[BLOG]: 4Gamer Interview with Tanaka and Sundi (Pa

[Corinth]

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This is Part 2 of our coverage of 4Gamer's interview with Hiromichi Tanaka and Sage Sundi. In it, we learn about the battle system in FFXIV and get some more hints relating to character creation.

How to play FFXIV
People attending gamescom had the chance to try out a playable alpha build and test the guildleve system. Sundi would like people to understand that this was just to show off the system and it doesn't encompass the whole of what FFXIV will play like. Prior interviews also hinted that various game elements were left out of the build because the focus was on the guildleve system.

However, they do give us some hints as to how things will work in FFXIV. Once you have a target, you can use commands from your Action Menu. What commands you have available to you depends on the abilities you have. You gain abilities by gaining skill in the weapon you use. Before you battle, you have to set the abilities you want to appear in the Action Menu. It will also be possible to create macros that allow you to use different abilities in order. For example, after I do attack1, then use attack2, just by using a macro.

Because the commands in the Action Menu are dependent on the weapon you are using, changing your weapon changes your Action Menu. Tanaka mentions again that if you were to switch to using a wand, magic would appear in your Action Menu. Commands do not go off as soon as you select them. Instead, it will go off as soon as the Action Gauge for that command is full. Players should also keep in mind that there is a Power Gauge which affects power and accuracy as well.

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[Sensei Sin]

And they keep feeding us more and more delicious information about this slice of heaven we call FFXIV... SE you torture us and tease us with such an awesome game...

[sereal_killer]

i love how he replies to the question of more races lol.
this leads me to believe there are more but they dont have the authority to announce them.

anywa nice interview , i like how macro;s are going to work

[Dannythm]

I like that SE is constatly saying that they want to start getting feedback from players as soon as possible, that may mean the are aiming for a soon beta, or a demo =d

[Serrakin]

I like that SE is constatly saying that they want to start getting feedback from players as soon as possible, that may mean the are aiming for a soon beta, or a demo =d

One can hope XD

[zanfire]

thankfully they clear up the fact that you cant switch classes mid battle. that was one feature i was most negative about and now that its gone there is almost nothing left i dont love (only curious to how the degrading is ...if its really fast and harsh or not)

[Erih]

The interviewer asks if being a member of a different clan affects the story in some way. He says right now it’s just part of the setting but perhaps there will be something relating to being one or other in the future.

So.. you can pick which clan you're with.. lol.. Haha.. now.. let's see if there's different advantages from being with 1 clan as opposed to another.

[axiaon]

Abilities with weapons....just as we had thought originally.

This is some freakin awesome food they are serving us.....but they have us strapped down in the chair so we can't eat it .

[TwilightSea]

Why can't people ask the dire question of 'can you choose your handyness'. >.<!!!

[axiaon]

Why can't people ask the dire question of 'can you choose your handyness'. >.<!!!

Because I was worried about more important things. And I'm right handed anyway so meh.

This skin color stuff has my pissin my pants...

[Taube]

Why can't people ask the dire question of 'can you choose your handyness'. >.<!!!

Not as important as whether there is a male Migo'te or not. =>.<=!!!

[axiaon]

Why can't people ask the dire question of 'can you choose your handyness'. >.<!!!

Not as important as whether there is a male Migo'te or not. =>.<=!!!

I don't even find that important as right now, IMO, they most likely won't have them lol.

Off-topic: I do want too see Shantotto call Zidane a male mithra in Dissidia: Final fantasy though....That line might be as funny as "Your hair is a distraction" when fighting Cloud .

P.S. How do I post videos in my posts? Just wondering .

[Serrakin]

I feel there are too many gauges... Like the action gauge just sounds like a "cooldown" timer, but then the power gauge just sounds like overkill... Maybe I'm just skeptical, but we'll see how it plays out in the end, I'm just a lil' bit worried about having to manage a few too many things.

[Sensei Sin]

I feel there are too many gauges... Like the action gauge just sounds like a "cooldown" timer, but then the power gauge just sounds like overkill... Maybe I'm just skeptical, but we'll see how it plays out in the end, I'm just a lil' bit worried about having to manage a few too many things.

The way I see it, the action gauge is like the Delay in FFVII. The power gauge is a TP-like gauge that fills in as you attack mobs and such, making you perform better in longer fights.

[CindyL]

Great stuff!! Weee!!

I'm confused about learning abilities from your weapons... They say if you solo, which I do a lot, you'll have to learn from many weapons but you can only switch weapons between battles, so can you equip more then one weapon or does these abilities stay with you no matter which weapon you are holding as long as you have learned them??? Somehow I don't think the latter would happen.

[Serrakin]

I feel there are too many gauges... Like the action gauge just sounds like a "cooldown" timer, but then the power gauge just sounds like overkill... Maybe I'm just skeptical, but we'll see how it plays out in the end, I'm just a lil' bit worried about having to manage a few too many things.

The way I see it, the action gauge is like the Delay in FFVII. The power gauge is a TP-like gauge that fills in as you attack mobs and such, making you perform better in longer fights.

I guess my fear of the power gauge comes from the idea that if it is not filled at all, you're pretty much useless and your accuracy is like 10% and your damage is only at 10%... But hopefully I'm way off and it's far easier than I'm making it out to be. XD

[Dannythm]

Great stuff!! Weee!!

I'm confused about learning abilities from your weapons... They say if you solo, which I do a lot, you'll have to learn from many weapons but you can only switch weapons between battles, so can you equip more then one weapon or does these abilities stay with you no matter which weapon you are holding as long as you have learned them??? Somehow I don't think the latter would happen.

If you retain the skills I can see something like this being the algorithm to play to FFXIV

1.- Grab a staff and a robe
2.- kill stuff till you learn cure+
3.- grab a sword and armor
4.- ????
5.- PROFIT!

[saner]

they said that you have to switch weapons to use skills from the weapon/job. so I guess even if you learn a skill, some skills might not be able to be used when you switch weapons.

[sereal_killer]

each weapon makes the abilties available to you.

i think what he meant is that you need to have more abilties because u wouldhave to solo as a whm and then switch to warior and level that one aswell if yoou plan to solo faster. because between fights you can just hop on whm heal and then jump back on war to continue.

basicly in order to be efficient at soloing its gona take more weapons thus take more time in order to have the weapons leveld you need.

but if you were in a pt there would be no down time and no need to heal urselff between battles so you can focus exluasivly on war

i know i used jobs but ill use the weapons when we get an official list that states wich weapons gives you wich title

edit: retaining skill is highly unlikely cause they said weapon determined skills available. even if they do it would have to be a limited number per job cause i dont see you being at lvl 75 and basicly having all the abilities from each weapon available to you whenever

[Corinth]

This is just speculation but my guess is you could set abilities similar to Blue Mages.

So for example, I start off with my wand. skill up skill up CURE! I switch to a sword and set CURE in my action bar. Now I level up while also retaining the ability i learned before.

Don't know for sure yet though, but that's my guess based on what they've said so far.