In order to improve the player experience, we will be merging Worlds on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.

We have reevaluated the World merge system based on the large amount of user feedback we received in response to the World Merge and Character Transfers update of February 9. Now that the details of the new World merge system have been decided, we recommend that all players review the World Merge Summary and Notes Regarding the World Merge and World Transfer.

This World merge is intended to improve the player experience during the period up to the launch of FFXIV Version 2.0. New Worlds may be added in the future, for example after the relaunch or when player numbers increase.

[World Merge Summary]

Key Dates

March 1 (Thursday) to March 19 (Monday), 2012: World transfer application period. *
March 27 (Tuesday), 2012: World merge maintenance to be carried out.

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Want a moogle plushie, but your boyfriend is a cheap bastard? Want a guildleve plate strap but can’t be bothered to scour the internet or YesAsia? How about a set of FFXIV posters to decorate your mom’s basement with? Well all you have to do is poo all over the heart of your favorite NPC. This Valentione’s Day (Not Valentine’s Day, you smart-alecky peoples), the Community Team over at the Lodestone want you to write a love letter to your favorite NPC. That’s right. They want you to toy with a person’s emotions. A fake person, but still. And you’re a cold-hearted heel if you go through with this.

Having said that, join the contest! Choose any NPC you like, then go to this thread and post your love letter to that NPC there. The more creative or humorous the letter, the better chance you have of winning. But the letter has to be 500 words or less and can’t be too naughty. No dirty fanfics if you know what I mean. The contest starts on February 14, 2012 (8:00pm Pacific Time) and ends on February 21, 2012 (11:59pm Pacific Time). All entries must be received by February 21, 2012 (11:59pm Pacific Time) so you better get cracking.

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When Yoshida’s plans for player housing were released in late 2011, they sounded very ambitious. Things mentioned included an actual interior and exterior complete with a garden that you could place things in, the ability to customize the look of your home, the option to build a stable and raise chocobos, and even a trophy system where you can display trophies in your home crafted out of drops from powerful monsters. Now who knows how much of that will be included in the final product, or just how well developed those features will be, but we’re still playing a waiting game since that vision of player housing won’t pop up until around the release of 2.0.

In the meantime we’ve got Private Player Residences to keep us busy. You know, until we get actual player housing. Details were released yesterday, and although there are very few features to be implemented in private residences, more is promised to be added in the future. As of right now, a main feature is the ability to replay event cutscenes, excluding scenes from inside raid dungeons or other non-event scenes.

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Last week, the FFXIV Dev Team released their plans for an upcoming world merge designed to improve player populations for each world. The crux of the plan was to create 10 new worlds and allow players to choose which world they would like to reside on. Meanwhile, anyone that hadn’t chosen a server by the deadline of the world merge would be randomly sent to one of the 10 new worlds. This was all set to take place on March 27.

Well now those plans have changed. Due to feedback on the original plan, and despite Yoshida’s lengthy explanation of the reasoning behind the decision, the devs have decided to scrap that and start over again. Players complained about having to move and coordinate entire linkshells to new servers, and the possibility of being separated from the server community that’s developed up until now. Perhaps the biggest complaint is the fact that players who opted not to play the game in it’s current state would be forced to either pay for a month in order to be able to move to a desired server, or allow themselves to be sent to a random server without any say in the matter at all. Many complained that once those players returned, they would be effectively separated from any community they had known once before. This was even seen by some players as a way to force people to come back to the game, and if not that, a severe oversight from the developer team.

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In order to improve the player experience, we will be merging Worlds on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. After the merge is completed, there will be a total of ten Worlds, down from the current eighteen.

To ensure that the World merge is fair for all players, character transfers will be required for all existing characters. Players must select a new post-merge World for their characters, and will be reassigned automatically should they not do so by the established deadline. We urge you all to review the World Merge Summary and the Notes Regarding the World Merge.

This World merge is intended to improve the player experience during the period up to the launch of FFXIV Version 2.0. New Worlds may be added in the future, for example after the relaunch or when player numbers increase.

[World Merge Summary]

Key Dates

March 1 (Thursday) to March 19 (Monday), 2012: Character transfer selection period. *
March 27 (Tuesday), 2012: World merge maintenance to be carried out.Information regarding the time required for the merge maintenance process and other details will be released at a later date.
* The character transfer selection period will consist of two stages. For details, see Selecting a Transfer Destination below.

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* The following changes are scheduled for the 1.21 patch release.
* Features are under development and subject to change or postponement.

Patch 1.21 will include a revamping of high-quality items (HQ items).

Currently, the conditions for producing HQ results during synthesis are not clear, and players are finding it difficult to make HQ items, even when using HQ ingredients. We are therefore reassessing the synthesis process to make it easier to judge the quality of finished items. We are also changing the specs for the following features: adjusting the Quality of a finished item, touching up, and displaying the HQ odds of a finished item. With this overhaul, it will be easier than before to synthesize an HQ item when using HQ materials.

Furthermore, equipping HQ gear will now boost bonus parameters in addition to base parameters.

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* The following changes are planned for patch 1.21.
* All features are under development and subject to change.

• Patch 1.21 will see major reforms carried out on accessories.Currently, the equipping of accessories is regulated by slot cost, and players cannot equip items in the location of their choice. In order to improve usability and achieve balance with the battle reforms commenced in patch 1.18, slot cost will be removed from the game and new accessories with revised attributes will be added.Once slot cost is phased out, players will be able to freely equip accessories, given that other equipping requirements are fulfilled. In order to preserve balance with the recently commenced battle reforms, however, the number of accessory slots will be reduced from nine to five.

  Recipes and attributes for “dated” accessories will remain unchanged. Similar to the Recipe Revamp, old and new recipes will coexist for a time, with the former to be phased out at some time in the future.

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Another event is approaching for the citizens of Eorzea, and this one is a tad bit sweeter than the others. It’s Valentione’s Day, and there’s a whole lot of hub-bub about heartfelt sentiments, revealing your heart to the one you love, and a certain chocolate that seems to be so good that you’ll end up selling your own mother just to get a piece. It seems those sneaky Bismarck chefs have been communing with the goddess Menphina in order to produce something that’s probably about as addictive as crack. Goddess chocolate? Is that even fair? How is anyone else supposed to compete with that? I don’t think you could get away with that on Top Chef. Gordon Ramsay definitely would’ve pitched a hissy-fit about it. Read on below for the lore and the details.

Valentione’s Day: The Bonds of Love (01/31/2012)

Connecting all lands and peoples in her everlasting embrace, the sea bears to Limsa Lominsa the wisdom and voices of a thousand shores. In today’s edition, The Harbor Herald examines the events which led to the departure and return of a feathered friend.

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Hello again, FFXIVers. I hope you’re all having a good time riding around Eorzea on your new goobbue mounts! 

Well, like I mentioned in my last letter, today I’m going to be writing about the progress of patch 1.21, and posting an updated list of changes to the game. The total list is ridiculously long now, so what I’ve done is just update the parts relevant to 1.21. Take a look if you have the time!

Quests

New Content

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