Letter from the Producer, XI (06/14/2011)

FINAL FANTASY XIV fans the world round, the eleventh Letter from the Producer has arrived for your viewing pleasure!

Pore over the complete letter, or visit the Lodestone.

Discuss this in the ZAM Forums!

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!

(click picture to view)

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!

Comments

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Will be worth the wait...
# Jun 18 2011 at 11:22 PM Rating: Decent
...if this was going to be a button masher I don't think this game would have survived honestly. Turned based play style is one of the reasons why most people play the FF series.
auto attack
# Jun 15 2011 at 9:20 PM Rating: Decent
From what i read we will get a portion of the auto attack, with more auto attack options to come in later updates. Are you serious? So in other words pc user's test our game some more. Get your act together SE. Why people do not just boycott this game and demand thier money back is beyond me. Friggen crafting MMO imo anyways. I really hope this game works out. But it is just hard to see that day coming. GL SE and all the players who have spent thier time on FF 14. peace out Optiox...... Dirt Naps. fabul.
This Is Sure to Make Me Quit the Game
# Jun 15 2011 at 4:47 PM Rating: Default
I absoluteloy hate the auto-attack they showed. I was against the thing from the beginning and I'm even more against it now. Is seems to be just another rendition of FFXI's "build-ip-TP-then-WS." One of the reasons I quit that game was because the system was so juvenile.

I really like the stamina gage. It makes you think. If you used up stamina too fast you found yurself in a position where you couldn't attack at all; if you used it too slow your damage was reduced. And all those people who complained about having to press 1 or 2 10 times in a row are full of baloney. As a 45 archer I had enough multi-shot skills to where I rarely had to hit 1/2 more than 3 times.

I did not level PUG all that high, only to about 15 or so. But one of the things I really like about that class was how fast you could attack. From the video just shown it looks like the new PUGs are on Prozac.

Sorry, SE, but you aren't going to get another dime from me.
Cool Story Bro...
# Jun 15 2011 at 12:08 AM Rating: Decent
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125 posts
I can only pray that everything goes to plan, and in a timely manner. Seems like you guys are on top of things, but I really would like to hear about the PS3 version. This is the first game in history that was a timed exclusive, but never got released to the system it was stated to be exclusive on while thousands of people enjoy it on their pc's in front of your face...

Getting stronger, and more experienced to the point when I show up I'm gonna be considered a noob, and have nothing but catching up to do for my first 6 months of play. Do they not care? We PS3 owners need first few months free or something.

no new animation for pugilist
# Jun 14 2011 at 7:50 PM Rating: Decent
I think everyone got a more pimped out version of WS animation... but pugilist didn't :(
Letter from the Producer, XI (06/14/2011)
# Jun 14 2011 at 1:49 PM Rating: Decent
They call that "Auto-Attack"?! The characters attacked only like two times in 5 mins, and auto-attack doesn't seem to restart after the use of skills...

Patch will be two weeks late because it should be a big one, but only 2-3 things are being implemented in 1.18...


That said, I'm still playing the game and loving it.
Letter from the Producer, XI (06/14/2011)
# Jun 14 2011 at 5:34 PM Rating: Good
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287 posts
Thrax37 wrote:
They call that "Auto-Attack"?! The characters attacked only like two times in 5 mins, and auto-attack doesn't seem to restart after the use of skills...

Patch will be two weeks late because it should be a big one, but only 2-3 things are being implemented in 1.18...


That said, I'm still playing the game and loving it.


The GLA at the start of the video auto-attacked 6 times in ~35 seconds, while still using other skills.

How you get "like two times in 5 mins" out of that is beyond me.
verry nice
# Jun 14 2011 at 11:18 AM Rating: Decent
i cant wait, thanks yoshi!
WS in video
# Jun 14 2011 at 9:40 AM Rating: Decent
By looking at the Japanese in-game text, the sword WS was a revamped r30 Rage of Halone and the polearm WS was a revamped r50 Chaos Thrust.
Video
# Jun 14 2011 at 8:59 AM Rating: Good
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175 posts
Quote:
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.


I'm on board with you Yoshi!! Dear FF friends, this game is a diamond in the rough! Let the dev team do their polishing!! Keep the faith!! Thank you development team and Yoshi-P for the information and video!

Also, did anyone notice that the action bar is locked and up while in passive mode. I'm all over that! :-)

Quote:
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.


Thank you for keeping the information flowing up to the time of the patch!!
A bit better.
# Jun 14 2011 at 6:41 AM Rating: Good
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284 posts
Better I like that lancer ws. I dont know if new because i dont have lnc lvld past 22
Take your time guys...
# Jun 14 2011 at 5:33 AM Rating: Good
38 posts
Take your time and make it right.. ;) If it takes a couple weeks longer, so be it..
Letter from the Producer, XI (06/14/2011)
# Jun 14 2011 at 2:08 AM Rating: Good
I don't mind waiting 2 weeks if it means it will be done right,thanks for the update and vid.
Letter from the Producer, XI (06/14/2011)
# Jun 14 2011 at 3:58 AM Rating: Decent
I wished they would have shown archer. I am curious how they are going to approach it.
Letter from the Producer, XI (06/14/2011)
# Jun 14 2011 at 10:13 AM Rating: Decent
Obiar wrote:
I wished they would have shown archer. I am curious how they are going to approach it.

That's what I wanna see too
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