Today a new Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Letter from the Producer Live was broadcasted by Square Enix, starring Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida and Community Manager Toshio Murouchi respectively answering to and relaying the questions from the fans, this time around mainly focused on the upcoming housing feature and on the state of the game.

Yoshida-san Mentioned that people are complaining about Warrior seeming to be inferior to Paladin because on stage 1 and 4 of the Binding Coil of Bahamuth, when the boss gets three stacks of a buff the tank is supposed to die, but Paladin manages to survive. By design it should not be possible, but now they're going to change it so that Warriors can survive too instead. Brutal Swing will also be made faster. Those changes will come in 2.1

He also clarified that at the moment ranged damage dealing jobs have an advantage over melee ones because they don't need to move around as much during some boss fights. That also will be fixed in 2.1. Despite popular demand Dragoon won't be made invincible while jumping. Bard has is a little too powerful ("just a little"), so it'll also be adjusted in 2.1

In order to beat Titan in hard mode, Yoshida-san advised to keep the camera farther from the character, as it makes it easier to avoid the primal special attacks. At the moment many find it too hard because they keep the camera too close.

A new party search menu will be added. It will basically work like a message board that will show a lot of data, comments, and checkbox options to let people advertise exactly what kind of run they're doing and what roles they still need. This should remove the need for shouting.

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Random matching will also be added for three categories: story dungeons, story primals and guild orders. Using that menu it's possible to get one Allagan Tomestone per day for each category. An MVP system will also be added, prompting players to vote for the best one in the party.

The cases where you can't see Odin and Behemoth during their FATE events will also be solved, making sure that they'll be visible at all times. It's a bit difficult because the fix risks to put too much stress on the graphics card if badly implemented, but Yoshida-san mentioned that they'll be careful.

Instances now grant a bit more gil, and gatherers will get an easier life while leveling up because the low level items you end up having zillions of while leveling up will be used in new recipes and housing.

Any cheat and exploit will be eliminated as they arise. Gold sellers are unfortunately rampant as they can do a lot of money in a pay to play game. In order to combat them the special task force will be given more personnel to act on more cases faster and more efficiently. Yoshida-san also mentions that they're going to start being harsher with people showing the use of external programs and bots on videos, as their intent is to damage the game.

The quality and responsiveness of the GM team will also be improved. Mistakes happen, but it'll be better soon. The community team will gather information on the forums from those getting error 90000 in order to help solving individual issues.

More content will be added in order to prevent people running out of things to do and leaving the game. Yoshida-san said not to worry about that.

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At this point Theathrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call Producer Ichiro Hazama was introduced, mentioning that there will be nine songs from Final Fantasy XIV in the game, and more will be added via DLC. Yoshida-san played a level and did great on it pulling chains of over 125 hits. He got a S rank. The maximum you can get is SSS.

Hazama-san also said that he bought Final Fantasy XIV today so he'll start playing as well.

Back to FFXIV, Yoshida-san mentioned that the 5th stage of the Binding Coil of Bahamuth is being adjusted and will hopefully go back up on Wednesday.

A 10 minutes break followed,  showing several pictures from Gamescom, PAX and Tokyo Game Show. Previously unannounced veteran rewards for an unspecified number of days were also displayed, including super-cute classic Final Fantasy job minions and an imposing Behemoth mount.

At the end of the break former Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada appeared. Since he's now nicknamed "Housing Ojisan" (Uncle Housing) due to his obsession for the housing feature, he really could not miss this one.

At this stage a housing live demo showcasing the Limsa Lominsa zone was shown. In order to have an house you need the appropriate free company rank and buy the land deed. The price is still a secret but there won't be recurring fees.

There are 30 housing plots in each zone, and multiple instances. There are so many customization options that each house can look very different.

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You can drag and drop items from your inventory to the housing setup menu like you were equipping them, and they can also be traded.

Items for the garden can be dragged and dropped directly from the inventory to the yard. Items are specific for yard and interior, but there are some that look similar between the two categories.

Gatherers will be able to get ingredients and crafters will build housing items. Not many items will be sold at NPC vendors.

At the moment it's not possible to put items inside cabinets and containers. It may change in the future, but for 2.1 the  feature won't be present. It's possible to put smaller items over tables and desks. You can also place an aetherite in your housing plot and set it as your home point.

In patch 2.2 there'll be a small message board where you can leave a message in front of your house and the ability to grow items in a small garden. Single players will be able to grow simple stuff, while collaborating will let players grow rarer plants. Training dummies will be added too.

The Ul'dah housing zone was also show at this point.

Land deeds will be purchased at auction, so prices will be variable. Over time the price for each plot of land will decrease, but of course if one waits too long, someone else will buy it. It's the same system used in Dragon Quest X, Yoshida-san was the one that originally came up with the idea when he worked on that game.

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Unfortunately it won't be possible to upgrade houses from small to medium to large.  Plans for personal housing are scheduled for 2.2, while in 2.1 it will be for free companies only. There will be a system in place to set what rank gives players the right to place items or remove them (set separately).

The development team is testing some puzzles that can be played in the houses, but it's still undecided wheter they'll actually be implemented or not. You can have work benches to craft, and hire NPC vendors. The system will be expanded in the future.

With future patches you'll also be able to collaborate with other players to build an airship. This is scheduled to come before the first expansion. The chocobo stables will come in patch 2.3.

At this point the gorgeous Gridanian housing zone was shown for the very first time.

It was mentioned that you can definitely fish in the housing zones. Minions placed to roam in one's house won't be in at the launch of the feature, but if it's going to be implemented, it'll be in the yard only.

There are 40 pieces of garden furniture and 180 pieces of interior furniture that will be implemented in 2.1.

A lot of artwork for furniture and armor was shown, including furniture gained by clearing the Binding Coil of Bahamuth and killing Leviathan. Artifact Armor 2 (AF2) was also shown for several jobs, together with a mysterious "Allagan Mail" that will come in 2.2.

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Mannequins to display equipment in houses are also planned for 2.2, while there aren't plans to put up one's screenshots on the walls or to let players place new doors. There's also no option to restrict different floors for players of a certain rank. The clock (shown in the screenshots below) actually works and shows Eorzea time.

Several examples of coordinated ground and wall decorations were shown at this point.

There are some items that have gimmicks, like lamps that turn on and off, and there are plans for fish tanks  that will hold fishes you can fish, but those won't be there for 2.1 yet.

The next Letter from the Producer Live will be in mid November, talking about new dungeons, hard mode battles, King Moogle battle, nightmare mode primal battles, and upgrades to the content finder.

The Lightning Returns FATE will come on November the 14th, while the next fan kit will come in late October, including ringtones for cellphones. The Android version of the Libra Eorzea app will be released in November. It's being debugged now.

There will also be a screenshot contest themed on the Halloween community events, letting players win an Ahriman choker.

Below you can see a large gallery with 195 relevant screencaps showing the housing areas, all the artwork that was showcased during the broadcast and more. You can also find the official translation of the Q&A here, to integrate mine. It's a bit more synthetic, but it doesn't include all the details.