Fan Festival info

[Edward Elric]

ok, one of my LS mates went to the fan festival and posted all the things she found out. here it is:

Okay here's everything I took notes on... and some other stuff too... in case you don't feel like braving the muddly waters of Alla.

I'll have pictures and stuff about the fun stuff that we did, but for now here's the information everyone neeeeeds to know!

There were three developer panels devoted to three different topics. Very interesting stuff!


DEVELOPER PANEL 1: TREASURES OF AHT URGHAN and THE FUTURE OF FFXI

First thing to be discussed was Beseiged, which after learning more about it sounds reeeeally fun. Basically it's a new kind of conquest where there's a constant struggle between beastmen and adventurers... at one point beastmen can attack towns and adventurers try to defend it... they're trying to get a treasure that's kept at the center of the town. If the beastmen get it, they take it back to their stronghold and the adventurers have to go get it^^ There's also more in-depth things like how the mobs get stronger if they're not resisted, and so on, and overall it just sounds really well developed and a lot of fun! We got to try it out at the festival, but it wasn't very organized so it was a little crazy. Oh, and you don't lose XP in this!! So if you're lowlevel and get caught in town when the beastmen invade... no worries ^^b They also mentioned earning xp for this or perhaps some other type of points...?~

Second is Assault... basically quests made for small groups of 3-6 and can be completed in about an hour. Casual content ftw!

At this point they were going to talk about missions, but the AV people accidentally skipped a slide and gave away one hell of a surprise..

CHOCOBO RAISING AND BREEDING!

And everyone went crazy XD Anyone can raise a chocobo, even if you don't have the license yet. Also, there will be colors other than yellow! And it will work similar to gardening, apparently, in that you check on him once a day or so, nothing too intense. Something for your mule to do perhaps? And they also mentioned a chocobo circuit... choco racing whee!!! Chocobo raising will be implemented in the first update after the expansion release, and the circuit sometime near the end of the year.

They also talked about implementing some time in the future a chocobo whistle type item, to call your choco from almost anywhere =D

All they really had to say about missions was that they were of course going to have more of em.

They announced there will be very few level-capped areas, to the delight of almost everyone there.

Someone asked about male Mithras and they said we will see them and perhaps even play them ONE DAY! hehe.

Another new thing is the Mog Locker, which you can access somewhere in Aht Urghan, which can hold 30 to 50 items, but there will be some kind of small fee to use it.


DEVELOPER PANEL 2: JOBS

The wealth of new info that was bestowed upon us in this panel was really awesome~! The developers talked about each and every job in turn, and what they plan on doing with em! At the end they announced the newest job, Puppetmaster. Good times!

Oh btw, they said at the beginning these are things they want to implement, but may not happen in the next update or real soon.

WAR: They want to add benefits of using other weapons than axe or gaxe, and eventually an ability to throw your axes, and also (and later they said they wanted to do this for all jobs really) have benefits of using subjobs other than ninja.

MNK: New abilities, the one they mentioned was to give an HP boost to the party, I think that means an overall HP boost, but it could be giving away HP healing type of thing.

WHM: Lots of stuff in store for WHMs! They said they wanted white mages to have more of an advantage healing-wise over other jobs (such as RDM and SMN), I thought they already did, but whatever. They're going to change Benediction to include the curing of status ailments, which rocks. They also mentioned an ability to give HP/MP to party members... interesting. They also want to get whm's more involved in the fight, rather than always hanging around the back.

BLM: More "partyability"... they're gonna nerf it. They don't like manaburn parties XD. BUT BLMs are getting new spells! Meteor maybe?

RDM: New RDM magic on the way!

THF: I have "ability distribution to party" written down... I kind of forget what that means... ><;; They also want to add new qualities to Steal, it sounded to me like status ailments or something like that. They also want to change Perfect Dodge so it has a use in a party rather than just running away -- they said they want to have perhaps a damage bonus from behind the mob when you're Perfect Dodging. Someone else said when coupled with SA but I don't think that's the case.

PLD: Bastards are getting Auto Refresh wtf ><; I demand ARII for smns <.<; Anyway... they want to enhance the shield thing, have more shield abilities, and have those abilities give the PLD TP. Basically they said they want to bring Paladin up to the tanking level of Ninjas, since the vast majority of players prefer a ninja tank for some reason...

DRK: Since most people use GS, they want to have benefits of using a Scythe like they imagined DRKs doing, they also want to add effects or do something to encourage use of Absorb spells.

BST: They're working on it, but you're gonna get something to make up for that killer patch... just don't know what ><;

BRD: Add something to encourage more varied use of songs instead of the same ones over and over, as well as a new low-level song that "increases party movement"... whether that's a hastega type of thing or a choco mazurka, I'm not sure. My initial assumption was a lowlevel Mazurka, but I could be wrong.

RNG: They're still thinking about how to make up for the "nerf"... they're going to change it so that accuracy isn't affected by distance when using Sharpshot. Also increase in arrow types that can be quivered.

SAM: They want to have SAMs use TP in a different way other than skillchaining (?), and they want SAMs to be able to decrease the mob's TP on hit! Nice. (A note: apparently SAMs were never meant to tank, and were always designed as attackers. fyi.)

NIN: Ya, all they really said was "Ninja is very strong." But they don't feel the need to do any nerfing. Still thinking about things to do with ninja.

DRG: Just implemented new 2HR, so they're still observing that, but have no plans to make any changes right now.

SMN: Adding benefits/ability to keep avatars out for the duration of the fight rather than just using a BP and releasing. Now, the translator added "by having more MP?" at the end when he said this, but continued that "I don't know, he didn't say anything." So more MP is NOT NECESSARILY IT! Which would be really lame if it was. What I'm thinking is having more benefits (greater damage?) to BPs if the avatar has over 100TP. That's a guess. Also, buff duration and strength will be determined by SMN MAGIC SKILL! ><;; Now I gotta go cap that and it's gonna be a bitch. I hope they make it easier to skill. They are also planning on adding more avatarS (note the plural) -- but not Bahamut, cause he's too special for us heh -- and new "abilities" for existing ones, but whether that means new BPs ore something totally new I have no idea. The casual way it was said sounded like it was just new BPs to me.

The developers went on to talk about Blue Mage and Corsair, and answer all the questions we've been pondering since their announcement.

Blue Mage: Spells can only be acquired when the main job is BLU. You have to defeat the monster that uses the spell you want to learn, and can only learn from mobs that would give you XP (not from TWs). Can't learn things if you're dead. They're going to start with a certain number of learnable abilities (ones we saw were spider web, that weird mandie ability, and of course bomb toss) and add more with each successive patch.

Blue Mages will have to "set" spells in order to use them after they are learned. Each spell has a point requirement and the BLU has a pool of setting points, which increases as you level. There's also a max number of spells you can learn, which also increases with level. Also, the strength of a blue magic spell will depend on the type of monster you learn it from and the type of monster you use it on, so learn your beast weakness chart! In addition, physical abillities will be SKILLCHAINABLE, and magical abilities will be BURSTABLE! Sounds very well-thought out.

Corsair: Main ability is this spinny card thingy that works kind of like blackjack... you take one spin and it comes up with a number, the higher the number the stronger the buff/debuff that occurs. Then you spin again. The numbers are then added together. If they add to 12 or more you're "bust" and lose the buff or something detrimental happens maybe?

There's also another ability where the corsair can give entire party latent abilities based on the other party members... meaning if there's a WAR in the party, everyone could get Double Attack bonus (they also mentioned critical hit bonus for THF). Card Shot is an ability that, depending on what card is used, can turn a gun attack into a magic attack... not sure what that means <.<; Corsair will also be able to lower recast times woot!!

Answers to some questions that were asked:
-- TH is NOT affected by final kill or damage... you just need to have a thief in the party.
-- 3rd tier Ninjitsu is being considered.
-- More subjob flexibility for all jobs is something they really want to see happen.
-- Charisma doesn't affect provoke, lol.

Things that were suggested/asked about that are going to be taken back to the development team:
-- Throwing WSs!
-- Wyvern armor!! XD
-- AoE abilities/WSs for jobs that don't have them (SAM, NIN, DRG), as well as the new jobs.
-- SMN Refresh BP ><;; I wanted to strangle the person who suggested this. Refresh Whore no thanks!


DEVELOPER PANEL 3: INFLATION

This panel wasn't very exciting, it was just a recap, and a few words on what they did about inflation -- which we all know -- and an assurance that they're going to keep cracking down on gilsellers and monitoring the economy. Some of the Q&A was pretty entertaining, though.

"We talked about TH yesterday... does eating or having a Lucky Egg in your inventory effect drop rates?"
"If you believe, your dreams will come true!"

"Does the direction you face effect crafting?"
"Face whatever way your heart tells you to face."

"Since the dev team tests every NM, have you ever beaten Absolute Virtue with the jobs and equipment that are currently available to the players?"
"..........
.......
......
We're going to try again."

The part I like the most is job discussion. It gave alot of info about they're plans for the jobs. Definitely makes the expansion that much better.

[Andromeda]

Finally the Paladin gets Auto-Refresh. Your friend needs to learn who butters his/her bread. Summoner already has a mountain of MP, having another Auto-Refresh will not change things for them as much as it will improve things for the Paladin. We are so ignored sometime because of the requirements we demand from the party. I know the Auto-Refresh is only 1 MP, but that is one more MP that we did not have before in refresh. But I am really glad to know that SE is going to make efforts to make us more valued tanks. So many people see Ninjas as the perfect tank, they only are in the hands of someone skilled. But convincing people otherwise is a pain in the neck a lot of times. Most people need to see that there is a possibility that the Paladin can be better.

I am hoping for less damage taken or more damage dealt, it would make me feel a lot better to know that I could deal 40 or 50 damage sometime rather than the stupid 10 or 20 with defender. Not to mention my horrible accuracy.

The chocobo raising sounds exciting though, I cannot wait to have a blue chocobo.

[Osirus Lancet]

All of that sounds ****n AWESOME lol, but ya i wonder how there gunna make summons stay out longer like maybe just a big lump sum for the summon to come out then no continous amount i dont know but im bringin up a black mage,then a fighter class then mage then fighter so i dont get to bored or annoyed n what not lol i wanna build the ultimate char, lol it will take insane amount of time but i dont care lol, well ya i do lol but i digress i want to eighter make a black or blue chocobo or a white chocobo lol i dunno i wonder what there gunna pick to give colors lol

[Secret Azn Man]

Oh, my. Such wonderful news. This'll make quitting even harder.

It's good to see Corsair not as sucky as we thought.

[Edward Elric]

I always thought that Corsair would do really good when it came out. Its like a job for people who want to be a BRD, or stuff like that, but can't handle how they aren't that good at meleeing. Which would be me.

About the Paladin refresh, I, too, think its a good idea. They definitely need it, and giving it to them would make them that much more powerful. I think she was kidding about the Auto-Refresh II, since she just got her Vermy that shes been dying to have.

What I like most so far, though, is BLU. They way they put it makes it seem just like FFIX's system of Blue magic, and their whole ability system. You learn the magic, and then use points to be able to use it, so it takes some strategy to use them, not just, "learn magic. spam magic."

Still, this expansion definitely looks like a good one, and I still can't wait for it.

[Tech Support]

What I want to know is if you can deallocate points to spells... so like if you want to have one set of BLU spells, then decide they suck and switch to a new set by deallocating all your points. That part sounds a lot like WoW. And this stuff about the type/level mob you get it from affects how good the spell is? That's a bit odd. So if I get the mandy ability off a Tiny Mandragora in West Raunferre it will suck ass compared to if I wait and get it off one in the Jungle? That's cheezy and pretty f'ed up, personally... unless you can re-learn a spell later on. I mean.. what.. dont get any spells until your 75 otherwise they will suck? Eww? And is there a final cap in which you can no longer learn new spells? And if so.. can I dump spells I dont want and get cooler ones? That's things I'd like to know... of course we got to wait to find out.

And yeah, I heard about the BLM nerf... something about you can only have so many in a pty. Thats cheezy. It also sounds like they are going to make the WHM a better PL than RDM which kinda ticks me because WHM is boring as shit. I was going to start lvling RDM so I could be a badass PL, etc.

But gripes aside, the other stuff sounds pretty cool, like choco breeding and all. And yes, make the PLD better! And finally some consideration into fixing cookie-cutter job-sets. /NIN and /THF is seen on almost everything... its nuts.

[Andromeda]

If provoke was not reliant on having Warrior, oh the sub jobs people would have. I would love that day when you would not need WAR sub for provoke, because then like you are saying Merlin, we would not have so many cookie cutter jobs. Because in a party do you see anything but a PLD/WAR or NIN/WAR. Nope, if they are going to tank they have no choice, neither of them having enmity spiking abilities solely on their own abilities. If flash gave more enmity, then PLD could break away from that need. I could do PLD/RDM or PLD/WHM getting Blink, Stoneskin, and Phalanx, on top of a larger MP pool. If we could do that, we would be on par with a NIN. Heck you can do PLD/NIN or PLD/SMN to have a lot of fun. A massive MP pool, MP regen and avatars. There would be so many options that the PLD could look at. Oh, PLD/MNK for a massive HP pool.

[Dawezy]

Heh, you probably wont see the end of PLD/WAR tho.. even when PLD does get its own form of Provoke. Baring these few things in mind;

Attack Bonus
Defense Bonus
Resist Virus (has it uses, lol)
Double Attack
Warcry
Berserk

Which /WAR gives you.. ^^

I am looking forward to these new DRK changes tho.. not so-much changes as they are benefits, I'm guilty of using my Great Sword quite alot lately due to its lower delay and quicker WS's but with this new impliment of Scythe Attack Bonuses... well shit, makes doing Darkness all the more sweet. And the Absorb spells being boosted? > dude! I already get +18 [STR/DEX/etc] per spell so.... to suck out even more is great to hear

..ehh, im rambling. Excited, looking forward to the changes..