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 The Voracious Resurgence |
 
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| Prime Weapons • Ultimate Weapons • Ultimate Augments • Abjurations iL119 • JSE Necks • Divergence Augments • Escutcheons | |
| Reforged Armor Artifact: +1 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 Relic: +1/+2 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 Empyrean: +1/+2 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 |
Guides • Crafting • Trusts • Apex Monsters |
The History of Final Fantasy XI/2003
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Real Life Event in North America
Real Life Event in Europe2003 - Rise of the Zilart Era
From April of 2003, the first expansion disc, “Rise of the Zilart” widened the scope of adventurer activity farther than ever before. In October, service began in North America. December 2003 saw the introduction of the level 75 cap. It was a very busy and event-filled year for Vana’diel.
| Jan. 1st, 2003 |  Lucky Sheep Roam Vana’diel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To celebrate the New Year, there were sheep named Fortune Ram, Bless Ewe, Merry Mary, Happy Baabaa and Lucky Lamb. In addition, two Mandragora named “Ake” and “Ome” appeared in each nation, including Jeuno.
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Ake and Ome were two Mandragora NPCs with little oranges on their heads. They didn’t do anything special besides stand around in town, but adventurers just couldn’t get enough screenshots of the adorable pair. Ake and Ome get their names from the phrase “Akemashite omedetou,” which is said to wish a Happy New Year. The Monstrosity item Ake-Ome Spirit was derived from this event. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jan. 14th, 2003 |  Worlds Consolidate Into Kujata, Bismarck | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ixion, Typhon and Kirin were shut down and the population added to Kujata and Bismarck. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jan. 15th, 2003 |  FFXI-TV Begins Broadcasting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On “Channel BB” (channel 755) of Sky Perfect TV!, a program titled FFXI-TV begins broadcast. This program was aired 13 times in 30 minute segments. Square Enix sponsored this program. Vana'diel Wind (known today as Live Vana'diel) occasionally aired the program. The Japanese actress Yuko Mizuno stared in the program. This program aired until August 31st, 2004. | No subtitles were added to the show. Each time, the player was given a task via a Moogle "Directive". Below is a list of the episodes.
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| Jan. 23rd, 2003 | 8th annual AMD Awards prize winner! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Final Fantasy XI won the award "Digital Contents of the Year" during the 8th annual AMD awards. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 2003 | The Counter of the Crafting Bug | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As we knew it, there was a crafting bug in which a player could force an interruption on their craft. The result of this was that the crystal broke, did not generate any material losses, and the player still had a chance of skilling up. This was discovered and fixed in a few days. | Those who exploited this bug either had their skill rolled back or were perm banned. This caused the uproar from players, complaining that they run this game like an offline game. This news was also reported on TV in Japan. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 2003 | Announcement of Rise of the Zilart Release Date | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The release date for Rise of the Zilart was announced in January of 2003. Along with that, the announcement also included a temporary change to the update schedules: in which, updates would be every few months instead of monthly. | This was obviously well received by many players even after the official expansion launch. SE's reply to this for the next couple of years was that "We did not plan this kind of workload." and the like. Although it was planned as a temporary change, by the end of 2004 they decided to just make it their normal update speed for many years to come. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb. 5th, 2003 |  Search Comments Implemented | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Level Cap?!
Because there were a lot of high levels at this time already, this was done to stop players from soloing the mission BCs. NM Spawn Time The NM Spawn time change was made due to uproar that it was unfair that only "Haijins" (in english, it would mean "No Life People") could log in immediately after a server maintenance. This was the only answer that SE had to "solve" the problem for more casual players. The First BCNMs Six BCNMs were initially added: “Tails of Woe” “The Worm's Turn” “Steamed Sprouts” “Dismemberment Brigade” “Grimshell Shocktroopers” and “Divine Punishers”, although they were yet to be given these names. Also, the battlefields were not yet called “BF” and were referred to as BC戦, an acronym of Burning Circle. Enter Mimics Up until now, the only trap awaiting Thieves who failed to pick a chest was a severe Weakness effect. Now, treasure chests/coffers could turn into Mimic-type monsters. If one managed to defeat the Mimic, they would always receive a key. Sneak and Invisible wearing off also was to stop thieves from picking all day. With the latter two changes, the thief lock picking craze gradually went down. Red Mages Head to Ranguemont Pass Although the high-end spell Refresh was added to the game, how to obtain the scroll was still shrouded in mystery. A rumor originating on an Internet message board soon spread, which claimed that a Hecteyes-type monster in Ranguemont Pass, namely Taisai, dropped the scroll. The truth, however, was that the scroll was a reward from a BCNM. The drop rate was approximately 1 in 8 runs, and the Auction House price of the spell was 1 million gil. This was unheard of back then. Many Red Mages believed the rumor and hunting of the NM was widespread. As a reference to this incident, the NM Taisaijin was given Refresh in its Treasure Pool when it was added later on in 2005. He was also given the title "Bye-Bye Taisai" as a joke to this phenomina.
Fish Botting To counter fish botting, the system was changed so that when pressing the O button, the fishing would be cancelled. However, they forgot to implement this on the ENTER button or the right mouse click. Combat and Magic Skillup Parties After this update, the rate of which combat and magic skillups were gained was dramatically reduced. This caused jobs that have multiple 2 handed weapons to find it extra hard to keep everything capped. This change gave birth to "Skill up Parties" that were popular for quite awhile. The combat and magic skill tweak was "Ninja'd" into the update and players who called GMs to report bugs had only received typical responses that "it wasn't changed". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb. 8th, 2003 | Tenshodo's Envoy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On February 8th until February 14th, new NPCs appeared in the three nations selling Kukuru Beans and Selbina Milk. At the same time, a recipe for Bubble Chocolate (HQ Heart Chocolate) was added. There was no official event for Valentine's day yet. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| February 2003 | Lag! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Enormous lag problems happened in the month of February 2003, and it seemed that Playonline and something else clashed making servers unstable. People experienced serious glitches during their gameplay. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar. 13th, 2003 | Seraph and Lakshmi Open | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Two new worlds were establish to alleviate the rising population. Players could transfer to the new worlds only from select existing worlds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar. 21st, 2003 | Cherry Blossoms Appear | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cherry blossom trees in full bloom appeared in Ru'Lude Gardens, Port San d'Oria, Metalworks and Windurst Waters. | 
Image courtesy of Horu@Quetzalcoatl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 1st, 2003 | The Two Companies Combine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Formerly called Square and Enix respectively, Japan's two massive RPG makers combined and Square Enix was born. From here on, the change was reflected in Final Fantasy XI’s credits and the screenshot function. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 15th, 2003 | The Rise of the Zilart Preliminary Update | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Game changers
Scrolls of Erase & Dispel Upon first implementation, Erase and Dispel were only available from BCNMs. Due to the rarity of the scrolls combined with the incredible usefulness, they were very expensive for many years. When searching for parties, having the spells were a guaranteed invite and a one up on others who did not have them. Players who had the spells would write "Erase O" or "Dispel O" in their party search comments. Long Lines A certain monster in Konschtat Highlands caused a huge influx of adventurers looking to acquire new jobs. There were so many challengers, that adventurers formed a long line and waited their turn. At the same time, a battlefield required for the completion of the Dragoon acquisition quest had an Orcish hut looking like a popular ramen shop.  Competition for the Carbuncle's Ruby for the Summoner job quest also was severe, not to mention Kazham key mobs. 2-Hours On Demand Before now, the timers for 2-hour abilities would be reset upon changing jobs. When doing multiple BCNMs, it was customary to repeatedly reset your 2-hours between BCNM attempts. Be Careful With Those Items Up till now, moving while activating an item would cause it to be consumed without effect. This caused particular concern with rare, difficult to acquire items like Warp and Teleport scrolls. While this was fixed, for much longer players affected by Paralyze could lose their items without receiving their effects. Also with this change they added a "delay" when using items. This caused many mecidines to become useless unlike other Final Fantasy games of the past. New Sections in Dungeons The newly opened areas inside these dungeons had previously been shut off. Bostaunieux Oubliette in particular never had monsters before, but now received several NMs for adventurers to hunt. Jeuno's Regional Vendors In various places around Jeuno, there were vendors for each region. These NPCs were invaluable for crafters, until they were removed. Afterwards, Conquest determined where things could or could not be purchased. This gave birth to Regional Vendors. The new event The Green Festival reintroduced these vendors for a short period. Ammo The new loss of TP when exchanging ammo was an unbearable nightmare to all Rangers at the time of this update. When the powerful arrows were added, it was common sense to use Unlimited Shot with those arrows. Japanese players could only speak of how narrow minded the development team's perspective was due to this change. Many players complained, but the issue was neglected until the October 21st, 2003 update. Rangers were left for six months not knowing what the final outcome would be. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 17th, 2003 |  FFXI: Rise of the Zilart Goes on Sale | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The PS2 version and Windows version of the expansion were shipped to stores simultaneously. The price for the expansion only was 3,980 Yen (tax not included). The "FFXI Rise of Zilart All-in-One Pack 2003″ was also released at the price of 7,800 Yen (tax not included) either the PS2 version or the Windows version.
Overall, the expansion was well received. A few complaints included same model mobs in most areas, and lack of progression and improvement were part of the dislikes in the community. What was worse was the countless nerfs that were added in the patch post launch. The economies began to inflate with limited stocked items. Many players quit after discovering the large experience progression requirements post level 60 along with accuracy problems. The first few thousand people who preordered the expansion were given a Tarutaru Summoner strap pictured below. The Tarutaru is wearing Summoner artifact armor.
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Two packages, the expansion-only version with a red colored left label (PS2 version pictured below) and All-In-One version (Windows version pictured above) were both available for PS2 and Windows PCs. An official Square Enix logo had yet to be designed, so SQUARESOFT still appeared on the cover. This was Square and Enix’s first collaborative title.
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| May 16th, 2003 | Final Fantasy XI Completes 1 Year of Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 23rd, 2003 | FFXI: Rise of Zilart OST Released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The price for the soundtrack was 2,100 Yen (tax included) | 
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| May 27th, 2003 | Adventurer Appreciation Campaign | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For a limited time, special moogles appeared in every region. Upon talking to them, one could learn their personal statistics, such as:
Chat Lines, NPC Chat times, Parties Joined, Alliances Joined, Battles Fought, Times K.O.d, Enemies Defeated and GM Calls made. Highly ranked people on each world would be rewarded with a Chocobo Wand. Also, once an Earth day, adventurers could receive various presents (Little Comets, Twinkle Showers, Crackers, etc). |
The Chocobo Wand was awarded to highly-ranked people, and since no Chocobo Jack Coat existed, it was the only item to increase riding time. The wand was also coveted for having its own distinct graphic. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 27th, 2003 | Expansion Areas Get Cheaper | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Back then, you had to transfer your Mog House to use the Nomad Moogle, and thus, pay a fee. Add in bazaar taxes and Auction House fees, and expansion areas started feeling like high-class resorts.
After July 17th, the Mog House transfer fee and bazaar taxes were done away with, and the Auction House listing costs were lowered as well. After these changes, Kazham became a much more popular place in which to level. Walking Worms After the patch landed, a glitch occured where worms began to move around like other monsters instead of burrowing under the ground. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 2003 | Suggestion Forum Drama | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Latent MP
At this time because of Zilart's horrible launch patch, the healer shortage became more apparent. SE suggested that in order to fix this problem, they would have it so when melee jobs sub a mage, they would get more MP. Because this is obviously ignoring the core of why there is a healer shortage, players responded with dismay, at the end, this idea was scratched. |
Later during an interview, the dev team stated that "users have misunderstood their words", that their plan was to increase the number of backline jobs instead. After that, they buffed WHM up, gave them Hexa Strike, Divine Breastplate and various buffs, obviously in an attempt to draw people to WHM. This shifted the problem of shortage of WHM to the shortage of RDM and BRD. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 10th, 2003 | Midgardsormr Opens | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Players could transfer from any of the 20 initial worlds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 12th, 2003 | FFXI Entry Disc for PS2 and Windows | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Accompanying the release of Rise of Zilart, the basic game was now sold as an "Entry Disc" and the price lowered to 4,800 Yen (tax not included). | 
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| Jun. 12th, 2003 |  North American Beta Test Opens | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The world was named Cactuar. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jul. 17th, 2003 | Level 70 Unleashed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Ninja Tank is Born
With Ni-level Ninjutsu shortened to a 1.5 second recast timer, Ninja could now use both tiers of Utsusemi to tank effectively. Prior to this, both tiers had the same casting times, if not Ni being slower. The supply of Ninja tools wasn't yet large enough to make this technique especially common, but it gradually became the norm. Before this, Ninja was looked at the same as Summoner: "a job with no purpose at all". Experience Point Changes Although publicly saying they had no plans to bring an ease to the level 61+ leveling, they ninja fixed the issue with a few little changes:
Mog House Disband? Up until now, players were automatically disbanded from their party upon entering their Mog House. Even just going to change your sub job meant you had to re-join the party afterwards. This was corrected to match Nomad Moogles, which were preferred for not causing this issue. Pet Hunting Beastmaster pets were popular prey due to the high experience they gave relative to their strength. These Beastmaster were often placed near zone lines, which made them all the more popular for parties to hunt. However, once their spawn locations were changed, and pet recast was lengthened to 60 seconds, it became too difficult to keep up experience chains, and parties found other prey to hunt. New BCNMs This update saw the addition of five new battlefields: “Hostile Herbivores” “3, 2, 1...” “Treasure and Tribulations” “Infernal Swarm” and “E-vase-ive Action” However, the battlefields had yet to have these names attached. “Come Into My Parlor” was set to be added this day, but was delayed until the 22nd.
Weapon Skills Where?! New weapon skills were not immediately available. The developers stated that they used all of their resources on existing weapon skill graphic effects. Mages were complaining how melee get new weapon skills for free while mages had to work for them every time. This was the birth of WSNMs Rare HNMs Rare HNMs (like Nidhogg) were implemented. The spawn time was 60~72 hours. Before this, players occasionally took breaks from camping them. Due to the rarity and desirability of the gear that drops from them, players now continuously camped. Etudes The Etude spells added in this update were only purchasable in the Bastok music shop if the nation was rank 2 or higher. This caused issues on many worlds in availability and pricing for quite some time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jul. 18th, 2003 | Fireworks Available for a Limited Time | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From July 18th until July 27th, fireworks could be purchased in Port San d'Oria, Port Bastok, Windurst Waters and Rabao. | Four types of fireworks were available so users could celebrate summer festivals. The three nations and Rabao sold Airborne, Konron Hassen, Kongou Inaho and Meifu Goma. The Airborne and Konron Hassen were especially popular as they shot up into the sky. There were still no crafting recipes for these fireworks, and they could only be acquired through purchase. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jul. 22nd, 2003 | Clotho Orb Added | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jul. 26th, 2003 | Bon-Odori II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Users again held a Bon-Odori event, but this time there was an official moogle to announce the event, as well as the old Yughott Grotto BGM from the beta test as music. | Actual Bon-Odori event was done by volunteers on each servers.
For example,on Quetzalcoatl server,A Linkshell volunteered and planned whole event.There were two venues,North Gustaberg and West Sarutabaruta .Players gathered and danced,but on West Sarutabaruta venue,there was one compliant from other player who was trying to go to Balga's_Dais but unable to enter Giddeus due to heavy lag on West Sarutabaruta.One of the Staffs got a tell from his mule,So they asked to stop moving for all attendees until his main character could pass West Sarutabaruta. There were some issues,as user event was experimental then. Planning and how it was done might be different on other servers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 15th, 2003 | PlayOnline Terms of Service Change | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Players were now forbidden to use any outside programs or tools while playing. | Around this time rumors surfaced of GMs unjustly banning players; although officially they announced them as rule breaking. As the GM's reputation was bad to begin with, this event further dented their player's trust.
Before this announcement, there was no action taken against the cheaters. Although, after this change of rules they tried several ways to stop fishbotting. The damage of untrustworthy GMs was already too deep to be undone. Despite this announcement, the rate of fish bot bans were very minimal and were still found everywhere. Turbo controllers proved difficult to determine by SE if they were bots. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 16th, 2003 | A Mysterious Creature Emerges! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This was an event where a giant creature appeared in the areas surrounded each of the three nations. Even without Calling for Help, multiple parties and alliances could take part. If a player was defeated by the monster, they would not lose any experience.
Due to a glitch, the event was temporarily canceled.
Image courtesy of Momijiko_Z@Twitter |
The event consisted of fighting Doomed-type monsters that roamed the areas outside of home nations. A large amount of adventurers took part in massive battles. This event was made very unpopular as too many people rushed in, and the atmosphere felt like Lower Jeuno AH at the time. Later, players rumored that this was just in preparation for the Treant + OP warp event, an experimental event. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 16th, 2003 | Developer’s Blog Service Begins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The beta test now finished, Final Fantasy XI players could begin using this service. | This service lasted until December 27th, 2005. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 30th, 2003 | A Mysterious Creature Emerges! Redux | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The event that had been canceled back on the 16th was now reborn as a 2-day event, spanning August 30th and 31st.
Touching the Beastman Banner in East Ronfaure, North Gustaberg or West Sarutabaruta would cap you at level 30 and allow you to fight the Gigantoad. Defeating the three monsters would display a congratulatory System Message. The reward was temporary Outpost Teleportation service (08/31 through 09/14) in San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst. |
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| Sep. 12th, 2003 | Vana’diel’s White Shadow Returns | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This event was held for 7 hours, from 10pm September 12th to 5am September 13th. Players could receive a Moon Carrot from a Moogle, and trade said carrots to speedy little rabbits in various areas.
The rabbits were even faster than last year, but the prize was upgraded as well to Thoth's Wand. |
This event was only held in 2002 and 2003, and did not return after that. All of the glitches from the previous event remained, and it all did not go over well with players. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep. 26th, 2003 | Official Benchmark 2 Released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The setting for this version was the Yuhtunga Jungle / Yhoator Jungle. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep. 26th, 2003 | Announcement of Future Plans | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SE announced their upcoming plans for the game; from Ballista, Dynamis, further level cap increase, and the release of NA version. | At this time, they announced that the NA version would share server with the Japanese, which lead to many players worrying, but SE only replied with "We are treating this as an experiment.".
The Development team announced "From now on, the version update will come every few months."(Remember that they said they would update every 1 month, and then changed to 3 months, and now "few months".). They seemed to be using localization for the NA version as an excuse for further slowing down their updates. This did not help the animosity view of Japanese players towards English players. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 7th, 2003 | Fairy World Opens | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A new world was established for the increasing population. Transfer was available from all worlds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 14th, 2003 | North American Beta Test Ends | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There was a special event on the final day, where Moogles were placed at Home Points. Upon speaking with them, you could be teleported to NMs like Serket or King Behemoth and fight with them. GMs also joined the fray. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 21st, 2003 | Nation Rank Missions and Zilart Completed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The March Festival
After this update, a bug occurred wherein Bards using March songs with Royal Spearmen's Horn +1 or Royal Spearmen's Horn +2 equipped would receive a massive boost in effectiveness. This massive buff was not given with other March+ instruments, only these two. During this glitch period, it was reported that the duration of March songs was 30 minutes at the low end, and 90 minutes at the high end. According the Japanese sites, the March glitch was said to have given players an unimaginable speed boost. Two-handed weapon users could swing like one-handers, dagger users were as fast as Hundred Fists, and Monk could hold hate comfortably without Provoke. Bonecrafters said it was an unexpected extraordinary income. This was corrected in the October 28th emergency maintenance. These horns have since been removed. The Titan Marathon Ends Around this time, players were repeatedly undertake the Titan acquisition quest in order to earn gil. Now, they were unable to do so until midnight Earth time. With Teleport-Altep and Escape for Korroloka Tunnel, players used to easily complete 4 runs in an hour. Cloister of Tides BCNM At this time three BCs were added to the game. Although they had yet to receive their official names, the battlefields were: “Jungle Boogymen” “Amphibian Assault” and “Legion XI Comitatensis” Out of these, “Amphibian Assault” was added to the Cloister of Tides. Ultimately, it was decided that the special Avatar battle arena should be unique to the Summoner quests, and the four Sahagin were moved to the Sacrificial Chamber on June 29th, 2004. Othinus' Bow Popular Among Marksmen New Ex/Rare drops were added to NMs around this time, and they proved to be an immediate hit. One especially, the Othinus' Bow, was so coveted it practically made Archery obsolete. Acid Bolts and Sleep Bolts were also added in this update, further improving Marksmanship. -Ga spells Ga spells were already unpopular due to their MP demand, but now they scaled in accordance to the number of targets hit by the spell. With the improvement of Magic Burst bonuses, despite the high cost, -ga spells became popular as a single target nuke. However, monster -ga spells were not affected by the number of players hit. EX tag items This update implemented a large number of EX items. The dev team reasoning was that "People won't have to camp it again if they already have it", as well as preventing a monopoly situation to sell items. In reality, players found the actual effect is "Even if you don't want to, you have to camp it". In many cases these EX items did not do what the dev team expected it to. On top of this, high priced items still dropped from NMs such as Shining Cloth from King Behemoth and Damascene Cloth from Aquarius. Players still camped these NMs for profitable gil drops even though they already had the equipment. As part of the EX craze, the dev team was sure to announce that many NMs could be killed by leveling parties who happen to be killing placeholders. Knowing that Ninja was an unexpected tank, the dev team's idea of balance was very questionable. Development Team running out of ideas?! With the Lucky Roll and fortune teller features added, this was SE's answer to player's demand for "New Entertainment". The community's view that the development team was simply running out of ideas was largely increased after these were implemented. The question "What the f*** were the developers thinking?" remained a popular meme for years to come. Come Hither! This patch is when the Mithra's "inviting" sit pose (pictured below) was added. This pose had a lot of controversy, so it was changed later to be more feminine and conservative.
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| Oct. 28th, 2003 | North American Windows Version Released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The North American version of Final Fantasy XI went on sale on October 28th, 2003 for $49.99. When service in North America began for Final Fantasy XI, a large amount of foreign players immediately flooded the game. English chat flowed through towns, and Conquest results were upset by low level activity (there were dead people everywhere). Japanese players avoided home nations due to /shout spam.
Although before the release, some supported the idea of cross server in the name of international gaming. After the release, with the "PL plaz" "Gil plez" "Item pelaz" begging, sexual harassment comments, and the random party replacement(People leaving after 1 kill, leader leaving party after level, tossing leader to a random member without asking, etc, the negative complaints begun. At the same time, the auto translator feature was added. With the tell spam of "Help Me out!" "cap" "coffer" "thank you", many Japanese players put up the "JP Only" comment. On a side note, "cap" in translator translates to the cap as in baseball cap to the Japanese, just like how "Break" is translated to relaxing to the Japanese. These all lead to the increasing demand(still active now) of separating servers, mostly from the Japanese players. However, the CEO announced that "Cross nation and Translator are very well done, and we received a lot of praises", even though no one understand where they get those idea from. |
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| Oct. 30th, 2003 | 7th CESA GAME AWARDS Winner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Final Fantasy XI took the award for being the first PS2 MMORPG, connecting PS2 and Windows on the same servers, and for user satisfaction with Rise of the Zilart updates. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 31st, 2003 | Trick or Treat! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From October 31st to November 3rd, players could transform in monsters by trading fruits and sweets to certain NPCs. Prizes included Jack-o'-Lantern, Trick Staff, Treat Staff, Pumpkin Head and Horror Head. Goblin Chocolate was also available for purchase. | The equipment available during this event was cute and very different, so it immediately became quite popular. Towns were filled with adventurers in puffy hats with bat staves on their back. You could also see people everywhere bopping monsters on the head, testing out the Treat Staff latent effect of Warp. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nov. 3rd, 2003 | The Bradygames Guide - A token of Nostalgia & Memes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released on November 3rd, 2003 was the first edition of the Final Fantasy XI Bradygames Guide. Bradygames had a decent reputation back before the internet became mainstream as a walkthrough publisher for all hot new games released. Gamestop always had some sort of a deal to buy the strategy guide with a game for a discount.
Unlike other games, Final Fantasy XI always changed from one month to another. Unbeknownst to us pre-teen and early teen minds, we all needed to have this book "to learn all there was to know" about FFXI. We found ourselves taking it to school in our backpacks, and reading it at lunch with our friends to find new strategies and things to do the next time we logged in. In hindsight, the book was filled with misinformation and was actually irrelevant on how players actually did play the game at the time. There was, however, some basic useful information such as gear stats and such. Young players did find themselves looking at that Iron Musketeer armor on the Paladin page, hoping one day to sport it on their character. Players still seek out the guide books for nostalgia purposes, and they can be found on Amazon or eBay to this day. Without having to purchase it, you can tune in to Huntin 4 Games playlist on YouTube where he reads through entries of the guide. |
Unknown to most players, there were actually two versions of the Bradygames Guide: a Fall 2003 version and a Spring 2004 version.
Succeeding these two guides, the much more useful FFXI Atlas book was made in 2005 (this book is detailed on the 2005 page later). The first two Bradygames guides received enough of a cult following to forever been part of FFXI Memes history.
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| Nov. 4th, 2003 | Treat Staff Effect Changed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nov. 11th, 2003 | Conquest Adjustments | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Garlic Farmer Conspiracy
Mhaura Garlic, was a popular Synthesis Material used in Meat Mithkabobs. The main source of availability was via Gardening. It was discovered that this item could be purchased for very cheap in unlimited quantities from the Kolshushu Regional Vendors. It is said that some Gardening farmers used to set their Home Point in Mhaura and purposefully and repeatedly run out of town on a low level job to be defeated by enemies in Buburimu Peninsula. This act would keep the area under Beastmen Control to prevent the appearance of the Regional Vendor. This would effectively limit the supply of Mhaura Garlic and drive up the price on the Auction House for the Gardeners. This act was called "The conspiracy of Farmers of Garlic" by the Japanese community. A first hand sighting of this event was written on server specific community message boards. It was reprinted in a Cooking thread, and the act became widely recognized. On many servers, Kolshushu was beastmen controlled for almost a year before this change. Even with this adjustment, many regions continued to be beastmen controlled (Qufim, Elshimo, Aragoneu, etc). Regional merchants became very rare, affecting prices of items such as Yagudo Drink. "The Meat Mithkabob Era" (or "Yamakushidai Period") ran from approximately September 12th, 2002 to December 9th, 2004. This was the time that Meat Mithkabobs were the most popular food with adventurers. This era ended with the following adjustments: Reduction of the Yield from synthesis from 12 to 6, change of the meal effect duration, the cap added to Attack, and the addition of Accuracy food. After Meat Mithkabobs came the Sushi era until the 2 handed update on August 28th, 2007. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nov. 16th, 2003 | Concept Art | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The official site was massively updated with Concept Art (for a set fee) and a Creator’s Voice blog. The Concept Art was found inside the Developer’s Room. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nov. 18th, 2003 | PlayOnline Plus Beta Testing Begins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beta testing began for services that included a special e-mail address ([email protected]), mail forwarding and other features. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dec. 4th, 2003 | First Annual Spike TV Video Game Awards “Best Online Game” winner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 9th, 2003 | Asura Opens | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This world was established due to the rising population. Transfer was available from all worlds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 12th, 2003 | "REAL VANA’DIEL" Net Cafe Opens in Akihabara | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Melco Online Entertainment opened a net cafe for the enjoyment of FFXI in Akihabara. There was a Mog House resting area (smoking allowed), and staff members dressed up as FFXI characters. Satire jokes arose, such as "I am a Dark Knight. Should I AFK IRL too?"
All computers at the time gauged “Incredibly Tough” against the game’s requirements. See the pictures to the right for a glimpse inside this store and the layout. See This Link for an article regarding the store. |
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| Dec. 16, 2003 | Level Cap 75 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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No One Can Help You Now
The final Limit Break quest had players squaring off against Maat alone. Until now, quests could easily be completed with parties, but this time people had to face the challenge alone, leaving many unable to overcome it. Red Mages especially had a rough time, eventually leading to some adjustments to the difficulty. This quest was very unpopular, and some jobs had it much harder than others. No More Yokodama Yokodama was the practice of Sneak and Trick Attacking from the side of a monster. (“Yoko” means side, and “dama” is the first two syllables of Damashiuchi, or Trick Attack). On this day, it was decided that Sneak Attack would only function properly if one stood directly behind the enemy. The Yokodama was no more. Square said in an interview the month prior that "Yokodama wasn't planned, and it was making the game too easy. We may consider fixing it." Many players supported this and found it to be making fighting too easy. For some mysterious reason, players then started complaining about the lack of Yokodama after the patch. The spells Flash and Stun were born to alleviate hate control issues. Tu'Lia Notorious Monsters New NMs were added to sky, namely Kirin, Byakko, Suzaku, Seiryu and Genbu. At the time, they looked just like any other monsters; even though Byakko means “white tiger,” the model was black. Eventually, these enemies were altered to look unique. With the sky NM system now implemented, Sky Linkshells were born. WSNMs The majority of the WSNMs had bad performance, so the effort needed to obtain them was not well received. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dec. 16th, 2003 | Holy Night in Vana’diel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Christmas decorations were put up in all three nations. Players could talk to Moogles once a Vana’diel day to receive Popstar, Brilliant Snow, Sparkling Hand or Air Rider.
This was the start of the yearly Christmas Starlight Celebration in Vana’diel. |
Image courtesy of Horu@Quetzalcoatl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 26th, 2003 | Pernicious Presents | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In various areas, a monsters called Twinkling Treant appeared. This tree had lightbulbs in its branches, similar to a Christmas Tree. Talking to nearby Moogles would impose a level cap and allow one to fight the monster.
It was located in West Ronfaure, East Ronfaure, North Gustaberg, South Gustaberg, West Sarutabaruta, and East Sarutabaruta under a Level 20 Cap, in Jugner Forest, Meriphataud Mountains, Pashhow Marshlands under a Level 30 cap, and in Beaucedine Glacier, Eastern Altepa Desert, and Yuhtunga Jungle under a Level 50 cap. It was announced that defeating the trees would grant the world Outpost Teleportation service. All servers succeeded in attaining this prize. Destroy the Christmas Tree?! At first, no matter how much you hit the tree, the HP wouldn't decrease. This was a prime weapon/magic skill up opportunity. To prevent this, SE lowered the HP in the middle of the event. This also caused SE to issue a server message saying that if the NM was not killed, that world would not receive OP Warps. Some worlds were able to dispose of the tree quickly, while others just couldn’t manage to take it down. A System Message announced that the event would not end until all servers had won. The ordeal was finally over after Midgardsormr was the last to claim victory.
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The treant can be seen being fought beginning at the 2:00 mark in the following video.
Warning: The following video contains the song Toxic by Brittany Spears. Be sure to mute it before live streaming, or to save your sanity.
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| Dec. 29th, 2003 | Outpost Teleport Service Begins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As a reward for success in the Christmas event, all worlds were bestowed with Outpost Teleportation Service following a maintenance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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