New Version Update Announcement! (08/11/2010)

[Midnightjade]

No offense to SE, but I lost interest in the WotG mission storyline after it dragged to a slow-motion crawl. Magians trials and level cap increase also look kind of like afterthoughts, and Campaign has never really grabbed me - too repetitive.

FFXI has been truly great, but at this point it's upcoming XIV action that has my full attention (and that of all the members of my old LS).

See you in XIV next month. *rubs hands*

[Salmijr]

Have you PLAYED 14? I'll probably play 11 till 14 gets its first expansion, its still kinda rough. Unless something radically changes in a month.

[Draylo]

I seem to be the minority but I don't care as much about 14 as a lot of people do, job system really turns me off.

[Malacite]

Being that there is no Zilart presence in Abyssea (at least the Gate of the Gods looks like it was never created or powered), I would be interested in what Forest of Zitah, Qufim Island, Beaucidine Glacier, Lufaise Meadows and Misearux Coast would look like.

I think the lack of Crags in Abyssea is the most intriguing part of all.

I was wondering that myself because *WotG spoilers ahead*


Isn't Abyssea Lilith's realm, i.e. the REAL Vana'diel? In which case everything was largely the same up until the battle of Xarc. (And it also explains how we are so much more powerful there and we see all the same NPCs and locales)

So what happened to the crags? And more importantly, what fucked up the world so bad in the first place? The Shadowlord was powerful, but Abyssea reminds me more of what Kefka did to the world in FF6, and I just don't think Raogrimm has that kind of power.

Well, that was actually caused by the 3 waring gods but still... you get the point. Something major came out of nowhere and just completely fucked up Vana'diel. I think SCARS, just going by the name, will be Dynamis v2.0 with us visiting the ruined cities. That's gonna be freaky though, having Maws in town lol (they can't possibly do it any other way, since in Bastok's case there was a mudslide and the path back to town forever lost)

[carmancilla]

This next update better introduce more inventory space...

[Myrrh_Quetz]

Abyssea and Liliths universe are two different dimensions.

[Salmijr]

Yea, Lilith's Realm is an alternate reality, whereas Abyssea is a Parallel universe (maybe even alternate, but we dont know where it split from "our" universe/reality" .

In Lilith's universe, things diverged at the battle of xarcabard.

In Abyssea, Things seemed to happen completely different. Although the 5 races were created from the Meltdown , there aren't any traces of the Zilart (no crags). The Meltdown had to happen, since the 5 races are there, but from that points, who knows. Maybe Bahamut succedeed in destroying all the Zilart. Maybe the Mothercrystals were consumed by the empty. No one knows, we dont have enough back story yet. Hordes of mobs just appeared, and some powerful magic was used to teleport people to safety, but went awry.

Abyssea has the potential for some really rich story, lets just hope it doesnt take 3 years to pan out.

[Priran]

Abyssea has the potential for some really rich story

what part of the amazing storyline missions for vision gave you that idea? even including the other quests, vision is like 5% interesting backstory and 95% "hey did you know you're in another dimension"

the fact that SE has chosen to call these the "battle area add-ons" makes me think they're going to continue being about nothing but sweet loot and convoluted systems of NMs for players to stumble through. which is fine, but it's not why I'm still playing FFXI.

[jimbobsonofgod]

This next update better introduce more inventory space...

I will take that x10

Or

I will settle for the storage of ZNM/Nyzul/Salvage/Homam/Nashiras/Shadow Sets/Allied Notes sets/

[Dooom]

No offense to SE, but I lost interest in the WotG mission storyline after it dragged to a slow-motion crawl.

I pretty much stopped with the missions because of this. I'd go the new ones within a week of release, then wait four months and forget what happened. At this stage I'm pretty much happy to wait for them all to be released and then probably just YouTube the cutscenes in 2012.

[Kongolo]

85 alrdy? o.O

[Dantrag]

85 alrdy? o.O

I'm guessing 90. 14 levels for the last patch would suuuuck.

[Gergall]

I'm guessing 90. 14 levels for the last patch would suuuuck.

Not to beat this dead horse even more, but maybe you won't be able to reach 99 until around June 2011.

[calinz]

Yeah, after seeing how SE is splitting the final missions, I'm inclined to believe that the "Level Cap Increase III" in that chart they showed won't be the last. And if they go by 5 levels per update, level 99 should be exactly June 2011.

[Alkar]

Yeah, after seeing how SE is splitting the final missions, I'm inclined to believe that the "Level Cap Increase III" in that chart they showed won't be the last. And if they go by 5 levels per update, level 99 should be exactly June 2011.

Or they're splitting the missions so that the final reward is level 99 instead of being level 90.

[calinz]

Or they're splitting the missions so that the final reward is level 99 instead of being level 90.

They could just make it scale like the CoP rings. Say something 75~99. That way we can equip it right away, but its full effects will only be seen when they release 99.

[Spira]

the next set of Abyssea zones is a big question... considering the zones are brand new (they're not already existing at least), it could be a pick from a whole lot of places... I'd hope they don't rehash zones that already have Dynamis or Shadowreign equivalents (especially not Beaucedine/Xarcabard for that reason) but move on to other zones that are fairly expansive and could use some tweaking..

a part of me thinks something like Grauberg/Vunkerl/Karugo makes the most sense in terms of size... sure they don't exist in normal day Vanadiel.. but there could be ways to introduce reaching them..

anyway we can probably tell from screenhots/trailers to come in the next 2-3 weeks.

[Byrthnoth]

I would bet on the unused starter areas for the next Abyssea. South Gusta, West Ron, East Saru. Old, big zones with no copies already made of them.

[orson]

I was wondering that myself because *WotG spoilers ahead*

Spoiler: show

Isn't Abyssea Lilith's realm, i.e. the REAL Vana'diel? In which case everything was largely the same up until the battle of Xarc. (And it also explains how we are so much more powerful there and we see all the same NPCs and locales)

So what happened to the crags? And more importantly, what fucked up the world so bad in the first place? The Shadowlord was powerful, but Abyssea reminds me more of what Kefka did to the world in FF6, and I just don't think Raogrimm has that kind of power.

Well, that was actually caused by the 3 waring gods but still... you get the point. Something major came out of nowhere and just completely fucked up Vana'diel. I think SCARS, just going by the name, will be Dynamis v2.0 with us visiting the ruined cities. That's gonna be freaky though, having Maws in town lol (they can't possibly do it any other way, since in Bastok's case there was a mudslide and the path back to town forever lost)

Dude spoiler that shit c'mon!
[ spoiler]what you wrote[ /spoiler] (just remove the spaces)

Also for the people that are wondering about the level cap increases SE intends to complete the level 99 cap by the end of the year. So we don't know what the next increase with be but it's safe to say it'll probably be more than the first one. I can't remember exactly where I read it but it was definitely stated in some of the material released during fanfest. I'll try to find it but I have limited internet access, atm.

[Snprphnx]

I'm ready for it, all the jobs i want are at 80 with full merits. Plus i think it will be fun to xp and not have to leave the area right when you start hitting 600 a kill because you're capped on xp/merits.

this is why i always stay in limit point mode till i get 10 merits + 9999 points, then switch to xping a job 75-80. normally i can party 4-5 hours, so i will normally get capped limit points, and a 1.5 lvls. helps to keep me in zone longer to get merits and xp faster in long run.