New Level Sync Feature to Change the Way You Party! (08/25/2008)

The FFXI development team is proud to announce the “Level Sync” system, a revolutionary new feature in the upcoming version update that will allow all players—grizzled veterans and novices alike—to adventure and gain experience together regardless of level differences!

Click here for all the details!

Ever since the introduction of the ZNM system in the last update, players have been spending their time going up the ZNM tiers in order to gain access to one of the most difficult enemies in Final Fantasy XI: Pandemonium Warden. But we have only heard of a few accounts of the fight which talk about PW changing into different forms along with the Pandemonium Lamps.

The LS “Beyond the Limitation” on Seraph has given Pandemonium Warden a great attempt and even after EIGHTEEN hours, was unable to defeat this monster.

This begs the question “How Long is Too Long?”

We’ve recently learned from the Premier Site Summit that Sage Sundi believes the Absolute Virtue fight to take eighteen hours (or less if you’re lucky). Could it be possible that with the introduction of this new endgame NM system that they decided to add another extremely difficult NM?

BtL had gone through twenty possible forms of the Pandemonium Warden. Some of the forms alone took a few hours to defeat. But the many forms of this monster aren’t the worst thing to come from this fight. After the fight had raged on for 18 hours Sylphet from BtL had posted this in the BG Forums:

People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people’s lives.

Sylphet has also informed me that several members of BtL actually ended up vomiting by the end of the night from their intense focusing with no breaks for 18 hours.

I think with the recent AV news and now the news of how long PW fights are lasting (without defeating the NM) It might be time to remind Square-Enix of their own message.

Right now the members of Beyond the Limitation just wish Square-Enix to carefully consider their own warning that shows up before a user is able to log into the game.

Hopefully enough people will voice their opinions about these long battles that will make Square-Enix rethink their endgame monster design to include a battle that is still very challenging, but doesn’t require you to spend almost an entire day to defeat.

We are one of very few LS who have killed AV (not using the wall trick) so we know quite well what is futile and what is not.  None of us doubt that PW can be killed.  We just call into question exactly what the development team thinks is reasonable from human beings.

-Sylphet

This is also the round table disccusion for this week. Please post in our forums and let your voice be heard here.

A member of Btl has updated their Live Journal with an entry detailing the fight and helping to clear up any confusion people may have. View it here.

The September version update just keeps getting bigger and better! We would like to take this opportunity to announce our intentions to implement some all-new features to both Dynamis and Limbus, as well as a few adjustments brought in by popular demand!

Blue mage / Corsair / Puppetmaster Artifacts and Relics

The wait is finally over!
At long last, the highly anticipated relic gear sets of the blue mage, corsair, and puppetmaster jobs are here! Rounding out the standard 5-piece sets, the more recently added back and waist items will also be added to September’s version update. Players with these jobs can now look forward to obtaining the ingredient items required to temper their artifact and relic gear with even greater enhancements!
When considering how to best introduce this equipment, the development team weighed many options, including the possibility of entirely original methods. In the end, however, the decision was made that such means would be largely unfair by rendering only players with these jobs capable of accessing new game content. Therefore, all of the above items will be procured in the same way as their predecessors, namely via exploits in the Dynamis and Limbus areas.

Drop Rates

Great care has been put into assuring that current drop rates will see no negative impact from the introduction of the new blue mage, corsair, and puppetmaster gear sets. Players can rest easy knowing that any and all necessary adjustments to the drop rate ratios have been considered and implemented to maintain a fair and balanced game experience.
Furthermore, the overall drop rates of select Dynamis areas, covering the relic gear of all jobs old and new, are set to be raised as well.

Entry Fees

In light of the additions and adjustments detailed above, the entry fees for both Dynamis and Limbus were also brought under careful reconsideration.
Thanks in part to the ground being made by the Special Task Force in combating RMT-related activities, and subsequent normalization of the game economy, the following reduction in price to entry items will be implemented in the upcoming September version update.

Timeless Hourglass: 1,000,000 gil -> 500,000 gil
Cosmo-Cleanse: 30,000 gil -> 15,000 gil