[AKosygin]

FFXI Premier Site Summit Report
02 MAR 2007 - Santa Monica, CA

FFXIOnline.com was invited to the SquareEnix Final Fantasy XI Premier Site Summit to have some questions answered and pave a way to a closer relationship between the FFXI Community and the Development Team. We expect additional support available to us in the near future which will be passed down to you as new abilities and features for you to further enjoy the FFXI community experience.

The FFXI Community Relations Team were presented with numerous concerns in which the community addressed in various FFXI sites, including FFXIOnline.com. Amongst them were concerns of HNM drops, the Producer/Executive Director and the VP of Community Relations listened to the concerns and considered possibilities and options to changing the drop rates, item characteristics (rare/ex), and spawn rates to a more appropriate level recommended by several community sites. Details as to how the rates are to be changed was also considered and will be taken to the development team, so there are no further details beyond having received the concern and is being taken into consideration.

Amongst other concerns, were Microsoft Windows Vista compatability which was hinted that a solution will be made available soon, specific details and method in which the solution will come was not yet finalized.

The Community Relations Team also considered the concerns for the need to streamline the process in which players "look for groups" (LFG) to reduce LFG times, and the possibility to LFG under different jobs than the one currently selected on the character. Several possible solutions were considered including changes to the in-game party searching system, an offline LFG scheduling system, the Linkshell Community Search functions, and various tools and interfaces to be open to possibly all community sites, to assist players search for other players to party with presently and in near future time periods.

Other items addressed also include the possibility to allow for linkshells to be a tradable item (via direct trade only) to resolve issues with LS leaders leaving, and other changes to the Link Shell system to include additional features to make the linkshell system to be more robust.

Though most concerns were considered, no specific issue had a finalized decision as to how they are to be addressed, aside from FFXI Windowed Mode reported here. The FFXI Community Relations Team conveyed to the community sites present that the FFXI Community Relations Team, the GM Team, and the Development Team do actively listen and read all of the community suggestions, comments, and concerns that are presented to them from the various community sites. However, due to the volume and area in which the Community Relations Team and the Development Team must cover, they are usually unable to address each topic, posts, or message individually.

Plans are currently being considered by the FFXI Community Relations Team to increase the existing interaction and exposure between SquareEnix and the FFXI Community as a whole. FFXIOnline.com and other Premier Community Sites along with SquareEnix expect greater involvement and interaction in the near future.

EDIT: The CEO of SquareEnix has also made mention of a new MMORPG that is being developed in which considerations are being made to manage the community of FFXI and the new MMORPG. Exact details were not released as to the new product under development.

"Beware of Water Bears."

[Lejar]

Hi. I've been surfing these forums since I can't remember. But I finally joined! I'm a rdm on Siren. Anyways, I think that the new LFG function that this post talks about is a great idea! The possibility of being able to go lfg on more than one job would drastically increase your invite rates! (Even if it isn't for the job you want ) And I think that the off-line lfg is a little funny. But I guess that's what some people need.

[Raydeus]

Very interesting, I wonder how exactly are they gonna handle all that. But without concrete answers I guess all we can do is wait and see.

[Kaickul]

Am dreaming.... is this for real?

...I keep waiting to wake up after reading this.

Fucking fantastic...

[Taskmage]

The LFG on another job thing is hot and should've happened a long time ago. That alone is going to cut down on so much wasted frustrating time.

[Taggerung]

Wow.. Windowed Mode? Reduced LFG times? Altered HNM's? Is the world ending?

Now if only my character would get reactivated....

[MisterCookie]

Wow.. Windowed Mode? Reduced LFG times? Altered HNM's? Is the world ending?

Wow, maybe the in-game clock in Vana'Diel was off a bit and its the mythical year 1000 now...I won't believe any of this info til I see it with my own eyes on playonline.com though.

[AKosygin]

Originally Posted by MisterCookie

Wow, maybe the in-game clock in Vana'Diel was off a bit and its the mythical year 1000 now...I won't believe any of this info til I see it with my own eyes on playonline.com though.

Well, it is straight from the horse's mouth directly to us. Though I don't know which part you not believe?

[DurkaDurka]

This is crazy! I LOVE IT@!

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Originally Posted by MisterCookie

Wow, maybe the in-game clock in Vana'Diel was off a bit and its the mythical year 1000 now...I won't believe any of this info til I see it with my own eyes on playonline.com though.

Its official information, believe it. People responsible for this site and others were invited to attend. (see topic title)

[dejey]

all of this sounds good, however they did not give us a timeline. my best guess is in each update when they add more to ToAU stuff, we will see one or two things from the list (not the 3/8 one). it is great that they are doing what we want. giveing us more free time.
they themself are adding things that we want. we asked for windower we going to get it, we always asked to pick our server we geting that too, LFG on more then one job or a job that you are not on atm(for people to farm) we geting that.
the updates are not big but they are giveing us what WE want!

[KoukiRyu]

Wow I just read this but...reduced LFG times is crazy awesome! @_@ I thought this was just about windower, which is already amazing, but LFG on two or more jobs at once would be freaking crazy.

[amnes]

Originally Posted by AKosygin

EDIT: The CEO of SquareEnix has also made mention of a new MMORPG that is being developed in which considerations are being made to manage the community of FFXI and the new MMORPG. Exact details were not released as to the new product under development.

"Beware of Water Bears."

I registered to this site just to comment on this topic.

I've been searching for months on news about the Untitled SquareEnix Next-Gen MMORPG. The last news about this game was the SE report on the misinformation about it being a sequel to FFXI.

Hopefully whatever changes the FFXI Dev team makes on FFXI, the new MMORPG will not have to suffer from the reason on having those changes.