• The DPS of each weapon is listed on the individual weapon display. This is shown as Damage Per Second (DPS): on the item page for weapons. It is important to note that this is based on a simple calculation involving the Delay versus the Damage fields on the weapon; it does not include any of the effects on it. This is useful for some basic comparisons of weapons.
• More new info can be found on weapons in the TP Per Hit: display. This shows how many TP (Tactical Points) are gained by each hit of the weapon.
• Further information about the calculations used for these numbers can be found in the discussion of this news.

• Extra flags were added to the items database, reflecting more detailed information directly from the FFXI data files. Along with older flags, these are all listed under the Flags: line on an item (see items such as the Adamantoise Soup or Kirin's Osode for examples of these new flags). The flags that can be listed are:
  • Rare - A standard flag that means a character can only hold one copy of that item in his Inventory, Safe, or Storage.
  • Exclusive - A standard flag that means an item must be kept by a single character; it cannot be traded or delivered to another character, or sold on the Auction House. Some items that are flagged Exclusive may be sold to NPC merchants.
  • Temporary - This flag is used on Ballista items, for items that can be dug up and must be used by the end of a Ballista match.
  • Not NPC Sellable - This flag means that an item cannot be sold to any NPC Merchants. By default, any item without this flag can be sold to them. See the Merchants Guide for more info on how to get the best prices for items.
  • Not Auction House Sellable - Any item with this cannot be sold on the Auction House. Important Note: If an item has either this flag OR an Exclusive flag, it cannot be sold on the Auction House. Some items have one flag, some the other, many have both; it all just depends on how they were flagged by the FFXI developers.
  • Not Deliverable - This flag prevents an item from being sent to another character by an Item Deliverer NPC. Any item with the Exclusive flag will not be able to be delivered, either, even if they do not have this flag.
  You will note that some items with the Exclusive and/or Not Auction House Sellable flags have an Auction House Category displayed on them. In order to make it easy to look up all items of a particular type, all items that can be equipped (Armor, Weapons, or Ammo) have the Auction House category that they would go in, even if they can't be sold on the Auction House. For example, if you look up all Dagger weapons, that search will include Exclusive Dagger weapons, so that all weapons of that type can be compared to each other.
• The four new Beastmen Headgear quests went into the database, with full walkthroughs for each one, and the many new Notorious Monsters that they spawn. If you have more information about those quests, please post it in the Beastmen Headgear Quests discussion.
• As always, more of the items and mobs from the patches within the last month were updated; full details about these can be found in the July 2005 Patch Compilation of Info.

• The Notorious Monsters Hunting Guide has been updated to include the 70 new known NMs, added in the July patch.
• The Final Fantasy XI Resource Repository was updated with the links to the latest patches, as well as other useful links.
• A change was made to the way instruments were catagorized on the site; they are now split into two types, which can be searched for in the FFXI Advanced Item Search: Instrument - String and Instrument - Wind are used for String Instrument and Wind Instrument items, respectively.

1UP: It's been reported that the draw distance on the Xbox 360 will be twice as long as the PC version. Will this give Xbox 360 players an added advantage because they can see enemies from a longer distance, helping 360 owners to camp rare monsters more efficiently?

HT: Actually, the draw distance will mostly affect the overall scenery of the game. The distance between the players and enemies will be the same as the Windows and PS2 version.

1UP: Was putting FFXI on Xbox 360 a way to sustain the game because Sony yanked hard-drive support for the PS2 (Thanks, Sony!)? Nowadays if you want to pick up FFXI and start playing, the PC version is the only option at the moment.

HT: It's not so much the survival of FFXI as is it giving players an option to play the game on next-generation hardware. Of course the added bonus for those players is to play the game in high-definition on widescreen HD televisions.

1UP: Will the 360 version support voice-chat? We sure hope not.

HT: No, it won't. The reason being is that we track player abuse through the chat logs, and if we removed the necessity of the chat log, it would be impossible to take action against abusive players.

GS: What does the future hold for what you do? Can we look forward to another MMO with the Final Fantasy franchise? What platforms do you see yourself focusing on?

HT: For MMOs, the platform isn't that important anymore. The only real requirement is its ability to display the images from the game. As technology advances it should be possible to play one game across different platforms.

GS: Does that complicate things for you as you move forward, as typically developers have had to appeal to one specific audience such as console or PC players?

HT: Since MMOs require a keyboard, that's really the only requirement now. If the platform supports a keyboard it doesn't matter whether it's a console or PC. From this point on it should be possible to make games for either.

The Xbox 360 has a slight presence at the Square Enix Party 2005, set to run until Sunday in a dank convention center just outside of Tokyo. Square Enix placed the Microsoft platform on display in a large area devoted to Final Fantasy XI. While most kiosks in this area were for the Windows version of the game, one kiosk was connected to an Xbox 360 unit and was occasionally played by the Square Enix staff, its game content shown to the audience via a high definition monitor.

Sadly, IGN did not get a chance to try out the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI at the event. In fact, the Xbox 360 version was not made available for play to anyone except for the lucky few Square Enix staff members deemed worthy.

We did obtain some high resolution screenshots of the X360 Final Fantasy XI so that you can see for yourself how gorgeous the game looks in stills.