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Clear some things up for me please.
GrandoReaper
Member UncommonPosts: 147
I've tried to play this game atleast three times and the first thing that stopped me from playing religiously was the control scheme. The third time I tried playing was about a month and a half ago, I finally just sucked it up and played till I understood how the user interface and controls worked. But here is my problem: I couldn't find anybody to group up with at all. For about five days everyday at primetime I logged on to find people in the area I wanted to group at but they wouldnt let me into their party. So am I missing out on something? Is there some secret hole in the wall that everyone is leveling up inside and being friendly with each other. I have tried to talk to random people and make friends but for some reason everyone ignores my msgs. So how am I supposed to play this game if I am required to party but nobody would be willing to converse and socialize with somebody new? This sort of thing frustrates me because this is going to be the only final fantasy that I have not fully enjoyed to end-game.
Comments
It's really too bad, but you missed the chance. The game is old now, and the whole system is based on new people joining to the game every day to keep the population active for all levels- but it is not the case anymore. Not enough people join the game and the playerbase is declining due to announcement of XIV.
Square has implemented features that make soloing an easier task, but it is still a bit difficult if you're not experienced enough. I am sure you can solo at least up to 30 though (with certain jobs anyway). You can try, but in all honesty I'd just suggest waiting for XIV and skip this title, even if it unfortunately means you can't enjoy the brilliant endgame the game has.
That's a load of opinionated BS that is entirely false! There is no fact anywhere to say any of this is true, and besides we don't have the full story.
First off are you still under lvl 10, what job did you start as, have you explored your entire starting town and spoke with all the NPCs to find shops, gone out and earned enough gil to buy gear and scrolls and prepared yourself for grouping that can start at lvl 10? Have you turned on your Seek to let others know you want to party!? Do you know how to seek other players that are LFG?
/sea all 10 or whatever lvl you are to find other players seeking or 10-20 or by job WAR, RDM, BLM, THF, WHM, MNK...etc etc etc
IF SE would do something to curb the lame-ass "Astral Burn Parties" like they did with people subbing Bard in Campaign Battles to get easy xp... we might start to see people partying a bit more.
It took them longer than in other MMOs, but a portion of the "now! faster! easier!" crowd has managed to penetrate FFXI and are doing everything they can to render grouping all but pointless... After all, according to someone on another forum, the MMO genre belongs to the solo players now, and us "dinosaurs who still think grouping is fun" have no place in it. Yes, someone actually said that.
So... yeah.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
That's a load of opinionated BS that is entirely false! There is no fact anywhere to say any of this is true, and besides we don't have the full story.
First off are you still under lvl 10, what job did you start as, have you explored your entire starting town and spoke with all the NPCs to find shops, gone out and earned enough gil to buy gear and scrolls and prepared yourself for grouping that can start at lvl 10? Have you turned on your Seek to let others know you want to party!? Do you know how to seek other players that are LFG?
/sea all 10 or whatever lvl you are to find other players seeking or 10-20 or by job WAR, RDM, BLM, THF, WHM, MNK...etc etc etc
I became quite familiar with the starting city that I chose (cant remember the name of it though lol) The LFG option I dabbled in a bit but was largely unsuccessful. My class was a warrior, I used the wikia site to make sure my gear was up to standard for my role.
Well besides what WSImike and the guy saying that it's a bit too late to get into is spot on, there are very few players in the 10-20 range anymore by all accounts, and because of the way grouping favors a good blend of classes, you may be having issues being a warrior. They only need one, maybe two in a group to hold aggro, and from there all they would need is healers (who almost always are needed).
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
You can say that, but it will be the truth this guy will have to face sooner or later.
We can build up false hope and blame things that do not affect the outcome, but in the end the disappointment will strike twice as hard. "Cheer up mate, things will be better for sure!" won't really help when the reality isn't as cheerful as we'd all wish.
Nothing you say will help in the end. Also, grouping at level 10 in this day and age is the worst thing he could do; when was the last time you played this game?
You can say that, but it will be the truth this guy will have to face sooner or later.
We can build up false hope and blame things that do not affect the outcome, but in the end the disappointment will strike twice as hard. "Cheer up mate, things will be better for sure!" won't really help when the reality isn't as cheerful as we'd all wish.
Nothing you say will help in the end. Also, grouping at level 10 in this day and age is the worst thing he could do; when was the last time you played this game?
You've said a lot of things without saying anything. No you don't need to party from level 10 and the many things that were added help soloing a lot.
But there are a lot of parties happening and leveling proceeds as normal. Hence no need for gloom and doom.
To the OP. If your character is at Phoenix server, send me a tell or mail. Character name is the same with this one:)
It's quite possible up to 30's at least. From that point on, it gets increasingly harder though. So much that I'd consider it to not be viable no more.
Good thing you picked up Asura though; that or Odin or Bahamut are really the only choices nowadays, since they're the top 3 servers in terms of players.
EDIT: If you have a high level friend though, that's another thing. Or other friends that would like to play with you. But if you're alone, all I can say is good luck.
You can say that, but it will be the truth this guy will have to face sooner or later.
We can build up false hope and blame things that do not affect the outcome, but in the end the disappointment will strike twice as hard. "Cheer up mate, things will be better for sure!" won't really help when the reality isn't as cheerful as we'd all wish.
Nothing you say will help in the end. Also, grouping at level 10 in this day and age is the worst thing he could do; when was the last time you played this game?
You've said a lot of things without saying anything. No you don't need to party from level 10 and the many things that were added help soloing a lot.
But there are a lot of parties happening and leveling proceeds as normal. Hence no need for gloom and doom.
To the OP. If your character is at Phoenix server, send me a tell or mail. Character name is the same with this one:)
Thank you for the contact information
Would you know a viable site to get information from so that I can familiarize myself with the game even more? Is the wikia the main source of information on FF IX?
You can say that, but it will be the truth this guy will have to face sooner or later.
Nothing you say will help in the end. Also, grouping at level 10 in this day and age is the worst thing he could do; when was the last time you played this game?
What truth, if anything the population has been rising because of FFXIV, and players of all walks are wanting to check out why there is so much excitement for this new title, and what they may have missed. Granted there are a ton of players that have been weened on WoW and give up in 2min cause they don't have the patience to learn how to move their char....and quite frankly they don't belong in FFXI nor FFXIV.
I last played for 2 months following the announcement of FFXIV, but havn't for the past 4, but that entire time I had no issues finding a group at lvl 10, granted I did prefer to solo to lvl 20 using the "Fields of Valor" more often cause I found it too be much quicker. Overall though Dunes and Qufim and Kazham were always hoping mad with parties using the Level Sync. The lower lvl zones have become packed because its quicker and easier to lvl a high lvl job while sync'd to an alt or new player. Less skills and abilities and mobs difficulties to deal with, plus its easier to get a party to these zones than most of the higher ones, which can still take an hr or more to get too and get started.
I'm on the Fenrir server and I'm greatly considering returning cause nothing holds my attention, nor offers any kind of challenge or penalties like FFXI still does. I hope to have a similar feeling of accomplishments and community in FFXIV.
A tip though, when asking someone to party, even if they have their seek up, always start with the <Excuse me> auto-translate and then ask. The Japanese players and even many Americans like myself prefer that, cause even while our seek is up we're probably busy and you're interrupting up; its just common courtesy! Little things like this go a long way to making lasting friendships!
Ah... you and everyone else. You make something more efficient than the "patient" way and people will do it. That's why grouping must be getting hard in that game. Gotta love the new generation of players making the genre commit seppuku.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Would you know a viable site to get information from so that I can familiarize myself with the game even more? Is the wikia the main source of information on FF IX?
Click my signature that links to my FFXI/FFXIV guild forums, and check out the guides section at the top. I wrote a few about setting up the game, and copied others of some of the more important ones from other locations. They'll help you out a lot!
Yeah yeah... still, the active subscriptions for the game have gone down considerably since the summer. That doesn't strike to me as a good thing, but maybe what you say is right and facts are wrong... maybe not.
If you want this guy to succeed, don't tell him to group at level 10. Don't tell him to group at all during the teens. Tell him to do FoV instead, like he should.
Anyway, he will be disappointed one day. Hopefully that day won't come before XIV is out, but I have my doubts.
You can say that, but it will be the truth this guy will have to face sooner or later.
We can build up false hope and blame things that do not affect the outcome, but in the end the disappointment will strike twice as hard. "Cheer up mate, things will be better for sure!" won't really help when the reality isn't as cheerful as we'd all wish.
Nothing you say will help in the end. Also, grouping at level 10 in this day and age is the worst thing he could do; when was the last time you played this game?
You've said a lot of things without saying anything. No you don't need to party from level 10 and the many things that were added help soloing a lot.
But there are a lot of parties happening and leveling proceeds as normal. Hence no need for gloom and doom.
To the OP. If your character is at Phoenix server, send me a tell or mail. Character name is the same with this one:)
Thank you for the contact information
Would you know a viable site to get information from so that I can familiarize myself with the game even more? Is the wikia the main source of information on FF IX?
What Keysir added are very useful. Personally I use Alakazzam for the info I need.
The game, regardless what people say, has a steady population and although it can be a bit hard, once you get into the swing of things it gets easy.
Party wise just remember it's a social game too. So the normal etiquette rules apply:) Maybe I was lucky but I have found a lot of people during my gametime that helped me do stuff. Just be polite like you would in any other social activity and you will find help.
Yeah yeah... still, the active subscriptions for the game have gone down considerably since the summer. That doesn't strike to me as a good thing, but maybe what you say is right and facts are wrong... maybe not.
If you want this guy to succeed, don't tell him to group at level 10. Don't tell him to group at all during the teens. Tell him to do FoV instead, like he should.
Anyway, he will be disappointed one day. Hopefully that day won't come before XIV is out, but I have my doubts.
Still no fact to support this claim.
If someone is too succeed in FFXI, they need to start grouping as soon as possible, and use the Fields of Valor as something to do on the side or during down times when there are no parties, which does still happen from time to time. The last thing that one needs to teach a new player of FFXI is to treat it like WoW and its pathetic spawns where you solo to the cap then suddenly try to learn how to play in a group setting and know what you're doing. One must party as early and as often as possible, too see how playing with others is beneficial and how different jobs compliment each other and most of all what combinations work the best against certain families of mobs. Once one has the early stuff down then said player should proceed to more difficult encounters.
Its like you wish for this new player to fail and give up, from all this negative/false info you keep posting. The population on every server of FFXI is plenty well off, if it wasn't then they would have merged or closed servers which SE has never done to my knowledge. This MMO just takes a great deal more of dedication and patience than everything else, but with a bit of determination as well everything is possible at any lvl or location.
Okay okay, I just wanted to be lazy... www.ffxiah.com/data.php
There's the number of active characters. Half a year ago every server had at least 13,000 characters active, while some had around 11,500~12,000. 3 servers had about 17,000 characters each. Now look at the statistics. The subscriptions have gone down at least 25% in half a year period. Painful, but a sad truth.
I wish for that player to not suffer from the negative experiences in XI so much that he wouldn't try another SE game for no good reason. That would be tragic. I also want him to save some precious time of his life. I wouldn't be saying these things if I honestly thought that he could do it, I still like the game and it is still best in terms of some things for me at least. But it's not perfect, nor even good at some other things. Lumping out every point of criticism to "lack of dedication" isn't really realistic. The game has it's flaws, admit it instead of making up excuses that the player lacks "dedication and patience" and that he is "WoW noob that shouldn't be playing a brilliant game like FFXI in the first place". You're only fooling yourself.
Believe in yourself OP, and everything will be possible. Not.
Okay okay, I just wanted to be lazy... www.ffxiah.com/data.php
There's the number of active characters. Half a year ago every server had at least 13,000 characters active, while some had around 11,500~12,000. 3 servers had about 17,000 characters each. Now look at the statistics. The subscriptions have gone down at least 25% in half a year period. Painful, but a sad truth.
Lumping out every point of criticism to "lack of dedication" isn't really realistic. The game has it's flaws, admit it instead of making up excuses that the player lacks "dedication and patience" and that he is "WoW noob that shouldn't be playing a brilliant game like FFXI in the first place". You're only fooling yourself.
Believe in yourself OP, and everything will be possible. Not.
Well first off, those #s clearly say from July 2006, not July 2009 which you keep claiming, and you still present no fact that those higher population #s are true other than by your word, which you can't since SE has never released true numbers besides greater than 500k subs and over 2 million characters have been created since launch.
Second you're twisting my words into something I clearly didn't say, trying to make me look as negative as you!
That's a load of opinionated BS that is entirely false! There is no fact anywhere to say any of this is true, and besides we don't have the full story.
First off are you still under lvl 10, what job did you start as, have you explored your entire starting town and spoke with all the NPCs to find shops, gone out and earned enough gil to buy gear and scrolls and prepared yourself for grouping that can start at lvl 10? Have you turned on your Seek to let others know you want to party!? Do you know how to seek other players that are LFG?
/sea all 10 or whatever lvl you are to find other players seeking or 10-20 or by job WAR, RDM, BLM, THF, WHM, MNK...etc etc etc
I became quite familiar with the starting city that I chose (cant remember the name of it though lol) The LFG option I dabbled in a bit but was largely unsuccessful. My class was a warrior, I used the wikia site to make sure my gear was up to standard for my role.
If you dont have your LFG flag up chances of you getting a party is slim to none as a war. You need to do more than "dabbled" You need to use it all the time when you want an XP party.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
The FFXI auction house is not indicative of the population as a whole.
Some servers are more active, others less so.
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/guide/development/census/09/index.htmlPersonally I just read this one.
FFXI is not at its zenith but neither is at its nadir. It's quite balanced compared with others.
Since 2006... since.... that's how long the system has been tracking the statistics. For added information, in 2006 the active subscriptions were around 22,000 per server. The more you know~
Why would I lie though? What reason do I have to? If it was the case that the playerbase didn't keep dropping, I wouldn't be saying that here. I'm not being realistic for no reason. If I saw there still some hope, I would have said it here. There is no point in lying though, that would serve no purpose.
What you said will hurt him more in the end than what I said.. you want good for this guy but the effect is the opposite. He will see it in time, regardless of whatever you try to prove him or me.
Of course that won't give a much more positive look at the situation, no way. SE wouldn't stay quiet about it if their playerbase started dropping increasingly. They'd be completely honest about it and inform us as soon as something happened.
Not.
Of course that won't give a much more positive look at the situation, no way. SE wouldn't stay quiet about it if their playerbase started dropping increasingly. They'd be completely honest about it and inform us as soon as something happened.
Not.
lol let's not turn it into conspiracy theories.
So far I am leveling jobs quite nicely even at that bad situation that you've presented. Hell before being in Phoenix I was at Garuda, one of the least populated servers according to some, and still was finding parties quite nicely and leveling/doing stuff.
I play for quite sometime now and everytime it's the same "FF11 is dying". No it won't have 1mil subs since we have more mmo's around than before.
Thing is a new player has to do a little more effort than before and he will enjoy the game. Being pessimist really affects judgement though.