Final Fantasy XIV

To all beta testers, thank you for your continued support!

At the start of the beta test there were many frustrations and worries due to the various issues such as the login difficulties. While there are still some issues remaining, we have determined that it is stable enough to hold the test for 24 hours straight. So starting today, the beta test will move on to phase 2 (Beta 2)!

Also the development is operating at full steam to add more new features, make a number of adjustments and address various issues and server load problems, so that the next phase of beta test (Beta 3) can begin somewhere between early and mid-August. With all the feedback provided on the forums and elsewhere, we are doing our very best to make sure that as many of your opinions as possible are heard. Please look forward to Beta 3!

Now, I have a few favors to ask regarding the beta test and I’d also like to explain some terms that previously weren’t explained in enough detail.

Guildleve and Party Play
We have received feedback saying that there aren’t enough monsters since Guildleves only get updated once every two days and testers are forced to battle monsters outside of levequests. There are two reasons behind this problem. One is that we didn’t explain our intentions clearly enough and the other is that what we intended is not working properly.

Levequests are designed to be a part of the game that players can enjoy casually in solo situations. However, levequests are also designed as an element for parties to take part in. To make sure they work for both kinds of players, it comes with the ability to adjust their level of difficulty. Even if you were to run out of levequest offers for a particular challenge, you can still join in on the levequests of others. This also comes with the following advantages:

- Both skill level and physical level can be increased
- You are able to receive the mission reward (Gil)

The system is designed to have no disadvantages for having more players in the party. So in case you run out of offers on available levequests, please cooperate with others and tackle other various levequests.

If you currently have levequest offers available, or levequests that may be a bit difficult at your level, please try and recruit some party members. Those of you who are familiar with FINAL FANTASY XI are probably already aware of this but a party is formed by a leader running a search and recruiting members by directly contacting the player. However, in order to lessen the burden on party leaders, we have implemented a feature where players can automatically join the party if they meet the requirements set forth by the party leader.

We are planning to implement features in response to feedback such as "Allow us to form a party if our current physical level matches, even if our skill levels are different" and "Allow us to form a party even when we are far away from each other, but able to use Teleport" in Beta 3. Since there still are many parts of the game that are incomplete, we wish to receive more feedback on things of this nature.

As you can see, we would like testers to enjoy the party play options in levequests but at same time we are aware that the game is not optimally balanced yet. For example, skill rank increases more during battles against levequest monsters in comparison to normal monsters. Also, while under the effects of Guardian’s Favor, skill will increase even faster. However, considering the effort required, such as traveling time, we feel that more bonuses are required to encourage players to build up their characters by participating in other player’s levequests. For this reason, drastic changes will be made in Beta 3.

There are many other parts where party battle is not well balanced yet and they are the reason why party play is not very active. Therefore, we welcome more feedback on party play.

Behest
"Behest" is a new feature that was introduced in the beta test phase. However, it seems like there was not enough explanation on it, so I would like to take this opportunity to explain it a little more.

Basically, Behest is "A levequest where the offer is made by the game system itself." It is designed to offer a variety of missions depending on the number of players in the party and to become a substitute for levequests when no one has any available levequest offers.

If you see the Yellowjacket NPC near Aetheryte and the Aetherial Gate, please speak with them and try out Behest. There are many advantages to tackling this new system! For example, larger amounts of gil can be obtained in comparison to normal battles.

Just like party play, Behest is not quite balanced yet, so please send us your feedback!.

We hope to see the same great level of feedback and support during Beta 2!

FINAL FANTASY XIV Director
Nobuaki Komoto