Final Fantasy XIV’s 6.18 Patch Finally Adds Data Center Travel, Maintenance Underway

We’re sure you’ve all noticed by now that Final Fantasy XIV is down for a while – 24 hours, in fact. No, this isn’t a major content update, but it is the update that finally, FINALLY, adds the data center travel we’ve all been waiting on. Or, at least those of us that may have friends on other data centers (or are looking for a new crowd to do end-game content with) have been waiting on.

The bulk of today’s downtime will be spent adding the new Japanese data center – Meteor, as well as four new worlds to the European data centers, in addition to the data center travel we already mentioned. Unlike world travel, it appears players will not be able to use an aetherite to hop data centers. Based on the “how-to” in the patch notes, data center travel will need to be done from the character login screen. The process requires first selecting the data center to travel to and then selecting the world of choice.

While on another data center, players will bear the title next to their name. They won’t be able to farm legendary and unspoiled nodes, access retainers, put items on the market board, or take on specific quests. As should be expected, players can’t join free companies on other data centers or do anything related to free companies – this includes using free company chat to talk to your free company on your home world. In all honesty, there are quite a few restrictions to data center travel. Even Crystalline Conflict ranked matches are unavailable. But, it’s all stuff that makes sense.

Speaking of PvP, when the game comes back up, Crystalline Conflict Season One will have come to an end, rewards can be claimed, and Season 2 will be underway. Jobs in PvP will also have undergone changes. Most of these changes are buffs, but not everyone got lucky.

For the raiders among us, with the next set of Pandaemonium raids on the way, the XIV team has decided to remove several restrictions from the current ones. Weekly restrictions on receiving the Unsung Blade from the Fourth Circle of the Normal raid are gone, as are the restrictions on entering the Savage version. The Savage raids will also offer two treasure coffers every time, and the restrictions on rewards have been removed from them. Oh, and if you really would rather not deal with P3S, players are now allowed to go directly to any circle.