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 The Voracious Resurgence |
 
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| Reforged Armor Artifact: +1 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 Relic: +1/+2 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 Empyrean: +1/+2 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 |
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The History of Final Fantasy XI/2007
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Beta Information2007 - Conclusion of Treasures of Aht Urhgan
During the 2007 Square Enix Party held in May, it was announced that Wings of the Goddess was under development. The expansion ended up being released in November.
In March, German and French service began. Final Fantasy XI saw an increase in European players at this time. Also this year, many Fan events were held throughout the world.
| Jan. 1st, 2007 |  Bugards appear! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This year, bugards (Beasts) appeared in various places from January 1st thru January 15th. Their names were Wood Bugard, Fire Bugard, Earth Bugard, Gold Bugard, and Water Bugard.
By trading the lead bugard random gifts, players had a chance to obtain the New Year's Gift. Using the gift gave Fishing Synthesis Support. Trading the gift back to starter NPCs would award players with the Battledore. If players rode the airship between the starter nation and Jeuno, special NPCs would also be riding during the event. Equipping the club and speaking to this NPC would give players the option to trade two Black Ink and a Bast Parchment. They would be awarded with the Hoary Spire furnishing. |
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| Jan. 15th, 2007 |  Chocobo Raising Fixes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jan. 17th, 2007 | Anti RMT Update | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Requirements to receive the quest An Explorer's Footsteps have been changed to the following:
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RMT were abusing this quest by constantly spamming it to earn gil. These adjustments were made to combat this situation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb. 2nd, 2007 | Valentione's Day | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Valentione's Day made its usual return from February 2nd thru February 15th.
The event itself was unchanged, but the new items introduced this year were the Miracle Wand and Miracle Wand +1. |
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| Feb. 3rd, 2007 | Additional RMT prevention Update | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Another RMT exploit was removed. Fishing up rusty items and restoring them with a Light Crystal would create items that would NPC for a large profit. Light crystals were extremely rare, and shot up in price. Light Elementals in sky were a good farming spot for real players while this was going on. Players had flashbacks of the Rusty Cap nightmare. To combat this, the recipes were removed entirely from the game. Later, the NPC price of the items were drastically reduced.
Rusty item fish botters in action can be seen in the following video. The following changes were made to combat RMT Fishing:
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Special Tiger Team RMT Fish Bots increased sharply in Batallia Downs around Mid January 2007. Players who were tired of seeing the Special Task Force not doing their job ended up taking this predicament into their own hands. Players would spawn the Notorious Monster Badshah and use the Goblin Digger to purposly MPK the fish botters. These players were referred to as the STT (Special Tiger Team). Many players praised this daring act, and it usually worked splendidly. The Goblin Bounty Hunter was introduced in the March 2007 version update to countermeasure low level fishbotters/RMT, which basically was the same idea as the STT. Many players supported these activities, but MPK was also against the Terms of Service. Many legitimate players got involved and were accidently targeted as a casualty of the act, who in turn called GMs into the fray. Some STT members received account suspensions. These players who were legitimate considered the STT to be participating in "the same sin" as the fish botters/RMT.
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| Feb. 23rd, 2007 | The Doll Festival 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Doll Festival was run from February 23rd thru March 4th. Players were sent Sweet Rice Cakes to their delivery box.
Held in conjunction to this event was a Fan Art Contest. Click here to see the winning entries. Be sure to click the Next button on the bottom of the page to see additional entries. |
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| Mar. 2nd, 2007 |  Premier Site Summit 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Square Enix reached out privately to their then-Premier Sites in mid February of 2007, saying they wished to invite them to Los Angeles (specifically El Segundo) to visit their offices. On March 2nd they held and all day event where they discussed the state of the community, strengthening their communications, and to participate in some in-game events.
At this time there were no official forums yet, so the premier websites were their "voice to community". The Square Enix community team, including Matt Hilton, North American Producer Yasu Kurosawa and Global Online Producer Sage Sundi. The attendees were told a special guest would be joining them for lunch, who turned out to be the then-President and COO of Square Enix, Daishiro Okada. This summit was called to establish a more connected and personal relationship between the company and the community. The websites that were part of the summit, as well as the staff members were as follows: Allakhazam: Pikko and Exodus FFXIclopedia: Ganiman and Rickshaw Dreams in Vana'diel: Akosygin and ??? FFXI Vault (IGN): Sparky and ??? FFXI Stratics: Warzod and ??? FFXI Warcry: Razor and Sokaku
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All of the attendees had to agree to non-disclosure agreements, until they were given the go-ahead by SE saying it was ok to post their write ups. The whole event seemed to have been a last minute happening, with only a two week notice to the premier site teams.
The event consisted of a tour of their compound. This included, the Quality Assurance floor, the Customer Service area, Community Relations area, and GM offices. The company then treated the community teams to lunch at Marie Callender's Grill. Many interesting discussions went on during lunch, including that at that time they had no intention of removing PS2 support. Back at the offices, the premier site teams played a few in-game events. Specifically, the ones featured at TGS 2006 (Blitzkrieg, The Gathering Storm, and Heroines Combat). After the in-game events, a presentation was shown to the premier site teams discussing the aspects of each of the SE teams, and their tasks. Windowed mode was the biggest confirmation at this event. Many players had high hopes for this feature.
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| Mar. 8th, 2007 |  French and German language support | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coinciding with the March version update, French and German languages became usable in Final Fantasy XI. Players must have had a European version of the game, however, to have used these languages. |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar. 8th, 2007 | Nyzul Isle Assault Introduced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nyzul Isle Nyzul Isle was a hit, and many players enjoyed the random challenges for a change from the norm. The requirements for advancing were very strict, however. The Runic Disk for the person who took the party up would progress, but nobody else's. The progress was also erased after completing the 100th floor. It became common for the person who's disk was used to warp out to keep progress. Many players were deceived though. The teaser pictures on the official website showed Fafnir in them, and many players assumed that Fafnir drops (Ridill, specifically) would be obtainable within the new event. Of course, this was false. Many players continued to live in Dragon's Aery. Notorious Monster Changes The changes to the Notorious Monster pop system for these NMs had huge effects, especially for two in particular. There was no warning that this change, or anything like it, would happen. "Ullikummi's Aery" was no more. Autumnstones went from the rarest sky pop to the most common overnight. Instead of "U" being the most difficult NM to get, it became the most common. Linkshells were now cranking out Kirin and Byakko left and right, causing a huge increase in flow of Crimson Cuisses and Byakko's Haidate. Suddenly, Thief's Knife and TH4 became a staple instead of a luxury. The day before this update, they could be found for max gil (99 million) in bazaars. They would sometimes be found for 70-80 million, and would sell quickly at that price. For weeks after the update, many Thieves could be found in the Temple of Uggalepih getting their knives. The price of Thief's Knife, Speed Belt, and Strider Boots plummeted. Many career Thieves who went 1/200+ on their drop ended up quitting the game over seeing this huge change. They really cannot be blamed for hours of their time turned into a force pop NM. It took awhile for players to figure out what the Octave Club did. Many didn't think it was anything more than a Shellbuster joke. After it was figured out, many players de-levelled their Dark Knight to 72 in order to make use of the club. It was not uncommon to have at least one 72 DRK in your linkshell for NMs such as King Vinegarroon or Dynamis Lord. Drain II became a necessary spell to cast for max HP up right before Kraken zergs. Limit Point/Experience Point switching Previously, it was impossible to switch between the mode of earning either Limit Points or Experience Points, unless you were in your Mog House. This created a situation where if a player had only one job at level 75 and they de-levelled, they were unable to gain a buffer unless they warped back to town to switch modes after reobtaining level 75. Chocobo Digging Skill It was unclear how much chocobo digging was affected by the Hot and Cold game change because it was a hidden skill. This was good news for beginner diggers getting into the hobby, but veteran diggers saw it as the easy way in.
The Mazurka Festival II was a time where the spells Raptor Mazurka and Chocobo Mazurka gave an extreme amount of hate, more than any other hate generating methods at the time. The more people in the party it hit, the more hate that was generated. Ninja sub Bard and even Bard sub Ninja were hate holding machines. The spell even generated hate in dungeons where it had no effect. It became common for Wyrms and other straight tank HNMs to be done with Ninjas and Bards, as long as there was a second bard for March duty. With this nerf, Paladin came back into it's prime. Ninja sub was born, pared with Vitality builds to negate the maximum amount of damage.
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| Mar. 28th, 2007 |  FFXI OST Premium Box Released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In addition to the four OSTs released so far, unreleased tracks as well as piano arrangements were included. The box itself featured beautiful Final Fantasy XI art for each expansion.
A total of 143 songs were in the set, and the price was 11,000 Yen (Tax Included). Later on in the year, this set was available on PlayOnline.com and at Fan Events in North America. MSRP was $80. |
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| Mar. 29th, 2007 | Chocobo Racing Introduced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Goblin Bounty Hunters The Goblin Bounty Hunters were a double edged sword. On one hand, the fish bots finally were annihilated. On the other, many popular camp spots were destroyed such as the lake in Qufim Island and the beaches in Valkurm Dunes. In those areas, they were far too high level for a party to deal with. There were some noooks and crannys the goblin bounty hunters did not reach, and a few bots remained. Eventually, those were fixed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar. 30th, 2007 | New Player Guide Released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The New Player Guide was released on the Official Website. This was the first time Square Enix attempted to assist new players just starting out.
Even after it's release, new players found themselves lost in the world of Vana'diel. As video games became more casual and user friendly, Final Fantasy XI did not. That is, however, one of the many reasons players continued to be drawn in. The challenge that the game presented could not be matched. |
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| Mar. 30th, 2007 | FFXI All-in-One Pack released in Europe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To coincide with the release of the French and German language support, a new All-in-One version was released in Europe for both Windows and Xbox 360 versions. MSRP was 29.99 Euros (or the local equivalent).
Again, there was no PS2 support in PAL format due to the HDD never being released in Europe. |
 
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| Mar. 30th, 2007 |  FFXI at eSports Convention 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Final Fantasy XI had a booth set up at the convention, and the European Community & Service team attended the event in Berlin. It took place in the Cinestar IMAX multiplex in the Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz from March 30th thru April 1st.
From 10AM until Midnight, 1500 visitors had the opportunity to try out the German edition first-hand, allowing them to form parties and explore the world of Vana'diel. Also on show were demonstrations by Square Enix staff, and cutscenes from the game's storyline in German. Naturally, congoers could take pictures with Mithra models and to win FFXI T-shirts and copies of the new 2007 All-in-One edition of the game. |
 
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| Apr. 4th, 2007 | The Egg Hunt 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 2007 Egg Hunt was held from April 4th thru April 16th. The event was the same as the year before, except the Egg Helm (dubbed Nipple Helm or Boob Helm) and the beautiful Jeweled Egg were introduced. |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 27th, 2007 | Feast of Swords 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 2007 Feast of Swords was held from April 27th thru May 11th. There were only a few changes to the event, such as NPCs were renamed. The new weapon added to the event was the Shinai. |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 11th, 2007 | "First Final Fantasy XI" disk released in Japan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SourceNext, a company who released bargain priced software, released the base game of Final Fantasy XI for Windows.
Only the base game content was included. Square Enix began selling individual registration codes for the expansions via PlayOnline. |
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| May 11th, 2007 | 5th Anniversary Adventurer Appreciation Campaign | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The campaign ran from May 11th thru May 31st. Talking to the moogle in town again gave adventurer stats, and everyone receive an Anniversary Ring. Returning to the moogle every Earth Day would result in new fireworks such as the Angelwing. | The stats on the ring were less at the time than today. Nevertheless, it was an amazing ring at the time.
Experience Point Bonux: +100%, Maximum Duration: 720 min, Maximum bonus: 3000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 12th, 2007 |  Square Enix Party 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 2007 Square Enix party was held at Makuhari Messe on May 12th & 13th, 2007. FFXI's booth was titled "Final Fantasy XI 5th Anniversary!"
At the event, various events were available for play. Chocobo races, special Assault editions (Boss Battle Bash, etc.), the first Japanese FFXI Costume contest, and a miniature concert by Kano Myano on the piano. A second fan art contest was held, and visitors voted on their favorite entries. Voters received a special clear file bag and logo neck strap. The art entries can be found here. The "Live Quest" event was also held, challenging fans to make a real life "party" at the event and complete challenging trivia and tasks. Finally, when participating in the events at the venue players would receive "Treasure Coins", which you deposited into a vending machine where capsules containing various prizes were distributed to winners. The machine was known as the "Random Deal". During the Developer Talk Session, the fifth expansion Wings of the Goddess was announced.
Coins used during the events and for the Random Deal machine.
Mr. Fumio Minagawa designed the artwork for this clear file. Intended to store event papers. |
The Wings of the Goddess Announced! Much of the community was shocked that the fifth expansion pack, Wings of the Goddess, was announced when Treasures of Aht Urhgan was not yet finished. On top of that, with a 2007 release date. The reveal trailer was part of a 45-minute-long Square Enix presentation showing all SE video games they were releasing that fiscal year. See the first teaser trailer below.
 
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| May 26th, 2007 | FFXI at London MCM Expo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The event was held on May 26th & 27th at the ExCeL Convention Centre, Royal Victoria Dock, London, United Kingdom.
The only information that can be found is that FFXI was party of Square-Enix's booth, and playable Xbox 360 versions were on the show floor. |
No more information can be found on this event. If you have anything to contribute, please do. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 6th, 2007 | Einherjar makes it's debut! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Einjerhar The Einherjar content added new Abjurations to the game, as well as a home for Odin. The nine chambers were the same across whole servers, like Dynamis was. Linkshells would often fight over zones, and there were instances where players would "zone snipe" the areas to lock another group out who were already gathered. This resulted in linkshells often not doing their intended zones on the nights they planned and improvised with another instead. The content at first was difficult without on-par Sleepers. Entire groups of monsters would aggro when only one was pulled, resulting in huge waves at a time. Wipes were very common, and with blood aggro it was hard to recover. Unthrowable Ammunition "Inadvertent Throwing", as the JP community called it, plagued FFXI players until this update. Ammunition with the purpose of stat boosting could unintentionally be thrown at monsters. All it took was a quick button press in the engaged menu for a player to toss their extremely expensive ammunition piece. Although it was possible to cancel the throwing process by moving your character, there were cases where players could not respond fast enough to cancel a throw. This includes laggy situations, or even times where a player might have been "Cure Locked" and couldn't move in time to cancel their action. Many requests were made to Square-Enix to fix this situation, and they were not answered until now. Many players used their "One-Time Item Restoral" on retrieving their thrown items, which was a waste by modern standards. This fix completely removed the ability to throw a stat-intended ammunition item, and the game no longer treated them as ammunition regardless that they are in the ammo slot. Salvage/Nyzul Adjustments Before the changes to Salvage, it was extremely difficult for less experienced players to enjoy the content. Even though these changes helped ease entry requirements and allow for quick gear unlocks, it was still very hard for the average joe to participate. As far as Nyzul Isle, data was still erased on your runic disk. Even though your guaranteed to win before it was erased, the time limit still proved difficult for some players. Getting kicked out while treasure was still in the pool was rather common. Because Nyzul Tokens could not be used to enter Salvage, many players had to choose between Salvage or Nyzul Isle to play with their limited Assault Tags. Super Strong Besieged After the implementation of Level 8 Besieged, numerous servers were defeated by the violent barbarian forces and their all-star NMs (Cerberus, Khimaira, and Hydra). Other worlds reported that their fights were taking two hours. Defeat was almost guaranteed with a level 8 Besieged. Due to the length of time these fights took, back-to-back enemy forces were almost certain. Some players criticized the uneasiness of development coordination skill. It seemed that developers continued to repeat their mistakes, and always had to ease the difficulty of content after rapidly increasing it. Mission Changes The largest change made to the missions was removing Experience Points loss in Mission BCNMs, and the rewarding of Experience Points for assisting other players. Many players now had a reason to help their linkshell members through these missions. The other item changes were welcome and helped players by easily obtaining items to use in the BCNMs. Limbus The price reduction for Cosmo-Cleanse was pretty huge. The event was part of many end-game linkshell's schedules, and not everyone could obtain 100k weekly for two runs per week. The price was still steep at 60k/week, but it was much more manageable. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 6th, 2007 | Assault & Einherjar Expanded | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Odin
At last, there was an alternate way of obtaining Abjurations. Odin's gear wasn't bad at all either. Adventurer's did not learn about the /kneel or /heal trick to avoid Zantetsuken until much later. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 21st, 2007 | The World Transfer service initiated | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Up until now, it was impossible to relocate already created characters to a different world except when the world a character was on got consolidated. There was a fee for this service ($25 USD or 3150 Yen). Players could now freely transfer to a world of their choosing for each character on the account.
The transfer service could be used as many times as desired, except only once every 90 Earth Days after relocating. |
Controversy The community had mixed feelings for this service. On one hand, it provided a welcome change for players to move somewhere fresh. On the other hand, it led to RMT having an easier time re-selling characters. Many markets were disturbed with players who started transferring and bringing expensive items with them to re-sell for profit. After implementation, it was also easier for players to "steal" gear, accounts, or linkshell banks. Every server had their "POS" players, and a forum section was setup on the BG Forums warning servers of people who they should avoid who know they transferred. The community would crowd to BG as a sort of a reputation blog, so you couldn't escape the fact that you were trouble to watch out for. On top of this, it still to this day is impossible to change your race or face style. These were always used to describe characters who should be avoided, even though names could be changed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 27th, 2007 | The 7th Vana'diel Census | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In addition to the usual statistics, player Mission Progress for each of the expansion packs was revealed.
778 total completed Relic Weapons existed world-wide on this date. |
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| Jun. 29th, 2007 | First Annual Celestial Nights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The event Celestial Nights premiered in 2007, and was held from June 29th to July 17th. This mid-summer event was based closely to Tanabata (meaning Evening of the Seventh), also called the Star Festival, in Japan. This event tied in with the Linkshell Community. Players were required to login to the community site and submit a haiku on their community message board. After enough were submitted, the in-game event was activated on their world.
On the worlds where the event was activated, teleports between the three nations were available. You could only teleport once per Vana'diel Day. When teleporting, you will receive a special furnishing depending on the city you teleported from. Red Bamboo Grass, Blue Bamboo Grass and Green Bamboo Grass (the colors represent the city you must teleport from). If you already had a type of grass, Chocobo Ticket x3 was received instead. Starting in 2008, the event became accessible on all worlds.
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1,750 haiku entries were required to fulfill the conditions to unlock the events in-game. On July 7th, an official update was posted on the Playonline website. There was no noticeable change on the Linkshell Community website as of July 7th. There were also reports that duplicate entries were deleted by SE, from players who tried to throw the event by multiple postings on the Linkshell Community.
There were many questions and criticism raised from various community websites that not all players of FFXI could participate unconditionally due to the following reasons:
The event occurred in only 19 of the 32 worlds. This means around 40% of the population of the game could not experience the event. Angry players who could not experience the event on their server vented frustration on community message boards. Many ridiculous haikus were written mocking this odd event. The Island of Wut Ask Sundi, he does not know Red Like Ferrari Astral Candy gone Will you go out and save it? Japan saves the day Seeking for party Alright! I got an invite! Their reply: mistell I am a Red Mage I do not look for party Parties look for me | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 29th, 2007 | FFXI at AnimeExpo 2007 (AX 2007) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From June 29th thru July 2nd, Final Fantasy XI was at the AnimeExpo (AX) 2007 in Booth #1531 & #1631. The event took place at the Long Beach Convention Center, 300 East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802.
Merchandise was available for purchase, including the Final Fantasy XI "Starter Pack Game Disc" for $3, the newly released Final Fantasy XI OST Premium Box for $80, FFXI Nation Flag T-shirts for $20, and FFXI 5th Anniversary Keychains for $6. A trivia contest was available for participation, with the grand prize of an Alienware PC. Runner up prizes were the Vana'diel Clock, Controllers, PC Mice, and copies of the 2007 edition of FFXI. A Dark Rider Easel (a promotional picture that stands itself up) and FFXI 5th Anniversary Uchiwa were free giveaways to visitors who purchased the $3 starter pack game disc. These items can be seen in the picture below being held by the mithra.
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| Jul. 11th, 2007 | FFXI at E3 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E3 was held from July 11th thru July 13th. This year, E3 was greatly reduced in scale. No official presentations were done at the event.
Instead, new screenshots were released showing Wings of the Goddess areas.
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| Jul. 26th, 2007 | Sunbreeze Festival 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The event was held from July 26th thru August 20th. The "Test of Courage" event from 2004 returned, where players were warped to high level dungeons and locked as level 1.
Rewards included M&P Cracker, M&P Doner Keb., and M&P Dumpling |
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| Jul. 20th, 2007 | Starter Pack Game Disk & Registration Code Sales debut in North America | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Starter Pack went on sale at retailers across the USA for the price of $3.99. Included was a single DVD-ROM of the base game, and a 30 day play pass.
Starting three days later on the 23rd, Registration Codes went on sale through Playonline to obtain the expansion packs. At the beginning of this service, Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia were $9.99. Treasures of Aht Urhgan was $14.99. |
 
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| Jul. 24th, 2007 | Starter Pack & Expansion Pack Registration Codes released in Europe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Starter Pack went on sale at retailers across Europe for the price of 4.99 Pounds Sterling, or the local equivalent in other countries. Included was a single DVD-ROM of the base game, and a 30 day play pass.
Registration codes went on sale via Playonline, similar to the North American prices in local currency. It did not make sense to buy these codes unless you were missing an expansion, or for PS2 players who could not locate a physical copy of an expansion. In stores at this time, the All-in-One 2007 version was selling for $20. |
 
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| Aug. 23rd, 2007 | FFXI at GC 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FFXI returned to Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. This year, there was not even an official announcement made that FFXI would be at the convention.
There was an interview done by a European gaming website with the developers, but not much more talk about this convention appearance. Staff wore a T-shirt advertising Treasures of Aht Urhgan, pictured to the right. |
 Image from finalfantasy7110.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 28th, 2007 | Final Chapter of the Treasures of Aht Urhgan released, and "The 2-Handed Update" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Fabled 2-Handed Update Square-Enix stated that with this 2-H change, the system was "reconsidered from every aspect", and introduced the following changes to the 2-H weapon system along with Grips Before adjustment STR + 1 = attack power + 0.5, DEX + 1 = accuracy + 0.5 After adjustment STR + 1 = attack power + 1, DEX + 1 = accuracy + 1 Damage calculation method and enhancement of WS As a result, combat abilities went up greatly overnight with Warriors and their 2-Handed Weapons as their mainstay, Dark Knight, Samurai, and Dragoon. Aside from those four jobs, Paladin with Great Sword and Staff also benefited from the change.
With new found accuracy, players found that they could now change from Sushi meals for much needed accuracy to attack food. This caused attack power to increase even further, and the difference in damage between Dual Wield to 2-H was even greater. Demand for sushi fell slightly, and sales of attack food with a high attack power cap increased greatly. Chefs stated there was great profit to be made at this time. Finally, since the effects of Strength and Dexterity were greatly increased, equipment with these stat boosts became more valuable than ever. Jobs who received these benefits were able to be used everywhere regardless of content. From Missions and Quests, all the way to HNMs, 2-Handers could now out damage almost every other job. Zerg parties became the norm for all types of HNMs and endgame content. The significance of bringing any other type of jobs was questioned. Automaton Dream This little-known glitch was shadowed by the flurry of the 2-H buff. After this update, there was dramatic performance improvement in Automatons where the magic recast interval was nonexistent. It only lasted until the following version update, but it was a magical time for Puppetmasters. It was obviously abnormal behavior and was inevitable for it to be fixed. With the implementation of the Automaton mage heads, it is possible to combine them with a frame that does not use magic. The act of doing this would reduce the magic use interval of Automatons to 0. Before the update, there was a 35 second interval between casts. Soloing was incredibly easy with short successions of Cure spells. Three days later, the following announcement was made as a "Known Issue":
There were hopes that this issue would not be fixed due to different interpretations of the message, but all expectations pointed to Automatons going back to the way they were before. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep. 11th, 2007 | Pankration Implemented | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2-Handed Adjustments The upper damage limit of 2-Handed weapons did not calculate correctly after the previous update, and damage output was altered slightly. Furthermore, the accuracy of Guillotine and Penta Thrust was also adjusted. Regardless of these changes, 2-H weapons remained king of damage for three months. Automatons Puppetmasters worst fears were realized, as the instant magic casting bug was fixed. Through the series of events, however, it became clear that the Automaton could be close to the player in terms of its ability such as its stats. It was limited by the problems of AI, unfortunately. Pankration
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| Sep. 20th, 2007 | FFXI at Tokyo Game Show 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2007 was from September 20th thru 23rd. There were two major announcements from the show regarding Final Fantasy XI.
The largest announcement to come out of the show was an additional Wings of the Goddess trailer, revealing the Dancer job and Cait Sith (Meme), Also, the release date of November 20th, 2007 was announced.
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Goods were for sale, including the following:
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| Sep. 23rd, 2007 | BGWiki was born! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sep. 25th, 2007 | Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The second Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign was ran from September 25th thru November 19th.
This year, returnees received an Anniversary Ring. |
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| Oct. 1st, 2007 | "Net Cafe Billing Play" option in Japan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Starting on October 1st in Japan, a new "Net Cafe Billing Play" option was introduced. This allowed players to enjoy Final Fantasy XI with only the internet cafe usage fee. You needed to keep your Nepoca membership and sign up for a POL account with a special version of Playonline at the cafes.
Players were restricted to only be able to play at the NetCafes. It was possible to migrate your information to a full-fledged Playonline account in order to play at home or other places. |
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| Oct. 1st, 2007 | Trick or Treat!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Held from October 18th thru November 1st, the Dark Lilies portion of the event was new this year.
No new equipment was released, but Allakazham.com had a pumpkin carving contest. No details about this 2007 contest could be found. |
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| Nov. 3rd, 2007 | Altana Festival at Osaka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Altana Festival was held in the Umeda Arts Theater in Osaka, Japan. The attendance limit was 1,800 people, so tickets sold incredibly fast. Event attendees were given a Campaign Code to redeem for entry items into four BCNMs: Cordial Invite, Training Grounds Key, Martial Ball Invite, & Mercenary Camp Entry Slip.
Producer Tanaka led the development team in two talk sessions, and announced new elements from the Wings of the Goddess expansion.
Scholar, the second and final job in the expansion, was announced.
The Campaign system, and how to travel back and forth between the past and present zones was announced.  As with previous events, some lucky fans got to try their hand at new in-game battlefields.  The Mini Concert began with the Aht Urghan city theme, then went on to include the Chocobo Raising tune, the main theme of Chains of Promathia as a piano solo, Wings of the Goddess Field Area music (piano solo), the Shadow Lord theme (piano solo), the Ark Angel theme, and an encore of the theme music for Jeuno. All in all, the concert included seven different songs.  |
Free giveaways included a pumpkin hat, and Wings of the Goddess clear file.
World Seals were distributed at the entrance to the festival. These allowed attendees to display their server and easily identify and chat with others who played in the same World. However, there was a lot of confusion and not a lot of time to fully put this plan into motion and unfortunately, both this and the player survey sort of fell by the wayside.  In the second floor lobby, Final Fantasy XI related material was displayed, such as numerous soundtracks and recommended hardware for game play.  Many goods were for sale at the event. The line for the shops wrapped around outside and up three floors.
The most popular goods were the special rings for each of the three nations. By the time the curtain went up, they were completely sold out. They were made available for sale later via PlayOnline's website, though.
Also for sale was an evil looking red-eyed baby chocobo plush. Finally, goblin and mandragora keychains were available for pre-order.
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| Nov. 8th, 2007 | Crystal War Revisited - Special Event | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To commemorate the release of Wings of the Goddess, this event began on November 8th and ran through the 15th.
Players had to capture "Crystal Fragments" (a virtual currency, not an item) from a crystal that was setup in the three beastmen strongholds. The event itself was a competition to see which nation could obtain the most of these crystals, tallied across all worlds. An announcement was made on the 13th, saying San d'Oria was the lowest. However, on the 15th (after the event), a mistake was found that San d'Oria and Bastok were reversed. The progress was corrected. Bastok ended up being last place. The first time a player took fragments, Dandy Spectacles were received. When it was done 20 times, Fancy Spectacles were the reward. |
Redeyes were the top reward from this event. The top 1,000 characters in total ranking (with 101 or more deliveries) across all worlds received these glasses from the MHMU. A glitch happened, however, and the enchantment on the item was <0/1> and they were unusable. The following day, the item was corrected and was redelivered.
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| Nov. 16th, 2007 | Fan Festival 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fan Festival 2007 was held in Anaheim, California on November 16th & 17th. The event itself was in the Anaheim Hilton (Disneyland).
Attendees got their first look at Wings of the Goddess. The battlefield Mercenary Camp was also available to challenge, which was the same one as at the Altana Festival in Osaka. There was a Cosplay Contest, Movie Contest, Quiz Show, and the "History of Vana'diel" contest. An Art contest was held at the same time, and submissions opened on Playonline.com a couple weeks before the event. Developer Panels There were a few Developer Panels held, as expected. There was confirmation that the mysterious Nyzul Isle weapons were going to be used for Mythical Weapons. Also, there were hints about player-designed dungeons, which ended up being MMM. Developers also announced that they would release a video of them defeating the elusive Absolute Virtue. Many players mocked that, saying they will probably be using "God Mode" where they could not be hurt. Another discussion that took place during the Developer Panels was the re-adjustment of the 2-Handed weapon system. Developers admitted that the adjustment made to 2-Handed weapons was "overkill", and minor adjustments would be made in the next version update. They said that they would like to improve the situation so that no specific attack style is always superior but want to create an atmosphere where various attack styles are better depending on enemies and circumstances. They gave a rundown of the job adjustments they hope to implement, listed below.
The local amateur band "Smash Brothers" played eight songs from FFXI in various arrangements. Youtube was much more popular at this time, and below is a segment of special guest Kumi Yanioka performing the Distant Worlds piano solo. She also performed Awakening and a "Wings of the Goddess" field song.
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Swag Bag A scan is pictured below of the Live Quest that was done during the event. This gives you an idea of how the Quest worked at all FFXI events. Event attendees all received a Campaign Code for the Nomad Cap and for the special battlefield entry items.
Below are pictures of the costume contest, and mithra photo booth.
More photos from the event, as well as SE staff
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| Nov. 20th, 2007 | Wings of the Goddess Preliminary Update | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2-Hand Festival comes to an end With this update, they toned down the Attribute bonuses to 2-Handed Weapons. STR +1 = Attack +0.75 DEX +1 = Accuracy +0.75 Adjustment of damage calculation formula Although the reduction of attack power hurt, the reduction of accuracy was more serious than that. Most players who used 2-H weapons could not maintain accuracy after this adjustment, unless they had top-notch HQ equipment. Many players returned to Sushi as their food. All jobs that used 2-H weapons were affected, but the impact on Samurai was particularly great. fTP modifications for Tachi: Kasha were changed to TP 100%: 1.75 => 1.5625, TP 200%: 2.0 => 1.875. This combined with the attack change proved particularly bad for the job. In response to this series of adjustments, the reaction from players was there were both pros and cons. There were people who said the current situation is appropriate, and others who said that it was an unfair weakness. Regardless of approval or disagreement, the consensus was that players are in a better overall position right now than before the first 2-H adjustments. Nevertheless, their "reexamination from every aspect" statement made regarding the first update proved completely false. It was overturned in a matter of three months. There remained voices for months that pointed out the lack of accountability on Square-Enix's part. Macros While the macro additions had players extremely grateful, the question remained why there were no additional lines added to each macro. Players continued to resort on Windower Macros for large amounts of gear they needed to swap in and out. Ranger Velocity Shot was the beginning of Ranger's comeback. Dark Ixion was added in Wings of the Goddess, and Rangers were almost a necessity for defeating it. White Mage Repose was finally another form of light-based sleep. It was particularly useful on HNMs since many WHMs subbed Black Mage at the time, and had Elemental Seal. Thief Accomplice gave Thieves an alternate role in a party. The ability to steal 50% hate from a party member was huge, especially from mages during long HNM fights when Enmity became an issue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nov. 22nd, 2007 | Wings of the Goddess expansion released! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The expansion pack was released simultaneously in every country on every platform. Due to time zone differences, in North America and Europe, the release date was the 21st. MSRP was $29.99 (3980 Yen (Tax excluded)) for all versions of the expansion.
On the same day, an All-in-One version was released in Japan and North America. The Japan version was simply called "The Vana'diel Collection", and the North American version was "The Vana'diel Collection 2008". MSRP was $49.99 for the Xbox 360 version, and $39.99 for PS2. In Japan, PS2 and Xbox 360 versions were both 7800 Yen (tax excluded). Mr. Nobuaki Komoto assumed office as Director for Wings of the Goddess's release. Service for the expansion went live November 22nd (JST)/November 21st PDT. Reception of the Expansion The Negative "Salvage > WOTG as a whole" As with TOAU, players again struggled to find a CD Key based on their PlayOnline account's region. A lot of swapping of keys happened on message boards abroad. On top of this, there was a shipping delay for PC players, and the expansion was hard to find in many stores. Players were buying the All-in-One collection at a higher price in order to obtain a key, and then download a torrent of the files in order to be ready for release time. Many players felt like the expansion itself was "empty", and was more like a sneak preview of an expansion rather than an actual one. Players could not help but wonder what Square-Enix was talking about when they mentioned that TOAU was developing slow because most of their resources were going into this expansion. The question had to be asked: "Why was so little content available upon release?". Many monsters were re-skinned, as well as only three brand-new zones upon release. The other zones were "re-skinned as well". There was also the question as to why Tavnazia never made an appearance. There was a lot of wasted potential on not including it, and the city would have been epic. The Positive Campaign proved an attractive event, as well as Campaign Ops. It was indeed a good time killer while seeking for a party. As long as you avoided Gho'Bu Softstep and his massive unblinkable ranged AOE attack, you were good. Sprinter's Shoes were a hit, especially because they stacked with movement speed gear. As far as the areas themselves, they were thoroughly enjoyed. The ambience of war, along with the music were incredible. Finally, the war that we heard about for so long in the game came to life. Sandworm was discovered pretty quickly, and chalked up as useless. It's Void gimmick was not implemented until the June 2008 update. Many players killed it and only received a title, as its synthesis materials were not yet implemented (but they were in the dats). Nevertheless, it was fun to have a totally new type of monster to team up and fight. |
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| Nov. 22nd, 2007 | Additional merchandise added to the Square Enix online store! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New merchandise was available at the North American store. New items were the goodies available at the previous Fan events, which are listed below.
Three nation rings for $99.99 each, 5th Anniversary Key Ring for $6, Three nation Keychains (Nation Logos) for $13.99, and the evil red-eyed Chocobo plush for $10.99. |
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| Dec. 18th, 2007 | PlayOnline Membership Information section implemented | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Starting on this day, users could login to the official website with their PlayOnline details and edit their Membership Information. This was the first step in phasing out PlayOnline for the Square Enix Account Management system a few years later. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 19th, 2007 | The Starlight Celebration | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The celebration returned from December 19th thru December 31st.
New to the event this year was matching player characters requested by the Moogle. It was more difficult as it required player cooperation. The new reward was the Dream Boots & Dream Boots +1. |
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