Just got news of the new expansion, Chains of Promethea or somethign to that effect. Two new areas (at least) - a Moblin underground city that gets "deeper and deeper" (sounds kinda cool)... and a beautiful new area off the side of Quon that's land-entrance was blown up in the Great War by the beastman, and is now under control by them.

I'm really.. not happy.... about the fact that it's something we have to buy (it better be cheap -_-). It also better have new jobs! Ideas I've had :x could be something like...

-Blue Mage: (can learn the enemy's TP skills, but Bomb Toss would still hurt everyone around the guy, so it'd be fair, and etc.)
-Dancer: (Face it, they're gonna implement these guys/gals eventually)
-Berserker: (picture this... fast attack speed, high melee damage, high hp, but absolutley no defense and once it initiates auto-attack it can't stop? >.>)
others
Maybe even Race Specific Jobs! I know it'd be bad idea, sort of. But really... nobody would want a non-Mithra dancer :P

Just some ideas throwing around. The poll is self explanatory.

Well, can't pick "No... I think it's stupid, making us pay even more? or other reasons" because it's a big MMORPG and it's BOUND to happen no matter if you complain or not.

Can't pick "I'm undecided. It has the potential to be awesome, but why can't they just make a few patches and implement the things over the summer?" because for one, I, in no way in hell, am I going to sit down, watch my download for about 500 MB of new data take hours upon hours, that's just dumb.

And I can't pick "Yeah!!! It's gonna be AWESOME! ^_^" because dunno what's in it.

SO.... I pick the 4th option "I'm gonna get it and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME SAY NO!"

Well, I apologize for the biased poll. As of now, I'm going to get it, but I may get bored over the Summer with it :x. Which makes me hope this expansion is going to be jammed-pack full of stuff, or it isn't worth my money.

I personally think expansions will be the downfall of the MMORPG genre.

And seriously, would say.. like... letting you download the expansion on your free time (ie you can download an hour here, fifteen minutes there, three ours then, etc.) and only have the new features activiate on the release date really hinder you that much?

I mean, that's like 5 minutes each day before logging on. That shouldn't cause too much trouble =\

Some things are too big to really just set in 5 or so minutes a day. Not to mention how much of a pain it is for 56kers.... and not to mention how much of a pain it is for 56kers who don't play everyday.

These things also have to be beta tested of course... and well, Expansion Packs are Expansion Packs. It's a widely known fact that we have FFXI for much much shorter than the JPN. Think about them not getting anything because of us. That's pretty damn wrong when you think about it. Being stuck at level 75 with absolutely nothing to do.

Going back to downloading the stuff.... well, I would like to think of it as this..... if such a system existed, we wouldn't be playing the game. The servers would blow up hard like. The most cheapest and efficient way to upgrade is expansion packs. No server stuff and they pick up money along the way.

The thing about any MMORPG out there is that you're going to have to pay more for an ever expanding game. The price of one cannot compare to any other game on the market because of how the game can be expanded.

Unlike you really like to see the same thing again and again in FFXI (I'm not saying I'm bored of it yet, I want more to look forward to of course), you're not obligated to pick up the Expansion Pack. Square-Enix has stated that more things will be announced in this new Expansion Pack... if anything, it should be a must-buy. From what I heard, it's not only going to be affecting the higher level players but players in other levels as well.

THUS.... Expansion Packs, you either live with em or not play at all is all I'm saying. ^^;

Typo thinks the expansion should be neat no matter what happens, especially if it'll affect lower-mid level players somehow. So far so many things have been added in patches to benefit the high levels, and not Typo! I'm also not against paying for it, as after all, like Moggie said, it's an ever-expanding, ever-changing game. Ish only fair for us players to make some sort of investment in the major changes, as they probably wouldn't be possible (or at least not as large) without that financing. It's also alot more convenient than having to d/l it like one huge patch. It'd make Typo cry having to wait for that thing even on DSL (not like Typo's DSL is even that fast or anything ._.) ...

Typo keeps hearing people calling out for a Blue Mage job, but unless they change it up a bit, both it and BST will pretty much nullify each other. Also, the idea of race-specific jobs has come to mind a few times. On one hand it'd be neat, since it'd give each race a different "edge" rather than just relying on their stats to make them unique. On the other hand, poor people like Typo who are really only interested in one or two races, and would rather play as his own sex get gimped.

To Typo the most exciting thing about the exp ish Tavnazia. We're finally able to access the land that ish featured in the intro sequence. It's like taking a step into history, going back to where it all began... pretty nifty ^^~

Well I've only had the game since saturday, so of course I haven't even explored the goodies from Rise of the Zilart...Right now I won't care a lot about Chains of Promethea...


And if it's released in fall, I'll have restarted school for the Bar and won't be investing much hours in FFXI...but sure, I'll get around eventually. That's all the fun in a MMORPG, it's ever changing :)


And I agree entirely about the expansion pack VS downloading patch thing. Oh, sure, I'm on cable but it IS much more convenient to buy it rather than downloading it. Plus you know it won't cost as much as buying a new game. I'd say something like 30-40 CAN if I judge from the price of the EQ expansion packs.

I looked up stuff about the new expansion, no wheres does it say it will cost us any money.

I played Lineage I andif you had an active account, they sent you the expansion CD. I assume S-E will do the same thing. We are already paying for the game, they cant charge us any more.

Impositive we will be sent a free copy.

Originally posted by Ark Mune
I
I played Lineage I andif you had an active account, they sent you the expansion CD. I assume S-E will do the same thing. We are already paying for the game, they cant charge us any more.

Impositive we will be sent a free copy.

Hahahhahahaa, you're out of your mind.

They charged money in Japan for the Rise of Zilart expansion... they will charge money in the U.S. for whatever expansion this is.

"they can't charge us any more" ROFLZ

You have started playing... they own you now... have you never heard of "Everquest" which came out with like 283483473 expansions and charged for each one of them?

Thing is, in my experience, a lot of expansions cost just as much as the original game. I mean, I can understand maybe $15 or $20 for one, at most... but $30+ is just trying to milk as much cash out of us as possible. Which is the entire point of an MMORPG, but that's... um.. another issue? :x

With Lineage, they sent us the expansion cd's, NCSoft are not cheap bastards in that scence. If they make us buy it, it should only be $15 max.

No one is arguing with you about the fact that Lineage gave you a good deal, Ark Mune...

But Square-Enix do want money, they do want to turn a profit, so they're going to milk the expansion for all it's worth.

...however, chances are when FF11 is released in Australia around Christmas, Chains of Promethea will come included, like Rise of the Zilart was included in the American release.

So I won't have to pay! Ha!

*slaps Exs* damn you!! you most likely get two expansions free. But then again, we NA and JP get to play much earlier then you, plus we get more games.

See the thing is, everyone is all "This company is milking money off of us" and for some REALLY ODD reason, they make it sound like they are the only company that is doing it.

Seriously folks, all companies will do this. Sony did it, Microsoft did it, Nintendo did it, Sega did it. All the goddamn companies out there did it, McDonalds even... heck Starbucks did it too!

So the whole "milking money off of us", please do not make it sound like Square-Enix is the only one jacking money off of you. ^^;

Originally posted by MogKnight
See the thing is, everyone is all "This company is milking money off of us" and for some REALLY ODD reason, they make it sound like they are the only company that is doing it.

Seriously folks, all companies will do this. Sony did it, Microsoft did it, Nintendo did it, Sega did it. All the goddamn companies out there did it, McDonalds even... heck Starbucks did it too!

So the whole "milking money off of us", please do not make it sound like Square-Enix is the only one jacking money off of you. ^^;


AMEN.


And besides, it still isn't all that much even if it's the same price as the original game. Most of us bought FFX-2 and it was more or less an "expansion pack" of FFX...:p And I when mean same price as the original game, I don't mean the price of the HDD. Let's face it, considering a 40GB HDD for PC will cost about 99.99$ US unless you get it on eBay, you could "almost" say Square-Enix "gave" you the game with the HDD :p Yeah, sounds very sarcastic, I know, but you can't deny it doesn't make a little sense.

So, in the end, Square-Enix is only really milking us with the monthly fees...So it's not that bad that it costs us money for an expansion pack.

And in the end, if you haven't even reached the point where you can profit of the features of the expansion, then why do you even bother buying it ? lol

But, seriously though...I think the expansion pack will be via a download instead of a DVD, even though I'd prefer the latter. They'll probably do what they did for the US release of the game that included Rise of the Zilart, they simply send you a registration code (after payment is received, needless to say), then your PlayOnline browser will detect that you "activated" the expansion pack and will install the patches according to it. It would be easier for THEM, as it would save them production costs.

Well, I think the cost of sending the data would be more than sending it in a hard format. Server would be really boggy to the point where if you really had to sit down to download 500mb or more, it'd be a bitch for them to handle the server pressure. FFXI didn't have an open beta for a stress test after all.

The only worry (for me anyways) is the fact that I own both FFXI for PC and PS2 (well... the PS2 got me the reg codes, the PC I had but installed from a friend). I REALLY hope that in some way that they would include the EXP that is compatable with both PS2 and PC versions... it would really be a bitch to buy two Expansion Packs.

Hopefully you didn't think I was using "milking the cash out of us" to refer just to Squenix.

@Evad
That's odd. We got a 160 GB Hardrive for less then $99. I think it was 60, but I may be mistaken.

Also.. in general

I just hope that the expansion will be huge. I would never have gotten into FFXI if its going to turn out to be another Everquest. Besides EQ's many glaring flaws, the main one I have difficulty with is the speed with which the expansions were released. I can accept a new FFXI expanion every year. But anything faster than that should be free for us (ie patches). We already are paying absurd amounts. I mean, there's what, at least a million of us playing? That's $13 million a month; 130 million yen. That's more then enough to cover the upkeep costs (including the GM staff) and make a profit.

But, alas, maybe I'm just holding onto some dream that Square is different then all the companies, and cares more about their fans then the fatest paycheck.

I think I might've had something else to say, too, but it's not coming to me.

Originally posted by PlasmaTorture


@Evad
That's odd. We got a 160 GB Hardrive for less then $99. I think it was 60, but I may be mistaken.



Well that depends more or less of the brand of the HDD and the location of where you bought it. And also the currency of the price...but I could get a "good" 40GB HDD for PC at about the same price I paid FFXI.


@MogKnight :

Yeah, I forgot about the server taxing. Seeing it that way, it may not actually be cheaper for them, but who knows. Not everybody will pay for the expansion right away and at the same time, so it might not be that over-taxed...

There is a way to attach a 40+ gig PC HDD to your PS2 but you need a modchip and I'm not entirely sure if it would work with FFXI... but who knows. :O

I played FFXI last nite, and at the log in screen for FFXI where you can select help and everything, in the lower right hand corner it said in big letters : 'Chains of Promethea'. and right below it it had scrolling text in side a neat design. The text said something to the affect ' The new FFXI expansion pack' and then it said 'For sale in Fall!'

[fuck] it is gonna cost us[/ fuck]

Well, according to RPGFan , the expansion will be a on a CD-ROM :

http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2004/1426.html

Don't really know where they came up with it, unless they understand japanese...

Jobs I would like to see. Maybe a little better defined or worked, but here are some examples of jobs that might be interesting if they popped up in the game:

Demolitionist: expert at making explosives and using explosive weapons

Necromancer/Druid: a la Diablo 2

Trapper: can set traps to lure monsters to, weaker attack but does more initial damage with traps and more likely to get 'body part' treasures such as incest wings, rabbit hides, etc.

Cavalier: Cavalier can attack while riding chocobo. Does less damage or is less accurate on foot.

I wish they would have the same kind of progression that you get for the job equivalents in FF Tactics. Like Monk learning all those cool punch techniques by level 8 and such.

Yeah the PlayOnline update server got taxed to the point of not being accessible once before this year. Downloading the expansion would kill them.

I'm sure an update will coincide with the expansion though so non-buyers can still play. The last expansion added some things that if not accompanied with an update would break everyone else's game. If you wanna see what it was like don't set up your expansion content ID with your current copy, you'll be blocked from areas like kazham but you can still see people who have the advanced jobs running around I bet.