Yoshida: [...]And so after the individual job balance has been performed, then we look at balancing the difficult for the raid content, and that’s when we make sure there’s no disparity with how these jobs are being utilized within that content. That’s when we go into the raid and make sure that the difficulty level is not so different no matter what combination of your party is going into it and then they would adjust the mechanics. If they find any actions that are OP they would adjust it from there.
Granted, they still don't have the resources for a much more elaborate Testing group - even after 4+ years - but I'm not so sure content really is properly tested. I mean in terms of Ability/Spell issues, Bane on T11 and A2S, spring to mind, not to mention that some Jobs were inherently disadvantaged in some fights (before later adjustment, after players tried their hand at the content), as well as glaringly in-you-face, fight-breaking bugs (e.g. T5, A6S), IIRC. After 4 years, they really need to add more in-house people to test the content - specifically Raid Encounters - before releasing them. I don't see how hard it would be to recruit dev. family members or (non-paid) interns to fullfill that purpose.
Yoshida: The opposite was true [he successfully saved one]. The Protect spell, there were talks within the dev team that “oh we don’t want this anymore” and he (Yoshida-san) felt that as Final Fantasy you have got to have that spell [Protect]. It would be weird if we didn’t have it.
It's that kind of sentiment that makes me appreciate that we have Yoshi-P as the director/producer of FFXIV.
Instead of allocating resources and forcing us to try and have two instanced dungeons implemented in our odd numbered patches, since we’re seeing this trend of less people going through the roulettes, we felt it would be more effective to utilize that resource to provide something that is a new challenge, so to speak. Rather than allocating the full resources to create two full dungeons, maybe perhaps offer a hardcore content that you can challenge with four players in your party instead.
I think WoW's Mythic+ Keystone system for 4 man content, is the way to go now, for player retention. Depending upon it's difficulty (if it's implemented), it could serve as a bridge for the mid-to-hardcore skill gap, or be used as a means to satisfy hardcore raiders. Although, I can't see the devs. producing content that is solely going to be doable by a marginalized fraction of their playerbase (i.e. higher skilled players), it'll be interesting to see at what level they pitch HC 4 man content.
Twinfinite: FFXIV Content with Free Companies coordination in mind is an issue that comes up a lot.
The devs seriously need to address this issue and put the multiplayer ascpect back into MMOs. Adding the convenience of Duty Finder and Party Finder is great, no doubt, but (IMO) there does need to be real incentive to keep large groups of players (beyond their statics/chat channels). Whether that be the option for queue for 24 mans as Alliances or FC gated content, etc., would be nice. To me, FCs just act as glorified Linkshells w/ FC buffs and a few administrative options for game systems can are under utilized/unimportant/only needed to be managed by a few (if not one person).
Twinfinite: This last question is a selfish one for me since I’m a Summoner. Is there any update to when Summoners can expect additional Egi Glamours.
Yoshida: Ah well then we’ll have to take away Bahamut then! [everyone laughs] We brought you Bahamut, why can’t you be satisfied with that?! [laughter] But yeah we’ll continue to update glamour for your Egi. I think we were able to do the Carbuncles and next up we’ll probably look into some of the other summons perhaps.
They REALLY need to hire more animators. It seems like a fair amount of potential content is hindered because of this.