20238 Files Remaining

Just ... kill me now. Go ahead, I've got reraise up. -_-;

Anyway, my WotG disc finally arrived yesterday and I attempted to install it, only to be greeted by an "invalid drive Z:\" error due to a recently mapped then disconnected network drive that for the life of me I could no longer find anywhere in any registry on the hard drive.

Stupid Windows...

A re-install did the trick, but of course that also meant a complete rebuild of FFXI from the original version up. Hence the file count.

But not all is technical doom and gloom. In the few sessions I managed to steal over the past week, I've raised my BLM to 30, my WHM to 43, and my fishing to 40, and had the privilege to welcome an old friend, Thitond, back to the game. He began his long hiatus before the ToAU expansion was released, so I've been having fun introducing him to a few Aht Urghan related activities and quests.

I should be back in the saddle in the next few days.

Thank you, Brandson! TYTYTY

He updated both the font and map packs for the latest version:

http://brandson.livejournal.com/

Now my eyes can stop bleeding!

{Hmmm} USB SchmUSB

Having the USB devices plugged in doesn't seem to matter.

The drivers are causing the problem, and these are enabled despite the absence of the external devices.

People are having positive results when they disable all "HID-compliant" devices in the Computer Management console. I've done it, and it doesn't affect my current ability to use either the native laptop keyboard or the external keyboard + mouse.

This absolutely worked for me. No more chugging, even while windowed.

Here's the thread on alla.

I'm on a MacBook Pro
Intel Core Duo 2.33
the adapter through boot camp is currently: ATI Mobility Radeon X1600

Now I'm working on the ghetto anti-aliasing problem. I'm testing slight increases to values in the Overlay resolution to account for the additional pixels from the window "box." If I can compensate accurately, I think the windowed can be made to look fine. Will post details here as soon as I get them.

Addendum (12/5/07): I've discovered that, for whatever reason, 1360 x 768, seems to be the maximum resolution supported by the native windowed mode. When the overlay resolution is set to this, and the gamma is adjusted appropriately, everything works fine. It's disappointing that the windowed mode seems to be subject to the same problems with Vertical Sync as the unofficial windower (i.e. Vertical Sync doesn't really work here). But at least it doesn't look like butt anymore.

/fume framerate

Maybe SquareEnix should have consulted Cliff Spradlin before implementing their sloppy version of windowing.

The windowed mode sucks. It essentially downgrades the resolution rather than intelligently adjusting the window size to accommodate the resolution set in the configuration, resulting in unsightly blur, otherwise known as ghetto anti-aliasing. For instance windowing in 1440x900 actually "squeezes" that resolution into something like a 1440x800 window.

Not only did they get the windowing wrong but they crippled the framerate in all modes for no discernible reason.

I've achieved some amount of playability by disabling mip mapping and forcing vertical sync off (rather than "app preference"), but it's still choppy.

I'm also grumpy because I can't use Branson's font pack anymore, but that's the nature of dat-swapping.

Black Mage - To the Jungles and Beyond!

My time, as usual, has been a bit limited, but I've used what I could to level fishing from 35 to 39 over the past week or so.

And... Black Mage from 21 to 28 since Friday! I phased from risky solo experiments in Delkfutt, to lucky party invites, to solo'ing less riskily with my NPC on worms, to unlucky party invites (WHM/THF... enough said), to duo'ing with a friend. A nice party this afternoon even gave me a chance to Magic Burst for some very satisfying damage.

A big thank you to my friend Cozmos for helping out a party in Qufim, and to my friend Katella for staying up later than usual and duo'ing bats with me until I got to level 25 and could eat my Aspir and Tractor scrolls. I'm lucky to have such patient and generous companions in Vanadiel ^_^

All in all, despite all the educational solo deaths (each one taught me something different), the experience has been quite pleasant. Even, dare I say, addictive.

On another note, I couldn't resist those red glasses everyone's been wearing, so I joined the pseudo-NM camping fun and got my Fancy Specs. Their red color gave me an idea for an outfit...

Snazzy no?

Why Frohike hasn't been on much

/check
{Impossible to gauge}!
Aggressive. Detects by Sound+Sight.
Special ability: {Charm}

This little one has required my attention at night lately. Until she's completely weaned from night feedings, yours truly has been the one to console her back to sleep. The process is nearly over, but until then, I can't really do much besides fish... Partying is out of the question, since a WHM who needs to go AFK at a moment's notice probably wouldn't work out so well.

Not that I mind. I'm {charm}ed, remember? ;-)

She's grown quite a bit since the last picture I posted here...

Spend spend spend! /giggle

Um I mean... /laugh maniacally! Ahem...

Between fishing and teleporting, and a parting gift from my friend Lexxi, I've built up a hefty nest egg. I was planning on buying a Lu Shangs when I'd gathered a 300k or so buffer (and live like a pauper while I put the rod to use), but an idle shout from someone selling a Berserker's Axe for 500k (100k below AH price) proved too tempting to resist.

I purchased this and, since the momentum had taken me, I also bought a Pole Strap for 100k. The spending bug had bitten me early last week as well, when I upgraded my Venerer Ring to another Woodsman, and finally ditched the Spike Earring for a Merman's Earring.

Unless I start to work on a haste build or want to tweak some STR here & there, this pretty much completes my purchasable equipment collection for my Warrior.

To Cozmos's delight I'm sure, I'm entertaining the idea of leveling my WHM further. Must... resist... BST!

But for now, I think I'll need some more gil. 1 mil seems respectable, but I'll be more comfortable with 1.5 mil or so before I resume spending activities.

A great retrospective on Gametrailers.com

Just came across this on the destructoid feed and found it quite interesting. A video retrospective of each of the Final Fantasy iterations.

Something nice to watch while LFG ^^

Enjoy!

So what do you think? Pretty close?

That's me. I had to close my lids a little to look as weary as my avatar, though. XD

Katella of ... Ifrit?!

I haven't been doing much besides fishing lately. There are so many things I could do, but I'm just being lazy, and doing what I like to do which is what this game is mostly about, I suppose. What can I say, I'm an unapologetic fisherman and voracious music listener, two proclivities that complement each other nicely in Vanadiel.

While reeling in another pesky Bluetail, I received an unexpected /tell from a taru whom I didn't recognize:

Ashlynna>> {Hello!} ^^
>>Ashlynna {Hello!}
Ashlynna>> I know you don't know who I am.. lol.. but I read your blog alot.. and I know you've left a couple of
Ashlynna>> comments on mine
Ashlynna>> my main char is Katella, from the Ramuh server

=O !

It turns out that Katella, author of the Katella of Ramuh blog (now alliteratively titled Katella's Corner), is migrating to Ifrit! Yay!

She was scoping things out on Ashlynna and apparently had a good experience, which is good to hear. I hopped out to give her a DarkEden pearl and meet her avatar-to-avatar.

Welcome aboard, Katella. I hope to adventure with you soon ^_^/