The History of Final Fantasy XI

Welcome to BGWiki's comprehensive Final Fantasy XI History resource! We hope that you enjoy reading through our little slice of history. If you have pictures or other information you think should be on this page, please feel free to contribute. If you are newly returning to the game and looking for a current resource, refer to the Returning to Vana'diel guide instead. v.1: 2000-2003 originally created by by Elmer the Pointy on JPButton.com v.2: 2000-2017 Further information & images gathered, researched, compiled and re-released by Funkworkz in August & September of 2017

Header Key     News Entry     Version Update     Beta Information     FFXI In-Game Event     Merchandise Released     Real Life Event in Japan     Real Life Event in North America

Contents 1. 2000 & 2001 - Pre-Release & Beta      1.1 The World of the FFXI Beta Test 2. 2002 - FFXI Release & The First Year 3. 2003 - Rise of the Zilart Era 4. 2004 – Chains of Promathia Era 4. 2005 coming soon 4. 2006 coming soon 4. 2007 coming soon 4. 2008 coming soon

2000 - 2001 Pre-Release

This section includes information on the development of Final Fantasy XI, beginning two years and four months before the first adventurer set foot into Vana’diel. Beta testing began in the winter of 2001.

Jan. 29th, 2000	PlayOnline Design Presentation
	Square displayed the plan for PlayOnline for the first time at a private event called, “Square Millennium” in Yokohama. Showing off FFIX, FFX and FFXI together, they revealed that FFXI would be the series’ first ever online experience. The next day, Square stock shot up in value from an average of 7,000 Yen per unit the month prior, to 19,800 Yen per unit. This event was not a press-only presentation. Around 5,000 ordinary people were able to attend by preregistering through magazine ads were invited. The focus however was on Final Fantasy IX. Image from finalfantasy7110.com	PlayOnline was originally developed to interact with Final Fantasy X, but when those plans fell through it became a strategy site for Final Fantasy IX. The site was designed to complement BradyGames' and Piggyback Interactive's official strategy guides for the game, where players who bought the print guide had access to "keywords" that could be searched for on PlayOnline's site for extra tips and information. This caused fury among buyers of the guide, as they felt cheated for the expensive print guide. The blunder made GameSpy's "Top 5 Dumbest Moments in Gaming" list, and Square dropped the idea for Final Fantasy X, which was under development at the time.
Jul. 19th, 2001	Final Fantasy X released in Japan, FFXI movie included
	Final Fantasy X went on sale. Included with the game was a bonus disc that gave a look into the progress made on FFXI, which was still in mid-development. “OTHER SIDE OF THE FINAL FANTASY.” The graphics at this time were relatively primitive. The video has since been added to Youtube, and is embedded in this page on the right. Here are notes of interest. A dragon (Fafnir/Nidhogg) was shown landing from flight. A town which does not appear in the final version of the game is in the video. Mithra and TaruTaru did not appear. A scene was shown involving a Goobbue scooping up and devouring a Mandragora.
Sep. 17th, 2001	PlayOnline Beta Testing Begins
	General public beta testing begins for PlayOnline with ads displayed in magazines and other media. An ISDN adapter for the Playstation 2 was sold for those participating in the beta.	The rather thick manual was in a binder with an aluminum cover, and weighed about two kilograms. It came with warnings not to drop it, or to accidentally cut yourself on its sharp edges.
Nov. 20th, 2001	FFXI Playstation 2 Version Beta Signups Open
	Recruitment for the FFXI beta began appearing in magazines and other media. At the time, the PS2 Broadband Unit, (HDD) was not being sold in stores, and could only be acquired by signing up with an ISP. Despite this, there was an absolute deluge of participants. When FFXI was finished, sales of the BB Unit opened up to accomodate new players, but it was still out of stock almost everywhere. The biggest hurdle for a new user to overcome was simply finding a BB Unit to purchase. See this page explaining the difficulties at the time.	BB Unit
Dec. 17th, 2001	FFXI PS2 Beta Test Begins
	The Final Fantasy XI beta test began with lucky players selected by lottery receiving the “PlayOnline Beta 2 Edition,” which included a beta PlayOnline Viewer, Final Fantasy XI beta, Tetra Master beta and a Service Manual binder. This kit is pictured on the bottom to the right. Four world were made: Chaos, Zande, Golbez and Xdeath. Later, Xdeath and Golbez were combined into Zande. Worlds could not be chosen, and players were divided based on when they signed up. New players continued to be selected as the beta went on, adding new adventurers to Vana’diel from Decemeber up until March of the following year.
Dec. 22nd, 2001	Online Party 2002
	A private Square event, the “Online Party 2002″ was held at the Tokyo International Forum. It was an invitation-only event meant to formally introduce the public to Final Fantasy XI for the first time. Only stakeholders in the industry and a select few users drawn by lottery were invited to attend. 100 machines were setup to allow attendees to play for 15 minute sessions at a time. On stage, Morida Masakazu and Aoki Mayuko performed a mini-concert as Tidus and Yuna, respectively. Peripherals such as recommended a modem and keyboard were displayed. Below are pictures of the computers that were setup for 15 minutes of play.	All attendees received these Final Fantasy XI themed neck straps.

The World of the FFXI Beta Test

The beta version of Final Fantasy XI was practically the same as the initial retail version, but there were still many things missing. Below are the important differences. Character Selection & Jobs Characters could choose from every race, but the selection of faces was much fewer than the final product. The six basic jobs were available: Warrior, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage and Thief. Players could obtain sub-jobs, but the quest was different than now. Players had to obtain an "Old Prophecy" from monsters around Jeuno, and hand it to the master. Provoke used to say "Hey, how long are you gonna hide under your mama's skirt?" in say automatically. Level Cap The level cap was initially set at 30, but they eventually raised it to 35 after player demand. Monster levels were not adjusted to compensate, so players leveled on Easy Prey and Decent Challenge up to 35. No Undergarments In the Beta version, there were not undergarments (the clothes you see when you have nothing equipped), and Leather Armor graphics were used for when a player had nothing on. Entrance to Jeuno Closed There was an entrance to Jeuno in each of the three surrounding areas, but it was blocked from entry by a metal gate. Small Home Nations San d'Oria only consisted of the port, Bastok was only the Mines and Port districts, and Windurst had but the Walls area. Besides Bastok, there was little place to roam in one’s home nation. Home Points were found in each nation, with an additional Home Point placed at each Crag. Notorious Monsters & Birth of Competition In Pashhow and Meripthaud, there were Giant Ram NMs, Batallia had a Morbol NM, and Skewer Sam was in Sauromugue Champaign. Since they were only there for the duration of the beta, Linkshells would discuss and plan days for each group to take on the monsters. The birth of the Linkshell was the same time as these Notorious Monsters, and rivalries were formed. These monsters were on a 24 hour spawn timer. Linkshells would scramble to be the first to claim it. Beastmen There was only the Orc beastmen model. Yagudo and Quadav only differed in name, but all used the Orc model. Slightly Different Maps Maps existed for the areas around the three nations, but they lacked coordinates, and were difficult to understand. Also, there were no maps for areas outside of Jeuno. Areas like Valkurm Dunes didn’t even exist yet. Good Manners in Ranguemont Pass Ranguemont Pass contained NMs that dropped rare items, like Hermes’ Shoes and Prism Capes, and many people hunted them. However, if an error was made during the pull, there would be a disastrous train, so players would shout to warn each other before pulling. The 3 Ahrimans from nation mission 2-3(dragon BC) used to be at the gate room in Ranguemont, and they were considered as the hardest obstacle for players. Magic and Ability Names Redark　→　Blindna Vocal　→　Silena G-Cure　→　Curaga 神の祝福　→　女神の祝福 Both are “Benediction,” but the latter specifies Goddess. These are many other differences were changed before the final version. Area of Effect Cures also affected the entire alliance. Official Events During the beta test, there were two official events held. The game staff would interact with players in realtime, role-playing and giving hints for players to complete certain actions. Further information regarding the world of the Beta (armor, weapons, items, magic, NM names and videos) can be found at Final Fantasy 7110.com

2002 - Release & First Updates

With the Playstation 2 beta test completed, Final Fantasy XI was finally given a public release. The Windows beta test ran through the Summer, and the final version was released in the Fall. Final Fantasy XI was ready to set sail.

Feb. 7th, 2002	Final Fantasy XI Credit Cards
	Square, DigiCube, and UC Card announced details concerning special Final Fantasy XI/PlayOnline Visa and Mastercard credit cards, which were available in Japan starting February 2002. These cards were one of the various marketing schemes designed to promote Square's online community. The cards offered various benefits to PlayOnline users and Final Fantasy XI subscribers: Cardholders had their annual fees waived as long as they were a Final Fantasy XI Subscriber. Gift rebates were earned based on card usage, up to a maximum of 6,000 yen in gift certificates FFXI themed T-Shirt for spending 100,000 yen on the card.
Feb. 20th, 2002	Final Fantasy XI Opening Cinematic Debut
	The debut of the Final Fantasy XI Opening Cinematic was shown after a "Music from Final Fantasy 20020220" orchestra concert.
Apr. 26th, 2002	FFXI Playstation 2 Beta Test Ends
	The final version of Final Fantasy XI was put together, and the beta test ended. Testers were allowed to have their chosen names transferred over to the full game. The game began with 20 worlds, and it was announced that the last two digits of your total gil would determine where you were placed. This way, players were able to transfer along with their friends to the same server. This system led to servers initially being referred to by number, such as “World 0,” or “Server #5.”	During the months of the beta test, it was extremely hard to find a PS2 HDD. On top of this, many people discovered defects in some HDDs. This caused the demand to be even higher due to the unfortunate people were trying to replace their defective devices. On "Yahoo! Auctions", some HDDs were being sold and purchased for a minimum of 18,000 Yen (Around $150 at the time) up to 50,000 Yen (Around $415).
Apr. 26th, 2002	First Article from Vana'diel Tribune Released
	The first article from the Vana'diel Tribune, a Final Fantasy XI "newspaper" published within Playonline by Square Enix, was released coinciding with the finished Beta test. The newspaper, for the most part, was in the role play setting. Oftentimes, the reporters broke the 4th wall and acknowledged adventurers as players. The newspaper was based in Jeuno, and often covered seasonal events in Vana'diel as well as version updates to the game. Reporters in the newspaper were actual staff members of Square and Square-Enix. They all had characters ingame coinciding with their newspaper reporter names and personalities. Players were often invited to write and participate in articles in the newspaper. Correspondents were easily spotted in-game due to a unique icon displayed by their names: This was in the same spot as the Bazaar or Linkshell icons. The first edition of the Vana'diel Tribune ran monthly from April 26th, 2002 until October 25th, 2004. 31 publications were made in the first edition.
May 16th, 2002	FFXI PS2 goes on sale in Japan, Service begins!
	The names for the twenty worlds were revealed: Bahamut, Shiva, Titan, Ramuh, Phoenix, Carbuncle, Fenrir, Sylph, Valefor, Alexander, Leviathan, Odin, Ifrit, Diabolos, Caitsith, Quetzalcoatl, Siren, Unicorn, Gilgamesh and Ragnarok. The PS2 version cost 7800 yen. It contained Final Fantasy XI, PlayOnline Viewer, Tetra Master and JongHoLo (a Mahjong game). It also came with a pretty thick playing manual, weighing in at 288 pages. Square said they prepared 20 servers worldwide capable of withstanding 5,000 simultaneous connections towards the official version, and that they can handle 100,000 players at any time. FFXI was well organized in its launch, but suddenly big issues occurred immediately after the service started. FFXI's first week of sales amounted to 63,958 units (Famitsu survey). Dispite being below the 100,000 limit that Square announced, the "Authentication Servers" accessed when logging into the game couldn't withstand the enormous amount of traffic. On top of this, the official FFXI site and their support center were having technical difficulties so Square was unable to communicate with their customers via their official site. Not only could people not play the game, some were even being charged duplicate amounts when registering their WebMoney code. A majority of BB units were also not delivered on launch day as promised. All connectivity issues were completely fixed by May 19. Due to the loss of service, free play was extended past the end of May until the end of June.	Early FFXI Official Website
May 18th, 2002	Newspaper Article
	On the morning of the 18th, the article to the right was printed in the national newspaper in Japan in the advertisement column. It is an apology advertisement written by the president of Square. They apologize for the difficult launch of FFXI and about duplicate charges. The term "Nightmare" was used.
Summer 2002	FFXI Themed Snacks
	As part of Square's marketing plan, 7-Eleven in Japan exclusively sold Final Fantasy XI themed snacks. Three flavors of Doritos, cheetos and popcorn. Included inside each bag was one of 27 possible FFXI themed cards featuring races and CG opening cinematic screenshots from the game. Each card had a unique code to download a ringtone.	Image from finalfantasy7110.com
May 23rd, 2002	The First Version Update
	Treasure adjustments (e.g. Pugils in East Ronfaure would no longer drop Shall Shells.) NPC buying prices adjusted (Crab Shells, Land Crab Meat, Shall Shells, etc).
Jun. 5th, 2002	FFXI Original Soundtrack Released
	A Regular Edition (2,854 Yen, pictured on right top) and Limited Edition (3,150 Yen, pictured on the right middle and bottom) of the soundtrack were both sold. The Limited Edition was contained in a special package featuring artwork from Mr. Yoshitaka Amano. A picture booklet and DVD containing the opening movie were also included with the limited edition. The soundtrack itself contained all the same songs on either version.
Jun. 12th, 2002	The First Big Version Update
	Auction House opened. Screenshot function added. The first Notorious Monsters were implemented. The duration of Bind was shortened. The guard stationed in North Gustaberg was moved to its current location. HQ results for crafting made their appearance, but only went up to HQ1 results. Monsters which only dropped Quest related items now also drop their family's normal loot items. The minimum level required to obtain a sub job quest was set to 18. Sale prices on expensive equipment were lowered. Sale prices on fishing equipment adjusted. Guild shops now closed on different days of the week in observance of unique guild holidays. Some synthesis recipes were changed to yield 2 items upon HQ. Delivering "Rare" items to mog houses no longer destroys the same item if one is already in your "Inbox". DEX bonus added to Sneak Attack. Thief was given Hand-to-Hand skill. Effect of Treasure Hunter strengthened. Crystal drop rate while under the effect of Signet was increased. Guards who provide Signet were placed at outposts, some borders, and other countries in order to easily provide players with Signet. Gilfinder used to totally remove the ability to receive gil drops from monsters, and was finally fixed in this update nearly a month after implementation.
Jun. 17th, 2002	Recruitment for Windows Beta Testers
	Ads were circulated through magazines and the Internet to recruit for a public beta test. At the time, the computer specs required were fairly high and not many people's computers met them. The beta participation was done via public offering to ensure the highest participation possible.
Jun. 17th, 2002	FFXI Windows Beta Test Begins
	The world Glasyalabolas was formed for Windows beta testers. Beta testing for Tetra Master in Windows took place at the same time.
Jun. 24th, 2002	Monsters made unable to attack players on Chocobo
	Before teleports were added, chocobos were necessary to go anywhere. Especially now that players cannot be attacked while on a chocobo.	Mythril Marathon The “Mythril Marathon” was a mining fad that began late June of 2002. Players would bring Pickaxes to Palborough Mines, mine up some Mine Gravel, convert it into Mythril Sand using a machine found in the dungeon, and sell it to an NPC. Adventurers would go naked (maximizing inventory space) and head to Palborough over and over, raising Chocobo prices in Bastok over 1000 gil a ride. After July 9th, Pickaxe prices rose, while Mythril Sand prices fell, making this method of earning money less lucrative. To commemorate this event, a weekly Records of Eminence objective was added for the Vana'diel 15th Vana'versary in 2017. To complete it, you had to perform 10 conversions of Mine Gravel to Mythril Sand. Boytz became quite popular, and handed out around 10,000 Gil/hour to each player.
Jun. 25th, 2002	The Level 50 Cap - First Players Reach Level 50
	From the start, the level cap was set to 50 but this was not disclosed to players. Square announced in June of 2002 that the first players who reached level 50 would have their names published on the official site. They also announced during the month that the game was prepared for players to go up to level 100 for a maximum. On this day, the first players across all worlds attained level 50.	As players were all rushing to level to 50, other casual players didn't enjoy that. Square announced that this game has more than plain leveling. With that announcement, it caused a big uproar that became a continuous joke in Japan: [SE] Do this. [Players] Ok. [SE] Don't do it. Players questioned SE "what else there is to do other than leveling?", which SE did not respond to (probably because it was a fact). Later on, during an interview, the dev team claimed that players were leveling too fast, and they never expected everyone to be only leveling everyday. Though, at that time, the game really only have leveling to do.
Jul. 2nd, 2002	The patch from hell
	With the introduction of the level difference adjustment from the last patch, monsters checked as above Even Match were impossible to kill. This created the situation where soloing was far more effective than partying. The effects of level difference were defined, but monsters became almost impossible to hit or damage with magic. Elemental magic resistance stayed the same crappy hell at this time. The amounts of MP for Paladin and Dark Knight were adjusted to be lower than Red Mage. Paladin used to also have very high HP values. This update lowered their HP to below that of Warrior. Adjustments made to enmity for abilities like Provoke and Invincible. They were greatly nerfed. They mass nerfed Sentinel and Last Resort to the point that these job abilities were regarded as useless. Parameters like Accuracy, Evasion and Magic Defense were removed from the Status screen with the reason: "We would not like to ruin the fun of players discovering that themselves."; though the real reason seemed to be that the numbers displayed were apparently greatly inaccurate, so they decided to hide that altogether. Hundred Fists at this point used to reduce any weapon's delay to 0, which caused a major bug to weapon's delay display.	The sense of danger was present after this update, as it was easier for mages and melee with little defense to pull hate.
Jul. 9th, 2002	The Introduction of “Incredibly Tough,” & A Wide Array of Job Adjustments
	Here, the formulas for how damage and accuracy change with level difference were reworked. (It is assumed at this time plans for level 70-80 monsters were being made.) Warrior – Hand-to-Hand skill lowered one grade. Monk – Accuracy for left-handed punches changed. Effects of Hundred Fists and Chakra changed. New punch motions added for the job's left handed swings. White Mage – Enmity generated from Benediction lowered. Red Mage – Dagger, Sword and Club skill levels, as well as max MP, raised. Thief – Hand-to-Hand and Sword skills raised. Enmity generated from Steal lowered. Dark Knight – Given the ability to use Great Sword Weapon Skills. From early .DAT mining, it was discovered that Ragnarok was listed as Paladin only. DRKs were initially not intended to have Great Sword skill. Bard – Duration of Song effects shortened. Received Dagger, Sword and Club skill. NPC prices for songs lowered. Ranger – Rangers now able to use guns. Prices on arrows and bullets lowered and made able to stack to 99, rather than the original limit of 12. Received Dagger and Sword skill. Beastmaster – Duration of Charm on pets fixed to 5 minutes, and 30 minutes under the influence of Familiar. (However, depending on a pet’s remaining HP, Charm could be broken instantly if they receive a critical hit). EX Dagger Weapon Skills made only usable by Red Mage, Ranger, Thief and Bard. “Incredibly Tough” added to /check. (Previously only went up to “Very Tough”). Overhaul of experience point bonuses received for being in a party. Certain monsters (such as Ghouls) had their drop rates increased. Arrangement of monsters, as well as their treasure pools, changed across all dungeon areas. Gil dropped by Gigas-type monsters reduced from 900 to 200. Eight different Window patterns made selectable in the Config menu. Moving during /heal now automatically canceled healing. Target name and icon now displayed in the target window. Current position now displayed on the map screen. Goods one may sell at the Auction House reduced from 8 at a time to 7. The Delivery Box now displayed the corresponding sale for gil delivered. Players could now see the stats for Conquest Items before purchase. Massive Elemental Magic resistance was added into the game, and as such Black Mage was known as "The gimp White Mage" due to the major change. Water Magic cast on Fish was fixed to only inflict 50% of the intended damage. Magic added: Gravity, Horde Lullaby Text Commands added: /attack, /equip, /names, /kneel, /sigh, /comfort, /huh, /blush, /angry, /disgusted, /upset, /panic, /fume, /doubt, /sulk and /shocked.	Mob Placement Changes At this time, the popular leveling camp was the Crawler's Nest entrance. The change to mob placement in this update added Crawlers and Bees, which aggrod, to the entrance of the zone. This camp's popularity dropped drastically. With the unavoidable 1800 damage Final Sting from bees, and the fact that even at lv50, it's close to impossible to not aggro, many people avoided the zone. Bone Hunting Boom With the rise of demands for new camps, players started moving to Eldieme, Garlaige, Behemoth Dominion and places. As a result, lv32 - lv47 leveling camps were mainly skeletons hunting. Japanese players called it “骨骨ファンタージ,” or “Bone-Bone Fantasy,” and it was an era when Warriors and Black Mages would team up to produce Fusion skillchains with repeated Earth Crushers. After adjustments to monsters, this technique became less effective against Skeletons, and it fell out of favor. Players were unaware that skeletons didn't link, so the rumor spread to "Not link bones when pulling with Cure" Backline job beastmen had a glitch in their levels, in which their /check level does not give EXP equivillent to the /check, for example, IT beastmen mage would give EM exp. This continued into the Rise of the Zilart implementation of several beastmen mages, and was not fixed for a while. The dev team then announce that "We have increased the droprate of armors from dungeon beastmen.", while the truth is that they only remove the armor drop from all field beastmen.
Jul. 17th, 2002	Altana Encylopedia
	Equipment, spells and other information were displayed within the PlayOnline Viewer. The /salute emote was being adjusted for TaruTaru females affiliated with San d’Oria, and became temporarily unusable.	Information like items, magic and abilities were available for the public to view in order to aid adventurers. However, since you had to logout to PlayOnline to actually view this content, not many people utilized the feature. Fan sites took over from there and the usefulness of the database faded and was ultimately closed on December 27, 2005.
Jul. 19th, 2002	First Public Event: Moogles Take a Trip
	For five hours, between 8pm July 19th and 1am July 20th, players could search for 21 moogles that were lost across every region. Talking to a lost moogle would net you a point. Depending on the points you accumulate, you could receive a Bronze Moogle Belt. Storing up enough points could even get you a Silver Moogle Belt or Gold Moogle Belt. Being the first public event, there was a large influx of participants, causing many areas to become unstable.	Compared to today, this first event was very short. System messages advanced the event in real time, and everyone was very nervous as to whether things would run smoothly. Adventurers heavily congregated in areas designated for the event, causing clients to have display problems or become unstable. Due to the limited time of the event, many people were also unable to participate altogether. As time went on, FFXI events grew longer and longer because of the concerns voiced in this first trial run.
Jul. 29th, 2002	User Event: Bon-Odori
	This was an event users planned through bulletin boards across the Internet. It was the first user event to take place across all worlds. There were no fireworks available yet, so players enjoyed dancing using the /panic emote, and used flashy spells and abilities to their advantage. Later on, the Vana'diel Tribune did a story on the event, and the following year an official Bon-Odori was held. This is how the official Sunbreeze Festival came to be.
Jul. 30th, 2002	The First Vana’diel Census
	The distribution of main jobs was displayed. The average level was 10, and the majority of players were under level 20. At the time, only 0.4% of players had reached the cap of level 50. However, these statistics included secondary characters, which skewed the results (59% of players at level 1), and the average level among active players was most likely higher.
Jul. 30th, 2002	Teleports and Warp II Added
	The Rank 5 Missions (including the Shadow Lord fight) were implemented, but with the level cap at 50, no adventurers had beaten it.The experience point bonus for larger parties was increased. Experience points increased for defeating high level enemies. 200 EXP per kill was now the norm. Resist rates reduced when attacking enemies with magic containing elemental properties they are weak to. Current day and weather now displayed along with the compass. This update also added day and weather bonuses to Elemental Magic. High level monsters’ resist rate against Enfeebling Magic reduced. Warrior – Duration of Mighty Strikes increased from 30 seconds to 45. Increase to Skeleton's Black Cloud's damage. Enmity generated by Healing magic increased. The △ button now allowed one to select the chat log or status icons even during battle. Depending on your Window settings, the X button could now shorten the chat window even during battle. Chat filtering added through use of the △ button. Monsters with Call For Help status that are close by would now appear on the compass. The △ button would now allow one to select regions when using the Search function. The names of players in one’s party now displayed in blue in the Search function. Mining was introduced. Pickaxes and the Mythril Seams still existed before this update in order to proceed with Rank Missions. Treasure Chests added to various dungeons, which included amazing rewards. NPC dispatched to each city that would change the titles of adventurers. NPC to tell players their Fame level also added to each city. When using more than one of the same item to craft, players could now put them into the same slot. (Previously, each item needed its own slot). A player’s rank in each craft was now displayed along with their skill level. When using a crystal, only skill points would be displayed. Players were now able to craft inside their Mog House. The additional Job Change screen was removed to facilitate speedy job switching. Players would receive a discount when renting a Chocobo based on their level. New items available for purchase with Conquest points. The /salute motion for TaruTaru females in San d’Oria was re-implemented. White Mages used to use /anon to avoid tell spams, but a bug caused it to be removed after joining an alliance. Magic added: Teleport-Holla, Teleport-Dem, Teleport-Mea, Shellra, Protectra II, Warp II, Fire Threnody, Wind Threnody, Earth Threnody, Lightning Threnody, Water Threnody, Light Threnody, Dark Threnody and Magic Finale. Threnody had 100% accuracy. Casting a teleport took almost 1 minute. This was later reduced. <pos> added to chat. The Job Change Screen was removed from the game and was replaced with what we have now (Moogle spinning in a circle with the animation around a player). It used to be similar to the player creation screen. The picture to the right is what we used to have.	Warp II The quest to obtain Warp II, brought adventurers to the basement of Fei'Yin, where the dangerously high-level ghost Utukku dwells. The level cap was 50 at the time, but there were very few people who had attained it. Adventurers around level 40 would band together into alliances and still be defeated. Not to mention, Sneak and Invisible were not yet in the game, causing this to be an incredibly difficult quest to complete. Brave players would have to act as decoys, striking the enemy and leading it away from the party in order for people to finally clear this ordeal. Black Cloud The increase to skeleton's Black Cloud attack started the neverending JP joke of: [SE] Discover your own camps. [Players] Wow, this place is nice for EXP. [SE] Ok, removing that camp. Lock Picking Woes Because thieves were able to pick locks so easily on treasure chests, they went for the coveted Astral Ring in Castle Oztroja. Some players did not leave the zone for hours since multiple rings could be held, and sold for a premium price. Purple Belt At this time, the rams in La Theine Plateau and Konschtat Highlands had an abnormally high drop rate of Ram Skins and Ram Horns. This caused a monopoly, and players who want the Purple Belt horns and lanolin all cried collectively due to rivalry. Silver Hairpins At this time, selling the Silver Hairpin could infinitely increase your gil, which created the age where Goldsmithers would fly back and forth on Airships to multiply their gil. This was of course, removed. Old Job Change Screen
Aug. 24th, 2002	Exterminate the Beastmen
	The second officially sanctioned event. In order for the nations of Altana to combat the ever-growing threat of the Beastmen, nationality would no longer play a part in receiving Signet. At the same time, the collection of weapons and armor for the advancement of Conquest began.	During the time of this event, the vast majority of adventurers had low Missions ranks, and with Valkurm Dunes being a virtual Mecca for parties leveling jobs, many players would lose their Signet while in the dunes. San d'Oria had a strong advantage with their relatively close proximity to the area, and on many worlds they were able to continuously control Valkurm and refresh their Signets at the Outpost. However, Bastok was ahead of San d'Oria in sheer number of adventurers, so this event brought about the end of San d'Orias little scheme. Soon after, the Kingdom's influence fell, and across many worlds they were consistently ranked last in Conquest. Eventually, adventurers took the pleas of Prince Trion from the Vana'diel Tribune to heart, and established the 赤獅子騎士団 (Red Lion Knights) Linkshell in support of San d'Oria, and the shell quickly spread across multiple servers.
Aug. 28th, 2002	User Event:Castle Zvahl Charge
	Back in 2002, when there was a low level cap and before Sneak and Invisible, nobody knew what lied in Castle Zvahl Baileys. Players created the event "Castle Zvahl Charge". On all 20 severs players gathered in Xarcabard. Some players were destroyed before even making it to the castle, but some players made it to Castle Zvahl Keep.
Sep. 6th, 2002	The Second Vana’diel Census
	Statistics on job levels, job choices, and national affiliation were presented. This time, level 1 characters were excluded from the percentages. The amount of level 50 players increased to 0.8%. Advanced Jobs (Paladin, Dark Knight, Beastmaster, Bard and Ranger) comprised 6.65% of the player base, showing there were still very few people who had acquired these jobs. Now, the census was presented by Sage Sundi, the Online Service Manager.
Sep. 12th, 2002	The First Limit Break Quest
	The Level Cap is raised to 55. To continue to level 51, players must complete “In Defiant Challenge” Experience Point Chains were implemented, but were not displayed in the chat log. Valkurm Dunes is added to the title screen. High Level Notorious Monsters, such as Behemoth, are added to their respective areas. Also, over 20 types of “Leader Class” Notorious Monsters are added to each Beastman stronghold. With them, a multitude of new drops. (These NMs would re-pop in just 16 minutes). Players who joined the fight halfway through were unable to lot drops. Chain Bonuses were added. Thief – An error in which Sneak Attack would not work if facing Northwest was corrected. Treasure Hunter II was also added. (Previously planned abilities Gilfinder II and Blast Attack, which would later be Trick Attack, were postponed). Items used to open chests, namely Thief Tools and Living Key, were added. The DEX bonus for Sneak Attack was removed when subbing THF, protecting its integrity. Bard – Bards could now have two songs active at once when using instruments. Elemental effects of Minne and Minuet songs weakened. Beastmaster – Charm time changed to reflect level difference and CHR score. Pets would no longer become un-Charmed by receiving critical hits. Heel ability added. Leave lowered to level 35. Tame would no longer have an effect on monsters that are unable to be Charmed. Large-sized monsters (such as NMs and giant sheep) that could previously be Charmed were now unable to be Charmed. Ranger – Rangers were now able to use Archery and Marksmanship Weapon Skills. Accuracy for Ranged attacks raised across the board. Rangers were now able to accumulate TP with Ranged Attacks. The skill levels required to learn Viper Bite and Gust Slash were switched. Skillchain elements added to Axe Weapon Skills Raging Axe, Smash Axe, Avalanche Axe and Spinning Axe. Offensive Magic could now be half resisted. Duration of Sleep fixed to a single value. The ability to Magic Burst off a Skillchain was added. However, the results did not display in the log. Also, the existence of Level 3 Skillchains were hinted at, but not implemented yet. Confirmation dialogue added when setting Home Point. The amount of experience lost when K.O.’d was reduced for players level 25 and up. Other players could now see the graphic effect when leveling up or down. Race Specific Equipment added. Harvesting, Logging and Gardening added. Gardening was mentioned in the game manual from the start. Macro function expanded to 8 sets. Fishing ranks now tested at each level up. The caps for each Craft were raised to 60. HQ2-3 were added in this update, and the result tier used to be determined by the amount of "!" in the chat log. For some reason, they removed this later. Food effects were altered and Meat Mithkabobs became very popular. Font colors added for the various items one places on the Auction House. Conquest was adjusted to increase the effect battles have on the weekly tally. Signet duration adjusted to correspond with Rank. Merchants at Outposts would now accept equipment trades to boost a country’s control of the region. The fee to change national allegiance now changed according to Conquest. Magic added: Curaga III, Invisible, Sneak, Deodorize and Reraise.	Mad Dash for Monsters The first Limit Break Quest, “In Defiant Challenge,” had players seeking items that dropped from three different monsters. With few monsters and low drop rates, players went to great pains to obtain these items. A later Version Update repositioned some of the monsters and increased their numbers. Experience Points to progress to level 51 was astronomically high compared to what everyone was used to. (7600 > 7700 > 7800 > 10000 > 11000 > 13000 > 16000 > 20000). Also with the increasing need to maintain the level range to maximize EXP gain, players became more weary of the level difference in parties. Northwest Nerfs Sneak Attack? Ever since service began, there had been a glitch where Sneak Attack would not work if one was facing Northwest. It came to be considered an unlucky direction and parties would often request the tank stand South of the enemy to avoid the issue. The Debut of Invisible, Sneak and Deodorize Invisible, Sneak and Deodorize were added, but they only dropped off of Notorious Monsters, and were hard to get. After the October 2nd Version Update, these scrolls were dropped off of regular monsters and people were able to acquire them with relative ease. This whole issue could have been the birthplace of the "direction to face when crafting" myth. Players & Patches Sometime in August of 2002, the Dev team blamed the lackluster and anti-player patches on "Players are not used to our new patches, that's all.".
Sep. 21st, 2002	Chase the Dancing White Shadow
	This was an event that ran from 5pm September 21st to 1am September 22nd. White rabbits that ran at great speed appeared in every region. Players had to catch one and trade it a Moon Carrot, which was received from Moogles. This could net you a Moon Ball. Depending on the Moon Phase, you might also receive one of the following five wands: Rabbit Stick (Level 5) Moonlight Wand (Level 15) Artemis' Wand (Level 25) Selene's Wand (Level 35) Moonwatch Wand (Level 45)	Here is the event in progress in Batallia Downs
Sep. 26th, 2002	FFXI 2002 SPECIAL ART BOX
	A limited edition package, the box contained original illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano and a DVD-ROM with his artwork on its label. A wristband with one of the four national flags (Bastok, San d'Oria, Windurst or Jeuno) depicted was also included. The cost of this special edition was 8,000 Yen not including Tax. An unboxing video is to the right.
Oct. 2nd, 2002	Teleport Vahzl, Escape Added
	Damage calculations between higher level players and lower level monsters was adjusted. This means the damage a low level monster can do to a high level player has been increased. This was to counter higher level players hunting in lower level grounds for easy EXP This is how Easy Prey monsters can now easily kill high level players. Although not mentioned by Square, this also made it easier for lower level players to hit higher level monsters. The Shadow Lord was defeated for the first time the day after this update. Beastmaster – The recast delay for Charm was reduced from 5 minutes to 15 seconds. This opened the world of Beastmaster soloing. Elementals would now drop clusters according to their element. The method for distributing experience when a party or alliance contained players level 51 and above was improved. A glitch that caused a player to take damage when they used Flaming Arrow or Hot Shot was corrected. A message was added to the chat log to alert users of a successful Magic Burst. Players under the effect of Invisible, Hide or Camouflage would now become translucent. Logging was now available in East Ronfaure and Buburimu Peninsula. Hatchets were available for purchase in Mhaura. Treasure chest could now contain Gil. The chance of a trap springing when a Thief failed to open a chest was slightly increased. The quest to expand one’s Mog House was made easier to trigger. New Conquest rewards were added. San d'Orian Ring, Bastokan Ring and Windurstian Ring were made available for purchase with Conquest Points. Players could now Search Behemoth's Dominion, Qu'lun Dome, Monastic Cavern and the Altar Room. However, one could not simply type the command, but had to manually select them within the Search function. Players could now cycle through sub-targets while using /check, just like when targeting with magic. Elemental Weapon Skills used to inflict high damage now could be resisted like Elemental Magic. Physical Weapon Skills were almost impossible to land on a monster without Sneak Attack. Elemental Magic now displayed when it was resisted in the chat log, but was removed the next day. This brought about the "Resist!" glitch when it displayed in the log that Cures and Blood Pacts were resisted. Magic added: Teleport-Vahzl, Escape Invisible, Deodorize and Sneak were added to common monster drop pools, therefore more accessible to everyone. <tp> added to chat.	Since there was no chat entry for displaying one’s TP up until now, people would simply say “TPOK” when they had stored enough points up for a Skillchain. However, many adventurers found it annoying to have to switch typesets all the time, and would just write “tぽk.” Shadow Lord Subdued Finally after the level cap was raised to 55 and the change in damage calculations, the Shadow Lord was able to be beaten with more ease. The Vana'diel Tribune published an article talking about the first defeat coming from the Shiva world. After the cap was raised to 60, it eased the difficulty of the fight even further. The path to reach the Throne Room was still difficult and confusing for most, so the majority of players were not able to win the fight until 2003. Metal Gear Solid With the addition of teleport and MGS magic, players begun their search of new camps in the Northlands. This led players to Fei'Yin which was the most popular.
Oct. 10th, 2002	The Third Vana’diel Census
	Adventurers level 50 and above (excluding level 1s) comprised 3.64% of the population.
Nov. 1st, 2002	Official Benchmark Software
	In order to test out the specs on a Windows machine, the Official Benchmark Software was created. It was dubbed “FF Bench,” or “Taru Bench” (due to the large number of Tarus in the demo). It wasn’t just for those curious about getting into the game, but also useful for people wanting to graphically tweak their PC for other games. Future versions would be included on expansion discs.
Nov. 1st, 2002	Windows Beta Test Ends
	When moving over to the final version of the game, players could only take PlayOnline IDs, handles, Friend Lists, mail addresses, but not their characters.
Nov. 6th, 2002	Pandemonium and Garuda Open
	These worlds were opened along with the sale of the Windows version. Players could not transfer from already existing worlds.
Nov. 7th, 2002	FFXI Windows Released in Japan
	The Windows version contained 4 discs rather than a DVD, and the packaging was very simple with the logo from the PS2 version displayed prominently. PlayOnline Viewer and Tetra Master were included, but the Mahjong game from the PS2 version was absent. The instruction manual was 248 pages long. The price point for the Windows version was 8,000 ~ 10,000 Yen. The blue box on the PC version says "For Online Only" The first 10,000 people who pre-ordered the game received a pre-order incentive of a Final Fantasy XI Music Box. It played the "Crystal" theme (the song that plays before clicking the Play button in the Playonline viewer).
Nov. 7th, 2002	Cerberus Opens
	A new world was constructed to accommodate an increasing population. Transfers were unavailable.
Nov. 10th, 2002	Final Fantasy XI Wins Award for Network Media at 7th Annual Animation Kobe
Nov. 22nd, 2002	Rise of the Zilart Announced
	Ads for the first expansion pack, “Rise of Zilart” appeared in gaming magazines. Pictures were shown of of Kazham, Yuhtunga Jungle and “Riqua Desert” (later changed to Altepa).	(Center) In the Final Fantasy series, summoned beasts were very familiar and Ifrit was shown. (Upper Left) Kam'lanaut is shown (nobody knew his name at that point obviously) The dialogue "finally we could wake up thanks to him" is meaningful. (Bottom Left) Samurai Artifact Armor is shown for the first time. (Right 3) Carbuncle along with two Zilart themed dungeons are shown. (Top 3) Ifrit blood pacts are shown. Party members do not move besides the summoner, so everyone theorized that time stopped during blood pacts. (Lower 3) New Zilart monsters and areas are shown. Kazham A mithran village is showcased. The caption roughly reads: Kazham is a fishing village at the northern tip of Elshimo Island. The residents live in hunting and fishing as living as the majority of Mithra's tribe. Buildings of atmosphere close to Mithra residential district of Windurst are lining up. Riqua Desert A desert is showcased. The name is later changed to Altepa. The caption roughly reads: The Riqua Desert is a place where the capital of Galka was long ago, now there are scattered ruins that unleash the past reflections, and there are stateless villages where adventurers can rest. Yuhtunga and Yhoator Jungle The Yutunga Jungle is a forested area covering the whole of Elshimo Island, with a forested area blocking sunlight, a large group of large trees with age-old age, a volcanic zone that exudes smoke without interruption, a waterfall reminiscent of ancient times s left as it is. There are ruins in the outback of the jungle that tell a story that someone built civilization.
Nov. 26th, 2002	Level Cap Raised to 60
	The level cap was raised to 60. The second Limit Break quest, “Atop the Highest Mountains” was added. This quest was regarded to be the pinnacle of challenges at the time, even harder than Shadow Lord. Several spells had their level requirements altered for various magic using jobs. Red Mage became able to use Invisible, Sneak and Deodorize. MP consumed by Holy increased from 75 to 100, while casting range was changed considerably, from 25m to 15m. Furthermore, MND now factored into the spell's accuracy, and the cast time was slightly increased. Ancient Magic now factored in INT when determining accuracy. The potency of Cure spells would now reflect the user's MND trait much more than the target's VIT trait. The MP consumed by tier-II Elemental spells was corrected. Artifact Armor added for the six basic jobs, as well as the only advanced job Bard It is unknown why only Bard was given their Artifact and not the other advanced jobs. The arrangement of monsters in Eldieme Necropolis, Crawler's Nest, Garlaige Citadel, and Castle Zvahl Baileys was changed dramatically. This made it much easier to clear Limit Break quests. Distribution of monsters across Fei'Yin, Xarcabard and Castle Zvahl Baileys was adjusted. The duration of the effect of Curse from the machines in Beadeaux was reduced. The "Portal charm" item for opening the gate to Toraimarai Canal was added. The quest for attaining the Crawler's Nest map was made easier and no longer required the monuments in Batallia Downs or Sauromugue Champaign. Treasure Coffers were added to dungeons. Monster targeting logic was altered, making it difficult to keep hate by simply spamming Provoke. Players now had to consider Enmity levels more seriously, including deal dealt/taken and usage of healing magic. A number of Too Weak enemies were made Easy Prey, allowing players more opportunities to earn experience off of weaker monsters. Chain bonuses were now displayed in the chat log. Skillchain damage could now be resisted. This was when players stopped relying almost exclusively on Fusion, and made the switch over to Distortion. TP accumulation now depended upon the delay of your weapon. Using a two-handed weapon provided an additional boost. It used to be a fixed 5-hits to have 100 (now 1000) TP. TP Gain from getting hit was lowered from 10 (now 100) to 2 (now 20, what it is now). This promoted the use of a tank, causing Paladin to no longer be a "Hero" and more of a defensive tank. Monster TP Gain was creatly increased, and the system of monsters spamming TP moves when they can under 25% health was introduced. Monsters that aggro to magic would previously attack players that had MP, even if they used an item. This was fixed so that would only aggro to the usage of magic spells. Recast timers of Focus and Dodge shortened from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. The duration of their effects was also shortened from 5 minutes to 2 minutes. The attack delay for players with no hand-to-hand skill, or equipped with a shield, was adjusted. White Mage – Divine Seal added. Black Mage – Elemental Seal added. Thief – Trick Attack added. The previously announced Gilfinder II was scrapped. Sneak Attack was altered so that when used in conjunction with a Weapon Skill, only the initial hit would be guaranteed. Introducing Trick Attack helped thieves be known as hate controllers. Dark Knight – Weapon Bash added. Souleater was strengthened, when used with Dark Knight as your main job, to produce more damage. Beastmaster – When using Charm on monsters that could not be Charmed, it would generate a Bind effect. Reward added. Chocobo rentals now available at Tele-points. Chocobo prices would decrease quickly. Expeditionary Force was introduced. Players in higher ranked nations could now purchase the rewards of lower ranked nations at prices one level above the item's usual price. Rank 6 Conquest rewards added. Supply quests now rewarded more Conquest Points, but could only be undertaken once every Vana'diel day. Values for Beastmen were now displayed in region info for the region you are currently in. Visual effect added when receiving Signet. Previously, it was the same animation as Cure. The cap for craft skills was raised to 70. Players could only devote themselves to improving a single craft beyond 60. Equipment could now be de-synthed using Lightning Crystals. The success rate was extremely high. Players could now use typed commands to search Behemoth's Dominion, Monastic Cavern, Qulun Dome and the Altar Room. Through quests, a player could expand their Gobbiebag four times. Quest added to select an area when exiting your Mog House. Cut & Paste functionality added to the Macro palette. The compass was altered to differentiate the colors of party members and pets. Magic Added: Shell III, Protectra III, Shellra II, Shellra III, Raise II, Reraise II, Barvirus, Barvira, Barpetrify, Barpetra, Sleep II, Tractor,Aero III, Stone III, Water III, Firaga II, Blizzaga II, Aeroga II, Stonega II, Waterga II, Flare, Freeze, Tornado, Quake, Burst, Flood, Ice Spikes, Blade Madrigal, Dragonfoe Mambo, Gold Capriccio, Mage's Ballad II, Shining Fantasia, Foe Requiem V, Carnage Elegy, Victory March, Foe Lullaby. Raise II was only obtained from the high level Yagudo NM in Castle Oztroja, so it was very expensive and most players did not have it. At the same time, a bug existed that allowed Reraise II to be cast on other players. <call0> through <call3> added to chat.	Artifact Armor Added Artifact Armor proved much more useful at the time then crafted equipment, which became extremely hard to sell. Skill-up parties proved very successful at procuring Coffer keys for players. Sucks to Have MP Up until now, monsters that sensed magic to attack players would assault anyone with MP even if they simply used an ability or item. Paladins and Dark Knights had it tough, and Warriors needed to be extra careful when pulling with Provoke if they subbed White Mage. High Enmity Charm At the time, Charm generated an extreme amount of enmity, so Paladins would often sub Beastmaster to hold hate against monsters immune to the ability. Since Charm had a recast timer of 15 seconds, it proved more effective than Provoke. Using things like Protectra and Army's Paeon were also popular ways of holding hate around this time. The De-Synth Boom When de-sythning was first introduced, the success rate was absurdly high, and results often generated 2-4 items. Adventurers could make plenty of gil by purchasing cheap equipment from NPCs, de-synthing them, and selling the results. Lightning crystals shot up in value, and Thunder Elementals were hunted into virtual extinction. Several days later, this was adjusted in a maintenance, and the system was balanced to its current state.
Nov. 26th, 2002	Wedding Support Opens
	Service begins for official in-game weddings. The Wedding Dress was not yet available at the time. The item Marriage Ring was introduced, and a male and female version were sent to the bride and goom's delivery box. Later, this item would be replaced by the Wedding Ring, and eventually was replaced by the Matrimony Band and Matrimony Ring For some time after the North American release, weddings were only available for Japanese players.	This service is not like it is today. It used to involve an application process through Playonline, and a GM (Attendant) would approve and setup your marriage date and location. The whole process used to be first come-first served, but the burden on the one Wedding Attendant GM was too large. On June 2, 2004 the system was changed to a lottery. On November 18 2009, the system was changed so that players did the whole event without help from GMs but rather NPCs. Due to the incompetence of GMs, most weddings were cancelled and never followed up on. Above is an image of an actual in-game wedding in 2003.
Dec. 17th, 2002	Developers’ Blog Beta Test
	A Developers’ Blog, to be displayed on the public site, was put into beta testing. Its purpose was to facilitate discussion between the development team and the players.
Dec. 19th, 2002	Taxes for Jeuno Bazaars
	Auto-Party function added. Because it never worked, it was deemed useless since implementation. Artifact Armor added for Paladin, Dark Knight, Beastmaster, and Ranger. Paladin's quest was bugged and caused the game to freeze. The opening scenes for North and South San d'Oria were altered. San d’Oria Missions “Smash the Orcish Scouts” “Bat Hunt” “Save the Children” “The Davoi Report” “Infiltrate Davoi” and “The Crystal Spring” were made repeatable. A new cut scene was also added. Cure spells saw their enmity reduced for low level players. Paladin – Enmity generated from Sentinel increased. Cover added. Elemental Magic received accuracy bonuses so that tier-II was harder to resist than tier-I, and tier-III harder to resist than tier-II. An issue where Reraise II could be cast on other players was corrected. The effect of Mage's Ballad now increased with skill. With two Ballads stacked on a player, they could now refresh 6 MP a tic. It was a golden age for Bards everywhere. The effect of Victory March was reduced. Beastmaster – The recast timer for Reward was shortened from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. Pet Food Beta became available for purchase. In addition, the amount healed with Reward was now based on MND. The list of jobs able to equip Life Belt was changed. The Thief item Skeleton Key was added. The shop near the Airship dock in Bastok stopped selling ore, which was now made available at the Goldsmithing guild. A number of crafting recipes were changed, and guild ranks were introduced. The confirm button was changed to cancel one's cast when fishing. Jeuno bazaar began to be charged tax. In Lower Jeuno and Ru'Lude Gardens, the tax was 10%, while in Upper Jeuno and Port Jeuno it was 5%. This is how those places became the popular bazaar locations, as Lower and Ru'lude congregated more people. In order to resolve bandwidth issues, functions such as checking one's items on the Auction House, the Mog House Delivery Box, and the delivery system were each disabled temporarily at different times. This delay is still in the game today. Kuzotz and Elshimo regions were added to the Conquest menu. Serket was added to the game.	Rochefogne, the Popular NPC San d'Oria Missions were given somewhat of an overhaul. A new NPC, Rochefogne, appeared.
Dec. 19th, 2002	Kujata, Bismarck, Ixion, Typhon and Kirin Open
	The amount of people on the original worlds had grown, so these new ones were established. Transfers from existing worlds to these new ones was unavailable.	A Stream of New HNMs Around this time, a number of so-called HNMs, or stronger than average Notorious Monsters, began appearing across Vana'diel. A lot of new equipment could be made using the materials they dropped.
Dec. 22nd, 2002	Developers’ Blog Beta Test Closure
	The reason that it was closed, was that a certain spammer named Azagba caused too much trouble, Square decided to close the board altogether. JP rumored that Azagba is actually Tanaka from the SE team. Afterward, it did reopen, but no one bothered to post anymore. It officially closed in mid-2003.
Dec. 25th, 2002	First Vana'diel Christmas
	No official christmas event was held until 2003, but treants with lights in their branches were placed in certain areas. This treant will return in 2003!

2003 - Rise of the Zilart Era

From April of 2003, the first expansion disc, “Rise of the Zilart” widened the scope of adventurer activity farther than ever before. In October, service began in North America. December 2003 saw the introduction of the level 75 cap. It was a very busy and event-filled year for Vana’diel.

Jan. 1st, 2003	Lucky Sheep Roam Vana’diel
	To celebrate the New Year, there were sheep named Fortune Ram, Bless Ewe, Merry Mary, Happy Baabaa and Lucky Lamb. In addition, two Mandragora named “Ake” and “Ome” appeared in each nation, including Jeuno.	Ake and Ome were two Mandragora NPCs with little oranges on their heads. They didn’t do anything special besides stand around in town, but adventurers just couldn’t get enough screenshots of the adorable pair. Ake and Ome get their names from the phrase “Akemashite omedetou,” which is said to wish a Happy New Year. The Monstrosity item Ake-Ome Spirit was derived from this event.
Jan. 14th, 2003	Worlds Consolidate Into Kujata, Bismarck
	Ixion, Typhon and Kirin were shut down and the population added to Kujata and Bismarck.
Jan. 15th, 2003	FFXI-TV Begins Broadcasting
	On “Channel BB” (channel 755) of Sky Perfect TV!, a program titled FFXI-TV begins broadcast. This program was aired 13 times in 30 minute segments. Square Enix sponsored this program. Vana'diel Wind (known today as Live Vana'diel) occasionally aired the program. The Japanese actress Yuko Mizuno stared in the program. This program aired until August 31st, 2004.	No subtitles were added to the show. Each time, the player was given a task via a Moogle "Directive". Below is a list of the episodes. Episode Directive Area Focus 1 FFXIをインストールせよ!! (Install FFXI!!) Chateau d'Oraguille, Northern San d'Oria Cathedral 2 初級クエストを攻略せよ!! (Capture the beginner quest!!) Windurst 3 パーティープレイを会得せよ!! (Acquire Party Play!!) Metalworks 4 パーティープレイ応用編!! (Party Play applied version!!) West Ronfaure, La Theine Plateau 5 サポートジョブをゲットせよ!! (Get support jobs!!) La Theine Plateau, Mhaura, Selbina 6 チョコボ! そして新たなる大地!! (Chocobo ! And a new world!) Jeuno 7 ジラートの幻影!!召喚魔法! (Rise of the Zilart! Summoning magic!!) Kazham, Yuhtunga Jungle 8 ジラートの幻影マル秘開発話!! (Rise of the Zilart development story!!) The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah, The Boyahda Tree 9 ジラートの幻影マル秘開発話パート2 & 新エリア探訪! (Rise of the Zilart development story 2 & New Area Exploration!) Cape Teriggan, Quicksand Caves 10 ドラゴン退治！！ミッション「他国を回れ」 (Dragon ridicule!! Mission "Journey Abroad") Norg 11 Notorious Monsterを撃破せよ！！ (Defeat Notorious Monster!!) Ifrit's Cauldron 12 闇の王を討て！召喚士になれ！！ (Deceive the King of Darkness! Be a summoner!!) Western Altepa Desert, Rabao 13 召喚士になれ！！ (Be a summoner ! !) To Catch a Falling Star
Jan. 23rd, 2003	8th annual AMD Awards prize winner!
	Final Fantasy XI won the award "Digital Contents of the Year" during the 8th annual AMD awards.
January 2003	The Counter of the Crafting Bug
	As we knew it, there was a crafting bug in which a player could force an interruption on their craft. The result of this was that the crystal broke, did not generate any material losses, and the player still had a chance of skilling up. This was discovered and fixed in a few days.	Those who exploited this bug either had their skill rolled back or were perm banned. This caused the uproar from players, complaining that they run this game like an offline game. This news was also reported on TV in Japan.
January 2003	Announcement of Rise of the Zilart Release Date
	The release date for Rise of the Zilart was announced in January of 2003. Along with that, the announcement also included a temporary change to the update schedules: in which, updates would be every few months instead of monthly.	This was obviously well received by many players even after the official expansion launch. SE's reply to this for the next couple of years was that "We did not plan this kind of workload." and the like. Although it was planned as a temporary change, by the end of 2004 they decided to just make it their normal update speed for many years to come.
Feb. 5th, 2003	Search Comments Implemented
	Red Mage– Enfeebling magic skill raised. Beastmaster – Axe skill raised. Paladin – Axe and Great Axe skills removed (they never had Axes they could equip anyway). BCNM battlefields added. At the time of implementation, Star Orbs cost 50 seals, and Moon Orbs cost 99 seals. The Rank 3 Dragon fight received a level cap of 25, while the Rank 5 Fei'Yin battlefield received a level cap of 50. Expeditionary Force altered. Certain Notorious Monsters that pop after specified intervals of time were changed so as to not immediately appear after a world maintenance. Careful consideration had to be given to terrain in dungeons allowing players to avoid being attacked. Area of effect magic spells were given a vertical range limit of 4m in either direction. This was done to prevent the trick wherein adventurers could damage Serket in the basement of Garlaige Citadel from the upper floor. Serkets Earth Pounder also no longer hit innocent low level players on the top floor of Garlaige Citadel. Sneak now wore off when opening a Treasure Chest or Treasure Coffer. Mimics added as a new trap for Thieves trying to open treasure boxes. Search comments implemented. Party leaders now had their name displayed in yellow in search results. Players could now form an alliance by selected a party leader from the search list (when in the same area). Auto-Party limited to finding players one level either above or below the user. Players could now cycle through macro pages with R2 and L2. Players could now change the names of their Friends when adding them to the Friend List. Using the /attack command now put the player into cycle target mode. The ability to cycle through a history of chat targets using CTRL(Alt)+R was added. When entering chat text, players could now utilize the shortcut keys CTRL(Alt)+S, R, T, L or P. A Compact Keyboard mode was added. When fishing, the O button would now cancel your cast. Events added to the Bastok Missions “Fetichism” and “To the Forsaken Mines”. The level requirement for “Atop the Highest Mountains” lowered from level 55 to level 51. A dialog box was added to warp points inside Delkfutt Tower. Conquest rewards were altered so that Rank 1 nations received more benefits, and differences between Rank 2 and Rank 3 nations were added. Consumable items, such as Instant Reraise scrolls, made available for purchase with Conquest Points. Magic Added: Regen, Refresh Text Commands Added: /echo Added to Chat: <st>, <lastst>, <stpc>, <stnpc>, <hp>, <mp>, <job>, <hpp>, <mpp>, <bt>, <scan>, <mjob>, <sjob>, <pet>	Level Cap?! Because there were a lot of high levels at this time already, this was done to stop players from soloing the mission BCs. NM Spawn Time The NM Spawn time change was made due to uproar that it was unfair that only "Haijins" (in english, it would mean "No Life People") could log in immediately after a server maintenance. This was the only answer that SE had to "solve" the problem for more casual players. The First BCNMs Six BCNMs were initially added: “Tails of Woe” “The Worm's Turn” “Steamed Sprouts” “Dismemberment Brigade” “Grimshell Shocktroopers” and “Divine Punishers”, although they were yet to be given these names. Also, the battlefields were not yet called “BF” and were referred to as BC戦, an acronym of Burning Circle. Enter Mimics Up until now, the only trap awaiting Thieves who failed to pick a chest was a severe Weakness effect. Now, treasure boxes could turn into Mimic-type monsters. If one managed to defeat the Mimic, they would always receive a key. Sneak and Invisible wearing off also was to stop thieves from picking all day. With the latter two changes, the thief lock picking craze gradually went down. Red Mages Head to Ranguemont Pass Although the high-end spell Refresh was added to the game, how to obtain the scroll was still shrouded in mystery. A rumor originating on an Internet message board soon spread, which claimed that a Hecteyes-type monster in Ranguemont Pass, namely Taisai, dropped the scroll. The truth, however, was that the scroll was a reward from a BCNM. The drop rate was approximately 1 in 8 runs, and the Auction House price of the spell was 1 million gil. This was unheard of back then. Many Red Mages believed the rumor and hunting of the NM was widespread. As a reference to this incident, the NM Taisaijin was given Refresh in its Treasure Pool when it was added later on. Fish Botting To counter fish botting, the system was changed so that when pressing the O button, the fishing would be cancelled. However, they forgot to implement this on the ENTER button or the right mouse click. Combat and Magic Skillup Parties After this update, the rate of which combat and magic skillups were gained was dramatically reduced. This caused jobs that have multiple 2 handed weapons to find it extra hard to keep everything capped. This change gave birth to "Skill up Parties" that were popular for quite awhile. The combat and magic skill tweak was "Ninja'd" into the update and players who called GMs to report bugs had only received typical responses that "it wasn't changed".
Feb. 8th, 2003	Tenshodo's Envoy
	On February 8th until February 14th, new NPCs appeared in the three nations selling Kukuru Beans and Selbina Milk. At the same time, a recipe for Bubble Chocolate (HQ Heart Chocolate) was added. There was no official event for Valentine's day yet.
February 2003	Lag!
	Enormous lag problems happened in the month of February 2003, and it seemed that Playonline and something else clashed making servers unstable. People experienced serious glitches during their gameplay.
Mar. 13th, 2003	Seraph and Lakshmi Open
	Two new worlds were establish to alleviate the rising population. Players could transfer to the new worlds only from select existing worlds.
Mar. 21st, 2003	Cherry Blossoms Appear
	Cherry blossom trees in full bloom appeared in Ru'Lude Gardens, Port San d'Oria, Metalworks and Windurst Waters.	Image courtesy of Horu@Quetzalcoatl
Apr. 1st, 2003	The Two Companies Combine
	Formerly called Square and Enix respectively, Japan's two massive RPG makers combined and Square Enix was born. From here on, the change was reflected in Final Fantasy XI’s credits and the screenshot function.
Apr. 15th, 2003	Search Comments Implemented
	The level cap now became 65. The third Limit Break quest, “Whence Blows the Wind” was added. Causing amazement among players, the EXP table for lv61+ was changed to a much harsher climb compared with pre-60. Samurai, Ninja, Dragoon and Summoner were added as Advanced Jobs. Only Summoner could be attained without installing the expansion, but players without Rise of Zilart would be limited to Carbuncle. Caps on crafting skills raised to 80. Warrior – Aggressor no longer boosted the accuracy of Ranged Attacks. The recast timer was also changed. Before the patch, it gave a 25% boost to accuracy (and -15% evasion). After, it was a solid 25. Defenders duration was set to 5 minutes, although it wasn't announced. Monk – Chi Blast added. Kick Attacks job trait added. Martial Arts was also tweaked so that it would improve further beyond level 15. Guard skill and Staff skill were also raised. White Mage – Enfeebling Magic skill raised. Black Mage– All Ancient magic spells received the additional effect of lowering resistance to the element they oppose. Staff skill raised. Red Mage – Convert added (this was a surprise and wasn't announced). Fast Cast was altered to always reduce spell cast time (prior to this, it would only kick in randomly). Marksmanship skill removed. Sword skill raised. Also, Phalanx and Dispel were added. This greatly improved the job's usefulness. Thief – AGI bonus cut from Trick Attack when used with Thief as a sub job. This was to protect the integrity of Thief as a main job. Paladin – Rampart added. Throwing skill removed. Beastmaster – Call Beast added (along with jug pets). Charm success rate lowered when subbing Beastmaster. Scythe skill added. <pettp> was added. Bard – Ballad no longer improved in accordance with a Bard's skill. Tier-I gave 1 MP a tic, and Tier-II gave 2 MP a tic. March songs were weakened. The duration of Soul Voice was shortened from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. Although not mentioned, Madrigal was changed from a percentage increase to a solid value. Ranger – Unlimited Shot added. Along with this, powerful new Conquest Points ammo were introduced. At this time, changing your ammo would reset your TP. This caused the whole ability to be worthless. Enemies had their magic and ranged attack skill levels increased. GA-type spells received an increase in power. Damage now decreased depending on the number of enemies with the area of effect. Also, the MP they consumed was reduced. The effect of Heavy now lowered Evasion by 5%. Invisible, Sneak and Deodorize could no longer be recast on top of themselves. Enhancing Magic effects now wore off when switching jobs. The timer for a 2-hour ability would no longer reset upon changing jobs. Items would no longer be consumed if a player moved during activation. A bug was fixed where Regen would automatically cure Sleep status. Normally, Poison Potions are needed to avoid Sleep, but until now Auto-Regen made White Mages invaluable allies against monsters with Sleep attacks. BCNM monsters and boss-level Beastmen could now see through Invisible, Sneak and Deodorize magics. People could no longer leisurely take snapshots of rare, high-level Beastmen leaders. SE forgot to notify players of "True Sight/True Sound" mobs. This made LB3 very difficult, and panic arose among the player base thinking that Sneak and Invisible were broken. The window of time within which players could create a Skillchain was changed. It was announced that Weapon Skills would no longer chain after a level 3 Skillchain was made. Certain skillchain elements were changed. Freezebite→Sunburst and Freezebite→Starburst, which used to make Gravitation, now made Compression. Rampage and Penta Thrust had their skillchain elements changed. Rampage→Rampage and Penta Thrust→Penta Thrust no longer made Skillchains. Switching out certain ranged weapons, or anything in the ammo slot, now reset TP. New sections were opened in Toraimarai Canal, Delkfutt Tower, King Ranperre's Tomb and Bostaunieux Oubliette. The monsters that would drop Chest and Coffer keys were changed in every dungeon. Beforehand, all monsters of a certain level range had the chance to randomly drop a key. Here, it was set to drop only from specific monsters. Orcs level 30 and up received an HP max boost. Davoi transformed from leveling heaven into a ghost town overnight. An airship route between Jeuno and Kazham was opened. Missions Rank 6 and above were implemented for each nation. Nomad Moogles were placed in foreign areas (you had to move your Mog House to utilize them). The service charge for listed goods on the Auction House was standardized. Players could only invite one person per single World Pass. Players who set a Search Comment would now have a green mark next to their name in the search results. The amount of time a disconnected character would remain in the game was extended from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Sets 9 and 10 added to the Macro function. A pet’s HP bar would now be displayed when choosing a Pet Command. Regional Vendors disappeared from Jeuno. The title screen was removed, and players could immediately select from a menu when logging in. “DATA FILE” was removed from the menu and replaced with “View Safe.” DATA FILE would allow one to browse the aforementioned Altana Encyclopedia. The text command /datafile was also removed. Duration of Food effects was changed. Stackable food now lasted 30 minutes, and non-stackable food lasted 1 hour. Clicking the left mouse button while fishing would now cancel your cast. Players could now register others to their blacklist even if they were not in the same area. EX and RARE items now had an extra confirmation box when players tried to discard them. All Dagger weapons were changed to inflict Piercing damage. Before, only some were piercing. Magic Added: Erase, Phalanx, Dispel, Absorb-STR, Absorb-DEX, Absorb-VIT, Absorb-AGI, Absorb-INT, Absorb-MND, Absorb-CHR, Cure V, Protect IV, Protectra IV, Teleport-Yhoat, Teleport-Altep, Fire III, Blizzard III, Thundaga II, Stonega III, Waterga III. Bugs Introduced: Serious problems arose with inputting Japanese characters. Players could buy an infinite number of new area maps from vendors.	Game changers Along with the promised lv60 cap increase, various elements were added that will change the game completely. This started the trend of "If it's a buff, we announce it; if it's a nerf, we ninja it." as we know of right now. Food duration was changed from everything lasting one hour to "Stackable items last 30 minutes". Latent and Hidden Effect items were introduced at this time. Many players had no idea how to trigger them, and they were regarded as useless. Sneak was set to not be able to be overwritten, causing it to have to be dropped before recasting. This caused a higher sense of danger in dungeons. Several HNMs were added to the game, but rewards and titles were not properly implemented. This was not intentional, rather it was due to poor programming. Pre skill level 200, the equation was 1 skill = 1 accuracy. Post-200, this was suddenly changed to 1 skill = 0.2 accuracy. They did not take this into account with monster's evasion, so it was very hard to hit new high level monsters. Incredibly Tough monsters started at 12 levels above you. Monsters 18 levels above players needed to be killed to gain the maximum 200 experience points per kill. The developers did not think this through and were referred to as complete morons because "IT = Death". Fighting them became pointless unless a supreme party configuration was created. Many players started to chain Tough to Very Tough mobs dispite the amount of experience per kill being lowered. Tactics shifted from skillchain spamming to multi-hit weapon skill spamming. Not many people used level 3 skillchains, as level 65 was needed to use necessary weapon skills and Dancing Edge was incredibly strong. Long Lines A certain monster in Konschtat Highlands caused a huge influx of adventurers looking to acquire new jobs. There were so many challengers, that adventurers formed a long line and waited their turn. At the same time, a battlefield required for the completion of the Dragoon acquisition quest had an Orcish hut looking like a popular ramen shop. Competition for the Carbuncle's Ruby for the Summoner job quest also was severe, not to mention Kazham key mobs. 2-Hours On Demand Before now, the timers for 2-hour abilities would be reset upon changing jobs. When doing multiple BCNMs, it was customary to repeatedly reset your 2-hours between BCNM attempts. Be Careful With Those Items Up till now, moving while activating an item would cause it to be consumed without effect. This caused particular concern with rare, difficult to acquire items like Warp and Teleport scrolls. While this was fixed, for much longer players affected by Paralyze could lose their items without receiving their effects. Also with this change they added a "delay" when using items. This caused many mecidines to become useless unlike other Final Fantasy games of the past. New Sections in Dungeons The newly opened areas inside these dungeons had previously been shut off. Bostaunieux Oubliette in particular never had monsters before, but now received several NMs for adventurers to hunt. Jeuno's Regional Vendors In various places around Jeuno, there were vendors for each region. These NPCs were invaluable for crafters, until they were removed. Afterwards, Conquest determined where things could or could not be purchased. This gave birth to Regional Vendors. The new event The Green Festival reintroduced these vendors for a short period.
Apr. 17th, 2003	FFXI: Rise of the Zilart Goes on Sale
	The PS2 version and Windows version of the expansion were shipped to stores simultaneously. The price for the expansion only was 3,980 Yen (tax not included). The "FFXI Rise of Zilart All-in-One Pack 2003″ was also released at the price of 7,800 Yen (tax not included) either the PS2 version or the Windows version. Overall, the expansion was well received. A few complaints included same model mobs in most areas, and lack of progression and improvement were part of the dislikes in the community. What was worse was the countless nerfs that were added in the patch post launch. The economies began to inflate with limited stocked items. Many players quit after discovering the large experience progression requirements post level 60 along with accuracy problems. The first few thousand people who preordered the expansion were given a Tarutaru Summoner strap pictured below. The Tarutaru is wearing Summoner artifact armor.	Two packages, the expansion-only version with a red colored left label (PS2 version pictured below) and All-In-One version (Windows version pictured above) were both available for PS2 and Windows PCs. An official Square Enix logo had yet to be designed, so SQUARESOFT still appeared on the cover. This was Square and Enix’s first collaborative title.
May 16th, 2003	Final Fantasy XI Completes 1 Year of Service
May 23rd, 2003	FFXI: Rise of Zilart OST Released
	The price for the soundtrack was 2,100 Yen (tax included)
May 27th, 2003	Adventurer Appreciation Campaign
	For a limited time, special moogles appeared in every region. Upon talking to them, one could learn their personal statistics, such as: Chat Lines, NPC Chat times, Parties Joined, Alliances Joined, Battles Fought, Times K.O.d, Enemies Defeated and GM Calls made. Highly ranked people on each world would be rewarded with a Chocobo Wand. Also, once an Earth day, adventurers could receive various presents (Little Comets, Twinkle Showers, Crackers, etc).	The Chocobo Wand was awarded to highly-ranked people, and since no Chocobo Jack Coat existed, it was the only item to increase riding time. The wand was also coveted for having its own distinct graphic.
May 27th, 2003	Expansion Areas Get Cheaper - Version Update
	Different fees and taxes were lowered in many cases for expansion areas. The Airship abroad now cost 300 gil; Mog House transfer to Kazham cost 700 gil; transferring to Rabao cost 200 gil; Kazham bazaar tax was lowered from 15% to 10%; Rabao bazaar tax was lowered from 10% to 5%. The duration of Signet was changed to allow more time to players whose nation is ranked low in Conquest. Equipping fishing poles or bait now reduced your TP to 0. Throwing weapons, like Boomerang, also reduced TP to 0. Black Pepper was now sold at the Tenshodo. Mid-level Great Katana were now sold at the Tenshodo. Smoked Salmon was now sold at the Cooking Guild. The spell recast timer now read “Next” instead of “Last.” Three high priests of San d'Oria had their display names changed: Croisque→Chasalvige, Vicasque→Halaviabeau, Evesque→Olbergieut. Dangruf Sulfur changed to Sulfur. Ancient Goobbue, Voluptuous Vivian, Cemetery Cherry and Adamantoise now dropped gil. Summoner-type monsters could now summon Avatars other than Carbuncle. Golem Shards, which dropped from Doll-type monsters were renamed Doll Shards. Golem-type monsters now dropped Golem shards (they were called Crystal Giants at the time). A pet’s name and HP bar would now be displayed above the chat log. Players could now /check a charmed pet. The shortcut key CTRL(Alt)+B now opened the Pet Command menu. Guild shop and Auction House menus would now display equipment/magic names in different colors depending on if they were owned/equipped/learned. Also stackables were changed from yellow to pink. Linkshell lists now displayed colors and search comment marks like in search results. An NPC was added to Norg that would change your Wyvern name. Merchant NPCs added to Norg. The Wyvern attack “Plasma Breath” was renamed “Radiant Breath” <pethpp> added to chat. Bugs Introduced Sneak was once again able to be cast on top of the old effect, but a couple days later removed.	Back then, you had to transfer your Mog House to use the Nomad Moogle, and thus, pay a fee. Add in bazaar taxes and Auction House fees, and expansion areas started feeling like high-class resorts. After July 17th, the Mog House transfer fee and bazaar taxes were done away with, and the Auction House listing costs were lowered as well. After these changes, Kazham became a much more popular place in which to level. Walking Worms After the patch landed, a glitch occured where worms began to move around like other monsters instead of burrowing under the ground.
May 2003	Suggestion Forum Drama
	Latent MP At this time because of Zilart's horrible launch patch, the healer shortage became more apparent. SE suggested that in order to fix this problem, they would have it so when melee jobs sub a mage, they would get more MP. Because this is obviously ignoring the core of why there is a healer shortage, players responded with dismay, at the end, this idea was scratched.	Later during an interview, the dev team stated that "users have misunderstood their words", that their plan was to increase the number of backline jobs instead. After that, they buffed WHM up, gave them Hexa Strike, Divine Breastplate and various buffs, obviously in an attempt to draw people to WHM. This shifted the problem of shortage of WHM to the shortage of RDM and BRD.
Jun. 10th, 2003	Midgardsormr Opens
	Players could transfer from any of the 20 initial worlds.
Jun. 12th, 2003	FFXI Entry Disc for PS2 and Windows
	Accompanying the release of Rise of Zilart, the basic game was now sold as an "Entry Disc" and the price lowered to 4,800 Yen (tax not included).
Jun. 12th, 2003	North American Beta Test Opens
	The world was named Cactuar.
Jul. 17th, 2003	Level 70 Unleashed
	The level cap became 70. The fourth Limit Break quest, “Riding on the Clouds” was added. This surprised players with how easy it was compared to leveling and previous Genkai quests. A new region, Tu'Lia, was unlocked. Artifact Armor for Samurai, Ninja, Dragoon and Summoner added. Chocobo rentals established in Kazham, Norg and Rabao. Rabao and Kazham also received Chocobo shops. Players could now ride Chocobos through The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah, Yuhtunga Jungle, Yhoator Jungle and Eastern Altepa Desert. Goblin Diggers began appearing in expansion areas. The airship for Kazham was lowered from 300 gil to 200 gil. Nomad Moogle transfer fees were eliminated, as well as bazaar taxes. Auction House charges were now calculated in the same way as the three nations. Tonberry, Sahagin and Antica now dropped gil and Beastman Coins. The prices for Protect IV and Protectra IV in Rabao were lowered. Norg Shells were no longer EX. Multiple people could now enter the gate in Sea Serpent Grotto that required a Sahagin Key. Initially, only the keyholder could enter after using it. Crafting skills raised to a maximum of 90. Cure spells adjusted so that MP cost and cast time changed according to the user’s Healing Magic skill. The enmity generated by Cure V was made a set value. The much demanded "make healing magic have more relation to our curing power" was still not properly addressed. Healing Magic skill no longer needed to be used on Undead to get a skillup. Recast time for Erase shortened. Stoneskin now absorbed more damage based on the user’s MND and Enhancing Magic skill. Cast time for Bar-spells shortened and MP cost lowered. Their effects now improved along with Enhancing Skill. The price of Regen sold in Mhaura was lowered, and Regen II was put up for sale. Regen II was now a White Mage exclusive spell. MP costs for tier-III and tier-IV Elemental Magic reduced. Dark-based enemies could now resist Dispel easier. The effect of Gravity could now last between 30~120 seconds. The duration of Poison spells, as well as the damage caused by Poison II and Poisonga II, were now based on Enfeebling Magic skill. Bard– Light-based enemies could now resist Magic Finale. Prelude became single target. Summoner – Healing Blood Pacts had their MP costs reduced and their effectiveness greatly increased. MP required to summon Avatars was also reduced. The effect of Astral Flow was boosted and the cast time of Elemental Spirits was shortened. Ninja – Ni-level Ninjutsu cast time was shortened dramatically from 8 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Monk – The recast time for Chakra was shortened from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. Experience Points would now carry over into the next level upon a Level Up. A cap was set on the amount of Experience Points lost when K.O.d. Kindred's Seals added. The maximum occupancy of each level of Jeuno was raised. New guards, Auction House and Delivery NPCs were added to each level of Jeuno. Bazaar tax was changed to 10%. More specifically, this is why there is now an Auction House in both Upper Jeuno and Port Jeuno who are only NPCs. A Mithra child’s shop was added to Ru'Lude Gardens. The time it takes for Chocobo rental prices to decrease was shortened by 25% (this made it tougher for prices to get too high). Players were no longer disbanded from a party after entering their Mog House. Messages now appeared in the chat log when using the Delivery System for sending/receiving items. Door names now appeared green in the target box. Players could now be added to one’s party across a Region. Search results for an Area or Region were now limited to 100 results. World-wide results were expanded to 40 results. Players could now set a Linkshell welcome message. The color of messages produced with /echo was changed. In crafting guilds, basic image support was made free, while advanced support was extended to last 4 times as long. Players could no longer repeatedly purchase items from a guild. Expeditionary Force was altered. Conquest points were no longer lost when switching national allegiance. Elemental spirits would now cast magic even outside of battle. Beastmaster-type Goblins occupying Batallia Downs, Eastern Altepa Desert and Labyrinth of Onzozo were repositioned. They now re-summoned pets after 60 seconds instead of 30 seconds. New HNMs were added (such as King Behemoth). Beastman Seal Orbs had their prices changed. Moon Orb 99→60, Star Orb 50→40. New Orbs were also added: Comet Orb for 50 seals, Lachesis Orb and Atropos Orbs for 30 seals. Defeated monsters were now displayed as grey on the compass. Cut scenes could now be replayed at certain NPCs. Players could now buy level 1 RSE clothing from vendors. Macros and Map Markers were now saved as files in PlayOnline. Magic Added: Shell IV, Shellra IV, Regen II, Regen III, Raise III, Thunder III, Stone IV, Water IV, Aeroga III, Firaga III, Knight's Minne IV, Bewitching Etude, Valor Minuet IV, Logical Etude, Sage Etude, Foe Requiem VI, Swift Etude, Puppet's Operetta, Vital Etude. Commands Added: <lsmes> Chat Added: <ncall>, <scall>	The Ninja Tank is Born With Ni-level Ninjutsu shortened to a 1.5 second recast timer, Ninja could now use both tiers of Utsusemi to tank effectively. Prior to this, both tiers had the same casting times, if not Ni being slower. The supply of Ninja tools wasn't yet large enough to make this technique especially common, but it gradually became the norm. Before this, Ninja was looked at the same as Summoner: "a job with no purpose at all". Experience Point Changes Although publicly saying they had no plans to bring an ease to the level 61+ leveling, they ninja fixed the issue with a few little changes: In order to counter the high demand of experience per level at 61+, players were forced to target harder monsters which increased the demand for RDM/BRD. Players learned that [[Great Axe]s weapon skill Shield Break reduced ice-weak enemies evasion tremendously. This caused Warrior to be the most demanded melee at the time. Level capped zones became popular leveling spots due to the 2400 EXP loss per death. This penalty was based on the level you were capped at, saving a lot of experience loss. Changes to monster placement as well as level range in The Boyahda Tree, Cape Teriggan, and Laybrinth of Onzozo decreased camp choices and in turn made leveling harder. With the addition to Escort quests, this is the first time players were able to earn experience points instead of level grinding. Before the discovery of the once-per-week limitation, some had hopes of possibly skipping exp parties all together just by completing the quest. Mog House Disband? Up until now, players were automatically disbanded from their party upon entering their Mog House. Even just going to change your sub job meant you had to re-join the party afterwards. This was corrected to match Nomad Moogles, which were preferred for not causing this issue. Pet Hunting Beastmaster pets were popular prey due to the high experience they gave relative to their strength. These Beastmaster were often placed near zone lines, which made them all the more popular for parties to hunt. However, once their spawn locations were changed, and pet recast was lengthened to 60 seconds, it became too difficult to keep up experience chains, and parties found other prey to hunt. New BCNMs This update saw the addition of five new battlefields: “Hostile Herbivores” “3, 2, 1...” “Treasure and Tribulations” “Infernal Swarm” and “E-vase-ive Action” However, the battlefields had yet to have these names attached. “Come Into My Parlor” was set to be added this day, but was delayed until the 22nd. Crafting Mats: Some crafting materials were regarded as beyond reach to casual players (such as Damascene Cloth). Items such as these were added to these BCNMs. Weapon Skills Where?! New weapon skills were not immediately available. The developers stated that they used all of their resources on existing weapon skill graphic effects. Mages were complaining how melee get new weapon skills for free while mages had to work for them every time. This was the birth of WSNMs Rare HNMs Rare HNMs (like Nidhogg) were implemented. The spawn time was 60~72 hours. Before this, players occasionally took breaks from camping them. Due to the rarity and desirability of the gear that drops from them, players now continuously camped.
Jul. 18th, 2003	Fireworks Available for a Limited Time
	From July 18th until July 27th, fireworks could be purchased in Port San d'Oria, Port Bastok, Windurst Waters and Rabao.	Four types of fireworks were available so users could celebrate summer festivals. The three nations and Rabao sold Airborne, Konron Hassen, Kongou Inaho and Meifu Goma. The Airborne and Konron Hassen were especially popular as they shot up into the sky. There were still no crafting recipes for these fireworks, and they could only be acquired through purchase.
Jul. 22nd, 2003	Clotho Orb Added
	The previously delayed Clotho Orb could now be obtained and its corresponding BCNM Come Into My Parlor was added. A bug where Elvaan would have less MP than intended above level 61 was fixed. The reward for the Windurst quest “Catch It If You Can!” was changed.
Jul. 26th, 2003	Bon-Odori II
	Users again held a Bon-Odori event, but this time there was an official moogle to announce the event, as well as the old Yughott Grotto BGM from the beta test as music.
Aug. 15th, 2003	PlayOnline Terms of Service Change
	Players were now forbidden to use any outside programs or tools while playing.	Around this time rumors surfaced of GMs unjustly banning players; although officially they announced them as rule breaking. As the GM's reputation was bad to begin with, this event further dented their player's trust. Before this announcement, there was no action taken against the cheaters. Although, after this change of rules they tried several ways to stop fishbotting. The damage of untrustworthy GMs was already too deep to be undone. Despite this announcement, the rate of fish bot bans were very minimal and were still found everywhere. Turbo controllers proved difficult to determine by SE if they were bots.
Aug. 16th, 2003	A Mysterious Creature Emerges!
	This was an event where a giant creature appeared in the areas surrounded each of the three nations. Even without Calling for Help, multiple parties and alliances could take part. If a player was defeated by the monster, they would not lose any experience. Due to an glitch, the event was temporarily canceled.	The event consisted of fighting Doomed-type monsters that roamed the areas outside of home nations. A large amount of adventurers took part in massive battles. This event was made very unpopular as too many people rushed in, and the atmosphere feelt like Lower Jeuno AH at the time. Later, players rumored that this was just in preparation for the Treant + OP warp event, an experimental event.
Aug. 16th, 2003	Developer’s Blog Service Begins
	The beta test now finished, Final Fantasy XI players could begin using this service.	This service lasted until December 27th, 2005.
Aug. 30th, 2003	A Mysterious Creature Emerges! Redux
	The event that had been canceled back on the 16th was now reborn as a 2-day event, spanning August 30th and 31st. Touching the Beastman Banner in East Ronfaure, North Gustaberg or West Sarutabaruta would cap you at level 30 and allow you to fight the Gigantoad. Defeating the three monsters would display a congratulatory System Message. The reward was temporary Outpost Teleportation service (08/31 through 09/14) in San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst.
Sep. 12th, 2003	Vana’diel’s White Shadow Returns</span
	This event was held for 7 hours, from 10pm September 12th to 5am September 13th. Players could receive a Moon Carrot from a Moogle, and trade said carrots to speedy little rabbits in various areas. The rabbits were even faster than last year, but the prize was upgraded as well to Thoth's Wand.	This event was only held in 2002 and 2003, and did not return after that. All of the glitches from the previous event remained, and it all did not go over well with players.
Sep. 26th, 2003	Official Benchmark 2 Released
	The setting for this version was the Yuhtunga Jungle / Yhoator Jungle.
Sep. 26th, 2003	Announcement of Future Plans
	SE announced their upcoming plans for the game; from Ballista, Dynamis, further level cap increase, and the release of NA version.	At this time, they announced that the NA version would share server with the Japanese, which lead to many players worrying, but SE only replied with "We are treating this as an experiment.". The Development team announced "From now on, the version update will come every few months."(Remember that they said they would update every 1 month, and then changed to 3 months, and now "few months".). They seemed to be using localization for the NA version as an excuse for further slowing down their updates. This did not help the animosity view of Japanese players towards English players.
Oct. 7th, 2003	Fairy World Opens
	A new world was established for the increasing population. Transfer was available from all worlds.
Oct. 14th, 2003	North American Beta Test Ends
	There was a special event on the final day, where Moogles were placed at Home Points. Upon speaking with them, you could be teleported to NMs like Serket or King Behemoth and fight with them. GMs also joined the fray.
Oct 21st, 2003	Nation Rank Missions and Zilart Completed
	Rank 9 and 10 missions were added to the three nations, completing their story lines. The conclusion to Rise of Zilart was also added. The Zilart last boss could be unintentionally silenced, which was fixed in an emergency maintenance a couple days later. Players could now enter the The Shrine of Ru'Avitau and The Celestial Nexus. Avatar quests were now limited to once a day. The third Mog House expansion quest was added, with the final available space being 80. Lucky Roll games implemented in Norg and Rabao. Fortune-tellers that predict adventurer affinity were added to the three nations. A shortcut to the 10th floor was added to the West side of Lower Delkfutt's Tower that could be opened with a Delkfutt Key. BCNMs added to Sacrificial Chamber, Cloister of Tides and Chamber of Oracles using the Moon Orb. BCNM clear times were now displayed. Magic Burst bonuses were increased. The effect of Clear Mind was strengthened. Summoner – Received Clear Mind trait. MP cost and strength of Banish adjusted. In addition, Banish now weakened the special defenses of Undead monsters. Stoneskin could no longer overwrite itself. Drain and Aspir were adjusted to absorb more based on Magic Bursts, day and weather. TP was no longer reset when changed one's ammo slot. Ranger became popular with Unlimited Shot and their special ammo. A number of monsters were rearranged in The Boyahda Tree, Ifrit's Cauldron, Cape Teriggan and Valley of Sorrows. New Notorious Monsters were added to dungeons in Zilart areas. A number of repop timers for existing NMs was changed greatly (Monsters that popped every 60-72 Earth hours now popped every 24 hours). This included Fafnir, Behemoth, Adamantoise and the like. Their rare versions remained a lottery spawn every of 3~7 days, and stayed that way for years. King Behemoths area of effect attacks could now strike any player within range. The items available in the Mithra child's shop in Ru'Lude Gardens would now change, and increases or decreases according to sales. The items obtainable through Chocobo Digging now varied based on weather, moon phase, day and time. Elemental ore was now obtainable, although extremely rare. This is when Digging became very popular as a gil earning method. Chocobo skill was initially viewable in the skill window. New items could now be grown through gardening. The prices of the shop on the ferry were stabilized. A sound now played when receiving a message or mail. Motions now accompanied HELM activities. More items were available from HELM. Search comments were now divided into 4 different categories. When locked on a target, players could no longer switch targets with cursor keys, the mouse or function keys. The TAB key or START button would now activate the Auto-Translator, causing the word to appear blue in your input box. System message would now announce whether or not players could apply to transfer servers. A single World Pass could now be used to invite up to 5 people. A bug occurred wherein Bards using March songs with Royal Spearmen's Horn +1 or Royal Spearmen's Horn +2 equipped would receive a massive boost in effectiveness. This was corrected in the October 28th emergency maintenance. These horns have since been removed. Magic Added: Sleepga, Sleepga II Chat Added: <call4> – <call21> Synthesis Results were now displayed to others, and a chat filter was added. Text Commands Added: /sit This patch is when the Mithra's "inviting" sit pose (pictured below) was added. This pose had a lot of controversy, so it was changed later to be more feminine and conservative.	The Titan Marathon Ends Around this time, players were repeatedly undertake the Titan acquisition quest in order to earn gil. Now, they were unable to do so until midnight Earth time. With Teleport-Altep and Escape for Korroloka Tunnel, players used to easily complete 4 runs in an hour. Cloister of Tides BCNM At this time three BCs were added to the game. Although they had yet to receive their official names, the battlefields were: “Jungle Boogeymen” “Amphibian Assault” and “Legion XI Comitatensis” Out of these, “Amphibian Assault” was added to the Cloister of Tides. Ultimately, it was decided that the special Avatar battle arena should be unique to the Summoner quests, and the four Sahagin were moved to the Sacrificial Chamber on June 29th, 2004. Othinus' Bow Popular Among Marksmen New Ex/Rare drops were added to NMs around this time, and they proved to be an immediate hit. One especially, the Othinus' Bow, was so coveted it practically made Archery obsolete. Acid Bolts and Sleep Bolts were also added in this update, further improving Marksmanship. According the Japanese sites, the March glitch was said to have given players an unimaginable speed boost. Two-handed weapon users could swing like one-handers, dagger users were as fast as Hundred Fists, and Monk could hold hate comfortably without Provoke. -Ga spells Ga spells were already unpopular due to their MP demand, but now they scaled in accordance to the number of targets hit by the spell. With the improvement of Magic Burst bonuses, despite the high cost, -ga spells became popular as a single target nuke. However, monster -ga spells were not affected by the number of players hit. EX tag items This update implemented a large number of EX items. The dev team reasoning was that "People won't have to camp it again if they already have it", as well as preventing a monopoly situation to sell items. In reality, players found the actual effect is "Even if you don't want to, you have to camp it". In many cases these EX items did not do what the dev team expected it to. On top of this, high priced items still dropped from NMs such as Shining Cloth from King Behemoth and Damascene Cloth from Aquarius. Players still camped these NMs for profitable gil drops even though they already had the equipment. As part of the EX craze, the dev team was sure to announce that many NMs could be killed by leveling parties who happen to be killing placeholders. Knowing that Ninja was an unexpected tank, the dev team's idea of balance was very questionable. Development Team running out of ideas?! With the Lucky Roll and fortune teller features added, this was SE's answer to player's demand for "New Entertainment". The community's view that the development team was simply running out of ideas was largely increased after these were implemented. The question "What the f*** were the developers thinking?" remained a popular meme for years to come.
Oct. 28th, 2003	North American Windows Version Released
	The North American version of Final Fantasy XI went on sale on October 28th, 2003 for $49.99. When service in North America began for Final Fantasy XI, a large amount of foreign players immediately flooded the game. English chat flowed through towns, and Conquest results were upset by low level activity (there were dead people everywhere). Japanese players avoided home nations due to /shout spam. Although before the release, some supported the idea of cross server in the name of international gaming. After the release, with the "PL plaz" "Gil plez" "Item pelaz" begging, sexual harassment comments, and the random party replacement(People leaving after 1 kill, leader leaving party after level, tossing leader to a random member without asking, etc, the negative complaints begun. At the same time, the auto translator feature was added. With the tell spam of "Help Me out!" "cap" "coffer" "thank you", many Japanese players put up the "JP Only" comment. On a side note, "cap" in translator translates to the cap as in baseball cap to the Japanese, just like how "Break" is translated to relaxing to the Japanese. These all lead to the increasing demand(still active now) of separating servers, mostly from the Japanese players. However, the CEO announced that "Cross nation and Translator are very well done, and we received a lot of praises", even though no one understand where they get those idea from.
Oct. 30th, 2003	7th CESA GAME AWARDS Winner
	Final Fantasy XI took the award for being the first PS2 MMORPG, connecting PS2 and Windows on the same servers, and for user satisfaction with Rise of the Zilart updates.
Oct. 31st, 2003	Trick or Treat!
	From October 31st to November 3rd, players could transform in monsters by trading fruits and sweets to certain NPCs. Prizes included Jack-o'-Lantern, Trick Staff, Treat Staff, Pumpkin Head and Horror Head. Goblin Chocolate was also available for purchase.	The equipment available during this event was cute and very different, so it immediately became quite popular. Towns were filled with adventurers in puffy hats with bat staves on their back. You could also see people everywhere bopping monsters on the head, testing out the Treat Staff latent effect of Warp.
Nov. 4th, 2003	Treat Staff Effect Changed
	Originally, the Treat Staff would have a much higher rate of activating Warp during the Halloween event. This was changed so that it would not activate at all outside the time of the event. This change caused many players to complain, and was very unpopular.
Nov. 11th, 2003	Conquest Adjustments
	Players under level 5 no longer had an effect on Campaign results when K.O.d.	Many people would group suicide to force regions to become beastmen controlled (Kolshushu was beastmen controlled for almost a year before this change). Even with this change, many regions continued to be beastmen controlled (Qufim, Elshimo, Aragoneu, etc) Regional merchants became very rare, affecting prices of items such as Yagudo Drink.
Nov. 16th, 2003	Concept Art
	The official site was massively updated with Concept Art (for a set fee) and a Creator’s Voice blog. The Concept Art was found inside the Developer’s Room.
Nov. 18th, 2003	PlayOnline Plus Beta Testing Begins
	Beta testing began for services that included a special e-mail address ([email protected]), mail forwarding and other features.
Dec. 4th, 2003	First Annual Spike TV Video Game Awards “Best Online Game” winner
Dec. 9th, 2003	Asura Opens
	This world was established due to the rising population. Transfer was available from all worlds.
Dec. 12th, 2003	"REAL VANA’DIEL" Net Cafe Opens in Akihabara
	Melco Online Entertainment opened a net cafe for the enjoyment of FFXI in Akihabara. There was a Mog House resting area (smoking allowed), and staff members dressed up as FFXI characters. Satire jokes arose, such as "I am a Dark Knight. Should I AFK IRL too?" All computers at the time gauged “Incredibly Tough” against the game’s requirements. See the pictures to the right for a glimpse inside this store and the layout. See This Link for an article regarding the store.
Dec. 16, 2003	Level Cap 75
	Dynamis was originally planned to be released in this update, but it was delayed. The level cap became 75. The final Limit Break quest, “Shattering Stars” was added. New Weapon Skills attainable through quests were implemented. Expeditionary Force was altered, and new areas were added. The ??? marks involved in Limit Break quest 3, “Whence Blows the Wind” were repositioned, making it easier to complete the quest. The Moongate pass was added. Ro'Maeve became a popular leveling spot. The Great Axe WS “Shield Break” no longer depended on the enemy’s strength, but now lowered Evasion by a set value. High-level physical accuracy was raised (post skill level 200). This allowed players to hit mobs without Madrigal. A number of high-level monsters had their experience point bonus for parties increased. Changing jobs now cleared Song effects. Black Mage – Black Mages could no longer be interrupted by receiving damage while under the effect of Manafont. Club and Staff skills raised. Samurai – Using Meikyo Shisui now gave a player 300 TP. Summoner – The effect of Astral Flow was extended to 3 minutes. In addition, Avatar Perpetuation was reduced to 0 while under its effect. Dark Knight – Axe and Great Axe skills raised. Beastmaster – Scythe skill raised. Summoner – Club and Staff skills raised. Bard – Staff skill added. Ranger – Axe skill added. The execution of Sneak Attack was changed so that players must stand directly behind the monster. ”Yokodama” could no longer be performed. Resist traits, Bar-spells and songs now provided much more defense against strong enemies. In addition, a message now displayed in the chat log when resisting an effect. These effects were still not very useful against Incredibly Tough monsters. The effects of Killer traits and Circle effects were changed from a Slow effect to an Intimidate effect. In addition, Circle abilities now lasted 1 minute and had a recast time of 10 minutes. High level Weapon Skills (such as Dragon Kick and Shark Bite) were strengthened. The skillchain properties of Tachi: Koki were changed. New NMs were added (4 gods in Tu'Lia, Nidhogg, and more). Abjurations and Cursed Items were introduced. Level 50-70 monsters in various areas were rearranged. Orcs’ HP was once again adjusted. The movement speed of Behemoth and King Behemoth was raised. Knockback was added to a number of monsters’ special abilities. When entering a BCNM, the time limit, fastest record, and record holder’s name were now displayed. Crafting skills were raised to level 100. Rank 9 Conquest items were introduced. The cost of Warp and Reraise scroll was cut in half. The repop time of treasure boxes was changed. They would also pop much faster if disappearing after a Thief failed to pick them. The Mithra who could bundle arrows now joined the traveling performers. Tree Cuttings could now be grown into Tree Saplings, which subsequently could be used to produce Elemental Ores and ultimately Staves. The Storage system was implemented. This answered demands to make furnishings useful, but then started the demand to make storage accessible without making the extremely long trip back to a player's home nation. New Auction House categories were created for Ammo, Others, Materials and Misc. Elemental Staves were given unique models. Players Level 15-19 could now ride Chocobo from the starting three nations. However, their riding time was limited to 15 minutes. Magic Added: Flash, Curaga IV, Reraise III, Stun, Blizzaga III, Aero IV, Fire IV, Thundaga III, Blizzard IV, Thunder IV, Archer's Prelude, Goddess' Hymnus, Uncanny Etude, Warding Round, Chocobo Mazurka, Herculean Etude, Maiden's Virelai, Earth Spirit.	No One Can Help You Now The final Limit Break quest had players squaring off against Maat alone. Until now, quests could easily be completed with parties, but this time people had to face the challenge alone, leaving many unable to overcome it. Red Mages especially had a rough time, eventually leading to some adjustments to the difficulty. This quest was very unpopular, and some jobs had it much harder than others. No More Yokodama Yokodama was the practice of Sneak and Trick Attacking from the side of a monster. (“Yoko” means side, and “dama” is the first two syllables of Damashiuchi, or Trick Attack). On this day, it was decided that Trick Attack would only function properly if one stood directly behind the enemy. The Yokodama was no more. Square said in an interview the month prior that "Yokodama wasn't planned, and it was making the game too easy. We may consider fixing it." Many players supported this and found it to be making fighting too easy. For some mysterious reason, players then started then complaining about the lack of Yokodama after the patch. The spells Flash and Stun were born to alleviate hate control issues. Tu'Lia Notorious Monsters New NMs were added to sky, namely Kirin, Byakko, Suzaku, Seiryu and Genbu. At the time, they looked just like any other monsters; even though Byakko means “white tiger,” the model was black. Eventually, these enemies were altered to look unique. With the sky NM system now implemented, Sky Linkshells were born. WSNMs The majority of the WSNMs had bad performance, so the effort needed to obtain them was not well received.
Dec. 16th, 2003	Holy Night in Vana’diel
	Christmas decorations were put up in all three nations. Players could talk to Moogles once a Vana’diel day to receive Popstar, Brilliant Snow, Sparkling Hand or Air Rider. This was the start of the yearly Christmas Starlight Celebration in Vana’diel.	Image courtesy of Horu@Quetzalcoatl
Dec. 26th, 2003	Rampaging Presents
	In various areas, a monsters called Twinkling Treant (a tree decorated on December 16th) appeared. Talking to nearby Moogles would impose a level cap and allow one to fight the monster. It was announced that defeating the trees would grant the world Outpost Teleportation service. All servers succeeded in attaining this prize. Destroy the Christmas Tree?! At first, no matter how much you hit the tree, the HP wouldn't decrease. This was a prime weapon/magic skill up opportunity. To prevent this, SE lowered the HP in the middle of the event. This also caused SE to issue a server message saying that if the NM was not killed, that world would not receive OP Warps. Some worlds were able to dispose of the tree quickly, while others just couldn’t manage to take it down. A System Message announced that the event would not end until all servers had one. The ordeal was finally over after Midgardsormr was the last to claim victory.
Dec. 29th, 2003	Outpost Teleport Service Begins
	As a reward for success in the Christmas event, all worlds were bestowed with Outpost Teleportation Service following a maintenance.

2004 – Chains of Promathia

The final two worlds open up in 2004, with the final count being 32. This would last until 2010. Later in the year, Chains of Promathia is released.

Jan. 1st, 2004	New Year’s Lucky Monkey Family
	A monkey family appeared in Vana’diel to celebrate the new year. Papa Monkey, Mama Monkey, See-No-Evil, Hear-No-Evil, and Speak-No-Evil appeared in every outdoor area in Vana’diel. Trading items to Papa Monkey resulted in temporary buffs such as Protect, Shell, Blaze Spikes, Enfire, etc being received. These buffs only lasted 30 seconds to 1 minute. Occasionally, players would receive the New Year's Gift item.
Jan. 8th, 2004	Playonline member accounts exceed 500,000!
Jan. 12th, 2004	2003 RPG Vault Awards Prize Winner
	Final Fantasy XI receives the “Online World of the Year” and “Outstanding Achievement in Technology” awards
Jan. 19th, 2004	Gamespy’s 2003 Game of the Year Awards in North America
	Final Fantasy XI receives the “PC MMORPG of the Year”
Jan. 12th, 2004	Announcement made regarding Dynamis Public Testers
	It was announced that developers were looking for beta testers to participate in testing the upcoming Dynamis content. The beta would take place at “REAL VANA’DIEL”.	Participants were recruited, and the beta test was broadcast on the official Final Fantasy XI website via their live feed “Vana’diel Wind”. On the day of the event, the developer who was the guide played the character “Destiy” who wore the Opaline Dress. This was the first time players saw the dress, and it became a popular topic of discussion after that. Players doubted the legitimacy of this beta test, and figured it was more of a bandwidth test and publicity awareness event than actual content testing.
Jan. 28th, 2004	Player Character Recall Service Started
	A service started to recall players accounts or characters who had their information deleted. One restoral was available per Playonline Account. This service was offered free of charge.	Although greatly appreciated by the community, it was rumored that the service was implemented due to one user incident that happened beforehand.
Jan. 29th, 2004	Friends List Plus Beta Test Invitation
	Friends List Plus was a service that allowed you to check the online status of your friends list and send/receive messages free of charge. The service was accessed on the Internet through the official Playonline website, and a connection to the Playonline client wasn’t necessary.
Jan. 29th, 2004	Total Characters in Final Fantasy XI tops 1,000,000!
Jan. 30th, 2004	First Screenshot Contest Winner Announcement
	The first screenshot contest winner was announced on the official Final Fantasy XI website. Winners of the contests had their images added to Playonline’s Extras section under “Greeting Card Downloads” Theme: My Favorite Place First Place Winner: Nickname : Sanzoku-O (Japan) World : Diabolos Place : The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah Player's comment: The forest softly embraces a battle-weary heart. Reviewer's comment: Featuring bold composition and beautiful sunlight cascading down on the trees, this entry wins the first prize by unanimous decision. Many players consider the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah their favorite place, but this picture best captures its grandeur and ethereal atmosphere.	These “Greeting Cards” could be downloaded onto your Playonline Viewer, and then emailed to anybody in the world or sent to people on your friends list. Typical themes were scenery, birthdays, congratulations, and the like. This was the era when E-Cards were very popular on the internet, so many people took advantage of them. Winning the contest and having your image added to the gallery was a great honor. Below are the runner-ups.
Feb. 3rd, 2004	Final Fantasy XI wins awards at RPGamer Awards 2003 in North America
	Final Fantasy XI receives the "PC RPG of the Year", "MMORPG of the Year", "Staff's Choice MMORPG of the Year" and "Best Music of the Year".
Feb. 23rd, 2004	Friends List Plus Beta Test Concludes
Feb. 26th, 2004	Dynamis Released
	NPC Escort quests added to the game. This update introduced the Rune Weapons via the Strange Apparatus devices. Fenrir Avatar Quest was added. Reward items have been added to other avatar quests. The ability to reset your memory pertaining to Artifact Quests (Memory reset) was added, allowing players to re-quest their armor in case it was discarded. The Goblin Footprint was implemented across Vana'diel. Repeated use of Gravity on NMs will now result in the monster slowly building up resistance towards the effect of Gravity. The resistance wears off over time. Monsters with full resistance to Bind could be bound by certain abilities and additional effects of equipment. This was fixed in this update. Limit placed on armor redemption to take over regional outposts. The first edition of Dynamis was added, including four initial zones: Dynamis - San d'Oria Dynamis - Bastok Dynamis - Windurst Dynamis - Jeuno Relic Armor implemented for all current jobs. Notorious Monsters added in many outdoor areas. Shattering Stars (Maat quest) eased for Red Mage. He no longer used Fire III or attacked as fast. TP Bonus of True Strike changed to Accuracy Bonus. Respawn time of certain NMs in Sea Serpent Grotto and Bostaunieux Oubliette was changed. Monsters fished up gradually increase in strength the longer they are left alive. The spell Reraise, item Reraiser and Instant Reraise scroll now differ in strength than the song Goddess' Hymnus. The status icons for Foe Lullaby and Horde Lullaby received unique graphics compared to the black magic spell Sleep. Moghancement effects have been added to Furnishings. The amount of gil offered for "Rusty" items has been reduced. The coveted Opaline Dress set was added along with synthesis recipes. Mithra's /sit pose was changed to what it is today. Noble's Tunic and Aristocrat's Coat used to say "Enhances "Cure" potency", and in the update they made them specifically say their potency percentage. "Cure" potency+10% and +12% respectfully. Item categories on the Auction House were now able to be sorted alphabetically. (Excluded Armor and Weapons) Item sorting on the Auction House will also now be memorized for future use. (Excluded sorting by Job or Race) The lotting system priority was changed: If a player who wins a lot has no room in their inventory or cannot hold two of the item in question, the treasure will no longer be lost; the item will now be given to the player with the next highest lot. When an item cannot be obtained for the reasons listed above, a message informing the player of the lost treasure will only appear in his or her log window. Chat filter added to filter "Lot Results" from the log. When equipping items with the /equip command, items that are already equipped were no longer removed by typing in the currently equipped armor in the command.	Dynamis already nicknamed "Die-in-a-mess"? Even though adventurers understood the concepts of Dynamis from the test beta, the massive lag that was in the zone, the horrible Relic Armor drop rate, boring repetitive encounters, and the difficulties set way too high for the time, players were very disappointed in the over hyped event. Of course, there were some people who did enjoy it. As a result, dynamis was a weekly event in most Sky linkshells. The same problems persisted for years, and players went with the mindset of "there was nothing better to do". Cactrot Rapido! This update, Cactrot Rapido was added. Undead will live again Blood Saber now absorbed ridiculous amounts of HP (150 each instead of the 90-100 it used to be). Skeletons were now avoided like the plague. At the same time, Silence became easier to land on ghosts but undead parties were no more (at least until King Ranperre's Tomb Monk burns). Dragoon Balance Demanded! Seeing as job balance was not taken into consideration very much at this point, Dragoon and other job balance became hot topics on discussion boards and community forums.
Feb. 26th, 2004	Playonline Plus official service launched!
	Playonline Plus services officially launched. The Friend's List Plus features were free. The fee was 300 Yen/mo ($3/mo) for a character name email address [email protected] (Here, "xxx" represented the name of your character and "yyy" represented the name of your World.) Email forwarding from your primary @pol.com email to a personal email elsewere for 100 Yen/mo ($1/mo). Email filtering was free of charge. This service ended on December 31st, 2010, and now the service only offers the free Friend's List Plus feature.	Although compared to today's standards, email in 2004 was a big deal. There were not many email providers that were any good, imposing very low storage space allocations. Because of that, many people paid for these email services. Playonline Plus Beta participants were able to keep their emails or forwarders they reigstered during the beta.
Feb. 27th, 2004	"Hina-Matsuri" - The Doll Festival
	Held from February 27th to March 4th, Cherry Blossoms reappeared as well as Tarutaru Folding Screens setup to create a "stage" in the main three countries. Many adventurers used this opportunity for screenshots.
Mar. 12th, 2004	Final Fantasy Concert "Tour de Japon" opening
	The concert tour "TOUR de Japon - Music from Final Fantasy opened on March 12th, 2004 and played in cities throughout Japan through April 16th, 2004. Seven performances took place starting on this day, including two in Tokyo, and one in Yokohama, Sapporo, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Osaka. The concert was in Orchestra format, and the song "Ronfaure" from Final Fantasy XI was performed. Other songs composed by Nobuo Uematsu were featured and arranged by Shiro Hamaguchi. The orchestras were conducted by Taizo Takemoto.	Remember that cell phone pictures were primitive back in 2004, but here are three images from the events. An interesting tidbit: In the first picture the music note icon is the same as the Bard song icon in-game. Images from finalfantasy7110.com
Mar. 16th, 2004	"Additional Dictonary" released for PS2 version
	Japan's Playstation 2 version of Final Fantasy XI received an "Additional Dictonary" download on this day. This "Additional Dictonary" contained words for text conversion specialized for Final Fantasy XI. This addon could be downloaded via Playonline. It then became easier for Japanese players to write game terms in chat and other communication.
Mar. 20th, 2004	"Something to tell the Spring"
	Another Spring event occured in March. Moogles distributed the fireworks Papillions and Ouka Ranmans.
Mar. 23rd, 2004	PS2 version of Final Fantasy XI Released in North America
	The Playstation 2 version of Final Fantasy XI was released in North America. The price was $99.99 for the "All-in-One" pack which included the game with the Rise of the Zilart expansion as well as a 40GB hard drive to install the game. The required Network Adaptor was not included, and was a seperate required purchase for $39.99. The Playstation 2 version of Final Fantasy XI was very popular with not only Japan's youth but also North American's youth. After the release of the PS2 version in North America, the game was flooded with adolescents. Veteran Japanese players had a nickname for these wannabe kids, "Gaijin" (with a different word, meaning Plague people).	Two Network Adaptors were released, with one supporting only Dial-up and the other supporting Broadband as well as Dial-up.
Mar. 25th, 2004	Ballista Public Test Participant Recruitment
	At the time of the announcement, it was revealed that the public test of the battle between adventurers (PvP or Ballista) was to take place at REAL VANA'DIEL and participants were recruited.	PvP was an event that many players looked forward to.
Apr. 6th, 2004	Winner of Stratics 2003 Golden Cog Awards in North America
	Final Fantasy XI won in the "Best Gameplay", "Best Graphics", and "MMORPG Game of the Year" categories.
Apr. 9th, 2004	First ever Egg Hunt!
	The first ever Egg Hunt event named after Easter was held from April 9th to 13th. It became an annual event after the debut. Adventurers had to collect "Initial Eggs". Based on their collections, notable items such as the Happy Egg, the Fortune Egg, and the Chocobo Ticket were awarded.
Apr. 16th, 2004	Final Fantasy XI member accounts exceed 500,000!
Apr. 22nd, 2004	Ballista & Relic Weapons Introduced
	Ballista was introduced. Initially, Ballista was run via events similar to seasonal events. The dates were announced on the official website, and was held irregularly. Dynamis was expanded, and Dynamis - Beaucedine and Dynamis - Xarcabard were implemented. With this, the level 74 and 75 Relic Armor were unlocked. Additional monsters and NMs were added to the original city areas. Eco-Warrior quests were added in this update. Their difficulty was extremely high, and designed for an alliance. The Guild Point system was introduced. Along with this system, craftsman gear was added. This included the original 150,000 GP furnishing and moghancement, the 100,000 GP Aprons, and the 70,000 GP accessories. HQ Crystals were introduced, allowing players to inscribe their names onto equipment. The Garrison battle system was added. The low level Summoner quests were added (The Trial Size Quests). Cloudy Orb (20 Beastmen's Seal) and Sky Orb (30 Beastmen's Seal) BCNM orbs were added. 3 players maximum were allowed to enter these fights. The Moon Orb level 60 orb could now be used in Qu'Bia Arena for a new battlefield. An adjustment to TP accumulation with weapon skills that contained multiple strikes (Combo, Penta Thrust, etc) was corrected. Subtle Blow job trait was added and given to Monks and Ninjas. Dragoon was given Spirit Link. Wyverns were able to be resummoned immediately with Call Wyvern (which was then Dragoon's 2-hour ability) if they were sismissed at full HP. Strange Apparatuses were now functional. The Arcane Flowerpot was added. When affected by the magic Sneak, sound effects for players footprints now were not heard. When targeting a pet, the master's name was now displayed. Bugs still existed with this. The command /wait now supported up to 60 seconds from the previous 20. Battle effects could now be toggled on or off in the configuration. The Storage could now be sorted. The Mentor system was added, along with the "New Adventurer" status automatically given to characters below level 5 and with less than 5 hours of play time. It was made possible to place a single item on auction from an incomplete stack of items. An issue where attempts to synthesize Cursed Breeches resulted in an incorrect high-quality item has been addressed. The following emotes were added: /hurray /toss The following command was added: /recast	Dynamis Expanded The northland Dynamis areas were added to the game, which solved the mystery of the existance of the base stage Relic Weapons. The unique Weapon Skills attached to the weapons were extremley hyped, even more than the stats of the weapons themselves. However, due to the rarity of the ancient currency, the vast amount of Gil needed and the time sink made many players simply give up. After the final boss was defeated in Dynamis city areas, a massive amount of monsters now spawned in various areas. This made Dynamis - Jeuno totally unstable and unbalanced in difficulty due to the extremely small area. Unannounced, Relic Armor had an increase in drop rates. This started the trend of the Ridill (Meme) drop rate increasing after every update. Ballista Woes Ballista went live. Many people were looking forward to the event but due to unbalancing, difficulties of participating, and lack of prizes only a fraction of players participated. 999 Delay Exploit Using a weapon with 999 delay with a multi hit weapon skill, players would receive 100+ TP (at the time, this was equivellant to the 1000 TP we have today) instantly. To address this, they nerfed the TP system completely. This change however never affected Barrage. As a result of this, some jobs token multi-hit Weapon Skills (Penta Thrust, Guillotine, etc) became pretty gimp. EXP parties begun to avoid these jobs. Dragoons received love Dragoons were finally given Spirit Link, but at this stage Dragoon had already become nothing but an entertainment job. Summoner Quests Summoners were now able to acquire avatars at level 20 with the new quests, however, it became difficult to level without having Fenrir at your disposal. Additionally, the Evoker's Ring quest was implemented in this update. Everyone thought an Abjuration was the reward.
Apr. 16th, 2004	Wedding Rings with Engraving added
	The Marriage Ring's name was changed to the Wedding Ring. From this day until the wedding system was redone in 2009, the items were placed directly into a player's inventory during the ceremony by the "Wedding Master" GMs. These items were engraved by the Wedding Masters with the spouse's name.	Wedding Masters had the "Official Staff" logo next to their characters names.
Apr. 28th, 2004	Chains of Promathia Expansion Announced!
	The expansion Chains of Promathia was officially announced on April 28th, 2004. Magazines and official websites showcased pictures of the Tavnazian Archipelago and Movalpolos regions. Unlike Rise of the Zilart, this expansion was not in the development plan and was made seperately from Final Fantasy XI. It was announced before this that the next expansion would not include any new Jobs. A mission based expansion was not something that Japanese players wanted.
April 2004	The Rise of the Chinese RMT
	Beginning in the Spring of 2004, Chinese gilsellers started to appear throughout the original Final Fantasy XI areas. Their names were always similar with each other (Pokotana, Pokotanb, Pokotanc... etc), and multiple accounts were always controlled by a few people. These people would take shifts and the characters were always online playing 24/7. Teams of RMT were hired workers who played together in a network enviroment in the same office or home. Their goals were "Real Money Trade" or RMT. They would earn gil and then sell it either directly to players or to third party companies. It was true, however, that the problem came from the game mechanics above all else. Soon after their appearance though, RMT websites began appearing in search engines and ads on popular community websites. Japanese player morale then started to decrease dramatically during those days. Square Enix began taking more action by banning many RMT accounts, but RMT still remained in high numbers. Inflation began taking place, and Gil prices slowly decreased. This helped more players have access to RMT activities.	Soon after they started being spotted, the RMT became a major problem. Square Enix knew of their existance, but they were a difficult problem to deal with. Not enough measures, or no measures, were being taken to counter the situation. Vana'diel's famous farming spots were soon flowing with RMT on all worlds. Monsters like the Stroper Chyme who dropped the Archer's Ring were monopolized. It was impossible for actual players of the game to claim and receive drops from some NMs. The RMT stayed out of Sky for a few years, but around 2006-2007 they began appearing there. MPKing them was a popular hobby of all players alike. The RMTs always threatened to call GMs on players, but very rarely did due to thieir language barrier and not wanting to risk drawing attention to themselves for their RMT actions.
May 9th, 2004	Second Adventurer's Appreciation Campaign
	The Second Adventurer's Appreciation Campaign was held from May 9th thru May 16th in commemoration of two years of Final Fantasy XI's start of service. Speaking to Moogles, adventurers were given their communication, death, GM call, etc stats like last year. Players were also given items such as random fireworks like Cracklers, Chocobo Tickets, Chocobo Wands, Silver Mog. Belts, and Adventuring Certificates
May 11th, 2004	First overseas Final Fantasy Concert
	A concert entitled "Dear Friends - Music from Final Fantasy" was held in Los Angeles at the newly opened Walt Disney Concert Hall. The two-hour sold out concert featured music composed and produced by Nobuo Uematsu, performed by the Los Angeles Philarmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale. The concert was conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Similar to Tour de Japon, Ronfaure was featured from Final Fantasy XI.
May 13th, 2004	FFXI showcased at E3 2004
	Final Fantasy XI was showcased at E3 2004, highlighting the Chains of Promathia expansion pack that would be released later in the year. Only the images previously released were displayed, visitors could not run freely through the upcoming areas. A Ballista event taking place, where visitors to the Square Enix booth could take control of a character and participate in a Ballista match. Participants walked away with a prize for playing. This prize was not an in-game item, it was most likely a tshirt or other Square Enix souvenir.
May 14th, 2004	4th Vana'diel Census
	In addition to the traditional main job level distribution, the differences in login patterns between Japan and North America was shown based on the fact that overseas service has started since the last Census.	Login Distribution Character Count Distribution
Jun. 7th, 2004	Wedding Acceptance change
	The method of acceptance for new Wedding applicants changed from a Lottery method to a First come-First serve method.	This is a picture of the application process from 2005.
Jun. 29th, 2004	Merit Point Introduction & BCNM Expansion
	The Merit Points system was introduced. This early system was done totally through the Nomad Moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens. There was no way of telling how close you were to your next merit. Only 9 items were initially available. HP MP HP and MP could only be raised a total of 5 times. Example: 5 HP / 0 MP, or 3 HP / 2 MP. STR DEX VIT AGI INT MND CHR Attributes could only be raised a total of 3 times. Example: 3 STR / 0 everything else. The official Ballista schedule was implemented, and begun its rotation. It was now automatically occuring without staff intervening, so a more regular schedule could be followed. Many adjustments were also implemented. Participation fees were lowered, and transportation to the venues was added. The number of Beastmen's Seal BCNM battlefields were almost doubled. Alliance size BCNMs were supposed to be added (KS99), but got delayed for a month. Buffs now always wear off when entering level capped battlefields. This also included battlefields that have the level cap status, but are not actually level restricted. Mannequins were added to the game, along with the quest It's Raining Mannequins. A cutscene was added to Dynamis - Xarcabard that played after defeat of the Shadow Lord. HQ versions of requested items could now be turned in for Guild Points. The number of regions that Garrison can take place has been increased. Monster placement was changed in King Ranperre's Tomb and The Shrine of Ru'Avitau. All Fireworks could now stack to 99 instead of 12. Thief can now equip some crossbows and bolts. Sneak Attack can now be used in any direction when combined with Hide. Dark Stalker monsters (Shadows) now were main job Black Mage, and now used -ga magic. The amount of time required to pass before a monster became unclaimed was increased. Before it was immediate. This did not solve monster stealing, but it slightly helped. The term ballista could be used in search Example: /sea all ballista Interesting Fixed Issues: An issue where magic being cast by worm type monsters was not being displayed in the chat log. An issue where TP accumulation would not properly calculate after a player reached 0 ammo.	Ballista! Ballista's entry fee was now free. Along with many other adjustments, the hype of PvP was almost completely gone for the Japanese community. Merit Point System The amount of experience points required for the very minimal increase with spent points caused some people to complain. Regardless, everybody still kept gaining Experience to increase their MP! Players could not even tell if they were earning Limit Points in the chat log until the following month. Monster Placement Changes With the changes to monster placement in King Ranperre's Tomb and The Shrine of Ru'Avitau, these areas became popular camps. There was only a handful of appropriate locations added due to magic aggro and blood aggro potential. Garrison The new items added to Garrison were much to many player's surprise and the event became popular for a short time. Mannequins Mannequins were immediately looked upon as simple armor storage that occupied valuable inventory space. Inventory space was very low at this stage in the game, and it was very hard to have any kind of efficient macro swaps due to space.
Jul. 20th, 2004	KS99 Update
	The long awaited 3 king Themis Orb battlefields (KS99) were added. Horns of War, The Hills Are Alive, Early Bird Catches the Wyrm Earned Limit Points were now displayed in the chat log after each battle.	Kindred's Seal 99 Battles At long last, alliance battles were available via KS99 Themis Orb! Players were very excited for the content. Unfortunately due to the demand for specific jobs in order to win, the amount of people needed and the poor quality of drops compared to effort needed, it never became popular for years to come.
Jul. 24th, 2004	Summerfest Official Event
	The summer festival Bon-Odori that was held as a user event for the last two years was held as an official event between July 24th and August 9th. The event took place between the three major countries and outlying areas, as well as Rabao. Between 19:00 and 6:00 game time, fireworks could be seen in the sky as well as special music played. Moogles sold all types of fireworks. For the first part of the celebration (The days in July) a Test your Courage challenge was available to players. Speaking to a moogle in a party of two, players were level capped at level 1 and transported to high level areas. The event was popular because players could have fun exploring dungeons they haven't been to. The objective was to find the "Goal Point" somewhere in the dungeon. After finding it, players were given reward items to turn into moogles for "Points": Bloody Candle Dire Candle Snickering Skull Sniffling Skull Tome of Moans Tome of Whispers Yhoator Flea Rusty Tail Cutter Players also received a random Gate Glyph item to warp back to town. The Onoko Yukata and Omina Yukata were rewarded for successfully clearing the event for the first time, and turning in one reward item. Upgraded versions, the Lord's Yukata and Lady's Yukata, were able to be received if the event was cleared four more times. Five items needed to be traded to the moogle in total. For the second part of the event (The days in August), adventurers were able to play the Goldfish Scooping game.This event took place in West Ronfaure, South Gustaberg, East Sarutabaruta, and Rabao. Players had to equip the Goldfish Basket into their ammo slot, and a Super Scoop into their ranged slot. The HQ Yakatas helped with the scooping results. Scooping points were exchanged for various fireworks, as well as Summer Fans and Spirit Masques.
Aug. 9th, 2004	Second Screenshot Contest Winner Announcement
	The second screenshot contest winner was announced again on the official Final Fantasy XI website. Winners of the contests had their images added to Playonline’s Extras section under “Greeting Card Downloads” Theme: Things I Fear First Place Winner: Nickname : Seighart (North America) World : Phoenix Place : Western Altepa Desert Player's comment: Adventurers of Vana'diel underestimate the fury that nature can unleash upon those who forget what real power is. Reviewer's comment: The approaching tornado...the desolate atmosphere of Altepa Desert...the sunlight through the breaks in the clouds...all these elements combine to arouse players'dread. This entry wins first prize for its exceptional ability to instill fear.	Below are the runner-ups.
August 2004	Fish Botting
	At this point, the already infested Fish Bots have now spread the world and was the easy way of making money. Rusty Caps could sell to NPCs for 2,500 gil. This rumor was spread more and more, and fish botters gathered in Rabao.	Sadly, Rusty Caps themselves were implemented to counter fish botting. Light Crystals became more and more expensive and it reached the point where one cluster was 10k. This was unheard of back then. This caused many people to go to sky in search of Light Elementals. During this time, inflation has started to appear.
Sep. 1st, 2004	"Hara Fumina no FFXI tv" broadcasting on Sky Perfect TV!
	The TV program from before was remade. It aired three episodes of 15 minutes each on channel 755 "Channel BB" and on Vana'diel Wind. Ms. Fumina Hara served as host. This program was not a reboot of the one that aired the year before. This one introduces people to the game for beginners and those who have never played before. The show also featured interviews with the development team staff who were normally never seen. Given that interviews were included, the content could be enjoyed by veteran players alike. In addition, the show also served as a Chains of Promathia promotion.	The show can be watched on Youtube in a collection of 6 videos on FFXITV's channel.
Sep. 11th, 2004	Chains of Promathia Release Event in Intercity Hall
	Enterbrain Company held an event "Special Night to commemorate the release of Chains of Promathia. The contents included a talk session by the development team, a live performance by The Star Onions, a fight against Fenrir with four Famitsu editors, and a quiz game about Vana'diel. Special Taru Cards were distributed to visitors Image from finalfantasy7110.com	The Star Onions is a band centered on Mr. Naotoshi Mizuta, the main composter of Final Fantasy XI songs. They have multiple albums available for purchase. The band members for the event were: Mr. Naotoshi Mizura (Base) Mr. Takeshi Sekido (Guitar) Mr. Kumi Tanioka (Piano & Synthesizer) Mr. Eiji Iwasako (Synthesizer) The songs they performed: Prelude Gustaberg Ronfaure The Federation of Windurst The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah Ru'Lude Gardens
Sep. 14th, 2004	Preliminary Chains of Promathia Update
	The quest The Gobbiebag Part V was added, and the maximum inventory space on characters was now 55. Key Items were available for Guild Points. This includes items involving Anima recipes (Cloth Purification, Anima Synthesis, Gold Ensorcellment, etc). Many Ballista adjustments were done, including an increase in items by using /quarry. Unique BGM songs were added for Ballista matches if a player had Chains of Promathia installed. Clamming was introduced. The Tavnazian Archipelago region was added, along with Movalpolos. New Escourt quests were added, and could now be cancelled after accepting them. Nomad Moogles were placed in new areas. Fishable monsters were added to more areas. Many new monsters added to Chains of Promathia areas. Taurus, Hippogryph Bugard families added. Ranged Attack abilities altered. Elementals could now use Enhancing Magic. The maximum amount of experience points earned from level 51-60 was raised to 250, and from level 61-75 was raised to 300. Chain bonus maximums were also increased. Crafting Skills were now able to be capped back to level 60 in order to raise a different one. Merit Points system expanded. HP/MP and Attributes categories were expanded, while Combat Skills, Magic Skills, and Other were added. Rank 10 items available from home nations guards. This update introduced the first "Enchantment" and "Dispense" armor and weapons. NPC Buy price for Padded Caps was lowered, and the chance to obtain a Rusty Cap was lowered. New Bait/Poles were also added. Black Mage - Some Scythes were now able to be equipped, and the job was given Scythe skill. Thief - The Evisceration weapon skill skillchain element was changed. Paladin - Recast time of Cover reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. The level requirement for Paladin to use Raise was lowered from 75 to 50. Bard - Etude spells were changed to single target only, and their casting time was reduced. Goddess's Hymnus cast time was shortened. Summoner - Avatars could now participate in Skillchains and Magic Bursts by using Blood Pacts. Avatar TP now affected the damage of Magical Blood Pacts, but Physical, Enhancing or Enfeebling Blood Pacts were not affected. TP was still lost after using any Blood Pact Dragoon - Wheeling Thrust enhanced and Super Jump was added. Ninja - THe effectiveness of Utsusemi now relied on the type of attack being used on the caster. The system is the same as it is today. Single Target attacks eat one shadow, AoE -ga spells wipe all shadows and the caster takes damage, or multiple shadows are taken by some attacks. Dia II MP cost reduced from 59 to 30. Bio MP cost recuded from 22 to 15, while Bio II was recuded to from 66 to 36. Dark Magic also now affects the spells. This change also affected Bio III which was only available to monsters at the time. The effects of Blink and Aerial Armor can now be cancelled manually. They were also now wiped from AoE and were useless in that regard. The /shutdown command was added, and with the Promathia expansion installed, PS2 users were able to skip the POL windows. The <pettp> command was added. Interesting Fixed Bugs: An issue where "Cursed Armor" was equipped, players were able to intimidate themselves.	Pre-Promathia Patch Players expected a lot of major changes just like the Pre-Zilart patch. The experience points earned in level cap areas was able to be used for Limit Point progression, but at first did not add to your main level progression. The enchantment and dispense effects on items was announced in the past, but was not expected in this update. The /shutdown and shortcut to FFXI in the PS2 version (skipping POL) were said by players to be the best features added in the Promathia expansion. Utsusemi Nerf Even though Utsusemi was nerfed, ninja was still able to tank. This was mainly done due to the popularity of /nin for Chains of Promathia missions. Evisceration Evisceration's element was changed to allow Thief to work with Darkness skillchains better, but the popularity never came with the skillchain even after CoP's release. Light reigned supreme. Gil earning nerfs Items which maede profit by NPCing them were nerfed. Beforehand, you could steal Mythril Beastcoins, but they were swapped to Silver Beastcoins. Along with the nerfs to Rusty Caps and Padded Caps, this made expansion areas even further unpopular. Besides mission reasons, they were all ghost towns.
Sep. 16th, 2004	Chains of Promathia Expansion Released in Japan!
	Japanese view on the Expansion As previously announced, Chains of Promathia had a lot of effort put into Missions and Quests. However, it became apparent that there were ONLY Missions and Quests, but added nothing else. The missions as well, like previous mistakes they made, were tailored to specific jobs. Due to horrible balancing at first release, many jobs could not complete the content. Furthermore, the difficulty with the long trek through Promyvion made the expansion even more unpopular. SE announced that because of the low level cap of 30, new players would be able to participate in the content. This of course was false. The demand for specific party setups with ninja subjob and utsusemi, the difficult BCNM at the end, as well as expensive equipment that even veteran players might not have left many unable to proceed with the content. The difficulty level put in place was far beyond what new players who just reached level 20 could handle. It was not possible to lift the level cap to make things easier. At first, the curiosity with new areas and exploration were popular. Unfortunately, only two or three of the new areas were used for experience points. The other areas were not populated. The areas added and amount of new mobs were a lot more than Zilart introduced, so more camps should have been available. New monster familys attacked fast, while old monster families had new dangerous abilities. Lastly, under the level cap status, you could not earn full experience. Because most new areas were level capped, they made for poor camps. With no new jobs, spells, weapon skills, modification to the battle system, high difficulty of the missions, and level cap areas, the expansion as a whole was unattractive to veteran players of two+ years. Just by experiencing the difficulty of Promyvions, players had already judged that it would be a "Failed Product". New Director On the same day, Mr. Nobuaki Kawamoto took office as Final Fantasy XI Director.	Two versions were released in Japan, an Expansion Disk only version (Below on the left) and an All-in-One version (Below to the right) for both platforms.
Sep. 21st, 2004	CoP Released in North America, and FFXI Windows version released in Europe/Australia!
	North American view on the Expansion Back in 2004, the main negative points in Final Fantasy XI were the need for people and the game itself was a large timesink. Not only did they not fix these issues with the expansion, they made them worse. The awaited "Outfits" were not that good stat wise, and considering how hard to obtain they were it was not worthwile. Many North American players did not mind the difficulty challenge, but found it hard to overcome inventory problems with new gearsets required. Already a lot of North American players reached 75, and they didn't see the necessity of such wide scale level restricted areas. The major problems were the lack of things that players were able to do once reaching 75. New content tailored to endgame was not implemented until the end of Chains of Promathia. The biggest letdown to the playerbase was that the expansion itself was so different than the interviews pre-launch. As a result, not adding any progress towards the endgame content and not fulfilling enough to low level content by placing severe restrictions, some believed Final Fantasy XI was reaching its end. In Japanese player's eyes, the EU players not having their own servers was again "Pointless, Stupid and Illogical" just like the NA release. SE's reasoning for not creating more worlds was again "Peak Times". Post-CoP, the population on all Worlds was absurd.	In North America, the expansion was at first only available as a standalone release on both PS2 and Windows. A "Collection" was released later. An All-in-One version was released in Europe/Australia format, but only in English.
Sep. 22nd, 2004	Chains of Promathia Expansion Service went Live
	Service began for Chains of Promathia across all regions. The registration server died (again...) because SE made the same mistake as when the game was first launched. This made them a laughing stock. Yet again, new area maps could be endlessly purchased just like in the Zilart release. On top of the above, there was a serious issue with the PS2 versions of the expansion disc. If you were to stop the progress of the version update download, all game data was corrupted. Users were prompted to reinstall the whole game using the original game discs. With all of these **** ups, a lot of users became angry. Not only did they have bugs, but server maintenance was even screwed up?	Controversy also followed this release. Players in Japan had almost a week to find the game, prepare their systems for the release and install the update. Many North American and European players did not yet have the expansion fully shipped to them or could not find it in stores before the service went live after maintenance.
Sep. 24th, 2004	Chains of Promathia exhibited at Tokyo Game Show 2004
	Tokyo Game Show 2004 was held at Makuhari Messe from the 24th to the 26th. A special image promotinal card was released and given to guests who stopped at the booth. (pictured below)
Sep. 28th, 2004	Vana'diel population surpasses 1,500,000 characters!
	This number was based on currently active, registered users. 550,000 active players logged on during the same day, and a record 170,000 players logged on simultaneously on September 18th.
Oct. 7th, 2004	First Promathia Update
	New Chains of Promathia Missions were added. Memory Streams in Promyvion zones now remained active for longer. Draw In when used my monsters now includes pets, avatars and wyverns. Players could now properly gain experience points in level capped areas instead of only limit points. Additionally, experience points earned in level capped areas now properly calculate regardless of circumstances (Being KO'd, etc). Monster and NM respawn timers in some areas were changed. The location where players ended up after using Escape from Promyvion - Vahzl/Spire of Vahzl was changed. Monster placement was changed in Uleguerand Range, Attohwa Chasm and King Ranperre's Tomb. New Notorious Monsters were added. The rank 10 Aketons could no longer grant players crystals after killing a monster when experience points were not earned. Fomor monster's names in Lufaise Meadows have been fixed. Before this update, they were named "Formor". Guild Member NPCs now gave random recipes when talking to them. Antacid was now stackable to 12. The synthesis recipe yield was also adjusted. It was now impossible to unequip enchanting or dispensing items during use.	This update was unexpected, but consisted of mostly bug fixes. Not many people were at the point where they could continue the mission progression, but new ones were implemented anyway. The difficulty remained very high for new missions and old missions. Debut of the Wyrms The three wyrms Jormungand, Tiamat and Vrtra were added in this update (hence the repositioning of monsters blip). The fact that these fights were designed for 30-50 people with the alliance limit remaining at 18 was outrageous. The new equipment added (Sha'ir set, Herald's gaiters and Barone) were not seen for months due to the difficulty of killing these wyrms.
Oct. 7th, 2004	Remora and Hades created
	Two new worlds were created to releive the growing population. Server transfers were open to everybody.
Oct. 23rd, 2004	Trick or Treat!!
	Following the previous year, the Halloween event was held again. When you traded snacks to NPCs, you were turned into a random monster costume. In addition to the same items from the previous year, players could obtain the Trick Staff II, Treat Staff II, Pumpkin Head II, and Horror Head II.
Oct. 30th, 2004	FFXI Anniversary Masquerade
	On October 30, nearly four hundred fans gathered at the San Francisco Metreon to celebrate FFXIs first year in North America. All enjoyed a magical evening of music, food, and dancing. Everyone who brought a mobile phone with wallpaper from the Square Enix Gallery received a free copy of the Chains of Promathia expansion pack. As the night went on, ten costume contest winners, forty Ballista participants, and many more raffle and giveaway winners received some fantastic prizes, including a custom-designed Chains of Promathia PC. Everyone had the chance to catch an exclusive sneak peek at upcoming Square Enix titles, including Dragon Quest VIII and FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children. At the end of the night, each attendee took home a FFXI BradyGames guide, a "Dear Friends: Music from FINAL FANTASY" concert program, a 13-month Final Fantasy art calendar, and a free copy of FFXI.
Nov. 17th, 2004	Chains of Promathia OST Released
	Consisting of 24 songs, the price was 2,100 yen (tax included).
Dec. 2nd, 2004	Vana'diel Bench III Released
	The official FFXI Benchmark software version 3 was released. The Tavnazian Archipelago was the setting, and Chains of Promathia cutscenes were included.	Since this release, no new benchmark software was released to the public. By the time the next expansion rolled around, system PC requirements did not change. Hardware was surpassing the game's technology, so there was no need for new benchmark software.
Dec. 9th, 2004	6th Gobbiebag Expansion
	Chains of Promathia missions had difficulty eased in the following ways: All Promyvion zones had their monsters adjusted in the following ways: Monster placement changes Monster movement pattern changes Monster level adjustments Monster item drop changes Memory stream appearance rates CoP Mission item changes: Hippogryph Tailfeathers could now be traded, more than one Mistmelt could be held, Yellow liquid lasted longer, and Mistmelts and Shu'Meyo Salt were easier to obtain. Auction House taxes were altered (This was before auction houses were combined. There were instead four different Auction Houses that could be used. Rabao was connected to San d'Oria, Kazham was connected to Windurst, and Norg was connected to Bastok. Jeuno was seperate and the most popular, hence the higher tax.) Jeuno: Single item fee = 2% of the seller's asking price +100 gil. Stacked item fee = 1% of the seller's asking price +400 gil. All Others: Single item fee = 1% of the seller's asking price +1 gil. Stacked item fee = 0.5% of the seller's asking price +4 gil. The NPC to erase Meal Effects (Parike-Poranke was now in Lower Jeuno]. New Notorious Monsters were added in Chains of Promathia areas. The Gobbiebag Part VI was added. Players inventory can now reach 60 slots. Supply Quests and regional teleportation to Tavnazian Archipelago has been unlocked. A shortcut into Promyvion - Vahzl was added for those who have partially or fully completed the mission. The longer a player remains in the same area, the more difficult it will be to obtain items through mining or logging. This was to prevent RMT from camping mining spots. The quest All by Myself can be played regardless if Chains of Promathia is installed or not. The quest The Big One's level cap was raised from 40 to 45. The Old Sabertooth involved in the Ranger Job Quest will no longer drop items, and will only appear after examining a set of bones in the area. Thief - The Assassin Job Trait was added. Goblin Archaeologists can see through Hide. Bard - High level Etudes now increased attributes further than before, but now gradually wear over time. Dragoon - Spirit Link now removes detrimental effects such as Poison. Wyvern's magic breath can now Magic Burst, but only an Accuracy Bonus is received if successful. Summoner - When Blood Pacts Magic Burst, an Accuracy Bonus is received. Physical Blood Pacts now did not increase as much as before when attacking weaker enemies. Stronger enemies were unchanged. Only players who have the quest Hook, Line, and Sinker active will be able to fish up the monster that drops the Egret Fishing Rod. A new reward for completing the quest Tuning Out was added. Astral Rings were removed from the coffers in Castle Oztroja, and were instead placed in a BCNM. Weather Reporters now forcast Chains of Promathia areas. The additional effect of Stun on weapons now cannot repeatedly "stun lock" an enemy. This has no effect on Magic spells and Weapon Skills. Ballista now has area specific match types, as well as the following adjustments: A new temporary item was added. /quarry items now stayed in a players inventory through a whole set of matches. Only one of each type of temporary item is able to be held. The Ballista Points system became available. Players now gained a resistance to repeated use of the spell Lullaby, similar to how Sleep was changed. 17 new BCNMs were added. Issues were discovered with the remaining three: The Final Bout, Today's Horoscope, Moa Constrictors and were delayed for one week. This update added the "Kicked out of the Battlefield after 3 minutes of all participants being KO'd" rule. This update also came with major changes to almost all food types. Many effects were changed as below: Meat Dishes: Mainly improve attributes such as STR, Attack, and Ranged Attack. Sushi: Mainly improve attributes such as DEX, Accuracy, and Ranged Accuracy. Fish Dishes: Mainly improve DEX, and some improve Accuracy and Ranged Accuracy. Seafood Dishes (other than fish): Mainly improves Defense and VIT. Grains & Rice: Mainly increase Max HP. Vegetable Dishes: ainly raise AGI and Ranged Accuracy. Mushroom Dishes: Mainly raise MND, Max MP, and lowers enmity. Pies: Mainly raise INT and Max MP. Snack Foods: Mainly raise HP and MP while healing. Sweets (Other than Pies and Snacks): Mainly raise Max MP. Drinks: Mainly Refresh MP. Others: Some unique foods existed that dont fit in the above categories, and have special effects. In addition to the effects of food, many durations were altered and standardized: 3 Minutes: Snack foods (Crackers, etc) 5 Minutes: HQ Snack Foods, raw meat, fish, fruit and vegetables 30 Minutes: Stackable to 12 dishes 1 Hour: Stackable to 12 HQ Dishes 3 Hours: Unstackable dishes (except drinks) 4 Hours: Unstackable HQ dishes Some Cookies and Sweets stack size was changed from 12 to 99. Some Pie stack sizes were changed from 1 to 12 The "Enhances the effect of Rice Balls" found on some Samurai equipment has been enhanced. Chat Filters were expanded a little, with seperate categories for NPCs and Pets. Auction House history could now be clicked on, causing a line with details to appear in the chat log. Kirin, Genbu, Seiryu, Suzaku and Byakko received their unique appearances. Fixed Bugs: Issue where Holy Water could remove "Max HP Down" and "Max MP Down". Apple Pie, Pamamas and Wild Pamamas were unintentionally changed to a duration of 3 minutes. It was properly changed to 30 minutes a week later.	Food Changes Players were at first excited that food became stackable to 99, but then realized it was a slap in the face because the same foods were now only 3 minute durations. The changes to Sushi made it much easier for players to hit Incredibly Tough monsters. Double Attack and Triple Attack Without warning, now Double Attack and Triple Attack no longer activated during Weapon Skills. Ballista It was overall welcome to have Ballista Points accumulate, but they could only be used for items related to Ballista or only usable in Ballista. Auction House Fees The fees implemented for taxes made the Auction House even more expensive than it was before. This change was not taken well by the community. RIP Easy Money Until this update, Black Sole/Silver Shark/Bastore Bream were all easy to fish from places such as Sea Serpent Grotto. With the lowered NPC purchase rate, many fishermen had to find a new target.
Dec. 9th, 2004	Warning to Community regarding RMT Activity
	Square-Enix issued a warning on their official site warning players about participating in RMT activities. They sternly stated that RMT activities are a violation of the Playonline Agreement, and that you could be banned for participating.	The adjustments in the version update caused RMT players to worry a bit, but it was not strict enough to stop the activity. Many valuable NM drops that were monopolized by RMT were moved to BCNMs, and Rare/Ex versions were added to the NMs. There was discussion by the developers to change the fishing system to leave fish bots ineffective. Players asked "... after all this time you haven't done anything. Why do it now?"
Dec. 10th, 2004	Starlight Celebration 2004
	As with the year before, all three cities again had Christmas Decorations. This tradition would continue every year. New this year in Jeuno, players could listen to the popular Starlight Celebration Theme. Only players with the Chains of Promathia expansion could hear it though, because it was shipped and installed with the expansion disk. When players talked to Moogles in one of the three cities, a mini game could be played that involved searching for children. Letters were received from them, and had to be turned in to Smile Bringers. The Dream Hat was new this year, along with nation themed Christmas Tree furnishings San d'Orian Tree, Bastokan Tree, and Windurstian Tree. By placing these trees in your Mog House and then speaking with your Moogle, you were rewarded with the Dream Hat +1.
Dec. 27th, 2004	New Year's Showdown: Moogles vs. Goblins!
	An event took place from December 27th, 2004 until January 10th, 2005. When you examined a target point called Overturned Soil that appeared in various locations, you could obtain a tally associated with the Seven Lucky Gods. These items were: Ebisu Card Benten Card Bishamon Card Daikoku Card Fukurokuju Card Hotei Card Jurojin Card By turning in the cards in specific combinations to certain countries, the following rewards were available: All Three Nations Kadomatsu San d'Oria Rabbit Belt Kingdom Stables Collar Bastok Worm Belt Republic Stables Medal Windurst Mandragora Belt Federation Stables Scarf	Fablinix or "Fab" is a Goblin whose diaries are chronicled in A Little Goblin's Adventure in 2003 and 2004. This diary was similar to Vana'diel Chronicles.

2005

2005 and onward coming soon!

Related Links

• Returning to Vana'diel
• Complete Update History