Dev Tracker: Findings/Posts (NO DISCUSSION)

[Yugl]

Post new Dev Tracker posts here.
Discussion

[Slycer]

Couple of JP posts confirming bugs. They confirmed the progression bug in Zhayolm (the current one, not the test server one), and that's already been patched. Apparently there's another bug with automaton enmity from healing which they are also working on a fix for.

They have a fix for the item display problem (items not showing) which they apparently implemented a few hours ago. It was a non-maintenance update so you should get patched if you just log out and in (this info is on the Playonline page as well). Apparently it was a memory issue on 360 and PC. This should also have fixed the issues people were having with items displaying with the wrong names. They said there may still be issues because they aren't completely aware of what caused that specific issue so they're still asking for reports on that if there are any other occurrences.

[Slycer]

Another JP post today confirming issues with people being forced out of Meeble Burrows areas immediately after entering. An area maintenance was done on certain parts of Meeble Burrows and apparently this fixed the problem, though of course they are asking people to report any continued issues. Coincidentally (or perhaps not coincidentally), the Quetzacoatl server apparently went down for some time during that. Anyway the server is back up, and Meeble Burrows shouldn't kick people anymore.

Edit (9/30/12): And if it wasn't already painfully obvious, the problem was not at all fixed and people are still being randomly ejected from Meeble Burrows upon entry. Plenty of bug reports on the official forums, including two from myself. The bug report responses indicate that a fix is in the works, but no timing was given.

[Byrthnoth]

Okipuit is definitely a Bond villain.

I still love the sword, but it seems Excalibur and en"light" should go along together and no have to compete.. at least let me know if this is a bug or intention - thanks!

Greetings,

Correct, this is intentional. As some of you may already know, added effects from weapons cannot stack, thus unfortunately the added effect from Excalibur cannot be used in conjunction with Enlight.

Also, it is not possible to make it so the effect from Enlight activates when the added effect from Excalibur does not. Likewise, changing the priority so that Excalibur's added effect is higher than Enlight would require a complete reworking of the weapon as well as limit the use of Enlight, which is not a realistic approach to this.

With that said, we will be keeping priority on Enlight and would like players to choose which effect they want to use by removing the Enlight effect for the times they prefer having Excalibur's added effect.

Good evening,

While the development stage for accessing storage items from other nations other than your home town might not be the most ambitious project on our list, it really depends on other tasks and milestones as well. We will be reviewing the timing for implementation but it's difficult to narrow down an exact date for completion. Rest assured however that it is on our minds and planned out. We're sorry for the delay and appreciate your understanding.

[Slycer]

Translations:

Defective Item Name Display
The other post was about the items that were coming up incorrectly in the chat log or on the display. I guess because Meeble Burrows was so badly bungled and they obviously don't know how to fix it, they had to also post that the patch they implemented to fix the item issues apparently worked completely as the issues are no longer occurring. Good job, SE!



Edit: Official Translation of Meeble Burrows post:

On Sep. 28 3:00 (PDT) we implemented countermeasures to address the bug from Meeble Burrows wherein a player may be ejected from the underground cave immediately after the start of a research expedition.

However, we have confirmed that the bug may still occur even after the implementation of these countermeasures. Therefore, we kindly ask for your patience while we continue to investigate and work on a fix.

We apologize for the continued inconvenience this issue is causing.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/pol...ews21714.shtml

[Septimus]

Camate's post of the above:

Greetings!

We've passed on all the information about the crashes and disconnections you have been experiencing. Once we get some information back we will be sure to let you all know. Apologies for this, but we appreciate your patience!

[Yugl]

Greetings,

Moogle storage slips were originally created to store items that you may not use as frequently. This is because storing and retrieving items through this method is not as efficient as storing things in your mog safe, locker, sack, or satchel.

If we were to give relic equipment +2 that has not been augmented its own moogle slip, and we continued at the pace, we would eventually reach a point where storage slips themselves would begin to clutter a player's inventory. So we have to be very careful about the pace at which we implement storage slips to avoid creating so many slips that they become inventory hogs as well. With these thoughts in mind, we ultimately decided to limit it to upgraded pieces only.

As for the time it took to get a response, I know that we have touched on this many times, but please understand that we cannot always reply to every single topic. However, that doesn't mean we aren't paying attention. When we have a concrete response for you, rest assured we will deliver it as soon as we can.

Finally, please note that constantly bumping threads asking for updates and attacking the staff will not be tolerated. With that said, this thread will be closed.

Holding one slip for items you don't care to augment would be to inventory heavy; that's why we feel you're more efficient holding 3+ unaugmented items. Oh and Nyzul gear is clearly not used frequently I guess.

[Yugl]

Greetings,

Moogle storage slips were originally created to store items that you may not use as frequently. This is because storing and retrieving items through this method is not as efficient as storing things in your mog safe, locker, sack, or satchel.

If we were to give relic equipment +2 that has not been augmented its own moogle slip, and we continued at the pace, we would eventually reach a point where storage slips themselves would begin to clutter a player's inventory. So we have to be very careful about the pace at which we implement storage slips to avoid creating so many slips that they become inventory hogs as well. With these thoughts in mind, we ultimately decided to limit it to upgraded pieces only.

As for the time it took to get a response, I know that we have touched on this many times, but please understand that we cannot always reply to every single topic. However, that doesn't mean we aren't paying attention. When we have a concrete response for you, rest assured we will deliver it as soon as we can.

Finally, please note that constantly bumping threads asking for updates and attacking the staff will not be tolerated. With that said, this thread will be closed.

Holding one slip for items you don't care to augment would be to inventory heavy; that's why we feel you're more efficient holding 3+ unaugmented items. Oh and Nyzul gear is clearly not used frequently I guess.

[Slycer]

JP Translations:

Community Events
Looks like they're prepping another decoration contest. There's a little image of a new furnishing which is designed to be a reproduction of the "Icecap Rolanberry" food item. It even has some deliciously pixelated rolanberry sauce drizzled around the platter. Reading on, sounds like the next contest might be a decoration contest with a Halloween/sweets theme.



Story Quests and Missions
Looks like people are asking for more story quests missions (seriously, it's been ages since they added any good ones). Community team response is the fairly obvious one - there will be a bunch in Adoulin and they're currently focusing totally on those to make them as good as they can.

Filtering RMT Messages
People commenting on how there seem to be more RMT related messages around recently. Response from the community team is that the chat message filter is updated very frequently, sometimes as often as 10 times a day and that it's basically a cat-and-mouse game so it's impossible to completely block all of the messages.

[Byrthnoth]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post366365

Greetings,

We understand that a some of the posters feel that raising your summoning skill feels slow while others feel that the rate is not too bad. We brought your feedback to the Development Team to receive some insight as to how they feel about this system's current state. The team informed us that the rate at which skills increase when using offensive blood pacts against enemies was set high to compensate for how often they can be used. Due to this, they aren't currently planning to make any changes to the rate of skill ups.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...361#post366361

Hello!

Whenever we plan out which gathering-type items should/should not be stackable we always need to consider how many items that a player could bring back home after one session. For example, if we changed logs or ores the number they could take home would increase ten-fold. Therefore we need to consider all the effects this could have on the economy and be careful when considering such adjustments. With that in mind, we do not have plans to make these items stackable at this time.

[Slycer]

Some JP posts, translated:

Those Crazy Automatons
Apparently there's a glitch that surfaced after the version update that automatons will spam Silence endlessly on monsters that are immune ("completely resist") to silence, even with the scanner set. The dev team has confirmed that the scanner is not working properly and is currently working on a fix.

My Precious Crystal Petrifacts
I have no idea why they even responded to this, but someone basically asked whether or not the drop rate on crystal petrifacts was changed after the update, and they said no. They know there's no point other than to replace corundum and they've received a lot of requests to lower the drop rate of the crystal petrifacts, but they haven't done anything yet. They have no plan to make changes at this time, but they also threw an invitation to suggestions, leaving the door open to other applications for them in the future.

If they do give crystal petrifacts another purpose in the future, I'll be sure to find the person who suggested it so that I can remove them from the general population.

[Slycer]

Why bother asking?

Greetings,

We definitely understand the desire to have automatic ranged attacks and/or a toggle to switch it on and off. As the system is now, if we were to implement auto-ranged attacks, characters would be unable to use weapon skills or abilities during the ranged attack animation and the auto-ranged attack would interfere with the priority of the other abilities/WS. To address that issue would take a huge overhaul to the core system, so unfortunately it's not as simple as you might hope. However, we do understand there is a desire for an automatic ranged attack, and if it should change, we'll be sure to let you know.

[Byrthnoth]

The Bard one also isn't working.

Greetings everyone!

Turning linkshells into key items is definitely an interesting idea to save some inventory space. Unfortunately, when it comes to key items, it is only possible for to save flag information indicating whether or not you are in possession of the item, and they cannot store more complicated information.

Linkshells have a bunch of information tied to them, such as the LS name, pearl color, member list, and whether it is equipped or not, so it is not possible to change them into key items due to the complexity of the data.

They can't make linkshells Key Items because you touch yourself at night.

[Slycer]

I don't have time to translate everything right now, but this one's important. I'll translate the rest later today if there are no official translations by then.

Meeble Burrows Random Discharge Follow-Up

We apologize that this bug is still inconveniencing our players. Thank you so much for your detailed reports of the problems.

The problem has been found to be a phenomenon where there is a very high server load due to congestion at the entrance of the area instance, causing inconsistent entry information among the players entering.

Since the mechanism of entry into Meeble Burrows is particularly susceptible to congestion, we plan to improve it by putting in countermeasures to avoid this which will be implemented in a maintenance in the near future. This seems to be a phenomenon occurring because of the instancing, and it will be time-consuming to eliminate completely and our primary concern is to avoid this as much as possible.

With things as they currently are, you may lose key items and recorded grimoire information, so we are going to introduce interim countermeasures to prevent this from occurring. Although the complete details will be announced after the maintenance, if you had been kicked out of the zone, the key item "Moblin pheromone sack" will be consumed when you enter. We are putting a mechanism in place to return this key item and return the grimoire to the state it was in before entering the expedition. This will work for both party members who were discharged and those who remained in the zone while their companions were discharged.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in dealing with this continued inconvenience.



tl;dr, sounds like they are putting in a temporary "roll back" option to allow you to get back pheromone sack/grimoire status if a run you enter gets screwed over by people getting kicked.

[Slycer]

Since it wasn't translated, here's the other important one. Apparently "yes" responses do happen occasionally (at least on the JP side).

Preludes/Etudes/Dirge/Sirvente to Become AoE

Quoted Request:
Recently there have been a lot of people asking for something like Pianissimo that makes single target songs into AoE. However, so many enemies recently use AoE Dispel moves and there won't be many chances to use the JA because of recast timer. Can you instead just make a default AoE range for all of the buff songs (etude, prelude, etc.), and then people can apply Pianissimo to that if they desire?

Community Team Reply:
Although it may take some time, we believe that we can organize the effects of songs so that all of the buffing songs apply to allies in range. More specifically, we will unify the way the songs operate such that they are self-centered and if you want to apply to a specific non-self target without a range effect you can use Pianissimo.

In response to this, in the test server update this week, we will modify the effects of Foe Sirvente, Adventurer's Dirge, Preludes, and Etudes from single target to players within range of the caster. Since the songs' effects will match the other songs, we will also extend the casting time to match (from 4 to 8 seconds) and the songs will generate additional enmity based on the number of targets. If the song is cast on a single target, it should be able to cast in a faster period of time, so we are adding an effect to Pianissimo to cut song cast time by half.

Note that we are not currently considering creating these effects such that they effect a range around a target other than the caster. The range of benefit can be made larger with instruments, or players can use Pianissimo if they do not want to risk moving into an enemy's range.

Hopefully this adjustment will make using these songs easier.

[Spira]

Posted in Bard Job adjustments..

The following bard songs have been changed from affecting a single target party member to affecting all party members in an area of effect centered on the caster, and their casting time has been changed from four to eight seconds.

Enchanting Etude / Spirited Etude / Learned Etude / Quick Etude /
Vivacious Etude / Dextrous Etude / Sinewy Etude / Bewitching Etude /
Logical Etude / Sage Etude / Swift Etude / Vital Etude /
Uncanny Etude / Herculean Etude / Hunter’s Prelude / Archer’s Prelude /
Foe Sirvente / Adventurer’s Dirge

[Slycer]

From the JP side:

Info Regarding the Higher Tier Salvage Expansion on the Test Server

Hello,
Today's test server update added the higher tier expansion of Arrapago Remannts and improved the operation of the Runic Lamps. Since the balance is still being adjusted, we would appreciate any feedback you may have.


There was also a relatively inconsequential additional post regarding tagging certain items as not being able to be tossed.

[Kincard]

At the following time, a version update was performed on FINAL FANTASY XI.

[Date & Time]
Oct. 12, 2012 at 4:45 (PDT)

[Affected Service]
- FINAL FANTASY XI

[Update Details]
The following changes have been made to Meeble Burrows:

- Additional measures have been implemented for the issue wherein a player may be ejected from the underground cave immediately after the start of a research expedition.
* We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that similar issues do not occur.

- As a relief measure for the issue above, players will be reimbursed with the key item “Moblin pheromone sack” when they are ejected from the underground cave.
Additionally, in the event a party member is ejected immediately upon entry, the rest of the party members will be reimbursed with the key item “Moblin pheromone sack” as long as they leave the area within 3 minutes of the first player being ejected.

Excludes the following situations:
- Player fulfills at least one of the conditions and then uses the temporary item “Hiatus Whistle” or the temporary item “Terminus Whistle.”
- Player fulfills the appropriate conditions during a level 5 expedition (boss fight).
* If the player that was ejected is the party leader, the rest of the party members will immediately be ejected as well.

- If a party member is ejected during a level 5 expedition (boss fight), the corresponding boon given by their grimoire will now be removed.

Aw, I was hoping to beat the really easy ones within 3 minutes and warping out infinitely!

[Slycer]

My Precious Crystal Petrifacts
I have no idea why they even responded to this, but someone basically asked whether or not the drop rate on crystal petrifacts was changed after the update, and they said no. They know there's no point other than to replace corundum and they've received a lot of requests to lower the drop rate of the crystal petrifacts, but they haven't done anything yet. They have no plan to make changes at this time, but they also threw an invitation to suggestions, leaving the door open to other applications for them in the future.

Update (another JP translation):

After reviewing the many varied proposals related to this, we have decided to introduce a mechanism so that Crystal Petrifacts can be exchanged for cruor.

Crystal Petrifacts were originally intended to replace Kupofried's Corundum in case your stock runs out. However, even if you don't need Kupofried's Corundum, since cruor is used in a wide range of Voidwatch-related activities (ascent items, periapts, etc.), this idea is appropriate. (Since this is only a secondary application, this is not intended to be the main way to earn cruor, so it should just be thought of as a bonus.)

Additionally, we got a lot of requests asking to allow Crystal Petrifacts to be exchanged for Voidstones. However, if we did this, it would create a circle where one of the rewards for participating in Voidwatch would be the ability to participate in more Voidwatch. Since we have already created items with that in mind originally, we have not chosen to go in that direction.

[Slycer]

Everything below is my translation of official forum dev/community posts from the JP side. Will update with the equivalent official English posts they are added.

Bunch of interesting Meeble Burrows info here. Confirmation that more is coming, in case anyone wasn't expecting it or wasn't sure.

Operation of the Mouse Cursor in the Windows Version of FFXI
Hello!
We understood your requests. Since the mouse cursor is operating in an unintended way, we are considering adjustments. We cannot completely disable the mouse cursor because it would cause problems for Windows and other applications. We have been looking into whether there is a better way, but at this stage it is not clear how we are going to proceed. The UI overhaul is still in development, but we do not yet have implementation timing, so please continue to be patient.

Plans for Meeble Burrows Adjustments
Thanks for your feedback!

While eliminating the current bugs is the top priority right now, we would like to highlight some of our future considerations for Meeble Burrows.

*Changing the number of Moblin pheremone sacks at the start of the content to five.
We are considering how we would like to implement this, as we would like to update in such a way so that it benefits not only those who haven't yet started, but also those who have already started.

*Raise the limit on Moblin pheromone sack stock.
Although we will not completely eliminate a restriction, in the future, when new expeditions are added and the play area increases, there are already plans to increase the upper limit on the number of stocked pheromones.

*Speed issue
We may implement some conditions in the future that reduce the necessary time between participation, such as consumption of research marks.

Since this content has been in the game for the better part of a month, we are carefully looking at the trends of how people play and considering adjustments to make it easier to participate in the future. Please let us know if you have any additional feedback.

Plans for Meeble Burrows Adjustments, Part 2
Thanks for your feedback.

The Meeble Burrows design concept is to have short, exciting bursts of content. Since the direction of the content at present is essentially a rush to get to the bosses, we increased certain effects with emphasis on clearing the ranks (for example, the grimoire effects are cumulative for the bosses so you can have the benefits of each player's recorded buffs, etc.).

That being said, because you can currently only stock up to five Moblin pheromone sacks, but it would certainly be useful to do 1-2 expeditions in other ranks if you are trying to challenge expeditions 1-5 in one rank in a row, we will continue to study the responses in this thread.

Nearly a month has passed since the introduction of the content, so while we continue to monitor developments, we invite you to investigate ways to make the content easier and better to participate in, and we thank you for your opinions.