The large-scale version updates planned for late November and mid-December will see a number of additions and adjustments to both items and synthesis recipes. This Topics post will detail the nature of these changes, and introduce a new feature designed to aid in the synthesis process.

Additional Items: November, December

The majority of items will be added in the December version update. We also will be introducing gear with all-new graphics for each class in order to provide something for all players.

Below are some of the items scheduled for release in the December patch.



Additions and Adjustments to Synthesis Recipes
Released Recipes: November, December

The following adjustments will be made in the November version update in order to balance the degree of difficulty for synthesis.
Reduction of rank requirement for several recipes
Changes to materials required for several recipes
Introduction of alternate recipes for several items
Adjustments to the effect of each synthesis action on durability and quality
Reduction in the number of crystals required for synthesis
Increase in the number of crystals obtained as rewards for local leves

These changes will be ongoing in the December version update as well, as we continue to focus on improving and balancing synthesis.

New Recipes: November, December

In addition to the balancing changes planned for existing recipes, we will also be introducing a number of new synthesis recipes.

Auto-Selection of Materials: December

To improve convenience while crafting, we will be adding a feature that allows players to select an item to synthesize from a list of previously used recipes. Doing so will automatically place the required materials into the appropriate slots.

As of the December update, these two synthesis histories, one for general synthesis and one for local leve synthesis, will each retain the eight most recent recipes made. The version update scheduled for this coming March will expand this feature to retain a player's entire synthesis history.

In addition to all of the above changes, the November version update will also see changes that allow for the stacking of certain items, as well as the removal of a Wear value for smallclothes

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I'm really happy to hear that they are reducing the number of shards needed for recipes, as well as well as increasing the amount of shards received for doing leves. Hopefully the 15 shards per synth recipes will be a thing of the past.

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Another free 30 days lol

patch is 25th

I hope this patch will be enough to keep people who were on the fence around. I think I'll hold off on crafting until after the 25th since it seems like it will be a waste of materials. What's the point of burning 12 shards when I can wait til the 25th and possibly use less? I'd do a happy dance about the extra 30 days, but my boss might get suspicious :p.

Sweet Jesus! I can't really call this a "paid beta" anymore. Now it's more like a "free beta period with a fully paid pre-order."

I know people were asking for this, but the fact that they actually did it is really unexpected to me. It's a damn smart move though if they want to try to keep subscriptions up.

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Retired 8/21/06
Don't click this link.

Interestingly, Zam posted an article earlier today explaining how the extended free trials are a bad idea. Their argument basically boils down to that it's just keeping people pissed off for longer and ruining the community.

You're right though, this is basically "beta access with pre-order". Which, of course, is an offer most people would have taken up anyway.

So there you go folks, we're still in beta, all beta characters transfer to retail, and there's a bunch of big beta patches coming before we go retail (start paying). Interestingly, people would probably be less angry about the whole thing if this was actually "beta" instead of retail. Just goes to show the game was rushed out of the door by management.

EDIT: By the way, I called this. I said the patch either had to hit this week, or they had to extend the trial. The patch must not be ready so they opted for the latter.

Yah. I got TAN to 24 last night through grinding, but that was mainly because people have been kind to me with Ice Shards, and I farmed a ton of Wind Shards getting all my DoW jobs to 10. From now until the changes, however, craft only through Local leves and save your shards, because you'll be able to do more with them in a week and a half, or so.

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It's nice of them to extend the free trial another 30 days. I was one of the crybabys calling it a "paid beta" and can no longer say that. SE is on the right track to satisfying their customers and fixing the problems in FFXIV. The game will definately get better and that early grind will pay off for all you guys!

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Didnt we talk about this last night.


YOU NOW NEED LESS SHARDS FOR MOST SYNTHS!*

*(15 Shards have been replaced with 10 Crystals)

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Can honestly say I am glad that i went to play wow. I still have no doubt I will play ffxiv again, but it will be after ps3 patch, or a content heavy patch before then. screenshots still look fucking awesome though.

More info from lodestone (lodestone has pictures):


The large-scale version update tentatively scheduled for November 25 will bring about a number of changes to the user interface (UI). Among these will be improvements to controls on various menus and screens, an item-sorting feature, and further improvements to targeting and chat systems. In addition to reworking numerous facets of the UI, we will also be implementing a number of new features. This Topics post will introduce and detail a portion of these planned.




Menus
Under the main menu, the Attributes & Gear option will be split into two options, Attributes and Gear. There will also be a Loot option that will be displayed under the Interactions menu whenever an item occupies a player's loot list. Improvements to menu navigation when using a gamepad or keyboard will be made. And finally, the experience and skill point bars currently displayed in the upper left portion while the main menu is open will now be visible on the screen at all times in the same manner as the HP bar.



Attributes
The general layout of the Attributes window is being redesigned.
Character information will be organized into General Attributes, Skills, and Key Items tabs.


Gear
Selecting a slot will restrict the items displayed in the gear list to only those that may be equipped in that slot.
Mousing over an item will display that item's icon, statistics, and other information.

Inventory
The number of items players and retainers may have in their inventory will be increased by twenty.
Currency and Loot tabs will be added.
The upper portion of the Inventory window will display a list of items in a player's possession. Highlighting an item will display its icon, statistics, and other information below.
* The Wear value for items can currently be viewed at the bottom of the Items tab by clicking on the arrow icon in the lower right, pressing left or right on the directional pad of a gamepad, or by pressing the left or right arrow keys on a keyboard. To eliminate this additional step, an item's Wear value will be incorporated into its details window in the December version update.

A sort feature will be added to player inventories.
* Enabling the sort feature will organize an inventory by item type. While disabled, items will be listed in the order in which they entered the inventory.
* Future version updates will bring additional sort options, both automated and manual.
Selecting an item will open a menu containing the Sell Item, Purchase Item, Seek Repairs, Repair, Discard, and Toggle Sort options.
Sale prices will be displayed next to items in player and retainer bazaars.
Icons representing Unit Price, Set Price, Purchase Item, and Seek Repairs will be added to player and retainer bazaars.




Journal
Area names will be displayed on the journal map screen.
A player's current location will be displayed on the journal map screen.
A history of completed quests will be added.


Retainers
Simply selecting an item will move that item to a retainer's inventory.
It will become possible to easily exchange gil with retainers from the new Currency tab.


Map
Zoom-in and zoom-out functionality will be added to the map screen.
Scrolling on the map screen will be possible by dragging the mouse.
The log will remain visible while the map screen is open.
A map menu will be added in the upper right of the map screen.
The location of party members will be displayed on the map screen in real-time.

Configuration
A Chat-specific Keyboard setting will be added for players using gamepads. When enabled, this setting allows text to be entered directly without first pressing the spacebar to open the chat prompt.
* Key mapping will not be possible while the Chat-specific Keyboard setting is enabled.
It will be possible to create new chat log tabs with unique filter settings from the Chat Filters screen. Tab display will be locked regardless of whether the log is active or inactive.
Chat filter options will be added for synthesis- and gathering-related messages.
Font colors for different chat modes will become selectable.

Other
Chat Feature
The input bar of the chat log will be displayed continuously.
Pressing Ctrl+R will open a /tell prompt addressed to the last player from whom a /tell was received.
Pressing Ctrl+S, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+H, Ctrl+P, and Ctrl+L will open /say, /tell, /shout, /party, and /linkshell chat prompts, respectively.
The text commands /s, /t (/t <player name>), /p, and /l will be usable to set the chat mode to /say, /tell, /party, and /linkshell modes, respectively.


Text Commands
The <pos> command will be usable to display coordinates on the map.
The /equip and /item commands will accommodate high-quality items (i.e., items with names containing a +1, +2, etc.).
Simultaneously equipping multiple items of the same name to multiple slots with the /equip command will become possible.


Targeting
While engaging multiple enemies, a player's cursor will automatically move to the next target when the current target is defeated.
Players with no target who are attacked by an enemy will automatically target that enemy.
It will be possible to open treasure chests by targeting and selecting them, rather than via the Interactions menu.


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About the icons in retainer bazaars, I guess that's meant to eliminate the trick where people put a stack of something for a high price then a unit set under it for the same high price.

Everything else seems "eh" at best to me. I primarily use a gamepad to play, and not being able to easily chat and have mapped keyboard is blah.
I'm kinda worried about the auto target of grouped mobs though, seems like a bad idea for sp parties or other group fights. I will have to see it in action I guess, but I'm afraid myself or a group of people won't have the reaction time to cancel or move the target to the correct mob and cause problems. Especially if the mobs were slept. I'd rather have had better targetting features than an auto target.

Sp/exp bar always visable seems kinda silly waste of screen space to me. I kinda like the little general character information display that comes up on the menu as-is. It only needs to be checked every so often when curious, I'm afraid always staring at it and the daunting task of how much needed to complete a rank will drive some people mad.

This isn't a problem anymore due to the fact we have no auto-attack. In FFXI occasionally when your target switched after a battle you'd automatically hit the next mob and wake it up. All this will do is target the next mob for you, not attack it. If it picks the wrong mob (which hopefully shouldn't happen often, you shouldn't be fighting 3+ mobs!) you just change to a different one.

As for the on-screen EXP bar, this is what most other MMOs do, I guess, but you're right that I don't think it was anything anyone was asking for. Hopefully they mean they're adding a small bar near the HP bar instead of making that info window visible at all times.

I'm confused about splitting the attributes and gear window. On the picture they still seem combined to me? And if you're going to change gear, you want your attributes visible so you can see your stats while you change gear? Guess I'll need to see it.

I'm glad to see the /equip multiple item fix. Right now it's impossible to macro the equip and unequip of 4 identical rings, you can only do one.

Again, the feature I'm weirdly most looking forward to is the multiple chat logs/tabs thing, and of course auto-sort is an automatic win.

Pressing the spacebar before typing drove me crazy. I can't tell you how many times I pressed CTR+R or CTR+L and yelled at my computer when it opened the macro menu instead of the chat box. I also played with a gamepad, so I don't care about using the macros on the keyboard. No space bar before typing = win.

Also CTR+R drove me crazy in FFXIV. I hit CTR+R to respond to every /tell like in FFXI and it drove me crazy when it wouldn't reply. Typing somebody's name to reply to a tell was annoying. I'm glad they are fixing that.

I'm a big fan of all of these changes, even the minor ones. They might bring me back (when I have more time to play).

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Fuck yes! @ Kio's post

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Pharmacist by Day, Gamer for Life
XBL: Zuldane, PSN: Zuldane

So they're basically including FFXI functions in a game that should have already had them inherently :P

Sady this will not be update until sometime in 2011 First update.



Damn! it about time! I was getting tried of trying to click on target and not make a mistarget.



This is going to help a LOT!



This is going to help leader of LS or members a with very good info!

Well I don't see mail system yet which would help a alot also.

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PS3 Friend list name: Pantherxx Wii code 1629-0463-4657-0263 (revised 9/28/07) Steam ID - Pantherxx010 62BLU 75PLD Reactived 7/5/10 I dare you Click this!

They mentioned this. We're not seeing this until the first 2011 patch.

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Retired 8/21/06
Don't click this link.

I cant wait to see more improvments. This game needs more drive and more cool shit for getting higher in levels. I just dont have any pull to level. the time sink doesnt have enough of a pay off.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Timezone is GMT, don't forget to take your 5 or 8 or whatever hours off.

Over/under on number of times Trabia crashes after maintenance?

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

I'm going 3 this time.

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[In Yarr we trust.]