A FOURTH expansion???

[Lambeaus]

Dunno if this is old news, just saw it this morning. Anybody know what is going on?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122309

[Xeion]

Could be nice with another expansion

English version of the GameWatch interview

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.watch.impress.co.jp%2 Fgame%2Fdocs%2F20060927%2Fff11tgs2.htm&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

[neighbortaru]

although not beyond the realm of possibility, I really doubt the accuracy of that post, especially when the source was not cited.

[Lambeaus]

although not beyond the realm of possibility, I really doubt the accuracy of that post, especially when the source was not cited. that is what I figured...wasn't sure if any of you guys had heard anything or not

[Kirsteena]

I remember reading something about it on the BG website...

Someone translated an interview from Japanese - I'll try rootle around tonight and find it, in between our marathon Shen run :wasted:

[Likibiki]

It'll come, definitely.

But considering AU's nowhere near finished yet, I'm not sure I understand why you're so interested... personally, I'd be far more interested about new information relating to AU stuff - especially choco racing and the colosseum.

Give it 6-8 months and yeah, I'll probably be psyching up for a new expansion, but for now it's just too far off to pique my interest.

[eticket109]

All it really says is that they are working on it. I would be more surprised to hear that they weren't working on a new expansion. They are popping out about one a year as it stands so I would expect a new one sometime in mid-2007. They may push it back though for the convention hype and TGS.

[Dark Raz]

At TGS they did pretty much announce a 4th expansion. Though it was quite an off-hand announcement.

[Lambeaus]

I'm interested because I like the game. Hell, I haven't even gotten to the CoP expansion yet, much less the ToAU. I've been too Whitegate a few times, but at my level there isn't much to do. But that doesn't me I'm not interested;)

[Ziero]

Yeah another expansion is kind of a 'no duh' concept. They'll keep releasing new expansions as long as people are still playing. My guess, either the Far East or Mithran homelands to the south will be featured. Though seeing as how it played a part in both CoP and ToAU in some way, smart money would be on the Far East finally being opened to the players.

[Karinya]

Based on the hints they've included in existing content, I expect it will be set in the Far East, and we'll see more of Tenzen, Gessho and Phoenix. And possibly have the opportunity to get involved in the war between Aht Urhgan and the Far East.

But we probably won't see even advance hints for months, maybe a year.

[Ameroth]

I'm interested because I like the game. Hell, I haven't even gotten to the CoP expansion yet, much less the ToAU. I've been too Whitegate a few times, but at my level there isn't much to do. But that doesn't me I'm not interested;)

I'm about in your same boat. I just recently when to Whitegate.. but that was to buy some wildgrass seeds at NPC merchant price. I aint paying 800-2000 gil for a single bag.:wtf:

[Dark Raz]

Far East is next. The ToAU storyline is leading up to it really..also it would make alot of sense for them to add it next because Near East is at war with the Far East..the mithran homeland I could see come probably last..just judging by the way expansions usually don't deal with each other, but refrence each other in some way, but ToAU seems to be changing that. Like the main storyline of FFXI is rank 1-10 in 3 nations, then zilart missions. CoP could be seen as the "filler" of FFXI's storyline, simply because it seems to be a "soandso happened between soandso events which lead up to soandso".

But yeah, next expansion might be small like Zilart was really.

It could add Geomancer, since that's one of the most requested jobs ever..and it is an "Asian" style job. (Far East in FFXI)

[Raydeus]

...either the Far East or Mithran homelands to the south will be featured.

God no, I'm sick and tired of the mithra thing as it is now. If a new expansion with more mithra stuff came out I'd go to Riverne and ask Ouryu to eat me just to make it stop.

Far East, Northern regions etc. etc. etc. anything but that. :wasted:

[Dark Raz]

God no, I'm sick and tired of the mithra thing as it is now. If a new expansion with more mithra stuff came out I'd go to Riverne and ask Ouryu to eat me just to make it stop.
Far East, Northern regions etc. etc. etc. anything but that. :wasted:

Lol what mithra thing?

Northern regions wouldn't make sense tbh...

I mean...gigas?

What would we do...20 missions of getting them pants? lol.

[Raydeus]

Lol what mithra thing?

Northern regions wouldn't make sense tbh...

I mean...gigas?

What would we do...20 missions of getting them pants? lol.

As long as it had nothing to do with the Mithra homeland I'd go synth not only pants, but trenchcoats and shirts for gigas. :wasted:


Edit > And socks, lots of socks.

[eticket109]

Lol what mithra thing?
Northern regions wouldn't make sense tbh...
I mean...gigas?
What would we do...20 missions of getting them pants? lol.

someone posted before about a few NPC convo references to the Gigas homeland in the Northlands.

[Omniblast]

They'll introduce Male Mithra's and Female Galkas into the game :rofl:

[Ziero]

Well there's an item in game already that mentions a specific land to the South by name. It's that wall mask furniture who'se name I can't recall right now. To me that's the best indication that the Mithran homeland to the south, which seems to be a tribal like land, will come before the Gigas homelands to the north. And of course there's always the Mithran Trackers, who originate from these southlands, to consider.

[Feenicks]

Isn't there supposed to be a land to the Far West as well? Maybe not ... but think I saw a mention of 'a land to the far west' in an item description.

[Dark Raz]

There is. It's the "Native" style more then likely.

[Feenicks]

Our resident loremaster was banned a few months back so I can't really confirm ... I'm sure someone will come along and fill us in with the details though ...

(that's your cue, whoever you are)

[Xaoko]

The Far West looks like it'll be some crazy Native American/Mexican hybrid, judging from the destription of Salsa, and Bison gear (from CoP's site):

A zesty sauce used by chefs specializing in dishes originating in the Far West.

Bison equipment is actually battle armor used by a fabled tribe of warriors residing in a land far to the west (far west?). Though made from tough leather, this equipment is suprisingly easy to move in, and protects its wearer from even the harshest blows.

Perhaps what we might see is similar to what we see with the Eastern continent: A "near west" (simply "west"?), and a "far west." Near might be the native american-themed land, and far west would be the one with perhaps mayan ruins, stuffed bellpeppers, you get my point.

Also, I would like to caution that because the plot has a lot of far east in it, that does not necessarily mean that the expansion will be with the far east. Yes, the chances are increasing every expansion, but remember, in terms of the plot and the existance of the far east in the plot, CoP made many people believe that we'd be going to the land of samurais and ninjas, but ToAU has proven us otherwise. Despite, just as before ToAU was revealed, the next expansion does indeed look like the far east.

And finally, I would like to take a quick second to discuss the far south. As we all can tell, there seems to be an equivelant of each major culture in the world in the game- oriental, middle eastern, european, (one day) native american and Aztec/Mayans, and finally, african. It is rather easy to point out middle eastern, european, and the western cultures, but one is rather hard to pinpoint: Indian culture. At first, it looked as if India would be present in the Near East, but the expansion has proven otherwise, as it focuses moreso on Turkish culture, more than anything (lots of Turkish foods and gear in this expansion :O). In the past, I've looked at items originating in various areas in the game (such as salsa from the far west), and have found a heavy concentration of materials india is known for (although not necessarily invented by) coming from the far south: damascus ingot, tafetta, and curry powder. Furthermore, the far south is known for the Tsahya Mask, and coffee beans, both distinctively African.

These two reasons, the heavy presence of both Indian and African items, albeit few in number, originating from the Far South makes me really wonder what SE has in mind for that region.

[Pai Pai Master]

Seeing as how development on Treasures of Aht Urhgan began almost simultaneously with that of the Chains of Promathia expansion, the idea of a 4th expansion being in development at this time is highly likely. I wouldn't expect to hear anything of it until around the next E3, however.

[Aeni]

Seeing as how development on Treasures of Aht Urhgan began almost simultaneously with that of the Chains of Promathia expansion, the idea of a 4th expansion being in development at this time is highly likely. I wouldn't expect to hear anything of it until around the next E3, however.

It takes a really long time to develop new content and then test for bugs, quash those bugs and then make changes along the way as players progress through the previous content (So as to avoid making the "same mistakes") Plus fine tuning job balance and content difficulty.

And since they're not raising the job level cap ... I believe that the next expansion will be released early next year. Players can be fickle especially when faced with the possibilities that their job class can't be improved upon anymore once they are also capped in meriting. Only raising level cap or introducing a slew of brand new class equipment sets can alleviate this and due to balancing, looks like SE won't be raising the level cap anytime soon so the only other recourse is to keep churning out new content.

[Pai Pai Master]

Early next year is very unlikely for an FFXI expansion, seeing as how the amount of content being distributed in Aht Urhgan is currently well behind schedule.

While Chocobo Racing was originally scheduled to be available around this time, we're just seeing the development of Chocobo Breeding brought to players. With Racing as the next major addition, there are still things like The Colisseum and The Pit that are still coming, and their releases will probably carry over until late in the summer of 2007. If each of these next three major additions are each delayed as long as Chocobo Breeding was, it's unlikely we'll see the conclusion of Aht Urhgan-based content until the fourth quarter 2007 or even early 2008.

[Aeni]

Early next year is very unlikely for an FFXI expansion, seeing as how the amount of content being distributed in Aht Urhgan is currently well behind schedule.

While Chocobo Racing was originally scheduled to be available around this time, we're just seeing the development of Chocobo Breeding brought to players. With Racing as the next major addition, there are still things like The Colisseum and The Pit that are still coming, and their releases will probably carry over until late in the summer of 2007. If each of these next three major additions are each delayed as long as Chocobo Breeding was, it's unlikely we'll see the conclusion of Aht Urhgan-based content until the fourth quarter 2007 or even early 2008.

My thinking is that those things aren't even in AU. They will appear in the next expansion. I see AU as a way for SE to make money off of us while providing minimal content. "Oh noes, how could you sez that?" Two things:

-Development for PS3 is gonna cost a lot of money. A LOT OF MONEY. If a company is bleeding money in one side, they need to cover that hole up to make it look good for investors at fiscal year end.

-It's been shown that FFXI players are not adverse to buying expansions. In fact, they go nuts. Churning out expansions is a great way for SE to make additional revenue.

-Each major update gets larger and larger and becomes a focal point for frustration, Having expansions, therefore, provides a stop gap measure in needing to download bulky packages to update the client software.

Remember, SE is in it for the money and for no other reason at all. If they were losing money with FFXI, they'd shut it down (or the investors would) in a heartbeat and not bother keeping it up and running for sentimental purposes only (They have the Final Fantasy Movie debacle to thank for that)

[eticket109]

AU providing minimal content?

- A new continent with 15-20 new zones

- 3 new jobs

- Assaults

- Besieged

- Chocobo racing and racing

- the Colisseum

- new missions and a ton of new quests

- ISNM fights

- a plethora of new mobs

- a bunch of new armor and weapons

That's minimal?

[largedopantwhite]

New expansion? Yay! :D
I've pretty much given up that Squeenix will up the level cap or allow a higher subjob level, so I can only pray for two things....

Geomancer Time Mage
http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasyTactics/Jobs/Geomancer%20%28M%29%20-%20Status.GIF http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasyTactics/Jobs/Time%20Mage%20%28M%29%20-%20Status.GIF

[tazirai]

If they allow 75/75 Job SJ .. we'd basically be able to solo everything haha.
Or at the least move aroudn like Prishe and Crew.
I'm glad to hear about the "annoucement " of the expansion even though , I'm still waist deep into AU an dneed to finish Promathia.

They seemed to learn with ToAU, that unlike Promathia, You don't need Hundreds of battles to tell a good story. Even though some of the battels make sense. Alot of Promathia Battles are just assanine, Snoll Szar anyone?

With Aht urghan things makes sense, and I like it when things make sense ^^.

[Anaki]

Isn't there supposed to be a land to the Far West as well? Maybe not ... but think I saw a mention of 'a land to the far west' in an item description.

i think the far west was talked about being filthy rich in cop i remember a cmment about a boatload full of gold ingots being brought in a hope to buy the star of tavnazia

[largedopantwhite]

If they allow 75/75 Job SJ .. we'd basically be able to solo everything haha. ^^.

75/75? Are you kidding? God no. :D
I was thinking, at best, 75/50 or something. Even that'd be too much.
Or they could just up the level cap (80-85, or, dare I say, 99?), tho that already has its own thread.

[Pai Pai Master]

We've seen that the FFXI development time is definitely not like Sony Online Entertainment. They obviously like to take their time with things, and if that weren't true we'd have 5 or 6 expansions by now.

I highly doubt Square Enix will "postpone" content from Aht Urhgan to a next expansion, especially considering how much of the content is central to the Aht Urhgan region and story.

While I'm sure Square Enix glees at the fact that FFXI has a very dedicated fanbase that gets about as excited for each FFXI expansion as people do for any of their complete game titles, I think they've proven that they'd rather take their time to really work things out as planned before pushing it aside for another expansion pack.

[Kitalrez]

someone posted before about a few NPC convo references to the Gigas homeland in the Northlands.

I think that was me, though I can't really remember the thread. The reference I was pulling for that wasn't from NPC convos, it was a section of the Vana'Diel Tribune article that talked about TAU and COP areas. Little mithra talking with a Galka about exploring Vana'Diel. Apparently, the northern regions contain the Orcish Empire and Gigas Homelands. Now, considering Northern Furs have been in game since at least RoZ, and that certain CS where 'you know who' from the opening movie gets dragged before 'you know what' in Ulegrand Range by a small army of Orcs who look like they're a little too organized to be Davoi Orcs, it does stand that there's at least a chance of having content added in that direction. Something has to make the fur in Northern Furs, and as we know what Buffalo Hide is used in, I'm doubting Ulegrand Range is the source.

Everyone's thinking it'll be the Far East, mainly because they figure there were enough war references in CoP and TAU to support it over anyplace else. The problem is that SE likes to litter expansions with teasers of how big the world really is, whether they go there or not. For instance, why are Ninja and Samurai available in an expansion that added the pirate city of Norg? Norg doesn't have anything to do with either the Near or Far East other than the fact they plunder shipping. One would expect Norg to have more to do with Corsair or something like Necromancer given their occupation.

As it stands we have references in game to:

1. Southern Lands. I.E. Tsahya and the Mithran Homeland, which judging by the mask will have an African theme. Suspecting Egyptian influence as well, Southern Mummies anyone?
2. Northern Lands. Gigas/Orcs. We've been stuck with the remnants of their armies since at least the original with Davoi, and RoZ with Delkfutt's Tower. SE has never contradicted themselves that these are anything more than invading forces.
3. Far East. CoP references, NIN/SAM jobs, etc.
4. Far West. Native American theme?

Problem I see with adding Far East at the present time is that we only have the eastern half of Aht Urgan. Whitegate isn't the capital city, if you listen to the ingame conversations, we're only seeing the seat of one half of the empire there. Apparently, there's still an emperor on the other half that's dealing with the war effort with the Far East, (which also explains why Al Zabbi is missing the normally huge contingent of soldiers you would expect to be defending a city that big). You have to cover this mystery ground before you can really open up the Far East. Either that's going to be an ungodly large expansion, since supposedly the Far Eastern empire is as big as Aht Urgan, or it's going to be two expansions.

[Legal Fish]

CoP could be seen as the "filler" of FFXI's storyline

Might just be the dumbest thing I've ever heard, at least if you are speaking in Anime season terms.

[Legal Fish]

Oh, yeah, since it has to be said a million times:
The Middle Lands, the first map of Vana'diel containing the Quon and Mindartia continents could be seen as Europe, or at least western Europe.
Africa/Mithra Homeland to the south
"The New World"/Native American world to the west
The Middle East and Far East world to the east
And the savage north/gigas/orc/barbarian world to the north.
Those are the known continents, most of their names can be found in the current canon.

[Caspian]

Aht Urghan is the Near east continent right? So there's still another continent even farther east, where Tenzen is from, correct? Or if not another continent, then a continuation of this one?

[Kitalrez]

Aht Urghan is the Near east continent right? So there's still another continent even farther east, where Tenzen is from, correct? Or if not another continent, then a continuation of this one?
Now see, that's the question, isn't it? If the other half of the Aht Urgan Empire where the Emperor and all the soldiers are currently stationed is on the same continent as the part we now have access to:

A. Tenzen's homeland in the Far East is on a different continent altogether.

-or-

B. That's one ginormous continent, and it'd be either one mother of an expansion, or more of what we have currently, where we get parts of that continent with each of two expansions.

Your guess is as good as mine until someone leaks a world map that includes all these pre-planned but unseen areas, I suppose.

[framerate]

New expansion? Yay! :D
I've pretty much given up that Squeenix will up the level cap or allow a higher subjob level, so I can only pray for two things....
Geomancer Time Mage
http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasyTactics/Jobs/Geomancer%20%28M%29%20-%20Status.GIF http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasyTactics/Jobs/Time%20Mage%20%28M%29%20-%20Status.GIF


God yes. Time Mage {Can I have it?}

[bside]

Since the google translation Xeion put a link to is only translating a part of the page and missing the part on the next expansion, here you go;

Source: http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20060927/ff11tgs2.htm
(One before the last section is a part on the next expansion.)

Regarding the "next expansion package"

Tanaka: It's been 4 and a half years of operation and continuous updates. Currently, there's already a set plan for 1 year ahead of things like updates, and we'll continue (updating the contents) as long as the service continues. Ogawa is working hard on things like next expansion.

MC: Mr. Ogawa is scowling lol. ToAU is a Near East, and what directions are we going next?

Ogawa: Vana'diel is very large, so I think it's going somewhere... Please look forward to it.


Memo by the author on this part;

Though very short, it was revealed that they have started working on the next expansion. There has been worries among users as to until when they continue the FFXI service, partially due to the now-developing next generation MMO, but it certainly casts those worries aside. We don't know when, but we'll look forward to it enjoying the ToAU in the meantime.



Seeing that the update plan is already set for another 12 months, which is likely the "ToAU plan," I highly doubt they'd come up w/ the next expansion before then. As w/ past expansions, all of them came w/ the related missions, so at least until ToAU mission comes to an end, it's unlikely anyways.

[eticket109]

most likely one group is focused on closing out ToAU while the other group works on the new expansion. If they waited til ToAU was finished before they started the next there would be at least 2 years between releases, which is far from the pattern so far. I would expect it about this time next year most likely.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

The time between RoZ and CoP was about a year and a half, Time between CoP and ToA was a year and a half as well.

While it does sound like things are ramping up in ToA, I think we still have til summer at least before the major endgame content hits and that the next expansion would beout about this time next year. Sandoria has had thier hand in the story line, now Shantotto from Windurst is going to play a role and that still leaves Bastok for future missions. The three nations always have to be involved.

There's still much of Aht'Urghan's map to be uncovered in terms of zones and I'm sure there's a mercenary rank above Sergent. Not to mention that all-too-telling empty desk in the Commissions Agency, there's gotta be another Assault zone waiting out there.

[Kitalrez]

most likely one group is focused on closing out ToAU while the other group works on the new expansion. If they waited til ToAU was finished before they started the next there would be at least 2 years between releases, which is far from the pattern so far. I would expect it about this time next year most likely.

This sounds about right. If you'll remember back to CoP, when it was released they told us they already had a team working on what turned out to be TAU.

[klvino]

There's still much of Aht'Urghan's map to be uncovered in terms of zones and I'm sure there's a mercenary rank above Sergent. Not to mention that all-too-telling empty desk in the Commissions Agency, there's gotta be another Assault zone waiting out there.

With Sergeant rank, we'll be using 7 of the 8 maps used for each assault area, which hints there is one more rank to use the last map for each of those areas.