Duel Mode, Spectator Mode & More Coming To FFXIV

16 Aug 2016
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thefeastpatch

During a recent broadcast of Adrenaline Rush, Square Enix’s PVP oriented Final Fantasy XIV stream that is done by the community teams around the globe, Naoki Yoshida appeared to talk about some of the adjustments that players can look forward to for PvP.

All of the juicy details have been posted on the forums, and below.

Job Adjustments

Dark knight is still lacking in the support department when compared to the other tank jobs, so we’re planning to make some adjustments.

Black mage currently has many ways to immobilize players such as with bind, sleep and a slowing effect. Naturally, these crowd control actions can be highly beneficial, particularly at high levels of play, so we see a high win ratio for the job. However, imbalanced crowd control can take the fun out of PvP matches for players who are interested in fighting and find themselves consistently slept or bound. As such, we’re planning to make some drastic changes here, shortening the duration of these crowd control options and adjusting job balance accordingly.
The dev. team is currently testing and fine tuning the adjustments mentioned above.

Season Two Rewards

Some players were wondering if the rewards for Season Two of The Feast are going to be the exact same as the first season as we used the same image on the ranking page. The rewards for Season Two will be another full set of gear, and the design will be somewhat different from the first season. The types of rewards rewarded to the players will be changed every two seasons, as we felt having one type of reward only for one season wouldn’t allow a larger group of players to obtain them. Using current example, this means we have two rewards with full sets of gear for season one and two, and a different type of reward for season three and four, and so forth.

Face Target and Auto-Attack Changes

While this also applies to PvE and is somewhat related to job adjustments, we found that in PvP some players were spamming face target to land auto-attacks to deal more damage against their opponents. We’re planning to make some significant adjustments to the functionality of auto-attack and face targeting in Patch 3.4. We’ll go more details in upcoming Letter from the Producer LIVE scheduled during our special 14-hour anniversary broadcast.

Fields of Glory (Shatter)

We received a good deal of feedback from players expressing that the icebound tomeliths in The Fields of Glory (Shatter) make the mode feel more PvE oriented than PvP. Additionally, we’ve heard that players are finding it difficult to make a comeback once a team has gotten a significant lead. We’re currently discussing how we can make adjustments to this. While we do not have any specific changes to share at this time, please note that we are looking into it.

PvP-related system and features planned for Patch 3.4

We understand some players are hesitant to jump into the pit against skilled players in a ranked match, and would like something to be done to assist with the queue times of unrated matches.
For The Feast 8v8, we’ll be removing role requirement when joining a match so that players can queue in as any roles they wish and enjoy the fight. As for the 4v4 matches, since this is the unrated version of The Feast, the time it takes to match will likely be longer while seasons are live. For this we’re planning to introduce the following new PvP features and modes of play in Patch 3.4:

Duel Mode

You’ve asked for it, and we’ve heard you! We’re very pleased to announce the addition of a duel mode, where players can challenge another individual to put their PvP skills to the test. The Wolves’ Den Pier is going to be expanded with a new field specifically for dueling. Players within this field can request to duel with another player through a sub-command. Once accepted, players will see a countdown to begin the match.

An important note: dueling will not be instanced, and can be engaged in while waiting on a queue so long as the player is in the designated field. Additionally, surrounding players will be able to spectate on these duels live if they are in the area! You can use this new mode to practice with your fellow team mates, introduce PvP combat to newer, more hesitant players in a fun way, or even hold player-organized dueling events!

Custom Match Mode

Another popular request, Custom Match mode will also be added to the game. A custom match can be initiated by having two-light parties, and having one party leader request a match to the other party’s leader. Once accepted, both teams will be moved to an instanced the Feast map, and begin a match of the Feast. We believe this is another great addition to introduce players into the realm of PvP, as well as holding player organized tournaments and events.

Spectator Mode

Last but not least, we’ll be introducing the Spectator mode. The user interface for the spectator mode would be somewhat different from the current Feast. The layout will allow matches to be broadcasted, displaying the stats of both participating teams. Multiple cameras will be placed in the field which players can switch to and from, as well as a follow option, designed to have the camera follow a specific character. We should be able to go over some more details on this in the next Letter from the Producer LIVE as well.

This mode is currently a work in progress, and further improvements are in the works, but note that the first version of the mode will require the team engaged in the match to invite the spectators. Our ideal method would be to provide an interface that displays a list of current ongoing matches, and allow spectators to select a match to watch from that list at any time during the match, but since this is a completely new server system that allows players to enter an existing instance, we’re still looking into how to best implement such a system, and ask for your patience as we work towards it. We’re currently aiming to introduce the expanded Spectator Mode in Patch 3.5, and once this new system is in place we’re certain that we can utilize this feature in other ways in-game beyond PvP.

On a related note, we’d like to mention that we’re currently working on a new cross-world Party Finder feature for Patch 3.5 as well.

New map for The Feast

Playing The Feast on one map alone may get boring for some players, so we’re currently working on creating another map for the Feast.

Discussing The Feast (Rated) times

While this is still being debated internally, we’re discussing if we should restrict the hours in which The Feast can be played. For example, if such a system was implemented, we’d consider having The Feast open during each region’s peak hours.

The intent behind this idea would be to try and get more players involved in PvP content by having a specified time to queue where players could potentially get quicker matches, and once we have more players participating in PvP, then we could gradually increase the window of the time. Nothing is finalized here, it is still just a discussion we’re having within the team. We would like to hear your feedback on this as well, so be sure to let us know how you feel about this approach.

 

Again, I thank all of you for sharing valuable feedback on PvP content, and would love to hear from you once these features are implemented. I’m beyond excited to participate in dueling, and other upcoming community events that may come about with these new modes in place!


 

Lots of great changes are coming! I can still remember when spectating for PvP was discussed years ago.