Hardware/Software/General Information

Yes, I changed the look of the place. I thought I’d be festive and switch things up now that FFXIV has been announced. Come ride the train of craziness with me! I’d also like to welcome anyone coming to visit from my Twitter profile. I don’t really update it all that often, but it’s there, so I may use it a bit more in the future. I’m sorry, you won’t be hearing about my breakfast or what I’m doing RIGHT THIS SECOND. Also, yes, this is a gaming blog. If you didn’t know I was a geek before, well, you do now. (^^)

Anyways, I thought I’d take some time today and gather up all of the information I could possibly find for FFXIV, even if it’s only been three days or so since it was announced, so I’d have it in one place, and can update it in the coming months. I’ve done my best to double check each piece of information, but if I have something here that is not good info, please let  me know. Likewise, if I’m missing something, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’m going to be making this a static part of the blog, so hopefully more information will be added in the very near future!

• Initial simultaneous world-wide release for PS3 and PC ( for the version of Windows that is most current at release)
• Initial languages: Japanese, English, German, and French
• Will use latest version of Direct X (probably 10, so this means Vista and up) for PC release
• FFXIV will be at the forefront of available technology, and Squenix is looking into a benchmark program
• Squenix is “considering all options at this time” in regards to releasing on other platforms
• Will NOT use PlayOnline service
• Will utilize new Square Enix Accounts and Security Tokens
• Has been in development for 4-5 years
• Cross-region/world-wide servers
• Cross-region/world-wide beta test is in planning stages, will be longer than FFXI’s beta period
• Due to the game’s size, will more than likely be released on disc, but Squenix is looking into download options too
• Planning on having multiple servers, with 5000-6000 players on each
• NO CHARACTER TRANSFERS FROM FFXI TO FFXIV, PoL Friend lists, linkshells, and even names may be transferable though, but nothing firm at this time
• Nobuo Uematsu will be returning to Squenix to compose the ENTIRE score of the game

World Information

• Eorzea is NOT the name of the planet/world FFXIV takes place on, but is the name of a region
• The name of the planet/world is really Haiderin (ハイデリン)
• The game will NOT have the four races from Vana’diel, but counterparts unique to the world of Haiderin with their own new names. They will be similar to our beloved Mithra, Tarutaru, Galka, Elvaan, and Hume though
• High technology (think funky airships from the trailer) will have its place in FFXIV, but the game will still be fantasy in nature. The technology level will be below the level found in either FFX or FFXIII
• Chocobos and crystals will be present, but the developers are not sure how to use chocobos in a new and interesting way as of this point in time
• Story will be epic in scale, like other FF games, but will not connect to Vana’diel in any way

Gameplay/Mechanics/Job Information

• Developers want a distinctly different Job System from FFXI, one that focuses on character “growth”, and will hold a players interest whether they are casual or more hardcore, growth will somehow be tied to ones “natural everyday activities”
• The developers strongly hinted that there would be NO EXPERIENCE POINT gains in order to progress, but that “growth” will be tied to weapons
• FFXIV will focus on many different ways to “grow” your character, and the developers want to make sure that no matter how you choose to play the game, that your character will always progress
• FFXIV is being designed for both casual players, and more hardcore players. Something for everyone!
• The battle system will be more strategic, and there will be a learning curve at the beginning. More experienced players may be able to jump right in
• Solo play will be getting more attention, but party play is still a very important part of the game. Hiromichi Tanaka, the Executive Producer for both FFXI and FFXIV has said that he prefers parties to be balanced instead of a bunch of melee with no support. Sounds like DD merit parties may be a thing of the past…
• The battle system has not been perfected, and will not be until beta testing is done, but the devs say that there will be many vs. one, many vs. many, etc.
• The devs are considering PvP, but note that it will probably take a form similar to FFXI’s Ballista
• Weapons have been emphasized as being extremely important to the game and your character’s growth
• Devs are looking at quests to not only further the epic storyline, but also as methods of character growth, a departure from FFXI’s quest structure
• According to Tanaka, FFXIV is designed to be a game that caters to all different kinds of players, no matter your play style, or time available

Sources

1. Allakhazam.com – FFXIV NEWS – Tanaka & Komoto Interview
2. IGN.com – E3 2009: Final Fantasy XIV Online Q & A Live Blog
3. IGN.com – E3 2009: Final Fantasy XIV – What We Know
4. IGN.com – Final Fantasy XIV Online PlayStation 3 Interview (video)
5. G4tv.com – Live Blog: Square Enix E3 2009 Press Conference
   

I’ve been playing MMOs of one form or another for almost seven years now, and they’ve ranged from good old text MUDs to high-end graphic masterpieces. I’ve stayed the longest with FFXI, with LOTRO and EVE Online in second and third places respectively. I had quit EVE before starting FFXI, because well… it’s EVE. Excel in Space! I started playing LOTRO once I got a PC that could handle it graphically, and I played it and FFXI concurrently, since my husband played, and couldn’t get into FFXI. When I decided to take a break from FFXI last fall, I played LOTRO full-time and enjoyed it greatly. I should add here that I’m a huge Tolkien geek, so I’m sure that had something to do with it as well.

That’s not to say that it didn’t have its problems. My main character there is a Minstrel, a healing class. I play a Hunter as well, and took them both to max level, but Minstrel was always my first love. I was excited to play through the Mines of Moria (LOTRO’s first paid expansion) when it was released last November, and because the release coincided with my getting bored and frustrated with FFXI, it was a happy fix. Then, problems started showing up once I had completed just about everything there was to offer in LOTRO on my Minstrel. I did the trait grind, I did the rep grind, I did the instance grind. The only thing I didn’t do was raid or partake in PvMP (PvP in LOTRO), since neither of those activities are any fun for me. That left me with a tough choice:

Keep logging in, working on low level characters and doing the same content I’ve already done, or something else…

My husband was talking about going back to EVE, which sounded interesting, so I resubbed there and have messed around with it for a bit. It doesn’t really fill my “fantasy MMO” craving though, so I turned back to my old friend FFXI. I’ve been back for a few weeks now, and it feels great. I don’t feel the need to grind all the time, or bust my butt to get a specific piece of eq. Some nights, I’ve just sat in my Mog House (oh, how I missed my MH) and chatted with my KnightsBrigade friends. It’s been a wonderful experience to come back and just enjoy the game for what it is, and the people that make it special instead of viewing it as a constant grindfest, which is unfortunately what my mindset was when I decided to take a break.

The additions that Squenix has made to the game have certainly helped in that regard. I am a HUGE fan of Fields of Valor, and the recent WHM update. WHM now has even more tools to do what they do best, which is keep people alive. I haven’t tried MMM yet, and I’m not sure if I’m going to. I’ve also only done the first few missions of ACP, and that seems pretty decent so far as well. (Yes, I’ve read all of the negativity towards it on the forums, but I’m not really interested in busting it out in a few hours… I’ll take my time with it.)

I’m going to take SMN to 75 next, if I’m able. SMN is one of my favorite Final Fantasy jobs, and I’ve been having more fun playing it solo for the last little while than I ever have before. Now though, I’m to the point where I really need to get Fenrir, so while I’m waiting for that to happen, I decided that I’m going to level some of the melee jobs that have looked appealing to me. So far, I’ve started on DNC and I’m really enjoying it. I’m thinking of taking it to 18 for now to use as a sub to solo NIN or other jobs with. If I like it, I may take it higher, who knows!?

Anyways… it’s good to be back. It’s good to take a break every now and then, I think. Stepping away gives you some perspective, and allows you to clarify what your goals and intentions are. It allows you to see what’s really important to you, and lets you figure out why it is that you play whatever game it is you play. Sometimes we can get blinded by the next shiny piece of gear, or the accumulation of gil/money, and we forget that we’re playing this game, taking part in this persistent world that has been created by Squenix, because we want to have fun. That’s what it all comes down to in my opinion, at least.

Yeah, I took another wee break after I came back last time. Level Sync on its own wasn’t enough to hold me. This last update though, I am seriously impressed by the changes, and I’ve been steadily playing for the last two weeks and loving every minute.

So I ask  you dear readers, what job should I level up now?

So, I have come to a dilemma. A sad, sad dilemma.

I’ve always played FFXI with a controller, all of my macros (books of them) are written to take advantage of a controller, and I just enjoy sitting back and playing the game with a controller. It’s easier on my tiny hands than using the keyboard, having to reach to hit macros, all of that jazz.

During my last hiatus from the game, hubby talked me into getting one of these bad boys for other games:

Belkin Nostromo 52te

And I love it!

It’s fairly easy to program, and the only two things I take issue with are that the d-pad doesn’t work very well, and even adjusted for a smaller hand size, it’s still a little large. Other than that though, it has seriously improved my response times, and has allowed me to become a much more efficient healer (not to mention other classes) in the other game that I play.

I figured that I wouldn’t really be able to use this for FFXI, since FFXI is configured to make the best use out of a controller since the PC version is just a port from the console. I still had my good old Logitech USB controller though, so wasn’t too concerned.

However, now that I’m playing FFXI a bit more,  I’ve run into a bit of a problem. There seems to be a conflict between the Nostromo and my Logitech controller. I’ve scoured the web searching for a fix, but it doesn’t seem like many FFXI players use gamepads like this. It’s frustrating, because if I want to play with the Logitech, I have to completely uninstall the Nostromo, make sure all of my macros are backed up, etc, then reinstall it when it’s time to play my other games.

I’ve just about resigned myself to the fact that I’m going to have to learn how to use the Nostromo for FFXI. If I have a choice, I’d rather just leave it installed so that I can play my other games as well, without hassle. Since people don’t generally use gamepads with FFXI, it’s been difficult to get a sense of just HOW people use them. Do they just create single key macros? Multi-line smorgasbords of programming godliness?

It’ll be interesting, I’m sure. It does make me wish that SE would update the UI for the game though. *sigh*

It’s really been as long as 7 months since I last posted? Wow.

Well, there’s really not too much to say about my adventaruing, since I haven’t been. My time in FFXI started dwindling over the summer due to RL and other crap, and once September hit, I just didn’t have the time. Between work, our cat becoming ill with kidney failure (and eventually passing away in November, we miss you Ryo-cat!), more work, and more work, I just couldn’t find the time to log in. Then my hard drive crapped out on me, and I never got around to reinstalling FFXI on it.

Another big reason I didn’t have the time for FFXI was my husband. I’m not saying he’s to blame, but he’s a gamer as well, and couldn’t ever get into FFXI, so we never really gamed together. Last year around this time, he got me into the Old Timer’s Guild, which is a superguild spanning many different games (WAR, WoW, LOTRO, DDO, many others), and got me hooked on Lord of the Rings Online. All through the year, I split my time playing LOTRO with the hubby, and FFXI with my friends in KnightsBrigade, and when the crap hit the fan towards the end of the summer, I increasingly felt that the time I spent with him was much more important. We’re both huge LOTR fans (our wedding bands are actually copies of the One Ring, but with a much more lovely inscription in Sindarin inscribed on them), and it’s a great game that fit into my casual playstyle much better than FFXI ever could, but more on that later on.

So yes, I’ve been playing another game. *sigh* The other man, as it were. I kinda just… disappeared from FFXI. That’s just how it went down, and there’s not really any good explanation or excuse. My friends in KB didn’t know where I’d gone off to, and for that, I’m very sorry.

Now that I’ve played another MMO in a much more dedicated way over the last few months, it’s hard to not draw comparisons between the two. LOTRO is definitely geared towards a more mature audience, and is rich in story due to its being based on the books, not the movies. The graphics are gorgeous, and you can log in, and get right to whatever it is you want to do. Endgame in LOTRO consists of raids, ranging from small 6-man instances to full on 24-man battles. The key though, is that none of them really last longer than 3 hours. (Helegrod, a 24-man, can sometimes take longer depending on if you’re going for the end dragon boss, but you can also progress through the raid using locks, which save your group’s progress, meaning you can do part of it, then go back another day and finish it.) You don’t have to spend a whole day up in Sky farming items to pop the gods, and then have to contend with another group. It’s all instanced, no competition, and is much more conducive to casual play.

FFXI is still beautiful, but the graphics are definitely dated. It’s much harder to log on and get to doing what you want, since you usually have to travel across the world, find a group, or other things. Endgame stuff… well, I think we all know how much time it takes. On my WHM, I can’t go out and just kill things for xp or gil like I can with my Minstrel (healer-class) in LOTRO. The differences between the two games are night and day.

The one thing though that is constant between the two are the people. OTG is an awesome group of people to game with, and KnightsBrigade is equally awesome. In fact, the main motivator for me to reinstall FFXI and log in tonight for the first time in months is because of KB. I miss them greatly. They’re the reason why I’ll keep paying the monthly fee to log on, even though I may not do anything while I’m there.

Even though the two games are vastly different, it really comes down to the people. MMOs are social games, and anyone who says otherwise needs to have their head checked. If you don’t have a good group of people to play with, why bother?

This all reminds me of that often posted YouTube video… which I leave you with. It’s all about the people, and the friendships. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way, and am lucky enough to come back to my friends in FFXI. So, Tahki, Bennigan, Beldin, Xenogelion, Nebion, Nashiym, Lorelai, Obaseki… this one’s for you! <3

I can now verify that the SHNM(Super Hyper Notorious Monster) RealLife can spawn at any time, has no set window, and that its drop is completely random. These last few months it has dropped nothing but crap. I was coming around a corner, while walking in Vacationland (where margaritas and Long Island Iced Teas fall from the sky, and there are chocolates and video games everywhere) and there it was. It landed a crit hit on me, and had me down, but being a WHM, I cast Regen II, Stoneskin, and whipped out my whackin club. Hopefully, with a couple hundred Hexa Strikes, I’ll have it down soon… I hope.

In other words, I think this picture sums up what I’ve been up to lately quite nicely:

see more crazy cat pics

One of the things that’s kept me sane is this:

This is a streaming internet radio station that plays FF music, SE music, and music from other games. It’s run by the RGoNots Linkshell of Sylph, founded by Tebian. Stop by, tune in, and enjoy!

Ok, now to the important stuff! For the most part, Seri’s been working on her merits for WHM, especially Cure Cast time. We’ve also gotten SMN to 53, and SCH to 24 with our OTG static. (OTG stands for the Old Timers Guild, which I’m a member of courtesy of my secret alter-ego who plays LOTRO… shh, don’t tell anyone! I have a Minstrel on Gladden server…)

I gave up on doing Sky and other endgame type things for the time being, as I’m perfectly content to grind out campaign battles and have fun with KnightsBrigade. Speaking of KB, I recently unveiled our new website, so if you’d like to check it out, click here!

One of the things that’s been bugging me about Sky, is that there really isn’t anything there for WHM. Dalmatica/Zenith is nice… if you’re not a Taru. Genbu’s shield and Kirin’s pole are ok pieces as well, but nothing outstanding or fantastic. Limbus, Salvage and Assault seem to offer me the better choices for endgame non-AH gear, but I don’t even have Sea yet to do Limbus, and Salvage is a long ways away as well. Maybe for the future, but for right now, I’m happy where I am.

I’m really enjoying SCH so far, and the versatility it offers. I can nuke one minute, switch to Light Arts, and be healing the next. It’ll be even funner once I get it past 37, I think. While leveling SMN, I’ve partied with a few in that level range, and was very impressed by the possibilities that the job offers both for a dedicated healer, or a nuker.

In other news, I may be moving the blog to our new LS website, but I’ve yet to come to a decision. We’ll have to wait and see.

Hurray June update time!

I’m really disspointed in the community this morning. At least, the community over at Allakhazam. Maybe I’m naive, maybe I’m an idealist, I don’t know.

It all started last night with a posting asking the community what should be done with a confessed gilbuyer. The poster wasn’t the one who had to make the ultimate decision, but was feeling out the community to see what their opinions were on the matter. The gilbuyer in question had apparently confessed to buying the gil in LS chat, only 1 million, and had only done it once.

Now, my position on gilbuying is that it is WRONG. It is the reason RMT are still around, and it has disrupted the economy in-game. I have no respect for people who break the rules and do this. If I were to discover that someone I knew and respected in-game had bought gil, I would turn them in with no looking back. No matter how I felt about them. I feel that strongly about this.

I don’t care if you’re new to the game and didn’t know any better, or whether you are a respected member of the community and lead the most uber LS on your server. If you are a gilbuyer, you are singlehandedly contributing to RMT and to the continuing problem. Gilbuyers demean those of us who work hard to make our gil, and should not be given any leniency whatsoever.

So, the reason for my disappointment this morning  is that after posting at length on the thread at Alla, expressing my opinions, and having a very scant few people agree with me, a lot of people came back and said that they would give this person a second chance, and that they wouldn’t ever call out a well-known gilbuyer because if a well-known gilbuyer were called out, they might lose their chance to get the high end gear since they figure that a lot of the well-known and well respected members of the community must be gilbuyers, and that’s how Dynamis and other endgame events must be funded.

I am disappointed that people would choose gear over the right and moral thing to do. I’m disappointed that people aren’t willing to take the chance to make the game better by getting rid of and exposing these people who are BREAKING THE RULES.  Members of the community have the chance to excise these players and make the game better in the long run, but they will choose to turn a blind eye to this behavior in order to get their shinies.

And that makes me a sad Taru.

I haven’t posted anything of substance here for a while, and for those of you who actually visit here (thankyouthankyou), I most humbly apologize. Since hitting WHM 75, my main goal was to earn enough gil to buy my Noble’s Tunic, and I finally reached that goal after two months of scrimping, crafting, farming, and saving every single gil I could get my hands on. Even though they cost much less now than they did a year ago, or even six months ago, 600k is still quite a bit for a WHM main with no melee jobs leveled, so I’m very proud of that accomplishment.

So many things have happened since I last posted, I’m not sure where to begin!

I haven’t said how much I love KnightsBrigade in quite a while, so let me say it again. I <3 KB. We’ve done so many things over the last few months, it’s been crazy. We’ve helped people with CoP missions, got a good number of our members Sky access, and have grown closer, and gained new members that fit in very well so far.

Seri is also now a member of an endgame LS as of last week! We did a 12 hour farming run on Saturday, and though I couldn’t participate in all of the god fights on Sunday, I at least got to take part in one Seiryu fight, which was over a lot quicker than I thought. Very exciting stuff!

On top of all of that, Seri is also participating in a once-a-week low level static to level Scholar with a group of people who have recently come back to the game. We’ve only met twice so far, but it’s been very fun reminding people how to play, and showing them new things that they’ve missed since leaving.

All of this has happened so quickly, my head is still spinning. I’m not sure if I have too much on my plate yet, but at times over the last week, it’s certainly felt that way. I know for sure that I can only do those 12 hour sky farming runs once in a very great while, for a lot of different reasons. I’m going to give the endgame LS about a month, maybe two, to see how things go, and then decide what I’m going to do from there. It’s definitely going to be a learning experience for me, I can say that much.

In other news, Bennigan and I have duo’d all the Windy missions (with some help from Beldin on one) since Rank 6, and we’ve been having a blast. We just have one more mission left to go, and then we both get that shiny Rank 10 logo and a flag!! Very exciting. I get to do things with Benni that I don’t normally get to do, like MELEE. Melee WHM is way too much fun, and I’m really looking forward to getting Seri decked out properly for it. Hexa Strike is awesome! (disclaimer: I know for you melee types that it must sound really silly, but when you spend 75 levels not doing damage of any kind except for Dia II :S, Hexa Strike is like a breath of fresh air.)

I hope to post some screenshots soon, as soon as I get a chance to edit them down a bit. So much to do, so little time!!!

/panic

If you do, please run whatever anti-virus, spybot, and keylogger defense programs you have on your computer immediately!!

This morning, Melphina on Alla posted this thread which details how she almost lost her character to thieves, but was able to save it. Others have not been so lucky. For the last few days, a lot of people have started raising the alarm about FFXIAH.com and other community sites, specifically, the ads that they display from RMT sites which may have embedded keyloggers/trojans in them.

Here’s what you can do to save your character, and your sanity:

• If you use Firefox, you should also be using NoScript and AdBlock Plus.
  • By using both of these programs, you will be able to block any harmful scripts and ads on websites that may contain malware. Once you have them installed, you will be that much more protected against any kind of attack. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!
• Use a different password for your POL login than what you use for your email, forum sites, or banking information. Change this password on a regular basis.
• Another note on passwords: toss in some numbers and a few characters like #$*(&^ for good measure. The safer and more secure you can make it, the better.
• Do not let POL automatically put your password in for you. If you have a keylogger installed on your machine, it’s not going to matter one way or the other, but by saving the password, POL creates a script containing your password which is stored on your computer. If you input it manually, sure, the keylogger might grab it, but it’s still more secure than having it permanently stored on your box.
• Do not share your login information with anyone, unless you know where they live, and you can threaten them with their life if they ever disclose it. A bucket full of hot coals on the abdomen, or severing genitalia while they sleep seem to be good ways to make sure they know your password information isn’t to be messed with. (^^)b

Please take every precaution you possibly can to make sure that you don’t lose your character. The RMT are getting desperate, and are resorting to more heinous and unlawful measures to get what they want, but if we all maintain CONSTANT VIGILANCE, we might be able to cut them off before it’s too late.

… Seri has finally reached WHM 75!!

I really should have made this post back on Thanksgiving, when it happened, but I’ve been sick almost ever since then and just haven’t had the energy. Plus, I’ve been trying to figure out how to take screenies with the new official windower… I’m sure you can tell by the lack of them in this post that I haven’t gotten there yet. If you happen to know how, drop me a comment! Please! For the love of Altana!!

Anyways… A while back, I set myself a goal. I would reach 75 by Thanksgiving. As Fanfest got closer and closer, and I started to hit the 70’s, I became excited that I might actually meet that goal. After getting back from Fanfest though, and not getting invites for a while, I was in full-on panic mode. Eventually though, Bennigan decided to work on his 73 SAM, so we teamed up and got some parties rolling.

The party that did it for me though was on Thanksgiving morning. I went in with 14k xp left to go, and I was bound and determined to get 75 before I had to go into work that afternoon. For all intents and purposes, it was a merit party, and if I remember correctly, I was the only one getting xp. (I have more to say about meripo’s later on…) Upon joining up, I scanned through the member list, and to my surprise, Razorcat was there! We chatted it up while the xp flowed in, and it was good times. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the other party members we were with, but a big thanks and kudos goes out to you all, whoever you are.

So, Seri has been happily enjoying the benefits of being 75 over the last few weeks. It’s not all that different from being below 75, but I guess from a mental aspect, it does change the way you approach the char a bit. My main goal now is to get a Noble’s Tunic, with secondary goals to get SMN to 37, and to get my Walahra Turban.

My main goal atm, getting a Noble’s Tunic, is proving to be harder than it should be. Even though I’m at 75, I still need to work on my melee skills, so I can use Hexa Strike. I did level THF to 15 for TH, but so far, it doesn’t seem to be helping too much. A few opportunities for large sales presented themselves with WotG, but those won’t last too much longer. I’m basically racking my brain, trying to figure out the most effective means of making gil with the time that I have, since at most, I play about 4 hours on a work-night, and most of the days on my days off. At this point, I’m just going to try a bunch of different methods, and hope that I’ll be able to save up enough for a Noble’s by February. Harvesting, clothcrafting, and farming everything from leeches and cockatrices to ladybugs outside of San’doria [S].

Speaking of the past…

I <3 WotG. I’m really enjoying the storyline so far, all of the campaign battles, and the new areas, which I think are beautiful. I love W. Saruta [S], with all of the greenery and flowers everywhere. I wish it were like that all of the time. Vunkerl Inlet and Grauberg are lovely as well, though slightly deadly. Don’t forget your sneaks! So far, with just doing campaign battles, missions and a few Besieged, I’ve been able to earn half of a merit point! Much more fun than a meripo, IMHO.

This leads me to a small rant in closing. As I drew nearer to 75, I got my first taste of the meripo. For the uninitiated, a meripo (short for merit points party) is usually a hard and fast party that’s able to bring in 10k+ xp per hour. The setups can range wildly, but are usually just DD DD DD DD DD BRD/RDM/WHM. No real tank to speak of, which makes Seri a sad Taru. I really didn’t enjoy being in these types of parties, as both times it happened, I was w/out any kind of Refresh short of Sanction. I may be whining, but that makes my job that much harder. With hate bouncing around and people going into the yellow consistently, I learned quickly to take a knee whenever I possibly could, and that wasn’t even with a full Haste cycle going! Maybe I’m just not used to them, but I’m not a fan so far. That’s why I’ve been really glad to earn my merit points through questing/Campaign/Besieged. It’s made it that much more enjoyable.

/rant off

Hopefully next time, I’ll have screenies of Seri’s new and improved adventaruing. Gogo Iron Rams!