Dev Post Roundup, 22-29 April 2014
Hi, everybody! First off, let me apologize for the lack of dev post roundups recently -- between playing FFXIV and RL stuff, I haven't gotten a chance to write a post. I'll try not to let it happen again. :) Now, onto the news:
This past weekend, YoshiP and company were at a NicoNico event in Tokyo, and as part of it, they hosted a livestream in which they talked about patches 2.28 and 2.3. Here's a summary:
Patch 2.28 will be released in May.
Additional housing areas will be added in 2.3, in preparation for personal housing.
Many players have requested that the limit on the number of furnishings able to be placed in a house be increased; unfortunately, because of the additional stress that would place on the servers, that can't happen yet.
In 2.3, you'll be able to have a room of your own in your FC house; it'll be slightly larger than an inn room, and you'll be able to choose whether to allow others to visit your room. No decision has yet been made as to whether to allow you to go to your room directly from the front door of the house.
Personal houses will be released shortly after personal FC house rooms are ready. They may end up being delayed until 2.35. In order to buy a house of your own, you'll have to be level 50 and hold a certain rank with your Grand Company.
A new PvP mode, Frontlines, will be added in 2.3; this will allow large-scale, three-team battles involving 24 or more players. It won't necessarily be 8 vs. 8 vs. 8.
Other PvP balance changes are coming in 2.28 and 2.3, including unlocking all PvP skills from the start (rather than requiring you to earn PvP XP to unlock them), and allowing you to respec your PvP skills for free. No word on what's going to happen to the existing respec items.
The drop rate of Allagan Tomestones of Mythology will increase in 2.28 and/or 2.3.
The next chapter of the Crystal Tower will release with 2.3. It will feature a number of things that should make long-time Final Fantasy fans happy.
The chocobo system will be expanded in 2.3 or 2.35; they mentioned crafted chocobo food, the possibility of adding stables where you can train your chocobo, and possibly allowing you to dye your chocobo.
They're in the process of testing two-person mounts.
They plan to introduce new content that can be done with fewer than four people.
Each job will get a unique Limit Break animation. This change is still in the planning stages, and no implementation timing has been determined.
They're finalizing design of the marriage system; it won't be released until sometime after 2.3.
They're still working on the DirectX 11 version of the game. They hope to release it before the end of the year.
Finally, they have big plans for beast tribe quests involving the goblins. Those are still pretty far off.
Onto posts from the Community Team on the official forums:
An improved gear comparison tool will be coming in 2.3.
Also in 2.3, you'll be able to see the current progress of FATEs on the map.
They're planning to add training dummies as an outdoor furnishing item for your house; no date yet.
A furnishing-specific category will be added to the Nameplate Settings tab of the Character Configuration window sometime after 2.3. This will allow you to, among other things, hide the nameplates of interactive furniture, such as the Company Chest.
They're looking at adding additional designs for the pages of grimoires, so scholars, summuners, and arcanists don't have to stare at the same page of every book.
They have plans to expand the storage space of company chests; additional tabs will be unlocked as rewards for upcoming ranks.
The dev team is aware that /r is broken, and is working on changing its functionality.
Finally, there are no plans to allow summoners to summon carbuncles rather than egis. (Apparently some players would like the ability to "glamour" their egis to look like carbuncles.)
That's it for the news this week; I'll have another installment on 6 May.