I’ve read and watched every single interview I could find from the Dawntrail Media Tour to compile a list of every relevant and important fact that I think the community would care about. If you want a recap on all of the small details about Dawntrail and the future of FFXIV that came out of the media tour, this is the easiest way to read it.
I have highlighted the things that seem to be the most important and I strongly encourage you to consider reading or watching the interviews if you’d like deeper context on the questions being asked and what was said. If I missed anything, let me know on discord and I’ll add it here! Everything in this article is from one of the interviews listed in The Media Tour Interview Compilation I made here.
Game System Updates
Yoshi-P has 4 servers ready in EU, 4 in Japan, and 8 in NA as backup overflow for the launch of Dawntrail in addition to “perfect defenses” against DDoS attacks and has said that players should not worry about congestion on launch. These servers can be flipped on easily when they are needed
More content will reward gear - both cosmetic and item level increasing gear but this does not mean the gear will be maximum item level. This will be reviewed more in 7.1 onward
The blacklist features were prioritized over the friends list
They understand that the item level sync system is confusing and they plan on addressing the potential issues such as Best In Slot gear not always being the highest item level gear but it will take time
Chat bubbles are happening
They would like to add more customization like horns but it requires investigation
We can expect more different mount glide animations and more will be added in each patch
They would like to consider more involvement with the achievement system
It is difficult to fix the portrait system but they will try to work on it
A combined subscription for VIX and XI is an interest but it requires more research and is tricky to do for both technical and legal reasons
There are plans to have a roadmap type announcement once 7.0 has launched
This is considered the “first phase” of the graphics update noting that as player hardware improves, so can the game
Yoshi-P see risks in making the game too casual friendly
They’d like to add more minions, mounts, and cosmetic equipment and they have acquired a bigger budget to make this happen
They will make it more clear to players that they should have a job stone equipped
They would love for FFXIV to be available on all platforms
No Tomestone cap increase
Raiding
New jobs will receive weapons for old ultimates with Pictomancer and Viper having priority over other jobs
Compared to the 6.X Pandemonium Raids, the Arcadion raid series in 7.X should be more challenging
There will be a wide variety of moves and unique gimmicks
Mitigation was made longer so that timing would be easier which gives you more time to focus on the boss mechanics
There is a strong interest in an officially sanctioned world race
They do not know how to stop third party tooling usage
They aren’t sure how to handle teams who have support members who do things like research or crafting as examples
They would like to receive feedback from the community on how they could regulate the world race and what the rules should be
A centralized party finder feature to fix the current issues of all parties being on one data center would take 2-3 years to complete so they are looking into alternative solutions
One example was a system where they would promote a “preferred” raiding data center that would change in each patch
Another example is giving a bonus to players that raid on lower population data centers
It’s a huge problem to them but it does not take priority over finishing the 7.0 content currently. Despite this, they are working hard to figure out solutions
There is a feeling that they have implemented too much materia and they will be evaluating the system
Job Design
They do not want to do another stat squish so they are researching alternative progression methods
One example was a system where you could accumulate ability points to put into skills that you prefer to do things like increasing potency or changing animations
Another example was a list of talents you could pick from to grow your character
Black Mage was changed because it’s a very important job to the Final Fantasy series and he found that getting started was a little too complicated for something that popular for new players. He felt like the level of difficulty went beyond the realm of personal ingenuity so they have revised it to make it easier to understand
Yoshi-P wanted to avoid players staring at buffs and debuffs more than the boss which is why Monk was changed
On the topic of the new Solar (Sol) Bahamut for Summoner - Yoshi P studied a lot about North and South America and noticed that Sol is used in many places as a symbol
Sword Art Online and Kirito are a bigger inspiration for Viper than Zidane from FFIX
Yoshi-P wants to apologize about the removal of Kaiten stating that more players wanted it gone compared to those who were happy with it
They would like to have feedback on the amount of skills available at lower levels while not making the higher levels feel unsatisfying
There is interest in doing away with the class system in every expansion but the development efforts would be too costly to justify it
Side Content
The focus on more multiplayer content to enhance the “MMO Feeling” which has been a recurring theme in many interviews is not just the plan for 7.0 but also the plan for the next 10 years
The state of solo content is at an acceptable level so they’d like to focus on more MMO features and experiences
Blitzball is a no because they don’t know how to approach it.
A modern take could disappoint fans that want a faithful recreation while the original may not be played more than once by most people
Deep Dungeons will likely not change much because of the work going into other forms of content
The unannounced Battle Content still exists
The New Exploration Zone
The new exploration zone will take lessons from both Eureka and Bozja
Eureka was considered to be lacking in the necessary support systems while Bozja is considered to accommodate the player a little too much so the new zone will be somewhere in the middle
They’d like a Baldesion Arsenal style raid for every patch
The exploration zone may not be ready for 7.1 but it will definitely happen by 7.2 and future patches
There will be a new type of large scale content, a new progression system, and “an action we’ve never seen before”
Main Story Quest
The Jazz theme of Tural is supposed to represent the many ethnic groups, values , ideas, religious views, and views on life and death with how many different and varied instruments are used in the music
Yoshi P when asked about things to do before Dawntrail asked if the players remember all of the Convocation members
The team researched the history of the real world cultures that Dawntrail is influenced by
An external company was leveraged to make sure that they were handling the cultures appropriately without misrepresenting anything
Diversity in the region is necessary to tell its story about different societies and cultures resolving their differences
The dungeon format exists to have predictable development. It’s calculated to be the perfect length that isn’t too long for casuals and isn’t too easy for players who want more but they have to balance both of these groups. “Players should feel at ease until they reach the level cap”
PVP
Borderlands Ruins was removed because they didn’t have the development resources to maintain the balancing
The same goes for the Astragalos map in Rival Wings
PVP updates in 7.1 can be expected and more staff will be working on PVP content to work on the updates, balancing, and restoration of maps
Housing
Yoshi-P is going to chat with the housing team about adding the new foliage to the outside of homes
Item count increase and pillar removal are a priority over working on updating furniture textures