

So, you might not like that people focus so much on the gear or progression, but it happens, and it happens because it's the most tangible aspect of our time investments even if only in digital form. I'm not about it for ego or bragging rights like others might be, though. I just want to know that the moment I sit down, there's always something for me to do beyond just killing time. My friends won't always be online. Not everyone will even want to be my friend. People use each other in games like this all the time and I bluntly prefer not having to play nice with people I can't stand just to get anywhere. That ship came and went with XI for me. It doesn't mean that I, or others like myself, would never play with others. We're just more selective about using the f-word.

Veering back to XIV specific content, though, we have Hunts pending. It's probably safe to assume they'll be similar to how they were in XII in that we visit a board, maybe a related NPC, and can then pop an NM out in the wild. Do I expect this to be casual friendly? Probably only for the lower tier stuff. I expect restrictions like with the treasure maps, though. I certainly don't expect gear to touch Turn 2, either. All this in mind, it just reeks of content that will be dead shortly after its launch if the carrots aren't there. And I'm not talking about 5% or less drop rates like Mirrors with Leviathan, either. **** like that is exactly how you build resentment and burn players out.

Given that the next live letter is in english...? I'd say that your preconceptions of the 2004 era Square Enix approach is a bit dated.




Two issues here.

First off. The issue with the counterdicting the dynamic you're speaking off. I did mention that the only way to get content to last was to create time sinks into the structure, correct? These are those time sinks. Take it or leave it for what it is, if you're not happy with them, as you've displayed, you don't have to play. You hanging around and criticizing the game for it's approach sounds less like being hopeful, and more like sour grapes.

Which leads me to the second crux issue. 'Broadening the dynamic?' Six months ago I may have agreed with this, and honestly I still in some way hope that we get more open world endgame content. But there's a breaking point that's reached when you broaden your dynamic too far and start to upset everyone invovled due to not providing enough content for each dynamic in a patch. We're seeing the stress points in this now.




A subjective opinion. It's already been cited that the amount of content being generated pre-expansion is impressive if not unprecedented. But as stated before, we're seeing the stress issues of trying to appeal broadly with each patch.

I'm going to flat out state this flatly - the measuring stick being used to judge the value of content is flat out bias and broken. Simple as that. And this is in part due to to diverse content appealing to a diverse base.




Truely? So, PvP adjustments, furniture/crafting enhancements, and entirely new PvP mode, and entirely new open field content mode all passed under your radar for that statement?

Now, you can argue about Roulette and whether or not it's good for the game's health, but that argument is academic. I will go as far as to agree with you as to the speed run issue currently affecting Brayflox Longstop, but I believe this is more of a balancing issue to to the low reward yields on content designed to be repeated.



This insinuates that MMOs are not bound by any rules. But, much like singular cartridge and disk games, you're on a production timetable. In this case, FFXIV's development team is on, effectively, a 3 month timetable to be releasing content. I don't know how experienced you are in workflow management, but I know for a matter of fact that window is far too small to be regularly generating massive content. Instead, as is displayed, a flow of smaller content has been managed (As listed above multiple times as to what's being repeatedly dolled out to us in complaint, even though we were told that was the flow of this leg of the game.) While you work on larger chunks of content. FC Housing was the huge patch last time around, this time around, we're dipping into PvP with Frontlines. The major content additions released are being expanded upon (FC rooms.) while being released.

I can't speak for FFXI. In the end I decided that it's chosen type of gameplay did not appeal to me, and that the level of investment it required of me was best spent in FFXIV or elsewhere in general. I think 9-10 years in a game that gave me various types of joys and woes is long enough to spend on a single title, massive multiplayer or otherwise, and that's a personal choice. While I occasionally get pangs of nostalgia, I severely doubt I will ever return. But I did quit and return multiple times of the course of that game, and I don't regret that habit of gameplay. FFXIV, for me, just happens to mesh better, for reasons and changes in habits I stated earlier.



There will always be those kinds of people. Those people are generally poor in demeanor and maturity to begin with. After sixteen seventeen (Holy hell...) years of roleplaying in various shapes and forms, it no longer bothers me in the slightest.

To address the question, however, I would have to say no - they have not done all they cant to facilitate and encourage people to roleplay - my counterpoint, however, is that I do not expect them to. They have, and continue to, however include updates that do facilitate and encourage people to roleplay. Different poses, the Housing and Vanity system. The large number of locales that are open enough to be utilized for role play are all there and cannot be denied that they help the roleplaying community. Heck, the new standing and sitting poses made front page on the Role-playing Coalition and is being praised.




Going to recite the problem I mentioned earlier - appealing to a broad audience compounds your workload and divides directly from your output potential. You have to learn how to prioritize tasks and distribute them.

You're asking for a broader game, but we're already seeing straining signs of that sort of pacing. I would like a broader game but I know better than to not be patient about it. Now, we can argue the distribution of labor. I'm not going to turn around and say that the raiding doesn't seem to be the focus of it. But, for someone who was leery of FFXI's raiding and that in other games, I do find myself enjoying the dungeons and Raids here a lot. But I'm also not turning a blind eye to the other systems they've released and are still working on in the meanwhile.

We really need to check our perspective here. Again, I have to stress this - we're Pre-Zilart in comparison to FFXI. We never had this many systems in FFXI by this time. Even Mog-house was pretty sparse. I'm all for more open world, but I'm also willing to wait for it. I'm seeing more stuff being released. We have Treasure Hunts, we have Mark hunts, these are groundwork for more open world endgame possibly. Equivalent to Coil? Doubtful, but the feedback about having a broader expanse of endgame than just one dungeon is beginning to soak in, as noted by Crystal Tower getting Sands/Oils. Again - we're Pre Zilart. Back then, Open World was the only endgame and we started getting 'instanced' stuff later on. I'm seeing a reverse play going on here.


Keeping myself on topic for FFXIV here:

My Relic Atma, our Free Company's house and our savings towards getting a Medium. The decorations in that house, the list of vanity gear I have for Lin and my other characters, all spit in the face of the typical convention of the term 'progression'.

My retort to this is "what's the rush"? So you're a patch behind because you chose to do the crafted gear... You say this is not for ego but your ideals for progression seems to imply that the ego is always there pressuring you to do more than 'just killing time'. This is an illusion you place upon yourself. If you're sitting in front of the computer, playing this game, that's perceptively what you are doing. It's self delusion to think otherwise, what is created with this game is the illusion of accomplishment, not actual accomplishment. Once you become at peace with this concept, than 'just killing time' becomes a valid use. Instead of saying "Oh god I have to grind for Atma to get my weapon today." you go. "You know what, I don't feel like grinding Atma today. I wonder what sort of Treasure Hunts I can solo with my Chocobo?" You go out, you do it, you have fun, you might actually get a reward out of it - but in the end you had fun and that's what ultimately matters.

As a personal opinion: If you're not having fun unless you're making some digital achievement, I strongly suggest reassessing your views. I can't help but get more and more concerned that this type of gaming habit is breeding bad mental health.




It's already been clarified that the Alexanderite that we are getting from hunts are for upgrading the Zodiac weapon to an ilvl110 weapon (Novus). So right there is an endgame pursuit within new content. Is it as good as Allegan weapons? Of course not. But I'm not going to begrudge the best weapon in the game coming from the hardest fight in the game at that moment, and this is mainly because that weapon won't have the longevity this one will. My High Allegan Spear will get tossed off to to my collection of spears. Gae Bolg gets to stay with me and be upgraded, weapon that was a steadfast companion throughout the game, rather than one that you just traded in for the new hotness.

I actually asked for something similar way back when in 1.xx, however, so I may be partial.

As far as Burnout? We'll see how new content flows in and how it works through. If we revisit this problem with an expansion under our belt and no additions, I may very well be more on your side of this debate. Right now though? No. I don't consider the reboot of the game an expansion, and I don't have any unrealistic expectations of new game expanding and groundbreaking systems before we actually get a real expansion to the game.

What we've been getting so far? Beyond par for the course in my opinion. I can't help but somehow be astonished at the vitriol that spills from the forum base when it comes to being dejected from what I view to be inflated expectations.

That's not to say that we completely disagree. I would like to see more open world content. But that's treacherous territory to walk as well, and I'd rather them do it right or not do it at all. If that causes a hit in our demographic, I personally will be ok with that. We can't make a game that appeals to everyone, and the more we take on, the more people will call out about being neglected as the workload stretches further and further.



Edited, May 28th 2014 7:00pm by Hyrist

There's a problem with this mindset.

Endgame gear is gear at the end of the game. In this case, character progression after dinging 50 involves acquiring better and better gear until you either have the best gear or you can no longer acquire gear for some reason.

So if someone is able to do coil, they can have the best gear in the game. If they cannot do coil, then they cap out at i100 and that's the end of their progression.

Remember that all different kinds of people are playing this game. Some of them will want to progress their character but have no interest in raiding Coil. For them, soldiery gear and their animus weapon is going to be their cap. And that's fine. Putting better gear behind harder content makes sense, even if it isn't necessarily accessible to absolutely everyone.