Wednesday 31 December 2008

Quotes out of Context

So, I finally join the ranks of those who have aquired the Tidal Talisman and its in-game counterpart. A very sweet present from Mr. Ringthree /big grin. SE said they intentionally designed the in-game item to look dowdy and a bit plain, non-descript if you will. Certainly the colour scheme lends itself to that with the soft browns and simple edges, however they have released screenshots of other pieces of gear with the same model but different skins looking far more ornate and interesting.



It is a bit of a strange item to be honest, you can't get away from the fact that it IS a gimick to sell on the necklace that comes with it, it's still cool though. LOL, or mayhap I am just easily amused, it is handy as a quick hop to Jeuno if you are in a hurry, every 2 days or something like which is the recharge on it. Sometimes you wish these use once a day items actually had some realistic reuse schedule like once a day. That would be practical. Every 24hours. Not every 64hours. How many times have you only needed to go to Jeuno once every 40hours when exping around lvl 25-40.

Since I am leveling DNC at the moment I fully know what it is like zooming back and forth between Jeuno and my home point in Windurst, yes yes, I know, I could set my home point in Jeuno for the duration of my time leveling DNC to 40, but UGH. Jeuno might once have been the hub of all activity, but the introduction of Whitegate put paid to that and now Jeuno is no longer the most accessible place.

Sure you can warp to it from Whitegate, at a cost. True if you regularly exp 1 silver imperial piece isn't much and you can always take your chances with the random warp taru and his lottery landings outside Jeuno but you have to airship in to anywhere else and while the airship only lasts 3mins if you miss it it is 11mins for another to show up, which is a substantial amount of time sat around twiddling your thumbs gazing into the waters of Jeuno and wondering if they have flotsam issues.

I love being in Windurst, 300g to Whitegate, OP warps right outside the moghouse (finally! That jog was a pain in the neck previously) Convenient access to the maws if it is needed, the only convoluted path is Jeuno. But it is still more of a point from where I can get everywhere quickly than Jeuno. The biggest problem with Jeuno is that there is no Wildcat warp to Whitegate. Now before you all get up in arms, yes I know, SE have finally said they are going to implement the Lure Of The Wildcat warp from Jeuno in an upcomming update, so we might see yet another shift in the population base back to Jeuno. Me? I will still be living in Windurst, with the convenience of access to my moglocker, mog house AND most importantly my mog locker.

What I do find interesting about this body piece is that it finally has a bit of flashy interface, around the actual talisman itself more associative with the furnishings in your moghouse than your gear. Not only does it have the glint on the neckpiece itself, but the graphic for it in your inventory is an icon of the pendant, not a body shaped icon as you would expect which took me by surprise. Possibly as a way to be distinctive in its means and intent to be not really something that serious, more a bit of frivolity or should we go more rampantly speculative and possibly go with the idea that it is a test, a trial to see exactly how such enhancements work within the game, if it does cause any additional graphical lag and such as a possibility towards more gear coming out with similar kinds of enhancements.



Hellzfury, Dragoon extraordinnaire, short-ass hume and all round goblinhumper brought a bunch of his friends from real life into the Hive (CoveredInBees) right about the time his participation in the game began to wane due to the constricts of real life (booo). Ehrii, Raider, Majorshoes and a few others have been getting to grips with life in FFXI and all the fun of leveling your first job to 75.

Most of them are now at the same point in their game career where certain progression hurdles must be overcome such as the genkai quests and most importantly, your AF fights. We have been running around in dribs and drabs getting coffer keys, hunting down the chests and blobbing nm's for the various pieces they all need over the last few days. I have to say I am LOVING the new respawns on coffers for AF. We had the unfortunate instance to have a chest snaked from us by a rather enterprising Taru right after Raider died to a horde of orcs and we were waiting for her to unweaken so she could pop it.

With the new improved coffer respawn only being 5mins for AF and maps (I have never actually seen how it works on gil and items, I am presuming some kind of character block that prevents you from opening any more coffers for 30mins?) it wasn't long before it recharged and we could finish up in Davoi scurrying away with our loot of 2 coffer keys, 2 bits of AF and the PLD AF mobs defeated.



This guy is WAY easier to kill in the present than in Campaign! LOL.

Finally, I have decided to install a new and ongoing bit of fun into my blog. Quotes taken out of context, delightfully wicked soundbites that in the shape and form of whatever it was we were doing at the time made perfect sense, but taken outside their original intent and just randomly thrown out into the wider world you suddenly get some delightfully entertaining or just plain bizzare moments to play with.

Quotes Out Of Context - 01

Wednesday 24 December 2008

Obligation

How far is our obligation to others in FFXI?

This is not an unsusual or poor question to ask, after all we are part of a larger community here, this is not World of Warcraft. Final Fantasy has elements that allow the player to progress on their own, even Beastmaster is a job that encourages you to level by your own. It is just that the emphasis is primarily on team work.

How hard is it to work together, communication is vital as well as being willing to pull your own weight. It is facinating watching large scale events, they quite often can be less effective and more chaotic than small scale events where you can't hide your laziness in the group. The need to pull your own weight rather than slack off and expect someone else to do it is much more immediate.

Also I believe a certain level of responsibility comes with your job. You don't level a WHM to be a damage dealer, or a DRG to be the healer of your party. The odd varitations come more into play if you are doing something solo, such as campaign, random bc's or some such other activity in which a more esoteric combination is not really an issue.

Ok admittedly it doesn't hurt to play with conventional wisdom, if we hadn't done that we would never have ended up with NIN/DRK and PLD/RDM. BUT! That doesn't mean that all weird combinations work! You don't show up to events as WHM/WAR there is no point, similarly you won't show up to an exp party as DRK/BLM, its just not relevant to the situation. There is no real application for it.

All this rambling does have a point, inevitably I do get there. I was in an exp party, nothing wrong with that other than its randomness as I did get a blind invite from the COR while lurking in Jeuno as DRG/WHM. LOL trust me, that really doesn't happen that often. I am almost always BRD or WHM in parties so the rare opportunities I get to do something on DRG other than farming I seize (This does not mean that going melee to Einherjar is any less crappy, I need 1 med. that I carry with myself anyway on mage jobs, and about 7 different things on a melee job to be considered well prepared BLEH)

So, blind invite whoohoo, from a corsair, with 2 bards, and a red mage, sooo I was wondering a little here, we seem kind of heavy on the support jobs, but corsair is a decent enough ranger type of job and we ARE going to birds, so ok ok pretty good and I had them scoop up Ringthree on SAM for our final job. You can tell this isn't going to be pretty can't you.

On paper, this looks like a sexy setup, ok you only have 2 dd to do the primary damage BUT, those two dd are a samurai and a dragoon who love playing their jobs and so strive to be efficient and excel at what they bring to the party. Then we had 1 bard who came /whm, another who came /sch. Now admittedly there was a mix-up and they didn't realise that there were 2 bard in the party but it did make pulling very hard work as they were constantly getting slept. A red mage and the corsair came /war.

Ok, slightly peculiar but hey we can swing with it, I've been in odd setups before and they have surprisingly worked. The two buffs the corsair decided to give us were a ranged acc roll, ooookay.... and chaos roll. Fair enough. NEVER cast any rolls on the mages the entire party. Far too preoccupied with how much damage they could do against a Dragoon and a Samurai.

Now, when you know a party is being parsed, you cheat. Hedge the bets so you can stack them in your favour, it is not unexpected. This person, who I don't really want to name, was OUTrageous in their cheating. Using food, but making sure they never pulled hate by only using weapon skills at 5%. Since ranger weaponskills are 1 hit, you get a huge spike damage to assist you on the parser and the kill shot. Now you could call this just general grumbliness on the part of being a dragoon. I am not about to use wheeling thrust in exp, and all my other weaponskills are multi-hit, so if I ws at the end of a fight, I am always going to lose out on damage on a parser, showing up an inherant flaw in these devices. But it is a bit of fun and gives you more a representation of average damage rather than perfect damage. However, I am not the only job with strong end game weaponskills that are multi-hit. ^.^ Haha!

The rolls they cast were beneficial only to themselves really, and not really anyone else in the party, sure they gave us chaos roll, but they didn't bother with anything for the struggling RDM, who was patently not used to this kind of mass carnage exp party. When asked about it, their only response was "What's the point when it isn't needed?"

Indeed what is the point, it WAS necessary and at what point were we just there for them to come 3rd in the parser and try and out damage 2 seasoned melee jobs for the sake of saying "Oh I play corsair different from everyone else". There was no sense of team spirit or co-opreation and while we were making decent exp, it really wasnt a fun party. Just kind of sad that you knew not everyone in the party was pulling together to make it amazing.

So at what point should we be thinking about the other people we are working with as well as our own goals?

Sunday 21 December 2008

Knee-Jerk Reactions

How do we contain ourselves to not have a knee-jerk reaction? Is it even possible or is it something so basic in human emotion, a primal and uncontrolled need for the first initial reaction to be over the top, angry, emotive and completely irrational. Heavens forbid that we might apply some common sense to a situation when it threatens us, why would we want to do anything so foolish.

Square Enix has announced that they are closing down the World Transfer service to Odin. This is due to chronic overcrowding finally reaching a point where it is affecting the service and performance of the server.

This isn't an unknown problem, SE have said before I think about a year ago, that Odin was overcrowded. They didn't seem to take steps to do much about this at the time, applications for transfer to the server remained open despite it already being a snug fit. Now we are at a point where we are at over capacity.

Not only are they shutting off the applications to Odin, but they are re-offering to transfer people from Odin over to other servers for free. Perhaps you are tired of the constant competition for everything on Odin, or have basically burned every bridge you had in the community and want to start afresh, what ever your motivations people do transfer servers. Some find it much more beneficial and possibly good to get out of the previous environment others just fold up their bags and quit.

This move does seem a shade peculiar to be honest, they have just offered it and now they are offering it again almost immediately after. Essentially it is an extension of the transfer service in a desperate gamble to thin down the ranks accompanied by a strong-arm hussle that if it doesn't work they will consider other options including but not exclusively, physically splitting the server into 2 or forcing people to transfer to different worlds.

I can understand the need to deal with the over crowding, but considering this isn't exactly a new problem, definately an issue acerbated by SE's own inability to deal with the situation in a timely manner, I do think that threatening Odin's player base seems a little over the top.

The response from the other servers player base on the forums smacks more of smirking gloating more than anything. As if to crow how low the mighty have fallen. They wouldn't be so jumped up to offer comment if it was happening to their server, considering the peculiar nature of how much Odin intermingles within it's linkshells rather than being xenophobic. I can't imagine being forced to move somewhere else or having my friends moved away or split up.

It would be devastating to my linkshells and the sense of community and family that we have worked so hard to build up. It is a rare feeling to be a part of and I know how unique it really can be, how hard it is to achieve without the usual backbiting and general nastiness that surrounds end game linkshells.

I already know of people, people who I would be devastated to lose, talking about quitting if SE did actually act out on its threats to do such a thing. It would definately feel like a punishment. I don't know if I would quit over it but I don't know that I would be happy with it, I wouldn't want to play as much for a good while. I have spent such a long time where I am, I don't think it is an entrenched view of inflexiblity or an opposition to change. You don't just throw away your friends on a whim.

The thing is, the situation would have to be completely unsalvageable before I could ever see SE taking such drastic steps. While they aren't afraid of the unpopular decision, this is a shade beyond that. It would be a huge undertaking and affect a lot of people. The reaction of some of the longer members of Odin are base and disappointing, the suggestion we should just kick off server transfers and other such people is pandering to the lowest common denominator in intelligence.

All I can say to those people is grow up. You don't immediately single out a group of people as a target to blame because things aren't going your way, nor should anyone looking in condemn us for not all transfering off Odin enmass just to fix the problem. It wasn't a problem of our creating, merely one of circumstance and lack of reaction.

*sigh*

Saturday 20 December 2008

Community Whinging

What is wrong with the Final Fantasy Community? Maybe it is just the need to complain or the mistaken belief that you have some divine right to have the universe revolve around you and the overinflated ego you carry around with you but there are times I really don't understand the reactions of the online contingency. Specifically those who post on the forums.

Such a vile and vituperative outpouring of reaction regarding the effect of the Mythic weapons, the fixing of the Salvage glitches, general tweakings of the game, updates, content. It never ceases to amaze me just how indignantly unjustified people can be when SE start twiddling with the game.

I am not sitting on a high horse here, changes implemented by SE have had devastating effects on my linkshell. The adjustments to zone aggro let the RMT into sky and their domination of Ullikummi virtually destroyed my ls till they "fixed" it with the (ultimately) diorite solution. I do not however, sit there white knuckled and pale-faced plotting the downfall of SE (an entity) or any of the designers who work tirelessly on the game. It all strikes me as a knee-jerk reaction whereby a temper tantrum gets thrown and all the toys get thrown out of the pram.

All this speculation specifically arises from our very first completed Mythic weapon by an NA gentleman who goes by the name Jackyl from Garuda. Who has successfully completed the Burtgang sword for PLD. He started a thread on the Blue Garter forums showing his preliminary testing results from the weapon and its Aftermath effects.

Burtgang
DMG: 46 Delay: 265 Enmity +10
Physical damage taken -10%
Reduces Enmity decrease when
taking Physical damage. "Atonement"
Aftermath: Increases Acc/Atk.
Occasionally attacks twice
Lv. 75 PLD


Now, just taking a look at the basic weapon ignoring any of the aftermath effects, it looks like a good weapon for a Paladin. It could potentially replace the Earth Staff for damage reduction if you were keen on a sword and shield build, it could easily replace the Macuahuitl +1 (and look better unless running around wearing a rusted chainsaw blade appeals to you) with much better enmity and enmity effects. It has a high base damage, for all you meleeing, non-tanking, damage dealing Paladins out there (You know who you are!).

It's the aftermath effects that everyone is mainly interested in though. Jackyl does detail it out in his post, but just as a recap.



  • The Aftermath effect lasts 60/90/120 seconds for Lv. 1/2/3 respectively.

  • Level 1 (100% TP) is an acccuracy bonus.

  • Level 2 (200% TP) is an attack bonus.

  • Level 3 (300% TP) is a double attack bonus.

  • The bonus for each level is unique and does not stack or combine.

  • You can progress from Lv. 1 to Lv. 2 and from Lv2. to Lv. 3 by using the Mythic weapon skill with enough TP for the next level. (100% TP> Aftermath 1>200% TP>Aftermath 2>300% TP>Aftermath 3)

  • You can refresh/overwrite the Lv. 1 Aftermath but you cannot do the same with Lv. 2 or Lv. 3.

  • Weapon Skill Damage remains the same.

In this particular case, the Paladin is using Atonement so the damage is based off his enmity levels and not the usual modifiers. This is never going to be a perfect or definitive test for anything OTHER than the weapon in question, the Burtgang. Complaining about how it will affect any other weapon other than in the most basic of fashion (such as how long the effects last and at what levels they kick in) seems nothing more than an excercise in bitter futility.


Personally, I rather like the whole concept. SE have always maintained the position that they were not going to make the Mythic weapons any stronger than the Relic ones, as well as hinting at the prospect of going back and tweaking the Relic weapons to improve the performance (Go go taking the AGI modifier off Gungnir please! It really doesn't make any sense...) This definately confirms that position and gives you a weapon with some interesting effects.

To sit and complain that it doesn't do all three at the same time just seems more than a little ridiculous, SE are not about to go around destroying the balance of the game that they spend a long time trying to maintain. This is an inventive and refreshing take on a system that has been the same since they started doing this many moons ago.

In the spirit of good will, Versus has in the past helped out other linkshells or players who don't have the man power or an end game ls to achieve what they need to do end game. Ranging from doing Optical Hat runs for people to lending out our man power for Omega runs. It isn't loaded with provisos. Generally I am willing to do it if we know the person well and they don't have an end game linkshell, I don't demand they join Versus not everyone wants to get into the whole cycle of doing things at end game.

The deal I have with Omega runs is slightly different but only because I do ask my members to pay to get into the fight, we have in the past just gone out to help other linkshells such as BrandNameClamato who needed the extra bodies just to defeat the robot. I like the spirit of co-operation and communication. In this instance I set up a deal with Celestria from Rakuen. They frequently do low man Apollyon runs for chips and af crafting materials and by low man I mean looooow. Unfortunately that means you can collect chips but with all the will in the world you probably aren't going to kill Omega with the 2 of you. Has Avesta even tried? LoL

Through random chatting, we agreed to a mutually beneficial setup between Rakuen and Versus. We pop their Omega sets, they get a priority on 1 piece of their choice and a 50/50 random on the body with a member of my ls IF it drops (and that is a big if). Plus a random on the extra chips that drop against myself. We get the rest of the drops to share out in the ls. It has worked out pretty well so far, although Blaize definately had more luck with his choices of drops than Celestria has so far sadly but we will keep trying till they drop for her.



Omega is definately one of those fights that people can be entirely too casual about. When done well it is extremely easy, if you are sloppy it will destroy you. People take certain content for granted because it has been around for such a long time, relatively speaking. "Oh it is only Omega, it's CoP, pfft" It is interesting to watch such dismissive attitudes. It MIGHT be older content, but it doesn't stop the gear being heavily used still by the jobs that can wear it. Byakko is positively ancient and people still want the haidate because there is so little to replace it, even Usukane isn't always a better upgrade depending on the job or gear combination.

It also doesn't change the fact that being old doesn't always mean it is just easy or should be dismissed. There may be more complex fights, different challenges and new ways to deal with the newer content in the game, however if you don't go into some of these older fights with a bit of respect and attention you are going to get your rear severely spanked. Everyone knowing how to kill something doesn't always equal everyone being able to kill something. Skill is not the same as knowledge, it is the application of knowledge to an effective end.

I still love the design of this creature. He is such fun to look at, Ultima is much uglier and skeletal, Omega seems so much more graceful and elegant in my mind less a blunt instrument and more a finely crafted machine of death and destruction. This fight was a little rough to start with but we were working with a few unfamiliar members to our ls so you have to allow a bit of leeway for adjustments and things settled down quickly enough.



While things were not working out well for Celestria, I did finally get the last piece of Homam I have wanted for my Dragoon. I have been running around in Dusk Gloves for this slot in the mean time and never really felt the urge to lot these over people who didn't have dusk gloves, that struck me as a shade unreasonable. When they went free lot however I was ALL over them! Of course Ninjafox was SOO bad and knew I wouldn't go for them if anyone else did so deliberately played me so that I would lot. BAH! LoL *huggles for Foxy* I much prefer these over the Dusk for Dragoon because I like doing things /WHM thus making the MP on them far more useful than the ATK from the Dusk piece. PLUS! Yay I can run around at normal speed again without having to switch gear. Only a few more pieces needed for my Dragoon now before I can consider him "complete" for the time being.


On the topic of hands, Zebra Zachary finally put out for Izman and Quigglypus in Salvage. Ramaparts are so frustratingly random, that was one of the good pieces of news to emerge from the fan fest, the fact that the development team are looking into tweaking those and the Silver Seas Remnants drop rate. There seems to be three stages of ramparts. The ones that just don't spawn, if by 50% they haven't popped they seem very unlikely to want to pop, the ones that spawn dead nm's, ie they don't drop anything at all. Then the ramparts that spawn NM's that drop like crazy. This puts Izman at 3/5 on Ares, with the mask, body and hands piece, and Quiggly on 4/5 with the mask, hands, feet and body. Legs of course being the bane of Izman, one day! One day!!!.


Friday 19 December 2008

Elite Einherjar

Another day, another post. It's been surprisingly busy at work in the last few days so I haven't had the chance to sit down and actually write this post out. I have had the pictures lurking around though *grin*

With the reduction in numbers in Versus, we have had to suspend certain activities that we did previously, not through choice but necessity. It is one thing to strive to better ones self through challenges, but it is something else entirely to just throw away pop sets, exp, time and effort in a futile attempt to win something that you are seriously undermanned for. Unfortunately one of the casualties of this thinning down of the ranks was Einherjar.

As a linkshell, when we were doing Einherjar we were surprisingly successful at it. Despite doing it with the low man approach, we were consistent and as a team we worked well to adapt to the ever fluid settings and challenges unique to each chamber in Einherjar. Our stumbling block became a lack of man power at the tier 2 range, just an extra body on one or two runs could have been the difference between the win we didn't achieve or the loss through time out that we got. Admittedly we only did Tier 2 a few times before Einherjar got pulled from the schedule for the time being.

Fast forward to about a month later and we are now working on a very productive partnership with Obsidian and Versus. The Versus members propping up a thinning memberbase for the Obsidian Einherjar runs meant suddenly Tier 3 wins were becoming extremely easy and the popularity of Einherjar exploded. Where as it wasn't all that long ago they barely could get over 20 people to show up, it is common to see people queuing to snag a valuable slot in the event.

This has lead to our very first Odin attempt. Excitement at doing this was definately at a peak in Versus. Although there were some rather sarcastic (when are there not?) comments about going in to lose lots of exp with enthusiasm! Not only did we win, but it was an extremely smooth win at that. *smirk* And I didn't die once!!!





So, we now all have a snazzy new title, that no doubt will be erased by some slightly less sparkley title such as "Crawler Culler" and the satisfaction of knowing that on our very first Odin fight we won. Not to demean the efforts of other people who have gone before and laid the groundwork for our strategies and approaches, but reading knowledge can only take you so far. The rest comes down to how well your members react, pay attention, adapt and respond to the fight itself not to mention the myrriad of of random effects and consequences that can happen in any large NM fight.





I have to say it is quite an interesting experience zoning in. It's so quiet and you expect there to be background music until you engage Odin. Not to mention the heightened tension about finally being in the fight itself, the wait is over its full commitment now to win or not at all. Although there was a bit of faffing around at the start as 2 ppl who had signed up for the run realised they couldn't come into the fight. A shade shoddy in the preparation, it would be better if people knew what was required to get into fights, mistakes happen I understand that but they didn't seem to have a clue at all, and it was mages who were locked out, which are in general not a healthy job to lose suddenly because of a lack of foresight.





He is gorgeously impressive when you get up close though. If you have done all the missions for the Aht Urghan storyline, you know how exciting it is when he pops up from time to time in the storyline but getting THAT close to him in the fight is something else entirely, even as an Elvaan I felt tiny. Interestingly I never got that impression when fighting Alexander. Possibly because he is all bulk and whirling machinery, where as Odin is sleek and elegant astride Slepnir.





Maybe we were just extremely fortunate in the attacks and moves he decided to use, but I never really got the impression that anything he did outside of Zantetsuken was really a devastating attack, just more of an annoyance to be dealt with. As long as your mages were on their toes and ready for the various status effects that he could inflict upon the tanks. The biggest hazard to the fight was definately the valkyries. Their randomness for spawning and the devastating effect that ALL of them at once on a single tank has means you really need a good claimer ready to peel them off and kite them as soon as possible. His moves are so rigidly dictated by % health it is easy to prepare and adapt to what is incomming than if he had been a more fey being with much more erratic behaviour.

I would definately agree with the opinion held commonly that the chambers preceeding this fight are far more complicated to deal with, it is almost something of an anti-climax. Not entirely a bad thing though, you know you will always get something from him if you can win and considering the general dearth of drops that come with anything from Tier 1 to 9 of the other chambers it is a welcome change and something to look forward to. Could you even imagine how bad it would be if you had no guarantee of a drop like Kirin and his 1 wind crystal. It would be pretty demoralising hehehe.





By the end of the fight I know I was really getting into it though, perched on the end of my seat, watching it hit 10% for Zantetsuken then the surge to burn down the last few drops of his health for the win, caught up in the combined effort and fervour of knowing we were so close but the clock was ticking a heady moment of thrilled exhilaration where you barely dare to hope but strive to succeed. It's such a great feeling, and even better for knowing that you are sharing it with everyone else in the chamber who is just as keen as you to be there, at that point with those people winning.

For anyone who wants to be blase about wins like this, I say for shame. It's fights like these that lift moral, inspire the linkshell and forge the bonds that keep your engaged and interested in what is going to come. It rises you above the drudgery and the hard work and fills you with elation and delight at a job well done.





Riding on the excitement of our first win, you are never going to be too disappointed with the drop pool, that jaded complaining sets in on the second fight when you haven't gotten what you wanted. LoL Such a strange attitude, an incredible amount of impatience.

Regardless, it was exciting just to get the point of getting a treasure pool, although some people were a little panicked that people were not passing fast enough, SE were generous enough to give you an extra 5mins after the chest was opened regardless of the time on the glass so you can distribute the treasure which I think had been forgotten, qualms aside everyone got what they wanted without hitch.





I think Izman has a strange affinity for hats, particularly the variety of hat that no-one else wants. A peculiar twist of fate and a bidding war over the Vahallah body piece meant that Izman won the lot on the helm for a mere 6 points, AND it dropped. In a repeat of our first Omega where no-one wanted the Homam head piece and Izman stepped up to fill the void, he now has a (very silly) nice shiney new piece of running around town gear.

I have to say, it looks FAR better on Odin, although as a Hume it does look better than on a Taru.





All in all a throughly exciting and worthwhile experience! Can't wait till we go again. ^.^

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Attack of the Quigglypus

Introduction!

There we go, now we have that out of the way ^.^ We can get on to the proper stuff. The ramblings of my mind.

Not entirely sure if this is ever going to be relevant, but it is some small diversion, after all we take such great stock in the opinions of others don't we. Whether it is based on our own self perception or just the simple opinion of others. How others think and react on and around our own interests enlarges our own understanding of what we like and dislike.

I have no real idea of when I will update, or what I will write about, generally things that pique my interest, or possibly a daily record who knows. Maybe even sometimes I will write merely for my own edification or understanding. It does help to lay ones ideas out from time to time, you can gain a fresh perspective on a niggling issue or see the blatantly obvious that you were missing.

Me!




In theory looking intelligent and pointing LoL, not at anything specifically I don't think, possibly a guilded gatway as I was lurking around waiting for Salvage (more on this to come in future posts!) Skulking around as 75 bard in this particular instance, although I do also have Dragoon, White Mage and Ninja at 75. Not a huge amount of jobs for the time I have spent playing this game but I am not obsessive about exping constantly, it is fun but it can get tedious. I don't mind being driven when I want to level a job to 75, but it is not my sole preocupation with playing FFXI. I am very busy with running Versus most of the time, it is not uncommon for me to log on solely for events before going to bed again. It is quite hard work running an EST ls on GMT time, particularly when you work the next day, *grin* at least my job favours my slightly bizzare sleeping schedule with a nice afternoon start giving me time to sleep in, rather than turning into a zombie. Not that the folk at work don't already think I am crossed with a Vampire *chomp*

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of experiencing the highs and lows of exp in game. The first was definately a low. It wasn't that it appeared to be bad, Mephistopheles, a rather brave Japanese Taru NIN invited me into a party the second I threw my flag up, so I said yes, he then proceeded to pick up a party of Europeans.


Now I know and I appreciate, that Great Britain is part of Europe, we have been a member of the EU since 1973 when it was still known as European Economic Community. We meddle in affairs in Brussels and are happy to throw our weight around but there is something about British aloofness that still creates a divide between us and the continent. Possibly because we are an island and so not part of the traffic that flows through continental Europe, maybe just that old British Imperialism that refuses to die, who knows but one thing is for sure, we tend to dabble rather than commit to the EU and being considered a European. We are instead... British.


As such, when I am in game, I do have a tendency to think of myself as British and everyone else as European, particularly if I don't know the person. Which is funny as I am definately NOT a patriotic person in any way, shape or form.


I digress, so these Europeans were Germans I believe, I can't remember all their names, and I wish I could, there was a DNC who insisted on trying to solo every single link we got, a WAR who was generally allergic to provoke a SAM who was constantly afraid of repops and a RDM who said his keyboard was dying and so had a tendency to let people die a whole lot. I was starting to have deep reservations about whether I wanted to be in the party or not after we all wiped, barely even able to clear out the corridor in the northern end of the Mamool lands staging point. I was saved by the Japanese ninja (and this IS only speculation) finally getting tired of dying constantly, it must have been his 5 or 6th death I am sure he spent at least 85% of the party resting while weakened, just mijin gakured and disbanded the party, which I was MORE than fine with. So dismal, I barely scrapped together 3k exp in the tormented hour and a half of exp. *shudder*


The second party was just sheer sexiness! You know it is a good party when you can chain with the wivre.


True to form of the best parties, it was formed from members of the ls, or people I knew. We had the fortune to secure the first tier of birds (while 2 parties competed for birds on the lower tier bizzarely enough) with 2 Bards, Myself and Bubbly, Izman on WAR/NIN, Tohmane on SAM/WAR, Foxy (Ninjafox for the uninitiated) on RDM/WHM and Qtipus (Now known as The Quigglypus) on DRG/SAM. Just over 50k in 2 hours, it was SUCH a contrast the the dismal party earlier and so so much more fun. I had the super easy job of Madrigal, Minuet and Ballad, so it was quite entertaining to run back and forth singing songs and discussing the rise and fall of Lady Macbeth in the linkshell. Good times!


The Quigglypus In Action!