Kage

Okay then I stand corrected. I need to go back and look at my cutscenes, since A-Towa is the only one who I noticed with pointed ears, and I've been around E-Sumi many times (due to RP) since then. I thought A-Towa was just pale because he was dead, tho, and you were essentially seeing his "force ghost" (sorry, best label I have!). I didn't read that as proof he was Elezen. Sounsyy reminded me that ghosts we have seen (Edda and Louisoix) are not pale.

Did they change their ears from 1.0 to 2.0? I haven't seen a Padjal in 2.0 with pointy ears other than A-Towa-Cant (although, to be fair, there are several Padjal NPCs you don't really see in 2.0 that were involved in 1.0). I'd have to go double check, tho.

Pretty sure it's already been confirmed that A-Towa-Cant was a very, very rare Padjal of Elezen descent. He also has Elezen ears (they're just smaller on him) and no other Padjal that we have seen has pointed ears (as they're all Hyuran), so it would follow that he is of Elezen descent. They're the same ears. It wasn't confirmed. It was speculated.

Obviously I was not there to read the exact dialogue, but was it rude because he didn't ask you and instead told you? Did he call you names? Is it because he didn't teach you how to position while criticizing? I'm also not understanding how he left to spite you? It sounds more like he left to not get overtly upset at someone and chose instead to leave. It wasn't the most awesome wonderful help but I am not seeing the spite and I can explain the lack of please as being curt. From what I see the player didn't send you tells about hating you or calling you names so I am trying to see why this is so awful.

I wish I had made a second post but here are the ones I've asked. I'm currently just throwing whatever I've ever had a thought about because I can't remember the more pressing ones I've thought of based on discussions here or in the official forums with Anonymoose. Has someone taken over Teledji Adeledji's place on the Syndicate? From the Tales from the Dragonsong War, we know that Lolorito has also spread some of his own personal fortunes, has this changed the status quo for the Sultanate or does it remain relatively unchanged? Would a Highlander always win against a Lalafell in terms of pure strength? How do Lalafell compete against the other races in terms of physical ability? Have Miqo'te been in Ishgard before they closed their gates? Or are they recent visitors? We've seen Lalafell forced/conscripted into the Garlean army (1.0 mainly). Where were these Lalafell from? Doma/Othard? Ala Mhigo? Closer to the Garlean Empire? Are there actual locomotives/trains in Eorzea or the planet of Hydaelyn in general or are the tracks just for mining carts? How much of Hydaelyn remains unexplored and undiscovered? Do we still have entire continents to discover and visit? Can we get a more definitive time frame than a time bubble? For example, how long did 2.0-2.55 take? How much time has passed since we took down Gaius? How long was Thancred out by himself? In terms of tribal Sunseeker Miqo'te, are -males- typically the leaders? We know that nunh are not usually also the leader of their tribes but what about Tia? Are females sometimes the leaders of seeker tribes? Is there any way to know a regular Lalafell's family members or is it all just a case of someone saying they are related? We only have a convention for the royal lines. Is there no such convention for regular Lalafell or is it just nonconventional? Previously it was said that Padjal are from Hyuran families. We've seen images of the dead before and when we met A-Towa-Cant, he seems exceptionally pale in comparison to 'ghosts' or others. Is this an indication that he might have been an Elezen before being chosen to be a Padjal? It's been mentioned before that most are illiterate in Eorzea but in-game we see examples of people being able to read letters and posters. If most are illiterate, how can most of these everyday Eorzeans be able to read, write and respond to these? Is there some different type of vernacular? In 2.0, we had instances of calling female knights 'Ser' such as Ser Heustienne. However, in 3.0 she seems to have lost this use. What's happened? Are female knights not given titles as Ser or is this a specific case for Heustienne? She is never referred to as Ser in her questline in 3.0, even when she is still a Dragoon except in an item description but not in quest or journal dialogue.

Seriously. I am asking the (tough) questions. Ok some of them are silly but I need them answered ok. Remember to "Like" the questions you think we should get answers to!!

[picture]http://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/2f33323151437bd543ae8637766e0bd3c6d741ac.png[/picture] Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVII Q&A Update Thread Patch 3.2, The Gears of Change, will arrive on February 23, 2016! Stone, Sky, Sea This is a battle challenge where you have three minutes to defeat a specific training dummy. At the beginning of the broadcast, we had Yoshida demonstrate the battle against the striking dummy for Alexander: Gordias, The Burden of the Father (Savage). There are several levels of challenge. Each training dummy corresponds to the difficulty of high-level content, and players will be able to test their rotations for each job. We also have Patch 3.2 content available as well, and players can practice here before challenging the new raid. For example, by completing the Alexander: Midas (Normal), the first area for Alexander: Midas (Savage) will become available. This content is for solo players. There aren’t any rewards, but I believe it’s worth trying. We believe players will expect healers to DPS as well, so we were worried about whether or not we should include this for healers, but we implemented this so healers can challenge it too. Job Adjustments Part I We will be changing the method for calculating the potency of physical attacks for tank roles in Patch 3.2. We’ll be making it so vitality affects the potency of physical attacks, and as a result the effect of strength on physical attack potency will be reduced. From Patch 3.2 onwards, you’ll be safe using only vitality accessories as well as allocating everything to vitality as a tank. For everyone who is currently using strength accessories on their tanks, the damage will be lowered, so please prepare your vitality accessories ahead of time. In regards to tanks, we’ll be looking at each of the three jobs’ defense traits and making overall adjustments to their values. Amongst the adjustments, paladin will be receiving large adjustments. Not only in terms of their offensive-aspects, but overall adjustments as well. There will be various adjustments for jobs, but one of the major ones will be for astrologians “Shuffle.” We’ll be making adjustments to both the name of the ability and the effect so that the same card cannot be drawn again. Additionally, we’ll be reducing aspects related to enmity. In regards to machinist, it’s a tough job that deals fast damage; however, compared to other jobs it’s a bit behind in DPS, so we will be making adjustments. We’ll also be making adjustments to bard’s “The Warden’s Paean.” Naturally, we will be making adjustments to other jobs as well based on everyone’s feedback, but please wait for the patch notes for more details. We’ll also be making further adjustments to the speed in which the limit break gauge fills up. Beast Tribe Daily Quests Gnath daily quests will be implemented in Patch 3.2, and the level adjust system will also be implemented for these quests. You may notice we’re riding an unfamiliar mount... This is a flying mount used by the Gnath. Gnath’s camp is located near the Vath Storyteller NPC. Additionally, the Adamantoise mount will also take to the skies! If you're using the first person camera, you won't have to worry about it spinning! The Feast This is the PvP content we have been referring to as “The Wolves’ Den 2.” Rules: Need to be level 60. Item level syncs to 150. Party composition 4v4: 1 tank, 1 melee DPS, 1 ranged DPS, 1 healer 8v8: 2 tanks, 2 melee DPS, 2 ranged DPS, 2 healers. You’ll need to have both melee DPS and ranged DPS in your party. You will not be able to queue if you have a different party composition. There will be a concept of ratings, and there is a mode where you can be matched against people with similar skill. 8 vs 8 (Win/loss rating does not apply) Rating does not apply for this mode. We want players to enjoy with this mode, so first please try this and have fun. 4 vs 4 (Solo, Win/loss rate applies) Players will only be able to queue for this mode while solo. Your rating will change depending on your wins/losses. 4 vs 4 (Light party, win/loss rate applies) Players will only be able to queue to this mode as a light party, and the win/loss rate will apply. *There are practice modes available for both solo and static parties. Additionally, the rating for party and solo will be different. Deciding the Victor Different than the previous Wolves’ Den content, instead of completely wiping out the opposing team, the objective is to steal your opponent’s medals, and the team that has the most at the end of the match will win. Each team’s members will start the battle with 100 medals. When defeating an opponent, they will drop their medals. Your team can pick these up, and once you reach a certain number of medals, your team will win. If you’re worried about dragging a team down because you feel like you’re going to get killed over and over--have no fear! The amount of medals you drop will become fewer and fewer the more you are defeated, so there is no benefit to defeating the same person continuously. Depending on the amount of medals your opponent drops, there will be various effects. Also, you won’t be able to collect medals off of your teammates. There are several elements that will change the flow of battle. Adrenalin Rush Players who have experienced Frontline may be aware of this system, but this is limit break-like action which can be used by individual players.. Supply Box There are supply boxes which are available from the beginning, and those that will become available at a later time. By attacking this box, it will break, and give an item called Supply Kit. Item will be given to the team that dealt the most damage to the box. Offense Kit - Increased attack Defense Kit - Increased defense Medical Kit - Heals Adrenalin Kit - Increases the Adrenalin Rush gauge Culling Time This time occurs when a player isn’t defeated for certain amount of time. If no one is defeated the debuff will continue to accumulate, but once an enemy or ally is defeated the debuff is removed. This will also affect the background and sound. Heavy Medal Depending on amount of medals held, players will receive physical damage up debuff. If one player collects too much medals, they will receive that much more debuff, so please be careful. Result screen The result screen will show the number of knockouts (K), the number of times you were knocked out (D), and the number of assists (A). Assists can be earned through heals, buffs, and other actions. It’s pretty easy to get assists, so try to get a lot of them. Ranks There are six tiers of ranks for both solo and pre-formed parties: no rank, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond. Once you reach 1000 rating points, you’ll start promotion battles. Winning 3 out of 5 promotion battles will allow you to be promoted to the next rank. Ranking The Feast has its own specialized ranking. It will be tallied for each Data Center. There will be a ranking list for each rank, so I recommend trying your best in the rank that suits your skill level. Ranks and Reset With the change of every season (3.5 months), both rank and your ranking will reset. Those at the top will be given special rewards. There will also be special rewards particular for a season only for players at the top of the diamond rank. There will be rewards for each of the ranks. The top players will also be able to receive the prizes that those below them receive. The special reward for diamond rank is equipment with a completely new design, and diamond ranked players can earn the entire set. There will also be trophy furnishings. We put a lot of effort into the prizes, so strive to be the top of a rank that fits your skill. New Instanced Dungeons New instanced dungeons, the Antitower and The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard) will be added. Alexander: Midas The next installment of Alexander is called Alexander: Midas. In 3.0, there were some time in between the release of Normal and Savage mode; however, this time we’re adding both modes simultaneously. Similar to Alexander: Gordias, Midas will have exchangeable items. Players will be able to challenge this raid regardless if they already obtained the reward or not. Alexander: Midas (Savage) Savage will be released at the same time as the normal version. Progress will be saved, and the equipment can be obtained directly from treasure chests. It will also be possible to obtain tokens for each area each week. Depending on the number of players that have already completed a certain area, the number of treasure chests that appear will vary. It’s essentially the same rules of Savage that you’ve seen up until now. Considering that the DPS checks for the third and fourth areas of Alexander: Gordias (Savage) were too severe, we’re currently performing our final checks and adjustments, but since it’s a raid it will be a high level of difficulty. Materia Melding It will not be possible to use advanced materia melding for STR, DEX, VIT, INT, MND, and PIE. You will be able to meld these stats into available materia slots. Players may think this will lower the demand for materia; however, the scope on which materia can be melded for individual equipment will increase. The amount of Tier IV and V materia output, exchange, and method to obtain these will be adjusted, so please think that the value for this materia will change slightly. The amount produced will increase greatly, so players do not have to worry if they’ll require a lot of gil since due to increase in demand. Orchestrion *The live stream showed the orchestrion in action. The orchestrion is a furnishing that all players inside of your house can use to change the background music. The music will be looped. You’ll be able to obtain sheet music for it through a variety of avenues. When you interact with the orchestrion, you’ll bring up a specialized UI. Selecting a song from here will change the music for the house. Since the music comes straight from the orchestrion, distancing yourself from it will change how it sounds. We’ll be adding an “orchestrion sheet music log” and you’ll be able to see hints for how to obtain songs. Depending on the content, there may be cases where it’s easier to obtain rewards when you complete it with the minimum item level. We’ll be adding more songs with each patch, and we hope you have fun expanding your music collection. Mentor System What is the mentor system? The mentor system is a system which will allow players to assist beginners. In order to become a mentor, players must earn specific achievements and talk to a specific NPC. There are three requirements: Must have one job from each role (Tank/DPS/Healer) at level 60. It’s set up in a way so that the player can offer advice for each role. Must have completed 1,000 or more instanced dungeons or trials. You may feel this is a large amount of number; however, we believe a lot of players have this completed already. Have earned over 300 commendations. Additionally, there are requirements for those who don’t play battle-related classes/jobs. Instead of the above requirements, players can also become mentors by completing the following: Have at least one class from both Disciples of Hand and Land at level 60. Have crafted over 100 collectables. Have gathered over 300 collectables. Once you’re a mentor... You’ll be able to invite beginners to special chat channel. As a countermeasure against RMT, we will be allowing mentors to invite beginners to the channel as they see fit. We’ll also be adding Duty Roulette: Mentor. Though there won’t be a ton of rewards, you’ll have priority matching for the content that has not been cleared yet by the person you are queuing with. Completing this a certain amount of times will yield achievements and rewards. Additionally, you’ll have a crown mark added next to your name, and you can turn this off and on as you like. Containment Bay S1T7 *The stream showed off gameplay of this content. This is the beginning of the Warring Triad series. It’s a circular battlefield, and the outer rim has a barrier. The person who created this battle also designed Titan, so let’s just say the theme of this battle is a big jump rope. I hope you're looking forward to this. We’ve separated the quests into those for the main scenario and for Containment Bay S1T7 (Extreme), so please have fun with the one you like. Exploratory Missions Adjustments Based on a lot of feedback, we will be making adjustments to Exploratory Missions. Adjustments to content duration We’re making adjustments in Patch 3.2 based on feedback that we received, but in the next patch we will be making bigger adjustments related to exploration. Change in content time Hard: 90 minutes > 60 minutes Normal: 90 minutes > 45 minutes Easy: 90 minutes > 30 minutes Change to the re-entry time 45 minutes > 30 minutes We looked into eliminating this; however, considering the fact that we will be adding new Allagan tomestones, we decided to keep a re-entry time in place. Along with the adjustments to the content duration, the required amount of aether turbulences will be changed as well. Required amount of aether turbulences Hard: 4 to 3 Normal: 4 to 2 Easy 3 to 1 Additionaly, the amount and type of Allagan Tomestones earned by completing the tasks will also change. Fresh Tracks Players who spawn the Fresh Tracks will earn the rights for first attack. There’s a theory floating around that players need to take away 30% of the enemy’s HP in order to receive the reward; however, in hard mode this is much lower. Furthermore in order to avoid mistakes that could happen when exchanging items obtained from exploratory missions, we have added a filtering feature at the exchange window. We'll also change the amount of spoils required for exchanging for materia, so it may be a good idea to hold onto the spoils you have right now until Patch 3.2 is released. Disciples of the Hand and Land Adjustments In Patch 3.2 we will be adding an extremely large volume of new crafting recipes. One of the major types of recipes will be the release of new crafted equipment and accessories at the same time, which can be used to challenge raids early. They are at an item level that can be used for the raid, so I believe there will be a large demand for each job’s equipment. We’ve also made it so that you won’t run into problems where you are not able to collect the necessary materials like has been the case in the past. We’ll also be adding recipes for equipment that looks like Allagan and High Allagan equipment, except they can be dyed. (*The stream showed off pictures.) It won’t be difficult to craft these items; however, you need a new item known as a “blueprint,” and how to obtain these is a secret for now. Various cosmetic equipment will also be added, and as requested on the forum, glamour recipes will be added that can be used with all classes. We’ll be posting a comment from the development team to tease what’s coming, so keep an eye out! Furthermore, we’ll be making adjustments to Disciple of the Hand and Land classes, and in a Hotfix on Feb. 25 we will be adding new rewards for red scrips to coincide with the weekly reset. Other Updates Part Allagan tomestones of Lore will be added. Along with addition of a new tomestone, we’ll be making adjustments to the existing tomestones. Removal of Allagan tomestones of Soldiery. Distribution of Allagan tomestones of Law will be halted. The weekly limitation will be removed from Allagan tomestones of Esoterics. Allagan tomestones of Law can be exchanged for Allagan tomestones of Esoterics. We’ll keep Allagan Tomestones of Poetics for some time, as first tomestones players will earn when becoming level 50. It will be possible to being gathering when the duty party participation window appears. Sword and shield rewards will be obtained at the same time. It will be possible to queue for Duty Roulette as a party for the following roulettes: Duty Roulette: Expert Duty Roulette: Level 60 Dungeons Duty Roulette: Level 50 Dungeons Duty Roulette: Leveling Duty Roulette: Trials Duty Roulette: Main Scenario Duty Roulette: Guildhest Teleport history feature A history tab will be added, and the recent places you’ve visited will appear. Expansion to the idling camera and group pose features Various features will be added, so stayed tuned for details! Hotbar improvements Revamped recast animation display A setting will be added to the configuration for displaying the recast time in numbers. We remade this countless times. We conducted a survey with the QA team asking them about the aspects that made it difficult to tell when an action was used by looking at the hotbar, and we made improvements to make this easier to see. It’s possible to change the settings for this in the configuration, but the default is set to off. A furnishing which can summon the Aesthetician will be added. Dye preview for furnishings will be added. A feature that allows selling items directly from retainers will be added. There will be various adjustments. There was a lot of request to add confirmation for sort to prevent sorting by mistake, for this we’ll add an option in the config which will hide the sort. Special Guest: Localization Lead Michael-Christopher Koji Fox Patch 3.2 - The Gears of Change *The stream shows off concept art of Patch 3.2 The character featured in the art for Patch 3.2 is Minifilia. As the name of the patch, The Gears of Change, implies, there will be various changes in Patch 3.2 which are related to what happened to her, where she came from, how she is related to the mother crystal, and the path the scions will follow. There are many meanings for this title. How will Minfilia get involved in the main scenario? What kinds of changes will take place for the people of Ishgard now that they have seen the dragons? There are those that don’t wish for any change. You may see some opposition as well. Also, the gears from the Patch title is related to Alexander as well. Dungeons The Antitower In English, this is called the “Antitower.” This was a place where Sharlayans researched the mother crystal, and considering that Sharlayans are scholars, we came up with the name Antitower. However, in Japanese the word “anti” can be taken negatively, so this has been dropped by Oda from the Lore team, but instead we decided to keep the naming we had during development, the “reversed tower.” It was hard coming up with the name for the boss inside this tower. A boss from a previous FF title can be found inside this tower, and we had to figure out how we’ll bring them together. This was because the previous title was made before the Localization team was created, and there wasn’t any uniformity in translation. The Localization team was created 15 years ago, and since then we have been trying to keep it uniform. For example, Typhon comes from mythology but in previous FF title it was called Chupon. This is essentially wrong, but we didn’t know if we should go with Chupon to prioritize memories, or to change it to the official name. In FFXIV it’s named Typhon. Lost City of Amdapor (Hard) As we wanted to focus on "Stone, Sky, Sea," I didn't bring any info on the Lost City of Amdapor (Hard)... Stone, Sky, Sea Personally, when I think of a place to train, I imagine it to be a place high up in the mountains where you can overlook the clouds in the sky, so I named this “Stone, Sky, Sea.” When the trial begins, the striking dummy will appear from the sky in a cutscene, so be sure to check it out. Q: What kind of work does the localization team do? (Are the French and German versions based off of the English or the Japanese version?) Additionally, how long did it take to translate Patch 3.1 and Patch 3.2? A: Simply put: we translate. However, there is a reason that we call it localization, and this is to translate it so it’s understood by a certain region. Our objective is to make it so westerns feel the same way about the game as Japanese people. While there have been times we failed translating, we learn from this failures and grow after listening to everyone’s feedback. The translation team is located in the Square Enix office. They are fluent in Japanese, so they translate from Japanese. Everyone can also speak English perfectly, so we also translate from English. There are a lot of times we start based on the English, so there are times we translate based off the English as well. In regards to the time it takes to translate, there is a huge amount of text for FFXIV, and we release patches globally at the same time, so it’s quite crazy. We receive text from not only the scenario team, but also various other teams, and we’re constantly working to perfect the text right up until the last minute. It’s constantly a fight against time. For the expansion, we translated roughly 15,000,000 words between eight people in 2.5 months. Part way through we were concerned we wouldn’t finish, so we had help from people of other project’s teams. Q: There are a lot of interesting translations, such as "Ichiban" for the Kirin achievement, but how do you decide on these names when translating? A: As a rule for naming, in order to not break the lore, for things that characters see in-game, we made sure the naming matches those things that are only available in Eorzea. On the other hand, for things that players see, our rule allows us to use homages in the naming. Achievements are things which players see, so there are many names that have homages. For example there’s a FATE called “Feared Guardian” in Japanese, but in English this is changed to “Smells Like Tree Spirit.” Q: What purpose does the Garlean third eye serve? A: The [eye] allows them to recognize the surroundings more than other races. For this reason, it is said that they specialize in handling airships and advanced arms. Q: How are the names of enemy attacks decided? A: In FFXIV, we work together with Oda from the Lore team for every name. We talk with each other to see what Oda would like the name to be, as well as English naming ideas from Micheal to localize. Cerberus’s move “Hound Out Of Hell” in is called “Hell Charge” in Japanese. When localizing we make sure there are as little different between Japanese and English, and kept the main focus on the word “Hell.” For Haukke Manor, in English, this is called “Haukke”; however, in Japanese it's Haukketa...and this was my mistake. Also like FATE names, there are those in which we use completely different naming from Japanese and English on purpose. Q: I’ve heard that the tempered of Leviathan are called “Drowned.” Are there any other names given to those tempered by other primals? A: Yes. In Japanese they are all called “tempered,” but in English there are differences. There is a reason for this. Internally we had used the word “believer,” but this is lacking in impact, so we used the coined term “tempered.” However, when it comes to the English, “tempered” is a word related to fire, so having something like that relate to Leviathan felt off. The English names used for other primals are all different. Q: Isn’t it about time for some more Hildibrand? A: Hildi will return in Patch 3.2! As to who brings him back home… well, that’s a surprise! Q: We’d love to hear more about the Au Ra. Were they born with their horns? What do other races think of them? A: -Xaela Their settlements are located in the steppes near Doma. These grassy plains are named after Azim, the tribe's goddess of the sun. The Twelve are only present in Eorzea. Azim worship is not directly related to the Twelve; however, they might have been related a long time ago. -Raen While the Xaela are a nomadic group, the Raen stay in one area, but there are many refugees due to Garlean invasion. This is how they came to Eorzea. -What do other races think of them? There are a ton of adventurers, so there is not any discrimination; however, there are some who are wary of them. By the way, there may just be other clans besides the Xaela and Raen... Resuming sales for the Mac version We apologize for keeping you waiting for an update on this. We halted sales because of performance-related issues; however, through continuous efforts to make adjustments we are now just about ready to resume sales. We’ll be announcing further details on Lodestone, so keep an eye out for them. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox Delivers!

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/277736-Say-goodbye-to-yugiri-voice.?p=3526995#post3526995

ggcaliJKE9w Go to like 1:13:55 and you can see it in action. It's really... mehhhh. Also, the plush and artbook are now on NA store (artbook is on EU store as well, not sure baout plush). I believe most other stuff is JP store exclusive cause they can't get their merch group to give it to us :<

About 20 days late but we're not getting Cloud's Bike. They showed it off as a christmas gift to the designer. Unless they're convinced to give it to us, they see it as too slow and awkward to actually put into the game to give to the public.

EU Store Link 34,99 € (34.99) https://store.eu.square-enix.com/emea_europe/merchandise/Final-Fantasy-XIV-Art-of-Ishgard-Stone-and-Steel-EU-Version.php NA Store Link ($39.99) https://store.na.square-enix.com/product/294296/final-fantasy-xiv-heavensward-the-art-of-ishgard-stone-and-steel-art-book Comes with Relm minion! Based on Art of Eorzea, the JP release and the EU/NA releases are the exact same. Some portions are translated while artist comments usually aren't. If the Japanese stores (amazon.co.jp or others) are cheaper especially shipping and the exchange rate is better, go ahead and order it now. But this line might mean that it is different. Fuck me. "This is the North American version of the art book released in Japan and Europe. It is not an imported item of the Japanese or European versions."

Honestly? You've wasted a few days of your 14-day trial just trying to get onto one of the two most populated servers. Are you trying to experience the game or the roleplay experience as well? Keep in mind these restrictions when you have a 14-day free trial: Free Trial account characters will have their level capped at level twenty (20). Free Trial account characters will have a capped amount of in game currency (GIL) that may be obtained. Users will not be able to use "shout", "yell" or "tell" in-game chat options during the Free Trial. Users will not have access to the in-game market board during the Free Trial. Users will not be able to trade items with other players during the Free Trial. Users will not be able to use the Mogletter service during the Free Trial. Users will not be able to hire a retainer character during the Free Trial. Users will be able to join a Linkshell if invited, but cannot create a new Linkshell during the Free Trial. Users will not be able to create or join a Free Company during the Free Trial. Users will be able to join a party if invited or by using the Duty Finder, but cannot assemble a party during the Free Trial. You're basically asking someone on Gilgamesh (if you can even get in it since you seem to have issues with it) or another server to play the game with you mostly through voip or a different outside-of-game means for all the time that you are able to play. They will need to initiate parties with you all the time etc Everything from levels 1-15 are done solo. There is no benefit to having someone be there to essentially hold your hand unless you're getting powerleveled. There are dungeons you can do with up to 3 other people after that but you don't need someone to talk you over it.

Digest is up. ggcaliJKE9w Reflection on the Current State of the Game Spanning Patch 3.0 to 3.15 With the release of FFXIV’s first expansion, Heavensward, and the subsequent patches leading up to the latest Patch 3.15, we’ve added various new content and received a lot of feedback from across the globe. The development team is aware of balance issues that have arisen in recent patches, and we're planning to make adjustments in Patch 3.2, so I'd like to explain how we plan to accomplish this. 0:05:56 State of the Game: Alexander: Gordias (Savage) Alexander: Gordias was the first of a new series of raid dungeons following the Binding Coil of Bahamut. At present, the Savage version of this encounter is the greatest challenge available in FFXIV, with rewards meant to be top of the current item level hierarchy. I'd to start by discussing the Savage difficulty and its place in that hierarchy. Every time I spoke with players at public events around the world who challenged the Binding Coil of Bahamut, I would hear requests for us to make something more difficult or that they wanted to challenge something even harder. Instead of simply releasing only a hard raid, we released a normal version of Alexander: Gordias alongside the Savage version, so that it could be seen as an especially difficult challenge in comparison. However, the level of difficultly was too high, with DPS checks that are much too strict. Especially for those players who are challenging the final two areas, there are many who are unable to clear them due to the severity of the DPS check despite understanding the mechanics, even after increasing their item level. This is a major point we are reflecting on. We intended this raid to be the answer for those players who desired even harder content. However, we've found that in many cases that, while players want to attempt clearing Savage, they have trouble finding likeminded players to form parties with. Some players have gone so far as to change Worlds in hopes of finding a group. Taking all this into consideration, we feel the difficulty of Savage is too high. For players who are unable to clear, it’s nearly the same as if we didn’t add the more challenging encounter they asked for. Under normal circumstances, players would be able to hone their skills, clear the raid, and obtain equipment with a higher item level. This is currently not the case, and it has also put a strain on other content in the game. We’ve considered various solutions to this problem. For instance, we thought about keeping Savage the same difficulty and creating a Raid Finder system which would allow you to find parties without having to World transfer. However, this feature wouldn’t necessarily affect the number of players that are able to clear Savage. We also considered adding a third difficulty level, but there were concerns that there isn't enough time to properly balance three levels of difficulty for each patch. With that said, Alexander: Midas (Savage) coming in Patch 3.2 will not be as difficult as Alexander: Gordias (Savage). Our goal is to create an encounter whose difficulty is somewhere between the Second Coil of Bahamut and the Final Coil of Bahamut. Hearing this may make you think that it's simply going to be easy, but this is still going to be the hard mode of the raid. Think of it more as us fine tuning the hard mode difficulty. There are three different ways to obtain equipment in FFXIV. Obtaining items via difficult raids Obtaining items through tokens that have weekly limitations Obtaining items by spending a long period of time We’ve structured this so that by undertaking any of the above three paths it will result in the same item level; however, we feel that the item level of the rewards for Alexander: Gordias (Savage) was too low for the extreme difficulty. Had the item level of the equipment obtained in The Burden of the Father (Savage) been 215, I think it would have been possible to upgrade tomestone weapons to 210 with the token item from Void Ark and make the Anima weapons 210 right away. As a result of the difficulty being set to too high, the number of players who possess a weapon from The Burden of the Father was far lower than we expected, and in order to maintain the value of these items for players that were able to beat this difficult raid, the content that came afterwards suffered. In conclusion, we would like to increase the value of the rewards for clearing Alexander in its entirety when implemented in future patches. Naturally, we will still have a normal difficulty mode for Alexander: Midas. As we made adjustments in the future, we'll focus on reducing the severity of the DPS checks. The raiders who aim to clear content as quickly as possible will still go through a trial and error process moving forward and adopt various strategies, but by lowering the DPS checks, once strategic information is shared it will be possible for others to take on the challenge. We’re striving to make it possible to clear this content while having fun, and we’d like to set the difficulty just right so once you are finally able to beat it you can say it was a piece of cake. 0:14:06 State of the Game: Exploratory Missions In Patch 3.1 we implemented exploratory missions, which was a type of content that did not exist in FFXIV. Up until now there has been a lot of content with set rules, but the idea behind exploratory missions was to create a space where players could create their own rules. Since its implementation we’ve received a lot of feedback, particularly requests for a system allowing Disciples of the Land and Disciples of War and Magic to queue separately. We originally set the timer for exploratory missions to 90 minutes, hoping that players would discuss how to segment the time. In the end, however, 90 minutes was a bit too long, and it's rather difficult to leave in the middle of a mission. Looking at all the feedback we've received, we feel the biggest problem here is an overall lack of system-based rules. At the very least, we'd like players to enter and take part in activities with rules and objectives that change every time, but don't necessarily require a lot of communication to complete and receive rewards. Otherwise it will devolve into simple item farming which isn't very fun. In regards to this, when making adjustments to the excessof item level 210 items, we received a lot of feedback such as requests for missions to explore the many caverns in the area, and based on this feedback we would like to establish clear rules and objectives as well as create a system that allows you to group up with players with similar objectives inthe next portion of exploratory mission content. I previously mentioned that there would be changes to the materia system in Patch 3.2; however, since it will be possible to meld materia into rewards obtained through raids, we anticipated that there would be an increase in demand for each type of materia, so we thought it would be a good idea to have an influx of items that could be converted into materia. However, the number of item level 210 items in circulation was extremely high, and due to concerns that the motivation of players who completed Alexander: Gordias (Savage) would taper off, we decided to limit the number of item level 210 items becoming available. The development team had been having deep discussions about the item level of rewards for exploratory missions, and they ultimately set it to 210 so players would have fun; however, just as everyone has mentioned in feedback, item level 205 would have been more appropriate. Had it been item level 205, I think we could have created a flow where you could procure equipment from Diadem in order to gear up for the raid. Using this lesson we will be striving to feature more of the exploration element for future exploratory mission content including proper balancing. With Patch 3.2, the demand for materia will increase without a doubt, so we’ll be adjusting the content length from 45 minutes to 60 minutes, and to coincide with this change we will be making further adjustments to the amount of items in circulation as well as reducing the number of currents that need to be unlocked. 0:20:53 State of the Game: Anima Weapons As the quest for Anima weapons is content that takes a long period of time to complete, I understand that there are pros and cons. However, there have been requests asking for challenging elements and new content specifically for Anima weapons, so I would like to reiterate the concept behind these weapons once more. Just as I mentioned previously, there are three ways to obtain equipment in FFXIV. Obtaining items via difficult raids Obtaining items through tokens that have weekly limitations Obtaining items by spending a long period of time Anima weapons fall into the third path above. In order to create an Anima weapon there is no need to get involved with high difficulty content that does not have an Echo bonus. While players with confidence in their skills would be able to get through this quickly, players who are unable to clear this content would not be able to create their weapons. In regards to the feedback asking for challenging content similar to the Dhorme Chimera and Hydra battles for the relics of 2.0, I still feel that there would be those that are unable to clear such content. When creating the system for Zodiac weapons and Anima weapons, we were verifying data such as how many people possessed relics and found that there were many players who weren’t able to obtain a relic in order to move on to subsequent content. Currently, due to the difficulty of Savage, other content was affected and the upgrade item for Esoteric weapons is still difficult to obtain. This created a situation where obtaining an item level 210 weapon could only be done through the Anima weapon path for some, which made people feel that they had to do it. We will be fixing this issue in patch 3.2. While there have been comments mentioning that it would have been better to start these quests in Patch 3.1, the reason the item levels of the Anima weapons were set to 170/200/210 was so that players just starting would be able to prioritize their use of Allagan tomestones of Esoterics for armor. Additionally, we had been receiving a lot of feedback when everyone was creating Zodiac weapons, so this time around for the phase where you collect items through FATEs, we made it so you could acquire the items on jobs that you were leveling, and made adjustments so the process for increasing your item level from 200 to 210 could fit your play style. Had we made the item level of the weapons from The Burden of the Father (Savage) 215, we could have possibly reduced the time it takes make an item level 210 Anima weapon. In regards to everyone’s concerns about the lifespan of Anima weapons, we will be making adjustments in Patch 3.2, and there will be updates to Anima weapons in Patch 3.25 and Patch 3.3. Q&A Q: Items required for the Anima weapon quest “Coming Into Its Own” can be obtained from allied beast tribe quests. However, it takes a lot of time to complete if the quest requires certain FATEs. Could you please increase the frequency in which these FATEs occur? A: We would need to readjust the settings to when we first introduced the Zodiac weapon quest “Trials Of The Braves,” and address the issue where FATEs didn’t occur. Additionally, there are allied beast tribe quests which involve two FATEs. When it was first implemented, when two FATEs occurred simultaneously, an issue arose where you could only complete one of them. To address this issue, we made it so that the second FATE will occur by completing the first one. We’re currently making adjustments to increase the frequency of the FATEs. 0:31:25 Q: There are instances where you accept the wrong quest when progressing through the Anima quest line with multiple jobs. Would it be possible to make it so that you cannot retake the quest with the same job? A: We’re working to address this issue. 0:32:04 Q: A lot of items are needed to proceed through the Anima weapon quest, and since they are regular items, I feel like I am going to accidentally sell them. Would it be possible to change these items into key items? A: The problem with changing the items needed for Anima weapons into key items is that key items vary by player depending on which quest they are currently undertaking; they could get mixed up with those items that are being used for quests. It will be difficult to make these into key items, but we're looking into making them unsellable. We're also considering changing some of the item icons, but we're concerned about confusing players who've already become familiar with the current ones. 0:33:32 Q: Auto-reclamation for housing starts this month, but can you tell us if there will be any future additions of plots? A: We'll be increasing the number of plots for existing housing areas in Patch 3.3. After we expand those areas, we'll add apartment-style housing in Ishgard areas afterwards, starting with one apartment-style building which will hold about 512 residences. We’re also planning to make chocobo stables available for use to residents of apartment-style housing. Gardening patches are still proving somewhat difficult, but we’re currently developing new “planter pots” that will allow gardening. As per demand, we are also looking into the prospect of increasing the number of indoor furnishings which can be placed in residences. 0:36:59 Q: Other than for glamouring purposes, the demand for crafted equipment has dropped. Do you have plans to develop craft-able equipment with stats high enough for raids in the future? A: The new craft-able equipment in Patch 3.2 will be quite strong. We will also introduce accessories which can have advanced materia melds, so I think there will be demand for crafters from all jobs, especially from those racing to be the first to clear raid content. 0:38:39 Patch 3.2 Content 0:38:48 Quest-related The main scenario quest will be heading towards the climax of the Dragonsong War. As for the new beast tribe daily quests, I’m sure many will recall the variety of interesting tasks for the Vanu Vanu daily quests. The lead writer for those quests will also be in charge of the Vath beast tribe quests this time. 0:40:06 Dungeons Players will encounter the new instanced dungeon, “The Antitower,” early on in the main scenario quest. You'll understand the reason for this name once you go there. And in “The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard),” players will be able to find out what happened to the Lost City after they cast out the boss from the normal mode, Diablos. 0:41:27 Trials At long last, we'll be starting a new series of primal battles, the Warring Triad. The first installment will be Containment Bay S1T7, and we'll be releasing the extreme version at the same time. Unlike previous trials, we’ve decided to eliminate the “Hard” naming convention. We made this change because we noticed for Leviathan in main scenario that it didn’t make sense for players to be encountering a “Hard” version of a primal that had no previous “Normal” version. However, the difficulty will be on par with the “Hard” primals we have seen thus far. This battle will be very flashy, and there may be a mechanic where you can fall; the lead for this battle is the same person who was in charge of both Titan and Thordan’s Reign. 0:44:20 Alexander: Midas Similar to Alexander: Gordias, there will be a “Normal” and “Savage” mode for Alexander: Midas. In 3.0, we first introduced the “Normal” mode, and later released the “Savage” mode; however, in Patch 3.2, these will be released at the same time, so you will be able to challenge “Savage” once you clear the “Normal” mode. 0:46:34 Wolves’ Den Until now, we have been calling the next installment of the Wolves’ Den, “Wolves’ Den 2”; however, we decided to name this, “The Feast.” I’ll be going into more details about this during the next Letter LIVE, but here’s a simple breakdown. While the current Wolves’ Den is basically a death match, we wanted The Feast to be more like a sport, using something like a point system so that casual players can also enjoy it. By defeating their opponents, players can steal their points, and all are competing for the total amount of points. There will be 5 variations: 8 vs 8 (Win/loss rating does not apply) This is the most casual mode; we want players to have fun with it, so the win/loss rating will not be applied. In other words, the player’s skill rating will neither increase nor decrease in this mode. They will only be able to queue solo or with one other player. 4 vs 4 (Solo, Win/loss rate applies) Players will only be able to queue this mode solo, and the win/loss rate will apply. Parties will be formed with players of the same rating, and the opposing team will be composed of players close to the rating of their own party. 4 vs 4 (Solo, Win/loss rate does not apply) Players will only be able to queue up to this mode solo. The win/loss rate does not apply here, so they can use this to practice. 4 vs 4 (Light party, win/loss rate applies) Players will only be able to queue this mode as a light party, and the win/loss rate applies. Aside from the solo rating, there will be a separate rating and ranking for static parties. 4 vs 4 (Light party, win/loss rate does not apply) Players will only be able to queue this mode as a light party. The win/loss rate does not apply here, so they can use this to practice. Furthermore, The Feast will use a “seasons” system. The first season will begin in Patch 3.25, and the duration will be about three and a half months long until Patch 3.35. Ratings will be updated on a daily basis, and ranking will be announced. The top players in the season will be awarded with exclusive rewards. Additionally, there are ranks. By accumulating a specific amount of rating points, there will be matches to increase ranks. Players will need to win 3 out of 5 matches in order to move onto the next rank. There are rewards for each rank, so players will be able to fight at a level that matches their skill. Ranking will stop once the season is over, and all the ratings will be reset when the next season begins. The Feast will be implemented from Patch 3.2, but there is a pre-season match from Patch 3.2 to Patch 3.25. During this time we will make job and rating adjustments for PvP, and we will kick off the first season in Patch 3.25. 0:54:04 Orchestrion We’ve kept you all waiting for quite some time now, but the jukebox-like system, the “Orchestrion,” will be implemented in Patch 3.2. This can be placed in the inn, house, and private chamber, and it will play music if you have the sheet music for it. Sheet music can be obtained through various duties and trials, achievements, and in-game shops. The logs of which sheets you’ve acquired are stored individually, so players can enjoy collecting them as well. Of the sheets you can acquire, there will be those which can be created by Disciples of the Hand by obtaining items such as sound producing rocks. We’ll be implementing 47 songs in Patch 3.2, and we plan on releasing 20-30 songs in updates afterwards. The Hall of the Novice Players will be able to train in two ways: training for each role and training which doesn’t involve roles. Training unrelated to roles, such as dodging area of effect attacks, will be available right before entering Sastasha. After this, players will be able to start training for each role which has about seven tasks each. By completing all the training, players will be awarded with level 15 equipment. There will be a specific building for this, and inside you’ll find books which will explain terms such as “DoTs”. The Mentor System (Tentative) This system will allow veteran players who have certain achievements to be called “Mentors” for Disciples of War/Magic and also Disciples of Land and Hand. Once players become a “Mentor” they will be able to use a system which will help new adventurers. Players will be able to use features such as a roulette called the “Mentor Roulette,” which is close to volunteering, but we hope we can motivate those who want to support beginners. 1:00:23 Striking dummy training mode (Tentative). The naming is still tentative, but this is single player challenge content where players can test their skills. This is not something where you can calculate your damage values, but a challenge where players test to see if they can defeat the striking dummy within the 3 minute time limit. I realize that skill rotations will differ depending on the encounter, but we’re hoping that players can practice with this striking dummy and use it to gauge whether or not they will be able to defeat their target enemy. Materia system changes As mentioned in the previous Letter LIVE, from Patch 3.2, equipment such as those that can be obtained with Allagan tomestones will include materia slots, which will allow players to build equipment to match their job. The new tomestone will be called Allagan tomestone of lore. New Allagan tomestone We’ll be implementing a new type of Allagan tomestone. 1:04:38 Other features Players will be able to sell items directly from their retainers. In 3.0 we wanted players to enjoy flying up and down with their flying mounts, so we haven’t implemented elevation information to see if your party members are in a higher or lower position on the mini-map. However, this was something we received feedback on, so you will be able to see if your party members are above or below you by looking at numbers on the mini-map. This information will be displayed as z-axis values when using the text command. We’ve been receiving comments from players who have high-spec PCs and 4K displays mentioning that the UI is too small. We'll be addressing this over multiple patches. Further details for content that will be implemented in Patch 3.2 and various other information, such as other existing ground mounts which will be able to fly and dyeable Allagan/High Allagan gear, will be discussed in the next FATE in Kagoshima, so please look forward to it!

Full translation of the interview up. https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/127355-4Gamer-Interview-Yoshida-responds-to-player-questions-requests On November 27, 2015, 4Gamer published an article in planning for this interview with Naoki Yoshida, producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward, soliciting reader feedback and questions. As a result of that, we received nearly 800 posts from readers. The contents of these responses varied widely. The editorial department spent a considerable amount of time sifting through the responses to try to aggregate them. From that, we carefully summarized our list of questions and prepared for the interview, but with the limited amount of time available it was not possible to address them all. Therefore, we focused on asking the ones that seemed to be of the most interest to readers and took those questions in a few different directions with Yoshida. We posed questions that ranged from how end-game content difficulty is adjusted to what makes Yoshida the happiest as a game developer. How do you adjust the difficulty of end-game content? Thanks for being available to meet with us today. This time we want to discuss a variety of opinions and requests that we've received from readers with you. The answers may be tough, but we appreciate your effort. Yoshida: Yeah (laughs). Please be kind. Let's get right into it - we've seen many posts from readers relating to end-game content. When you go through development, how do you decide how to set the difficulty? For example, the amount of DPS required for each particular content. Yoshida: When we make battle content, first we determine a minimum assumed item level required to clear. Then, we determine the total amount of party damage required to clear, taking a minimal amount of damage from tanks and healers into account during this calculation. What do you mean by minimal? Yoshida: Basically it's the damage from tank auto-attacks and the basic skill rotation used in order to maintain hate. We add this to the party damage needed. However, we often use zero in the calculation for damage required from healers. In other words, we only take into account the amount of damage necessary to perform as a tank or a healer and we don't take them into account as actively participating in attacking. For the clear assumption on DPS, we calculate the 100% value for the item level and we reduce that by 10 to 15 percent for the amount required to clear. But it's often actually the case that healers do participate in attacking. Yoshida: Well, the calculations are based on the item level assumed during development. Ah, and that's different from the minimum item level required to try the content. Yoshida: Yes. So if you try to clear it at a lower item level, it will be necessary for tanks and healers to participate in attacking. The difference in skill levels for DPS players will be a factor. If you're below the 85 to 90 percent damage assumption, you'll have to fill in the gap with DPS from tanks and healers. If the DPS work together and think about total party damage, it may also help to break through. So healers may need to participate in the attack if there wouldn't otherwise be enough. Well, even if there is, healers may also attack just to provide a margin. Yoshida: Yeah. Especially in Savage because it is difficult to deal damage while handling the mechanics I think there is some opportunity there. It may be difficult to deal DPS close to the 100% result. By the way, we also got some posts asking if the members who worked on developing the battles had cleared the end-game content themselves during development. Yoshida: So like asking whether or how we tested the end-game content and performed balance adjustments? I think that's the gist of it. Yoshida: For high difficulty battle content like the extreme battle series, Bahamut's Coils, and the savage version of Alexander, we begin by performing adjustments to the mechanics from an invincible state. Since members of the planning team are practicing the fights for the first time just like players do, if they had to wipe repeatedly there wouldn't be enough time to make adjustments. The priority in this stage is to make sure the mechanics are understandable and hinted at. By looking through the whole fight in an invulnerable state, you can still repeat with trial and error but it takes less time to get used to the mechanics. Yoshida: Well, since we're doing adjustments we're starting from a "rough" state of the final fight, so it's a bit different. By implementing the mechanics roughly and testing them in an invincible state, we can make larger adjustments for the mechanics and get a feel for each phase. Once we've made the primary adjustments to the mechanics, we apply a different version of the invulnerable status. What are the differences? Yoshida: The HP gauge will drop from damage as usual, but instead of falling when it hits 0, it gets refilled to max. Finally, we remove it and we see whether it can be cleared normally with no changes. I see. And this applies to the highest difficulty content like the fourth section of Alexander savage? Yoshida: For the third and fourth parts of Alexander savage specifically, we tested each phase. The FFXIV battle team is made up of some pretty good players, but these aren't world class players. It would have taken longer to perform adjustments if we tested as usual, so we tried to shorten it a bit. So the release would be delayed if they tested until they could clear. Yoshida: Since the development cycle is limited we had to proceed with the development of other content. You could sort of say we've cleared it completely through (laughs). If you could easily clear it then it wouldn't really be fitting as the most difficult end-game content. Yoshida: That's right. The battle check members of the development team look at FFXIV players and take samples of log data from the hardest battle to compare. The DPS values for the world-class players is really amazing.... I'm sure the first parties to clear will have those kinds of players. At least in the stage immediately after release, the concept behind savage was not that just anyone could clear it. Yoshida: A number of parties cleared the first and second parts in the first week, but I think the item level wasn't high enough yet for the third and fourth parts. However, the DPS check is also too severe for the third and fourth battles so as a result I think the difficulty was too high. Why was the difficulty increased so much? Yoshida: After the Binding Coil and Second Coil, we got a lot of feedback like "it's too hard!", so we had a good idea of how we wanted to make Final Coil, but then we got a lot of feedback like "it was easy, make more challenging content!"... Ah, not what you had planned. Yoshida: Because of that, for Alexander we added the normal version that anyone can clear and we implemented the higher difficulty savage version to keep challenging content at the same time. However, we got a lot of feedback that the DPS check for the third and fourth parts was too strict. In the end, everyone is looking for a level of difficulty that they can just barely clear, but have the ability to clear. This time we went a bit too far over that. I understand that feeling (laughs). Also, you see opposing feedback from different people saying the same content is too easy or too hard, so it must be almost impossible to set difficulty adjustments to meet all of those requests. Yoshida: Well, we do our best to meet those requests because it's our job. I just hope we also see the feedback from players who thought the difficulty was set well for them. It would be difficult with our current staff structure to provide three or more different difficulty levels. If we had to make three, we'd have less time to make difficulty adjustments and we wouldn't be able to guarantee balance. We have a lot of staff, but only a limited number of them can make battle content at that level. It sounds like it would be difficult to provide something to satisfy all players at once. Of course, all players want something for themselves at the time of the updates. You also spoke about making the difficulty of the next portion of Alexander a bit gentler, can you speak on that? Yoshida: We've already set up the mechanics planned for the next release of Alexander in patch 3.2. Right now we're talking through the last few compromises, but we have lowered the DPS check. It will be a little more lenient? Yoshida: We already have some very skilled players who have been raiding for a long time. So rather than referring to it as making the fights easier, we'll be gradually adjusting the difficulty of completing them by loosening up the DPS check. In a nutshell, it will be less severe than the third and fourth battles of savage Alexander Gordias. There will also be things that change up the formula in patch 3.2 such as the new materia specifications and changes to crafter-produced accessories with respect to tanks. So we feel like the flow of clear progression will change a bit, although that shouldn't much change how long it takes to get through all the sections. Changing the image of Astrologians Along with the questions about content difficulty, we also received posts about job balance. In particular, we saw feedback about astrologian that it is not a job that is often recruited and that the enmity rises too quickly. Will you be making adjustments to address either of these? Yoshida: We'll be making adjustments for the balance of all jobs, not just astrologian, in the future. Specifically for astrologian, I think there's still a considerable difference in skill among players. It's been said that scholars provide better stability in fights like the Thordan battle. However, I've encountered some very good astrologians myself while farming the fight, so we'll be carefully considering adjustments. With the different stances which require judgment to select, I think it's definitely a tough job to master. Yoshida: Indeed, there are many good players who have not yet become accustomed to the job. It will take some trial and error for astrologians to get used to clearing the fights, but they can be formidable in battle when combined with a stable white mage or scholar. What needs to happen to dispel that image? Yoshida: Well, not just for astrologian, but for FFXIV in general to avoid classes becoming overpowered I think it's best to not make hasty adjustments. Although we could change the image more quickly by making it necessary in certain content, that would have a large impact, so we believe the only way to change the image is by continuing to make adjustments gradually over time. I think in many cases, and certainly for new jobs, you would make changes after evaluating the job's performance and stability in the game after release. For astrologian, we also saw a lot of feedback asking if it would be possible to make it so the same card cannot be drawn when using Shuffle. Yoshida: We have seen a lot of feedback about this on the forum, but the parameters of the card performance are set taking the possibility of drawing the same card into account. If we remove that card from the possibilities, we would also need to reduce the yielded effect. Even though it might be annoying to draw the same card, it will also be tough to make an adjustment. However, since we will continue to make adjustments, please be patient for a little longer. Raid matching beyond data centers? Now we'd like to focus on the posts about party recruitment for end-game content. You mentioned that there was some consideration given to the ability to recruit raid groups beyond world boundaries. Yoshida: The population interested in starting savage Alexander Gordias isn't necessarily proportional to a world's population. There are worlds where recruitment is low despite the high population, so the focus is to make it so anyone who wants to try savage can do so in any world. In other words, if a server has a large casual player population, recruitment for end-game content can be tough. Yoshida: With the difficulty this time, it's true that many players transferred to worlds which like raiding more such as Chocobo and Bahamut. However, these have become overpopulated at peak times, and recruitment suddenly decreased in other worlds, so the raid isn't fully integrated in some worlds. The fundamental solution is that more people need to try end-game content. Yoshida: It can be difficult enough right now to find eight people motivated to challenge the raid in one world, let alone getting roles and jobs to work out. In order to solve this, we could either make a system like a "Raid Finder" dedicated to matching players beyond worlds, or to make it clearable for everyone by lowering the difficulty. You could lower the difficulty but then it would reduce the range of the challenge. Yoshida: Well, that feedback is subjective. Just because you cannot clear a certain content, doesn't mean other people are the same. For the raid finder, although it may take time, I still think it's necessary but as of right now I'm just formulating the specifications in my mind. People feeling that they need to move to other worlds is too much, though, so we have to do something. The return of Haurchefant? Who's writing the story? The story for Heavensward was quite popular. The character Haurchefant was a hot topic and we got a lot of feedback and requests related to him. There were many questions asking if he might appear again. Yoshida: I think his destiny was fulfilled so I don't think he will suddenly be returning. As far as he goes, since he was involved with other characters in the main story and people will not forget him, it's possible that we could have a flashback. So he may reappear if the players demand it. Yoshida: Just because there is a lot of feedback, we would still have to think about why he would reappear. By the way, when in the development process did you decide on Haurchefant's fate? Yoshida: Around the time of patches 2.2 - 2.3. At that point, we had already finished the main plot through patch 2.55. It was a suggestion from me that Haurchefant was withdrawn from the main story in patch 3.0. So, in order to provide a good background for him, we made his dialogue and role quite detailed in the second half of the patch 2.X series. You wanted players to pay attention to Haurchefant? Yoshida: It's not that we wanted him to be particularly noteworthy, we just wanted him to be a character that remained on people's minds. To do that, we had to solidly convey Haurchefant's character to all players. Otherwise he would just be one of many characters who leaves the story. Yeah, it wouldn't be the same if he left less of an impression. Yoshida: With regards to Alphinaud, Haurchefant, Estinien, and Ysayle, we paid thorough attention to what they spoke about and what scenes they were involved in to make sure they would be well-received by players. We wanted to maximize the shock of certain scenes with the storytelling so that the impact would be memorable for players. Which is because of the story foundation that was set. Yoshida: Yeah. As the son of a scion, Alphinaud is bouncing back from his failure as a leader as he grows through the storyline, Estinien plays the big brother role supporting things from out of the spotlight, Haurchefant helps his companions in trouble with his friendship and chivalry, and you finally get to truly understand Ysayle. Alphinaud in particular seems to have changed quite a bit from his trip to Ishgard. By the way, we also got a lot of feedback that the job quests were quite good in addition to the main story quests. In particular, we got some questions asking if the staff behind the dark knight quests would be writing any other story. Yoshida: Including Maehiro (main scenario writer, Maehiro Kazutoyo), about 4-5 people write the job quests. The people behind the Crystal Tower series, dark knight quests, and rogue quests are the same. After that, the ones in charge of writing the ninja quests and Hildibrand quests are the same. The people in charge of writing the dark knight quests are popular (laughs). The end of the Crystal Tower scenario was also quite a surprise. Yoshida: Fray became quite a popular character after the dark knight quests. The staff in charge of development on the battle side had some proposals for the team in charge of the job quests as to how fighting would be involved, and the story team had some ideas for the battle team. There was a good synergy between the staffs for that. But it began with an idea from the battle team. Yoshida: I won't say which member of the team it was, but he has my praise because it really motivated everyone on the staff to give input which things they did or didn't like. We got a lot of posts about people looking forward to new story, but we also had a few questions from people who wanted to know the age of the main characters in Heavensward. In particular, they were interested in the characters from House Fortemps and the knights of the Heavens' Ward. Has the age of the characters been defined? Yoshida: It's been set. However, the knights of the Heavens' Ward have proved quite popular. We'd like to release a full-fledged book so maybe we will have the opportunity to discuss it at that time. Oh, that will be fun. Yoshida: The scions are getting older, though, it might be a problem if it takes too long (laughs). They've actually been aging quite a bit. Yoshida: It's been five years since the seventh Calamity of the old FFXIV, and the past visions that appeared in the old FFXIV were from 10 years before that, so the members that appeared there... Ah, now that I think about it... Yoshida: It's written on the description of the minion in the game, so you might have seen that Papalymo is 42 years old. Well, it's hard to tell from appearance since he's a lalafell. His voice sounds young, though (laughs). Customizing characters besides just appearance? We got several posts from players who wanted to be able to customize not only their character's appearance but also their skills and equipment for a particular job so that they could show some more individuality. This is a topic we've seen come up since the initial release of A Realm Reborn. Yoshida: Right. So, if we did something like add mode A and mode B for dragoon, eventually people on the internet would examine them and choose which one was stronger. Then, when we created new content, the content would have to be based on whatever was strongest. There would be a lot of discussion about the job states like "that job is too strong" or "that job is too weak" and people would always choose what they felt was best. That's not to say a skill system like that would be negative, but the armoury system itself already allows you to play all of the different jobs. Since we already have that system in place, I'm not expecting that we'll make branches for jobs for the time being. The flow of the game is to keep collecting higher performance equipment and challenging more difficult content, so of course you'll certainly want to figure out what works best. Some people only play their favorite jobs and in the end wind up playing whichever they feel is the most efficient. Yoshida: We're working to get rid of those differences, but I wonder if it would be better to add a new job to make more people happy. No doubt. I think FFXIV is the kind of game where you work to be most efficient. Do you think adding some more individualization will play any role in the game? Yoshida: That's like a console game or MMORPG based on a skill system. With a leveling system, all the jobs need to develop side by side so it would be correct to say we won't be adopting a system like that in FFXIV. What can you do in the Hall of the Novice? Many of the posts we received were asking about what specific kinds of content would be included in the Hall of the Novice. Yoshida: The Hall of the Novice is content that we've been developing to release with patch 3.2. This is content really for first time MMORPG players, to teach tanks how to take hate, healers how to recover the tanks and other party members, and for all jobs how to avoid enemy attacks. It's content to teach the roles and basic mechanics for each role. I see. So it won't have built in tutorials for specific content. If you go somewhere like Sastasha (the first dungeon), you may still see some novice players who are learning their role. Yoshida: Right. The Hall of the Novice can be started just before Sastasha. You hit a button to select your target and enter the content. NPCs will join you and the training will begin. There's a simple battle using a NPC party which serves as a final exam before you can graduate. Once you complete it, you'll graduate and you'll obtain some nice equipment that you can use in the dungeons. I think people who were afraid to tank because they didn't know how to take hate until now and didn't want to practice in dungeons will find this helpful to practice. By the way, where is the Hall of the Novice located? Yoshida: The Hall of the Novice will be in La Noscea but you'll have direct access to it via NPCs at various locations in the cities. It will also include a guide which talks about various terms used frequently in online games such as DoT (damage over time). It's just included for reference. It will be good to have a glossary of terms. There are a lot of FFXIV-specific terms also, so you may want to keep adding more (laughs). These seems tailored to new players, so what will be around for existing players? Yoshida: It is like that. A lot of people have been focused on measuring the amount of DPS they can put out, but we prepared this separately from the Hall of the Novice. In development, we're calling it "DPS Scarecrows" (laughs). [*In the December 23 producer letter, this was announced as the "Stone, Sky, Sea" striking dummy training mode.] We've been waiting for something like that. How will it work? Yoshida: First you'll select a rank, and then you'll play for three minutes. The training goal is to have enough DPS to defeat it at that rank. So it won't actually show a DPS number. Yoshida: Right, it's not a numbers competition. The idea is more like you could specify "people who have defeated XX rank training" via party finder. Working on your skill rotation will be important to defeat them, so by working through this content, you should be able to put out enough DPS to beat content that you couldn't previously clear. Will this like the dummies as outdoor furnishings? Yoshida: No, it's instanced. I understand that some people want to teach others, but I think there would be some concern about other people watching and being embarrassed so we thought we'd make it less visible. Obtaining previous collaboration event items that you missed With regards to items, there were several posts from players who wanted to obtain items that were available in past events. There was demand from players who were not playing at the time the collaboration events happened. For example, the Snow and Lightning equipment that was available in the FFXIII collaboration event, or the huzzah emote that was available from the anniversary festival in 2014. Yoshida: We got a lot of feedback from players around the world about Lightning and Snow equipment, so we're considering it as far as whether we can try repeating the events. I think it's already been held three times? Yoshida: Yeah. If we implemented it, we're wondering if we would make it available as an optional item. We're still discussing the details, so we'd appreciate your patience. [*It was noted in the Lodestone forum on December 25 that these would be added as optional items.] Understood. Aside from that, players were also interested in obtaining imperial equipment that enemy characters like Gaius wear. Yoshida: I think it might still be a while before that happens. Because we're still fighting the empire (laughs). Yoshida: Yeah. It would be confusing from a world perspective to have imperial looking people wandering about. There might be some people who don't mind, but the people who follow the story and view the world seriously might not think it's so cool, so I don't think it will be any time soon. More flying mounts! One desire that some players expressed was to not only have new flying mounts, but also to make some of the existing mounts able to fly. For example, the Fenrir mount that you can obtain from Gold Saucer, and some other interesting proposals like strapping a jetpack onto the goobbue. Yoshida: For Fenrir, we also think it would good to make it fly because it's so rare and expensive (1 million MGP), but it might be too late for patch 3.2. So it will fly eventually. Yoshida: Yes it's already on the list. For those that have already been in development, like the promised Adamantoise, they will fly in patch 3.2. It's a turtle! I how it flies will be a hot topic of discussion. Yoshida: It's cool, isn't it? (asked to Toshio, also in the room) Toshio: It's cool. The implementation should be fun (laughs). Yoshida: It might be a good idea to start collecting MGP right away (laughs). After that, you might also get demand for the tank-specific mounts to fly. Yoshida: We thought it would be better to skip those for now because we'd have to implement flight for all three at the same time. Well, things like lions and bears... people might be talking about what would bears be doing flying? Yoshida: Well, it's still on the list of flying candidates. However, it takes some fairly detailed work to make all of the dedicated animations like take-off, landing, and the way they cut through the wind, plus setting the riding position of the character and the specific sound effects. I was surprised that you changed the magitek mount to allow flight (laughs). Yoshida: We thought that would be a good one (laughs). It has a good reputation and a lot of people wanted to use it again, so we decided on the magitek mount. That said, we want to make new mounts as well, so we'll be gradually implementing flight to existing mounts with about four to five mounts each patch. Hopefully you look forward to the new ones coming as I want as many of them to fly as possible. Understood. Regarding mounts, there was some demand for a mount from the extreme Thordan fight like the ones from the past extreme primals. Yoshida: We have no plans for Thordan the moment, but starting with the next series of primals we have plans for something like the horses. I want to play level 60 Titan! With respect to battle content, there was a lot of demand to allow for level 50 battle content which appeared in A Realm Reborn to be playable as level 60 content. Yoshida: It's not that we won't do it, but right now we want to spend as much time as we can making new content instead of bringing back old content. When it comes to refreshing the old content, we wouldn't just want to adjust the balance for level 60, as it wouldn't be interesting if we didn't also add some new elements. For example on Titan, we could make the arena another step smaller, or make a landslide that goes in all directions with adjusted hit detection for dodging so that you have to hide behind one of the gaols to avoid the landslide. So you would wipe if you inadvertently broke the gaol... Yoshida: Yeah (laughs). We have good ideas that I'd like to do someday, but priority is given to the ongoing work. I'd like to make one kind of content as a series of battles with Ifrit, Garuda, Titan, Leviathan, Ramuh, Shiva, and Bahamut where you clear each one while inflicted with a debuff. However, the question goes back to who will make it. You have finite development resources so... Yoshida: Yeah. You might think during the course of development that it would be fun to do something but eventually you need to determine who will make it. We have a lot of staff, but there aren't so many who can design the specifications for battle content. For those who think they would be a good fit, please submit an application. You're looking to recruit? (laughs). Yoshida: Yeah. (laughs) I want to spectate Wolves' Den! On February 14, 2016, there's going to be a Wolves' Den tournament organized by e-sports MaX which will likely be around the timing for patch 3.2. There were some concerns that the specifications might change for balance because of the implementation plan for Wolves' Den II in patch 3.2. Yoshida: It will be okay because the specifications won't be changed until the e-sports MaX tournament is finished. Setting aside Wolves' Den II for a moment but still in terms of PvP content, will you be implementing a spectator function? Yoshida: We've already implemented a spectator function with camera switching for the official tournament, but it hasn't yet been published for players. Where will you be able to use the spectator feature? Will it be within the game? Yoshida: Spectating for the official tournament will be done with a live stream. We've prepared a camera for the battle stage with a switch to be able to view it from different angles. In some modes it might be better to watch players, so we'll be looking into that as soon as possible but please wait for a follow-up. As far as a spectator mode goes, the demand wasn't limited to just Wolves' Den, but also for instanced dungeons and end-game content as well to watch pros play. Yoshida: For PvE, I think there would be cases where people would not want their strategies exposed, so we would have to allow spectator mode to be permitted or disabled. Yeah, certainly there would be players who don't want to be spectated. Yoshida: For Wolves' Den, it would be more like the stage of a show so we'd like to implement the spectate feature to include certain angles. For end-game content, you'd probably want to see it from each player's point of view. There are already a lot of live streamers and videos that get uploaded, so I'm not sure that'd we would need a separate spectator feature for that. For now, the priority is to implement the spectate function for Wolves' Den. Less common questions and requests for Yoshida Getting away from the game content of FFXIV for a moment, I'd like to address some questions which were directed to you specifically. Please tell us about what makes you the happiest with your job of making games. Yoshida: For standalone games, getting to the release date and actually seeing players go out and pick up a copy is the moment that makes me the most happy. Yoshida: Yeah, it's fun to watch from the shadows (laughs). It makes me happy to watch people pick up the game like "oh! that person took it!" and "oh, so did he!" On the other hand, for online games, there are two things. The first is people actually getting into and playing the game, and the second is meeting those players in person and hearing feedback about how they truly enjoy it which makes me extremely happy, that's happiest I could be in the course of my work. It's good to get direct feedback from players. Although you need to be quite courageous to go through all that. Yoshida: Another one is immediately after a patch. We get on the server a bit before all the players log in and when the maintenance ends and all of the players log on at once, it still makes me happy to see everyone who was looking forward to the patch running around and checking out the new content. After that, the barrage of "Yoshidaaaaa" starts (laughs). Does that make you happy? (laughs) Yoshida: It makes me happy, I'm thankful. The scolding is a form of encouragement, I think. Last year when you spoke with Mafia Kajita, you mentioned you wanted to create a super cutting edge MMO. We saw some feedback that wanted you to leave as the producer of FFXIV and make that game. The feedback also said to wait about 10 years. Yoshida: It would be great if we keep this going for 10 years (laughs). I've said that I want FFXIV to continue for 10 years because a MMO doesn't make it there easily. Even if we started working on something new right now, we'd have to get the staff to do it and then it would take at least three years from the start of production. Yeah, even MMOs overseas have a significant amount of time between their announcement and their release. Yoshida: Or maybe if I have to wait 10 years I'll have changed my thinking. It's possible another developer may already have made a MMO like what I have in mind by then. On that note, there was some discussion about providing a server where player killing was possible if desired. Is that no longer a plan? Yoshida: No, we might consider it if the demand is really huge. How much feedback would that take? Yoshida: The thought was once you hit level 20 and join a grand company, you could be targeted out in the world by members of the other GCs. We got quite a bit of demand for that from overseas. Personally, I think that would be cool to implement. Yoshida: We'd have to disable attacks near an Aetheryte to prevent people from being teleport killed, and there'd be other special rules we'd have to implement so it wouldn't really be easy. We'd have to also do things like load test to see how it would work to have PvP possible in all the field areas, so I think we'd have to work on it little by little. So you're still a bit hesitant about it. Would there be something where people who want PvP can gather to do the load test? Yoshida: Yeah, I think we would make one world for that. If it seemed like it was getting too crowded, we could make additional PvP servers. That said, with the Japan players tend to interact, I think they particularly tend to shy away from PvP content. Yoshida: I think it would be interesting. You'd have to keep GC rookies out of trouble (laughs). It would be dangerous if you didn't defend your GC. Yoshida: What about trying to level up alone using the hunting log alone (laughs)... once you broke off solo you might immediately get attacked by another GC. That would probably even happen at monster hunts. Yoshida: Monster hunts could just turn into players killing each other. Although on some worlds maybe there would be some local unspoken rules like players not attacking each other during monster hunts. And then as soon as it's defeated, the next battle begins... Yoshida: Or someone would cast Flare and start a riot and eventually everyone would kill each other (laughs). Or I could imagine a white mage inadvertently hitting others with Assize. Yoshida: It would definitely be interesting to put this out. However, the players would have to have a mutual understanding on a PvP server. Yoshida: Yeah, we'd have to have some kind of mandatory warning when you first select that world (laughs). "We don't take any responsibility... are you sure?" From that point on the world would be responsible for itself (laughs). To change the topic, we also got feedback asking how the game will change as players grow older. Yoshida: I'm not planning any particular relationship between the game content and the age of the players. I could see something like that for a brain training game or a FPS where your reflexes might fall. I see. I feel that way as I've been gaining years. Yoshida: In terms of changes, I think games have already been changing. How so? Yoshida: In a short time, social games have popped up as a genre with just simple operations that you can play and smartphone games which work on the concept of "time is money." I think games as we think of them have evolved with those two new types. I see. Yoshida: On the other hand, what's going on with console games? It's something totally different. The representation of game properties on smartphones has been catching up to console games. In the end, if people have to buy a set-top box and the quality of the graphics is the only thing that pulls them away from their smart phone, I don't think they will survive. So I think console games are going to change considerably, and persistent online elements are a part of that. To survive, it has to give an experience that you can only have on a TV. Yoshida: Yeah. And there are people now whose first experience with games are social games and have then gone on to play console games. Because many of these people are fairly young, I don't think it's necessarily true that gamers as a whole are an aging population. From console to social, the fact that games themselves have survived is the most important. We got a variety of other requests from readers, but I'd like to focus on a particular few. First, saw some more about the service to create a figure of your character using 3D printers. Yoshida: Not that we couldn't do 3D printers, but we're just now starting to put out a lot of FFXIV goods and we'll continue putting out a variety in the future. Overseas MMOs do things like make figures modeled off user's characters in partnership with a figure maker, not a 3D printer, and that seems to work well. It's something we might look into some day but that's probably pretty far off. I expected that. Would you even be able to output the data from the game for a 3D printer? It would be cool if players could take a pose of their characters and get it ordered and manufactured on their own. Yoshida: For FFXIV, it might be difficult because the modeling is quite complex. We'd have to have a way to export the dedicated data, and right now it's not something we're looking into. Well, that's something I think players hope to see someday. Also while we're on tech talk, what do you think about the game's relationship with VR, like PlayStation VR? Yoshida: It's very cool and very interesting to experience, but it seems difficult to justify from a business perspective for an online game like FFXIV. Of course it would be tough to use somewhere like in end-game content, but we got some feedback that it would be cool just to look at their characters in FFXIV. Yoshida: Well, it's possible we could make it (laughs). I think we'd have to charge separately for it. It would take a lot of work to increase the framerate to the point where it would be workable, you need to fix it to at least 60 FPS so you don't feel like you're drunk. How was it at TGS 2015 where you showed the Titan primal battle on VR? Yoshida: Even though FFXIV is multiplayer, the original framerate of the game is variable, but we had to fix it to 60 FPS. It would actually be better if we could raise that up to 120 FPS, but that would have taken a lot of work that we didn't have time for. So it's necessary to do extra work for VR. Yoshida: We could prepare a place like the Hall of VR. To enter the Hall of VR, please pay a separate monthly fee (laughs). Players might do that for VR Miqo'te. Yoshida: But if you want to call your favorite Miqo'te, it requires a separate nominal fee (laughs). No, that sounds like a completely different shop (laughs). Yoshida: All jokes aside, though, when I think about what I'm trying to achieve with a MMORPG, it's not all about the business. But we wouldn't be able to provide some VR-exclusive fun without a reasonable associated cost. If players are OK with this, we may look into it. So it could happen if you get a lot of desire for it. Yoshida: That's right. It sounds pretty tough, but I think it would be fun. Yoshida: The experience is definitely awesome, but it's still tough. Of course, I'm not flat out rejecting VR as third party manufacturers have invested a huge amount into the tech. That's why we tried it with FFXIV (at TGS) to see how the gaming experience changes in VR. It's actually been created now, but it's still a few years ahead of its time. Yoshida: Yeah. Right now, I think it offers the kind of experience that you might pay 500 yen to play once. If these were put out in game centers for everyone to enjoy, I think gamers would willingly pay to try out these games. Catching up as an ex-FFXIV player We received a lot of questions from people who haven't yet played the game but had read our review about how to catch up if they start right now. Another group of readers seems to have stopped along the way and is asking about how they should catch up, but I think that may be a slightly different answer. Yoshida: As one of the main features in FFXIV, the story is probably the easiest way of quickly catching up by raising the level of one of your jobs as you move through the scenario. Additionally, you should be able to quickly catch up your equipment strength with item level until you get close to the forefront of what's available. When Heavensward (patch 3.0) was released, the experience value for quests in A Realm Reborn (patch 2.X series) was increased to enable players to reach Ishgard more quickly. How quickly do you think players can get to Ishgard? Yoshida: It's still about the length of a stand-alone RPG. It should take about 18 hours to get through A Realm Reborn to level 50, and then about 10 hours to get through patches 2.1 to 2.55. As the quest rewards from those will bring you up to item level 115, you'll then be immediately ready for Ishgard. So you can get to Ishgard in about 30 hours, about two weeks if you play 2 or 3 hours a day. Well, that's assuming you don't mess around with any other classes like gathering or crafting. Yoshida: From that point, I think it's about another 20-30 hours to get through the story of Ishgard and catch up to the latest story. And then even longer to start collecting Law and Esoterics to get through the latest equipment and battles. Yoshida: It should take about 10 hours after you hit level 60 to obtain equipment which would allow you to get to the higher end of the battle content, so if you're interested in playing, I really would not worry too much about how long it takes to get started. If you say MMORPG, I think people think about EverQuest or FFXI where you spend a lot of time growing your character. This is a bit different for an online game where you can so quickly level up and catch up to the forefront. Yoshida: Yes, we try to carefully keep that in mind. Of course, you'll also see some comments on the web indicating that things can be a bit strained... Ah... (laughs) Yoshida: People and communication are a big part of online games so there will be those situations. It's definitely not the norm though, and I think it will happen less frequently as people realize that it's a game for everyone. Hopefully the more senior warriors of light are friendly to beginners and can support them in getting into the game. For example new players get the wakaba [[young leaves]] mark (icon which indicates play time of the character is less than 40 hours) which will hopefully indicate to other players to be gentle, so please come to join us in FFXIV. Somehow, that feels like a good place to wrap up (laughs). There are still plenty of questions that we'd like to ask you, but we've spent a ton of time, so thanks very much! [Questions which were of a more opinionated or demanding nature (for example "add more Roegadyn to the main quest," "the UI is small on a 4K display," etc.) were not asked in this interview but were passed along to Square Enix, including some of the more harshly worded ones. There were also some questions which were not answered by the company as they are planned for future announcements.]

An objective examination of the lore we have been given reveals, frankly, very, very few instances of " can not be done; not by anyone by any means ever." When it comes to shutting doors on (let's call them "creative") ideas, the biases of the community factor in significantly more than any established lore. My favorite example: in some thread a while back (I don't remember which specific one) someone brought up the existence of vampires in Eorzea. This was followed by citations of various item descriptions that alluded to numerous common vampire myths (turning into bats, drinking blood etc.) that would be known to Eorzeans. Posters elected to completely ignore all the information (going as far as to say none of it was "real" lore) presented in order to maintain their position that vampires could not possibly exist in Eorzea. The thread also devolved into people calling the OP a troll after a few people insisted that the concept was impossible because, stated as a fact by a few players, there are no vampires. The thread completely started with "how is your character not OP and you should RP it this way but not call yourself a vampire." After bits of lore were posted supporting the mythos people also latched on to talking about how thowe bits were flavor text and thus not to be used. When I say devolved, it was the typical behavior of deliberately trying to close the thread because people thought it "stupid" and thus they must constantly assert that it is a stupid idea, by reacting in behavior that I find to be immature. Derailment, meme posting, no effort posts. I would say that while this thread involved some of what I do consider to be unacceptable behaviors, I do not think it is the norm of the overall RPC. It is done by a loud and vocal minority.

I am just a Hat. Featuring Unegen and Sukbaator. "That swiving whoreson." "Hi friends! Hmm?" "Oh Twelve."

While I agree that some posts and posters of the "you shouldn't RP this" go far and beyond, I believe that for the most part people are quite polite and that they are only giving a forewarning for caution. It sounds like you disagree so my question is, what do you believe people should do? I do not believe that everyone should and need to RP with everyone. I believe that if you do dislike it and someone comes up to you asking what the response may be like that you should express it. If everyone is just fine with the reactions and are happy to RP X Y and Z in their own group, I believe everyone else should quietly grumble that they do not like it and will not engage and then -stop-. If a new roleplayer comes with something most people will not want to roleplay with, what is your suggestion? Should we then be silent and watch as possible other threads are made about "why won't someone roleplay with me?" Or should we say, "Here's some things in the game I believe can support your idea. Not everyone will like it but I'm sure there will be someone who does and some people may not roleplay it. If you are fine with this, go for it!" At least then, they won't be without a clue. If your response is that everyone should welcome that idea and roleplay with it, I vehemently disagree with you. Edit: Also your idea of PVEr vs RPer is, in my opinion, ridiculous. Most of shout is a trollfest shitstorm. Through all that, I raided through 2.55, beating T13 before it was unlocked into Duty Finder. For my early raiding, I raided with a great group of people in an RP FC (to T7). After that I raided almost exclusively with just PVE FCs and groups. None of them gave a shit's arse about RPers.

*clambers onto Franz's shoulders, shoving the highlander's head and arms down a little and waves own arms* Meeee? ?

Doubtful. They want to populate existing servers rather than encourage people to migrate away. It's much more cost efficient to spread numbers around. And while I think they should consider server merges, it's horrible PR. The unfortunate fact is RP doesn't matter to Square. They look at Balmung not as a RP hud, but just another large server. There isn't a reason to expand it anymore than expanding Gilgamesh because it's the unofficial raid server these days. That, and I'm too much a cynic to deny they're not complaining over the transfer fees we all pay to get our RP fixes. >.> Honestly they're more likely to just separate Gilgamesh and Balmung into different data centers than they are to expand servers. As you said, they want people to populate the existing servers. Not to mention how horribly fucked up Aether Data Center gets when -everyone- is wanting to play. *cough*Heavensward launch*cough* The thing is, no one really wants to be the pioneer. If someone is going to move they're more likely to want to move to a place with things established.

Identities were confirmed.

There's a lodestone post about it now! http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/456dea76c7ce5070c67ebcc9cd2368af25b371ea Release date 02/24/2016 (for all regions??), over 60 tracks through Patch 3.1 Bonus Movies Bonus Footage 1: Heavensward trailer (2ch / 5.1ch) Bonus Footage 2: Documentary footage featuring game music creation with Masayoshi Soken Bonus Tracks - Full-orchestra recordings of "Torn from the Heavens" and "A New Hope" are included as a special bonus! As mentioned before, SPOONY BARD.

I've been sorta curious to know.. I'm not in law enforcement of course but as I understand it the case was turned over to the Homicide Unit a week or two after she was reported missing. ... How come it took 20 days for them to find bodies in the -missing persons' house-? Did the relocation of her vehicle actually do that well in throwing police onto a different trail?

Kellach's post follows up on my post meaning that BEFORE DEC 25 2015, there weren't any credible or infallible sources that said people could be reported and warned. The OP image can be, it can not be, a troll image. I will never know since /tell conversations can be faked. Here, I was actually conversing with osric. I was faking a conversation with Ilwe as Ilwe was in Saint Mocianne Arboretum. Ilwe could not have possibly have sent me that tell and I could not have sent Ilwe the tell. After Christmas aka after a bunch of people reported RareX for their trolling PF with sales, the monday morning (NA time) there were then reports of people getting warnings as I've recorded here (on Page 4) So far head GM has not posted on the official forums.