May 2026 Version Update

Famitsu interview

https://www.famitsu.com/article/202605/75074

They say one of the reasons it's hard to add new zones is they are at/near the limit of how many zones the game is allowed to have, ID stuff?

However the game is very messy, and has lots of dummy zones / unused things and they think a cleanup will allow them to add new zones, after removing those from the database.

They say they have a proper engineer (coder) assigned, but he is currently being used mostly on playonline issues and so the other work they wanted him to do is "on hold" (blue stuff)

No idea what the playonline issues are.

Some windows users can't get POL to work.

Yes the server send the current ZoneID is sent to the client and it has a ridiculously small fixed length, think 255 (8-bit integer) or something like that. The client then use's that ID to load that zones models and geometry data from it's local DAT's. You can use Altana viewer to see them all. Hopefully they can scrape some free to let them add newer areas. Also wonder what wide eyed scared new hire is being thrust into this ancient coding hell.

This is how it looks on BGwiki:



See? Bottom of long list, a wall of Text, etc. Meanwhile, my post: "hey cool, a rank 1 bonanza prize out in the open for everyone to see! Has this always been there during anniversary events?"

Also, maybe I just want to talk about something I've never seen in a zone I never visit?

By the way, they are adding high tier battlefields based on the mini expansions in the future.

This means you have to own those expansions, they are half price or whatever right now.

I was surprised to see this, but then I checked and I realized my zone list was outdated.

Zone IDs go from 0 to 300 (I'm not sure what the bit-length of the addressable value is, but I imagine a Zone+SubZone make up a total identifier).

https://github.com/Windower/Resources/blob/master/resources_data/zones.lua
DAT Association: Probably outdated?
I think the only Zone without any DATs associated with it is 286? ...Yikes. That's OK. SE can delete Windurst.

I don't understand them saying this cause:




Although maybe they hit that too, it's not just zones but bcnm areas, connecting areas etc

https://we-are-vanadiel.finalfantasyxi.com/post/?id=764&lang=en

The dat ranges use gating like:

If zoneid < 256, entity dat is zoneid+6720
otherwise, entity dat is zoneid+86235

So, it seems like client-side, they reserved ranges of dat IDs for various zone-related resources and had to create secondary ranges for the higher zones.

We're already well past 256 zones, so I'm not really sure where the limitation is. He mentioned talking to a server programmer, so it seems like it's probably server-side.

FES key, as well as ANV key and Silver Voucher are on a JP midnight lockout. I haven't bought any Copper Vouchers, but the table on BGWiki makes it seem like they're unlimited.

I'm parsing my mule's accuracy and I'm pretty sure he used to be 97% acc (main/sub, GEO/DNC). He's pulling 95% against Apex Locus Bats with Distract (3390 samples). Did they break the mainhand 1H acc boost?

Looks like they may have updated it server side sometime around Adoulin.


Their internal system might go higher then what we have DATs for zones that were used in testing or for something that was never completed.

Copper vouchers, special gobbiekey, and Fo key all seem to be unlimited.

Is the rate of getting any good thing worth it to do the new Moogle event daily for FES key, ANV key, and perhaps unlimited SP gobbie keys? I never get anything good from the keys personally...

It's like playing the lottery. Not worth it, no. But you could always get lucky if you keep wasting your time playing.

To those wondering about the moogle mount, I'm with you on that complaint.. >.> Also the higher res maps I saw someone post were cool. Too bad SE will NEVER update any of those or the thing that indicates what direction your facing on those maps.. /sets the old maps on fire an resumes using exp to nav. PS: I don't mod my game files, tho I'm known to delete certain sound files cuz.. >.>

Magic skillups don't seem to follow the same pattern as combat, and I'm not sure Jubilee Ring is even working on them. No similar display errors, and nothing more than 0.5 per cast.

No, I had a "Enhancing Magic Skill raises +10" displayed.
I assume it was a +1 level (10x 0.1), but I didn't go to the menu before and after to check.

Cursed Items history is not reflected.

Wait, really? Where was this said?! I would definitely love an iLevel rolling pants. Or the return of the Anwing days.

https://www.playonline.com/pcd2/topics/ff11us/detail/40260/detail.html

I find it worth it for the little time investment that goes into it. I've gotten quite a few good things from it. Hjarrandi breastplate, Freke Ring, Crepuscular Earring. Those are a few of the things I've got. But I also long spells with nothing. But it's a gamble. But for me it's no stakes gambling. Only thing I lose is my time getting the keys.

AMAN Trove broken or it's always been this way?

* Had 2 character party
* One char waits at BC
* One char goes in.
* Opens one chest gets Impossible to Guage
* Open terminal coffer

One item in pool. Even if it were an item both chars had, should there not have been a replcaement item instead?

Logs
--------------------------
You hear an impossible to gauge thud of massive spoils!
You hear a noise, as if a large amount of spoils spontaneously appeared.
Jebus gains 2280 capacity points.
You find a worn sack of (DS stones +2) in the Terminal Coffer.
Battlefield clear time: 1 minute, 4 seconds!

no, u get nothing

Why can't they just change the ID datatype to INT/BIGINT/LONG ID etc. instead of 256? It should be easy, right?

"The limit for the area numbers was 255, which was a number that everybody felt would be more than enough when FFXI was first designed. However, we ended up reaching that limit approximately ten years into the game's lifespan. So even if we wanted to add new areas, there was no available area numbers for them."

Just an obvious question.

Changing core data types like that has unintended consequences that cannot be predicted without a ridiculous amount of automated testing to prove everything still works correctly.

Given all the seemingly unrelated issues that keep coming up with every minor change in every release, it is very safe to say they have very little automated testing in general, let alone any testing for basic functionality like "can client connect to zone X".

To give one basic example - the data sent by the server to the client on zone includes the zone id, among other things and there is a hard max size limit set for this data.

If the zone id suddenly takes up 2x the space in the data sent than it used to, what happens to all the other data. Does it still fit? What happens when it doesn't (nothing good). If the data is fragmented - split into multiple data - how do clients handle that (they don't).

Etc.

Should be easy to test if they are working in a development branch rather than just prod which hopefully they aren't doing.

I don't know, it's up to them. Technically it isn't that difficult as they make it out to be probably, but I haven't looked at it.

You do it then.

No engineer openings for FFXI/FFXIV at https://www.jp.square-enix.com/recruit/career/career/de/game/index.html

I'm sure AI can do it. What could go wrong.