FFXI

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I was really looking forward to it also, Fox.   I just ran out of patience with SE.  It seems like a lot of companies are doing what they did to me now, though: if they get their hands on your money, no matter how they got it, they do everything they can to keep it.  In this case they got $25 from me by fraudulent means - compromised account where the thief used their "world transfer" service - but their policy has been "we're still investigating it to determine it it was really fraudulent, and if we determine that it was we'll return your money...but we can't tell you how long that will take."  So...it could take anywhere between now and the next 10,000 years for them to give up that quarter bill that they should never have gotten to begin with?  That's horse sh**, and for that reason they're getting no more of this family's money.

Anyway, I filled out their survey, for whatever it's worth.  This is what I wrote in their little 1,000 word text field:

POL now finds itself the subject of much ire in my household.  Customer service has admitted by phone that POL has received $25 from our CC by fraudulent means (world transfer fee from a compromised account) and has thus far refused to refund it.  As much as I enjoy FFXI (to the exclusion of all other online RPGs), I have canceled my content IDs because I refuse to give any more money to a company that doesn't have the decency to refund money that they have admitted was fraudulently gained.  I'll stick to single player RPGs from now on.

[Eternimus]

We'll find a new one to play. Want to give me a hand, Fox? I have a long list of MMO's to go through, and it would go faster if I had an ally to test half while I test half. FFXI was fun when we all were on, sucked as a single player mmo, and had a story. Most MMO's do, obviously, but it's hard to distinguish in some cases. Until we decide on another I will open a new gamer thread on one of the coolest single player RPG's I have ever played... and believe me, I have played A LOT.

[Oni]

Vanguard.

OMG is it hot. Especially if you have  a pc that can support the game even on medium settings.

Tree's Flowing in the wind, Texture on the leaves, being pushed down stream in a very cool water effect river. *drools*
After playing it for a short time and seeing things on my pc that Fox can't see on his this game is unreal in just the graphics department. Plays alot like eq1+2 but better. I think anyway. Plus I can be a cat MAN lol. an Ugly one, but a Cat man non the less.

[Goman Fox]

I keep checking up on the POL website every few weeks, to see what sorts of new things have popped up in the FFXI world, curious about trying the game out again if something good pops up.

Apparently the April update has some new things that actually seem a bit interesting.  The first being a simple expansion to the Field of Valor/Treasure Casket idea.  I guess they're extending those features to all of the Rise of the Zilart areas as well as the original areas.

They are apparently also adding a new type of FoV hunt that can be once per real day that sets a player, or group of players, out to kill an NM (spawned with an item given when accepting the hunt, I think).  The difference is that these special hunts have costs connected to them, as well as slightly different rewards.  No matter what, you have to pay with a certain number of tabs, if I'm understanding the website correctly, but you also choose to pay with gil, beastmen seals, or equipment.

Apparently if you complete an "elite training regime" after paying with tabs and gil, you receive a larger gil reward.  Paying in beastmen seals apparently results in a large reward of experience, and they left the rewards from paying with equipment as a "mystery," most likely new pieces of equipment that probably can't be obtained any other way.

The other feature that I thought was interesting is the upcoming Augment feature.  Not a whole lot of information on it, but apparently they plan to allow played to "augment" their equipment with additional attributes.  Not a whole lot of information has been given about it yet, but it sounds interesting.

So I'll definitely be checking back in on FFXI's updates when they happen, to see if it sparks my interest again.  If anything, I might try playing it again in the summer or fall, after I get my chance to play Champions Online, since no other MMORPG has been keeping my attention as much.

[Goman Fox]

MORE UPDATE PREVIEWS!

Yeah yeah, I'm sure no one cares about this anymore, but I think it's interesting and I've been watching the POL website for information about the April update.

The minor stuff they've changed has been tweaking the Moblin Maze Mongers feature, I'm not sure if anyone here managed to try it out or not.  For the most part, they seem to be planning on making it easier, since those things were damn hard (I tried taking my DNC/NIN and THF/WAR duo into there once, was greeted with nothing but Tough Water Elementals and spent 5-10 minutes trying to kill a single Elemental, then died during the next battle from a link.)  They're also adding the ability to copy your little rune layouts to share with friends.

But the big stuff that I hadn't mentioned before is Job adjustment and additions!

First off, they're adding new features to White Mage in the form of two new job abilities gained at level 40: Afflatus Solace and Afflatus Misery.  When active, Afflatus Solace keeps track of the amount of HP you recover using healing spells and abilities (Benediction), while Afflatus Misery tracks the amount of damage you receive, and only one can be active at a time.  These special counters add affects to various spells the WHM has.  Each ability also has a single minute recharge timer (to overwrite one if desired) and a two hour duration.

White Mage is getting one new spell (I think, I've never heard of it anyways), Sacrifice at level 65, which moves an enfeebling effect from your target, to yourself, and while Afflatus Solace is active, it boosts the number of enfeebles and the types that can be transferred.

Other benefits of Afflatus Solace include:
The Bar- spells get an increased defense to their respective elements when Afflatus Solace is active.
Single-target Cure spells give a Stoneskin effect for a short period of time (although it does not stack or overwrite with actual Stoneskin) with Afflatus Solace active
And Holy uses the special HP-healed counter of Afflatus Solace.  The amount of HP healed since Afflatus Solace was activated (or since the last casting of Holy) results in a potency bonus to the amount of damage Holy does before resetting the counter to zero.

Afflatus Misery, like I said, tracks a counter based on the amount of HP dealt to the white mage.  I can't really see this being that useful in normal parties, so I'm guessing it's main benefit is in soloing or smaller groups where the White Mage might actually get hit from things other than AoEs.

I'm not sure I completely understand the added effects of Cura (an AoE heal spell at elvel 40), but it states that it grants a potency bonus to the spell based on the most recent damage you sustain.  My guess would be that it means that Cura becomes more potent as you take more damage.

Esuna (level 61) is an AoE enfeeble removal spell, which under Afflatus Misery, receives bonuses like Sacrifice, increasing the number and types of enfeebles that can be removed from your party.

Auspice (level 55) looks like an interesting new spell, especially for the White Mage.  It's an AoE enhancement that reduces the amount of TP mobs gain when struck by party members.  The White Mage gets an additional bonus under Afflatus Misery which sounds like an Enlight spell that also grants a boosted accuracy when an attack misses.  Again, not something I could see in typical parties, since WHMs generally stay in the back, but it sounds like it could be fun for smaller parties, giving White Mages a melee role, perhaps.

The Banish and Banishga spells also receive a potency bonus the same way Cura does.

In addition to these additions, they are also tweaking some of the White Mage's spells, such as adding magic accuracy bonuses to Banish 2, 3 and Banishga 2, as well as reducing casting time of Banish 2 and 3.

The MP cost and casting time of all Raise and Reraise spells, aside from the first Raise, have been reduced, and the level requirement of the Reraise spells has been reduced as well.  This almost makes me want to play a WHM again if I ever pick the game back up, since they now get Reraise at level 25.

That's it for WHM, but they've also announced a few, less-lengthy, changes for both Red Mage and Summoner as well.

Red Mage is also getting a new job ability, Composure, at level 50.  It has a 5 minute recharge time and 5 minute duration, and while it is affecting the RDM, his accuracy is increased, as well as magic recharge time, but in addition to this, all White and Black magic Enhancement spells the RDM casts on himself have an increased duration as well.

They are also adding another line of En- spells for RDMs, starting with Enthunder II at level 50, every two levels, ending at level 60 with Enwater II.  The info page specifies that elemental damage strength is increased with successive activations up to a predetermined limit, does this mean that these En- spells stack?  In addition to the additional damage, the En- spells also reduce the mob's resistance to a specific element, the example they give being Enfire II reducing a foe's resistance to water.

It really sounds to me like they're trying to pull some of the mages out of the back rows, or at least giving them more options in the front rows for specific situations.  I'd love to see the taboo of RDM or WHM meleeing, lifted.

Summoners are the last that have been revealed as getting adjustments so far, although theirs seem to be minor.  The range of the Blood Pact: Ward enhancing and healing abilities will apparently have the same range as Protectra.

Blood Pact: Ward "Hastega" is also getting a minor adjustment so that it cancels the Slow enfeeble just like the Haste spell does.

A few Blood Pact: Rages ( Meteor Strike / Geocrush / Wind Blade / Grand Fall / Heavenly Strike / Thunderstorm) are also apparently getting an increase in damage and TP-based damage.

That's it for seemingly relevant updates so far.  Chances are I'll post more whenever I notice them, in case anyone is interested, and to give me time to look closer at the changes to see if I'd be interested in playing the game again.

One change I'd love to see, even though it'd likely never happen, would be a global percentage-based increase in movement speed.    Running around areas takes too long, they should double all movement speeds or something!

[Goman Fox]

Aww, the April update is here and it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped.

So I guess this wasn't enough to get me interested in FFXI again, but maybe in the next few updates, they'll make more interesting changes that'll draw me back in.

Of course it didn't help that City of Heroes released it's Issue 14: Architect today, that introduces a system for players to make missions for other players to play.

[Goman Fox]

Even though I'm still the only one that cares (even though I currently don't play the game and can't afford to) I bring more interesting news from the world of Vana'diel!  Starting next Tuesday, with the 7th anniversary Adventurer Appreciation (I think), they're implementing a new feature: the Mog Tablet Quest!

Yet another attempt to get people back into the old areas, apparently, they're adding even more benefits along with the Treasure Caskets and Fields of Valor found in most original, Rise of the Zilart, and Chains of Promathia areas.  In this event, eleven "Mog Tablets" are scattered into these areas (one in each area) and when all eleven are found and turned in to a moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens.  Apparently to make it trickier, characters on chocobos may not be able to see the tablets, and it sounds as if they only show up when adventurers are close to them.

But if all eleven are turned in, three out of eleven special effects will be granted to all adventures in all the participating areas, which are:

"Thrifty Transit": Outpost teleport sites will operate free of charge!
"Martial Master": As an added Signet effect, battle skills will increase more rapidly!
"Blood of the Vampyr": Signets will be boosted with the abilities of Regeneration and Refresh!
"Treasure Hound": Signet will grant you the Gilfinder and Treasure Hunter abilities!
"Artisan's Advantage": The chances of losing ingredients due to failed synthesis will be significantly lowered!
"Mystery Boxes: San d'Oria": Treasure Caskets will appear more frequently around San d'Oria!
"Mystery Boxes: Bastok": Treasure Caskets will appear more frequently around Bastok!
"Mystery Boxes: Windurst": Treasure Caskets will appear more frequently around Windurst!
"Mystery Boxes: Frontier Lands": Treasure Caskets will appear more frequently in the north and other distant lands!
"Swift Shoes": Adventurers who are fully rested and healed will temporarily be able to run with great speed!
"Ease of Exploration": A teleport service connecting the towns of Mhaura and Selbina to the three nations will appear!

Swift Shoes, Treasure Hound, Blood of the Vampyr...  These just sound great, and all of them could be useful.

This quest apparently resets every real week, which means adventurers need to find all 11 tablets again to get three new effects.

Adventurers that find the tablets get special rewards when they turn them in however.  The first being "Kupofried's Ring":

That just looks awesome to me.

But on top of that, there's apparently an additional reward that depends on which tablet is turned in.

In addition to this, for the duration of the Adventurer's Appreciation campaign (starting next Tuesday, the 12th, at 1am PDT, until Monday the 25th at 1am PDT) all eleven bonuses will be in effect at once.

I wonder how well this will work out...  Maybe one day in the future, when I can afford $26 a month for an online game, and if Champions Online doesn't turn out so great, I may go back to FFXI.  Hrm...

[Eternimus]

Now those could be useful. Those buffs would make soloing much easier.

[Goman Fox]

Now those could be useful. Those buffs would make soloing much easier.

True, although it probably sounds better than it will actually end up being.  I mean, with three buffs chosen at random, getting, say, Artisan's Advantage, Thrifty Transit, and Mystery Boxes: Bastok may not actually be all that useful when soloing.  But being lucky enough to find a tablet and get that EXP ring would be really sweet.

My guess is that once the Adventurer Appreciation Campaign ends and it goes from giving all buffs to giving just three randomly chosen ones, it probably wont be all that useful sometimes.  But it does show that SE is trying to make it easier for all types of players to enjoy the game, rather than just those that like to get into a party and grind.

They're heading in the right direction... hopefully they'll keep going that way.

[Goman Fox]

I'm having a bit of fun, constantly relaying information from the POL page to AKC about FFXI changes.

Although this one seems to have slipped past me a month ago, but still definitely deserves mention.

Apparently SE has created a new way to (supposedly) help secure their accounts, by using these devices:

Which I guess are linked to a user's account and can be used to create a one-time-use, random password to log into the account that is only valid for, I believe, 30 seconds.  This, theoretically, reduces problems from things like keyloggers, since once the password is used once, it becomes invalid.

It only costs $9.99 and is purchasable through the POL viewer, but the in-game reward for using it seems really nice.  It effectively doubles your inventory space by giving access to a "Mog Satchel."

The Mog Satchel is another type of inventory that can be accessed anywhere (not just in a Mog House) and is the same size as a character's inventory, so for each Gobbiebag quest completed, its size increases as well.  It is effectively a second inventory and the only restrictions are that you must move items into your main inventory to use, equip, trade, sell, etc. but access to it is unrestricted.

Seems like something I'd definitely look into if I got back into the game.  If I understand it correctly, you can link up to 10 POL IDs to a single "security token."  Doubling my inventory would just be awesome, especially if I doubled both characters' inventories.

The downside to this, of course, is that if the tag gets lost or broken, you're basically SOL about logging in until after contacting customer support and having them remove the tag association from your account until you get a replacement, and we all know how great SE's customer service is...

[Oni]

So instead of tightening security, they are charging there players to do it for them... interesting.

[Goman Fox]

So instead of tightening security, they are charging there players to do it for them... interesting.

Yeah, sounds stupid, but a one-time charge of $10 (assuming the thing isn't lost or broken) isn't really that bad, especially considering the benefits you get in-game for it.

[Eternimus]

I'm having a bit of fun, constantly relaying information from the POL page to AKC about FFXI changes.

Although this one seems to have slipped past me a month ago, but still definitely deserves mention.

Apparently SE has created a new way to (supposedly) help secure their accounts, by using these devices:

Which I guess are linked to a user's account and can be used to create a one-time-use, random password to log into the account that is only valid for, I believe, 30 seconds.  This, theoretically, reduces problems from things like keyloggers, since once the password is used once, it becomes invalid.

It only costs $9.99 and is purchasable through the POL viewer, but the in-game reward for using it seems really nice.  It effectively doubles your inventory space by giving access to a "Mog Satchel."

The Mog Satchel is another type of inventory that can be accessed anywhere (not just in a Mog House) and is the same size as a character's inventory, so for each Gobbiebag quest completed, its size increases as well.  It is effectively a second inventory and the only restrictions are that you must move items into your main inventory to use, equip, trade, sell, etc. but access to it is unrestricted.

Seems like something I'd definitely look into if I got back into the game.  If I understand it correctly, you can link up to 10 POL IDs to a single "security token."  Doubling my inventory would just be awesome, especially if I doubled both characters' inventories.

The downside to this, of course, is that if the tag gets lost or broken, you're basically SOL about logging in until after contacting customer support and having them remove the tag association from your account until you get a replacement, and we all know how great SE's customer service is...

Blizzard's been doing something like that for a long time now. and now that they are merging all accounts directly to a battle.net account now they have one for battle.net but that one you can just use your cell phone to get it. And yeah... Blizzard's customer service sucks too. So it's still a gamble. You'd think with them having so much more MMO experience they'd be starter about customer service. But yeah... that's if you think. Which most places do not.

[Goman Fox]

It has been decided.

If I can afford it, next month I will probably be returning to FFXI for at least that month.  I plan on buying one of those little security tab things, just for the Mog Satchel, so currently I'm installing POL and FFXI so I can order one.

If anything, I'll still have the tab for later use even if I don't start playing next month.  I'm sure eventually I'll play the game again, so it'll come in handy sometime.

EDIT:  Well... maybe not now.  Went to log into POL to see if I could order that security tab before actually subscribing (since they would charge full price for May, even though there's only 5 days left, then charge again in June), but they say I owe them $12.95 from December or something.  Weird.

Now I have to ask myself, is it worth $52 to bring myself up to date on both accounts, then reactivate them for a month?

f*** (v. To put phallic object in non-phallic hole) no. LOL  Maybe if I have a bunch of money drop into my lap and Cat, TM and Eternimus all start playing again.

I'll just go back to City of Heroes if I want to pay for a game.  Otherwise I'll probably stick with the Megaten game I got back into, or go back to single-player games.  I do still need to finish Persona 4, and Fallout 3 is calling me again...

EDIT2:  I don't wanna double-post unless it's providing new FFXI information, lol.  ...Wait... *checks POL website*

The only thing I see is a "Character Restoration Service" where they'll restore deleted characters or something.  Not worth a new post.

Anyways, I think I figured out why my accounts have a problem, something that TM probably already knows.  SE billing is completely retarded.  My guess is that since they do that stupid billing, where they'll bill at the beginning of the month one month, then the end of the month the next, they managed to catch me owing them money at the end of December (that I thought I had paid for, making the wrong assumption that they were intelligent and consistent in their billing schedule).  Well the joke's on them now, because at that time I had gotten a new debit card, so when I activated it, my old one was no longer valid when they tried to bill it.

I may not be able to play FFXI until I pay them back, but I still think it's really funny that they screwed themselves out of $25.90 from me.

I am actually really lucky though, because some charge (I forget which) at the end of December overdrafted my account, and two extra charges from SE would have cost me an additional $40, on top of those charges.

[Goman Fox]

So, contrary to what I said before, I actually succumbed to the urge to play FFXI again.  I reactivated my accounts at the beginning of the month and have been playing off and on since then.  Got a level for each of my characters, bringing Ichibankitsune to a 46 Dancer/Ninja and Rhial to a 46 Thief/Warrior, but then changed my plans a bit.

Despite the gimping it's going to do to me, I decided to level Rhial's Red Mage while level syncing Ichi's Dancer, to get up to level 50 or so.  Ultimately what I'm wanting to do is get Rhial's RDM up to a decent level for a sub for some fun-time Dragoon duoing.  Not sure exactly how well it'll work out, but I think Ichi as a DRG/BLU and Rhial as a DRG/RDM it should be fun.  If not, I'll probably try out something like Ichi-Paladin and Rhial-Samurai.

But the main reason why I'm posting is from my excitement about something that happened the other day.  This will only really be relevant to people that have played FFXI a lot.  Every time I walk through South Gustaberg, I take a quick little detour to look around for Leaping Lizzy.  I found it once, looooong ago, but was unable to fight it since I was soloing Ranger at like, level 6, and ended up being beaten down pretty bad.  But the other day, when I went looking around, I saw some other guy (non/RNG) was camping it, running in circles killing Rock Lizards.  I figured I wouldn't find it since someone was there, but checked for Leaping Lizzy anyways, in the same spot I had found it the last time I found it and there it was.  I was excited, half-expecting it to be claimed by a ranged attack while I was running toward it or something, but no.  I ended up killing it pretty quick with my 46DNC (and 10RDM).  Imagine my surprise when I not only found it completely by chance, not only claimed it, but got the drop, the Bounding Boots as well.  I can now say something that I doubt many FFXI players in the game's history can say:

Leaping Lizzy: 1/1

And I didn't even need to camp it.  Awesome.

After that amount of luck, I really wanted to go look for the Valkurm Emperor, but decided against it, hehe.