The 4 JP media sites released their interviews with Yoshi-p, discussing what to expect in 5.1.
Warning: 5.0 story spoilers included. Edit: The translations for the actual interviews are also done now. Sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes. Had so much to translate.
[MSQ]
[Content in the future]
[Alexander Ultimate]
[Yorha: Dark apocalypse]
[Job adjustments]
[Samurai]
[Ninja]
[Summoner]
[Bard]
[ETC]
[Hades Extreme]
[Blue mage]
[Beast tribe quests]
[Trusts in the new instanced dungeon]
[New frontlines: The Onsal Hakair]
[Ishgard restoration]
[PS5 version]
They are positively considering releasing a ps5 version of FFXIV, but it doesn't mean PS4 players will suddenly be able to adjust everything just like the PC version from the start.
Actual conversations with additional info from the interviews below
[Questions in the Famitsu interview]
[The 5.x series focuses on "not being too predictable?"]
Q.The first update to what you can call the 5th season of FFXIV is about to arrive, but can we hear the overall concept first?
Yoshida (Y from here on): I'm sure players who played shadowbringers felt the same way, but i'm confident that the FFXIV team as a whole has grown and improved. Using what the devs experienced in the 4.x series to provide enjoyment to the players is the overall concept.
Y: By still maintaining the consistent release schedule, we want to pick out and collect the good parts from the challanges we tried in the past and mash it together to provide an experience, so the 5.x series might feel a little different to the 4.x series.
Q. We would like to ask about what's in patch 5.1. Vows of Virtue, Deeds of cruelty (Direct translation of the jp name:White virtue, black agreement/secret black promise) sounds Nier related. Tell us why you chose this title.
Y: Ardbert, the Crystal exarch and Emet are 3 people that players got obsesed with and trapped their hearts and are called the "3 great swamps" by some people, but thanks to them, the Shadowbringers excitement has reached the climax and calmed down a little. Now that the night has been brought back to the first, the Eden story touched on brining back the elements to the empty land. On the other hand, the warrior of darkness and the scions are only "guests" on the first after all.
The current situation allows us to presume a few paths. The people on the first starting their new history on their own. The first step they need to take in Eulmore is solving the aftermath of losing the head of their nation. The other path is solving the problem of the scions on the source still being unconcious over there.
Q. I'm personally interested in that too.
Y: Players can just teleport back and forth so they might not feel the threat and danger, but the scions' souls need to return to their bodies and is one of the mysteries that hasn't been solved yet.
The next path is, even though the warrior of darkness carries and inherited a portion of it now, Emet Selch's ambition and dreams have been crushed. That doesn't mean the goal of the ascians as a whole has been anihilated. One of the original Ascians is still present and "what is he going to do now?" is something we can't miss and something that will gradually build up and start moving the whole plot. There's also the Yorha raid that you mentioned. 2P's white color and shadowbringers' darkness that represents black lining up together is the meaning behind the patch title (White vows and black agreement/secret black promise in JP). We wanted to keep the title simple and easy to understand this time.
Q. So Light and Darkness is the theme of the patch?.
Y: Yes. I'm not just talking about the elements of light and darkness, but also the light and darkness that toys with a human's heart. There's also the "meanwhile on the source" events that were on the side during the MSQ and finding out what happened there. Players might feel "It's a slow and quiet start" at first glance compared to the excitement in 5.0, but the hype rush starts in the later half of the 5.1 story, so we'd like players to witness it themselve.
Q. After finding out about Emet Selch, i wondered what light and darkness really is. Are we going to find out anything about this in the story?
Y: That's certainly one of the themes, so it should be told.
Q. I'm concerned about how the story will be split between the first and the source and its volume. Can i assume the 5.x series wlll mostly take place on the first?
Y: Players seem to be interested on where the story takes place, but i don't think you have to be dead set on the stage. I understand that players are currently in love with the first after shadowbringers, but my answer to your question will be "We'll be going to various places".
Q. I was thinking that would be the key to guess where we move towards in the future.
Y: Talking about that may lead to binding the development of the game, so let us leave that as a secret (laughs). Totally dividing the first and the source seems meaningless. The Ghimlyt dark battlefield is still left out there, so of course there will be times where you need to travel between the first and the source.
Q. I'm wondering how F'lahminn feels after finding out Minphilia's fate.
Y: Those questions should be answered as well.
Q. People around the world praised the MSQ this time, but did you think about changing the story in anyway after those reactions?
Y: Most of the decisions are already made during the scenario camps we have, so it didn't have much of an influence on the future story. However, we usually only have one scenario camp between each expansion, but we decided to have 2 for the next one so we can perfectly conclude the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga. We already had the first camp, so the story for the 5.x series and a little beyond have already been almost 100% decided.
I also think Ascian Emet Selch was a good character and i'm sure the warrior of light/the player has inherited his long and lonely story and that should have made the warrior of light stronger. Walking the next path with everything Emet Selch gave us and overcoming the troubles and conflicts in the future should change how players receive and think about the story.
I'm personally happy that shadowbringers was so well received and i think it ended up so well because the story we piled up for 6 years and the players who went through all of that crossed paths at one point in the story. Having that previous experience and emotions changes how you receive the story. Just like what happened in the story in 4.x was why we could enjoy 5.x so much, experiencing the new story will make the following one taste even better. That's why i previously said that splitting up shadowbringers and the rest is meaningless. I'm not really worried about the latest story letting people down, because it always leads to the next.
Let's say we did another copy and paste of the shadowbringers story. Then players would just feel "just the same pattern again". It was impactful because it was the first time but just trying something new doesn't always end up well. That can also be said about what didn't end up well, because those factors can turn into something good in the future. I'm sure movie directors go through the same process.
Alexander Ultimate and the first opponent
Q. The latest ultimate series fight is releasing soon, but what is the theme this time?
Y: I'd like to ask you that in return. What do you think it's going to be?
Q. The knights of the round or Alexander. Maybe the warring triad.
Y: We did talk about the warring triad as one of the candidates.
Q. Fighting Sophia, Sephirot Zurvan and then Kefka (laughs).
Y: We did have those ideas during the discussions, but that was too similar to how Ultima weapon played out, so we chose Alexander as the next ultimate.
Q. He's finally here! Alexander symbolizes difficult content. Which bosses are showing up?
Y: Like the title suggests, probably everything?
Q. Which direction did you go with this time? The classic "high end difficulty" that Bahamut was, or "the puzzle solving" Ultima weapon route?
Y: I think it's closer to Bahamut. With that being said, Alexander was created by someone who was right by the side and watched those 2 being created, so who knows how it will be like.
Q. There's a possibility that he took all the good parts from the previous two ultimates?
Y: Yes. Ultimate Bahamut was created by Sudo (Battle content designer) and Ultimate Ultima weapon was created by Yokozawa (Lead battle system designer) and they were both created by geniuses. The one in charge this time is someone different who is another member who has pulled the raid team and he hates to lose, so please look forward to it (laughs).
Q. Is the reward going to be a shiny Alexander weapon?
Y: The weapon will be something that will instantly stand out. The VFX team came up with a different effect this time and a lot of effort went into it. I personally wanted the weapon after looking at it, so i'd like players to obtain it and show it off.
You will be able to enjoy Yoko Taro's character in the Yorha raid.
Q. The Yorha raid is based on Nier, which had quite some disturbing scenes for some players. Did you give any advice (to Yoko) to bring over that unique atmosphere over to FFXIV?
Y: Yoko Taro is a geinus who can create things under restrictions. If there are no restrictions when creating what he wants, he'll surprise us by using something nobody else would. Yoko Taro isn't a creator who always needs to make you feel "that's terrible".
Q. I see.
Y: I understood that very well after working with him. When bringing the "Nier essence" into FFXIV, he made it fit into the FFXIV world without me telling him. He was actually the one who came and asked "I'm thinking about restraining it to this level, but how do you feel?"
Q. Is that so.
Y: Then i would say "I think you can go futher with it". He is not all about how shocking it is or how terrible the experience is, but someone who take care of the lore. I think Yoko Taro is all about "leaving a scratch mark", so if the title allows cruel expressions, he would go to the extremes to express that and if the title has restrictions, he would use one map, object, character and make different routes so you can enjoy it over and over again. Even if he had to reuse the same elements, he would use the scenario to hide that and keep players motivated to play the game multiple times. After doing so, the players feel like they experienced a game with a lot of volume and that's Yoko Taro's magic. Players should expect content that allows them to enjoy Yoko Taro's art, rather than "Yoko from Nier or Drakengard".
Job adjustments players are interested in.
Most of the job adjustments are in the summary above, so i will only pick up what wasn't in the summary. [Ninja]
Y: If we left the current system and barely got through this expansion, we would run into problems when we add new ninja actions in the future. For example, let's say we add another ninjutsu that requires 3 mudras. Then you are guaranteed to triple weave/clip in between GCDs, which causes stress to the player. We changed mudras and ninjutsu into a short GCD, so there is no more weaving for mudras.
Q. Is it going to be like Paladin's requiescat and holy spirit?
Y: Even if i continue talking about this topic, some words might be cut out after editing and cause misinterpretations, so i'd like players to actually touch it and try it out. Whichever way, this isn't the final adjustment and we will continue to balance Ninja after hearing feed back after the changes to Ninja.
[Summoner]
Q. How about summoner?
Y: The problem with Summoner is, it was difficult for players to grasp "what the right rotation is". Which is a common problem shared by new players and veteran players.
Q. What specifically?
Y: When you play summoner, you never think "i see" when you look at a rotation. Players get confused with what action to use first. For example with Egi assault, players are thining "Am i supposed to use this asap or do i prioritize other actions?" and it's hard to understand the rotation. We wanted to improve the "play feel" by making it easier to understand. We'd like to start by doing what we can currently do now and continue adjusting it after hearing feed back from the players.
[Bard]
Q. Next we'd like to hear about bard. I remember you looked like you were having a hard time talking about balancing bard in one of the past broadcasts. Where will bard land?
Y: This is of course "the current direction" we are talking about, but we all had trouble coming to a conclusion until the very end. We had discussions between the battle system team and job balanc team and precisely checked the feed back reports from the community team and ended up adjusting the syngergy from the songs to be "so so" at the last minute.
Q. Why did you decide to do so?
Y: If we were to add party synergy to the songs to the current bard, we would need to nerf bard's personal damage. Then players are going to say "Oh no, it's a nerf". We adjust DPS with party buffs in mind, but some players just want their personal damage and don't care about party buffs. The 4.x bard always had one of the songs up and provided the party buffs throughout the fight, which meant having a bard automatically meant a few percent to everyone's damage. On the other hand, bard had to manage other factors outside of songs and there was a large amount of players who said that was too busy and annoying.
Q. DoTs too.
Y: We wanted to reduce that pain when shadowbringers launched..We do understand that "wanting to support" doesn't always equal "i want strong party synergy buffs", but we cannot adjust jobs without "numbers" in mind.
If we reverted bard's support from songs to what it had in 4.x, bards will need to be nerfed to the point they are equal to dancers or reduce the party synergy to something even weaker, or else it won't go well with the current concept of "make bard's synergy lighter/thinner". Buffing the party syngergy is easy on paper, but if we reduced their personal damage out put, there will be opinions like "that's not what i wanted!".
Q. Sounds difficult.
Y: We can't forget the fact that bards don't receive the piercing down synergy from dragoons anymore. As a result, some bards feel like they aren't contributing with damage compared to before. If we brought back the 4.x synergy to bards, i feel like nobody will be happy. We are trying to somehow keep bards damage without nerfing it as much and try to let it have support via songs.
[Hades]
Q. Is the weapon reward going to be Ilv465?
Y: I will avoid saying actual numbers, but those players who have cleared E4s don't need to force themselves to go and achieve these weapons for the item level. However, the rewards are "his weapons", so i think a lot of players will want to obtain them.
Q. You said the fight is longer than a typical extreme trial, but does that mean Emet Selch fans will be happy with the cutscenes/animations?
Y: Who knows (laughs).
[Blue mage]
Q. The level cap on blue mage is going up to 60, but what should we look out for?
Y: This will be content after you reach the level cap, but i'd like players to focus on the blue mage log. You will be challenging all sorts of content and the ones that are especially fun are the past high level difficulty content. There's a task that will say "Beat Knights of the round extreme with 8 blue mages". In order to survive the holy shield bash into spear of Halone, all 8 blue mages will need to cast diamond back at the same time (the MT needs to cast it for heavenly heel) and that picture itself is worth a glance. Bringing back your memories of each mechanic and working around with blue spells is fun.
I was surprised that past content felt totally different and fun by just changing the players' perspective like this. The blue mage log has a lot of potential that we can expand on and so more people can enjoy it, we'd like to use our resources on adding a variety of rewards to it.
[Dengeki interview conversations]
Q. Before we talk about 5.1, i'd like to ask about the orchestra concert. Good work and how did you feel about how passionate players were?
Y: 2 years ago, we decided to have an orchestra concert because the players wanted it, but i had no idea about concerts and the only data we had was "Warrior of light are powerful" (laughs). So we set a rough estimate and decided to have 4 concerts with 5000 seats, but i heard later that the people from the orchestra thought "Is he out of his mind to fill 20000 seats at an orchestra concert?". It seems 20000 was a crazy number to go for. Somehow we managed to sell all the tickets and the people from the orchestra said they had fun in front of the players.
Still, i learned my lesson after barely selling all the tickets and made the plan for the next concert and it was 3 days and no additional concerts, but a trouble occured with the ticket sales (So many people wanted to go to the concert after 5.0's success and people were trying to resell their tickets for 5 to 10 times the original price) and i went to everybody involved and begged them to do another day.
We were able to please the warriors of light in the end, but there was plenty to regret after that incident. Us devs usually run with passion and on the fly reactions to problems, but as FFXIV grows and expand to other industries, we learned that we need to adapt our way of thinking or else we'll destroy ourselves one day. However, aiming for the very limit was very FFXIV-ish in a way. Playing a 5.0 soundtrack at the end surprised everyone and was well received, so we'd like to continue trying to organize surprises like that in the future. Last time we tried to play a 4.0 song during the 3.0 concert, but we couldn't so we moved early this time to fit it in. I will never forget the roars and screams i heard after we showed the 5.0 shadowbringers logo during the concert. I asked players to keep that surprise 5.0 song a secret until all the concerts were over and nobody spoiled it on the internet and i was proud and thought we have the best customers.
Screenshot from the concert: https://dengekionline.com/images/pK...BRQtqV7RWVEPhfKFBLLMtgGu7POdZm5QWJS41K2Dg.jpg
[The grand cosmos]
Q. Please tell us the concept of the new dungeon we will be visiting during the MSQ, the grand cosmos.
Y: The content included in patch 5.1 needed to be decided and ordered before patch 5.0 was even out, or else it wouldn't make it in time. Back in the planning stages, we weren't sure if we were using this dungeon in the MSQ or one of the side quests and we decided as we were building the dungeon. During the 5.0 development, we already had plans such as "We should be able to go to here" or "This place seems like a place you can enter" and had candidates for "new dungeon locations" and the grand cosmos was one of them.
Lakeland used to have a nation lead by the Elves and there are still ruins that remain. The grand cosmos is one of those places with the concept of "old civilization" and "fantasy feel".
Q. A different fantasy compared to Il meg?
Y: A different fantasy that isn't the same as Ishgard and Il meg. It has its own Elf fantasy feel that belongs on the first.
Q. What is the difficulty of Hade extreme like compared to Eden savage?
Y: Between E1s and E2s.
[Alexander ultimate]
Q. Is Brute justice going to merge with Alexander!?
Y: Our passion for robots is stuffed inside so i'll leave the rest to your imagination (laughs).
Q. Will it come out a little after 5.1?
Y: Ultimate will be released with patch 5.11, which is 2 weeks after patch 5.1.
Q. I'm not expecting specifics, so at least let me ask you how long the battle is.
Y: It should be longer than Ultima weapon, but we are adjusting it daily and changing mechanics and how to solve them each and everyday and it's already extremely long, so we are trying to cut down as we adjust the fight.
Q. I'm assuming longer than Ultima weapon but shorter than Bahamut?
Y: The adjustments to the mechanics themselves are still work in progress and we are having a rough time making it "moderate". When it comes to ultimate fights, we never think about "this % of players should be able to clear" and i tell them they don't have to hold back on the difficulty, so i'd like hardcore players around the world to enjoy it. We are making final adjustments so even those who cleared the previous 2 ultimates can have a challenge.
[Nier]
Q. How involved was the nier team with the creation of the "Yorha: dark apocalypse?" How are the other scenario writers working and how is the work flow during development?
Y: Yoko taro wrote all the plots and the text was mainly written by Yoko and a portion was done by the other Nier scenario writers. There's tons of text and the main plot was all written by Yoko and co and the actual in game texts are also checked and additions are made by him when neccesary.
With the art work, the artist from the FFXIV team designs the game models for the machine life forms and i check and review it until it's worthy of the submitting it to Yoko Taro. Then Yoko taro checks it and says "The nier machines have this formula to their design, so please fix it".
With the mechanics, Yoko wanted us to add mechanics that we haven't used yet in FFXIV and sometimes he gave us ideas for those mechanics. We had discussions and meetings from the plotting stages and built up from there. We teamed up and worked on it.
Q. Did you just copy and paste the graphic data from Nier?
Y: We got the data for the characters and the maps from the nier team, but we modified it to fit the FFXIV format. The current gen games have a problem where, even if you use the exact same data, shader and bones, it won't look the same on another engine. After all the adjustments, i compare it with the original game and check if it's proper, such as "her eye lids are thinner than the original so we need to fix it".
Q. What's your impression on the 5.1 (nier) story?
Y: It's only the introduction, so we couldn't have 8 hours of scenario to read which is full of lore. Just mysteries all over the place and "Is this where it ends?". Also, there are some features after you clear the raid. We'd like players to share their opinions on where the story will head towards.
Q. Okabe (sound composer for Nier) revealed a new track for the raid at tokyo game show, but are all the songs in the raid going to be new?
Y: No. That is the only new song and the others will be from the Nier series. Yoko did say he wanted Okabe to write a new song for each raid, so maybe if Okabe can give us a new song for 300 dollars (laughs).
[Ishgard restoration]
Q. What is the ranking system for the restoration going to be like?
Y: The ranking will start in 5.2 and it announces who the top contribuers are and just like how the deep dungeon ranking system has "dot pictures for each job", the artits drew the gatherers and crafters with dots. There are also ranking rewards, so i'd like those who are proud to be crafters and gatherers to aim for the top.
Q. You said the Ishgard restoration begins in patch 5.11, but is the crafter and gatherer rework in 5.1?
Y: The rework is split into 2. One will be in patch 5.1 and the other will be in patch 5.2. 5.1 will introduce some UI improvements but some of the features will only work after 5.2. Most of the current actions are no longer usable and crossed out, so it has quite an impact. The actions with tier 2~3 will be merged and Biergot's action will have an 100% success rate.
Q. From what i've heard so far, it seems like the "high end recipes" won't be craftable with macros
Y: The normal recipes will be craftable if you set them up properly, but the difficult recipes will require you to use the actions with procs properly when they show up and we'd like to design it where you have to actually observe the current situation.
Q. The current crafting system allows you to ignore HQ mats and use macros to craft HQ items.
Y: I thought that part was broken, so DoL/DoH will have overall adjustments. It will change entirely and new crafters and gatherers can instantly understand what to do and what does what.
[Game watch questions]
[The despair returns]
Q. Alexander reminds me of the nightmare Midas was. Is Alexander ultimate harder than Bahamut? Harder than Midas too? (the answer to the first question overlaps with other interviews, so it has been removed)
Y: Well, Midas was just savage and this time it's Ultimate...There are some people who say Midas with a low item level was as hard as ultimate, so it's hard to compare those fights (because everyone is max ilv from the start for ultimate).
Q. If it really is harder than Midas, only those who cleared midas back then can clear it?
Y: The difficulty back then was determined with required damage and incoming damage in mind, but Alexander ultimate also has a huge weight on how difficult the mechanics are, so the knowledge and experience you have gained so far will be important when challenging the fight. It's not something you can just simply compare.
Q. Just hearing the word "Alex" gives me the shivers.
Y: Thanks to that, we had plenty of ideas to pull out of the bag and i think we used all, if not most of those ideas. All the mechas (robots) will be showing up at least.
Q. They were in one place, but does it mean you'll be fighting them all at the same time?
Y: Who knows...I won't say anymore because it might help solve some mechanics. With regards to ultimate, people around the world are looking forward to watch the world first race. There are those who can't try it themselves because of certain reasons who still watch the progression live until midnight and wake up and ask if anybody cleared, so rather than me revealing any secrets, i'd like players to enjoy the live feel. We're also looking forward.
Y: It's designed so you can either play or watch it to enjoy it.
[The reason why Ninja adjustments are in 5.1 and not at 5.0 launch]
Q. May i ask the difficulty of adjusting jobs in general? Using Ninja as an example, why did you decide to adjust ninja in 5.1 and not 5.0
[Historical moment]
Y: With Ninja, we didn't only test it on the dev servers, but also with typical internet available in public. But the internet was still extremely fast and we found out we still weren't affected by bad internet during peak times.
Q. So you're saying your mudras never had clipping issues when you weaved them between GCDs in the dev environment?
Y: The network in Tokyo is fast, so there's almost never any lag, but when you go to a "normal house" during peak times or when the bandwidth is limited for some internet providers, a zero point however seconds of lag can affect the game. We thought that level of lag was somewhat forgivable, but this was where the problem was.
The next problem was, our long-wished task was "reducing the synergy between jobs" and thinking about changing or leaving trick attack until the very end was a huge problem. Trick attack affects your own damage but also raises the whole party's damage. We wanted to nerf this affect at launch (5.0), but we were scared the "nerf" image would be too strong and negatively impact ninjas. If we left trick attack's synergy and allowed ninjas high personal damage, it would be a broken job so we released it with low personal damage and the problem was, that personal damage was way too low.
On top of that, the ninja's rotation is complicated and busier than other jobs and that wasn't rewarded with a high return. Trick attack is strong, but it's also the reason Ninja's personal damage needs to be low and plus that, the internet environment affected their mudras and ninjutsu output.
To solve these issues, we had to change the core of the mudra and ninjutsu or else the problem would drag on. To fix it asap, we decided to have a huge improvement to the system in 5.1.
Source:
http://ff14net.2chblog.jp/archives/56004349.html
Sources for each interview are included in the link above.
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Warning: 5.0 story spoilers included. Edit: The translations for the actual interviews are also done now. Sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes. Had so much to translate.
[MSQ]
Light and darkness will be the shared theme across not only the msq, but for the contents in this patch.
Some people might think the start of the 5.1 story is slow compared to 5.0, but the hype will accelerate near the later half.
The outcome of the story for the 5.x series and beyond have almost been decided already.
Each patch will have a focus on different regions.
Yoshida: When the patches approach the second half (probably meaning 5.3~), players might end up jumping over the border of "shadowbringers" and going to the void? Maybe not (laughs).
Emet Selch being gone does not mean all the ambitions of the Ascians are gone, so players should look forward to what Elidibus does from here on.
[Content in the future]
The devs do not want to be obsessed with "what worked/succeeded" and their past glory. They will continue to try to deliver content by gathering all the good parts of previous contents.
Players probably have a rough idea of "The sequal to that content in the past should arrive in 5.x", but there's quite a lot of content where that assumption doesn't apply/won't be right.
[Alexander Ultimate]
Like the title talks on its own, Probably everything is in it so how many times are they going to transform and how many times are they going to combine with each other?
The devs' passion for robots are stuffed in it.
The fight will be longer than Ultima weapon ultimate.
They are shaving off and adjusting the content right now (during the interview, which took place in the past) and they are going forward and back with removing mechanics and adding mechanics.
The devs' intention and goal when creating this content is "As long as one party can clear it, we'll be fine".
A lot of players are nice enough to stream the content, so Yoshida wants the actual challengers and viewers to scream together as they progress.
The direction they went with is closer to Bahamut Ultimate (Ucob).
The Alexander fight was designed by someone who watched Sudo and Yokozawa create the previous 2 ultimate fights.
The rewards will be weapons that will stand out instantly with a different effect/animation to it. They also have a title as a reward.
[Yorha: Dark apocalypse]
The copied factory exists on the first and the reason why it is located there will be revealed in the 2nd set (5.3 or 5.5) and beyond.
The Yorha raid should leave a scratch mark that is a little different to "Nier".
It should be easier than the "Return to Ivalice" raids, but a lot of people died during the tests. It's definitely easier than Orbonne (final raid of Ivalice) and the Nier raids will end up being about the same difficulty as Rabanastre (First Ivalice raid).
Thie is the introduction to the Nier raid, so they nerfed some of the debuffs after some testing and thought it would be too hard. However, they will throw consecutive mechanics at the players they have never seen before and players might be overwhelmed.
All Yoshida can say is "Look around you and watch out".
The rewards will include what players expect from the Nier raid and both genders can wear it, so it'll look pretty "powerful" when a male wears it...........
[Big news] The waist gear has been removed from the rewards.
[Job adjustments]
[Samurai]
Since you can get meditate stacks from other actions, Shoha will be in your normal rotation.
The meditate stacks have been renamed to "Ken atsu stacks" (roughly translates to blade pressure, but check the patch notes for the english name). If they released it without adjustments, Samurais would be too strong so they rebalanced it.
[Ninja]
The core of the job hasn't changed and they left the system where "you activate a Ninjutsu by pressing the right Mudras".
The speed and frequency you can press your mudras haven't changed, so you should be able to have a smooth time with no stress.
[Summoner]
- The current summoner makes it hard to feel accomplished, so they improved on the "play feel" and made it easier to understand. They will try to continue to adjust what they can do during a patch cycle, instead of an expansion where they can totally rebuild it.
[Bard]
The synergy the bards can provide with their songs are "so so".
The players' opinion on bards having party synergy or not is divided, but Yoshida personally thinks the 5.1 bard landed on a balanced spot.
If players want even more synergy for bard like in the 4.x series, they would have to nerf bard's personal damage to a dancer's level.
[ETC]
The DPS role as a whole got damage adjustments.
Various jobs will get their potency/numbers adjusted.
Astrologian's nocturnal sect will be buffed.
[Hades Extreme]
As a whole fight, it's almost the same difficulty as Shinryu Extreme.
Those players who aren't really good with "do A during B" should find this fight easy. Instead, this time they organized some mechanics with a different style and players who aren't good with those types of mechanics might have trouble beating the fight.
Yoshida was able to clear it on his 2nd try after hearing all the explanations from the devs. He did want to have a word with the devs as a black mage though.
The reward will be weapons, but the item level will not be higher than the Eden savage weapon. This fight is longer than the usual extreme fights, so you will be given 2 totems when you clear.
There is also one housing related item, but those who are "blessed by the light" might feel awkward placing it in their house (Zodiark statue?) .
[Blue mage]
The "blue mage log" is extremely fun and has various objectives such as "clear Thordan extreme with 8 blue mages" and you get to play old content from different perspectives.
Figuring out and researching which combination of Blue magic you want for each task is fun. There are rewards for the blue mage logs and they want to provide a variety of rewards in the future.
They will be adding new magic that "changes your stance". He wants you to imagine finding a tank and healer and "copying their ablities/capablities (the term he used here isn't the ablity as in ablities each job has, but more along the lines of capabilities)"
"Level 5 death" will finally be added and you can kill bosses as soon as you enter the boss arena (didn't say all bosses).
The learning system itself has been adjusted and you almost have an 100% chance of learning a spell if you do the content synced.
[Beast tribe quests]
The beast tribe quests in the 5.x series will be basically the same as the previous ones, but they will probably only have one beast tribe for battle classes.
Since they received player feed back from a certain someone, they want to add the crafter/gatherer beast tribe quest a little earlier this time.
[Trusts in the new instanced dungeon]
You can enter the grand cosmos dungeon with your trusts.
When you enter for you first time via the MSQ, you can enter with the trusts regardless of their current level, but you will actually need to have them at the right level after your 1st clear.
They won't be adding any new trust this time. (Graha isn't a new trust, because you had him on your first run for the 71 dungeon)
[New frontlines: The Onsal Hakair]
The devs had a lot of fun testing the new frontlines. They think the players who enjoyed "Seal rock" will have an easy time getting into this mode.
This new map will be released in patch 5.15.
[Ishgard restoration]
They will be adding the "Firmament district" (The azure skies district in JP, which comes from the expansion name) as a new area. Players will join the restoration lead by "House Haillenarte".
The flow of the content starts by checking the restoration board, which shows what you have to do in the current phase. You will personally gather collectables and hand them in.
Each world/server has their own and different progression, so the more people that join, the faster Ishgard will be restored on that world/server.
Patch 5.1 alone has several stages to the restoration and when you reach the limit to one of those stages, a "F.A.T.E-ish event for gatherers and crafters" will occur. This F.A.T.E will occur multipe times, as long as you meet the conditions everytime, but it is balanced to where you need quite a lot of participants to clear it. They do have a just in case "bail out" ready for when the F.A.T.E continues to fail over and over again.
Patch 5.1's Ishgard restoration focuses on creating the base camp for future stages.
You get tickets as a reward for your turn ins and there are items you can obtain by trading them in. The experience you can gain from these turn ins are very juicy too.
You can visit other servers to help them out.
The ranking system, Diadem reborn and the proper/actual restoration/rebuilding of Isghard will begin in patch 5.2.
After the Doh/DoL rework is done, they are planning to add highly difficult recipes which you can also turn in and helps you to be in the top (insert number) on the ranking board.
[PS5 version]
They are positively considering releasing a ps5 version of FFXIV, but it doesn't mean PS4 players will suddenly be able to adjust everything just like the PC version from the start.
- Even if they do release a PS5 version, the first release will be a normal playable edition and then they will add PS5 specific features and functions that live up to its graphics and other capabilities in the future patches.
Actual conversations with additional info from the interviews below
[Questions in the Famitsu interview]
[The 5.x series focuses on "not being too predictable?"]
Q.The first update to what you can call the 5th season of FFXIV is about to arrive, but can we hear the overall concept first?
Yoshida (Y from here on): I'm sure players who played shadowbringers felt the same way, but i'm confident that the FFXIV team as a whole has grown and improved. Using what the devs experienced in the 4.x series to provide enjoyment to the players is the overall concept.
Y: By still maintaining the consistent release schedule, we want to pick out and collect the good parts from the challanges we tried in the past and mash it together to provide an experience, so the 5.x series might feel a little different to the 4.x series.
Q. We would like to ask about what's in patch 5.1. Vows of Virtue, Deeds of cruelty (Direct translation of the jp name:White virtue, black agreement/secret black promise) sounds Nier related. Tell us why you chose this title.
Y: Ardbert, the Crystal exarch and Emet are 3 people that players got obsesed with and trapped their hearts and are called the "3 great swamps" by some people, but thanks to them, the Shadowbringers excitement has reached the climax and calmed down a little. Now that the night has been brought back to the first, the Eden story touched on brining back the elements to the empty land. On the other hand, the warrior of darkness and the scions are only "guests" on the first after all.
The current situation allows us to presume a few paths. The people on the first starting their new history on their own. The first step they need to take in Eulmore is solving the aftermath of losing the head of their nation. The other path is solving the problem of the scions on the source still being unconcious over there.
Q. I'm personally interested in that too.
Y: Players can just teleport back and forth so they might not feel the threat and danger, but the scions' souls need to return to their bodies and is one of the mysteries that hasn't been solved yet.
The next path is, even though the warrior of darkness carries and inherited a portion of it now, Emet Selch's ambition and dreams have been crushed. That doesn't mean the goal of the ascians as a whole has been anihilated. One of the original Ascians is still present and "what is he going to do now?" is something we can't miss and something that will gradually build up and start moving the whole plot. There's also the Yorha raid that you mentioned. 2P's white color and shadowbringers' darkness that represents black lining up together is the meaning behind the patch title (White vows and black agreement/secret black promise in JP). We wanted to keep the title simple and easy to understand this time.
Q. So Light and Darkness is the theme of the patch?.
Y: Yes. I'm not just talking about the elements of light and darkness, but also the light and darkness that toys with a human's heart. There's also the "meanwhile on the source" events that were on the side during the MSQ and finding out what happened there. Players might feel "It's a slow and quiet start" at first glance compared to the excitement in 5.0, but the hype rush starts in the later half of the 5.1 story, so we'd like players to witness it themselve.
Q. After finding out about Emet Selch, i wondered what light and darkness really is. Are we going to find out anything about this in the story?
Y: That's certainly one of the themes, so it should be told.
Q. I'm concerned about how the story will be split between the first and the source and its volume. Can i assume the 5.x series wlll mostly take place on the first?
Y: Players seem to be interested on where the story takes place, but i don't think you have to be dead set on the stage. I understand that players are currently in love with the first after shadowbringers, but my answer to your question will be "We'll be going to various places".
Q. I was thinking that would be the key to guess where we move towards in the future.
Y: Talking about that may lead to binding the development of the game, so let us leave that as a secret (laughs). Totally dividing the first and the source seems meaningless. The Ghimlyt dark battlefield is still left out there, so of course there will be times where you need to travel between the first and the source.
Q. I'm wondering how F'lahminn feels after finding out Minphilia's fate.
Y: Those questions should be answered as well.
Q. People around the world praised the MSQ this time, but did you think about changing the story in anyway after those reactions?
Y: Most of the decisions are already made during the scenario camps we have, so it didn't have much of an influence on the future story. However, we usually only have one scenario camp between each expansion, but we decided to have 2 for the next one so we can perfectly conclude the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga. We already had the first camp, so the story for the 5.x series and a little beyond have already been almost 100% decided.
I also think Ascian Emet Selch was a good character and i'm sure the warrior of light/the player has inherited his long and lonely story and that should have made the warrior of light stronger. Walking the next path with everything Emet Selch gave us and overcoming the troubles and conflicts in the future should change how players receive and think about the story.
I'm personally happy that shadowbringers was so well received and i think it ended up so well because the story we piled up for 6 years and the players who went through all of that crossed paths at one point in the story. Having that previous experience and emotions changes how you receive the story. Just like what happened in the story in 4.x was why we could enjoy 5.x so much, experiencing the new story will make the following one taste even better. That's why i previously said that splitting up shadowbringers and the rest is meaningless. I'm not really worried about the latest story letting people down, because it always leads to the next.
Let's say we did another copy and paste of the shadowbringers story. Then players would just feel "just the same pattern again". It was impactful because it was the first time but just trying something new doesn't always end up well. That can also be said about what didn't end up well, because those factors can turn into something good in the future. I'm sure movie directors go through the same process.
Alexander Ultimate and the first opponent
Q. The latest ultimate series fight is releasing soon, but what is the theme this time?
Y: I'd like to ask you that in return. What do you think it's going to be?
Q. The knights of the round or Alexander. Maybe the warring triad.
Y: We did talk about the warring triad as one of the candidates.
Q. Fighting Sophia, Sephirot Zurvan and then Kefka (laughs).
Y: We did have those ideas during the discussions, but that was too similar to how Ultima weapon played out, so we chose Alexander as the next ultimate.
Q. He's finally here! Alexander symbolizes difficult content. Which bosses are showing up?
Y: Like the title suggests, probably everything?
Q. Which direction did you go with this time? The classic "high end difficulty" that Bahamut was, or "the puzzle solving" Ultima weapon route?
Y: I think it's closer to Bahamut. With that being said, Alexander was created by someone who was right by the side and watched those 2 being created, so who knows how it will be like.
Q. There's a possibility that he took all the good parts from the previous two ultimates?
Y: Yes. Ultimate Bahamut was created by Sudo (Battle content designer) and Ultimate Ultima weapon was created by Yokozawa (Lead battle system designer) and they were both created by geniuses. The one in charge this time is someone different who is another member who has pulled the raid team and he hates to lose, so please look forward to it (laughs).
Q. Is the reward going to be a shiny Alexander weapon?
Y: The weapon will be something that will instantly stand out. The VFX team came up with a different effect this time and a lot of effort went into it. I personally wanted the weapon after looking at it, so i'd like players to obtain it and show it off.
You will be able to enjoy Yoko Taro's character in the Yorha raid.
Q. The Yorha raid is based on Nier, which had quite some disturbing scenes for some players. Did you give any advice (to Yoko) to bring over that unique atmosphere over to FFXIV?
Y: Yoko Taro is a geinus who can create things under restrictions. If there are no restrictions when creating what he wants, he'll surprise us by using something nobody else would. Yoko Taro isn't a creator who always needs to make you feel "that's terrible".
Q. I see.
Y: I understood that very well after working with him. When bringing the "Nier essence" into FFXIV, he made it fit into the FFXIV world without me telling him. He was actually the one who came and asked "I'm thinking about restraining it to this level, but how do you feel?"
Q. Is that so.
Y: Then i would say "I think you can go futher with it". He is not all about how shocking it is or how terrible the experience is, but someone who take care of the lore. I think Yoko Taro is all about "leaving a scratch mark", so if the title allows cruel expressions, he would go to the extremes to express that and if the title has restrictions, he would use one map, object, character and make different routes so you can enjoy it over and over again. Even if he had to reuse the same elements, he would use the scenario to hide that and keep players motivated to play the game multiple times. After doing so, the players feel like they experienced a game with a lot of volume and that's Yoko Taro's magic. Players should expect content that allows them to enjoy Yoko Taro's art, rather than "Yoko from Nier or Drakengard".
Job adjustments players are interested in.
Most of the job adjustments are in the summary above, so i will only pick up what wasn't in the summary. [Ninja]
Y: If we left the current system and barely got through this expansion, we would run into problems when we add new ninja actions in the future. For example, let's say we add another ninjutsu that requires 3 mudras. Then you are guaranteed to triple weave/clip in between GCDs, which causes stress to the player. We changed mudras and ninjutsu into a short GCD, so there is no more weaving for mudras.
Q. Is it going to be like Paladin's requiescat and holy spirit?
Y: Even if i continue talking about this topic, some words might be cut out after editing and cause misinterpretations, so i'd like players to actually touch it and try it out. Whichever way, this isn't the final adjustment and we will continue to balance Ninja after hearing feed back after the changes to Ninja.
[Summoner]
Q. How about summoner?
Y: The problem with Summoner is, it was difficult for players to grasp "what the right rotation is". Which is a common problem shared by new players and veteran players.
Q. What specifically?
Y: When you play summoner, you never think "i see" when you look at a rotation. Players get confused with what action to use first. For example with Egi assault, players are thining "Am i supposed to use this asap or do i prioritize other actions?" and it's hard to understand the rotation. We wanted to improve the "play feel" by making it easier to understand. We'd like to start by doing what we can currently do now and continue adjusting it after hearing feed back from the players.
[Bard]
Q. Next we'd like to hear about bard. I remember you looked like you were having a hard time talking about balancing bard in one of the past broadcasts. Where will bard land?
Y: This is of course "the current direction" we are talking about, but we all had trouble coming to a conclusion until the very end. We had discussions between the battle system team and job balanc team and precisely checked the feed back reports from the community team and ended up adjusting the syngergy from the songs to be "so so" at the last minute.
Q. Why did you decide to do so?
Y: If we were to add party synergy to the songs to the current bard, we would need to nerf bard's personal damage. Then players are going to say "Oh no, it's a nerf". We adjust DPS with party buffs in mind, but some players just want their personal damage and don't care about party buffs. The 4.x bard always had one of the songs up and provided the party buffs throughout the fight, which meant having a bard automatically meant a few percent to everyone's damage. On the other hand, bard had to manage other factors outside of songs and there was a large amount of players who said that was too busy and annoying.
Q. DoTs too.
Y: We wanted to reduce that pain when shadowbringers launched..We do understand that "wanting to support" doesn't always equal "i want strong party synergy buffs", but we cannot adjust jobs without "numbers" in mind.
If we reverted bard's support from songs to what it had in 4.x, bards will need to be nerfed to the point they are equal to dancers or reduce the party synergy to something even weaker, or else it won't go well with the current concept of "make bard's synergy lighter/thinner". Buffing the party syngergy is easy on paper, but if we reduced their personal damage out put, there will be opinions like "that's not what i wanted!".
Q. Sounds difficult.
Y: We can't forget the fact that bards don't receive the piercing down synergy from dragoons anymore. As a result, some bards feel like they aren't contributing with damage compared to before. If we brought back the 4.x synergy to bards, i feel like nobody will be happy. We are trying to somehow keep bards damage without nerfing it as much and try to let it have support via songs.
[Hades]
Q. Is the weapon reward going to be Ilv465?
Y: I will avoid saying actual numbers, but those players who have cleared E4s don't need to force themselves to go and achieve these weapons for the item level. However, the rewards are "his weapons", so i think a lot of players will want to obtain them.
Q. You said the fight is longer than a typical extreme trial, but does that mean Emet Selch fans will be happy with the cutscenes/animations?
Y: Who knows (laughs).
[Blue mage]
Q. The level cap on blue mage is going up to 60, but what should we look out for?
Y: This will be content after you reach the level cap, but i'd like players to focus on the blue mage log. You will be challenging all sorts of content and the ones that are especially fun are the past high level difficulty content. There's a task that will say "Beat Knights of the round extreme with 8 blue mages". In order to survive the holy shield bash into spear of Halone, all 8 blue mages will need to cast diamond back at the same time (the MT needs to cast it for heavenly heel) and that picture itself is worth a glance. Bringing back your memories of each mechanic and working around with blue spells is fun.
I was surprised that past content felt totally different and fun by just changing the players' perspective like this. The blue mage log has a lot of potential that we can expand on and so more people can enjoy it, we'd like to use our resources on adding a variety of rewards to it.
[Dengeki interview conversations]
Q. Before we talk about 5.1, i'd like to ask about the orchestra concert. Good work and how did you feel about how passionate players were?
Y: 2 years ago, we decided to have an orchestra concert because the players wanted it, but i had no idea about concerts and the only data we had was "Warrior of light are powerful" (laughs). So we set a rough estimate and decided to have 4 concerts with 5000 seats, but i heard later that the people from the orchestra thought "Is he out of his mind to fill 20000 seats at an orchestra concert?". It seems 20000 was a crazy number to go for. Somehow we managed to sell all the tickets and the people from the orchestra said they had fun in front of the players.
Still, i learned my lesson after barely selling all the tickets and made the plan for the next concert and it was 3 days and no additional concerts, but a trouble occured with the ticket sales (So many people wanted to go to the concert after 5.0's success and people were trying to resell their tickets for 5 to 10 times the original price) and i went to everybody involved and begged them to do another day.
We were able to please the warriors of light in the end, but there was plenty to regret after that incident. Us devs usually run with passion and on the fly reactions to problems, but as FFXIV grows and expand to other industries, we learned that we need to adapt our way of thinking or else we'll destroy ourselves one day. However, aiming for the very limit was very FFXIV-ish in a way. Playing a 5.0 soundtrack at the end surprised everyone and was well received, so we'd like to continue trying to organize surprises like that in the future. Last time we tried to play a 4.0 song during the 3.0 concert, but we couldn't so we moved early this time to fit it in. I will never forget the roars and screams i heard after we showed the 5.0 shadowbringers logo during the concert. I asked players to keep that surprise 5.0 song a secret until all the concerts were over and nobody spoiled it on the internet and i was proud and thought we have the best customers.
Screenshot from the concert: https://dengekionline.com/images/pK...BRQtqV7RWVEPhfKFBLLMtgGu7POdZm5QWJS41K2Dg.jpg
[The grand cosmos]
Q. Please tell us the concept of the new dungeon we will be visiting during the MSQ, the grand cosmos.
Y: The content included in patch 5.1 needed to be decided and ordered before patch 5.0 was even out, or else it wouldn't make it in time. Back in the planning stages, we weren't sure if we were using this dungeon in the MSQ or one of the side quests and we decided as we were building the dungeon. During the 5.0 development, we already had plans such as "We should be able to go to here" or "This place seems like a place you can enter" and had candidates for "new dungeon locations" and the grand cosmos was one of them.
Lakeland used to have a nation lead by the Elves and there are still ruins that remain. The grand cosmos is one of those places with the concept of "old civilization" and "fantasy feel".
Q. A different fantasy compared to Il meg?
Y: A different fantasy that isn't the same as Ishgard and Il meg. It has its own Elf fantasy feel that belongs on the first.
Q. What is the difficulty of Hade extreme like compared to Eden savage?
Y: Between E1s and E2s.
[Alexander ultimate]
Q. Is Brute justice going to merge with Alexander!?
Y: Our passion for robots is stuffed inside so i'll leave the rest to your imagination (laughs).
Q. Will it come out a little after 5.1?
Y: Ultimate will be released with patch 5.11, which is 2 weeks after patch 5.1.
Q. I'm not expecting specifics, so at least let me ask you how long the battle is.
Y: It should be longer than Ultima weapon, but we are adjusting it daily and changing mechanics and how to solve them each and everyday and it's already extremely long, so we are trying to cut down as we adjust the fight.
Q. I'm assuming longer than Ultima weapon but shorter than Bahamut?
Y: The adjustments to the mechanics themselves are still work in progress and we are having a rough time making it "moderate". When it comes to ultimate fights, we never think about "this % of players should be able to clear" and i tell them they don't have to hold back on the difficulty, so i'd like hardcore players around the world to enjoy it. We are making final adjustments so even those who cleared the previous 2 ultimates can have a challenge.
[Nier]
Q. How involved was the nier team with the creation of the "Yorha: dark apocalypse?" How are the other scenario writers working and how is the work flow during development?
Y: Yoko taro wrote all the plots and the text was mainly written by Yoko and a portion was done by the other Nier scenario writers. There's tons of text and the main plot was all written by Yoko and co and the actual in game texts are also checked and additions are made by him when neccesary.
With the art work, the artist from the FFXIV team designs the game models for the machine life forms and i check and review it until it's worthy of the submitting it to Yoko Taro. Then Yoko taro checks it and says "The nier machines have this formula to their design, so please fix it".
With the mechanics, Yoko wanted us to add mechanics that we haven't used yet in FFXIV and sometimes he gave us ideas for those mechanics. We had discussions and meetings from the plotting stages and built up from there. We teamed up and worked on it.
Q. Did you just copy and paste the graphic data from Nier?
Y: We got the data for the characters and the maps from the nier team, but we modified it to fit the FFXIV format. The current gen games have a problem where, even if you use the exact same data, shader and bones, it won't look the same on another engine. After all the adjustments, i compare it with the original game and check if it's proper, such as "her eye lids are thinner than the original so we need to fix it".
Q. What's your impression on the 5.1 (nier) story?
Y: It's only the introduction, so we couldn't have 8 hours of scenario to read which is full of lore. Just mysteries all over the place and "Is this where it ends?". Also, there are some features after you clear the raid. We'd like players to share their opinions on where the story will head towards.
Q. Okabe (sound composer for Nier) revealed a new track for the raid at tokyo game show, but are all the songs in the raid going to be new?
Y: No. That is the only new song and the others will be from the Nier series. Yoko did say he wanted Okabe to write a new song for each raid, so maybe if Okabe can give us a new song for 300 dollars (laughs).
[Ishgard restoration]
Q. What is the ranking system for the restoration going to be like?
Y: The ranking will start in 5.2 and it announces who the top contribuers are and just like how the deep dungeon ranking system has "dot pictures for each job", the artits drew the gatherers and crafters with dots. There are also ranking rewards, so i'd like those who are proud to be crafters and gatherers to aim for the top.
Q. You said the Ishgard restoration begins in patch 5.11, but is the crafter and gatherer rework in 5.1?
Y: The rework is split into 2. One will be in patch 5.1 and the other will be in patch 5.2. 5.1 will introduce some UI improvements but some of the features will only work after 5.2. Most of the current actions are no longer usable and crossed out, so it has quite an impact. The actions with tier 2~3 will be merged and Biergot's action will have an 100% success rate.
Q. From what i've heard so far, it seems like the "high end recipes" won't be craftable with macros
Y: The normal recipes will be craftable if you set them up properly, but the difficult recipes will require you to use the actions with procs properly when they show up and we'd like to design it where you have to actually observe the current situation.
Q. The current crafting system allows you to ignore HQ mats and use macros to craft HQ items.
Y: I thought that part was broken, so DoL/DoH will have overall adjustments. It will change entirely and new crafters and gatherers can instantly understand what to do and what does what.
[Game watch questions]
[The despair returns]
Q. Alexander reminds me of the nightmare Midas was. Is Alexander ultimate harder than Bahamut? Harder than Midas too? (the answer to the first question overlaps with other interviews, so it has been removed)
Y: Well, Midas was just savage and this time it's Ultimate...There are some people who say Midas with a low item level was as hard as ultimate, so it's hard to compare those fights (because everyone is max ilv from the start for ultimate).
Q. If it really is harder than Midas, only those who cleared midas back then can clear it?
Y: The difficulty back then was determined with required damage and incoming damage in mind, but Alexander ultimate also has a huge weight on how difficult the mechanics are, so the knowledge and experience you have gained so far will be important when challenging the fight. It's not something you can just simply compare.
Q. Just hearing the word "Alex" gives me the shivers.
Y: Thanks to that, we had plenty of ideas to pull out of the bag and i think we used all, if not most of those ideas. All the mechas (robots) will be showing up at least.
Q. They were in one place, but does it mean you'll be fighting them all at the same time?
Y: Who knows...I won't say anymore because it might help solve some mechanics. With regards to ultimate, people around the world are looking forward to watch the world first race. There are those who can't try it themselves because of certain reasons who still watch the progression live until midnight and wake up and ask if anybody cleared, so rather than me revealing any secrets, i'd like players to enjoy the live feel. We're also looking forward.
Y: It's designed so you can either play or watch it to enjoy it.
[The reason why Ninja adjustments are in 5.1 and not at 5.0 launch]
Q. May i ask the difficulty of adjusting jobs in general? Using Ninja as an example, why did you decide to adjust ninja in 5.1 and not 5.0
[Historical moment]
Y: With Ninja, we didn't only test it on the dev servers, but also with typical internet available in public. But the internet was still extremely fast and we found out we still weren't affected by bad internet during peak times.
Q. So you're saying your mudras never had clipping issues when you weaved them between GCDs in the dev environment?
Y: The network in Tokyo is fast, so there's almost never any lag, but when you go to a "normal house" during peak times or when the bandwidth is limited for some internet providers, a zero point however seconds of lag can affect the game. We thought that level of lag was somewhat forgivable, but this was where the problem was.
The next problem was, our long-wished task was "reducing the synergy between jobs" and thinking about changing or leaving trick attack until the very end was a huge problem. Trick attack affects your own damage but also raises the whole party's damage. We wanted to nerf this affect at launch (5.0), but we were scared the "nerf" image would be too strong and negatively impact ninjas. If we left trick attack's synergy and allowed ninjas high personal damage, it would be a broken job so we released it with low personal damage and the problem was, that personal damage was way too low.
On top of that, the ninja's rotation is complicated and busier than other jobs and that wasn't rewarded with a high return. Trick attack is strong, but it's also the reason Ninja's personal damage needs to be low and plus that, the internet environment affected their mudras and ninjutsu output.
To solve these issues, we had to change the core of the mudra and ninjutsu or else the problem would drag on. To fix it asap, we decided to have a huge improvement to the system in 5.1.
Source:
http://ff14net.2chblog.jp/archives/56004349.html
Sources for each interview are included in the link above.
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