FFXI questions

Comments

• Torak Member Posts: 4,905

  June 2006

  WoW, no replies?

  Everyone sure jumped on this thread http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/81202 
• HitmanX46 Member Posts: 7

  June 2006

  Well I am just returning to this game, although I'll do my best to answer some of your questions seeing as nobody else has stepped up:
  
  It seems that your main gripe with this game is its emphasis on group play.  The, "not being able to solo after lvl 10" thing still stands true, and I know you've heard it before, but I'll say it again.  You can solo with beastmaster! I feel the same way you do as the grouping causes problems when you want to advance your character while not spending 1-2 hours just getting a full party together. 
  
  I'd say this game is about average on the difficulty scale as far as gathering money.  Take the time to learn a craft and the time to utilize that ability and your gil flow should be pretty solid.  But for sure, this ain't no EQII.
  
  Yes, you still pay a little extra per month for each additional character that you create.
  
  Crafting in Final Fantasy XI is called synthesis.  Blacksmiths can synthesize weapons and heavy armor, alchemists can synthesize potions, etc...It is viable without adventuring outside the city walls although if your not too lazy, and can gather your own materials, it will benefit you as far profits go if you sell your creations.
  
  Yes, the servers are still international and you will come across people that will send you the common tell,"I don't speak english." Although, I don't remember this being as much of a problem for me as some other people make it out to be.  Depending on your server, I found the majority of people to be American.
  
  I don't really understand what your asking here.
  
  There was a beta for the Xbox 360 version a while ago, although I don't know believe there is any "30 day trial" period or not.  Even so, I found that an MMORPG like FFXI deserves more than 1 month to be able to make a valid decision on whether or not you want to pursue a subscription in the world of Vana'diel.
  
  Overall, the thing that seemed to piss you off the most was the lack of soloing past the early levels in the game.  Unfortunately, this is still entact, and because this is the way FFXI was designed, I don't see it changing anytime in the future.  Also, I know I shouldn't be saying this on these forums, although based on your issues with FFXI, you should give World of Warcraft a little whirl and see what you think.  Just tryin' to help .
  
  
  
• Torak Member Posts: 4,905

  June 2006

  Yeah, I would guess that the solo / group balance is my key issue. I get annoyed when a game doesn't try to balanace that issue somewhat. Like I said, I don't mind grouping but when I don't have a big chunk of time solo is good also.

  I remember liking the FFXI world though. I did a lot of reading this weekend on it.

  It wasn't the non-English speaking that bothered me ( I play many games on Euro servers as I live in Europe now a days) but it was the rude treatment by the Asians that got under my skin. I'm not reading to much about that lately. It was a common gripe when I played this before.

  The economy can't be to hard, compared to L2 anything is easy The EQII economy is silly easy. If you can't make money hand over fist in WoW or EQII just give up MMO's hehehe

  As far as WoW, I am thinking about it. But that game already has a lot of mileage with me and my wife. Its very very old hat. Ive done the raids, did the PvP and maxed out a small army of toons already.

   I was looking for something fresh. This game is exceptionally hard to get an opinion on (as you can see from the amount of replies here) I am guessing the bulk of the players are PS2 or Xbox players and it doesn't have a very big PC population.
• Telaki Member Posts: 361

  June 2006

  Its not that its unbalanced, Its an MMORPG So you can't solo 1-75 with all 18 Jobs In a reasonable ammount of time. That doesn't make it unbalanced, it makes it challenging. Bst isnt the only job you can solo effectivly with anyway, Drg can, Smn, Blm, Nin, Pld, & Now Blu.

  Its not like you need to be in a party to leave the damn town, Once you get to certain lvls You'll have more options opend up to you. I belive you said you played for a month? Did you even make it to lvl 30?

  I wasn't even going to reply untill I read your last comment. It was just.. the Ignorance.. wow.. It amazed me. If you were looking for replies, Maybe going to a website that was devoted towards just FFXI and not 200+ Other Games would give you more results. I only happend to find this forum while looking for a review on another game, And from what I've seen there are about 10 Regulars posting, FFXI regulars. Granted ffxi on Ps2 is 4 years old, and on 360 Its 2 months old, You automatically out rule PC because "You don't have enough replies on a third rate forum".  Hell I'll bet you 1,000,000 Gil if you message somone on ffxi and ask them if they've been to the mmorpg.com forums for ffxi they'd look at you like you're a dumbass and direct you to  KI or Alla.

  But anyway go post your questions here if you want real answers:

  ffxi.allakhazam.com or ffxi.killvoid.com
• Torak Member Posts: 4,905

  June 2006

  Yikes............

  I'll back off this game for sure now, thanks for the informitive reply!
• Spacemeng Member Posts: 31

  June 2006

  I'm new to this board, so hello and sorry I didn't see this when you posted 4 days ago. 
  
  Everyone has a different take on the various games out there right now.  I started playing my first MMORPG when I helped develop one (which will remain unnamed) because I couldn't really afford to play until I had a job after college.  FFXI is the richest experience that I've found so far after trying many games, including DAoC, EQ2, Guild Wars, and a year and a half of WoW.  I would say it's a bit more hardcore than WoW, but I found WoW to be boring in the end after trying 8 different characters and running Upper Blackrock Spire a hundred times and still not getting the drops I need.  I missed the Final Fantasy XI cutscenes and being able to level whatever job I wanted to without having to go through the same boring quests over and over.  I can't say I miss questing in the Barrens and Tanaris much.
  
  FFXI was a breath of fresh air to me when I came back to it.  I'd like to make a few comments about your questions above as well.
  
  Grouping only gameplay - it was about impossible to level after 10 or 15 (?) solo, is this still the case? Like I said, I have no problem with group, it just was 100% grouping I didn't like. (Im also not to crazy about being able to solo with only 1 class in the game.)
  

  • It's definitely not impossible to solo after 10 to 15, you just have to know what you're doing a little bit.  I leveled white mage a bit so that I could use it as a sub job for soloing and it's very useful in this respect.  I solo as a dark knight/ninja quite often also and it works well.
  • There is also a new-ish NPC (henchman) quest that everyone can do in where you choose an NPC
    that you can call whenever you want to help you.  You can level him
    steadily just like you do yourself, and you can tell him what job to do
    and what equipment to use, etc.
  • It is possible to solo for experience points with other jobs besides beastmaster, but the
    effective way is to party for exp still because you're able to kill harder
    enemies for more experience points.
  • There are many quests and other things to do that are soloable.
    

  Economy - seemed rough from what I remember but hell, I just finished 9 months of L2, anything is probably easy now. I've been playing EQII for about a month and have more gold then I can spend.
  

  • The economy is different on different servers, but I can say that on Bismarck it's not hard to finance most of your gear and items up to about the mid 50s.  At about 60, you start seeing that the gear you need to be as effective as possible is going to take some work.  There's been some inflation, but I wouldn't let that stop you.
    

  Only 1 character still without having to pay extra? From what I remember, you had to pay an additional dollar for every character after the first??? Is that still the case?
  

  • Yes, but at least you can level any job at any time without creating another character.
    

  I totally forgot, is there crafting? (I'm sure there is but what it like again?) If so, is it viable without adventuring or is it just a sub skill of an adventure class?
  

  • This is pretty much covered above, and you could eventually be a master at every craft without giving up other crafts unlike most other games, and there's a lot of money to be made here if you have a high skill.
    

  I remember having a mixed Asian - North American servers. It was the only game I ever played where people kicked me from a group or would not invite me because I was American. (people actually said "no U.S." and then ignored you) Is this still the case? Has it lightened up at all?
  

  • I have American and Japanese friends on Bismarck and even though I don't speak Japanese I'm in a Japanese linkshell and I frequently party with Japanese players.  I haven't experienced what you have I guess.  I see it as a very friendly community although you always see some elite attitudes, especially in a game that has matured for over 3 years.
    

  Is the "content" kill task centered? I don't remember. I seem to recall some fairly involved quest with some cut scenes or something....lord its been a long time lol.
  

  • I think you mean, "Kill 10 of these and I'll be happy" type quests.  Generally, quests have cutscenes and you feel like you're the centerpiece of a big story.  Sometimes the quests are easy and many of them are challenging.  Many of the quests involve killing, but it's not as excessive and boring as I found in WoW.
    

  Is there a trial?
  

  • Unfortunately, not right now other than the first 30 days are free.

  I'm currently playing EQII and SWG but to be honest SWG is to broken to keep playing and they are revamping it again and EQII just doesn't have any personality, it's generic fantasy world 38563. And to be honest, I'm just burned out on L2. Nothing else out there is really grabbing my attention.
  
  I don't have any overwhelming fond memories of FFXI (I only played about a month) but dont have any big objections either. What really bothered me was the lack of any viable soloing when I only have shorter periods to play. I don't care about the grind, its in all games.
  
  To me, FFXI has a fun combat system, so the grind doesn't seem like work to me.  I generally always have fun and there's always tons of stuff to do whether you're soloing or hanging out with 1, 2, 5, or 17 or more friends.  The new Treasures of Aht Urghan expansion has some fun ways to earn exp and money without having to party the normal way.  After 2+ years I'm still excited about the game, and for me that's saying a lot since I tend to get burned out easily with the other MMOs I've tried.
  
  
  
• Torak Member Posts: 4,905

  June 2006

  Thanks for your very helpful, intellegent well thought out non insulting post bro I had lost hope on this particular board lol.

  ---

  Originally posted by Spacemeng
  I'm new to this board, so hello and sorry I didn't see this when you posted 4 days ago. 

  You do realize, according to another poster this is a 3rd rate site hehehe
  
  Everyone has a different take on the various games out there right now.  I started playing my first MMORPG when I helped develop one (which will remain unnamed) because I couldn't really afford to play until I had a job after college.  FFXI is the richest experience that I've found so far after trying many games, including DAoC, EQ2, Guild Wars, and a year and a half of WoW.  I would say it's a bit more hardcore than WoW, but I found WoW to be boring in the end after trying 8 different characters and running Upper Blackrock Spire a hundred times and still not getting the drops I need.  I missed the Final Fantasy XI cutscenes and being able to level whatever job I wanted to without having to go through the same boring quests over and over.  I can't say I miss questing in the Barrens and Tanaris much.

  Yes, the raids and such in endgame WoW are really a turn off. I did a little bit of it, I didn't care to much for it. Raiding is never fun. I can't see why devs force it into games. The PvP was "ok" but without dynamic impact on the gameworld all it came down to was grinding points.
  
  FFXI was a breath of fresh air to me when I came back to it.  I'd like to make a few comments about your questions above as well.
  
  Grouping only gameplay - it was about impossible to level after 10 or 15 (?) solo, is this still the case? Like I said, I have no problem with group, it just was 100% grouping I didn't like. (Im also not to crazy about being able to solo with only 1 class in the game.)
  
  
  
  It's definitely not impossible to solo after 10 to 15, you just have to know what you're doing a little bit.  I leveled white mage a bit so that I could use it as a sub job for soloing and it's very useful in this respect.  I solo as a dark knight/ninja quite often also and it works well.
  There is also a new-ish NPC (henchman) quest that everyone can do in where you choose an NPC that you can call whenever you want to help you.  You can level him steadily just like you do yourself, and you can tell him what job to do and what equipment to use, etc.
  It is possible to solo for experience points with other jobs besides beastmaster, but the effective way is to party for exp still because you're able to kill harder enemies for more experience points.
  There are many quests and other things to do that are soloable.
  Like I said, Im not looking for pure solo, I just like to be able to hop on a grind for a bit if I only have a limited amount of time. That henchmen sounds promising.
  

  Economy - seemed rough from what I remember but hell, I just finished 9 months of L2, anything is probably easy now. I've been playing EQII for about a month and have more gold then I can spend.
  

  • The economy is different on different servers, but I can say that on Bismarck it's not hard to finance most of your gear and items up to about the mid 50s.  At about 60, you start seeing that the gear you need to be as effective as possible is going to take some work.  There's been some inflation, but I wouldn't let that stop you.
    

  To be honest Im not worried about economies anymore....I don't think anything can be harder then L2's and I did very well in that. Top grade at all levels. You just need to commit the time to the economy and selling.

  
  Only 1 character still without having to pay extra? From what I remember, you had to pay an additional dollar for every character after the first??? Is that still the case?
  
  

  • Yes, but at least you can level any job at any time without creating another character.
    Yuk, I cant make a Human and a taru taru and not pay extra

  I totally forgot, is there crafting? (I'm sure there is but what it like again?) If so, is it viable without adventuring or is it just a sub skill of an adventure class?
  

  • This is pretty much covered above, and you could eventually be a master at every craft without giving up other crafts unlike most other games, and there's a lot of money to be made here if you have a high skill.
    

  I remember having a mixed Asian - North American servers. It was the only game I ever played where people kicked me from a group or would not invite me because I was American. (people actually said "no U.S." and then ignored you) Is this still the case? Has it lightened up at all?
  

  • I have American and Japanese friends on Bismarck and even though I don't speak Japanese I'm in a Japanese linkshell and I frequently party with Japanese players.  I haven't experienced what you have I guess.  I see it as a very friendly community although you always see some elite attitudes, especially in a game that has matured for over 3 years.
    

  Like I said, it was more a complaint a few years ago. By no means am I intolerant or anything. Hehehe I'm an American living in Europe (non-military) I did run into some bad situations in FFXI in the past. I don't see anything like that now on any forums.

  
  Is the "content" kill task centered? I don't remember. I seem to recall some fairly involved quest with some cut scenes or something....lord its been a long time lol.
  
  

  • I think you mean, "Kill 10 of these and I'll be happy" type quests.  Generally, quests have cutscenes and you feel like you're the centerpiece of a big story.  Sometimes the quests are easy and many of them are challenging.  Many of the quests involve killing, but it's not as excessive and boring as I found in WoW.
    

  Yes "kill task" for the win! Some day the man who thought up grind and kill task will have to pay for his evil deeds.

  
  Is there a trial?
  
  

  • Unfortunately, not right now other than the first 30 days are free.

  I'm currently playing EQII and SWG but to be honest SWG is to broken to keep playing and they are revamping it again and EQII just doesn't have any personality, it's generic fantasy world 38563. And to be honest, I'm just burned out on L2. Nothing else out there is really grabbing my attention.
  
  I don't have any overwhelming fond memories of FFXI (I only played about a month) but dont have any big objections either. What really bothered me was the lack of any viable soloing when I only have shorter periods to play. I don't care about the grind, its in all games.
  
  To me, FFXI has a fun combat system, so the grind doesn't seem like work to me.  I generally always have fun and there's always tons of stuff to do whether you're soloing or hanging out with 1, 2, 5, or 17 or more friends.  The new Treasures of Aht Urghan expansion has some fun ways to earn exp and money without having to party the normal way.  After 2+ years I'm still excited about the game, and for me that's saying a lot since I tend to get burned out easily with the other MMOs I've tried.

  • It's definitely not impossible to solo after 10 to 15, you just have to know what you're doing a little bit.  I leveled white mage a bit so that I could use it as a sub job for soloing and it's very useful in this respect.  I solo as a dark knight/ninja quite often also and it works well.
  • There is also a new-ish NPC (henchman) quest that everyone can do in where you choose an NPC that you can call whenever you want to help you.  You can level him steadily just like you do yourself, and you can tell him what job to do and what equipment to use, etc.
  • It is possible to solo for experience points with other jobs besides beastmaster, but the effective way is to party for exp still because you're able to kill harder enemies for more experience points.
  • There are many quests and other things to do that are soloable.

  Like I said, Im not looking for pure solo, I just like to be able to hop on a grind for a bit if I only have a limited amount of time. That henchmen sounds promising.
  

  Economy - seemed rough from what I remember but hell, I just finished 9 months of L2, anything is probably easy now. I've been playing EQII for about a month and have more gold then I can spend.
  

  • The economy is different on different servers, but I can say that on Bismarck it's not hard to finance most of your gear and items up to about the mid 50s.  At about 60, you start seeing that the gear you need to be as effective as possible is going to take some work.  There's been some inflation, but I wouldn't let that stop you.
    

  To be honest Im not worried about economies anymore....I don't think anything can be harder then L2's and I did very well in that. Top grade at all levels. You just need to commit the time to the economy and selling.

  
  Only 1 character still without having to pay extra? From what I remember, you had to pay an additional dollar for every character after the first??? Is that still the case?
  
  

  • Yes, but at least you can level any job at any time without creating another character.
    Yuk, I cant make a Human and a taru taru and not pay extra

  I totally forgot, is there crafting? (I'm sure there is but what it like again?) If so, is it viable without adventuring or is it just a sub skill of an adventure class?
  

  • This is pretty much covered above, and you could eventually be a master at every craft without giving up other crafts unlike most other games, and there's a lot of money to be made here if you have a high skill.
    

  I remember having a mixed Asian - North American servers. It was the only game I ever played where people kicked me from a group or would not invite me because I was American. (people actually said "no U.S." and then ignored you) Is this still the case? Has it lightened up at all?
  

  • I have American and Japanese friends on Bismarck and even though I don't speak Japanese I'm in a Japanese linkshell and I frequently party with Japanese players.  I haven't experienced what you have I guess.  I see it as a very friendly community although you always see some elite attitudes, especially in a game that has matured for over 3 years.
    

  Like I said, it was more a complaint a few years ago. By no means am I intolerant or anything. Hehehe I'm an American living in Europe (non-military) I did run into some bad situations in FFXI in the past. I don't see anything like that now on any forums.

  
  Is the "content" kill task centered? I don't remember. I seem to recall some fairly involved quest with some cut scenes or something....lord its been a long time lol.
  
  

  • I think you mean, "Kill 10 of these and I'll be happy" type quests.  Generally, quests have cutscenes and you feel like you're the centerpiece of a big story.  Sometimes the quests are easy and many of them are challenging.  Many of the quests involve killing, but it's not as excessive and boring as I found in WoW.
    

  Yes "kill task" for the win! Some day the man who thought up grind and kill task will have to pay for his evil deeds.

  
  Is there a trial?
  
  

  • Unfortunately, not right now other than the first 30 days are free.

  I'm currently playing EQII and SWG but to be honest SWG is to broken to keep playing and they are revamping it again and EQII just doesn't have any personality, it's generic fantasy world 38563. And to be honest, I'm just burned out on L2. Nothing else out there is really grabbing my attention.
  
  I don't have any overwhelming fond memories of FFXI (I only played about a month) but dont have any big objections either. What really bothered me was the lack of any viable soloing when I only have shorter periods to play. I don't care about the grind, its in all games.
  
  To me, FFXI has a fun combat system, so the grind doesn't seem like work to me.  I generally always have fun and there's always tons of stuff to do whether you're soloing or hanging out with 1, 2, 5, or 17 or more friends.  The new Treasures of Aht Urghan expansion has some fun ways to earn exp and money without having to party the normal way.  After 2+ years I'm still excited about the game, and for me that's saying a lot since I tend to get burned out easily with the other MMOs I've tried.

  • It's definitely not impossible to solo after 10 to 15, you just have to know what you're doing a little bit.  I leveled white mage a bit so that I could use it as a sub job for soloing and it's very useful in this respect.  I solo as a dark knight/ninja quite often also and it works well.
  • There is also a new-ish NPC (henchman) quest that everyone can do in where you choose an NPC that you can call whenever you want to help you.  You can level him steadily just like you do yourself, and you can tell him what job to do and what equipment to use, etc.
  • It is possible to solo for experience points with other jobs besides beastmaster, but the effective way is to party for exp still because you're able to kill harder enemies for more experience points.
  • There are many quests and other things to do that are soloable.

  Like I said, Im not looking for pure solo, I just like to be able to hop on a grind for a bit if I only have a limited amount of time. That henchmen sounds promising.
  

  Economy - seemed rough from what I remember but hell, I just finished 9 months of L2, anything is probably easy now. I've been playing EQII for about a month and have more gold then I can spend.
  

  • The economy is different on different servers, but I can say that on Bismarck it's not hard to finance most of your gear and items up to about the mid 50s.  At about 60, you start seeing that the gear you need to be as effective as possible is going to take some work.  There's been some inflation, but I wouldn't let that stop you.
    

  To be honest Im not worried about economies anymore....I don't think anything can be harder then L2's and I did very well in that. Top grade at all levels. You just need to commit the time to the economy and selling.

  
  Only 1 character still without having to pay extra? From what I remember, you had to pay an additional dollar for every character after the first??? Is that still the case?
  
  

  • Yes, but at least you can level any job at any time without creating another character.
    Yuk, I cant make a Human and a taru taru and not pay extra

  I totally forgot, is there crafting? (I'm sure there is but what it like again?) If so, is it viable without adventuring or is it just a sub skill of an adventure class?
  

  • This is pretty much covered above, and you could eventually be a master at every craft without giving up other crafts unlike most other games, and there's a lot of money to be made here if you have a high skill.
    

  I remember having a mixed Asian - North American servers. It was the only game I ever played where people kicked me from a group or would not invite me because I was American. (people actually said "no U.S." and then ignored you) Is this still the case? Has it lightened up at all?
  

  • I have American and Japanese friends on Bismarck and even though I don't speak Japanese I'm in a Japanese linkshell and I frequently party with Japanese players.  I haven't experienced what you have I guess.  I see it as a very friendly community although you always see some elite attitudes, especially in a game that has matured for over 3 years.
    

  Like I said, it was more a complaint a few years ago. By no means am I intolerant or anything. Hehehe I'm an American living in Europe (non-military) I did run into some bad situations in FFXI in the past. I don't see anything like that now on any forums.

  
  Is the "content" kill task centered? I don't remember. I seem to recall some fairly involved quest with some cut scenes or something....lord its been a long time lol.
  
  

  • I think you mean, "Kill 10 of these and I'll be happy" type quests.  Generally, quests have cutscenes and you feel like you're the centerpiece of a big story.  Sometimes the quests are easy and many of them are challenging.  Many of the quests involve killing, but it's not as excessive and boring as I found in WoW.
    

  Yes "kill task" for the win! Some day the man who thought up grind and kill task will have to pay for his evil deeds.

  
  Is there a trial?
  
  

  • Unfortunately, not right now other than the first 30 days are free.

  I'm currently playing EQII and SWG but to be honest SWG is to broken to keep playing and they are revamping it again and EQII just doesn't have any personality, it's generic fantasy world 38563. And to be honest, I'm just burned out on L2. Nothing else out there is really grabbing my attention.
  
  I don't have any overwhelming fond memories of FFXI (I only played about a month) but dont have any big objections either. What really bothered me was the lack of any viable soloing when I only have shorter periods to play. I don't care about the grind, its in all games.
  
  To me, FFXI has a fun combat system, so the grind doesn't seem like work to me.  I generally always have fun and there's always tons of stuff to do whether you're soloing or hanging out with 1, 2, 5, or 17 or more friends.  The new Treasures of Aht Urghan expansion has some fun ways to earn exp and money without having to party the normal way.  After 2+ years I'm still excited about the game, and for me that's saying a lot since I tend to get burned out easily with the other MMOs I've tried.
  
  

  ---

  Well unfortunately "grind" is an aspect of all these types of game. The important thing is that you enjoy the gameplay and community. Lets face it, if you played these games for their RPG qualities, they would stink. Personally I dont think any one game is better then another when it comes to grind. its really a matter of taste. I find EQII to be exceptionally dull. Thats me though. Many many people enjoy it. The community is very good. They are a very mature crowd. WoW on the other hand.........I'm 38 with 3 kids.......not to into that sort of crowd. WoW has an easy grind. Guild Wars has such a horrible crowd its amazing. Actually I found L2 to have an excellent community also. Its another game with a very tough grind.

  So in my limited view of things I would say...tough grind brings a more mature higher quality player then easy grind. Then again I was basically flamed by another poster here for asking a few questions so my "view" is not perfect.

  Like I said I was just shopping for a change. L2 is a great game but very intense and I need a break. EQII is to low key and to drab.

  Thanks again for your very well written reply. It was very helpful. 
  

  Looks like the forum gremlins got into this reply sorry