September's Retail Patch

Square Enix shipped a retail version update on September 9 (client build 30260904_1). Three things follow from it.

Update your client

The server moves to the new build with its next patch. After that, a client still on August's build is refused at login, so update now. Open the PlayOnline Viewer, log in as usual and start FINAL FANTASY XI; the version check downloads the patch before the title screen. If you have no PlayOnline login, use Check Files on the viewer's main menu, but note that on its own it only verifies the files you already have. To make it fetch the new build, move ROM\0\0.DAT out of your FINAL FANTASY XI folder first (keep the copy), run Check Files, and choose Start File Repair when it reports the missing file. It downloads the whole September patch.

Update the launcher

The patch changed how the client's item file is laid out. Launcher versions before 0.32.6 read that file at the old positions, so on a patched client they skip our text overlay: the job capes show their donor names, augment strings are blank and the DWPolitics titles are missing. Nothing is broken in the game itself, and nothing you own is affected. Launcher 0.32.6 reads both layouts. The launcher offers the update itself on its next start; take it.

Ashita, and the addon windows

The same layout change reached Ashita. Ashita reads the item file with its own parser, and the version everyone has been running reads it at the old positions on a patched client — so every DriftwoodXI window that shows an item name (the Market, your bags, the Warehouse, quest rewards) showed item 4940 instead of the scroll it meant. Ashita's author shipped the matching fix as Ashita v4.3.2.0 on September 10.

Launcher 0.33.0 brings it to you. Alongside the addons it already keeps current, the launcher now keeps Ashita's own files current too: at its next check it sees that your Ashita.dll is the older build, fetches the new one from our bundle and swaps it in before your next Play — your addons, your boot settings and everything else in the folder untouched, and the previous files kept beside it. This works whether the launcher installed Ashita for you or you pointed it at your own folder. If you have a client open while it happens, that client keeps running on the old files; the names come back the next time you launch.

Verify Game Files

The file list Verify compares against was rebuilt from a patched client tonight. If Verify told you a thousand files differ or that a handful were missing, that was the old list, not your install. Do not delete DAT files on Verify's say-so; run PlayOnline's own file check if you suspect one.