News - Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) - Lodestone Pads (XIVPads)

XIVPads! XIVDB! ZAM! XIVModels? An update =)

Premium Virtue (Hyperion) Aug 20 2013 (0) 15 comments.

Hey all!

I have been so busy with XIVDB and finally got chance to write up a news post. This news post will cover whats going on with XIVPads and switching to the new lodestone, XIVDB work for launch, the ZAM ownership and XIVModels.

XIVPads

Most of the site changes have been completed so it will work with the new lodestone. Without the new lodestone no one can add or verify any characters yet so I have been waiting until we get closer to early access before I switch over.

The site will be going down for a short while either tomorrow or Thursday to convert to the new system, until the new Lodestone no one will be able to add characters. Many of the existing characters on Pads have been automatically attached to accounts but they may have to be unlinked/removed due to the reason below:

Will you have to re-add your character?
Maybe, without seeing the lodestone there is a possibility that you will need to re-add your character and re-verify it. The process is simple so its not much of an issue. All existing data (1.0 events, guides, private messages, etc) will be attached to your account and not lost. Prior to the new site going up I will move all characters I have automatically converted from Beta Phase 3, if there is an ID change in Early Access/Launch I will have to remove all these unfortunately and people will have to re-add their characters. People without a character will just add one as normal.
1.0 Experience Points Events
I will add in the option to append that data to your new timeline. This is optional because the EXP Values are insanely different, the display pages handle this but you might not care for 1.0 timeline data (this does not include achievements).
Lodestone Privacy Settings
By default the lodestone sets some of your information private. The main one that affects the site is "Achievements", you will need to make this public in order for the site to parse it. It can be set public at anytime and it won't affect the timeline as the times on lodestone are exact (so exact infact I can see who got world first down to the second lol, prepare for a competition/ranking page...)

I have automatically parsed about 25,000 characters from the current site, but these are only as valid as their ID on lodestone. If the ID on lodestone changes (i think it will), its all useless =( and will have to re-add characters from scratch. No biggy though! (many of them will be mass added via linkshell/free company stuff)

There wont really any new features when I switch the site (not even ls/fc adding as i didn't get that in time while lodestone was up so have to start that anew), it's just a better working version for 2.0 information. I will be working hard from launch onward to get all features complete.

If you have any questions, just contact us here: http://xivpads.com/?Support/Ask

XIVDB

XIVDB has had so much work done on it recently. It is now running on ZAM servers so it is much faster and stable for the traffic the site is receiving. The log in has been separated from XIVPads so it does not rely on XIVPads being up, additionally you do not need a character to post comments or upload screenshots.

The next step is to get a lot of the missing data such as quests, monster lists, dungeons, guildleves (bunch more) and complete the skill tree page (pretty cool!)

Expect a lot over the next week and closer to the official launch, the aim is to have the site jam packed by the official launch date.

ZAM!

About a month ago we joined ZAM. Both XIVDB and XIVPads are owned by ZAM, their main focus is XIVDB as this will be the most wide used and the biggest at launch so the focus is on that.

What will change? Ads?
Not much, the advertisements on XIVDB are already set. for XIVPads there will be a footer advertisement and a advertisement on the right of the portal. Nothing invasive.
Whats benefits?
Other than great servers, a well experience team (running some of the biggest WoW and LoL sites) and awesome contact access with SE. The main benefit is you guys can finally have a site that will be fully functional as soon as possible..

For example, take the Signature Generator. It's been in development/unfinished state for over a year because it's a big task requiring a lot of work hours and I've had to focus on either a real work/job or University. This ZAM opportunity meant I could focus on working on XIVDB and XIVPads and finally get things finished, which benefits everyone.
What about donations and existing supporters?
We've had a lot of supporters and I cant thank them enough. Donations are closed off now so no more will be accepted, all existing supporters will continue to receive their perks for life. If you are very upset about this whole scenario, I can refund people who have donated recently (like the past 60 days).

I, nor any of the team have any intention of taking current donations for personal gain so we're going to use every last dime of it to splash back to the community, this could be done through contests with prizes for pc equipment, game time cards, and stuff like this. If you have ideas, let us know :)

I think most people are happy we did this, we were as open as we could be about it (i got told off a little for my SequenceBreak episode XD!). For the past 3 weeks I have been working pretty much 24/7 and its been fantastic, an opportunity I wouldn't have if ZAM did not support us.

You can read the official announcement here: http://ffxiv.zam.com/story.html?story=32894

XIVModels

Not much to say here XD be a surprise. Should be ready by launch, maybe shortly after. It will be a full fledged model viewer with all sorts of cool features. It will be integrated onto XIVDB so that if you create a "Wardrobe" gear-set in XIVDB, you can click a button and it will open the model viewer and equip all those pieces so you can see how it looks :O

I think back to XIVPads 1.0 and how I did gearsets then, how times have changed, only the oldest visitors will remember :O

So that is catch up :D

Enjoy Early Accesssssssssss!!!!

-PV

Please backup any private messages!

Premium Virtue, Nov 25 2014

Images being removed later today, please take what you want.

Premium Virtue, Nov 03 2014

Rogue added to XIVPads - But visually buggy XD

Premium Virtue, Oct 28 2014

XIVPads Sync Disabled + New characters. Patch 2.4 maintenance!!!

Premium Virtue, Oct 27 2014