Ctrl Alt WoW FFXIV Episode 21 - Same-Region Player Matching Is On The Horizon

 

AprilPvd and Grand Nagus discuss Final Fantasy XIV. Send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play.

Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu

Grand Nagus:

Final Fantasy XIV

 

 

Rolling Out Same-region Player Matching for the Japan Data Center!

As announced at Fan Festival 2026 in Berlin, starting Tuesday, 13 October 2026, following the 24 hour maintenance period on Monday, 12 October, same-region player matching will be available for the Japan data center.

Matchmaking and party recruitment have thus far been limited to players on the same logical data center. However, with the introduction of same-region player matching, the scope will expand to cover all those on the same physical data center (physical data center, in this case, is the entire region of data centers). This means that all players within the same physical data center will be eligible for matchmaking and party recruitment, regardless of their current world.

Once same-region player matching has been confirmed to operate stably on the Japan data center, it will be rolled out in turn to other data centers.

This announcement will outline the purpose and impact of same-region player matching.

Read on for details.

My thoughts on this:

It will be a great thing for off peak times, but some issues will be made worse, namely the lack of roles to fill groups. Overall, though i'm very glad this finally happened, i'm seeing more advantages than drawbacks. 

Honning Kage progress:

She is so cute, i love what they did with the facial expressions 

in the game. 

No Man’s Sky

Two space stations claimed.

Preparing to build a proper own space station in outer space.

Excited for the new expedition.

Some nice Twitch drops.

Built a designated salvaging corvette.

Looking to get designated multi-tools for salvaging and 

scanning. Also, i want to get my weapons optimized on my 

normal multi-tool.

 

 Email

 

Good day all.. 

So like the beginning of every month I have been playing WoW to complete the Trading post Travelers Log. However, due to it being BlizzCon month they reintroduced past trading post items and I bought some really nice new transmog gear and some nice mounts.


I then found myself enjoying playing WoW again, so I decided to carry on and complete the Midnight campaign, unlocking the ‘Haranir’ (the new Allied race) on the way. Which is what naturally happens as you quest through the campaign.


Then I realised they launched the ‘Winds of Mysterious Fortune’ event (bonus XP boost and gear drops to help you level faster). This was too tempting, so I carried on playing..

So far I have levelled a Paladin, Monk, Mage and Shaman to max level (90). I have also been running some World Events and Delves to unlock gear upgrades from the ‘Great Vault’.


I have also been doing some PVP along the way, but sadly the queue times seem quite long.. maybe there isn’t as many people PVPing at the moment? I know they do a lot of PVP on the Classic TBC realm, so maybe people are enjoying that more?


BlizzCon was awesome this year! A Diablo Netflix animated series which is currently being developed. Diablo 5 was announced (which looks very interesting and crazy!). WoW Forever (the new “classic” hybrid), Wrath of the Lich King Remix and the new StarCraft trailer was awesome!


I was quite surprised that they went with Wrath Remix. Don’t get me wrong, it was my favourite expansion ever, but -to me- just sort of seems like a bit of an odd choice?? Either way, I cannot wait for this to start! I loved the last Remix event!


I think WoW Forever will pull a lot of people in and could be fun? They also announced a new race, the Skyborn (basically they look like blue Blood Elves) which I can see being a popular choice?


I was hoping for Gnome and/or Undead Paladins ..or even better Pally Goblins..

I was partially right. We got Undead Paladins in Warcraft III and WoW Forever ..furthermore, they announced Forsaken, Troll and Night Elf Paladins in retail WoW.. but sadly no Gnome or Goblins!

I personally think Gnome Paladins would have been a very successful race/class combination. I am still hoping that they introduce Gnome Paladins at a later date.


Later today (which might be after you read this?) Season 15 of Diablo goes live! It looks very interesting! I am definitely starting with Barbarian again! Hell is calling! Time to crack some skulls!


Anyway.. hope you are all well and enjoying the games!

Take care 

Kep - Argent Dawn, EU - FOR THE HORDE! 

 

 

 

Greetings AprilPVD, Grand Nagus and welcome back Big G!

Attached is my audio for this week and a couple of beautiful screenshots.

 

 

Cheers

 Rigarmorty 

  

 

 

Ctrl Alt WoW FFXIV Episode 20 - Island Sanctuaries And Patch 7.56

 

 AprilPvd and Grand Nagus discuss Final Fantasy XIV. Send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play.

Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu

Grand Nagus:

Final Fantasy XIV

Yo-Kai Colab is back from Aug. 4 to Oct.5

 

Island Sanctuaries:

I'm working on multiple Island Sanctuaries atm.

I want to get to the point where i can buy things with the currency there that i would otherwise have to spend other currencies for, that i might need for other things, Cordials (a gathering consumable to restore GP) among them, as well as dyes of the second tier.

As with so much else, it takes some time to set up, but it's worth it in the long run, if nothing else, i can sell stuff i can get there on the MB. 

Honning Kage just reached Rank 12 and got access to the cave on the island.

M'kolon Kage is at Rank 5 closing in on Rank 6

Aeble Kage is getting close to Rank 10

Both M'kolon Celah and Jaffa Cake have finished leveling their sanctuaries and are gaining currency to get the items, just the way i want to.

 

Submersible Voyages:

We are starting to make money on the first sub. Not a lot, but profit for now.

We are running "O J" missions atm, each destination on any map has a letter designation, in order of the list that is set up for each dive map. So the first is "A" the second destination is "B" and so forth. They will also have a rising Rank requirement to get to, so the first might have Rank 1, or Rank 50, or Rank 70, depending on what Rank is required to explore any new map, but each first destination on any map will be designation "A". 

That way you know that, say "Sea of Ash A"  is the first destination of the "Sea of Ash" map. And the fact that "Sea of Ash" is the second map in the progression, and requires a sub to be at least Rank 50 to go to, you can see when you can go there with your sub. 

The "O J" voyage our sub is running is a basic first map route that gives us a chance of getting special loot that we can sell as is for gil.

Just before i started writing the show notes, i debriefed another O J voyage that brought us 85k worth of loot. We did have up to 380k gil on an earlier voyage, but that is RNG, like i explained in an earlier episode, the double dipping RNG, along with the standard RNG for bonus loot.

The previous voyage didn't have any bonus loot at all, yes, that happens too.

One O J voyage, currently, takes 22h and change. But as the sub ranks up, it will get better speed stats, among the other stats, and that will shorten the voyage's duration. 

 

We lost another lottery! Another one of those insane lotteries with 260+ bids. I have to say, though, it is a really, really nice plot. I would say it's my favorite MEDIUM plot in Limsa Lominsa's Mist housing ward. 

Email

 

Good day all 

So on D4 the ‘The Grandfather’ (a 2-handed sword) finally dropped for my Barbarian. I also reconfigured some of my gear and got a new pair of Mythic gloves with more applicable stats. I was clearing Pit 90 (Torment 11) quite easily. So I thought I’d give it a try to run the Pit on Torment 12… and I smashed it! 

I also jumped back onto my Rogue and got him to Torment 12 up from T6! 

I rolled a new Paladin, got him up to level 70 pretty quickly! I was not really enjoying levelling around the 50’s mark, so I changed a few things on a “Zeal” build and he suddenly became a lot of fun to play, cutting through enemies like a hot knife through butter! So far I took him from ‘normal’ to Torment 7 within an hour or so.. I just need to sort some of his gear out, get a few nice drops and I think he will be hitting torment 10, easily! 

I am really looking forward to hearing all the news that will be coming out of Blizcon (the 12th of September). 

Anyway.. 

Hope you are all well 

Take care 

Kep 

~~~~

Greetings AprilPVD and Grand Nagus,

Attached is my audio for this week. As usual, been in FFXIV and now in the current expansion 

Dawntrail. To preserve no spoilers, sadly no screenshots but maybe I'll get some selfies in for 

next time.

Cheers,

Rigarmorty

 

Ctrl Alt WoW FFXIV Episode 19 - Square Enix At GamesCom

AprilPvd and Grand Nagus discuss Final Fantasy XIV. Send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play.

Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu

Grand Nagus:

Final Fantasy XIV

Yo-Kai Colab is back from Aug. 4 to Oct.5

 

 

When

Wednesday, 26 August 2026 to Sunday, 30 August 2026

Where

Hall 8, Booth A-21
Koelnmesse
Messeplatz 1
50679 Cologne
Germany

Fan Gathering

Come join us for an intimate, special Fan Gathering at the booth!

Date and Time

Thursday, 27 August 2026 from 20:00 to 23:55 (CEST)

Location

Hall 8, Booth A-21
Koelnmesse
Messeplatz 1
50679 Cologne
Germany

 

How to Participate

We have 80 spots available for this Fan Gathering. Tickets will be available from Thursday, 20 August 2026 at 20:00 (CEST) via Eventbrite and on a first come, first served basis. Tickets will be limited to 1 per person and you will require a valid gamescom ticket to be able to enter the venue and access the booth.

To redeem your ticket following pre-registration, visit us in Hall 8, Booth A-21 before 16:00 (CEST) on Thursday, 27 August 2026 and show your Eventbrite reference to a member of staff, who will issue you with your Fan Gathering ticket!

We're aware of the high demand for German Fan Gatherings and are actively looking into hosting additional in-person events throughout the year. We'll be sharing more information on the Lodestone in the future.

You must be over 18 years of age in order to attend this Fan Gathering and must present a valid photo ID in order to gain entry to the event (driving licence, passport, national ID card etc.).

We can't wait for gamescom 2026 to start and are looking forward to welcoming you at the Square Enix booth. Get ready for an unforgettable time!

 

Honning Kage (NA Goblin/Crystal) progress:

Leveled crafter jobs to 20+, CUL to 33, so i can start desynthing 

fish i caught. Desynth is a spell you learn at lvl 30 as a crafter.

It's basically the same thing as disassemble or disenchanting.

Her Island Sanctuary has reached Rank 10 earlier today, giving players

on the island the ability to fly on the island.

The max rank of Island Sanctuary is Rank 20, so i'm half way done.

I finished unlocking the three stages of the croplands and of the pasture.

Also i finished setting up my optimal loadout of animals in the pasture. 

Housing decoration is proceeding well.

Subs are being leveled.

Lotteries are being lost. 

 

Email

 

So I ran a few more Dungeons on WoW (with my Goblin Monk, dressed like a cowboy) and got enough Timewarped Badges to get the ‘Black-furred Bakar’ a recolour of the Bakar Mount, which looks pretty cool! I have also collected badges for the ‘Nightfall Skyreaver’s Reins’ when the Warlords of Draenor Timewalking event comes back around. 

I also did the “free T-shirt event” and added some shirts to my transmog collection. 

On Diablo 4 I have been trying to get the ‘Grandfather’ a 2-Handed Sword for my Barbarian! But RNG has not been very kind so far! I have tried to craft it and ran lots of Bosses to get it to drop.. but no luck so far! Having said this, I have had some brilliant luck with RNG when it comes to tempering and affixes on my gear.. which I may have caused me to “geek out” a little! 

My Barbarian’s gear is starting to look good, I am still adjusting some of his gear and Affixes and he is doing pretty good! It can be very expensive to do certain things, so that can become a bit of an issue.. 

My goal this season was to hit Torment 10, but I have managed to hit Torment 11! I know people have got a lot further, but I’m still learning and taking my time. Season 13 and 14 have been a great learning curve and I have learned a lot on the way! It’s been tons of fun and things are really starting to click into place! I am currently Paragon 237. 

I think I am going to take advantage of the “Rebirth” function in Season 15 (where your character gets setback to level 1 with no gear etc). I think I am going to rebirth my original Rogue to start with, then maybe Paladin and Necromancer.. 

Hope you’re all enjoying your games? 

All the best and have fun! 

Kep 

 

~~~

Greetings AprilPVD & Grand Nagus, Attached is my audio for this week. Below is just a beautiful duty I was in where your path appears as you beat groups of mobs :

 

 Cheers, Rigarmorty

 

Ctrl Alt WoW FFXIV Episode 18 - FanFest Recap And The Steam Machine

 

AprilPvd and Grand Nagus discuss Final Fantasy XIV. Send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play.

Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu

Grand Nagus:

Final Fantasy XIV

Yo-Kai Colab is back from Aug. 4 to Oct.5

FanFest Berlin Recap:

Generally it was a great experience. Meeting so many people from the community was amazing.

Was there stuff that wasn't so good? YES!

But i don't want to go into that here, it didn't take away from the overall experience i had personally.

I focused on the events on Day 1 and more on the community aspect on Day 2. 

The Keynote was cool with YoshiP in the Bastion cosplay armor. Bastion is the new Tank job we get in Evercold. 

I got there a little ahead of time, as you can see, if you look at the pic i made just after i sat down 2h:37m:41secs before the event started. 

I didn't take many pics on Day 1, this pic is from the day before when the staff set up the banners outside

 

The most important event for me, tbh, was the concert on Day 1.

Keiko and Amanda Achen are just the best!

 

My favorite parts of the event were the concerts. Both Keiko's piano concert and The Primals on Day 2.

And both Amanda and Jason [Charles Miller] sang new songs i hadn't heard them sing before. 

In case you do not know, aside from singing a few songs in Shadowbringers, Jason was the ARR VA for Raubahn. 

On the Day 2 i arrived a little later, 11:45am on Day 2 vs 5:45am on Day 1. I'm just not that into PvP, and that was the first point of order on Day 2.

I went and checked out all the community areas on Day 2, and since the cosplay walk was on Day 2 as well, most of the cosplayers were there too. 

When i entered the community area, i met Foxclon, the main community person, i'm not sure of his title, not that that is important, but i got a pic with him. 

I met a bunch of cosplayers and we had a great time.

I  only got a couple of pics with the the cosplayers. I tend to get pics of them rather than with them, since i really like their work.

Here are a few pics i got with a few of them, though. 

As i said, at the end, the event was amazing. Well worth the investment.

I haven't done much ingame since i came home, other than set up my Steam Machine. I got the email about it when i was still in Berlin and had to see how to buy it since i didn't have all my passwords to my accounts i needed. But i got it to work in the end, so i'm a proud owner of a Steam Machine now. 

General thoughts on the Steam Machine.

Power usage of PC vs Steam Machine.

Windows vs Linux. 

Email

Greetings AprilPVD & Grand Nagus,

Attached is my audio this week. Doesn't look like I took any screenshots as most would have contained spoilers but having lots of fun on my Ninja who in fact hit 87 today.

Cheers,

Rigarmorty

 

 

Good day all! Hope you are all doing well?


So on Diablo 4 I took my Barbarian from Torment 1 to Torment 6.. Shortly after I did unlock Torment 7 in The Pit, but I was really struggling to take down the Bosses in the open world and dungeons etc., so I dropped backdown to T5. However, I was just obliterating everything with ease!

So I did some research and with the resources I had gathered I knew I have the potential to unlock much higher Torment Tiers. So I target farmed some pieces and got my resources to a good level, reconfigured my gear (which at times was a bit confusing and I wasted some things by accident.. I guess that’s how you also learn?). Anyway.. with a few changes I started smashing Torment 8! I pretty much one-shotted the Butcher in the Pit and have now unlocked Torment 9! With some more readjustments I believe I can get to T10/T11 very soon! I am also building up my Paragon Levels (currently 207) which will also help!


I am still absolutely loving this game! There are some interesting changes coming in Season 15, which (if the rumours are true?) it should be dropping in the middle of September after Blizcon!


On WoW, I have completed the August Travellers Log, which involved me running a few of the old BC Timewalking dungeons and I also won the Trial of Style a couple of times with my Goblin Monk! The reward for this month is a cosmetic Cowboy outfit, which actually looks pretty cool!


Anyway..

Hope you’re all having fun and enjoying your games?


All the best,

Kep!

Ctrl Alt WoW FFXIV Episode 17 - FanFest What Will You Bring

AprilPvd and Grand Nagus discuss Final Fantasy XIV. Send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play.

Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu

Grand Nagus:

Final Fantasy XIV

 

 

 

                         

 

JP FC:

We lost more lotteries, and one we are not sure of yet, we have a 3/15 chance of winning, so not all is lost yet. We just have to wait for the person that bid to come on and check the winning number. Nothing much else to talk about on JP, other than the fact that the subs are doing more exploring and the onions are growing, just like they should.

NA Goblin FC:

We resurrected an old FC my friend made some time back and it's high enough to start sending out subs right away, so we are seriously debating crafting the components on our main NA characters and then ship them over, lol.

The only issue was, and you are noticing me saying was, not is, that we didn't have a house with that FC, so, we entered the lottery for a house and ... WE WON!! 

So now the newly resurrected and renamed FC "Pastry Enterprises" is in business! The house, yes it is a smol, is named "The Lala Pastry Shop" and we fully intend to take over the world of pastries, cakes and other baked goods.

EU FC:

Still working on the second component for the first sub. 

No Man’s Sky

Email

 

Greetings AprilPVD & Grand Nagus,

Hope you're all doing well, missing Big G already and super jelly for Grand Nagus going to the upcoming Fanfest! 

Attached is my audio for this week and a couple of screens from my offering to two shrines and my new main job. NIN

Oschon Shrine

 Menphina Shrine

 

 

NIN is so much fun. Stabby stabby:)

 

 

Cheers,

Rigarmorty

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hello all! 

I haven’t really played WoW at all over these last two weeks.. I am waiting for the Classic Turbulent Timeways event (starting tomorrow) so I can just smash through some dungeons to collect some Timeless Coins! 

I did however, get a new Mount as a gift; the Sunflare Driftmoth. I believe it’s because I have a 12 month subscription on one of my accounts.. 

On Diablo I started levelling a Spiritborn, he is currently max level, Torment 2. With a few minor tweaks he will easily be Torment 3! It was really good fun levelling him! Vortex, Gorilla smash, Centipede, BOOM! It was so much fun running around obliterating things! 

I have also been playing on my Rogue, where I have been levelling my Paragon Levels (currently level 131 and rising), I am gearing him up and I have had a few Ancestral gear drops, which I need to reconfigure/upgrade in the Horadric Cube, this will definitely push him up the torment levels (currently Torment 3/4). 

I have been collecting/farming ‘seeds of Hatred’ in the PVP zone to convert to ‘Red Dust’ to spend at the PVP vendor for cosmetic items. I have also been doing lots of Ruptures and collecting lots of ‘Whispers’ for the bonus Tree of Whisper cache event, which drop some really nice items. 

Anyway.. hope you are all well? 

Take it easy.. 

Kep 

 

 

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Ctrl Alt WoW FFXIV Episode 16 - Relic Weapons FATEs And FanFest

AprilPvd and Grand Nagus discuss Final Fantasy XIV. Send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you play.

Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu

Grand Nagus:

Final Fantasy XIV

JP FC progress
Lost another couple of lotteries, but we are not giving up!! 

NA M'kolon's progress:

(Shared) FATE grinding. Bi-colored Gemstones as currency for all sorts of items.

DT Phantom Weapon upgrading 

 

HW Atma Weapon upgrading

Finished the last two Allied Society factions, so now I'm all up to date again.

Now I'm waiting for the Intersocietal Quests

No Man’s Sky

Finished the Expedition.

Email

 Greetings AprilPVD, Grand Nagus & Big G!

Attached is my audio this week and just a cool selfie I took looking up at the moon and a updated "don't mess with me look": A quick pose on my Lalafell at the seaside oh and my server pings just showing how much lag for oceanic servers.

 

Cheers,

Rigarmorty

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 day all! 

I popped back onto WoW to complete the ‘Travellers Log’ and get this months reward, the ‘Bilgewater X-TREME Firework Rocket’. I also tried to run Frost Lord Ahune once a day for a chance at the Mount, but sadly no drop this time! 

So on June the 30th at 6pm, Diablo

4 Season 14 “Death Awakening” dropped! I had been counting down the hours all day! 

I have reached max level (70) with my Barbarian and my Rogue and I am currently Paragon 26. I have also started levelling a Spiritborn last night, he is a lot of fun to play. 

I have been messing around with his build and coupling that with ‘Tempering’ his gear.. he just cuts through the enemies like a knife through butter! 

I have been farming gear with my level 70’s, and increasing the difficulty levels! I have also been collecting the new seasonal rewards and new items. 

I have been really enjoying D4 and having a blast!  

Anyway.. hope you are all well and having fun! 

Take care all 

Kep!