Fan Festival Developer's Presentation!

[BRP]

Hurray for MPKing everyone in Dragon's Aery who was there when it popped and tried to use a spell to claim ;o.

[NynJa]

A major thing to "nerf" blm's can be, mobs aggro you if you start casting on them. Would stop manaburns that start nuking mobs b4 they are aggroed/pulled. But this way, none of our skills and spells are nerfed, just the exploitation of a lot of BLM being used at once in certain situations.

not really lol

/ma "Sleep II" <t>

[Koyangi]

A major thing to "nerf" blm's can be, mobs aggro you if you start casting on them. Would stop manaburns that start nuking mobs b4 they are aggroed/pulled. But this way, none of our skills and spells are nerfed, just the exploitation of it in certain situations.

Doesnt really matter. So 1 BLM will get hate, while the rest of the nukes go off. Or, omg, a tank voke first.

Things like DM for example would require a pld, a BLM would die way too fast for thundaga3 to finish casting. Many other things too, it could limit many things.

[SephYuyX]

A major thing to "nerf" blm's can be, mobs aggro you if you start casting on them. Would stop manaburns that start nuking mobs b4 they are aggroed/pulled. But this way, none of our skills and spells are nerfed, just the exploitation of it in certain situations.

Doesnt really matter. So 1 BLM will get hate, while the rest of the nukes go off. Or, omg, a tank voke first.

Things like DM for example would require a pld, a BLM would die way too fast for thundaga3 to finish casting. Many other things too, it could limit many things.

In the DM example, if 1 BLM dies and the rest of the 17 live, it wont really matter.

[Lordwafik]

or omg even better, sleep/bind/grav it first ww.

[Sekkite]

I'm looking forward to this expansion, though the main thing I'm dreading is that I'll have no one to do the missions with.

[Dein]

Well I'm hoping that with the extra month or so between the expansion and the update they really work on the merits. Story is always fun to do, chocobo breeding might be interesting but I've enjoyed working on merits but I hope I don't get my expectations too high for what they might add or I'll wind up dissapointed more.

[Krandor]

A major thing to "nerf" blm's can be, mobs aggro you if you start casting on them. Would stop manaburns that start nuking mobs b4 they are aggroed/pulled. But this way, none of our skills and spells are nerfed, just the exploitation of a lot of BLM being used at once in certain situations.

I don't think this would not work at all, unless they change claim rules on HNMs.

[Koyangi]

A major thing to "nerf" blm's can be, mobs aggro you if you start casting on them. Would stop manaburns that start nuking mobs b4 they are aggroed/pulled. But this way, none of our skills and spells are nerfed, just the exploitation of a lot of BLM being used at once in certain situations.

I don't think this would not work at all, unless they change claim rules on HNMs.

I didnt say aggroing casting like an elemental would, I said if it aggroes a person who directly is casting something on it.

And aggroing an HNM this way =/= claiming rules need to be changed because the color of mob is still yellow, its whoever hits it with a /ja or spell first actually gets claim, so I see no negative effect.

Aggro =/= a claim.

[BRP]

Lets say over 30 mages are casting Dia/Stun/whatever to claim it. And in reality it would be weakest nerf SE has ever done.

[Correction]

I also laugh when people are dissapointed they're not getting the whole game at once.

I think most of the disappointment comes from people at endgame, who are expecting endgame shit to be in the expansion at release not one year after that. Whether or not that is a valid expectation is up in the air.

People at endgame don't necessarily like being told to level yet another job to 75, or to farm some middling NMs with bullshit spawn conditions and mediocre drops until they can actually use their 75 jobs to have some serious exp-risk fun.

Tiamat came before his droptable was complete, that's how little SE has historically cared about endgame.

[Gamutstreet]

This thread: WAAH WAAH. Play or don't play. We all have options.

[Lordwafik]

True, but I dont think it was his whole droptable being complete, he still dropped Gaitors/Kote, he just didnt drop Wyrm Horn.

Im hoping to see the ToaU dev team replace the CoP dev tem in entirety, so we dont get the same mistakes as last time.

If I remember correctly, not only did Zilart come in slower chunks than CoP, but the game wasnt even fully uncapped to 75 yet.

[Ichthyos]

yeah the game only uncapped to 75 in dec '04.

[Zigrah]

http://ffxi.stratics.com/content/fanfest/devpanel1.php

if you want a bit more detail. I would love to steal your pictures and add them if that's possible. I'll put your name in the bottom to say who took them but only if you say it's cool. Heading back to the event to get more, you guys can expect a summary of beseiged first impressions too just I am out of time.

[Khamsin]

I'm still waiting for the day they just change it so HNMs popped claimed and aggroed to some random person within its spawn area. No more botting. If it pops claimed to a mule that's there for ToD, he dies and *then* someone bots him. Or maybe just spawn claimed to a random alliance leader to cut down on zerg claim tactics and bystander deaths.

[SephYuyX]

I'm still waiting for the day they just change it so HNMs popped claimed and aggroed to some random person within its spawn area. No more botting. If it pops claimed to a mule that's there for ToD, he dies and *then* someone bots him. Or maybe just spawn claimed to a random alliance leader to cut down on zerg claim tactics and bystander deaths.

Im sure someone will figure out how to beat that sytem.

[Lockecole]

I'm still waiting for the day they just change it so HNMs popped claimed and aggroed to some random person within its spawn area. No more botting. If it pops claimed to a mule that's there for ToD, he dies and *then* someone bots him. Or maybe just spawn claimed to a random alliance leader to cut down on zerg claim tactics and bystander deaths.

Im sure someone will figure out how to beat that sytem.

Bring multiple dualboxxed mules. Basically whoever would spam camps with the most people would in turn have the highest rate of claim. No way this would ever be implemented.

[Tyche]

yeah, 2box 47 mules in a zone and create twice the lag.

[BRP]

At first glimpse the dev panel looked like it was going to kill time by telling everyone a ton of things they already knew. To the surprise of many, everyone received a plethora of information concerning the upcoming expansion and many of them brought cheers throughout the whole large tent that all this was going on in.

The first topics were new jobs, not much was said other than blue mage and corsair with more to come later. It is my suspicion that a third job is going to be revealed tonight right before the second panel, it's sort of the vibe I got by talking to people but I could be wrong.

Next to be mentioned was the areas, basically all that was said was that Treasures of Aht Urghan will include as many areas at the bare minimum that were included in Chains of Promathia, which set up the topic of missions. Not much could be stated about missions except for the small fact that there would be almost no level capped elements. "Maybe a couple small things" was said by M. C. Koji Fox, the senior translator for Square Enix. Also of note, Aht Urghan itself will not be immediately reachable through Mhaura, certain preconditions will have to be met.

Right after that came a highly detailed explanation of the inner workings of Besieged. Besieged will force you into combat with little to no warning, so sitting AFK in an Aht Urghan town might not be recommended for all. Basically, the name of the expansion Treasures of Aht Urghan has a literal meaning to say the least. There are treasures in Aht Urghan and the beastmen are attacking you to steal them. If they are stolen, they will need to be retrieved back by the players. It wasn't explicitly said how, the assumption is that Assault is the method for doing so but Assault is only meant for 3-6 players so truthfully I am uncertain. Basically, the idea in consideration would be Mercenary Points which could be traded for items, gil etc. as well as items that will need to be "appraised" before they can be used. You'll get a mercenary rank that will determine how many missions are offered and possibly what you can retrieve, in this aspect it sounds a lot like World of Warcraft's honor system slightly adjusted for PvE. The Attacks are completely random though, they aren't timed and they aren't triggered. As stated before, anyone idling in town might find themselves in a difficult position for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. There will be no XP penalty however for those caught in the crossfire or trying to defend the city. Also the part that many are previewing and enjoying is a mere taste of what's to come for this new conquests system, 10% of it actually so expect a ton.

Next up came probably the most exciting topic of the whole panel, Personalized Chocobos. These chocobo's will require little activity they aren't just for hardcore gamers, you will have to take care of them like gardening (daily? uncertain). If you feed them too much they can get fat, some will run faster and or slower than others and because of such there are plans for a chocobo racing circuit to test yourselves against other chocobos. On top of that, two chocobo owners can try breeding their chocobos, for stronger or better ones they did not say but I imagine there has to be some benefit. Later in the Q&A session someone asked if they could be summoned anywhere to ride and it was hinted that they plan to do so. Other people asked about colors and the response was left at "Yellow won't be the only color". Other info was also asked too, like whether or not mules could benefit from using them (no), if there were level restrictions on raising them (no but yes to ride, for example you won't have to change jobs every time you want to feed it).

Another big ticket item on the list was Mog Lockers. These will be for people who purchase the expansion only and will cost money or items, to be determined later. They plan to start at 30 and eventually move to 50. They did hint many times however through the whole panel that 50 would not be the most, many many times. The payment for the locker will not be a one time fee like a gobbiebag or mogsafe upgrade. Failure to pay will render the items in the locker unusable until payment resumes. An interesting twist to say the least.

Briefly mentioned was the Coliseum, an area 1-75 where enemies would fight enemies. Nothing more was really said than that, for some reason it made me think of Pokemon where people will take monsters and pin them against another but who knows.

They also gave a timeline that listed when they planned to release updates. The biggest to note was impending job balancing, everyone boo' d at the mention of this which sort of surprised me. I thought this was a hot topic for most people, something much needed. I also interpreted it however that it's balancing of the new jobs not all jobs unfortunately, in order to integrate them into whatever odd idea of balance the game currently has.

Afterwards came the questions which I am sure will be properly documented by SE later word for word, I will try to put as many as I can remember but the info might not be perfect.

Zigrah's site. Sorry, but your site window size sucks, can't read it like that.