Early this morning Final Fantasy XIV's Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida streamed the75th Letter from the Producer LIVE. Since I have the day off I thought I'd record some of the information.
Perhaps the biggest news was the release date of the patch, named Gods Revel, Lands Tremble. As pretty much expected by now, the release date for Patch 6.3 is 10 January 2023. Patch 6.31 and the new Ultimate Duty, "The Omega Protocol", will release two weeks later on 24 January. The mid-point patch, 6.35, should release sometime around 14 March. Given the date, expect patch 6.4 to launch sometime in mid-May.
The main scenario questline continues as usual. Also in patch 6.3 is the continuation of Tataru's Grand Endeavor. The Tales of Newfound Adventure continues Completing The Four Lords questline from Stormblood is required to do the new quests. Coming in patch 6.35 is the continuation of the Hildibrand questline and updates to the new Manderville weapons. The new tribal quests involving the Loporrits will also appear with patch 6.35.
In addition to the new Ultimate, patch 6.3 introduces a new dungeon, regular trial, alliance raid, and Unreal trial. The dungeon, Lapis Manalis, is integrated into the duty support system and Zero is one of the NPC choices. Yoshi-P did not provide any information about the regular trial. None of the marketing material or the patch trailer includes information about the trial either. The second part of the alliance raid is named Euphrosyne. The Unreal Trial is Containment Bay P1T6. To qualify for the Unreal trial, players must complete Abyssos: The Eighth Circle (Savage)
Square Enix is also introducing the game's third deep dungeon, Eureka Orthos. Completing the 50th floor of Palace of the Dead is required to access Eureka Orthos.
Yoshida did not forget about old content, as the final six 4-character dungeons in the Heavensward MSQ were added to the duty system. Those are The Great Gubal Library (level 59), The Aetherochemical Research Facility (level 60), The Antitower (patch 3.2), Sohr Khai (patch 3.3), Xelphatol (patch 3.4) and Baelsar's Wall (patch 3.5). The only MSQ dungeons remaining are those in Stormblood.
PvP did get some attention in Patch 6.3. Besides the start of PvP Series 3 and Season Five of Crystalline Conflict, players will find a new map for Crystalline Conflict. Named The Clockwork Castletown, the map has the feel of Doma.
For crafters and gatherers, the Splenderous Tools quests open up with patch 6.35. To access the quests, players must complete the "Endwalker" quest as well as the Disciples of Land/Hand quest "The Crystalline Mean" and unlock the Boutique of Splendors by speaking with Mown in Eulmore. A new set of custom deliveries will appear by talking with Anden. In a much needed quality-of-life enhancement, the developers are adding primary fishing locations, preferred bait, and additional conditions to the Fish Log. A new spearfishing spot will open in Upper La Noscea.
The Island Sanctuary is receiving a lot of attention in Patch 6.3. New sanctuary ranks and visions as well as new items rewards are being added as well as new materials, crops, and isleworks handicrafts. The workshop interfaces are also receiving updates. For those into automation, the devs are adding an option to collect all available yields and leavings at once instead of having to click on 20 individual lines for each. Animals under care will also be eligible for release upon a new animal's capture.
Island sanctuaries will also become more visitor friendly. Players can now save orchestrion settings and visitors will hear the music. Also, visitors arriving at an island sanctuary will produce notifications.
Also coming to Patch 6.3 is a new treasure map that leads to a new portal called The Shifting Gymnasion Agonon found in Elpis. The Gold Saucer is receiving a third course for the Leap of Faith caled Sylphstep.
One pain point the devs are addressing is the lack of housing. Many worlds are receiving 1800 new plots. Each residential areas on those worlds will receive 6 regular wards and 6 subdivisions. Newly created worlds will not have additional housing due to the worlds having available housing already. The worlds are:
- Dynamis Data Center: Hallcarnassus/Maduin/Marilith/Seraph
- Chaos Data Center: Phantom/Sagittarius
- Light Data Center: Alpha/Raiden
- Materia Data Center: Bismarck/Ravana/Sephirot/Sophia/Zurvan
The combat UI is receiving updates to give some functionality available in 3rd party tools. Icons for damage types (physical, magic, and unique) will display in both the Battle log and flying text. Also players can toggle the ability to see the remaining times for buffs and debuffs in the party list.
The glamour system will receive updates come January as well. Players will have a wider range of activities they can do while using fashion accessories like umbrellas. For example, mounting while using a fashion accessory will automatically put the item away. Upon dismounting, the fashion accessory will reappear. Useful for rainy days. Speaking for rainy days, umbrellas will have an option to automatically activate if the rain starts falling, thus keeping the player dry.
The glamour system will also expand to integrate retainers into the feature. When changing the appearance of a retainer, players will no longer have to unequip the retainer. Yes, players will now have the ability to just cast glamours and dye the equipment of retainers. For those who use their retainers to store glamour items, the devs are granting the ability to cast glamour on a character's equipment directly from a retainer's inventory.
The above is not a comprehensive list of changes coming in Patch 6.3 or everything discussed in the Live Letter. But I think most players will find something of interest in what I did mention. The special site was updated with the latest information shortly after the end of the stream. Hopefully players will find something to get excited about when they log in on 10 January.
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