Thread by @Nova_Crystallis

Letter from the Producer Live #67 begins at the top of the hour. The final preview before Endwalker's release, topics include: crafting, gathering, PvP, and systems updates.

Watch here: twitch.tv/finalfantasyxiv

Producer/director Naoki Yoshida, global community producer Toshio Murouchi, and translator Aimi Tokutake kick off the letter.

Yoshida says normally they would kick off today's letter with a trailer, but he has important news to share.

The reasoning will be shared later, but the Endwalker expansion has been delayed 2 weeks. Yoshida apologizes for the delay.

Endwalker's early access phase will begin December 3rd, and the official launch will begin December 7th.

Yoshida says this is the largest expansion they've worked on. The content is moving according to plan.

This is a saga that has been in development for 11 years, and this is the last chapter of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark saga. They want to tie up all the loose ends and Yoshida wanted to examine a lot of subtleties with this regard.

These examinations ate into the master QA time, which necessitated the 2-week delay. It was a matter of a few business days in the schedule, but with concerns with congestion they wanted to take time with QA as that is intertwined with how smooth the launch will happen.

The decision was made last Friday. He says that being producer and director that he'd be able to deal and move on, but with Endwalker being the finale, he said he didn't want to compromise as the director and made the choice to delay.

Yoshida says they remember the Heavensward launch where he promised a spring launch but the expansion launched in early summer.

He understands that people have taken time off and are preparing for this. They considered cuts or patches, but they wanted to prioritize quality.

"Is two weeks going to be enough?" Yoshida says they'll be fine but this will allow for QA regarding testing the stability. 2 weeks was decided as the "safe bet."

Yoshida says that a lot of his emotions are tied up in this expansion. He's thinking about the players, and Legacy players who have been there from the beginning, that it's not just the finale but looking at all the story threads and having them conclude in a satisfying way.

Yoshida says he understands the criticism this decision came late. He says that it may break some of the trust some players have with the game and the staff, but they will continue to strive hard to deliver content for 6.0 and the patches beyond. Production is on 6.1 is underway.

The upcoming schedule is as follows:
• Dec 03: 6.0 Early Access
• Dec 07: 6.0 Official Launch
• Dec 21: 6.01 Pandaemonium Raid
• Jan 04: 6.05 Pandaemonium (Savage), new Allagan tomestones added, and new gear added.

Yoshida apologizes to endgame raiders who will have to change plans due to this delay.

The story, the cutscenes, the quality of the character modeling are areas Yoshida is focusing on while the team is fine tuning of jobs and combat. The team is also presently adjusting the next Ultimate-level content.

A formal post regarding the 2 week delay will be posted on the Lodestone at a later time.

With that wrapped, it's time to roll the launch trailer! The voices will be in Japanese.

To quickly recap Patch 6.0 content: a new city will be added called Old Sharlayan. It's Alphinaud & Alisae's hometown. There's a lot of secrets hidden within, and it's a central location in the main scenario. The whole Leveilleur family's story is tied to this location.

Radz-at-Han is located on the island of Thavnair, and there are many important elements tied to the story. Labyrinthos is a field zone that's actually underground despite the daytime appearance. You'll be here towards the beginning of the narrative.

Yoshida says they feel players will be impressed by Thavnair and the open sky and how spacious it feels.

Yoshida says there is a location in Thavnair where you can look into Radz-at-Han and that it's very scenic.

Yoshida doesn't want to go into spoiler territory regarding Garlemald, but he says it's an area that's tied through the history of the game. It existed before Yoshida even joined the team.

Mare Lamentorum is on the moon with the planet Hydaelyn in the heavens. The screenshot will lead people to speculate...

This mysterious area is still a secret...

There are also other areas but they'll remain a secret.

Bios for the main characters that will appear in the scenario. Pictured is Thancred, Y'shtola, Urianger, and Alphinaud.

Alisaie, G'raha Tia, and Tataru, and Krile.

Also this guy.

Zenos will appear as a Reaper who will send you unsolicited friend requests.

The Lady of the Light. She has a mask hanging over her chest...

There is a system that works while you are questing, where characters will follow alongside you or ride a mount with you and have conversations. If you lead them off track they'll return to their position. It's an essential part of the narrative.

Yoshida says the team is working to let you use /gpose during this feature.

New role quests will be added. There are five questlines with each belonging to tanks, healers, melee DPS, ranged DPS, and magic DPS. Extra quests for completing these will be added in Patch 6.1 or later.

There will be no level 90 job quests, the ones at level 80 in Shadowbringers are intended to be a conclusion. If they were to resume them, they'd start with new characters, etc.

Studium Deliveries will be five questlines for crafters and gatherers, similar to the Crystarium Deliveries in Shadowbringers.

New dungeons will be added. Yoshida says he needs to be careful depicting these.

New trials will be added. The names of which are a secret. There will be a Normal and Hard mode.

A new raid dungeon will be added. Pandaemonium: Asphodelos will be added in Patch 6.01 two weeks after launch. The Savage version will be added two weeks later in Patch 6.05.

He says people may be surprised with the encounters and say "oh so that's what you wanted to do!"

In Patch 6.05, a new treasure map dungeon called "The Excitatron 6000" will be added.

10 minute break time! Resuming at :45

Resuming now!

On to PvP: a new small-scale PvP content called the "Crystal Conflict" in Patch 6.1. The team was concerned that if the timing was aligned with Savage raids there would be a conflict for attention. So they decided to take their time and balance the content to be ready for 6.1.

A new reward system for PvP will arrive in 6.1 as well.

Crystal Conflict is a small-scale (5v5) PvP content. It features short matches with simple rules that can be played casually. The team felt that FF14 players prefer content that can be completed in a short amount of time. It can be enjoyed in short bursts and is low-pressure.

Role-based matchmaking and actions will be removed, with the addition of distinctive PvP actions and job-specific Adrenaline Rushes. These changes affect all PvP content.

The team may repurpose some visual effects for actions, but they will remain separate from PvE actions.

Closer to 6.1, they will show us how the jobs will function in this new type of PvP mode.

Crystal Conflict will have two teams of 5 competing against each other. There are no role restrictions and there will be Casual, Ranked, and Custom matches available with skill-based matchmaking.