MogKnight: He Fights For His Friends

For those wandering folk that have stumpled upon this page

2010-04-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

The Blog has indeed moved and have vanished again. This time, if you're still interested in whatever the heck I'm doing (I'm no longer playing FFXI), you can now find me at http://blog.mogknight.net.

The MogBlog has been moved~

2008-10-28T00:15:00.000-07:00

... and hopefully TTTO doesn't like... implode with duplicate posts on my new blog.

But anyways, I'll be moving my blog from blogpost to a Wordpress Blog (with thanks to Rianoncat :3). All the posts (except for this one) should be imported over and while there might be a few posts that need to be edited (namely the ones with the big pictures in them), it's really good to go, I just need to work on the theme and this is already a huge run-on sentence. >:3 rawr

You can find my new blog (without anything fancy in it in the mean time) at

http://www.rianon.net/mogknight/

See you guys there~

The Final Stretch!

2008-10-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here, we have MNK70 Mog

Here, we have (predicted and probably having the wrong model for destroyers) MNK75 Mog

The goal right now is to hit 75 before Friday. I'll be missing some key items on MNK but I'll worry about that when I hit 75. Pretty much what I'm going to need is...

- Destroyers
- Rest of the Black Belt items
- Faith Torque
- Rest of the Usukane items (Body 15/35 and Hands 25)
- ... And I think that's it. @_@; Oh yeah, gil to buy a Cursed Togi~

Shouldn't take me long to get... I hope @_@

I'm Not Bad Luck

2008-10-19T21:14:00.001-07:00

I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck
I'm Not Bad Luck

I have to prove this to Lissy that I'm not bad luck!

Edit:

I... take that back.

See you at Fan Fest 08!

2008-10-15T12:11:00.001-07:00

Ticket registration started for Fan Fest about 12 minutes ago. If you're going to buy tickets, it seems that it doesn't work if you use Firefox... that means you're gonna have to bust out IE for that one slight moment ; ;

Anyways, me and a few peeps from Carbuncle are going to be there including Chinchilla from PFA and Liseth from DRF. Even though this is just one day and only one day, it's still nice because it's really just an excuse (at least for most of us) to hang out with other LS members and friends. That's kind of the whole point for Fan Fest really, the extra information that we learn and get to experience first hand is just icing on the cake.

On a side note, we can also run around Hollywood as an unruley crowd and check out stuffs. Rah! And open bar @_@; Oh boy.

The Worst Luck

2008-10-13T00:14:00.001-07:00

I've kinda been thinking about it for a bit and I never really found any sort of correlation to this (not that luck can be related to anything really)... but, I have came to the solid conclusion that I am fucked for the rest of my FFXI life.

Reasoning: Everything involves me getting shafted in someway.

Now how did I come to this reasoning? I've noticed in the past few weeks/month/years that I really have gotten the blunt end of a lot of things. Now, this isn't me saying that I rightfully own this amount of gil because I put that much effort into it... but rather, it's me complaining about the fact that when there is an opportunity to get something, I get the shit end of the stick.

Let me give some examples:

1. KS30 ODS with some LS members. The rule: Their Orb, Their Drops. If I recall, 4/6 of the runs had a V. Claw in their drops, I wasn't one of them.

2. Gration with NQ Shield Pop: Did about a good run with 4 NQ involved... 3/4, I didn't get a Tatami Shield on mine (nor have I ever did in my entire FFXI life for my own personal benefit).

3. The week I left Cerb, old LS did Xarc, ended up with a Surcoat that would have gone to me. Have not seen a single Surcoat drop sense.

4. Camping KV for a duration of time, never ending up seeing it many times. Had a good stream of KV kills and I never got an Ace's Helm for myself.

5. Liseth went on an ENM run without me (twice) and ended up getting great drops (twice). btw, I'm not bitter about her going without me, I'm kinda upset that these items just decided to drop when I'm not there. This included a Hagun and a Cloud Evoker.

6. A horrible Joyeuse story that I do not wish to get into.

7. I leveled woodworking to help increase my money profits... now it's pretty meh money compared to the rest of the synths I could have worked on.

8. Chocobo Racing and betting on Chocobos... never got me anywhere.

9. I've only won the BS50 BC once out of 6 tries, got nothing out of that one win.

10. Constantly being woken up throughout the middle of the night to kill Cerberus, with me sorta wanting an Algol. I passed it many times and I never got one, probably won't because Cerberus is not really our active target any more... I got a mantle at least.

11. I mysteriously always break my Robber Rig whenever I try to skill up fishing within the first few casts. The line would break even on zero HP.

12. My WS accuracy on SAM just feels horrible. I'm loading up on accuracy all the time and when there is a situation where I need a WS to come out to save my life, I whiff it.

13. All I've been getting is crappy level sync parties for my MNK outside of LS with pick up parties. Most of my XP have been with my LS members because of this.

14. I have stupid horrible luck on NMs that I've camped. The only good NM I've been lucky so far with is Mee Deggi. Everything else have been pretty mean to me, especially with the Purple Belt Ram NMs not spawning for 10+ hours.

15. Prior to joining Chin's group for Nyzul, I've been having horrible luck in trying to get one working. I'm glad this one is working because I was about to punch a train.

There are a few things I'm lucky with... very few things but the unluckiness completely overshadows those things. Like my real life, I'm pretty good and nothing truly negative comes all the damn time. In FFXI though, I hit these walls many times and I'm really starting to get horribly sick of it.

I've had a bunch of bad things happen to me. I mean there is worse: I could get hacked or my character data might suddenly disappear with no recoverable means or something like that. But, I think of those as a huge punch to the face. It'll hurt and knock you out for a bit sure. But, the problems I've been having is like rapidly light jabs to the face, which will bruse and be pretty damn annoying because it's gonna keep going to annoy you.

For the most part, I think I deserve this much, just this much... to have something great happen to me. Like, I don't want it to be an item or anything like that. I want something that will make me feel great about my own situation in FFXI , where I no longer have to say "Man, I have some shit ass luck." Looking at my gil with only 5 digits every day and having to pay for Limbus, having to buy food for parties and so on and so forth, I can only afford these things so much and as much as I'd love to be frugal and not have to pay for them, I have to and until I find something that will net me a huge amount of gil, I'm going to be stuck in this situation where I can't advance and I'm going backwards. It's something that can drive me insane and will probably cause me to take a huge break just so I can figure out how to make gil with how the economy is nowadays.

That's pretty much my rant for the day. Really, maybe I'm not looking hard enough to find something that will increase my luck or to better take advantage of things. I do know this much though: I think the next time I can "fairly" reach out and grab something, the opportunity and such... I should not let it pass. I don't think it really pays that way and it just makes me feel more miserable in the end rather than making me feel good that I passed up something for someone else. There will be exceptions but exceptions are exceptions for a reason.

When the Dust Settles.

2008-10-08T00:19:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, time to the take off "Happy Go-Lucky" face and put on the serious face for once. There has been a really great reason why I haven't been posting many blog posts as of late. Most will notice a decrease from June to July to August to September. Here is your reason why:

There has been a large amount of stupid drama in my LS that I had to deal with and I have been surrounded by it for quite awhile. I did not have much motivation posting about my own personal ordeals because it all boils down to LS drama that shouldn't be happening in the first place.

So, to those reading this from my own LS or heck, my own server, here's the story of what has been happening.

It all started pretty well when the LS was erected. Got to meet people from FM and a whole slew of other people, even got to meet the famous Chinchilla. I still yet to believe that someone that comes out of my iPod would be someone I'd be teaming up to kill stuff in the game. Things are still going well and things have always been going well, at least that is what the eyes conceive. There are always things amidst going on, no matter what LS or organization you run. This thing has been bugging me for over 3 months. What upsets me is how long this ended up happening and how the fire did not stop burning for over a month.

Now, I'm not gonna get into details about what happened from July to September but I will start with what I thought "should" have ended the drama but it didn't.

Upon hitting the mid of September, it was the day that I thought I'd be rid of all the drama that existed in the LS. Of course, we all know that never happens, despite how close it is. What ended up happening was that one person who I hated with a burning passion was booted (not by me mind you and it was for legit reasons) and this other person (who was a sack and I felt was causing trouble in the LS) server transfered... took a Ridill with him but whatever, it's a toy item nowadays anyways. I think some of you guys might know who I'm talking about. It was gonna be that day, that day that I can say "whew.. shit is no longer putting me down, I am happy as fuck!"

That's where it should have ended... but it all got extended.

The result of that have triggered a minor rebellion where we had two select people (Medwyn and Bobbyray for those keeping track) pretty much going against us. And, this is where it just shocks me and I don't know why this had to happen, but it did and it ended like a stinky bomb tossed into a vent.

What pretty much happened was it started becoming personal to them. Of course, anyone that wants to have the perfect LS want to try to do anything in their power to make it the perfect LS. That becomes an obsession sometimes. An obsession where you do anything, even rebel the very leader who built that foundation just to make it perfect. An obsession where you become surrounded by the absolute truth that you created yourself that is the absolute right in your eyes and blinded by everything else. An obsession where you have no meaning or idea of what it means to others, only yourself. That is when your obsession becomes pointless. Instead, what become the obsession of Medwyn and the influence of Bobbyray... became their weapons to attack the foundation of this LS. There has been harassment, there has been attempts to topple over the leadership and there have been attempts to belittle greatly the integrity of the shellholder and the sacks.

Obsession is one thing that you should try to avoid in life. Obsession with perfection is even worse. What happened in the LS for the past few weeks have been a motive of obsession. They may be correct that there were some problems in the LS that needed to be corrected but there was lies being tossed in, there were jabs being shot out and there were a lot of threats being tossed up behind the scenes. All while having this being done in front of the LS, not because of the choice of the leaders but because Medwym and Bobbyray decided to draw it out there.

They made this obsession a personal battle. One that ultimately leads to no one being happy in the end.

Bobbyray was a friend to me. I talk to him on Vent or in-game about a bunch of personal stuff. But he let this obsession, this attempt to bring a perfect LS into this world and make everything completely perfect, trying to control something he limited control over, destroy friendships with not just me but with several other people. I'm just a sack in an LS and I give my opinions to the leader and I listen to the leader and carry out what is required from that leader, who just happens to be my girlfriend. I listen to people, I tell Lissy about it as that middle man. I know it annoys her but I give my opinions out regardless from these people. I listen, I don't order things unless I have to. Because of this, I get ignored from a person that I once called friend. Why? No reasoning was given and it just all felt like I was just packed into this group that "followed the leader" and now I'm branded as a bad guy.

Trust me, the past few weeks were harsh on me and a few others. In the end, both of them left the LS on some pretty bad terms. At least they decided to keep their dignity and walk out silently. Most tend to anyways.

Our LS isn't dying though. Nothing massive happened to cause damage to it and really, life will go on as it always does. This little battle has ended. It didn't end in the way that I wish for it to end it but I can put it behind me now... I'm just worried about what could happen next. If it does happen, will we survive it? I dunno but I'll keep going for as long as I can. I have no obsessions... I just have a loyal bond to Liseth, one that I intend to keep for as long as possible.

The Month in Review (Short Version)

2008-09-23T03:47:00.000-07:00

- Level Sync is pretty awesome. Managed to get my MNK from 26 to 51 as of this writing. Aiming for 75 by hopefully the end of October.

- Randomly made it on as a guest on the PFA Podcast. Was funny how I ended up on it.

- Lissy bought a new PC, introduced her to awesome Windower Macros.

- Salvage slowed down a tad, still managed to get some nice things (3 35s within less than 5 runs?) Almost 4/5 on Usukane set. I should go all the way.

- Did a bunch of ZNMs, Cerb ZNM isn't as hard as people put it out to be. The Cerb ZNM path is a pain in the butt the first time but it becomes easier once you know what you're up against.

- Did a horrible Xarc run on patch day: 0 AFs.

- Did another Xarc run yesterday: 16 AFs.

- Lazily working on DRF website: going pretty slow.

- Desperately looking for a Nyzul group. Still lacking Tachi: Rana. Anyone need a Taru? :3

- SAM buffer diminishing to really low levels: 10k buffer @_@;

- Hating the fact that I have to wait until next month to play Mega Man 9 on my 360.

I guess that's that. To be really honest, there's nothing really eventful going on my end and... heck, there's nothing really eventful to note because all I've been doing is grinding MNK XP, going through a weird drama phase with a few people in FFXI and pretty much feeling blunt end of all of it. Gotta move on though, I have many things I need to accomplish and I'm not gonna do that by sitting around and licking old wounds all day. :3

My goals for October are as follows~

1. MNK75
2. Complete Nyzul with a Runic Disc and obtain Tachi: Rana
3. Help construct a solidified Salvage group with new job
4. DNC37
5. RDM37
6. Create the Mogknight Army~

:3 Hopefully october gets better.

Not FFXI Related: Mog and Street Fighter 4

2008-09-21T01:24:00.000-07:00

So, I got to play this today...

Yeah, those cabinets with Street Fighter 4 in them... that's what I played on.

Over at Roland Heights, CA, there is this place called Arcade Infinity. With arcades being such a dead thing nowadays, what with consoles being so much more powerful and competition being just a simple ethernet cable away, we have kinda lost the whole actual being near a human competition and instead things are kinda blocked from each other. Granted, it brings the world closer but it moves the local people further. Having Street Fighter 4 come out after... 9? years since Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, brought not only fans of Street Fighter back but it also brought many old school fans back too.

Street Fighter 4 plays a lot like Street Fighter 2, very simple and easy to pick up. That was one of the things that drew people away from SF3 was that the game, at that point, was getting too complicated and too complex for most people to want to deal with. When you talk to people about Street Fighter, they automatically think of SF2 and playing it with their friends on their SNES or Genesis or whatever.

To be honest, that's what this game feels like: it feels like I'm that kid again playing in the arcades, enjoying competition. None of this internet thing where you can't see your opponent groan at that well executed combo you setup or the mashing of buttons from a frustrated player or anything like that. Just you, the joystick, the screen, fighitng the person right next to you. That's the thing I love about arcades, you can't talk shit and hide behind it and really, everyone is there just to have fun, bring out their best game and line up their token/quarters all day.

But anyways, I played about 12 bucks worth today. Each game is, unfortunately, a dollar but a dollar well spent in my opinion. The setup you see here is probably the best in the United States right now and really, the owner of the arcade has gone above and beyond what he needed to do to even get the game running in the first place. He made the cabinet himself, bought 2 HD 42" TVs and hooked up the SF4 kits in. It costed him quite a bit but to have this thing out there and having it there for the fans just makes you want to pay a dollar or even more to play it. It was the best 12 bucks I've spent really and I intend on going back for more.

The game itself, again, is pretty simplified compared to the SF3/SFAlpha line of games. That is not to say the game is exclusively like SF2, where it's all fireballs and dragon punches. They kept the things that made SF3 good (throw system, EX moves) and what the final version of SF2 (Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo) had (Super Moves) and made a pretty awesome system that new players can easily learn and still keep the game interesting. What we end up with is a fighting game system that is concentrated mainly on offense and less emphasis on defense.

I could go into deeper details about it but I think nothing more really needs to be said about it: it has to be experienced. Sure, you see youtube videos and they look nice... but when you actually sit down at an arcade and play it...

:3

And yes, I realized I made another post about my real life, go screw! >:3

And I don't know how to filter this out of TTTO... so... uh... @_@; wyred herp~!

So, the FFXIclopedia stuff and the drop rates...

2008-09-17T03:33:00.000-07:00

You see this random FFXIclopedia page?

You may have noticed that grayed out percentage number next to each item.

No, it's not just a made up number someone made without proof.

It's a number generated by 2 numbers: drop/kill.

I just wanna point out to everyone that edit these things: Please don't be an idiot and guesstimate. And for the love of god, if you killed 300 of something and you finally get the item that dropped, don't just update that item only, update all of the items. Get a parse or something or just don't hand edit the drop rates. Makes things a bit more accurate for all of us.

And hopefully, a full post soon! Toodles~

I Feel Young Again...

2008-09-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

... But, wait, I'm only 23 years old! @_@;

I'm in love with the new level sync function that was introduced in today's update. I wasn't so much concerned about how stats scaled down, I just wanted a reason to play with LS mates and friends of different levels. Unfortunately, prior to the patch, to do such a thing would require you to keep your levels the same or just go up to 75. I would have difficulty trying to get people who once played the game to return, mainly because they would be unable to play with me until I had a job around their levels.

I've been around the block, 5 times to be exact. Unless you static and kept that static going, you'll most likely going to end up in pick up parties. You run into some jackasses, you run into some nice people... but you don't have control over that. While the theme of FFXI is to rely on a community to reach your goals, often times we would have many things conflicting to prevent this from happening...

... Today removed one of those conflicts.

Today, me and a few of my linkshell mates (Lissy included!) went out to Buburimu with a level 13 MNK to act as our level sync designator. It was a very fun experience, being able to sit down with friends and LS mates that know what they're doing and not be bothered by trying to keep party levels close or anything. It was also nice to just simply ask someone in the LS if a replacement is needed. We got him up to level 18 and got my MNK from 26 to 28 as well. I had a lot of fun tonight and I just know that it will be a smooth ride through to hit 75 all over again.

Now, there were many complaints about the level sync system. The most common one I heard was the fact that stats were sharply capped. Now, I can see why everyone is pretty upset about this but I don't think such a thing is a problem. The idea is to give those that are higher leveled with something to just work with, nothing to make them over powered and nothing to make them on par with the "highest" equipment at that level. There is a reason why this is so: level sync is meant to be in case there's no possible way to build a party otherwise. It would be recommended for a solid party to be as close to the same level as possible. For stuff like ENMs or BCNMs that are capped: If you're really serious about winning, you'd gear it properly for it. It is really no different other than to just not walk into something naked.

Another complaint is the fact that skill level won't increase while you're capped. This makes total sense and really the only solution would be to just to take the time to skill it up. It's difficult to skill up something when you're so far behind so really, just try not to be completely behind on it.

I do have some complaints myself. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is the most perfect thing in the world.

1. Whenever the target member levels or delevels, it automatically resyncs. While it is nice that it does that, it also removes your buffs and your TP. It is slightly annoying but I can live with it but it would be nice not have to run into a battle as if we just started every time the target guy levels.

2. Just as a point of reference, I'd like to see who is the targeted member for level sync. There's no way to tell until they level and the level gets resynced.

3. Resync should not work with the target player being 75. Someone can be a total jackass of a leader in an event and can remove all your buffs when they enable level sync (which I happened to have done by accident!). Kinda not a cool thing.

4. A way to tell in /search if someone is level synced or not would be a good idea.

But anyways, try it out with some friends if you got the time. You'll enjoy it quite a bit. It brings me back when I was a wee lil' Taru and I had no worries of the responsibilities of an End Game LS. I just felt like I was playing the game as a game again.~

The BLM Journal: A Month Later

2008-09-06T04:23:00.000-07:00

After about a month or so, my BLM has grew slightly yet still significantly. My skills as a BLM are also coming along nicely as I've been learning a few new things here and there. If I have to give myself a self assessment, I'd give myself a 1/10!

So harsh on yourself Moggie... ;_;

I still have some glaring weaknesses that I'm trying to get out of the way, the most important one would be stunning. Despite the fact that I'm doing it straight out of reaction as best as I can (and I know my reaction, as long as I'm focused on it, is pretty top-notched), I usually end up completely missing the stun altogether while other people seem to land it just fine. Granted, some of these people that I'm comparing myself have some fast cast equipment on them (a DRK in my LS with Homam), I think I would still miss it regardless.

This leads me to think it is one of two things:

1. My computer is more than capable of running FFXI at high resolutions. However, I do have outside programs running and those things could be lagging me up.

2. I'm lying to myself and my reaction speed is really not all that great as I think it is. But to support that, I do play a lot of fighting games and I get things down to the exact frame. But to go against that, sometimes it is a bunch of predictions.

Now, the prediction thing is pretty hard for me because I'm not dealing with a human opponent right now, I'm dealing with a computer brain that runs through a script that randomizes itself. I've been told various many times to just "feel" the mob and stun. While, I feel, this would work in a fighting game (ex. You do a Dragon Punch in Street Fighter 2, you do it too early, you can still throw another one out), making this work in FFXI is pretty bad because once you miss a stun, that's 45 seconds (not counting haste and such) where you're unable to stun again. Now granted, there might be more than one person stunning but that isn't really an excuse there, he has the potential of messing up a stun as much as you do.

I still have yet found a way (or time) to practice this. With the frustrations I've been having with it, I may just end up keeping this my weakest skill and concentrate on my strong points. Maybe, like some other things, I'll just "magically" get it some day.

As far as my BLM has progressed in gear... really, there isn't much to say about it. Other than getting a few bare necessities :3 Nothing truly outstanding came my way... I mean, other than these Zenith Hands :3 Nifty~ (Thanks DRF!). Gil has become a problem with me though, hopefully I'll get lucky with some ENMs or something... I hope.

Kinda wished I had more opportunities to play my BLM more. I feel hindered without a proper RDM sub as I'm not really able to solo much of anything too well. It'll be something that I'll work on when the Level Sync thing comes into play (this monday actually!).

I recently also got my first Elemental Obi. I'm kinda worried because I am going to grab 2 more Obis and I'm probably going to be struggling with inventory space. Unfortunately, it's not the problem of storing these items (I am technically balancing 4 jobs: PLD/WAR/SAM/BLM), it's just making use of my 70 inventory spaces. Eventually, I'm going to have to dump some things back into the Mog House that I really don't need like some of the staves for example. In fact, lets analyze that right now!

Earth Staff = Used for Idle (Damage Reduction)
Water Staff = Used for Stoneskin (Kirin's Pole would replace this once I get one)
Wind Staff = Gravity and Kirin is all I can think of
Fire Staff = Nuking in it isn't so bad... I guess
Ice Staff = :3
Thunder Staff = :3 :3
Light Staff = Used for healing, don't need it /NIN
Dark Staff = :3 :3 :3

Well... that didn't help at all, did it? ; ; Any input on this?

I guess that's about it for today. My LS has been making some great strides lately but I'll post all that in a separate blog post, probably tomorrow.

G'day!

Mog vs FFXI's UI Part 1

2008-08-29T02:36:00.000-07:00

It's one of those boring nights where you can't really sleep so you decide to do something silly just for shits and giggles... And I decided to mock up a redesigned UI for FFXI. :3

First off, some rules:

1. The UI must still reflect the game's theme somehow. (Assuming no actual 3D area graphics on screen, you can still recognize it's FFXI).
2. This is ignoring PS2 limitations (lol)
3. This will assume that the "worst" system is the Xbox 360
4. The UI must still reflect the fact that it is meant to be played with controller, keyboard, and mouse.
5. The UI can display more data but cannot go beyond a certain reasonable limit
6. The UI is meant to be displayed on TVs and Monitors.

With all that in mind, lets look at the game itself with nothing on it.

So, we see a Taru (me :3) in Tahrongi Canyon and there's absolutely no overlay or anything. This is 800x600, which is bigger than your standard TV resolution (I think it's like 720x480?). Not counting the fact that it's all interlaced and whatnot, lets work with 800x600.

First thing's first, lets look at the current UI (note that this has FFXI Style's dat mods so text and stuff that you see right now may not reflect your current screen!)

This is the bare screen that you see without having any menus on.

Here it is without the overlay.

Lets analyze the overlay a bit (btw my mouse sucks right now)

Again, this is just the area that you can visually see without menu obstructions but I tossed in the things that are going to be on constantly. As more and more menu items appear though, your vision becomes more obstructed. Thankfully this isn't the resolution I normally play at so I can view more things even with all the menus open.

This original image was 1280x800 (downsized due to Photobucket). As you can see, the higher your resolution, the more open space you have. However, while this can be possible on the 360 version (it can go up to 740p for games, not sure about 1080i or p), this would still put a handicap for those playing on a standard TV or a underpowered machine. Our job is to remove this to the best of our ability~!

First, lets determine what we need that is currently being displayed:

1. Chatlog
2. Character/Party/Alliance HP/MP Status
3. Connection Status
4. Compass
5. Clock
6. Target Info
7. Menus

Next, lets see what we can add to the UI

1. Distance to current target
2. TP information
3. Timestamp for chatlog
4. Moonphase information
5. Various random stuff that we can add

Now, the most important thing we should add first are the menus.

1. Main Menu
2. Action Menu
3. Macros
4. Inventory Menu
5. Status Menu
6. Item List
7. Ability/Spell List

So, we got the main menu... which is split into two menus. In my opinion, that's too damn much. Here is what we have:

Status
Equipment
Magic
>White Magic
>Black Magic
>Songs
>Ninjutsu
>Summoning
>Blue Magic
Items
Abilities
>Job Traits
>Job Abilities
>Weapon Skills
>Ranged Attack
>Pet Command
Party
>Seek Party
>Find Member
>Autogroup
>Languages
Trade
Search (Not even gonna bother listing everything)
Linkshell
Friend List
>To List
>Messages
>Online Status
Region Info
>Conquest
>Besieged
>Campaign
Map

Missions
Quests
Key Items
View House
Bazaar
Macros
Config
Help Desk
Play Time
Current Time
Shut Down
Log Out

Okay... lets try to condense this a bit. There are 24 menu items, 12 each side.

First off, the status menu is used to see you main things: Your XP TNL and your skills, along with your title. Yes, it has your attributes there... but you're not gonna look at it there, it's already in the equipment menu! So, instead of just making a bunch of buttons to display stuff like like that, lets just have your Status Menu display everything. So, no more having to click through crap.

With this in mind, lets put in some other things along with it like the playtime option (which btw 908:22:21:12 as of this writing).

One button gone!

Next, equipment is just fine on its own, so we'll leave that be.

Magic... personally, I don't think magic or abilities should be cast from the main menu. Now, I know that there is the whole Ctrl+M thing to call up the magic menu. This is how I think it should work.

Ctrl+M: Opens the magic list with the magic that you are allowed to cast with your current job.
Action Menu: It functions as the same as Ctrl+M
Main Menu: Magic Sort usage only.

With the magic sorting, it would go straight to manual sort with the option of auto sort. If you auto sort, you can put some nice things like putting certain type of spells up first (Enhancing, Enfeebling, Elemental). But anyways, auto sort should prompt you if you want to auto sort everything. If you select this menu as a BLU, it should be like selecting equipment as a PUP where it'll ask if you want to Sort or Set Spells as a BLU. So, cleaned up the Magic Menu a bit!

Items/Key Items/View House should be combined.

Now, Ctrl+I and the Main Menu Item Function are the same, should be kept that way. The action menu brings up items that you can use at the moment, so that's fine. View House and View Key Items should be in the + Menu to the side. You're really not going to be accessing your Mog Safe or Key Items all that much so lets reduce it down to the Item Menu but not prioritize it so that you have to click extra buttons just to hit your normal item menu. So, that's 2 buttons merged.

Abilities... I want to go with the same mentality that is the magic menu... except what is there really to sort? Maybe give me a second to think about this.

Now, the party command is fine... Auto Group will probably be changed to Level Sync.

Trade is kinda like putting Check in the main menu.... it kinda doesn't belong there, so lets put that in the action menu only. Plus you usually see games like that anyways where trade only appears if you target someone.

Search is fine~ Linkshell is fine~ Friend's List is fine~ Map is fine, Conquest is fine~

So first menu we got...

Status
Equipment
Items
Magic Sort
Abilities
Party
Search
Linkshell
Friend List
Region Info
Map

I would move Friend List over to the next menu and Abilities I'm still thinking...

Next side!

Missions and Quests... just combine them, done!

Key Items and View House are gone.

Bazaar should be moved to the + Menu on Items, which makes much better sense.

Macros and Config are fine but lets fix up the Config Menu a bit (btw, PC and console are different, this is for PC)

Gameplay has

Auto Target
Volume
Gamma
Inventory Sort

Chat Filters are chat filters
Font colors are font colors

Windows are basically chatlog stuff. By the end of the UI mock up, we won't need this menu.

Misc. has

Damage Display
Character info
Shadows
weather effects
Character models displayed

Misc 2 has

Clipping Plane
Foot Steps
Animation Frame Rate
Keyboard Type
Aspect for Widescreen
Key assignments

Effects for effects

Mouse/Camera control

Global shit.

Okay...

We have a mess...

First off, lets sum it up more like this:

Gameplay
Audio/Video
Chatlog Options
Control Config

Gameplay will have

Auto Lock On (because that's what it really does)
Auto Target (which makes better sense, new but whatever)
Inventory Sort
Damage

Audio/Video will have

Sound Volumes
Gamma Control
Shadows
Weather
Models
Plane
Foot Steps
Frame Rate (this should be removed)
Aspect Ratio
Effects Sub Menu

Chatlog Options will combine everything in Filters and Font Colors along with Curse Language filter

Control Config will allow you to set keyboard stuff and combines the Mouse/Camera menu

No auto disconnect menu option either... seriously, who has that on and uses it?

Help Desk needs to stay there because yeah... gotta call a GM somehow.

Playtime would be merged into status
Current Time will be better implemented into the UI that this option will be useless

Shut Down and Log Off will be combined.

Lets see what's the final set of stuff we will have.

Status
Equipment
Items
Magic Sort
Abilities
Party
Search
Linkshell
Friend List
Region Info
Map
Missions/Quests
Macros
Config
Help Desk
Log Off

16 items... 8 per side... not bad I would say :3

Lets re-sort this!

Status
Equipment
Items
Magic Sort
Abilities
Party
Search
Map

Missions/Quests
Region Info
Linkshell
Macros
Config
Friend List
Help Desk
Log Off

Hmm... an unbalance there.. but I'll figure it out somehow!

So that's the main menu, condensed down and pretty much, all set to figure out what to do with this new mock UI. I typed in quite a bit of things so I'll be showing more graphical work and actually show something once I get to work on it. Until then: Photoshop is an awesome tool~ Toodles!

Oh, so that level sync thing

2008-08-28T02:24:00.000-07:00

Actually, there's a crapton of topics of events that have occurred throughout the recent weeks. I might as well get down and dirty with them.

Absolute Bullshit and Pandemonium Whatthefuck

As we know by now, SE is planning on changing these monsters (and JoL, which many might scoff at but it is probably related to AV) to make them to be easier/shorter fights. Of course, until the update comes out and we see what is changed to make it an easier battle, kinda no point in talking about what they could do to make it so, especially since I, myself, have not fought any of the two.

On a side note: I've done JoL 5 times total in my entire FFXI career (believe it or not) and I haven't seen AV at all during those 5 times (believe that or not).

So, what we know about the AV we have now in the game, SE claims that it would take 16 some hours to beat it, 10 at the mnimum. Now, a lot of people have gone crazy about this and rightfully so. Me, on the other hand, didn't think too much about it. To me, AV was designed to be something that wasn't meant to be killed easily at all. Like, lets look at the items it can drop:

First, you have Ninurta's Sash, which aside from MNK's Black Belt, would be the best belt in the game. Imagine if AV was to be placed at a difficulty level that is significantly easier. No one is going to want to camp KA, no one would want to do Wyrm KS99, and pretty much, there goes two things that went obsolete there. Granted those options are still there for those that are not in any End Game LSes. Ninurta's Sash would become the benchmark item and dare I say it, it might be easier to obtain than a Swift Belt if AV was made too easy.

And then you have the Mar's Ring, which is the best melee ring in the game for the most part. Compare these two items to some of the stuff that is in the other ZNMs and HNMs and so on and you'd pretty much be saying that AV just has some really overpowered items.

Then you got Futsuno Mitama which, if I knew what activated the latent, could be better than Hagun.

And then there's that +8 Magic Accuracy ranged weapon.

For the most part, this NM has some nice things and to let these items loose would be pretty bad I would say. Like, what if some of the things in Salvage and some of the things in Dynamis Northlands just dropped to you just like that and everyone ended up getting those things? It would make quite a bit of items before it useless, you wouldn't even want to consider trying to get any older equipment. Now granted, yes, there are items out there right now that are pretty useless due to us knowing better or just signficantly better equipment out there.

Personally, if they make AV an easier fight, I would hope that it either has a horrible drop rate or something that makes the fight really difficult but wouldn't force the players to spend all day and night to kill. I want some of those items, that's a definite. I just don't want those items just handed to me on a silver platter because the fight was made easier.

And now we have PW. I totally respect everyone in BtL who gave it a shot and pretty much with their own drive and ambition, took the fight for as long as they could. Without their patience, we might just end up still with no changes on AV or PW. The press just jumped on this thing pretty bad. While I don't think the press forced any sort of pressure on SE, I'm sure SE was more concerned of the fact that the players themselves have made a strong reasoning as to why these two NMs needed to be changed.

It was kinda funny because even among my RL friends, we were joking about this whole PW business because heck, it's all over the news. It's also like a game of telephone where some information just doesn't get through. Personally, I welcome the changes that are going to happen, though I doubt that a finalized plan on how to kill these two things won't come about for awhile.

I will say this though: Vrtra has been ninja'd and I think most consider it as unkillable now. Granted he doesn't drop anything awesome but still...

So, how about that Talisman?

I like collecting stuff. I have all of the FF releases starting from PSone up to now (including GBA and DS), I still have that pendant from Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, and I have an 8-bit figurine of Simon Belmont, colored to his Simon's Quest colors (red/black/white).

Now SE has started a new thing where they sell in-game merchandise. The first item they have for sale is a Tidal Talisman. If one purchases one, one can pick up an in-game item which is kinda nifty. This wouldn't be the first time they've done it since they did release an harpsicord with the Piano Collections.

While I welcome this idea, I do have some problems with it.

1. wtf is a Tidal Talisman? It isn't in the game at all (yet). You couldn't even say it's an FFXI item or an item that represents FFXI. Like, if I bought one and wore it, people who lets say... never heard of this item before but plays FFXI... and they look at me, they're not gonna go "Oh, you play FFXI?! :D :D :D" Like, if you're going to make a collectable item, at least the first one, make it some sort of FFXI trademark item, not something you made up on the spot.

2. The in-game item is very nice... but it's on a 40 hour recast timer.

40 hours? ;_;

Sure, it's a bonus item that comes with the necklace and not the other way around but for what it does, why do we have to wait almost 2 days to reuse it? 24 hours would be nice and considering how long it takes to reach these areas (20 minutes at the very most), maybe even less than 24 hours.

3. I don't live in Europe and I don't live in Alaska or Hawaii but from what I understand:

- Europe doesn't get this deal.
- Alaska/Hawaii have to pay 20 dollars for S&H, the other 48 states + Canada pay around 8.

I mean, that's like half of what you're paying already.

But on another note: Full Resin Shadowlord for 230 USD. I doubt I'll get it but it does look very nice.

Oh and apparently, if you have this on, you teleport people and thus making their lives easier... you'll be "the best from now."

Campaign still not gonna be fixed

Yes, the whole /BRD singing stuff will be fixed... but that just means some of the jobs that actually DO have a hard time getting XP by themselves in Campaign will just simply not have Campaign as an option, thus eliminating whatever interest is left for the person that wants to get some of the things in Campaign but are unable to because they have to spend so much more effort to even equal up to what a melee or any other job that has an easy time in campaign.

Though I could have sworn they said something about fixing that aspect but I didn't see it in the notes. This doesn't really affect me all that much because I have SAM/WAR/PLD to do my campaigning work. However, those that are low level or those that just have a hard time getting those points in for campaign... basically screwed until they get to a higher level or level another job. Yeah, you can potentially build around campaign and I'll be looking for information about that for those jobs that have a hard time doing campaign... but I kinda hope for something that can benefit magic users and make their lives easier.

Oh, so that level sync thing

So yeah, I had a dream once. After doing a bunch of Salvage, I was thinking "Hey, if they ever make another expansion with missions like CoP that are level capped, what they should do is enforce a stat cap but let us keep our equipment and stuff on so it's not a pain in the ass."

Lo' and behold, that dream came true for the most part. Yeah, there's some bad things I can see from it (skill levels being hurt a bit, relentless invites for CoP missions) but there's a bunch of good things from it as well so... Hurrah for SE for making this decision.

And no, no Aegis/Excal PLD is going to party with you.

So how about that Mogknight?

Well, I came back after Vegas and started up fishing again. I'm currently fishing up Shall Shells, both for profit and to skill up on. Oddly enough, there are some good things you can fish up and simply NPC... which I'm sure all the RMT are on that. Unfortunately, they're still all over the place so what can one really do about it? I did have this funny idea where your HP decrease as you keep fishing and you would have to stop and heal yourself. This would also make fishing a bad idea at low levels because your HP would drain pretty fast. Like, this wouldn't kill you but if you were reduced down to 1 HP, you would automatically give up your line.

But, silly idea aside, fishing is probably all I'm gonna be doing for awhile before/after events. I do have a lot of merits and even items to get for BLM but I want a flow of gil going so this is gonna be devoted to that time.

Nothing really changed for my SAM or BLM. SAM is something I don't expect to get anything for the job any time soon. With the exception of Ace's Helm, Hachiryu Haidate, and maybe Askar Body, nothing else I want NM or event wise. BLM, on the other hand, I still have quite a bit of things I want but it will take time and really, I have all the time the world.

To be honest, I want a change of pace and fishing is doing that for me. I love my linkshell and all and as an officer, I make sure things are running smoothly. However, there are just times where I kinda want to just spend time with Lissy or whoever else and just kill random stuff, be it some pop NM or small man sea farming or whatever it may be. I still need those Mufflers or even A Hands so... lets not even start with the fact that I'm lacking stuff like RR Pumps, Uggy Pendant and a multitude of AF1+1s. Like, we have Limbus every Tuesday and optionally every Friday (though Tuesdays are optional, we tend to fill up and usually it ends up being a required limbus due to it being Proto or something). I kinda want to take a Limbus day off and solo an area as best as I can, even though I don't have Gaiters.

I wouldn't want to do it all the time... just once in every great while. I'm happy with the way things are so I wouldn't mind if I never get the chance to do this stuff. Plus, it would kinda help me clear my mind of any ill-thoughts I would have about anyone.

On that note: even though you're doing a bunch of end game stuff, remember that there's a lot to this game that can be seen as a escape to an escape. Sure, you play FFXI to escape from real life... but then you gotta escape from the in-game drama as well... what better way to do it with some fishing, crafting, or some chocobo digging? :3

Well, I tried!

Kinda late to the party~

2008-08-22T02:36:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep up with my blog (this goes with my other blog as well).

To be really honest, I don't have much to talk about because I'm usually on for events and off to do my own thing outside of the game after events. It's not that the game doesn't interest me or anything, it's just that I have stuff I need to do outside of FFXI. Therefore, my own solo adventures have been kinda blank as of late.

Another thing is that I have vacation plans and also I gotta get ready for the next school semester as well. There will be more blog posts and it'll start coming in more consistently once everything is settled. I'll be gone to Vegas this upcoming weekend and then I'll have a week to kinda chill and then classes start up again.

For the most part, this is just a quick filler post so... what can I fill it up with other than excuses? :3

Well... here's Mog from FF6.

Post filled! See you next week~

The MogCompy is back up!

2008-08-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

Oi... after going through a bunch of weird stuffs, I managed to find a replacement mobo and pretty much, I'm up and running again. I decided to format both of my hard drives (I have a 150gb and a 300gb) after backing up most of the stuff and pretty much decided to start over new. Unfortunately, I get to reinstall FFXI and patch it all up again... nifty~ Thankfully I picked up a copy of Vana'diel Collection 2008 so I have all the expansions and stuff on one DVD.

I'm just happy I got my computer up... nothing really much to post so... history time! I mean, I could talk about Pandemonium Warden and how screwed up it is but I'm sure you guys have already heard about it eleswhere.

But uh... lets see... lets talk about how I started this game.

I guess the official date that I started was April 7th 2004, which was a few weeks after PS2 US release. At the time, I always wanted to play FFXI but my computer was pretty outdated (it was sporting a TNT Ultra 2 at the time) and when the PC release came out, I frankly did not have the money to pay for it at that time. When PS2 release came out, my PC was actually decent enough to run FFXI and I was playing on a friend's account for a short period of time. I was more convinced at that point to play FFXI so I bought the PS2 version after trading in some of my games... like Phantasy Star Online Episode 3, which was complete garbage because the system was broken in that game!

Once I got all that running, I was ready to play the game and ironically enough, I just played it on my PC, didn't really bother playing it on my PS2, especially since I had no USB keyboard for my PS2 at the time. I started the game as a BLM and I really wanted to just be an uber mage. I figured I like playing something that was pretty simple and didn't involve having to run in and beat up on stuff. For the next 10 levels, I was in heaven. I was ignorant of everything around me, I was just a simple Taru with a simple plan: nuke the shit out of things. And, while I often find myself refering back to the past on many things and often dwell too much on them, I often don't focus on the "good" parts of the past and I'm taking that time right now.

This would be the very first screenshot of many

It's interesting looking back at my old journey I had going on in FFShrine.org. Actually kinda feels like I was a totally different person... yet I'm kind of the same.... and some of these posts... @_@;

We did meet a cool WHM in there named "Aphrimi" who raised me and healed us a few times... but we couldn't handle the bats in the deeper regions. We both left the ruins and leveled up on our own outside.

Later I would realize that their name was "Aphrini" and later I would realize that this person would be some SMN that I would meet later on in my first Dynamis LS. Who to thunk it?

Wow... :3 I sound like a jackass~

One thing a party must need: A White Mage. It was surprisingly hard to find one in the Tah. Canyons and the Maze. Eventually I ran into a party which had one and.... well... the warrior just sucked nuts. While I was blasting on a Goblin in the Maze, the Goblin turned at me because I raised his hate. The Warrior saw him attacking me and said "Run!"...

...

...

...

Yeah, you heard me... he said run.

So, why did he tell me to run? Was it because his provoke was warming up? In fact no... while I was lying dead, I asked and he said "What does provoke do?"... I soon disbanded.

... I really don't remember me typing that.

... o_o;

After going to the Valkrum Dunes for awhile, I leveled up to 17. Upon hitting 17, I basically had only 600 EXP. Since I could not find a party in the Dunes, I set sail to Mhaura.

Upon returning however, I was told that I could handle Maze Makers as long as I had a WHM near me to recover me and back me up if I can't finish the job.

So into the Maze of Somecrap I go. I met a WHM Taru and I went from 600 EXP to the next level (4000). UPON hitting 4000 though, my Taru accidently cast Dia on a stink bat... and thus more stink bats came and we couldn't get out alive. LEVEL DOWN.

I was sent back to Mhaura (my HP) and left to the Maze again. This time I ran into one of the worst parties I've ever been in. For some odd reason, whenever I tell someone to not attack a bat, they end up attacking one and killing off most of the group (me included). This happened twice (I leveled up twice and I leveled down twice). After being fustrated, I just left the Maze and picked off my last 300 EXP with stray monsters outside. After hitting 18, I dashed towards Windurst and that's where I am right now.

:3 Jebus...

So anyways, uh... maybe... in the next four years, I'll look back on this blog and question myself again... or something. @_@;

God, is this even me?!

Campaign Shenanigans

2008-08-08T02:16:00.001-07:00

In the great ole past of the golden Windurst days... *ahem* I mean, in the horrible beat up past in Windurst that just so happens to be influenced greatly by players of the future... we have tons and tons of mobs, beating on our fortifications. Of course, some of those mobs are stupid and heck, some of those mobs are "smart" for the wrong reasons.

Yeah, you see that Shadowhand Cuirassier? You see how it's lodged up in that wall? Guess what? You can't hit it, cast anything on it, and unless you find some other mob next to it to do an AoE spell, you can't do anything at all to it.

How did this situation happen? Well, I manage to get aggro on one of these things and pretty much, I was expecting NPCs to be in this area (and there are, NPCs can spawn here) and I was running around the area and lost aggro... and then I noticed it started to glitch through the wall and beat up on the fortification there. Even I explained it to Ennayram!

And really, I couldn't cast crap on him, even from above or to the sides. Eventually the NPCs showed up...

And yeah, that clusterbunch of Mithra there just went to town on those NPCs.

You figure this is just some rare random occurrence and it doesn't happen more than once... right...?

I was about to cast Thundaga 3 on the one siting out there but then someone ended up pulling that lone one before I got the spell off... again, had to wait for reenforcements.

Oh boy... Campaign... ftl.

In other news, we (the Salvage group) finally beat all 4 Salvage bosses and I feel pretty stoked about it... but at the same time, I also feel pretty sad as well. Except for a few 15 pieces in Zhaylom and like 1 or 2 more 35 NMs... I've pretty much almost seen everything in Salvage. It's sad because I've enjoyed it every since I started it and to have some of the excitement and challenges just "end" like that is kinda... kinda sad really. It's really no more amazements or shock value or anything (which Einherjar has so I have that to fall back on) but still, after seeing everything in Salvage and having such a great group to do them with, it's really all about optimization from this point on, much like trying to get the highest rank on Trauma Center for a certain operation or beating a time attack time in some racing game. I want to keep doing Salvage, even if I end up getting 5/5 Usukane. I mean, yeah I have BLM now and Morrigan's is nice but I'm not even thinking about them right now and I have so many other things to get before I even think about them. Really, to have a full set of Salvage gear is already accomplishing a lot so I'm in no rush... besides, I want to get myself a Mystic GKT. :3

... At least I think that's the term now... Relic for Dynamis based Weapons and Mystic for Nyzul based Weapons. Makes sense I suppose.

Even though people may get upset with the fact that you can keep grinding these areas and will probably not see a drop most of the time, I will still enjoy Salvage. I will admit, Salvage has some dry spots, mainly the early floors. I hope that WotG introduces something similiar to keep the game fresh.

Oh and.... fancy bling bling for your FFXI player? :3 Somehow, I don't think buying Lissy a "Tidal Talisman" would fit her fancy. Now if they sold a Duelist Chapeau, a real life one that also comes with a free in-game one... !!! She's bound to pelt me with hugs and kisses!

*prays*

Still without a Computer

2008-08-07T01:10:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to make due with my 360 and my laptop for FFXI for the past week. So far I've been managing okay except for a few freeze ups that have been happening. Right now, I am doing Campaign/Soloing stuff strictly on my 360 while everything else on my laptop. The reason is that as much as I would like to play on my 360, I'm stuck with "PS2 Limitations." Pretty much, I'm really not all that excited to rewrite a bunch of BLM macros and having to readjust my playstyle accordingly to each of those systems (where I might have to hit 2+ some macros to prep up for a spell rather than hitting simply one.) My SAM is just as it would be on the PC since that really doesn't require too many equipment changes to switch from one set to another. My laptop is also not meant to be a gaming system either and it suffers from massive graphical lag issues even on lowest settings. Attempting to load up Firefox while playing FFXI will often freeze FFXI, so it is pretty hard to look up something unless I have a Firefox window open already.

Honestly, not even the 360 is doing well under laggy conditions as my laptop. Really, I froze like 2 times in campaign within the past 2 hours I've been campaigning and I properly vent my 360, both the PSU and the system itself. I will say though that on my flat screen monitor, the game looks very nice and crisp... but unfortunately, the frame rate just hits the drain when there's too many people and can often times freeze my Xbox.

I know I can play BLM on my 360... but even on my PC, I'm still trying to find ways to make the job work for me and not have to tumble around stuff too much (in terms of hitting buttons and finding the right spells). I've been trying to mimic Lissy's macro pallete setup and while it seems to be working "ok" for me right now, I still find it a bit off. There is really no way to fit everything you want onto 20 macros in one set (which if I was playing on the PS2 version like I was years ago, it would be HORRIBLE with the sudden lag that occurs when you change sets) so I'm going to try to limit it to at most 2 and reduce manual changing as much as possible.

Well, with that on my mind, time to make a wishlist of stuff that they should put in FFXI! T_T;

1. Premade Sets.

The premade sets idea is basically allowing you to create an equipment set and allow you to compact it into one line on your macros. For example: Lets say you want a WS set. It can be as simple as going to the equipment menu and on the Triangle/Y/+ menu to the side, have a "Edit Set" menu and have like... I dunno, 20 should be enough for one character. Then you simply build it together with the equipmenu menu UI. Another addition to that is if lets say you don't want to equip anything to a particular slot (like weapons for example), you can choose a (No Change) option that would be placed on top of the equipment list.

If I had photoshop, I'd draw out a mock example.

Once you save it, you can recall it in a macro like "/set 1" or "/set SAMWS" or something of that extent. You can also toss in more equipment stuff into your macro for specific cases like /set SAMWS and then /equip neck "Snow Gorget" for Tachi: Yuki/Gekko for example.

2. Finally show TP for christ sakes.

If SE wants an incentive for SC/MBs, they are obviously going to need more than simply what is given thus far This only really helps it. Only real question would be how to display it since having a small number in that corner would just look pretty icky

(side note: My 360 froze again...)

3. Show the distance between the player and the target.

Really not hard to implement. It really isn't a mystery any more and seriously, making this aspect easier for players isn't going to break anything. Things are hard enough as it is even for those using all these windower plugins anyways.

4. Make a brand new UI.

Lets admit, the one that is in the game sucks. You can barely see the HP/MP on a regular TV with the 360/PS2 versions unless you squint your eyes. In fact, the game just becomes hard to read in general off of a TV. What's even worse is that there is no room to add anything of further interest into the existing UI without having it slapped on and being a random number on screen. Granted, it would be hard to make a new UI with how the PS2 is limited (does that thing even have progressive scan for FFXI?) and really, the game is about to hit the end of it's life cycle (not to say it'll die but it is going to hit a point where interest will die out and the game will slowly progress further in terms of development).

How would I make it look like? No clue! I'll mock one up once I have a working PC!

5. Do something to reduce graphical hiccups.

FFXI will rape your processor. That's how it is on the PS2, that's how it is on the PC and that's how it is on the 360. While I can understand it is trying to load all of these different textures and models and stuff, it's rendering each of those frames of animation that is making your game lag like molasses. Like really, I don't understand why there's an Animation Frame Rate type of deal (you know, the one that makes the game look like it's Electric Football). That isn't gonna save you. I can understand that sometimes when a game is online, there's some sort of connection error and your game freezes or some weird bug or whatever.

But, to have the game freeze up on you when there's too many on screen and not have a limitation for it... Really, why does that happen? Take a note from old 8-bit or 16-bit games, they had sprite limitations. Like, that slider that reduces the amount of players on screen.... while it does something, it doesn't do enough. Like, seriously~ Lets do this~

If there's a shit ton of characters on screen:

Always render your character
Render mobs
Render NPCs
Render your party
Render your alliance
Render non-party characters

It shouldn't be flipping and flopping around where I can't see a Fafnir but I can see like half of the LS beating it and only one of my party mates. Like, a priority system would be nice and just having a hard limitation of how many models on screen at a time would be nice too, even having a custom limit that is reasonable for the game to not appear like it's a ghost town.

And for the love of god: the glowing effects on the avatars should have an option of being able to see it or not.

NEXT!

6. Make this damn Xbox 360 Messanger Pad work on FFXI

You see this item?

It's pretty nice when you just want to sit back and not have to tumble around with a keyboard and such. It's a nice chatpad too for messaging people. I think it's about 20 bucks and even comes with a nice headset for voice chatting (mainly because it uses the base and it needs a different plug).

Nice item for 360 and pretty nice for FFXI... right? Well, guess what? Shit doesn't work on FFXI. You can type stuff but special characters that involve hitting the Squareish button on the bottom left corner (which include a bunch of things like / and quotations and so on) is a total pain in the ass to do. See, whenever you hit that button, it removes the UI, much like hitting the back button. Stuff that you're supposed to tap and "holds" it for you don't work (like if you tap on Shift, it "holds" it for you until you hit a key).

It's such a nice thing for FFXI, especially when you just don't want to pull out a keyboard or anything and just want to play FFXI on the comfort of your own bed or something. Like, this works fine in Phantasy Star Universe... but not in FFXI. Sure, you might want a keyboard for stuff that you want to relay information fast but to type a simple macro with this without the problems it is would be very nice. Another thing to consider is having keyboard shortcuts on this chatpad. It would give me the funtionality of going to the menus really fast but just simply tapping a button on the chatpad, as if CTRL or ALT are constantly held down (which this chatpad lacks btw). Such a nice item, I've tossed a few suggestions to SE via Mail Form several times about this but it basically went ignored. It would be very nice if they added this but.... oh well, that's why we call it a wishlist I suppose!

7. Make a different icon for every single buff/debuff

You know, there's already a few UI mods out there that lets you change the icons to be unique... but why the hell do we have to rely on that for? They did it for Utsusemi (granted that thing looks like ass but hey, it's different), but what about other things like BRD songs, COR rolls, Hasso/Seigan, a crap ton of Debuffs. I guess this is starting to sound like a rant list now but hey, all I'm doing is Campaigning. Like, it isn't like you're pointing to one icon in the data. The icon is simply copy and pasted over and over so it's not like you're "hacking" the game to point to a custom made icon.

8. Make a new Raise spell

You know, I often don't care what raise I get any more, in fact, really don't unless I die going on the way to Einherjar or die to something retarded and time isn't pressed on us. EXP problems are now gone with the introduction of Campaign (though, given how my Xbox froze like 3 times, maybe it isn't the case) and really, it isn't going to hurt us much to get XP back again. So, how about make a spell (lets call it Arise, since that seems to be what Full-Life or whatever is called in the later FF revisions) and instead of raise with sickness, raise with full HP but give a penalty to the WHM casting it (the spell itself should cost quite a bit of MP and it should prevent the WHM from casting anything for a duration of time or give them a weakness of some sort) and restore no XP to the person being arised. The person that was hit with arise should either have all of their MP drained away or no MP gained from the spell. Hmm... though with all those restrictions, it might not even be a spell worth casting, would it? :3 BALANCING: It takes time!

9. Nerf Lissy

She's too over powered. :3

10. Make different music tracks for Campaign

do do do dodo dodo do do do dodo dodo do do do dodo dodo do do do dodo dodo...

; ;

Yes, I can always turn on my Winamp or use the Xbox 360's Custom Soundtrack function or even use Vanatunes Plugin for Windower.

11. Please... pretty please... Do something about the

Make the either quieter or match with the sound volume. Yes, it's made to bring your attention... No, it isn't made to give you a damn headache over your headset when you're listening to people over TeamSpeak/Vent.

12. Call of Help? More like "Cause Some Drama"

Honestly, why use this? More often than not, unless you're in some place where high level players pass around like a newbie zone or something, this isn't going to save you. The only real thing this function is used for right now is for grief tactics. I mean, it's like giving the player a "Fuck People Over" button. Like, why is it even there? I mean, sure there are some people out there who are respectful enough to not do such a thing but why even give them the option in the first place? If you're going to die, you're most likely going to die anyways unless you have a PL with you or something. Even calling for help on adds from Kirin is not even seen any more.

13. Make Dynamis instanced

You know, I can see how doing the current system isn't going to work. For stuff to be instanced and to involves zoning, it seems like everyone has to be zoned all at the same time. Assault requires this, Salvage requires this. BCs can do this because this doesn't require zoning, and Einherjar isn't instanced from what I believe. So really, where does that leave us? Is it possible for Dynamis to be instanced and still do the whole Glass/Trade system? With what the Mog House visitor system showed us, maybe it is but that's juat a Mog House with very little information tossed in. It would require quite a bit of rewriting to make Dynamis instanced. With how some people finding people in their Mog House without their permission though... it would have to be one secure rewrite.

I think I got it all out of my system now ; ; I'll be a good Moggie now~

... oh wait one more

14. Give credit for people that d/c during Campaign

While I can understand why this wouldn't work in Besieged since it would be abuse of the system (though honestly, increase the cap of how much XP you can get in that to like 5k or 6k or something, it is a damn hour), this would be some sort of compensation in case you disconnect during campaign. I mean, it sucks having to do one for like 45 minutes and then have it all disappear when your system goes poots on you. Like when you zone or d/c, give the credit then remove their tags. At least they won't get screwed out of losing those XP points they earned.

OKAY, now I'm done!

... I want my computer back. ;_;

A New Month, A New Struggle

2008-08-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

Well, things are rolled around nicely around here for my linkshell DownRightFierce and my own FFXI life. Unfortunately, due to a few problems involving my computer, I now have a dead motherboard and it was a fairly old mobo (about 3-4 years) and due to how we have transitioned to new technology really fast, I would have to buy a new processor and a new video card (it's AGP, not that new fancy PCI-E stuffs nowadays). This is gonna run me quite a bit of money so... yeah, being able to play FFXI on a reliable PC system is not a current option right now.

In the DownRightFierce side of things (and yeah, I have no screenshots of any of this on me), we managed to get quite a few things. We've been tackling a crap ton of HNMs and for the most part, none of them really dropped anything until recent. We managed to get ourselves a Seveneyes from Khimmycat (which went to Bobbyray) and Gaiters (which went to Zarion). We got two Algols from Cerberus (Fidelis and Iskara) and well, a bunch of Cerb Claws and Hides that went towards a bunch of things (Valk Breastplate and a few Hades Hands). I'm actually still sitting on a few of them that I intend on selling so if you're on Carbuncle and you want a Cerb Hide and I haven't sold it yet, bug me about it~ Claws maybe, we're thinking about what to do with them.

I haven't had the time to relaly sit down and play on my own leaisure, given the circumstances of my computer and losing all of my macros. I aim to hit all the elemental obis while getting my Uggy Pendant. I also need vicious mufflers... So many things I have to do on my BLM! So little time! ; ;

I should really look into how I can get those vicious muffler pop items... maybe that'll encourage me to work on it.

Ah well, FFXI on my laptop isn't so bad except for the inconsistant freezing that just seems to happen every other minute. :3 I'll get my computer up and running again... JUst need some spare money.

Campaign: The Legit Way

2008-07-30T04:21:00.000-07:00

... Because we know song spamming is gonna get squashed!

Some people don't like to campaign, a bunch of good reasons why. Frankly, if I was playing this on my 360, I'd probably cry because I think the chances of it freezing up would be pretty high. I haven't tried it on my 360 yet so who knows!

Anyways, to kinda add on to my previous post about Campaign (link), having a basic understanding of what you can do to squeeze off as many XP caps as you can to add on to your healing/damage XP gain is key to getting 4-figures.

As a melee, this is horribly easy. Just run out there with your weapon and beat the crap out of things. Just try to treat it as a merit/TP burn party, toss out any self enhancements JA/Magic that you have (just note the exceptions) and pretty much, unless you're a few levels low or you get knocked down too many times, you'll most likely keep up with the cap.

As for a mage job... they have it hard. The majority of their XP is from emptying out a resource that they do not have unlimited amounts of. Pretty much, your MP is being converted into XP. Lets face it, unless you're a decently geared RDM or WHM, you're most likely not going to melee for crap.

That's a quick overview, lets get into details!

First, Sigil. There's really no reason to not have it. It gives you Signet bonuses along with Sanction effects along with the ability to stack up Regen/Refresh/Food Duration all at the same time. This will help you a lot during resting periods where you want to get your HP/MP back up. This is especially true for melee since there many be some situations where a cure just might not come to your aid.

The key to getting XP is keeping yourself alive by yourself. It may sound like a selfish thing but consider that when things get really busy and your HP meter isn't exactly apparent to other people, relying on a random cure from people during the times where you need it most isn't exactly smart thinking. As a mage though, feel free to cure yourself and others, it's XP. Pretty sure people that do campaign regularly is going to be on the look out for those with low HP just to get some XP out of it. It's a mutual benefit: They get XP from curing you, you stay alive longer to milk in more XP.

Plan out your Campaign. Don't just grab a tag and do random stuff, have a plan of attack for how you can milk the most XP. Lets have a look at what I have for BLM:

1. Immedately when a campaign battle starts, get a tag.
2. Cast Stoneskin/Blink/6 Barspells. Cast Reraise if needed. (Covers my 8 self enhancing)
3. Look around for anyone that needs a cure.
4. Rest until an attack wave shows up.
5. If unruly mob of players gang up on Boss in the wave, debuff/drain/aspir only.
6. If unruly mob of players gang up on underlings, nuke accordingly and melee at the same time. Try for a killshot.
7. If death is a definite, die in a place where you can be safe to raise.
8. Repeat 3-7.

It's a pretty solid plan, usually nets me a good chunk of XP. To into specifics about my plan though:

1. Getting a tag immedately when a battle starts is a good thing due to the XP time cap (which differs based on your rank.
2. Self enhancing caps at 8 repetitions, a total of 150 XP.
3. You need to cure 5000 HP to hit cap. That's about 25 Cure 3s or so based on your gear.
4. Having MP = important... that goes without saying.
5. Bosses suck as they can potentially one shot you. Try to keep your distance and keep your hate to a minimum. Resists count towards your debuff, you need to do 20 of them.
6. This is where the majority of your damage will come into play. Remember to keep yourself alive.

Now of course, if you're on a melee job (like my SAM), the only real planning you have to do is simply keeping yourself alive out in the battlefield and having a good weapon on your side. Just go out there and beat the crap out of things.

Some points of interest~

- While I'm not so sure about the Bastok/Sandy side, the Yagudo's Divine Pilgrims are basically free nukes. All they are sent to do is go in and erect either a turret, a belfry or bomb the fort. They don't attack at all so just throw out your big nukes without worry about hate.

- Did I ever mention that Stoneskin is the greatest spell ever made? Use it. It might not save vs Bosses but it'll save you against certain AoE attacks for a bit.

- Getting new tags, on the same line as song/spell spamming, can actually pretty good to reset your caps on certain XP things. Try doing it while you're waiting for the next wave of mobs.

- Almost everything can be aspired. Use that to your advantage.

- If you have a Love Halberd and you're main SAM... :3

- Bosses are usually bad news to engage first. Try to plain out avoid them if you can and just target the weaker ones. If you have a strong NPC force though, you can go nuts sometimes.

- Cure NPCs. They have so much HP that a Cure 3 will usually only heal 2%.

Truth be told: Campaigning on BLM (or close to any Mage job really) sucks. You can be trying to do everything to your power to get as much XP as you can but you'll never really reach the cap. However, if you really want to go campaign on your BLM, it can be fun but the XP will be substandard and you're often better off soloing stuff in Sea. To be honest though, to have something like this as just simple clean fun... it's a nice thing to do when you just don't want to really think and just let it all roll. You also don't lose XP when you die and screw up so maybe the overall XP gain isn't so bad for soloing. Either way, it gives me an excuse to bust out my DS and wait between Campaign fights!

Maybe I'll come back and reorganize this post a bit... For now, just rough typed out info. See you next fight!

The BLM Journal: Mentality

2008-07-28T04:48:00.000-07:00

I decided to start a new series of posts that I will call "The BLM Journal." It simply acts as my output and "thinking" pad for my trials as a new BLM75 (which I recently got :3 Thank you Lissy for helping me with the final set of XP).

For the most part, I'll be posting probably a lot of things people will either say "duh" or "Isn't that common knowledge?" While that's true, there are some things that I really don't have much of a direct answer to (/RDM vs /WHM) and some things that I think I need to touch on a bit more so I can be more efficient on the job. Like I said before, I'm really passionate about my SAM job and I would like to do the same for my BLM job as well. So, lets start with the basics.

Mentality - Doing whatever you can in your ability to not become a liability

One of the main reasons why I avoided BLM for so long is that I think the job can be pretty demanding at times. You basically have an ability to a large amount of damage and it relies on you to maintain that balance of damage and hate control. Not only that but you have access to probably one of the most powerful spells in the game: Stun. There are a lot of responsibilities of a BLM that frankly, after fighting a few Tiamats and a few other things, it's a lot of pressure being placed on just one single BLM. Of course you would use BLMs bunched up and in a huge group but even then your survivability will be heavily reliant on your ability to do so.

BLM is also probably one of the jobs where while you can be lazy as all hell, it can end up screwing you over in the end. For one moment where you're not really paying attention, that could be the end of you and your XP buffer. At least as a melee job, you can take a few hits. As a BLM, you're most likely not gonna have Stoneskin or Blink or whateve rup when such a situation hits when your mind wanders off and BOOM, you're down to half HP because you threw out a Thunder 4 without paying attention. That is another thing I feel about BLM though: Sometimes you might end up doing a lot of nothing because you're waiting for that hate to stabilize before you throw out your nuke. I feel that my understanding (dispite playing PLD prior to this) of hate is a bit minimal at best. I can't really "feel" my tanks hate all that much and I feel this is because I didn't party for the majority of my BLM career, most of it was solo XP. I suppose I will improve on this as time goes on when I play BLM more often.

Sometimes I feel that people level BLM and not really care for it too much. I'm guessing it is mostly due to the fact that they leveled BLM first then leveled a melee job and found that to be more fascinating. It isn't relally the other way around for me though, I still love SAM to all hell and I am enjoying every single moment as a BLM. I'm actually doing Campaign right now as my SAM but I really want to get on my BLM to nuke stuff... I just need SAM buffer though. Even as a SAM or a BLM or whatever, I find it odd that people would level a job, play that job often but do the bare minimum. Now, I have BRD leveled and I really don't care too much for the job, so often I just don't play it. If some LS want me in as a BRD, I'll refuse. If one doesn't care much for something, they will do a bad job for it. Unfortunately, BRD doesn't require much from the player to do what people expect them to do, at least in the end game environment. For all they care, you can be naked and it won't matter to them because you can still do Double Ballad. BLM, ont he other hand, requires a lot off of the player to maintain good damage and survivability, which irks me because people don't really try too much in this department, at least from past linkshells that I've been in.

With all of this in consideration, I have to think about the following few points when playing BLM:

- Maximizing my survivability
- Maximizing my damage/hate threshold
- Maximizing my ability to throw out spells fast
- Get the most out of my resting set
- Being able to make all of my spells as efficient as possible
- Making sure my skill stays fresh and improves over time

A little too hardcore? Well, maybe... There are also things to consider that will probably hurt me a bit since I have melee jobs leveled:

- No Tamas (Not a huge deal, just lose -enmity)
- No INT merits (Gonna hurt for maximizing BLM)
- No shared equipment (SAM and BLM basically have no equipment they can share other than certain haste items)
- No MP merits (HP will probably help me more here though)

Well, I still have a long way to go on my BLM and hopefully I'll have a "satisfiable" BLM soon. Gearing it up will be nice but I'm more concerned about my ability to play the job, as that will ultimately determine how successful I am at the job.

Valkyrie's Breastplate

2008-07-25T04:44:00.000-07:00

Congratulations on your Valkyrie's Breastplate, Dionicio! :3

Hurray for Odin~

2008-07-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a leet einherjars~

Yesterday was a pretty pumped up day for DownRightFierce. Unfortunately for me, I barely got any sleep the previous night so any sort of positive energy that came around just simply flew by me. Regardless, a few fancy things have happened yesterday!

First off, we missed a chance at Cerberus due to this random JP LS that showed up. Frankly though, I was entertained. Not so much that they were doing bad (they were struggling) but it seemed like a pretty small group that never really fought Cerberus all that much before, or even any real HNMs because I've never seen them anywhere at any time. So, being able to get together and fight something that they seem to not have a lot of experience on kinda made me smile a bit, not to mention taking it down at a pretty good rate.

Anyways, for all intents and purposes, lets call that a bad start to the day. I attempted to go to sleep only to be awaken one hour by Lissy. After having my face stuffed in my pillow going "Oh god, don't tell me he's up..." I got out of bed and lo' and behold, Tiamat is up and claimed by us. With my BLM barely at 73, they asked me to come on it to handle adds. Never having to deal with anything serious with BLM before, I was kinda initimidated and really, it felt like my first few days of playing PLD at end game all over again. Fortunately, I retained a clear head and picked up what I need to do within a matter of seconds... which, now that I think about it, wasn't so hard in the first place!

I gotta say though: Skilling up on Tiamat is the only way to go.

Only real thing I found myself doing during this entire fight was:

1. Handle Elementals and Bifrons (not Corses, while I can outrun them, the initial pull might eat me alive!)
2. Nuke Tiamat with Thunder stuffs while he's in the air. Because my stuff ends up being resisted a lot, I usually go with the one-shot critical hit-or-miss Burst routine.
3. Talking about how uber I am... though that's probably my sleep deprivation that's doing that.

Tiamat ended up dropping a wyrm horn... wryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Someone shouted out Manaburn in the LS chat and... for whatever reason, I decided to take it even though I need sleep BAD at this point. I got about 20k xp before I had to throw in the towel. I took a "nap" and had Lissy wake me up about an hour prior to fighting Odin. This time, I would be taking PLD to kite adds.

Odin is not hard. It isn't the most easiest thing in the world but it isn't ridiculously hard like the usual Tier 3 or heck, even Tier 1. I wasn't really disappointed though, it's freakin Odin! It's the guy that was in all your old Final Fantasy memories and he goes in with his fancy-pants Zentetsuken and one shots people! The fight ended up being relatively easy but also pretty short (30 minutes). We got E. Body, H. Hands, M. Legs, and P. Body. No Odin exlusive items though...

Other than that... got 2 more Assault wins off of my chest and got some fishing done with some LS mates... oh and a Sand Charm so I can finally start that Inside the Belly quest. Maybe someday I'll tackle the legendary Ebisu Rod... or maybe not.

On a complete side note: FFIV is out on the DS this week for NA. Git it!

My BLM vs My SAM: The Epic Battle for Supremacy

2008-07-18T03:31:00.000-07:00

Sitting here, soloing on my BLM (currently at 72, yay), I was thinking about how I would apply my BLM to my end game LS (DownRightFierce). As we all as well know: BLMs are uber that it kinda dominates a lot of circles in end game...

But... Well, lets have a look:

Sky: I'd most likely be SAM without a single doubt.
Dynamis: I'd most likely be SAM without a doubt.
Sea: Might be BLM but might be SAM the majority of the time (heck, even end up being SAM for JoL might be better off for me at this point, unless they need someone in adds)
ZNMs: Based on what the mob is... but lower tiers will most likely be SAM.
Einherjar: I'd most likely be SAM without a doubt.
Variety of HNMs: I'd most likely be BLM.

Honestly, I'm just kinda sitting here going "wtf am I gonna use my BLM for?" It's fine though, I really just leveled this to do small-man things with Lissy and whoever else, also the fact that I enjoyed every moment on BLM... minus the "trying to find a place to level and trying to nuke something I can take" ordeal.

Will I take BLM as serious as my SAM? Honestly, I can afford to. The only thing that I would be doing that would be gimping myself (if you even want to call it gimping, I don't even know at this point) would be not being able to merit INT because I have STR merits. Other than that, Elemental and Enfeeb can go 8/8 and I have enough equipment space to hold all the gear. Really, if I truly felt like it, I can have a really powerful BLM to go with my really powerful SAM... which, oddly enough, I can have a really powerful MNK too all at the same time without gimping a single one of them.

I think I have decided my final 3 jobs that will be my best/main jobs: SAM/BLM/MNK.

This is, of course, not to say I won't level other jobs though, but...

WAR: I have leveled to 75 but SAM has kinda replaced it. Haven't had much application for it anywhere over SAM really.

THF: I have no interest in. I think it is a great job that can do a ton of damage and can farm stuff and survive on its own really well... But, I don't think it suits me too much. That and THF tends to have a bunch of exclusive equipment to the job.

WHM: Most likely not going to happen because I have an aggressive playstyle and this could hurt me while playing WHM.

RDM: I could very well level this job too but after seeing a ton of RDMs emoing about the RDM AF2 Hat... I'll pass!

PLD: It is still in hiatus until the time calls forth where my PLD is needed again. For right now though, it will rest until then.

DRK: A job I once have considered leveling but I eventually chose not to. Mainly because I would find nothing to do with this and it feels like I'd be doing nothing with it except pull it out and slash a few things.

BST: No.

BRD: Doesn't exist.

RNG: I has no munnies, though I will get it to 37 someday.

NIN: I has no munnies but I did consider it at some point... but I already got one tanking job, don't need another.

DRG: 37 someday, but not 75.

SMN: No.

BLU: Eh.

COR: Maybe someday.

PUP: Honestly, maybe I will level this to 75... just to wear Usukane on it.

DNC: 37 at the most, I don't see me soloing anything with it at 75.

SCH: Maybe... maybe not.

Oh, and Maat's Cap is something I'm probably never gonna consider... probably for a good reason that I wish to keep to myself. >:

Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360 O_O;

2008-07-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

Just announced by Wada in the Microsoft E3 Press Conference: Final Fantasy XIII is indeed coming out on Xbox 360.

Source? Well.... You'll see it all around in a few minutes, I'm sure.

E3

2008-07-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

If you're a hardcore gamer like me, you're probably paying attention to E3, where most of the new stuff gets announced for the consumers (like you and me!).

While it felt like it was a pretty bad/boring weekend (well, it was the whole week for me last week), at least this week should be entertaining for all the PS3/360/Wii owners out there.

And yes, I know this is another short post. Still recovering. ;_;

This can't be good...

2008-07-12T05:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I was gonna type up more blog posts but apparently my left hand gave out. I'm thinking it is carpal tunnel related so I'm going to give it a rest and let it recover before I do anything involving typing. Might even need to take a break from FFXI until this recovers.

Thankfully there are a lot of TV shows I've missed so I can just catch up with them to keep myself entertained. I wonder what I should watch...

Anyways, I really really hope this is not permanent. I typed this blog post with one hand. ; ;

Oh yeah, I added a Twitter feed to the right. Was going to use it as an HNM notice thing for LS members but I think I'll just use it for personal stuff.

See you guys later and don't be like me and end up with CTS!

Moggie's BLM Shopping List

2008-07-10T02:03:00.000-07:00

Everything bolded is stuff I need to buy

For Nuking:

Range: Sweet Thingy
Head: AF1
Neck: Elemental
Ear: Mold/Morion
Body: Wesket (Need to buy)
Hands: AF1
Rings: INT+5 Rings?
Cape: Gleeman (Almost have enough Einherjar points)
Belt: P Rope
Legs: Errant (for now, will get Mahatma once money stabilizes)
Feet: Cobra Crackows

For Enfeebling (Black Magic Side):

Range: Sweet Thingy
Head: Iqqira Tiara
Neck: Spider Torque
Ear: Morion/Morion (Probably something better here)
Body: AF1 (something better?)
Hands: Errant (something better?)
Rings: INT+5 Rings?
Cape: Gleeman (Almost have enough Einherjar points)
Belt: P Rope
Legs: Igqira Lappas
Feet: ??? (All I have is Mannequin Pumps, not sure what to put here otherwise)

For Enfeebling (White Magic Side):

Nothing because I don't know if it's worth it... or if anything can be better except putting MND in certain places.

For Dark Casting:

Range: Sweet Thingy
Head: AF1
Neck: Dark Torque (worth it/anything better?)
Ear: Morion/Morion (Probably something better here)
Body: ??? (All I can think of is Nashira Body)
Hands: Errant (something better?)
Rings: INT+5 Rings?
Cape: Gleeman (Almost have enough Einherjar points)
Belt: P Rope
Legs: Errant (for now, will get Mahatma once money stabilizes)
Feet: ??? (All I have is Mannequin Pumps, not sure what to put here otherwise)

For Resting: (While trying to avoid Yigit due to Salvage runs)

Range: Sweet Thingy
Head: No Clue (Maybe Yigit?)
Neck: Gradniose Chain (Maybe Phi Necklace if lucky someday)
Ear: Relaxing + Antivenom
Body: Errant (Probably gonna use AF1+1 Body when the chance occurs)
Hands: Nothing here really unless I want to try to get my hands on some Oracles
Rings: Nothing really matters here
Cape: Invigorating Cape Though man it looks ugly...
Belt: Qiqirn Sash
Legs: nothing here @_@
Feet: Avocat or Numerists

For Idle:

To be constructed... but a Cheviot Cape is tossed in somewhere!

Note that none of these include any special cases (Obi/Magic Burst/MAB+ Items under conditions... THOUGH I would like those too!)

Yet another filler post

2008-07-08T05:02:00.000-07:00

Various web projects, a huge MMORPG to play and I'm all out of Sunkist! ;_;

Anyways, I'm keeping this short and sweet because I need to get in bed...

BLM I got to 70 with some help from Lissy and Bobbyray. Campaign XP is really the only thing tiding me over. Rarely do I find a camp open on BLM for me to even solo so it really sucks on my end.

Still, the Usukane Head 25 piece is far from my grasp. It will require a bit of effort in my group to get to the boss in time to fight it as fast as possible. I'm so close to Usukane Head, I can taste it! I had to sell my Osode though to buy the Ingots. Truthfully, I think it was worth it because I rarely WS on Osode except when I'm on /THF. Many would say Osode is best for SAM to WS in general, I kinda don't see the difference but then again, I never really parsed it.... and then again, impulse got the best of me.

The motivation to level MNK is still there but I will not start until my BLM is properly merited. Yes, this will take me a LONG time to do but I figure I'm in no rush.

One more Tier 3 win for Einherjar for access to Odin... Can't wait.

Xarcabard sucks, where's my girlfriend's RDM AF2 Hat? :(

Minor Rant: I can't really see why someone would up go to you, being the most rudest person in the world, and inquire about your LS. I don't blist people except for the whole shouting RMT spam way back when... but still! Guy got my nerves... and I'm pretty sure he was just itchin for a quick item and then jet.

I've been playing Traumt Center 2 on the DS. Been playing with double stylus for XS ranks on hard... so far, having a hard time.

I had a few people poke me while I was doing my own thing, saying they're fans of my blog. :3 Thank yous~ I promise I'll write something more detailed later when I'm not swamped up with things!

Other than that.... I had a pretty okay 4th of July weekend in FFXI and in RL.

Oh and I've been watching Awesome Video Games over at YouTube. Check them out, might be worth watching inbetween HNM Windows. @_@;

This is some crazy .hack shit right here

2008-07-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

So I was doing Salvage and we totally forgot about how Discoid can cut people wide open when we don't have enough people in range. So I got tractored and my game froze... and... I tried logging back in to Mogknight... Couldn't get in, I restarted my compy just to reset my connection to the server. I came back, still couldn't log in after 5 minutes...

o_o; 10 minutes later, I finally logged back in but the run was over. :(

Crazy .hack shit right there...

Chrono Trigger DS @_@;

2008-07-02T00:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/ctds/

Nothing needs to be said.

The numbers are in...

2008-06-30T03:02:00.000-07:00

Apparently they did it all weird but... lets just go with the flow~

Rank 5: "1" - 837417 winners
Rank 4: "44" - 60461 winners
Rank 3: "379" - 6854 winners
Rank 2: "1017" - 1234 winners
Rank 1: "47396" - 56 winners

:3 Numbers from all servers combined.

Well... I didn't think they would do 5 drawings... I guess that kinda snuffs out people's plans for pooling it all. Take it as you want but I'm gonna go through my... marbles now. @_@;

Congrats if you won, too bad if you lost. :3

Edit: OH and before you get too excited or too disappointed... these numbers are read from right end. So if you got a marble that says "27344", you won a rank 4 item.

As for me.. 2 XP scrolls on a mule.... but 40 slots returned~ I'm a winner!

Usukane 3/5... Wait a second...?

2008-06-28T02:04:00.000-07:00

@_@;

THINK AGAIN...!!!!

While I'm all excited and happy about getting the next piece of Usukane done... there's just one huge problem...

...

My wallet is pretty light.

:(

Unlike the Usukane Feet and Legs, the "material" item required to create the Usukane Head is exponentially much more expensive. We're talking about 100k to 2m ratio here. So, this will take me some time to get but fortunately, I didn't get the 25 piece yet and we're not going to attempt it until I get my 12 Ingots out of the way... All I have to say is... I dread the day where I end up getting the 35 piece... because that is going to cost me A LOT.

Anyways, today actually ended up being a fairly uneventful day, mostly because in DownRightFierce, Fridays are our freedays. But in any case, nothing was really going on in my end. It wasn't until later on where we did a really fast Limbus run (Temenos 1st Floor) and then the Salvage run where Hammerblowsandsucksatdroppingusukane35head dropped... the Usukane 35 Head. @_@ At this point, I really do feel that I'm getting lucky... but at the same time, I really don't think people are looking too highly at me since I'm running through Usukane at a horribly fast pace. People are gonna lose interest and probably suspect something from me.

In any case!

I'm gonna be reorganizing my labels for better categorization. Going to be merging anything Sky related into Zilart, anything Limbus/Sea/CoP Missions into Promathia and so on and so forth.

Also, I'm going to be putting a label for the more informative posts that are less about what I've accomplished and more about actual helpful posts that can act as a cheatsheet or something... whatever term they use nowadays. Not sure of a name for them... I'll probably figure it out after I'm done with the sorting. Check back later and that category list should be shorter!

Black Cloak infused with Love~

2008-06-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

So after hitting level 68, Lissy decided to congratulate Moggie by giving him her very own Black Cloak that she has been using since forever! Truly, I am touched and just having this thing on me makes me feel like my power level is over 9000! @_@;

After freaking out and falling in love with Lissy's Black Cloak, I decided to head out to Sea and nuke some fishies.... then realized that I still havent' figured out the trick to it and I'm still getting really low XP per hour. Maybe I need to level /RDM and use that!

Anyways, I know a few posts ago I did a bit of a thing with /BRD and all that stuff. I decided to screw doing that and actually do Campaign battles. As I'm pretty sure the trend is following on other servers where it's mainly beastmen controlled. Now, I heard some weird ass crap from players as to how to "resolve" this issue on the player side. Kinda ranks along the thing I heard about Besieged and donating Imp. Bronze Pieces to the NPC that gives the Turban (yes, this is false, yes, you are retarded for believing in it).

I'd like to start off the theme of today's post as.... Cautionary Tales of Campaign.

@_@;

Honestly, Campaign isn't really a bad thing. Sure, it causes your Xbox/PS2 to crash from time to time but when you... ya know... actually get on a decent PC, it isn't so bad. You see a lot of crazy stuff in Campaign though. I mean, yes you can kinda just glance at it and be like "eh, that's a bug, whatever" at some of the things ya know? But, here's something that just totally shocked the crap outta me. Given the fact that I'm writing this at 3 in the morning, I might be wonky but... don't you guys find this to be sorta strange?

o_o;

There's just something about that turret... Something... wrong...

So anyways, ignoring that there's a huge pecker from that bird turret, went on to tackle down the baddies.

I got into the habit of casting Stoneskin constantly. I think Lissy said something along the lines of "I'm gonna kill you if you don't put Stoneskin up" or something.... I dunno, I don't like dying in either case so... Stoneskin up! I can't believe how many times this thing saved me from damage. At the beginning I had really low Enhancing and MND so really, it was almost pointless to put stoneskin up. Now I have to teach myself to do it constantly.

FOX...... DIE!!!!!!!!!! ..... THINK AGAIN.

That gimped SAM made us lose the battle. :( Not even Ares Galka Dancer PLD Man can save us.

Meet defeat by GOLDEN EAGLE.

This... doesn't look like a Belfry at all.

So, a got myself about.... 6k total exp from doing a ton of Campaign today... Hmm...

Getting BLM to 75 will be one long trip. @_@;

... There was nothing cautionary about this post at all!

FFXI reference in FInal Fantasy Tactics A2

2008-06-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

... What? You think I'm gonna tell you? -.-

I'll tell you this much though, it is near the beginning of the game.

Anyways, to all you Final Fantasy fans out there, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is out for the DS in the NA regions. Go pick it up nau.

... This is gonna cut into my BLM leveling time.

My Weapon Skill Accuracy...

2008-06-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

... leaves more to be desired. ;_;

Either this is a rant or a plea to figure out what's wrong with my gear. Well, as many of you should know (I hope), SAM weapon skills are mostly one-hitters, especially the YGK group. Unlike many other WS that other classes use a lot, such as Rampage, Guillotine, Dancing Edge and so on, I get struck with the whole "missed" messages when I do my WS. But it doesn't just happen a few times, this happens like.... all the time. I'm sitting thinking "Okay, I have almost the same gear as all of these other SAMs, I have my Sea Gorgets, I have 8/8 GKT merits... what gives?"

Really, I'm pretty sure it is just the fact that with one hit considered, I'll get that bolded message a lot more than say a WAR doing Rampage, mainly because you'll notice your misses in your TP return and no one is gonna point out your WS damage sucked unless you missed a signficant amount of damage. Pretty much, not sure if it is me but missing Tachi: Koki on Proto-Omega 4 times in a row (which btw, we believe that it made Omega's Heart dropped) is a bit of a.. weak chuckle at that point.

4 Kokis... :(

Anyways, it seems that a few people have taken notice of all the singers in Bastok [S]. With this, they decided to make a game of making my life a little bit harder by grabbing campaign mobs and throwing them at us. Not that I can't just relocate myself but it is right next to the Campaign NPC. I guess I have no reason to complain, I am, after all, getting XP by just hitting a few macros over and over again... Kinda like an actual XP party... Ironic!

I haven't fought a single monster as a BLM67 and it will probably remain that way for awhile. Consider it a bit shameful but at this point I just want to get my BLM to 75 to do things with Lissy as soon as I can. It also doesn't help that the beta for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix just came out (Yes, that's the whole freakin name of the game) and I plan to play it during the off periods of me playing FFXI and blogging. In any case, my goal is to hit 75 before July.... and I have about 5 days left... things don't look swell for the Taru.

Yes, there is a huge lack of screenshots as of late and it mainly has to do with the fact that I'm too busy doing a lot of things at once that I don't have time to think about hitting the screenshot button. It sucks but I realize that maybe talking about what I have accomplished in game isn't really that much of a... thing people might be interested in unless it had a lot of spice. And really, the past few weeks were great, they were nice but they're not anything I could write a story about without repeating a legacy that has already been told. I hope that I have more stories to talk about soon, lately it has been fairly dry... though I sorta guess I have one now?

Nah not really.

On a side note: Chinchilla got Homam Body.

She was having a seizure on vent.

Grats Chin. :3

Well, at the very least, I have a KS99 on Thursday and hopefully something good comes out of it. I kinda need a little bit of extra gil in my pockets considering that I still haven't really caught up on my BLM spells or equipment. See, this whole Campaign thing is making me too lazy! ;_;

Oh btw. Xbox Gamertag: MogKnight Prime. If you want to do some rounds of Street Fighter, hit me up~

Welcome to the Second Half

2008-06-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

I knew that eventually BLM soloing is gonna hit a wall where I'm going to stop getting massive and fast streams of XP and it will continue to be a total grind. Unfortunately, I think I really spoiled the crap out of myself with the whole Gobbie Pet thing. Regardless, I also think the way that I'm forced to solo right now is helping me be able to play BLM the "correct" way. Instead of one-shotting pets, I'm actually having to deal with mobs that I need to kite around and properly spacing myself. It makes BLM more entertaining to level (at least for me) but at the same time, it is really slow. The Enterpriser Camps are usually taken and killing stuff in Sea, while fun, is also a long process with what little MP and options I have. One of the options I'm lacking is /RDM, even though I do have it at the level I have gravity... but I lose Stoneskin/Blink unless I level it up more. I'm probably going to take a break from level BLM until I get RDM to 37. For the mean time though... remember that post I made? It works like a charm but EVERYONE is doing it! @_@;

It's kinda scary how there's a huge wall of BRDs and /BRDs just casting songs again and again...

ZNMs, ZNMs, and hell... more ZNMs! There are just so many of them to kill and so many reattempts required just to get whatever item you need. Granted that there are a few nice items in the earlier tiers but a lot of them are pretty.... "lol." Now, now... "Moggie, the fact that they added this is very nice and it's better than them not introducing it at all." Okay, well that's true, the fact that they added this into the update did make the update a pretty big one and there's always going to be "useless fodder." One thing I did notice with this update is that some of the higher end items (Hachiryu for example) are not EX. This is a good thing I think. RMT would be hard pressed to get these items as well so I don't see it being a bad thing.

Earning Zeni is not as hard or even as stupid as people make it. Just take a camera with you and take pictures of random mobs that you do (Sea/Sky/KSNM/Limbus/etc/etc). Aim to take it at low HP. For example, tossing up a few shots at Omega at low HP can net you around 80 Zeni a shot. If you can take 10 shots (without a problem), that's close to your first tier 1 pop and you can still submit more over 10 shots if you wait an in-game day. Tier 1 mobs are pretty easy to do with just a small gathering of people so it isn't really a hard thing to do, just need some planning around. Also, for whatever reason, FFXIclopedia has people listing "subtle" hints about the mob being a lot harder than it sounds. Some do things that will HURT bad but otherwise, you're fine as long as you play smart.

Oh and for the last time: Barfira (or Fire Resistance period) doesn't do jack crap for Mijin Gakure.

Oh Boy... And I'm supposed to be in bed

2008-06-21T03:43:00.000-07:00

I have a Salvage run at around 2PM EST and now it's... about 7AM EST. I'm pretty sure Lissy is gonna log on FFXI and going "wtf mog, why aren't you in bed?"

Well, anyways, I can't sleep so lets talk about the subject at hand then: Salvage.

Now, believe me when I say this: I am not a Salvage expert and while I got 2/5 Usukane, I still don't know every single thing about Salvage and I've really only know Bhaflau pretty well and probably a good half of SSR. But anyways, lets talk about it for a bit, especially for those who want to do it but haven't done so because they can't find a group or are too afraid for it.

First thing's first: A lot of things in Salvage don't require more than 2 parties... in fact, a lot of things in Salvage don't require more than 9 people. This is one of those things where having more people can kill you rather than help you. Like Limbus, you can bring 18 to a damn SE Apo run if really wanted to and have a way higher chance of winning. Salvage is very precise, you need to take in mind of your resources, you need to look at jobs at a different way and you also need to take in mind how much damage one extra person can bring in. Yes, one extra unneeded person can screw up the run. I mean one extra person can screw up anything if they're careless and stupid but no... In Salvage, one extra person even though they're very nice and helping as much as possible, can end up being so much dead weight. So you don't need big numbers but you do need to take in account what you're taking in.

To expand on this fact alone, this means you're going to have to do Salvage with people that you know. Pick up salvage groups tend to be really hectic and not at all fun unless you go through and jam everyone's head with what you're gonna be doing and how you're gonna do it. Because of this, I highly recommend a static. Even a LS pick up group can be pretty bad because again that's more explanation that you will need to do unless everyone is already familiar with it. Not only that, if you join a pick up group, expect to get only 15s. You might get a 25 if you're lucky... you MIGHT get a 35 if you're extremely lucky... but don't bet on it. Either do Salvage constantly or don't do it at all. If you do a pick up, don't expect anything.

Usually when you do Salvage, you have a goal in mind. Be it killing a specific NM or kill the boss or whatever. This goal is usually focused on benefiting one person or one group of people. What I mean by this is lets say... You have MNKs/NINs/SAMs wanting the Usukane Feet (which is nice for all 3 jobs... I think) and you have to farm the 35 item which drops off of an NM Bee that can spawn off of this Rampart that needs a specific requirement that is out of the way of the boss of the area. By the way, this NM Bee rarely shows up and even if it does, the drop rate sucks. And by "this NM bee rarely shows up," I mean.... it RARELY shows up. There's probably a specific condition to spawning it but who knows? Anyways, there are other things that can drop in this one specific zone... but you're not gonna do them all, there's just not enough time to allow that. Bringing in more people to those said zones isn't gonna do anything to make it go faster.

Again, with that fact, how can you hope to get anything in a pick up group? You want Usukane Feet 35? You're gonna have to tell the group to spend the time to melee kill the Flans required (there's 4) and then you have to let all the bees spawn and the NM might never appear. That's ~40 minutes of the run already when you only have 100 minutes. Now you got 60 minutes to get the rest of the cells you need, either choose to do one of the later ramparts (which take a bit of effort to get to might I add and its not really a good idea to do both of the later ones) or straight up hit the boss while trying to nerf it down (which also takes a bit of effort and time).

So, get yourself a static group for this.

If that wasn't clear enough.

Oh yeah, so to help clarify this more...

You need 3 items from 3 different Salvage zones, each of them has a 15, 25, and 35 version.

15 are common drop. Well, they aren't very common but they're common compared to the 25 and 35s. Some 15s require you to go out of your way to kill a specific NM or a slot NM but some 15s will drop as you kill mobs.

25 drop from bosses... At least, I think all of them drop from bosses, I could be wrong on this. But, 2 are guaranteed off of a boss, usually you go after this after you get a 35.

35 are as rare as AF2 drops in Northlands. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement but some of them are pretty rare. These are the things that will frustrate the living crap out of you as you will go from 0/infinity on most of those drops. For the most part, if you have the 35... you have the piece already, just need to get the effort to get the other two.

Anyways, a good guide on Salvage can be found on BG-Wiki. Good luck in your Salvage Adventures and stuffs. You're gonna need it.

Oh and Shameless Plugin: I started a new blog for FFXI beginners and casual players in hopes to bring some new light into old things or new things in FFXI. Its called "Final Fantasy XI for the Casual Folk" and it can be found at http://ffxicasual.blogspot.com/. I'm still prepping up content for it but I hope it'll open some eyes for people. I started writing about newbie stuff but I will soon venture into stuff like Chocobo Racing, Chocobo Digging, soloing, crafting, so on and so forth. So check it out if you have nothing else better to read.

Campaign Battles and Earning XP

2008-06-19T13:09:00.001-07:00

Okay, time to shed a little light on this and simplify this a bit for peeps.

The idea here is: Gravy Train

1. Do the minimal amount of effort.
2. Maximizing your XP gain from Campaign.
3. Gives you something to do while you LFG or if desired solo spots are taken.

Here's the Wiki Page that lays out caps and calculations.

Now, before you do any of this, it's a lot better (not to mention smarter and funner) to just go out in Campaign and beat the crap out of things while spamming your own things and stuff IF you have the appropriate job/level for that. As for the rest, using this method should help you gain as much XP as anyone else in the field but it will take a bit of shuffling around.

To do this, you need the following:

1. A timer to see how many minutes you have your tags on
2. BRD to a level so that you can cast at least 15 buffing songs within a span of 2-3 minutes (Etudes are handy). Alternatively, you can sub WHM or RDM for Bar spells but it won't net out as much XP as BRD songs.

And what you do is:

1. Figure out what rank you are
2. BRD songs cap at 300 when you cast 15 songs. Figure out how many minutes it would take to reach that cap.
3. Do other actions that will fill in remainder for that minute.
4. Submit your tag once it reaches that minute.

ex.

Lets say you have Steelknight Emblem. That's 80xp per minute.

(XP per Minute) x (minutes) = (your target XP cap that is slightly over the BRD song cap)
80xp x 4 minutes = 320xp

BRD Song cap is 300 after casting 15 songs

(target XP) - (BRD Song Cap) = (Remainder XP)
320xp - 300xp = 20xp

You need to perform some action to make up for that 20 XP. By convenience, one self Enhancing Spell does the trick.

So, for a BLM/BRD at 65 with Steelknight Emblem, you can do the following...

15 Etudes + 1 Blaze Spikes = 320 xp

All within a span of 4 minutes. Submit your tag the moment it hits 4 minutes for 320xp. Considering the chat time and dialog boxes and stuff, you can earn about ~4500xp an hour. Really not bad for the effort placed in it.

Maybe I can simplify this post a bit more... but that's why there's an edit function! :D

It's not about "if," it's about "when."

2008-06-16T01:11:00.000-07:00

Something I still have to learn and remember in FFXI, or even live in general.

Anyways, post update has been pretty tame lately. While there is still a huge surge of players hunting down Ixion, Sandworm, ZNMs and the like, I have been doing my usual thing.

Not to drag my real life into the mix again but lately things have been going pretty rough and I'm overly stressing about things. I'm hoping this week will subside that, especially since I no longer have to worry about classes and so on bugging me for awhile. I actually have about 5 blog posts in draft that I have yet to complete, mainly because I haven't been motivated to finish them. Hopefully I can drive myself to tackle them once I'm out of this "phase" that I'm in.

But for right now, how about a progress post? :3

Black Mage has been going pretty well now. I'm sitting at level 64 and while I would want to keep leveling today... I figure I'll take a break and just sleep at a normal time. I'm pretty sure Liseth is dead worried about me and not maintaining a proper sleep schedule. On that note, Lissy did say she would help me by leeching off of her once I hit level 70... though she did continue to say that I would have to "kiss her ass" if I were to just sit there and do nothing... I guess I'm gonna have to nuke stuffs~ Not that I don't mind, it is in the job description anyways! I will need to level up my RDM soon enough. Would benefit me greatly for soloing situations.

Samurai has still been a pretty long journey. Equipment that is needed for it is still very far from grasp and it all becomes a waiting game. I guess one thing I can work on is a Damage Reduction/ohshi~ set to help me when Seigan/Shadows are down. Thanks to Lissy and the DRF Salvage group, we manage to snag me up the rest of my Usukane Feet parts. It is not without a struggle however, as weird things have happened and weird complications occurred. I'm very happy to have received this, even though I did not appear to be. It was mainly because after so many retarded frustrations that happened that I was just "glad" it was over. What's done is done and time to move on really. I don't see myself getting the rest of the Usukane set for awhile, I don't think I should be aiming that high this soon anyways.

Paladin and Warrior has been in hiatus for awhile. I can't do much with Paladin until I can get more gear for it and Warrior has been waiting on a new build for awhile. It's fine though, I still can pull these two jobs whenever I need them and still do a great job.

Bard on the other hand... That took a major hit as I have resold my equipment to keep my other jobs floating.

I've yet to do the rest of my WotG cutscenes. I'll work on them later.

Lissy has changed to Windurst and is pushing me to finish Windurst up to Rank 10. I'm gonna be working on the last few parts of 8-2 tomorrow before Dynamis I think.

Nothing else other than that I suppose. Hopefully I'll get BLM to 75 before July, would be very nice to go into Independence Day with with some awesome nukes. ;3

Xbox Live Achievements Explained

2008-06-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

Trust me, there are quite a bit of people out there that still give a damn about Xbox Live's Gamerscore thing. While I really don't care too much about it, any extra bit helps and it makes me feel good inside~

Anyways, there were 250 points added with this update. To sum it all up for you, here's all the achievements and how you earn them.

Note: When you complete something from this list, you will need to talk to a BRD Title Changer to unlock these achievements on your gamertag. You don't have to earn the requirements on your Xbox 360 but you must unlock them with the BRD on the Xbox itself as the option will only appear for Xbox users.

(Insert Job) Lv. 75 - 30g each job
Have the job at level 75.

(Insert Nation) Rank 10 - 30g each nation
Get your nation Rank to 10

Synthesis Skill 100 - 50g
Get a tradeskill to 100, this counts fishing as well. You can only get this one for one skill.

Relic Weapon - 40g
... Yeah. You need a Final Stage Relic to get this achievement. However, it is unknown if a Nyzul Relic counts.

(Insert Expansion) complete - 40g each
Oddly enough, even though I'm on Dawn for CoP, I still don't have credit for it... odd.
Zilart I got credit with Dawn.
Aht Urhgan I got credit with Eternal Mercenary.

Breaker of the Chains - 30g
Complete Apocalypse Nigh and get the title "Breaker of the Chains"

Apollyon Ravager - 20g
Temenos Liberator - 20g
Beat Proto-Omega and Proto-Ultima in their respective Limbuses and earn their titles.

Top Assault/Merc Rank - 30g
Get Captain Rank for Assaults

Dynamis - Tavanazia/Xarcabard Interloper - 30g each
Complete both Dynamis and earn their titles.

Chocobo Whistle - 5g
Get a chocobo whistle from raising your own chocobo

VCS Registration Card - 5g
Retire a chocobo that is in adult stage

Extra Job - 5g
Unlock an extra/advanced job (anything besides WAR/MNK/WHM/BLM/THF/RDM)

Support Job - 5g
Get a subjob, you noob

Pure White Feather - 5g
Go to the past at least once

Ballista License - 5g
Get a Ballista License by talking to your nation's Conflict Director...

Bastok - Invincible Shield - Metalworks - G-8
San d'Oria - Excenmille - Northern San d'Oria - D-9
Windurst - Mhabi Molkot - Heavens Tower, next to the reception desk

... Then go see your two opposing nations leaders...

Bastok - Karst - Metalworks - J-8
San d'Oria - King Destin - Chateau d'Oraguille - I-9
Windurst - Star Sibyl - Heavens Tower, talk to Kupipi at the reception desk

Imperial Army I.D. Tag - 5g
Simply get one Tag for Assaults, you don't have to be in possession of the item when you talk to the BRD Title Changer NPC

Boarding Permit - 5g
Get the permit to allow yourself access to Aht Urhgan

Airship Pass for Kazham - 5g
Get the Airship pass to Kazham

Airship Pass - 5g
Buy it or get Rank 5 to get the Airship pass

Chocobo License - 5g
Get a chocobo at level 20 by doing the quest in Upper Jeuno

Guild Membership - 5g
Level a craft to at least Novice level (28+) and join the guild

Artifact Quests - 5g
Unsure if you need to complete just a single AF quest or complete a set to get a Paragon Title. Its one of the two!

Destined Fellow - 5g
Get an NPC Fellow by starting the chain quest with Luto in Upper Jeuno

Star Breaker - 5g
Cloud Breaker - 5g
Sky Breaker - 5g
Summit Breaker - 5g
Horizon Breaker - 5g
Complete the Genkais: Note that the Genkai 5 must have been completed with a job that fights Maat.

Official Soul Reflector - 5g
Make a Soul Reflector for Pankration.

Unknown stuff: a 20g, 30g, and 40g
One can assume that they are the following:
Get highest medal in Campaign. (Unattainable at this time)
Complete WotG . (Unattainable at this time)
Get a Nyzul Relic Weapon. (Unattainable? at this time)

:3 Good fookin luck in getting all of this done...

I'm gonna miss you...

2008-06-10T04:22:00.000-07:00

While everyone is going nuts about the update and trying to get all the nifty stuff (and trying new toys), I'm basically taking the stance of "Let the other people figure it out, abuse the empty exp spots."

And that's what Moggie did.

The patch today was, like most other patches, a long and painful download session. Granted, it was to be expected but this felt more painful than any previous patch... well, except that one patch that lasted 24+ hours. But anyways, we had some lulz on the Vent server in the mean time and me and Lissy played some Chess on MSN. I had her on the runs but then it ended in a draw. ;_;

Back into the game, the Auto-Sort option would be pretty all right to use (especially if I play on my 360) except for the fact that it does what it does: It auto-sorts. Now, those who use Windower might be using a Plugin called LightLuggage. It has some nice functions such as Auto-Stacking and selective Lotting/Passing. Now, most use it just for the stacking and that's good and all, the nice thing is that it doesn't attempt to sort your items out, it just stacks it. Auto-Sort in FFXI, however, sorts it all out and it can get kinda confusing when you expect some items to appear at the end of your list (Salvage Cells, equipment checking from Mog House, etc). Its a bit of an annoyance and something to get used to but overall, its nice for what it does.

The new NM system (which I believe the term is ZNMs? Zeni NMs or something) is pretty interesting considering the fact that they're pulling out their Pokemon-ish minigame out to fuel this thing. I think its creative though... lets just say, popularity of this will cause this system to be hard to take advantage of until it dies down.

Me, Lissy, Chinchilla and a few other DRF people did Salvage today. After a weird accident which made us lose our NIN tank, I had to take the helm as SAM/NIN Taru Tank (This would not be the first time). We manage to finish Chin's Skadi's Feet and I was amazed we made it up there with so little time remaining. I think we gave the cat a reason to dance around in the Sun today (which btw, it has been growing increasingly warm if you have not noticed).

I got on my BLM for a bit, soloed from 60 to half way through 61. Nothing really exciting but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of running right before cast goes off.

There will be another maintenance tomorrow, most likely to try to fix Sneak Attack. Though, I decided to have a little bit of fun with it on SAM/THF.

All I have to say is...

I'm gonna miss this bug.

More random Post-Patch stuff and BLM soloing insanity later!

/em opens the update envelope.

2008-06-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

All righty... FFXI Update June 2008... All the update information can be found on the POL website @ http://www.playonline.com/pcd/verup/ff11us/detail/3347/detail.html. I will only be talking about what "sticks out" and things that have yet to be mentioned in a previous news update.

The following changes have been implemented to fellows:

A new limit break quest has been added, making it possible to increase your adventuring fellow's level to 70.
In the quest "Unlisted Qualities," it is now possible to choose your own combination of face type, personality, and height for your fellow.
Players who have obtained a signal pearl prior to this version update can access the above new content by returning their signal pearl to the relevant NPC and restarting the quest.
Those who had already commenced one of the following quests need to complete all three in order to obtain and return their signal pearl:
Unlisted Qualities / Girl in the Looking Glass / Mirror, Mirror
A new point system has been added to fellows. The more time you spend with your fellow, the more your "fellow points" will accumulate. These points can be exchanged for items for yourself and your fellow.
New fellow personalities have been added.
Fulfilling certain requirements will make it possible for you to summon your fellow to certain areas of past Vana'diel. Please note, though, that fellows cannot be summoned while a player is marked with an Allied Tag.
A new key item has been added for the fellows Emptiness quest. Possession of this item will determine your quest offer status.

Well, the fact that you can now have better control of what your Fellow looks and acts like is nice... but do they really have to make it so that you have to reset your entire progress and start all over again...? Its a nice change though, I'll give it that. The point system sounds very interesting too, maybe it'll all more interest in playing around with your fellow moreso. The key item thing also helps in figuring out if I have the damn quest active or not!

The following changes have been made to the chocobo rearing system:

The below price changes have been made to chocobo-related purchases:

Item Before After

Chococard Issuance 500 300

Registration to Call Chocobo 500 250

VCS Honeymoon Ticket 5000 3500

Chocobo Whistle 50000 20000

Chocobo Whistle 1-use Recharge 1000 400

:3 Cheaper Choco Whistle Recharge!

Several new Notorious Monsters have been added to areas introduced in both the Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Wings of the Goddess expansions.

Oh look.. IXION IS COME.

The resistance of the following Notorious Monsters to the black magic spells "Sleep," "Gravity," and "Bind" have been adjusted:
Behemoth / King Behemoth / Fafnir / Nidhogg / Capricious Cassie

Well... its a change?

The following changes have been made to the Einherjar system:

The entry requirements for Wings I, II, and III have been simplified.
Except for the player placing the chamber reservation, all participating players will be able to enter any chamber in Wing I, II, or III simply by trading a "Glowing Lamp" to the entranceway.

The entry requirements for Valgrind (Odin's Chamber) have been simplified.
Except for the player placing the chamber reservation, all participating players will be required to be in possession of a minimum of one valkyrie feather from each wing, for a total of at least three feathers.
As before, entry into Valgrind will cause any and all related key items in all entering players' inventories to disappear.
* The above two changes in no way effect the player placing the chamber reservation.
The conditions for obtaining "Ampoules of Therion Ichor," as well as the maximum number obtainable, have been changed.
In contrast to the previous system of receiving a set number of ampoules upon successful completion of a chamber, players will now receive an amount relative to the number of enemies they have defeated, regardless of whether the chamber is completed or not.
Defeating any of the "Guardians of Asgarth" will in no way increase the number of ampoules of therion ichor a player obtains.
The rewards furnished upon successful completion of chambers have been supplemented.
The "Armoury Crates" which appear after defeating the Guardians of Asgarth can now contain a greater variety of items, a number of which were previously unavailable in Einherjar.
Monsters within Einherjar chambers will now link with one another in the same manner as enemies in other general areas.

Wait... did that screenshot just show.... Imp Wootz Ingots?

The cap for all job-specific Group 2 merit point categories has been increased.
All Group 2 limits have been raised from the previous total of 6 points to 10 points, and the limits for individual spells and abilities within Group 2 from 3 points to 5 points.
* The damage boost values generated by the first three increases to the Samurai ability "Overwhelm" will be greater than those generated by the final two increases.

Oh boy... I saw this coming for SAM... Well, at least its an upgrade to some extent.

Several new equipment items have been added.

Wise Gear oh no. Nice weapon though...

New equipment items have been added as rewards for completing guild contract quests.
While using these items, you will not be able to create an HQ item, but you will receive an overall success rate bonus for synthesis.

Just... one percent?

The storage capacity for the following items has been adjusted:

Item	Before	After
Dresser	2	15
Wicker Box	2	4
Armor Box	3	5
Coffer	3	5
Chest	2	3
Cabinet	4	7
Commode	4	6
Cupboard	2	6
Chiffonier	3	6
Armoire	5	14
Royal Bookshelf	1	10
Bookshelf	4	20
Blue Pitcher	1	4
Water Barrel	2	6
Sky Pot	2	7

Item	Before	After
Red Jar	2	7
White Jar	2	6
Yellow Jar	1	4
Wardrobe	3	10
Reliquary	2	8
Falsiam Vase	2	6
Console	4	6
Caisson	3	5
Cartonnier	6	20
9-Drawer Almirah	7	16
6-Drawer Almirah	6	15
3-Drawer Almirah	5	14
Credenza	6	7
Gallipot	5	8

I just want to point out that Storage is capped at 80 so... don't get too excited. But still, a bunch of these items just went WAAAAAAY up.

A new text command "/battlebgm" has been added. Use this command to toggle the condition for battle music playback between: 1) when you yourself enter battle mode; and 2) whenever any party member enters battle mode.

I know they added this in a prior update note but... here's how you can change it!

Players of the Xbox 360 version of FINAL FANTASY XI can now unlock achievements and increase their gamerscore.

... We can unlock achievements... Now? Something wasn't worded right. :3

Well, that's really it for the update. Again, I didn't point out the new abilities and jobs and the NM system because... well, they were already mentioned and nothing "new" was released about it. Overall, I can't say I'm disappointed or pleased at all really, mainly because a lot of these changes are things that are not mentioned in detail on the site. We'll just have to see what happens once the server goes back up. Until then: Team Fortress 2 time! ;3

Vana'diel 2004 to Vana'diel now

2008-06-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

Well, as we all know, the June 08 update to FFXI will occur in about... 7 hours as of this writing? I'm personally psyched for it and I can't wait to see what will be revealed in the update notes. With so many new things, I think this patch will be very huge (~110 MB if I recall) and I think we will be seeing some big changes and additions to FFXI, probably bigger than the WotG Patch.

But anyways, before we get into the update (which btw, I will make a blog post outlining the update along with putting my thoughts in it), I would like to take a few steps back into 6 years ago and talk a bit about how the game has progressed. Yeah, there are things in this new update that should have been fixed a long time ago... but I personally think that change is change, it happened and we should be happy it did, no matter how late it was introduced in the game because as far as I know, according to Back to the Future 2, we should be getting Hoverboards and a product called Pepsi Perfect... maybe with all the awesome sweetness and none of the diabetes.

Lets look at the original JP release (btw all this info can be found on FFXI Wiki), which very very few of us have played on. May 16th 2002 I believe. Back then, it was 50 cap, only 6 jobs can be used and all the beastmen were Orcs... I dunno why they would do such a thing, sounds more like a JP beta. But yeah, no crafting or airships or chocobos to get your butt around. The AH wasn't even introduced yet. In fact, in the beginning the AH could sell 8 of your items instead of 7... Probably some sort of server load thing, I can only imagine. As time went on, we started to see the development of the Synth system, a solidified battle system, and of course new monsters and gear.

Zilart came out on April 15th 2003 and the game was still JP exclusive. Did you know that Delkfutt's Tower was added in the Zilart expansion? :3 We got 4 new jobs, 3 required the expansion: SAM/DRG/NIN/SMN. Existing jobs got some new abilities too and RDM was actually buffed up a little when they got Refresh a patch prior to Zilart. Nomad Moogles existed but you had to pay to use them.... how much? I have no clue. Thank god you don't have to pay jack now.

Then came NA PC release. October 21st 2003. I remember when no one showed up to my programming class in college because FFXI was out. There are a lot of people that remember this day and heck, a few of those people are still playing FFXI even to this day. I, myself, did not join until PS2 release. Dynamis was eventually introduced and the cap stuck at 75. Then, around March 23rd 2004, the NA PS2 release came and Mogknight was created shortly after.

Ah... now I have a common ground to talk about...

I remember when I was such a little Taru, a BLM running around, nuking stuff and getting lost. At the time, the Easter Event was out and that's how I made some gil for myself. Eventually April hit and a new patch came out, which would be the first time I would see changes in the world of FFXI. Ballista came out, /recast was introduced, and all I really cared about at the time was /hurray and /toss, the only real things I benefited from the patch really at the time. Oh and the AH change where you can pick one item from an incomplete stack to sell.

Merits, some changes to TP gain and so on... then Sept 14th, 2004, CoP came out and the Europeans finally got a taste of Final Fantasy XI, for the PC only though. I remember I was just a BRD and the whole Etude change was nifty at best. This was also where NIN took a hit and instead of negating all hits with one shadow, it was possible for NIN to be stripped of all of their shadows. By the way... Promies were pretty hard and taxes on the AH weren't so bad... until they made it based on Seller Price.

At this time, I was a Taru with a sword and shield, which was nice because Shield was... gimped a bit. Fishing was also redone from hitting a single button to actually fighting the fish. People still think fishing was slow but back then, even if you botted, it would take SO LONG to skill up compared to now.

I remember the first huge "OMG I LUV SE" change involving NMs. Archer's Ring, Leaping Boots, Emperror Hairpin, and Peacock Charm were moved to BCNMs and Rare/EX versions now drop off of the previously existing mobs. We also got NPCs and that was awesome. We also got the MPK change where mobs would despawn if unaggroed and the amazing DRG 2hr change.

All this was nice... but it would be a year and a half later until we saw a new expansion... and this expansion changed the face of FFXI to whole different level.

April 18th 2006 would mark the first time an FF would see a release on the Xbox 360 console and also would be the first time EU users got to play FFXI on a console as the PS2 HDD never came out in Europe.

I'm going to stop at this point because I feel that this is where most of the players have "started" their own story in the huge book of Vana'diel tales. This is really just a brief talk about how FFXI has kinda grown in the... system side of things.

Looking back at this game back then and now, I feel old... I really do. So do many other people I assume. Thinking back, no one would have ever thought of "Burn" type parties. End game was strictly for the "elitists," whatever that meant back then. The busy cities of Bastok, Windurst, San d'Oria and Jeuno. The ever frustrating Genkai 1 quest and the AFs. The huge line of fisherpeople or fisher bots, most who were actual legit players actually looking for gil. The Rusty Caps that made great money....

*sigh*

Now, for the obligatory picture montage... Lets get some sort of music going, hmm?

Where it all began.

The Original Tarus of Terror

I like first person view

My first Party!

Mogkvlt.

Typo was always the Ladies Man

Synthing was the in thing!

My first NM! And man, the game doesn't look at all different.

I even got the drop yo! And I also collect stacks of popotos... why? Heck if I know.

Moggie was also in...

... and out of relationships.

Life was peaceful...

Life was a struggle...

Life will surprise you... (lol... I knew this guy this long?)

Life will bring you friendship...

Life will bring you through many trials of hardships...

But a few things are certain...

You will meet a lot of people...

What they do will influence you...

You will make great friends and allies... (and no Lissy, we never got married :P)

And many weird things will go wrong...

But...

The world of Vana'diel grows.

From past...

... to present...

And...

Well... I guess the future?

I think you hit her pretty hard there Mog.

2008-06-08T04:45:00.000-07:00

I think Banishing your girlfriend counts as domestic abuse... Am I a bad person? ;_;

We did take a nice nap together though~

btw

If I haven't congratulated her yet, I'm doing it right now! Congrats Hunny~

Oh and now here's an Evil Dead Mog

Warning: Cheesy Post

2008-06-07T04:49:00.001-07:00

The past few days, I've been having a rough time. A lot of it involved trying so hard at trying to be great at what I do and constantly comparing myself to others. I realize that...

1. I'll never be like Rukenshin
2. I'm a Taru and as a Taru, I'm bottom tier for melee jobs
3. There will always be someone better than me, one way or another

And that's really the thing, I'll never be able to reach full potential because I, myself, have limitations that will always conflict me from reaching that full potential. Another thing is that I should not be bothered by this, which is what I have been doing lately and I'm pretty sure its annoying a lot of people in my LS. For that, I apologize to DRF and especially to Liseth.

Anyways, this isn't me saying that I suck, I give up and that I'll never amount to anything in any situation. Its more like me saying "I think I'm the fucking best for what its worth and really, why should I give a damn what other people think?" This kind of mentality can appear to be rather stubborn and could be associated with people who wear Domarus and Sun Rings... but, I think if one can't feed their ego, they're most likely going to be self-defeating and will look down upon themselves.

That is the thing about being in such a great LS as DownRightFierce. I sit there thinking "Man, this LS can handle everything... that means I can get everything or anything that I want in due time." This isn't like a lewthoar thing but rather you sit there in that LS going "I can BE the BEST there ever was." Thing is, that drove me to lose a lot of hours of sleep for a damn Ace Helm that never appeared, not enjoying Salvage for the challenge but just the equipment I would be getting and heck... I didn't care about winning Ouryu, I was more concerned about the gil I would get so I can buy a Hauby +1.

I, for the most part, have lost the real point of me playing this game in the first place. I realize this now and while I still want these things, I don't want to make it a priority because then I would have an obsession with trying to get these items that I would go towards any length to get them and that just makes the game appear more like shit to me. Trust me, I know the game has some pretty bad things to it but it comes with a LOT of good things with it too... it can be easy to forget the good stuff.

I owe a lot of thanks to Lissy and DRF for allowing me to enjoy end game. I don't know how long this shell will last. It could break tomorrow... it could break 20 years from now. I should be spending each of those moments doing something with the LS and make those moments good. Not just for me but for everyone else, I want all of us in this LS to enjoy what we do and being able to enjoy doing the things with other LS mates. I certainly want to be with Liseth for all the good times as much as I can, in real life and in game despite the fact that we are miles away from each other. I may be unable to be with her in real life for a duration of time... so I gotta do with what I got and that would be to do things with her in game. I love her with every inch of my Taru and Asian Male Heart and I wish for nothing but good memories.

Not to drag my real life into this but... this is kinda how I feel, even if it is a bit cheesy.

May your adventures in Vana'diel (and in real life) be memorable~

Usukane 1/5... woot?

2008-06-03T00:44:00.000-07:00

I recently received all 3 pieces of the Usukane Hizayoroi and have submitted them to be created... While I got a fairly decent piece for SAM (though there are many debates about it, most say its a great WS piece), I can't feel excited yet since I realized I'm but just one small step into getting full Usukane and that a huge, long journey awaits in doing constant Salvage after Salvage to get the whole set.

Needless to say... I'm anything but happy about it.

Its a mentality that has shocked me today even. I am usually the happy-go-lucky Taru that just gets stuff and go "awesomes! I got the power ups! I won the FFXI!" It wasn't the case today with this. I guess after seeing so many people not being able to get what they need out of Salvage and having to constantly burn Assault Points and end up with no reward in the end... Its frustration that I have yet felt. I don't believe I have the right to be "happy" with what I got. Its also pretty upsetting watching my own girlfriend not having her Morrigan's Body 25 item to drop as only upsets her more and more as the days go by without one dropping.

... Perhaps I've hit a point in FFXI where its no longer about being that happy-go-lucky Taru... but more of a serious business attitude as a player in this world of Vana'diel. I can feel it too, a level of frustration that exists because I can't obtain what I need for my character because of obligations outside of my control. I'm sure this exists for everyone out there that plays this game.

Of course, this isn't a good thing, it isn't a good mentality to have. I've lost sleep over trying to obtain an Ace's Helm and potentially screwed myself over in trying to interact with other people in my own LS because I'm in bed all the time until afternoon. The game becomes dry at that point, I feel that this game is now dry. I would need to break out of this habit and just remember the reasons why I play this game in the first place. I will still do Salvage regardless with Liseth because that is why I started doing it: To be with Liseth. As for these other "things" that make my online persona stronger... it may be something I should just avoid trying to seek after and just let it drop on my lap when the opportunity comes. If we just manage to nab up a KV and no one wants an Ace's Helm and its given to me, its probably better off that way rather than me trying to lose my sanity over a few booleans, random number generators and so on.

To be the "Best Taru Samurai Ever" has a price, one that I am not willing to pay for at this point. As long as I'm able to be with Liseth and help her out in any way, that's all I can ever ask for with my 13 some dollar subscription.

Mog to the Future!

2008-05-31T01:57:00.000-07:00

After getting BLM to 75 and having that as a great option to do some stuff with (oh and not to mention being a perma BLM in the LS because Lissy is evil), I'm thinking about what other jobs I want to level to 75. Really, at this point I should probably try to go for Maat's Cap but first I want to get the jobs I would enjoy out of the way and just grind the other jobs to 66 later.

Here are some ideas and thoughts for what jobs I would want to level next:

Monk: The Punching (and soon to be Kicking) Fiend!

I figure that I have most of my MNK gear already due to SAM. Another thing is that I have a D. Body Abj sitting in my Mog House and really all I would need is the 900k or so to buy the cursed body. I kinda would place MNK in the same Category as WAR in terms of play style. You pretty much sit there, buff up when your JAs are up, WS when appropriate, use any other abilities whenever. Really, after playing SAM and BLM, I really do feel like playing another sit back job where the majority of the time you'd be sitting there not having to think so much about partitioning your TP so much. It also would be nice for Salvage and maybe even some farming. I'd give this a go... but then I gotta worry about the Belts... Also with the new update to MNK, I would really like to see how this job ends up.

Red Mage: Pimp.

Honestly, I always wanted to level RDM but I just can't be arsed to buy new equipment for it. The problem is that RDM equipment is neither Mage stuff (Seers) or typical melee stuff. I could just go until I hit AF like a gimp... it really doesn't matter though, everyone would want me for my curing, hasting, and refreshing. Debuffing would sorta be a problem for me due to the lack of MND as a Taru but maybe it'll all work out if I equip for it.

I honestly always admired Liseth (Well, I love her too but that's besides the point) and her ability to solo many things in this game. While I don't have access to Gaiters (for now), I do have W. Legs and I would like to do the same things she does and what many other RDMs do. My only real problem is that AF would be a pain in the ass for me and trying to keep up with all the buffing and debuffing that goes on. I can probably do it but I dunno how long I can keep it up...

Dark Knight: "Go Suck on a Moogle"

I took a heavy interest in DRK even prior to SAM. The only real reason why I never continued leveling it is that I went back to playing SAM one day and... Well anyways. I like hitting hard, I like big numbers and I like their abilities of being able to draw HP to deal damage and even having additional buffs to those moments. Plus, I can pick from a huge sword and a scythe and can even make a Zerg build of sorts since I have most of my Homam. I think its an option that I'd like to explore but it isn't really high on my priority list.

Blue Mage: You'll be like Quistis... just not hot.

People have always been telling me that I should level a mage job (at least long before I started BLM). At the time, I drew a lot of interest in this when ToAU came out. However, I chose to not level it due to the fact that the job was still new, it has high potential but I wanted to see everything ironed out before I take it up and become disappointed. Even now, I don't see that many BLU, I still think it is a powerful job but not really a job that I can see myself enjoying all too much at the time. It was still MP reliant and I thought it would be like playing other types of MMOs where it would just be spell/ability spamming. Now, I still feel the same way... but now I feel like playing some Korean MMO. What way to do it other than play BLU? The job also gets stronger as updates occur with new mobs but I have yet to see anything really significant.

Puppetmaster: Oh... I know what you're gonna say...

Despite the ridicule it gets, out of all the pet based jobs in the game (DRG I wouldn't count in this category), PUP seems to be the most fun because it has the ability to be almost as potent as another party member, probably even more so, who knows. It is also very nice because you as the PUP really don't need to concentrate too much on your own gear to function correctly. Can you do the job naked? Probably, I dunno... it really looks like you can or even be close to naked.

That's really it for now. Who knows, I might even pick a job that's not not on this list. I still think FFXI can be enjoyed so much as you unlock more jobs into the higher levels. It gives you another perception of things and opens up more windows of opportunities, even if you play a job that is undesired by End Game LSes. The hard part is leveling up with the idiot people... But that's just something you'll learn to deal with in life.

Extra Post: Battle Adjustments

2008-05-28T03:31:00.001-07:00

Well, this slipped by me as I was posting my last entry.

Merit Points Group 2: Maximum Raised for Ability Increases

Adjustments to the Group 2 section of the merit point job categories will be implemented in the upcoming version update.
The current total maximum ability increase of 6 and the individual maximum ability increase of 3 will be raised to match the Group 1 values of 10 and 5, respectively.

New Job Abilities and Spells
In conjunction with the scheduled job adjustments, the monk, paladin, and bard jobs will be receiving new abilities and spells.

For monks, we will be adding a new job ability that allows them to restrict their attacks to kicks only. In exchange for a penalty to attack delay, the monk receives an increase to damage and attack power, as well as a bonus to the amount of TP gained per kick.

Paladins will be receiving a new spell that increases the rate of shield blocks, as well as reflecting blocked damage back to an attacker. As with "Blaze Spikes" and "Dread Spikes," this spell will only affect the caster.

Lastly, bards will gain a job ability that allows them to limit the area effect of a song to a single target.
For example, if a bard casts "Mage's Ballad" after activating this new ability, only the selected target will receive the effect of the song.

Wow... This means...

- Awesomer G2 Merit Builds
- MNK being a 2h?
- PLD being awesomer tanks
- BRD no longer having to do epic maneuvers to land a spell on someone.

I am pleased. Good night folks~

I'm a Repetitive Taru... really, I am!

2008-05-28T01:59:00.000-07:00

Now for an actual, somewhat lengthy post!

Again, I keep forgetting to abuse my screenshot button, I really should map it on my controller or something.

But anyways~

SE and the Random Doings.

There's quite a bit of FFXI related news that has been tossed around, most of which I'm kinda late on the delivery of. The more important ones include the fact that Somepage, a huge database of FFXI related material, has malicious code somehow implanted into their website. I would advise (especially at this point because I don't even think they update their stuff as of late) to not even go to that website any more. This is kinda the second time that it has happened and I can probably say it is the more common websites to get quick item details and has a really powerful search function. However, as I have said, it is the second time that they had malicious code on their website and for the most part, it is probably nailing a lot of people.

I could go on and on about web security and how to protect yourself from such hazards but... let me give you some names of some programs to use to help yourself.

- Firefox
- NoScript Plugin for Firefox
- PeerGuardian 2 (btw: a bit of tweeking is required to get FFXI working on it as it blocks SE's website)
- Sygate Personal Firewall
- AVG
- Firefox

Anyways, Nomad Moogles being added in Mhaura/Selbina, more Fellow stuff, Campaign NPCs that heal you, and Outpost Warps get saved~

Would be nice if we could like... store Pre-25 Equipment Sets... but that's just me.

Paladin vs Paladin: Who Can You Hate More?

One thing I've been really frustrated about is trying to keep up with a PLD in my linkshell. The guy just holds hate so spectacularly that I can't figure out a way to keep up with him. Now, tanking usually involves the tank trying to keep their hate to cap and trying to outhate the rest of the DDs/Support/what have you. I think I'm at a point where I can get there but I'm probably doing something really wrong with my playstyle and having a hard time achieving such an effect. Granted, the PLD I mentioned has a lot better gear than I do but I feel that while enmity can do so much for me, I don't think I'm using it to its fullest potential, and that is what really irks me because then I know I'm not doing my job right. I also don't think it is a matter of "knowing" what to do, its executing it effectively, and that's skill right there. I figure that its something I have to fully devote my time to. As I keep playing, I should get better... but eventually, like in everything that people do, they hit a "wall" that they need to get around. I think that's where I'm at right now, I'm at that "wall," that limitation that blocks you in your mind.

The Wanderer: Taru Samurai Spirits

I got something pretty nifty the other day, despite all my PLD troubles. We did our first Jailer of Justice fight and we managed to get a Torque Drop on the first kill~

I manage to win the lot on the Justice Torque, which helps my SAM quite a bit with my TP Build. We also did a Jailer of Prudence which also dropped a torque and another Justice that didn't drop a torque. Needless to say, we were very lucky and I think most of it was due to the addition to Chinchilla to our LS. Great THF, probably a great RDM too but never got her to bring it. X3

My Samurai has been the focus of my attention for a bit, at least until I'm "ready" to take on PLD again. It is one of those "emptying your cup" situations where I want to take my mind off of it then go back with a new fresh view. But anyways, I decided to try to follow Xanthe's advice (minus the Not Tarutaru part) and try to get my hands on things that I'm able to at the moment. Currently, I'm messing around with KV... that's all I can really say about the subject. Lets just say I'm losing a lot of sleep over this NM. Ace's Helm would be very nice on my SAM as it would be 3 great things combined into one robo-cop helm. I can't refuse such an item! :3

I still need to farm my Flame Gorget items... been pretty lazy with that, especially when I'm trying to redo some of my merits. I finally hit 8/8 GKT and I've been wanting to parse my SAM for awhile without Acc Songs/Rolls.

I also been trying to work on a Damage Reduction Set for SAM again since I'm finding myself doing Salvage a bit more. Maybe in a few more weeks...

My First Mage Job: Black Mage

Managed to hit level 58 a few days ago. However, I am somewhat less motivated to level the job. The main reason is because I think 50 spoiled really bad because I can one shot Goblin Pet mobs assuming I don't resist. It had a huge negative affect to me in the sense that...

1. My enfeeb skill isn't increasing.
2. My dark skill isn't increasing.
3. I'm not learning how to be an "effective" soloer for later mobs.
4. Soloing in general isn't helping me be better at being a party person.

Needless to say, I'm gonna "fun" readjusting myself to be an effective BLM later on. By the way: I hate buying spells.

By the way: you can get some pretty decent XP out of Campaign if you know what you're doing. More on this in a later post.

Mog of Windurst: Warrior Within

I honestly have not touched this job in awhile and maybe its because of the whole DW to 2h shift that I have yet to fully transition myself to. WAR compared to SAM just feels so dry with 2h because I can't really play aggressive as much as I would want to. That's the problem I think, I try to treat GA WAR too much like SAM. I will probably need to read up on more things on WAR and look into other applications for it. As for right now, I'm trying to get the IS to get the Perdu Thingy and going to probably concentrate on getting GAxe merits up while demeriting my Sword/Axe Merits, which are now obsolete to me as I rarely use my DW build now.

On another note though: Rabbit Pies I heard were pretty good for tanking and DDing.

DownRightFierce: Tiamat Burgers for $4.59

We bagged our first Tiamat and... well, it dropped something but it wasn't anything uber. We've been doing really well with Sea/Sky/random HNMs/Dynamis/Einherjar.

Sea I've mentioned already~ Sky was a funny situation though! Someone apparently by accident typed /help instead of /heal (btw: he plays on the 360 so no plugins to prevent it)... which never made sense to me but ok. Anyways, they CFH Seiryu (which is no biggie) and it took us awhile to recover, it was a bit of a mess since it was really unexpected. He didn't drop any of the stuff I wanted... so meh! Screw that dragon! Next time!

Dynamis, luckily for DRF this time, didn't involve me MPKing people as I was not the one pulling. However, we did manage to get a few nice drops from Sandy such as 2 PLDs and a BRD hat. There were some deadly pulls... I wasn't joking when I said the pulls from the Ronfaure gates were a pain in the ass. If someone can help me figure out how to pull them, it would be great. ;_;

The Einherjar alliance with PPN (or is it PNN? Its one of those two) has been going great and we've been getting about 30 some people each run. Maybe we might end up fighting Odin soon...!!! I would really enjoy doing such a thing as many people have not really done it... Yeah. Though, I still would like to see what changes they plan to do for Einherjar in the later updates. 1000/15000 until I get a Ritter's... I got some time.

By the way, we got a mention from Chinchilla about our LS in the Pet Food Alpha podcast. :3 I think I'm starstrucked or something for having her in the LS... or somethin. You can hear a short tidbit about us in Episode 102: Garrison of Pet Food Alpha. Hey, any publicity is good publicity... I think.

And finally, here's a Mog in a Box.

I'm a SAM... really, I am!

2008-05-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

All right, lets take a look at my SAM!

Main: Hagun
Sub: Pole
Ammo: SMART BOMB!!!
Head: Turban
Neck: Justice
Ear: Brutal/Fowling
Body: Hauby
Hand: Hachi
Rings: Ultha/Rajas
Back: Amemet +1
Waist: Swift
Legs: Kitty Pants
Feet: Fuma Fast Feets

Its 6 hits, it lacks Usukane and it has Hachimans! ;;

Lets look at WS Gear

Main: Hagun
Sub: Pole
Ammo: SMART BOMB!!!
Head: Wyvern Helm
Neck: Elemental Gorget
Ear: Brutal/Fowling
Body: Hauby
Hand: Pallas
Rings: Ruby/Rajas
Back: Amemet +1
Waist: Potent
Legs: Shura Pants
Feet: Taru RSE2

Some questions I was thinking:

A. Justice for WS or Elemental Gorget Still?
B. Bushi or keep Suppa?
C. Askar Body?
D. O.Kote/Usukane Feet or Dusk Hands/Usukane Feet?
E. Osode for SA WS or no?

:3 I wonder what to do!

I'm a PLD... really, I am!

2008-05-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

I think my priorities are a bit messed up in FFXI. Right now, I am balancing between 5 jobs: PLD/WAR/BRD/SAM/BLM. Every week I use each job at least twice and I gotta keep my gear up for them and I'm never going to be satisfied with what I have. I figured though that the same feeling is going to happen even if I have only one job so... yeah, a desire that can never be full.

Anyways, I've been looking at my PLD gear and I realized that I really should do something about it. I'm doing fine with what I have but I know deep down I can do better. So, lets have a look at what I have. <.<

When I tank as /NIN, I have on...

Main: Enmity Paddle +1
Sub: Koenig
Ammo: Shell
Head: Assjammer/Haste Turban
Neck: Harmonia/Parade/Shield
Ear: Pigeon/Ethereal
Body: AF1+1
Hands: Homam
Rings: BQR/Herc
Back: High Breath
Belt: Swift/Warwolf
Legs: Homam/WLegs
Feet: AF1+1/Askar

Honestly, I'm not sure how to really improve on this... the only idea is...

Shield: Wivre
Neck: Ritters (Or whatever the Einherjar thing is called)
Ear: Hades +1 (This is gonna hurt my wallet)
Body: Valor Surcoat
Back: Cerberus Mantle
Belt: Trance

Though I have wonder if this is all really worth it in the end. Another thing is what about alternate and gear swaps? I lack a fire resist/magic damage down build and people have told me that some PLDs use an HP Swap Set so they can get more HP slack to heal themselves with. Pretty much, I'm just a bit clueless as to where I should go with this. With some higher end PLDs in DRF, I usually end up not being able to keep up with them and somehow I feel its just more than just more enmity that is giving them that much of an advantage... Maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe that is really it: more enmity.

I've also been messing around with a PLD DD set just for S&Gs and if I really don't need to tank all the time but I need to come PLD anyways.

Another question I have... is the Hauteclare worth it? I gotta keep thinking ahead here. :3

I h8 Jailer of Temperance

2008-05-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

No, it isn't because he doesn't pop for me... its because every time I want to do something else in Sea like farm Ghrah M Chips or help out with a mission, Lissy always says "Hey, lets try to pop Temp" and it ends up popping.

Yeah...

I hate that damn flying sex toy. :(

This week in DRF was pretty productive:

We got a Taru Molestor.

I found a Kirin behind a thingy.

I even fell asleep on an Aern!

For the most part, we're going pretty healthy and I can only see many more awesome adventures going on... as long as I keep remembering to hit the screenshot button.

As for myself, I've been working on BLM AF for the longest time. After constantly seeing people in the Pso'Xja camp (and ruining my AM one shotting fun), I decided to stop leveling for a bit to work on the BLM AF. Now, let me tell you people, before you go out and get your gloves, please realize the following:

1. Once you activate the quest, you can be on another job to open the chest (You know this one).
2. If you are on another job that is currently able to get AF from the coffer you are trying to get gauntlets from, that job's AF will take priority over your gauntlets. (You probably didn't know this one).

The reason why I point this out is because... I spent 2 extra hours refarming a key because I forgot my PLD AF was still active (due to AF1+1 and needing to repeat my gear) and instead of getting the BLM Old Gauntlets... I got my Gallant Coronet back! NIFTY! >:

Keep that in mind :3

At least Dark Spark was easy to solo.

Prior to all this though, I decided to get a party with Lissy since she wanted to level DRK and my BLM was close to her level. Because it was a chance to be with Lissy, I couldn't refuse! ;3 However... the exp was sorta ass for me, even though the party was doing a very good job. It mainly had to do to the fact that I was fairly low leveled (52 and I think highest was 54). Nothing an Anniversary Ring can't fix though! By the way, I used up all my charges, what about you guys? <.<;

Livin' Large.

Oh, we also did Dynamis yesterday. They made me pull...

I hate my job.

Actually, despite the fact that everyone is dead in that picture, we pulled a win with 300 some currency and quite a bit of Wootz! :3 Not a bad run at all I'd say~

And finally... Box for a Mog Head.

Until next time~

SE Interview - Nothing Really New

2008-05-13T23:19:00.001-07:00

Read the Interview here.

Well, I wasn't really expecting much... I doubt anyone else was expecting much and certainly, this isn't really getting us anywhere closer to the questions we have.

I'll let the link speak for itself.

On the side note though: I hate Jailer or Temperance, had a good Omega run with a bunch of Tachi: Kokis being tossed around and I really hate the crap out of Promathia Mission 8-2!

Short post today, long post some other time~ Toodles!

Mog's Variety Week

2008-05-12T02:31:00.000-07:00

This week has been a pretty busy week for me. I honestly don't think I've put this much effort into the game before, even more so than CerbDRF.

btw: From this point forward...

CerbDRF: The Linkshell I ran back in Cerberus which kinda blew up.
DRF: The Linkshell currently being ran by Liseth and which I am a sack of.

I think I've done a lot of cup emptying and relearning a lot of things. This is good because old habits I've formed before are gone and I can develop better habits.

HOLY SHOCK: Reviving the Luster of PLD

While I really wouldn't consider myself a Main PLD any more (been shifting towards SAM), I still keep up with all the other PLDs in this new LS. I kind of have to, I'd be damn dead jealous if I didn't. I've been exclusively using /NIN, so there's a lot of consider in terms of how I can maintain CE. People have suggested using some NIN Debuffs, others have suggested having an HP swap build. There are also quite a lot of nice PLD Enmity Gear that came about during the past few updates, many of which have flew past under my radar.

Some stuffs that I'd want for my PLD right now:

-Some stuff to get some HP slack in
-Bahamut Mask
-Jelly Ring
-Wivre Shield
-Trance Belt
-Defending... Ring

-Hades Earring +1...

On a side note: I killed the King of Turtles :3

WHAT'S THIS?!: The Return of BRD... Sorta

I have started playing BRD again, mainly because I'm really not in an LS that kinda uses BRD in such a way that makes the job completely boring. Unfortunately, I sold a lot of my original BRD gear and as such, I'm kinda reduced to picking up scraps and trying to get enough to do enough. Recently, I did get AF1+1 BRD Hands and a Kirin's Osode back in UF. Not bad for a return to BRD really... though I could use a Wind Torque and get rid of my damn Bird Whistle.

ANOTHER VERSION: Mogknight as a Mage?!

Yeah... I finally broke into a Mage Job (and BRD doesn't count). Currently at level 44, I've been soloing and partying my way up slowly. I intend to get this to 75 soon. With the Anniversary Ring making its return, it might help a lot! :3

By the way: this job is really lax... which is cool, it lets me play The World Ends With You on my DS while I EXP!

SOUL ON FIRE: Return of DownRightFierce

Life has been pretty great in terms of our new Linkshell. Within a week we managed to tackle our first Tier 2 Sea God and got some nifty items along the way~ So far, every battle we've been in involves some level of epic-ness. Now, one would assume when something epic happens, something wrong must have occurred for it to be epic. Well, here's what was "wrong" with most of these battles: They're all mostly small-maned.

It isn't because our LS is small (it is for now at least with around 16 some members), but the fact that we do a lot of our farming "on the go." We do plan these out but a lot of members opt to head straight to Sea or Sky whenever they feel like and tackle on these NMs. Pretty nice thing really, allows us to challenge ourselves and have the odds against us.

By the way: Trioing Despot PLD/NIN, RDM67, and BLM/RDM can have some hilarious results, especially involving another LS trying to get in your way while kiting. >:3 Too bad that couldn't stop the Mog.

Temperance on the other hand...

Actually...

If there was one thing that didn't go as planned: Failed HNM Limbus Run. :3 Hey, gotta have something imperfect to be perfect.

And finally: A CFH'd Charby

The drama for the Joytoy never ends.

As for random stuff that occurred:

- Epic Temperance Battle
- Almost snagged a Faust vs JP
- Diorite drop rate sucks
- Ix'DRG dropped a Vice... but Ix'DRK hates us.
- btw: Ix'DRK RR 8 times. So far the record is like... 19?
- Had a really smooth Faith run. Lissy was showing off her tanking skills.
- Took us about 12 Sharks to get an HQ right before we were going to do hope. Koki made NQ Organs drop like mad.

As for myself:

- Still wanting Usukane
- Running into a lot of random NMs lately
- Urge to level NIN rising
- Had a BCNM40 group get 2/3 on Peacock Charm
- PLD DD Build in the works. Need Askar Body. >.>;

And finally: Why not to play Galka in FFXI.

It's Official: DRF is back.

2008-05-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well, lets see here... where do I begin? <.<

With the fall of FoodMonsters LS in Carbuncle, Liseth basically took an initiative to start her own LS, mainly because FM kinda fit her standards and without them, life would suck.

To those uninitiated, DRF or "DownRightFierce" was a linkshell that I created and ran back on Cerberus for about a year or so. After some drama and me being unable to continue running the linkshell, I left the game for about a month. Liseth quit the game earlier and I found out she moved to Carbuncle a little after I quit. Took a month break, came back to Carbuncle to kinda settle down.

This time around, I'm not running it. Liseth will be the ring leader and pretty much things are gonna go her way. Me, I'm just gonna sit back as an officer to the LS, assisting her in whatever way I can. I guess I'm also in charge of designing the website and keeping track of stuff that we have.

As a newly established LS, we don't really have anything down pat in terms of rules, distributing things and so on, its all still up for discussion. In any sense, stuff will be fun, still will blow up and I get to sit here and laugh at it if it does. :3

But seriously, I hope that Liseth's DRF does really well. So far its been doing well and we're trying to get people from not only Carbuncle but around any server in FFXI. Its a bit hard to do that since no one really knows who we are except Carbuncle and Cerberus. >.>;

As for what we do or plan to do (as of right now):

Sea
Dynamis (maybe?)
Salvage (maybe, we're testing for in-house interest right now but we're keeping the maximum to 9 people at a time)
Einherjar
HNMs
Ouryu/Baha v2
Limbus

Now, you might notice that Sky is completely missing from the list. We do not plan on hosting Sky events but we will come up and kill whatever is wanted by the players in the LS. This also means that for those who want Sky gear or even anything else in the game, they have got to be motivated to do that... or we don't want them in our LS.

The fact that I'm getting at is this: This isn't an LS that just grabbed random people out of the streets of Whitegate and formed together to make an LS. We have zero tolerance for substandard members. And this doesn't mean unskilled players that can still learn the game. I mean the people that ruin the game for other people. Like you know how that is: lootwhores, people that never show up, people that bitch and whine and yadda yadda yadda. Basically, fuck that shit, we're gonna kick them out. That is one of our priorities is to make our LS clean and filled with quality members.

Anyways, we're not gonna say too much right now. Honestly we're still trying to decide how to go through things. However, if you are interested, the linkshell's website is http://downrightfiercels.org.

The lottery! @_@;

2008-04-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

To those that have not read the POL site today:

Ladies and gentlemen! Mog Bonanza—the rumored special event of 2008 that garnered so much attention at Altana Festival in Osaka and Fan Festival 2007—will soon be here! With jaw-dropping amounts of gil and hoards of super-rare items available as prizes, Mog Bonanza is sure to become a fan-favorite. Be sure not to miss it!

Jaw-Dropping?! Super-rare?! Of course you're probably thinking (assuming you haven't read the post on POL yet) "Yeah... sounds like another event item..."

Well... no. This is actually legit! @_@;

Look at what you can get!

:3

Completed Abjurations +1, Completed Salvage Bodies... And 100 mil gil! @_@;

If I ended up winning any one of these, I would take...

Rank 1: 100 Mil Gil. Why? Because you're set for life and you can get all the other gear within time.

Rank2: 10 Mil Gil. Why? Well... it's 10x less than 100 mil and while I REALLY would love the Surcoat, I'm sure it'll drop for me... some day.

Rank 3: Hauteclaire. 1 mil is easily attainable (at least easier...) and its a nifty sword! :3

Rank 4: Either a synth material that is over 100k or an Empress Hairpin.

Rank 5: Well, you're kinda defaulted to that EXP scroll. >.>

:o I doubt I'll get anything beyond Rank 5... but meh, its a nice thing that SE is doing to replace the gil removed by RMT. Moggie likes it.

Picture Moments #2

2008-04-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

Today I felt pretty awesome...

Killed a dragon.

Koki got me not one...

Not two...

Not three either... but I forgot to screenshot the last one...

And not only that...

Woodworking 71, Smithing 18... Got me an HQ to boot! :3

Productive, if I say so myself!

R...

2008-04-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

Reborn...
Regeneration...
Revolution...
Revival...
Reality...
Returns! >:o

Okay, so dramatic effect over (and a lackluster one at that!)

Today marks the day that I leave UnforgivenLS. I could go into the details about it but I think I'll save that for another post.

So, what's with the R? Well, obviously I had a few R- words, a list actually, on top of my post. This probably has no real concern with anyone who is reading this, even from people in Carbuncle. However, to me and Liseth, there's a deeper meaning to this. Really can't say what it is in its entirely yet, mainly because its still in the planning stages. We'll see what happens.

In other news though, shocked that generic WAR/SAM outparses WAR/NIN Ridill. Gonna figure out how I'm gonna redistribute my merits. I am a teapot, short and stout~

So that I don't have to go back to this again~

2008-04-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

... Why do I hate Limbus?

!!!

To the uninitiated, Limbus is a little "battlefield" type of deal (really don't like that word to describe Limbus btw) where you can take up to 18 players to fend off enemies and reach the goal. Along the way, you'll encounter Ancient Beastcoins and various AF1+1 materials. Sea access (beat Promathia Mission 8-1) is required. Also, as far as I know, there is no level limit and there is a time limit of 72 hours before Limbus can be attempted again.

Limbus is one of those things where you can go through and just race to the goal but you'll end up with no coins or materials. Limbus is also one of those things where you can farm the crap out of coins and materials and never hit the goal. Of course then theres a way to strike a balance between the two.

Unfortunately, throughout my experiences doing Limbus, you either have one or the other. Back when I ran Limbus in the DynamisLordHNMLS days (on Cerberus), Limbus was new and trying to figure out things was fun. Fast forward to DRF days, most of our runs consist of just grabbing a bunch of coins. I eventually got all the AF1+1 I need and even a Brutal Earring. Though this is where it got repetitive, especially since Limbus was still 50k and coin prices were falling.

Then currently in UF, we bring a whole army to Limbus just to get chips.

... Nifty.

Its also pretty bad when it becomes a split run, then people who just suck will suck more because they're no longer covered by a huge army.

That's actually one huge complaint that I have with this LS. People that suck and keep on sucking in a sucky sucky suckiness like sucking way.

SUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK...

Going back to what I was saying. Eventually you'll hit a point where Limbus just becomes mechanical. Everything becomes prescripted and it just gets dry every time. Its not even a skill thing, its a boring bum rush. The only enjoyment I get out of it now is going in with a small group. Unfortunately, linkshells need Homam and Nashira. Smaller groups can't take down Omega or Ultima (unless they were really really good) and linkshells, being filled with sucky people, often restrict Limbus as being In-LS only. Well, crap. >:( If Moggie wants to do Limbus with Lissy, Moggie can't because UF will bite me in the ass for it!~

suuuuccckkk <.<;

Well, if anything, Limbus does have some nice items out of it and can be enjoyable... but with how linkshells run that stuff nowadays, its just garbage really. Personally, we (the players) have improved so much that Limbus is beatable with just a typical TP burn setup, even more so with the 2h update.

Moggie hates it still... but I'll still take my homams~ Thankfully, the only one I need left are the feet. Maybe I'll level THF someday that would warrant me wanting the body... but, that's way later from now.

On another note: The Feast of Swords event is currently taking place. Go smack some Samurai today... just not me! >:3

Compiled List of Info: Apollyon

2008-04-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

Okay... in an attempt to keep a quick cheat sheet on me (and for anyone else), here are some notes for the Apollyon side of Limbus.

Again, I would like to point out that I hate Limbus and I hope it dies in a burning fire along with The One starring Jet Li.

NW Apollyon - "HNM" Route - Magenta Chip - Dem
Time and Restore are always up. Item Chest spawned by killing floor NM

SW Apollyon - "Fomor" Route - Charcoal Chip - Dem
First Floor - Killing the Fomor that matches the race of the one who initiated the Limbus will open the vortex on the first kill, chests on the second kill. Can only pick one chest.
Second Floor - NM (without leaves) opens Vortex, must kill ALL to get Chest. Can only pick one chest.
Third Floor - Fighting one mimic opens Vortex, there's no indication to see the difference between a mimic/regular. You can open all chests if you can find them through the mimics.
Fourth Floor - Killing the elementals that match the first elemental you aggro will spawn the chest.

NE Apollyon - "Beast" Route - Smoky Chip - Mea
There are multiple Time Chests and a Recovery Chest on each floor except the last. Item Chests and vortex are spawned by killing the following:
Floor 1: Large Barometz/Borametz/Goobbue Harvester - One will spawn a chest, one will open vortext, one will do nothing.
Floor 2: The Rocs - One will open the vortex, one will spawn chest, the other two won't do anything.
Floor 3: One Doll will open vortex, one Large Pot will spawn chest.
Floor 4: Either Hyperion (Immune to Magic), Cronos (Melee), or Okeanos (Ranged) will open Vortex, a large Opo-Opo will spawn a chest.
Floor 5: Killing all 8 Dhalmels will spawn chest. Also I "THINK" killing both Manticores also spawn the chest.

SE Apollyon - "Resistance" Route - Smalt Chip - Mea
Floor 1 - Immune to Blunt - Chests will spawn on top of Mob's Death
Floor 2 - Immune to Slash - Chests will spawn in a fixed area
Floor 3 - Immune to Pierce - Chests will spawn in a random fixed location (sometimes at the start of the area)
Floor 4 - Immune to Magic Damage

That's about it I think.

Though in other news...

Nifty~

Wrist Strain = Vinegar + Laptop

2008-04-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

I really gotta use the screenshot button a bit more... Need to spice up my posts.

Anyways, Wednesday nights consists of Limbus with UF and Nyzul Isle runs with my usual static.

Limbus... Yeah, I'd rather not talk about it. I mean, what is there really to talk about with Limbus? I guess I say this because after doing so many runs and just experiencing so many Omegas and Ultimas being doing with a huge group and just be messy all the time... It all discourages me to really attempt to bring out anything interesting out of it.

SO YEAH NYZUL!

Nyzul was like what Limbus was to me. Its fun, its different, its random which is not a quality that Limbus has. My Nyzul Static (cool people :3) did 2 60 runs yesterday and manage to pull up a pair of Askar Hands. I already got myself a pair from a previous run, which is great for my WAR since I don't have Dusk Gloves yet. I really should work on that though...

For some reason, my blog just ate like a good chunk of my post that I was writing up, I'll just toss that into a later update. But, here's a bit of Mogdramatica~

Can't really say I like Dynamis except for weird Mog Drama Periods.

Went to do Dynamis - Bastok today with UF. Oi... so far, this run makes me want to run into a knife.

Aside from that: WW71, Fishing 36, going to do Salvage in a bit and yummy cashews to eat.

The "IIWLIWDSTM" Post #1

2008-04-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

Or "If I Wasn't Lazy, I'd Would DAT Swap This Music" Post >.>;

Self explanatory.

Format: Name of Zone/Situation - Music to be Swapped in. Source material can be from anything. If I can find a YouTube video/site with said music, I'll post.

1. Aht Urhgan Whitegate/Al Zahbi (Idle) - ".hack - Water Capital Server Mac Anu"
Source: MP3
Reasoning: <.< Water Capital... Water Capital... Port Town... Port Town... :3

Note, this is from the original (crappy) .hack series, not GU (better). >:3

2. Battle Music (Any Boss Battle/BC) - "Golden Sun: The Lost Age - Final Battle (SSBM Remix)"
Source:

Reasoning: Favorite Track in Brawl, unfortunately its only used on a stage that no one plays on. Since you would hear battle music (if the volume was on of course) in FFXI all the time, why not replace it with something you like?

3. Chocobo Circuit (While Walking Around) - "Ridge Racer Type 4 - On Your Way"
Source: YouTube
Reasoning: While in the Chocobo Circuit, I'm prepping myself by either prepping up my Chocobo to race or I'm betting on birdies. <.< Reminds me of the Garage music in R4 so here it is.

4. Chocobo Circuit (While Racing) - "Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 - Nip and Tuck Race"
Source:

Reasoning: Needs more epic techno music. Also, this song is split into various parts, as this is used for a portion in the game in which you race 10 individuals. As you pass each of them up, the next portion of the song plays. Until then, it loops continuously.

+ Needs more epic techno music.

5. Promathia (CoP's Final Mission BC) - "Capcom vs SNK 2 - This is true love makin'"
Source:

Reasoning: Because this is true love makin'.... ALLLLL THHHHHEEEE TTTIIIIIIMMMMEEEEE.

@_@;

Okay, so many I wouldn't do that swap.

Alt. 5! Mhaura to Selbina (Pirates) - "Legend of Zelda Wind Waker - Molgera Battle (SSBM Ver)"
Source:

Reasoning: Sure, it wasn't a battle on a ship in the original Wind Waker game... but it sure sounds like it would be one. <.< Oh, I also don't know if the Brawl version sounds different compared to the original from Wind Waker... so I just put up the Brawl version.

Well, that's 5... or 6. >.>; Two blog posts in the early morning. Right now I'm logged in Behemoth's Crib, gonna have him a nice Taru hug once I log in and he pops >:O (and by Nice Taru Hug, I mean a stab to the face).

Tootles~

Banhammar, Tighter Policies, and Server Malfunctions!

2008-04-23T09:23:00.001-07:00

Lets start with this news post by SE

Regarding the Frequent Difficulties on Multiple Worlds

Since the start of April 2008, we have been experiencing technical difficulties in various worlds and areas of FINAL FANTASY XI. The technical difficulties include not being able to access specific areas or not being able to use the auction house or delivery service. Hardware has been replaced in response to the issues, but the cause still remains unknown.

Our technicians continue to work with the hardware vendor to find preventive measure for the accessibility issues. To implement part of this preventive measure, maintenance will be performed on Apr. 23, 2008 from 10:00 to 12:30 (PDT).

Further preventive measures are being planned in the near future.
We will inform you via an announcement when details of the measure are finalized.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
insert italic tags
At this point, we are not able to guarantee that the service will return to full functionality once the measures are implemented. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused and ask for your cooperation and understanding at this time.

I don't think I've experienced any problems regarding this... or even anyone in my LSes. Maybe some sort of international problem for the EU and the JP? :X Whatever it is, lets just hope stuff doesn't blow up when they start implementing stuff in this maintenance. "X3

Edit: I am a retard. >: Apparently, this is affecting actual Server Worlds. >.>;

How about this next one...

Regarding Online Attacks against FINAL FANTASY XI

Recently, we became aware of an individual who attempted to compromise the integrity of the FINAL FANTASY XI service. The individual's efforts exploited the low-security passwords chosen by a small percentage of our customers. We would like to assure our users that our PlayOnline team quickly responded with countermeasures against the attacks from this individual. Additionally, our legal team worked together with U.S. government authorities to identify and locate the individual. As a result of our investigation, we have now completed an out of court confidential civil settlement which has serious financial consequences for this person. This is in line with our zero-tolerance policy against any attempts to compromise or hack FINAL FANTASY XI and the PlayOnline system. We will vigorously investigate and prosecute any such attempts.

In addition, we have recently implemented new policies and procedures concerning the restoration of PlayOnline accounts and FINAL FANTASY XI character data for players whose accounts have been compromised by unknown third parties. Please refer to the news announcement regarding the new policy for details. These compromised accounts bear no relation to the attack discussed above.

Again, we would like to thank you for using our PlayOnline services. We will continue to take the appropriate measures against any sort of attacks to insure the quality of our services.

Please refer to the following link for the details on the compromised account restoration policy.

Taj? @_@;

Next order of business...

Accounts Banned (Apr. 23)

We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.

Based on the results of our investigation, around 6,860 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while around 990 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, we have increased the number of mass bannings against certain PlayOnline violations in order to prevent illegal acts.

The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 4.1 billion gil from circulation.

Nothing really interesting to point out really... uh... Good job SE! :3

I also found this to be pretty funny...

- I've seen characters using their abilities with impossible timing on Notorious Monsters the moment they appear. Isn't this a violation of the user agreement? Or are they violators of the user agreement who have somehow avoided getting banned?

The Special Task Force individually investigates the areas and characters mentioned in each report submitted by FINAL FANTASY XI users, but in most cases, the characters mentioned above are fighting Notorious Monsters through completely normal behavior.
We will continue to investigate each report we receive and ban players who are found in violation of the user agreement. If you discover any players violating the user agreement or using illegal methods to play the game, please be sure to report them to the Special Task Force.

Allow me to reiterate that for you...

- OMGWTF THAT MOB SPAWNED CLAIMED! BAN THAT MOFO, BAN THAT MOFO NAU!!!

Get a better computer. --SE

p.s. No, we're not gonna recode FFXI to make it work better with video cards. Invest in overclocking and liquid hydrogen.

And then finally... Something they probably should have done awhile back >.>;

PlayOnline, at its discretion, may provide two kinds of assistance for customers whose accounts have been accessed by third parties: “account recovery” and “game data recovery.” Both of these may be provided based on the results of our own internal investigation. “Account recovery” removes the disciplinary measures history for the period that the account was being accessed, as well as fixing the password changes and other data that was altered during the period of unauthorized access. “Game data recovery” restores an account's game data to the state it was in before it was altered through unauthorized access. Game data recovery, however, can only be requested once per customer. (Multiple accounts can be dealt with on a single recovery request).

To sum up that image: You can choose to fix your account so that your characters would be the same as they were at a certain point in the past (basically, whenever they backup saved data) but you can only do this once. Otherwise, you can choose to have your account recovered, which all it does is remove any bad records, fixing your password and anything else that might have been altered... but you might end up coming back, looking like garbage. :3

Nifty.

You know, we always try to say to each other "Be careful when surfing the interwebs~" Honestly though, sometimes these things just slip through the cracks of some unlucky individual and poof, there goes all their stuff. Not just in FFXI but also in other stuff like bank accounts and what not. >.>; Identify theft and all. Sure, there are ways to avoid this stuff from happening but sometimes it happens. Just have to cope with it and try to recover as much as you can. Most importantly: don't let that ruin your fun in game or in life.

>.> Oh and always keep an eye on your bank account... Because damn... @_@; Past experiences.

Sitting at Sky... thinking, "Why?"

2008-04-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

I mean, it becomes a never ending rant but whatever, I'm stuck in Sky and I'll rant about Sky. >.>;

After doing Sky for god knows how long, I'm surprised that it still has its exciting moments, at least to me. Its boring otherwise. There's really nothing up here other than Groundskeepers, Aura Statues, and Aura Pots, not to mention all the Gods and NMs. Everything else just gets in the way or impedes your progress. Thankfully, at least on Cerberus and Carbuncle, the whole RMT problem doesn't exist any more and Pop Items aren't so much of a pain to farm now. Which is good because now entry level LSes can start building up their members without having to spend years to properly equip themselves.

After doing Sky roughly twice a week for nearly 2 years, I'm surprised I didn't cry out in horrible horrible disgust. It could be the fact that when I started doing Sky as my own linkshell (DownRightFierce in Cerberus), Sky was mainly a zone that people avoided due to RMT. At the time, SE started to introduce the Special Task Force and while some people mocked it, it looked like they did their job in eradicating the RMT in most places, especially in Sky for my servers. I also went through the entire development of Sky. At that time, I would have never expected things such as Ulli's pop conditions to be changed. It was probably one of the most annoying things up in Sky when you have a mob with a 4-12? hour lottery spawn condition. Of course now it is still a pain in the ass to get Ulli due to the Diorite's drop rate being so low but now at least instead of being controlled by things that people could exploit, it is now simply luck based.

When I compare Sky and Sea together, I prefer doing Sea because its different. However, the drops in Sky are just so much better overall than what you get in Sea. It also doesn't help that Sea also has some really bad drop rates in itself. I've only seen one Justice Torque drop in my entire FFXI career and I think I've done about a good 20+ or so. Sadly enough... I want one! >.>;

But going back to Sky. Ever since I joined Unforgiven in Carbuncle, my time in Sky has been MUCH more limited than back in DRF. We really only do Sky so much that I often forget that we do Sky as a linkshell. Every time I go up there now, its more and more of a drag because the way that we do Sky in Unforgiven is too uniformed for me. Its like, we kinda do things in a way that makes it boring for me because its "too" organized at times. Luckily for me today, Liseth was there to keep me company. What makes this different from before is that Liseth was there in Sky with me, just not communicating through tells.

Contrary to Popular Belief: Moggie does not sleep laying down.

Sky, to me, just became one of those things where you just go up with a small group of people, small-man as much as you can and then bring out a linkshell to handle the tougher mobs... but even then, 18 is the most you'll ever need and that's even bringing more than enough at times. Of course this can't be said to linkshells that are just starting off with NQ gear and without all the skills acquired throughout the many months of playing in end game.

People have asked me if Sky is really "End Game." It is but often times, I see so many people discouraged from doing Sky after their first few days and that kinda stops them from doing other end game stuff because they think Sky is "the" end game thing. It is one of the first few things that you will encounter as you do end game but it is far from being the only thing and far different from the rest of the stuff that you will do as you do end game.

Otherwise, there were a lot of drama that involved Byakko's Haidate and Kirin's Osode. Thankfully, that isn't too much of a problem now as it was before. But to those that got screwed out of Haidate or Osode from their LS in these current times, remember that you guys have it so much easier now, just stick with it and you'll get it eventually. Then once you do... then you go find another linkshell. :P

All Worlds Maintenance (Apr. 23)

2008-04-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

At the following time, we will be performing FINAL FANTASY XI maintenance on all worlds. During this period, FINAL FANTASY XI will be unavailable.

Maintenance operations will delete any reservations for Pankration matches. Players who are scheduled to participate in Pankration matches, those who will enter Assault, Salvage or Einherjar areas, or those who will participate in Dynamis or Limbus at the time of the maintenance, we ask that you please wait until maintenance is complete before engaging in these activities. Please note that we cannot replace items that are lost during the maintenance process.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

* The World Transfer Service will be unavailable starting 30 minutes before the maintenance. Please wait until after the maintenance is completed before attempting to use this service.

[Date & Time]
Apr. 23, 2008 from 10:00 to 12:30 (PDT)
* Maintenance completion time may be subject to change.

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY XI

More delicious maintenance! You know what that means folks... *logs out in DA*

NIN/RDM solos Genbu

2008-04-18T13:36:00.001-07:00

:3 And its a Taru!

POL News: Vana'diel Collection 2008 for Windows in Stores Now! (04/17/2008)

2008-04-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

FINAL FANTASY XI Vana'diel Collection 2008 for Windows is now in stores! The collection includes the complete award-winning original game plus all four expansions (Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Wings of the Goddess) on one easy-to-install DVD. The package features a fold-out map of Vana'diel, command lists and mini starting nation walkthroughs to help new players begin their adventure! Every copy comes with a 30-day free trial and a Vana'diel Buddy Pass to invite a friend to try FINAL FANTASY XI.

Nothing really special but if you want all the expansions and the game in one fancy Install Disc, there ya go. 30 USD, might even go down in price to 20 later on.

Airships: What happened?

2008-04-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

With all the outpost warps, Whitegate teleports and all this other nifty stuff that exists in the game, the Airships have been kinda lost their usefulness. There are a lot of good reasons why.

As we all remember in Final Fantasy XI, getting the Airship Pass and riding it was an experience. There were two ways of getting the Airship Pass, either complete the Magicite Rank 4 mission or pay 500,000 gil. Most of us opted for completing the Rank 4 mission, which can either take us a long time to do (from the start of creating a character) or can be fairly fast (if you know a few people in game already). For me, it was a slow process because I played the game in a rather slow manner. You know, enjoying the game like a fine wine, something that I think a lot of people often don't do when they play games nowadays. But, anyways, riding the Airship for the first time was amazing, especially since I got to ride it with some (then) close friends of mine. The music reminds of Phantasy Star Online... oddly enough.

As time went on, Airships became that thing that got people places. You'd have airships full of people trying to get to where they want to go. Eventually, we've hit a point where Outposts became dominant, City areas have nothing to offer, Jeuno became less useful, Aht Urhgan offered more, and City areas introduced a teleport to Aht Urhgan.

But what happened to the airships? They still run their usual business but with how fast we can go around the world, Airships just take too long now. It is a shame too, there is one whole zone in the game that is dedicated to Airships. There are 3 whole zones that offer nothing but NPCs and Airships and those Airships are just not getting used any more. Airships are no longer required to get around, which is a pity because Airships were a big deal.

Can we fix the airships? We probably could if we have an incentive to use them. Here are some things I'd like to see:

1. Faster Airships
Waiting 12 minutes for an airship is stupid. Make the ride go faster and increase the circulation of airships.

2. NMs in Airships
Personally, I'd like to see some monsters up in the Airships and maybe some NMs. Wouldn't even have to be something great, just something to kill time with.

3. Airship from Jeuno to Whitegate
Yeah, most would probably prefer a teleport NPC to there... but heck, an Airship going there wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a teleport NPC.

4. Quests/Minigames that involve the Airship
The Discerning Quest for Airship is pretty all right, a bit of extra gil and such. However, you can finish this pretty fast and it also ends up leaving you with nothing to do until you land.

Well, that's my Airship rant of sorts. There will always be one memory that sticks in my head whenever I'm on an airship: Running off to the rim and getting stuck in the propeller~

Mob Claiming and You

2008-04-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

You know, there's a lot of things in FFXI that we often overlook or not really give much of a damn about. One of them, at least the way that it falls in my LS, is claiming a mob. Its such a simple concept yet, like everything in the world, there are rules. No, this isn't your typical "rules are meant to be broken" type of rules, this is your restriction as a client to the server. Lets dive into this topic, shall we? >.>

First things first, what is it to claim? The way that the player perceives a claim is when the monster cannot be interacted by themselves due to it being under the possession of another party or alliance. So, someone else claims means you can't do anything to it for that time. A mob can be unclaimed (or "go yellow") and a mob can have players on the hate list without it being claimed. So, our definition of claim is set: When a monster is under a controlled possession of a player/party/alliance.

How do you "claim" a monster then? Simply:

1. The player invokes an action towards the monster while the monster itself has no one on its hate list.

ex. A monster is sitting there, minding his own business. Random player runs up to it and uses Provoke. The player claims the mob.

or-

2. If the monster itself has a person on their hate list, the player must invoke another action that would increase their enmity enough so that they are the highest on the hate list.

ex. A monster aggros a player. The player does nothing but attempts to run away from the monster. Another player runs up to the monster and casts Provoke. Monster is still not claimed. The same player that provoked the monster uses Shield Bash ability, the monster is now claimed.

There might be an exception to that rule if the player that aggros but has no hate on the monster. I'll test this when I'm not relaxing on my bed with my laptop. >.>

A monster can go unclaimed. For the most part, it is a bit unclear as to why exactly they do so but we can agree that it occurs when there are no player actions being done to the monster for a long duration of time.

A few years back, SE implemented an anti-bot mechanism to the claiming system. This has been the bane of a lot of HNM campers, especially to the non-botters. I'll explain why.

When a monster pops, it fades in to the player's screen. This is what we see in the game. What really happens is this:

1. The server tells the client (Your machine) that the monster spawns.
2. The client picks this up and renders the monster on screen.
3. The server, at this point, detects to see if there is anyone attempting to claim. For a duration, it cancels out the attempt to claim until the time period is over.
4. After the time period is over, it takes the very first action invoked by a player and sets claim to them.

To separate the client and the server:

Client Side:

1. Receives information that monster is spawned.
2. Renders monster on screen.

Server Side:
1. Sends information that monster is spawned.
2. Has a grace period where no one can claim and will negate the attempts.
3. Immediately after grace period, first player to invoke an action, wins claim.

This little list is to attempt to give you a better look at what really happens and how claiming HNMs and such really work. Because of latency, computer hardware, and so on, often times players see a monster spawn as claimed. In all reality, it never spawns claimed but that doesn't change the fact that your ability to try to claim never occurred. Reason being: You couldn't target the monster anyways because your system is still trying to work out the Client Side portion.

There are ways around this but it still becomes a game of luck. It can be a game that you can manipulate for your own advantage. Allow me to explain.

One thing to note is that you can target (and even see) the monster before it even loads up on your screen. Now, there are various ways to see the monster before it loads, but the moment that the game picks up a spawning mob, you will be able to target it. So, if you have some way to see that a monster is spawning, you will know when to look out for it. Does this require 3rd party tools? Not really, but there are some programs out there that will help but will not go anywhere in the grey area.

Another thing to note is that when you can target the mob, DON'T SPAM YOUR ABILITY/SPELLS. Why do I say this? Well, I like to think of HNM Claiming as a game of darts... except you only have one Dart and the Dart Board just flies by you, giving you only one small window of chance to hit the bullseye and you're also blind folded at the same time. You basically have to go with your gut instinct and hit your claiming ability/spell the moment you think the window of opportunity is. You have two things to consider: The Server's Grace Period for that monster and the other players attempting to claim. This is just something you'll have to get lucky with and unfortunately, such a system really shouldn't exist in FFXI... but here we are now and we simply just have to learn to play the game.

Oh and finally: Don't use non-st macros for claiming HNMs. Your timing ends up being stricter and an added benefit of using the menu is that it allows you to easily determine when a mob is targetable (such as when an HNM spawns).

And that's pretty much all I have that involves claiming mobs. Just remember: A bot can be defeated easily, it just simply attempts to hit a macro at the right time and it is also limited by the randomness of hardware and latency, much like how you're limited.

Picture Moments #1

2008-04-17T00:38:00.001-07:00

:3 This is how you do screenshots >.>;

Moggie and Lissy~ + Wiki Userpage

2008-04-16T01:44:00.001-07:00

Before I get into today's blog post (which is something that is long overdue), I just wanted to point out that I customized my userpage on FFXIclopedia. Only real thing of interest it has there right now are my Assault completions. Kinda gonna work on putting the rest of the stuff in later (quests, equipment, more check lists, etc).

You can find it at http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/User:MogKnight

Anyways!

Even with our busy schedules, me and Liseth have started our plan to duo DNC and SCH to 75 (at least, that IS the plan). Currently, we're at level 26 and have been leveling whenever we have the free time.

DNC and SCH are fairly unique jobs, at least compared to the rest of the other jobs. DNC has a long longevity in being able to survive, mainly because it can support itself solely on its TP, a value that constantly increases as the battle progresses. SCH is also unique as it can be highly comparable to both WHM and BLM (but I'll let Liseth talk about that :P).

Some points of interest though for those that wish to level DNC or SCH and have a buddy or significant other that they can level with:

1. As long as you can get a good flow of TP that bowls over your HP consumption, you can solo anything. Which means it makes it easier/faster to duo and have your SCH concentrate more on nuking.

2. Consider your SCH's MP as a secondary form of healing. You, for the most part, will be doing all the healing. Have that SCH focus more on nuking.

3. When you first setup your solo session, start off by fighting some weak mobs if possible and your SCH focusing on healing you until you get enough TP to keep yourself alive.

4. Steps are very VERY VERY useful, use them.

5. Animated Flourish is helpful as your SCH might end up taking hate more often than not. Also note that once you Step, you can Animate immediately after.

6. You'll be subbing NIN by the time you hit 20. Honestly, Utsusemi isn't going to save you, so don't cast it during a fight. However, cast it before you go out to pull to save yourself some HP.

7. Don't bother with Aspir Samba. Trust me.

8. Don't bother Weapon Skilling. Trust me on that too.

Moggie also did a Salvage with Liseth. Hopefully this keeps going. As much as I'd want to get Usukane Feet (and everything else), just the fact that I get to do them with Liseth is enough. :3 Besides, how else can I get to see Lissy naked? X3

Damn teh cold :( Damn teh flu

2008-04-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

Due to how I'm getting every single textbook sickness in my body, I have not been able to really post on my blog or even play FFXI to the point where I can pull off anything interesting to talk about.

So, here's a quickie. >:

- Claimed Khimmy the other day, tanked for awhile but had a doc's appointment, was a national hero.
- Started duoing my DNC with Liseth's SCH. Muchos fun, want to do this more.
- Found a nice static to do missions and assaults with. Nice group of people, I think I'll fit in nicely.
- Hoping to get LS to do more EINHERJARS, mainly for something different.
- LS recently taking a break from doing Dynamis. I could careless about Dynamis (>: I want my Surcoat)>
- Started working on a ghetto Damage Reduction Set for SAM, will probably sell it off once I become unsatisfied with it.
- Liseth is hot.
- A bunch of Chocobo racing and raising stuff, I can now do C3 races.

Other than that... hopefully this damn cold goes away, sore throat is killing me. ; ;

Sky Completion Percentage

2008-03-17T00:16:00.001-07:00

Seeing that I've been in Sky for the longest time, I'm gonna make an awesome list of how much of Sky I have completed. >.>

READY GO!

Kirin:
Osode: +
Pole: -
N. Body: +
W. Legs +
D. Body: -

Byakko:
Haidate: +
Axe: +
D. Legs: +
N. Hands: +
E. Feet: +
A. Head: -

Ullikummi:
Axe: + (tossed)

Despot:
Scythe: + (tossed)

Seiryu:
Kote: -
Sword: -
M. Head: +
W. Hands: -
A. Legs: -
D. Head: -

Steam Cleaner:
Katars: -

Mother Globe:
Shiranui: + (tossed)

Genbu:
Kabuto: +
Shield: +
M. Hands: +
A. Hands: -
A. Head: -
W. Feet: -

Olla Series:
Skofnung: +

Zipacna:
Ushikirimaru: -

Suzaku:
Sune-Ate: -
Scythe: -
N. Feet: +
E. Head: -
D. Hands: -
A. Legs: -

Faust:
Tonbo-Giri: -

Brigandish Blade:
Buccaneer's Knife: -
Bartholomew's Knife: -

Well... that was a nice timer killer until the next campaign. >.>

Sekkanoki: Thoughts and Stuffs

2008-03-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

Among all the crying DRKs out there, all the SAMs were treated to a nifty new gift. Does it make SAM more awesome or is it simply a diversionary toy that serves no purpose?

Sekkanoki is a level 60 SAM ability that allows the SAM to restrict his next WS to consume only 100%, thus forcing their WS to have a TP mod of 100% (even with Hagun). The duration is 1 WS or 1 minute, which ever occurs first. The recast is 5 minutes.

The practical usage of this ability really all depends on what type of player you are. In my case, I WS for a lot of damage so I tend to hold my TP. This results with me having 300% TP a lot of times, especially if I'm SA/TAing. Sekkanoki allows me to get 2 WS out of a 300%, which results with a WS at 100% potency and another WS at 300% Potency (due to Hagun). This can setup for a nice lv2 SC, but also allows me to balance hate a bit since I can SA for slightly lower damage and TA for higher damage.

Now, the 5 minute recast, though shorter than I originally thought, is still pretty long and really, you're gonna be WSing so much during that 5 minute period. It would be nice to stack it up with Meditate... but wait, you have a 30 second off sync timer on that ability because you merited it... >.> DAMMITS.

The use of this ability is fairly situational and its nice when you can find a use for it. Otherwise, this isn't going to make or break SAM, its a nice nifty toy that isn't useless but the practical usage may only be found in the HNM areas, merits not so much and will probably not be too useful to save anyone.

On another note: Liseth is broken, nerf her. >:3

Edit: and like an idiot, I didn't realize that Meditate was on a 3 minute timer.... whoops. >.>

March 10th 2008 Update: RETALIATION!!!!!

2008-03-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Basically a copy and paste from a forum post I did this morning. Hopefully, it will turn out nice. <.<

Traditionally, I go through each update thing, post a quick opinion about it and point out funny things. >:3 READY? GO!

New areas have been added to past Vana'diel.

Yay.

NPC spectators have been added to Chocobo Circuit.
These new NPCs can be observed purchasing chocobet tickets and rooting for their favorites.

... lol

"Brygid the Stylist Returns" quest is now available for dancers and scholars.

More JSE... can't go wrong.

Characters below level 20 are no longer able to mine for items in the following areas:
Newton Movalpolos/Mount Zhayolm/Halvung/Gusgen Mines/Ifrit's Cauldron

This made me laugh for a good 20 minutes.

New Notorious Monsters have been added to the Wings of the Goddess areas.

HNM quality? Heck, anything would be good at this point.

A maximum limit has been placed on the total amount of bonus attack speed that can be gained from a combination of spells, abilities, and items.

Uh oh.

The chance to resist damage from skill chains has been adjusted.

Oooh, nice~

When receiving weapon-enhancing spell effects from other party members, the additional damage caused will depend on the caster’s enhancing magic skill. Magic accuracy for these spells has also been adjusted.

Well, at least this is not that stupid... no wait, its still pretty stupid.

The process for calculating “Absorb” spell resists has been adjusted.>

"Absorb" spells that previously did not take effect when resisted will now take effect in the case of partial resists below a certain percentage. However, partially resisted spells will have their durations reduced.
“Absorb” spells will still fail to take effect in the case of a complete resist.

The following spells have been introduced:
Recall-Jugner (WHM Lv.53)
Recall-Pashh (WHM Lv.53)
Recall-Meriph (WHM Lv.53)
Retrace (BLM Lv.55)
Absorb-ACC (DRK Lv.61)
Klimaform (SCH Lv.46)
Monomi: Ichi (NIN Lv.25) *Uses the ninja tool, "sanjaku-tenugui."

Wait wait wait.... did they say... "Absorb-ACC" O_O;
And yay, Sneak Spell is actually <37.
I can't really say I like the location of the teleports though...
Retrace sounds like going back to the past...
Eh, that's why we have DATs. Someone will figure it out before the servers go up.

The new warrior job ability “Retaliation” has been introduced:
Retaliation
Allows you to counterattack but reduces movement speed.

Oh shit... RETALIATION... !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new thief job ability “Collaborator” has been introduced:
Collaborator
Steals 25% of the target party member's enmity and redirects it to the thief.
*This ability shares a recast time with “Accomplice,” a thief ability introduced in the previous version update.

A 50% and a 25% version? @_@?

The new samurai job ability “Sekkanoki” has been introduced:
Sekkanoki
Limits TP cost of next weapon skill to 100.

Hmm... this I actually like. Would actually make things easier to self Skillchain I'd imagine. Also allows for good conservation of TP when using Meditate at the same time.

... Also allows for less enmity gain because I do too much fucking damage. >.>

The new summoner job ability “Elemental Siphon” has been introduced:
Elemental Siphon
Drains MP from your summoned spirit.
*Only effective on spirits summoned by the summoner.

Uh... spirits... huh...

The following changes have been made to the corsair job:
- The recast for the job ability “Quick Draw” has been changed to a “charge” system.
Each use of the “Quick Draw” ability consumes one charge, with charges being regained over time.
When using the “/recast” text command, it is necessary to nominate a specific shot, such as “/recast Fire Shot”. This command will display the amount of time remaining until a new charge will be generated, as well as the current number of charges available.

Uhm... I hope Quick Draw recharges every minute? <.<;

- New “Phantom Rolls” have been introduced:
Dancer’s Roll (COR Lv.61)
Scholar’s Roll (COR Lv.64)

Yums.

The following changes have been made to the dancer job:
- The recast time for all Waltzes will now be reduced to 6 seconds while under the effect of the job ability “Trance.”
- The effect of attributes on Waltzes will now be calculated differently depending on whether dancer is set as the main job or as the support job.
- An accuracy bonus will now be applied to “Steps” when dancer is set as the main job.
- The durations of the job abilities “Haste Samba,” “Aspir Samba II,” and “Drain Samba III” have been increased.

All of these are good... except for the subjob thing... @_@

eee... I'll let someone else figure out the scholar stuff... Though it does look pretty interesting...

The fee structure for obtaining and altering mannequins has been reduced as follows:
-Price for your second mannequin and onwards: from 250,000 gil to 100,000 gil.
-Cost to change your mannequin to that of another race: from 10,000 gil to 2,000 gil.
-Cost to change your mannequin's pose: from 1,000 gil to 200 gil.

OH GOD @_@ MUCH NEEDED CHANGE~

Magic effect explanations have been added to item help information for magic scrolls.

nifty~

The following data can now be backed up on PlayOnline's servers.
-"Config" settings inside the main menu (excluding platform-specific settings such as "key assign", and language-specific items).
-[Current tell target] history for "chat" inside the active command window.
-Macro and book data.
-Map marker data.
-Item display sorting data for the "bid" option in the auction menu.

[Storage Location]
It is now possible to store configuration data on PlayOnline's servers, in addition to your game machine's own hard disk drive. Up to four slots are available on your hard disk for this purpose, while one slot is available on the server. One slot stores one character's worth of configuration data. Selecting a used slot will overwrite existing data.

[Saving Configuration]
Bring up the configuration file save screen by pressing the following buttons/keys at the character selection screen, and choose the slot in which you wish to save.

"PlayStation 2": L1 button + L3 button
Xbox 360: LB + left stick button
Keyboard: [Shift] + [Alt] + [Ctrl] + [B]

[Loading Configuration]
Bring up the configuration file load screen by pressing the following buttons/keys at the character selection screen, and choose the slot from which you wish to load.

"PlayStation 2": R1 button + R3 button
Xbox 360: RB + right stick button
Keyboard: [Shift] + [Alt] + [Ctrl] + [R]

[Deleting Configuration]
Bring up the configuration file deletion screen by pressing the following buttons/keys at the character selection screen. Confirm deletion to restore default settings for the currently selected character.

"PlayStation 2": R1 button + L2 button + R3 button + L3 button
Xbox 360: R2 + L2 + right stick button + left stick button
Keyboard: [Shift] + [Alt] + [Ctrl] + [D]

What this basically means, those with windower macros don't have to worry about SE looking into your macros as saving is purely optional.

The maximum number of screenshots that can be stored has been increased from 99 to 200.

lol...

A new text color has been introduced for the name of monsters currently engaged with alliance members.

A new text color has been introduced for the name of monsters that anyone can attack.

Nifty.

The following new emote commands have been added:
/dance1
/dance2
/dance3
/dance4

Finally~

Well, I skipped a lot of things (usually things I have nothing to really say about or wish to point out). Not a bad update at all really. I would like to see how the Counterattack rate is like for that new WAR ability and if shadows count first for it or not. What I really want to see first though is the max limit to the amount of attack speed you can have. For all we know, it could make the whole Rune Chopper thing useless now... but I hope it isn't that bad.

One thing I will note is that quite a bit of jobs got a bit of a buff this time around. WAR/SMN... maybe/DRK (though you could argue a nerf here)/THF (I guess?)/COR (maybe)/SAM/Any job that uses /NIN/BST even. Reason I say this is because I don't think

Actually wait a second...

A wyvern’s attributes will now increase in correspondence to the amount of experience gained from the moment the wyvern is summoned.
*This increase will not be affected by experience gained from Campaign, Besieged, or items.
**A wyvern’s attributes will be reset to their original values when the wyvern is KO’d, dismissed, or changes areas.

Even DRG got buffed a bit.

The whole SCH thing is a beast of an update in itself. Will it allow it to float better? Time can only tell really. From what I gather...

They added more charges for Stratagems.
They reduced the time for recharge.
Looks like they have an ability that saps your HP for MP (which I think is awesome... now if only it can go the other way around for PLD... >:3 Taru PLD Top Tier).

Now this is interesting: Addendum abilities that allow you to cast even more White and Black magic. :o~~~

Oh and Emperor Band... uhm... Basically double times your Empress Band, I'd go with it I guess... I guess...

Hmm... La Vaule, Beadeaux, Castle Oztroja in the past zones... Sexy.

Again, all around, good update, kinda want to see how everything turns out. I just hope we don't have to wait another 5 months for an update.

And as always, the update can be found on the POL website (which I believe will be going down at 11AM PST but will come up later.

Update Notes

Seriously...

2008-03-07T22:30:00.001-08:00

I made my own Linkshell...
I borrowed from so many others...
I've been involved with stupid drama involving this piece...

And seriously...

Why the fuck did I get "this" just now?

Fuck this game.

Oh and I also got Shura Haidate... yay~

Chocobo Racing: Using that Gil for Something

2008-03-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

One of the benefits to raising a chocobo is being able to take it to the racetracks and race it for gil and chocobucks! Too bad no one cares about this! :D

Fortunately for you, assuming you're staying with the program, this means potential pocket change for you everyday. It also serves as a good time killer between events.

There are two types of Chocobo Races: Mission based races and Circuit races.

Mission races are all instanced solo races that you do for a little bit of gil and getting yourself a nifty title. I believe that there is no real reason to do this other than to beat the Novice challenges (which opens up Free Runs) and to get a nifty title. However, you will need to do them to at least open up Free Runs, as that will be your primary source of Chocobucks. Otherwise, the point of the missions is to win... much like any other racing venue <.<; Mission races are free in Novice level but as you progress farther in, it requires Chocobucks to take part in the races.

What are Chocobucks? Think of them as tokens or tickets that you gain from beating Free Run races, winning Chocobo Hot and Cold sessions, and various other chocobo related stuff. They allow you to buy feed, stat enhancements, and colored dye for your chocobo. It even allows you to increase the stats of a retired chocobo... ain't taht nifty? :3

This leads to Circuit Races. You need chocobucks for Circuit races as well. Circuit races are your PvP races, except no one does them so don't expect to be racing against any real people any time soon unless you bug a friend. You can only do these races once every 24 earth hours and they often have some requirements you need to fulfill. Entering these races can be a total pain in the ass, as it requires you to wait for the appropriate NPC to allow people to sign up and waiting 30 more minutes for the actual race to start. For all intents and purposes, it is better that you set it, go through your day, and come back a few hours later to reclaim any rewards.

The high stakes races though... 100k gil for first place... @_@;

Hopefully this blog post will entice you into giving this thing a try. <.< If you're... that bored that is.

Chocobo Crazy~

2008-03-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

Considering that I find myself not doing much of anything during the night time, I have opted to try out raising my chocobo for actual racing. This a very long process that can take several months before a high-grade chocobo is created. Of course, legends have to start from somewhere <.< (like yours truly).

First off, what can raising your own chocobo do for you? An immediate answer would be "next to nothing." And that's true for the most part, you really won't get too much of anything until waaay later, and by the time that rolls around, you'd probably lose interest. If you do stick around however and have fairly low expectations, you'll probably have a fun time picking this up every half hour, everyday.

So, where do you begin? You need a chocobo egg. You can get it from four different sources:

1. ISNMs
2. Mating a male and a female chocobo
3. A quest involving Brutus from Upper Jeuno
4. Buying it from the Mithra NPC next to the Ru'lude AH, assuming her business is high.

What is interesting is that there are 5 chocobo eggs. Honestly, no one knows what is the real difference between them. After you get one, you then go to whichever nation's Chocobo NPC (in the chocobo stables) and give them your egg. I obviously recommend doing this at your home nation but you can do it at any of the three nations.

Now you got an egg to raise... it doesn't do anything. It won't do anything for about 4 real life days. However, there is something you can do to prepare it for when it cracks open into life. Once you get your egg, examine your egg about 100-200 some times. When it hatches, the affection level will be maxed out, thus allowing you to easily modify its stats.

What do you do after that? <.< Well... that's for a later post.

Potato To You!

2008-02-26T03:51:00.000-08:00

The past week has been pretty hectic on my FFXI playing, with classes starting again and the fever and flu kicking my butt. Nevertheless, I accomplished quite a bit of things, mainly getting myself a Hagun for my SAM.

I had to make a few sacrifices in getting a Hagun but so far I am not disappointed with the results. For those who don't know what the Hagun does exactly, the Hagun is a Great Katana weapon that has the special property of "TP Bonus," which are the weapons that were introduced with ENMs a few years back. Now, what is "TP Bonus?" TP Bonus is not to be confused with Store TP, a job trait that acts as a multiplier to your TP Gain. TP Bonus, instead, gives you a +100% TP Modifier to your Weapon Skills. That means if you do a WS at 100% with a weapon that has TP Bonus, it'll be as potent as a WS done at 200%.

For a lot of jobs and weapon skills, this doesn't show too much benefit. Often times there will be a weapon that is significantly better. For SAM and GKT however, this weapon is a godsend since damage is multiplied every 100% on GKT WS. I will say, the numbers do not disappoint as I'm WSing for quite a bit more damage than I did before. Being able to achieve WS damage by swinging 6 times instead of 12 times is pretty sexy.

On a total side note though: Hagun looks more like a huge butcher's knife than a GKT... <.< But that's just me nitpicking.

Among other things:

3/5 on SAM AF2 (That was pretty fast)
GKT Merits 4/8
Chocobo is probably gonna be yellow: making it into a digger chocobo.

I'm most likely gonna be staying home tomorrow, stupid fever.. or flu... or feverflu. >: But hey, Sky is up tomorrow, I might land something good. <.<

Hmm... quickie post :3

2008-02-20T10:06:00.001-08:00

Askar Head... Askbar Body... I just hope I can live without the accuracy.

>.>;

Skilling Up Fishing... The Stupid Way

2008-02-15T01:46:00.000-08:00

I decided for one day to stop fishing Moat Carp and attempt to work skilling up fishing. After doing a bunch of researching, there was one method that I found that really doesn't consume money (if at all) and in fact can turn out a small profit. Unfortunately, it is still slow and skilling will take awhile.

I call this the "Lazy Taru's Method of Skilling."

The target is Gold Carp, which caps your fishing at level 51 (so you might want to be around level 30 for this). All you will be getting will be Gold Carp or Rusty Items, no Moat Carp at all. You can use any real rod (I use a Halcyon) paired with a Shrimp Lure. Go to Windurst Woods (though I think Walls/Waters work just fine but I haven't looked into it) and just start fishing. Your bite rate will be pretty low (might get one Gold Carp every 12 some casts at times) but your only real fish will be Gold Carp. You will know that you're going to fish up a Rusty based on how fast you drain your target's stamina, so let go of those as they can potentially break your line (and lose your Shrimp Lure).

Now, I know I should be getting Moat Carp, especially since I have like 80% to go. But that is the thing about FFXI, sometimes you just want to tackle on things differently even though it might not make logical sense. Also, I only fish in Windurst Woods since I get Moat Carp and Gold Carp occasionally with Insect Balls.

I could use some Cup o' Noodles right now... its pretty cold. @_@

Current Fishing Skill: 35.0

Valentine's Day. You know what that means.

2008-02-14T04:55:00.000-08:00

I would like to take this moment to once again bring out my object of love, Liseth.

We've been through a lot of weird times, fun times, stupid times, silly times, and a whole bunch of other times. Though while we're pretty separate (in location, in Linkshell, and in time zone because I'm still friggen awake at 5 in the morning and she probably already got her 8 hours sleep), we chat a lot on the phone, over Teamspeak and over /tells. All those moments, all those few seconds that I get to nab her attention, I hold them all in my heart and never wish to let go. Obviously, she means a lot to me and I hope I mean a lot to her too. Honestly, if it wasn't for her, I would not be continuing my life in FFXI and I'd probably would continue living life in a really crummy way.

So, here is to my Valentine, my lover in-game and in real life, Liseth.

":3"

I hope everyone who reads this finds some sort of happiness with another person, be it romantic or not.

Oh yeah, interesting tidbit. For some reason in Japan, there's a Valentine's Day and a White Day (which is on March 14th). Apparently, the girls give the boys gifts on V Day while the boys give gifts to girls on W day... except 3 times as much.

For more information, check out this Wikipedia Article.

So that's how they're gonna play it...

2008-02-14T04:36:00.000-08:00

After looking at the new update teaser (yeah I call them teasers... because more likely than not, they end up being disappointing in the end), I can kinda see where SE is going with the storyline and mission layout for Wings of the Goddess. It seems as though they are going to have 3 parallel storylines with Windurst/Bastok/San d'Oria, which you can easily go through all three of them at any time you want without having to go through complicated nation changes and so on.

This kinda bugs me, tbh.

While so far I like the story presentation and the fact that you can instantly hop from one to another, it kinda feels like your standard episodic storyline here. By that, I mean cliffhangers and waiting 2 months for 15 minutes of story. I mean easily, a direct story is probably the least of anyone's concern in any MMORPG, and I'm not too much for the story in FFXI. What kind of upsets me is the fact that you have this feeling that nothing new is gonna came out of all this. I mean, they imply new areas with the beastmen areas being unlocked in the next update but honestly, I want to see something different, not something old and revamped. I think WotG did it right with Campaign because it was new and different but other than that, remaking zones is not gonna keep people's interest all that long, especially when these zones have nothing of interest to do outside of campaign, not even any fancy high leveled NMs to speak of.

Now I will admit, when CoP came out, there wasn't really much offered to the table on the first month. You just had Promies, a few new zones (which were nice) and Tavnazia Safehold. Of course, this was during the time where the PS2 users just came on that same exact year and a lot of people were still in the leveling phase.

What do I want to see in the next few updates? Honestly, I can't answer that question. The reality is that I feel that FFXI is already scraping the bottom of the barrel here, in fact I feel it has been doing so since ToAU, heck, even more so in CoP. Honestly, new content will have to be just that, NEW content. I don't think revamping or making slight adjustments is going to please a lot of people, but I do feel that SE was doing a great job updating ToAU and actually taking some risks. For example, the 2 handed weapons overhaul. Yes, it got really broken to the point where some jobs aren't even the same any more but at least they did it and readjusted it. It made the game feel fresh and I like that. I like to see different things happen to the world that we're used to.

Anyways, it is still only early Feb and the patch comes out March. When March rolls around though, I hope that something spiffy and new comes out that will be over hyped.

Mog Style: SAM75 TP Equipment (General Use)

2008-02-13T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hello folks! Now we will have another glance at my current equipment. >.>

Main: Onimaru
Sub: Pole Strap
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Chi. Chain
Ear1: Fowling
Ear2: Brutal
Body: Haubergeon
Hand: O. Kote
Ring1: Ulthalam
Ring2: Rajas
Back: Amemet +1
Waist: Swift
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: H. Sune-Ate

In total this set gives:

Attack: +44 (Not counting STR)
Accuracy: +25 (Not counting DEX)
STR: +18
DEX: +25
Double Attack: +7%
Store TP: +12
Haste: +14%

Obviously, there could be better upgrades for certain items.

Hagun
Justice Torque
Busha (Which I don't intend on getting for the mean time)
Speed Belt (Which I don't intend on getting.. any time soon @_@)
Forager's Mantle (which costs too much for just 1 extra STR)
Usukane Feet
Hauby +1

Now some things I'm not too entirely sure on switching in and out just yet.

Dusk Gloves/SAM AF1+1 Hands

I haven't really done much meriting, I also don't have these gloves just yet, so I'm kinda in the dark as to how much of a difference these things will make.

Well, they finally done it...

2008-02-13T04:33:00.000-08:00

Square-Enix finally posted up the video of them killing Absolute Virtue, along with tossing some hints at the side.

The video can be seen here. (Note that this will open up your media player and stuffs.

I just did a /sea at Al'Taieu... pretty busy already... pretty busy already...

Edit: Okay, there's no one at JoL's spawn point. <.< Ah well...

The Road of Lu Shang

2008-02-13T00:54:00.000-08:00

Lu Shang Progress: 2173/10000

I can taste it! It tastes like CARP! @_@

From PS2/360 to PC: Shifting Over

2008-02-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

Now, there are a few players out there that enjoy playing on the PS2 or the 360 version and really enjoy the use of their controller. I originated as a PS2 player and then I shifted to my PC (since it just runs much better overall), so I can understand how being forced on a keyboard can be difficult.

So, for those thinking about changing to the PC version, I give you:

Mog's Spiffy Guide to Controllers

In FFXI, you are able to use any controller. In theory, you could use any type of PC-Compatible controller. However, for full functionality, we will need a controller with the following properties:

2 Analog Sticks (and can function as digital buttons as well)
1 Digital Directional Pad
10 Buttons
Rumble Feature

If you were to take out everything that was considered optional from a full setup:

2 Analog Sticks (and can function as digital buttons as well)
1 Digital Directional Pad
7 Buttons

Now, for those who just want any kind of controller and don't want to use their PS2 or 360 controller, I present to you:

The Logitech Rumblepad 2 >:O

This controller is about 30 dollars, about the same price as a PS2 controller, less than a 360 wired controller. Its good, the only complaint that I have with it is that the diagonals are too pronounced on it, but the D-Pad is great and I find it to be perfect if you play any emulator systems on your computer. For FFXI, perfect enough to do anything like a PS2/360 controller.

But, if you're a purist like me and you need to use your PS2 or 360 controller, lets start talking.

For the PS2, you have an option of buying a PS2 to PC converter. Now, there are a lot of them on the market and they either suck or they work just like the real thing. One issue that you'll run into with these converters is the lag issue from your button press to the game's reaction to it. Personally, I use the Red Octane Universal Controller Adapter. It allows you to plug a PS2 controller into your PC, your Xbox(1) and your Gamecube(or Wii). Unfortunately, Red Octane does not sell this any more, your best bet is to check eBay. This has absolutely no lag and it makes it great for using your PS2 controller for games that need that sort of precision with your controller (fighting games are a good example). Now, you can get away in FFXI with any other controller converter really, since most converters lag about .3 seconds, so really the Red Octane isn't the must-get adapter for just FFXI.

If you're on the 360 and you have a wired controller or bought the Wireless Receiver, you're probably disappointed to all hell, right? Yes, the drivers that were released for the controller is horrible. Unfortunately for right now, wireless controllers aren't going to get much of a fix until a bit later. For now, for you people that are using the wired Xbox 360 controller, you can download these custom drivers from XBCD Plus and can edit the inputs of your wired controller to function more like a regular controller (i.e. making your analog buttons more like digital buttons).

And of course, you could always give up the way of the controller and use your keyboard... but who would want to do that? <.<

The Misadventures of Ranger Mog

2008-02-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

One thing I wanted to get done before I move to anything else is getting RNG up to 37 for my SAM. While I'm not geared yet for SAM/RNG, at least I got a Soboro to start it all off. Figured before I start working on getting an Osode and a few other things, I'll need to get my RNG to 37 anyways.

Soloing as a RNG can be a pretty painful job but you can often times pull more EXP than you can with a typical Dunes party. To give me a little leeway for survival, I subbed BLU for Metallic Body, which gives Stoneskin. Then I just grabbed whatever I can to maximize my range accuracy and damage.

I can tell you this: You're still gonna be missing a lot of shots. >.> Sometimes that one shot you need can determine if you live or not too! Soloing is not an easy task at times.

Worms are going to be your primary target when you solo. There are located all over the place in Vana'diel. What you want to aim for specifically are the worms in Konschtat Highlands, Korroloka Tunnel, Qufim, and Maze of Shakarami. Worms can't move, worms can't melee you from afar but they do have spells that hurt like crap!

When dealing with worms, you have to think about these factors:

1. Anything else that may aggro around you.
2. Any other worms that can link.
3. Can you put 30' Distance between you and the worm to avoid spells easily?

Sure, all of this sounds easy but once you get out there and mess up once...!

Only real suggestions I can give you to make it easier:

1. Memorize the layout and the respawns of the mobs.
2. Before you take a shot, PLEASE look around you! @_@
3. Stonega sucks, but there is really no way to avoid it other than running out of range, that means your accuracy and damage will take a hit. Use food to compensate for this.
4. Sharpshot whenever you can and make good use of that time.
5. If you can convince a friend or a significant other to PL you (hint hint Liseth >.>), attempt to do so. It will reduce your downtime and gives you more leeway in taking risks during the fight.

Also note: You will be spending gil on this. <.< Probably not a LOT but it will take a hit on the wallet.

Talk about Random Encounters...

2008-02-12T04:02:00.000-08:00

I couldn't sleep tonight, so I decided to hop on FFXI and see if I can do something until I felt like sleeping again.

I realized that I need to get the quest "Inside the Belly" active before I can even think about getting some nifty things from fishing. That, in itself, requires a chain of quests that needed to be done prior. One of those quests require that you encounter pirates on the ferry.

For those who don't know how to tell if a boat ride will encounter pirates, let me inform you. :3

When you zone into the Ferry, take note of the chat log and the fade in transition into the zone. If the zone appears and the "=== Area: Ship bound for X ===" message appears at the same exact time, it will be a normal ride (read: boring unless you're fishing or Sea Horror spawns). If the message appears in your chat log and the zone takes awhile to appear on your screen, you will be invaded by pirates.

So, what happens when you get invaded by pirates? Well, you go outside and wait a bit... you'll see another ship that will ride by (the pirates). Now, pay attention to the Humes that appear on the ship. If you see a Hume in a V. Cloak, he will summon Blackbeard (if going from Mhaura -> Selbina) or Silverhook (if going from Selbina -> Mhaura). The target that I'm looking for are the Crossbones, those mobs drop the Sand Charm item that I need for the chain quest.

I went on the ferry for about two rides and we got invaded by pirates... and unfortunately, a Hume was wearing V. Cloak was on it.

Sure, you figured "Eh, it's a Ferry, the Blackbeard and Silverhook are probably easy to kill!"

Well... yes... if you had the right job and gear for it. I, unfortunately, didn't.

Anyways, I was pulling Crossbones off to the side (thankfully they don't link) and killing them off, hoping for a sand charm. This fisherman (who was a THF) pulled Blackbeard into the cabin. I thought "Oh, he can solo it np!" Then after I killed my Crossbones (which btw, didn't drop the charm), I targeted him and he was at near 10% HP! @_@

Being the noble hero that I am, I quickly cured him and invited him to party. I was unprepared for the situation and my HP dropped down ridiculously fast! I quickly got control of the situation (without 2hr mind you) and we managed to beat the thing with like 10% HP each. The Sea Robber Cudgel dropped (which I can't use since its WHM onry) and the THF didn't want the cudgel so he let me have it. This will look nice on my mannequin.

Well... I'm still not tired, probably gonna take a few more trips back and forth, hopefully a pirate attack will occur again.

... And maybe I'll get to fight Silverhook. <.<

Seriously, why is it hard to break a friggen rod?

2008-02-12T03:01:00.000-08:00

Lu Shang Progress: ~2000/10000

Today I decided to try to do things a bit differently and try to work on my Woodworking skills as well. The Hume Fishing Rod can be repaired with a light crystal and caps at level 72 WW. I figured "Why the heck not?" and proceeded to check around to see how I can break the rod intentionally so I can skill up off the repairs.

So, first stop was going to Qufim Island! >.> *yay*

From what I researched, if I took some sliced cod and fished off to the south of Qufim, I'll fish up things that will break my rod...

... After about 2 hours of fishing, I don't think I landed a single thing that broke my rod.

Giving Qufim Island up, I went to Gusgen Mines with a bunch of meatballs a bit later in the day. However, I think my fishing fatigue hit... though I think I was supposed to be getting items to break my rod. Well, I was personally too tired to continue around there so I decided to pack up and leave.

Hopefully a few rids on the Ferry tomorrow will do me good, got to donate a few hours of Sea tomorrow too and I got a paper to write as well! :D Ahh... the college taru life.

Short Review of Nov 07 Update + WotG

2008-02-11T03:17:00.000-08:00

Well, its been roughly 2-3 months since the expansion came out and it will be roughly a month before the next update. I'd like to take this time to kinda review what was presented with the Nov. Update along with WotG expansion being included.

Now mind you, I was gone from the game for about a month prior to the release of WotG and also I transfered servers and also note that if you're reading this and you're from another server, it might be different on your end.

Anyways, lets get started.

Execution of the release

When this expansion came out, the shipment for the PC version was delayed in NA. That sucked... bad. We would be without the expansion for roughly 3 or so days due to the fact that it was released on the week of Thanksgiving. The release date of it was also pretty bad in general, as people with family would not be able to experience the expansion on the first day, and usually those days are the most interesting.

Poorly executed release, though for those who managed to get it for the 360, PS2, or used other methods of obtaining access to WotG without the PC discs but bought the codes from the 360, PS2 release, it was a pretty nicely executed experience, and everything was fairly streamed nicely.

Ease of getting to the new content

For the most part, it was a bit rough to get to do exactly what you wanted to do. The new jobs were easily accessible as it required short quests that can be done within less of an hour's time with very little effort. The main problem was trying to figure out how the Maws worked when you first got in them. Many players went into the past and exited out of the Sauromugue Champaign Maw and then they warped or died or whatever without seeing the other Maws. That was a bad thing to do because they would have to go back to that Maw to go back to the past. The said Maw can only be reached by going through Garlaige Citadel in the present, which is a pain the butt.

As for going through the campaign, it took a bit of effort and figuring out. It took me about a good 5 hours before I was able to partake in my first Campaign, and most of it involved running through unknown territory.

The new zones look very nice and seeing the older zones in a state of war was much exciting. However, I was not fond of the fact that the position of certain Maws and Campaign Arbiters are located in areas that involved a bit of off walking. While the Maws can be understandable, the Campaign Arbiter locations would require a player to spend time and effort and maybe even their EXP should as it involves wandering around dangerous areas even to a 75. I believe some locations were fixed after a few updates.

Campaign Ops, for the most part, can be ignored and does not reward too much of anything. While they are "free" to do, we also have Assaults that are also "free" to do and they reward so much more.

The ranking system in Campaign is a bit of a toss up. The rewards for having a high rank is not as apparent as it should be, the EXP limit that you get from campaign isn't balanced enough to warrant a rank up, except for the fact that you have to keep attempting rank ups to even keep your rank. I found this to be a bit bothersome and even useless at times. While it unlocks more Campaign Ops, the Ops themselves still feel rather meaningless, and many aren't even fun to do.

However, the campaign battles themselves are probably the biggest great addition to FFXI. Being able to solo EXP/Merits/buffer in these Campaigns make life easier for jobs that cannot normally land a party. While this may not replace parties, it is a good filler for times where you are looking for group. One thing that I don't like about Campaign is the fact that everyone solos it to the point where those who are getting beat up will most likely die because there is no support going on. With that said, if you are to do campaigns, bring a healing buddy with you or sub WHM for reraise.

Along with the expansion, they got rid of the Rent-A-Room system and just made it so that you can just walk in and you're set. Inventory was increased to 70, which is a godsend. People can be invited to your Mog House, which is a nice feature but one that can easily be forgotten.

The update itself changed many things, but that is because there was an expansion with it. The next update will most likely continue the story and so far we know there will be changes to campaign. What I would like to see is more Campaign Op changes and probably a better implementation of being able to see when Campaign battles will occur.

FFXI isn't just all about grinding EXP and getting phat lewt >;3

2008-02-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

Upon hitting 75 with my Samurai, I decided to take a break from leveling more jobs and started to focus on doing the things I've meant to finish up a long time ago. With the new school semester starting up for me soon and the fact that I am actively working on a video game project (which I must keep underwraps for various reasons), I probably won't even have any time at all leveling another job.

The Wonderful World of Fishing @_@
Fishing. It goes great with the word "slow," "boring," and often times "stupid." Yes, fishing is slow, it can get really boring and sometimes the things that you need to get while fishing to further enhance your fishing experience is stupid. Fortunately for me, I am immune to most of these! :D

Here are my current fishing plans and goals:

Get Lu Shang (Currently ~1500/10000)
Get Ebisu Rod (Will be awhile before I even think about getting it)
Get fishing skill to 100 (currently 33.0)
Get revenge on Ryugu Titan
Get fishing skill+ equipment for Guild (can't while under Woodworking contract)

Main Focus right now: Lu Shang Rod

Fishing is one of those things that people either enjoy or not. Those that don't often do not understand just how much researching and patience is required to fully enjoy the finer aspects of fishing. And often times, a lot of people just don't have time for it, when honestly, this is one of the fastest things you can do in the game at one time.

Fishing can get you money, fishing can get you a lot of money. Fishing can also get you a lot of headaches and might even burn a hole in your wallet. Therefore, fishing is a lot like everything else in this game. Only real stipulations is that leveling is much slower and you can only catch ~200 things per day (the reason why I say "things" is that fish and items count towards this.) Crafting can net faster skill ups, allowing the fact that you have the money to do such a thing. Crafting has no limitations on how much you can craft per day. So, why pick fishing as a trade over crafting?

Well, for one, you don't do such a thing. Fishing does not affect your crafting in any real way. You can get fishing to 100, you can get a craft to 100 as well without having either conflict another. You can level a craft and fish at the same time without any problems. However, fishing will not rape your wallet full of gil as fast as crafting, so you can fish more often than crafting in the long run. This is what makes fishing a good thing to do when you're killing time every day or night if you choose to do so.

What if you are one of those people that want to rush through things? Well, fishing might not be for you since it is a slow and limiting process that cannot go any faster due to the limitations placed on it. If you still wish to fish, you can choose to buy a Lu Shang rod and skip the Moat Carps altogether. However, Lu Shang really does not show it's true benefits until level 50 fishing, where you start running into the more troublesome fish. You also might want to consider leveling your woodworking to 80 so you can fix your Lu Shang if it breaks.

@_@

THE LU SHANG ROD BREAKS?!?!?!?!?

Well, yes. <.< The Lu Shang rod can break under certain legendary fish. However, don't be afraid. If you fail the synth, you will not lose the Lu Shang rod but will just lose the crystal. There is also an NPC that will fix your Lu Shang for a few items.

So, what is this Ebisu rod that you may have heard about? Well, that would be the fishing rod that is better than the Lu Shang rod. It is the only rod in the game that is unbreakable and is also the only rod that is rare/ex, so don't expect to buy one of these.

If I ever get to the point where I can attempt for the Ebisu rod, I'll start writing about it. Until then... Moat Carp go!

Chocobo Hot and Cold >.>

Remember that minigame from Final Fantasy 9? No? You know, I am surprised a lot of people here in FFXI has never played another Final Fantasy game before...

Anyways, Chocobo Hot and Cold is a minigame in FFXI that allows you to bring out your Chocobo that you raised and try to dig up the treasure box. To help you do so, the game will prompt you via "Kwehs" to help tell you if you're closer (hotter) or farther (colder). Depending on what stats and abilities your chocobo has will also aid you in your treasure hunt. Once you've located it, enjoy your awesome rewards... such as a crap ton of greens. <.<

The treasure pool doesn't sound so exciting at first, in fact, it generally stinks. But, considering how the game is free to play (though limited once a RL day) and sometimes you get some neat pocket change from these items, not a bad thing to invest your time in.

In the beginning, you're limited to certain areas but once you spend a week or so digging successfully, you can unlock more zones to dig in, usually better items too! ;3

No real goal here for me to tackle but I am raising a new Chocobo... lets see what happens.

The Lament of DRF (3/5): Nuclear Halocausts Never Looked So Colorful

2008-01-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

I think out of everything I've experienced in FFXI in terms of communities and linkshells falling apart, this is probably the one that could have been so easily avoided, so easily prevented. Yet the irony of it all befits the end of DownRightFierce.

I think it was towards the time where I was trying to chill at a friend's house (in real life mind you) and I wanted to check up on my linkshell to see how things were going on. Mind you, this was after Liseth left the game (and the linkshell) but before she came back to go to Carbuncle.

You know, now that I think about it, the "sacks" and "shell" and leaders and who is in charge... You can sort of, in a sense, call it a selfish reason to tell people what to do.

Anyways...

I was glad there were some hard liquor that night. Perhaps it is wrong of me to make a big deal about a game and a group of people that play with within that game, but when I treat those people as if they were a part of my own online family, it kinda sucks knowing stuff is falling apart, stuff is flying out the window, people are going bonkers and nuts over things.

Ever had the feeling that your own thoughts were simply implanted in you by your own peers, in order to make things peaceful and uneventful? I think I have this feeling all the time.

I think Nyanoh, being the sweetest mithracat that I know, probably got the very blunt end of all this among the sacks. I mean, you exit the game (which btw, if i recall, Thelan was pissing the crap out of her by requesting haste so damn much) and take a break to get married to the luckiest guy in the world (Pascale) and you come back and POOF, shit happens... that is just wrong to ask of a human to deal with, no matter who the heck you are.

You also have to sit down and consider what everything kind of means at this point. DownRightFierce became home to the lootwhores. At least, this is what I felt when even my own sacks were just throwing emotional fits over items. As stated before, I think a lot of people noticed this and thankfully, they left when they did. It was just going to boil up more inside them and worse crap is gonna happen. A good example was Synthetik, a fairly cool Mithra THF that I know and I respect the guy for what he does.

You know, I wouldn't want to be in DRF if I wasn't the leader of it, at this at this point in time.

Back to Synthetik. I think he left right around the time Thelan was leveling THF and I'm pretty sure, while not immediate, he left due to that fact among other things (I think Thelan was pissing him off quite a bit... see the trend?).

You know, anger is a hell of an emotion.

Thelan stepped over the line many times. Really he has. It has been pretty hard to keep interest in running the shell when I have to constantly keep an eye on the guy just to make sure he doesn't say the wrong shit. Heck, we had our arguments and I'm pretty sure that demoralized some people.

You figured I would have been just fine running the linkshell with Liseth and Nyanoh and just stick to my systematic way of going about things...

What sucks is that a lot of friendships and trust kinda blew apart in this LS. A bit of a sad thing considering where everyone came from.

So how did DownRightFierce end? A few said it ended before it begun, a few said it ended when Liseth left, a few said it ended when I left, many got to experience the actual ending when Thelan called it quits.

Lets refer back to those moments and you can decide.

August 13th 2007: Liseth leaves the game.

During the past few weeks prior to this event, Thelan was out with his family but struggles to stay in the linkshell, trying to do things with his limited computer. This caused a bit of drama among the crew, considering that Thelan, while trying hard to make events, often half-assed things though unintentionally. What really peeved off a lot of people was when we had 2 Kirins and we had 2 people set for W. Legs. One other person (I forgot who, sorry) and Thelan in that order. Thelan was not at all in the first Kirin but was pulled up for the second Kirin since the W. Legs would drop there and then. While I honestly did not care too much, many other people did.

It kept getting worse, they try to make it to meetings but a lot of the meetings end up being emotional garbage, either due to people being crabby or people stepping on the wrong foot. Remember when I said Thelan should shut his mouth sometimes? Oh, I didn't say it like that... maybe I should more actually. But yeah, Thelan should have kept his mouth shut and stop causing problems, as things were already in bad shape.

The tension between the sacks grew a bit out of control here, especially since Liseth and Nyanoh wanted to encourage more Sea based events but Thelan and Lillie, though a bit rough and emotional about it, wanted more Sky based events. I, being the person who wants progress and really wanted to satisfy what most of the people wanted (and that was primarily less Sky), I went towards Liseth and Nyanoh. What made it harder was the fact that I, at the time, was in love with Liseth though in no way was I influenced in my decision to do more Sea because of her. I wanted progress, I wanted the Linkshell to go places, I did not want to sit down and do what we have done for the past year.

(btw: It was all Sky, all the time)

One meeting, Thelan and Lillie decided to desack themselves. In a rage of panic, we all tried to convince them to come back. This, was perhaps, my greatest mistake and I regret this moment to this day. If I knew DRF was going to end up the way it was going to be, I would have easily cut Thelan and Lillie out of the picture.

You may be saying "Well Mog, you're pretty damn harsh about this, aren't you?" Well... I don't think I was harsh at all during my entire run of DRF.

Liseth pretty much didn't want to deal with it all. Understandable, it is just a game and bad politics is just not something anyone wants to deal with. It was a pretty emotional time, it was almost as if she was the forth coming of a new era in DRF but instead was shot down.

This was to be the thing that started my own down fall.

October 30th 2007: My exit and also my Birthday! :D

I always contemplating leaving the linkshell, leaving the game, leaving this stuff behind and moving on. It wouldn't be until 3 some months later that I would do that. Nyanoh left for WhirlingWind eventually, mainly due to how upset she was towards Thelan and Lillie about what had occured. I was down to 3 sacks. Homeslizzle was chilling, he knew it, he knew it pretty well that I was at my worst. Lillie and Thelan just kinda kept going for what it was worth. I was spazzing out all the time, going on emotional fits all the time.

Mogknight was no longer a leader at this point. I didn't want to tell people what to do, I didn't want to be that charismatic leader that people look forward to. I was an empty shell of my former self.

I left shortly before my birthday, when my classes were getting rough and everything just kept piling on me. Everything else beyond this point in time would involve me living in Carbuncle.

December 11th 2007 - The Death of DownRightFierce

I have nothing to really say about this, other than the fact that I know the community of the linkshell disbanded at this date. Who knows what went on other than those who were in DRF.

... I guess that's the bare gist of it all.

Now what the heck am I gonna talk about for the next 2 chapters...?

I really need to redo the layout here <.<;

2008-01-02T20:04:00.001-08:00

Such a busy Holiday season! Doing so many things at once, I barely have had any time to write about anything on my blogs. But to catch people up on things...

(insert uber list)

-SAM75
-Been working on crafting lately, WW69
-Been doing ENMs and Assaults with my lovely and sexy girlfriend Liseth :3
-Debating on selling O.Kote for Dusk Gloves
-DNC to 22ish?
-Trying to figure out what job to level next.

I'm debating leveling yet another DD job. The only thing that comes to mind though is DRK, DRG is something I wanna wait until later, while THF and RNG aren't too high on my priority list.

There is always PUP...

I am planning on leveling RDM soon but I'll work on that after another DD job. I just need something to kinda chill with kinda like what I did with SAM, nothing too serious.

Campaign is pretty bad when there are just so many people fighting in one battle. I do hope they balance that out, especially since it just seems so easy yet annoying.

OH yeah! :o Take advantage of the New Years event and get those 3 Snowmen as they give 4 storage each, very nice if you actually use Storage.

They gots me a medal <.<

2007-12-20T02:25:00.000-08:00

And I don't think I've done a single Campaign Ops this round...

The Lament of DRF (2/5): The "Real" Beginning

2007-12-18T22:55:00.001-08:00

I honestly do not remember when DRF was created. All I remember is this:

- I spent the 8k to buy the shell
- It was from the Windurst vendor
- I was hungry at the time
- I was excited
- It was sometime in November

The original idea of this linkshell (which, by the way, did not go as planned at all) was to make a group of 18 players and live off with that. You can do anything with 18, well, almost anything with 18. If I remember, the few original members that stayed from beginning to the end (at least, when I left) was:

Myself
Thelan
Lillie
Yonekura
Homeslizzle
Madsic

And... I honestly think that was it. There were probably one or two more people and I apologize if I forget your name. Doesn't mean I think less of you though. It was, after all, a whole year.

As stated, the original goal was to create an LS of that small size and to rock with it. What eventually happened is that we ended up with players who would not show up to events or could not show up to events. Having 18 people to share a huge time slot was difficult, probably impossible with how today's lives are being ran. The idea soon tore up and a new plan was to be launched.

I think it was when I was sitting in Aht Urhgan Whitegate where I suddenly felt the urge to shout out for members. Probably the most stupidest idea I've ever had thought up of to find members but I really did not have too many options. Oddly enough, I managed to get quite a bit of people. I think more people started joining in on the fun of shouting in Whitegate for LS members. Oddly enough, I didn't get laughed at or flamed at, still not sure why.

So what was the plan? What did I do to get people in on our linkshell of love? We made it into a Sky LS. Too bad there were already 10 other Sky LSes flying around, so why would people be interested in this one? I used a silly tactic which I was really trying to get to work. I made a Contribution Point System, probably the most crappiest thing I've ever created in my entire life. I'll explain why:

The system was to promote fairness by giving players points based on how much time they spent doing Sky events with us. Now, this little concept alone can work pretty well for a linkshell that is motivated enough to do Sky and does only Sky. here is the problem though: There were other events and we had people that had huge disagreements on who should get what items.

I think this alone is what brought down DRF's reputation for a lot of people. We judged people on a item system that was not meant to be used for judging. Why did I agree to this system? Pretty much, I had to or wouldn't have a working administration. I really did think the idea of having to change who gets what based what "we" think of them was bullcrap. Sure, we can hide it as a measure of skill or a measure of how constantly they did events with us or how late or how early they show up to events or how their attitudes were like. We put a lot of concern for this, I can see why we put a lot of concern about it and I honestly can see why I had to try to hide it for so long.

So, that numeric value I had for people? Didn't mean a single thing, at all. We eventually stopped keeping track of this value and for the most part, people didn't seem to care about it, which I can see why because eventually after trying to cover it up so much, it would confuse ANYONE to not even question it. Though the fact that this was completely missing and omitted wasn't the biggest problem that made DRF fall, it was what came from the abuse that took us down a lot of notches.

We tried to bring back this system once or twice before, but it ended up not being used at all, again, due to disagreements and complications.

A question I ask myself constantly: Would DRF be a better place if I had a working point system with no upper management abusing it? I keep telling myself yes and I probably would have lasted a lot longer. I, personally, like to work with solidified stats, with concrete numbers and having things static. When you start trying to factor in who deserves what based on opinion, that is when I don't make the best decisions. I'm really not good at buying gifts for people for birthdays or Christmas either based on their personality, I really need a wish list for that.

There were also some safeguards to that system I created, namely the Wish Lists and the Main Job Priority System.

Honestly, when I think back to these things right now, I want to vomit. It was just a huge mess of trying to please all the sacks and the "important" LS members. Sometimes, I really do wish I was just the one and only leader person and if no one likes what I do, at least I can see quite well that it is my fault and that I can fix it without having to talk to a 2nd or 3rd person.

The Wish List system was pretty simple: Put what you want in your Wish List. Anything. Right now, I can see how bad of an idea it was, but at the same time, that is where the Main Job Priority system would come and fix the day... too bad, the Main Job Priority system (that just sounds so federal) was probably the most unstable thing in the whole system.

Anyways, I'm going to stop going into details about our lotting system. I hate it, I really really hate it. It was twisted in so many directions that we might as well just say that we decided everything.

I honestly hope it was apparent to a lot of people and I'm glad that a few people left the LS when they knew it was happening, left when they did. I agree, it is stupid and abusable and any real fix that I wanted to do would have just ended up being a heated argument and nothing would have gotten done.

Eventually, as time went on, I met a lot of interesting people, made some very interesting alliances and did many interesting things.

Slice/Madsic

The two black Elvaans in my linkshell. The guys were chill, they were there for fun, and while they may not be the best players in the game, at least I can say they had the right attitude going into it. Being around the two, it helped me realize that the game is not all serious gear and playing the game at the absolute best. It was being able to play well without stress and worry. We'll all admit, they made their fair share of mistakes, I made my mistakes, everyone has. In the end, why cry over spilled milk? Especially when this is all just a game and once you cancel your account or sell it or what not, everything you have done will all just be a fragment of your memory, and maybe a few dollars in cash. Slice eventually became a sack.

Liseth

The love of my life. I could sit down and repeat this story as many times as I want but for the sake of this and trying to be fairly unbiased about what I'm posting here, I'll keep it short and maybe I'll decide to give the whole public story later, perhaps in my actual life blog rather than this FFXI blog.

I found Liseth randomly, while walking around in Whitegate. We started chatting, she said she wasn't too satisfied with Aftermath (Are they still around?) so she joined my LS. Eventually was made into a sack. To be honest, keeping this little pepper in control was probably one of the harder tasks to do in the linkshell. "ZOMGS, did Mog just say that about his lady?!" Well, yeah, yes I did. I pretty much had to keep an eye on her and made sure she stayed in our LS. Yes, I was worried she would leave for another LS, every single second that she was in there. Why? Because I knew that DRF could never ever give her what she wants. It isn't about gear whoring or anything like that, it was how open we want the game to be. Liseth did help me strive to bring the best out of our members. I wanted really hard to be able to get to the point where me and her, along with everyone else, can be happy and satisfied with how the LS progressed. This was not a bad thing at all, progress is progress. However, it was very upsetting when part of the sacks... crucified her for what she is trying to improve on in the linkshell.

Yes, I chose some really powerful words there... wooo~ I bet you're thinking "That Mog, he's just sucking up to his lady!" Yeah well, that wasn't all. More on this later.

The KnightsTemplar Sky Truce

Our original schedule for our LS was (Before Sea was introduced into the LS):

Monday: Break
Tuesday: Sky
Wednesday: Break
Thursday: Sky
Friday: Sky
Saturday: Gods
Sunday: Dynamis

Now, you may wonder "Why are Monday and Wednesday break days? It's not balanced at all!" The reasoning was that Pent, the leader of KnightsTemplar and friend, had Sky runs that were going to conflict with us. Rather than going against his LS (on top of many other LSes), we tried to avoid ramming into each other, so we took advantage of their break days or days that they were not going to be in Sky.

Eventually KT broke, we ended up sticking with two break days for quite awhile.

The DRF/CC Vrtra Alliance... AKA "The 10 guests I brought a long because they were bored"

You know, I find it really funny that people would justify not hanging out with people because they "may" have hacked or they "may" have botted. I find it ridiculous and almost shameful when people refuse to do things with other linkshells because that linkshell is a fusion of other linkshells that MIGHT have had 1 or 2 members botting in it.

Did I mention I'm glad I left Cerberus?

However, it was a fun fight, though being up that late at night was a bit demanding for most of our members. Zizka is a great guy though. I hope him and his LS the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Now that I think about it, the fear of drama is probably worse than being tossed in drama.

First Kirin, First Kill

It took about 1:45 if I recall. Eh, I think it is a great time for the first time. Not sure if anything major dropped from it... and not sure who got what from it. I don't recall if Osode dropped on our first run though.

I don't remember anything from it actually... Did I even kite the thing?!

Well, tune in next time where I'll be diving into the meat as to how DRF went from a pretty good LS to be in... into a cesspool of hatred and lies! All from a cuddly Canadian Cat to the departure of perhaps one that could have been the savior of mankind... I mean... the linkshell.

Mog Style: SAM70/WAR35

2007-12-18T22:20:00.000-08:00

Tarutaru Samurai: 6 Hit Desperation >.>

Main: Kazaridachi
Sub: Pole Strap
Head: O-Hat
Neck: Chi. Chain
Ear1: Spike
Ear2: Fowling
Body: Haubergeon
Hand: H. Kote
Ring1: Woodsman
Ring2: Rajas
Back: Amemet +1
Waist: Swift
Legs: Shinimusha Haidate
Feet: H. Sune-Ate

I couldn't wait until level 75 to get my 6-Hit TP build setup (which I recall only needs +11 Store TP if you have maxed out Store TP merits), so I sold all of my BRD gear and managed to get myself a pretty decent 6-Hit TP build for my SAM. This puts me at +25 Store TP (going past the required amount of +21 by 4) and allows me to put some WS gear on in place of some Store TP gear for the first hit.

I was very satisfied with the results, though it did take a huge drain out of my pockets. Hopefully I can hit 75 soon with max merits so I can sell back some of this gear.

Hmm... Going to need to get some stuff at Sky... but I really don't feel like going back there, that and I have no time for silly stuff like that now. >:3