Sinister Reign Arciela Fight Crashes

[Arington]

Platform: Windows 10
ISP: Voyager
Type of Internet Connection: UFB?
Internet Connection Speed: 100/20?
Date & Time: 25 July 2025 (NZST) and other
Frequency: Sometimes
Character Name: Autoattack
Race: ElvaanF
World: Shiva
Main Job: Red Mage, Lv. 99
Support Job: Ninja
Area and Coordinates: Ra'Kaznar Inner Court (I-8), Rala Waterways [U]
Party or Solo: Solo
NPC Name: None
Monster Name: None
Steps:
1. Purcahsed Macabre Simulcarum from Malobra for 5000 Balyd
2. Interact with Infernal Transposer
3. Select the Arciela fight which I have cleared before.
4. Queued for battle.
5. Game crashed to desktop - skipping PlayOnline window. Macabre Simulcarum is lost.
6. This happened to me at least twice already, lost 10,000 Balyd which is not a big deal.
7. On one occassion, Arciela was the second Sinister Reign fight I entered. On the other ocassion it was the first, so the order does not seem to matter.
8. One thing I also noticed is if I enter the Arciela fight back-to-back, the queue time becomes extremly long after about three fights; even failing to enter sometimes. There was no other party around that I can see.

9. To avoid the issue mentioned in Step 8, I now alternate between Arciela and Teodor (and sometimes Ingrid). The crash only seemed to happen with Arciela.
10. Verify file as mentioned below with FFXI config just now, game crashed to desktop again after about 6 or 7 fights or more (27 July 2025, 12:42 am NZST).
11. I did notice another player came about when I was applying to enter the Teodor fight. I clear it, apply for Arciela and game crashed.

Edited some spelling mistakes and added time zone code.
Added step 9, 10 and 11. Corrected area name to Rala Waterways [U].

[radar]

are you playing vanilla, no mods or addons? if so it could be a corrupted dat file.

[Arington]

I don't use mods or addons, and I have verified the file at some point. This happened across at least two monthly updates; I took a break then came back after the last welcome back campaign.

I will try verifying the file again and see how it goes.

[Dragoy]

Battle seems to be working OK for me here.

Indeed, would suspect corrupt files. Note that there are two different file-check actions that seem to (or at least seemed to a while back when I was looking) do slighlty different things: One you run via the PlayOnlie Viewer before logging in, and one you trigger via the FINAL FANTASY XI Config Utility (it will run when a version update would run, just before launching the actual game).

[Arington]

The problem only happens sometimes; my game doesn't crash every single time when I apply to enter the Arciela fight.

I verify with the FFXI config just now and it happened again. I don't know about the one in PlayOnline so I will try that next.

Update: PlayOnline file check only checks PlayOnline features, so I doubt it does anythiing.

[Dragoy]

There should be a selection to check either PlayOnline or FFXI files there.

That written, if it only happens /sometimes/, it should be something else... making things more tricky like.

I don't think there is anything different with Arciela or/and Ygnas there, ever?

Also does the thing happen /immediately/ when the character(s) load up?

[Arington]

There should be a selection to check either PlayOnline or FFXI files there.

That written, if it only happens /sometimes/, it should be something else... making things more tricky like.

I don't think there is anything different with Arciela or/and Ygnas there, ever?

Also does the thing happen /immediately/ when the character(s) load up?

I see the option now. The crash occurs when I am queuing. My character never makes it to Rala Waterways [U]. The key Item Macabre Simulcarum is lost though, so it may be the moment of transition.

Update: Since I cannot make a new reply, I'll add some more details that QA team might need. These are what happened on 27 July 2025, after I verify the game file with FFXI Config (later verification with PlayOnline tool shows no error). It's a weekend night by the way.
Steps:
1. I enter Arciela fight without any problem.
2. I ran the fight back-to-back for 4, maybe more, times because I wanted to see if the queue time increases. I did not notice any difference.
3. I went back to my usual routine of alternating between Teodor and Arciela, because it gets boring quick.
4. Finished a few fights without problem.
5. Another player Home point teleported to the area and moved up to the entrance NPC when I queue up for Teodor. I think they also enter Sinister Reign because they were not there later.
6. The Teodor fight was fine but when I queue up for Arciela next, game crashed.

I don't remember the exact numbers because the fights were short, and I didn't receive a single drop, so all memories blended together. On a bad day though, the game would crash on the very first queue.