February 13, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
February 13, 2008 - The development team releases a video to dispel rumors that Absolute Virtue, the HNM of Lumoria, cannot be defeated. Following adjustments in September 2008, Absolute Virtue despawns after two hours to prevent adventurers from claiming the HNM for prolonged periods of time.
March 11, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
March 11, 2008 - La Vaule [S] (Davoi in present Vana'diel), Beadeaux [S], and Castle Oztroja [S] are added. Notorious monsters with True Sight and battlefields are added to these beastmen strongholds.
March 11, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
March 11, 2008 - The Recall spell is added, enabling teleportation to telepoints added in Jugner Forest [S], Pashhou Marshlands [S], and Meriphataud Mountains [S]. The Retrace spell is also added, allowing adventurers to transport a party member to their nation of affiliation in the past.
March 11, 2008
Events in Vana'dielMarch 11, 2008 - A version update changes battle music to play when in the vicinity of a party member engaged with an enemy regardless of whether your weapon is drawn. This playback change not only allows long-ranged jobs to enjoy the battle music, but also makes it easier to tell when members are running back to the party with monsters in tow.
March 11, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
March 11, 2008 - Quests to obtain artifact armor and unlock level cap 75 are added for the two new jobs introduced in Wings of the Goddess, dancer and scholar. The dancer artifact armor features different designs for male and female characters.
May 16 through 29 2008
Events in Vana'diel
May 16 through 29, 2008 - The first Mog Bonanza is held as part of FINAL FANTASY XI's 6th anniversary celebration. (The first winning numbers are revealed on June 30.) Each character of level 5 or higher is permitted to purchase up to 10 Bonanza pearls, resulting in many players leveling multiple characters to level 5. Adaman Hauberk and Ridill are included among the rank 1 prizes.
June 10, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
June 10, 2008 - Zeni Notorious Monsters, also known as ZNMs, are added. In this battle content, Soul plates are traded to Sanraku in Aht Urhgan Whitegate for Zeni, a currency exchanged for items used to spawn NMs.
June 10, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
June 10, 2008 - In response to a long-time popular request, Nomad Moogles are added to Selbina and Mhaura, allowing adventurers to change jobs and access storage in the two areas.
June 10, 2008
Adventurers' HistoryJune 10, 2008 - The Campaign Ops "Splitting Heirs," "Cracking Shells," and "Plucking Wings" are added, which only occur when specific areas are under the control of the Allied Forces of Altana. Only those affiliated with the corresponding nation may participate, resulting in many adventurers changing their allegiance to participate in these rare Campaign Ops.
August 1 through 18 2008
Events in Vana'diel
August 1 through 18, 2008 - Fantastic Fraulein Superheroine Stage Show premiers as part of 2008's Sunbreeze Festival. Four dance emotes are added for adventurers to dance in sync with Mumor.
August 18 through September 1 2008
Events in Vana'diel
August 18 through September 1, 2008 - The first official merchandise in the FINAL FANTASY XI Players’ Collection, the Tidal Talisman, is available as a made to order item for a limited time. Those who purchase the real-life pendant also receive a campaign code for an in-game body armor of the same name, which grants the ability to teleport between certain cities.
September 9, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
September 9, 2008 - The quest "Unlocking a Myth" is added, in which players can acquire weapon skills that could previously only be used when equipping the requisite mythic weapon, and involves using weapon skills when equipped with Vigil weapons obtained from Nyzul Isle Assault missions.
September 9, 2008
Adventurers' History
September 9, 2008 - Mythic weapon quests originally required 50,000 alexandrite, which is estimated to take several decades to acquire based on the obtainment rates and quantity in circulation at the time, and referred to as a "life sentence" by adventurers. This is changed to its current requirement of 30,000, along with adjustments to alexandrite quantities and obtainment methods.
September 9, 2008
Behind-the-scenes CommentaryI’ll never forget this, but I was the one who made the last-minute decision of 50,000 alexandrite just before our deadline. It seemed like a decent estimate based on the information I’d received, but when I took a peek, the distribution rate seemed way too low to ever gather that many! As we quickly received player feedback about the hopelessness of the situation, I wanted to believe, “It made it through the strict QA checks, it can’t be that bad!” but reality was quite harsh. Although I felt tremendous remorse towards our players, I was also very relieved we were in an age where games could be updated with fixes. (Koichi Ogawa, Director)
September 9, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
September 9, 2008 - The level sync system is added, enabling players to adjust their levels to that of a party member. The system also automatically adjusts players' gear stats, making it easier for players to party together regardless of any disparity in levels between them.
September 9, 2008
Behind-the-scenes Commentary
It was still a time when many activities required a party, so new and veteran players having a hard time playing together was a major problem that had to be resolved. The most critical part about designing and implementing level sync was creating the data for scaling the original stats of equipment to their level synced values. I had thought such a feat impossible, but to my surprise, it was handled by a lone staff member who had worked on it quietly. We had a list of stats for items when they were first conceptualized, but many of them were quite different from what was actually released, so it was an incredible amount of work to compare and adjust the data to their final versions.
We were also very careful to eliminate oversights that might allow players to level up in a way we hadn’t accounted for. Some might see us as eager to squash methods that give players an edge, but the truth is that we’re worried that a boring task unrelated to gameplay might become an unspoken rule in the player community for its efficiency. For instance, if you were expected to log out when a monster is about to be defeated, then quickly log back in, that would really warp the game experience. (Akihiko Matsui, Producer)
October 9, 2008
Events in Vana'dielOctober 9, 2008 - A free trial for FFXI is announced at Tokyo Game Show and commences on the same day, allowing new players to experience the game free of charge for 14 days. The free trial lasts until September 2010, and later returns as a revamped version with fine-tuned adjustments in October 2011.
November 22, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
November 22, 2008 - Vana'diel Festival 2008 is held in Tokyo. Development is announced for three add-on scenarios, starting with A Crystalline Prophecy. The event also features a live performance by the STAR ONIONS.
November 22, 2008
Behind-the-scenes CommentaryWhen Mr. Tanaka, who was the producer at the time, shared his ideas for add-on scenarios, I was taken aback that he had planned so far ahead. The first scenario was relatively mild, but by the third scenario, it was sort of like, “Anything goes!” in a good way, and I was glad we were able to realize a large-scale battle scene. I believe those three scenarios broadened what could be introduced into Vana’diel and contributed to the longevity of FFXI, which is still continuing 13 years thereafter. (Koichi Ogawa, Director)
November 22, 2008
Behind-the-scenes Commentary
There are a number of hardships that we always run into when organizing a live event. One of them is finding a venue, which was something we really struggled with for this event as well. We had to find a venue that was not only available for our event days, but also any extra time we needed for setup, clean up, and rehearsals, which severely limited our options. (I’m really thankful that we have more venues to choose from nowadays.) The Tokyo Dome was one of our options, but it was extremely expensive and came with the risk that our reservation would be overridden by a baseball game, so we chose a neighboring venue.
Another hardship was having Development team members join us on stage. Delivering information via live broadcast or video is more commonplace nowadays, but back then, most people had a mindset like, “A developer is supposed to create games. Sharing their intentions and behind-the-scenes stories isn’t part of their job,” and even the audience felt that way.
Live events for an online game were unprecedented in Japan and were lots of fun, but they were also an ongoing struggle against hardships like these, which brought on indescribable nervousness and anxiety. There were times where, after finishing an event, I couldn’t help but turn to Mr. Tanaka and ask, “How many points would you rate this event?”
From what I remember, the add-on scenario trilogy we revealed during this event was the result of an experimental endeavor by Mr. Tanaka. He had considered factors such as manpower, release timing, and the number of new areas, in order to determine what the Development team could make alongside the usual version updates. (I believe we were also working on FFXIV 1.0 and had to divide our developmental resources with them.) (Kazuyoshi Mochizuki, Lead Community Planner)
December 9, 2008
Events in Vana'dielDecember 9, 2008 - A version update lifts the bazaar tax from Jeuno areas. The tax remains in place for Aht Urhgan Whitegate and other areas, but is later fully lifted from all areas in February 2014.
December 9, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
December 9, 2008 - Fields of Valor (FoV) is added. This system allows players to take on voluntary training by examining field manuals located in various areas, which makes leveling easier for solo players and small groups.
December 9, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
December 9, 2008 - Treasure Caskets containing gear and items are added along with Fields of Valor (FoV), which may appear upon defeating enemies from FoV objectives.
December 9, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
December 9, 2008 - Argent attire, formalwear for male characters, is added and obtainable through synsthesis. A separate piece of attire sharing the same appearance can also be purchased as part of the wedding service.
December 18, 2008
Events in Vana'diel
December 18, 2008 - Moblin Maze Mongers (MMM) is added, which allows players to create customized dungeons with their own settings and rules, known as "mazes." Maze Vouchers are handed out to participants, dictating the objectives to complete the given maze. Aside from battle-related objectives, there are also others that require fishing or synthesizing.
From Decemberr 18 2008
Adventurers' History
December 18, 2008 - The addition of Moblin Maze Mongers allows players to create built-to-order dungeons with custom settings and rules. Although players may only order one maze per day, the ability to customize the type and levels of appearing monsters as well as the maze difficulty makes them quite useful for leveling. One popular leveling strategy involves gathering up all the monsters in the area and wiping them all out at once using the summoner ability Astral Flow.