ToA Release Date

[Brendam]

SE actually has a method to their mob naming?

I just assumed that they ran out of ideas a long time ago and started smashing their face into the keyboard when they needed new names. Seriously, what the hell is a Gwyn Ap Knudd??

HAHAH yea, look up almost any enemy from past games and this current one and it usually has a sweet story behind it.

*looks up ghrah, zdei, yovra, hpemde...*[/quote]

The COOLEST, most interactive thing a game can do is to randomly have beastmen raid a city and force the players inside to either team up and kill them, or to be killed by them. Maybe everyone that participated in killing the beastmen during a raid gets a reward at the end, w/e. If its done to be endgame style/dynamis almost difficulty, it could be a lot of fun and random excitement. Thats what I want to see anyway.

Ultima Online used to do that a lot back in the day, and it was always a little something fun to do.

hahah funny cause people have been asking for that since the start of the game....... about dam time

[Soje]

I think the new mobs look cool, I'm excited.

The fish thingy is shown on a ship so I assume we'll be getting a new ship? Again I'd say it's the one from Norg but it was said in the interview that Zilart wasn't required to play it.

Its probably from Selbina or Mahura(sp)

Maybe the staircase in the Tenshodo Shop in Lower Jueno will be the entrance to the port. It would kind of fit and allow access w/o any of the expansions.

[Brendam]

I think the new mobs look cool, I'm excited.

The fish thingy is shown on a ship so I assume we'll be getting a new ship? Again I'd say it's the one from Norg but it was said in the interview that Zilart wasn't required to play it.

Its probably from Selbina or Mahura(sp)

Maybe the staircase in the Tenshodo Shop in Lower Jueno will be the entrance to the port. It would kind of fit and allow access w/o any of the expansions.

Nice catch.

[Septimus]

SE actually has a method to their mob naming?

I just assumed that they ran out of ideas a long time ago and started smashing their face into the keyboard when they needed new names. Seriously, what the hell is a Gwyn Ap Knudd??

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/gwynn_ap_nudd.html

Apparemtly a Welsh god of the underworld.

Square must have pantheon.org on their favorite list.

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/citipati.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/x/xolotl.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/k/keremet.html

I love pantheon.org as well.

[Khamsin]

I think the new mobs look cool, I'm excited.

The fish thingy is shown on a ship so I assume we'll be getting a new ship? Again I'd say it's the one from Norg but it was said in the interview that Zilart wasn't required to play it.

Its probably from Selbina or Mahura(sp)

Maybe the staircase in the Tenshodo Shop in Lower Jueno will be the entrance to the port. It would kind of fit and allow access w/o any of the expansions.

They seemed to hint that other expansion areas may be involved, but that they would not be required to access the new areas. Maybe Norg and Jeuno both will offer travel to Aht Urghan.

[Taku]

Ultima Online used to do that a lot back in the day, and it was always a little something fun to do.

This was also quite frustrating in towns that weren't very player popular because you'd just be strolling around and get capped in the head by an orcish archer or something. Then you couldn't even get to your body to get your stuff back without some help from friends. It was also frustrating, because it wasn't like "monsters are invading the town and you must kill them to protect it" it was more like "monsters now spawn inside the town and no matter how many you kill they're just going to respawn..."

[Thranduil]

JP release date is the same?

Supposedly the 20th

That was probably an approximated date, I imagine it will be same day if not JP first. It doesn't matter anyways, I'm sure the expansion will be impossible to find for the first couple of weeks anyways like COP was.

The Japanese Playonline site lists it as the 20th.

European site lists the 20th is well.

Go go America this time? Prolly so much bitching last time that they are giving it to us first (and I think only a day earlier, what with time zones and such.)

[Xavier]

I know this means that the expansion is by default going to suck but I'm pretty excited and hopeful about it from the ss/limited info I know.

This is looking a lot more like a "Zilart" expansion than a filler expansion.

[Sykes]

In regards to the release date, Square-Enix probably learned from the mistakes that they made releasing CoP. Not only was the official ship date later in the US, but because of the distrobution methods that are used in the US, most stores didn't have copies until a day after release date at the earliest (though most of us had to wait another week or so for our copies becuase of problems that were blamed on hurricanes ). It is my understanding that games are generally on the shelves at midnight on the release day of a game in Japan.

This year, the release date probably takes in to account the time it takes to get the copies on store shelves, which is why it is being released in the US a day earlier.

4/18 - US Ship Date
4/19 - On US Shelves
4/19 11:00 AM EST (4/20 Midnight JST) - On Shelves in Japan
4/30 - The first day anyone will actually be able to log on after the expansion is released due to update woes and "anonymous third party DDoS attacks" that for some odd reason only seem to occur whenever Square-Enix releases an update.

So, except for a few lucky people who actually get their games on the US ship date, most likely everyone will get the expansion within a few hours of each other.

[FFXIFlux]

They should join the 21st century and just let us download the expansion. Why make $5 and let game store make $5 and manufacturers make $5 and shippers make $5 and whoever else make $5 when I'd much rather just download it and give them the whole $40 or whatever.

[Raineer]

4/30 - The first day anyone will actually be able to log on after the expansion is released due to update woes and "anonymous third party DDoS attacks" that for some odd reason only seem to occur whenever Square-Enix releases an update..

That's just guys like Rustymetal being 'cool'

[Vedder]

I think the new mobs look cool, I'm excited.

The fish thingy is shown on a ship so I assume we'll be getting a new ship? Again I'd say it's the one from Norg but it was said in the interview that Zilart wasn't required to play it.

Its probably from Selbina or Mahura(sp)

Maybe the staircase in the Tenshodo Shop in Lower Jueno will be the entrance to the port. It would kind of fit and allow access w/o any of the expansions.

They seemed to hint that other expansion areas may be involved, but that they would not be required to access the new areas. Maybe Norg and Jeuno both will offer travel to Aht Urghan.

Winner!

[Septimus]

They should join the 21st century and just let us download the expansion. Why make $5 and let game store make $5 and manufacturers make $5 and shippers make $5 and whoever else make $5 when I'd much rather just download it and give them the whole $40 or whatever.

Because we will all commit suicide when 500,000 people all log onto the download server at once and it exploads. (Like what happens for most of the updates.)

[Khamsin]

A bewitching race of beastmen with an upper body like that of a Hume woman and a lower body resembling that of a venomous serpent.
The Lamiae are few in number compared to the other beastmen inhabitants of the Near East. However, they have ensorceled the bones of fallen soldiers, creating an undead army of considerable size to defend their reef settlements.
Lamiae are known to sneak into towns in the depths of night, wielding powerful bows and hunting humans to replenish their armies; hence the Near Easterners' dread of sunset.
According to rumor, Lamiae are not technically a race of beastmen, but actually a form of organic weapon (also known as a chimera), created by alchemists fusing the parts of multiple organisms.

#1 - New PvP!
#2 - Alchemists! (New job, zomg)

Or they could just mean Alchemists as in the profession(crafters).


That is what always makes me skeptical of Alchemist as a job, because it's already a crafting profession anyone can already partake in. "Hay guyz I make potionz, invite plz" "I've been making potions for 3 years, they suck go level whm". I could be wrong though.



I agree with your #1 though, they said there was ahint about the next form of conquest... odds are that is it.

I know they mentioned new forms of Conquest, but I see nothing in that paragraph that looks like it has anything to do with PvP. It looks more like a portion of the city might be infested with beastmen, which suggests PvE.

Actually, nevermind. I think we all were confusing Conquest with Conflict. They're adding a new form of Conquest, which likely is the beastmen raid. But its not PvP, as that would be Conflict.

[Judah]

The COOLEST, most interactive thing a game can do is to randomly have beastmen raid a city and force the players inside to either team up and kill them, or to be killed by them. Maybe everyone that participated in killing the beastmen during a raid gets a reward at the end, w/e. If its done to be endgame style/dynamis almost difficulty, it could be a lot of fun and random excitement. Thats what I want to see anyway.

Ultima Online used to do that a lot back in the day, and it was always a little something fun to do.

you played UO? wtf fag.

Pacific pvp OWNS YOU SUCKA

[Soje]

Too bad that Rusty guy can't hack some shipping companies server in Japan and get their copies delayed.

[SomeoneFromIfrit]

The COOLEST, most interactive thing a game can do is to randomly have beastmen raid a city and force the players inside to either team up and kill them, or to be killed by them. Maybe everyone that participated in killing the beastmen during a raid gets a reward at the end, w/e. If its done to be endgame style/dynamis almost difficulty, it could be a lot of fun and random excitement. Thats what I want to see anyway.

Ultima Online used to do that a lot back in the day, and it was always a little something fun to do.

I know it is a great idea and all, but unless they are going to do some recoding, I have a feeling the first "city" zone where the beastmen can attack will actually be an outdoor zone (like Rolanberry or Batalia). You can't do a lot of functions inside a city (summon, call beast, etc) so that might be a little complicated. Sure they could just make it so you can do those things inside this new city, or recode it so this can happen in the old cities too and make them more alive again, but somehow I have a feeling the only "city" part of this new city might be the Imperial portion.

[Septimus]

The COOLEST, most interactive thing a game can do is to randomly have beastmen raid a city and force the players inside to either team up and kill them, or to be killed by them. Maybe everyone that participated in killing the beastmen during a raid gets a reward at the end, w/e. If its done to be endgame style/dynamis almost difficulty, it could be a lot of fun and random excitement. Thats what I want to see anyway.

Ultima Online used to do that a lot back in the day, and it was always a little something fun to do.

I know it is a great idea and all, but unless they are going to do some recoding, I have a feeling the first "city" zone where the beastmen can attack will actually be an outdoor zone (like Rolanberry or Batalia). You can't do a lot of functions inside a city (summon, call beast, etc) so that might be a little complicated. Sure they could just make it so you can do those things inside this new city, or recode it so this can happen in the old cities too and make them more alive again, but somehow I have a feeling the only "city" part of this new city might be the Imperial portion.

Gate Guard: The Quadovs are invading lower Jeuno!

Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable readies Lag Spike.
Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable uses Lag Spike.
357 people recieve the the effect of Lag.
289 people are disconnected.
Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable readies the Wrath of Gouda.
Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable uses the Wrath of Gouda.
Everyone else dies.

Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable: Gee. That was boring.

[FFXIFlux]

Gate Guard: The Quadovs are invading lower Jeuno!

Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable readies Lag Spike.
Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable uses Lag Spike.
357 people recieve the the effect of Lag.
289 people are disconnected.
Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable readies the Wrath of Gouda.
Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable uses the Wrath of Gouda.
Everyone else dies.

Gahh'Duch the Unimpeachable: Gee. That was boring.

Pretty much. SE is just not going to be bothered to fix their game and make it playable with more than 32 people in the same area. They'll release more mini-Dynamis and Limbus stuff instead of actually put any programming or architecture effort into it. So while 6+ year old games like Everquest can do things like have hundreds of people in an area, properly instanced dungeons, and message queues where you don't lose your chat while zoning, FFXI players can just forget anything like that. If Beastman raid a city you'll have to go to a BC to do it, and if it's actually popular you'll have to stand on the BC clicking madly for hours to get in because it's not instanced. Thank you PS2.

[Zumi]

If you seen how slow SEs download server is when trying to get a 30 mb patch. Now what if they had a 1 gb expansion. They have shown don't have the patch servers to support it which is why they go with the expansion discs.