Fan Festival 2007 Live Blog

Setting Up
It is just after 5pm local time, and we're here at Fan Festival setting up our booth. Gahoo and I have already had a behind the scenes tour with the people from Allakhazam, and we will post pictures on this page later tonight.

Upcoming things for you to keep an eye out for:
 * Interview with SE Development Team, Friday, November 16, 3:00pm
 * Podcast with Limit Break Radio, time to be announced
 * Wings of the Goddess preview tour
 * Updates on Dancer and Scholar

If you are at the Festival, stop by our booth for a FFXI quiz that could win you many different Final Fantasy prizes, or FFXIclopedia T-shirts and mouse pads. If you are at the Festival and want to update this blog as well, do so here.

More to come.

Some Images!! Main Space during set-up

-- 01:58, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Friday: Day 1



 * 7.00am
 * I was finally able to read the official festival information from SE. It says on the bio for Mitsutoshi Gondai "The father of the two new jobs that will make their debut in Wings of the Goddess."  So for those holding their breath for a third (despite translations to the contrary) - take a deep breath.  We have been told there is much to be annouced though, so stay tuned.  The first presentation (by Kenici Iwao) is set for 10am PST.  -- 15:01, 16 November 2007 (UTC)


 * 9.30am
 * Doors are open! The crowd is here and excited.  We'll have some pictures soon.  Opening ceremonies are starting shortly and we've been told they expect to adhere to the schedule.  Stay tuned.  We're here and waiting to deliver the news in "real time." -- 17:24, 16 November 2007 (UTC)


 * 10.00am
 * Just in! Windowed mode goes live this Tuesday! -- 17:56, 16 November 2007 (UTC)


 * 10.05am
 * Kenichi Iwao speaking about the history of the Mindartia and Quon continents.
 * History that the Windurst/Tarutaru take over of all of Vana'diel, to be followed now by the rise of San d'Oria and then finally Bastok.
 * During the same time the beastmen rose up as well battling for territory.
 * Jeuno was finally formed by the three nations.
 * The Shadow Lord appears on the scene - gathering together the beastmen hordes - and managed to put together a series of battlefield victories against the separate and unaligned nations.
 * Recognizing that they could not win separately, the nations united to fight the Shadow Lord.
 * This is where (when) WotG takes place.


 * 10.30am
 * Mitsutoshi Gondai takes the stage to talk about the two new jobs.
 * Dancer is designed to be a healer who is also on the front lines, using TP to heal other players.
 * Also enfeebles - with "Steps". Can be used multiple times for increased effect.
 * Jigs: Non-combative spells, including movement speed increase, as well as sneak and invisible effects.
 * Sambas: Enhances attacks (e.g. Endrain to attack, or haste)
 * Waltzes: Curative dances, including single target heals, group heals, and debuff removal (-na effects).
 * Each time a step is used the dancer gets flourished which can be used for finishing moves.
 * Play will look like: Attack -> Gain TP -> Steps -> Flourishes -> Finishing moves - all while healing party.
 * Scholar - Both white and black magic plus new spells and abilities
 * Job Abilities: Tabula Rasa (2hr), Light Arts, Dark Arts, Modus Veritas, and Strategems.
 * Will assist party and combine abilities (Light Arts and Dark Arts)
 * The abilities will be used to take one of these two "stances" - switching is easy.
 * Strategems will be the advanced moves. Like summoner pacts (with a cooldown), these change depending on whether you are set Light Arts or Dark Arts (Two different lists).  They can be charged however, so they can use multiple charges depending on how many are stored.
 * Dark Arts Strategems:
 * - Halves the MP cost of the next Black magic spell.
 * Alacrity - Decreases cast time of next Black magic spell.
 * - Increases the potency of the next black magic spell.
 * Manifestation - Triples MP cost of next enfeeble, doubles duration.
 * Light Arts Strategems:
 * Celerity - Decrease cast time of the next White magic spell.
 * Penury - Halves the MP cost of the next White magic spell.
 * Rapture - Increases potency of the next white magic spell cost.
 * Accession - Turns the next white magic spell into an AoE. Triples MP cost/decreases cast time.
 * Start able to store 1 - as gain in levels get up to 3 charges
 * 4 minutes per charge.
 * Video showed graviga.

Mercenary Camp

 * One of the demo highlights was an interesting BCNM located in Stellar Fulcrum called Mercenary Camp. You and 5 other people went against the 5 generals (aka Counselers) in an all-out brawl.  Completely resistant to any form of enfeebling magic.  Brute force and powerful spells are needed to inflict any damage to the 5 counselers.  Post your experiences in the Fan Blog. -- 20:01, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Wings of the Goddess Tour Pit
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FFXIclopedia Development Team Interview
We might write this up more formally later, but here's what we we got:
 * 1) Dancer has a provoke ability, were you imagining this as a possible main tank? Or as a replacement subjob for /WAR?
 * 2) *Gondai: the idea was not to make a main tank like a PLD or NIN, but to have the dancer support tanks with its abilities. The provoke ability is not obtained until level 20.  It was more designed to be used in smaller parties (i.e. 3-4) where the one job can both heal and provoke.  At higher levels, it may be used as a replacement for a WAR sub.
 * 3) The movement towards smaller parties. Is that intentional?  What are the reasons for it?
 * 4) *Gondai: One of the requests that we have been hearing is to alleviate the need to have 6 person parties. Thus, we will be continuing to implement aspects of the game that encourage and aid smaller parties.
 * 5) What was done to ensure that the Scholar job does not displace WHM and/or BLM? What balancing was taken into account?
 * 6) *Gondai: The scholars cannot use the highest level spells of those jobs. They will have access to the mid-level spells of the WHM and BLM, but, when combined with the stratagems, the mid-level spells will increase in potency to approximate the high-level spells used by the WHM/BLM.  However, these stratagems will have cool down that will only allow this ability once every 15 minutes or so.  Past level 60 there are new exclusive high level DoT spells (the dev team calls them "Slip" spells).
 * 7) In testing the Wings of the Goddess expansion, we noticed Orcs advancing towards San d'Oria - what was that about?
 * 8) *Ogawa: Probably one of the campaign battles called "allied campaigns." This battle can happen in 15 areas and  will therefore be happening a lot.  It was possible somewhere in the zone the oupost was controlled by San d'Orian knights, and you saw the beginnings of Orcs advancing towards that outpost.  Each area will have beastmen strongholds, plus the beastmen can hold the nation areas.
 * 9) *Matsui: we are still adjusting the frequency of the battles.
 * 10) Any hints about the WotG storyline that you can share?
 * 11) *Iwao: the Carnivorous Maws (pyreflies) will play a very large role in the story. There are also a lot of links with the original storyline and shadow lord, and many previously hidden parts of the story will be revealed as part of the WotG story.  There is one NPC who plays a huge role in WotG - and they will reveal that NPCs identity later today.
 * 12) Are there any plans on adjusting Pankration?
 * 13) *Ogawa: A lot! More to be announced tonight.  There will be a lot of adjustments.
 * 14) What's the deal with Almighty Apkallu?
 * 15) *All: They don't remember. The mobs are not given names until later in the process and they do not recall which mob this is or why it has not been found.  They are going to have to go back and research the issue and provide some information somehow.
 * 16) Is there any possibility of splitting the chat log, so that battle spam is on one side and chat logs are on the other?
 * 17) *Tanaka: No. The PS2 cannot support the split, and they want to keep the playing field fair across platforms.
 * 18) Any possibility of allowing linkshells to be transferable so that whole linkshells do not need to be reformed if a leader quits the game?
 * 19) *Tanaka: There are no plans for this. In part the linkshells are cheap so that they can be formed easily.  They would be worried about misuse where the leader could transfer the linkshell without permission to someone else who would not run the linkshell in the same manner.

Presentation B - Job Adjustments!
Thats it for job adjustments.
 * Existing jobs will get new abilities and spells.
 * Adjustments will be from the start and be ongoing after WotG comes out.
 * They will be making further (implied downward) adjustments to the 2-handed changes.

Dev Panel
What is the Wings of the Goddess?
 * Takes place 20 years ago during Crystal War.
 * 2 main things connecting to past. Cavernous Maw and a female cat-type new NPC (Caitsith).
 * A lot of attention has been paid to ensure consistency with all the lore provided over last 5 years.
 * The Allied Campaign
 * New large scale system.
 * Besieged had limited number of participants. This time focus is on allowing more people to participate and to ensure that each individual feels that their contribution is meaningful.
 * Content of this new system is massive. 4 main points.
 * The Allied Campaign - overall term for battle between allies and beastment:
 * 1. Campaign Battles - Purpose is to drive beastmen out and control zones. Like besieged.  Benefits of controlling areas are gaining XP and campaign points.
 * 2. Campaign Ops - Missions offered by each nation. Availability depends on a number of factors.  Like assault, but only player who signs up will spend credits.  If you help you get benefits but don't spend credits.  More Ops than assault missions.  Some Ops can be completed solo, done in minutes, low level.
 * 3. Headhunting - Several NPCs called freelancers. You headhunt them and get them to join your nation in battle.  BST Maoi is one such freelancer.  So it Maat. Some freelancers will fight alone and some will bring friends.  Will "unlock" more backstory to these NPCs too.
 * 4. Assessments - Give guidance to how their nation should approach battles and technilogical advancements.  The opinions will tally once per week and will direct the path of the nations, thereby locking/unlocking certain OPs and battles.


 * This is about 1/2 of the new system.

Changes and Additions planned for future updates.
 * For Tuesday - effects everyone - with WotG or not.
 * New macro pallets. New gobbiebags.  Mog house visits.
 * Pankration- you can get the time your battle will happen. New feral skills.  New pets.  New practice pit is possible in near future - a place for training and to allow people to check out their friend's pets.
 * New reward for adventuing recruitment system is being considered.
 * In-game seasonal events.
 * Sundi had to convince the dev team to introduce these seasonal events.
 * Rumors about a lottery. They are looking into gambling system and issues related to NM camping and killing NMs without getting the drops.  So like in real world with a dream of winning the lottery - they will introduce a lottery.  More than one winner - prizes could include battlefield orbs.  Can't hold lottery too often since it would effect the economy.  So it will be a rare but "huge event."
 * More support for player-led events. They gave GMs ability to place NPCs and items anywhere in vanadiel for such events.  So for a LS event, players can contact a GM and ask for a mob to be placed somewhere.  GMs can help with weddings, chocobo races, special bazaar NPCs, hide and seek games / treasure hunts, new mob costumes.  Also plan to introduce next year a web-based calendar for user-led events.
 * Items for starlight celebration - new furniture - snowmen (already in dats).

Q&A

 * How does Treasure Hunter effect drops in battlefieds, dynamis, chest contents.
 * No effect on chests.
 * Same effect in dynamis etc. as elsewhere.
 * For TH to be active THF must perform an action on the target. Does not have to be killing strike.


 * New summons?
 * There are plans to introduce new avatars. Beyond that, top secret.


 * Relationship between magic accuracy and magic skill?
 * The skills have a direct effect on accuracy. Also bonues for stats (INT, MND, CHR, etc.)


 * Character walks slow. Help!
 * Go to the past and join the army gives boots with movement speed +12.5%. Can also buy new boots with allied notes.  Effect of boots cannot be combined with flee or mazurka, but can be combined with strider boots for +25%.


 * Can we have a cheese sandwhich recipie? (courtesy of Hempknight of Phoenix)
 * Yes. They will put one in next patch.

That's all folks.

Day 1 is done. Tune in tomorrow for more information!

Saturday: Day 2

 * 8.56am:We're getting ready to go this morning. The booth is set up.  Our quiz is being filled out.  The doors are about ready to open.  There will be an opening statement by SE soon.  Stay tuned.
 * 9.09am:Doors are open. We're waiting for the opening address.
 * 9.20am:It begins.

Cosplay
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