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

Hello again, all fans of FINAL FANTASY XIV!

Today’s letter marks the tenth entry in the series, which is still going strong thanks to your support. As always, I’ll endeavor to keep the latest information flowing to you, so keep watching this space!

It’s been a while since I last updated our list of changes, so I figured it was due for a good clean up. Like last time, I’ve grayed out the items already implemented and noted what patch they were released in. New entries to the list are appropriately marked as -NEW-. The Battle System section was getting a bit large, so I made a separate category for enemy and field changes. This time around, the list contains additions planned for up until summer 2011. You see what I did there with the bold font for emphasis? But anywho, without further ado, feast your eyes on the list in its entirety! (Remember, these are our plans until summer 2011!)

Now here’s the accompanying commentary. On the hot topic of battle, as our lead battle planner Akihiko Matsui posted on the forums the other day, major changes are in store heading into summer, such as the introduction of auto-attack. Now, to make Matsui stop his incessant poking (he’s still at it!), let me put it this way—the theme of the overhaul to the battle system is reward effort, reduce monotony. Let’s see if that holds off the pokes.

Think of the satisfaction you get when taking out an enemy solo by a stroke of brilliance. Or the supreme exhilaration you feel when pwning entire hoards of foes by playing out your party role to perfection. Now, in contrast, imagine a person who, with only half his heart in the battle, struggles to dispatch the enemy. This kind of range in experience is what we’re aiming for with the reformed battle system—a system that rewards effort and innovation. Revisions to the Armoury System and battle algorithms will be spearheading the changes, along with the introduction of the job system. We’re pressing forward with changes catering to both solo and party play, so you can rest assured whatever your playing style.

1.18 will see levequest balancing go into full swing, starting with revisions centered on rewards. As for crafting and gathering, we’re tweaking existing recipes and adding brand-new ones for crafter gear ahead of the summer. I’m pleased to say we’ve concluded our feasibility study for the Materia crafting system (though the name is still tentative), and will soon hammer out the details for the UI and start working on the data.

Now, there’s one new item on the list that fans of the FINAL FANTASY series wouldn’t have missed: the long-awaited battle with the primal Ifrit is on the way! But that’s hardly where it ends. We’ll be summoning forth more and more primals in the future, so keep an eye out for further announcements.

A number of plans made at the beginning of the year will soon be ripe for release. Among these are the shiny new job system (a proper system, mind you, not just renamed classes), an in-game achievement system related to Lodestone character histories, and new modes of transport to address the mobility issue. Once our current plans progress to the next stage, I believe it’ll be possible to unveil a longer-term update schedule. (We’ve been giving chocobos a lot of thought, but it’s hard to establish a timeframe before we define exactly what needs to be done.)

And that about does it for this letter. For next time, I’m planning to write all about our progress on auto-attack, and hope to be able to present the feature to you in fully animated glory rather than with dull screenshots. (Note to self: have Lodestone crew implement video embedding on the website.)

Thanks for reading! Catch you next time and/or on the forums!

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