An Alliance Actually

When the Garlean Empire first reared its repugnant head in Eorzea, swiftly stripping Ala Mhigo of its sovereignty by way of subterfuge, the surviving city-states were compelled to come together in coalition. Named the Eorzean Alliance, the coalition had ambitious aspirations for the defense of its dominions. Alas, such schemes soon suffered a severe setback—the Holy See of Ishgard withdrew from the treaty, leaving the fledging fraternity to founder and fade into feebleness. Today, the common consensus of the citizenry is that the alliance exists only in name.

Recent developments, however, may well warrant a weighing up anew of that assumption. Of late, the Eorzean Alliance has appreciably accelerated its activities, playing a pivotal part in the production of protectives for man and mount both. Presently, it is in the process of perfecting a progressive new method of enhancing equipment. Referred to by pertinent personnel as simply “sanction,” the method entails etching emblems of empowerment upon arms and armor in order to prime them as containers for conjurations. A custom charm is then cast upon these articles, whose efficacy is ephemerally enhanced thereby. Our sources in the Immortal Flames report that the mass manufacture of such sanctioned supplies is scheduled to commence shortly, with their arrival to the frontlines to follow closely behind.

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Some adjustments to the Market Ward system have been announced, mainly the ability to purchase items from any Market Ward from any city. This change will be introduced in Patch 1.22, scheduled for the end of this month. There has been a very sizable and vocal consensus about the need for a proper Auction House system in the game, and although we aren’t there yet, with this change most of the important functionality will be there.

Not only will players be able to directly purchase items from any city’s market area, but a search feature will also be added where players will be able to enter the item’s name instead of searching for things through individual lists in each ward.

All in all a great addition, but only because of the lack of an Auction House to begin with. We’re still expecting a complete Market Ward overall for 2.0, but changes like these should tide us over until the 4th quarter of 2012. You can read the original announcement below for more details.

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Ever since the World Merger a few weeks ago, Final Fantasy XIV’s server situation hasn’t been looking too steady. Since that time there have been server technical difficulties and an emergency maintenance for just about every one of the new servers. As the populations grew, cue one of the newest features, private player residences, having to be shut down completely in Ul’dah, which just so happens to be the city where anyone who is anyone hangs out to chew the fat and start a party. That’s not even counting the many issues where players simply have been unable to log into the game at all.

With the upcoming Patch 1.22, the FFXIV devs seem to be taking steps to alleviate some of these problems. Apparently one of the culprits behind these issues is server slowdown, since that was the issue they’ve stated they’re addressing. One of the changes consists of moving the entrance to the private player residences to another location entirely, although this only applies to Ul’dah.

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Producer/Director of Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki Yoshida, just couldn’t help himself today and spilled the beans with a few tidbits about the upcoming version 2.0 of FFXIV, slated to be released some time in the 4th quarter of this year. Much of it has to do with the when and how they will release more information about the update, with a focus on E3 and beyond. There is even a bit of a troll with some easily decipherable fill-in-the-blank hints.

Producer/Director Yoshida here,
Thanks for everyone’s comment regarding 2.0!

I was originally planning to keep quiet for a little longer until we were ready to release some solid information regarding 2.0, but I have changed my mind. Let me take a moment to release some initial bits of information on the forums (Going to add a link and comment in the next producer letter as well)

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Primal Garuda is well on it’s way to becoming the next big battle where players are hoping to find a unique and rewarding challenge in Final Fantasy XIV. Slated to appear in the upcoming Patch 1.22, the devs are wasting no time in trying to build up hype for the uencounter. They’ve put together a contest where you can take a stab at guessing just how long Garuda’s going to last before some particularly ambitious linkshell takes her down.

The contests lasts from today, April 13 until April 23 at 1:00 PDT/8:00 GMT. All you have to do to enter is reply to this thread with your guesstimate as to how long it will take for Garuda to be defeated. Prizes include:

For guessing the exact time of her defeat down to the minute:

• Your choice of one Garuda weapon
• Scarf of Wondrous Wit
• Five Vortex Headdresses* (item name pending)

The 20 closest guesses to the actual clear time will get to receive:

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* The following adjustments, scheduled for patch 1.22, are in development and subject to change.

Patch 1.22 will usher in a wide range of reforms to materia:

• The following materia varieties will be added:
  

  Name	Effect	Body Part
  Swiftwall Materia	Block Rate +	Hands
  Sound of Suffering Materia	Enfeebling Magic Potency +	Hands
  Sanguinary Might Materia	Critical Attack Power + HP +	Waist
  Stellar Might Materia	Magic Critical Potency + MP +	Waist
  Sound of Serenity Materia	Healing Magic Potency + MP +	Feet
  Savage Aim Materia	Critical Rate +	Legs
  Evenflow Materia	Store TP + Accuracy +	Hands
  Sound of Certainty Materia	Enhancement Magic Potency +	Head

• The bonus attributes granted by the following materia will be adjusted:
  

  Name	Before	→	After
  Touch of Rage Materia I	Enmity: +1 — 2	→	Enmity: +1 — 10
  Touch of Rage Materia II	Enmity: +3 — 4	→	Enmity: +11 — 15
  Touch of Rage Materia III	Enmity: +5 — 8	→	Enmity: +16 — 20
  Touch of Rage Materia IV	Enmity: +9 — 12	→	Enmity: +21 — 25
  Touch of Serenity Materia I	Enmity: -1	→	Enmity: -1 — 4
  Touch of Serenity Materia II	Enmity: -2 — 3	→	Enmity: -5 — 8
  Touch of Serenity Materia III	Enmity: -3 — 4	→	Enmity: -9 — 12
  Touch of Serenity Materia IV	Enmity: -5 — 8	→	Enmity: -13 — 16

  * The attributes of materia already existing in-game will automatically change to reflect the above following release of patch 1.22.

• The following unique/untradable items will be made convertible into materia:
  

  Claret Coif / Claret Breeches / Helm of the Lone Knight / Mitts of the Lone Knight / Verdant Hora / Astaroth Cane / Canopus Bill / Canopus Shield / Templar’s Falchion / Verdant Shortbow / Canopus Guisarme / Verdant Scepter / Alpine War Jacket / Warlock’s Buckler / Solid Scale Mail / Revolutionary’s Bliaud / Bladedancer’s Jackboots / Warlock’s Pattens / Ifrit’s Claws / Ifrit’s Blade / Ifrit’s Battleaxe / Ifrit’s Harpoon / Ifrit’s Bow / Ifrit’s Cane / Ifrit’s Cudgel / Murderous Mogfists / Morbid Mogblade / Malignant Mogaxe / Melancholy Mogfork / Mischievous Mogbow / Malevolent Mogwand / Maleficent Mogstaff / Torturer’s Monocle / Torturer’s Duckbills / Warden’s Barbut / Warden’s Gauntlets / Brigand’s Acton / Brigand’s Gloves / Poacher’s Hat / Poacher’s Tunic / Ascetic’s Halfrobe / Ascetic’s Tights / Warden’s Dagger / Charred Axe / Tidesplitter / Joukil’s Guile / Unbreakable Knuckles / Tenfinger Tallstaff / Heart of House d’Arlendre / Waning Sun Pelta

  

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High above the Twelveswood, the raven circles, evermore seeking out truth hidden amongst the shadows of the trees. In today’s edition, field correspondent Oliver Goodfellow reports on the rousing conclusion of that quirky new tradition called Hatching-tide.

The Best Laid Plans

This year’s Hatching-tide festival has come to a close in fine fashion, with citizens and adventurers alike having done their part to recover the decorated eggs from the thieving spriggans. Although it would seem that everything unfolded according to script, upon speaking with event organizers, The Raven learned that something came to pass that exceeded the bounds of improvisation.

In preparation for the event, Jihli Aliapoh and her fellow Dreamers had ordered a large shipment of dodo eggs from the Near Eastern city-state of Radz-at-Han. According to the merchant charged with fulfilling the delivery, however, mixed amongst the eggs were ones that resembled those of no cloudkin he knew. In the course of the festivities, word spread of these unusual specimens, and those folk fortunate enough to come into possession of one went to great pains to see it safely stored. Alas, it was to no avail, for when dawn arrived on the final day of Hatching-tide, naught were left of these eggs but broken shells.

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* The following feature, scheduled for patch 1.22, is in development and subject to change.

• Patch 1.22 will introduce armoires—storage cabinets that can be used to store untradable gear and other similar items. Armoires will be placed in the inns rooms of each city-state, and players will be able to store and reclaim their prized possessions at their leisure. The following kinds of items will be made storable:
  • Job-exclusive gear
  • Seasonal event gear
  • Achievement reward gear
  • Bonus items (Garlond goggles, onion helm, Asuran armguards, Hermes’ shoes)
    * There are certain exceptions.

  While armoires will be free to use, the following conditions apply:

  • Item condition must be 100%
  • Only one of a particular item can be stored.
  • Storing an item resets its spiritbond.

  Armoires are shared across all three city-states; items stored at one location can be reclaimed at another.

  

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Hello again, all you FFXIVers out there! It’s my pleasure today to deliver to you the twenty-sixth Letter from the Producer.

Patch 1.21 has finally gone live, and the World Merge is just around the corner. Things are still hectic here on the development team, but seeing how much everyone is enjoying the new content—the jobs chief among them—we’re pressing on towards the coming patches in high spirits.

I was rather finicky when it came to the job quests, and must confess to having put all the people involved to work like a slave-driver (credit to the scenario people, lead by Yaeko Sato, and the quest implementation, cutscene, and SFX teams for rising to the occasion). What’s more, till now I’ve refrained from meddling directly with work on the floor, but this time I couldn’t resist the urge and ended up contributing in-game text. I wonder if players can tell which job quests have my hand in them. 

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