February "Ask SquareEnix" Submission

[AKosygin]

Greetings fellow FF XI fans,

February's "Ask SquareEnix" questions has been compiled and has been sent to SquareEnix's Community Management Team. Included below is a list of questions sent.

Please note that most of the questions had proposed solutions and personal opinions removed to allow for a more generalized coverage of the topic. This is done to keep from detracting from the question with the opinions or proposed solutions. However, a reference to the original post is made, so that if they really want to find out what you think, they can.

There were further edits for spelling, grammar, and adjustment to emphasis in which things were presented to make for a less hostile, more neutral question appropriate in an interview format.

Finally, one of the March questions was moved up to February due to the timeliness of the question.

-- AKosygin
FFXIOnline.com Moderation and Administration Team

Question 1.
Can Skillchain + Magic Burst style become more appealing in an EXP party?
Reference: Can "Skillchain + Magic Burst" style become appealing in exp party?

Currently, there is a trend for "TP spam" exp parties, where every frontline fighter and physical ranged weapon user simply use his weaponskill (WS) individually instead of combining them to form skillchain (SC) and open opportunity for magic burst (MB). This is so common and effective now that the skillchain + magic burst system, which requires higher player skill and knowledge as well as party cooperation, is rarely used in pick-up groups anymore.

While the game should allow for multiple ways of gaining experience points, it is a shame losing this aspect of cooperative play. Will S-E encourage the return of skillchain + magic burst? To be more specific, will S-E adjust battle mechanism, monsters, and more to make the trade off's between "TP spam" and "SC+MB" styles more balanced?

Question 2.
Are there plans to address claim issues related to the Charm and Leave ability of Beastmasters?
Reference: Why does changing pets causes loss of claim on a mob?

If a BST is fighting a single mob, swapping pets will cause the mob to go yellow - claimable by anyone else - until the BST or the new pet start attackinng it again. The current game mechanics seem to be that the 'current' mob is changed by the charm ability, If the charm fails, that would make sense, but if the charm is successful it seems that it shouldn't happen.

Note that this is a separate issue, and separate question, from "leaving a pet causing loss of claim" - that issue refers to leaving the pet at the end of a fight so the BST can kill the mob with minimal loss of exp. Please don't get these two mixed up

Question 3.
How will PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 support be addressed as PS2s are phased out with the PS3 becoming dominant?

It is understood that currently there are no plans to support the PlayStation 3 for FF XI. However, will there be an eventual support for PS3 users and will a DVD pack like the Vana'diel Collection for the PC be available for the PlayStation users? What will happen to PS2 users down the road in terms of support?

Question 4.
What plans are being made, if any and how, to improve the search function to allow players to seek on multiple jobs or otherwise make it easier to find XP parties?
Reference: Will there be improvements to the Search function?

With the dynamics of party and looking for members in FFXI, the search function is a key tool, yet provides little help to us all in some situations or reasons. Will there be any ways to improve the search function and search comments?

Will there be a better way to list the following?

• What areas we have access to (be it quests dependent areas, or expansion dependent areas)
• What areas we are willing to go/don't go to
• Multiple jobs we could play as
• Preferred role in party with subjob combinations
• How much until our next level or merit
• What is our preferrences as to a skill chain

As partying together, the key of our exp system, will there be such improvements to help ease the difficulties in obtaining one and reduce stressful ires that comes with it by improving search?

Question 5.
Are there any plans to change Dynamis into an instanced battleground to avoid scheduling conflicts with large number of players?
Reference: Dynamis Entry: Future Improvements?

This question was asked previously on an interview conducted with Bercus from the "Order of the Blue Gartr" linkshell. However, it seems the important issues were avoided or misunderstood, and so this is asked again with some clarifications.

In the scheduling of Dynamis entry, there seems to be the lack of any true coordination, or the potential for needless conflict. In three different Dynamis shells BurningPanther has been in, his Linkshell has had runs that ran over time, cutting into another shells' schedule, or flat-out had been cut off by another shell.

In the second case where they were cut off, the Linkshell that did so only because they used an LS-run website to schedule their own run, that was different from the one they used (the others were Japanese, they were North American, and the European-based shells use different scheduling sites altogether). While the others did not mean to cut them off, the fact that there was no centralized manner of scheduling Dynamis resulted in this confusion. In the case where they were cut off, it was by yet another linkshell that was notorious on the server.

In each of the cases, had Dynamis been instanced, the problem would have been avoided entirely, everyone getting to enter Dynamis with a minimum of fuss. Or, if there were a centralized site, run by SquareEnix, to schedule Dynamis and enforced by GMs, Linkshells in different time zones would suffer no overlap.

Will we see an instanced Dynamis? Or a centralized site through which Linkshells of all timezones can schedule Dynamis, also enforced by GMs?

Question 6.
Are there any plans to increase the ease with which prospective players may obtain a Buddy Pass or similar access to a free trial?

Question 7.
Is it true that PlayOnline now has the ability to scan running processes on my computer?
Reference: Why do you want to see what i do on my home computer?

There are discussions that PlayOnline are now scanning running processes to search for known programs that interfaces with PlayOnline or Final Fantasy XI, are there any merit to the speculations? If it is true, to what extent are the scanning or searching be limited to? And how is this information being handled?

Question 8.
What did the development team first envisioned of Final Fantasy XI and during the course of development up to this point, what things changed or differed from their vision of the game at the beginning? What were surprisingly unexpected, turned out better, turned out for the worst?

Question 9.
If you knew what you know now, what would the development team have done different from the beginning? And what would the Community Team do different?

[LilithAngel]

Hopefully SE will understand what is being asked this time, and can give us some form of clarification.

[IfritnoItazura]

Question 7.
Is it true that PlayOnline now has the ability to scan running processes on my computer?
Reference: Why do you want to see what i do on my home computer?

There are discussions that PlayOnline are now scanning running processes to search for known programs that interfaces with PlayOnline or Final Fantasy XI, are there any merit to the speculations? If it is true, to what extent are the scanning or searching be limited to? And how is this information being handled?

It's a little late, but I wish this question could've been phrased with more technical precision. Sometime like:

"Process Guard, a security software, has apparently detected POL.EXE's attempts at reading other processes' memory. What is the purpose of these read's? What data is being sought, and what is the collected data used for?"

Utterly neutral, has context, makes no accusation, and leaves little wiggling room for the answer. Oh well.

[Liquidedust]

It's a little late, but I wish this question could've been phrased with more technical precision. Sometime like:

"Process Guard, a security software, has apparently detected POL.EXE's attempts at reading other processes' memory. What is the purpose of these read's? What data is being sought, and what is the collected data used for?"

Utterly neutral, has context, makes no accusation, and leaves little wiggling room for the answer. Oh well.

Agreed since the question format as of now doesn't go into specifics or how people came up to the conclusion that POL.exe did the scan.

[Wise Donkey]

I expect a lot of vanilla answers, a lot of "Oh that sounds good, we will tell our development team about that", but no real answers. Maybe I am a bit pessimistic about this, but I really don't think we are going to get the answers/results we are hoping for.

[Akashimo]

I can't wait to see what they have to say to these ^^. Espically dynamis, pol scanning and the search function.

[Murphie]

Not to be too cynical, but questions 8 & 9 are such throwaway questions. I sincerely doubt we'll get much insight from their answers, and those two slots could have been better filled with questions about game play.

[Icemage]

Not to be too cynical, but questions 8 & 9 are such throwaway questions. I sincerely doubt we'll get much insight from their answers, and those two slots could have been better filled with questions about game play.

We encourage everyone to post their concerns (phrased appropriately) in the Ask Square-Enix Questions forum. If you feel a topic has been left off of the list, bring it up and we'll do our best to make sure it appears on the next list.

These submissions should be an ongoing thing, so missing one opportunity does not mean the question will continue to go unasked.


Icemage

[Murphie]

I absolutely will. Was this not the correct thread to discuss the questions that we're sending this month?

[Aksannyi]

I'm loving the search idea. I would love to see something where I could seek on multiple jobs implemented.

[Icemage]

I absolutely will. Was this not the correct thread to discuss the questions that we're sending this month?

Yes, it is the right place to discuss the mechanics behind it. However, if you want specific topics to be brought up for consideration next time, please re-assert them in the Ask Square-Enix Questions forum so that we know it's still an open topic (and thus eligible for the next submission).


Icemage

[little ninja]

I'm really curious what they are gonna say about Beastmaster, I mean if this is something they will fix this might make Beastmaster a feared class in FFXI again. I mean no longer can a person laugh at a Beastmaster fighting an Nm knowing full well they can nab it at the Nms or regular mobs weakest point.. Then again i feel they will just say "hey thats how its ment to work an operate"..

[AKosygin]

I expect a lot of vanilla answers, a lot of "Oh that sounds good, we will tell our development team about that", but no real answers. Maybe I am a bit pessimistic about this, but I really don't think we are going to get the answers/results we are hoping for.

Well, I hope you know how to read in-between the lines when it comes to "vanilla" answers. I would rather have a "This sounds good, we will tell our development team." or "We aren't going to say." or "We don't know." rather than a lie or a false but desired answer in which we find out down the road they are going to do the opposite or nothing at all.

Sometimes, some of the things we (as a community) ask cannot be answered immediately without careful consideration of other things (fairness, game balance, what others think, developer's intentions, etc.). I would rather wait for an accurate answer when they have it and I ask the question again down the road; than to receive a detailed response that turns out wrong or a bad implementation of what we requested.

I hope to have an answer in 30 days or less, but honestly, I will wait for one for 90 if necessary. Though I would seriously worry if it takes them more than 45 days (1.5 months) to give some type of response.

Also, I am thinking that 10 questions maybe too much per month (considering other sites may send questions too) and was thinking about reducing the number of questions to 5 per month or 10 per two months. I am also thinking that maybe I should start accepting questions for next month starting mid-month. (Ex: 16 March to 15 April for April's question) This way, if things are good, we can have an answer to April's questions by the end of April and not May.

[IfritnoItazura]

Why do I have a funny feeling they will look at all the questions from all the different premiere sites, pick a few they want to answer, and give a single set of selected questions and responses to all the premiere sites? >_>;

* * *

What exactly is the agreement?

S-E's representatives will give an response (even if it's "We cannot answer that right now.") to every question? Or that they will take question but nothing definite about response?

It seems like S-E didn't even set something as basic as a fixed maximum number of questions. The whole thing is starting to look like something which wasn't that well thought out.

[Vyuru]

Out of curiosity, do we know when we can expect a reply from SE? I know it takes them awhile to respond, but I don't know how long they normally wait before responding.