Version 3.25 release notes
Version 3.25:

Cool New Leaderboards

✔ Climb to the top of your Clan; see who’s on the rise and who’s falling
✔ New local Leaderboards: who’s the best player in your country?
✔ Clan members who recently joined tagged as “New”
✔ Supersize my Leaderboards! More players now fit onboard

New unit upgrades!
✔ Upgrade your Laboratory to to unlock these mighty level 6 units:
✔ Barbarians get sharper swords and mighty horned helmets
✔ Archers get new bow techniques and fashionable tiaras from their Queen
✔ Giants are heartier and hairier than ever
✔ Balloons are pimped out with spikes and the Jolly Roger

Air-tight air defense!
✔ New deadly traps to stop airborne attackers: Air Bomb and Seeking Air Mine
✔ Upgrade your Air Defense turrets to level 7 to shoot down the nastiest dragons
✔ Turn enemy balloons into pincushions with the level 11 Archer Tower

Hero improvements!
✔ Heroes recover health faster thanks to the Alchemists’ new sleep potion
✔ Hero level and stats are now displayed correctly when visiting villages
✔ Heroes now patrol a larger area and show guard radius when tapped

Gameplay improvements
✔ We discovered that metal armor conducts electrickery! P.E.K.K.A is now a priority target and receives extra damage from Hidden Teslas
✔ Spell creation times reduced – blast more magic more often
✔ Notification when your troops are ready for battle (Army Camps full)
✔ Wall levels 9 and 10 strengthened: hold off the rampaging hordes for longer
✔ Shop now notifies when new items are available
✔ New Achievements: Heroic Heist and Mortar Mauler
✔ Lower reload costs for X-Bow levels 2 and 3
✔ Tapping a trap shows its trigger radius

Clash of Clans Update 3.25 is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: Clash of Clans Update 3.25

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FFXIV 1.0 Final Cutscene is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV 1.0 Final Cutscene

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• Simple Grouping Options – SE really dropped the ball on this one.  In FFXI Online seeking and building a party was extremely easy.  You simply flag up or search through the player database to compose a party.  This wasn’t the case when FFXIV was launched.  Rather then using a simple grouping option SE wanted you to stand in town /shouting in a non Global channel to create parties.  How you can release a MMO that doesn’t make grouping up with other players a focal point?
• No Auction House – I still don’t understand why FFXIV didn’t launch or till this day utilize an Auction House for trading.  It’s not like this is a new concept.  Auction houses have always been a huge moving force in any MMO’s economy.  Instead of implementing an Auction House SE wanted us to sell our items on retainers that vendor our wares for us.   So if you wanted to sell an item you would place it on your retainer and then place them in one of several designated locations.  After that all you can do is hope a player would search for that item on your retainer through hundreds of other retainers.  This system made buying and selling a very time consuming process.  A lot of players like myself would rather vendor our items then go through this process to sell our wares.  The retainer system sounds good in theory but would have been more useful in additional to an Auction House.
• High System Requirements -  When FFXIV was released it pushed the limits of most gamer rigs.  Even my old system at the time barely managed to get a score of 1200 on the FFXIV benchmark test.  I built that system from scratch and it ran everything I threw at it until FFXIV.   If you are not familiar with the benchmark scores then I’ll go over them briefly.  A score of 1500+ meant low,  2500+ standard, and 3000+ low high performance.  Luckily for me with a few minor upgrades like memory and a new graphics card I managed to bump my score up to 2200.  It only cost me about $200-250 at the time but FFXIV was playable at below standard quality.  Due to the high requirements a lot of players either were not able to play or just couldn’t stomach the lower performance on their rigs.  I played for about one year before I decided to build a new rig that cost about $600ish.  With my new rig I was able to reach a score of 3400 and was finally able to enjoy FFXIV.

These are just three of the failures that stood out to me when FFXIV was launched.  Before you we continue though I just wanted to say that these issues will be corrected in 2.0.  That’s the good news, the bad news is that they waited over 2 years to correct these issues.  I still have high hopes for FFXIV and if everything goes well… I will see you there.

FFXIV Three 1.0 Fails is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV Three 1.0 Fails

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FFXIV 2.0 Alpha Pictures is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV 2.0 Alpha Pictures

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We have recently begun sending notification e-mails to players accepted as alpha testers for FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn. For those who do not receive an acceptance notification this time, do not be disheartened! We are planning to augment the ranks of testers over time, and there will be more opportunities for you to join the fray.

The development team is still seeking players who would like to participate in the alpha test. If you are interested and have yet to apply, we encourage you to do so.

FFXIV Alpha Invites is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV Alpha Invites

©2013 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

I wanted to provide more details on how the servers will work because when I briefly explained about data centers it looks like there were a lot of players that had questions about it.

What’s going to happen is a player will be shown a complete list of worlds. Within the list, players will see which worlds are tied to which data centers (i.e. this world and this world is tied to the data center in Japan, this world and this world is tied to the data center in North America or Europe). Players will have the freedom of selecting any world they prefer.

This means that they can select a world that’s in the data center in their own region or they can select a world that’s based off of one in another region. For example, I would choose a world based in Japan because the data centers are physically closer to me. On the other hand, a North American or European player may choose a world based off of their data center centers to keep the lag to a minimum.

So let me make it clear that we’re not separating the worlds by language. For those who want to play with players outside of their region, they will have the choice of selecting a world that’s located in another region. Also, through the content finder, you will be able to select a language preference so for those who only wish to play with players that speak the same language, all they have to do is set the language preference to the language of their liking.

According to Yoshida, players will have the option to select any server from a list based on regional data centers. For example, servers A, B, and C connected to the US data center will be called US region. Server D, E, and F connected to the Japan data center will be called Japan region. Prior to this change servers A, B, C, D, and etc… were not labeled. It’s still not clear yet how this change will effect the content finder. What we do know is the content finder will be cross server with an option to set a language preference. I’m just going to speculate but I would imagine the content finder will be region based.

I really don’t know how I feel about this decision. I played Final Fantasy Xi Online since 2004 and the global severs have always been a unique aspect about the game. Just like its predecessor FFXIV servers are mainly comprised of Japanese players. This arrangement can be discouraging to non JP players due to a language barrier. I think the inability to communicate with the server majority puts non JP players at a slight disadvantage.

Don’t get me wrong. I love being able to play with players all across the world. Except when it boils down to statistics. If I’m trying to complete and progress through game content. I have a better chance at doing so on a server where I can communicate everyone. I’m not Japanese but I would imagine this change benefits their player base as well.

I learned a lot about the Japanese community and made quite a few friends playing Final Fantasy Online. I think the regional server change will help improve the non JP player base. I’m going to miss the old days but if this helps push FFXIV into the mainstream then I’m all for it.

FFXIV Regional Servers in 2.0 is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV Regional Servers in 2.0

©2013 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

- They (somewhat) ended up changing the map/layouts of the three cities after all.

- Amon, the re-introduced boss from FFIII, is going to be (one of?) the boss(es?) in Crystal Tower.

- Titan is confirmed to be in ARR from the start.

- Odin will ‘appear differently’ compared to that of other Primals.

- Depending on how one raises one’s chocobo, what they can wear in equipments will also be different. (ex: If you raise it as a mage-type chocobo, then it can wear mage gear; if you raise it as a tank, it can wear tank gear, etc)

- The new dungeon in the concept art will be one of the many leveling dungeons introduced in ARR, this one being one from R40~R45. Compared to the current slew of dungeons where it’s mostly ‘cave’ type dungeons, there will be more ‘ruin/tower’ type dungeons introduced in ARR.

- Hamlet will undergo a complete revamp. It will no longer be the ‘closed’ type content it currently is. The reason why it’s the way it is the current version is due to 1.0 limitations. In ARR they can finally implement a more open-style content, which is what they originally wanted to do.

- Monster AI will operate under a FFXII-style ‘gambit’-type system. Likewise, Chocobo AIs will operate under something similar.

- Depending on what class you start as, your starting city will be locked to where that class’ guild is located. (ex: If you start off as a MRD, you start in Limsa)

- Raid bosses will always drop some type of reward – somewhere around 2~3 rare drops per party, random lotted. Even if one didn’t get the rare drop, the players will be rewarded with tokens which you can then exchange for rare drops. In exchange, the chances to participate in the random lottery will be limited to 3 times per week. (Stanislaw’s notes: The text in the interview here isn’t really clear. What I’m assuming this means is that the chance to get that 2~3 rare drops is limited to 3 times per week, but one can still get tokens by trying the content over and over again. On the other hand, this can easily mean the return of horrid re-entry times.)

- All 1.0 players will get a chance to remake their character (appearance) for ARR. However, this can only be done once, and within half a year after launch.

- ARR’s PS3 base resolution is 1280 x 544, which is then stretched/adjusted to 1280 x 720. Reason: PS3 memory limitations, etc. It’s possible to set it higher as they’re trying to fit every model into 10GB (the limit is 20GB), but with future considerations in mind, they want to set the bar relatively low for the sake of smooth performance.

- PS3 UI elements is still somewhat customizable in the sense that it can be moved around. Resizing the UI, however, is still up in the air.

- With the gamepad cross-bar system, one can register up to 128 actions (there are a total of eight 16 slots) on the bar, per class.

FFXIV 2.0 Ui Pics & Info is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV 2.0 Ui Pics & Info

©2013 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

Upon the release of FFXIV: ARR, we will be removing one zero from all gil prices, in a process known as Currency Redenomination.

1. All NPC vendor buying/selling prices will be reduced to 1/10 of current values.
2. All quest rewards, monster drops, and in-game monetary rewards will be reduced to 1/10 of current values.
3. All repair costs, airship fares, and other in-game service fees will be reduced to 1/10 of current values.
4. Because of changes to game systems, the prices of existing items will change to varying degrees.
5. The maximum amount of gil that a player can possess will not change from 999,999,999.
6. The amount of gil required to obtain certain achievements will be reduced to 1/10 of current values.
7. All gil currently held by players will be reduced to 1/10 of current values.

I’m not surprised that SE decided to implement these changes in 2.0. I’m thankful they announced it before hand so that loyal 1.0 players won’t get the shaft once 2.0 goes live. I don’t know about everybody else but I plan to dump all of my Gil to power level my crafts. I also plan on buying items that I think might retain some value once 2.0 hits. It’s just a guess but I have a feeling the economy will be pretty screwed up for at least a month once 2.0 goes live. I think it’s best to stock up on and horde until the storm blows over.

Thank you SE for allowing your loyal 1.0 players to retain 10% of their wealth in 2.0. I know a lot of new players would love to see a complete wipe but that would be a bad business decision for SE. A bold move like that would alienate all the players that stuck it out with 1.0 these past two years. There’s somewhat of a concern about 1.0 players having a huge economical advantage over new 2.0 players. SE addressed this issue by adding new servers that will be closed to transfers in 2.0. If I were a new player I would rather hop on an established server then a fresh one.

FFXIV Giving Up 90% in ARR is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV Giving Up 90% in ARR

©2013 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

I kept a watchful eye on the progress of the game and when it finally came out I snatched up a Collectors Edition version of it. I was excited to be able to reunite with old friends and acquaintances after so many years. I just wished that it was under better circumstances. FFXIV turned out to be a major… MAJOR disappointment. There are hundreds of reasons why I didn’t enjoy FFXIV when it first came out but today I just want to focus on one of them. The questing and grinding portion of the game. The biggest issue I have with FFXIV is the lack of a simple progressive linear questing/grinding system.

In the current version FFXIV 1.2 you are awarded 4 quest(leve) credits every 12 hours. Assuming you log in everyday you will be able to do 8 quest per day. After that you will either have to party up or mindlessly grind all day. I have no problem with grinding or partying but I would like to see a progressive questing system implemented. If you played any other MMO then you probably already know what I mean. If not then I’ll explain how a progressive questing system works.

A progressive questing system is when you go to an area and work your way through level appropriate content. As you progress through the content you gain levels and take on slightly more difficult content. For example, at level 10 you go to a level 10 questing town and accomplish all the content there. Ideally by the time you complete the level 10 content you should be level 16-20. You should then be able to move on to a level 20 town and complete the content there as well.

I feel that if FFXIV implemented a system like this it would help promote interaction with other players in the game. It would also utilize the hundreds of monsters and areas that most players bypass due to the current grinding system. I understand SE is pushing their leve questing system but it’s just not working. By adding area specific quests in they can create lore and back stories to each individual area.

Right now the current leve system is impractical and mind numbing. I can see it turning a lot of new players away from FFXIV. My solution would be to add area specific leve NPCs to each major Aetheryte crystal. The leve allowance should also be removed or adjusted to give more then 4 credits every 12 hours. They can even reduce the rewards for leve completion but 8 quest per day is kind of silly. There’s not enough content in the game as is and to restrict it even further doesn’t not make sense. Give us in game objectives to complete and watch your game prosper SE. I still believe in you and hope that FFXIV 2.0 will be the MMO power house I was waiting for.

FFXIV Poor Grinding System is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXIV Poor Grinding System

©2013 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

[Details]
Character Names
After the merge and transfer, if two or more characters with the same first and last name exist in the same World, only one character can keep the name, based on the order of priority below.

1. Characters that are playable on both March 26 (Monday) and March 27 (Tuesday), 2012.
2. Characters that were created first.

If your character name must be changed because another character’s name takes priority, please enter a new name by following the on-screen instructions when you first log in after the World merge maintenance has taken place.
* After you enter a new name for the character, the change will also be reflected on the Lodestone.

With this World merge, all character names reserved for use from the Open Beta that have not yet been assigned to characters in the release version will be deleted, and thus no longer able to be carried over.

A Character that is flagged for name change will have a number like 01 and 02 attached to its original in-game name, such as ‘Chara Name01, ‘Chara Name02,’ and so on, until the name change is performed. This temporary name will be displayed in the linkshell, friends list, and blacklist in which the character is listed.
The temporary name will be replaced with the new name when the character is logged into after the name change is performed.
* After you enter a new name for the character, the change will also be reflected on the linkshell, friends list, and blacklist in which the character is listed, once you login with the character.

Retainer Names
If retainers with the same name exist in the same World, only one of the retainers can continue using the name, based on the same conditions described above for player characers.

If you are required to change the name, please do so by following the on-screen instructions when you first log in after the World merge.

About Linkshells
Carrying over linkshells
All linkshells shall be carried over to the new merged Worlds.
* The Lodestone linkshell pages will also be carried over.
* Players who transfer from the new merged World to a different World will be removed automatically from all linkshells in the current World.
* If the linkshell master leaves the merged World and transfers to a different World, the master will no longer be a linkshell member, but the linkshell itself will continue to exist in the merged World.

Linkshell Names
If two or more linkshells end up sharing the same name in a merged World, the linkshell with the most active characters will keep its name. For linkshell names that must be changed, the game will automatically add numbers such as “01″ and “02″ after the name.

In this case only, players may use a GM call to change the linkshell name after the World merge maintenance is completed. Because linkshell names may be rejected due to the use of forbidden words or other reasons, players should submit multiple candidates when making the GM call.
* Only masters can change linkshell names.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.

* The World merge will be performed in conjunction with this maintenance.

* Clients will update automatically upon launch after release of the patch.

* Patch download rates may vary depending on server congestion.

* Comprehensive patch notes will be posted on the FINAL FANTASY XIV Forums the day of the patch’s release.

[Date & Time]
Mar. 26, 2012 from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (PDT)

* The completion time may be subject to change.

[Affected Service]
- FINAL FANTASY XIV

* Access to inn rooms in Ul’dah, which was temporarily restricted after the Mar. 15, 2012 investigative maintenance, will be possible again after this maintenance.

* Retainers will not be repositioned automatically following this maintenance, so please be sure to manually summon your retainers if they were placed in the markets.

FFXiV Server Mergers & Patch 1.21a is a post from: Pwnsan.com

Original article: FFXiV Server Mergers & Patch 1.21a

©2013 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.