The first of many updates to Final Fantasy XIV will take place in a few days. Like many players, I am very excited to see the changes mentioned on Lodestone put in game. When XIV was released, let's just be honest and say that the game was not as polished as many would like. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the game a ton and try to play every day if my schedule permits. That's why I find it refreshing that Square Enix has listened to the cries of the community and seem to be intent on overhauling the current systems in game for the better. They were even so confident in these improvements that they offered another free month of play to all active subscriptions so they could try out the game after the update. They didn't have to go that far. Square Enix could have used this update like dangling a carrot in front of players to get them to eat a month of subscription fees just to experience it. Their recent actions have left me hopefully optimistic for the future of this MMO.

With this first update being an exciting milestone in XIV, I've brought together several of the contributing writers here on FFXIVBlog along with myself to give their thoughts on this upcoming update and the future of XIV. I'll start us off.

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Dario Azuralis


I think the number one thing that I'm excited about is the dramatic change to the skill point system. To summarize, you'll only get skill points after a battle is completed and they're based on the monster itself not how many actions or type of actions you did in battle. So no longer will there be the much more frequent than any of us would like occurrence in which we slay a monster and get no SP for it. I'm very interested how this will change the landscape of Eorzea by where grinding parties go in the future.

It's also great that they're making changes to the user interface which were sorely needed. Though I must admit that I'm not completely sold until I try it out for myself. I hope they make it much easier to repair your own gear as I always found to be quite an inconvenience. Speaking of that, I'm so happy that undergarments will no longer degrade in durability! I always found that really stupid especially since you'd need an extra pair handy just to repair yours. Otherwise you'd need the repair NPC which has the magical ability to repair your underwear...while you're still wearing it! O_O

Finally it's nice that you'll be able to see your party members on the map even when they're more than a few malms away. Maybe in the future they'll add something to the linkshell menu where you can see your members and what area they're in like in XI.

As for the future, what I really want to see is new areas and more story. If you've read my other column, I love exploring exotic new locales and I've already found a few areas around Eorzea that are blocked off by NPCs that I'd love to see unlocked. At the top of that list is Ishgard. I think we all want to get inside Ishgard and see if it looks as breathtaking from the inside as the outside. Maybe we'll get to go to Sharlayan , view the ruins of Ala Mhigo, or even enter the Garlean Empire. All this is obviously a ways off, but it's definitely at the top of my wish list along with companies.


Wicked Heart


In my effort to assist Dario with his article I've decided to list my top 3 features I look forward to with the Nov. 24th update, as well as my top 3 'Do want' features that they should be doing.

Nov. 24 Updates:

* Party features - SP increase in Parties, Party Markers, Party member Targetting, Enimity correction
* Chat Features - Custom font colors
* User Interface - Repair Icon


Omg thank you SE for finally addressing the SP issue we've been bitching about since open beta. Thank you. I love being as carefree and giving as possible in parties, and more often than not have I been sitting there getting no SP at all for 2 hours while everyone else gains ranks. Party markers will be the saving grace for my gf Yuki Heart as I tend to forget her comp is slower and cannot render quickly therefore loses me at times. EVERYONE will enjoy the party member targetting, I hate not being able to quickly heal my tank or my off target tank or myself without having to tab around the circle as seconds tick away to a mobs AoE finisher.

Font Colors, yes please, I go blind at times trying to navigate and chat sometimes while near Lol'dah area's. No problems in Gridania at all though, maybe I just don't like bright stuff in game as much as I hate it irl. The repair icon? yes we want it tweaked and such but it's not a big deal if there is little lag so it actually loads the durability. Regardless, the masses will like to have one click and you see which piece is damaged by the color of their respective slot.

Do Want:

* Personal Player features - Mog House
* User Interface - I want a nice colorful pretty detailed VISUAL book where it shows all my recopies that I can do, by having done them at least once. They get recorded in chronological order as well and if they have time, a little thumbnail sized icon of what it looks like.
* World Feature - Moogle Minigames where I control little Moogle armies and go through a cave-tunnel like system to get to my enemies! >:O!


All and all, this update is making me want to play more than before. I know it's blind faith and hope, but hell, if the rest of the world can do that with Religion, I can do that with Square Enix. Long live the RPG King!


Katella Avenlea


I'm very excited about the updates. I do believe that they are going in the right direction. It may not be perfect, but over time I have no doubt that they will have something pretty great. In order to make things better, you just have to try things out and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, change it, and move on. Always a work in progress. Sadly, its level of "viewed success" seems to depend on how realistic players expectations are. If they are patient enough to be part of the group that voices their opinions in a way that helps the game improve, instead of badgering it for not being perfect, and not living up to their expectations right this second (Is my mother a gamer?.. lol), then we will see it reach its potential.

My list ~
Currently anticipated:
- Inventory space increase and inventory sort (hallelujah)
- Having "favorite" teleport locations
- Being able to filter out everyone else "synthesis & harvesting" results

I'm interested in discovering what they mean when they say "by how players access the market wards." I'm also looking forward to the delivery service and new guild leves which will be in December.

In the future I'd to see the additions of holiday and other events, along with new side quests and normal guild leves from present NPCs other than main plot line .

Drazzan Tsukiko


So, Dario here asked me to write what I'm most excited for, and well, put simply. Auto-Sort!, Auto-Sort!, Auto-Sort!,...Auto-Sort!. Now you might be wondering why I find this my most exciting feature, but plainly said, I often find my memory works best in memorising patterns of key presses, as well as a photographic recollection. This means that if things are in order, the same order, most the time, I can navigate and get to the items I want fast, without too much thought. Also having things in Alphabetical and Type order really helps me in general, it looks nice, it feels right, and its organised. Consider it a Gaming OCD of mine. If you only ask my House-Mates are how much I freaked out when my Inventory, Mog House, Storage, Mog Safe and Mog Satchel were all messed up after someone played my character, I'm sure you'd understand.

If I was to list another few features that I'm most excited about it would have to be the lovely key-bindings that they are offering us, bringing back the old FFXI keyboard style will surely be a lovely welcome addition to all players of Vana'diel. Ctrl+I, Ctrl+E, Ctrl+P and all them other lovely bindings working perfectly how they should. I also read somewhere that the 7 and 1 buttons on the Numpad are being changed to Home and End. I for one, am incredible grateful, I find typing without these to be such a pain!.

The final feature that I think I'll mention is the UI Changes. Changes to the UI are a welcome addition to FFXIV, as I said above, key-strokes and photographic recollection are key to my memory. So menus and menu placement I remember really well. Anything that looks pretty and organised I will be drawn to remembering and navigating allot faster. So being able to see these new menus, change the colours and generally having a new look to the game will appeal to me a lot.

These may be very different answers to what most people will give, but its the truth and these features make me excited and wanting to play, all over again.

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As you can see, we're all pretty excited with the update and not always for the same reasons. This is a step in the right direction for the game and is integral to its longevity. May it last as long as XI has or even longer. Time will tell just where XIV will take us and we're along for the ride. Hope to see you in Eorzea as well.