In Final Fantasy XIV, the Letter from the Producer Live is a special streamed question and answer session with members of the development team, including the producer, Yoshi-P. These letters usually touch on all kinds of topics, such as fixes to existing content, fun Final Fantasy XIV toys and merchandise, and a peek at what we can expect in future patches.
It may not feel like it, but with patch 3.2 having been released in February, and the team usually putting out major content updates about every 3 months, a new major patch may be right on the horizon. Though content hasn’t been confirmed, we can cast hopeful eyes to the Live Letter to see what kind of things we can look forward to in the future of Final Fantasy XIV.
Final Fantasy XIV Egi Glamours
I was actually surprised to see this in the discussion this time around as I’ve come to think that Egi glamours had been forgotten! Here’s the deal: summoners can only currently summon 3 types of egis: Ifrit, Titan and Garuda. These were the original 3 primals you battled in the base game. However, time has seen the number of primals grow, and summoners have been yearning to summon new creatures.
When no new summons were added to the summoner skill set in Heavensward, there was a good bit of disappointment. I don’t remember exactly why the development team said that adding new summons was difficult to do… yadda, yadda, yadda… but then they came up with a compromise that seemed to make summoners happy.
There would be glamours so even though you’d use the same egis and the same skills(?), you could choose the way your egi would look. However, we haven’t heard an update on egi glamours in a while… until now.
The Live Letter confirmed that the egi glamours are still in the works. However, each glamour apparently takes a huge amount of resources to create, so they will be releasing these one patch at a time, hopefully starting with patch 3.4. That’s a bit away, but at least we have some tentative time table!
A Fix for Gauss Barrel
In the early 50s, Machinists get the skill known as Gauss Barrel. This skill is pretty much mandatory to toggle on at all times in order to put out the best DPS for end game content. However, the downside to it is that it overlays this funky gauss barrel over top of your gun’s appearance. The problem with the skill is that you can never see the weapon's original design, no matter how cool it is, as long as you have Gauss Barrel toggled on, which is… pretty much all the time. Some people don’t mind this, and some people do.
Thankfully, the development team is going to give Machinists an option to turn off the Gauss Barrel display if they so desire! This should make players in both camps happy, especially if they can squeeze it in to the next patch as they hope to do. Go Machinists!
Cross-World Raid and Party Finder
Some servers just have more raid and party finder activity than others. This can be due to the server population, or the overall progression environment of the server. And those who want a more active raiding and party finder scene have often switched servers to find others to do the content they desire.
In the future, the developers are planning on releasing a cross-world raid and party finder. They plan to start with the raid finder first, allowing people to search for other raiders who wish to complete the newest raid content. You will be able to indicate whether the group is a learning party or a party set to clear the content. The raid finder will also check to see if the players have actually completed the raid content when joining a clearing party if those are the desired requirements.
Later, they also wish to add a cross-world party finder. I’m guessing this is for stuff like EX primal battles and end game content. The team said they’d like to release the first raid finder in patch 3.3.
Changes for Crafting
It’s confirmed that in patch 3.3, the crafter’s item level cap is going to be raised. This eventually includes the addition of new shared-class equipment, which I’m honestly all for. My poor armoury chest just can’t keep up with class armor for all my battle and crafting classes at once!
They noted that the gear you get with red scrips will be updated – I’m not sure if that means if there will be new gear to purchase, or if it the gear we already own will just be updated. They did say that patch 3.4 is when we’ll see the new equipment. However, in order to make the new stuff, you’ll still need to have the current best gear. Crafting always has to be so complicated!
Thankfully, the team also stated that they will be giving crafters ways to obtain grade 4 materia. This won’t be through beast tribe quests, but at least it’s coming!
Grand Company Updates
It’s been a long time since some of us have been able to rank up in our Grand Company. I’ve been stuck at the same max rank since I achieved it over two years ago, in fact. I’ve had folks in my FC ask, “When are we going to get new Grand Company ranks?” Until this Live Letter, I just had to answer that I didn’t know.
Well, it seems that Grand Companies haven’t been forgotten! In fact, we may be seeing new items for purchase at the Grand Company as soon as the next patch, and new ranks sometime soon as well.
Another thing that may have something to do with our Grand Company is the possibly upcoming Platoon feature. I was surprised to hear about this, and though we don’t have a lot of information about how it’s going to work, I’m certainly very curious!
The Live Letter noted that the team hoped that we’d see Platoons coming in patch 3.4. They also mentioned something about adding dungeons that Platoons could join you in, but I’m fuzzy on whether this means using a Platoon in existing content or if new content would need to be made for Platoons. I’d love to be able to take a Platoon out to do FATE content, though, in the case when there’s not a lot of other people around doing them.
Armoury Chest and Inventory Improvements
One of my biggest complaints with Final Fantasy XIV (and I’m not the only one) is the limited space, especially in the case of the Armoury Chest. It’s wonderful for one character to be able to do and be all jobs in the game. However, that takes a major toll on the amount of space you have, especially when you start adding in all the crafting and gathering.
The team didn’t give any promises about expanding inventory, but it was acknowledged as an issue. The final answer was that it would take some time to implement, but they’re looking into getting it done.
Please, please, please?
What will patch 3.3 bring to Final Fantasy XIV? I’m sure we’ll be getting a trickle of information about this as time draws closer to the patch’s release. I’m always surprised and pleased by the sheer amount of content we see in each of these free patches, and that’s not even counting the expected content, such as the next 24-man raid! Only time will tell!
