December Version Update Preview (11/17/2008)

[Bakthi]

Ooh I'm glad I've done the wildcat quest in Jeuno now :Q_

Yeah, I did all 4 before Whitegate was even accessible, because well...it's what I do. Just seemed odd that they left out Jeuno all this time.

I certainly won't be moving my HP there, though; it was never in Jeuno for very long in the first place. Way too many things in storage now.

I'm also happy about being able to use AN to recharge my exp band; just a self-Retrace and a short walk away, and I have over 500k stored up that really isn't going anywhere soon. I always knock out my 7 ops/week, and often use Campaign to re-cap exp, so I'll pretty much never run out. I do have around 140k CP, but I use a lot of instant RR scrolls.

If they want to make a half-dozen little changes like this in every update from now on, that sounds good to me. We already have something new and potentially awesome coming, and hopefully more missions as well. Not a bad update at all, so far.

[Gwynplaine]

And by "50", you mean "41", at least in my experience. The basic problem is that SE wants to move people out of AU, BUT the 10% XP bonus keeps us there, because it's fucking broken. Even a fairly shitty party in AU is better than a mediocre one anywhere else (which we're virtually guaranteed post-50 if the candy's up and it's NOT in AU these days).

A great party in AU is simply untouchable.

They can't take the 10% away from AU, because that'd piss everyone off, but from a development point of view it was a big mistake. The Sigil/Signet bonuses are nice, but I still think the EXP rings (intended, according to SE, to revitalize EXP in the West and aid lowbie/solo XP) should have only worked with those two, not Sanction. Do the math, for an average Meripo you're pulling 3-5 merits. 2 Emperor Band charges will get you ~4,100 extra XP; 10% over 4 merits, or almost 15% over 3. Likewise, 4.1k is 10% of most of your average levelling sessions (1 high level or a couple lower ones). It just doesn't feel so fast when the bonus isn't up on every kill.

I don't think SE necessarily wants players to move out of AU. If they do, they're not effective at it. Whitegate is, and I'm guessing, is going to be the center of the game for a long time. They stacked the incentives for players to go there so high there's no going back. All guilds, jeuno AH, fishing, merit camps, fast easy travel, besieged, sanction, Pankration, Salvage, Assault, and so on. It's very clear they engineered Whitegate to be the center of veteran level 50+ FFXI. Also evidenced by their stubborn refusal to introduce new half decent merit camps.

[Destinye]

Too little too late etc
They better add at least 8 combat merits this patch, seems they have been increasing it once per year anyway, although they should just stop pissing about and make it unlimited as with Magic and stats and others. If you put the effort in you deserve to be fucking rewarded.

Seriously?

[Korremar]

Perhaps the same could be said of all version updates.

Your words are as empty as your soul! FFXI ill needs a savior such as you!

[Spider-Dan]

To the people worrying about artifact vs normal treasure on coffer picks, they'll probably do:

1) Automatic coffer respawn on a successful opened coffer with Artifact/Map.
2) Automatic coffer respawn on a successful THF picked coffer with Artifact/Map.
3) 25~45 min respawn on an opened/picked coffer for treasure. (like normal)
4) Automatic coffer respawn on killed Mimic. (like normal)

This would do nothing to stop AF/RSE/quest hunters from being cockblocked by chest farmers. The easiest solution (without affecting the economy) would be to make chests give quest items 100%, but make AH/gil chest pops have a proportionally random chance of "You open the chest, but it is empty."

[Ansems]

this sucks.

[Epical]

All 3 changes are great and all...but shit...those are fixes that should have been done year ago. I always find it insulting when they make an announcement over minor stuff like this.

Pretty much how I feel... these changes are nice, but a few years late. I'll just put this teaser behind me and wait for the patch itself! =D

[Tricen]

Kinda cool I guess. They are just teasing us with little shit to get a small hype and then finally reveal that they plan on fixing cure locking for good.

[Starr]

Seriously?

Apparently not, in SE's world the only thing you are rewarded for is 24/7 play time.

[Xanthe]

Too little too late etc
They better add at least 8 combat merits this patch, seems they have been increasing it once per year anyway, although they should just stop pissing about and make it unlimited as with Magic and stats and others. If you put the effort in you deserve to be fucking rewarded.

Apparently not, in SE's world the only thing you are rewarded for is 24/7 play time.

=
QQ

[Hanyoko]

Quest Chest/Coffer: Fixed location or very small number of possible locations with a 30s respawn. Only contains quest items/etc that normally are in coffers.
Treasure Chest/Coffer: Behaves much like they do now, but does not contain quest items/maps/etc only actual treasure

Problems solved.

I would LOVE uncapped merit skills. Been at 10.9999 merits for a few days and probabaly going to be that way for another 3 weeks.

Teleport: situationally usefull
Remove tax: should be chocobo circuit but its a start
Band recharge: about time, but still rather convient change

Either way the recent news blurbs are definatlly looking like they are taking more steps for players conviences; which in my book is a welcome change.

[Gtype954]

you people are dumb enough to spend 100k on silver coins and help me make a living in this game and for that, thank you.

This update has nothing new that I care about. I sure as hell wo'nt be spending 700 IS for an empress band recharge because that is 8000 gil right there and that adds up. As apposed to allied notes which are way easier to get and nothing to really buy them with yet.

Jeuno to whitegate can be solved by warping with your blm17, which you should of have by now.. Warping from Whitegate to jeuno... its called the FREE warp taru, not the 1200 gil Bazaard silver coin. And from your home nation to Whitegate, its only 300 gill... and if you want to warp 100x its only about 9000 gil and not 120,000 gil in silver coins. Seems people dont use their head well to save gil.

With all the gear these days, I'm sure people use their storage, and you can only that in your home nation. Its like 50x cheaper to warp from your home nation and it gives you the option of Opening MH to friends and using your storage and mannequins.
So this jeuno >> whitegate change will do nothing for me except change the area where the rolan-mart is. You won't have to wait 11 minutes for a stupid airship either.
If I came to jeuno for a BCNM orb, I can just shout for a tele at jeuno, I wouldnt need to go back to whitegate to do that either.

[Kimiko]

Your words are as empty as your soul! FFXI ill needs a savior such as you!

What is a version update? A miserable pile of secrets!

[Charismatic]

Wait, since when is it not a miserable little pile of secrets?

[Starr]

=
QQ

Great and fair game right? lol.

[Katlan]

So this jeuno >> whitegate change will do nothing for me except change the area where the rolan-mart is. You won't have to wait 11 minutes for a stupid airship either.

I like the outside Mart's. If FFXI didn't limit how many players load on your screen at once, then having LJ packed again would be fun. but if all mules move to LJ, w/is already heavily crowded, then it's gonna lead to more missed bazaars. Of course the intelligent thing is to always list your important items in /search, but even that list gets truncated and not everyone who should do that does. Moving to Upper jueno or Ru'Lude Gardens (sp) would be better then LJ imo.

But I'll still miss going to check on mules in Batallia Downs and seeing the random snow.

[tymora]

I like the outside Mart's. If FFXI didn't limit how many players load on your screen at once, then having LJ packed again would be fun. but if all mules move to LJ, w/is already heavily crowded, then it's gonna lead to more missed bazaars. Of course the intelligent thing is to always list your important items in /search, but even that list gets truncated and not everyone who should do that does. Moving to Upper jueno or Ru'Lude Gardens (sp) would be better then LJ imo.

But I'll still miss going to check on mules in Batallia Downs and seeing the random snow.

It would be nice if we could have designated stalls to bazaar....like Weapons -> Stand here, Armor -> Stand there...mixed bazaar -> Here in the middle.

[Xanthe]

It would be nice if we could have designated stalls to bazaar....like Weapons -> Stand here, Armor -> Stand there...mixed bazaar -> Here in the middle.

Even better: "Search comments for text" option.

[Damane]

while this is all nice, I am still waiting for a big announcement.

[BRP]

Starr I think being praised about KI posts has gone to your head.

Concerning bazaars, they need to add a search feature within towns. Unfortunately I imagine that might be a bit too taxing on the servers effort. Perhaps I would settle for a better search comment system and the ability to search *gasp* search comments.