Heavenswards LIVE Letter Summary and Famitsu Interview

[Andromeda]

Yoshida has been busy the last week with interviews and explaining to the fans what to expect for the first expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. Some important information was released on the expansion for players interested in buying it and accessing it. It answers a number of the questions many still had.

• Collector's Edition Physical version is going to be $130
• Collector's Edition Digital version is going to be $60
• Standard Version Physical or Digital is going to be $40
• Mac Version is bundle only.
• Pre-order any version (Mac not included) will grant early access
• The pre-order bonus is three in-game items, a Baron headpiece and earrings and a Black Chocobo minion
• New players will not get early access
• A pre-order code will be created that grants early access, retail purchases will have it on the receipt
• EU PS3 currently does not have a pre-orders
• Accessing Ishgard will require the completion of the 2.55 story line
• To play the expansion on different platforms it will need to be purchase for all desired platforms
• PS3 owners should know that the expansion Heavensward takes up 20 gigs by itself, so be sure to have the HDD space
• Upgrading to the Heavensward Collector's Edition digital after buying the standard edition will be possible just like with the original game
• Patch 2.55 will be making adjustments to current content
  
  • Final Coil of Bahamut will be put into the DF
  • World of Darkness gear cap will be lifted
  • MGP amounts will be increased
  • Adjustments to the Triple Triad tournament will be made to stop win-trading
  • Certain NPCs will receive adjustments due to being unfairly difficult

Those were all of the details out of the Live Letter. However, there was also an interview with Famitsu that Yoshida gave around the time of PAX East that just got released and translated.

• A Full Trailer for the expansion will be released after 2.55 as it spoils some of the events in the story line of 2.55
• The benchmark used to be 13 minutes long, but was cut down to 9 minutes
• Not all customization options for the Au Ra will be available in the benchmark
  
  • They want to keep adding more up to the expansion release
  • Gear has been made to work with their horns
  
  
• Certain famous FF characters will be showing up in Ishgard
• Cid and others in game will be moving to Ishgard
• The 7 Heavenly Dragons will be important to the expansion
  
  • Some named were Bahamut, Tiamat Nizbeck
  • Bahamut's story will be expanded, including how he was summoned and captured
  
  
• Omega will becoming as already teased
• Skill speed and Spell speed will be changing in 3.0
  
  • They wanted to avoid how broken Haste was in XI, which meant both stats were not as important
  • They will now affect DoTs
  
  
• Dark Knights live off MP
  
  • Using HP was considered, but deemed too risky for Raids
  • MP will be how defense and buffs are managed
  • Suggested on saving up on Piety materia
  
  
• Astrologians have two stances
  
  • They have a healing stance and a barrier stance
  • The stances affect their spells
  • They draw cards at random
  • The cards can be combined with another card if held
  
  
• Machinists make use of their attachments
  
  • They have some attacks that can be charged up if remaining still
  • They will have an ammo item that will have to be managed
  
  
• The new Dragoon's LB3 is going to be revealed soon
• Astrologian's LB3 is Celestial Statis, does the same thing as the healer LB3, just looks like time freezes
• The AF2 gear is based on Amano sketches
• The Item Level between patches for 3.0 will be greater
  
  • Alexander Hard will drop the best
  • However, there will be more options for between items due to the larger gap
  
  
• New daily quests will be out in 3.05 or 3.1
• The Fat chocobo might get to fly
• Future gathering will change so there is not oversupply
• The system where dungeon drops are always the best is going to change
• There is going to be apprentice system for crafters once they hit 60 to further specialize
• There looks to be a new system for crafters like possible the tomes to improve the quality of items and collect chips
• New regions for gathers will require gathers to learn about the land before nodes appear
• And housing will have something not too unlike glamour

Source: Letter from the Producer LIVE - Special Edition Digest ; Famitsu PAXEast interview. : ffxiv