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The holiday season is here and the Final Fantasy XI development elves have been busy putting together goodies for all the good boys and girls of Vana'diel.
We are planning our next major version update for Thursday, December 12. The details of the update are as follows:
There will be several new quests and events added to the Promathia areas.
New quests will also be added in Non-Promathia areas.
New monsters (including notorious monsters) will be added.
Over 15 new "orb battles" will be added.
Several new weapons, types of equipment, and items will be introduced.
The difficulty of selected Promathia missions will be adjusted.
Tavnazian Archipelago supply quests and regional teleportation will become available.
Chat filter options will be expanded.
A new Gobbiebag quest will be introduced.
Shortcuts into Promyvion - Vahzl for those who have partially or fully completed the Promathia mission will be added.
"Temporary items" found on the Balltista playing field may now be stored in one's inventory for the duration of the match(es). Also several previous "special" rules will be implemented permanently.
A new point system for rating Ballista participants on their performance will be introduced.
The stack number for several select items will be increased from 12 to 99. In accordance with the adjustments, players will be unable to put items up for auction for a short period of time. Details on this temporary maintenance will be provided soon.
Several previously unstackable foods will now be stackable.
The duration and effect of certain foods will be adjusted.
The Old Sabertooth in Sauromugue Champaign will no longer drop any items.
The variety of items that can be dug up using the "Scavenge" ability will be increased.
A new thief job trait will be added.
The potency of etudes will be adjusted.
"Spirit Link" will now heal a wyvern's status ailments.
The accuracy of "Blood Pact" attacks during magic bursts will be adjusted.
The strength of "Blood Pact" attacks will not increase as much when fighting weaker enemies.
The order of messages that appear when using the /nominate, /vote and /propose commands will be adjusted
The fee collected when placing items on auction will be determined by the current auction price, not the store/guild selling price.
In addition to the changes mentioned above, many other adjustments are being made. A complete list of all changes will be available on the day of the update.
Also, we are planning several new events for the end of the year, so keep your eyes open!
Another issue being addressed during this version update is the monopoly over certain monsters and items by a number of players.
The development team is currently working on several methods to combat these types of actions.
Some methods include the introduction of similar items, and new ways of obtaining items.
Articles 23, 24 and 25 of the PlayOnline User Agreement as well as Article 6 of the Finaly Fantasy XI User Agreement specificly prohibit the sale of any in-game money, characters, and/or items on internet auctions, etc.
Any players found participating in RMT (Real Money Trading), whether it be buying or selling, may have their accounts terminated. Please consider the consequences before partaking in actions that may result in the destruction of all your player characters.
Finally, for all existing and future Windows version players, we have developed a new benchmark program to test the playability of Finaly Fantasy XI on your personal computer.
"Vana'diel Bench 3" will not only display the stunning landscape of the Lufaise Meadows, but will also offer a sneak peak into some of the most exciting cutscenes from the Chains of Promathia missions! To download this free software, visit the Final Fantasy XI homepage, or any participating game sites.
