New FFXI Expansion Likely to Introduce New User Interface!

[Mirage]

A few minutes ago, we were shown what seems to be the beginning of a new user interface for Final Fantasy XI.

The dev team displayed freely movable, responsive, and mouse friendly interface windows on their live stream from Vanafest, and said that they are aiming to release the final version of this UI around the same time as the new expansion.

From what I could see from the stream, the visual style of the UI was not very exciting, but it is likely that they'll finish the UIs functionality first, for so to make it look pretty later.


-edit-
Furthermore, the second job is now confirmed, and has been named "Rune Fencer". They will look something like this (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1132077/images/ffxi/img1.png) and this. (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1132077/images/ffxi/img2.png)

[chionos]

I doubt it'll be enough to make people stop using Windower, but it's interesting (though a decade too late).

I missed that part of the feed, is the 360 version getting an updated UI too?

[Mirage]

How is windower related to this? Windower doesn't let you move the user interface around. We're talking about the user interface windows within the game, not the game window itself.

And I have no idea if 360 gets it. This UI is mouse/keyboard centric, probably, and xb360 uses a controller.

[Del Murder]

I hope Rune Fencer has some interesting skills and is not just another attempt at making a casting melee.

[Mirage]

It's a tank, specializing in magic defence and elemental resistances.

I'll probably get access to greatsword and swords, with the highest skill in gsword. I wouldn't be surprised if they put aegis on this job either.

[chionos]

Supposedly it's a tank. Some people are saying that it uses "runes" like nin uses ninjutsu tools, but I'm not sure how much of that is reading into a translation.

[Rostum]

Too little too late, imo. We waited so many years, and all they brought us was re-skinned zones and brought back Tanaka to ruin the game (which he absolutely did).

Also on a related note Tanaka retired from Square, so you can expect the game to get much better again. I won't be around to see it though, time to move on after a decade of playing.

[Del Murder]

Come back to us, Ome...

[Roogle]

It's a tank, specializing in magic defence and elemental resistances.

I'll probably get access to greatsword and swords, with the highest skill in gsword. I wouldn't be surprised if they put aegis on this job either.

Don't you think a Rune Fencer would have better proficiency in one-handed swords than greatswords? That's a strange choice.

[Mirage]

The artwork for the class includes swords that are much larger than any of the current one handed swords. Furthermore, there is no job with A+ in greatswords, maybe this job would change that.

[Del Murder]

I hope so, as there are already two jobs that specialize in one-handed swords. Though if it is one-handed, it would be easy for me to get into (if I play it) since I leveled both those sword jobs to max and had a crapton of awesome swords before I quit.

A fencer typically doesn't use a shield, though they typically don't have big ass swords either.

[Mirage]

That's why I personally think "fencer" just is a poor translation of the Japanese name of the job, which can translate to any combination of "magic/rune" and "knight/warrior/fencer". Or so I heard.

[Del Murder]

Ah, gotcha. Rune Knight may end up being more accurate then.

[Roogle]

Oh, right. A Rune Knight makes more sense than a Rune Fencer. I think that Rune Fencer might have been used in at least one game in the past, but that was used to describe a more agile, fencing type of job.

[Del Murder]

Yeah, I think it was in one of the Tactics Advance games.

[KentaRawr!]

I don't know if it was in Tactics Advance, but it was definitely in Tactics Ogre.

Which is really weird.