Althea Valara (
althea_valara) wrote in
finalfantasy2021-02-05 10:15 pm
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FFXIV announces next expansion!
It's called Endwalker, and will release this fall. Some highlights that I can remember from the (very long) showcase announcement:
* Warrior of Light is a Paladin in this expansion.
* two new jobs: Sage (a barrier healer class featuring weapons unique to XIV) and a melee DPS class to be announced later
* Sage confirmed to start at level 70, no class requirement. You unlock the job in Limsa Lominsa
* healers are going to be divided into classical healers (i 'm not sure that's the word they used but it gets the point across) and barrier healers. AST is getting an adjustment due to this new division, and it sounds like duties might ask for a particular kind of healer (this was implied, not firmly stated)
* story will end the arc started way back in patch 1.0. This arc will end with patch 6.0, and patch 6.1 will start an entirely new story arc that should last for years to come
* Yoshi-P is *not* leaving FFXIv. He intends to be around for a long time.
* there will be two new cities. The first announced is the smaller, Radz-at-han. This excited me because the city is mentioned in the Dancer job quests, which I just unlocked. The larger city couldn't be teased as it would be too much of A spoiler.
* the story of 6.0 will take you to the moon
* Alphinaud will be changing jobs to Sage, but you'll need to play to find out why
* Estinien added to the Trust system. When they showed this slide someone said in the stream chat, "Estinien took a shower!" His hair did look glossy! (I once laughed with my linkshell over a retainer named Estinien'needs'a'bath, so apparently this is a common fan thought). Yoshi-P said you'd need to play to find out why a lone wolf such as Estinien decides to join forces with the Scions.
* Some new beast tribes, I already forget the name of the one they showcased (should have taken notes!) but they are reminiscent of elephants
* new enemies to fight, but I can't remember any of them, alas
* Anima! I assume she will be an eikon to fight but they didn't specify
* one of the areas visited is Garlemald, the capital of the Garlean empire. It's in really rough shape, which had the chat going wild shouting "SUCH DEVASTATION!" (for those who've never played, the bad guy of A Realm Reborn says this during the final dungeon of the base game)
* online fan festival coming in May. Two days, free of charge, but they will be selling digital items: the Lunar Whale mount which can hold 8 people (!!!) plus the minions Edge, Rosa, and Rydia. The festival is going to include live music; these segments will probably not be archived so we were urged to tune in to the stream if we want to see them.
* PlayStation 5 version beta starting in April. It will be free of charge to anyone who owns the PS4 version, and have two modes, a 4K version for beauty and a 2K optimized for frame rate. Should have much faster load times than PS4
* Big news that upset a lot of the chat: they are down scaling numbers. As a person with programming in her background I totally understand why, but everyone was crying NO MY CRITS! sigh. Yoshi-P gave an example of a Black Mage spell that does 50k damage currently might do only 10k afterwards. He stressed that this does not mean your characters are getting weaker; content will be adjusted. But, as a result of this change it might be more difficult to do duties with undersized parties, something they are aware of. The reason for this change has a lot to do with limitations of programming. There were some overflow issues that were causing bugs, and if they had kept on their current pace, more bugs would likely occur. It was stressed that this is partially for the future health of the game, and that in ten years that might have to make a similar adjustment.
* level cap raised to 90, as expected
* removal of belts as equipped items (chat said they were de-Nomura-ing the game). Inventory slots will be given to weapons and rings, with five slots to be saved for a rainy day. Any belts equipped (including on retainers) at launch of 6.0 will be given to a Calamity salvager. But we were warned to remove any materia we wanted to keep in advance.
* Island Sanctuary, new area to relax in. Lots of comments in chat about Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon. The Sanctuary is not just for crafters/gatherers.
* as expected, housing in Ishgard. When expansion drops you can visit the new housing areas but won't be able to buy a house until 6.1
* New role quests, crafting quests, and gathering quests
* new 8 person raids (not crossover events) and Alliance raids. One of them, I believe the alliance raid, is called Pandemonium:
teaser showed someone who looked exactly like Lahabrea. Yoshi-P and translator sang "lala hee!" But didn't confirm for sure it was Lahabrea.
* expansion of The Gold Saucer. Chat all yelled "Blitzball!", was not confirmed what it will be
* new PVP content that should make it easier to find matches.
* data center world travel! Yes, now you will be able to visit other data centers! It sounds like you'll have to log off and log back on to do so, and there will be some limitations to it. They are aware players think this might crash world economies, but they said (a) that didn't happen when then started the world visit system, (b) they will monitor the situation
Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc7fEmS6gIA
Official Site: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/endwalker
If I think of anything else I'll edit this. It was *long*.
* Warrior of Light is a Paladin in this expansion.
* two new jobs: Sage (a barrier healer class featuring weapons unique to XIV) and a melee DPS class to be announced later
* Sage confirmed to start at level 70, no class requirement. You unlock the job in Limsa Lominsa
* healers are going to be divided into classical healers (i 'm not sure that's the word they used but it gets the point across) and barrier healers. AST is getting an adjustment due to this new division, and it sounds like duties might ask for a particular kind of healer (this was implied, not firmly stated)
* story will end the arc started way back in patch 1.0. This arc will end with patch 6.0, and patch 6.1 will start an entirely new story arc that should last for years to come
* Yoshi-P is *not* leaving FFXIv. He intends to be around for a long time.
* there will be two new cities. The first announced is the smaller, Radz-at-han. This excited me because the city is mentioned in the Dancer job quests, which I just unlocked. The larger city couldn't be teased as it would be too much of A spoiler.
* the story of 6.0 will take you to the moon
* Alphinaud will be changing jobs to Sage, but you'll need to play to find out why
* Estinien added to the Trust system. When they showed this slide someone said in the stream chat, "Estinien took a shower!" His hair did look glossy! (I once laughed with my linkshell over a retainer named Estinien'needs'a'bath, so apparently this is a common fan thought). Yoshi-P said you'd need to play to find out why a lone wolf such as Estinien decides to join forces with the Scions.
* Some new beast tribes, I already forget the name of the one they showcased (should have taken notes!) but they are reminiscent of elephants
* new enemies to fight, but I can't remember any of them, alas
* Anima! I assume she will be an eikon to fight but they didn't specify
* one of the areas visited is Garlemald, the capital of the Garlean empire. It's in really rough shape, which had the chat going wild shouting "SUCH DEVASTATION!" (for those who've never played, the bad guy of A Realm Reborn says this during the final dungeon of the base game)
* online fan festival coming in May. Two days, free of charge, but they will be selling digital items: the Lunar Whale mount which can hold 8 people (!!!) plus the minions Edge, Rosa, and Rydia. The festival is going to include live music; these segments will probably not be archived so we were urged to tune in to the stream if we want to see them.
* PlayStation 5 version beta starting in April. It will be free of charge to anyone who owns the PS4 version, and have two modes, a 4K version for beauty and a 2K optimized for frame rate. Should have much faster load times than PS4
* Big news that upset a lot of the chat: they are down scaling numbers. As a person with programming in her background I totally understand why, but everyone was crying NO MY CRITS! sigh. Yoshi-P gave an example of a Black Mage spell that does 50k damage currently might do only 10k afterwards. He stressed that this does not mean your characters are getting weaker; content will be adjusted. But, as a result of this change it might be more difficult to do duties with undersized parties, something they are aware of. The reason for this change has a lot to do with limitations of programming. There were some overflow issues that were causing bugs, and if they had kept on their current pace, more bugs would likely occur. It was stressed that this is partially for the future health of the game, and that in ten years that might have to make a similar adjustment.
* level cap raised to 90, as expected
* removal of belts as equipped items (chat said they were de-Nomura-ing the game). Inventory slots will be given to weapons and rings, with five slots to be saved for a rainy day. Any belts equipped (including on retainers) at launch of 6.0 will be given to a Calamity salvager. But we were warned to remove any materia we wanted to keep in advance.
* Island Sanctuary, new area to relax in. Lots of comments in chat about Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon. The Sanctuary is not just for crafters/gatherers.
* as expected, housing in Ishgard. When expansion drops you can visit the new housing areas but won't be able to buy a house until 6.1
* New role quests, crafting quests, and gathering quests
* new 8 person raids (not crossover events) and Alliance raids. One of them, I believe the alliance raid, is called Pandemonium:
teaser showed someone who looked exactly like Lahabrea. Yoshi-P and translator sang "lala hee!" But didn't confirm for sure it was Lahabrea.
* expansion of The Gold Saucer. Chat all yelled "Blitzball!", was not confirmed what it will be
* new PVP content that should make it easier to find matches.
* data center world travel! Yes, now you will be able to visit other data centers! It sounds like you'll have to log off and log back on to do so, and there will be some limitations to it. They are aware players think this might crash world economies, but they said (a) that didn't happen when then started the world visit system, (b) they will monitor the situation
Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc7fEmS6gIA
Official Site: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/endwalker
If I think of anything else I'll edit this. It was *long*.
no subject
She gave me an IOU for the Lunar Whale mount for Valentine's Day. Now I just need to make eight friends in the game...
I'm curious what they'll do to Nocturnal Sect if they're removing the barrier aspect, since it's woven into the AST questline.
I got lucky and got a house when demo timers came up again, and I'm looking forward to getting a bigger FC house when everyone moves to Ishgard, but I really wish they had finally done instanced housing. Like, "Thank you Warrior of Light for ending a millennium-long genocidal war, here's your personal Ishgardian estate."
I'm very curious to see what plot points come up in Garlemald. We've been waiting years to go there!
no subject
That's interesting about the AST questline -- I have the job unlocked but haven't really played it so I barely even know what Nocturnal Sect is.
I started playing in September 2019, and bought my house on Christmas Day that year, so I'm used to having a house. I do know there's lots of folks who want houses, though, and can't get them due to lack of availability. I've been assuming the Island Sanctuary will be instanced, but I know that's not the same as having a house...hmm. Tricky situation.
The reveal of Garlemald as a destination was a surprise to me because I have only played through the end of Shadowbringers but not its after-quests, and I had somehow got it in my head that the after-quests take you to Garlemald so I was surprised we hadn't already gone there. (I blame War of the Visions:FFBE for this; when it launched you could acquire Thancred, and his profile said he was doing shenanigans in Garlemald. I hadn't yet played Stormblood when WOTV launched so now I know it was referring that, but yeah, still was a surprise to me.)
I just unlocked Dancer recently so when Radz-at-Han was announced I was excited since that city is mentioned in the Dancer quests. It'll be fun to see it!
no subject
I only started playing August and I'm most of the way through Stormblood, but I keep getting sidetracked by all the content. I haven't done a main story quest in a couple weeks because I've been leveling the jobs I haven't gotten to 70 yet and exploring Eureka. Sometimes you just want a place to mindlessly grind when listening to podcasts.
I'm really curious about the Island Sanctuary too. I also assume it'll be instanced and maybe a place to garden for people who don't have housing plots, but I'm not sure if they'll put in the furniture and decoration aspects. There's so many ways they could solve the housing crisis and they just...don't.
Dancer (and Gunbreaker and Monk) are the three jobs I haven't even touched yet, so I'm really curious to see the stories! I had better get to it before EW drops.