Final Fantasy 14 has experienced another distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on its servers, with the North American data centers as the primary targets. The recent Final Fantasy 14 DDoS attack arrived after waves of attacks already took a toll on the servers in November.
The attacks came just shortly after Final Fantasy 14 launched Patch 7.4, Into the Mist, on December 16. The new content update brought the finale of the fan-favorite Arcadion raids series and a new main scenario chapter that laid the groundwork for Final Fantasy 14‘s next expansion. Final Fantasy 14 also introduced a Strategy Board that players can use to formulate battle plans. The 7.4 update also brought a significant change to the game’s glamour system, as restrictions for most pieces of armor that were based on job, role, and level had been lifted.
Final Fantasy 14 Update 7.4 Just Made Big Changes to a Fan-Favorite Job
Final Fantasy 14’s Patch 7.4 update brings new story quests, new bosses to battle, and some surprising changes to a popular job.
Final Fantasy 14’s Latest Update Marred by Disconnections
Though Final Fantasy 14 experienced a lengthy DDoS attack wave in November, the disconnection issues have since returned. As of this writing, the most recent attack on the North American data center happened at approximately 3:30 PM Eastern on December 19. The attacks caused Final Fantasy 14 players to express their concerns on the game’s official subreddit and to confirm if an attack was the reason behind a sudden disconnection or lag spike.
What Is a DDoS Attack?
In simple terms, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal server operations by sending floods of traffic at it all at once. While there is no known way to make a server completely immune to a DDoS attack, games like Final Fantasy 14 can mitigate the traffic from a bot network by rerouting the flow of traffic or via other countermeasures that Square Enix or its partners can take. Impacted FF14 players can attempt to log back in shortly after, though they may be met with a lengthy queue. Square Enix stated it was aware of the ongoing situation and would continue monitor it.
In light of the November DDoS attacks, Square Enix made a change to Final Fantasy 14‘s Deep Dungeon feature that gave players a way to save a run that would previously have been erased due to disconnections. As of Patch 7.4, Final Fantasy 14 allowed players who disconnect inside a Deep Dungeon instance to resume their run if they log back into the game within 10 minutes or less. However, if a single party member in a Deep Dungeon run is knocked out while the disconnections happen, all progress will be lost and players will have to start over from a previous floor.
Other Known Issues With Final Fantasy 14’s Latest Update
While Final Fantasy 14‘s latest patch has seen its share of issues that required some additional server downtime to address, one issue has rallied the community together in a hilarious way. Following Patch 7.4’s arrival, a nameless level 1 deer, dubbed ‘MissingNo’ by Final Fantasy 14 players, was spotted in the Coerthas Western Highlands. The highlands are normally inhabited by monsters ranging from levels 50 to 60. Despite being a known bug introduced in Patch 7.4, Final Fantasy 14 players have taken pictures and have held group gatherings around the MissingNo deer.
Even though Square Enix made some hotfixes to Final Fantasy 14 on December 19 to address some problems with Cosmic Exploration and specific glamour pieces, the MissingNo deer could still be found in the Coerthas Western Highlands. However, time will tell if or when Square Enix will send the level 1 critters back to where they came from in a future update.
- Released
-
August 27, 2013
- ESRB
-
T for Teen – Language, Mild Blood, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Engine
-
Originally the Crystal Tools engine, but currently it’s a custom engine using parts of the Luminous Engine.
Sources: Square Enix, Is XIV Up
