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Letter from the producer XI! - 06/15/2011 Letter from the Producer, XI (06/14/2011)
"Hello again, all fans of FINAL FANTASY XIV!
June has arrived at the speed of light, bringing with it warmer days. But outside isn’t the only place where the mercury’s rising. Things are also heating up here on the team, on both development and—*gulp*—scheduling fronts. We’ve reached a crucial stage of work on 1.18, and as promised in my previous letter, today I’m going to give you a progress report on auto-attack.
Now, if a picture paints a thousand words, a video should paint several times that and then some. So before I launch into the main body of this missive, I’d like everyone to check out the video of auto-attack I’ve (had) prepared. Please keep in mind that this content is still under testing, and is subject to change. I repeat, this is a video of content under development!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGmUoY7Gqzc
I’ll release all the juicy particulars closer to the release date, but for now here’s a rough sketch of the changes that are in the pipes, organized into bullet points.
Auto-attack functionality will be prioritized in 1.18.
Attack motion diversification and fine-tuning are planned for 1.19.
Battle classes only will receive auto-attack.
The stamina gauge will be abolished with the introduction of auto-attack.
Recast timers will be adjusted for certain actions obtained via quests and guild marks whose action costs were managed solely through the stamina gauge.
Certain actions dependent on the stamina gauge will have their effects adjusted.
Characters will be made able to switch between passive and active modes while moving.
Multiple attacks during auto-attack is also being planned for the future.
In implementing auto-attack in 1.18, we’ll also need to make major revisions to enmity algorithms, tweak the motion of certain actions (as seen in the above video), and also rebalance a handful of them—just to list a few battle-related items. It goes without saying that all these will require a great deal of testing. Please pray with me that our lead battle planner Akihiko Matsui doesn’t collapse from exhaustion. */pray*
To touch on some other items under development, I’m happy to say that work on one raid area is complete, with the second hot on its heels. We just need to secure enough time for testing and optimizing balance…which, I’m afraid, will push the patch behind schedule. I’m very sorry for this, but given the tremendous size of the patch, I estimate that it’ll take two more weeks beyond the anticipated mid/late-June release date to deliver it to our fans. I promise you, though, that the extra time in development will be meaningful. The FINAL FANTASY XIV team is resolute as ever in its mission to bring about great and positive changes to Eorzea, and we ask for your continued understanding.
1.18 is promising to be a heavyweight among patches, and we expect to have plenty of details to share with you in the weeks leading up to release. Please bear with us in the meantime.
Thanks for reading! Catch you next time and/or on the forums!  "
- Tsuchi Revuria 1.17 Patch Notes - 04/15/2011 Patch 1.17 Notes
Event
[dev1004] Upon meeting the objectives of a main scenario or class quest, an exclamation point (!) icon will appear over the NPC offering the quest. An exclamation point icon will also appear over the heads of NPCs with whom a player must speak to advance a quest.
[dev1004] Objectives for several quests have been adjusted.
Party members who are KO'd now receive credit for defeated enemies.
Party members KO'd in battle while on a quest are now automatically revived after the battle is won.
[dev1004] Distinguishing icons are now displayed next to the names of quest-related NPCs. Target enemies of quests are now represented on the minimap by red dots.
[dev1002][dev1003] New sidequests have been added.
[dev1051] Class requirements for undertaking several quests have been adjusted.
[dev1011] The rate and amount of guild tokens that can be obtained on local levequests have been adjusted.
[dev1021] The following changes have been made to behests.
The maximum number of participants has been reduced from 15 to 8.
The behest reset timer has been reduced from 1 hour to 30 minutes.
The period during which behests may be undertaken has been reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
The period during which behests must be completed has been reduced from 30 minutes to 20 minutes.
The period during which rewards can be claimed upon completion of a behest has been reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.
The number of behest enemies has been adjusted.
Battle
[dev1031] New notorious monsters have been added.
[dev1030] Enemy distribuion has been adjusted in the following areas:
Lower La Noscea
Western La Noscea
Eastern La Noscea
Central Thanalan
Eastern Thanalan
Western Thanalan
Central Shroud
North Shroud
South Shroud
[dev1049] Several of the actions and motions of the following enemies have been adjusted:
Magicked Bones, Skeleton Soldier, Skeleton Swordbearer, Wandering Wight, Wendigo, Wight, Wight Warrior
[dev1050] The Misdirection ability of the following enemies now deals no damage to players:
Kokoroon Quickfingers, Longnose Gnognoroon, Qiqirn Beater, Qiqirn Egg Hunter, Qiqirn Eggnapper, Qiqirn Goon, Qiqirn Mercenary, Qiqirn Poacher, Qiqirn Scrambler
[dev1020] The maximum number of party members has been reduced from 15 to 8.
The strength of several notorious monsters has been adjusted to coincide with this.
[dev1020] Players now receive enhancing status effects when in a light party (4–7 members) or full party (8 members).
Comradery (light party)
Maximum HP and MP increased by 5%
Physical and magic accuracy increased by 5%
Strength in Numbers (full party)
Maximum HP and MP increased by 10%
Physical and magic accuracy increased by 10%
[dev1037] Graphic effects of actions and spells have been enlarged by a factor of between 1.5 to 2 times their original size.
Item
[dev1038] New items have been added.
Several new pieces of class-specific gear have been added.
* Classes capable of equipping these items are listed after a Requires: prefix in the item text.
[dev1041] The rate at which the condition of accessories degrades has been reduced depending on the amount of other gear equipped.
[dev1042] Messages informing players of items obtained through gathering now display the item's icon next to its name.
[dev1039] When the three below conditions are met in regards to the grade and difficulty of a gathering attempt, the "sweet spot" of the approach phase will be in a fixed location.
1. Class rank
2. Values of VIT for miners, STR for botanists, and DEX for fishers
3. Bait and lures (for fishing only)
ex.) At a certain grade and difficulty, having the appropriate rank, DEX value, and bait/lure will ensure that jigging the rod precisely in the middle will result in a black eel hit.
System
[dev1043] The following UI features have been enlarged:
Player HP/MP/TP gauges
Target HP gauges
Party member HP/MP gauges
[dev1052] The text designations through can now be used to select targets.
[dev1044] The text command /hpbar has been added, and can be used to toggle the display of HP bars on and off for all targets capable of engaging in combat.
USAGE: /hpbar [subcommand]
>>Subcommands:
all Display HP bars for all enemies and players.
off Hide HP bars for enemies and players.
* This option is set to off by default.
[dev1045] The text command /enemyrank (/erank) has been added, and can be used to toggle display names on and off for enemies.
As part of this new feature, the icons previously used to display an enemy's strength have been removed from the game.
USAGE: /enemyrank [subcommand]
>>Subcommands:
on Display enemy ranks.
off Hide enemy ranks.
Toggle between on and off when no subcommand is specified.
* This option is set to off by default.
[dev1040] The text command /enemyicon (/eicon) has been added, and can be used to toggle the display of active and non-active icons for enemies.
USAGE: /enemyicon [subcommand]
>>Subcommands:
on Display active (red) and non-active (green) icons.
off Hide active (red) and non-active (green) icons.
Toggle between on and off when no subcommand is specified.
* This option is set to off by default.
[dev1020] Party Member 5–7 options have been added to the Keyboard section under main menu » Configuration.
[dev1020] The following features have been removed to coincide with the new maximum party size:
Party recruitment settings for 9 or more members
Text macros through
[dev1053] [dev1053] The following items now display on both the world map and minimap.
Shop
Repair
Guildleve Counter
Linkshell Manager
Retainer Counter
Summoning Bell
Guild Mark Exchange
[dev1046] Retainer locations are now saved even following server maintenance.
[dev1029] Character collision with relatively low-lying outdoor elements has been removed.
[dev1054] Rocks in front of the Adventurers' Guild in Gridania and next to the NPC Maisenta have been removed from the game.
[dev1047] Battle music now cuts in and out, rather than fading in and out.
[dev1048] Current patch version information is now displayed on the title screen.
Fixed Bugs
The following bugs have been addressed.
A bug wherein the target popoto-opotos on the sidequest "A Well-Balanced Diet" were appearing in an incorrect location.
A bug wherein the enmity generated when using healing, enhancing, or enfeebling actions against an enemy of a rank different than your own was incorrect.
A bug wherein characters were sometimes too easily resisting the status ailments caused by enemy spells.
A bug wherein the condition of Pugilist Arms was degrading at an incorrect rate under certain circumstances.
A bug wherein characters were getting stuck among the thick trees and dense vegetation of certain areas, making further adventuring impossible.
A bug wherein the icons next to player names were displaying incorrectly.
A bug wherein the teleport offer prompt that appears when other party members teleport would not disappear, even after accepting or refusing.
A bug wherein discarding a stack of items numbering between 201 and 230 caused the game client to crash.
A bug wherein a player's current gil was not displayed when leasing a market stand.
A bug wherein blacklists were sometimes displaying incorrectly.
A bug wherein negative stats of gear were not functioning correctly.
A bug wherein mashing the Accept/Confirm button on a gamepad while crafting for a local levequest would forgo the synthesis details interface, and prevent all game commands other than chat.
Known Bugs
A bug wherein party member markers on the world map and minimap sometimes shift abruptly to the lower right portion of said map.
- Tsuchi Revuria Grand Companies & New Notorious Monsters! - 04/14/2011 Fresh off the SquareEnix press, we've got two significant additions beginning with patch 1.17 which goes live today, April the 14th!
One such addition is the implementation of a plethora of new Notorious Monsters (NMs), which for those unfamiliar with NMs in the past are rare mobs that spawn under different conditions who typically yield rare, valuable, and powerful drops.
Here's an image pulled directly from the FFXIV Lodestone site which showcases a bunch of the new NMs.
See the official announcement on the FFXIV Lodestone for the full lowdown!
And it doesn't stop there! SquareEnix has unveiled their Grand Companies, which from our understanding will open up a whole new line of quests for each nation.
Those from Limsa Lominsa will fall under 'The Maelstrom', Gridanian residents will be under 'The Order of the Twin Adder', and Ul'dahn folk will hail to 'The Immortal Flames'
I'll direct you to the official Grand Companies announcement page seeing as there is a lot of lore on the official site.
- Tsuchi Revuria SquareEnix News - 04/13/2011 Patch 1.17 Outline (04/12/2011)
As promised in the seventh Letter from the Producer, we are happy to announce that patch 1.17 is on schedule for release in a matter of days.
◆ Patch 1.17 Release Date
Thursday, April 14, 2011 (following server maintenance)
◆ Patch 1.17 Maintenance Time
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (EST)
The following is a brief outline of the planned changes:
◆ Patch Outline
[dev1002] [dev1003] The implementation of new sidequests
[dev1011] The balancing of guildleve rewards
[dev1020] Adjustments and additions to the party system
Maximum party size has been reduced to 8 members.
-Parties with 4 to 7 members are now called "light parties."
-Parties with 8 members are called "full parties."
-Special status enhancements will be granted to light and full parties. (Changes to party member display UI still under consideration.)
[dev1021] Adjustments to battle content in conjunction with the new party system
Adjustments to behest difficulty and bonuses to accommodate new full party size of 8 members.
Adjustments to the behest schedule.
[dev1029] Adjustments to environment collision detection
[dev1030] Adjustments to enemy distribution
[dev1031] The addition of new notorious monsters
[dev1038] The implementation of new equipment and items
[dev1039] The reduction of randomness affecting the approach phase in gathering
[dev1040] Adjustments and additions to active icons
A more detailed report can be found in the 1.17 patch notes, scheduled for release on April 14.
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And from the forums I have picked out a few tidbits of information that I thought were worthy of bringing here to our attention:
From the Letter from the producer VIII;
"To sum up, we’re updating those aspects of the game whose priority is high, and which can be updated relatively easily, while more radical and profound changes, such as those revolving around latency, auto-attack, battle, the Armoury system, the job system, dungeons, movement, modes of transport—these are currently under development on their own, completely independent schedules."
Yoshi-P goes on to say that he dropped that bit about the new job system by accident and he will add more onto that subject at a later time.
There is also mention that we will be seeing Grand Companies arising very, very soon, with some of their start-up content releasing in patch 1.17.
Elsewhere on the forums there is discussion by the public relations reps that the dev team is discussing the removal of the accessory slot restrictions.
They are also discussing adjustments to the fatigue system, and then one of the more intriguing adjustments I saw on the forums was the addition of a 2 hour (ultimate) ability to every job class.
All of which should prove to be interesting. ^^
Quick Ninja Edit here, just wanted to bring attention to the fact that Yoshi-P came back with the following on the forums:
"the team will do their best to introduce missing genders alongside the launch of the PS3 version."
Missing genders of course being Miqo'te male and Roegadyn female. ^^;;
- Tsuchi Revuria April, 2011. - 04/13/2011 Hello, hello, everyone!
Welcome to the brand new and oh-so shiny Project Zodiac linkshell website!
A couple things to note about the site before I continue on about in-game stuff.
First off, a big round of applause to HitmanN for his epic work once again. He has been working so diligently to have this site suitable for our needs. ^^
We have removed the forum for obvious reasons. For those not too sure, we already communicate fairly consistently enough on Ventrilo, in-game, and via BBM which renders a full forum nearly irrelevant.
For a full low-down on linkshell events and news related to our needs, they will be posted here on this very page.
Next, in the members section you will now find a section with our linkshell's characters, and on each character's page you will find their race, stats, ranks, etc. Essentially everything that we wanted.
Our links section will have URLs to affiliates and useful sites that we have found to be useful or interesting.
All that aside, let's begin with the leve reset schedule.
The following example shows how our leve schedules will be laid out:
04/13/N: 8:00pm EST (45 G/T) BW+HT
What this means is, the leves that reset on April 13th. (The N will indicate a Night reset, where as D will indicate a Day reset)
The 45 G/T will mean that we are leveling in the 45 range (give or take)
And obviously, BW+HT would indicate Camp Broken Water and Halatali.
Leve Schedule, April 2011
04/13/N: 9:30pm EST (42 G/T) BW+HT
04/15/D: 9:30pm EST (43 G/T) BW+HT
04/16/N: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/18/D: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/19/N: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/21/D: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/22/N: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/24/D: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/25/N: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/27/D: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/28/N: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
04/30/D: -:--na EST (-- G/T) NA+NA
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This past week...
So, although there is not a whole lot of content in the game at the moment, there have been some accomplishments in our linkshell this past week.
Everyone congratulate Sophie Altney & Gryphus Taichou on their new Harlequin's Actons!
And Dublino Spader obtained his Buccaneer's Shirt!
And last but not least, I, Tsuchi Revuria obtained a much desired Templar's Haubergeon.
- Tsuchi Revuria
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