Predictably enough, it's time I acknowledged the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV. FFXI players have known that project Rapture has been on its way for a long time now, so it came as no surprise. What was surprising however was just how much of FFXIV appears to tip its hat to XI. They have even preserved the same races that comprises the population of Vana 'diel. Amano's illustrated logo itself also mirrors the shape and theme found in XI's. I'm glad to see that FFXIV will be essentially a "spiritual" sequel to FFXI.

Only a brief teaser and a small smattering of info has been released so there's not much to go on. I'm generally hostile to CG being used in gaming trailers as it is worthless for distinguishing the games worth. In which case it's impossible to tell at this point how FFXIV will finally shape up, as the snippet of CG tells us little.

It does show us the general style and culture the game world exists within. Akihiko Yoshida who will be FFXIV's art directer who served on other SE games such as FFXII, and Vagrant Story. Taking the trailer together with earlier concept photos and artwork from the official site gives a feeling of how it will look. Personally I like Akihiko Yoshida's style a lot. It has a very intricate and artisan look full of vibrant colors and curved forms.




During the short trailer, log-shaped crafts fly through the air shooting at moving targets, which would suggest the level of technology will be higher than that found within FFXI. This should be a welcome decision as the last thing the world needs is yet another MMORPG with a medieval culture.

Here's some other info culled from the Q&A press conference Square held at E3:

- Subscription fees may be based upon a static 30 day charge instead of following the capriciousness of whichever month of whichever date and time you happen to start/restart upon.
- Leveling your character and gaining experience may be wholly rethought to create a better system.
-They will be utilizing the lessons learned from their time adjusting FFXI.
-All regions will play on the same servers the same as FFXI. Some users disparage this idea but I personally like playing with international users.

The direct quote Square used when referring to furthering your avatar was "the growth and development of the character". That could mean a lot of things, but firstly it makes me think of the game Elder Scrolls Oblivion. Oblivion made use of a system where the player progressed dynamically depending on the actions he took. New ideas like that are what the MMO genre could desperately use. WoW is the poster boy for forging new ideas in an MMORPG (although I think FFXI has been unjustly unrecognized in this regard).

Innovation is a tricky and dangerous thing however. For some time now MMO creators have been out-boasting each other trying to present themselves as the most cutting edge. Tabula Rasa was hyped as an action-packed genre blending spectacle that ultimately fell flat and was taken off-line not long ago. Ditto for Auto Assault and the Matrix Online. Hell, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures even features full out pixelated boobs and it has underperformed the developers expectations. Clearly then, edgy rhetoric is not enough and an MMO lives or dies by the entertainment and fulfilling nature of its gameplay. I sincerely doubt FFXIV will wind up that way, but until more is known I remain skeptical.

Some general things I'd like to see from FFXIV:

• De-emphasize rare equipment.

• Do away with "randomness" as a gameplay element in general.

• Reward exploration, if only in some small way.

• If it is decided the game will use voice actors implement an option to turn the voices off. It probably sounds silly but this is almost a make-or-break deal for me. If the voice acting fails, why should I be punished with listening to it? Learn from FFX here.

• Utilize a detailed system that makes it easy to see who is on the same missions or quests as you. Lord of the Rings Online has a great system where you can see your whole party in one look. It tells you in simple icons if they have the quest, if they're on a previous one, or a further one, etc.

Lastly in regard to FFXI Square maintained its position that development will continue as long as players support it. We do know there is likely to be at least two more version updates before Wings of the Goddess draws to a close with two accompanying add-on scenarios. I'm hopeful there will be a new expansion introduced some time after that. Ideally I'd wish for an expansion catering exclusively to high-level veteran players on a new continent (a sort of Aht Urhgan+1). New version update notes will be released the rest of this month so we will soon see what the immediate future holds for FFXI.

There is an new trend emerging in the last few FFXI updates. Field of Valor was treated with steroids. Mog Tablets are souping up Signet while having us comb every square inch of mainland areas. Add-on scenarios entice us to spend our time scouring the oldest nooks and crannies of Vana 'diel. Others have also suggested as much elsewhere; there is a likely motivating factor behind these events. I think it is that old notion of making better use of "under utilized" areas.

In case the idea is unfamiliar to you (if you read player forums you'll hear this argument often), here's the gist of it. Some areas are more frequented than others, therefore the shunned zones should have new incentives added in order to make better use of them. This is only one of the many bizarre manifestations resulting from players being culturally influenced by leftist political ideas.

Truly, in all its weirdness, it is egalitarianism applied to areas. Call it "zone disparity" if you like, to make the spin more openly stated. The way some players talk you would think that we are being bilked out of our money every month if every single zone isn't equal to Bhaflau Thickets or Whitegate.

A typical player comment goes something like this:

"Well, if I go to Ranguemont Pass NO ONE is EVER there, so it is a WASTE!" they would say. A waste of what exactly? Some rationalize this as a waste of money paid for an expansion, or as time developers spent grueling over hot Promyvion floaty-balls instead of creating jizz inducing double-ended Ridills.

The simple and obvious fact of reality is that things have an identity, and so, are evaluated differently from one another. Saying that all the areas should ideally be equally popular is lunacy, and plainly not possible

It's also important not confuse the "equal area opportunity" argument for simply arguing for more viable merit camps. On most servers there is a genuine dearth of merit camping areas that should be addressed, but that is a separate issue.

Think about this the next time you are scouring Mog Tablets, or collecting the next add-on scenario item capriciously dropped from some goblin somewhere. There's a good chance you're acting as a result of someone's arbitrary agenda of equal area appreciation. It is a quest in vain for some vague sense of an underdog injustice that doesn't exist.

It was with hesitation and skepticism that I decided to purchase the new FFXI add-on "A Crystalline Prophecy". My reservations proved well founded after having completed the scenario this weekend. Overall I was underwhelmed and initially incredibly frustrated.

Knowing that add-ons are small by their very nature I knew not to expect a ton of content, however I had hoped it would at least be as long as the Serpent General line of quests. In case you've never done those, the Generals quests are very entertaining although perhaps a little easy, but if it came down to it I'd say it'd be worth a $10 purchase.

ACP on the other hand, is quite brief and terse. The story barely begins as it's ending. It's not so much a healthy dose of missions as it is a clump of arbitrary tasks. Upon it's release excitement turned into misery as several hundred players competed for the same small pool of enemies. This was such a poor decision it soured the entire experience.

For a comparison let's take a similar task. Pretend the Summoner job was just released yesterday. Now also pretend that the carbuncle's ruby can only be obtained from goblins in Rollanberry Feilds. No sane person would design a quest like that because the resulting cluster-fuck is obvious. Appropriately then, the solution too would have been obvious. Disperse the required item to entire main regions and zilart instead of one single area. As it stands now every leech in the game can drop a carbuncle's ruby, the same idea should've been applied.

Beating up on a cavalry of mandragora was at least unique and amusing, however it was plagued with glitches and errors that caused players to be hassled. True, updates will always have some glitches, and I don't expect their programmers to be omniscient working with a 7 year old cross-platform game. But this was really exacerbated by the original terrible decision to make farming items such a pain.

I understand why they required the items to be farmed the way they did. It is because the add-on scenarios will be using a new system where you can "cash in", so to speak, your mission progress for a chance at a nice item or equipment. This is not a bad idea honestly. It adds some replay value to the content, and allows for a vast pool of possible rewards. Yet the original problem of flooded competition made this an awful ordeal. I hope they change their specific goals for the next 2 add-ons to make this seem like a better idea.

Now we come to my favorite part, the story. Crystalline Prophecy takes all (and I do mean *all*) the elements of the opening movie and stitches them together into one narrative. The result is quite a stretch, even for a fantasy game. That lovely twirly crystal you've come to know and love over the years suddenly appears out of nowhere, making ominous bossy threats. I had a hard time swallowing this and truthfully I couldn't help but be reminded of the Brainspawn from Futurama ("I am the greetest! Now I am leaving Earth forever, for no raisin!").

After you finish all your tasks, you'll be treated to a very long ending (if you think it's over, it isn't). The end has a very wistful universal nostalgic feeling about it I rather liked despite the short and frustrating missions. Finishing rewards you with some unique items and equipment, which is really the saving grace of this add-on The graphics and music are well crafted as usual, but unfortunately the implementation is terrible... as usual. I'll be scrutinizing the next two scenarios more carefully and probably will wait until after the original release if I get them at all.

This is just a quick post about some of my different little projects to reference them in one go. Incidentally, I think it also exposes my embarrassingly nerdy fetish for maps.

EWH

As I mentioned at the end of my last entry, I uploaded my version of EWH with the adjusted translation and zone additions. It can be downloaded here.

WotG Maps

Back when wings was released, I was annoyed with how inadequate the maps were. Since they use the same map images as the present versions they are utterly unhelpful except to give you a sense of what shape the area is. You can see the comparison of two areas below:

This map package is made to closely resemble the normal in-game maps. It is my personal preference, I dislike gaudy colored markers all over. And so, these maps do show environmental obstacles such as walls, ledges, towers, caves, ramps, and "off-map" areas. However they don't show informative markers such as quest and mission targets, NM spawn areas, mining points, etc.

Since past area maps are their own map file separate from present, they do not overwrite your present maps or markers. They also do not "give" you the maps. E.g. you still have to quest the map for Vunkerl (S) before you can view it in game. Lastly the pack doesn't change or overwrite your map markers. If your past areas have things marked out you want to keep they will still show up with this map pack installed.

You can see pics of all the maps here.
Download the map package itself here.
Use the provided ReadMe file for installation instructions.

Walk of Echos Map

Here's something I've been picking away at for a long time. As you might have heard the Walk of Echos area is pretty damn big. Not only is it big, it's a mess of broken disjointed clutter and mountains melded into pathways. Oh right, and it has no map. I guess that's Square's way of making sure everything in Wings is as easy (for them) and inconvenient (for us) as possible. So assuming this will actually be a playable zone eventually I've been trying some different things to create a Walk of Echos map.

You might've seen the Japanese Echos overview pic (below) which gives a very good impression of how the area is layed out.



There are still significant bits and pieces left out however, and the scale isn't helpful for section-by-section use. I'm still slowly modifying things, but this is what I've got so far (below).



Clearly, Walk of Echos is deliberately divided up into 16 sections of funky shaped platforms (plus a battlefield-esque section). Each section has an individual map as well in case it turns out that's how they implement it in the game (most likely imo).



That's not to say you could use these as in game maps, they'd be for reference only. Still I think it'd be nice to be prepared for whatever ego destroying new event Square has up its sleeves. I don't expect Echos to be a playable area for a long time, which is why I've only picked away at this slowly over a long period. For the most part it is finished now, I might just experiment with adding stylistic elements that resemble real in-game maps. In any case, I think it'll be a helpful reference some day. If all goes to plan I'll stick them up somewhere whenever the zone becomes available to players.

Traditionally, FFXI blogs revolve around a player's progress and day-to-day activity. While there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not my forte and I doubt many people would be interested in what type of crab I most recently shanked to death.

Instead I intend to focus on topics, new info, or developments I find interesting in the realm of FFXI. Other than that I'll post any matter of other various little things that catch my attention. So thanks for checking out the blog, and I look forward to reading any comments you may have. In the meantime have fun on FFXI!

Not along ago I was messing around with an FFXI zone viewing program (EWH) when I noticed something. Some rather basic things seemed to be missing, such as Outer Horototo Ruins, non-rental Mog Houses, and various airship routes. I began to wonder if perhaps the programs creator hadn't been as thorough as he could've been. My interest was piqued so I set out to comb over the games data and find out where they were.

I did eventually pin down the location of the MH, and airship zones, however I also happened to find the files for Mordion Gaol and The Last Stand. Pretty neat, seeing as how they are some of the most unknown areas in FFXI. Unfortunately there's probably a good reason for them having been ignored for so long. They're utterly boring!

Most of you have almost certainly seen pics of Mordion Gaol or taken an involuntary trip there yourself. The only bit of info worth noting here is that the entire area is only 12 such rooms total. Each room is separated to make 4 rows of 4. 12 measly rooms to hold all the trouble makers on a server of 2500+ players seems a little surprising. Then again you could probably cram a good few dozen people into a cell if you had to.

The Last Stand is fairly mysterious. Usually it's said to be a testing area for Square to try out battlefields, and I think that is the most likely explanation. Unlike a couple of the other old testing areas, The Last Stand appears to still be in use and active as it was mentioned in a zone maintenence announcement not long ago. Additionally it has its own dialogue file as well, not that it's of interest but it supports the idea that is still actively used in testing.




So how do I know this area is The Last Stand? Well... I don't. I'd say I'm about 90% certain however. I came to this conclusion based on a picture someone posted on KI years ago. They had gained access to the zone in the game itself and stood upon a platform exactly like the ones shown here. Other than that I do know this zone isn't any other known area, so it seems reasonable. It could be it's been ignored because it simply looks just like Horototo Ruins, so someone not paying attention would think that's what it is and move on. The layout and setup is not at all like Ruins though.


The zone itself is extremely simple and uses the same textures as Horototo Ruins. Platforms flank the largest center room. Disconnected from the main room at each of its four corners are four medium sized rooms, and finally four smallest rooms further out.

Here's one more thing I thought I'd bring up while were at it.



A handful of you might remember this gulch background! This isn't new by any means but not many are aware of it. Originally , when FFXI was released in Japan, the game featured a showy high polygon model when you job changed. As I understand it, the scene used this area. Kinda cool, eh? Shame they can't find something to use it for again.





So there you have it. Not terribly exciting, but I hadn't seen these zones explicitly displayed before. It's interesting simply for the sake of curiosity more than anything.

Ironically the Outer Horototo Ruins are still MIA.

*Please do not leave comments requesting help with the program. If you like there is a thread for that on KI here. I plan to upload an updated version of the program soon there with a full English zone list and the above areas added.