That... is a painfully long time away to just be starting the beta.

Seeking control over this realm and its abundant crystal resources, the Garlean Empire (a scientifically advanced nation hailing from the north) begins gathering an army of epic proportions. To ready themselves for the coming conflict, the city-states of Eorzea reinstate the Grand Companies─comprehensive centers of command which combine the commonwealths’ military and economic assets. However, the commander of the invading forces, VIIth Imperial Legion Legatus Nael van Darnus (a.k.a. “White Raven”), has plans of his own. Driven by madness, he silently plots to usher in a more permanent form of devastation: Meteor.

The Meteor project is comprised of a complex scheme employing arcane magicks and lost technology to summon the lesser moon down to Eorzea in an attempt to annihilate the realm’s inhabitants in one fell stroke. Dalamud, as the celestial object is commonly known, is revealed to be a colossal machine launched thousands of years ago into the planet’s orbit by an ancient civilization.

Realizing the futility of standing alone against such a threat, the Grand Companies put aside deep-rooted differences and consolidate their forces under the banner of the Eorzean Alliance.

At the behest of this new confederation, adventurers from across the realm take up arms and march on the floating islands of Rivenroad. Here, the brave heroes confront Nael van Darnus, and after a heated battle, put him to the sword. But by this time, the White Raven’s plan is too far along, and Dalamud continues its descent.

In an eleventh-hour bid to save mankind, the Grand Companies turn to Louisoix, an enigmatic scholar hailing from the forgotten city-state of Sharlayan. The ‘Archon,’ as he is called, devises a plan to summon the power of the Twelve, Eorzea’s pantheon of guardian deities, and use that power to banish Dalamud back to the heavens. But for this to succeed, the rite needs to be performed directly beneath the point of Dalamud’s impact. After several sleepless nights of deliberation by the realm’s foremost arcanists and astronomers, that point is determined to be a vast swathe of barren lowlands in central Eorzea known as the Carteneau Flats. With this information in hand, the Grand Companies order the immediate mobilization of their forces.

Unbeknownst to the Alliance, the soldiers of the VIIth Imperial Legion, oblivious to their leader’s dark intentions, have also begun gathering in central Eorzea. Ordered to defend the area with their lives, they prepare for a fight, unaware that victory will bring about their own demise.

And so, with two great hosts amassed, the Battle of Carteneau begins.

Both sides fight with a desperation-fueled frenzy, neither yielding the other ground, until from the skies, a great roar issues. Dalamud has begun its final metamorphosis. In a matter of moments, the stone and metal of the moon’s crust crumble away to reveal none other than the elder primal, Bahamut, now free from his ancient prison.

And thus do the people of Eorzea learn what it is that truly faces them. Never was it the White Raven’s intention to blight the realm with Dalamud, but what slumbered within it.

Enraged after aeons of duress, Bahamut unleashes his wrath upon the realm, spewing forth endless fire and destruction. Louisoix quickly conjures a barrier to protect what remains of the Eorzean Alliance, and then begins the arcane rite that will channel the power of the Twelve and focus it into rebinding Bahamut. The sheer force of the primal, however, is too strong for even the Archon, and his efforts fail.

Realizing the end is nigh, Louisoix summons the last of his strength to call upon Althyk, the Keeper, god of space and time, to send those surviving heroes into an aetherial rift, where they are to remain untouched by the passing of the seasons until it is once again safe to emerge…and continue their struggle to forge Eorzea’s future.

Hello,

This is Producer/Director Yoshida.

I would like to update you on the plans for the FFXIV: ARR Alpha Test moving forward. However, without an explanation of the Alpha Test content, I don't believe I will be able to properly convey the intentions, so please read the below (sorry that it's really long).

As I mentioned in a previous Letter from the Producer, an MMORPG Alpha Test's goal is for server stress tests, which cannot be accomplished on the development and operations side alone. However, I believe that the image of what a stress test consists of is not really being conveyed. With that said, I'd like to briefly explain below.

FFXIV: ARR Server Construction Overview and Stress Testing

For FFXIV: ARR we have constructed the servers so that each world will have an average peak of 5,000 concurrent users. Since we're only talking concurrent users, it is of course possible to create a number of characters that exceed this number on the same world. Think of 5,000 concurrent players as the maximum number of players on a single world playing during peak time.

However, this is only the concurrency capacity for each world, and in ARR, a world is composed of roughly 40 areas. The basis of this is that players will be dispersed and logging into each of the areas.

In other words, a 40 area server will hold 5,000 players, so a single area server's user capacity would be far below 5,000. Since there is a large range of play styles, varying player levels, and distribution of players among different content, it's highly unlikely that every player is going to concentrate in a single zone. (Though this would be possible if we intentionally wanted to create this condition…)

In FFXIV: ARR the servers were constructed to make it possible to hold 1,000 players per zone, so to put a finer point on it, the reason why we have implemented the Alpha Test is to test if 1,000 players can enter a single zone safely. (Also we're confirming whether it seems like more than 1,000 characters will gather for content and such. If that is the case, we are considering instancing each zone.)

Also this stress test cannot verify how many concurrent battles are taking place, how much gathering is being performed concurrently, how many quests are being worked on, and other aspects by merely only having a lot of people on the zone server.

Naturally there we are performing large scale tests through all of the testers' cooperation:

-Any problems if 300-400 people are moving between areas at the same time?
-Any problems when a lot of users are downloading from the patch server?
-Any client crashes with specific hardware?
-Are monsters' pop/depop systems functioning properly during times of heavy lag?

Why can't a large number of people participate in the Alpha Test?

Due to the fact that the basis of the Alpha Test is for stress testing, the playable content is severely limited when compared to the official release version. The graphics are rough, there are a lot of placeholder UI elements, there are no quest and storylines, and there are a lot of cases where we just have huge numbers of battles going on.

The FFXIV: ARR Alpha Test is limited to the below playable content:

-Only male Hyur Midlanders and female Miqo’te Seekers of the Sun can be used
-Everyone has to make new characters
-Each class level is capped at 20
-Gridania is the only starting city-state
-Disciples of War/Magic classes are limited to lancer, archer, and conjurer
-Disciples of Land/Hand classes are limited to carpenter, leatherworker, and botanist
-The opening is a placeholder specific to the Alpha Test
-Cutscenes have not been implemented (masked with black display)
-TamTara Deepcroft is the only dungeon (for levels 15-20)
-Progression quests are from level 1-10 (There are quests after level 10, but they have not been implemented)
-Guildleves go up to level 15 (crafting leves to 20)

Despite it being an Alpha Test I believe there is quite a bit that is playable, but essentially there are only 4 areas to play in (8 areas included).

We made FFXIV: ARR with extreme fixation on the beginning levels, so with a single starting city, when thousands of people log in at the same time and begin to play, they will level up together and the same zone will always have a high concentration of players. Also, since there is no content in other areas, even when reaching the level 20 cap, players will have to remain in the starting areas.

Since the objective is stress testing, limiting the areas in the Alpha Test to stress test them is the correct approach.

However, as I mentioned before, since we've calculated the maximum stress for each zone to be 1,000 users, by simply increasing the number of players, the number of players in the same zone will increase, which will then make it impossible to play properly due to lag that would not normally occur.

Despite being selected for the Alpha Test, you cannot play satisfactorily like this. The only solution would be to increase the number of Alpha Test worlds.

Also, since playable content is limited in the Alpha Test and character data will be wiped once the Alpha Test concludes, there will be a trend where less users will return and continue logging in. With that said, the general rule is to then sequentially distribute additional accounts and have new testers log in to continue the testing.

Operations is expecting this and estimated that the log in rate would eventually become about 20% in proportion to the number of accounts distributed, but we are currently still maintaining a log in rate of 40%-50%, so the test accounts will be increasing as we continue calculating stress.

Alpha Test Progress

Starting tomorrow, the FFXIV: ARR Alpha Test will enter phase 3 of the 4 total phases.

The first phase was a basic stress test for a single world's operation. The stress test went extremely well thanks to all of the testers, and at this point we were able to eliminate critical stress bugs that were discovered with approximately 850 concurrent users in each zone and 270-280 battles occurring simultaneously. Also, through subsequent tests, we were able to list out all of the processes that make it easy for lag to develop, and smoothed out the processes making it faster.

In Alpha Test phase 2, we opened up the second world, added testers, and conducted tests while simultaneously operating multiple worlds. Luckily there were barely any outstanding problems and in that time we optimized processes and made our final checks for global testing to begin.

Starting tomorrow, we will enter phase 3 and begin global operation testing as well as age testing with long operation hours. To coincide with phase 3, test accounts were distributed to all regions on November 26.

From phase 4 we plan on conducting world merge testing, and we will decide on the schedule as we monitor the conditions of phase 3. However, since everyone's requests are so strong, we are looking into opening the Alpha Test worlds as close to the end of the year as possible. (We can’t really call it an Alpha Test then, but…)

After Alpha Test Account Distribution and Future Distribution Plans

We are unable to publicly announce the exact number of Alpha Test accounts that have been distributed, and we appreciate your understanding. However, percentage wise, as of November 27, 1/4 of the total number of entrants in Japan have been given accounts, this is North America’s first round and 1/6 of their total have been given accounts, and Europe's total was originally small so they have been given around 1/3 of their total.

In regards to future additions, we will be testing phase 3 stability until December 2, and would like to add testers from December 3. Also, in order to address stress created from adding testers, we will be opening the third Alpha Test world on December 3, even though this was not the original plan.

From December 3 we will watch the log in rates once every two days and continue to add users as necessary. We will be adding thousands per week; however, the decision of how many we can add will boil down to stress conditions, so we appreciate your understanding.

A Request Regarding Alpha Test Account Increase Percentages

Everyone on the team would like to hand out a lot of accounts to those who applied -- especially since everyone's demands are so strong and also since the current version is no longer in service.

With that said I have a request to those players selected for the test. If at all possible, please play on the second or third world when participating in the Alpha Test.

As stated above, due to the Alpha Test content released, if players focus on one world the stress would become unbelievable and we would have to then be extremely careful calculating test account additions.

Currently, we have two worlds in operation, Chocobo and Moogle. Please do your best to create characters and play on Moogle. Also, for those players that join the Alpha Test from December 3, it would help out a great deal if you could select the third world to play on.

That's all for now!