For those wondering, the tractor beam cycle bonus is a mild timesaving tweak – anyone who’s tried to really optimize their Marauder salvaging has probably become a little frustrated with waiting for tractors to finish cycling, and with the increased speed that the Noctis will be pulling things in, the default cycle length will end up wasting a fair amount of time. The tractor cycle bonus is meant as a mild offset to this; the salvage cycle bonus is more obviously useful.

We’ll be seeding the new skill and blueprint in ORE stations everywhere (ie, Outer Ring) in the next expansion, retailing for 1,600,000 and 390,000,000 respectively. Aaaaand… that’s about it, really. Hope you find it useful!

Square Enix has recently posted the launch time for the release version of Final Fantasy XIV along with a slew of other release information. The biggest news in this is when the servers will be coming online. Below are the times, by timezone, when the servers will be coming online for those who purchase the collectors edition of the game.

• JST September 22 @ 10:00 (10:00am)
• GMT September 22 @ 01:00 (1:00am)
• EST September 21 @ 21:00 (9:00pm)
• CDT September 21 @ 20:00 (8:00pm)
• MST September 21 @ 19:00 (7:00pm)
• PDT September 21 @ 18:00 (6:00pm)

Here¡¯s the full news post:

We would like to take this moment to provide details on the preparation for the official service of FINAL FANTASY XIV.

- Official Service Launch Date
At 18:00 (PDT) on Sep. 21, 2010, early access to the Realm of Eorzea will begin. The official service is scheduled to begin on Sep. 30, 2010.
* Along with the start of early access, the download of client patch will become available.

- Official Launch of “FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone”
Before the launch of early access, which is scheduled for 18:00 (PDT) on Sep. 21, 2010, the official players’ site “FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone” will become available. “The Lodestone” is scheduled to become available at 8:00 (PDT) on Sep. 21, 2010.
All the news, topics and version update details on FINAL FANTASY XIV will be posted on “The Lodestone.”

URL of “FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone” is: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com
* As of now, the players’ site is only available to certain beta testers. However, it will become available to all users starting at 8:00 (PDT) on Sep. 21, 2010.

- Uninstallation of the Beta Client After the Completion of FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test
After the Open Beta Test comes to an end, please uninstall the client software “FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version.”

Installing the release version of “FINAL FANTASY XIV” or other software developed by our company while “FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version” remains installed may cause certain issues. Should you try to uninstall “FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version” after installing the release version, certain settings may be reset.
* The language setting of the operating system will be used to determine the default language setting for the release version of FINAL FANTASY XIV.

- Worlds Available Upon the Launch
The following worlds will be available upon the start of the early access that is scheduled for Sep. 21, 2010.

Cornelia
Kashuan
Gysahl
Mysidia
Istory
Figaro
Wutai
Trabia
Lindblum
Besaid
Selbina
Rabanastre
Bodhum
Melmond
Palamecia
Saronia
Fabul

* Depending on the server population, new worlds may be added.
* If server congestion occurs, character creation may temporarily become unavailable.

- Transferring Character Names to the Official Release
Participants of the Open Beta Test will be able to transfer their character names from the FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test to the official release. As long as the worlds selected in the open beta test and the official release are the same, the character name used in the open beta test will be usable in the official release.

* Upon the transfer of the character name, both selection of the world and character name input need to be done properly. Please make sure to remember both the world you belonged to and the name of the character you used during the open beta yest.
*If the character name has been determined to be improper by Square Enix, the transfer may not be done.
* After the open beta test has concluded, the character names still existing on the account will be transferable.

-Transferring Character Appearance to the Official Release
During the open beta test, saving a character¡¯s data at the time of its creation will allow you to create a character with the same appearance in the commercial release of the game.
* Data on character appearance will be saved under My Documents. Please be aware that the transfer cannot be done if the My Documents directory is deleted. Uninstalling the beta client “FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version” will not cause the data saved in My Documents to be deleted.

- Reminder to the Players Who Have Purchased “FINAL FANTASY XIV Collector’s Edition”
Upon the start of early access to the Realm of Eorzea, server congestion on the Square Enix Account Management System is expected. By completing the following process on Square Enix Account Management System, you will be able to smoothly begin your adventure.

1. Register Square Enix Account Beforehand
For those of you who have not obtained a Square Enix account, please go to http://account.square-enix.com/regist/ and complete the registration process.

2. Selecting the Payment Method
Square Enix Crysta can be selected as the payment method for monthly service fees.
*Additional payment methods will become available after the Square Enix Account Management System maintenance, which will be completed between Sep. 20, 2010 from 19:00 to 23:00 (PDT).

- Transferal of FINAL FANTASY XI Player Character Name to FINAL FANTASY XIV When creating a new FINAL FANTASY XIV character, FINAL FANTASY XI players’ character names will be prioritized. The character¡¯s name will become “Given Name: the Player Character’s name in FINAL FANTASY XI” + “Surname: the name of the Player Character’s World.”

* Please note that you will not be able to transfer your Player Character name in the following cases:
- If you have created a character before linking your PlayOnline ID (It is, however, possible to transfer Player Character names by deleting the characters you created, linking your PlayOnline ID, and then re-creating your characters).
- If, at the time of creating your FINAL FANTASY XIV character, the linked PlayOnline ID¡¯s FINAL FANTASY XI Content IDs are invalid (the Content IDs have been canceled and are thus not being billed).
- If the linked PlayOnline ID’s FINAL FANTASY XI is in the free trial period.
- If there are no FINAL FANTASY XI characters on the linked PlayOnline ID.
* If you have recently created a character, transferred Worlds, or used the Character Reactivation Service on FINAL FANTASY XI, it may take some time before you can transfer your Player Character name to FINAL FANTASY XIV.
* Users can create characters with new names, regardless of whether a PlayOnline ID is linked or not.

- In-Game bonus Items
¡ú To receive the in-game bonus items that come with FINAL FANTASY XIII initial batch only), FINAL FANTASY XIV Collector’s Edition, or FINAL FANTASY XIV Standard Edition, you will need to register the item codes which comes with the corresponding product. To register an item code, please follow the steps below:

1. Log into the Square Enix Account Management System (https://secure.square-enix.com/account/)
2. Select the “Select Service” option under “Service and Options”
3. Select “FINAL FANTASY XIV,” and then “Add a service account”
4. Enter the corresponding item code, and then select ¡°Next¡±

* The in-game bonus item will apply to the corresponding FINAL FANTASY XIV service account once the registration is complete.
* When you create a character on the corresponding FINAL FANTASY XIV service account, the character will start off with the in-game bonus item in possession. Please note that characters created prior to the registration of the item code(s) will not receive the in-game bonus item, so make sure you register the code prior to the creation process.

¡ú¡¡Perks for Simultaneous Players of Both FINAL FANTASY XI and FINAL FANTASY XIV If a PlayOnline ID with an active FINAL FANTASY XI Content ID is linked to a Square Enix account with a FINAL FANTASY XIV service account, all new characters created on that FINAL FANTASY XIV service account will start out possessing an in-game bonus item.

* Please note that you will not be able to receive a special in-game item in the following cases:
- If you have created a character before linking your PlayOnline ID (It is, however, possible to receive the in-game item by deleting the characters you created, linking your PlayOnline ID, and then re-creating your characters).
- If, at the time of creating your FINAL FANTASY XIV character, the linked PlayOnline ID¡¯s FINAL FANTASY XI Content IDs are invalid (the Content IDs have been cancelled and are thus not being billed).
- If the linked PlayOnline ID’s FINAL FANTASY XI is in the free trial period.

This years festival is set to run through September 22nd. The festival is to honor those who have fallen to save an ally. Both Horde and Alliance celebrate the Harvest Festival. Special festival quests, tokens and rewards can be earned as well.

Throughout history, many have given their lives to aid their allies. Every year, members of the Horde and the Alliance set aside time to honor the memories of the fallen and to pay tribute to those whose memories are held most dear: Uther Lightbringer, for the Alliance, and Grom Hellscream, for the Horde. Heroes take time from their adventures to visit the graves of these two great leaders and to leave a tribute to them at the memorial. To show their respect, members of the Alliance light a candle at the Tomb of Uther Lightbringer in the Western Plaguelands. Members of the Horde show their respect to Grom Hellscream by leaving a bottle of spirits at the base of the Hellscream Memorial in Demon Fall Canyon in Ashenvale.

One of the new PvP maps coming with the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion is the Gilneas Battleground. In the Gilneas Battleground, teams of ten will begin at opposite sides of the map. The goal is to race to the center to control various points in order to collect the resources in a race to grab 2,000 before the other team.

In The Battle for Gilneas, three distinct resource points are available for the taking by either the Horde or the Alliance: the Mines, the Lighthouse, and the Waterworks. Once any of these points is held by a team, access to nearby graveyards will be granted. In addition, workers from the controlling faction will show up to collect the resources necessary to win the battle.

The Square Enix Panel was a late announcement at PAX 2010 and held at the Benaroya Hall in order to accommodate the number of anticipated fans. Mr. Sage Sundi, Global Online Producer, Community and Service Division of Square Enix welcomed the crowd and thanked them for coming before turning it over to a North American Community Manager, who talked us through a long Final Fantasy XIV trailer showing cut scenes and game play in a quest.

Final Fantasy XIV’s quest lines have really nice cut scenes which place your character right in the action. However instead of simply interacting with the game to move the quest text along, Final Fantasy XIV’s cut scenes are voiced and combat and other actions are inter-twined to create a deeper immersion. No longer do you just kick back and watch a short movie in which your character plays a part, there’s more interaction and you may just have to kill some mobs with the other NPCs or protect them. Once that is over, the cutscene continues.

We watched as our hero met NPCs, battled creatures, interacted with the NPCs, continued quest texts and ran from a boss mob (we were supposed to run). The whimsy of Final Fantasy continues in XIV with a Moogle parade that just manages to happen in the middle of the forest, interrupting the quest of our hero for a short time while we all stood around and watched in wonder at the little creatures and they played music and tossed pretty lights around in their wake, but soon they were back running for their lives.

Deus Ex:Human Revolution was shown in the second part of the panel, but I did manage to speak with Sage Sundi and also Yasu Kurosawa, the North American Online Producer and Senior Director of Community and Service. Both gentlemen were here to talk about community building in Final Fantasy XIV.

Square Enix’s method of dealing with and building their player community is to have a dedicated community team whose main function is to interact with the major fan community sites. They do not host player forums and when I asked them about speaking to players directly, their first question was “In English or in Japanese?” It seems that they are most wary that their devs might mis-speak in an unfamiliar language or that the Japanese may be translated incorrectly, hence, the team of community representatives who interface with the site owners to gather feedback and to release information to the fan base.

Sage indicated that the community representative team is their “key strategy” in interacting with fan sites and communicating with their fans to obtain feedback as well as to build their community. Much of that feedback is what drove the game design in FFXIV¡¯s more solo friendly play.

“We have what we call Leve Quests in FFXIV,” said Yasu, “which are a very efficient way to get XP, but of course there’s only so many you can obtain a day.”

These are the GuildLeves featured in their latest trailer and look like rectangular frames of stained glass, each depicting a virtuous deed of one of Eorzea’s patron saints. These are issued by guilds as quest tokens, giving the bearer “leave” to take whatever steps necessary to complete the job, including entry into normally restricted areas, hunting or harvesting on private lands (instanced quest areas), the confiscation of goods, even negotiations with those considered enemies of the city-states. Guildleves also grant use of aetheryte portals, ensuring quick travel about the region.

“The difficulty can be selected by the player for solo and group play,”added Sage.

I can see that the community will also like making beautiful artwork out of these pretty jewel-toned creations.

In reference yet again to their community building, Square Enix will continue to host Fan Festivals and Sage again indicated their commitment to building community in Final Fantasy XIV. In a nod to more interaction and a sort of central place for players to get together however, Square Enix provides their members with their own player site where they can upload screenshots of their avatars and blog about their adventures.

“Although Final Fantasy XIV will not have official forums or linkshell forums,” said Sage, “they will have player sites where players can blog about their adventures.”

This is a new community service from Square Enix. At launch, FFXIV players will have access to players.finalfantasyxiv.com where they will have a page with character details, stats and a blog which will let you follow other players and get their updates automatically.

Both gentlemen acknowledged that North American players would like to have direct access to Square Enix developers through official forums, but the issues with the language is a real one as I found myself having to double check a couple of facts to make sure I did not take what they said to mean something else. We were speaking of quests and the easier more solo-friendly game-play of FFXIV and somehow, Leve Quests which gave players the “leave” to take what necessary steps to complete them got mixed up with the XP bonuses after players came back from a leave in the game.

This misinterpretation could also be seen in the recent hullabaloo about XP penalties. In a move similar to many other online games (World of Warcraft to name one), players of FFXIV who have been away from the game for a while will get an XP bonus when they next log in to play. Somehow, that got spun negatively into the idea that players would be getting XP penalties the longer they are in game.

“Our key strategy is (our) community representatives talking to the fan sites,” said Sage of their community building initiative. With official translations of their messages to the various language sites, they hope to avoid any future misunderstandings.

In a world that’s different from other FF worlds and yet familiar enough that players of other FF games will definitely experience a send of D¨¦j¨¤ vu, FFXIV will launch at the end of September. Currently in Open Beta, the so-inclined can try out Catgirls, Moogles and Chocobos…oh my!

While we previously announced that there’s a limit to the amount of these new currencies you can stockpile, we’re providing a grace period in the form of a soft cap. This soft cap will allow the initial conversion to push the amount owned over the cap, but will not allow any further points to be earned (or returned through item refunds) until enough points are spent to put you below the hard cap.

For instance, a player has 3000 Emblems of Triumph, and 1200 Emblems of Frost; at the time of conversion they’ll be given 4200 Justice Points. The hard cap for Justice Points is 4000, so that player won’t be able to earn any more Justice Points until he or she spends enough points to reduce the total to under 4000. This also applies to the new PvP Honor Points, which also have a cap of 4000.

Shortly before Cataclysm is released, another patch will enforce the hard cap, marking the second stage of the currency conversion. Any Justice or Honor Points above the hard cap will be converted to gold, and just like in the first stage of the conversion, the player will receive an in-game letter explaining that some of their currencies were converted into gold as well as delivering the gold itself.

FFXIV Core has been doing a fantastic job of keeping up on all the latest updates, and today’s forum post has everything rounded up beautifully for fans who may have been overwhelmed by all the news. Check it out for a concise, organized list of everything we know about important game mechanics at this point.

To top off all of this handy information, there is a brand-new CGI launch trailer that players should love. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, the video features an epic Malboro battle and much more. Follow along after the jump to check it out, and keep up with all the pre-launch coverage at FFXIVCore.

Aion is ready to help players enjoy the last few weeks of summer — or herald its imminent arrival, depending on your hemisphere.

Community Manager Andrew Beegle posted an announcement on Aion’s forums and Facebook page yesterday announcing the arrival of the Scorching Heat event tomorrow, September 15th. Daevas will accumulate the scorching heat drops just by playing, and once you’ve accumulated enough, you can purchase frozen boxes good for all sorts of goodies from bathing suits to candy to dye.

This announcement satisfies the curiosity of many players who have been asking how to acquire scorching heat since the beginning of the month. The event lasts until October 13th.

Before starting the Unhappy Customers project we were doing regular quality audits as well as using the escalation process and organic peer review to locate and fix mistakes. But we wanted even more overview.

The first challenge we faced was finding a way to proactively spot mistakes in petitions that are neither escalated nor reported to Senior or Lead GMs. As we receive approximately 30 thousand petitions every month, manually going over each one was not an option (not one we’d want to bill you guys for, that’s for sure). It didn’t take much deliberation on our part to realize that the rating system which we’ve already got in place could be used as a way to spot potentially mishandled petitions by simply looking up the petitions rated poorly by our own customers.

Big things are in store for World of Warcraft players when the expansion, Cataclysm, goes live. What was familiar will become unfamiliar. Ashenvale, one of the early zones in the game, will be see a huge amount of upheaval during Cataclysm and the WoW team has produced and in-house Q&A about the changes coming. Check it out!

Q. What should players do or go see first?

A.Horde players should visit the Mor’shan Rampart first. There’s a new Horde contingent there who is fighting hard to make sure that no night elves escape Hellscream’s onslaught — not that they’d make it far into the Northern Barrens! Alliance players who come down from Darkshore will want to help defend Maestra’s Post and Astranaar as both settlements struggle to keep from falling under Hellscream’s control.