A Realm Reborn Economy and Archery Changes

[Raistlin]

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Recently, we reported on a Q&A session with Producer Naoki Yoshida about Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, where he stated that the max gil allowed would be reduced to 10% of the current value (999,999,999 to 99,999,999). Well, it turns out it’s more complicated than that, and Yoshida has issued a clarification on the FFXIV forums.

It turns out that basically all gil is being reduced to 10% of its current value. This includes the prices of NPC goods, how much NPCs will pay for your items, the amount of gil received as loot and rewards, and, most significantly, the amount of gil currently in players’ possession. If you have 1,000,000 gil in the bank, when ARR is released you will no longer be a millionaire.

Apparently this major change is, in large part, an attempt to “rectify the increase in cost of items relative to the price of arrows, since archers in A Realm Reborn will no longer need arrows.” All archers will now apparently come with a Time Lord quiver that holds an infinite number of arrows.

Yoshida tried to assuage all the (rich) players:

In other words, all the hard work you've put into saving up gil won't be lost. Even though the gil you possess will become 1/10th what it currently is, we're adjusting NPC sale/buy prices to also become 1/10th what they are now, so relatively nothing will change. However, we do apologize that this may be a shock emotionally.

Additionally, Yoshida urged players not to panic and sell all their expensive stuff before it all becomes 1/10 of its current value. Well, first off, this makes no sense, as your gil will also be 1/10 of its value. Secondly, Yoshida stated that item values, effectiveness, and availability are being changed and tweaked as ARR is being developed, so you may end up screwing yourself over if that item actually becomes more useful or rare. He recommended people just stay the course, though unfortunately did not follow that up with this:

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Some people are apparently very unhappy with this decision, but inflation has historically been a terrible problem with MMOs. I think it’s good that the FFXIV development team are trying to get a handle on it, though we’ll have to wait until A Realm Reborn comes out to really see how the market reacts.

Source: ARR Gil Cap Reduction - Page 29