Good day, adventurers!
Fujito here.

October is upon us and the weather is finally starting to feel like autumn.

Whether it's playing sports or reading a book, this is the perfect season for focusing on various activities, and that includes participating in the autumn harvest. There's nothing better than a relaxing weekend spent gathering the fruits of your daily labors as you watch the autumn leaves change colors. Although, be sure to look after your health as we welcome the cooler weather to come!

Now, for an overview of the October version update.

Ambuscade
When you think of October, I'm sure the Harvest Festival immediately comes to mind. This time in Ambuscade, dullahans and Fomors will be making their presence felt.
The dullahan are hard-hitting foes that build up their strength, miasma, and rancor in order to inflict pain on any adventurers they encounter. Watch their actions and respond accordingly, such as by dealing sufficient damage, using a weapon skill to interrupt their actions, or baiting them into using their special attacks once you're ready for them.
In addition to a unique Harvest Festival look, the Fomors will also be wielding special attacks. However, consuming a treat (cookie) can give you an advantage in battle, so make sure to pack plenty of treats in your bag. That way, you can both treat yourself AND trick the enemy at the same time!

Adjustments to the random number generator when opening old cases
I'd like to respond to a question that was raised in the official forums about a possible deviation from the expected results when opening old cases.
We put together a test routine based on the content and ran it several million times to test its accuracy. We found that as you mentioned, there was a small deviation from the expected results of approximately 1%. It seems the random number generator we were using performed as expected with smaller values, but had a tendency to deviate slightly from the expected range when generating random numbers that were larger in size. As a result, we will be tweaking the algorithm so that the random number generator minimizes any such deviations when calculating the results. I would like to thank all of you who offered this feedback.

GAMEPAD Config adjustments
We'll be adding the following features in order to make the game even easier to play with a gamepad.

- Holding down the button commonly referred to as the R, RB, or right shoulder button while pressing another button will enable you to perform a different action.
- You will now be able to perform keyboard-specific actions such as /targetnpc with a gamepad.

Naturally, you'll still be able to reassign the keys and buttons as you see fit. I hope that all of you will give it a try and let us know what you think. We'll monitor your feedback and use it to look for additional changes and improvements that can be made in the future.

Vana'Bout - Round 3
Autumn is famous for its various festivals, so we're currently working on something special with Vana'Bout for October! In addition to new objectives, we're planning an item that'll be available as a personal reward and makes it easier to reach the endgame content. We're also working on various adjustments that should make your Vana'Bout experience even more enjoyable.

That does it for this month!
I hope you continue to enjoy FINAL FANTASY XI.

Safe journeys!

Mission and Quest-related
Implementation TimingUpdate Task and DetailsIn-progress TaskDetails
OctoberRecords of Eminence・Update monthly objectives -
Content and System-related
Implementation TimingUpdate Task and DetailsIn-progress TaskDetails
OctobeAmbuscade・Replace notorious monsters -
OctobeGAMEPAD Config・Adjust certain elements of GAMEPAD Config -
Item-related
Implementation TimingUpdate Task and DetailsIn-progress TaskDetails
OctobeItems・Add new items
・Adjust the randomized algorithm for items which offer random items when used
-
OctobePorter Moogle・Add to list of supported items -