Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail had an opening weekend so rough that producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida has apologised for it.
In fairness, if any popular MMO manages to get through an expansion launch weekend without problems, it’s rightly considered a low-grade miracle. In this case, its problems didn’t seem to stem from the same server issues that plagued Endwalker. Rather, they are much more mechanical in nature.
“Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has been playing Dawntrail since the start of early access,” reads Yoshida’s apology post. “However, I would like to offer my sincere apologies regarding the issues that we have identified and listed below. Please let me explain the status of the investigation behind their causes and the measures we plan to take to address them.”
First and foremost, Yoshida apologised for the performance of the Xbox version, which reportedly hangs when trying to transition between zones. “We have confirmed an issue in the Xbox version where the game client may become unresponsive when transitioning between locations, such as field areas and cities,” says Yoshida. “Our preliminary investigation suggests that this issue is likely due to a phenomenon known as memory fragmentation.” Yoshida says an emergency patch is currently being brewed, but that players should avoid densely populated regions until it rolls out. “Until we have resolved the issue, we kindly suggest you consider playing on either the Dynamis, Shadow, or Oceania data centers.” For the Aussie players, prepare for an influx of Americans complaining about the ping, I suppose.
That’s currently the biggest problem facing Dawntrail at present, but it is far from the only one. Several raids are also experiencing issues, including Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate), the Minstrel’s Ballad: Shinryu’s Domain, and Delubrum Reginae (Savage). All three raids have exhibited problems related to freezing mechanics, creating headaches for players just trying to get through them. According to Yoshida, this issue bears a resemblance to an already-solved problem involving bosses in the Syrcus Tower alliance raid. A patch is being issued as a matter of urgency.
There are also a number of graphics issues across platforms, the result of a recent visual refresh. Though Yoshida says the team was working on graphics problems right up to the expansion’s launch, there were quite a number that slipped through. Some of the more noticeable ones involve animation bugs related to certain emotes.
There’s currently no timeline for arrival on the promised patches, but given the spread and severity, I’d expect to see something rolling out pretty soon.
Let us know how your first weekend in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail went in the comments below.
Image: Square Enix, Kotaku Australia
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