[Varizen]

Today marks the beginning of a new series of posts from FINAL FANTASY XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida.

This first post will contain the results of the recent player's poll, as well as a thorough examination of forthcoming changes to the game.

Read the entire letter.

[Varizen]

Greetings adventurers! I hope you are all enjoying your time in Eorzea.

Well, after a brief spell of users on Japan's most frequented forum referring to me as "The Duck," I'm happy to say things have settled down and it seems that "Yoshi-P" is the current nickname of choice.

I apologize for the amount of time I've let pass since my last post. Today I'd like to take the time to thank all of you for the overwhelming number of responses we received to our recent FINAL FANTASY XIV Players' Poll the First!

This post marks the beginning of my new Letters from the Producer series, which I will continue to post regularly on the Lodestone up until the launch of our official FINAL FANTASY XIV forums. Together with this first letter, I have also decided to make public the results of the first player poll, as well as include information concerning future plans for the game. The post is a bit lengthy, but I hope you all take the time to read it.

FINAL FANTASY XIV Players' Poll the First — Results & Anaylsis

The recent players' poll was available only to users possessing a Square Enix account. We received a large number of completed questionnaires from players in all regions—Japan, North America, and Europe. Here I would like to take some time to go over each of the questions and their responses, and attempt to explain what the results may mean.

1. Which online games have you played before? (Multiple answers accepted)

There is a large amount of data to go over here, so I suggest opening it in "another window" for ease of viewing. The majority of FINAL FANTASY XIV players polled have a history of playing FINAL FANTASY XI, which is a result we here at Square Enix were certainly happy to see. To us, this serves to illustrate the loyalty and passion of FINAL FANTASY fans, and both the development and management teams were truly moved by this result!

This also tells us that the majority of responses to questions dealing with gameplay (from 5 onward) are the opinions of players with experience playing FINAL FANTASY XI. And so it will be operating under that premise that we will be examining the poll responses.

By the way, questions 2 and 4 were included to provide referential data to the management team, and I will not post their results here. Suffice it to say, we are hardly in a position to be providing this kind of useful information to any would-be rivals...^^;

As for the third question, the most common answer was fourteen titles, with roughly 2% of pollees having played over twenty FINAL FANTASY titles. There isn't much to say here other than thank you!

5. How do you spend most of your time in Eorzea? (Choose only one)



Much as we expected, the vast majority of players are spending most of their play time engaged in battle-oriented content, with synthesis activities coming in second. I cannot help but be concerned over the 4.6% result for socializing. This leads me to believe that in its current state, the game is lacking group-oriented goals and means of communication. Rest assured we will be addressing this issue together with the battle system.

http://static.finalf...b36kgy8gt57.jpg



7. Which of the following issues you would like to see addressed first? (Choose only one)



8. Which of the following would you like to see implemented first? (Choose only one)



Let's take a look at questions 6 through 8 together.

An overhaul to fundamental aspects of gameplay was by far and away the most common response. But an accelerated version update schedule and increased player communication are certainly not to be discounted, as each comprises over 10% of the total results. The responses to these questions have left quite an impression on us, and we will continue to be making numerous improvements to these areas in accordance with your continued feedback.

The issue that players would first like to see addressed is a general lack of game content, followed by changes to the battle system. Looking further, it seems that the type of content most strongly desired is quests and miniquests, accounting for about 40% of the responses. The auction house has also made a solid showing among the responses, no doubt due in part to the fact that, as previously mentioned, many of the pollees are or were FFXI players. My initial reaction was to interpret this as players stating that they want more adventures in Eorzea! More gil and loot!

In line with this, I believe that significant changes to the battle system are necessary to create a style of combat that lends itself to the enjoyment of quests and miniquests. Following that logic one step further, it is equally necessary to bring about significant changes to the user interface to create a UI that lends itself to the enjoyment of the battle system. After all, there is no point in making thorough improvements to battle if the response and usability of the interface isn't capable of conveying those improvements to players.

In line with the above results, we will be bringing quests and miniquests to Eorzea sometime after the beginning of February. Along with this, all of the changes being worked on during the end of last year and the beginning of this year to improve the games playability and user-friendliness will also be released around the same time.

Though the next version update will introduce a relatively small number of changes, preparations are already underway to bring further improvements in the near future via a number of smaller-scale patches, including the release of quests and system-side adjustments. At present, we intend for something new to be released about twice a month. Overhauls to the battle system and user interface will also be ongoing, which will make it easier for the players to enjoy the new quests and content being released. The small-scale, system-oriented updates that will be carried out can best be thought of as the necessary groundwork for the battle system revisions.

We will also be looking in earnest at the possibility of implementing an auction house, as well as continuing to improve the functionality of the item search feature. Once prioritized changes to the battle system have been made, we will continue to balance and adjust guildleve and behest rewards, as well as improve overall user-friendliness. I realize there are many things, but for me the first order of business is to create the FINAL FANTASY feeling. To have players take part in engaging quests that place them in a struggle against an impending crisis that threatens their world. To have those players combine their strength and fight alongside one another. I still can't help but wonder what that ominous four-line poem might portend for Eorzea in the coming year...

9. What do you find most appealing about FINAL FANTASY XIV? (Choose only one)



I'm personally of the opinion that the two most popular responses, graphics and the game world, are the main attraction for all FINAL FANTASY titles. I also believe that the number of players who chose the game world option is a strong reason for the aforementioned demand for additional quests and miniquests.

10. Which of the following would you like to see implemented into the Lodestone? (Choose only one)



I'm very grateful for the fact that posts by the development and operations teams was the number one response to this question. In fact, this Letters from the Producer series is a direct result of this. In addition, we will begin a beta phase for the official FFXIV forums in all four languages (Japanese, English, French, and German) around the beginning of March. If all goes well, the forums should be up and ready for public use sometime in early April. I hope you are all looking forward to the forums as much as you are the changes to the game!


http://static.finalf...64faff34ed00e74

It seems this question started a wave of panic among players about whether or not character data would potentially be wiped. For the definitive answer on that, please see my response to a player's letter below. As for the results, 85% of players answered in the affirmative. This is something that will be in the forefront of my mind when making decisions concerning future updates to the game. I promise to do everything in my power to address as many of the players' demands and desires as I can.

Thank you again to all those players who took the time to complete our poll. I hope that I've been able to appease those of you thinking, "Come on, Yoshi-P. Give us some specifics!" (Sorry, the fact that I haven't up until now is probably more a personality issue than anything else...^^ Below is a list of changes and additions, some of them already underway, that will be introduced to the game in future version updates. And for those of you who might have been wondering, this list is by no means comprehensive.


(I'll straighten this mess out later. Just read it from the source until I fix it, or someone Photoshops the image off and edits in for me. These big charts are hard to do...)

Category 	Planned 	Current Tasks 	Future Tasks
Quests 	Tutorials for new players 	Planning and implementation of tutorial quests 	Introduction of additional quests
Quests revolving around the danger facing Eorzea 	Planning and implementation of quests 	Introduction of additional quests
Public company quests 	Planning of public companies and related quests in Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, and Gridania 	Introduction of additional quests
User Interface (UI) 	Improvements to the log 	Changes to behavior of windows when moused over
 Removal of auto-log activation, addition of ablitity to target behind log 	-
Automated show/hide feature
 Log hidden after certain period of inactivity 	-
Revision of text colors by message type
 Brighter system messages for easier reading 	Increased log tabs
Increased color customization by type
Improvement of dialog windows
(ex. market area selection) 	Changes to increase the amount of on-screen data to reduce the need for multiple pages 	Revisions to page advancing
Conversion to specialized windows
Improvements to journal usability 	Changes to consolidate all current quests and levequests on one screen 	Ongoing changes
Additional list entries
Changes to speed up text scrolling, increased further for prolonged scrolling 	Addition of a feature to change pages using a gamepad
Adjustments to window size and scrolling position
 Consolidation of levequest details on one screen 	—
Character jump feature 	Examination of the implementation of jumping 	Implementation following completion of a favorable examination
Increased visibility of combat damage display 	Use of distinct colors for player and enemy damage 	—
Adjustments to prevent overlapping of combat text
 FINAL FANTASY-esque changes to number pop-up animations 	—
Increased usability of maps 	Examination of increased refresh rates for more responsive maps 	Implementation of chages
Subsequent increase in the number of points and icons pictured on maps
Improved minimap usability 	Addition of PC field-of-view display on the minimap 	Quest NPC directional indicator
Improvements to camera usability 	Changes to prevent random reset of camera distance settings 	Changes to allow camera distance settings via gamepad
Changes to notification windows 	Changes to window placement
Reduced intrusion of windows when engaged in combat 	Changes to increase the specialization of windows
Improvements to targeting mechanics 	Changes to allow targeting by type (PC or NPC) when targeting with a gamepad 	Examination of target indicator customization
Guildleves 	Improvements to guildleve-related information 	Command-based display of time remaining until guildleve renewals 	—
Additional information when exchanging guildleves 	—
Revision and balancing of local leve issuing conditions 	Ongoing revision and balacing
Balancing of guildleve rewards 	Changes to less popular guildleves in line with reward balances 	Further release of new guildleves following balancing
Items, Synthesis, and Gathering 	Adjustments to item condition values 	Adjustments to lower the rate at which item condition deteriorates 	Ongoing balances in line with player feedback
Higher visibility of the optimal rank of items 	Changes to the color of item names to convey the disparity between optimal rank and a player's current rank
 Currently assessing costs of implementation 	Color categorization of item names
Reassessment of the gear affinities 	Introduction of gear with rank requirements to create player-oriented goals 	Further changes to gear affinities
Revision of battle loot and quest rewards 	Ability to obtain weapons and armor via battle loot and quest rewards 	Implementation in line with quests
Changes to item stack sizes 	Examination of increased stack sizes from 12 to 99 	Implementation of increased item sizes after finalization
Increased pace of gathering actions 	Changes to the frame rates of action animations to speed up gathering 	—
Market Areas 	Improvement of market area connectivity and stability 	Reduction in the frequency of market area crashes 	Ongoing improvements to market area stability
Improved usability of the item search feature 	Addition of prices displayed together with search results 	Examination of ability to search by specific item names
Examination of an auction house system 	Final examination of retainer and auction house systems 	Initial planning following final decision
Battle System 	Ability to toggle display of head gear 	Ability to toggle head gear to allow display of character faces 	-
Revisions to party-based skill point acquisition in parties 	Improvements to skill point acquisition for parties 	—
Changes to enmity calculations 	Revisions to enmity algorithms 	Ongoing revisions to enmity algorithms
Revision of crowd control actions 	Revision of crowd control actions for each class to improve party-based play 	Implementation of changes after finalization
Changes to enemy group dynamics 	Introduction of enemy group variability, as well as enemy group highlighting to enhance combat visibility 	—
Changes to claiming/engaging enemies 	Examination and implementation of changes to claiming and engaging enemies 	Ongoing balancing of skill point acquisition following initial changes
Balancing of enemy attributes 	Changes to enemy attributes and drops 	Ongoing balancing as necessary
Addition of beast tribes 	Release of beast tribe monsters as both roaming and quest-related enemies 	Further implementation in line with new quests
Revision of enemy sizes 	Optimization of enemy size for ease of play 	—
Design and release of notorious monsters 	Release of notorious monsters 	Further implementation in line with new quests
Conversion of roaming monsters to notorious monsters 	Implementation after finalization
Armoury System 	Changes to actions for Disciplines of War & Magic classes 	Further changes to enhance class uniqueness 	Initial implementation of partial changes
Changes to class names 	Possible introduction of traditional names such as paladin, monk, white mage, etc. 	Announcement of further changes as they arise
Company System 	Introduction of public companies 	Introduction of public company leaders in each city-state 	Announcement of further changes as they arise
Introduction of public companies in Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, and Gridania to combat the threat to Eorzea 	Announcement of further changes as they arise

Currently, the above changes, together with other adjustments and additions I have planned, are at about a 30% state of completion. There is still quite a lot to be done, especially when considering that more things will be added to the list. These posts that I will be making will continue to contain a list of planned changes, as well as updates on their current status.

Items on the above list will be removed once implemented, with dated notifications being given in separate posts. Changes that have been newly planned or are currently undergoing testing will be added as they arise.

By no means have the changes announced by the team up through the end of 2010, including planned adjustments and additions to the Lodestone, been abandoned. I will personally be determining which of these are necessary, and when an implementation schedule becomes clear, I will add it to the list above. I'll have to ask you all to make due with these posts of mine until the official forums are up and running. I'd very much like to be able to put the official forums and further community-based changes on the list by the time of my next post...

As I mentioned previously in the poll analysis, examination and planning of changes to the battle system, and related changes to the Armoury system, are proceeding at a very rapid rate, as we would like to implement them as soon as possible. In particular, I would very much like to continue incorporating player feedback into the adjustments being made to the claiming/engaging system, and finalize it it the near future.

Also, please look forward to further news regarding the public company system (not the official name...), as I will be releasing more details on it soon!

I realize that this is already a lot of text, but bear with me just a bit longer... Putting aside any news of changes to the game, I'd like to share with you a bit of an update on the FFXIV team. Enjoy!

I'll begin with a recounting of a visit we paid to Sensouji in Asakusa to offer our first prayers of the new year.



Somebody needs to learn to focus a camera... I made an offering of ¥10,000 (roughly $122 at the current rate), but whoever was snapping the photos at the moment I placed it in the collection box managed to take an even blurrier photo than this one. I know it looks like I roll with a somewhat unsavory crowd, but the entire FFXIV team numbers about four times the people shown here, are there are plenty of good and gentle souls. The unsavory ones are just those pictured in the front here.

And, partaking in the Japanese new year tradition of drawing paper fortunes, the gods saw fit to grant me a daikichi! That literally translates as "big luck," and is the best fortune possible for the coming year. Well, I didn't draw it per se... Actually, Suzuki-san spotted it crumpled up on the ground, so I grabbed it. No sense in letting a perfectly good daikichi go to waste!

But the true treasure of the evening is this masterpiece...



I like to call this, "Now this is the new FFXIV!" Pictured are lead developers Akihiko Matsui (left) and Nobuaki Komoto (right), and the expressions on their faces are simply priceless! Don't worry, they are actually very close friends...really.

Again, I apologize for the long post, but thank you to those of you who have stuck with me this far. I'd like to close by making a response to an inspiring piece of fan mail I received from a certain player.

Dear Kenneth,

I received your air mail, all the way from California. Your letter made me extremely happy and I would like to thank you for encouraging the development team in our efforts.

You expressed concern over whether one of the four keywords I introduced at the beginning of the year, namely reboot, meant that we would be wiping character data. I apologize for any confusion that this choice of terminology may have caused, but rest assured that character data will not be wiped.

This decision was in no way influenced by your letter, but is something that I have been adamant about from the onset. As a personal policy, I would simply never allow it.

Our characters are us, complex collections of memories and emotions, and nobody has the right to take them away from us.

I will be more careful in the future when choosing my words, and regret any anxiety I may have caused among players fearing for their characters' safety.

Please tell everyone on the Kashuan World that Yoshi-P says hello!

I'm already looking forward to writing my next letter! Until then!


Naoki Yoshida, FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer/Director

[Velhart]

Quite an interesting read. He really is taking player feedback to a large extent, even the small requests. From his current and future plans, it is pretty obvious this director has common sense of what makes an MMO really good. It sounds like he wants to take the best of FFXI and the best of other MMO's and fix what is not good on FFXIV. Even has plans for characters to jump and option to hide headgear.

I will be glad to try this game again when it comes out for PS3.

[Dyire]

Twice monthly updates sounds nice too

[rambus]

the data for the most part didnt very much betweeen lanuages but..:



basically the Japanese was the only one that picked combat system for the biggest one 34% for that vs 28% for the ingame content, the rest was a big skew for the game content.

I think the lack of socializing is because people dont have time to talk because of fighting the controls and the laggy chat box.

One tells me that she hates replaying to tells while crafting because by the time she gets the game to let her to replay to it and type one word the craft segment does its auto time out explode

This post has been edited by rambus: 21 January 2011 - 10:00 AM

[Varizen]

I like everything personally on the list except the class renaming bits.

[Velhart]

Varizen, on 21 January 2011 - 12:16 PM, said:

I like everything personally on the list except the class renaming bits.

It could go either way, depending on how he plans on adjusting classes around. If he adjusts them to the point that you might as well call a Gladiator a Warrior or Paladin, then go for it.

I think his main intent is to please the fans not caring to make Final Fantasy more western like. But only a speculation. oo;

[What?]

It's nice to see little things like toggling the display of head gear make it to the table. I had issues with the camera system when the game launched but a few updates ago they changed it and addressed all the issues I had with it, which was pretty cool. Little things make a difference, especially if you're interested in making a game that doesn't feel like it's kicking you in the balls constantly. Of course other constant fuck ups marred whatever positive upsides those updates had, but I expect them to stop making such stupid mistakes eventually.

I anticipated jumping to be on the table the moment Tanaka was ousted in favor of Yoshida; there's no better way to demonstrate you're serious about changing the game drastically and trying to appeal to people who never gave the game a chance, or gave up very quickly, by adding stuff like that. Plenty of people on sites not FF related would take a look at FFXIV, ask if jumping was in it or not and in some cases base their decision to play based on that. While it might sound stupid to some people, the reasoning for wanting it (which isn't to see who can look like the biggest retard) is because nobody wants to feel restricted, and coming from games which aren't restricting in movement to a game that is is a big thing. It's like some people who can't go back to playing on a PS2 after playing their PS3 for a few years, it's outdated to them. FFXIV is far more stiff and restrictive than even XI was, so hopefully massive overhauls are done with regards to player movement and animations, increasing the fluidity of the game which will not only help it play better but attract more people to it. FFXIV looks boring and plays boring too, so it's good to see he wants to change the battle system first.

I'm hoping auto attack makes it in, got sick of mashing very quickly. It's extremely simple to adjust the current system to allow auto attack while still keeping the same battle pace, but if he's got better plans in store bring it on. I like the idea of class names being changed, I'm more interested in how exactly they'll play rather than what they're called but I'm for it all the same. Other than that more or less everything is addressed, it all depends on the implementation now.

[Banter]

Wait... jumping? I'm in.

[Corrderio]

Varizen, on 21 January 2011 - 12:16 PM, said:

I like everything personally on the list except the class renaming bits.

This is what I don't want to see happen either (Other than jumping and official forums). Since didn't Tanaka say the reason they dropped the usual names was to have more freedom developing classing?

I just hope this guy doesn't royally screw up NMs like how they were from the Zilart to WotG era in XI. Since last thing the game needs is another Fafnier, CoP Wyrm, DI/SW.

[Mirae]

Good. He is responding to players well so far, and official forums are a great idea! Finally a place to directly communicate with the team.
(Hope it won't be full of trolls, but that's probably too much to ask for...)
I might give this game a chance once some of these are implemented, I really am liking the sound of this.

[Banter]

Did someone speak of another forum in which I may partake?

[Corrderio]

Mirae, on 22 January 2011 - 04:54 AM, said:

Good. He is responding to players well so far, and official forums are a great idea! Finally a place to directly communicate with the team.
(Hope it won't be full of trolls, but that's probably too much to ask for...)
I might give this game a chance once some of these are implemented, I really am liking the sound of this.

There isn't an official forum out there that isn't filled with trolls and people that QQ.

[Velhart]

What I wonder is if the forums are going to be brought together, or separated by regions. I would guess regions for cluttering sakes.

[Mirae]

Corrderio, on 22 January 2011 - 01:41 PM, said:

There isn't an official forum out there that isn't filled with trolls and people that QQ.

You're probably right. Still doesn't stop me hoping though.

[What?]

Corrderio, on 22 January 2011 - 04:28 AM, said:

Since didn't Tanaka say the reason they dropped the usual names was to have more freedom developing classing?

For them to have more freedom developing classes? If that was the case they really went wild with ideas, making them all play almost exactly the same with duplicate abilities galore.
No, he was talking about making the names generic like "sword user" and "bow user" so people wouldn't just assume "sword user" is automatically a tank, they could be a DD also. Of course it actually is called "sword user" in japan so it makes it a bit more obvious there what the naming convention implies; over here, not so much, many people just view them as trying to be different for the sake of being different. Instead of being able to label yourself as a DD Glad or tanking Glad through some means in game for everyone to see, he thought it was obviously better to make it ambiguous and impossible to know until you invited that person (sounds a bit like the waaaaaards, it's a big guessing game inside a game!).

The names don't matter, they can call them whatever they want. The only thing that matters is the direction they go with them gameplay wise and that has been settled already, people don't like the generic all-play-the-same classes so that'll be changing, names have nothing to do with that. You either like the names currently and how they're woven into the world. Or you like the other names for nostalgia's sake and feel the current world isn't FF-like enough. To think the names will have an outcome on how a class will be developed from here on and dictate how it plays is nonsense, it's just fluff. Thinking about it again I actually don't care what they're called, if I was going to play XIV again the only classes I'd touch actually have cool names, so whatever~

[Corrderio]

Well to me renaming them is just flat out retarded and would require them to adjust some classes (Mostly the DoMs). Class names don't mean crap for a game, the reason it doesn't feel like a FF is because the story is flat out horrid due to how watered down it is so DoH/DoLs can progress.

Also, I wonder if he'll try to enhance the PC version anymore than it's at. Since wasn't there something in the XIV Info section about XIV not getting the full benefit of a PC's processor?

[Rhayve]

Corrderio, on 22 January 2011 - 04:51 PM, said:

Well to me renaming them is just flat out retarded and would require them to adjust some classes (Mostly the DoMs). Class names don't mean crap for a game, the reason it doesn't feel like a FF is because the story is flat out horrid due to how watered down it is so DoH/DoLs can progress.

Also, I wonder if he'll try to enhance the PC version anymore than it's at. Since wasn't there something in the XIV Info section about XIV not getting the full benefit of a PC's processor?

Would you mind elaborating a bit regarding the bolded part?

[Velhart]

The story of the game is one of the few good things about the game.

[Corrderio]

Rhayve, on 23 January 2011 - 05:27 PM, said:

Would you mind elaborating a bit regarding the bolded part?

You remember how awesome the feeling was doing missions and winning a fight to progress, kiss that aspect goodbye. You literally do nothing in the main scenario other than travel form Point A to Point B, no fights or anything.

Hell, even the DoW/M quests are are done poorly with hardly any challenge in them.