Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers recently released its latest update with Patch 5.11. One big addition was the new Crafter and Gatherer Content called “Ishgard Restoration” where players across world work together towards a common goal. Since then, there has been a lot of discussion on this new content. As a result of the feedback received, none other than Final Fantasy 14 Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida issued a statement in relation to this.
In a post on the Square Enix forum, Yoshi-P addressed two points related to the new content.
World Visit System and Firmament Player Cap
According to Yoshi-P, when concerted works started, developers "saw a lot of players using the World Visit System, which caused the Firmament in the World they are visiting to reach its player cap, and many players were unable to participate in concerted works in their Home World as a result."
Thus, when Ishgardian Restoration was being developed, Yoshi-P said that the team was aware of the risks involved when it came to players visiting other Worlds to help. However, they ultimately made the decision not to place those kinds of restrictions on the World Visit System for these reasons:
- The number of crafters and gatherers varies considerably between Worlds. The Worlds with the most crafters and gatherers have over four times as many as those with the least.
- Worlds with low numbers of crafters and gatherers struggle to carry out concerted works without visitors from other Worlds, creating a risk that those players will not be able to experience this content as intended.
The reason why there are differences in the progress between the different worlds is mainly due to the difference in the number of active crafters and gatherers. To ease this obvious disparity, players were allowed to visit other Worlds within their data center and help with the Ishgardian Restoration efforts of that World. Yoshi-P said that they know being able "to participate in the Ishgardian Restoration on their own World can be very stressful," but also said that they "are preparing emergency measures that we can put into action should the situation deteriorate, at which time an announcement will be made."
End-game Content for Crafters and Gatherers
Looking at the information in the Producer's Live Letter, it appeared that there were players that "were under the impression that the entirety of the Ishgardian Restoration would be designed as end-game content." So when the new update was eventually released, there were those who said that it wasn't difficult enough to be considered end-game content.
Yoshi-P shared that the plan for Ishgardian Restoration is that it's going to be released "in installments across several patches, and while we are taking end-game content into consideration as we continue to develop various systems for this content, what was released in Patch 5.11 is but the first of these installments."
What this means is that the Ishgardian Restoration content is linked to the unfolding story in the main scenario, and that it was mainly designed to be enjoyed by all players. Ultimately Yoshi-P said that regarding upcoming installments, the plans include providing a substantial crafting and gathering experience along with introducing aspects designed as end-game content. Players are going to see this beginning with Patch 5.2 onwards.
