In the last 31 days Square Enix has brought the alpha servers online, for people to play, on a total of 6 days, with only a 4-hour window per region. That means testers have had a maximum of 24 hours to experience Final Fantasy XIV, assuming they were able to log in.

Alpha testers have been constantly hitting log-in issues and in-game crashes during these 24 hours of testing. Some alpha testers who have not been as tight lipped as Square Enix wishes have talked about the constant crashes and frustration they experience while trying to play the game. This is a problem that Square has opened themselves up to as they wanted to get players in as early as possible to allow for feedback on various core systems. A number of reports and complaints from alpha testers have been around the instability of the game, and not as much concerning the game play mechanics themselves. Lets hope Square Enix has enough staff to parse through the 40,000+ bug/issues that have been reported to them by players.

At this point, players have been told to focus on the very basics of the game: Quest System, Guildleve System, Battle System, Basic Controls, and User Interface. Any feedback that Square Enix decides to incorporate with the game will not make an appearance until Beta phase 2. The start date for Beta phase 2 or any other alpha/beta phases is unknown at this time.

The testing as a whole has been slow moving due to the numerous roadblocks players have hit. Square Enix decided not to shift the focus of the test as players have had insufficient time to test the functionality they were tasked to provide feedback on. This means the testing content and focus have been the same since the start of the alpha. Alpha testers have been let loose into a small fraction of the world and are focusing only on the basics of the game at this point. This also means there hasn’t been much new information coming from alpha testers for us to share with you.

It’s hard to guess how far along development of FFXIV may be as Square Enix could be deciding not to deploy a number of new systems until the current testing is complete. We’ll have to keep a watchful eye for any new information that comes from alpha testers or Square Enix.

Kyrra @ FF14news.com

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Welcome everyone to Episode 13 of the Crystalcore Podcast: “Dodo Double Down”

What a great show we have for you this week, we covered a lot of very interesting topics and news that have been released over the past few weeks and get into some of the blogs and posts that you the core have made. Here is an outline and links to all the articles and posts we talk about on the show.

* 4Gamer.net State of the alpha test. Also Lalafells
* Vanatsu blog: FFXIV Alpha Test 2
* Vanatsu alpha test play impressions part two, second half
* Famitsu.com alpha report: Limsa Lominsa and shops
* Famitsu May 13th/20th 2010 Tanaka Komoto Interview
* FFXIVCORE Presents: Bomb That Tune!
* What kind of Loot Distribution system did you prefer your LS to have?
* From Dragonovich’s Blog: “Classes - Palette to paint jobs”

Download and listen at FFXIVCore’s website.

Discuss this news article on our forums.

- The alpha test has begun and would it be accurate to say that the whole world is watching?  At this stage of testing there is only a limited amount of players, but the development team has taken their first big step.  I’d like to talk about how you feel the test is progressing, and what you hope to accomplish as you go forward.

Tanaka: The current situation for the alpha test is that we have testing time split up into 4 hour blocks for each region — Japan, North America and Europe.  Admittedly, we have not stabilized the server, and the game is not fully playable yet.  We’ve been causing some headaches for our test players who were lucky enough to get chosen for the alpha, but with each update we are improving the game.

- What is causing the server instability?

Tanaka: We have the same amount of testers in each region, but from our experience beta-testing FFXI, we figured only 50% of players would be logging in at the same time.  Additionally, the testers in Japan were all selected as passionate FFXI fans, so they are eager to play, and the percentage of them logging in is extremely high.  The servers don’t crash as often during North American and European tests.

For the April 15th update, we extended the amount of time between logins required to remain in queue to 10 minutes and introduced a system to display your place in that queue.  It allowed people who were waiting to get in to have some visual indication of their progress, and it let us organize the traffic better.

Komoto: As for the test itself, we sincerely apologize that everyone has not been able to enjoy the game to their satisfaction.  We are also extremely grateful for all the feedback and opinions we have received so far.

- What are your impressions of the feedback you have received?

Komoto: They are certainly much different then what we hear from the development side.  They notice a lot of little things that we don’t.  In addition, there are some interesting differences between the opinions of the different regions.  Personally, it’s been a big change for me, as I had been away from the action for so long working on FFXIV.  Now that people are logging in and the alpha test is in motion, I’m finding myself back interacting with the developers and with management — it feels like I’m home again.

- Have the developers been logging into the game?

Komoto: We want too, but we still haven’t increased the amount of people who can access the game, so we’re trying to restrain ourselves. (laughs) We want as many players as possible to get a chance to play.

Tanaka: During that first test, I was the only one at my PC trying to fight through the crowds to login my character. (laughs)

- Really! (laughs) Would we know it was your character if we saw it?

Tanaka: I was logging in as “Azagba Tanaka,” so you would probably have a clue. (laughs)  We can see chat logs and such from the developer side, but it’s difficult to get a full picture of what players are doing from that alone.  Therefore, I want to login as a representative and get an unfiltered look at exactly what the situation is like in-game.

- The Producer has to do it himself, right? (laughs) Have there been any particular opinions from the players that have left an impression?

Komoto: The alpha version is still focusing on basic controls and movement, so there have been comments that the response time is slow, or such and such command needs fixing.  We expected some control issues and let people know on the tester site to tell us, for example, if they were difficult to understand without a tutorial.  As we expected, many people confirmed that they are tough to grasp.  This is something we feel needs to be addressed before release.

Tanaka: We are diligently investigating any issues that get a lot of feedback.  One interesting thing to note is the difference in the amount of feedback posted to the Japan, North America and Europe tester forums.  Japan has about 5000 posts.  Europe and North America have a whole digit more with 19,000 and 25,000, respectively.  The amount of testers in each region is the same, but we are seeing 5 NA posts for every single JP post, which really highlights the cultural differences of the regions.  Also, North American posters tend to write many more suggestions.  It’s like, “Listen to my ideas!” (laughs)

- Meaning, Japanese players are a little more “graceful” would you say?

Komoto: More like they take their time and try to get a full understanding of the current situation.  We thought they would have more scathing feedback for us, but it hasn’t turned out that way.  It feels more like they are looking out for us than trying to criticize.

- So, what you’re saying is, you don’t exactly have the time to be all warm and fuzzy with the players?

Komoto: It’s nice, but it doesn’t feel like we have really accomplished anything yet. (laughs)  Though I do enjoy being back on the management-side of things.

Tanaka: We still have mountains of work to do. (laughs) We’re still putting out pieces of the alpha version and need to examine what needs changing.  Even when the official release comes out, we have to start preparing for the next project, so I’m not sure we’ll even feel that sense of accomplishment and closure then.

- But that’s part of working on an MMO — it’s never really “finished.”

Komoto: Putting together an event where all the fans come together really gives us that sense of accomplishment though.  It’s like, “We did it!” (laughs)

Tanaka: I get that feeling everytime I log in with the players and watch them enjoy the game.  The alpha version isn’t at that stage yet, so I’m working hard to get it there.

- Ever since FFXIV was first announced, you have promoted it as a game that will change and evolve as you take in player feedback.  Is it safe to say this plan has not changed?

Komoto: No, it hasn’t.  It won’t even change once the game is released and official service begins.  There are many things we want to fix, and we can’t just deliver a product with only what we like.  At this stage, we want to know what you want the most.  Of course we don’t just want to hear about the bad points, we want to take in and consider everyone’s opinion on the future of the game.

- In other words, during the alpha and planned beta testing phases, you want players to send you any opinions they might have, no matter how trivial?

Tanaka: Exactly.

Komoto: As we mentioned, player opinions often contain things we simply overlook on the developer side.  Even before the alpha started, we posted the play manual and people already had opinions on that. (laughs)  Developers would take a look at what players noticed and learn things.

Tanaka: Conversely, we are also able to get confirmation for some of our own assumptions.

Komoto: So there’s two goals: Discovering what we overlook, and confirming our assumptions.  That’s why every single comment is important to us.

- Let’s move on to talk about the testing schedule.  Is it safe to assume the size and scope of the test is going to increase gradually?

Tanaka: We’re still examining the situation, but at this initial stage we want to be able to consistently conduct three tests a week.

Komoto: We feel it’s important to maintain server stability and allow everyone to enjoy the game.

Tanaka: As for the region-based testing, we are thinking of changing that at some point.  There are always people who just can’t fit the testing times into their schedule.

- How long do you plan to run the current alpha test?

Komoto: We had a general idea in the beginning, but the server stability issues have caused more problems than we could foresee.  We still want to examine players after they have been able to level their characters a little more.

Tanaka: Actually, we have two patterns set up for the speed of character growth, so we plan to delete all characters at some point during the alpha.  After we collect data on the currently implemented pattern, we will wipe everyone and start again with a the second one in play.

- So, at some points you will have to start over from scratch.

Komoto: That’s right.  This isn’t limited to the alpha, but in the beta as well, once things are running smoothly, we plan to do this multiple times up until the game’s release.

- Will you move on to the beta phase once you have fully examined the growth rate?

Tanaka: Currently, the alpha test takes place on a single World.  The next step is to increase the number of Worlds, which will multiply the number of testers.  That will be the start of what we call Beta-1, or perhaps Alpha-2.

- The plans change according to the situation.

Tanaka: Depending on what feedback we collect and how far development advances towards a final product, we can call the current game a “beta version.”

- Currently, regions are seperated during testing, but is there a time planned when everyone will start playing together?

Tanaka: That will probably happen once the Worlds are running 24 hours a day.  We’re currently working towards that.

- How are things going development-wise?

Tanaka: The graphics are pretty much finished.  Next, planners and programmers need to make some final adjustments, but it’s tough to say exactly what percentage is complete. (laughs)  Even with the graphics complete, there are things that need tweaking.  For example, the lighting throughout Limsa Lominsa is going to completely change.

- Is the general framework of the world complete?

Tanaka: The basics are pretty much done.  Like I mentioned, it’s mostly cosmetic changes that are left. (laughs)  System-related things like the user interface, or additional quest material are still being worked on.  If we consider how FFXIV has been in development for 5 years, we’re probably in the final 10% of its development cycle, which accounts for 50% of the game.

Komoto: With the start of the alpha test, we start to look at character growth, expanding the world, quests and more.  Looking at the alpha as it is now, there’s less than 10% of the game available.

Tanaka: As for the progression of development, a conservative estimate would be 65%. (laughs)

- Right now, the alpha has focused only on the PC.  How is development for the PS3 coming along?

Tanaka: We’re working hard on the PS3 as well.  We plan to have both versions begin service simultaneously.

- Then is it okay for those eager PS3 players to get excited?

Tanaka & Komoto: Yes!  We hope you look forward to playing.

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Original article @ zam

Please keep the following points in mind when applying:

*       The current tester recruitment is for the Windows version of the FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test only. Details regarding recruitment for the PlayStation 3 version will be released at a later date.
*      The game to be tested is under development, and may differ significantly from the commercial release.
*      Applicants may apply only once. Repeat submissions from an individual will invalidate all of that individual’s applications.
*      Inquiries regarding the selection process and/or its results will not be answered.
*      For more details, see the FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Application FAQ here.
*      Application contents cannot be changed once submitted.

Feel free to discuss the application process on our forums.

Gladiator weaponry is standard warrior-fare including swords (Bastard Sword, Gladius) and shields (Round shield, Lantern Shield).

Pugilists prefer to fight hand-to-hand; their arsenal includes knuckle equipment including Cesti, Baghnakhs, and knuckles.

More information as to the relationships between these weapons and their owners, available in the upcoming future, may shed light on their use in battle.

Source: Zam

The program includes the following songs from the Final Fantasy series:

FINAL FANTASY series: Main Theme, Swing de Chocobo

FINAL FANTASY I-III: Medley

FINAL FANTASY IV: Theme of Love

FINAL FANTASY V: Dear Friends

FINAL FANTASY VI: Opera “Maria and Draco”

FINAL FANTASY VII: One-Winged Angel, Opening - Bombing Mission, Aerith’s Theme

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Liberi Fatali, Fisherman’s Horizon, Love Grows, Don’t be Afraid

FINAL FANTASY IX: Vamo’ alla Flamenco

FINAL FANTASY X: To Zanarkand

FINAL FANTASY XI: Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds

For details on the upcoming event, visit the official Distant Worlds website:

http://www.ffdistantworlds.com/

Some take-home points for those interested in the upcoming MMO:

• The game represented at GamesCom is a less-than-halfway done model of the final FFXIV.
• The FFXI technique “skillchain” will be a battle element of FFXIV, although in a changed form
• Enemy creatures in FFXIV will sometimes be in parties which engage adventurers collectively.
• Maximum party size is not yet defined, but the nature of parties will be that they are flexible with their number of members, rather than being a set number of empty slots to fill.
• Battles can be taken into towns.
• The number of jobs, or classes, is not yet determined, and class additions are planned for routine version updates rather than expansions.
• FFXIV is being constructed with DirectX 9 in mind.
• Console and PC graphics options will be unique to their own platforms.

Beta news:

The first round of beta tests will be worldwide with a small sample group in small sessions periodically. These initial tests will only be for the Windows versions. Tests will gradually evolve to encompass more people as technology stress is tested.

Visit our forums to discuss the interview and other FFXIV news.

Click here to view the full trailer (FFXIVCore). Discuss the trailer on our forums.

Denkegi continues to be the primary source of new information, now giving names the currently known classes and some non-player creatures in the world as well as investigating some key components of FFXIV.

The classes are officially known in Japan as 弓術士(Bowman/archer), 格闘士(wrestler/monk), 斧術士(axe specialist/fighter), and 裁縫師(weaver). The weaver profession is classified as a trade discipline while the others are classified as war disciplines.

An assortment of critters also gives a bit of a flavor to the theme of FFXIV. Many are veterans of the franchise, including Puks, Morbols(Malboros in some iterations), and the comically goofy cactuar return to the scene while some appear out of relative obscurity.

Please register and visit our album to view more of these new creatures.

In an intervew with two of FFXIV’s developers, Dengeki reveals more about the nature of the game. The game is purportedly crafted in a way that maximizes the player’s own gaming experience based on their play style and preferences. The Guildleve offers goal-oriented questing and the Armory system offers flexibility nearly anywhere on the field.

Accessories, which were not visible without checking the equipment of other players in FFXI, are being considered as visible parts of the character avatar in FFXIV. Though it may be an exaggeration, the developers imply that every bit of customized detail will be visible on the character. Character customization through different hairstyles was also touched on. Players will continue being silent protagonists, as voice acting will only be offered in limited amounts for non-player characters during significant story cutscenes.

The world of Eorzea will be seamless, a word that may be unfamiliar to many players of the current popular MMOs. This offers an aspect of immersion in another level by allowing transitions between areas to be continuous, allowing players to involve themselves in the world without being interrupted by loading screens. The separations will move from area/area to town/field in FFXIV, with towns being the hubs for player gatherings and fields the frontier for exploration and questing. Weather will also be present in areas, although its effect on gameplay is under discussion.

Included in the evolution of the battle system are the ideas of terrain advantage and battle positioning. Both are under scrutiny but neither has been denied as a possible factor in battle. Ultimately, though, players who find themselves knocked out will return to a familiar site-the home point, or Aetheryte. This new but old concept does away with the old Mog House and Home point in one fell swoop, replacing both as the center for a player’s adventure and even offering teleportations between towns.

Weapon wear rears its ugly head in Eorzea, present in FFXIV to facilitate the relation between crafters and warbands. Thankfully, crafters will no longer lose weapons or components when failing their task, an improvment on FFXI’s system. Armor will also be susceptible to this type of durability limitation. Areas will be introduced specifically for crafters and warriors to meet and do business, facilitated by the ability for players to enter comments in order to express their desires for a particular service or good.

The relationship between FFXI and FFXIV is being addressed further. The Square Enix security token will be present for system security in FFXIV, Windowed mode will be a feature at release, and emotes will be expanded on in FFXIV.

More information will come as it is revealed. In the meantime, feel free to join the conversation on our forums and discuss the latest news.
Sources:

http://ffxiv.zam.com/story.html?story=19635
http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=19521

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