The Golden Patch

Patch 1.18 is probably the largest patch to have ever been released by SE, it's massive and epic. What will be in the fabled Golden Patch:

New MATERIA System: yes that's right, Materia is coming back to the FF series! What we know so far is that the Materia System will allow you to turn old weapons and armor into stat materia and etch sockets into new weapons and armor to attach these stat materias into. We also know that the materia system will allow for HQ crafting, increasing the sockets on equipment and also HQing Materia...who knows what that will do, but I think it's a safe bet you'll be getting more then just 1 stat materia in a HQ.

Company System: The long anticipated Linkshell Company system is coming! This will usher in a new era in Linkshell communication, where Company Alliances can do things together, SE is being very hush hush about what exactly this feature will entail, but I think we're in for a treat with this one. I'm not sure if they are adding the Company Airships yet, but I do know that the coding for that has already started...who knows when it will be finished though.

PvP: Large scale battles with PvP and PvE content is currently being worked on atm, but is not set to be released yet, but it's going to be something rather large, that's all they'll tell us atm.

Instanced Dungeons: Several Dungeons are being released in 1.18. That's about all I know, but it should provide some fun linkshell activities...finally.

Auto-Attacking: Auto-Attacking is finally being released and frankly it's about damn time, no more spamming the 1 button over and over, which leads me to the next topic.

New Jobs System: This is probably the biggest secret that the devs are keeping atm. From reading several articles from Yoshi-P and the rest of his team I believe the old system will remain...somewhat, so as not to reset everyone to level 1. We know for fact that there will be specific jobs and that those jobs will be more powerful then the old classes in the fact that they are specialized Jobs and they will recieve bonuses. You can most likely count on White Mage, Black Mage, Warrior, Monk, Ranger, Scout (thf). Beyond that, I know for fact that Yoshi-P was working on a Dark Knight equivelent about 6 months ago and even had the artifact gear all sketched out. We know for fact that there will be advanced jobs with quests to open them up, much like FFXI. Here is a direct link to the Battle Blueprint: Click Here

Abolishment of Physical Level: This is speculated, but with very good reason. During one of the player surveys, players told the team they were open to complete and total abolishment of all old class system for new specialized classes, so that everyone didn't feel like a blue mage (that's what people equate the current system too, just one big blue mage job). Yoshi's team have come out in several forum posts and hinted at possible deletion of the Physical Levels, and I believe Yoshi said something about wanting to do this in the next patch, shortly after the small one in June. He seems to be wanting to keep the skill level system in place, altering the skill points to become exp points and rename the system. With this change will also be a change to attribute stat points as they are currently linked to physical level, but it's really anyone's guess what this change will be exactly.

Guildleves Reborn: These will be changing, if your interested read this article, it says it better then I could. Click Here

There is still much more content in the Patch including new NM's, Job-Specific gear quests, more quests in general and much more. I remain optimistic that this game could actually turn out good after all, I suppose we'll see, but this is deffinately a massive bandaid for the gaping wound that is FF14.

Great update info Hak and ty for informing us.

The big question is.....


Is 14 worth returning too yet????

I would say no for right now. It's still free for as many accounts as you want, but all of this new stuff is going to have bugs and loads of them, after 1.9 the game will be playable I'm almost certain of that. The stuff they are adding, while epically awesome, is still just foundation work. There are hints of a grand battle approaching, even GM's are wandering the lands (literally), hailing a poem of forewarning of the approaching darkness. Right now they are hiding something big you can tell. The Company System I can tell you has something to do with it. They have been quietly working on 3 Grand Companies (companies with huge behemoth size ships like the one you saw in the opening sequence), they even had a meeting to discuss how much money the 3 company system was going to cost and they are going full steam ahead with it. My personal theory is that the 3 companies will be the flagships for war between the Garlean Empire and the 3 nations, but more then that, they will be like having 3 factions (like wow has 2) and the 3 factions will all be at war with one another. I think this because they said they are adding a MASSIVE PvP and PvE system to the game, which they spoke about right after they had their big financial meeting.

They have already met (back in may) to discus the "Mount System", which will be more then just Chocobos. You can most likely expect personal airships (like the beginning cs) and others, it will be a system not just a single form of transportation.

Materia will be a Craft, like Goldsmithing and others, there is even talk of being able to form materia with materia already attached to the actual item you are crafting. Only 2 instance dungeons are being added right now, but they are just the framework for whole lot of others.

Basically you can look at FF14 as a house. As of 1.9 everything will be complete for a nice foundation. From there they will finally be able to beef up the content. So I'm afraid most of 2011 is going to be foundational stuff, content is still far too scarce, hence why everything is still free, but they are pushing for a huge Content HEAVY patch in 2.0, which is also when I believe they will start charging again. I'm betting by next year at this time the game will have picked up quite a bit of players and will be completely and enjoyably playable, maybe even by February or March it will be, but I wouldn't hold my breath for anything sooner then that. I mean they only JUST finished concreting their plans of development for the next year two weeks ago. So it will take some time.

The new job system is not and I repeat NOT the old jobs reworked, I just finished digging around and found some stuff. The Jobs will be completely unique and apparently you can still use the class system which will still have it's uses, but primarily classes will be used for Solo Play, while Jobs will be greatly wanted in Party Play.

Oh and one last thing, they are planning to revamp every zone in the game with landmarks and stuff like that. Guildleves will be solo content, but the emphasis is being placed outside of these activities, so if anything happens to Guildleves after this update I'm pretty sure it will be only for gimping it further. In 1.8 and 1.9 there will be a complete revamped new beginning tutorial and new beginning content (story content I would presume). And as of 1.8 Return will cost 0 Anima (personally I wish they would just get rid of stupid teleportations as I find it kind of cheesy). Oh and one last thing, the controls have already been redone, they are the exact same controls as XI, so it's easy to control it now, the only difference is using WASD controls for the camera instead of using the arrow keys, all else is the same.

so i just read these and re-installed 14 while i will not be on it much at all i am quiet curious in the updates... i am actually excited to see the changes when this game was first released i wanted to shoot myself i was so disappointed SE appears to be heading in the right direction and it sounds like PvP will be a much bigger thing than XI's i honestly hope it turns out kinda like WoW's with the multitude of differing PvP systems. The Job system sounds something like Tactics were levels on basic jobs and even advanced jobs will offer new job quests like idk 10 in Gladiator and 20 in Marauder will unlock Dark Knights quest or something. Its sounding like easier to use systems than promys and quest battle grounds which other than Story Line progressions and items from KS, BS, ect. offered no real EXP gain these sound like they'll offer rewards and exp. the Materia system will be an intirguing addition I personally want to see a sphere grid system added for the jobs and i say you make the advanced job quests an attempt to attain the sphere to unlock that piece of the sphere.



Just some ideas! =)

Hopefully it will get the people back in again.