Beta as usual

[Havoc Snow]

So it would appear that Test 4 will not be an extended play period as was suggested by the beta schedule, as the end date has been posted on the forums as ending on the usual day and time as all the previous tests.

 

Regarding Test End Date& Time

Thank you for participating in the FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Beta Test.

This is to notify the end date and time for the 4th Beta Test, Test Phase 3 that has started on July 5th.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the test, we have confirmed the stability in the Duty Finder, and will be ending the 4th Beta Test on July 7th, 2013 at 2:00 a.m. (PDT) / July 7th, 2013 at 9:00 a.m. (GMT).

 

We thank you for your participation for the ongoing testing.

 

At least this means (hopefully) that we'll be getting into Phase 4 even sooner than expected.

[Asyria]

It's Beta Phase 4 that's supposed to be extended play, not Beta Test 4 of Phase 3. ^^

At least I think so!

[Havoc Snow]

Well that seems like the case now, since it seems likely that Phase 4 will even start as early as this month but according to the Phase 3 outline they posted at the start of the phase the Final Test was supposed to be "several days" which implied it would be a lot longer than the standard two day test. Either way I'm actually more excited about this than not, I've already done pretty much everything possible in the game for the moment, so I'm looking forward to seeing what will change in Phase 4 and what additions we'll see.

[FreelanceWizard]

There could easily be another phase 3 test, actually. They did say in the roadmap that there was going to be an extended stress test towards the end of phase 3, and we're actually a week behind schedule because the Duty Finder was a week behind schedule. So, I'd expect another phase 3 test before phase 4.

 

I'd speculate that we'll see something like:

July 12-1?: phase 3 extended stress test

1 month off for debug

August 10th-ish: phase 4

August 23: Early access

August 27: Launch

 

That's just speculation, though.

[Havoc Snow]

Well some were saying that the beta key emails that went out last weekend were listing the beta ending on July 14th, so there very well may be another weekend left for us, but I don't think it'll be an extended test. This weekend was supposed to be an extended test to stress test the duty finder but apparently it wasn't required, that was the entire reason they left the end date open.

[Xha'li Moui]

Didn't the road map also say about 1-2 weeks between phase3 and phase4?  Either way I'll probably spend most of the next phase3 test, if it happens, trying out mining/crafting as I've got about as far as I want to in the main story before launch.  Really as long as Arcanist is in before launch/early access I'll be happy as thats going to hopefully be my "main" class as long as I don't find it terrible.

[Nox]

I would be quite happy to see Phase 4 start earlier than expected. I'd actually be able to play my character, which would be really really nice. I suppose we can chalk this up to "Everything went better than expected"?

[Havoc Snow]

Didn't the road map also say about 1-2 weeks between phase3 and phase4?  Either way I'll probably spend most of the next phase3 test, if it happens, trying out mining/crafting as I've got about as far as I want to in the main story before launch.  Really as long as Arcanist is in before launch/early access I'll be happy as thats going to hopefully be my "main" class as long as I don't find it terrible.

 

While I hope I'm wrong, Yoshida said Arcanist wouldn't be released until launch so that means at the earliest I wouldn't expect it before Early Start.