Any FFXI players around here?

[TetsuyaHikari]

I haven't played since the original disc was released and quit playing before the first expansion. Here's my story:

I began playing FFXI a couple of years ago and wanted to solo for a bit. Finally, a couple of people started telling me, "You can't solo to level 21. That's impossible!", but..being as hardheaded and stubborn as I am, I said, "Oh yeah?!" and did it anyway.

I reached level 21 by soloing, but..burned myself out on the game in the process. Since I have quit, four expansions have been released for the game. When I played, I thought the game was great and had a LOT of things to do in it.

So, it wasn't the game's fault I quit, honestly. Now, I realize something so simple. If I want to solo, I should just play an offline RPG. Online games are NOT to be played alone. They are about communicating with your community and interacting with other people, partying, etc.

Now that I realize such a thing, I've been thinking about going back and seeing if things will be a bit more fun for me and I won't burn myself out on it as soon. What I would like to know though is..what all have the expansions added?

It doesn't have to be a LONG detailed list, but just list the biggest updates/changes under each expansion title, if you would.

Also, I would like personal opinions from those who have played and quit or are still playing now and list your reasons for sticking around or why you think it's such a great game, or list the reasons why you quit.

I guess it sounds a little cheap, but..I'm just thinking about playing again and I would like a push in the right direction to help me decide to play or not.

Thanks for the help everyone http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

[Saner]

ya I'm amazed I reached a little past level 60. it's really a game meant for groups, soloing is too tedious unless you're stubborn enough.

http://www.ffxionline.com is a great source for info.

I don't play it more though, despite the great persistent world and art style and stuff,
the gameplay is really not as fun as it could have been. and even some level capped players seem to look bored.
I especially am sick of the unfair battle system. I know its an RPG but missing a giant, especially if its several levels higher, is a cheap attempt at comparing combat effeciency. even if its an IT mob, a metal sword sharp enough to make anything with skin bleed, should always do damage, and especially hit its mark much more often.

the whole system feels extremely nerfed beyond reason unless you are picking on Too Weak mobs, which obviously don't grant any exp at all. I'm not saying a solo person should be able to solo an IT mobs, but at least have a rate of accuracy and damage as they do on TW mobs.

I mean even tanks should have some good DD output, cause it's a joke that even Paladins inflict really sad damage and poor rate of landing a hit in many cases, and on top of that, even the best gear don't provide good enough stats to really be a true tank.

the other thing is that since many things about it are so restrictive and nerfed and other things, there is barely time for any true heroics or adventures. people are just in it for the gil and the material/drops. and other things like level exp gaps further segregate the community even more.

gear barely helps enough as it should. and considering the insane cost it is to get up to date gear, it's really not worth the frustration when the game is kicking you in the face and you have to grind grind grind.

but ya that's enough ranting from me. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif really even games like this, it's the people you hang out with that may help make the game fun. it's just too bad mmorpgs in general (even WoW) fail to grasp the true concept of a fantastic mmorpg experience.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Saner on 2007-12-29 22:11 ]</font>

[NPCMook]

On 2007-12-29 21:23, Kikumaru wrote:
So, it wasn't the game's fault I quit, honestly. Now, I realize something so simple. If I want to solo, I should just play an offline RPG. Online games are NOT to be played alone. They are about communicating with your community and interacting with other people, partying, etc.
Oh no, believe me when I say "YES, YES IT IS THE GAMES FAULT," you need a party to accomplish even the simplest of tasks when you get past level 10, but of course the game is so geared towards high level players that it almost doesn't seem worth going back, but then again, when just about any party you get comes with a free power level, it doesn't take all that long to get to a decent level to actually go and farm some monsters who you fought like 20 levels ago

For the most part they've added 5 new jobs as far as I know; Corsair, Blue Mage, Dancer, Scholar, and I forget the last one...

[Shadow_Wing]

Puppetmaster is the 5th job

Anyways, if you want a time sink, sure hit up FFXI. I enjoy the game, even though I'm on break #8, but the people I play with make the game for me. A lot has changed since the original game, (been there since 2004 <<, god I've played this game too long) summing them up is rather um... difficult.

[TetsuyaHikari]

I heard SE usually fixes the problems in the game. I mean stuff like..players trying to hack money, items, equipment, etc.

I remember how long it used to take to do anything, but..how is the community and the economy? Are they pretty crappy or is it easy to make friends and the items you wish to buy are within reach or do both of these seem impossible?

Keep the comments coming guys http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Zorafim]

It takes almost an hour to get a party together, half an hour to get to where you need to go, a multitude of hours to do what you need to do, and everyone yells at you if you leave.
Besides that, great game.

[Dopples]

FFXI is a whole love-hate thing. Either you completely love the game, or you completely hate it. To like it, you need to be friendly, social, and most of all, patient.

My personal opinion? I agree with the topic creator completely. Online games are online because you can play with others. I can't count how many times I've played MMORPGs like WoW and RO that allowed you to do everything in the game solo. That just wasn't right. Hell, in those games, being in parties made leveling SLOWER. While I think that some solo stuff is alright, a MMO shouldn't forget why it's online in the first place. Both PSU and FFXI fall under this category, and that's why I was able to stick with both for much longer than I did WoW, RO, or RYL.

[NPCMook]

On 2007-12-30 00:02, Dopples wrote:
FFXI is a whole love-hate thing. Either you completely love the game, or you completely hate it. To like it, you need to be friendly, social, and most of all, patient.

My personal opinion? I agree with the topic creator completely. Online games are online because you can play with others. I can't count how many times I've played MMORPGs like WoW and RO that allowed you to do everything in the game solo. That just wasn't right. Hell, in those games, being in parties made leveling SLOWER. While I think that some solo stuff is alright, a MMO shouldn't forget why it's online in the first place. Both PSU and FFXI fall under this category, and that's why I was able to stick with both for much longer than I did WoW, RO, or RYL.

I enjoy group oriented play, BUT HOLY SHIT, I mean you needed a group for some of the most MUNDANE TASKS LIKE GOING BACK TO TOWN

[Mewnie]

FFXI is what happens when you take EQ and put it through the Asian MMO timesink grinder.

It's very pretty, but the gameplay is utter shit. Combat is boring.. pull one mob and ritually kill it. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

Everything in that game is there to punish the player. And the job system was a joke. It had the illusion of variety, but
God forbid you venture off the cookie cutter path.

The skillchains were a nice touch.

[Shadow_Wing]

I heard SE usually fixes the problems in the game. I mean stuff like..players trying to hack money, items, equipment, etc.


Well yea... it's SE and they also have about 500k subscribers.



I remember how long it used to take to do anything, but..how is the community and the economy? Are they pretty crappy or is it easy to make friends and the items you wish to buy are within reach or do both of these seem impossible?

Keep the comments coming guys http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif


Very possible now, most generic AH stuff is easily accessible than ever before. Community is always been ripe, usually easy to find an LS.

Dopples put sumed what FFXI though, "Either you completely love the game, or you completely hate it."

@NPCMook, did u just suck or a complete noob with no friends? Like yea it takes parties for some things but there's a lot in the game that you can do solo <_< I solo a lot myself and finding a party to do stuff usually isn't too hard... I just tell my lsmates lets do something and they pretty much will say yes.

Anyways the biggest thing to make FFXI enjoyable is finding that right set of people to enjoy the game with, that in itself is the break or make point of FFXI. Don't find a good LS, the game is utter shit, find a good LS and the atmosphere is 100x better. Then again this is true to any online RPG I've played.

[Dopples]

On 2007-12-30 00:30, NPCMook wrote:

On 2007-12-30 00:02, Dopples wrote:
FFXI is a whole love-hate thing. Either you completely love the game, or you completely hate it. To like it, you need to be friendly, social, and most of all, patient.

My personal opinion? I agree with the topic creator completely. Online games are online because you can play with others. I can't count how many times I've played MMORPGs like WoW and RO that allowed you to do everything in the game solo. That just wasn't right. Hell, in those games, being in parties made leveling SLOWER. While I think that some solo stuff is alright, a MMO shouldn't forget why it's online in the first place. Both PSU and FFXI fall under this category, and that's why I was able to stick with both for much longer than I did WoW, RO, or RYL.

I enjoy group oriented play, BUT HOLY SHIT, I mean you needed a group for some of the most MUNDANE TASKS LIKE GOING BACK TO TOWN




You don't need to have a party to get back to town. You can teleport to the nearest crag and chocobo the rest of the way there. Or if you don't have the liscense, it's still easy to avoid aggro, you just need to be careful.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Yeah. Even when I first played, it wasn't THAT bad, lol. I didn't need a party to get back to town. I think I may end up enjoying myself more than I did last time though, since I didn't party at all last time I played.

I was either out killing things or I was off fishing somewhere http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[Saner]

well if you wanna really be loved and wanted, main WHM 100% (as for sub, not sure) http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

I sometimes wonder how much better off I would have been mastering WHM since the beginning. they really get the red carpet treatment although their party role is quite demanding.

[NPCMook]

On 2007-12-30 01:38, Shadow_Wing wrote:
@NPCMook, did u just suck or a complete noob with no friends? Like yea it takes parties for some things but there's a lot in the game that you can do solo <_< I solo a lot myself and finding a party to do stuff usually isn't too hard... I just tell my lsmates lets do something and they pretty much will say yes.
No actually I was one better known players for helping people out whenever I could, the LS I was in helped a bunch of people who were under level 30 gain rank 5 in about 2 days.

I played a Beastmaster, and I really got tired of the "You're a Beastmaster, go solo it!" When a tasks takes a FULL GROUP of Level 47+ to complete a task a Beastmaster CANNOT SOLO IT. I even played a Monk for a while, got it to level 46, and from then on I couldn't get a group because "Monks were crappy till level 60," which how am I supposed to get to 60 if I can't get a group!?

So instead of continueing to pay for some mundane garbage I quit, I tried going back, but like I said the game is geared towards nothing but high level players. The downfall to the game is the Absolute NEED for a White mage to even do a simple task of leveling. Group oriented gameplay is fine, but when you MUST ABSOLUTELY NEED A SPECIFIC CLASS TO DO EVEN THE MUNDANE TASKS IT GETS A LITTLE TEDIOUS.

Also RO didn't gimp you on when you partied they actually promoted it by telling you "The more people in the group, the more experience you will recieve"

[Shadow_Wing]

I could solo it with my THF for most things.. if it needs a full party of 65+ though yea I might have a little trouble.

I've lvled MNK to 57, never had much trouble finding a group, infact my biggest problem was I'd do too much damage in any given party...

And there's more healers and what not even on the low pop servers, and it's so easy to cap now a days that it doesn't take too long to reach 75 on any given job. There's also besieged and conquest that you can do while waiting to make or be invited to a party that all your points of tedious party making makes it overly moot. A lot has changed from a lot of people who have quit, and continue to change.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Well, I can understand where you're coming from, but actually..with RO's case, it was harder for you to get exp in a bigger party. You would actually get MORE exp if you went solo, since in parties, the exp was divided among the members.

Now granted, in the long run, you would get more exp in parties because you would be able to take on bigger enemies, like the MVPs and such that you couldn't solo.

I believe it has already been said before, but I'll just say it again anyway. I think having such a heavily influenced party based MMO is better than leaving you to do your own thing and be anti-social.

See..when I first played, I went solo as a Hume Warrior (or was it Swordsman? I can't remember >.>), but..point is..today, I ask myself, "Why the hell did I solo so much? Isn't playing an MMO about playing with the community and meeting new people, making friends, and that sort of thing?". I understand it can be frustrating to not even be able to solo some of the little things, but..once again..I am glad they don't allow people to do that, since..well, if you let people do something small while going solo, what's to prevent them from doing everything else solo?

Anyway, I'm planning on picking up the Vana'diel Collection '08 for PS2 next week or so. I think this time I'll enjoy myself more, since I won't be running around by myself and just fishing in my spare time, lol.

[InfinityXXX]

Intresting Topic:

I've been looking at this game for some time and I've always wanted to play but couldn't (due to me not ever owning a credit or debit card)

But now that I can actually afford to play such a game I've been thinknig about getting it....but I heard the community has died and mainly consist of high levels.....but you aint heard that from me.......

[Shadow_Wing]

Yea since it's so easy to lvl now a days, but WoTG brought in a lot of people lvling new jobs so if u want to join the game, now is the right time especially.

[Kylie]

I've almost played a few times, but I always decide against it. The whole HDD onry thing seemed so complicated and expensive, so I guess I didn't want to risk not liking it. No surprise there; I'm safe with all my game selections.

[Eanae]

75 Paladin, 75 Ninja~

Been playing for a long time now. On my third server, Cerberus, at the moment. No matter how many times I quit, I always seem to come back to it eventually. HNM's, while annoying compared to methods that most games implement an End-game are a lot of fun to me, and pretty much the only thing that even makes the game worth while.

http://www.ffxiah.com/player.php?id=1068258&sid=23 is usually up to date on most of my gear, and http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y95/Eanae/FFXI/ is my album. I like to take a lot of screen shots.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Eanae on 2008-01-01 19:19 ]</font>

[xeku]

I've played off and on for months now.
I neither love nor hate it - though I suspect I am in the minority.
I really like the scale of the game (large), and the art-direction is a bug plus - it's why I keep coming back.
I really do not have the free time that the game requires (It would take me a year to hit max-level at my current rate), but still find it enjoyable (even solo play).
The general politeness of the FFXI community, and willingness to aid others, is a welcome change from many other online games, including PSU.
However, many of the hard-core veterans, despite their civility, seem a bit detached - they rarely engage in communication, and seem to rely completely on macros. I sometimes wonder if they derive any actual pleasure from the game, and are going through the paces to level-up, simply for the sake of doing so.
Sure, many PSU players are socially-challenged whack-jobs, but at least you know there is a live human behind the avatar.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Well, I'm probably going to pick up a copy of the Vana'Diel '08 collection for PS2 next week at some point. Does anybody have a suggestion of which server to play on?

I don't know if ALL servers have a good community, so..if anybody here has personal experience with that sort of thing and could give a suggestion on where I could meet some low levels to party with and a place to communicate with people at, then that would be great.

I'm just not going to make the same mistake of running around keeping to myself ALL the time, this time. I'm going to interact with more people and actually talk more than I did last time.

I just don't know if I want to try and remake my character, "WandererfromYs" or not though, lol. It's so hard to find a name that's actually not in use http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[NPCMook]

You forget, it randomly drops you into a "World"

[TetsuyaHikari]

Well, I heard that got changed a while back. When I signed up, yeah..I didn't have a choice in the matter. I talked with a couple of people who still play though and this one guy told me that you get to choose which server you wish to play on now and if you want to transfer servers, you have to pay $25.

That's just what I was told anyway http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_confused.gif

[Shadow_Wing]

On 2008-01-02 20:33, Kikumaru wrote:
Well, I heard that got changed a while back. When I signed up, yeah..I didn't have a choice in the matter. I talked with a couple of people who still play though and this one guy told me that you get to choose which server you wish to play on now and if you want to transfer servers, you have to pay $25.

That's just what I was told anyway http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_confused.gif



This is true.

[Eanae]

On 2008-01-02 19:11, NPCMook wrote:
You forget, it randomly drops you into a "World"



Not anymore. You can choose your own server now. Server transfers are $25 for as many characters as you wish to move. You then have a 90 day period where you can't transfer again.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Eanae on 2008-01-02 21:50 ]</font>

[Sekani]

The only thing that kept me playing FFXI for as long as I did was the story. Over the course of nearly two years I got my character, a hume WHM, to level 61 before quitting because the time commitment was far too extensive. I have other responsibilities to attend to, and needing to play for six hours a day (or more) so that I could stay in the same level range as my friends was too much.

Let's not forget the punishing grind for everything, from EXP to Gil to AF and Limit Break quests.

[Saner]

Final Fantasy XIII better come soon! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

but ya, FFXI is the only mmorpg world I like, it's just the grind for everything that diminishes the fun. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[Temjin-On]

I play FFXI, with mostly low level characters on the Alexander server. I play it as casually as possible, believe it or not.