Rise of the Zilart not there

[Dsherman]

I have a PC on which the last time I installed Final Fantasy XI, I only installed Final Fantasy XI. The installation process had separate installations for each of the expansions, and I quite simply didn't do them. I was using what SE called the "Starter" disc which they sold back in 2006 or 2007 in response to Microsoft releasing Windows Vista. All discs of Final Fantasy XI sold prior to that could not properly install the Playonline Viewer on Windows Vista (and probably all subsequent releases of Windows).

The game did install just fine, and I am able to logon without problems (as long as my character has been left in a non-expansion area when I last logged off). It was expected that even though my account is fully registered for all the expansions and add-ons, I would not be able to enter any expansion area when using that particular copy of FFXI. (I normally play on another PC which has all expansions installed, and I am able to get to any location in any expansion of the game)

In the update notes for the May 2015 update, it was stated that expansion data for Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia would be downloaded to all clients that didn't already have them.

When I ran FFXI on that client described above prior to the May update, all the expansion and add-on logos on the right side of the title page are darkened. This is expected. However, after the May update, the Chains of Promathia logo has been lit up, but not Rise of the Zilart (and all others were still dark too).

In the update notes for the August 2015 update, it was stated that the expansion data for Treasures of Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess would be downloaded to all clients that didn't already have them.

And indeed, after that update, the logos on the title page for Treasures of Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess do come up highlighted. But Rise of the Zillart, and all add-ons (and Seekers of Adoulin of course) still remain dark.

Further, I tried to get through the gate in Zehren Mines to the path that leads to Korroloka Tunnel, and in speaking to the NPC at the gate, the ability to go through the gate is not offered.

Remember that all of this is occurring only on the client on which I never installed any expansions at all. All the rest of the clients I have installed have no problem with this as they all have all expansions installed (except no Seekers of Adoulin on the PS2 clients).

I know that in North America, no copy of FFXI that was able to install the base data of the game was ever sold without the ability to install at least Rise of the Zilart. In fact, on the console systems, there is no separate installation for the expansions.. the process installs the base and all expansions on the disc in a single installation run.

The solution most certainly could be to just install the Rise of the Zilart expansion on that client now. But I don't really need it on that client.

I am providing this note as a FYI to SE that even though they said Rise of the Zilart data would be downloaded to all clients that didn't already have it, it would appear that is not actually true. It's probably not real important to fix it, but I thought I should at least let SE know of my observations.

[Ladynamine]

There were versions of FFXI outside of North America after Vista came out that did not have Zilart included? O.o ...

If Zilart is registered on any 1 person's account prior, the days of, or after the may/august updates that it SHOULD have automatically installed and registered the expansion. It sounds like to me they forgot to include the licensing key for the expansion itself when they did the May 14, 2015 version update or w/e files that detects players who have zilart registered.

Only solutions I can come up w/ until Square-Enix investigates the matter is to:

A. Do a file check on the Playonline login menu to detect lost/corrupted/broken files
B. Reinstall Final Fantasy XI with Zilart included on a disc or download Seeker's Edition directly from the playonline site for Europe or U.S.A. and install that version

It's very important they fix that for people who don't want to waste their time downloading the whole entire seekers edition if other people are having that problem.

I'd hate to see what's gonna happen in November if that will be an issue on ps2 consoles when they do the same thing to seekers of adoulin and it does not register on the system (they confirmed that for users outside of japan they would be doing this so that everyone can enjoy RoV whether they were on pc, ps2, or xbox360 assuming they bought a registration code for the pc version of seekers of adoulin). I mean some people still play ffxi on ps2 only. I know a few people who quit ffxi just because seekers of adoulin was not released outside of japan for ps2.

[Dsherman]

There were versions of FFXI outside of North America after Vista came out that did not have Zilart included? O.o ...

I don't really know. It is my belief that only very early releases in Japan were ever published without Rise of the Zilart, but anything is possible.

If Zilart is registered on any 1 person's account prior, the days of, or after the may/august updates that it SHOULD have automatically installed and registered the expansion. It sounds like to me they forgot to include the licensing key for the expansion itself when they did the May 14, 2015 version update or w/e files that detects players who have zilart registered.

It's not a licensing key. That is only on the account, not the expansion data on a client. And I know it is there on my account since it all works just fine on other clients.

They just never got all the files for the Rise of the Zilart expansion made available to clients that didn't have it on the North American version to be downloaded to that client possibly because if you have installation media available for the North American version of the game base, you also have installation media for Rise of the Zilart. Thus a possible assumption that no one would need it. However, some installation media for PC does do a separate install for each expansion, and it is possible to skip it, as I have done in this case.

Only solutions I can come up w/ until Square-Enix investigates the matter is to:

A. Do a file check on the Playonline login menu to detect lost/corrupted/broken files
B. Reinstall Final Fantasy XI with Zilart included on a disc or download Seeker's Edition directly from the playonline site for Europe or U.S.A. and install that version

I don't need to implement any solution for myself. SE might want to implement something to make those expansion files available but then maybe not.

BTW, I have done a file check. It comes back "No problems found".

It's very important they fix that for people who don't want to waste their time downloading the whole entire seekers edition if other people are having that problem.

I'd hate to see what's gonna happen in November if that will be an issue on ps2 consoles when they do the same thing to seekers of adoulin and it does not register on the system (they confirmed that for users outside of japan they would be doing this so that everyone can enjoy RoV whether they were on pc, ps2, or xbox360 assuming they bought a registration code for the pc version of seekers of adoulin). I mean some people still play ffxi on ps2 only. I know a few people who quit ffxi just because seekers of adoulin was not released outside of japan for ps2.

I suspect this problem is specific to the Rise of the Zilart expansion data. I doubt it will affect Seekers of Adoulin.