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Why people thinking about coming back to this game definitely should
cowboyupinbl
Member Posts: 32
I just signed up again after about 4 years, and am having an awesome time with the game. I remember two things that always killed my excitement for this game almost every time I logged in:
1. I die, then lose a crap load of experience. And level down. NO FUN.
2. I sit around forever waiting for the right group, desperate for a White Mage. And only a handful of times did I actually come away from the game feeling satisfied and fulfilled because of it.
I am ecstatically happy to say that BOTH of these problems are now non-existent:
For starters, a new system called Fields of Valor has been implemented. A lot of people talk about this but no one ever really explains it. What it is, you'll see a little floating book at the beginning of all the major areas and when you read it you can select from different "hunt missions" for monsters in that area (for example, kill X number of this enemy and Y number of that enemy). Once you complete one of these missions, you instantly gain several hundred EXP and a matching amount of gil, no strings attached. You don't have to run back to the book to turn it in, nada. The only restriction is that you only do one per hour (or in-game day), but that barely ever becomes a problem if you multi-task quests and missions while doing it to spread out the time.
The other great thing about Fields of Valor? After each hunt you also get 30 or so points to spend towards different buffs at any of the FoV books. Among these buffs? RERAISE. It's the same as the White Mage spell: it lasts one hour, and will bring you back to life if you die AND restore 50% of the exp you lost for dying. And it only costs 10 of these points, and like I said you get 30 each time (I accumulated 450+ points by lv18). Other buffs include Protect, Shell, Regen, etc, all the basics, you can get as many as you want all at the same time. So every time you solo in these areas, having Protect and Reraise running full time is a no-brainer.
[Edit: I forgot to mention, enemies now randomly drop treasure chests with 'temporary items' such as Potions (standard and +1-3), Ethers, Elixers, etc., which are items that work the same as the real thing but only last until you zone, or die. This means that you can actually pop a potion or an ether casually now instead of them each costing 1000 gil. This too makes the game much faster paced, so you don't have to sit and rest for 30 seconds after every single mob.]
This changes solo-ing completely by pumping up your EXP intake (and keep in mind you're still getting exp for each kill) and keeping you fighting for longer periods of time between rests. I levelled all the way to lv18 solo in about 3 play sessions (15-20 hours), without once ever feeling the grind. I was just having fun playing my job. FoV books are only located in the major areas between cities, meaning the threat level of passing through these zones is greatly diminished while also giving you a place to solo, but also that other, off-the-beaten path areas will still be challenging for groups.
The other big problem -- trying to find a group -- has been given the same sort of treatment. A new system called Level Sync lets any high-level player "sync" down to your level, so you can quest together and still gain exp. All of their stats and abilities will be temporarily lowered to your level, and the number values for their weapons and armor automatically scale down as well (so they don't have to change equipment). But, they will still be gaining exp as if they were at their old level. This makes it so a lv50, a lv75, a lv40, and a lv12 could all scale down to lv12 to make a fully functional 4-person group. And, since exp gains are always between 50-150 no matter what level you are, nobody even minds doing this, as it's all the same exp in the end.
Fields of Valor alone makes solo-ing ENJOYABLE in this game, and Level Sync bridges the notorious gap between new players and veterans. The game really does have one of the best class systems of any MMO, and some of the best group content, but was just so unapproachable before. That has all changed. And what we are left with, is an MMO with a steadfast, loyal community of people who love the game and are glad to see new people joining and will help you get your subjob items like it's afternoon tea, give you a link pearl for their shell, Level Sync down to help you out, etc. These are people who have been doing the same endgame content for years and are glad to see things being stirred up.
Oh, and since the game population was spreading thin SE just combined a ton of servers. While this does mean not as many people total play anymore, there are TWICE the amount of people per server, which is all that really matters. This just happened two weeks ago, at the end of March.
I don't know about you, but I always wanted to kick ass and take some names as a Dragoon but never made it that far because of the aforementioned problems. But now I'm well on my way and enjoying it. There have also been a few new classes added these past years, and a total of four expansions worth of content so far, with the entire collection just consolidated into one package -- Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection -- currently on sale for 12 bucks on Amazon. Yup, $12. And it's got a new pretty cover:
Well that ends my rant. I just figured I owed it to people because this is exactly what I was wondering before I just took the plunge and tried it out for myself. I started out just to kill some time before FFXIV comes out, bored with all the other MMOs, and was really surprised at how close the game finally is to what I always wanted it to be.
Comments
Thank you for this post! It was very helpful, and $12? I was going to post a thread about joining, but now I don't think I need too, definitely not passing this up, thank you again.
I brought this game about 3months ago and honestly it was horrible when controls were unusable i even read the book that came with it about 5times creating an account alone is a pain in the ass and paying per toon is dumb
I brought this a few years ago along with the expansions.
Now I want to play again the SE site refuses to accept my username and password, the support is about as helpful as a paper keel on a ship and i have to rebuy all the games in order to create a new account
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Norsefire-logo.png
It's $12 that's about the price to sub for a month, you'd be paying it anyway. If you really want to play I don't see why you wouldn't get it.
The controls do take some getting used to. The game was made to be played with a pad. If you have a PS3 there is a way to connect your controller to the PC so you could always use that.
Yup I just bought the game myself, and i absolutely love it. Great buy ^^
trust me you SAW NOTHING YET.
with server merged watch for the
700 PLAYERS besieged and 300 players get CHARMED by Lamia no.5 (forgot her number) and come kicking your ass.
It was priceless.. when i took my thf and used my 2hr to avoid it XD.
none
*currently digging through game manuals from the last 30 years to find the FFXI one*
I knew I should've tattooed that info on my hand! I know I got it somewhere in my "computer closet" I just found a couple of other things I had been looking for. Yay Atari 2600 (it still works omgz!). Sounds like they fixed all the problems I left for. The FoV book sounds awesome! And I can finally group with my lowbie friends...although they're probably 75 by now hehe. I really don't want to start over, I had a galka with EVERY job except BLU, WHM, RDM, and BLM leveled to 75 (yeah I used to be an addict).
I resubbed a couple months ago and it was hard to find groups in Valkurm Dunes, so the wait times made me quit again, thinking that it would be the same ol' problems anyway. But those server merges sound very appealing. I just wish they'd completely do away with the "level down" system - in the grand scheme of things, that one hour FoV 50% exp cut from death doesn't matter much, 'cause an hour is nothing in FFXI, and most deaths wouldn't happen in that hour.
But, I may have to give it a go again...
maybe.
... The main reason i left this game year or so ago is because of the grouping issues..... sounds like they've really done something about that, really looks like i'll have to give it another throw of the dice, thanks for the update on the game!
Don't put too much faith in the Valkurm Dunes; someone told me that since FoV, people solo up to lv20 or so and then head to Jeuno and group in Quifim Island from 20-30. So the whole teen-level Dunes grind is bypassed. I had the same experience as you finding them almost empty, and sure enough, Quifim Island was packed just like the Dunes always used to be, full of both newbies and veterans level syncing for exp/merit points.
I dont know, I havent had trouble on either of my jobs (blm and whm) finding parties almost instantly during the day, the night is sometimes different but all that takes is a few good LS members willing to sync down.
The most important thing to do is MAKE YOUR OWN PARTIES, I literally logged on today to see 3 full parties (tanks and everything) worth of players sitting in lfg.
You bastards got me to resub again and try it out... 10 minutes left for patching. I'm hella excited, but skeptical!
Oh and by the way, there's a few things new players can do to make the graphics 10x better by adjusting a few settings (not in-game, but in the Start Menu > Programs > Playonline > FFXI > FFXI Config menu):
In the 'Screen Size' tab:
Overlay Graphics Res: the resolution of ONLY the user interface and game window (if you play in windowed mode)
Background Res: the resolution of all in-game graphics and models including characters, enemies, etc.
It is important to note that these two things are rendered separately, and you can input different settings for each of them.
You can set the Overlay to whatever you're comfortable with, but pump the Background up to its max setting. This increases the resolution of models/textures on your screen without affecting the UI or window size. You get the best results (if you're the least bit tech-savy at all) by adjusting this part directly through your registry. See this thread:
http://www.onrpg.com/boards/106899.html
By doing this, you will DRAMATICALLY increase the appearance of the game's graphics. Seriously, it goes from blocky/pixelated mess to sleek, refined, and truly impressive visuals. It's just so pretty. At max background resolution (800 and 800 in that thread), this game really shows itself off. You have to see the difference to believe it.