The History of Final Fantasy XI/2006

Navigation Pre-Release & Beta 2000 - 2001 Release & The First Year 2002   The Rise of the Zilart Era 2003 The Chains of Promathia Era 2004   Conclusion of Chains of Promathia 2005 The Treasures of Aht Urhgan Era 2006   Conclusion of Treasures of Aht Urhgan 2007 The Age of Mythical Weapons 2008   The Add-on Scenarios 2009 The End of the Level 75 Cap 2010   The Beginning of Post-Abyssea 2011 The Level 99 Era 2012   The Seekers of Adoulin Release 2013 Seekers of Adoulin Conclusion 2014 The Rhapsodies of Vana'diel 2015 coming in the future! Back to the Main Page

Header Key     News Entry     Version Update     Beta Information     FFXI In-Game Event     Merchandise Released     Real Life Event in Japan     Real Life Event in North America     Real Life Event in Europe

2006 - The Treasures of Aht Urhgan Era

2006 saw the release of the third full expansion, Treasures of Aht Urhgan. At the same time, the Xbox 360 version of the game was released worldwide. Final Fantasy XI became was the first cross-platform game which united Xbox and Playstation owners.

Almost all of the new content released was centered around Aht Urhgan, and many players move from Jeuno to Whitegate.

Misconduct by RMT reached its peak, and the Special Task Force was formed to combat them. In this year, rise of unauthorized account breach and account theft began. Claim bots began to become "The Thing" to use. Discussion concerning third party tools such as those was a recurring subject on community websites.

Jan. 1st, 2006	Fenrir Unleashed
	A Fenrir named Fortuitous Fenrir appeared as the New Year's event this time. Three Tarutaru Summoners followed him around.
Jan. 5th, 2006	Xbox 360 Beta Live
	Even though the beta officially started, the Xbox magazine wasn't out for another week or two in the US and the UK.	The Xbox beta shared the same server (Hydra) across all regions, so Japanese players had a head start on NA and EU players again. The beta also had access to all current FFXI Retail content and expansions.
Jan. 13th, 2006	Provisional Measures implemented against an Exploit
	It was discovered that players could use third party tools to circumvent the timer on the ability Steal and Hide. Players would then use this exploit to obtain Platinum Beastcoins from Goblins in Oldton Movalpolos and Newton Movalpolos in rapid succession. To counteract this, Square temporarily removed the ability to Steal from goblins in these zones.	On the 17th, another emergency maintenance was performed to re-implement stealing in the zones and counteracted the tool.
Jan. 26th, 2006	Corsair Job Announced
	Corsair was announced as the second job in the upcoming Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion. To the right is the Famitsu snippet. Players were excited for another possibly offensive support job similar to Red Mage, but were worried about the cost they would incur due to bullet ammunition prices. Square Enix saying that they would be a luck based job raised concerns even further. Would consumables be required similar to Ninjutsu in order to buff the party?
Feb. 3rd, 2006	Valentione's Day
	The event ran from February 3rd to February 15th. NPCs named Valentione's Single appeared as part of the event in the three nations. After speaking to a Moogle, players were given two chocolate pieces. The left halfs were Rare/EX: Amour Choco. L., Roman. Choco. L., Desire Choco. L., Attract. Choco. L. The right halfs were not EX, so they needed to be traded to players based on what the Moogles instructed them to obtain. All races/genders received the same left and right pieces: Amour Choco. R., Roman. Choco. R., Desire Choco. R., Attract. Choco. R. All right pieces had a male and female version. Galka and Mithra both shared the Attract. Choco. R.. After trading both halves to the event Moogle, players were given a completed Chocolate to trade to a specific Valentione's Single: Amour Chocolate, Romance Choco., Desire Chocolate, Attrac. Chocolate	Rewards included a Chocopass, the Charm Wand, and the Charm Wand +1.
Feb. 9th, 2006	RMT Countermeasures
	Starting with this news announcement, Square Enix began their endless fight against RMT activities. Below is the news announcement. Since the end of last year, item values have risen astronomically on all Worlds due to the manipulation of prices by a small percentage of the player base. The development team and the GMs carried out a detailed investigation of this problem, and discovered the existence of a group using illicit methods to produce large amounts of gil that are later sold in the real world (Real Money Trading). We would like to take this opportunity to outline the measures that have been taken to correct this issue. Based on the results of this investigation, more than 700 accounts among those found to be involved in large-scale RMT operations have been terminated. We will continue to monitor accounts suspected of dealing in gil created or obtained in an unfair manner. Thanks to these measures, more than 300 billion gil has been removed from circulation, and the overly inflated prices of items have begun to fall to more realistic levels. Furthermore, emergency maintenance has already been performed on all worlds for the purpose of implementing RMT countermeasures. This maintenance took place over two stages, starting on January 17th.	New topics started being posted monthly about the amount of accounts banned. Inflation Starting in January 2005, the market price of many items on the Auction House on each world became unexpectedly high for several months. For this reason, items that were necessary for adventuring in Vana'diel such as food, medicine, mission items, quest items, and popular equipment became more expensive than ever before. In January of 2006, inflation accellerated further than a year ago. Various rare items rose to several times as much as before. Even food, ammunition, and ninja tools for normal levelling became an amount which was never thought of in the past. Rare items like Scorpion Harness, Peacock Amulet and Kraken Club rose to an impossible price. Those who know about this time in the game called it "Hyper Inflation". Since the beginning of 2007, the price trend of high priced items and expendable supplies began to turn downwards. Players were finally able to purchase items reliably on the Auction House at reasonable prices.
Feb. 20th, 2006	VOICES music from Final Fantasy Concert
	This major concert was held at the Pacifico Yokohama, a National University Hall in Japan. Prima Vista Philharmonic Orchestra performed the arrangements, with Arnie Roth as conductor, with moderators Nobuo Uematsu and Rieko Katayama. Izumi Masuda performed Distant Worlds. 14 songs including three encores were performed. Nobuo Uematsu was greeting guests at the merchandise booth after the concert	The concert felt like more of a event than an actual concert to many of the guests. The start time was two hours before the concert started, because there were various exhibits and merchandise booths set up for guests to visit. Final Fantasy XII was promoted quite a lot "Potion" replicas were one of the items sold at the event. It was a very popular item. Images from ramtieger.sakura.ne.jp
Feb. 20th, 2006	Dynamis - Tavnazia & Apocalypse Nigh
	New Features & Content Brenner, a new form of Ballista, was added. With it, the area Abdhaljs Isle-Purgonorgo was added. A New route was added in Limbus using the Metal Chip. Dynamis - Tavnazia was implemented, with a limit of 18 participants. Relic Armor Body +1 and Legs +1 equipment was added. The mission line for Apocalypse Nigh was added. The quest Waking the Beast was added. Sending Gil through the Delivery Box had restrictions placed on it, and they are still in effect to this day: A maximum of 1 million gil could now be sent (until delivered to the recipient) at once. Only one of the 8 delivery slots can contain gil. Enchanted items now have colors associated with their in-game descriptions. This change was made so players have less of a chance to buy depleted items from others Bazaars. Blue = Item fully charged White - Item partially charged, but used at least once Red - Item fully depleted Fares for renting a Chocobo from the main cities and Crags now reduce faster. When partaking in a Supply Quest, the phrase (Done) is now displayed next to the regions already completed. The Sleep tollerance to members of the Wyrm family was increased. Guild Key Items and appropriate recipes were introduced to produce more of a material with one synth. Boltmaker Chainwork Sheeting Spinning Fletching Tanning Filing Trituration Concoction Bolt heads, Arrowheads, and Fletchings now stacked to 99 instead of 12. Swimsuits were added to the Vana'diel Adventurer Recruitment Program. Event Storage NPC now stores the Dream Robe +1 and Charm Wand +1. A message describing the transaction is now displayed when buying or selling items at a shop.	Apocalypse Nigh Before the Apocalypse Nigh epilogue was implemented, there was no reason for players to finish Rise of the Zilart missions to completion. Many players simply quit progressing after obtaining Sky access or Divine Might due to the lack of a reward on the final Zilart fight. After this update, there was a large rush to finish the final Zilart fight as well as formation of large groups to scale back up the Promyvions for the quest itself. Another requirement many players were missing was the first Bahamut fight Storms of Fate. The fight against RMT The change regarding Gil delivery was a mere inconvenience to RMT, rather than an efficient way to stop them. Starting after this patch, they simply bought obscure items from each other via the less popular three nation Auction Houses. This was done by simply listing an item that never sells for 1 gil on the Auction House, and bidding however much they wanted to transfer to the seller's account. This was not a foolproof way of transferring gil though, as the risk always existed that if the RMT took too long, real players could purchase the item for a small amount of gil and then re-list it for 1 gil themselves. The RMT would then purchase the item from the player, essentially handing them millions of gil. Chocobo Prices Chocobos always used to cost 5,000~10,000+ Gil each at the Crag of Mea due to the frequency of players renting them to travel to Bibiki Bay for Experience Points parties. The change somewhat helped. Crafting Key Items The crafting Key Items that were introduced were welcomed by the community, except for Concoction. All of the Key Items allowed a player to synth multiple materials (Thread, Sheets, Bolts, Chains, Leather, etc) at a time with a chance of HQ each time. It was a real time saver, and many players rejoiced. On the other hand, the "Drops" medicine created with Concoction stacked to 12. Many players were excited for this space saving opportunity, but the medicine left a player medicated for 5 minutes. After this was found out, nobody paid any attention to the new medicine.
Feb. 27th, 2006	Vana'diel Tribune II
	The final issue of the Vana'diel Tribune II was released.
Mar. 1st, 2006	The Doll Festival 2006
	The Doll Festival returned from March 1st thru March 14th. The event was the same as in 2005, except the conditions to obtain the rice cakes were much easier.
Mar. 9th, 2006	Fan Festival 2006
	The largest North American Final Fantasy XI festival yet was held from March 9th thru March 11th. The event took place at the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California. The address was 200 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, CA 90401. Treasures of Aht Urhgan was playable for the first time at this event. Many different events were held at the festival, and fans who did not attend were even able to participate in Movie Contest and Art Contest a contest that was held on the official Playonline website. Entries shown at the festival, and the crowd decided the winners. Gobbiebag The Gobbiebag was a SWAG (Stuff We All Get) bag filled with the following: Hat: Embroidered moogle Festival logo on the left hand side and the Square Enix company logo embroidered on the back. FFXI Atlas: BradyGames' Final Fantasy XI Atlas. Itunes Card: With this card you could download a free song off of Itunes from the FINAL FANTASY XI collection. Cards were available to the first 200 attendees only. Mousepad: Square Enix mouse pad in various designs and shapes. All the mouse pads were fitted with a FINAL FANTASY XI logo. The mouse pads are varied in design but only one mouse pad was provided to each Gobbie Bag. Copy of Chains of Promathia expansion Raffle Ticket Program and Event Schedule Live Quest Adventurer Coupon Live Quest The Live Quest was a "Live Quest" challenge meant to take place at the festival. The third place team received Vana'diel clocks from Hori. The second place team each received a copy of the Star Onions album signed by the FINAL FANTASY XI music director Naoshi Mizuta. Grand prize winners received custom framed art designed and signed by FINAL FANTASY XI art director Ryosuke Aiba. Ballista Royale Championship The Ballista Royale Championship was held and live streamed via Playonline. The Siren group channelfournewsteam took first place, and beat Phoenix's Chaostheory with a score of 26 to 24. The group from Phoenix had a disadvantage because their characters were copied to the mutual server sooner than what was told to them, so they were really unprepared. Star Onions Performance The Star Onion's first performance outside of Japan wrapped up Fan Festival 2006. The following songs were performed: Yuhtunga Jungle, Rolanberry Fields, The Forgotten City - Tavnazian Safehold, Mog House, Awakening, Vana'diel March, and Selbina. Costume Contest All Participants 3rd place 2nd place 1st place Image courtesy of abilitypoints.wordpress.com	Art Contest 3rd place 2nd place 1st place The 3rd place winner received a Logitech QuickCam Orbit MP. The 2nd place winner received a set of Logitech Z-5500 Digital Speakers. The first prize winner was awarded a Kenwood HTB-S320DV system. Developer Panels There were multiple Developer panels held during the festival, in which they made several announcements regarding Treasures of Aht Urhgan. Highlights include: Chocobo Raising Mog Locker Minimal Level Caps The Colosseum (Pankration) New Battle content (They compared it to Limbus and Dynamis) 1st Q&A session Q: how does treasure hunter work? A: ehhh... if he tells you too much, when he gets back to japan, he'll be dead. but not last strike. as long as thf in group, PT will feel the effects Q: are they going to add utsu 3 A: it's on the table but still in the thinking process Q: are there any plans to address other burn type parties A: currently no plans. when certain parties destroy the balance of the game, they want to change it; that's why they are changing blm Q: throwing weaponskills A: take that suggestion back to JP Q: will PLD be able to use other sj beside /war A: are thinking of changes so jobs are more flexible with subjobs Q: will there be more "armor" for females A: laughter, good idea will take it back to japan Q: SMN, NIN and DRG don't have AOE will corsair or bluemage have AOE and will the previous 3 get AOE A: alot of blue magic is AOE, but no plans for corsair to get AOE. will take AOE idea for nin, smn and drg back to japan Q: are they gonna change it so that it's more easier to learn the story of all the nations A: they want to give ppl incentive to do the conquests, etc but if enough interest they will consider it Q: what kind of enmity will the new whm ability to give HP/MP have A: there will be enmity, but it won't be so much. don't worry Q: does charisma affect provoke? A: "nothing to do with it" Q: smn hard to get pt, also used as main healer. why don't they have AOE mp refresh A: take that idea back to JP Q: will it be possible to join jeuno as a nation? A: no plans currently, but some surprises in aht urgan Q: why is PLD invincible still vulnerable to magic A: no plans to make invincible to magic because it works as designed Q: any plans to give whm ability to drain hp from and give to PT A: drk has ability to absorb hp so they don't want to give that to other jobs. they want to keep the jobs seperate. cerebus and odin were introduced in the final trailer video 2nd Q&A session Ichthyos@BG Forums The second dev panel opened with a demonstration of how corsair will work (the previous one opened with a demo of blue mage), and then they went on to describe changes to all the jobs that will be introduced in the patches to come. They also described in detail how the new jobs will work, and then closed with a special announcement, that the third new job in the expansion will be Puppetmaster: Warrior Ability to throw axes! (and other weapons? Hmm.) Devs made warrior have ability to use lots of weapons, and they want people to use a wider variety of them. They didn't tell us how they would encourage us to use more weapons. They said WAR/NIN is too strong, and want to give people more reasons to sub other jobs. Monk adding ability that increases HP (increases max HP? ambiguous) of party members. unclear whteher it's single target or aoe. White Mage job ability to give your own hp or mp to other members. benediction will remove negative status effects. they want whm cures to be more effective than other jobs. didn't give details on whether they mean hp cured, or casting time, or what. Black Mage they said it's too strong, especially in manaburns. they want to give BLMs more incentive to join diverse parties, but didn't give details. there will be new spells. Red Mage they said RDM is pretty strong but didn't hint at any nerfs. there will be new spells Thief thief JA's to affect more party members (probably with respect to hate) steal to have new effects, like "stealing more than items..." perfect dodge will increase the damage you deal if you stay behind the mob (30 secs of full sneak attacks?!?!) Paladin they know lots of people like nin's more than pld's and want to change that. they want pld's to be able to "use shield more than other jobs" - proc rate up? shield bash timer down? i think they meant proc rate. they want to increase TP gained when blocking with shield they want to give pld an aoe refresh or autorefresh. Dark Knight they said they want DRKs to use scythe more. maybe damage bonus when using scythe. they want to increase the effects of absorb spells, and maybe give them secondary effects. Beastmaster they acknowledge that BSTs were hurt a lot with the MPK patch, and want to do something to fix it. they said they couldn't give details but they say "please believe in us." Bard they want to give bard more places to use different songs in battle, because right now bards use the same songs over and over. they want to add new low level aoe "speed" song. i dont know whether it means something different than march. Ranger they're wokring on adjusting it again to "please more people." will change sharpshot so that when it's active, r.acc will not be affected by distance. more arrows will be quiverable. Samurai sam's will have a new way to use their TP. said they were adding something so that when SAM hits an enemy, it will/might decrease its TP. Ninja it's very strong, maybe too strong. but we don't have plans to nerf it at the moment. Dragoon they're still looking at the effects of the recent changes they made so they don't have plans to change it more right now. Summoner right now, SMNs BP and release. they want to give SMN's some kind of incentive to keep their avatars out longer. the person translating from the devs said they were giving SMN more MP but then quickly said "wait, no i didn't say that" so i'm not sure why he said it. Earthen Ward, Aerial Armor, other blood pacts that currently don't have their effectiveness depend on summoning skill will now be affected by summoning skill. new BP's everyone wants to summon Bahamut but they would have to limit its strength if they made it summonable. they want to keep it special, so they say they have no plans to make Bahamut summonable. Blue Mage you can only learn blue magic with BLU as your main job defeat a mob that gives you exp points and then you'll (have a chance to?) learn blue magic that it performs. more and more abilities will be learnable with later patches. "setting spells" - when you acquire blue magic, you won't be able to use it right away. you have to set it first. each spell has a certain number of required setup points. as a blue mage you have a number of setup points you can allocate. this increases when you level up. you also have a max # of spells that you can "set", based on your level. spell effectiveness will depend on beast intimidation circle. physical spells can skillchain, magic spells can MB. Corsair sorry, they wont tell us about the 2hr. Main Ability is basically a dice roll (6 possible cards, numbered 1-6). different things happen depending on what the roll was. that ability used again (looked like a 30 or 60 sec cooldown) will cause more (and better) things to happen to your party, or to the mob. the sum of rolls causes something to happen, the best sum you can get is 11. if you hit 12, you "bust" like in blackjack, and when you bust there's a (probably slight) negative effect. effects depend on party setup: if you have a war in your party you can give everyone double attack, if you have a BLM then you can give everyone MAB, if you have a THF then you can give everyone crit bonus. job ability called "Card Shot" - use 1 of 8 different shots in your gun, and it's a magical attack. one example is strengthening debuffs that are currently on a mob (like dia). one ability will be to lower recast time of spells for your party. Q&A and Misc in general they want people to use lots of different subs. they were asked about Treasure Hunter, and about CHR vs Voke. the dev answering laughed and was hesitant to answer because "If I tell you too much, as soon as I get back to Japan I'll be dead." but he told us the following: Treasure Hunter has nothing to do with damage dealt, or the final kill. CHR has no effect on Provoke. no plans to make jeuno a nation you can set alliegance to, but there will be "surprises" in the new expansion. new nation to pledge alliegance to? the devs were very receptive to people's suggestions. they were actively writing things down that people suggested they add to the game. woot. 3rd Q&A session Ichthyos@BG Forums I just came from the third (and final) dev panel of the Fan Festival. There wasn't all that much interesting stuff the devs presented today, but I did get a chance to ask two questions! I missed the first part of the presentation, but a member of the Siren Ballista Royale team told me they just talked a little bit about the recent February patch changes. When I walked in, they were discussing the changes to our ability to sending gil, saying that they know it's been causing legitimate players a decent amount of headaches, and they're trying to refine their solution to the problem so that it still hinders RMTs but doesn't affect us as much. They also said that all Xbox 360 beta characters will be able to be transferred to your accounts on real servers somehow at the time of the X360 FF11 release (April). They weren't specific about how the world migration would work. They also showed an image from the E3 2005 video that we all remember (the city on the ocean with all the brass and glass, with characters dressed in FF11 gear) and said that the dev team is working concurrently on FF11 content and content for this new game. They said they were really excited about the new game's content, which will go above and beyond anything we've ever seen before, but the genre of the game has not been announced yet. They did announce for the first time that they're currently developing full german and french translations of FF11 that will be available for download free of charge for anyone who bought the English version. Also, EU customers apparently haven't had the ability to use debit cards for their FF11 billing, but this is being addressed. What followed was a bunch of noob questions like "how do galka reproduce?", "why are relic weapons so hard to obtain?", etc etc etc. I brought a prop of the "new adventurer" question mark to hold over my head to draw attention to myself though, and got called on! I asked them, "The Notorious Monster Absolute Virtue has been popped on many servers, but no one has been able to kill it. In an interview with members of the HNM linkshell Order of the Blue Gartr, Sage Sundi stated that the dev team tests and defeats each Notorious Monster before it is added to the game. I would like to know whether the team has defeated Absolute Virtue with the jobs, abilities, and equipment currently available to us in FF11. Oh and also, are Mithras furry or tan? " The question brought nervous laughter and glances from the whole panel, and the dev who ended up answering said that "....uhhhhmmmm, we're going to try again with that." or something to that effect. Oh and about mithras, "that's for you all to decide. :wink:" EDIT: I forgot to say what I think the devs mean. Imho, AV is unkillable and they dont know wtf they were doing. Other notable questions included: - a question about lucky egg, four leaf mandragora bud, etc and whether they give TH while in inventory, while eaten, or what. they said, semi tongue-in-cheek, "if you believe, it will happen." - a question about whether the direction you're facing actually affects synthesis results. he said, "face the direction that your heart tells you to. :wink:" Puppetmaster Reveal The third and final job in Treasures of Aht Urhgan, Puppetmaster, was revealed to the audience of the festival. Everyone was incredibly excited, and the video was met with cheers. Final Treasures of Aht Urhgan Trailer This trailer made its world premier at Fan Festival 2006. Crowd reaction can be heard in the background. This was the first time Odin was announced. Controversal Topics Moogle Rod: The Fan Festival was the first time we saw Campaign Codes that gave players an in-game item. The mistake Square Enix made was that anyone who registered and purchased tickets to the event was emailed the code. You did not have to physically attend. Many ticket scalpers bought tickets just to get a Moogle Rod code, and never intended to attend the event. This left many players, who actually did intend to show up, unable to purchase tickets. Many codes were found for sale on community websites at very high prices. Delayed Content: Unlike Chains of Promathia, it was announced that new missions would be released in chunks every few months rather than the majority up front. To compensate, we would receive new content such as the Chocobo Raising system between mission updates. Half of the players despised this idea, and mocked Square Enix for not releasing a finished product. The other half did not mind, and would rather them take their time to iron out as many bugs as possible. Ballista Royale: After the Ballista Royale North American championship, it was a surprise that channelfournewsteam would fight against the Japanese champions lovehame. channelfournewsteam was not informed of this twist, but the Japanese champions lovehame were. This gave lovehame an extremely unfair advantage, as they had time to study channelfournewsteam's tactics and strategies. The ending score was 44-0, and lovehame won. A few players from channelfournewsteam said they had to restock their temporary items via the auction house on the server they participated on, and noticed that lovehame were also purchasing items via the AH history. This hinted at the upcoming match to them, but it wasn't enough. "I like the fact like every JP magazine thinks we KNEW that we were gonna fight LoveHame... It wasn't even officially announced till the winner of the USA finals was decided. And hell from talking to some JPN ppl around siren, they apparently knew they were gonna fight the winner. They had months to prepare for us. Not making much excuses tho, they were really good and have not been scored on even in the JPN final 4 onward. But the way we have our team setup, we need to do our homework and plan ahead." -Edarion@BG
Apr. 3rd, 2006	FFXI Xbox 360 Beta Test Ends
	With the upcoming release of the Xbox 360 version, the Beta test concluded.	Players had the opportunity to keep their characters and progress by transferring them to the retail world of their choice.
Apr. 4th, 2006	The Second Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign
	The second campaign was held for a limited time until May 31st.
Apr. 7th, 2006	The Egg Hunt 2006
	The event was held from April 7th to the 17th. The contents of the event were the same as 2005, with the exception of three new "Throwing" slot eggs: Happy Egg Fortune Egg Orphic Egg	Paladins Rejoice Until this event, there were hardly any decent ranged or throwing slot equipment for Paladins. Finally, the Happy Egg ended that drought with an easy to obtain ammo slot item, as long as you didnt accidently throw it.
Apr. 18th, 2006	Preliminary Treasures of Aht Urhgan Update
	New Features & Content Treasures of Aht Urhgan Missions menu added under Missions. Upon release, only the missions through A Mercenary Life (#8) were available. Assault missions were added, along with the content. Only the first three ranks, along with their missions, were available on expansion release. Treasures of Aht Urhgan Quests menu added under Quests. Besieged region map added, along with the content. West Aht Urhgan, Mamool Ja Savagelands, Halvung Territory, and Arrapago Islands were the regions available. Mog Locker added, and was at first only accessible from Aht Urhgan areas. Kokba Hostel added. Blue Mage, Corsair, and Puppetmaster added. Appraisal NPCs implemented. The first armor with "Set" bonuses were added At this point, the full set of armor was required to be worn for bonuses to take effect. Job Adjustments White Mage Benediction now cures all status ailments. Paladin Shield Mastery Job Trait introduced. Auto Refresh Job Trait added to the job. Ranger Sharpshot, when used, ranged accuracy was no longer determined by the distance the target was from the player. A ferry now began running from Mhaura to Whitegate between the trips to Selbina. At first, this was the only way to reach the new areas. Adjustments to Ballista and Brenner: It was made easier to warp from/to the events. Misc. minor other adjustments to the systems. TP accumulation when attacking a monster has changed for both players and the monsters. Pre Update Delay → TP calculation Modified Delay TP gained ≤180 5.0 181~480 5.0+[(Delay-180)÷256]x6 > 480 6.0+(Delay÷80) Post Update values below lasted until the June 2014 version update. Post Update Delay → TP calculation Modified Delay TP gained ≤180 5+[(Delay-180)×1.5÷180] 181~450 5+[(Delay-180)×6.5÷270] 451~480 11.5+[(Delay-450)×1.5÷30] 480~530 13+[(Delay-480)×1.5÷50] >531 14.5+[(Delay-530)×3.5÷470] Shields were altered again, and the rate of block and the amount of damage blocked was increased. Anti MPK methods implemented: If a monster goes unclaimed, and another player or group of players attempts to claim it, they must generate more enmity than the monster has towards the original group. This was not just Anti MPK, it also solved many "Griefing Tactics" used when force popped or time popped monsters were stolen by other groups. Most monster's AoE attacks now only hit groups of players who have generated enmity towards the monster. This made /blockaid much more relevant. Some NMs such as Nidhogg were exempt from this. Clockmaking and Iatrochemistry added. Bullet Pouches and Arrow Quivers were introduced. The Miniature Airship was added to the Adventurer Recruitment Program. Fishing system adjustments: Giving up and reeling in your cast now accumulated fatigue. Fatigue accumulated now when fishing up items, and even faster when fishing up the following: coral fragment/rusty cap/rusty pick/devil manta. The /playonline function to temporarily log out back to Playonline was removed. The menu option was replaced by Shutdown. This had the same function as /shutdown. /pol and /tribune were also removed. /locker and /besiegemap were added	Shield Update Yet again, Paladin's had another major buff, Shield Mastery's wonderful Spell Interruption Down bonus. This update gave birth to the Ninja subjob. Pairing up with Utsusemi, Paladin could remain on the top of the hate list without shedding it due to massive damage absorption. With the TP Bonus from Shield Blocks, Spirits Within was now Paladin's staple Weapon Skill until Atonement came along later. Ninja was still the tanking king, paired with Mazurka's massive enmity generation. This was not changed until the following year. Walahra Turban The Walahra Turban, known as the "Walmart Turban", was added in this version update. Because it was a mini-quest, and there were not any hints in-game about how to obtain it, the method was not found for a month or two after implementation. 1,000 Imperial Bronze Pieces were quite costly to throw away if there was no confirmed end-goal by donating them, so it took some brave souls to confirm that it was obtainable. Haste +5% was the top amount obtainable in the head slot, so it was a go-to staple for all TP setups for all DD jobs and replaced the Optical Hat. Soon enough, everyone was wearing the turban rather than just Bards with their Sha'ir Turban.
Apr. 18th, 2006	Treasures of Aht Urhgan released in North American and PAL format!
	The PC, PS2 and Xbox 360 versions of the expansion were released simultaneously. The retail product and service was available in the following regions (based on time zone differences) - April 18th in North America, and April 20th in Europe and Japan. The expansion-only retailed for 3,980 Yen (excluding tax), and the All-in-One versions were 7,800 Yen (excluding tax). In North America, the price was $29.99 for the expansion only, and $49.99 for the Xbox 360 version which includes all expansions and the base game. The Xbox 360 version included all three expansions to date in all regions. The All-in-One versions for PC were not released until later in the year, but the PS2 All-In-One version was released in Japan. The PS2 HDD was not released in PAL format, so the PS2 version was exclusive to Japan and North America. The game was only released in DVD-ROM format, and not many people owned a DVD-ROM drive in their computer at this time. Even though a previous All-in-One bundle was DVD-ROM, the issue affected many more players this time because the expansion disk was DVD-ROM. Many torrents of the expansion data popped up, and not many disks were ever inserted into a drive. Players were purchasing the expansion only for their registration code. On top of the DVD-ROM issue, some players in Europe or outside of North America who initially registered a North American copy of the game could only use North American expansion registration codes on their accounts. Instead of waiting for an international import to arrive, some players from North America offered assistance to resolve this issue. They would purchase the expansion and email the code and a link to download the game files, in exchange for payment via Paypal. Reception of the Expansion Treasures of Aht Urhgan, although still having flaws on release, was received much better by the player base than Chains of Promathia. The three new jobs did not have level 70 Limit Break quests implemented until much later, nor was their Artifact Armor. This forced players to level a different job in order to reach 75. Players also had less desirable gear in the 50s and 60s, with no unique bonuses like Artifact always had. Although content was limited, it was tailored to endgame players right off the bat with Assault, Besieged, and the overall level of monsters in the regions. Chains of Promathia did not offer this until the last chapter with Sea. Many amazing camps were available right off the bat, and Colibri became extremely popular. Through The Chains of Promathia Era, players remained in Jeuno. With the release of this expansion, players began migrating from Jeuno to Aht Urhgan Whitegate as a central hub. Whitegate would remain home to players even after the Wings of the Goddess released. The Abyssea Era finally moved players back to Jeuno with the convenient warps available. As far as the Xbox 360 release, many potential Xbox 360 players were worried wether or not an Xbox Live Gold subscription would be required to play on top of the monthly Final Fantasy XI subscription fee. Rumors up to release were circulated, but it turned out that only a free Silver subscription was required. "The Tragedy of Aht Urhgan" in Japan The registration servers were extremely congested from at least April 20th until April 26th, nearly a week after Treasures of Aht Urhgan launched. If you did not pick up the game before the 20th, it was near impossible to register the expansion for nearly a week. Japanese players called this "The Retry Festival". This name was derived from reloading the registration page in Playonline Viewer over and over, hoping to register your code. Square Enix announced on the 24th that the game server congestion was alleviated, and on the 30th that the registration server was no longer congested. On May 1st, it was the payment processing server's turn to became overloaded. It was impossible to manage Content IDs or payment sources. If one was able to overcome those obstacles and log in, spoilers from English players flowed through /shout channels. Missions, Quests, and Assault ranks were intentionally drug out due to Japan Midnight wait time requirements. Besieged was impossible due to zone overcrowding. Frequent System Messages ordered players to change zones from Whitegate or they may be intentionally disconnected to alleviate server overload. Many players blamed congestion on the Welcome Back campaign that was running at the same time as the expansion release. It was questioned by players why Square Enix did not think that through. These problems appeared to be "phenomena" and "surprising" to Square Enix, even though they happened at every expansion release so far. Even if it was temporary, it was apparent that no procedures were implemented to avoid this foreseeable problem. "Sincere apologies" were no longer taken seriously by players. These issues were confirmed by Japanese players, but were not seen as much by North American or European players. Due to differences in the service system by region, anxiety and rumors fluttered at community sites.	North American Box Art EU/PAL Box Art Japan Box Art Promotional Postcards The five different promotional postcards below were distributed in Japan. They were included with some PC hardware purchases around the same time as Treasures of Aht Urhgan was released.
Apr. 20th, 2006	Change of Staff
	Mr. Koichi Ogawa assumed office as Director. Mr. Kawamoto who was Final Fantasy XI Director became the Version Update Director at the release of Treasures of Aht Urhgan.
Apr. 24th, 2006	Whitegate Congestion Update
	In order to "resolve" congestion issues in Whitegate, bazaars now charged tax at the same rate as Jeuno Increased the number of passengers on the ship heading to Nashmau The sale price of Black Ghost was changed
Apr. 25th, 2006	Bug fixes
	Issue fixed where characters might become stuck at the pier in Nashmau or Whitegate Issue fixed where icons at the Auction House are not displayed properly Issue fixed where Aht Urhgan Quests and Missions "Current/Complete" lists displayed for those who do not have the expansion installed. Issue fixed where only the party leader was allowed to enter Assault Fixed an issue where a freeze might occur during the quest Bait and Switch.
Apr. 28th, 2006	More glitch fixes
	The movement speed of enemy forces in Besieged was adjusted. The following issues were fixed: Widescan wouldn't work with BLU, COR or PUP set as a sub job Incorrect automaton status display Fomor type monsters who lost their target didnt despawn when out of their wander area Level and speed of beastmen marching to Al Zahbi modified Unable to use auto-translate function with the "Pause" key Mog Locker item sort information was not properly saved Several items were unable to be sorted correctly Unable to filter logout countdown messages
Apr. 28th, 2006	The Feast of Swords 2006
	The Feast of Swords ran from April 28th to May 11th. The way the event worked remained largely unchanged, but a Mithra NPC joined the group.	A few new rewards showed up, including the following: Lotus Katana Federation Stables Scarf Kingdom Stables Collar Republic Stables Medal
May 1st, 2006	First players reach 75 on New Jobs & Walahra Turban
	ZOMG First 75 BLU!!! Some hardcore players thought that it was a race when Treasures of Aht Urhgan was released to be "The first NA level 75 BLU/PUP/COR on XXXX world!". The first players began hitting 75 on the new jobs from May 1st thru May 10th.	Walahra Turban Mystery At this time, players discovered how to obtain the Walahra Turban. There were no leads in-game on how to obtain it, simply an NPC who asks for "donations". The price of Imperial Bronze Pieces skyrocketed for weeks after the secret came out. Even with spending Imperial Standing, many players did not have enough to buy all 1,000 bronze pieces, and resorted to the Auction House.
May 10th, 2006	Besieged Adjustment
	The level of enemy forces during Besieged and the rate at which the enemies stronghold increases was modified. The following issues were fixed: Issue where a disbanded alliance would remain as not disbanded. Maps could be re-purchased with Imperial Standing. Sicklemoon Jagil would now only respond to sound instead of sight. The key item could not be obtained for the quest Vanishing Act while harvesting. Guild NPC gave out the wrong recipe for Jaridah Salvars.
May 11th, 2006	Treasures of Aht Urhgan showcased at E3 2006
	Final Fantasy XI was showcased at the Square Enix booth at E3 2006, which was held from May 10th thru May 12th in Los Angeles, CA. Treasures of Aht Urhgan was the focus, but only battles from past events were available for play. These included the Heroes Combat and Boss Battle Bash.	Inquiries of Revamped Graphics In 2006 the Playstation 3 was set to release. At E3 2006, the first look at Final Fantasy XIII on PS3 was shown to the public. It was around this time that players started mentioning that they would like to see "a revamp of Final Fantasy XI Graphics" with a version released on Playstation 3. Even to this day, discussion of revamped graphics continues to be brought up every few months. FFXIII E3 2006 Debut Video
May 12, 2006	Fourth Annual Adventurer's Appreciation Campaign
	The 4th Anniversary Campaign was held from May 12th thru May 31st. Moogles told players their stats (Chat frequency, Conversations with NPCs, Parties joined, Alliances joined, Battles fought, Number of times KO'd, and GM calls made.) Moogles gave players the chance for a reward every Earth day. This time around, players could receive an item each day, or "wait" for potential at a better reward. Bronze Mog. Belt, Silver Mog. Belt, Chocobo Wand, Return Ring, Adventuring Certificate, 3 Nations Stable Teleport necks, Fireworks, and Chocopasses were given out.
May 13th, 2006	Besieged Adjustment
	After the opening event at the start of Besieged, player characters are randomly spread out throughout Al Zahbi
May 15th, 2006	Minor Fixes
	The following modifications have been done to lighten Al Zahbi's congestion: Bazaar tax calculation for Aht Urhgan Whitegate has ben applied to the Al Zahbi area. The Home Point within Al Zahbi has been removed. Beastmen level during Besieged has been adjusted. Corsair's Phantom Roll and Puppet master's Maneuver effect will be cancelled under the following circumstances: Job change. Upon entering level limited areas or battlefields. Received monsters' attacks with Dispel effect. Fixed an issue wherein Empress Band or Chariot Band bonuses would wear off without reaching the maximum bonus limit when under the Sanction effect.
May 17th, 2006	Besieged Adjustments
	Chances of NPCs within Al Zahbi being captured during Besieged have been adjusted. The Imperial defense recovery rate based on the amount contributed to the NPC Gajaad within Al Zahbi has been modified.
May 24th, 2006	Further Anti-Congestion Changes
	Calculation of Auction House charges has been changed to as follow: [Jeuno / Nashmau / Tavnazia areas] Single item: 1% of selling price + 50 gil Stack item: 0.5% of selling price + 200 gil [Al Zahbi] Single item: 1% of selling price + 100 gil Stack item: 0.5% of selling price + 400 gil Bazaar taxes for the following areas have been lowered from 10% to 5%: Ru'Lude Gardens, Upper Jeuno, Lower Jeuno, Port Jeuno The following players will be automatically moved to Aht Urhgan Whitegate when the Al Zahbi area has reached its maximum amount of population (around 700 players): When logging into Al Zahbi Attempt to move into Al Zahbi from nearby areas After receiving the Tractor spell When moved to any Homepoints within Al Zahbi During defensive Besieged, beastmen will now focus on reaching their goal, the Astral Candescence, than actively involving into battles. An issue wherein players may be able to receive Experience Points and Imperial Standings which has exeeded the cap has been fixed. Addressed an issue where internal test messages would display on the screen during Besieged.
May 24th, 2006	Treasures of Aht Urhgan OST Released
	21 tracks were on the disk, and the price was again 2,100 Yen (Tax included).
Jun. 23rd, 2006	Sixth Vana'diel Census
	In addition to the usual job level distribution, many new aspects were added. Fourth and Fifth (last) stage of relics were shown, home points used by players, Aht Urhgan mission progress, and Assault ranks were shown.	At this point, there were a total of 176 fourth stage relics and 218 finished relics.
Jun. 29th, 2006	Linkshell Community Beta Version Released
	Square Enix developed the Linkshell Community website in order to assist players by providing tools for their Linkshell to call home. While this system was intended to replace linkshell's own websites, it never met that goal. The website would allow linkshell leaders to login and create a home page for their linkshell. A calendar and message board feature were available to use. While the whole idea was interesting and innovative by Square Enix, the convoluted website and horrible graphical user interface caused many players to steer clear of this whole system. On top of that, the website required you to enter your Playonline username and password to login. With the rise of unauthorized access, many players were too scared to enter their credentials to login. While the system never left it's "Beta" status before closing in May of 2016, it proved to be a majorly useful tool to sync character data with the fan websites ffxiah.com and guildwork.com.
Jun. 30th, 2006	In-Game Vana'diel turns 1000 years old!
	Around 2:24PM JST Earth Time, Vana'diel turned 1000 years old. The time was 01/01/1000.
June/July 2006	The Rise of Unauthorized Access
	It was around this time that the term Unauthorized Access started popping up. Player's accounts were being hijacked, by either "Trustworthy" friends or RMT. Rumors started circulating in the community that RMT were injecting key loggers into ads on popular community sites. The biggest culprit was FFXIAtlas.com, although never fully proven. Many players starting using Mozilla Firefox with the No Script plugin to block Javascript ads. Many players also started to be scared of popular third party tools such as Windower and POLUtils. On the Japanese side of the community, the same situation was happening, except it was a Phishing scam. By simply typing "FF 11" into search engines such as Yahoo Japan, MSN, etc., a malacious website was displayed as a sponsored site. Players who clicked it recieved an official looking prompt to change their password. They would then type their POL ID and current password into the fake website, only to have it log the details into their database. Square Enix got this website shut down at least once. This fradulent website changed its name to "FFXI Information Bureau". It seemed to distribute phoney NM claiming tools, and anyone who would download and install the software would instead install spyware which stole user's POL information instead. A warning was issued from Square Enix on July 7th to be aware of malacious websites such as this.	Yeah right, it was your friend The vast majority of players did not believe that RMT could be resourceful enough to actually steal a Playonline account via malacious ads. Everyone who claimed to have been hacked got the typical response to "Not share your POL info, friends are untrustworthy!". While many cases were "friends" stealing accounts, a lot of the time it was actually RMT.
Jul. 20th, 2006	FFXI playable at San Diego Comic Con 2006
	At the Square Enix booth, Final Fantasy XI was playable on the Xbox 360 from July 20th thru July 23rd. No news or special events were done at this event, but it gave players an opportunity to briefly step into the world of Vana'diel.
Jul. 25th, 2006	Ruins of Alzadaal & ISNMs
	New Features & Content The region Ruins of Alzadaal was added. Assault ranks Lance Corporal and Corporal added. The Chocobo stables opened in Al Zahbi, but the NPC in charge may be captured during Besieged. The ISNM system was introduced. The six battlefields added were Call to Arms, Tough Nut to Crack, Making a Mockery, Compliments to the Chef, Happy Caster, and Shadows of the Mind. Job Adjustments The 15 existing Merit Point job categories have been divided into two subcategory groups. Group 1 includes conventional abilities, while Group 2 includes the new job abilities, job traits, and spells. Many new abilities and spells have been added via Merit Points. Blue Mage, Puppetmaster, and Corsair had Artifact Quests added. Blue Mage, Puppetmaster, and Corsair also had their Level 70 Limit Break quests added. Unlike other jobs, the Limit Break quests were made part of the Artifact quest storyline. This forced these jobs to obtain their Artifact before being able to advance. Blue Mage, Puppetmaster, and Corsair "Group 1" Merit Points added. New Spells: Absorb-TP, Raptor Mazurka. Puppetmaster could now use Howling Fist and Dragon Kick. Numerous Besieged Adjustments including: After a beastmen army retreats, the enemy forces in that army's stronghold will immediately begin to increase. If the enemy forces are reduced to a certain point, the rate at which they increase will accelerate. The enemy forces will increase if a player is KO'd in a beastmen stronghold. Enemy leaders were implemented Archaic Mirrors are now guarded by defending beastmen. New NMs added to advancing beastmen armies When an army retreats while advancing towards Al Zahbi, it will now be counted the same as a successful Besieged battle in Al Zahbi. A status icon will appear when you are participating in a Besieged battle. This is the sword and shield icon. Assault Changes: Ten new missions added for the new ranks. When participating in an Assault mission with more than the minimum number of people, the penalty on the number of Assault Points earned per person was decreased. The number of Assault Points earned for each Assault mission has been adjusted to better reflect the level of difficulty. Players can now expand their Mog Lockers to hold a maximum of 60 items. Mog Lockers can now be used anywhere in Vana'diel, but the time granted per Imperial Bronze Piece is reduced from 7 to 5 Earth Days. An Armor Storage NPCs, Event Storage NPC, Pursuivant, and Weather Forecast NPCs have been added to Aht Urhgan Whitegate. Kaduru-Haidaru now offered to warp you to your Home Nation's Outpost Warp NPC if you use him four times or more in a row. The services of guild shops and other NPCs affiliated with certain captured NPCs will now be unavailable as long as the affiliated NPC is captured. The following changes have been made to the Kokba Hostel: Interior decorations have been added to the hostel. A bard is now available to change the BGM inside the hostel. The BGM will change only for the player who selected the song from the bard. Players outside the Kokba Hostel will no longer be able to hear conversations using /say or emotes from inside the hostel. However, /shout will still be heard by players both inside and outside the hostel. The linkshell settings option has been removed from the entry options list. Sanction now has a red style status icon. Players can now receive a new Lamian Fang Key by checking a ??? point in Caedarva Mire after each Conquest results tally. The following changes have been made to Conflict (Ballista and Brenner): Changes to both Ballista and Brenner: Players hit repeatedly with Stun will gradually develop a resistance to the ability. This resistance will decrease with time. The following changes have been made to the blue magic spell “Self-Destruct”: The damage will be split among the number of players in the caster’s area of effect. The caster will now retain a slightly greater amount of HP after casting Self-Destruct. Changes to Brenner only: The graphical effect that appears when a Flammen-Brenner consumes a Petra and recovers from damage has been altered. An issue in which the Warhorse Hoofprint was not appearing for long periods of time has been fixed. The ENM quest Pulling the Strings will now be available for Blue Mages, Corsairs, and Puppetmasters. The Soulflayer and Wamoura monster families were added. Accordingly, monster placement was adjusted in Arrapago Reef, Mount Zhayolm, and Halvung. Ullikummi now spawned on a lottery basis from other Aura Statues in the room instead of a timer of its own. Notorious Monsters now had an accumulative magic resistance. When a monster with accumulative magic resistance is hit by a magic attack, the amount of damage it receives will decrease in accordance with that monster's resistance. At the same time, its resistance will increase. The following types of magic triggered this affect: Elemental Magic Divine Magic Ninjutsu Magical Blood Pact abilities Magical Blue Magic Magical Weapon Skills (Spirits Within, Red Lotus Blade, etc.) Magical Job Abilities (Chi Blast, Mijin Gakure, etc.) The Experience Points recovered when accepting the effect of Raise and Reraise has increased to 50%. The remaining Raise effects did not change. The TP bonus for the weapon skill Evisceration has been changed to "Chance of critical hit varies with TP." An issue concerning the TP bonus not functioning correctly when using the following weapon skills has been addressed: Dulling Arrow Arching Arrow Sniper Shot Heavy Shot It will once again be possible to receive experience for defeating monsters from the Chigoe family. The Armor Storage NPCs now accept Blue mage artifact armor/Corsair artifact armor/Puppetmaster artifact armor. The damage and delay for almost all level 68+ daggers have been raised. Gardening: New seeds added, and the harvesting yield for some produce has changed. The Automaton category was added on the Auction House. The title screen now showcases the following areas: North Gustaberg, Jugner Forest, The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah, Yuhtunga Jungle, Carpenters' Landing, Bibiki Bay, Aht Urhgan Whitegate, Wajaom Woodlands. The following changes have been made to Chocobo Digging: The general number of buried items available within each area has been increased. The number of items that can be dug up by each individual player over a certain period of time will be restricted. Several new buried items are now available (digging up these new items will require a chocobo that has acquired the special ability Bore through Chocobo Raising). Xbox 360 Achievement system was introduced. Unlike other Xbox 360 games where the achievement is immediately unlocked, achievements in Final Fantasy XI were unlocked by speaking to an NPC.	Accumulative Magic Resistance The Accumulative Magic Resistance feature was announced on the official Playonline website on July 19th. Many controversal threads were created on forums, but it was later discovered that this change was not as bad as originally thought. At this time, it became more difficult for Black Mages to join high level parties. The opportunity for Magic Bursting has been lost as a result for Weapon Skill spamming. It was also difficult for Mage Burn parties to be in the vicinity, and compete against melee burn merit parties. In the new Treasures of Aht Urhgan areas, monsters in camp spots had no magic weakness attributes. It became more efficient to form TP burn parties. Black Mages were labelled as the new "Solo job", especially in Sea. Dispite all of this, Black Mage was still proven useful in HNMs, Dynamis, and Promathia Missions where instantaneous maximum firepower or crowd control was required. These tendancies will not change even after the release of Wings of the Goddess. Chocobo Digging Significant balance adjustments were implemented. Digging fatigue and zone item reserve changes. It was unknown wether this adjustment was up or down to due vague update notes. Pairing this with the changes above to Black Mages, anxiety ran high. It was expected that the elemental staves and Elemental Ore prices would drop. The Mazurka Festival After the version update, Chocobo Mazurka sung with a Harlequin's Horn, Millennium Horn, or Gjallarhorn would result in Flee speed movement. Many Bards remembered The Mazurka Festival, and many people enjoyed the movement speed. Later on, emergency maintenance fixed the Mazurka +2 effect on instruments to only affect song duration instead of potency and duration. Like The March Festival, the Harlequin's Horn shot up in value before the effect was fixed. Many players made a nice profit. Besieged Difficulty Beginning at the same time that Aht Urhgan was released, Besieged was an event that all players could easily participate in. It gained popularity as up to 700 Experience Points and Imperial Standing could be earned each fight, in exchange for a short amount of time having to be dedicated for the event. On the other hand, more hardcore players said that the enemies were too weak and too scarce. (Yawn) was very common to see in /shout after a battle. In response to this concern, Besieged became very difficult by this update. With the additions of Notorious Monsters and bugs, the event rose to a degree of difficultly which surpassed what any player could defend against. In the meantime, it was made public that Mr. Nobuaki Komoto, who was the Director of Chains of Promathia, was the Director of Version Updates. It was apparent with this update that he intended on trying to keep the game as difficult as the original Promathia missions. Later on, the difficulty of Besieged was lowered with the addition of Temporary Items and the strengthening of the Serpent Generals. Ullikummi's Aery The bottleneck of the Sky God system was always an Autumnstone/Seal of Byakko. Linkshells almost constantly camped Ullikummi, mainly against RMT. Due to the competition, there were many times when linkshells had a plethora of other pops, but no Byakko. Following this update, Ullikummi was no longer a timed spawn. It was now a lottery spawn from any Aura Statue in the room. This made things slightly easier for real players, but Ullikummi was still a timesink. Job Adjustments Gallore With all of the new abilities added in this update obtainable via Merit Points, players had plenty to work on. Red Mage was said to have "won the update" with the Tier II enfeebles, but players wondered where Refresh II was. Chivalry was also an amazing addition for Paladin, which was said to be the best addition to-date. Hydra The implementation of Hydra was considered a fail. Nobody cared about the drops, especially for the amount of effort needed for the fight. The Hydra Scale was only used for Snakeeye and Hydra Mail. The Snakeeye latent was only active with a 20HP/tick poison, and the Hydra armor set served pretty much no purpose. ISNM, the new BCNM The most controversal item obtained from the new ISNM battles was the Dragon Talon. Igqira Weskits were still top notch for Black Mage at the time, and suddenly the market was filled with Dragon Talons. The price on Weskits crashed over mere days. A second major addition to ISNMs, the Erase (Scroll) was added as a drop. The price plummeted from over 1 million gil to a couple thousand. This allowed all career White Mages and subjob White Mages alike to snag their spell.
Jul. 25th, 2006	The Sunbreeze Festival 2006
	The Sunbreeze Festival was held from July 25th thru August 21st. Azimuth Circle II was the main focus, starting on August 1st. Similar to the last Azimuth Circle, players teamed up and were restricted to level 1. They were then placed into either La Theine Plateau, Konschtat Highlands, or Tahrongi Canyon. The objective was to search for a "Check Point" somewhere in the area. After examining the Check Point, players recieved the items Myucoco Doll or Ryacoco Doll. Like previously, players exchanged the items between each other. After then trading them to the Moogle, further prizes can be won. Completing the event the first time rewarded the Otoko Yukata and Onago Yukata. If completed a second time while wearing these items, the HQ versions Otokogimi Yukata and Onnagimi Yukata. The event was much more difficult, however. Instead of a direction to the Check Point, you instead recieve the distance from the Check Point.	Subsequent completions after the second would award players Summer Fan and other fireworks.
Jul. 26th, 2006	The 13 Day War
	After the version update, a problem occured resulting in endless Besieged. Troll Mercenaries starting advancing immedately after withdrawing. This cycle would continue until Al Zahbi fell, or maintenance began. Many worlds had their Astral Candescence stolen, and nearly all NPCs and Generals captured. Only the Diabolos world was successful in the defense of Al Zahbi. The battles lasted 13 Vana'diel days, hence the name "The 13 Day War". Although an Emergency Maintenance seemed to have fixed the issue, three consecutive battles could still occur on many worlds despite the implemented fix. Diabolos also surivived this onslaught, and it was only after 20 hours of the implementation of the July version update that everything ended. It is said that on the Diabolos world after the fighting has ended, NPCs were not displayed at all. Additionally, the door from Al Zahbi to Aht Urhgan Whitegate and the Mog House did not open. Another emergency maintenance followed in Diabolos to fix this issue.	On top of the situation that Besieged was endless, the new Beastmen leaders were added in the update. Gurfurlur the Menacing was particularly difficult to defeat. Some players tried to rescue captured NPCs or destroy the Archaic Mirrors, but with altered monster placement and Notorious Monsters being placed near the Mirrors, this strategy did not help.
Aug. 2nd, 2006	Treasures of Aht Urhgan Missionline Expanded
	New Features & Content The Treasures of Aht Urhgan Missions 9 (Undersea Scouting) thru 18 (Passing Glory) were added. Besieged was adjusted the following ways: DoT status effects will now be automatically removed after Besieged. After retreating, the beastman forces will now remain at half strength. The number of monsters that invade Al Zahbi during Besieged has been changed. The conditions for causing a beastman retreat have been changed. The locations of certain Archaic Mirrors and their guardians in Arrapago Reef have been changed. A synthesis recipe for Imperial Silk Cloth was added. Many bugs were fixed: The message for the location of the Rune of Release in the Leujaoam Sanctum Assault missions Shanarha Grass Conservation and Counting Sheep will now be correctly announced. During the Assault mission Counting Sheep, an issue concerning incorrect messages being displayed has been fixed. Also, the target name Harvesting Point will now be spelled correctly. The incorrect message “The availability of your Mog Locker has been expanded to other areas…” will no longer be displayed after restricting Mog Locker access to Al Zahbi only. An issue during Besieged where the attack power of friendly NPCs would be greatly reduced under certain circumstances has been addressed. An issue where the monster Zoraal Ja's Pkuucha could not be damaged under certain circumstances has been fixed. A fix was introduced in the Jul. 26 version update, but the issue still occurred under certain conditions. An issue with the "Ghrah" type monster's animation has been fixed. An issue where the Tonberry Golden-Tongued Culberry could instantly finish casting its spells has been addressed. The Samurai merit point ability Overwhelm will now function correctly. An issue concerning the message displayed when performing a ranged attack after using the job abilities “Sange” or “Barrage” has been addressed. An issue where a bard song may not take effect under certain circumstances when a character’s main job is set to bard and support job set to corsair has been addressed. The effect of the automaton attachments Attuner and Target Marker on ranged attacks will now function correctly. Incorrect help text displayed in the automaton equipment screen has been fixed. Players who have entered their Mog House from Al Zahbi will no longer be KO'd by monster attacks during Besieged. The “???” found where the Morion Worm appears in the Korroloka Tunnel and the “Luminant” markers in the Attohwa Chasm can now be properly targeted again. Incorrect help text regarding the Bards Troubadour job ability has been fixed. PlayStation 2: An issue where the game would freeze when using the software keyboard has been addressed. Xbox 360: An issue with the "achievements" function, where players could unlock the "Synthesis skill 100" category without actually fulfilling the requirement, has been addressed.	Troubadour A poorly translated ability, Troubadour's help description initially said "Doubles the effect of songs". Naturally, everybody thought this was a second Soul Voice.
Aug. 21st, 2006	Final Fantasy XI at Games Convention 2006
	Final Fantasy XI's German and French language versions were exhibited at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. Heroes Combat was playable, and Producer Tanaka had an autograph signing session. Free Windows Version 30 day trials were given away, along with a special Final Fantasy XI necklace pictured below. It appeared that the necklaces could change blinking patterns and speed.
Aug. 2nd, 2006	Chocobo Breeding Introduced
	New Features & Content The Chocobo Raising system was added. Job Adjustments Puppetmaster The reuse interval of Deactivate was changed to 1 minute. This prevented players from using magic in succession by resummoning an Automaton indefinitley.
Sep. 22nd, 2006	Final Fantasy XI at Tokyo Game Show 2006
	Final Fantasy XI held the "Vana Fest 2006" event at TGS (Tokyo Game Show) 2006. The event was held from September 22nd thru September 24th. The three-day event consisted of several exciting attractions such as Heroines' Combat, TGS Assault - The Gathering Storm, Who Wants To Be A Vanallionaire, and the Vanafesta 2006 Talk Session. Thousands of adventurers from all across the globe converged on the Makuhari Messe convention hall to take part in this extravaganza, making it one of the hottest spots in the building. At the Heroines' Combat, players were placed into a BCNM in Stellar Fulcrum against female heroines such as Prishe, Shantotto, Curilla, and Ayame. Today, this fight is accessible with the Martial Ball Invite. Only 20% of challengers succeeded in the fight. The Gathering Storm was an Assault type mission in Mamool Ja Training Grounds. The fight was extremely similar to the Blitzkrieg assault we have now. The first place team killed 89 monsters in five minutes. Who wants to be a Vanallionaire was a trivia quiz that featured Final Fantasy XI questions. See the spoiler below for a few of the questions. Answers are bolded. Vanallionaire Questions & Answers In which area can you experience snowy weather? A. Batallia Downs B. Rolanberry Fields C. Sauromogue Champaign D. Qufim Island Which job also appears in FINAL FANTASY III? A. Corsair B. Beastmaster C. Puppetmaster D. Dragoon What do all these words have in common? Noble's Elegant Cactuar Purple All are types of Ribbons What do all these words have in common? Ring Core Ash Arm All have to do with bombs' Which title do you receive upon completion of the quest, Curses, Foiled...Again!? A. Lower than the Lowest Tunnel Worm B. Spoilsport C. Tarutaru Murder Suspect D. Dead Body Which of the following monster families has nothing to do with support job acquisition? A. Leech B. Dhalmel C. Crab D. Undead Which of the following monster families is weak against fire? A. Goblin B. Slime C. Cactuar D. Orc Which of the following animals is Hiromichi Tanaka’s (FINAL FANTASY XI producer) favorite? A. Dogs B. Cats C. Lizards D. All living things Which of the following jobs cannot use Red Lotus Blade? A. Red Mage B. Paladin C. Warrior D. Dark Knight Which of the following drinks does not exist in Vana'diel? A. Coffee B. Fruit Juice C. Milk D. Beer Which of the following icons takes precedence over the others? A. Mentor B. Bazaar C. Linkshell D. Looking for Party Line the following spells up in the order they can be learned. A. Quake B. Tornado C. Burst D. Flood E. Freeze F. Flare E. Freeze B. Tornado A. Quake C. Burst D. Flood F. Flare How many beastmen's seals total are required to participate in the following three BC battles? Treasure and Tribulations Creeping Doom Steamed Sprouts 120 For the first time in Tokyo Game Show history, the FINAL FANTASY XI development team held four talk sessions over three days, in which they spoke of the future of the game, revealed exciting new features scheduled for future patches, and took questions from the audience. Q&A Sessions New Features in the Next Version Update Some of the new features to be added in the next version update are a variety of massively multiplayer battle areas much like those used in Assault, Besieged, and Dynamis. A total of four new areas are to be introduced and have been designed to test the teamwork of alliances of up to 18 adventurers. Only groups who have refined their strategies will be able to proceed through these challenging areas. In addition, players will be drained of certain abilities or attributes, such as the ability to cast magic or use weapon skills, upon entry. Miscellaneous Question: Will there be more chances to obtain relic equipment or abjurations in the future? Matsui: We are currently planning to increase the number of opportunities players will have to obtain abjurations. As for relic equipment, we are planning to release similar equipment in the Aht Urhgan areas. Question: Can you make it so a fellow does not depart when changing areas? Also, will there be any follow-ups to the fellow-related quests? Ogawa: The programmer in charge of the fellow system is currently working hard on this issue. Hopefully he will have something soon. As for the quests, most of our planners are busy writing new Aht Urhgan content. It may be difficult for them to make new fellow material until the upcoming quests and missions are finished. Question: How do you obtain the Parade Gorget? Matsui: You'll first need to make a Goblin Drink (culinary skill of around 80 required). Then you'll need to trade that to a ??? in Oldton Movalpolos. To make the Goblin Drink you'll need 8 items - Gysahl Greens, La Theine Cabbage, and... we'll tell you the rest over the next two days! See if you can't figure out the recipe yourself! Regarding Chocobo Raising 1. We feel that chocobos' attributes are not growing quickly enough within the current system. The system will be adjusted in the near future. 2. Question: My chocobo won't wake up. Is there something wrong? Answer: Chocobos "resting" for indefinite periods of time is not a system bug. However, we realize that tending to a chocobo that is always asleep is not the pinnacle of excitement. We tend to address this issue in the next version update. Finally, we will be introducing two new chocobo colors in the next update--red and...??? Also, the outward appearance of chocobos will change depending on their attributes. How to Enfeeble Absolute Virtue The regen effect will be cut in half by defeating as many of the Ru'phuabos, Qn'xzomits, and Qn'hpemdes summoned by the Jailer of Love as possible. In addition, using an elemental based attack that corresponds to the current day of the week (i.e. using Fire spells on Firesday) will stop the remaining regen effect. Regarding Job Adjustments [ Warrior ] - Weapons experts capable of using a variety of different weapon skills Adjustments Planned: Changes to the number of equippable weapon types as well as an increase in the type of professions that are compatible as support jobs. [ Monk ] - Melee experts known for their large amount of HP and quick attacks. Adjustments Planned: Making the job more useful in a variety of situations. [ White Mage ] - Experts in healing and support magic. Adjustments Planned: Increasing the benefits of using white mage as a main job as well as increasing the number of ways white mages can contribute to parties. [ Black Mage ] - Experts in dealing damage with powerful black magic spells. Adjustments Planned: Making it so black mages are more effective when partied up with other jobs. [ Red Mage ] - Enfeebling experts. Adjustments Planned: Will continue to find ways to put red mages in positions where they are required to be ready for anything. [ Thief ] - Experts at tricky attacks Adjustments Planned: Adding elements that will allow thieves to increase the potential of their parties. [ Paladin ] - High defense makes them experts at defending their parties Adjustments Planned: Improving the performance of paladins when fighting in continuous battles. [ Dark Knight ] - Powerful attackers with the ability to drain their opponents' abilities. Adjustments Planned: Increasing power when equipped with a scythe. [ Beastmaster ] - Experts at taming and controlling the most powerful of beasts. Adjustments Planned: While there are no plans on adjusting aspects of solo play, adjustments are underway to widen the possibilities for party play. [ Ranger ] - Attackers with the potential of dealing deadly damage from afar. Adjustments Planned: Making adjustments to accuracy rate and damage based on distance from target. Look forward to these changes in the next version update! [ Samurai ] - Experts at storing TP and carrying out powerful weapon skills. Adjustments Planned: In addition to re-evaluating Overwhelm's calculation method, two new job abilities will be introduced at levels 25 and 35. The keyword here is "two-handed weapon." We want players to have the option of choosing to take either an offensive role or a defensive one. Finally, we are working hard to make samurai a more attractive choice for support job. Please look forward to seeing these changes in the next version update! [ Ninja ] - Dual-wielding masters of ninjutsu, also capable of protecting a party from damage. Adjustments Planned: There are no plans to strengthen the job of ninja, only make it more useful in a variety of varying situations. [ Dragoon ] - Attackers known for their impressive jumping abilities and their trusty wyverns. Adjustments Planned: 1. Super Jump recast will be reduced to 3 minutes. 2. Empathy ability will provide both dragoon and wyvern with stoneskin effect. 3. Spirit Surge will have an added effect with the ability to reset the recast time of all jump abilities. Please look forward to seeing these changes in the next version update! [ Summoner ] - Powerful mages with the ability to use their mana to call forth mighty avatars. Changes regarding summoning magic skill: 1. Blood Pact recast time will now be based on the type of special attack used--healing/enhancing or damage dealing. 2. Summoning magic skill may increase not only when summoning an avatar, but also while using Blood Pact. 3. Blood Pact special attack bonuses may be earned while equipping items that give summoning skill bonuses. Please look forward to seeing these changes in the next version update! [ Corsair / Blue Mage / Puppetmaster ] Adjustments Planned: There are still many things that we are planning to adjust as well as implement. We should have most of these ready by late December. The next two ingredients in the Goblin Drink recipe are Frost Turnip and Wild Onion. The Importance of Economy in MMORPGs When inflation becomes a problem, players new to the game often find it difficult to purchase items. While a little inflation is normal, massive inflation can be detrimental. Inflation in FINAL FANTASY XI We are currently experiencing a slight drop in inflation as a result of measures taken to reduce actions not in accordance with the official rules of gameplay (RMT, etc.). This, in turn, has resulted in a drop of gil in circulation within Vana'diel. Once inflation has stopped, we can take the next step to returning the Vana'diel economy to normal levels. Dealing with NM camping Dealing with fishing macro problems Policy In October we will be forming a special task force to concentrate solely on locating those players violating the user's agreement. This team will be separate from the GMs and will work directly with the development team. Since we realize it is often difficult to convict a player based on in-game evidence alone, we will continue to search for new ways to prove someone has been involved in restricted activities. We promise that we will continue to work diligently to rid Vana’diel of all players using illegal tools and plug-ins. The next two ingredients in the Goblin drink recipe are one San d'Orian Carrot and Thundermelon. We won't tell you the final two ingredients, but we will give you a couple of hints. With a name like Goblin drink, you have to assume that the items are going to be a little on the crazy side. However, the first of the two is not what you may think it is--Movalpolos water. It is in fact, just normal water. The final item is something a little (a lot) bit stranger. We'll let you figure out that one for yourself! Nomad Moogle Rod Originally planned to be a Questionnaire at the event, Square Enix cancelled the process around noon on the first day. They instead moved it onto the Playonline Viewer, in the Final Fantasy XI Top Page. Only Japanese users could answer the Questionnaire. The Nomad Moogle Rod was given away via a Campaign Code on a lottery basis. The reason for cancellation at the event was due to "Continuing the Questionnaire would have caused not only the Square Enix booth, but the entire TGS venue unnecessary congestion due to the visitors exceeding expectations."	The Parade Gorget Mystery At the show, it was finally revealed that the Goblin Drink was used to spawn the goblin Goblin Wolfman Notorious Monster in Oldton Movalpolos, who dropped the Parade Gorget. Seven out of the eight ingredients were said during the three days of the festival, and the eighth was left as a mystery. Nevertheless, players quickly discovered it by process of elimination. Paladins and Dark Knights everywhere were flocking to get their gorgets. Many alliances were formed, and players constantly came and went after they received their armor. Other TGS 2006 Pictures An Invitation Letter was sent to some official community sites. The image is an illustration of "Heroines' Combat" on the front, and the site name invited in bold on the back. The illustration is by Mr. Fumio Minagawa. Illustration Illustrated drawing depicting the signature of the Final Fantasy XI Art Director Megumu. The illustration was awarded during the Vanallionaire Quiz to a correct answer. It seems this was the original draft of an image used for a Christmas card on the official site. USB Memory Stick Awarded to the Heroines' Combat winners. Unlike the old USB memory sticks given away, it was in the case. The capacity was 128MB, which was top of the line at the time. List price was 2,940 Yen. Pictures from the Venue T-Shirts These VCS Tshirts were worn by staff at the event before Chocobo Racing implementation. Some were given away as prizes at the event. VCS means Vana'diel Chocobo Society. It is unknown why Society is spelt wrong. Images from finalfantasy7110.com
Oct. 19th, 2006	Chocobo Racing Added
	New Features & Content Treasures of Aht Urhgan Missions 19 (Sweets for the Soul) thru 25 (Playing the Part) were implemented. Assault ranks Sergeant and Sergeant Major added, along with corresponding Assault missions. The Scouting the Ashu Talif BCNM Quests have been added. The /tell chime was added in this update. Job Adjustments Ranger / Corsair The formula used to calculate ranged attack damage and accuracy based on the distance of the player from the enemy target has undergone an adjustment. This will ensure that the calculation will no longer largely eliminate the enhancements given by meals and equipment. Instead, the effects will be added directly to the player's attributes. Dark Knight Absorb-TP now absorbs an amount of TP corresponding to the amount of TP accumulated by the target of the spell. Samurai Hasso and Seigan added Third Eye duration reduced to 30 seconds. Zanshin now acquired at level 20. A Merit Point option added to increase physical weapon skill damage by 5% when Overwhelm is active. Dragoon Jump, High Jump and Super Jump timers now reset after Spirit Surge activates. Super Jump's reuse timer is now 3 minutes, and the Merit Point category now reduces use time by 6 seconds per upgrade instead of 10. Empathy now copies Stoneskin to their wyvern when using Spirit Link. Summoner Blood Pact abilities were seperated into two categories. Blood Pact: Rage and Blood Pact: Ward. Their timers are also seperate. Summoners Blood Pacts now recieve different effects based on Summoning Magic Skill. Puppetmaster Elemental capacities for the various heads and frames have been increased. Several new attachments added. Chocobo Raising Adjustments: New Chocobo colors were added. Chocobos appearance now change according to it's attributes. Care Plans help Chocobo attributes at a greater rate. A new medicine helps wake "Sleeping" chocobos. Players can now "Scold" a chocobo in hopes of waking it up. Chocobo trainers now wake up a sleeping chocobo without fail when a rest plan ends and another begins. An issue where learned chocobo abilities could rarely be used on Rental chocobos was fixed. Besieged Adjustments: Enemy forces can now increase to 160, and Level 6 forces were added. Notorious Monsters would now lead Level 6. Temporary Items are now given to players, based on corresponding NPCs who can be taken prisoner. If they are prisoner, players do not recieve their corresponding item. Experience Points and Imperial Standing earned for taking part in Besieged was increased. Now, the higher the forces the more players recieve. If Notorious Monsters are defeated during Besieged, a bonus to Exp and Imperial Standing is earned. Experience is no longer lost during the BCNM to take back the Astral Candescence. The number of Archaic Mirrors in beastmen strongholds now have an effect on an enemy's defense during Besieged. Undead Swarm enemies will use their special attacks less frequently. Archaic Mirrors now appear less frequently. If all players are KO'd during an Assault Mission, they will now eject from the area after 3 minutes. BLU, COR and PUP have been added to the Brygid the Stylist Returns quest. Adventuring Fellows no longer cast Aquaveil. Fellows now also use /bow when the player uses it. Tsih Kolgimih has appeared in Aht Urhgan Whitegate to replay events. Poroggo family of monsters was added. Monsters in Dynamis would no longer randomly cast Stona. More items available through Logging and Harvesting in Wajaom Woodlands and Bhaflau Thickets.	Treasures of Aht Urhgan Missions Thus far, the view on the missions was pretty anti-climactic. Many players still questioned why, if the missions were so lackluster with no reward, more were not implemented upon release of the expansion. Ashu Talif Spam Immediately after the Version Update, the quest was not time restricted content. Many players spammed the fight repeatedly for valuable items such as the Barbarossa's Zerehs. This was adjusted on October 24th, and a time restriction of 24 hours was placed on the battlefields. Samurai The adjustments made to Samurai were very well recieved by the community. Hasso and Seigan were game changers, and there was a sudden increase in Samurais.
Oct. 20th, 2006	Trick or Treat! 2006
	The Halloween event returned from October 20th thru November 1st. The Dark Lilies event debuted, where players had to follow "Ghost" NPCs around town while wearing a costume. The idea was that you could not be seen by the NPCs. Completing the event for the first time would earn the Witch Hat, while a second and more challenging try will earn the Coven Hat.	While wearing the hats and speaking to a Moogle, players could purchase the new Bomb Lantern, Pumpkin Lantern and Mandragora Lantern Furnishings for their Mog House.
Nov. 6th, 2006	Special Task Force Formed
	The Special Task Force was officially formed in 2006 to investigate and dispose of acts such as third party tool use and RMT activities.
Nov. 8th, 2006	Vana'diel Collection 2007
	The Vana'diel Collection 2007 was released to Windows in North America. All expansions to date were included in the collection. This package also includes a new fold-out map of Vana'diel including command lists and mini walkthroughs to help new players get started. Also included is a 30-day free trial and a Vana'diel Buddy Pass. The MSRP was $29.99.
Nov. 26th, 2006	Laughter Mania 2006
	This User Event was planned by a Japanese comedy radio show and took place and was organized on the Cerberus world, but was taken part in cross-worlds by other players. There was a simultaneous live podcast going on at the same time as the event in-game. The "OCR" (Online Community Relations) team assisted with the event by providing the following services: Discussion of the event's planning both in game and through e-mail Temporarily increasing the amount of players allowed in the area to be used for the event Announcements by means of a system message to each area Placing a moogle to explain the event Provision of areas normally only available for weddings, or areas such as the Diorama Abdhaljs – Ghelsba for staging the event Having GMs move event participants and the event organizer to the area of the event Distributing items that cannot usually be purchased, such as fireworks, and handing out warp scrolls for leaving the area This event triggered the announcement from Square Enix that when large scale user events are to be held in the future, official support would be given after considering the contents and achivement of the event.
Dec. 19th, 2006	Salvage... without Kraken Clubs
	New Features & Content The Salvage content was released. Job Adjustments Paladin Sentinel - The effect of Sentinel will be changed from an increase in defense to straight damage mitigation. Also, all actions taken while Sentinel is in effect will generate additional enmity, allowing the paladin to more easily gain and maintain an enemy's attention. Rampart - In addition to the defense bonus granted to party members within the area of effect, Rampart will now also provide a "Magic Shield" that will absorb a certain amount of magic damage in the same manner as the spell “Stoneskin.” Shield Mastery - In addition to granting a TP bonus, the Shield Mastery job trait will also prevent interruption to spell casting when an enemy’s attack is blocked with a shield. Dark Knight The casting time for all Absorb spells has been reduced from 4 Seconds to 2 Seconds Blue Mage Several new spells were added: Blank Gaze, Mind Blast, Magic Hammer, Wild Carrot, Zephyr Mantle, and Exuviation Corsair Given Rapid Shot. AGI now affects Quick Draw Accuracy Quick Draw's recast was lowered from 3 Minutes to 1 Minute. In accordance with this change, the Group 1 merit point ability Quick Draw Recast will now reduce recast time by 2 seconds instead of 6 seconds. Light shot and Dark shot were changed to have enfeebling effects instead of damage. Light shot now Sleeps an enemy, and Dark shot now Dispels an enemy. Puppetmaster New high level automaton weapon skills added. New automaton attachments introduced. New automaton emotes added. An automaton now uses the following emotes when it's master does: blush/bow/cheer/clap/dance/goodbye hurray/joy/panic/point/salute surprised/wave Changes to Chocobo Raising: Kamp Kwek added. The Chocobo Hot and Cold Game. A quest was added to obtain the chocobo ability "Treasure Finder" Two new beneficial statuses "Bursting with Vitality" and "Sparkling with Intelligence" were added. A chocobo being in love may sometimes affect the chocobo instead of only the success rate of its training. Chocobos will now find items when taking them for a walk. Changes to Besieged: Players can now earn Limit Points by participating in the event. When players are transported out of Al Zahbi due to number restrictions, HP detrimental effects will be removed. A rare occurence when players who were KO'd during a Besieged lost Experience Points was fixed. Mog Locker capacity increased to 70 items. Transportation to Tu'Lia is now available via the Hall of Transference after meeting certain requirements. Adventuring Fellows no longer disappear when changing areas or logging back in. However, they do not follow players into areas they cannot be called. New command /ignorepet was introduced. This command lets players ignore automatons, avatars, and charmed monsters. /blockaid no longer turns off when KO'd in battle. Players can also adjust the setting when KO'd. In areas where Subjobs are restricted, players can no longer use Wide Scan abilities. The Kraken Club was removed from Lord of Onzozo. Later, it would be introduced elsewhere.	Salvage! Salvage was a very challenging event, unlike anything players have seen for quite some time. At first, it was compared to Chains of Promathia difficulty. Many hardcore players enjoyed solving the mysteries that the zones had to offer. The rewards from the event surpassed the top-tier rewards already implemented in the game. Many abjuration pieces and sky equipment fell by the wayside. Many people were excited that they no longer had to compete against bots or RMT in order to get desirable gear. Instead, skill and dedication were required. 2,000 Assault Points were required for each Remnants Permit. With the three-day lockout, it usually was not a problem to spam a few easy assaults with your group during the downtime. Armor Designs The armor designs for the new Salvage sets were like nothing seen in-game before. Credit for the armor designs goes to Ayumi Namae. She was in charge of the Artifact Armor for TOAU and WOTG jobs. After graduating from a fashion university, she joined the company as a mid-career hire. She is currently in charge of character art designs in FFXIV. She is not in charge of designing all of the equipment, but rather totally new models at the time. As with everything new, she was criticized for a few designs. A prime example is the dark purple patterns on purple backgrounds such as the Morrigan's Attire Set and Goliard Attire Set. Some players referred to them "like grandma's fashion" or "something to be found in Sugamo ([Sugamo is a neighborhood in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. It is home to Jizō-dōri, a shopping street popular among the older generation, earning it the nickname "Granny's Harajuku."]" On the other hand, as mentioned she did create the beautiful designs such as Corsair Artifact Armor, Puppetmaster Artifact Armor, and Nashmeria/Aphmau's white and gold costumes. Such equipment was often called "cute" by female players.
Dec. 19th, 2006	Starlight Celebration 2006
	The event was held from December 19th thru December 31st. The customary kingdom decorations and Jeuno Christmas music was in place. The Twinkling Treant returned. Players had to /cheer it on so that it walks to a certain location. There was an event about a fake Smile Bringer. Players had to discover the imposter. Three new furnishings (Dream Platter, Dream Coffer and Dream Stocking) were added, one for each city.	Premier Site Christmas Card The Christmas Card below was presented to Japanese community sites. It is not known if North American or European sites received one. FFXI Art Director Mr. Kaiba's illustration is drawn, along with a message of gratitude to the community site was attached. The composition is similar to that of the TGS 2006 award, but it is further depicted as a whole. The difference is the Elvaan is facing diagonally, and the forgotten Tarutaru was added. Image from finalfantasy7110.com
Dec. 19th, 2006	The Kraken Club Returns
	The Kraken Club was re-implemented into the game, and added to the BCNM Up in Arms.

Navigation Pre-Release & Beta 2000 - 2001 Release & The First Year 2002   The Rise of the Zilart Era 2003 The Chains of Promathia Era 2004   Conclusion of Chains of Promathia 2005 The Treasures of Aht Urhgan Era 2006   Conclusion of Treasures of Aht Urhgan 2007 The Age of Mythical Weapons 2008   The Add-on Scenarios 2009 The End of the Level 75 Cap 2010   The Beginning of Post-Abyssea 2011 The Level 99 Era 2012   The Seekers of Adoulin Release 2013 Seekers of Adoulin Conclusion 2014 The Rhapsodies of Vana'diel 2015 coming in the future! Back to the Main Page

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