New Zones

Obviously, it doesn't have a theme because the zones are connected via Atomos. >_>

This one is connected via a tram system it seems :< The concept of riding on a train instead of a ship or airship excites me more than it should.

...maybe they'll finally have a use for the secret zone? =DDDDD

It's not, that's why I called it preliminary. The circular tower might have been the splitting point when they decided to go from a single-level to a town with multiple strata. It seems kind of odd just standing alone like that.

When I think "why would they leave this data here", answers like "SE wants us to /tinfoil, hype up vana'fest" are unsatisfying.

What I'm thinking more along the lines of right now is that this is part of a "FFXI: 10 year retrospect" where they plan on showing off how far the game has come, from concept art to the first real models, and part of that demonstration happens to be done via the test server and/or, from speculation earlier, that players with test server access might be invited to experience the old models for themselves.

Sorry if that pisses on everyone's parade; I just like things to make sense. Allowing brand new content (that looks like 10+ year old content) to be released by amateurs makes no sense. Accidentally allowing ancient WIP designs to surface makes a lot more sense, and explains why the designs, in particular their low polygon count, seem much more befitting a game like Everquest than they do the more graphically advanced FFXI.

Or you're being pessimistic and they are indeed throwing punches at the .dat miners and causing people to /tinfoil.

Why exactly would they need to put files on my computer to show how far the game as come?

Like I said, to allow people to see them first hand. Those people who couldn't be at the vana'fest for instance (99%+ of us). You could say the same reason might apply if they are actual new areas, but that brings me back to my "if they're new areas, why do they look like ***?" question. The "they're concept designs of old zones" explanation fits both.

Yes. Or maybe I'm hoping that if FFXI actually gets new zones one day, they look a hell of a lot better than this.

You're assuming that they wanted us to find them. They could be just gradually adding the files, so when the content is available for the test server, it isn't a huge update.

Kongming, are you assuming that these are the final versions of the zones? 'Cause it seems like it, and that obviously is not the case.

Yeah definitely not.

Just looking at them it's obvious that they are not finished.

I'm assuming an awful lot. If you try to take anything out of this other than "that's interesting", you're making at least one assumption. The title of this thread is making a huge assumption.

I'm done speculating, so all I'll add is: that's interesting.

They're clearly incomplete. The reason why I think they are is because these "new" zones aren't as new as we think they are, and may have been "incomplete" for longer than the game has been out.

If they were a work in progress of something that's going to be coming out, I think SE would want them to look damn polished before anyone saw them. Meaning all of this "SE intentionally leaked them for people to mine" doesn't make sense.

these files were not in the rom folder until 2 weeks ago, so what the *** are you talking about kongming

why would they add forgotten irrelevant ***to the test server arbitrarily

From the article:


It is really hard to believe this is the same company responsible for several of my all-time favorite video games.

Back to the thread at hand: I'm still super-hyped on this development, even though I am worried Tanaka will do anything he can to muck it up.

I've offered many reasons it could be there. Another could be that in their increasing laziness, when they move data files around to recapture design implements in unused zones, instead of cleaning up after they're done, they leave their mess behind and thus it becomes part of the latest build. It takes them months to fix simple typos in gear which is immeasurably more important than some antique data file someone might find and /tinfoil over.

The fact of the matter is, why it's there is a question lacking a satisfactory answer regardless of what it is you think you're looking at, be that:

a) brand new zones waiting for us
b) old zone designs long since scrapped, or
c) other

which is why I care less about SE's reason, be there one or be it a mistake, and more about the nature of the files themselves, since the former seems more easily discernible with the latter than vice versa, this compounded by the fact that there may be no reason at all.

Microsoft, for E3 2011 seemingly intentionally 'leaked' news that their press conference would include the Halo 4 announcement and Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary. They quickly removed the 'leaked content' (from their own site) without minutes, after several people had already seen the material. It spread across the internet and rumors went wild... and you can bet that got people to tune it. It is widely believed it was done as an intentional act to throw speculation into the air and get people to tune in.

If SE was really about keeping these things hidden we would only get new material added to the game in the update that they appear in. That has very frequently proven to not be the case, with gear and whatnot appearing early and before they were actually available in the game.

If its not alluding to something else, why is it there? Why are we being made to download so many new zones? Why are these in their own ROM folder and what is ROM9 going to be ultimately? Why does this just happen to coincide with a substantial increase in the partition size that the game is allowed?

I believe the website says that these snuck in with the May update, which means that at SE's internal design they made have graphically progressed significantly since then. Obviously they are holding Vanafest 2012 for some particular reason and going to be getting live coverage for it. I think that if this stuff is an expansion, you will definitely be seeing significantly more polished versions by VanaFest.

Furthermore, there already have been a ton of unused zones that have been left in the game prior to this. These are new additions to the mix. I'm not saying they couldn't be old material, but we've got plenty of unused zones in the game already. Why add more?

Maybe what we see as an addition is just a failure on their part to subtract away what they usually do? Maybe the full developer's FFXI folder has ROM0-19 and they missed one little part of one folder this time? Maybe they were playing with stuff in ROM9 like some particular model, actually used the model for something, and instead of purging the directory for everything but that model, they left all or some of it there. I don't how the FFXI data system works at all, but I think what I'm talking about is at some level conceivable.

I also think what I'm talking about is pure speculation. And I'm honestly getting really tired of it. How about we talk precedent?

How many times have we uncovered an unused zone in FFXI? I don't know personally, but according to you the answer is "tons" and that sounds about right to me considering what I've seen screens/videos of.

Conversely,

How many times have we uncovered a soon to be released zone in FFXI? Never. It's never happened before. Official promotional material of every zone and probably every mob comes out long before anyone in the community can get their hands on the actual data. The only case I can think of where this isn't true is gear as you pointed out, but that's almost always either a) event related gear, in which they add to the data before hand because otherwise they'd have to time the event to occur at maintenance, or b) a piece of gear that's been added but the method of obtaining it was put on hold, such as Legion and VW:LC most recently.

That said, I don't think either argument is particularly strong, and am definitely not denying the possibility that these are new zones coming soon.

You release fragments of content to build hype and to get people wondering. Though, this could be bad (*coughga*Cloverfield*received the effect of cough* It can make the content you re trying to hype for get lots of coverage if its good.

So, if they where just flaunting concept art it would be just that, Concept Art, NOT full blown zones added into an update (which, they've shown us that they can add in forthcoming content into the game before. Meteor for example, has been in the game LOOOOOONNNGGG before it was a usable spell (and not just for that one CoP mission or mob spells).

Area 2.... "Stairs Town" 0.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The "mansion" at the top is a Cathedral to Altana and looks just like the one in Sandy.

The mansion looks like that because most of the textures are reused lol

Textures sure, but the modeling? I suppose if they need some placeholders...

Maybe I'm just one of those guys who would like to see them finally add the place they show in the OPENING MOVIE!!! ><

Heck, they gave us meteor and it actually is a group spell right? >.>

The place they showed in the opening is Tavnazia.

They did:

Can view it whenever you want at Blueblade Fell.

Yeah, that's probably not what you meant, but really, it's obviously in shambles. Considering our characters are too puny to step over a common tree trunk or large pebble, I really don't see us gallivanting the ruins of an overgrown and condemned city.

I thought that was Sandy that was shown in opening movie

we do it all the time though...

i recently just deactivated again since ive rarely played ff11 lately but if this is true ill reactivate just to explore for sure

I hope you're being sarcastic. A rock no bigger than a taru's head is all that bars your way if you fall down near the end climbing to the cradle of Rebirth

I get jokes

Garlaige Citadel and The Eldieme Necropolis are both in ruins today but are in fine form in the past. I've always figured if they ever were to add Tavnazia it would be through a similar scenario.

I was talking about navigating ruins, we do that all the time.

As for things we can't walk over: don't get me started on the tor, I don't feel like raging tonight.