A FOURTH expansion???

[Raydeus]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Lol what mithra thing?

Northern regions wouldn't make sense tbh...

I mean...gigas?

What would we do...20 missions of getting them pants? lol.

As long as it had nothing to do with the Mithra homeland I'd go synth not only pants, but trenchcoats and shirts for gigas.


Edit > And socks, lots of socks.

[eticket109]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Lol what mithra thing?
Northern regions wouldn't make sense tbh...
I mean...gigas?
What would we do...20 missions of getting them pants? lol.

someone posted before about a few NPC convo references to the Gigas homeland in the Northlands.

[Omniblast]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

They'll introduce Male Mithra's and Female Galkas into the game

[Ziero]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Well there's an item in game already that mentions a specific land to the South by name. It's that wall mask furniture who'se name I can't recall right now. To me that's the best indication that the Mithran homeland to the south, which seems to be a tribal like land, will come before the Gigas homelands to the north. And of course there's always the Mithran Trackers, who originate from these southlands, to consider.

[Feenicks]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Isn't there supposed to be a land to the Far West as well? Maybe not ... but think I saw a mention of 'a land to the far west' in an item description.

[Dark Raz]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

There is. It's the "Native" style more then likely.

[Feenicks]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Our resident loremaster was banned a few months back so I can't really confirm ... I'm sure someone will come along and fill us in with the details though ...

(that's your cue, whoever you are)

[Xaoko]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

The Far West looks like it'll be some crazy Native American/Mexican hybrid, judging from the destription of Salsa, and Bison gear (from CoP's site):

Salsa

A zesty sauce used by chefs specializing in dishes originating in the Far West.

Bison gear

Bison equipment is actually battle armor used by a fabled tribe of warriors residing in a land far to the west (far west?). Though made from tough leather, this equipment is suprisingly easy to move in, and protects its wearer from even the harshest blows.

Perhaps what we might see is similar to what we see with the Eastern continent: A "near west" (simply "west"?), and a "far west." Near might be the native american-themed land, and far west would be the one with perhaps mayan ruins, stuffed bellpeppers, you get my point.

Also, I would like to caution that because the plot has a lot of far east in it, that does not necessarily mean that the expansion will be with the far east. Yes, the chances are increasing every expansion, but remember, in terms of the plot and the existance of the far east in the plot, CoP made many people believe that we'd be going to the land of samurais and ninjas, but ToAU has proven us otherwise. Despite, just as before ToAU was revealed, the next expansion does indeed look like the far east.

And finally, I would like to take a quick second to discuss the far south. As we all can tell, there seems to be an equivelant of each major culture in the world in the game- oriental, middle eastern, european, (one day) native american and Aztec/Mayans, and finally, african. It is rather easy to point out middle eastern, european, and the western cultures, but one is rather hard to pinpoint: Indian culture. At first, it looked as if India would be present in the Near East, but the expansion has proven otherwise, as it focuses moreso on Turkish culture, more than anything (lots of Turkish foods and gear in this expansion :O). In the past, I've looked at items originating in various areas in the game (such as salsa from the far west), and have found a heavy concentration of materials india is known for (although not necessarily invented by) coming from the far south: damascus ingot, tafetta, and curry powder. Furthermore, the far south is known for the Tsahya Mask, and coffee beans, both distinctively African.

These two reasons, the heavy presence of both Indian and African items, albeit few in number, originating from the Far South makes me really wonder what SE has in mind for that region.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Seeing as how development on Treasures of Aht Urhgan began almost simultaneously with that of the Chains of Promathia expansion, the idea of a 4th expansion being in development at this time is highly likely. I wouldn't expect to hear anything of it until around the next E3, however.

[Aeni]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Seeing as how development on Treasures of Aht Urhgan began almost simultaneously with that of the Chains of Promathia expansion, the idea of a 4th expansion being in development at this time is highly likely. I wouldn't expect to hear anything of it until around the next E3, however.

It takes a really long time to develop new content and then test for bugs, quash those bugs and then make changes along the way as players progress through the previous content (So as to avoid making the "same mistakes") Plus fine tuning job balance and content difficulty.

And since they're not raising the job level cap ... I believe that the next expansion will be released early next year. Players can be fickle especially when faced with the possibilities that their job class can't be improved upon anymore once they are also capped in meriting. Only raising level cap or introducing a slew of brand new class equipment sets can alleviate this and due to balancing, looks like SE won't be raising the level cap anytime soon so the only other recourse is to keep churning out new content.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Early next year is very unlikely for an FFXI expansion, seeing as how the amount of content being distributed in Aht Urhgan is currently well behind schedule.

While Chocobo Racing was originally scheduled to be available around this time, we're just seeing the development of Chocobo Breeding brought to players. With Racing as the next major addition, there are still things like The Colisseum and The Pit that are still coming, and their releases will probably carry over until late in the summer of 2007. If each of these next three major additions are each delayed as long as Chocobo Breeding was, it's unlikely we'll see the conclusion of Aht Urhgan-based content until the fourth quarter 2007 or even early 2008.

[Aeni]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

Early next year is very unlikely for an FFXI expansion, seeing as how the amount of content being distributed in Aht Urhgan is currently well behind schedule.

While Chocobo Racing was originally scheduled to be available around this time, we're just seeing the development of Chocobo Breeding brought to players. With Racing as the next major addition, there are still things like The Colisseum and The Pit that are still coming, and their releases will probably carry over until late in the summer of 2007. If each of these next three major additions are each delayed as long as Chocobo Breeding was, it's unlikely we'll see the conclusion of Aht Urhgan-based content until the fourth quarter 2007 or even early 2008.

My thinking is that those things aren't even in AU. They will appear in the next expansion. I see AU as a way for SE to make money off of us while providing minimal content. "Oh noes, how could you sez that?" Two things:

-Development for PS3 is gonna cost a lot of money. A LOT OF MONEY. If a company is bleeding money in one side, they need to cover that hole up to make it look good for investors at fiscal year end.

-It's been shown that FFXI players are not adverse to buying expansions. In fact, they go nuts. Churning out expansions is a great way for SE to make additional revenue.

-Each major update gets larger and larger and becomes a focal point for frustration, Having expansions, therefore, provides a stop gap measure in needing to download bulky packages to update the client software.

Remember, SE is in it for the money and for no other reason at all. If they were losing money with FFXI, they'd shut it down (or the investors would) in a heartbeat and not bother keeping it up and running for sentimental purposes only (They have the Final Fantasy Movie debacle to thank for that)

[eticket109]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

AU providing minimal content?

- A new continent with 15-20 new zones

- 3 new jobs

- Assaults

- Besieged

- Chocobo racing and racing

- the Colisseum

- new missions and a ton of new quests

- ISNM fights

- a plethora of new mobs

- a bunch of new armor and weapons

That's minimal?

[largedopantwhite]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

New expansion? Yay! :D
I've pretty much given up that Squeenix will up the level cap or allow a higher subjob level, so I can only pray for two things....

Geomancer Time Mage

[tazirai]

Re: A FOURTH expansion???

If they allow 75/75 Job SJ .. we'd basically be able to solo everything haha.
Or at the least move aroudn like Prishe and Crew.
I'm glad to hear about the "annoucement " of the expansion even though , I'm still waist deep into AU an dneed to finish Promathia.

They seemed to learn with ToAU, that unlike Promathia, You don't need Hundreds of battles to tell a good story. Even though some of the battels make sense. Alot of Promathia Battles are just assanine, Snoll Szar anyone?

With Aht urghan things makes sense, and I like it when things make sense ^^.