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Final Fantasy XI: Developer Roundtable Q&A, Part One
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh presents this first part of a developer roundtable interview that she conducted while attending the recent Fan Festival. Today, we present Part One, general questions and questions concerning the Campaign Battle System.
This Developer Roundtable Q&A report combines a group session as well as exchanges I had with members of the media from other groups and a public Q&A session. Developers in attendance:
- Hiromichi Tanaka – Producer
- Kouichi Ogawa – Director
- Akihiko Matsui – Battle Director
- Yoji Fujito – Planner
- Mizuki Ito – Planner
- Mitsutoshi Gondai – Planner
- Sage Sundi – Global Onine Producer (Community)
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MMORPG.com:
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There are many Final Fantasy games and stories, how does Final Fantasy XI fit in the entire scheme of things? |
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Hiromichi Tanaka:
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Final Fantasy XI is really based on FFI and draws its job system from FFIII and FFV as well. It’s the most “On it” and we think that as an MMO, it is a living game and we are able to keep it best in keeping with the Final Fantasy world and myths. |
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MMORPG.com:
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Will mini-expansion scenarios be the wave of the future? |
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Hiromichi Tanaka:
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We have no big expansions in our plans, but patches and version updates will continue for Wings of the Goddess which just had its one year anniversary. The three scenarios are being planned and developed concurrently and will begin to launch in the spring. Masato Kato Oversaw the initial plot conception and event direction for the original FINAL FANTASY XI and the Rise of the Zilart expansion was approached to compose new storylines and the three new scenarios are a result of that. |
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MMORPG.com:
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How would the FFXI community make an effort to get a change in the game? |
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Hiromichi Tanaka and Sage Sundi:
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We do not have an official forum as we were afraid that as a multi-language game, that one lot of fans might “take over” the forums and disenfranchise the others. Hence, this role is assigned to the premium sites and we have local community managers who watch these sites. Another way is to provide us direct feedback via email. |
Campaign Battle System Questions
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MMORPG.com:
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Why no skill-ups in the Campaign Battle System? |
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Mizuki Ito:
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I’m sure you all remember the exploits practiced when the Campaign Battle System was first introduced. Skill-ups are too easily exploited during Campaigns so we just won’t allow it. However, we are looking at the Moblin Maze as a venue for skill ups. So keep your eyes peeled for more information. |
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MMORPG.com:
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Are there any plans to allow players to warp directly to Campaign Areas? |
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Final Fantasy XI:
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No. The initial concept was to take you to the front lines, i.e. the outdoor areas, then you have to walk the rest of the way. We wanted there to be some effort taken by players. |
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MMORPG.com:
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Why isn’t there a way to warp to Garden Citadel then? |
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Final Fantasy XI:
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You know… we can’t remember. We’ll have to look into that! |
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MMORPG.com:
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Is there a reason to go into the Beastmen strongholds? Afterall… they come out to me to be killed. |
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CFinal Fantasy:
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There are events and quests in each Beastman stronghold. You need to go in with a group or alliance sometime. You might find some keys that will open up a new area. |
Seriously? This was all the questions that were asked or was this all that got responses other than "We can't comment on that right now" from SE? With all he stuff going on in FFXI right now i'd hoped for a more indepth interview. Seems like there are enough questions to fill up about 5 pages on here. What's the deal? Will there be a party 2?
-ahem-cough-points to the bit about "Part I"-cough-cough...
/em smacks Suplyndmnd upside the head...
:-p
Seriously, though... Of that entire interview, this quote was my favorite regarding getting to campaign areas:
"We wanted there to be some effort taken by players."
That is one key reason why I love FFXI and keep coming back to it. Unlike more and more MMOs that have come out in the past few years, SE have not watered down or homogenized FFXI to be ever easier and faster and more "streamlined".
Or, as was stated beautifully on an episode of Limit Break Radio:
"The community has said, "We don't want a game on a plate. We want to work for it."
It's why, year after year, they have half a million loyal players whom, no matter what new title comes along, remain with FFXI. If only more developers showed their loyal players as much respect.
Anyways...
Looking forward to reading Part II... (/stare at Suply...)
Ok, while I love FFXI, and it will always have a special place in my heart, I still can't bring myself to play it again due to the horrible control scheme and non solo/no quest xp grind. Other than those 3 issues, which if they changed the controls first, I would seriously come back in a heartbeat. Here's to hoping the next mmorpg being announced next June has the same atmosphere, etc, but fixes the 3 above mentioned issues.
As far as control issues, I guess I don't see where you're coming from. And I enjoy the fact that FFXI doesn't give you experience in the traditional sense from quests. Meh, if you really don't like the controls, switch your keyboard settings to short, and then you can use WASD to move around.
Now, as for the interview. I agree with Suply in part. I did see the part one in the title, but it's really not enough meat. Oh well, I mean this site does have to do it's part to keep people coming back. Ugh... I will just wait impatiently for part two.
Have you even look into the manual?
There is 2 type of control scheme and inside "config" ingame you can customize your own controls in many cases.
If not, you can also edit the stuff on your user folder.
Then again, why would you need controls anyway? the game basically use "macro" 95% of the time to play.
As for the questions, can't people ask something more decent? Like up coming new classes, a lot of us still want to see time mages...or mechanic..or alchemist or knight class.
not to sound mean or anything but those classes seem almost useless, timemage...well they are basicly just RDM's but with glorified debuffs...so thats not gunna beany use(image that ina PT, ud be the same as RDM but alot less love) mechanic...well what would that really do...and i cant think fo too much but amix of already done jobs...as cool as it would be, that wouldnt work to well either. as for Knight, well thats basicly what WAR is, and the breaks would just not work so well.
as much as id love more classes, i get why its hard to pull off, you hafta think of a few things
1) how would this play into common grind PTs? what roll would it fil and would it get invites?
2) endgame use....can this help with the endgame events?
3) Is this alot like somthing we already have? and how would we make this diffrent from eveything else.
personaly me and my friends (who all still play (just less) have disscussd what jobs could be done, how they could be done, and if they fit the above. Its hard but we have had a few idea, were just waiting to see if they get used at all. this game has some of the most uniqe and one of the larger veritys of jobs compared to most games basic "archtype" "been there done that" jobs.
hopefully they save some of that creative thinking for the next MMO, but we just hafta wait and see.
LOL Ok ok, i admit, i missed the "Part One" part of it but seriously though. Did this provide any useful information? Even at 15 part's at this pace we're going to maybe get 1 thing out of this that could have been summed up in 1/2 a part. This just seemed to be void of any information. I'm not saying this is the reporters or sites fault (almost assuredly it's not from SE's track record) but this just doesn't seem to flesh out any kind of details.
The first detail i'd like covered would be how they plan on fighting RMT's without screwing over their fan base like they just did with fishing. And let me tell you something there Mr. WSIMike when i send you a tell in game, i fully expect a response within the next few hours. *taps foot*.
LOL Ok ok, i admit, i missed the "Part One" part of it but seriously though. Did this provide any useful information? Even at 15 part's at this pace we're going to maybe get 1 thing out of this that could have been summed up in 1/2 a part. This just seemed to be void of any information. I'm not saying this is the reporters or sites fault (almost assuredly it's not from SE's track record) but this just doesn't seem to flesh out any kind of details.
The first detail i'd like covered would be how they plan on fighting RMT's without screwing over their fan base like they just did with fishing. And let me tell you something there Mr. WSIMike when i send you a tell in game, i fully expect a response within the next few hours. *taps foot*.
Well, yeah.. I mean, they're not "OMG" knock-me-out-of-my-chair amazing questions. But there's some interesting bits in there. To be honest, nothing's come out of the Fan Fest this year that's seemed "huge" overall. So maybe simply not much to report on for now?
I am curious, though...
Where is "Garden Citadel"? :-p
Never heard of it... Never seen it on a map.. can't even find it in a FFXIClopedia.org search...
(yes, I'm being sarcastic and realize they probably meant Garlaige Citadel... Unless... Maybe Garden Citadel is a kinder, gentler version of what Garlaige might have become in a different future? We'll never know...)
Wasn't aware of the changes with fishing... So... what.. they send a message now and expect you to simply reply within a certain time frame? That would be very easily beatable.. I hope that's not all they're doing... if that's what's happening.