Let me introduce myself, my name is Jérôme Lallemand. I’m the webmaster of the finalfantasy14.eu website and i’m here to represent all the fans from the french community.
First of all, I’d like to thank you for inviting me once again for this interview, I really appreciate it.
Since our first interview, the French speaking followers have noticed that things are still changing very fast. We’d like, once again, to thank you and all your team for all the efforts you make.
Naoki yoshida :
We are the ones who should really be appreciating the community. Since the launch of FFXIV in September 2010, it has been a year now and since we took over, its been 10 months. During this time it was very difficult and tough time but the reason we were able to continue working on this project is because we had players playing the game and also giving us warm, kind words. So it’s really us that want to tell the community, thank you very much.
The reason why we made the announce of 2.0 is not to reach outside to the new players, to tell them there is a FFXIV 2.0, but we really wanted to reach out to the current players and let them know FF has a really bright future and we are going to make a lot of changes. We really want them to enjoy playing the game now. Of course there will be a lot of challenges in the future as well and I understand because 14 had such a tough start players had a lot of trouble inside and outside the game, but I really want players to enjoy 14 and show them that they can trust us and that there will be a lot of new content. We are going to make sure the players enjoy 14 in a way that you cannot in other MMOs. It’s going to be really unique so please look forward to it.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
All right, let’s start!
Finalfantasy14.eu :
Is the new graphic engine, about which you’re talking, linked to the Luminous studio graphic engine, that Square Enix announced a couple of months ago?
Naoki yoshida :
We have been receiving this question a lot during the media tour, probably due to the announcement of the two consoles we made and the announce that the Luminous studio made was very close in timing . People are thinking these two are related to each other. Also because Mr. Hashimoto is related to 14 as well. However the Luminous studio engine is related to the console game, so what they are trying to achieve with that engine is to make the still graphic really beautiful, while for MMOs the most important thing is to have lots of characters and high quality graphics so the aim is slightly different. So because of that we have two different engines.
Although it’s not two different engines, the people who are working on the FFXIV graphics engine also belong to Luminious studios. So some people are working on two projects. Some of the writing/coding we use for the engines and the shader are not quite two different engines. You can consider them brothers. The engine for xiv is more focused for mmos.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
On another screenshot showing the future graphic quality of the game, we can see a character on a chocobo. Will the chochobo fights be set before the 2.0 version?
Naoki yoshida :
What I can promise now is that it will be in 2.0 for sure. Of course we would like to implement this feature to allow players to fight together with their chocobo before 2.0 but its not that easy to do that because when we change the server the data structure we have currently needs to be changed for the new server. So we need to migrate all the data to the new strucuture and if we add a lot of things to the chocobo rising its going to be really complicated. So as I always promise I want to bring this in as soon as possible, so we will plan and see how much man power and time this is going to cost and if its doable we will bring it in sooner. For now I can only promise it will be at 2.0 at the latest.
Finalfantasy14.eu : Speaking of chocobos, are you considering introducing in the future a breeding system, as we’ve already seen in former final fantasy?
Naoki yoshida :
Yes, we are planning to. We are thinking of all the different possibilities for example maybe fat chocobo that can keep items for you, or maybe a strong chocobo that is really good at fighting and we don’t really have a focus on its speed only because if we do make it the main focus people will only want chocobos for speed and we want players to raise their chocobos for different purposes.
Maybe it will be interesting to have a chocobo that grows by eating materias. So lot of potential.
Finalfantasy14.eu : By the way, would you mind telling us more about the chocobos personalization (armour, color,etc)?
Naoki yoshida :
You love chocobos! (laugh)
Finalfantasy14.eu :
All french love chocobos (laugh)
Naoki yoshida :
With patch 1.21 chocobo armor is something we want to implement in the game. We are going over the designs and making more finalizations to get prepared for this update. As I said before, because of the data structure its very difficult to add too many functions to the current engine before 2.0 but that being said if we don’t do anything that’s boring so we will add small content to chocobo slowly but surely and chocobos are provided by the grand company so players can provide services for the grand company and the grand company will supply you with parts for the chocobo. There is a lot we are planning to do. In the next live producer letter we will try to give you more information there.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
In the new game version, will the current history still be available? And what about the initial characters?
Naoki yoshida :
Would you like to know about the character data? I really don’t want to spoil the storyline for the players by giving away all the information, but with the 7th umbral era event, which is happening now, after the finale some of the cutscenes you might not know what what has happened. Things might disappear and you will wonder where they’ve gone but the main quest storyline will continue with the new verison, but the 7th umbral era is going to change and make more interesting content for the players. For example, ishgard is going to be evolved in the 7th umbral era. Not only zones will be affected but characters as well so I hope you look forward to this event.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
As players we see that the FFXIV world is reshaping, will there be additional zones in the 2.0 version or even before that? Will it be possible to reach to Ishgard before that version?
Naoki yoshida :
I can tell you that access to Ishgard will be available in 2.0, because ishgard is very special area and people are saying there is a dragon there. So I think it will be more dynamic if we use the new map system to show ishgard rather than the current. That’s why I really want to be comfortable and confident to provide excellent quality of ishgard to the players that’s why I want it in 2.0
That being said, I’m not saying we are not going to add anymore zones. In 1.20 you will be able to fight against moogles, which will be in a new zone. And after that you can fight against primal garuda and also in 1.21 we will add two more instances content so when we add this content it is going to be new zones. So there will be new zones added to the current map as well.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
So far, we have been discovering the primals Ifrit and Batraal. Will it be possible in the future to summon them? Allowing primals to fight with us?
Naoki yoshida :
You will be able to summon them after 2.0 but with this ff14 we are considering these traditional primals such as ifrit and leviathan like a god. So I want to separate the traditional summoning system from these new primals. You will be able to summon 1 primal per 1 world, such as 1 ifrit for 1 world. So there will be ifrit, garuda, and so on but only 1 each. So with this new system Im planning to implement, the free companies who have defeated the primal have the ability to summon them. In the previous series, someone could summon Ifrit as well as other people could summon Ifrit. So there would be serval ifrits in one world but I don’t want it to be like that, so people will have to fight each other to have the ability to summon ifrit.
If summons are not considered primals, they will be more common and more people will be able to summon them. We will add the summoner class which can summon carbuncle but theyre different from primals. So primals can only be summons by free companies.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
In the future, will there be the appearance of less common primals? Such as doomtrain?
Naoki yoshida :
For the summoning class we would like to have smaller avatars, rather than large ones such as Ifrit. For doomtrain, if we see that it is suitable we will consider if it could be primal or avatar. We are still considering what we should add so please discuss this on your website or the official forum so we can see what avatars and primals players would like to see. If a certain primal makes players really happy we would like to add it. Personally I love ff7 knights of round but it is too hard to make.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
The next upgrade concerns the dragoon knight. Will he be accompanied of his own dragoon?
Naoki yoshida :
During this interview tour we have received that question often and to be honest we are considering adding a pet class in the future. So we were not thinking of adding a pet to the current class, but because we received this question so many times we will start thinking about it differently. Its very tricky because dragoon knight is supposed to be very strong because it has the dragons power but if you have the dragons power together then the dragoon and pet will be very hard to balance. Having a pet as well as having the power of the dragon is very tricky to balance.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
You have made it a priority of reinforcing the community for players. Nevertheless, before that, are you thinking of adding new tools permitting to change basic things such as personalized linkshell logo, interact with a member of one’s own linkshell without him needing to be connected?
For your information my linkshell counts 115 members, but the number of members limit causes some problems/trouble. Moreover, if a member doesn’t respect the rules, excluding him is impossible if he’s not next to me.
Naoki yoshida :
First of all I’d like to start with the personalization function. We will add that to the free companies system so for the free company you will be able to design your own emblem or crest and put it on your armoury or shield. That is something we really want to add for the free company system. The linkshell system has more to do with the general communication so there will be a separation between the two systems. We are aware there is a problem with the LS kick function. With 1.20 we will add two search functions one is for searching players and one is to search the market. and the ability to search the market wards. Once we implement these two features we will fix the linkshell kick function. It will be after 1.20.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
In the description of the future world changes, we notice that Eorzea will undergo an incredible change. That kind of change is very appreciated by the roleplayers, as well as the apparition of personal flats. Will other similar things be set for that kind of player, such as weddings?
Naoki yoshida :
The map we showed during the live broadcast was of the Northern area, but actually in the South there is a place which is going to be a cathedral. It would be nice to have weddings there, it is something we are discussing.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
To digress a little bit: is the new loot items system currently dysfunctional? Or is it deliberate? Indeed, right now the items automatically fall into the inventory, in contrast with the past when it went into the loot inventory. Consequently, if we already posses the items, they disappear.
Naoki yoshida :
We are going to fix this problem, so that players may decide who gets items. It may take some time though.
Finalfantasy14.eu :
You are going to add more stable servers. Are you planning on a possible long term migration or will it only be possible to migrate once without losing personal character data?
Naoki yoshida :
With this new server its going to allow more flexibility, because we are going to have more this server and content finder. This is going to allow players to find each other and enjoy content. For example, if you want to fight against ifrit even if you are on different servers you can find French players on other servers to play with and enjoy the content. I think this will help communication system so they can join the same party regardless of server theyre playing on. Of course if they want to change the server itself that will be possible. We have not decided if its going to be something that you have to pay money to do or if it’ll be allowed once a week for free. We haven’t made that business decision yet but this new server will allow you to play with people on other servers.
Tenkenkobra Admin replied
655 weeks ago