Test Server FAQ / Crash CourseFollow

Test Server Crash Course

This crash course is designed to give you the bare essentials in terms of what you need to get up and running on the test server.

Signing Up!

TODO: Expand this section.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/applicationform.php

Go to the URL above and fill out the application process. You need to have every available expansion registered against your account, have at least one character at level 90, and you must have transferred your POL account to your SE account (which means you have to have signed up to the new billing process). You also need to have signed up to use the forums if you have not previously done so.

Download the Files!

First off, determine the version of PlayOnline you're running. It's either going to be US or EU. You ideally should know this already. If you don't, use the following instructions to determine which region you're using. If you already know, skip to "Download the Files".

Open Regedit

• Click on your Start Menu
• Click on the "Run" button (Windows Vista/7 users do not need to do this step
• Enter "regedit" into the box and press enter

Check POL Version
In the new program that opens you will see a tree structure on the left hand side that looks very similar to Windows Explorer. You need to look for one of the following folders:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PlayOnlineUS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PlayOnlineEU

You should only see one of these. If you have both, you've previously installed both clients, which hopefully suggests you know what you were doing. If you see "PlayOnlineUS", you have the US version. Likewise, if you see "PlayOnlineEU", you have the EU version.

Download the Files
If you're running the US version, download all 4 of the following files:

• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/US/A11203W_001.zip
• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/US/FFXITC.zip
• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/US/FFXITC2.zip
• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/US/FFXITC3.zip

Otherwise, if you're running the EU version, download all 4 of the following files:

• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/EU/U11204W_001.zip
• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/EU/FFXITC.zip
• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/EU/FFXITC2.zip
• http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxi/preview/EU/FFXITC3.zip

Install the POL Test Client!

Extract the contents of the first file to a safe place (your desktop is usually a good choice). If you don't know how to extract a zip file, please go and research a bit more before trying this; you're not going to make a good bug tester if you can't use WinZip or 7-zip.

Inside the new directory is a number of files. One of them is called setup.exe. Run this program. It may ask for Administrator privileges on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Allow it to have them. This will install the Test Server POL client into your normal PlayOnline directory, which is usually C:\Program Files\PlayOnline unless you've changed it.

When this is finished, do not run the new client! You have some additional work to do first.

"Install" the FFXI Test Client!

You have three other zip files, FFXITC.zip, FFXITC2.zip and FFXITC3.zip. Extract all three of these files to a safe place (again, your desktop is a good choice). All these files have their data kept in a root folder called ffxi. If you extract all of them to the one location, you should have a single folder called ffxi with numerous files and folders inside it.

This is the tricky part that has tripped a lot of people up. Copy the contents of the ffxi folder to the directory you installed the POL test client. The default is C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI Test Client. If you've done this correctly, the directory structure of your Test Client folder will look something like this:

FINAL FANTASY XI Test Client 
|-- ROM 
|-- ROM2 
|-- ROM3 
|-- ROM4 
|-- ROM5 
|-- ROM6 
|-- ROM7 
|-- ROM8 
|-- ROM9 
|-- sound 
|-- sound2 
|-- sound3 
|-- sound4 
|-- sound5 
|-- sound6 
|-- SYS 
|-- TEMP 
|-- Tools 
|-- ToolsEU 
|-- ToolsUS 
|-- USER

If you've botched it (which results in the game either not starting or language issues with the GM moogle inside your mog house) it's going to look something like this:

FINAL FANTASY XI Test Client 
|-- ffxi <-- this is very very bad! you didn't read the readme file! 
	|-- ROM 
	|-- ROM2 
	|-- ROM3 
	|-- ROM4 
	|-- ROM5 
	|-- ROM6 
	|-- ROM7 
	|-- ROM8 
	|-- ROM9 
	|-- sound 
	|-- sound2 
	|-- sound3 
	|-- sound4 
	|-- sound5 
	|-- sound6 
	|-- Tools 
	|-- ToolsEU 
	|-- ToolsUS 
|-- SYS 
|-- ToolsUS

This step essentially installed all the DAT files into the Test Server client. It's a full replica of the public data, so you're essentially keeping two copies of the game on your computer. That's why those 3 zip files total close to 6gb.

Your First Visit To Undine!

If you've gotten this far and haven't done anything wrong, you can now run the POL test client. In the C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI Test Client folder (or whatever you've chosen to rename it to), you'll find a program called polboot.exe. This is a bootstrap program that basically launches the regular POL viewer with the option to log into the Test Server enabled.

The first time you run it, it's going to download updates. If you've done everything correctly, you can let it update itself as you would for the public POL client. It'll take anywhere from minutes to hours depending on your connection speed.

When it's finished, the normal FFXI menu screen (the one where you'd normally click "Play FFXI") now has an extra menu option to the right called "Play on Test Server". Clicking this button will start the FFXI test client where your character you signed up with all the way back in Step 1 is now waiting for you on Undine.

Please note that if you have any DAT mods running in your public client, they will not be reflected in the test server due to the fact you downloaded a completely new set of DAT files. If you want to try modding the test client DATs like the public client, by all means, go ahead and report back!

What's different on the Test Server?

First things first. Go back to your Mog House. If you've done everything right, you'll see two additional moogles there. =TEST= Porter and =TEST= Moogle GM. If you've done it wrong, you'll likely see Moogle2 who'll only speak to you in Japanese. Uninstall the test client and try again, you didn't do it right.

=TEST= Moogle GM

This moogle lets you modify various stats on your player character. This is a breakdown of all his menu options.

Read Instructions
Displays the following text:


Change Parameters
This menu option lets you modify various stats on your character, and has the following submenu options.

Edit main job level
This will allow you to set the level of your currently active main job anywhere from 1 to 95. You can't specify a number outside this range. This will also reset your combat and magic skills to the maximum available for that job. Be warned though! If you change a job to level 50 for example but then switch back to a level 95 job, your skills will still be reflective of the level 50 you last edited! So if you want level 95 skills for a specific job, then make sure you go back into this screen and set the job you're playing with to 95.

This also means if you set a different job to 95 and then switch, you'll keep the stats of the old job, which gives different jobs access to abilities and weaponskills they normally would not have access to. This is not a game bug and should not be reported as such, it is a documentation issue with the test server!

When you specify a new level, you automatically are awarded half the XP required to get to the next level (so at 95, you receive 27k XP).

Reset ability recast timer
This one is simple, it sets all your recasts back to zero. Great for playing with 2 hour abilities.

Obtain merit points
Despite the text produced from the moogle, this sets your stored merit points to 20. You still need to spend merits in the normal fashion. This can be used an unlimited number of times though, so once you use them all up, use this menu option again and get more, rinse, repeat until merits are maxed.

Receive all spells/rolls/attachments
Another simple one, this unlocks every spell, roll and attachment on your character. They are still only available at the level they would normally be available at, but you don't have to go and track down the abilities. Also gives you new spells such as Kaustra and Embrava on Scholar.

Unlock all jobs and support jobs
If you haven't unlocked a specific job yet, this menu option makes it available for you. You can then use the Edit main job level option to level it up quickly.

Teleport to key locations
This menu option lets you quickly warp to any town or outpost in the game. Full list is below.

Towns

• Northern San d'Oria
• Bastok Mines
• Port Windurst
• Port Jeuno
• Selbina
• Mhaura
• Kazham
• Norg
• Rabao
• Tavnazian Safehold
• Aht Urhgan Whitegate
• Nashmau
• Chocobo Circuit
• Past Southern San d'Oria
• Past Bastok Markets
• Past Windurst Waters

Outposts

• The Ronfaure Region
• The Zulkheim Region
• The Norvallen Region
• The Gustaberg Region
• The Derfland Region
• The Sarutabaruta Region
• The Kolshushu Region
• The Aragoneu Region
• The Fauregandi Region
• The Valdeaunia Region
• Qufim Island
• The Li'Telor Region
• The Kuzotz Region
• The Vollbow Region
• The Elshimo Lowlands Region
• The Elshimo Uplands Region
• Tu'lia
• The Tavnazian Archipelago

Warp to home point
Fairly obvious, warps you directly to wherever your current home point is.

Receive items
This menu item is currently bugged insofar as the menu options are offset by one. Below is the menu item text as well as which menu it actually takes you to. I haven't included the full item list under each category here. However at present there are no Relic, Mythic or Empyrean weapons available, nor are any of the trial weapons there (with the exception of the weaker path on the Empyrean weapons. For example, Hvergelmir is not available, but Taiaha +2 is).

• Menu Item Text -> Actual Menu you go to
• Select an item category -> Weapons
• Weapons -> Armor
• Armor -> Expendable Items
• Expendable Items -> Storage Slips
• Storage Slips -> Cancel (Returns to Previous Menu)
• Cancel -> Cancel (Returns to Previous Menu)

TODO: Get the full list of items available from the Moogle

Obtain 100,000,000 gil
This doesn't give you +100,000,000 gil, it actually just sets your gil to 100,000,000. You also see the text "Congratulations, you are now a gillionaire!"

Other Features
If you trade the Moogle GM a storage slip, he can fully charge it for you, which then allows you to trade it to the =TEST= Porter moogle to extract any piece of equipment normally obtainable from a Moogle Storage Slip 01-11.

=TEST= Porter
The Porter moogle allows you to purchase blank claim slips (you can get these from the Moogle GM as well). Trading these claim slips to the =TEST= Moogle GM moogle will charge them. You can then trade them back to =TEST= Porter to obtain any piece of equipment normally available from a claim slip. You can use a Moogle Storage Slip 10 for Empyrean +2 armour.

Now what?

Well, by this point you should be sporting full AF3+2 and be maxed out at level 95 with all your new spells. Go and try breaking the game! Remember, the point of the test server is to test new, unfinished content. Find bugs. Report them on the forum. Don't use it as an excuse to see bits of the game early, because it may not be finished or may not work as intended.

Current Recurring Issues

• New quest lines do not appear to have been localised yet and will display in Japanese (this included the 90 limit break quest)
• Most of the new abilities have help text that is wrong

Edited, Aug 30th 2011 3:33pm by Drusenija

Wanted to share my experience with getting my PS2 Controller working on PC.

I don't know if this will work for anyone else yet but I imagine POL stores everything the same. I have an old, corded ps2 controller with the Radio shack adapter and original Radio shack drivers. Works awesome. Did not work on the Test server at all. Even when my configuration in the application was right still no luck. So I went Registry hunting:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\PlayOnlineUS\SquareEnix\FinalFantasyXITestClient

This is the registry path for the game in 64bit. If you are in 32bit it'll be a little different. You'll also see:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\PlayOnlineUS\SquareEnix\FinalFantasyXI

When I viewed the original installation there were to string values in there that reference pad that were not in my test server:

padmode000 = 1,1,1,1
padsin000 = 6,4,11,5,10,1,3,2,0,8,-1,-1,9,33,33,32,32,34,34,37,37,41,41,40,40,-1,-1

So inside the registry editor, right click, select New, then add 2 new string values named to match what's in the FFXI section. Hopefully someone can confirm for me if the values are the same for other game pads.

Then I modified each string with the matching values from the original FFXI string entries. See screenshot.

http://postimage.org/image/1wbmmum78/

I rebooted POL, logged in, and my control finally started working. I now have my macros/controller all running.

Hopefully others can give it a try and see if it works for you.

System Specs

Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Dual Monitors
Steam Ultimate Edition
nVidia 560-ti with latest drivers (280.26)

Something else to note: your values in the registry entries will probably be different or maybe even named differently. Don't use what I have. Use your own.

Edited, Aug 31st 2011 3:18pm by sfdxsm

Even if there was a mirror the test server wouldn't work as it closed back in july 2014, due to the monthly updates they were pushing out at the time.

Edited, Oct 13th 2015 5:50pm by Szabo

Oh, that's unfortunate. =/

Still, I'd like to get ahold of the installation files for the Test Server if at all possible. That way I could make a private server with the features of the Test Server (new UI, jumping, etc.).