Hello, welcome to our summary of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXVIII on Friday, February 18 2022 (PST). This is a special Live Letter is the first since the release of the Endwalker expansion.
In the pre-show while they were testing equipment. Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) talked about NFTs. He mentioned that there are no plans to introduce NFTs in Final Fantasy XIV at this time, however he does believe that it is possible to have a game that has NFT that does not go in the wrong direction. Yoshi-P also expressed interest in doing an interview (no related to FFXIV) with an expert in NFTs as he believes there is a lot of misconception regarding them.
Most of Patch 6.1 will be in another Live Letter, but they will touch upon it in this live letter. They claim to not intend to have any important announcements.
Our Journey Thus Far: FFXIV from 2010 through to 2021
This is just a look through the past so not much to write about here. They did a recap of the timeline for the different iterations of Final Fantasy XIV. They found that its best to have normal content where the players come out of it saying “uh, that was pretty easy”. They also found that non-combat additions to the game increased their player base by a lot.
In 2021, there were more than 25 million registered players.
Newfound Futures: The Next 10 years of FFXIV
They started with a joke. Yoshi-P says he only intends to leave if the CEO tells him he needs to leave (even then he will fight them) or if he dies.
They are looking forward to 7.0 and thinking of what they can do leading up to that.
Advancements as a solo and multiplayer RPG experience.
- They want to make the game fun to play alone or with friends
- Trust compatibility will be added to all MSQ dungeons and 4 player trials to be added in 6.1-6.5
- Patch 6.1 will make a Realm Reborn scenario duties Trust compatible
- Further improvements will be made to some low-level MSQ dungeons and trials.
- 8 player trials will not be updated at this time, and will be considered for 7.0 or later.
- Trust members will be from fellow adventurers guild or other NPCs with the echo. The scions will not always be available story wise to use. They gave an example of a scion saying they will take care of something so it doesn’t make sense for them to be in the dungeon.
- They will make some changes to the script to accomodate for certain NPCs being in the dungeon.
- They will be making some changes such as getting rid of the puddles in Thousand Maws that give poison or slow which are annoying.
- They will be changing Castrum and Praetoreum (Main Story Roulette dungeons) from 8 player to 4 player. Cape Westwind will also be changed to reflect the situation in the story.
The game will get its first graphical update.
- This does not mean that PS4 support will be phased out.
- Graphics update will be done in phases to avoid issues.
- Planned for implementation in 7.0
- Aiming for screen-wide aesthetic appeal suited to a multiplayer environment (don’t expect it to look like Horizon Forbidden West).
- They will try to accomodate for a broad range of hardware specs as possible.
- Minimum operating specifications will also change as of 7.0
- Photorealism is not their goal.
- Their goals are:
- Higher resolution textures for hair/skin/gear/etc.
- Improved material qualities such as skin/metal/fabric/etc.
- Better lighting and shadow effects
- Overall appearance of player characters will be altered as little as possible.
Patch 6.x series roadmap
- Main Scenario Update (Patch 6.1-6.5)
- Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures (Patch 6.1-6.5)
- “Tataru’s Grand Endeavor” sidequest series (Patch 6.1-6.5)
Patch 6.1
- Alliance Raid “Myths of the Realm” which will delve into the Mythos of the 12 Gods
- Crystalline Conflict (PVP)
- Arkasodara tribe quests and dailies
- Dragonsong’s Reprise (new Ultimate), this will be at 6.1.1
- Ultima’s Bane (Unreal)
- Ishgard Housing (Empyreum)
- Trust System for A Realm Reborn (patch 2.0) main scenario dungeons
- New Calling Card-style UI
- New hairstyles for Hrothgar
- Custom deliveries: Ameliance
- There will be glamor plate updates.
Patch 6.2
- Trust system for 2.x main scenario dungeons
- Trust systems for 2-3 Heavensward main scenario dungeons
- New weapon enhancements
- New “Criterion” dungeon with variable difficulty for 1-4 players
- Island Sanctuary debuts
- Plus Pandaemonium, Faux Hollows, other trials and more!
Patch 6.3
- Trust system for the remaining Heavensward main scenario dungeons
- Deep Dungeon series #3
- Ultimate Duty #5
- Island Sanctuary Update
- Plus Myths of the Realm, Faux Hollows, other trials and More.
Patch 6.4/6.5
- Trust system for all Stormblood main scenario dungeons
- Criterion dungeons #2 and 3
- Additional areas for Island Sanctuary
- Plus conclusions to Pandaemonium furhter Myths of the Realm, Faux Hollows, other trials and more!
- There are more plans for Patches 6.4 and 6.5 still being made.
Patch Cycle
Patch Updates will now be 1 major patch every 4 months (instead of 3.5 months previously). There will also be one extra week each for implementation and fine-tuning. And an extra week added for summer and new year’s holidays.
Data Center Travel is currently being looked at for a 6.1.8 timing.
That’s about it for the announcements. The rest of the live letter was a Q&A Session if you are interested, please watch the VOD on Youtube.