Currently at the FanFest right now.

He didn't tell you about the dinner.
GOD HE DIDN'T TELL YOU ABOUT THE DINNER.
 
Dev Panel questions and about the dinner coming up next.
 
Question: Where are the new Avatars we were promised?
Answer: Sorry. That's still some patches away from now. However... Expect two large summons sometime in the near future...

Question: You planning to expand Mog Safe / Inventory / Storage / Mog Locker any time soon?
Answer: We'd like to, and we're considering it. However, because of our servers, we might not have enough machine power to process all that data. We're currently looking for a solution around this problem.

Question: At last year's FanFest, you said you were going to tweak RDM to make it a Front Line Job! What happened with that?!
Answer: We're actually working on that. Expect a big patch for that, and White Mage sometime in March '09.

Question: Waiting 15 minutes on a ??? to respawn sucks! Can't you lower it to like... 3 minutes?
Answer: Say... That's not a bad idea. We're going to definitely look into that. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to spawn Byakko after 3 minutes?

Question: Lugging all these coffer keys, Delkfutt's Tower keys, Chest Keys, and all sorts of keys really bites... You guys think about adding a Keychain or something?
Answer: That'd be kinda hard to pull off. So instead, we're gonna research another solution for that. Perhaps find a way to turn them into Key Items or something...

Question: Is there gonna be a big, huge reward for completing Wings of the Goddess missions like at the end of Zilart, ToAU and CoP?
Answer: It's still way too early to be talking about something like that. But we'll see somewhere down the road.

Question: Can you please change stuff that has 72 hour timers to just 70 hours?
Answer: We could, but can you imagine people fighting over getting claim on stuff like Dynamis and Einherjar zones? ... Hmm... Tell you what. We'll experiment with it when we get back to Japan.

And that's it for the Dev Panel.

Now I'll explain the other stuff.
 
Stuff that's to come:

There's going to be a mission involving Jeuno in the future.
Everyone was treated to a screenshot of Armored Gigas-family monsters attacking Lower Jeuno!!!!.

Also, a new furnishing coming soon.
We have Bastok, Windy, and Sandy flags...

Well... We have a Jeunoan Flag coming soon. And it's said that it might help you out in campaign some way, but you'll have to wait and see...
 
Are you fucking joking about the avatars? Didn't they say "Near Future" last year too? FFS SE
 
More stuff:

As far as Campaign goes. They're going to be concentrating their efforts around beastman strongholds. Also, if the allied nations gain control of areas such as Ronfaure in the past and other areas, you will have access to MORE stuff (maybe items and campaigns) for that area.

For Salvage whores like Uzor, Mdkuser, and Pchan, your prayers have been answered. While they're not going to change the difficulty of monsters, they ARE going to increase the drop rates of stuff in Bhaflau & Silversea Remnants.
 
Mog Bonanza is making a comeback next year. However, some "Legal Issues" hindered it from coming back at all. Square-Enix is working on a way around this, though. They're going to change up how Mog Bonanza is handled this year, and they're also going to change up the prizes that are available.

-----------

The 7th Annual Adventurer Appreciation Campaign is coming up. And this time, they're tinkering with new furnishings as prizes.

The crowd was treated to tentative screenshots of miniature figurines of Cardians... The Shadow Lord... and All Five Ark Angels in statuette form to be displayed as furniture in your Mog House.

-----

The Groom gear was shown and modeled by all four races. Male Elvaan. Male Hume. Male Tarutaru and Galka.

Not only are they going to add the recipe to make the set, but they're also planning to add more synthesis materials.

Also. Don't worry. For couples who are already married, there will be a Retro-Active NPC that for a limited time only will allow you to buy a Groom set for a small fee of 50,000 Gil. It's a limited time, though, so be sure to take advantage of it.
 
glad thier at least attempting to make a new tank
 
We all already know a little bit about Troves of Treasure. But the Dev Team wanted to go into some detail about it.

To re-cap. This is a thing they're adding in which treasure chests arbitrarily spawn in open areas. To be more specific, the original 11 out-door areas that were available at the very start of FFXI's launch. Areas like Gustaberg... Sarutabaruta... Ronfaure... Konschtat Highlands... Valkurm Dunes, etc...

These chests have a 10% chance of spawning after you kill a mob like a Worm in Gustaberg... a Damselfly in Valkurm Dunes... a Sheep in La Theine Plateau, etc. ... And there are two chests.

A Blue Chest will open when you touch it and dish out items you can use while EXPing. Temporary items like foods and drinks and whatnot. However, Brown Chests will drop off of monsters that are harder to kill. And these will yield Armor and Equipment that's Rare/Ex and available only from these boxes.

However, there's a catch!

The brown boxes will be locked by a two-digit tumbler combination. You're going to have to arbitrarily guess what the combo is. However, with each fail, you will gain hints in /say chat only visible by you.

You think it is a number between 64 and 96...
You have a clue that the number's higher than 30...
You might have a hunch the number is 70, 78, 82, or 91


Be warned, however. You only have 4 to 6 chances before the chest de-spawns. Also, you might get repeat clues, or no clues at all.

However! It is possible to increase your odds by getting on your THF and using your tools...

Currently, this will only be specific to the original 11 areas. But if you guys like it enough, they may expand Treasure Troves to other zones.

----

Level Sync!

The Dev Team wasn't expecting you guys to enjoy Level Sync as much as you do! In fact, they were afraid you weren't gonna use it at all!

So, they're gonna make tweaks to the Equip Attributes and Level Restrictions!

Also... Adding stuff like KEEPING your TP and Beneficial effects like Protect & Shell when you level up while Synced!

-----

Fields of Valor.

For casual gamers who just wanna go around and kill crap.

You must find a Field Manual NPC somewhere on the map and talk to it. (The graphic of it looks like a White Grimoire--the Scholar Book--when you see it). Talk to it and it'll tell you the conditions for winning the Valor battle.

I.E.
You're in Xarcabard
Go kill 4 mobs of the Gigas family
Kill 3 Ahriman family monsters
And Kill 5 Demon family monsters and come back and talk to the Manual.
You have a 30 min time limit.

You will get rewards like Tags (a point system exclusive to it) and EXP.
People were impressed when they saw a screenshot of someone being rewarded with 1,100 EXP and 1000 Gil.

With the tags, you can buy stuff like Protect V and Shell V on yourself. Refresh on yourself. Food for yourself. Drinks. (This is all just temp stuff for the duration of the battle).

The only catch is that it has to be something you can gain EXP off of. Can't do this off of Too Weaks.

This is good for casual gamers who wanna Solo for EXP.
 
The Swarm
A BCNM Style area in which players were brought to a gate next to a lake in a western corner of Roanberry Fields (S).

You're taken to a small room in an area called Hutzotz Silvermines or something like that. Monsters will continuously fall out of a hole in the center of the cieling... All with considerably low Max HP. Your job is to kill everything that falls as fast as you can and get the highest score over your friends.

All sorts of mobs drop, ranging from little Bombs (which explode if you don't one-shot them), to Slimes, Goblins, Pixies, Crawlers, Mandragoras and Ladybugs. To bigger crap like Adamantoise.

So what're you gonna do? You gonna get a high score by just chaining a bunch of little mobs? Or are you gonna get a high score by killing big stuff like Adamantoise?

You may recieve items as a reward.

----

Moblin Maze Mongers...

This is DEFINITELY not something to be solo'ed!

You're given a Tabula (kind of like a chess board) and you have Runes to place on the chess board which are numbered with 3-digit numbers

I.E.

Maze Rune 007
Maze Rune 001
Maze Rune 036


and so on...

You place these runes on the big square tabula and have to shimmy them in there like Tetris Pieces. The runes have different shapes. (This is all done in menues, after using the Tabula in your inventory. The Tabula Menu looks something like the Menu for puppetmaster's automaton equips.)

The runes effect your map in different ways.

Some will imbue all the monsters with a certain element, like Light or Fire..

Some will make all mobs True Sight... Some will make them non-aggro...

Some only spawns plantoids... lizards... undead... etc.

Some only spawns little monsters... Some only spawn big ones... Some give monsters an ASSLOAD of HP... Some make them highly... or VERY highly resistant to magic...

... Once you've finished making the Tabula, talk to the New Moblin NPCs in Muckvix's Junk Shop. You take it to something that looks like a combination between a sewer hole, and a Pipe from Super Mario Bros.

The Moblin Pipe is located in the Lower Jeuno Chocobo Stables.

Get your party assembled and trade your Tabula to the pipe. Now you have to wait for the Tabula to load ("It's being considered by the moblins") ... It failed alot at the FanFest ("Rejected by the hands of Darkness")

Keep trying until you get in.

Once inside you have 30 minutes. You can change the BGM of the battlefield to anything you like. And you can also Check the Maze's stability as a means to check your time ("You have 30 minutes before the maze caves in. You best hurry up.")

Go inside when you all are ready.

Obviously, the more challenging you make the place for yourself, the more rewards it will yield.

Once you kill all the enemies, or clear the conditions of the maze, open the chest to leave.

... The Dev team also mentioned that they may make the maze a decent place for skill-ups too.
 
Currently I'm uploading a dump of pictures and movies (raw format) from my Camera into Calintzpso's FTP server. So if you want to see some high res pics, he can get them for you.

---

You guys missed out on some excellent food.

At the night of registration, we were treated to a free buffet of first-class chinese food and spinach wraps, plus free booze at the restaurant / bar in the hotel. (They carded me and everyone else, because they were serving alcohol) ... And that's only the first night.

When you pick up your name tag, you're given a ticket to have a Free First-Class Buffet Lunch at 12:00pm Noon the following day (which was today, Saturday, Dec. 6th) ...

We got free food.... Me and Darkruler were there.

God... You guys...

A huge caesar salad buffet with croutons ... All kinds of cheeses... Cheddar, Swiss, with lunch meats ... Slices of Tomato and Pickles for vegetarian folks... Pasta Salad (Creamy Penne noodles with vegetables)... Grilled and Sautee'd Vegetables ... Grilled Chicken ... All kinds of Bread...!

Drinks? Coffee ... Free bottles of Sierra Mist and Pepsi ... Bottled Spring Water...

For dessert? Brownies. Raspberry Pie. Chocolate Cake. Cheesecake. Cookies (Oatmeal / Peanut Butter / Chocolate Chip) ...

And it's ALL YOU CAN EAT. Square-Enix is paying the bill. So all 500 people in attendance ate for FREE. Me and Darkruler didn't pay one damn dime!

We sat at a big table by ourselves, and stuffed ourselves so we wouldn't have to eat for the rest of the day, then we swiped a few bottles of drinks and stashed them in our backpacks for later.

I filmed footage of the entire buffet. It's going in Calintzpso's FTP right now. So if you wanna see it before I compile a summary video, take a look at it there.

You guys... Seriously... You better come out here for FanFest '09 and get your tickets EARLY. You guys have no idea what you're missing out on.

This Monday, me and Darkruler are gonna have our Moogle Shields and a "Challenge Pack" (all the BCNM items like Cordial & Martial Ball invites. Plus the BCNM item to fight the Five Serpent Generals like we did last year).

I went to the Art Contest room and there was alot of stuff there. Crafting and Artwork alike. My entry Ballad Break was even up there as #39. I don't know if I won or not though. I left early. If you wanna see my entry, click the DeviantArt link in my Signature.

I took pics of the other entries. They're in Calintzpso's FTP too.

... Also, the $100 Nation Rings at last year's FanFest have been replaced by the most expensive item at the FanFest to date.

A hand-crafted Resin, 9-inch statue of ... The Shadow Lord... for a whopping $246.

I have a picture of it. It's with Calintz too.

... You guys should've really been there. Y'all really missed out.
 
Did they explain why they had an attendance cap? Limiting tickets to 1/4 of the prior year's participation is kind of odd for a convention.
 
Did they explain why they had an attendance cap? Limiting tickets to 1/4 of the prior year's participation is kind of odd for a convention.

Time constraints,
The fact that they chose a hotel that was smaller than the last one,
The expenses of sponsoring two large dinners,


Take your pick.
 
Did they explain why they had an attendance cap? Limiting tickets to 1/4 of the prior year's participation is kind of odd for a convention.

the fact that probably 520 people wanted to come and they wanted to make it "exclusive"
 
For Salvage whores like Uzor, Mdkuser, and Pchan, your prayers have been answered. While they're not going to change the difficulty of monsters, they ARE going to increase the drop rates of stuff in Bhaflau & Silversea Remnants.
Glad they're increase the drop rate, Silver Sea is pretty much the only zone we still need stuff in.
 
Posting Devifoxx's Pictures he uploaded. These are pretty big. I'll have Sampled down sizes for faster viewing pleasure. I have a Zip file for them as well to save you time in downloading them.

http://www.absoluteperfectionls.com/devifoxx/pictures/

I'm gonna be nice and leave the movies in a somewhat accessible area sense Devifoxx said he was going to make a video with them for you guys it might be better for you to wait. Some are really huge and not really a good idea to stream off my website too, if your gonna view them, download them first please. If it starts to become a problem I'll have them moved to a hidden folder until Devifoxx decides what to do with them.
 
This is awesome stuff =). I'm definitely looking forward to the new summons once I can get the time to log my ass back into the server =|
 
zomg a date on RDM?! finnaly... although it was too long in coming and I'm still waiting at this point >.<
 
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