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FFXI - casual gamer gets schooled....hardcore-schooled
dfloss7
Member Posts: 6
If WoW is tick tack toe, then FFXI is playing 12 games of chess blindfolded against Bobby Fischer.
Ya so I've played WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, some City of Villains, Everquest, and Ultima Online. I've played and beaten several final fantasys and I thought I could handle this game.....
BOY WAS I WRONG!! This game, played on a PC minus a game controller is TOUGH. I mean how do you even play a low level black mage when low level spells cost 1500gil and you start with 60gil. I had one spell "stone" that didn't work well enough to save me from insta-death.
So then I made a warrior, killed a couple of bees and though "ok I get this" called up my other buddies who bought the game and found out we are all on different servers. I spent two hours today re-creating my character over and over again to get on my one friends server. Still no luck.
So to anyone who got a character to level 75 in FFXI, you are partly insane and partly the most uber gamer I have ever met (except for the guy who works at my local gamestop... that guy is from a different planet). He said he got his character, both jobs up to level 75. He made it sound easy... until I realized he is a professional gamer, I am not a professional gamer.
I read a bunch of guides from here, gamefaqs, and alkazham, and I'm still struggling. If you are a casual gamer like me, watch out, or at least make sure you intimatley know someone who understand this game inside and out. For my part I will probably go back to playing WoW - maybe I'll quit being bored - after I sink 30 days info FFXI and give it a good go.
(\_/)
(o.O)
(^ ^)
Comments
You don't buy them from the AH. You buy them from the NPCs (Sororo the Scribe in Bastok, the Magicmart in San d'Oria, or whoever that spell vendor in Port Windurst is (not the Federal Magic Reserve in Windurst Waters, they sell higher-level spells)). There, they cost 100-200 gil for your lowest-level spells. You NEVER buy any kind of low-level gear at the AH. The prices there for that kind of stuff are just insane. One other word on money matters: do you make sure you always have signet up? Having signet on you is how you get crystals, and that's a big part of your loot.
Hit the mob too. Low level mages have to melee; they can do it effectively at that level and they don't have enough magic to do job alone.
You need a worldpass. Basically, each nation has a worldpass vendor in it. The price for a worldpass varies depending on how crowded the server is, but is generally around 1000 gil. If you purchase a worldpass from the vendor, you get a worldpass code. Anyone creating a character can use that code to specify that the character be created on the world where the worldpass was purchased. The code can be used for up to five characters, and is good for one earth week from the time of purchase. Yeah, it's a pain (Penny Arcade's comic on "The Inconvenience Fairy" was a classic), but it has done a pretty good job of keeping the servers balanced.
FFXI can be tough, no lie. Sounds like you're looking in the right place for info. Allakhazam is a very good; they have very active forums, too. I'm still on that climb to 75 myself; I'm only at 30. One thing about FFXI, in my opinion: it isn't so much about being at 75 as the journey you take to get there. It's a great ride if you take the time to appreciate it. Good luck, and I hope things don't get too tough for you.
I'm using a pc and no it's not really tough controls your just using the number key pad it's not hard to learn infact its pretty easy... it's just diffrent
FFXI- hume warrior 11
forgot the server name...
Linkshell- Fallentearz
Thanks for all the responses!
Anyway here is the update.
I'm now a monk, level 5. My friends and I all recreated until we got on Asura [i'm a long time fan of penny arcade, once again they hit the nail on the head ^_^ ]
Some Japanese guy even tried to help me, but the whole "i can't speak you language" thing got in the way. A couple white mages buffed me too, which was nice.
I am really enjoying FFXI when grouped with my friends, I'm having a blast.
I think the thing I'm really having trouble with is the interface, are there any customer ui's you can install for this game?
p.s. I did get Signet up, and I'm focusing on having fun and not worrying about what level I am etc.
(\_/)
(o.O)
(^ ^)
Btw, sell the crystals that you get in the Auction House (check what price other people are selling it at), not to NPCs. Or you could trade them in for those points.
you poor soul xDDDDDD
I'm also on Asura, but unfortunatly it's one of the most populated and overpriced servers.
I should know having been playing on it for 2 years now, switching characters every once and a while.
Right now im a 61 RDM/SMN. and everything i want to get costs over 1mil.
But all is not lost, one VERY helpfull hint of advice...MINE...
Get workers gear and mine in the closest possible place, its the easyest way to make money, just watch for the mobs if you're a lower level.
Mining is good advice, but *worker gear*? For a newbie?? *I* can't afford worker gear! I seriously doubt that he could afford field gear; that's like 70k and up for the full set. Worker gear would be out of the question. To the OP: don't worry about the gear, just grab some picks and head out. Mining can indeed provide nice gil.
Chris Mattern
I got 2 lv75 jobs, quit for a while and started playing now again ^^
If you played other FF games to 100% completion you should have an
idea of how the world works, you can read lot's of guides about it,
if you plan to play black mage you need to learn the alignment of the
stars and rely on day of the week and weather and learn elemental
weaknesses of the monsters and skillchains so you can magic burst.
Though many new players don't know how to skillchain efficiently
so
And if you wanna play war, it's good to start off as mnk since war/mnk is
probably best til lv30+ when you can sub thf for sneak attack, later you can
also use nin sub which is overrated imho
And as making money just save your seals, at lv60 you can do bcnm60
and get about 10 million divided by 6 each, or ks30 at 70-75, can also do bcnm40 at lv40 but
not as much money per seal as bc60..
and so on.. you can write forever talking about this game.. it's the best, if you get into it and get a highlvl and realise all it has, whichever game you try to play you'll always come back to ffxi.
the depth of this game can be used to your advantage, once you get a little more comfortable w/the controls and set some macros, etc
i recently came back to this game and found that it is in no way like riding a bike, it took me a good hour to remeber the controls, decent low leveling locations, how to make money etc, after a bit i got the hang of it again.
good luck
i hope mor e people jump on this game again, i got tossed to the world hades and it seems to be pretty dead, not even the ah has that many poeple in windy. it may just be because everyone is in higher level locations like juno, and such, but back on my valefor days every ah was packed in every city,
PANDEMONIUM
Tokitoki -- Rank 10
75THF/37NIN - Meriting -
69WAR/34NIN - Leveling -
Bonecraft 68+2
It pissed me off when I first started playing it because the level down thing, but after a while when I got to know people it was cool.
You've Been Hacked?
i r have a few 75 jobs x.X
i r hardcore gamer
so therefore i hardcore spoonaged u
SPOONAGE!!!!!
It's really not a matter of using a game controller or not for this game. The interface, console or PC is just bad. It's different and I give Square-Enix points for that but it's bad and really inefficient when you compare it with interfaces for MMORPGs that came before FFXI and ones that came after it. Ultima Online which came way before it and isn't the greatest looking thing in terms of graphics has a better interface and one that is easier to use. Using the one in Final Fantasy XI can get you killed in a lot of cases if you aren't really careful where you try to use it to check things.
Final Fantasy XI really is a hardcore game though. The first 13 or so levels really aren't that bad but after that, to even just travel you need to be grouped. Now I thought Everquest back in the day was forced grouping. Nope. Clearly I didn't realize what forced grouping really was until I played Final Fantasy XI.
It's a shame really. I'm a big Final Fantasy fan from as far back as playing Final Fantasy 1 on the NES. Though I'm really looking forward to FFXII, that's really because my PS2 (launch version that I got on launch day) finally stopped working and have no plans of getting a new one or a used one seeing as I might be getting a PSP and PS3 doesn't interest me. I wanted to play FFXI, I was really looking forward to but it turned out to be a huge disappointment to me when I realize certain things about it.
I always get the desire to try again then I remember all the trouble I had and don't want to go through again. If only they changed the interface, made travel somewhat easier and made looking for a group easier I might try it again but waiting 4 hours for a group only to have it last 30 minutes or less or to get passed over groups because I don't have a subjob or the correct class isn't my idea of fun. How is one suppose to get these things if they can't group. I like to think myself as a decent mmorpg player but I never had so much bad luck in grouping then I did in FFXI. I actually welcomed playing EQ after I played FFXI due to the experience and that in itself is kinda scary.
Actually that is easy. The thing is, u will have to be switching from controller to k/b and vice versa in order to chat and play at the same time. In order to setup ur controller all u have to do is go to the FFXI config (not in-game but from the start menu root) and set it up there. I did it and found the whole process of playing and chatting awkward.
I don't understand y ppl find the k/b controls difficult. I have them in Compact mode and I picked it up after playing for about 10 min.
Don't thinkt he controls are that difficult, just really cumbersome when it really doesn't have to be..
Ive only played with the compact k/b so I dont really have any experience with gamepad etc. To me, the FF UI have some good stuff and some bad stuff. Whats good is thats its pretty clean, not many windows etc thats blocking my view. And after a while, the right click meny works really well. What I do lack is some kind of spell/skill bar, so I can just click on the spell I wanna cast. Making macro for every spell and trying to get them to fit in one macro bar is kind of a pain. There's only one more thing that I dont like:
combat mode: 1. why do the camera view have to freeze as soon as I enter combat mode? 2. why is it such a pain to switch targets? I dont see why you cant switch taget just by clicking on em, it works in all other MMOs. And the combat meny in the lower left corner that pops up is just useless. Its much quicker to just click ctrl+m if I want to open the spell meny, ctrl+w for weapon skills etc.
I suppose the awkwardness of the UI is casue its a console based UI, and they didnt bother to make a more PC-friendly one for the PC version.
I hear alot of ppl saying that the controls in FFXI are awkward and I can't understand it. If u put the keyboard in compact mode then it is very easy to control. The problem in the UI is definitely because of the PS2. It is very difficult to make a different UI in the PC version because: a. too much money wasted in one project and b. portability may be difficult or close to impossible. I personally like the macro system. In most MMOs u kinda end up using macros in the long run anyway.
Well.. about your friends being on different servers.. as you noticed the servers are chosen randomly unless you get someone to provide you a WorldPass to a specific server.. but WorldPasses cost Gil sooo.. it's not something a new player could easily do right after starting the game.. try requesting a password over forums on the specific section, 1 password can be used 5 times (same or different players) in a time limit of 169hours (i think). Or you can delete~create~delete.. char over and over till you get into the rigth server.. but it's a long shot.
The spells is as stated by another person.. you dont buy low level equipment from the AuctionHouse (AH).. you buy them from stores at the cities.. AH = 1k~2k and on the stores = 100~200
The reason for the difference of price is so, players that dont know nothing about the game can buy from AH and this way, provide a profit for whom is selling the items at such a high price..
Gil is easily made.. I was lv10 and had already 100k Gil but there is a trick for it.. I played starting at San d'Oria and there the only way to make some income is either from fishing (stacks of moat carps ~ 4k or more) ~ btw.. stacks = groups of items in 1 slot.. ex: 12 moat carps, 12 fire crystals, 99 stone arrows ~ anyways, there is also farming fire crystals that sell for like 4k also in AH.. but its never enough to make big profit..
Good good is starting in Windurst.. at lv7~8 depending on job you solo only crawlers and try catching a stack of silk threads (12 silk threads), each stack sell for 50k +- soo if you catch 2 stacks (24 silk threads) you have 50k guaranteed..
I always solo from 1~11, so I advice you to start in Windurst and solo from 7~8 till 10~11 ^_^ only crawlers.
Bastok I dont know much but seems like San d'Oria.. I'm leveling my Black Mage there now, only to farm Wind/Fire Crystals for my Goldsmithing crafts T.T better then buy the crystals arf..
and never forget.. SIGNET!! ALWAYS GET SIGNET FROM THE GUARD THAT IS NEAR THE GATE TO OUTSIDE TOWNS!!!
Signet increases your change of getting crystals and also gives you Conquest Points that in the future will be relevant to buy equipment through the gate guards instead of using real Gil to do it on the AH ^_^
Well I hope you have better luck :P FFXI is a amusing game even for casual players.. I'm a casual player myself.. took me 1 year n half to get to a samurai lv39 and lvled also warrior to 20, monk and black mage to 15, thief and white mage to 30 T.T but had to delete them to start over with friends on another server.. soooo~ play fairly and enjoy :P just play with friends! Or game gets too boring over time!
If you ever need any further help I'm Nelchael and I play on Pandemonium server :P
Never thought I'd see another person playing on the Pandemonium server.
But, with my luck I found two people.
I tried playing this game on the keyboard. For me, too hard. But, who needs it when you have it for the ps2. Quick reaction time.
I'm beastmaster, all I do is solo.
If you play as black mage you might be like me, for instance; I was playing in Valkurm dunes, leveling at level 11.
I was in a party with WAR,WAR,THF,WHM,me(BLM), and another BLM.
Story short, I fell asleep. Since I'm on ps2, I can lay in bed and play it like if i was watching tv. Because of the other BLM, they didn't notice me missing. I was asleep for like two hours, woke up and the party was still going strong and obtained 2 levels.
I got so bored because all a blm does is just sit and cast..
But, it pays off when you get the 'ga spells. Farming is quite fun.
Oh...
Neptus
Pandemonium
Neptus - FFXI - Pandemonium
Neptus - WoW - Detheroc