New Interview with FFXI's Developers on 1UP.com

[McBride]

Source: http://1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3152040


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The contents of the site is just a bit too big to post in a thread. I had a good laugh reading about their Beaucedine question. Seriously though, every time I've checked the main POL site this month, it's been to see if they've posted anything at all about the job balancing. It would also be very nice if they were to increase the benefits of using areas for CoP.

[Xaoko]

Concerning the "rarity" of eggs, this can be said: Just because an egg is rare, does not mean that the chocobo born from it will be. For example, an egg dropped by an NM might not produce a special chocobo. It may turn out to be a normal yellow one. It also may turn out that a chocobo bred from the one born from the rare egg will be the one that is actually "rare."

Cool :O Eggs from NMs? Wonder what kinds of NMs will drop eggs... And very interesting on the rarity of eggs and how they determine, or rather, don't (majorly) determine the rarity of the chocobo produced.

And it's saddenning to read that using our own chocobos will be more expensive than renting, and very interesting in how we can visit retired chocobos. Who knows, that one zone in the DATs (the fort-looking one with a "Chocobo Forest" sign) might come into action (I can dream, can't I? ; ;)

Overall, interesting read, especially on the chocobreeding part.

[McBride]

It would be awesome if areas outside of Aht Urhgan held NMs that dropped chocobo eggs, though it seems rather unlikely. Killing a random oft-looked over NM like in Ghelsba to obtain a random chocobo egg would be pretty awesome, but that's the stuff fairy tales are made of.

I just really hope it's more fun than gardening.

[Legal Fish]

1UP: On a total side note, I have to ask, are Ordelle's Caves, Meriphataud Mountains and Beaucedine Glacier specifically designed to be as annoying as possible in terms of navigation?

KO: All the areas in Vana'diel were designed based on a variety of different concepts. Ordelle's Caves were meant to be complex and winding, just like a real natural cavern, while the Meriphataud Mountains and the Beaucedine Glacier were designed to represent the grand scale of what nature is capable of creating. As for the Beaucedine Glacier, this area can be compared to the grueling area that the hero must traverse before reaching the last dungeon where the final boss awaits. (Many of the original areas were designed as if they might be used in an offline game)

What a dumb question. If you are going to mention any area, mention Ule Range, the fun of climbing to the top wears off the 5th time you do it, let alone the 100th time. Please let us warp to different portions for god's sake.

1UP: Speaking about non-TOAU specific stuff for a bit, getting God triggers in Tu'Lia is often very difficult, because many trigger mobs, like Ullikummi, are so heavily camped by Chinese gilsellers who sell the triggers for 18 million gil or more that it's very discouraging to camp a mob that only pops once every 12 hours or even longer, only to lose it to a gilseller party who may or may not be using 'bots. So, are you guys still going after gilsellers/farmers?

Mozzia [Community Planner]: Whether they are gilsellers or not, we cannot be sure; however, we are fully aware that there are groups of players that continuously camp the same NMs for long periods of time. We also do not believe that waiting like this for a monster to pop is against any of FINAL FANTASY XI's rules. It must be accepted that some people have more time to put into the game, therefore allowing them to reap the benefits of their perseverance.

However, we realize that some NM camping has become quite excessive, and we do not feel that having the same player(s) claim the same NMs over and over again is necessarily beneficial to Vana'diel. In cases that we feel require adjustments, we have implemented changes such as those seen in the April 2006 version update (Mee Deggi the Punisher & Quu Domi the Gallant in Oztroja Castle, Pahh the Gullcaller, Worr the Clawfisted, Novv the Whitehearted, and Zuug the Shoreleaper in the Sea Serpent's Grotto).

Finally, we advise against categorizing every NM camper as a "Chinese gilseller." A large percentage of the campers' accounts are North American, and currently, it is impossible to determine the nationality of a user through their account data. Concerning gilsellers and RMT, we have made it clear that due to the original design of FINAL FANTASY XI not being based on a system supporting RMT, as well as real-world dangers, such as fraud, surrounding these types of actions/transactions, that we will not accept these practices, and have thus prohibited them in the PlayOnline User Agreement.

To stop those who continue to violate this section of the user agreement, we have taken many steps (in-game and out) to prosecute these individuals. As we stated earlier this year, over 250 accounts have been cancelled and over 250 billion gil has been seized. And we have not stopped there. Since that announcement we have continued to cancel the accounts of those we have found in violation of the user agreement and will continue to punish those who do, as well as consider new ways of finding and dealing with any players committing detrimental actions.

God damn it, when will they learn? It's like talking to a brickwall.

[Amovorite]

Edit: Legal Fish beat me out to that section. But my comment about Mozzia's response remains unchanged.


Weakest. Blatant. Cop-out. Ever.

Rest of it was pretty good though. And I agree. Corsair is not a replacement for Red Mage and Bard, yet an extremely nice complement to them.

[Grizzlebeard]

S-E and their unfailing ability to give interviews while never really answering the questions. They've lost 150k subscribers in the last year even after Xbox360 launch and still refuse to address the issues that are pushing people away from the game.

I have to admit, I was surprised at the chocobo answer. I mean, would people actually still raise chocobos if they couldn't ride them? FFXI Tamagochi ftl.

[Draco Dagon]

What a crappy interview...

[Stormcrow]

I was also a bit confused about the question regarding Riding our raised chocobos. I had just always assumed that we would be able to because what would be the point if we couldn't? Did I just miss something? I'm also a little confused as to how a raised choco could affect digging if we can't ride it....

[Dragonly]

S-E and their unfailing ability to give interviews while never really answering the questions. They've lost 150k subscribers in the last year even after Xbox360 launch and still refuse to address the issues that are pushing people away from the game.

I have to admit, I was surprised at the chocobo answer. I mean, would people actually still raise chocobos if they couldn't ride them? FFXI Tamagochi ftl.

How did they lose 150k subscribers last year?

[Kailea]

How did they lose 150k subscribers last year?

they did not..... some people just like to bitch about SE, and make up numbers.....

[Grizzlebeard]

they did not..... some people just like to bitch about SE, and make up numbers.....

Care to take your head out the sand?

Check out the chart titled, "Subscribers: 70,000 - 700,000" and look at FFXI.

[Matera]

Care to take your head out the sand?

Check out the chart titled, "Subscribers: 70,000 - 700,000" and look at FFXI.

Griz 1, Kailea 0

[Murphie]

Looks like every MMO (save WoW) lost subscribers last year. Big whoop. FFXI is still going strong.

I don't understand why people who detest the game and the company that runs it so much continue to play. It boggles the mind.

[Mog]

Yeesh, WoW's got us beat by 12 times.

[Taskmage]

KO: We feel that while many players are experiencing slowdown, it has not yet hampered gameplay to the point of people being unable to participate (if it did, it would not be so crowded all the time!).

1UP: Yeah, but that's like throwing free money when the ball drops in Times Square and saying people love getting stomped on.