July Version Update

[Yoji_Fujito]

Good day, adventurers!

And just like that, July is already upon us. Back in May, FFXI welcomed its 23rd anniversary. Meanwhile, in June, we made a big announcement regarding the first phase of the renewed Limbus content, so to me, it feels more like the year is just getting started rather than being halfway over.

Speaking of the calendar, Japan is now in its sweltering summer season, so please be sure to look after your health as the temperature continues to rise. (Or for those of you in the southern hemisphere, don't forget to bundle up so as to ward off the winter chill!)

Now then, moving on to the July version update, this month's update features a number of changes and adjustments, so I'd like to talk about them in order. This is going to be a long one, but please be sure to give it a read when you have the time.

■ Making some campaign content permanent


This month's update will be making the content of the two campaigns listed below a permanent addition to the game.

• Dark Matter Arcane Glyptics Campaign
• Monster Rearing Campaign

Compared to when these two campaigns were first added, the rewards that can be obtained from the game content and the overall balance of the campaigns themselves have changed considerably. Therefore, as mentioned in May's episode of Freshly Picked Vana'diel, we are making this change in order to align the game with current playing styles.

We plan to continue making revisions to the game so that as many people as possible can enjoy it, including current, new, and returning players alike. We are also working on new campaign content as well, so please keep an eye out for more updates to come.

■ Limbus revisions


First, I'd like to thank all of you for checking out the new content and also providing us with valuable feedback. We appreciate your assistance in making the content the best it can be. As mentioned in the May episode of Freshly Picked Vana'diel and also my greetings last month, we implemented some basic features in the June update as the first step in updating the content.

For the next round of updates, we're planning to add notorious monsters, but the timing for their implementation is still a bit further down the road, so with the time needed for development and testing, we plan to use the feedback received through July in order to make any appropriate changes.

• Monster behavior

  In response to instances when players are unintentionally attacked by monsters, such as near warp points, we will make it so that any monsters that leave their spawn radius will be temporarily marked as non-aggressive until they return to it.

• UI display when moving to another floor within a tower

  We will be making the following adjustments in order to improve the content's playability and also prevent the selection of unintentional actions.

  • The game will now display your "Current Floor" when viewing the floor list to select a destination.
  • The cursor will be set to the "Current Floor" by default.

• ??? appearance conditions

  We added this as a kind of bonus feature in order to encourage players to be more active in Limbus, but we have adjusted the appearance conditions for the ??? in Temenos so that it is easier to get it to appear than before.

Next, I'd like to mention two items of feedback that were received in regards to Temenos.

• In regards to the issue when facing multiple monsters where some of them would get stuck in the wall and could no longer be targeted
  Basically, the game is designed so that if two monsters overlap, they will move to the side so that they are not on top of each other, making it easier for the player to target them.
  
  Therefore, we will make some adjustments within Temenos so that monsters do not behave in this manner, which should make it more difficult for them to get stuck in walls. Although it is difficult to completely prevent this issue, I feel like we should be able to improve the situation somewhat.
  
• Camps within Temenos
  I know that the layout of the terrain within Temenos makes it more difficult to set up a camp there than in Apollyon.
  
  We have received a number of different opinions in response to this issue, including reducing the number of monsters, lengthening the respawn times, or making the monsters' spawn radius smaller. While these solutions would make it easier to set up camp, they could also lead to other problems, such as players competing for monsters or making it easier for monsters to link together.
  
  Players' impressions and experiences can differ widely due to different player populations in each World, or whether they are playing solo or in a party, so we plan to carefully observe the situation and provide continuous updates in response to the matter.

■ Vana'Bout and July monthly campaigns


Since Vana'Bout reached its target goal of 150% in May, we are releasing a Special Round of Vana'Bout in July that will feature content and settings making it even easier to play.

Also, as mentioned in our recent update, the July monthly campaigns will be somewhat shorter than usual.

We're running this as an experiment in regards to feedback we received stating that there is too much going on when both Vana'Bout and the monthly campaigns are running at the same time. Conversely, this means that there will be less time for players to take advantage of the campaigns, so we have tried to pack in as much content as possible.

We've tried to balance both the duration and amount of content within the campaigns so that you can complete all or at least most of them if you put the effort in, but please let us know if it still ends up being overwhelming or if you feel you are missing out on too much content.

Our goal is to create an environment where players continue to enjoy and get the most out of the game, so we value your feedback and plan to take it into consideration with our development efforts.

■ Reacquiring items from past events


We did this as a test run in conjunction with seasonal events as a way to acquire items that were previously added to the game but are no longer available or for which the opportunities to obtain them are limited, but what did you think?

We plan to continue with this initiative for a little while longer following the Celestial Nights event, so we would appreciate hearing your feedback about this topic and any requests that you might have.

Finally, we also have the usual updates to Ambuscade as part of the July version update, so I hope you're looking forward to those as well.

Safe journeys!



Mission and Quest-related

Implementation Timing	Update Task and Details	In-progress Task	Details
July	Records of Eminence	・Update monthly objectives	-

Content and System-related

Implementation Timing	Update Task and Details	In-progress Task	Details
July	Mog Garden	・Double the chances for reared monsters to evolve	-
July	Geas Fete	・Add the ability to engrave arcane glyptics for free up to six times per day (Earth time)	-
July	Limbus	・Adjust monster behavior to become non-aggressive when returning to their spawn location ・Adjust teleport destination selection menu ・Adjust requirements to spawn the "???" for Temenos	-
July	Ambuscade	・Replace notorious monsters	-

Item-related

Implementation Timing	Update Task and Details	In-progress Task	Details
July	Porter Moogle	・Add to list of supported items	-