Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival 2007 is a special event held at the Anaheim Hilton (Disneyland) in Anaheim, California (USA), during November 15-17 2007. Players from around the world gather as various announcements, live quests, cos-play contest, prizes, Q&A sessions, as well as additions, changes, and surprises to FFXI that will occur after Wings of the Goddess.
Blog[]
Setting Up[]
It is just after 5pm local time, and we're here at Fan Festival setting up our booth. Gahoo and I have already had a behind the scenes tour with the people from Allakhazam, and we will post pictures on this page later tonight.
Upcoming things for you to keep an eye out for:
- Interview with SE Development Team, Friday, November 16, 3:00pm
- Podcast with Limit Break Radio, time to be announced
- Wings of the Goddess preview tour
- Updates on Dancer and Scholar
If you are at the Festival, stop by our booth for a FFXI quiz that could win you many different Final Fantasy prizes, or FFXIclopedia T-shirts and mouse pads. If you are at the Festival and want to update this blog as well, do so here.
More to come.
Some Images!! Main Space during set-up
--FFXI-Mierin Talk / Contrib 01:58, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Friday: Day 1[]
- 7.00am
- I was finally able to read the official festival information from SE. It says on the bio for Mitsutoshi Gondai "The father of the two new jobs that will make their debut in Wings of the Goddess." So for those holding their breath for a third (despite translations to the contrary) - take a deep breath. We have been told there is much to be announced though, so stay tuned. The first presentation (by Kenici Iwao) is set for 10am PST. --GAHOO t/ c 15:01, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
- 9.30am
- Doors are open! The crowd is here and excited. We'll have some pictures soon. Opening ceremonies are starting shortly and we've been told they expect to adhere to the schedule. Stay tuned. We're here and waiting to deliver the news in "real time." --GAHOO t/ c 17:24, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
- 10.05am
- Kenichi Iwao speaking about the history of the Mindartia and Quon continents.
- History that the Windurst/Tarutaru take over of all of Vana'diel, to be followed now by the rise of San d'Oria and then finally Bastok.
- During the same time the beastmen rose up as well battling for territory.
- Jeuno was finally formed by the three nations.
- The Shadow Lord appears on the scene - gathering together the beastmen hordes - and managed to put together a series of battlefield victories against the separate and unaligned nations.
- Recognizing that they could not win separately, the nations united to fight the Shadow Lord.
- This is where (when) WotG takes place.
- 10.30am
- Mitsutoshi Gondai takes the stage to talk about the two new jobs.
- Dancer is designed to be a healer who is also on the front lines, using TP to heal other players.
- Also enfeebles - with "Steps". Can be used multiple times for increased effect.
- Each time a step is used the dancer gets flourished which can be used for finishing moves.
- Play will look like: Attack -> Gain TP -> Steps -> Flourishes -> Finishing moves - all while healing party.
- Scholar - Both white and black magic plus new spells and abilities
- Job Abilities: Tabula Rasa (2hr), Light Arts, Dark Arts, Modus Veritas, and Stratagems.
- Will assist party and combine abilities (Light Arts and Dark Arts)
- The abilities will be used to take one of these two "stances" - switching is easy.
- Stratagems will be the advanced moves. Like summoner pacts (with a cooldown), these change depending on whether you are set Light Arts or Dark Arts (Two different lists). They can be charged however, so they can use multiple charges depending on how many are stored.
- Dark Arts Stratagems:
- Parsimony - Halves the MP cost of the next Black magic spell.
- Alacrity - Decreases cast time of next Black magic spell.
- Ebullience - Increases the potency of the next black magic spell.
- Manifestation - Triples MP cost of next enfeeble, doubles duration.
- Light Arts Stratagems:
- Dark Arts Stratagems:
- Start able to store 1 - as gain in levels get up to 3 charges
- 4 minutes per charge.
- Video showed graviga.
Mercenary Camp[]
- One of the demo highlights was an interesting BCNM located in Stellar Fulcrum called Mercenary Camp. You and 5 other people went against the 5 generals (aka Counselors) in an all-out brawl. Completely resistant to any form of enfeebling magic. Brute force and powerful spells are needed to inflict any damage to the 5 counselors. Post your experiences in the Fan Blog. --GAHOO t/ c 20:01, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Wings of the Goddess Tour Pit[]
Gallery[]
FFXIclopedia Development Team Interview[]
We might write this up more formally later, but here's what we we got:
- Dancer has a provoke ability, were you imagining this as a possible main tank? Or as a replacement subjob for /WAR?
- Gondai: the idea was not to make a main tank like a PLD or NIN, but to have the dancer support tanks with its abilities. The provoke ability is not obtained until level 20. It was more designed to be used in smaller parties (i.e. 3-4) where the one job can both heal and provoke. At higher levels, it may be used as a replacement for a WAR sub.
- The movement towards smaller parties. Is that intentional? What are the reasons for it?
- Gondai: One of the requests that we have been hearing is to alleviate the need to have 6 person parties. Thus, we will be continuing to implement aspects of the game that encourage and aid smaller parties.
- What was done to ensure that the Scholar job does not displace WHM and/or BLM? What balancing was taken into account?
- Gondai: The scholars cannot use the highest level spells of those jobs. They will have access to the mid-level spells of the WHM and BLM, but, when combined with the stratagems, the mid-level spells will increase in potency to approximate the high-level spells used by the WHM/BLM. However, these stratagems will have cool down that will only allow this ability once every 15 minutes or so. Past level 60 there are new exclusive high level DoT spells (the dev team calls them "Slip" spells).
- In testing the Wings of the Goddess expansion, we noticed Orcs advancing towards San d'Oria - what was that about?
- Ogawa: Probably one of the campaign battles called "allied campaigns." This battle can happen in 15 areas and will therefore be happening a lot. It was possible somewhere in the zone the oupost was controlled by San d'Orian knights, and you saw the beginnings of Orcs advancing towards that outpost. Each area will have beastmen strongholds, plus the beastmen can hold the nation areas.
- Matsui: we are still adjusting the frequency of the battles.
- Any hints about the WotG storyline that you can share?
- Iwao: the Carnivorous Maws (pyreflies) will play a very large role in the story. There are also a lot of links with the original storyline and shadow lord, and many previously hidden parts of the story will be revealed as part of the WotG story. There is one NPC who plays a huge role in WotG - and they will reveal that NPCs identity later today.
- Are there any plans on adjusting Pankration?
- Ogawa: A lot! More to be announced tonight. There will be a lot of adjustments.
- What's the deal with Almighty Apkallu?
- All: They don't remember. The mobs are not given names until later in the process and they do not recall which mob this is or why it has not been found. They are going to have to go back and research the issue and provide some information somehow.
- Is there any possibility of splitting the chat log, so that battle spam is on one side and chat logs are on the other?
- Tanaka: No. The PS2 cannot support the split, and they want to keep the playing field fair across platforms.
- Any possibility of allowing linkshells to be transferable so that whole linkshells do not need to be reformed if a leader quits the game?
- Tanaka: There are no plans for this. In part the linkshells are cheap so that they can be formed easily. They would be worried about misuse where the leader could transfer the linkshell without permission to someone else who would not run the linkshell in the same manner.
Presentation B - Job Adjustments![]
- Existing jobs will get new abilities and spells.
- Adjustments will be from the start and be ongoing after WotG comes out.
- They will be making further (implied downward) adjustments to the 2-handed changes.
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Thats it for job adjustments.
Dev Panel[]
What is the Wings of the Goddess?
- Takes place 20 years ago during the Crystal War.
- 2 main things connecting to past. Cavernous Maw and a female cat-type new NPC (Caitsith).
- A lot of attention has been paid to ensure consistency with all the lore provided over last 5 years.
- The Allied Campaign
- New large scale system.
- Besieged had limited number of participants. This time focus is on allowing more people to participate and to ensure that each individual feels that their contribution is meaningful.
- Content of this new system is massive. 4 main points.
- The Allied Campaign - overall term for battle between allies and beastmen:
- 1. Campaign Battles - Purpose is to drive beastmen out and control zones. Like besieged. Benefits of controlling areas are gaining XP and campaign points.
- 2. Campaign Ops - Missions offered by each nation. Availability depends on a number of factors. Like assault, but only player who signs up will spend credits. If you help you get benefits but don't spend credits. More Ops than assault missions. Some Ops can be completed solo, done in minutes, low level.
- 3. Headhunting - Several NPCs called freelancers. You headhunt them and get them to join your nation in battle. BST Maoi is one such freelancer. So it Maat. Some freelancers will fight alone and some will bring friends. Will "unlock" more backstory to these NPCs too.
- 4. Assessments - Give guidance to how their nation should approach battles and technological advancements. The opinions will tally once per week and will direct the path of the nations, thereby locking/unlocking certain OPs and battles.
- The Allied Campaign - overall term for battle between allies and beastmen:
- This is about 1/2 of the new system.
Changes and Additions planned for future updates.
- For Tuesday - effects everyone - with WotG or not.
- New macro pallets. New gobbiebags. Mog house visits.
- Pankration- you can get the time your battle will happen. New feral skills. New pets. New practice pit is possible in near future - a place for training and to allow people to check out their friend's pets.
- New reward for adventuring recruitment system is being considered.
- In-game seasonal events.
- Sundi had to convince the dev team to introduce these seasonal events.
- Rumors about a lottery. They are looking into gambling system and issues related to NM camping and killing NMs without getting the drops. So like in real world with a dream of winning the lottery - they will introduce a lottery. More than one winner - prizes could include battlefield orbs. Can't hold lottery too often since it would effect the economy. So it will be a rare but "huge event."
- More support for player-led events. They gave GMs ability to place NPCs and items anywhere in vanadiel for such events. So for a LS event, players can contact a GM and ask for a mob to be placed somewhere. GMs can help with weddings, chocobo races, special bazaar NPCs, hide and seek games / treasure hunts, new mob costumes. Also plan to introduce next year a web-based calendar for user-led events.
- Sundi had to convince the dev team to introduce these seasonal events.
- Items for starlight celebration - new furniture - snowmen (already in dats).
- For Tuesday - effects everyone - with WotG or not.
Q&A[]
- How does Treasure Hunter effect drops in battlefields, dynamis, chest contents.
- No effect on chests.
- Same effect in dynamis etc. as elsewhere.
- For TH to be active THF must perform an action on the target. Does not have to be killing strike.
- New summons?
- There are plans to introduce new avatars. Beyond that, top secret.
- Relationship between magic accuracy and magic skill?
- The skills have a direct effect on accuracy. Also bonuses for stats (INT, MND, CHR, etc.)
- Character walks slow. Help!
- Go to the past and join the army gives boots with movement speed +12.5%. Can also buy new boots with allied notes. Effect of boots cannot be combined with flee or mazurka, but can be combined with strider boots for +25%.
- Can we have a cheese sandwich recipe? (courtesy of Hempknight of Phoenix)
- Yes. They will put one in next patch.
That's all folks.
Day 1 is done. Tune in tomorrow for more information!
Assets[]
Saturday: Day 2[]
- 8.56am
- We're getting ready to go this morning. The booth is set up. Our quiz is being filled out. The doors are about ready to open. There will be an opening statement by SE soon. Stay tuned.
- 9.09am
- Doors are open. We're waiting for the opening address.
- 9.20am
- It begins.
- 9.22am
- 2000 people attending festival. WotG comes out in 4 days. Summary of yesterday: Windowed mode, new jobs, new missions, new areas, allied campaign. Tarutaru marathon. Quiz show. Movie contest. In store for today: Costume contest, Quiz Show II, Dev Panel II, Award Ceremony, Special Event (concert?).
- 9.30am
- That's it for the opening address. We'll see if there is anything else to report throughout the day. Might be slow until the Dev Panel II.
WotG Info[]
- Job Traits for level 60 Scholar with level 30 Red Mage sub
- Magic Attack Bonus
- Magic Defense Bonus
- Max MP
- Fast Cast
- Clear Mind
- Resist Silence
- Resist Petrify
- Job Traits for level 60 Dancer with level 30 NIN sub
- Accuracy Bonus
- Evasion Bonus
- Dual Wield
- Stealth
- Resist Bind
- Resist Slow
- Subtle Blow
- Dancer Job Abilities
- Trance (2hr) reduce TP required to 0.
- Sambas
- Drain Samba/II/III - Inflicts mob with drain daze so every player hitting mob gets an endrain effect.
- Aspir Samba/II - Inflicts mob with aspir daze so every player in party gets an enaspir effect.
- Haste Samba - Inflicts mob with a haste daze so every player in party gets a haste effect
- Waltzes
- I/II/III - Cure
- Healing Waltz - Removes one magically induced ailment on party member
- Divine Waltz - Curaga
- Jigs
- Spectral Jig - Invisibility/Sneak
- Chocobo Jig - Increase movement speed (Flee)
- Steps
- Quickstep - Lowers evasion
- Boxstep - Lowers defense
- Stutter Step - Lowers magic resistance
- Flourishes I
- Animated Flourish - Provoke
- Desperate Flourish - Weight
- Violent Flourish - Stun
- Flourishes II
- Reverse Flourish - Converts finishing move to TP - Requires 1 finishing move
- Building Flourish - Enhances next weapon skill - Requires 1 finishing move
- Wild Flourish - Readies target for skill chain - Requires 2 finishing moves
- Dancer Skill levels (with noted sub)
- Hand to Hand - 183
- Sword - 183
- Great Katana - 86
- Archery - 76
- Throwing - 190
- Parrying - 196
- Dagger - 196
- Katana - 93
- Club - 76
- Marksmanship - 86
- Evasion - 196
- New Zones (in old time)
- Bastok Markets
- Batallia Downs
- Crawlers' Nest
- East Ronfaure
- Garlaige Citadel
- Jugner Forest
- Meriphataud Mountains
- North Gustaberg
- Pashhow Marshlands
- Rolanberry Fields
- Sauromugue Champaign
- Southern San d'Oria
- Eldieme Necropolis
- New Zones (incomplete)
- Everbloom Hollow
- Fort Karugo-Narugo
- Ghoyu's Reverie
- Grauberg
- Ruhotz Silvermins (sp?)
- The Aragoneu Front
- The Derfland Front
Dev Panel II[]
- 4.58pm
- They're getting ready to start the next dev panel. I am camped out in the media area ready to transcribe. Keep hitting refresh. I will post when the lights go out. --GAHOO t/ c 01:01, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
- 5.02
- Lights are out! Here we go again.
- 5.04
- Overview (again). What is WotG? Allied Campaign, new mobs in Pankration, new items for adventurer recruitment programs, new in-game events and lottery, in-game GM event support.
- 5.06
- Special Task Force Report/overview of past year. Takes lots of work. Look at more than 1GB of chatlogs and hundred of GM and player reports to stay ahead of problems. They thought they would be able to get rid of problems and get back to dev work. But new problems kept arising. The event team would have to keep changing quests to discourage misuse of quests. Battle teams had to adjust fishing and other battles to confront RMT activities. They are also attacking banks supporting RMT sites. So far frozen more than 1.1B gil. This would be worth more than USD$3M. The RMT banks have shrunk and many have canceled orders due to lack of gil inventory. It is harder to earn gil and therefore the price of gil has doubled over past year, dealing a blow to RMT sites. One of the most important way to hurt RMT is to catch hunters. They have 4 main types. 1. NM monopolizers. This used to be best way to obtain gil. To counter they searched out players using illegal mobs to monopolize these NMs. They have eliminated more than 90% of these NM hunters to date. 2. Fishing hunters. This was wiped out in about a week when they "set their sites" on them. They keep making new accounts but they come back in fewer numbers. 3. Synthesis hunters. These hunters were the NM hunters who joined with fishing hunters to monopolize certain synths. They took large steps starting in august 2007. The prices on some of these items have stabilized and they feel the current prices on most of these items is appropriate. They hope the normal crafters will come back and prices will return to normal levels. If they don't they will take more action. 4. Hunters taking more extreme measures. They are forced to use different methods to shut them down. For example, they listened to the reports about exploiting an NPC in the Pit and they closed the loophole. They recognize they still have work to do. In past 6 months they have categorized remaining hunters into these 4 groups and by next summer they hope to have the in-game hunters eradicated.
- 5.18pm
- Version updated news.
- They will weaken the tarutaru NM who drops the swift belt.
- They will enhance, greatly, the Ebisu Fishing Rod's stats.
- They will add new legendary fishes - biggest ones yet. But do not take them to Selbina yet.
- New furniture for guild trading contract quests. New sign boards and flags which, with ability to visit other player's mog houses, will allow players to use mog houses almost as shops for selling goods. New furniture will be sign boards, which will improve crafting skill and decrease the rate items are lost while crafting.
- Chocobo Circuit adjustments. Reduce the participation fee for C3 and C4 and reduce 1 week wait to 1 day wait. Adjust rewards also. Players should be able to earn a fair amount of gil from racing chocos. Can also talk to NPCs and get more information on bird for betting. Shows choco's stats (str, end, etc). Also higher level C1 and C2 races. Will receive more gil and trophies.
- Still a ways off, but working on ways to implement private dungeons. Hoping it would be a place for players to design a private dungeon. Allow players to visit them and maybe even trade them. This may not be possible but they are going to work on it over next few months.
- Random Trivia.
- From Gondai. There are still a lot of items with hidden latent effects. For example, the Nanban Kariginu from Edacious Opo-opo - eat a panama for increase evasion and accuracy. The Avengers - as HP goes down get an accuracy bonus. Matron's Knife - allows any race to eat raw fish and raw meat.
- Much background on Goblins is unknown. For example, when they are born they are cut behind their ears and linkpearls are inserted, allowing goblins to communicate with their minds across Vana'diel. There are many types of channels out there, such as those about weather. They are high frequency so players cannot hear them.
- Once the North American GM office was evacuated and there were 2 hours where all NA calls were handled by bilingual GMs in Japan - who had no warning. They hope this doesn't happen again.
- There is a special "spring" located in the Vana'diel of the past. There are pixies in the new WotG. Originally they were going to have pixies in bottles be a drop from pixies, but they thought the idea of killing/capturing pixies from the pixie mobs was mean. So there will also be bottled pixies who are carried around by other mobs and can be "saved". Don't sell them or throw them away. Try setting them free near the special spring in the past for a reward.
- Special title is available in Lower Jeuno from the Brown Mage (Parike-Poranke). At 10,000 successful trades you get title of Brown Mage Guinea Pig. At 10,000 failures get hasted and title of Brown Mage By-Product.
- Absolute Virtue
- It was not designed to be invincible, is working correctly, and theoretically can be defeated. Because there have been so many failures they had planned to show a video of it being defeated. But the team had no time because of developing WotG. They chose to prioritize completing WotG on-time rather than creating the video. But because they promised, a few weeks after WotG release they will begin making the video. They will put up scenes with hints - new hints - that will effect AV in ways that will "blow your mind". (Another media guy says he was told they may release a new item to help as well). There will be no adjustments of AV and it will remain the hardest mob in the game but they are sure it can be beaten. They hope to have video ready before 1st update in 2008.
Q&A[]
- When fighting with signet, do crystal drops decrease item drops?
- There is a maximum of 10 items total that can be dropped. Items drop are determined first and then crystals. So turning off signet will not effect what items are dropped.
- Why do BST pets get to rest without TP loss but wyverns and automatons do not?
- This should not be the case. They will check and they promise that they will fix this if broken.
- Can you make it so when you highlight a scroll it shows the help text and not level and ability?
- Yes. We will do this.
- Any special spawning conditions on Almighty Apkallu?
- Over past 2 days gotten tons of questions. They don't know what it is and take it back and report fully on internet.
- Can you add a new dancing animation?
- It is 100% possible and they can (will?) work on it right away.
- Do the luck items have any effect on drops and do they have to be consumed?
- There is no hidden effects programed for these items. But there is no program for luck.
- What is the effect or purpose of the Nyzul Isle weapons?
- While still a few updates off, these items will be an ingredient to be used in new relic weapons with all new weapon skills.
- Why are there no tarutaru imperial generals?
- The warp taru was once asked to join the generals and warp them back to Al Zahbi when they were done with a mission. He would be 6th if he was successful. He was hungry and accidentally warped them to Jade Sepulcher in Mamook and thus failed his part of the mission. This is why there is no tarutaru general.
The dev teams says thanks. Seems to be all folks.
Assets[]
Cosplay[]
Video Contest Entries[]
Due to a minor technicality, the following video did not make the final cut in the video contest, but we agree this one would have at least won third place. Submitted by Ayasu of Phoenix:
See Also[]
Links[]
Official Site: www.ffxifestival.com