Final Fantasy XI Updates for Spring-Summer

[GenDenelith]

They released a video showing some of the stuff they're adding/changing in the spring/summer quarters for FFXI:

Not really sure what the gamepad config change is, though its a bit clunky right now so any change to the workflow for changing settings is a good one.  Also they've been talking about changes to how Trusts work (the summonable NPCs) to make them more powerful and allow players to do content that currently requires 3+ real players to even enter.  This was talked about in a recent news post:

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11us/detail/22548/detail.html

They also mentioned as part of this that they're planning on changing some of the new player experience, especially to make the Trusts explicitly explained to new players.  Currently its just kinda... in the RoE quests you have to go look for.  Also they're considering some new endgame stuff.  Big things on the way, even if we likely wont get new expansion-sized content.

[Arthfach]

I'm wondering if it would be worth waiting for the Trusts revamp to get the game and play - this isn't one I'm particularly looking for other players to experience it with so having competent NPCs for the whole thing would be nice.

[GenDenelith]

The revamp in terms of trust strength will probably only affect endgame stuff where trusts tend to fall off compared to player character power.  Through normal leveling/expansion content they're plenty strong.  To the point where you can mostly fuck around and let trusts handle most combat.

The "Revamp" in terms of power is mostly so you can drag them into stuff like Delve and other high endgame grind that trusts either can't be used in, or will be a struggle to complete the content with.  Explaining trusts to new players better in-game would be nice, but if you follow the new player leveling guide it'll explain to you how to unlock them.  Which is basically "once you hit level 5 go into the Quests menu and grab this RoE quest".  Then the game throws one of the best trust tanks in the game at you immediately (Valaineral).