4-8-2011 The FINAL FANTASY XI roadmap for the twelve-month period commencing April 2011

[Rehn]

How is it that Everquest is still getting full on expansions way too late into its life with less subscribers than FFXI...

Honest question: how many subscribers are left on FFXI? I r curious.

[ronin sparthos]

~500k accounts last we heard?

[Jesterking]

Seems like the skipped listing the step "Slowly phase out PS2 Users". I'm a PS2 user, and when Heroes came out, I ran out of space and had to reinstall... There's no conceivable way that my hard drive can physically fit all of this..

[Esvedium]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...264685&thumb=1

=

http://www.pso-world.com/images/item...ITHOUTBARS.jpg

Most good.

...is exactly what I thought when I first saw that.

[Spira]

the last I heard from a friend in EQ2 its kinda like just 3-4 new zones, a handful of new monsters and some new battle system. but unlike in FFXI they don't really get major updates like we do. its like content is either there from an expansion, or it isnt.

In terms of expansion variety, the only thing FFXI currently lacks is new zones. We did get some in Abyssea, but they're all remixed zones. It's funny how we've actually gotten more new mobs in the last 3 updates than the past 2 years or so. To be fair, a lot of them are reskins, but some aren't just reskins but tweaked models.. and they still kinda count anyway.

I have my doubts on the zone limit thing. Abyssea added 10 zones in the last 3 months. PS2 capacity problems tho.. well that is something they might have to face. It might be possible for SE to come up with some kind of file efficiency system for PS2s to cut back on the size. If im not wrong they already use lower quality textures and shit for PS2. However, if its anything like the PC version, there are a lot of duplicate files (especially when they decided to sort mob models by expansion). Should also be noted that zones actually aren't that big. 20-40mb last i remembered, and thats PC quality. Could be the same tho.

Bird monster reminded me of:
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__...NES-Garuda.gif

monster with horns:
http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/128...3_6_140518.jpg

[Gwynplaine]

First thoughts on this:

-The "mage set" of new armor looks fucking doofy. As usual.

-I'm disapointed there's nothing more ambitious for an entire damn year. Especially no new missions or story. But this is at least better than my lowest expectations which was that they would do nothing but clean up old events.

-It's weird that they talk about updates beyond October into March 2012 but the graphic stops at August. They said they plan to increase updates past then so I guess they just don't yet know how that will turn out exactly.

-I hope that what looks like concept art for a new zone or BC isn't just a reskin of Walk of Echoes with the plants and structures yoinked out. Chunks of floating islands suspended in air? Hmmmmmm. Sounds familiar!

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...6&d=1302250519

It looks like this is in Promyvion or a Limbus area. I see grey brick and particle floaty balls. Maybe they will toss out those fucking useless "basement" chip areas of Limbus and put something good there.



It's interesting to see they're going to finally do something with "The Last Stand" idea. It's been around for a long time, probably since the game's release. No one really knows much about it, and it's been assumed that it was a testing area for new battle content. For example, the list of enemies and targets in the data files for The Last Stand usually changes after each update. A while ago the mob dat list listed some Walk of Echos enemies, and right now it lists Shinryuu instead. So clearly it's been used to test the new stuff out. But I guess with an entire test server maybe they won't need it.

I'm pretty sure that small Horrutoto Ruins area is The Last Stand as it currently exists as a Square battle testing area. But probably they will turn it into a new thing all it's own for the real game.

Ages ago on Killing Ifrit there was a thread from some guy who hacked/modded or something his way into The Last Stand. He posted pics with his name blacked out and the typical server message when you zone into an area. I haven't seen them ever again though.

[Karbuncle]

Those particles look more like an aura or its TP move. You can see a Stirge in the Background, It really looks like Horutoto Ruins. The other "Voidwatcher" pick of the Harpie shows it clearly in Dangruf Wadi =x

Edit: Apparently not!

[Sprint]

PS2 has more free harddrive space than the 20gb 360s do, partition size is the main problem right now. It can be increased, they've done it in the past, I assume they just fired that guy 4 years ago and the current crop don't know how to do it.

If they can increase the partition size again, or program the game to access data on a different partition, theres no reason they cant add new zones, ps2 support or not.

[Fiarlia]

Fuck.

It's not IHR, I'm in there now, looking around. All the doors there have archways.

Maybe Rangemount Pass, then? >.>

[Karbuncle]

Maybe the Basement in Garlaige Citadel (S) >.>?

[Gwynplaine]

Anyone wanting a new expansion pack to explore a new part of the world is going to be disappointed since they've reached the physical limit on new zones.

This cannot be increased without redeveloping the game.

They're about to reach the limit on the PS2 hard drive too. They are really going to have to consider dropping support for it eventually

Supposedly the zone index limit people like you keep mentioning has already been changed.

Seems like the skipped listing the step "Slowly phase out PS2 Users". I'm a PS2 user, and when Heroes came out, I ran out of space and had to reinstall... There's no conceivable way that my hard drive can physically fit all of this..

That was due to the method they were using to download and save files during updates, not the actual HDD becoming full. They changed it now to fix that.

For both of these things go read this thread here:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...rumor#post5198

[Fiarlia]

Wouldn't it be silly there, next to the Fomor NM?

[Toth]

Crazy thought:

Last Stand is a PVP battleground (it could happen!).

Last one standing wins!

[Karbuncle]

Its frustrating noticing a zone but not knowing which zone it is >.>;

Could be Garlaige Present. Are there Bats down there next to the door-areas?

I first thought Possibly Eldieme but i dont think theres bats in Eldieme.

[Odin'sLaw]

isn't the Garuda-esc NM from the fort in the past? the constant bumpy ground reminds me of the area

[ronin sparthos]

isn't the Garuda-esc NM from the fort in the past? the constant bumpy ground reminds me of the area

Naw looks like Dangruf Wadi for sure.

[Karbuncle]

Looked like Dangruf Wadi to me, but IDK :L

[Ocara]

The stone area looks like one of the two entryways to Rangemount Pass. One of them is full of goblins but the other might have bats, I haven't been there in ages. It has the same stone style as that and you can see a pillar in the screenshot, the entries have those stone pillars in the room.

[Fiarlia]

Its frustrating noticing a zone but not knowing which zone it is >.>;

Could be Garlaige Present. Are there Bats down there next to the door-areas?

I first thought Possibly Eldieme but i dont think theres bats in Eldieme.

You mean recognizing, not noticing, but agreed nonetheless. I'm currently trekking through the rest of the ruins, in case I just remembered the wrong place within the ruins, next stop is going to be Ranguemont or however the hell it's spelled.

[Fiarlia]

My bad, anyway, I forgot about the archways that the Ruins have.

Meant to edit, not double post, sorry.