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Post-merge...
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Member UncommonPosts: 331
So, my original server never really had a terrible population, but it was getting low (~1300 people online during primetime)... logged in this morning after the server merge... 4100 people online... that's INSANE. This definitely has me excited again.
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It's a shame however, that its so top heavy. It's nearly impossible to come back and start from scratch.
I agree
Honestly because of the way they're increasing level cap and adding in a lot of new mid level content making leveling easier and more fun, now is a great time to come back. Even if you have to start over. I just started a new character because I always wanted to be a Taru, I find plenty of parties even at low level and I don't seem to have a problem getting things done. If you want look me up on Diabolos and I'll help you out if you really are sincere in your desire to play FFXI again. Happy gaming!
Edit: Also the economy has never been more stable and cheap!
If this means anything to you I bought a haubergeon for 150k, NOTHING on the AH is more than 3 million gil, not even the enhancing sword. Gil is easier to make and items you need to level are extremely cheap.
I have wanted to come back for a looong time now. I have a character on Diabolos already but dont know if I would just start over or not. How is the population on diabolos Laughing? Its been about 2 years now since I played last and I really miss it.
Yeah I got transferred to Asura from Pandy. There was about 4200 people online when I logged in this morning. It will be nice to see a more populated server with more people to play with. To the people talking about starting from scratch. I just started back in the beginning of March. I have been taking it easy and not going for straight EXP parties and just doing it at my leisure with some Fishing,smithing and gardening on the side and have already made it 23WAR/16MNK/4THF. It is a little slow in the beginning zones but if you can make it to Valkurm it should be fine. Also getting into a nice Linkshell helps^.^
Edit.: There was over 50 people in the Dunes...I was suprised to see that many people on
"That's ludicrous. Are you seriously suggesting that I get better at the game in order to compete?"-Random Failure in the Global Agenda Beta forums.
I have no problems getting parties or finding people for events, we have around 2k online at any given time. I normally also don't have much problem camping NMs any more either, so I'd say its a good mix of enough people but not too many to not have room for you.
A great time to play in my experience, and I've played off an on for 5 years.
I'm playing age of conan right now, but I'm debated heavily about coming back to FFXI.. the only thing that holds me up is FF14.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
I played the game hardcore for 3 years from its NA launch and then on and off a while and I have been thinking of starting again but with FFXIV comming out I know I would not stick around in FFXI once it came out so I feel like I would be wasting my time.
That is completely untrue and I wish people would stop putting that out there.
First of all, with level sync people are leveling their higher level jobs capped down at lower levels (as low as 30 or even 25 sometimes).
With Fields of Valor, you can solo or duo quite a lof of the way, and parties still happen. The only thing you'd require help for are tougher quests and missions.
A friend of mine just started a little over a month ago, from scratch. Though I helped him with his missions so far (which anyone could find help for if they just ask around), the majority of his progress has been on his own. Why? Because instead of complaining about "this" and "that" about the game.. he's actually *playing* it.
This leads me into a side rant...
--Side Rant Start--
So many people (and I don't mean you Splinki) seem to sit around waiting for the help to come to them, and then say "what a crappy community" when it doesn't. Or they'll ask like..once or twice over the period of a week, and then get upset when no one helps (timing and persistence never seem to occur to them). Other players have things they're doing as well, they're not sitting around waiting for someone to need Mission 5-1 so they can go help. They're not going to drop what they're doing *right now* because someone else needs help (and it's amazing how many people I meet who have that expectation, their entitled "I want it now" mentality in full gear).
Same goes for forming parties. So many times you'll see a number of people all seeking a party - enough to form at least 2 parties between them - yet they'll just sit there because none of them are taking the initiative to put one together. They all expect the invites to come to them.. then complain about "crappy grouping mechanics" when they don't. I find many times the limitations people perceive are self-inflicted - and that applies in just about any MMO, in fact.
I can speak from experience because I used to be one of those people who sat around waiting... 'til I noticed how certain other people seemed to have parties constantly - with different people - despite the perceived "limited people" I saw. Of course, seeing othrs sitting around seeking only supported that notion. I never complained about "crappy community" or blamed it on the game.. I just wondered what people who almost always had parties were doing that I wasn't. The difference? They took initiative... I didn't. Once I did, it's amazing how quickly it turned around. Was it like "no parties" to "constant parties"? Of course not.. sometimes there just aren't enough people looking or interested to put a party together. But the difference was significant.
The problem is, in most cases I would argue, is that too many people are just too damn lazy to do anything to change their own situation, and would rather complain about it and blame it on something else.
--Side Rant End--
My friend I mentioned above... is now approaching 30 on his second job, ready to unlock his first subjob and is working on Rank 5 now. He' funding all his own gear, working out the jobs he's playing, figuring out different tactics and such that work for him... and asking for help when he needs it. He's doin fine.
Another friend who started a little farther back but has been playing on and off due to RL limitations, is doing the same.
Both of them will level up, unlock subjobs, finish quests, complete their milestones and be capable of doing everything the longer-time players are doing.
This idea that "it's nearl impossible to catch up now because the game is top-heavy" has been going around for *years*. I remember peopel saying it after the PS2 launch in the US - yet many of those players are farther along than *I* am, and I started with the NA PC release. It was untrue then. And it's actually more untrue now because of various changes SE's made that make the game more accessible than it's ever been.
If you want to check out FFXI, then just get in and play. Forget about "how far along everyone else is"... of course they're going to be.. they've been *playing longer*. That doesn't mean you'll neve catch up.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I will say the same population boost has happened on the new Asura, merged with Pandy. There's over 4k people online during the transition periods... approaching 3000 during US prime time.
Unfortunately a very vocal group of Asurans are proving to live up to the reputation that precedes their server (and I realize not eveyrone is like that), by basically being... well... assholes.
I've seen comments with crap like "GTFO Pandy" and such... as though Pandemonium was collectively begging for a merge at all, much less with Asura.
I will also say that one thing Square Enix did that was *completely* screwed up is how they handled name conflicts. They basically gave arbitrary precedence to one server over the other. If people on both servers had the same name, preference went to the Asura character, regardless. This led to a lot of abuse with people taking other people's names of well known characters (and even entire linkshells) on Pandemonium... and then attempting to hold them for ransom on Asura. Or, they didn't hold them for ransom, bu just didn't want those people to have that name on Asura. Truly classy.
People who have had their character names for *years* lost them because some prick on Asura thought it would be funny to steal the name after they announced a merge, years later.
Finally, SE got a clue and decided "Hey maybe we should stop people from making new characters on the affected servers 'til after the merge?".
Giving arbitrary precedence to one server over another in a merge that *neither* side asked for is BS and a lazy way to handle it. They basically handled it like a mass character transfer where the same rules apply. The difference being, obviously, a normal character transfer *is* requested (and paid for) and doesn't affect an entire server.
What SE should have done is go by the age of the character. If there's a Bob on both servers, the one that was created first should have kept their name, period. That would have been fair and reasonable. The way SE handled it was just plain - pardon the expression - fucked up.
Mind you, I say this having kept my character name, luckily.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I completly agree, that would have been the sensible way to go but I am guessing it required a bit more codding on SEs part then just deciding to use an already existig feature like the character transfer one.
For me its not not being able to get things done. Its not being able to get things done before FF14, because I'm pretty sure I'll be swapping to it once it releases and it wouldnt make much sense to play a game I'm not gonna get very far in, before I ditch it.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
My personal opinion is that it was hard to start over from scratch, having tried twice since launch.
I personally don't just sit around waiting for help to come along, I soloed my little taru butt off for a while, but with a game like FFXI which is so group oriented, it was incredibly boring to return and not see anyone in the areas I was in and when I put up a LFG tag, it would be hours before I had one bite.
Granted, this level-sync thing did not exist to my knowledge the last time I came back. It may be different now, but it was incredibly difficult to find anyone to group with.
The other problem was, that perhaps my server just had too few people on it. Keep in mind the servers have only just been merged; this obviously was not the case when I last played.
So to me, it was ridiculously hard to come back and start from scratch. Perhaps it is not so now.
Well I guess in this case, then, it comes back to the subjectivity of what's "hard" and what different people would consider to be difficult.
It's never seemed difficult to me, even when i started over from scratch a few years after the game came out... so... -shrug-. To each their own I guess.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops