FINAL FANTASY XI Producer Akihiko Matsui continues his open communication with the games players in today’s post on the official forums which lists in detail, his current ideas for battle adjustments.

Among the changes are adjustments to elemental magic, merited weapon skills, as well as changes to several different pieces of content including Voidwatch, Legion, Salvage and more!

You can check out the full post from Matsui after the jump.

Hello.

Thank you for the vast amount of feedback regarding battle.

We’ve received a variety of different adjustment suggestions and amongst them a suggestion for enfeebling. However, instead of thinking about this in terms of individual points, I’ve been reading over everything from the viewpoint of battle overall.

Towards the end of last year I made a series of posts about the plans we have; however, this raised the issue of requests for more specific, concrete details, which in turn made it difficult for all of you to hold discussions. With that said, from an overall battle system perspective, I would like to share a couple of ideas the development team is currently thinking about.

Please note that all of these ideas have not been finalized. Also, please know that the below is not the entirety of the overall battle adjustments.
We’d appreciate it greatly if you took the content listed here to not represent the cure-all solution, and see it more as things we will be doing while working to solve the issues.

Balance between two-handed and single-handed weapons

This is a topic that has been discussed in several threads, particularly one about making adjustments to single-handed weapons, and we would like to perform adjustments.

As has been mentioned, food and other choices are quite limited due to the fact that status modifiers are far greater for two-handed weapons and there is a higher need for accuracy when using single-handed weapons.

For example, we are currently looking into the possibility of adding some form of merit that would enhance the modifiers for the single-handed weapon main weapon slot.

Regarding Dark Knight

This is a topic that has been discussed in several threads, particularly one about dark knight being too powerful. As was commented during VanaFest, we feel dark knight is becoming powerful, and at the same time decided to put off the adjustments we had looked into at that time. I believe there are many who remember this.
We are currently looking to adjust Desperate Blows and Last Resort.

Currently, the haste cap for equipment and magic is the same for all jobs, but haste from abilities is a separate category outside of this cap, and Desperate Blows is the ability with the highest value of haste.

However, simply reducing the value of Desperate Blows would only cause dark knight to become weaker, so we are considering giving a portion of the total haste effect granted from Desperate Blows to Last Resort, and giving the remaining amount back to Desperate Blows.

• Current
  • Desperate Blows +25%
• Post-adjustment
  • Desperate Blows +10% (*Value with 5 merit points)
  • Last Resort +15%

Simply put, this adjustment will allow you to gain this effect in the case you use dark knight as your support job.

While currently, it might be difficult to imagine the situations where a front-line job would select dark knight for their support job, we would like to look into this based on this possibility.

Regarding Defense

This is a topic that we have received feedback on asking to increase the boons of defense. Due to the attack/defense ratio, the meaning behind adding defense past a certain value starts to become pointless, and we would like to make it have meaning.

As a merit, for example, the more you increase your defense, the lower the damage taken will be and the boons for Defender would become large.
On the other hand, while under the effects of abilities that decrease defense such as Berserk or Last Resort, the damage you take would become higher than what it is currently.

Merit Point Weapon Skills

This is a topic we have seen in threads asking to increase the cap on the merit point weapon skill category.
Instead of adjusting the cap value, we are currently looking into adjusting the modifier values so that these weapon skills can be used with a single merit point.

We are envisioning to make it so 1 merit point will yield a 65% status modifier, and each point afterwards will grant an addition 5% for a maximum of 85% (no changes to the max value).

Elemental Magic

We have received a variety of feedback on elemental magic.
The first thing I’m thinking of doing is making adjustments to the damage calculations.

Here’s my current image of how elemental magic is going to work:
The damage output on earth element spells will initially be lower compared to the rest of the elements, but have the best cost performance overall. Also, INT will have an even larger impact on the damage output. As a result, players will basically try to raise their INT and magic attack to get closer to the damage output done by lightning element spells.

• Breakdown by element
  • MP Efficiency: Earth > Water > Wind > Fire > Ice > Lightning
  • INT Offset: Earth > Water > Wind > Fire > Ice > Lightning
  • Initial Damage Output: Lightning > Ice > Fire > Wind > Water > Earth
  • Maximum Damage Output: Lightning > Ice > Fire > Wind > Water > Earth
• Breakdown by spell tier
  • MP Efficiency: I > II > III > IV > V
  • INT Offset: V > IV > III > II > I
  • Initial Damage Output: V > IV > III > II > I
  • Maximum Damage Output: V > IV > III > II > I

The charts below explain my idea in detail.
* The magic attack does not include any offsets.
* “INT+0” and “INT+100” represents the INT difference between the caster and the target.

As far as casting time and recast time goes, here’s my current idea:
- Tier I~V spells will all have same casting time / recast time.
For example, Tier I spells will have a casting time of 0.5 seconds and recast time of 2 seconds. Therefore, both Thunder I and Stone I will have the casting time of 0.5 seconds and recast time of 2 seconds.

The charts below explain my idea in detail.

Please note that we will be making additional adjustments on elemental magic using this change as the foundation.

Regarding Content

To start off, we are looking into adjustments for new Nyzul, Legion, Odin’s Chamber II, Voidwatch (up to Provenance Watcher), Salvage, and in the event there is further necessity, new Salvage as well.

Below is what we are looking into for adjustments.

• New Nyzul
  • Adjustments to the warp range of floors
• Legion
  • Adjustments to monster levels
  • Adjustments to attack power and defense
• Odin’s Chamber II
  • Adjustments to monster levels
• Voidwatch
  • Expand the usage range of the void clusters to Provenance (Provenance Watcher)
• Salvage
  • Re-examine the drop rate of level 35 equipment
  • Make a change so that monsters other than the NMs that spawn from ramparts in Bhaflau Remnants drop the same equipment
• Walk of Echoes
  • Adjustments to monster levels
  • Remove EX status from each type of coin
  • Add sacks that contain multiple Trick Dice and Liminal Residue

Past this, we will continue to make adjustments as necessary, and we will be making it so strategy and play style variations can be developed instead of having to win with a huge amount of fire power in a short amount of time.

While I am repeating myself, the above are by no means finalized. There are many other topics we are looking into at the moment (enmity, TP given to enemies, etc.), so I would appreciate it if you could read over all of this on the basis that there is a possibility that the implementation order and adjustment method changes.

Thank you very much.

A new thread has been created in the Updates section of the official forums:

[dev1125] Voidwatch Adjustments

• It will be possible to skip the cutscene that occurs when zoning from Walk of Echoes to Provenance.

• The acquisition of other rewards will no longer be interrupted when a rare item already in one’s possession is among the spoils obtained from a Riftworn Pyxis after selecting “obtain all.”

Proceed to the thread.

Today, various adjustments and updates have been implemented on the FINAL FANTASY XI Test Server.

We encourage players to give all the in-development content a thorough testing, and look forward to receiving your feedback!

Proceed on to peruse the test details.
Read on to find out how you can access the FINAL FANTASY XI Test Server!

See which content is getting updates after the jump!

A new thread has been created in the Updates section of the official forums:

[dev1122] Voidwatch Adjustments

Proceed to the thread.

A new thread has been created in the Updates section of the official forums:

[dev1121] Limit Break Quest Adjustments

Proceed to the thread.

The following thread has been updated with new information:

[dev1118] Legion Adjustments

Proceed to the thread.

A new thread has been created in the Updates section of the official forums:

[dev1120] Fellow Adjustments

Proceed to the thread.

The following thread has been updated with new information:

[dev1057] Limbus Adjustments

Proceed to the thread.

Winter’s chill may still linger, but adventurers all across Vana’diel can keep themselves warm by leaping into the fray of Legion, where large hosts of brave souls can battle against the realm’s fiercest enemies yet!

Should that not be enough to shake the icicles from your limbs, the Voidwatch is in need of help more than ever with the establishment of the Tavnazia and Aht Urhgan jurisdictions. Further mastery of crafting is now possible due to recent breakthroughs in research, the Nyzul Isle Uncharted Region and Walk of Echoes have heated up due to revitalizing changes, and the color will return to the face of many an adventurer after seeing the myriad job adjustments implemented in this update.

Hungering to know more? Read on for all the details of this latest version update!

[dev1103] Voidwatch Finale

• The final chapter in the Voidwatch saga will be added.
  
  *This content will not be introduced on the test server.

[dev1051] Voidwatch: Tavnazia Jurisdiction

• Voidwatch will continue with new operations in Tavnazia.
  • Eligibility
    Adventurers level 75 and above who possess an Adventurer’s Certificate may initiate the mission by talking to the NPC Owain in Tavnazia Safehold.

    *The Chains of Promathia expansion is required to perform operations in this jurisdiction.

• New atmacite, abyssite and periapts will be added.

[dev1054] Voidwatch: Aht Urhgan Jurisdiction

• Voidwatch will continue with new operations in Aht Urhgan.
  • Eligibility
    Adventurers level 75 and above who possess an Adventurer’s Certificate may initiate the mission by talking to the NPC Camille in Wajaom Woodlands.

    *The Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion is required to perform operations in this jurisdiction.

• New atmacite, abyssite and periapts will be added.

With the advent of this new update, level 99 adventurers can now test their mettle in the dark recesses of the Nyzul Isle Uncharted Regions!

Not only that, but those who venture back into the Walk of Echoes and Voidwatch jurisdictions will notice a host of changes abrew. New Magian trials to upgrade your treasured Relic, Mythic, and Empyrean weapons to level 99 are also available to undertake.

View the release notes for all the gritty details of the new content!

[dev1075] Voidwatch Adjustments

*The following content is in development. Specific details may differ from the release version.

• The Jeuno II Voidwatch operation at Fort Karugo-Narugo [S] may also be undertaken at Beaucedine Glacier.
  *Beaucedine Glacier will be added as a destination to Atmacite Refiner teleportation menus.
  *This is a temporary measure.

Effect area damage received from the following enemies will be reduced for non-targeted characters:
*This damage reduction also applies to pets.

[dev1039] Voidwatch: Third Chapter

*The following content is still in development. Specific details may differ from the release version.

• The third chapter of the Voidwatch battle system will be introduced.
• New atmacite and abyssite will be added.

*The following changes will be implemented on the test server to streamline the testing process:

• The “=TEST= Voidwatch GM” debug NPC will be added to furnish players with Voidwatch-related items and key items.