GamerEscape

In the third and final part of the Q&A with Japanese players, Final Fantasy XIV Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida talks about upcoming social features, inventory space and more, in addition to answering some interesting personal questions.

You can find the first two parts of the Q&A here and here.

Inventory

Q: Can you add more slots to the “ring” slot in our armory chest?
A: Adding slots to a certain part of your body is difficult.

Q: Are you ever going to expand on our inventory itself?
A: With the interactions with the content servers in consideration, it’s extremely difficult. We’d like to start with the chocobo sadle bag, so we hope to hear your feedback on that.

Q: Can you let us store Mogstation items in the Armoire?
A: We can’t add a huge amount of items to the armoire at once, so it’s still waiting in line. We’d like you to use the new glamour wardrobe and the chocobo saddle bag. Also don’t forget to have open space on your retainers.

Q: Can you raise the limit on the number of retainers we can have?
A: We do have plans to add more.

Q: I want a tackle box.
A: I understand the demand…

Q: Let us have Dark Matter and dyes in our currency tab!
A: There’s a possibility we’ll be adding more colors, so it’s difficult… But maybe we can move Dark Matters.

Q: Any progress on the smart phone app for retainers?
A: We’re aiming for somewhere between patch 4.2~4.3.

Q: I want to buy beast tribe mounts with each beast tribe currency, just like the recent striped ray.
A: I will send the request to the person in charge.

Additional comment:

• It’s difficult to allow players to move items from one retainer to another.

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Social features and chat:

Q: I want more Linkshells and I want to be able to rearrange the order.
A: We are working on the cross-server LS’ first. I’m sorry, but we’ll have to work on it after that.

Q: Can you allow us to invite people on other servers directly?
A: We’ll be expanding on the links within the same datacenter, so please give us some time to work on it.

Q: Will we ever be able to cross-datacenter?
A: That’s probably the hardest task.

Q: Any plans on increasing the limit on your Friendlist/Linkshell? Can we send Delivery Moogles to other servers?
A: We’re currently working on the cross-server Linkshell, so please wait until that is done. We are already working on the Friendlist limit, but we’re still thinking about implementing it since only 5% of the population has a full friendslist. We need you to wait for the cross-server Delivery Moogle.

Q: Any updates to Eternal Bonding?
A: The update plan finally came to me and it may take some time, but we’ll start working on it.

Q: Before you force beginners to leave the Beginners’ Chat once they meet the requirements, I want you to show a warning message, so they understand why they were removed.
A: Roger that.

Q: It’s great how we can become friends with people oustide of our servers, but can you make it visible, when they are in instanced areas or in a state when we can send them tells?
A: When you’re in an instanced area, it’s like being on a different server, so we can’t do that…

Q: Players have the general impression that “mentors = walking landmines (bad players)”, but do you have any plans on fixing this issue?
A: I am a mentor myself, but I’ve never considered mentors to be landmines. A mentor isn’t the definition of a “great player”, so I feel like players are expecting too much from them.

Q: Any plans on allowing us to hold multiple FCs?
A: No, but the FC Alliance is under development, so please wait for that.

Additional comments:

• The FC alliance will allow players to have a common chat and earn points for each others’ FC.
• Adding notifications for friends logging in is difficult, because it can be abused for harassment (note: You can add people on your friendlist without them accepting, which can already be abused)
• Players can tell when friends move servers and which servers they moved to, so we are considering allowing players to hide/show that information. (Note: There is a japanese trend, where evil players continue to be pursued by the community until they delete their character, since you don’t need to be approved to add them to your friend list. It is also abused by stalkers.)
• We might add higher FC ranks, but still waiting for a plan.

 

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“Out-of-game-things”:

Q: Are you going to sell special goods at the Sapporo Snow Festival?
A: There seems to be a shop planned for it.

Q: Aren’t you going to have an Orchestra Concert in the Kansai District (west of japan)?
A: We’d like to have another one.

Q: I always attend the Fan Fests with my child, but I’d be happier, if you sold T-shirts for kids, too!
A: Roger. I’ll tell the person in charge!

Q: How about having official polls for the most popular character for each genre?
A: We already had one for the Chinese version, so we could have one for the global version.

Q: Any plans on another Symphony Concert?
A: We do want to have another one, but it’s not something we as a company can do alone, so it may take some time. I want to do it again!

Q: When are we getting the Stormblood soundtrack?
A: It’s up to Soken.

Q: Any plans on having a fullscreen mode for the Mac version?
A: The middleware(?) side is negotiating right now.

Q: Are you still recruiting new devs?
A: We always are and almost every type of job. Please check the SE recruitment page.

Q: Open an Eorzea Cafe in Fukuoka.
A: Write a letter to Hino, so he can pay for it.

Q: Is there anyway I can see you join the dev team outside of FFXIV? I want to see you make other games.
A: If I felt like it, I could (laughs). I was actually in the dev team for Dragon Quest Builders.

Q: Any plans on developing the next online title?
A: No plans at the moment. Not sure about the other divisions though(lol).

Q: Any plans on opening the Eorzean Cafe outside of the major city states like Kansai and Kantou (West and East)?
A: It depends on the interest of our partners in it.

Additional comments:

• The reason why Y’shtola is the representive of FFXIV in other games is, because “Miqo’tes are what represents FFXIV the most”.
• We might start working on the next Lore Book soon.
• The next Live Letter will be in January 19th.
• The next real F.A.T.E will be in the south side of Japan.

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Personal questions:

Q: Were you able to snowboard this season?
A: Maybe I’ll go tomorrow.

Q: Have you overcome your airplane frightening?
A: No! (straight answer)

Q: What is your favourite alcohol?
A: Wine and japanese sake after that. I like the KENZO Estate’s Rindo, but it’s becoming more expensive these days.

Q: If I send something from “Chrome Hearts” as a present to SE headquarters, will it reach you?
A: I would like you not to send anything valuable, because I’ll have trouble dealing with it. Just to let you know, I don’t have anything from “Chrome Hearts” anyway.

Q: Do you like fighting games?
A: When I was playing 3rd Strike (street fighter?), I thought about quiting my job over it.

Q: Which FFXIV music track has the most emotional impression for you?
A: “A world apart”.

Q: They don’t sell G13s anymore, but do you have enough stocked up?
A: I have 5 stocked up.

Q: Where did you get the faucet rolex?
A: One of the staff members bought a faucet and chain and made it (laughs).

Q: How is NQ Hiroshi these days?
A: He’s fine. We just had the “old man’s talk” where we talked about how we were lucky we didn’t get the flu, because we are getting too old for it.

Q: If you switched bodies with a Morbol, what would you do first?
A: If you’re talking about the monster, I’d use the morbol’s bad breath atack on cute girls. If you’re talking about Foxclon, I’ll walk his bulldog (Yamada) for him.

Q: Why isn’t Morbol (Foxclon) visiting us? (note: the GM leader who usually sits next to Yoshida during live letters)
A: I don’t think he’ll ever visit. The only time he will visit you is, when you’re captured (by a GM).

Additional comment:

• Roes are a close 2nd to being my favorite race. Lalas are my favourite.

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Miscellaneous:

Q: Can you let us get achievements more easily for content that people don’t do anymore?
A: We will be making adjustments to frontlines to improve the queue times in the future. We still haven’t decided on Diadem, but maybe we’ll allow players to get the achievements via a different method.

Q: Any plans on new G.A.T.E.s?
A: We are already planning new G.A.T.E.s and mini games.

Q: No plans on new “climbing” games for a while?
A: We would like to make climbing into something more interesting

Q: I don’t mind it being somewhere out of sight, but the Sightseeing log for Kugane is difficult and it’s annoying having that effect in town. Can you do something about it?
A: That’s a tough one (laughs)

Q: Can you raise the HP of the “ARR” S-Rank hunts, so the amount matches the current patch?
A: If we do that, new players who are playing in those zones will have trouble joining in, so it’s difficult.

Q: Any plans on allowing Squadron members to have jobs? (note: they only have classes now)
A: We will leave them as classes for now, but if adding jobs will make the content interesting, we might come up with sort of setting to allow them to have jobs.

Q: Can you add more items we can buy with Yellow Scrips? There isn’t much we can buy outside of fishing items and gear.
A: We will add more.

Q: Collecting Allied Seals is a pain…Can you increase the amount of hunts per day/week?
A: I’ll tell the person in charge about the number and balance of hunts.

Q: You said it’s okay to perform FFXIV music, but is it okay to perform the F.A.T.E music from the FFXI and Dragon Quest crossover events?
A: Please avoid that, if possible.

Q: It’s weird that you need to use Gysahl Greens to summon your buddy (Chocobo companion). Can you turn it into a whistle instead?
A: Your buddy needs food in order to fight.

Q: Will you ever implement a flute for the Perform feature?
A: I think we’ll evetually implement it.

Q: Now’s a perfect example, but can you do something about the limitation on the amount of players the PS4 can show?
A: It’s not limited to the PS4. It’s probably the same with a PC. The reason why we limit the numbers is so your PC and PS4 don’t overheat.

Q: I’m looking forward to use the Nidhogg lance on my Dragoon.
A: But that’s Estinien’s lance….

Q: When will your open the closed (locked) servers like Gungnir?
A: We are looking at precise numbers to equal out the population on each server, so please wait a little longer.

Q: For the Orchestrion scrolls from old dungeons that don’t exist in the game, will we get them if we ask for them?
A: Please tell us which ones you want us to add.

Q: Can you do something about how we can only get achievements for one of the 3 states?
A: We’d like to do something…eventually….

Q: The “Waiting for tanks” problem isn’t solved yet, but do you have plans on adding systems like pouring in EXP from one job to another?
A: We have had that idea come up before, but people said, can we really call that “experience” anymore? And we had to put it back in the shelf. The lack of tanks is an eternal issue in MMOs.

Q: Can you do something about the anti-activities that certain famous players are doing?
A: If you regard it as harassment, please report it.

Note: It seems like a famous player from a different mmo game is logging into ffxiv to bash it and its players and causing drama.

Q: I remember you talked about allowing players to RP as a merchant during one of the housing Live Letters. How’s that going?
A: It’s gradually getting prepared.

Q: How did you feel about nobody showing up for the new year’s stream last year?
A: That’s why I’m here for revenge (laughs).

Q: Which can show more characters? The open world or town maps?
A: The towns, because you don’t have to consider combat taking place.

Q: Any additions planned for content involving our companion and retainers along the lines of GC Squadron missions?
A: We would like to create some sort of content for retainers and companions, but we are planning on updating the Squadrons first.

Q: Can you raise the drop rate on the Ramuh pony?
A: It’s a little difficult nerfing it even further. I’d like you to use the unsync feature…

Q: Can you increase the amount of crytals and clusters we can obtain, because it’s harder to obtain since 4.0 hit.
A: I’ll take a look at it, but it involves countermeasures against RMTers, so please consider that as well.

Q: Who voices Ser Grinnaux?
A: I don’t know. I’m not familiar with voice actor’s names.

Q: When Hylanders (?) enter the water, they become darker and shiny, but is this intended?
A: I never knew about that. I’ll ask the team, but I think it’s just a coincidence lol.

Q: Any updates planned for Chocobo Racing?
A: We’re working on the “Chocobo Sync” at the moment.

Additional comment:

• We have had several plans for siege battles, but we have had trouble with siege weapons.
• Gatherers and crafters want new content? Did you know there was this content called “Hamlet” in 1.0?
• I can’t say anything about the next expansion and new jobs, because they will kill me if I leaked it.

 

Source: Reddit, via ff14net.2.chblog.jp

Translation: CarrieRofLlight