https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?u=32595 Blue Gartr Forums Built for the gamer inside all of us. Fresh to Elite, join our community supporting Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, other MMOs, and all sorts of games en Fri, 26 Jun 2026 01:23:26 GMT vBulletin 5 https://cdn.bluegartr.com/images/styles/bluevb4/misc/rss.jpg https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?u=32595 https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?b=33 Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:26:49 GMT For those familiar with data mining FFXI, the existence of the folder "ROM9" has sparked speculation as to what its contents mean.

The reason for this is because ROM folders are usually used to house files from different expansions separately.
Chain of Promathia occupies ROM3, Treasure of Aht Urhgan in ROM4, and so on. The previous folder ROM8, was used for the add-on A Shantotto's Ascension. (all Abyssea data is stored in the main ROM folder).

ROM9 remained largely unnoticed when it was created, and a single file added to it in Feb this year. In March, another test server update added several files to ROM9 and this caught my attention, but we didn't really find anything about it.
Fast forward to late May, even more files were added to ROM9 but this slipped right under our noses.

They were actually zone files.

After Septimus pointed this out, Kaisha did some quick sleuthing, finding them to be newly designed areas, even though the texture effects are mostly re-used, likely because new ones haven't been applied yet.

I could not resist but investigate further into this matter to find out more about these zones in ROM9, and so here I present to you... the ROM9 zones.


Right now there are a total of 11 zones in ROM9, 2 of which appear to be identical to Provenance which I will not go into detail with.

Here are the other 9..

#1 - Zone 9/0/2, nicknamed Prontera.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ib5t2SdWFu...k/s1600/2a.jpg

This zone is (quite obviously) a town, and like every other city in FFXI, a seaside one.
Someone mentioned that it looks like Prontera from RO, probably because of the fountain design in its center.
It appears to have exits on both sides, and if you observe carefully the town is connected to a tower of sorts. Maybe they're going for a bit of Geffen too lol.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m61JN_lF_T...c/s1600/2d.jpg

One of the exits appear to be a bridge that leads somewhere....
And by using the power of assumption, it seems like it's going to lead us to this next zone.

#2 - Zone 9/0/3, aka Stairs Town

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g5uu9449bc...E/s1600/3b.jpg

Instantly you'll notice stairs town has a lot of steps..
It seems to be built on a slope, which is pretty impressive since all FFXI towns so far are generally on flat ground. In the 3rd pic above you can also see it appears to have another exit to someplace else.

Closer inspection of the "stairs" reveal them to just be sloped pavement, although there are steps at various points. It leads up to a pretty grand looking gateway.. which leads you all the way to the top, where a mansion sits.

Looks pretty government authority if you ask me.

#3 - Zone 9/0/4 aka Waterways

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zHRUJJcBBY...c/s1600/4a.jpg

This zone looks like its an underground waterway dungeon.
It doesn't seem like just any other dungeon, because its room design seems fairly simple, but layout is like a maze.
I'm going to bet on this zone being used for "dungeon crawling".

#4 - Zone 9/0/6 aka Jungle Zone Act 1

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TGpVIhp9oJ...w/s1600/6a.jpg

This is the first of 2 jungle zones. Its got dense canopy in most of its areas, so its probably meant to be all lush and claustrophobic.

Whats interesting is that the forest has a beach attached to it.. so it must be some tropical island paradise place..

#5 - Zone 9/0/7 aka Jungle 2

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VNQ0dakmn3...Q/s1600/7a.jpg

More of the same from #4, except for... A giant mushroom..?

#6 - Zone 9/0/8 aka Riverside (Motherfucker)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dw4Lvge-KF...4/s1600/8a.jpg

This zone is pretty barren, but from the way things are arranged, there appears to be a river running along the area. This area also appears to have a beachfront.

#7 - Zone 9/0/9 aka Forest of Nothing

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0GwWX5DRik...8/s1600/9a.jpg

This is the most barren zone out there. Its got nothing and is flatter than A cup boobs. I get the feeling that not much work has been done on this one.

#8 - Zone 9/0/12 aka the waterfall cliffs

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6id8iDQbqU.../s1600/12a.jpg

I can see this zone looking pretty beautiful. It looks like Beaucedine remixed with the East Saruta streams.
Look closer and you'll notice theres like an encampment in the zone too.

It seems this area is a lot warmer tho, so it feels kinda like um.. a dry steppe.

#9 - Zone 9/0/14 aka Tunnel zone

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1B4zVNrBJo.../s1600/14c.jpg

Last, and probably least impressive is this tunnel zone. Every expansion with new areas seems to need at least one of these lol.

---

Now for my thoughts.

Looking at this really builds a strong case for a new expansion being announced next weekend at Vanafest..
I mean, its 9 entirely new zones, which to me is huge. In terms of zone design I think there's actually more original thought put into this here than the whole of Wings of the Goddess.

My next question really would be.. where?

Based on the zones shown above, I think I'd put a strong vote in favor of Olzhirya, the Mithran continent to the south.
I somewhat envision it to be a tropical paradise - lush and green, and the presence of beaches seems to support the idea that its the southern islands.
The towns being as majestic as it is seems like it'll be Yhoh, the capital of the Gha Naboh Matriarchate. I'd bet the stairs town is where their seat of power lies. That said, the design and architectural style of the towns are not what I'd expect from Mithran civilization, but maybe I'm biased because of evidence from Kazham and Windurst Woods.

edit:
just to add 2 other popular opinions on where this might be..
- some say it could be Tavnazia, based on the geography.. the terrain and the slope of the town seem to line up with the image from the opening FMV.
- others think its a foray into the far west, to either Ulbuka or Adoulin Isle, where the exorcists of the Dark Lilies and Achtelle hail from.

What do you think?
Does Final Fantasy XI look set to have a new expansion, or at least new areas to explore to you?
Where do you suppose its going to be? And do you think this will breathe much-needed life into the 10 year old MMORPG?

The answers to some of these could come in less than 7 days.
The week to Vanafest is going to be a long one.

N.B - BG Blogs impose a 10 picture limit per post, so if you would like to see more from each zone, you can proceed to my personal blog where I have cross-posted this entry.

UPDATE (220612): Square Enix has filed for a new trademark "Seekers of Adoulin" relating to FFXI. Read more ]]> Spira https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?b=33 https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?b=10 Sat, 28 May 2011 20:45:03 GMT So the May version update has passed - the first major version update in 5 months, heralding its veritably vast myriad slew of additions and... So the May version update has passed - the first major version update in 5 months, heralding its veritably vast myriad slew of additions and adjustments, or so the dev team says.

Now, I'm sure we've all heard this somewhere before, and we've seen how its turned out for so many years...
It used to be that our biggest complaints as the playerbase would remain largely ignored by the development team, only to be responded with vague answers such as 'we'll look into it' and 'sorry, PS2 limitations'.

And then when fixes did come our way, it was too little to late - an example of this would be with the most recent fix of changing the way land king NMs are spawned. This came well after the bottleneck of rival HNM groups and botters moved on to other things. They might be welcome changes, but at the same time, hardly benefit anyone anymore.

But wait... Something's different this time round. During this version update, they gave us something that they'd always been stingy about in the past - convenience. These are mostly minor things, but they've added up over the years to make a huge difference for players. Raising the maximum number of active trials from 5 to 10, removing exp loss below level 30, adding new Abyssea NPCs in the cities and changing previously unstackable items to stackable ones.

These are the little things that have annoyed players and marred our gameplay experience. Onlookers will probably be wondering: Why do you put up with this nonsense? My here doesn't have these kinds of hassles.
The truth of the matter is probably that these aren't the things that are bad enough to make players want to quit, but enough to bitch. And because this is true, the problems are often sidelined for other things, but not anymore.

Making things even more interesting, wthin a week of the May version update, they announced a second version update for the month, promising major fixes in store. Some of these seemed too good to be true, because they're the exact things that people have been complaining about in the past few months. This was really like the surprise Christmas gift that came on Boxing Day instead.

These changes included multiple spawn points for higher tier NMs in Abyssea, mostly sought after for the drops needed for Empyrean weapons, and new means of obtaining various NM key items.

And this is surprising, because they're actually addressing a major issue that players have now, instead of 3 years later when the problem no longer really exists. In fact, this is what seems the most promising about the new development team in charge - they're proactive with their changes and have shown that they bother to explain why some things are done in certain ways.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Okypzs9WsH...0/briaaery.jpg
A very telling screenshot which I swiped from the "Three birds with one stone" thread.

Honestly, I think this is for the better. When they give you a proper reason, it gives us less of a chance to complain. And its a clear indicator that they're moving towards more serious open communication with the players - after some 9 years of broken communication lines.

But at the same time one wonder what else on the other side. Maybe they doing this because they know that without a full new add-on like Abyssea in this update, there really isn't a huge bulk of new content to distract players from issues such as this. Or because they actually genuinely care now...

Whichever it is, they've shown early signs that they can't be as flexible as the first impressions have given, but it's still a welcome start. Let's hope they usher in a more enjoyable era of FFXI where communicating with the devs is no longer like talking to a wall and the changes they make show that they actually play their own game. ]]> Spira https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?b=10 https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?b=7 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:55:05 GMT Image: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_vWihfifjeyg/Tbrq27hamqI/AAAAAAAAEsc/hU8GWdwpyHY/VU2.jpg Ever felt like a sucker for buying into the...

Ever felt like a sucker for buying into the hype of a version update for a 9 year old game? I have. And it’s something that has me at the edge of my seat every single time the version update comes by.

If you’re like me, then here’s a question, have you ever asked yourself why this is so?

For me, I think it’s the anticipation of what might happen in the coming update, and it usually starts from as early as a month before the update with the teasers.

Back in the days before FFXI was on twitter and the official forums existed, the version update teasers followed a more structured pattern. Further away from the date, there would be something like 2 teasers a week, and as the date moved closer, it became something like 3 teasers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It got to the point where it was like a science for some people, predicting the patterns for which the teaser notes would appear, and others would actually camp the website for update details (admit it, you did it before too, I still do sometimes), in anticipation for the next little morsel of news for them to discuss at length on.

Whether this form of baiting by the developers was intention is anyone’s guess, but it worked extremely well in my opinion. Fast-forward to today and we have a slightly different scenario playing out.

Since everything gets posted on the forums, people have been camping the Dev Tracker panel there instead. And for some reason the version update teasers no longer follow a set pattern of one per day, or 3 per week. When the info comes, it just does.

But just as before, we’re still pouncing on whatever new material they announce and speculating based on their vague wording time and again. The only difference now is that whenever something generates enough debate on the forums, a developer will come forward to clarify it. Oh how times have changed indeed, and for the better, if you ask me.


one of the most recent version update notes posts

Now, we all know the significance of a version update is fairly huge. Each time it comes along, which is typically every 3-4 months, there’s usually a host of tweaks and new things to expect. Unlike with other MMORPGs where it is mainly through expansions that they get a bonanza of content, the Version Update is our motherlode.

As such, Version Update day is like a holiday for the community. With the update’s manifesto details announced and implemented, players stop their regular activities to explore the many changes that take place in the world of Vana’diel.
Even before then, data miners are hard at work, sniffing out as much information on the new content well before it goes live. Such is the frenzy that occurs during every update. It may sound crazy, but I absolutely love it because of how alive the community feels during this time.

Now, I bring this up partly to celebrate the nostalgia of this time-worn tradition amongst FFXI gamers, and also because it might be something that will disappear soon. With developers hoping to release more frequent updates in the later half of this year following a different development cycle, this process of teasing and major updates will likely cease to exist.

Although details are still sketchy, it seems the version updates will move towards being implemented on a compartmentalized basis, depending on what is being rolled out, resulting in far more frequent updates, but possibly a situation where the version update may not bring presents for all the different kinds of players that we have.


I'm sure all of us are familiar with this one...

So if you’re a fan of the current Version Update mayhem like I am, I suggest that you treasure this upcoming one as it may be the last of its kind. And if you never liked it, maybe you can rejoice after it’s over.

Understandably, different members of the community should have a different approach to the whole thing, so my question to you would be, do you enjoy the way Version Updates work in FFXI? From the teasers to the update itself and not to forget the emergency updates after the fact.
Also, do you anticipate the changes to the system to be better or worse for you as a player and also as a community?

Think about that for a minute and enjoy the upcoming Version Update.
I know I will, whilst mining for new data added to the game :p ]]> Spira https://www.bluegartr.com/blog.php?b=7