…finally?
Square Enix is getting ready to unleash Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers expansion out into the world, and in addition to all of the new content that entails, we’re also getting some long-awaited (like nine years, if you count the 1.0 version) quality of life (housekeeping) upgrades.
Since I’ve been playing for a while and have been asking for these for some time, I’ll break them down one by one.
Altitude Indicator for Quest Objectives
In short, there’s usually a few quests during each main story campaign that are a pain to find. You’ll see a ton of folks running around asking “where’s the quest?” as the default quest finder tool doesn’t account for altitude. Oh hey! Your objective was actually in a cave 100 feet underground.
Well, that’s changing in 5.0 (Shadowbringers), but sadly only for 5.0 on quests at first. Square Enix says it will be “gradually” fixing old quests though.
A Rumble in the Duty Participation Window
Players have been asking for more direct feedback for dungeon/trial queue completion, so Square Enix is acquiescing. If you don’t play the game, most of the activities in FFXIV are done through “queuing,” in which players, either solo or with friends, queue up to do activities with other players. I hesitate to solely call it “matchmaking” as you still have to queue even with a full party of friends to get into an instance, but that’s one element of it.
When queuing on a PS4 controller the speaker will make a little sound, which is great, but now we have even more feedback through a controller vibration. It’s ideal for when you’re making a sandwich before a raid and need to run back into the room.
New Party Finder Links
This is probably the most straight-forward upgrade of the lot. Remember those friend-parties I was talking about? Well it can be a pain to group up sometimes, particularly if it’s someone not on your friend list or across a different server (FFXIV added cross-server play a few years back). You had to manually to go the party finder tool, locate them, and then join.
Now you can just locate their party in chat and instantly go to their listing. This should make random world questing (hunts!) that much easier.
Hairstyle Selection Changes
This one goes out to all of the cosmetic-oriented players out there (read: everyone playing FFXIV). The hairstyle menu now tells you how to unlock certain cuts, and now your retainers (NPC bankers/auctioneers) can benefit from them.
Square Enix teases a Noctis retainer in their notes.
Simplifying PS4 Login
Finally, the PS4 will now save your password for instant login if you want.
Can you believe this hasn’t been standard since 2014?
Developer’s Blog [Final Fantasy XIV]
