New Zones

I lost interest in WotG because of the incredibly long time between updates for it. I liked it as a story line but for some reason just got rather disconnected and had little will to continue since I'd forgotten most of what had happened in the last parts.

I don't mind them releasing bit by bit but it'd be nice if it didn't have yearly installments rather than monthly or quarterly.

I'm quite excited about the new areas and am hopeful that there could be something big on the horizon.

I have no problem with storylines, in fact, i really enjoy them, just shouldn't take 3 years to do one.

Really? Really?! new zones and all most of you do is *** and mope about it?


I for one am excited for this, better late then never! SO I guess the quests (or missions) to start the quests wont be clogged cause most will be pouting about it cause "ITS NOT ABYSSEA Q_Q" geez didn't most *** about abyssea when that was out? I can't wait till they mine up the new bgm's for the places, possible new battle bgm's too since each expansion had different party, solo & dungeon battle music.

A hidden track, not even placed on any current sountrack sets

comment on how it was found


Edit: *facepalm* Well I'm sorry I'm one of the few who actually enjoys story over shiny new e-peen gear that takes 1/9999 to get, so while the lot of you are spamming VW I and the few who like stories will be busy doing the quests/missions whenever they are released ^^

nice story.

I don't think anyone is really bitching about new zones or anything like that. A few are just saying, new zones alone don't matter, its what they do with these zones. Story, end game, content, etc.

If its just new zones and the content and events tied to them are crap, it's not really going to do anything.

The hidden track in FFXI Yughott Grotto is actually really awesome, too bad it was never released.

Without some overlying motivation and direction, I just can't play any game really. When it became apparent that FFXI was just adding content by simply adding new gear, the big question came up. "Why?".

Basically, it was just about gear for gears sake, instead of gear to facilitate narrative drive easier. How many people optimized level 50 and 60 builds for Pre-derp COP? Or if you're a really old player, Kam'Lunaut fight was actually hard with AF and Haubergeon being the A+ gear. I kept building my ***because I was delusional in believing it'd make any difference in the game besides /check in Jeuno.

Now, every update on FFXI might as well be the devs capslock yelling "PLEEZ DUN LEVE US SEE WE LISTEN AND U KAN TOGGLE HATS NOW!!!"

TL;DR - FFXI used to follow a great flow of Narrative drive, with an intermission between expansions that allowed for gearfarming in anticipation for the next big expansion. Now the game is stuck in "Gear for Gear's sake" Limbo.

TL:DR the TL;DR - Wah, i liked old ffxi moar gooder.

Does that unreleased track sound kind of like the Mhaura theme to anyone else?

That song only exists on the PS2 sound data.
ps2/music/data/music100.bgm (midi data)
ps2/wave/wave100.wd (wavetable samples)

Notice how there's no music100.bgw file on the PC version lol

I suspect it was used for the feature the original release had where you could see the "high poly" (complex 3D model) version of your char with your current equipped gear while into the mog house.

I heard it was removed sometime around late 2002. I never saw it but some

They call the high polygon count renderer as "dancer engine" lol
If anyone ever wondered what that dancer.enc file is, it's used to render the character creation models on the PS2 version.



Source: official game staff roll at POL viewer screen
(Don't bother looking for it on the English version as it's NOT there ...)

Is there any footage of the MH thing in action? =o

ditto

Edit:
Interesting...

SE has recently started sales for a FFXI 10th anniversary book: http://store.jp.square-enix.com/detail/9784757536180

But the interesting part comes from the front cover:


It looks like brand new continents, perhaps placed in the South? I'm not too sure. On one of the smaller continents near the middle, you can see a giant structure, which kind of resembles the giant mushroom as seen in the picture from one of the new zones hidden in the test server dats:

Seems legit.

Well thanks for clearing that up.

I was saying, some pictures of it do exist on the internet. Probably some of you remember seeing a high polys version of the Mithra 7B naked with what looks latheine behind her. I could not find the image on google images but I am sure it can be found on the net.

I am afraid that FFXI is older than Youtube, Daleterrence ... >_<

As a LOL, I also have NOBUNAGA ONLINE installed on that PS2 and now I have to choose one of them to be able to keep playing in it:



lol

There are still a couple videos floating around from as far back as the Beta, because Youtube wasn't around, doesn't mean recording software was not. =3

that's awesome, most likely a book i'll import. Sadly the cover also shows a lot of known monsters, i wish we could get new monsters and not reskins.

I think the cover looks like the Windurst area, with the big structure being the Great Star Tree. Saruta surrounding it, to the NE is Tahrongi because what appears to be the crag of mea is kind of hiding beneath/behind the title. Further north is meriphitaud mountains because, well, the spine. I would guess that to the SE is Kazham, but without a larger and higher quality pic, its hard to tell for sure.

The book is entitled "FINAL FANTASY XI 10th ANNIVERSARY OFFICIAL MEMORIAL BOOK -A Decade of Vana’diel-" and Im leaning towards the cover having nothing to do with these new zones. 10 years of FFXI memories, no indication of counting the future of the game.

I hope its a new expansion, I really do. Mithra homeland, give us male mithra playable race, somehow figure out a couple of new jobs just for kicks.

That's obviously the Great Star Tree or whatever it's called in Windurst. You can even see Ifrit's Cauldron in the southern continent, and then the spine thing in Meriphataud.

edit: image for those who can't see:


If you look closely, the artist painted clouds the same color as the sea, so it's easy to think they are more island-continents than whole ones.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Vanadiel_Complete_World_Map.jpg I remember finding this long time ago not sure if this was fan made though.

Yes, it is fan made.

Ah, you're right, I guess I got a little over-excited & jumped the gun on new continents. Thanks for clearing that up!

even when/if they add the zones even if the initial release sucks it will give them a clay to mold with to eventualy release new missions and quests that can span a larger world <kinda like in ToAU where ya had to baiscly go back and forth between the base areas and the near east>. imagine having to farm an item for potion to remove a seal but the said mob dosnt exist in the new areas, so youd have to go to lets say Bhaflau Thickets to pop a NM for a KI to take to Shantato to get it refined who sends you back to the npc in the new area to access a BC fight for the next mission. <whould also explain why the removeal of level caps for CoP areas and the ability to clear previous expansions. knowing tanaka in order to maintain his "balance" clearing all 4 could end up being a req. to access the new zones. but eh who knows lol just thinking out load here :x

Chains of Promethia: Return of the walk around the world for no concise and/or sane reason only to need to go back halfway around the world kill a mob then do three thousand cutscenes then go back.

For those who asked, you can see the old MH 'job change area' at ~1:09 in this video:

Thank you! I have wondered for YEARS what that zone was for, and the song, as I'd never heard it used ig.

Shame they didn't keep that, it would've been cool. ; ;

Edit: The song is still in the game if anyone wants to listen to it. It's 169 if you have Vana'Tunes.

Need to put a mandy camp right outside of city zone.

That Mog House screen is kinda scary tbh.

Don't get Squaresoft and SquareEnix confused. They are /not/ the same.

This is from Squaresoft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMDZezWkYr8

This is from SquareEnix:
http://www.ponyfriends.com/

I'm probably going to have to get this tattoo'd on my back or something.

Thanks for posting that, it's pretty cool to see how the game was way back when. It has changed so much over the years.