New Info - Exciting updates from the Fan Festival

[Miriel]

Sarlos, and TrueFeba from the Allakhazam forums are updating via their PDAs live from the Fan Festival where currently, the Q&A session is taking place.

Keep in mind that these guys are typing fast and using shorthand to get this info out to the internet public, so some of the stuff only make a little bit of sense. I bolded an colored the particularly cool new info.

tau tour, beseige demo, monsters floodibg in thro gates, blm being an idiot, mobs don't seem too special.

warp in a few minutes

Edited, Fri Mar 10 13:41:22 2006 by TrueFeba

in reef, leech, doomed, etc...ny god this blm is stupid...you don't solo doomeds, and you don't melee...

Edited, Fri Mar 10 13:47:35 2006 by TrueFeba

new skelletons in reef, also lamia...

'undead follwers link with lamia'-announcwr

Edited, Fri Mar 10 13:52:39 2006 by TrueFeba

btw, beseige in al zahbi, and it is mamool jas, no lamia in town. the one lamia weve seen was in reef

Edited, Fri Mar 10 14:11:06 2006 by TrueFeba
surprise before show...

mithra blu!

New slime monster!
=lue nagic s like monster tp but blue lines.

BOMB TOSS
blood saber
mandraogea sprout
spider web
acorn toss?
dimensional death

NEW AREA resembles ifrits cauldron
powerpoint- tau screenshots
plans for future

besieged assaualt and missions are in different catagories

curently, the two jobs we have announced are blu and cor,..that's all we ca tell you..for now

about as many new areas as cop

beseiged screens have lamia, tau demo doesn't

pic also has jobs outside demo

besieged is as conquest for the .. continent

with the addition of new towns we listened to all the people who eanted monster attacks on the towns

once we decided that attack wed decide wed need a reason, so the beast men are after treasur you have to protwct

astral ..? treausre on western edge of continent

wheb evertythibg starts' good guys have astela condenscene, if stolen, must retrieve from beastmen hq

is the new conqyest

beseigned dmeo only tenpercent of full version

assault is neq type of mission bsttle, short msiisons, level fifty to sevetenyish,

in pt and quests now, need much time, newe we want three to six people, sbort

many different quests, different levels, areas

by completion gain assault points, can be tradedx for items exp gil etc

in additon to points, if you complete, you get unappraised items, take to town, have appraid, usable

thw more assault quests you do your merc rank goes up (like tau fame basically)

missions from presidant?

old and new characters

not planning any level capped.possibly some bcnms cap

you can go to new continent from mhaura

you canot go straight form maurha...but maybe an area near nhayra had the req

!!!!!!!!
chocobo raisibirth of breeding ease of breeding
joys of breeding
benefits of personal chobo
what your choco has for you

players want to go into ff everyday without spending a lot of tine, wil work like gardining

raising chocobos isn't hard core or or newbies, all you need is love

and once you raise it, naybe... setup a date with a friensa choco? maybe a new chocobo?

just raising it isn't that fun.. so you want to use it right? maybe race it?

mog locker for sotrage we are soryr about problems with client memory, new way to stoe thirty to fifty area slots

thwre is a small fee, must go to aht urgan, arwas, may pay with items or quest, pAyment undecided

items will not be lost when you don't pay, but will be unaccessable

possibly more than 50 slots

watch version updates

The colosseum...
mnsters ca be fight against each othr

aht urgan time line has many palnn for future, someone s that!

ALL JOBS WILL BE BALANCED AT AHT URGAN RELEASE


tanakas greeting; hello everyone exicted to talk with na fans we never gte to see' hope you get to know more about us

Tau qs

q-mithra homeland?
a-not in plans

q-will accounts be splitable?
a-planning to do it...still need sometime...can move worlds, not sure about acounts..

q-choco colors?
a-good question. can't say anything other than...won't be just yellow

q-exp pack seems to be for caual plays, blu job accessable under 30?
a-all new jobs are 30, same as old ones

q-with beseiged, will they be on a scheduele, or triggered
a-beseige will have no triggers, always active like conquest..the monsters will just come

q-pvp one on one?
a- special areas for pvp coming

q-abj drop rate increase?
a-*nobody wants to answer, laughs* can't make any dramatic changes afriad to effect economy, if drop rate won't hurt it

q-if choco is 1-75. what about lv20 quest?
a-raising is for everyone, *couldn't hear*

q-mit m? gal f?
a-no such thing as galkan female, mit males...someday you will see them

q if you are in town during beseige, are you autonatically in pt
a everyon in town fights but NO EXP LOSS


q quivers on everything? not just specific bolts
a are thinking about new items, but not everything, would effect economy

q if you can't los exp during veseige, can you gain exp
a considering

q- speed belt from bcnm
a- haven't thoguht about it,.. we'll take this idea back...

q choco plans? wistle to summon?
a we hope: good ideas

q reqs other tha lv30? for new jobs
a have to buy exp pack xlear qyest, that's it


Edited, Fri Mar 10 17:42:45 2006 by TrueFeba

a- mog safe will not grow, mog locker will

q-change characters look? race?
a- no, ps2 restrictions

q- chocobo eq?
a- no plans...but choco shape might change with raising...

q-raise choco on mules and use on main?
a- prbably not

q_ ah three exgra slots?
a- no..can not increase by even one, ah takes up a lot of server space ah goes down enough

q- what happens if you neglect your choco?
a- probably run away to anicer master..

q_ class specific solo quesst?
a - yes, and quests needing small-large partiea. class specigfic is good idea ill take it back

q-reverse immigrations? return to original servers
a- possible...we'll take it back and talk to it?

q- ranks past 10 or new nations?
a- new missions in exp pack, play those firsts, if eveeryone wants then... we'll be forced to add then

Oh goodness, personal chocobos that can be summoned with a whistle? *happiness*

And besieged sounds so awesome, I can't wait!

[Rostum]

Omg! So awesome! Chocobo breeding! <3

[Miriel]

Cleaned up version:

1:50 PM - Developer Panel #1 -Focused on Ant Urghan
They mention the two jobs that have been released "so far." Emphasis mine. There was much booing as they will not reveal any more jobs at this time. Team Minute Maid heard through the grape vine that a new job will be demod before each panel. TrueFeba covered the Blue Mage demo pretty well.

There will be about as many new areas in Aht Urghan as in Chains of Promathia. This means around forty new zones, sweet!

Besieged
This is the conquest-type event for the new continent. They said "some of the towns will be open to attack." They only went into detail about the capital city, but they seemed to be hinting that there will definitely be more.

They needed a reason for the Beastmen to attack. This is the 'Astral Candescence,' a treasure the defenders must protect. If this item is captured by the Beastmen, the players will have to sack the Beastmen city to retrieve it.

Only about 10% of the besieged content is shown in the ToAU demo. (!!!)

Assault
This is designed to be a more casual activity. Parties will generally be about three to six people, and they said the missions take about an hour to complete. There will be a number of different missions for different zones, party setups, and even levels.

They mentioned 'Assault Points' but the rewards are not finalized. Potential things include items, experience, etc. Some drops may be unidentified and must be appraised in town before they can be used.

As more Assault missions are taken, the player's Mercenary rank increases and new missions are opened up. Assumedly, more items will be available for purchase as well.

Aht Urhgan Missions
They did not say much here. There will be a mix of new and old characters. No zones will be level capped, but a few battlefields may be. They also mentioned that Mhaura is definitely the entry point to Aht Urghan, but that prerequisites will be required. Do not log out there, but possibly *near* there.

Chocobo Raising
They emphasized that this will not be a very time consuming activity. It will be on par with gardening. However, you must care for, feed, and interact with your chocobo. They mentioned letting your Chocobos 'meet' your friends' Chocobos and see what happens... They also hinted at Chocobo Racing as a future activity.

Mog Locker
This is bought in Aht Urghan and starts out at thirty slots. It can initially be upgraded to fifty slots, but future updates may increase the size limit. Incidentally, they verified the PS2 memory limitations as the reason for the current inventory/safe size. I guess we can put that argument to rest now...

There will be a recurring fee to keep the locker, but no details on this are available yet. It could be gil, items, or even a repeatable quest. If you do not pay, your items are safe, but you must pay before you can access them again.

Colosseum
The basics are monsters will fight monsters, and it will be independant of player level. In other words, anyone, regardless of level, can participate. No more information was available.

Timeline of updates
Start
# Job balancing
# Assault, besieged, mog lockers introduce


June to August
# New areas, similar to Dynamis and Limbus
# Merit Adjustments
# New Assault stuff
# New Missions


Sept to Nov
# Chocobo Circuit (???)
# Assault Updates
# New Story
# Colosseum


Q&A
Tonight's developer panel will be focused on jobs, so no questions will be answered regarding those. I will get an update out as soon as possible after it.

Q: Mithran Homeland in expansion?
A: Not planned as of yet

Q: Characters split to 2 accounts?
A: undecided

Q: Breed different colored Chocoboss
A: Can only say: not limited to yellow

Q: Is Besieged triggered?
A: Besieged will just happen, not triggered

A: New areas made specifically for PvP,

Q: Abjuration drops increased?
A: Drop rates only increased if economy not impacted

Q: Level restriction for Chocobos?
A: Anyone can raise a Chocobo, but wait and see about riding

Q: Galka Female or Mithra male?
A: No such thing as Gallia female, except on net
Mithran Males "same day"

Q: price caps on items?
A: third panel addresses economy specifically

Q: Does 'Besieged' automatically ally you?
A: no XP loss
everyone in town is simply put in the fight.

Q: Quivers and Bolt cases for all bolts arrows??
A: Potentially More items, but not all

Q: Besieged experience gain, since none loss?
A: Still under consideration
Other types of points given

Q: Speed belt in BCNM?
A: everyone wants one, right?
will take idea back & consider it

Q: Hinted at raising and racing Chocobos, riding?
A: good question
future possibility

Q: Other job requirements
A: first buy expansion, clear quest, have it

Q: Bahamut whisper purpose, maybe an avatar?
A: Can't say anything about Bahamut as an avatar

Q: Player look customization?
A: Playstation 2 restrictions dictate no
he did apologize

Q: Can we 'bling' our Chocobos?
A: No gear for them
Shape of Chocobo may change depending how it's raised

Q: Can we sell more items on AH?
A: Would put a big load on servers
AH is already biggest server load

Q: What happens if you neglect your Chocobo?
A: It will probably run away

Q: Class specific solo quests?
A: Solo quests, yes
likes idea for race specific quests

Q: Character server migration?
A: 'technically' possible

Q: New Nation missions past Rank 10?
A: keep asking!

Pictures:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...e/IMG_0198.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...e/IMG_0196.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...e/2e081cbf.jpg

[Yeargdribble]

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?use...cdate=20060310

First video is the Beseiged Demo and the second one (click bottom on the right) is the BLU demo. BLU mage casting animation is badass.

15-20 minutes until the big announcement from the Dev Team... I'm guessing they will announce a new job. Guessing (hoping is more like it) that the job will be Geomancer ^^ Well see if I have to eat crow in just a bit.

[Lionx]

I read most of this elsewhere but the only thing i can say is its really awesome..and the Collisieum...Pokemon Stadium? @_@; GO RARAB! I CHOOSE YOU! *poke ball sound*

[Yeargdribble]

New job is .... Puppetmaster.... WTF?

[Lionx]

updating from the 2d panel. stay tuned
these are just some "ideas" the dev team has in mind for job changes
quick posting for now, formating and clarification later. here we go

war

try to expand weapon use
try to encourage wars to use other sj beside /nin
ability to throw axes

mnk

change so monk is not just punching - something else to help the party
new ability to boost other PT members HP

whm

traditionally healer, but other mages have taken over healing; trying to give whm more advantage as healer
thinking of other ways to involve whm in front line
new abiltiy to give HP or MP to other PT members
also ability to cure all bad status at the same time

blm

acknowledged one of the most powerful
acknowledged that 6 blm can pwn, but not necessary how they envisioned it
try to make it so they play in regular parties more
but giving them more spells to "compensate" so it doesn't seem they are picking on blm

rdm

acknowleged very powerful also along with blm
new spells for rdm

thf

one of the most technical, ie running back and forth
trying to add abilities so that the thf abilities are distributed among the PT
steal might change so that it's not just stealing items
perfect dodge change it in battle so that it will increase the damage attacking from behind

pld

acknowledge that pld might take second seat to nin, make more appealing for pld to be first choice for tanking
auto-refresh
making ability to use shield more ofthen that other jobs (blocking)
more TP gained from shield block

drk

like for drk to use scythe more often, adding more benefits to use scythe
not many ppl are using absorb spell, adjust so that there is more reason to use absorbs

bst

recognized lots of ppl have been complaining about last patch
reason they believe that bst is a strong job, but don't want to completely undo changes so they will look to do "something"

brd

seems to play same songs all the time, change it so there are more places for them to use other songs
a new low level song to increase speed of all the party

rng


thinking on a way to give rng more damage from last patch
maybe fix sharpshot so that acc won't change depending on distance
also increase more types of arrows in quivers

sam

like to change it so sam can use their TP in more different ways
new ability to decrease enemy's TP when hitting them

nin

"the ninja is very strong"
not going to make nin any weaker
most difficult thing, need more time to think of what to do

drg

no plans to change anything, still evaluating impact of lastest changes

smn

alot of smn will only summon avatars when they need certain spell and then release
would like to have players keep them out longer so thinking of more benefits
change so that duration and effect of avatar buffs are calculated based on summoning skill
increase more abilities for the avatars
currently no plans for summoning bahamut; reason is they want to keep him as a "special" type of avatar
if they made him summonable, they'd have to weaken him and they don't want to do that
more summonable avatars

bluemage

acquistion - only new spells if blue mage is main job
- to obtain new spell have to defeat monster that using that spell
- only able to learn spell only if within a certain level from the monster
- only learn spells from monsters that give xp
- no learning spell if dead
- can't learn every ability from monsters, but will have an inital amount with updates opening up more abilities
setting spells
- after learning ability from monster, have to set it
- each spell will have a certain amount of setup points and blue mage will have a certain number of setup points
- can only set spells limited to setup points and max number can set per level
- all blue magic will depend on monster learned from and monster cast on; mob vs mob weakness will affect acc and strength
- can be used in skillchains and magic bursts

corsair

information
- a random effect based on numbers will affect monsters
- drawing cards; after drawing one card you can use another on top of the other
- if you add up to 11 you get best effec
- if you go over, you bust and might get negative effect
effects
- depends on other jobs in the PT, ie WAR double attack bonus, BLM magic attack bonus
- card shot, one of 8 types of card used with gun will change the attack of gun to a magic attack
- can strengthen debuffs like dia
- ability to lower recast time of spells

Double Post Edited:
from the QA session:
Q: how does treasure hunter work?
A: ehhh... if he tells you too much, when he gets back to japan, he'll be dead. but not last strike. as long as thf in group, PT will feel the effects

Q: are they going to add utsu 3
A: it's on the table but still in the thinking process

Q: are there any plans to address other burn type parties
A: currently no plans. when certain parties destroy the balance of the game, they want to change it; that's why they are changing blm

Q: throwing weaponskills
A: take that suggestion back to JP

Q: will PLD be able to use other sj beside /war
A: are thinking of changes so jobs are more flexible with subjobs

Q: will there be more "armor" for females
A: laughter, good idea will take it back to japan

Q: SMN, NIN and DRG don't have AOE will corsair or bluemage have AOE and will the previous 3 get AOE
A: alot of blue magic is AOE, but no plans for corsair to get AOE. will take AOE idea for nin, smn and drg back to japan

Q: are they gonna change it so that it's more easier to learn the story of all the nations
A: they want to give ppl incentive to do the conquests, etc but if enough interest they will consider it

Q: what kind of enmity will the new whm ability to give HP/MP have
A: there will be enmity, but it won't be so much. don't worry

Q: does charisma affect provoke?
A: "nothing to do with it"

Q: smn hard to get pt, also used as main healer. why don't they have AOE mp refresh
A: take that idea back to JP

Q: will it be possible to join jeuno as a nation?
A: no plans currently, but some surprises in aht urgan

Q: why is PLD invincible still vulnerable to magic
A: no plans to make invincible to magic because it works as designed

Q: any plans to give whm ability to drain hp from and give to PT
A: drk has ability to absorb hp so they don't want to give that to other jobs. they want to keep the jobs seperate.

[Yeargdribble]

Here's a pic of the new job

http://ff11creatersvoice.cocolog-nif.../images/pm.jpg

[Beyond]

Another pet-related job. I like the idea :D

[Miriel]

Holy crap. Puppet Master? Can't say I saw that one coming, but it does look intriguing. I'm excited.

Edit: And I'd also like to say that this next expansion pack is going to be freakin' amazing.

[Rostum]

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?use...cdate=20060310

[zell1990]

Poor Taru.. ;_; lol

I'm really liking the idea of new spells for older classes (eg RDM), hopefully they'll be low enough for me to use them..

Also Beseiged looks great, can't wait till i'm a higher level and will actually be able to play it.

[chionos]

this expansion looks to totally refresh/revitalize ffxi. i'm freakin excited for it to get here. new avatars, new jobs, huge new areas, new mobs(lamia always been a favorite)
se really went all-out here from the start, unlike cop, which started very slow.

[Necronopticous]

I just got back from the Fan Festival, it was good times. I got another picture with mithra girls which I will post soon enough... The developers panel was excellent, with the Q&A session being completely hilarious, "Are mithras furry or just tan?" was one of my favorites, along with the developers answer to "Do items like the lucky egg actually give you a better chance of finding rare items?" ...simply, "Believe in yourself and your dreams will come true."

I had a good time even though it was EXTREMELY cold on the pier, I got a chance to play some of the new areas and fight some of the new mobs and such. This expansion is looking like it is really going to make some great improvements to the series, I admit it has made me really tempted to start playing again...especially getting a free copy of Chains of Promathia in my gobbie bag.

We got some cool pictures of some really awesome cosplay and stuff like that, I'll post them as soon as I get around to it.