Live Letter XLI Master Discussion Thread

[Maril]

For all of your reactions to the live letter. 

Official translation thread here:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/356388-Letter-from-the-Producer-LIVE-Part-XLI-Update-Thread

 

What're you guys most excited over? Do you think the housing implementations will help the problem?

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I do think the housing changes will help, but it's ultimately going to depend on what's going to happen to people who currently own more than the maximum at this time. Or their alt's houses.

 

If SE chooses to let people keep what they've already payed for, then I don't see too much of a change happening. It'll just push people to buy/sell FCs since house flipping will be impossible.

 

If SE chooses to take away all the extras, they're gonna incite the rage of a LOT of players. Especially ones who own a house on every alt and the like. While I do think this would be the better choice in the long-run, the PR from it could be pretty disastrous. How will players be able to choose which houses they want to keep? Will they be refunded for reclaimed houses? Etc.

 

--

 

The battle system changes are welcome, but I don't foresee it affecting my playing too much.

 

I am excited to try out the new raid with some friends. (Probably like....once. Maybe on the rare occasion after because I can't handle the weekly grind.)

[Kieron Lohengrin]

it yo boi kefka

 

[video=youtube]

[Gegenji]

it yo boi kefka

 

[wordless scream of excitement]

 

It mah boi. He here.

[Aoi Fukiku]

I do think the housing changes will help, but it's ultimately going to depend on what's going to happen to people who currently own more than the maximum at this time. Or their alt's houses.

 

If SE chooses to let people keep what they've already payed for, then I don't see too much of a change happening. It'll just push people to buy/sell FCs since house flipping will be impossible.

 

If SE chooses to take away all the extras, they're gonna incite the rage of a LOT of players. Especially ones who own a house on every alt and the like. While I do think this would be the better choice in the long-run, the PR from it could be pretty disastrous. How will players be able to choose which houses they want to keep? Will they be refunded for reclaimed houses? Etc.

 

--

 

The battle system changes are welcome, but I don't foresee it affecting my playing too much.

 

I am excited to try out the new raid with some friends. (Probably like....once. Maybe on the rare occasion after because I can't handle the weekly grind.)

SE doesn't have the best track record of just thinking everything through. I foresee those with multiple houses being sent an email about the issue and perhaps they need to choose which one they want to keep. I'm sure the people who want to hoard an entire ward are going to be pissed but in the end the outcome may be best for the customer base. A few grumpy house hoarders verse people finally able to try and get a house a bit more fairly and not having to deal with the house flippers and pay 30mil for a house that is only supposed to be 3-4 mil to buy.

 

I truly do hope they don't grandfather in the current mass house owners. It would still be unfair to the base in general for them to hold on to it and more then likely; they'll flaunt it. (I mean, the guy in the lavender beds has his plot placards saying 'Hey look, I own this house too!' all over)

[Nero]

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that Square is very "one steps forward, two steps back". In short, they'll find some way to fuck it up.

 

The easiest way would be to give players who own multiple homes days to designate which home they'd like to keep, then reimbursing the gil cost and demolishing during a maintenance period. The fact that that's the most sensible option has me skeptical that that'll be the way SE does the reclamation.

 

Although, the schadenfreude part of me will be truly delighted at the salt being passed around.

 

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about Omega basically being "Let's recycle old Final Fantasy content". I mean, Binding Coil and Alexander had original stories, whereas the plot of Omega is almost word-for-word, "fight all these old Final Fantasy bosses". As a franchise, I know Final Fantasy has a tradition of reinventing and reusing older concepts, enemies, and bosses, but this is straight-up copy-pasting!

[ExAtomos]

I have some real concern over this bit:

 

Players will be permitted to own only one private and one free company estate per World per service account.

 

For example:

If you have two characters (character A and B) on one World, and A is enlisted in a free company which owns an estate, then B will not be able to purchase a free company estate.

 

Further details will be announced on a special site which will be released later.

Owning a room in an apartment won't be considered as owning an estate, so you may purchase without any concerns.

 

Most of my FC is composed of folks' alts. Does this mean if they want an FC house on their mains that they'll have to leave? I can understand FC leaders being restricted, but just members?

 

Also, "Owning a room in an apartment won't be considered as owning an estate" makes no sense. You can own an apartment (which doesn't have rooms) or you can own a room in an FC house (which negates the bit about being "enlisted" in an FC with a house.) Unfortunately, I can't post to the OF to request clarification. I'm aware there will be a website available soon. I just hope it makes things clearer.

[Wemrys]

I have some real concern over this bit:

 

Players will be permitted to own only one private and one free company estate per World per service account.

 

For example:

If you have two characters (character A and B) on one World, and A is enlisted in a free company which owns an estate, then B will not be able to purchase a free company estate.

 

Further details will be announced on a special site which will be released later.

Owning a room in an apartment won't be considered as owning an estate, so you may purchase without any concerns.

 

Most of my FC is composed of folks' alts. Does this mean if they want an FC house on their mains that they'll have to leave? I can understand FC leaders being restricted, but just members?

 

Also, "Owning a room in an apartment won't be considered as owning an estate" makes no sense. You can own an apartment (which doesn't have rooms) or you can own a room in an FC house (which negates the bit about being "enlisted" in an FC with a house.) Unfortunately, I can't post to the OF to request clarification. I'm aware there will be a website available soon. I just hope it makes things clearer.

 

I believe the last bit is a typo. "Owning a room or an apartment" makes more sense since it refers to private chambers (i.e. a room) and apartments separately.

 

As for your first question...that what it's seeming like. It makes perfect sense for them to do that as an extra precaution against people with multiple alts on the same account starting up new FCs just to buy houses. This is how house flippers on big FCs with loads of funds would get their hands on so many houses...they'd buddy up and build shell FCs up just to buy up land. With this restriction in place it requires a whole new account to do the same thing which means rebuying the game, starting a sub, etc or trusting someone not in your group to do the same thing for you.

[Teadrinker]

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about Omega basically being "Let's recycle old Final Fantasy content". I mean, Binding Coil and Alexander had original stories, whereas the plot of Omega is almost word-for-word, "fight all these old Final Fantasy bosses". As a franchise, I know Final Fantasy has a tradition of reinventing and reusing older concepts, enemies, and bosses, but this is straight-up copy-pasting!

 

Every villain or character that gets recycled in this fashion just means that we won't be able to see their like used in the actual plot of FFXIV which I find regrettable especially because a lot of the characters introduced in recent patches are very forgettable. Like the kid who takes you to Ivalice. What even was his name, idk. Or the one in the village in the MSQ? Forgot him too.

 

It's weird. With Heavensward I felt like the world was this constantly churning, fluid mass and I was always greatly anticipating the next patch and the MSQ and wanted to see what would happen to the characters and Stormblood is very....I can barely even stay tuned tbh.

 

Also, from the trailer, I feel like this is pretty much going to be like Star Trek VI and all our characters are going to sit around the table and discuss making nicenice with the Garleans. Except this version lacks the interest and complexity of a character actually being against the proceedings.

 

Tbh most interesting thing I saw was Krile possibly discussing the Isle of Val. Give me more of that pls.

[Dravus]

I have mixed feelings about Kefka. I'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy VI - though given the way that the Omega storyline works it means we'll no doubt get a cool, theatrical fight against him just like we had a cool, theatrical fight against ExDeath.

 

Yet their impact on the overall plot will be minimal and likely ignored outside of the little bubble that raid side stories take place in. Coil, at least, was actively tied to the overall story. As much as I appreciate references to previous titles and doses of nostalgia we're getting that in spades with both raid storylines this time around.

[Kieron Lohengrin]

The "kid who takes you to Ivalice" is Ramza, protagonist of FF Tactics. The XIV versions of him and his sister Alma are Garlean citizens. Them, their dad and the Prima Vista crew are a continuation of Cid's story thread that the Empire isn't a big unified monolith and some of its own people are pretty sick of it.

 

The game is still structured like a classic Final Fantasy title: raids are optional superboss sidequests for better gear. They may or may not impact the MSQ directly, but they certainly have greater implications for the setting, such as time travel in Alexander and how Voidsent used to be people.

[Valence]

I don't understand why they're buffing warrior.

 

SMN deserved their AoE nerf.

 

I do think the housing changes will help, but it's ultimately going to depend on what's going to happen to people who currently own more than the maximum at this time. Or their alt's houses.

 

If SE chooses to let people keep what they've already payed for, then I don't see too much of a change happening. It'll just push people to buy/sell FCs since house flipping will be impossible.

 

If SE chooses to take away all the extras, they're gonna incite the rage of a LOT of players. Especially ones who own a house on every alt and the like. While I do think this would be the better choice in the long-run, the PR from it could be pretty disastrous. How will players be able to choose which houses they want to keep? Will they be refunded for reclaimed houses? Etc.

 

I've always felt that house hoarders have been the convenient scapegoat for players to bring out their pitchforks and torches. While I don't really like multiple house owning or anything, I feel that while they prove not to make the system feel any better right now for sure, that they are actually probably a minority, a drop in the ocean of players just trying to get one single house.

 

Maybe I'm wrong though. I don't have numbers.

 

Anyway, I'm happy about their changes, but if they decide to tell every player exceeding their new criteria to get rid of their extras, that would be pretty shitty, even with a partial reimbursement. You don't tell people they can do something to change that later and tell them "actually nope lol".

 

I don't see SE doing that anyway. Just let the issue disappear over time...

 

I have some real concern over this bit:

 

   Players will be permitted to own only one private and one free company estate per World per service account.

 

   For example:

   If you have two characters (character A and B) on one World, and A is enlisted in a free company which owns an estate, then B will not be able to purchase a free company estate.

 

   Further details will be announced on a special site which will be released later.

   Owning a room in an apartment won't be considered as owning an estate, so you may purchase without any concerns.

 

Most of my FC is composed of folks' alts. Does this mean if they want an FC house on their mains that they'll have to leave? I can understand FC leaders being restricted, but just members?

 

I don't really see the problem. FC housing is a house shared by all members that benefit from its exclusive content. You already benefit from a FC house even if it's not yours. Why would you need to buy another one on another character? That's already verging on house hoarding.

[Valence]

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about Omega basically being "Let's recycle old Final Fantasy content". I mean, Binding Coil and Alexander had original stories, whereas the plot of Omega is almost word-for-word, "fight all these old Final Fantasy bosses". As a franchise, I know Final Fantasy has a tradition of reinventing and reusing older concepts, enemies, and bosses, but this is straight-up copy-pasting!

 

Every villain or character that gets recycled in this fashion just means that we won't be able to see their like used in the actual plot of FFXIV which I find regrettable especially because a lot of the characters introduced in recent patches are very forgettable. Like the kid who takes you to Ivalice. What even was his name, idk. Or the one in the village in the MSQ? Forgot him too.

 

It's weird. With Heavensward I felt like the world was this constantly churning, fluid mass and I was always greatly anticipating the next patch and the MSQ and wanted to see what would happen to the characters and Stormblood is very....I can barely even stay tuned tbh.

 

Also, from the trailer, I feel like this is pretty much going to be like Star Trek VI and all our characters are going to sit around the table and discuss making nicenice with the Garleans. Except this version lacks the interest and complexity of a character actually being against the proceedings.

 

Tbh most interesting thing I saw was Krile possibly discussing the Isle of Val. Give me more of that pls.

 

Yeah I'm in the side that is far from impressed with the Omega raids. To be honest, I wasn't either with Alex until the last tier where the story really kicks up, but at least Alex had a unique atmosphere and neat steampunk aesthetics. Omega looks awful in comparison and just re uses old FF stuff without even trying to insert it into a ff14 story (and I hate alpha, who thought a disney styled character would have its place here anyway... at least Nero is awesome).

 

As for the characters of the main story, be it ARR, HW or SB, they feel bland and uninteresting to me. I've never felt that characters were the forte of the writing team for ffxiv (or ff12), unlike other FF titles. The only characters I love are their villains (Gaius, Nael, Nero, Thordan... not fucking Zenos though). I think though, that world building is their strong suit. The world of Eorzea took me time to get into because it just looked like a mishmash of various fantasy things, but when you really get into it you can see the depth it has. And I feel that SB added a huge deal on top of that by giving us a lot of info either through the MSQ/sidequests or jobquests.

[Kieron Lohengrin]

who thought a disney styled character would have its place here anyway

 

that would be square

 

 

 

 

Given its popularity and status as squeenix's bread and butter, it doesn't surprise me that XIV is now even more of an FF greatest hits album that it already previously was. Same principle from Record Keeper, Dissidia, and Brave Exvius - nostalgia and homages sell well.

 

We know that Yasumi Matsuno is lead dev for the Ivalice raids and that the FF15 collab is still happening in the future. If Yoshi-P can have his team whip up a canon questline to explain away Yokai and Yokai watches of all things in the setting, then no cross-promo is off limits, regardless of whether it's grimdark or cute ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Graff Lacroix]

Gonna have to disagree with you on Omega - at least in regards to the concept. To me, Final Fantasy has always been a "Kitchen Sink High Fantasy" setting with sci-fi elements in the mix. To my mind, the difference between "Fantasy" and "Sci-Fi" isn't tech level, it's reliable mass-production.

 

Gameplay-wise, I'm not a big fan of boss fights. Perhaps fighting our way through the virtual realm on the way to an arena simulation

 

I'd like it if the cyberpunk aesthetics of the omega realm and more info about the creators of Omega were more present in future installments.

 

As for the "Housing Crisis," my mindset is that FC housing should be in neighborhoods but Player housing should be instanced. According to some people I know, the way Squenix is handling the whole thing from a programming standpoint is broken.

[Valence]

What I like with Omega is the battle royale / death tournament idea behind.

 

As for the "Housing Crisis," my mindset is that FC housing should be in neighborhoods but Player housing should be instanced.

 

I tend to agree with that.

[Graff Lacroix]

So, I found a post by the people who own an entire ward on Mateus in defense of their choice.

 

https://seraphaltima.tumblr.com/

 

I've reblogged and written my own thoughts on this issue. I too am an old Mateus player and understand their anger at how Balmung effects all the other servers.  I also get that the Mateus RP community invited the new players with open arms. But what about everyone else on the server? All the Old Mateus players who weren't RPers? Because, honestly, until RP blew up on this server, I wasn't that interested in it. Hell, I still don't know how to turn rp tags on or off.

 

Ultimately, blame should be placed where it belongs. On Squenix and how they choose to mishandle things, not on the newcomers who are just as subject to their bad decision making as old Mateus players.

 

I actually lost my house to a rule change once (demolishing) that was implemented across the board rather than on servers where it was necessary. There was still plenty of space avaliable, but no gil. Since then, I've been a bit gunshy about buying anything more than an apartment. What if I need to take another extended Hiatus? I can recoup a scrapped Apartment, but not a house.