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The History of Final Fantasy XI/2006
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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? |
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Feb. 3rd, 2006 | Valentione's Day
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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
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Starting with this news announcement, Square Enix began their endless fight against RMT activities. Below is the news announcement.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Feb. 20th, 2006 | Dynamis - Tavnazia & Apocalypse Nigh
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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
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The final issue of the Vana'diel Tribune II was released. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mar. 1st, 2006 | The Doll Festival 2006
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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. |
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Mar. 9th, 2006 | Fan Festival 2006
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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:
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
Image courtesy of abilitypoints.wordpress.com |
Art Contest
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:
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.
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.
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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Apr. 3rd, 2006 | FFXI Xbox 360 Beta Test Ends
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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
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The second campaign was held for a limited time until May 31st. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Apr. 7th, 2006 | The Egg Hunt 2006
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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: | 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
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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!
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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. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Apr. 20th, 2006 | Change of Staff
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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
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Apr. 25th, 2006 | Bug fixes
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Apr. 28th, 2006 | More glitch fixes
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Apr. 28th, 2006 | The Feast of Swords 2006
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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: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
May 1st, 2006 | First players reach 75 on New Jobs & Walahra Turban
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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
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May 11th, 2006 | Treasures of Aht Urhgan showcased at E3 2006
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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
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May 12, 2006 | Fourth Annual Adventurer's Appreciation Campaign
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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. |
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May 13th, 2006 | Besieged Adjustment
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May 15th, 2006 | Minor Fixes
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May 17th, 2006 | Besieged Adjustments
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May 24th, 2006 | Further Anti-Congestion Changes
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[Jeuno / Nashmau / Tavnazia areas]
[Al Zahbi]
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May 24th, 2006 | Treasures of Aht Urhgan OST Released
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21 tracks were on the disk, and the price was again 2,100 Yen (Tax included). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jun. 23rd, 2006 | Sixth Vana'diel Census
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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
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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. |
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Jun. 30th, 2006 | In-Game Vana'diel turns 1000 years old!
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Many bugs were fixed:
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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
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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. |
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Aug. 2nd, 2006 | Chocobo Breeding Introduced
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Sep. 22nd, 2006 | Final Fantasy XI at Tokyo Game Show 2006
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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.
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.
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
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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
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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
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The Special Task Force was officially formed in 2006 to investigate and dispose of acts such as third party tool use and RMT activities. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nov. 8th, 2006 | Vana'diel Collection 2007
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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. |
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Nov. 26th, 2006 | Laughter Mania 2006
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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:
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. |
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Dec. 19th, 2006 | Salvage... without Kraken Clubs
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In areas where Subjobs are restricted, players can no longer use Wide Scan abilities.
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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 Armor Set and Goliard Armor 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
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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
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