E3: Interview with FFXI Developers

 



The E3 Expo was highly anticipated by many Final Fantasy XI fans, all hungry for any news about the fourth expansion, Wings of the Goddess, which was announced at the Square Enix Party in Tokyo, Japan almost two months ago. Allakhazam.com had it’s first opportunity to meet with several key members of the Final Fantasy XI Development team including Senior Vice President of Software Development Hiromichi Tanaka and Wings of the Goddess Director Koichi Ogawa and Community Relations leaders Sage Sundi and Yasu Kurosawa with Koji Fox translating for us.

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Pikko: The Japanese and English versions of the game have different titles. Is there any significance to this?

Koji Fox: The direct translation of the Japanese title is “The Divine Soldiers of Altana” but the difference is only in the name, the titles mean the same thing. Altana does not actually have wings, she is lifted up by her divine soldiers, this is how she flies. The Japanese prefer a more literal, direct title while Americans would prefer a more figurative title. So the titles mean the same thing but were phrased differently for separate audiences.

Pikko: The community is already speculating about the new jobs and what we are going to see. How much fan influence is there when you are determining which new jobs you are going to implement and what made you decide to introduce new jobs in the first place?

Ogawa-san & Tanaka-san: Lots of fans want lots of different types of jobs and of course we’re always listening to that but rather than just putting in a job that maybe the players just want because they want it, we look more at how the new job is going to fit into the game and the battle system and what role that job will play and that’s more important, basically to maintain the balance of the game.

Because with the new expansion we will be introducing a new aspect of the world, adding new jobs will enhance that world, it adds that much more playability. Also, by adding the new jobs those jobs can be used as support jobs so not only does it add new jobs it also affects the old jobs as well. It introduces new play styles for all those jobs, new options.

Pikko: People on our forums seem to be asking for a new “tank” job, any chance you can tell us whether their wishes will be fulfilled?

Ogawa-san: Sorry, can’t say… but we realize people want a new frontline “tank” job.

Pikko: With the new expansion taking place in the past around the time of the Crystal War, will we see special zones designed for open PvP combat between nations? Will we see any type of open PvP?

Ogawa-san: I can’t answer that because I really can’t say anything about the new areas yet.

Pikko: Dynamis has been one of the most popular battle systems implemented into the game and although Treasures has been out for over a year now Puppetmaster, Corsair, and Blue Mage still do not have relic gear. Can players expect to see relic armor for these jobs or even upgraded Artifact armor before the expansion is released?

Ogawa-san: As with the original jobs it was a while before those jobs… if you think about from the start when the jobs were first released five years ago, then relics came out, the new jobs still have a little bit of time before their relics will be released.

Pikko: But it is coming eventually?

Koji Fox: (nods) It’s coming eventually.

Pikko: The Sanction experience bonus has basically rendered much of the “old” world undesirable to many experience points parties, was this an intentional side effect or did you expect players to diversify themselves between challenge in the old world and xp bonuses?

Ogawa-san: The original reason that we introduced Sanction to the Aht Urhgan areas was because we wanted lots of people to come to the Aht Urhgan areas and so one way to get people to come over from Jeuno and the rest of the areas was to add this bonus and it was a lot more successful than we had intended. As for players now all doing their experience or their leveling in Aht Urhgan, we do want to do some adjustments in the future to maybe alleviate that.

Pikko: Beastmasters have long awaited something new added to their job such as new abilities or jug pets. Can they expect any type of enhancement to their job in the near future?

Ogawa-san: Just changing the beastmaster would probably make a lot of other players upset as well, so what’s going to happen is when we add the new jobs we’re going to have to adjust a lot of the other jobs to keep things balanced and so probably at the time of the release of the expansion there will be another overhaul of the current jobs.

Pikko: It’s been mentioned in the past that the Puppetmaster job was intended to be another “solo” job, yet players are unable to utilize this tactic of fighting in its current state. Are the plans that you spoke of just now going to enhance it to the point where they can do this?

Ogawa-san: Yes, something very soon will happen to puppetmasters. The adjustment will come soon.

Koji Fox: He answered that one quickly, so he knows.

Pikko: Chains of Promathia came out nearly 3 years ago and as of today, no linkshell has beaten Absolute Virtue without the invisible wall or the locking technique, both of which were changed. When you originally created Absolute Virtue, did you intend for him to go undefeated for such a long period of time and is he meant to be defeated at all?

Ogawa-san & Tanaka-san: When we first designed it we didn’t design it to never be able to be defeated and we’re convinced that it can be defeated. Last year at the Tokyo Game Show hints were given and whether those were taken as hints or not, well… Some players were able to figure out some things from it but there were other hints that not a lot of people have picked up on and so its become sort of this urban myth that Absolute Virtue cannot be defeated, but it can be defeated.

Pikko: We’ve seen a lot of new concepts and activities added into the game in the past year. Was the community reaction to things such as Chocobo Racing, Salvage, and recently Einherjar what you were expecting? What factors determine what you will add into the game next?

Ogawa-san & Tanaka-san: We got good response. It’s not always positive response because they’re the hardcore players and they’ve been playing for a long time and they have their opinions and if they don’t like something right away they tell us because they know that we’ll work on it. So there has been a lot of [feedback], especially with the new Einherjar “It’s way to difficult!” and so we’re going back and of course we work on everything. But overall there’s been a lot of things maybe people give harsh opinions of them at first, but then they learn to like it and then those [comments] go away.

Pikko: I have a question from one particular linkshell. They said that they have cleared the first wing a total of two times and out of those six bosses they’ve received one abjuration drop. Other than that they receive body parts from the boss itself like hair, hides, stuff like that. They would like to know why they should keep killing themselves over this just to get nothing. Is that something that’s going to be fixed or will it be the battle itself you adjust?

Ogawa-san & Tanaka-san: First of all, about not having the drop rate be as good as people want it to be it’s because we want people to go back and play Einherjar many times, so that they get a continuous type of challenge. And if it’s too easy the world will be filled with the abjurations and everyone will have that and it won’t be something that has that mystic feel to it like, “I have it, look at me.” Rather, everyone is wearing it. But we will watch the trend because we do realize that this is supposed to be a replacement place to get it rather than to camp against the real money traders and so we’ll watch and if we feel that something needs to be fixed…

Pikko: So if the participation drops then you’ll re-evaluate?

Ogawa-san: (jokingly) Then we’ll raise it and lots of people will complain and then we’ll drop it down again.

But now, it’s that people instead of having to fight these campers they can go to places where they don’t have to and so it gives them a little better chance and takes away that stress.

Pikko: On that same note, a lot of new gear has been brought in with Assault and Salvage yet people still spend so much of their endgame careers in areas such as Tu’lia and Dragon’s Aery. Can we see a good amount of new HNMs and will their drops be as game altering as items such as the Ridill or Byakko’s Haidate?

Ogawa-san & Tanaka-san: As for the new HNMs in Wings of the Goddess, as you know we can’t say anything specific but there’s a pretty good chance that there will be lots of new challenges like that with things that are difficult to get but will have a big impact on the game as drops. As for your comment on how lots of people are still camping in areas like Dragon’s Aery and other old HNMs it’s that over the years we’ve added new HNMs and as you do that, you have ones that are popular and then you have new ones and so some people go to those and when some people go to those less people are camping the older ones so more people want to go to those cause they think they have a chance. We feel that with all the new choices such as Assault and Salvage and also the old ones, people can choose which one they want, whether they want to camp or do they want to go into the instanced areas and fight for stuff.

Pikko: At the Premier Site Summit in March, it was suggested that the ability to seek a party on multiple jobs be made available. What do you think of that idea and is it something we can possibly look forward to?

Tanaka-san: It’s something that’s come up many times and that’s one of the reasons that we introduced the search comments and so people would be able to look at the comments and even though you can only search for the one job in the comments you can put, “I also have this job, this job…” Right now, the big thing holding up a change here is the actual engine that we use to do searching. To go in and change this would be very difficult. We’re definitely going to take it into consideration but again it’s a big difficult programming type of change and so it’s not something that can be done right away.

We’ve been working on it. But once it starts with the jobs it’s, “Okay, now let’s have multiple [linkshells]” then it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and then it becomes hard to maintain all of that so we’re still working on it.

Pikko: The Allakhazam community was very happy to hear about an official windower. Are you involved in its development and do you have any word on its progress?

Tanaka-san: Up until now the problem has been that the graphics parts of it have been published in DirectX 8 but now that we’ve been able to upgrade it to DirectX 9, which is what we are doing right now, this will become available for all of the cards. We hope to have it in by the release of Wings of the Goddess. We think it will be ready.

Pikko: A rumor was posted on our forums by someone who attended the Anime Expo that another Fan Fest will be coming up in November, can you tell us anything about that?

Kurosawa-san: Yes, it was a rumor then, but it’s official now. There will be another fan festival this year. Next week there will be a big announcement of when and where.

Pikko: This is more of a personal question. Which expansion have you most enjoyed developing?

Ogawa-san: Aht Urhgan has a lot of new challenges for us to overcome and that’s what I choose.

Pikko: The release of the starter pack shows the playerbase that you hope FFXI will live on for quite some time, where do you see the game 5 years from now?

Tanaka-san: As to where it will be in five years, we can’t really predict as it’s a long time. One of the things is as the game is based on PS2 technology, there are limits and right now we’re doing our best to get around those limits and make the best with what we have. On the other hand we also have the new MMO that’s being developed at the same time by the same team and how those two will be related will also deal with what the other players want but it all comes down to the user. If the user wants to keep playing Final Fantasy 11 we will keep producing content for it.

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A photo alluding to the recent E3 trailer for Wings of the Goddess.


It truly was an honor to meet Hiromichi Tanaka and Koichi Ogawa. Allakhazam.com congratulates them on such a fun-filled and successful game. We eagerly wait for the day when we as divine soldiers can lift Altana up into the beautiful star-filled skies of Vana’diel.

Comments

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*shakes head*
# Sep 29 2007 at 7:15 AM Rating: Good
-REDACTED-
Scholar
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1,339 posts
Why are any of you really surprised? You're not going to get answers from them. For some strange reason, Square-Enix believes that mystery and deceipt make a great MMO.

You've been dealing with these non-answers for years and the longer you pay for it, the more they decide it's alright to continue to do so. MMOs *are* supposed to contain a good amount of fun to continue to get you to come back, but Square-Enix isn't worried about that.

Though a significant playerbase has left since the lackluster entrance of Chains of Promathia, they know that people will play this game because of human nature. You get it into your head that you want something, and you will not stop until you get it -- that and the Final Fantasy name is what they're banking on holds the game together.

You have no one to blame but yourselves. They will make small adjustments here and there, but ultimately it's the same **** in a different wrapper. You aren't going to get wacky new zone designs out in the world (or even 'instanced' for the most part) and you aren't going to get outlandish changes. They've had this long to fix Beastmaster and they haven't. They aren't going to, and you're fools to think they really give a damn at this point.
new jobs
# Aug 08 2007 at 5:39 PM Rating: Decent
well as far as new jobs go i would like to put out my oppinion so here:

first well geomancer: a job that combines magic with the terrain or weather effects, in the old games they use axes i believe, a new dd job front line maybe pull hate with fast casting black magic with out use of mp they could just assign maybe a timer instead of mp i dont know just thoughts

second is, well we have a dark knight to be a dd black mage and a paliden to be a dd white mage, i realize redmage is kinda dd on it own but not to much. so why not a dd red mage type of job i would sugest an elemental swordsmen wouldn't really have to be limited to swords. remember stiener and vivi from ff9 i mean he had to cast the black magic for that elemental sword skills but maybe you could make one in it's own i realize the en-spells but those arent to good maybe boost there effects to this class or maybe when there is a black mage in party... who knows but just thoughts.

Edited, Aug 8th 2007 9:42pm by davidandchrissy
New Jobs
# Aug 08 2007 at 10:29 AM Rating: Decent
I'd like to see at least 3 new jobs with this new expac.

1. Tank - A tank that even a noob would be able to master before lvl 10 would be nice. I hate dealing with a lvl 50 pld that doesn't use flash or Shield Bash.

2. "Sage" - An all powerful caster. Combine WHM and BLM and this is the job you get. Tweak the spell list to include Meteor(or Meteo), Comet, and some other spells such as Ultima, Death, Full-cure and Full-raise (which is raise but with no weakness). Take out the Ancient Magic the BLM has and put in the spells i listed plus a couple more. Also, take out the WHM spells for raise, banish, dia and others. You remember Tellah from FF4? That's this job. There also wouldn't be a support job because of the nature of this job and hp would be low like a SMN but a lot of mp.

3. DD - A job that utlizes a whip as it's main weapon of choice(aka A+, A, or A- as it's skill). This job can't use a shield obviously. This job is a combo of a MNK but with a whip and a SAM so to speak. Take the strengths of both jobs and put them into 1. As for job abilities, i don't care because the dmg output should be on the same lines of a thf after lvl 30.

The "Sage" and the DD would require a job at least of lvl 60 to unlock the quest line. They're also going to require a full alliance to unlock(BCNM fight would be hard). The tank could be unlocked at lvl 30 like the other advanced jobs. Reason why the other 2 are so hard is because i don't want a noob at lvl 30 to unlock them and suck at the job. I want the good players to unlock them 1st and "show" the noobs how to play them. I learned to play a lot of jobs just by watching that job.

rant over
Huh?
# Aug 08 2007 at 5:17 AM Rating: Decent
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726 posts
Quote:
We’ve been working on it. But once it starts with the jobs it’s, “Okay, now let’s have multiple [linkshells]” then it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and then it becomes hard to maintain all of that so we’re still working on it.
Where did "multiple [linkshells]" come from. That's one of the dumbest copouts I've seen in a while. Why not just say "we don't want to do it" and be done with it?

Multiple job LFP is easy enough to implement if they "want" to do it.
Step 1: Add radio buttons to the Job Level list we all have in our Status menu.
Step 2: Click buttons next to jobs you would like to LFP as.
Step 3: Turn LFP on. (put up your flag)

Bam. When ppl look for jobs to party with in their level range, the jobs you clicked will show up if they are in that range.

Quote:
It’s something that’s come up many times and that’s one of the reasons that we introduced the search comments and so people would be able to look at the comments and even though you can only search for the one job in the comments you can put, “I also have this job, this job…”
Search comments...the next best thing to sliced bread. Pfft, try again please. The problems with seacoms is that you have to physically look at every single seacom to be able to tell if people also have a job in the level range you are looking for. >/sea all inv< >There are 187 players in the entire world.<. Ok, start looking through all those seacoms. You might be able to find a full party of people by the time you pass out from lack of sleep. Yeah, seacoms work great. >.>

Thank you sirs, try again.
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# Aug 02 2007 at 12:13 AM Rating: Decent
As for toau "Hnm" they are on 3+ day timer rite? all new hnm need to be on the same 21-24 to lessen the #s at old land god camps, o and also anyone know the name of the new mmo coming out? and website info if possible to see screens and such? mesg me plz><

Edited, Aug 2nd 2007 3:58am by BigpunnOnIfrit

Edited, Aug 2nd 2007 4:06am by BigpunnOnIfrit
Really now...
# Jul 31 2007 at 1:42 PM Rating: Good
38 posts
First of all, I'm glad they are adding new job(s) even if they only ad two, or as they kindly put it "more than 1." So, of the new jobs it's pretty much given one will be a tank job. WAR was an intended tank, but it's a DD beast and can't tank for sh*t; and NIN was supposed to be DD and ended up being a worthy tank, on par or higher than PLD. If they ignore the fact they only have 1 "tank" class they made on purpose, I would be extremely flabbergasted, and might lose some faith in SE.
The other jobs though, are quite a mystery. Despite the development team's interest in making ANOTHER support job (says the wiki.ffxi interview), which would be interesting (The rumored Time Mage?), I think another DD would be cool. Yes there are plenty of DDs already and given the last couple jobs were COR(support), BLU(dd-ish), and PUP(...), a truly unique, ***-kicking job would be killer.

Second, I'm too lazy at this time to post about other stuff, new jobs interest me.

New areas are cool, despite them being the same areas we've seen except Harry Potter ran around frantically casting "Repairo"
lol
# Jul 22 2007 at 7:46 AM Rating: Good
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600 posts
Up until now i used to care about all the fuss, but now I realize something... As much as many people ask for things to be "changed/added" in the game, SE is going to do what they want so that they can make money. I'm through with hoping for a better game future lol.
RNG JSE and such
# Jul 17 2007 at 4:42 AM Rating: Default
Someone posted about lvl70 MNK and RNG JSE, you seem to forget RNG does have lvl70 JSE, it just sucks a little, the war set (War Beret, War brias, War boots and such.) But there is prolly the second best piece of rng gear thats lvl70ish, Archer's jupon. Unfortunately...not craftable, but easy to camp if you know how. What I think a lot of RNG's would like to see is our ratk showed, set it up so if your cor, /cor, rng, /rng you can see your RATK, that would be more benificial IMO. This was a pretty dissappointing interview though, but I see a few nerf bats comming shortly (SAM is gonna get it bad).
RNG JSE and such
# Jul 17 2007 at 2:08 PM Rating: Decent
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463 posts
I don't know, does the War set really count as RNG JSE if it can be worn by two other jobs (THF and COR)?
The Pit
# Jul 16 2007 at 11:46 AM Rating: Decent
Maybe they will make BST and "The Pit" be connected. Since the pit is an area where "captured" mobs fight each other pokemon style. Maybe theyll make a whistle or ring like for chocos, but for the captured mobs. It would rock to be able to max out a mob in the pit, then be able to call it during a pt and tear stuff up.
/sad
# Jul 16 2007 at 9:31 AM Rating: Decent
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659 posts
With all the complaints about all the jobs getting neglected by SE and not getting their promised tweaks, I must bring BRD to the table...

yes, bard... (stop rolling your eyes.)

they said there would be changes to the job to enable us to do more than sing the same 2 songs over and over in exp pts (I don't count different tiers as different songs.. and last 10 merit pts I've had, I only used MinuetIV/III + BalladII/I)

instead of giving us the promised beneficial changes, we got the Mazurka nerf
._ .

i will agree that Mazurka hate from Raptor needed to be lowered... just for fun once before the nerf, to demonstrate to my ls that BRD/NIN tanking was viable, we went out and grabbed a mob.. i popped Troubador and spammed Mazurkas while a WHM curebombed me and a PLD went all out trying to keep hate from me... in less than a minute, not even Invincible was able to pull hate off me XD
(upshot of that lil' story being, yes, Raptor Mazurka needed to have the amount of hate generation lowered to rebalance the game.. that doesnt mean that they needed to nerf Chocobo Mazurka also T_T.. they effectively removed a whole playstyle from the game by doing it) /endrant
they suck
# Jul 16 2007 at 5:37 AM Rating: Good
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503 posts
Why didn't they just say at the beginning "we can't tell you anything, but thanks for asking, go home now"

Would have saved everyone a lot of time.

I can understand secrecy and all... but come on. You don't need to keep secrets about stuff that will be implimented to old jobs--secrecy is for the new stuff.

It wouldn't have been difficult to say, "Yes, we are working on something for this and you should see it within the next year, next month, etc." or "We understand people like the drops from this HNM, but wait until you see the cool armor we have in store for those who beat xxx"

Answers like THAT would at least make people feel like they were "getting" answers.
meh meh meh
# Jul 16 2007 at 4:25 AM Rating: Decent
Ok so they go through with all of this.... next thing you know.. They OVER ballance a job? maybe? Take rdm for example.. they havent really touched it have they? Added new spells ect... thats about it? yeh cause if they touch it, it could A) Make it to strong an a even better soloer.. or B) completly ruin it thus making it a job not really wanted for more then refresh? Everyone knows Avesta with his amazing 13 hr Genbu solo as RDM but come on? If there gonna ballance them go head just dont f**k it up while there doing it. Other then that new areas sound cool more missions maybe give better items at the end when you complete them?

On a side note "Drop Rate" Should be tweak just alittle an be determined on how many people camp him... if no one camps him an hes a long *** repop then make the drop rate like 1/3 or 1/4 It will make the items fall in price thus making it more easily to obtain? Idk im just rambling correct me if im wrong please :)
Jugs have lvl cap?
# Jul 14 2007 at 8:04 PM Rating: Good
Quote:
Pikko: Beastmasters have long awaited something new added to their job such as new abilities or jug pets. Can they expect any type of enhancement to their job in the near future?

Ogawa-san: Just changing the beastmaster would probably make a lot of other players upset as well, so what’s going to happen is when we add the new jobs we’re going to have to adjust a lot of the other jobs to keep things balanced and so probably at the time of the release of the expansion there will be another overhaul of the current jobs.

because adjusting DRK,DRG,PLD and many others and leaving BST without any adjustment while promising there will be BST adjustment more than once won't make players upset yah?

Please Pikko if you happen to interview them again, i want an answer by them to this question :
"Why do Beastmaster jugs have level cap of 40/50/60/63 and 65?"
because uncaping the BST jugs pets is all what BSTs need...it sucks that BST40 have more jug options than BST75.. :/
currently BST75 is nothing but a CrabMaster (yah, we are not beastmasters anymore) because of the level caps and the rarity of the better jugs's ingredients and their hard HQ synthesis..
and no mobs to charm in sea/sky/einherjar/salvage/assaults so charm is out of question.
Jugs have lvl cap?
# Jul 14 2007 at 8:21 PM Rating: Good
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951 posts
That's not the part I find funny, SE stated they were going to adjust BST well over a year ago and they didn't even touch them.
Jugs have lvl cap?
# Jul 14 2007 at 8:38 PM Rating: Decent
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1,505 posts
They also said they were going to make monk more than just a 'beat-em-up' job, and that never happened either. And they recently announced they were gonna work on BLU, COR, and PUP mostly, and make no major changes to other jobs.
Jugs have lvl cap?
# Jul 16 2007 at 8:01 AM Rating: Good
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170 posts
They also said they were going to make blm more party friendly in exp at endgame and that never happened. Excuse me while i walk up mount z and kill a few more flans w/ the rest of the outcasted blm population.
Jugs have lvl cap?
# Jul 14 2007 at 8:55 PM Rating: Good
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951 posts
Yeah well.... that's Square-Enix for ya.
Meh
# Jul 14 2007 at 7:17 PM Rating: Good
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951 posts
I was pretty disappointed, and at the same time I seen it comming. SE usually gave us the same old reply on crap. And I'm also disappointed on how they think hardcore players only deserve crap like a Ridill or Defeding Ring, I'm not saying they should be common items, but holy crap monsters that take 21+ hours to repop is total bullcrap.
Geez
# Jul 14 2007 at 3:44 PM Rating: Default
21 posts
Was it just me, or they had the attitude on certain topics.
1) Changes to BST
This was a very lackluster and imo, a lazy response to the situation.
2) The 'Windower'
Oddly, the same windower that a large portion of the PC community is working fine with the different versions of Direct X and graphic drivers out there. Yet, taking them nearly a year and that it /might/ be out by WoG?
3) I'm down for new jobs, especially the neglacted cateogory of another 'tank.'
But seriously, the nerfs in the past didn't help player morale in this game. Shouldn't SE be more concern balancing the current jobs, last I check with my ls, but more wanted better balancing of current jobs then new jobs.
4) AV
Good ole, AV. Is it fun for your customers to maintain a mindset that something is undefeatable and your excuse what, "We gave /hints/ at last event." I'm sorry, but besides those 2 known tactics in the past, has another LS beaten it since then? Correct me if wrong.
5) New jobs AF2 where?
Cause it took about 2 years(correct if time frame is wrong) for the AF2 of the older jobs to come out, it must follow the same time frame as the older jobs did? Help me with this logic.
6) Drop rates...
One rant is to the players which I can side SE with. Why the hell does it matter what another character has? Its not your character, your character is not my character. Why the hell should you care about what I obtain? Yet, those bandwagons who are on the leet train, will downplay those in a XP party cause zomg, they can outparse them. I would to meet some of those people in real life and bash their head in their tv/computer monitor. SE fails in this area for the response "Ogawa-san: (jokingly) Then we’ll raise it and lots of people will complain and then we’ll drop it down again." ... Sarcasim alert!


I will admit, there is alot of things that anger me about this game, mainly down to SE real lackluster care for the game now. They just repeat the whole "we can't say" or "If we do this, someone will be unhappy" bs, but also I will have to give credit, they did make a great game in its fundamentals. Which is why alot of us plays, just I wish SE was more proactive and actually make these interviews where we are highly looking forward to changes to be implemented. Not, Pikko ask a question and you get that feeling by their response "/shrugs, will look into it again". Wth, did Sage Sundi and his 'Wut' god took over everyone soul?

End rant. Wow, it feels better when you get that off your chest. I do apoligze for any bad grammar in there.
Geez
# Aug 08 2007 at 9:50 AM Rating: Decent
Drop rates....

Why do we need to wait 6-8 hrs for a joy-toy? I think the reason ppl want an increase to spawn rates and drop rates is so they don't spend an entire night waiting for a spawn and get no drop and thus using a 2nd night to try again. Why not make the spawn rate 1-2 hrs and making it a 50% drop rate. I don't think i would be wasting my time that way. You can increase the spawn rate and lower the drop rate and some or most ppl would be happy because they don't want to wait the 24-36 hrs on some mobs like argus. He drops a rare/ex item now so it's pointless for him to be on the same spawn timer as the leech king(or whatever that mob is). Since argus is on a HUGE timer and is a rare/ex drop, a lot of ppl camp him for the amulet but only 1 person can kill him and i don't know if it's a 100% drop rate. Make him a 1-2 hr spawn and make the drop rate 25-50-75% if you want. More ppl would end up camping but wouldn't waste 5 nights trying to claim the mob once. I guess my rant is more on spawn rates than drop rates, but if you increase the spawn rate(or lower the amount of spawn time), then you need to decrease the drop rates to somewhat "balance" the mob out. I think all the HNM's spawn timers need to be looked at versus the drop rate instead of just increasing the drop rate. The more chances a mob spawns, the more chances it has to drop the item. Serket was another mob changed if i remember. Make him spawn more often(cause i wanna see the the lvl 48-52's run for cover). Also, i can't spend 12 hrs on the game anymore so camping a HNM is hard for me because the spawn time is so high and i can't even get ToD. I spend like 3 hrs a night MAX on the game if i even log in anymore.
Geez
# Oct 25 2007 at 3:37 PM Rating: Good
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563 posts
I only have one question:

Did you actually think about what you said before you wrote it?

Because to me, it sounds like your saying mobs like Argus, Chary and Serket should have their spawn time reduced to 1-2 hrs and their drop rate increased to >50%...

What the hell are you thinking? every single Tom, Dick and Harry will be walking round with a Joytoy / PCC / Serket ring. Whats the fun in that? The whole point in having these items drop off of notorious monsters and be rare/ex is so that not everybody has them. Could you imagine a game where everybody has all of the best gear and everyones gear is identical? Cos that dosent sound fun to me.

And another thing, if you change, say, argus to a 1 hour spawn and a 50% drop rate, how are all of the people who payed 3 mil for their PCC gonna feel when some noobish player got the same thing in an hour for free?

I'm not going to dispute the fact that the spawn time for most NM's are bloody long (And i'm sure Squeenix say somewhere: "But dont forget your work, school, family and friends"... yea, good one SE <_<), but it sounds to me like you've had some bad experiences with NM's and want to **** on someones parade cos your not happy about it. Too bad. **** happens (Just for the record, i'm 1/15 on Nue, and 0/17 on mee deggi, and i've never been awake long enough to see Argus ;>_>)

If Squeenix did what you said, the whole game would be ruined, so i doubt it's gonna happen.
Interesting, but why bother.
# Jul 14 2007 at 11:38 AM Rating: Good
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2,684 posts
is it just me, or does anyone else wonder "Why do we bother with these interviews"

Dont get me wrong, there nice to read yes, but there all the same

"How do you plan adressing this"
SE: We are working on that, but we cannot say anything specific now
"Are there any planed changes to this job/system"
SE: Yes, but at this time I cannot tell you exactly how we will change it, but we are going to change it.

Next interview Piko, just ask "So.. are things going to happen?", youll be in and out in under 60 seconds and we will have roughly 95% of the same information.
hmm
# Jul 14 2007 at 11:27 AM Rating: Good
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487 posts
Well this will be the biggest change to FFXI we have seen so far, but whether it hurts or helps FFXI we shall see. I like the game not being beaten in a week, but some things about the game are too difficult. No 1 change will ever make everyone happy, but I still enjoy the game immensly, 4 years here and I see myself playing for at least another 4.
hmmmm
# Jul 14 2007 at 10:59 AM Rating: Default
is Happy on Friday!
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the tokyo interview:
it was something about defeating certain mobs eliminates certain 2hours
i think it was ix'aerns, but i'm not sure, (like, killing the thf ix'aern elimantes perfect dodge from his list or something, idr)

what's bothering me is this:
Quote:
Pikko: Beastmasters have long awaited something new added to their job such as new abilities or jug pets. Can they expect any type of enhancement to their job in the near future?
Ogawa-san: Just changing the beastmaster would probably make a lot of other players upset as well, so what’s going to happen is when we add the new jobs we’re going to have to adjust a lot of the other jobs to keep things balanced and so probably at the time of the release of the expansion there will be another overhaul of the current jobs.

It’s been mentioned in the past that the Puppetmaster job was intended to be another “solo” job, yet players are unable to utilize this tactic of fighting in its current state. Are the plans that you spoke of just now going to enhance it to the point where they can do this?

Ogawa-san: Yes, something very soon will happen to puppetmasters. The adjustment will come soon.

haven't they been promising bst adjustments since before pup was released?
i'm a pup fan, but still, bst has been waiting longer than pup, they deserve some damned recognition

and also

LVL 70 CRAFTED MNK AND RNG JSE {Where?}
____________________________
Theytak, Siren Server, FFXI [Retired]
Amerida Baker, Balmung Server, FFXIV
LOLGAXE IS MY ETERNAL RIVAL!

Reiterpallasch wrote:
Glitterhands wrote:
Am I the only one who clicked on this thread expecting actual baby photos [of Jinte]? o.O

Except if it were baby photos, it would be like looking at before and afters of Michael Jackson. Only instead of turning into a white guy, he changes into a chick!
hmmmm
# Jul 14 2007 at 12:33 PM Rating: Decent
45 posts
Jinte wrote:

and also
LVL 70 CRAFTED MNK AND RNG JSE {Where?}


Although I am not MNK, I do wonder sometimes where the good crafted RNG JSE is. Maybe something like SAMs Hachiman that helps out weapon skill accuracy. RNG gets few good body pieces. Noct Doublet, Shikaree Aketon, Hunter's Jerkin are all reasonably attained. After that, you have ridiculously expensive or hard to attain armor like Kyudogi or Osode.

Edited, Jul 14th 2007 1:41pm by Jaxson
new job
# Jul 14 2007 at 10:57 AM Rating: Decent
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I bet 1 new job is griffin knight, for tank class.
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HA..
# Jul 14 2007 at 9:58 AM Rating: Default
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Well bst might get some changes.. >.>

nothing about many of the glaring problems with the game has been discussed.

Also for some reason when he went to say that some people like to camp HNMs for 5+ hours a day he completely overlooked the problem with it. People like to smoke crack too it doesn't mean it should be something you approve of! When he said that it reminded me of a Video I once saw where president Bush was interviewing a woman.

Woman: "I now work 3 jobs at this current time."
Bush: "Wow, You know I would really like to just say to everyone that america is a great place when someone can work 3 jobs. That is truly the American way!"

You idiot.. she is doing it because she has to not because she likes it...

yep.. losing patience with this game almost everyday. I should just stop reading these interviews.

Edited, Jul 14th 2007 2:01pm by thorazinekizzez
HA..
# Jul 14 2007 at 6:17 PM Rating: Default
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Working at taco bell, mcdonalds, and burger king arent 3 real jobs. Do you honestly think that someone has to work 3 jobs? Get 1 good job and that might take away the stress. Sorry for getting into politics but its not that hard to find a decent job where you can support yourself. And if she has kids or something, well thats the hole she dug for herself.
HA..
# Jul 15 2007 at 5:27 PM Rating: Decent
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463 posts
>.>

Depending on where you live, it can be very difficult to get a job that pays sufficient money for you to live on exclusively. And if she has kids, who says she had any say in the matter? It's not necessarily her own fault.

Never mind, this isn't the time or the place for this argument.
HA..
# Jul 15 2007 at 11:21 AM Rating: Decent
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2,890 posts
Quote:
Working at taco bell, mcdonalds, and burger king arent 3 real jobs. Do you honestly think that someone has to work 3 jobs? Get 1 good job and that might take away the stress. Sorry for getting into politics but its not that hard to find a decent job where you can support yourself. And if she has kids or something, well thats the hole she dug for herself.


my point was that just because people do it doesn't always correlate to it being a good thing. this isn't even politics man its common sense >.>

AV
# Jul 14 2007 at 9:44 AM Rating: Decent
Someone dig up what was said about Absolute Virture at the Tokyo whatever thing last year. I'm glad someone asked about AV.
bst
# Jul 14 2007 at 9:36 AM Rating: Good
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2,885 posts
Well, SE was supposed to give BST and other jobs upgrades, however, it makes sense for them to hold off on those job adjustments until the new expansion comes out. If they were to give us job adjustments now, we'd get more job adjustments later and that just seems kind of off to me. It just seems better to just wait and see what happens in December.
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Return1 argued with Mellowy and wrote:

Seriously, you won't be @#%^ing happy until SE releases a full sized Bahamut avatar you can @#%^ing ride and use to kill players that annoy you, one shot AV/PW/Shinryuu, and burn the FFXI nations to the @#%^ing ground for fun. All while actually restoring mp used instead of costing any.

Personal Observations
# Jul 14 2007 at 8:42 AM Rating: Decent
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1,173 posts
There were a few things I found oddly stated, if not disappointing.

Quote:
Ogawa-san: Just changing the beastmaster would probably make a lot of other players upset as well, so what’s going to happen is when we add the new jobs we’re going to have to adjust a lot of the other jobs to keep things balanced and so probably at the time of the release of the expansion there will be another overhaul of the current jobs.


This one I found disappointing and I'm not even a BST. Ogawa-san claims that it would upset people if they changed beastmaster, but it's fairly clear that it will upset people more if they don't. It will upset people if they make a *bad* change to BST, but that's not exactly a reason to say they won't do it.

Quote:
Up until now the problem has been that the graphics parts of it have been published in DirectX 8 but now that we’ve been able to upgrade it to DirectX 9, which is what we are doing right now, this will become available for all of the cards. We hope to have it in by the release of Wings of the Goddess. We think it will be ready


I'm no programmer, but it seems like the illegal windower is quite effective at working. I just fail to see what is taking SE so long in what is effectively re-engineering the software. If they thought outside the box, they could buy the windower software from the guy (get some contractual agreements that he'll stop working on his own), or *gasp* hire the guy. It's a lot easier to control what the person is doing once they're an employee or a customer, that's when you can get actual legally binding contracts involved.

Quote:
As for your comment on how lots of people are still camping in areas like Dragon’s Aery and other old HNMs it’s that over the years we’ve added new HNMs and as you do that, you have ones that are popular and then you have new ones and so some people go to those and when some people go to those less people are camping the older ones so more people want to go to those cause they think they have a chance.


Not sure if this was a bad translation or not, but it sounded like he completely dismissed Pikko's comment about the fact that Sky and the Dragon's Aery and Behemoth's Dominion still hold a vast amount of the undisputed best gear. He didn't seem to realize she was saying the exact opposite of him, that people go to the new HNMs, but very quickly go right back to the same old ones.

Quote:
It’s something that’s come up many times and that’s one of the reasons that we introduced the search comments and so people would be able to look at the comments and even though you can only search for the one job in the comments you can put, “I also have this job, this job…” Right now, the big thing holding up a change here is the actual engine that we use to do searching. To go in and change this would be very difficult. We’re definitely going to take it into consideration but again it’s a big difficult programming type of change and so it’s not something that can be done right away.


I get the feeling that Ogawa-san doesn't play FFXI, or he would know by now that the seacom function is great if you want to give information on the job you are now, but almost worthless on other jobs (unless it's in the same level range). It's not just a matter of laziness from the playerbase either. Because /search is limited in the number of returns it can display, the broader the search (i.e. the more likely to get someone seeking as another job) the less likely you are to actually see that person on the list of returns. With a name like "Valion", I don't stand a chance.

Again I'm no programmer, but it would seem to be that instead of changing the entire search engine, you just need to change the job indicator from a reference to an input. The engine will receive the same data as always, SAM, BLU, SMN, whatever, just that it needs to have a way of having the player set that information themselves instead of being automatically set.

Quote:
We’ve been working on it. But once it starts with the jobs it’s, “Okay, now let’s have multiple [linkshells]” then it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and then it becomes hard to maintain all of that so we’re still working on it.


This one bothered me. Trying to say "We can't add something that's useful because it's a slippery slope to something more difficult." People will always want more, that's a given. However, it's bad practice to say "They'll always want more, we won't give anything now."







Personal Observations
# Jul 15 2007 at 5:17 PM Rating: Decent
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463 posts
Yunchang wrote:

I'm no programmer, but it seems like the illegal windower is quite effective at working. I just fail to see what is taking SE so long in what is effectively re-engineering the software. If they thought outside the box, they could buy the windower software from the guy (get some contractual agreements that he'll stop working on his own), or *gasp* hire the guy. It's a lot easier to control what the person is doing once they're an employee or a customer, that's when you can get actual legally binding contracts involved.


Yes, but the illegal Windower also has graphical problems...Something about it looking either too light or too dark, and I think it's grainier too. I think that's what the biggest problem is.
as it sounds
# Jul 14 2007 at 8:34 AM Rating: Decent
they didnt tell us anything we didnt already know! they avoided the questions while still answering them! RAWR SE! RAWR!

their just trying to make us want this game moorree and moorreee.

well, its working.. =/
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