The breakdown of Final Fantasy XI's VanaFest 2010 announcements
by Eliot Lefebvre 
Feb 28th 2010 at 11:00AM
Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, News items
And there was certainly a lot of news to be shared. An increase in level cap, new add-on zones, job reviews, conclusions to existing content, server merges, new seasonal gear -- there was no shortage of surprising announcements. Continue on past the cut for the short version of what came out during the show and what players can expect.
The announcement that probably first jumped out at several players was that the level cap, at long last, is being boosted up to 99. Starting in June's scheduled update, we're going to see a slow march up by twenty-four levels, something players have been awaiting for quite a while. Since the entire game is still focused around 75, one of the major components of the level increase will be the introduction of Abyssea, a high-level zone designed to address the problems several players have long noted regarding the leveling process. There's an official site for the add-on zones, but it's currently devoid of information.
Wings of the Goddess is also steadily marching toward its conclusion, with the March update being the first half of the ending arc and the conclusion due in September. There are also promises of expansion to the Campaign battles and the individual nation quests at the same time. If that's not providing enough for your high-level character to do, there's the Trial of the Magians quest line, opening up the opportunity to put enhancements on weapons and armor. We don't have many details on this yet, although it seems like a more controlled implementation of the bonuses than that put into place via Fields of Valor.
Oh, yes, and Summoners are getting Odin and Alexander as summons. This is another long-awaited change, although there's no clear picture just yet of how useful they'll be as summon spells. Puppetmasters are also getting a sizable boost to their hand-to-hand combat skills to improve their viability as fighters on their own.
Lastly, the dreaded announcement of server merges. It's not overwhelming, despite what many have suspected -- the list of servers being merged only covers 16 servers being merged down to 8, and considering the game's age and population base that's hardly a surprising change. Since the game needs a high population to reach critical mass, it's probably for the best overall.
All of the information, as well as an excellent timeline, can be found on the VanaFest 2010 website. It promises to be an interesting future for Final Fantasy XI even as we ramp up to Final Fantasy XIV, so take a look to see if there are any new details that speak to you specifically. And stay tuned for next Saturday's installment of The Mog Log, as you can bet we'll have things to say about all this.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Riskichi said on 3:47PM 2-28-2010
My friends and I recently returned to Vana'diel after a 4 year absence. Already we are loving the easier leveling, and these announcements make me even more stoked.
Here's hoping a FFXIV and FFXI shared subscription comes down the pipe.
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Jay said on 1:02PM 2-28-2010
The level cap increase is GREAT for their existing players, but a nightmare for people like me who just returned to the game and had to start over. It was disappointing to hear the increase in level and an increase in focus on endgame events. One thing that Blizzard has mastered in the MMO genre that SE never will is the ability to cater to everyone on some level.
Now, if they come back and say they are going to double or triple xp for low level players in order to catch them up to the rest of the player base them I'm all on board.
But as of right now, I'm level 26 and just trying to complete Nation missions as well unlock various jobs. Adding 24 extra levels onto my climb on a game that is already sparse on people is a bad thing.
This may reinvigorate the game for people at level 75, but they've pretty much guaranteed that they won't gain many new subscribers.
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Stuart said on 1:43PM 2-28-2010
I sadly have to agree. I just restarted.....and the low levels are horrid. It seems even worse than before because...well...there's no one here to level with. Maybe once I get a freaking subjob again will things change...but Valk is like the same 4 people over and over again trying to get through. It's harsh.
riveragarciaea said on 2:36PM 2-28-2010
I agree with you 99%, but I have a lvl 75 Sam/War, and I can tell you this is not good for high levels. The reason is, lets say I want to level a Summoner, and its level 1, its going to take me more to level it now than it did before. I havent played in a while, and last I heard leveling now is faster than it was before (something about quest now), but I took me almost a year to level to 75 in the old system (LFG [and a good one for that matter] or grind forever for a tiny ammont of xp). This is another reason I will not return to the game. It as good, but raising the level cap to a game that's already insanly hard to level to cap is just not smart at all.
seedling said on 6:52AM 3-01-2010
riveragarciaea, leveling HAS become a lot easier.
* experience boost for small parties (3-4 people)
* better experience for mobs below even match (minimum for an easy prey is 30xp, and mobs stay easy prey for far longer.)
* fields of valor (+270 ~ 1600 exp/hour) which can also gives long-duration regen and refresh
* improved HP regeneration while healing (and no TP loss)
And with all the boosts SAM has gotten lately, it's one of the more popular jobs.
Kyrra said on 3:14PM 2-28-2010
We have more coverage of VanaFest over at FF14News. http://www.ff14news.com
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myr said on 4:42PM 2-28-2010
I honestly don't understand why anyone would be upset over the level cap increase. If anything there will be more people to level with now, and with Level Sync, it doesn't matter if they're level 98 or level 11, they can group together.
If you don't enjoy leveling, why are you playing an MMO?
There wasn't a bad piece of news that came out of Vanafest, except maybe the fact that we'll have to pay for more mini-expansions (but the fact we're getting them is still good). I think it's time to reactivate :3
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onetrueping said on 4:45PM 2-28-2010
My feminine counterpart and big FFXI fan asked me to play this to express her feelings (NSFW): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBDbsG8C_qA
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joakal said on 5:04PM 2-28-2010
The problem for new or returning players isn't lvling, it's lvl caps and rank missions and job unlocks and all the other progress barriers that FFXI throws at you constantly. The changes are exciting, and would have been brilliant... 4 years ago.
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Michael said on 6:17PM 2-28-2010
I think, though, 4 years ago, Square-Enix was still trying to get new players.
VanaFest was basically the announcement that SE finally admits the playerbase is not going to get any bigger, so we're going to concentrate on keeping what we have -- 2/3 of all players on being on 75's...
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Jes said on 1:28PM 3-01-2010
I'm kinda torn on this. I'm mostly upset by this, but still holding out some hope that there will be some excitement to overcome the disaster that awaits.
The biggest issues are that the entire world is based on a level 75 cap. This includes the zones, weapons and armor and the subjob abilities. So while its interesting to see what we can accomplish as we unlock subjob abilities that we never got to use before, i am worried about gear. I've been working for years trying to complete my gear sets for my level 75 jobs. Now all the hard work and more importantly money is thrown out the window as this gear is now useless.
All my end game armor (or even just regular high level armor) is now 24+ levels below cap. Month after month of fighting for drops in dynamis is wasted. All current efforts in Limbus to get Homam gear is wasted. Not to mention the millions upon millions of gil that i've spent on other gear that is now useless. You can already see level 70+ gear prices dropping. Sure am glad i spent so much on this stuff. Time to start non stop farming to get all new gear. Cause you know it will be extremely hard to get and expensive for the people that don't have the means to get it for themselves.
All my level 75 jobs are merited at least a little bit. Where do the merits go? And if i haven't gotten all the merits i want, do i have to wait till level 99 to try for them again?
Also for everyone that is starting over, i think you're better off. You don't have all the wasted time and money. You just get to level up and then plan your characters based on a level cap of 99.
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