Magery and Miscellany

I don't have a large amount of news to post, although the past week had a few highlights.

I've been making steady progress on my black & white mage jobs, bringing BLM to 21 and clearing the way for me to level my WHM to the desired 40. I'm currently at level 23 and breathing a bit easier with Regen and a more MP-efficient Cure2. Looking forward to Raise in a few levels.

Quite a bit of my EXP has been earned in the company of RoughnecksUnited members (the formerly retired shell that was the pre-cursor to Lifthrasir and has now been revived). I've found this to be one of the most pleasant ways to level up in this game and really wish I'd met these people sooner. The two pickup parties I joined in the interim were drab & boring in comparison, even with the noob factor to keep things volatile.

The EXP was interspersed with a couple of last-minute events. I assisted Littoguy and a group of 7 others (which included Audessa and Darkronin) in the WSNM battle for his Asuran Fists. I barely had a chance to take a snapshot of Bodach before he was defeated.

Last night, I joined a group from IfritsRoyalGuard (Tog's peeps) on an "exploratory" Einherjar run.

Yeah... we died, all 12 of us, then reraised and died again, but it was fun nonetheless. Apparently the mobs in the first room will all link with their family type, regardless of location, if you attack any of them without killing the single Bird mob that pops and despawns periodically. We, of course, discovered this the hard way.

Unfortunately we were all dead when the bird popped, with the exception of a few reraised, weakened players who nearly killed it before it despawned. I'm thinking some sort of status effect needs to be in place to prevent the bird from despawning mid-battle, but that's just a theory. Sac pulls may be needed to enable others to find the bird to begin with. But we didn't see quite enough to get any solid strategies yet.

The rest of the evening was spent with Lexxi (MNK), Maloc (PLD), Quan (BLU), and Murrdoc (SMN) and a couple of party guests at Qufim Island where I went from 21 to 23 in what seemed like a short time, although the hours do go by quickly when you're in the company of good friends.

P.S. Lexxi, if you're reading this, this was the film I was talking about. And here's the other one.

On CoP

I write the following rant, because I feel like I need to clarify the reason why some issues, namely the upcoming difficulty downgrades on CoP send me into cautionary tirades in various venues of FFXI conversation. I also want some folks to understand why I'm not regularly online every night.

When I began this blog, I did so with the intention of bringing something different to the table.

I wanted to chronicle my experiences as a FFXI player who is part of a demographic that is as much underrepresented as it is largely insignificant in size to the overall population in most MMOs, much less FFXI: the parent gamer. But not just any parent gamer, mind you.

Not the parent gamer whose kids are out of the house. Certainly not the "I'm so hip I play MMOs with my kids" parent gamer. I mean the sleep-deprived, newbie parent of toddlers, living in a home that still smells faintly of diapers. The parent who begins to realize the lifelong art of juggling increased priorities -- among them career, parenthood, love life, physical health, free time, and (blessed) sleep.

As a part of this odd group of gamers, I'm faced with a choice when I stare at the Playonline screen: do I want to spend the 2.5 to 3 hours of free time that I have tonight playing an MMO? And "spending" that time is really what I do. It has a cost, consisting exactly of what I could be doing rather than carrying out a virtual life in Vana'diel.

In the brief span of time between my kids' bedtime and my own, I could read one of the slew of books I've deceived myself into thinking I actually have the time to read. I could watch a good film with an appreciation that can't really be achieved during the kids' waking hours. I could continue to hone my writing, or finish the odd number of poems I began years ago. I could have a meaningful, uninterrupted conversation with my wife. Hell, maybe I could play something other than FFXI for a change.

What I think some of the other adults playing FFXI don't understand is the impact of this trade-off. We can't just come home from work, put in a few hours, log out, and go do something else in RL. Those few hours are it for some of us.

This frames the game in such a way that the quality of my RL sometimes becomes inversely proportional to the rate of my accomplishments in Vana'diel. And this realization affects how I, and others in my situation, play the game.

Sometimes, though probably not as often as I sanely should, I choose not to make the expenditure in favor of FFXI, and I shut down the machine. Sometimes I do this for extended periods. These outages usually aren't planned. They're just the result of the constant juggling act, and FFXI has to hit the floor every now & then.

But I'm patient, and realistic, and continue to chip away at the game for my own pleasure, my own little spot of Zen order in all the chaos. When I do decide to log in, my usage of the 3 hours at my disposal also becomes a bit of an economic exercise (though not an unpleasant one), between EXP, crafting/skilling, missions, and linkshell activities... when I do have a linkshell.

This sporadic and slow approach to FFXI doesn't always lend itself to strong longstanding social connections in the game.

I have several close friendships on Ifrit that I consider myself extremely lucky to be a part of, but I could just as easily see someone in my situation wandering through the game for years without gaining firm social ties. Part of it is the piecemeal nature of our commitment to the game, but much of it is also due to the social gap between those with parental priorities and those who constitute the leisure class of FFXI: the early twenty-somethings with expendable time.

We just live in very different worlds, and when we connect it's usually a serendipitous occasion.

So... I say all of this because I want people to understand that it's hard and sometimes nearly impossible for some of us to get certain things done in this game. And doing them isn't just a matter of determination, or ingenuity, or perseverance, which I know many of you have demonstrated with your considerable accomplishments. It takes either a fluke or a nearly unacceptable cost to the quality of our RL hours to complete the task.

I'm not whining. Believe me, I know what whining is... I'm simply stating the truth.

So before some of you take too hard a stance on what you consider to be acceptably or justifiably difficult in the game, separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff in FFXI, consider that there are people for whom content such as "Sea" has been out of reach for quite some time, and for perfectly valid and inevitable reasons. SE's recent announcement might very well be a good thing for them.

I'm not even really speaking for myself, since I probably still wouldn't have the time for a Limbus group. But I know there are parent gamers out there who would make significant contributions to such groups. Consider Lifthrasir's flawless Promyvion runs that I recounted awhile ago. I personally think that the largely adult leadership of that group had quite an impact on how those forays into CoP played out.

On behalf of players such as these, I say bring on the kinder gentler CoP. Let veterans' reactions to the opening gates of Sea stand as a testament to their own self-worth.

Whittling

After reaching the 160's in sword skill and attempting some rather dangerous solo skillups in the Eldieme Necropolis, I eventually formed a bona fide skillup party in Kuftal Tunnel, which went rather well. I once again had the privilege of playing with Raikoh for awhile and got my sword skill into the 170's.

The next skillup session took place in the Boyhada Tree with Feon and the DarkEden group. They were all exhausted from a long Dynamis run, but we stayed together for awhile and I managed to reach level 183 while also whittling away the latent points on my Pick of Trials.

A few nights later, DarkEden did a series of Tier 1 assault runs on Periqia (Seagull Grounded). The AI for the NPC we were escorting through the zone was quite annoying and unpredictable. Even when he took a good path, he would stall in cleared rooms or backtrack for no apparent reason, wasting a good chunk of time. We were successful on 2 of the 3 runs, however.

Lexxi and I duo'd some EXP in the dunes last night, she on her MNK (16) and I on my WHM (19).

It was peaceful and fun, and I think the first time I've actually EXP'd with Lexxi. To my embarrassment, I kept fat-fingering my macros (laptop keyboards suck), and at one point ran out of MP on a particularly tough Goblin, resulting in death for both of us. She hit 17 early in the process, and thankfully had enough of a buffer to maintain her level. Raikoh nearly joined us when he logged in around midnight, but Lexxi and I were both passing out mid-battle and decided to call it a night.

Skillups & Savage Blade Redux

On the night following the Charybdis battle, Feon (/Ishy), Cozmos, & Audessa were killing weapons and dolls in Ro'Maeve and invited me out. Audessa was working on skillups and Cozmos was breaking her sword latent. I came out with as much accuracy gear equipped as possible (and some rice dumplings) and worked on skilling up my sword from a measly 67. Quite a ways to go before 250 -_-;

The session went very well, although we encountered a rather tough weapon around the end which killed Feon, and a series of links shortly afterward killed Ishmael, but we pulled through. When I logged, my sword skill was at 113.

I skilled up a bit in Crawler's Nest on the following day, mostly killing Worker Crawlers, Killer Mushrooms, and making the occasional foray into the big EXP room downstairs to kill some Soldier Crawlers and Exorays. I logged out with a sword skill of 126.

That evening, I noticed most of DarkEden were in Quicksand Caves and assumed they were triggering columns for the Altepa Gate. In fact they'd just completed the Ruby column and were preparing to take on the NM scorpion. They invited me out and patiently waited as I made my slow way out of CN and over to Western Altepa.

When I eventually got there, the party was comprised of Feon, Ishy, Cozmos, Audessa, on the usual jobs and Theshadowdeath on THF/NIN (thanks for the correction, Feon). Shadow and I recognized one another and we assumed we'd merited together, only to have Feon remind us that we had KSNM'd together a few months ago. Yes, senility strikes again.

We passed a couple of RMT camping the NM antican that spawns in the room to the west of the WSNM area. They kindly offered assistance which elicited absolute silence on the /say channel but quite a few lol's on the /party channel.

The fight was stunningly fast. I really think we finished it under 2 minutes, possibly in 1:30 or so. I launched a pre-primed Mistral Axe for a Light skillchain and eventually got off a Rampage, but didn't have time to unload the next WS before it was over.

So in a matter of days, Cozmos has unlocked Evisceration and Savage Blade.

The remainder of the evening was spent killing placeholder wyverns for Ungur in Gustav Tunnel and disposing of the occasional meddling undead. The dragon never popped, but we had fun nevertheless.

I also had a wonderful time chatting with Lexxi, whom I missed terribly after her departure from the game. It was really nice to see her in the chat log again, and we caught up and compared notes on our toddler's behaviors, which is always entertaining ^^;

I've been making steady progress on my sword skill, killing almost every tier of mob in CN except for the EP scorpions by the Queen Crawler spawn and working my way up to 153. In the process, I was able to team up with Raikoh of Lifthrasir for awhile, which was a pleasure.

I want to eventually bring my skill to the 250 cap and put 8 merits into it, increasing the cap to the A+ level of 276. That'll round out my Great Axe, Axe, and Sword skill quite nicely, and will really potentiate the Joyeuse. The sword is very fun to use now on mobs I can actually hit (they're not kidding on that 50% proc rate), and I can imagine it'll be a blast to use in meripo and various other sundry activities.

No play for me tonight though... I'll have an early morning ahead of me tomorrow.

Ode to Joy

I was resigning myself to another night here:

when Feon once again rescued me from certain boredom & torture. He proposed that I come along for a WSNM fight, which I promptly accepted. I'd never participated in an Evisceration WSNM battle before and I was up for some adventure. As I ran though the Dunes, Feon also told me to bring a sleeping bag since we'd be camping Charybdis afterwards. /joy!

I remembered to drop by the event Moogle on my way to the dressing room to get my stats:

I'll probably save the anniversary ring for either my WHM leveling or BST.

The WSNM fight went very well, although the Bat was tougher to kill than I'd expected, and more evasive:

So Cozmos is now clear for the Evisceration weapon skill! Didn't know she was fond of daggers >.>

Afterward, Ishy had to log for the night, so Feon two-boxed his character as we made our way to Sea Serpent Grotto for some camping. Our group consisted of Feon on his NIN, Feon on Ishmael as BRD, Cozmos as WHM/NIN, Audessa as RDM, and myself on WAR/NIN.

We made the circuit around the spawn area, killing pretty much all mobs that had the misfortune of popping in our path.

It only took around 30 minutes of this before Feon spotted Chary, sending my heartrate into overdrive. With my luck, I was expecting a multi-day camp, which would have been unmanageable for me. Of course as soon as Chary popped, so did every damn mob on the way there, including Zuug the Shoreleaper and some cronies.

I still couldn't believe I was actually staring at Charybdis when we got to the room. But there he was, ready for our challenge.

Unfortunately my role wasn't going to be a very active one, since the fight mostly involves DoT'ing & debuffing the hell out of the mob while the NIN tanks and gradually diminishes the mob's HP, then polishing the battle off with nukes at the end.

The fight initially went well, but Charybdis spammed Cross Attack much sooner than planned and dropped Feon to the ground. I made a lame attempt at kiting but was unprepared for the speed of Chary's attacks and died as well. So we wiped and started over.

The second fight went much more cleanly. At about 50% HP, Water weather came into effect, so I and the mages moved down into the room to avoid any potential elemental pops behind the door.

A Devil Manta add wandered over at about 20% HP, which didn't present much of a problem for me to solo, thanks to Cozmos and Audessa's vigilant multitasking support.

So you've seen the post title and read this far and probably just want me to get on with it already. Yes, indeed, they killed Charybdis, something I never imagined I would have been a part of in this game. And I got it:

And I became the elated, bewildered, and grateful owner of a Joyeuse. It's just starting to sink in today that I really do own this thing, and I'm absolutely flattered that Feon, Cozmos and Audessa would risk their time and EXP to get this weapon for me. For...me! People will never cease to amaze me in this game.

On another positive note, Lexxi and Murrdoc have both returned to the game, making the server that much richer with friends whom I trust and value. I feel my life in Vana'diel has taken a turn for the better, and I still look forward to the unexpected adventures it will bring.

Chillin & Nukin

I still haven't been on frequently, much to Feon's consternation, but I did log in for a session a few nights ago and had quite a bit of fun with Feon and Cozmos in Qufim!

Cozmos powerleveled Feon & me as we nuked crabs and other sundry mobs. I'd missed Feon & Coz's loopy chemistry, and it felt nice to just relax and nuke away the time without the complications of a full party. I did, however, have a habit of stupidly killing Shock with Rasp -_-. Sorry, Feon. I've got the elemental wheel memorized now, so I hopefully won't make that mistake too often anymore.

Feon also stunned me that night be offering to camp Charybdis for my Joyeuse in the future, which would be absolutely amazing. I'm certainly glad I didn't go whole hog with Axe merits...

He reached 24 on his BLM and I reached 19. I'm now one level away from switching back over to WHM and leveling that to 40. Once that's done, I'll split my time between meriting, crafting, and leveling BST... oh and trying to get CoP done. /sigh

Update: screenshots, got 'em:

Breathing room

OK, now that I have a little gil to work with, I'll be able to hop back on with more regularity.

This "hands-off" FFXI phase has actually been working out nicely over the past week. I log in periodically to do some fishing, craft up another RMT-pulverizing stock of product, keep the AH slots full, & log out. Quick, easy, and it frees me up to play a game that was recently released on Xbox arcade: Catan. It's a computerized version of the Settlers of Catan board game, which I've always wanted to play. Since my family and friends are still favoring Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, this is the only way for me to get my Catan on, for now. And it's a blast.

If any of you are on the 360 and have 12 bucks to spare for a MS point pack, I highly recommend the game. Fairly simple rules, but very dynamic gameplay, with a bit of adverserial strategy thrown in, but not enough to really call this a "strategy" game. It's more along the lines of a development game (resource management, trading, etc).

Carcassonne will be released on the Xbox arcade as well, which will be interesting to try, although it is substantially simpler and more luck-based than I'd like. I hope both of these are successful, however, since I'd love to see an Xbox version of Puerto Rico, my absolute favorite board game.

P.S. I'll turn comment moderation off for now. I had a very persistent spammer and needed to turn moderation on since I wasn't tending my blog as closely for the past few weeks.

Warez

I really should be better at making money.

I mean, really. It's been 3 years, and I'm still going through the newbie cycle of extended play (EXP and other non-gil-earning activities) punctuated by periods of desperate money-grubbing. Frohike's too old for this sh**.

That said, it's not incredibly difficult to find ways to earn gil. I've stumbled across several. They're just not fabulous ways to earn it quickly and in large amounts. The methods I use are more suited to small, extended, incremental earnings that add up to large amounts over time. I should have been doing this all along, like once or twice a week, or every other day. But I didn't, and now I'm broke and bored as I wait for the gil to roll in.

Thanks for the responses to the last post. While fun, and a good way to skillup parrying/evasion on my WAR, Ule Tiger farming just didn't pay enough for the time invested. I'm back to crafting consumables for 3-7k profit per stack and making plans to level my crafting further. I'm also getting some more fishing skillups under my belt, although the 'you didn't catch anything' messages are absolutely out of control. Thanks for breaking fishing, SE. -_-; They'll fix it someday, I suppose.

Anyone tried farming Uleguerand Tigers?

I'm dipping into my last 100k.

Granted my mule is sitting on a dozen stacks of Poison Potions, waiting for the stock to deplete on the AH before putting them up, and I've got a few stacks of Sleeping Potion. But until any of that comes back in the form of gil, I don't have much to spend to... make more gil.

So I'm farming while I bide my time. These tigers seemed OK at first, considering the Snow Lily goes for about 6k, but the drop rate seems bad. I had fun with about a dozen of them before I passed out, netting me a few teeth, some skins, one lily, a KS, and a BS.

Killing for gil is actually a nice change of pace from crafting/fishing, especially when the mobs are EP and make you work for the kill. It's definitely a slower method, but might be a nice alternative when I'm just not in the mood to crank out consumables.

Off of the beaten path

As I settled into my dune party, preparing for another comical grind to 19 or 20 on my BLM, I was invited to tag along on some more adventures with Feon and his LS DarkEden. Ishmael had just gotten his joy toy and the group was apparently on a roll. On the menu for the evening was Cactrot Rapido, with a side-order of ZM5, time permitting.

I waved farewell to a new friend I had made in the party, a Scottish player by the name Fushia, who already has a petulance belying her level and rank. The server had better clear a path for her ^_^. Feon's group kindly teleported me to the Holla crag and I took the slow hike back to Sandy to get dressed for the fight, hoping for the new title we all coveted.

The {Gather together} stage took a bit of time, but we ended up with 8 participants, most of whom brought their NPCs to spread out the 10k Needles damage. Feon handed out the Icarus Wings and we established weapon skill orders for Light.

We didn't need to drag our half-dead Sabotender around for long before Rapido ran to the rescue. The fight was lightning-fast, and it ended with most people dead. Fortunately, Rapido was one of them.

After the fight, Cozmos, Feon, and Littoguy stuck around for a trip to Ifrit's Cauldron to finish up my last ZM5 fight and to assist Littoguy in getting a key item. The fight with the Opos from hell went pretty well, although I'd inadvertently killed my Provoke STNPC macro, so Cozmos had to deal with one of the monkeys a while longer than I would have liked.

When we arrived back at the Holla crag, Feon noticed the spawn point for the Goblin Archaeologist was up and giving the message "You hear a voice from right beneath the surface of the ground." So he popped it, and I ran back to help kill it off before logging out for the night.

On the following night, DarkEden was getting ready to have some adventure in Den of Rancor. Littoguy needed to kill a NM by the name of Carmine-tailed Janberry.

But first on the agenda was a Leviathan Prime fight, which I had somehow missed in the chat log so I merrily accompanied them to the Cloister of Tides and stood in front of a giant crystal wondering why I couldn't go where they were going. Frohike noob moment #3123.

After the fight was over, Feon and Cozmos came back and Escaped me to the temple entrance. We killed every Wespe we came across on our way back to the Den of Rancor, but none of them wanted to drop the pop item for Death from Above.

We wreaked havoc in the Den of Rancor for awhile, and it felt good to run around with this area like we owned the place, killing most of the Tonberries in sight. Thankfully, I'd remembered to bring my Pick of Trials this time around, so Ninjax and I were Light chaining with Dragon Kick and Mistral Axe to work off my latent.

Janberry didn't take too long to pop and was a fairly fast kill, dropping the Asklepios for Littoguy on our first attempt.

Having some time left to kill, the group made its way to Bastok for some tuning forks and we gathered at the Cloister of Tremors for a Titan Prime fight, which also went well, although our two Tarus died to what I'm assuming was bad Geocrush timing.

We established a new record for the fight! 3 minutes, 14 seconds.

After this whirlwind of adventure, I ended up with a few things in my inventory.

I felt badly when I noticed this one:

Feon had lotted on this and I had neglected to pass on it, and somehow it ended up going to me anyway ><;

A huge thanks to Feon & Cozmos et al for letting me in on their adventures. I definitely needed a vacation from the dunes for a few days, and it was good to meet some more members of the group.

Black Magery

Another job through the dunes. Almost. I hit 17 on BLM last night, starting out a few EXP below 15. And yes, there was the usual procession of subligars, newbies, overhunting, and powerleveling that we've all grown so fond of out here.

As of my last post, I had solo'd BLM to 12, and actually had quite a bit of fun until things started killing me too quickly when Bind wouldn't stick (or stick long enough). EXP in parties after that point was pretty uneventful, and I'd venture to say quite boring actually.

Things get more interesting in the later levels no doubt, when memorizing your elemental wheel becomes a bit more important, and stuff like link control and cure assistance come into play more often. But it's a snoozefest from down here; I won't lie. For some reason I find it more monotonous than WHM, if only because I'm not as directly responsible for keeping the party alive. I'm sure it'll pick up at some point.

In any case, no more bloodwarping for me! Woohoo!

I expect to take this job to 20 or so to ensure that I can at least go to 40 on WHM before making the decision to take that job any further. I must admit that, with the state of my current shell, BST is starting to draw my attention. I'll probably start poring over Halifirien's blog archives when I finish up WHM.

During the drudgery of the dunes, I was treated to a /tell from Tog, a long-time FFXI blog lurker, commenter, and just recently a blog writer. He let me in on his crazy social shell, and powerleveled one of my parties for a bit while exchanging inscrutable conversation over /say with a shell-mate. Good to meet you and your friends, Tog.

Feon, Raikoh, and Gimppy continue to check in and seem to be doing well. Jingy from Lifthrasir looks to be making a return to the game after an extended hiatus. I'm sure I'll find him leveling MNK when I log back in tomorrow night ^_^.

Some people play with their Wii

I'm playing with my whammy bar:


I just needed a break and had pre-ordered this awhile ago. I'm a Guitar Hero noob, and I'm completely hooked. The game also introduced me to a band I'd never heard of before. The song was Freya, and felt like a tune from the Black Sabbath era, and it sounded...really good. I'd forgotten how much I liked some of that early 70's style metal. I was surprised to discover that the song was by a recent band, with a debut album early last year. I've been listening to them almost non-stop since I've downloaded their album. Good stuff!

Another distraction has been Zelda: Twilight Princess which my son and I have been playing on the cube since we don't have a Wii yet. We both prefer it to Wind Waker, which we finally finished a couple of weeks ago. He still likes me to retell the final battle with Lord Ganon though ^_^.

Anyway, I'll be back sometime this week. I just needed to take a step back for a while.

See you soon.

Dissolution

Sun's a settin'
This is what I'm gonna sing
Sun's a settin'
This is what I'm gonna sing
I feels the blues a comin'
Wonder what the blues will bring...

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been fumbling in the sunset of Lifthrasir for the past week or so.

A mere four days after we completed our third Promyvion run, Murrdoc announced that he was taking a hiatus from the game. I was really sorry to see him go, but I totally understood the need to take a break. After all, I've done so myself a handful of times over the past few years, and Murrdoc had been playing this game for at least as long as I had. Taking a month off here & there can be a good thing.

However, in a matter of a couple of days, Murrdoc's character vanished from the linkshell community roster. And not just 'greyed out because I resigned from the community' gone. I mean... gone.

The shell has been almost entirely vacant ever since.

A few people log in briefly, but for the most part, I've been watching the imaginary tumbleweeds roll by, and silently saying goodbye to the people who may never come back.

In an obvious act of denial, I tried to coordinate ZM4 runs for the folks who needed it, and only Raikoh and I signed up, resulting in 3 consecutive weekly cancellations of the event. I tried to be angry and indignant about it, but all I could muster was sadness.

Something happened between that Dem run and Doc's departure, and I never really got the low-down, and probably never will. Which is fine by me actually. I really don't want to know what transpired.

This sounds cloyingly sappy, but I honestly can't find another way to articulate it: I hadn't realized how much of my heart I had invested in this group before they went away. I'm also saddened that I never got the chance to let them all know how special they were as a group, how uncharacteristic and refreshing it was to find a tight-knit group of balanced adults playing this game, people who would actually get together for dinner and play with their kids. It was my privilege to have been with them for the time that I was given.

It is a game after all, and people, especially adults with kids, move on.

However, the relationships we forge here are anything but virtual. As casual as they may be, they become a small part of the fabric of our lives. And it hurts to see that part fade away, almost inexplicably.

It's unfortunate that it had to happen like this, with such a whimper, and such a quiet, unresolvable resentment hanging over those who remain. That sounds dramatic, but I'm trying to be honest.

I've always carried a certain amount of pride with me when it comes to this game.

I pride myself on toughing it out where some folks would have probably quit and moved on to WoW or something. I still look back on my first post and feel the full weight of that moment at the waterfall, when I honestly wondered how much further I could go with this game.

However, I've realized that behind my pride is a sadness at the friends I've seen come and go in Vana'diel. A sort of ongoing mourning for the people who couldn't keep going with me, even as they were the ones who kept me going.

Not all of my friends are gone. There are several people on my list, and they know who they are, who continue to check in with me and make me feel like I'm more than a mote on an endless chain of redundant servers. Know that I value each and every one of you.

I'll continue to chip away at new facets of FFXI. But I won't lie and say that the wind hasn't left my sails a little, for the time being.

I'll miss you, Lifthrasirians. And I really hope to see some of you again. In the meantime, you know where to find me.

The adventure continues.

Sun's a risin',
This is gonna be my song.
Sun's a risin',
This is gonna be my song.
I could be blue but
I been blue all night long.

Langston Hughes, Hey

Contrasts

I got to see both sides of Valkurm last night.

The side we all enjoy to decry was actually pretty comical. The party consisted of a random assortment of melee, all rank 1 or 2, at least a couple of sub-less players, and an anon player whom I discovered was to be our backup healer. I didn't really check anyone, and frankly didn't care. The night was young, and if things went wrong there would be plenty of time to recover.

The party self-destructed within 20 minutes.

We were having fun with flies at the outpost, which gave me some good practice on my Poisonas, and a retrospective note-to-self to use Barwatera more often to mitigate Cursed Sphere damage. But the players were just kinda clueless. One of them had to leave within 5 minutes of starting and was wondering what job to bring in, NIN being one of the options. He was a melee, so it didn't really matter, but the PLD stated NIN would "make a better tank". Ooook then...

Meanwhile the puller was grabbing anything by the OP that con'd...anything. The taru "backup healer" ran out of MP at almost every fight and grabbed agro constantly. The puller of course eventually got a sheep, which AOE'd as I was running in for a Barsleepra. It put everyone to sleep and pecked away at a single player (not the PLD, incidentally) killing him pretty quickly. We eventually defeated the sheep with 3 melee before one of them logged randomly. The dead guy lay there for quite awhile before I asked about his home point (as if I had to). Jeuno.

The NIN who showed up to the OP refused the invite, probably because of the epic sheep battle he'd just witnessed.

When the party disbanded, the /anon backup healer remained anon and put his flag up. That's when I checked him. He wore a random assortment of melee gear with a few +INT here & there, no rings, no earrings, no hand gear, no waist gear. I had to explain the anon status to him, and explained how to turn it off. Once it was off, he checked as a subless 18 RDM. He then proceeded to do his version of a /shout...only in the /say channel.

"I need a party."

"I will main heal."

Every 10 seconds or so, with only the two of us as an audience. Yeah, I was scared too.

Anyway another invite came within minutes and I accepted. Thankfully this party consisted of higher-ranked players (8-10), with a couple of new players, one of whom still needed a map to the area ^_^. Zorrandor had volunteered to help me out with my next party, and these folks needed a tank, so he came out on his PLD (18). We headed out to the secret beach, only to find a surprise PL waiting for us.

ORZ

Fortunately, the PL got tired and left within a half hour. I shared healing and buffing duties with a SMN, who incidentally loved to spam the /p and /s channels with dorky RPish dialog with her avatars >.>;

{/echo} {Please check it.}

But it didn't interfere with my job or hers so I didn't mind so much. It's just fascinating to see what levels of geekdom people can take their fantasy worlds to ^_^. I know, pot kettle black, right?

The puller was kinda crazy, but I liked it that way. I let her pull at 100MP just to see if I could swing it, and for the most part it was fine although it did cause me to drink more Melon Juice than I was accustomed to, and any post battle Curagas would drain my pool down to 20ish MP. But I figured I'd better get accustomed to the faster-paced fighting that would lie ahead, juggling resting time with the right amount of cures/buffs etc.

The party went really really well, and I dinged 19 & change before I needed to log for some sleep.

White magery

Since I'm growing a bit bored with my Warrior job (hey, it only took me 3 years), I've picked up WHM again at level 13. I took a couple of evenings to re-orient myself with the job: reading all the FAQs, muling and updating equipment, updating my spells, creating a new macro register, buying juice ingredients, and selling my Promy gear in a desperate attempt to compensate for my inevitable loss of 300k gil to an Astral Ring purchase.

I'm Elvaan. I had to do it.

I had a grand time in the dunes last night, getting from level 13 to a little over 1k TNL until 16.

Within seconds of arriving in Sandy with my flag up, I received an invitation which was a bit inauspicious at first, but I tried to remain positive and I'm glad that I did: BLM,WHM,WHM,BST,MNK. Although the leader (BST) first assumed that the MNK would be de facto tanking, he eventually found a PLD for the 6th slot.

Hiking all the way from Sandy without benefit of bird or OP warp, I rediscovered how excruciatingly slow transit can be at this level. Finally getting to the Valkurm outpost alive felt like a feat unto itself, although I was kicking myself for having forgotten Signet since the OP was owned by Windurst at the time.

We camped at the southeastern corner of I8, killing VT and IT Snippers for the remainder of the evening. The pulling could have been a bit faster, but we were competing with a couple of parties in the area, and I actually appreciated the pace since it allowed me some time to get familiar with the job again. The other WHM was subjob-less and had a substantially lower MP pool, so he enfeebled and backup healed while I main-healed.

I must confess that I had a couple of ACK! moments where I was completely flubbing my macros, and mistargeting, and letting nerves interfere with my performance, but for the most part I'm confident that I did a good job. No one died on my watch.

I'm getting a feel for how much juice to drink (kinda overdid it at first), and how long it takes to regain MP to a passable level for a pull, etc. I never hit a point where dipped below 25% MP, and for the most part the juice and cookie-resting kept my pool at a steady 60-80%.

I had a lot of fun, even when the backup WHM eventually had to go to bed. It was a very different feeling, this remote responsibility for the survival of the party, and I may very well end up taking this job past the 37 levels I was begrudgingly planning. Who knows...

Making your screen pretty...

Sorry I've been so tardy in updating and responding to comments. I'm currently writing this in the airport as I wait for my flight back home. It's been a long week -_-

I've been asked by several people to explain how I got the 1440x900 resolution to work and how to upgrade the UI.

Before I proceed, I should warn you that none of this is sanctioned by SE, and can introduce glitches into your game if not done properly. Always write down or record original registry key values before editing them and back up your DATs before changing them. Please.

OK, first the easy one. Resolution. Using the FFXI Config menu enables you to expand the 'Overlay Graphics' resolution to a pretty high degree. However this only affects the menus, fonts, windows, etc. This, at least to my understanding, does not increase the resolution of the actual graphical content (i.e. the 'background resolution'). The most you'll get via FFXI Config is 1024x1024.

This is why I edited the registry to get the Overlay and Background to have identical resolutions.

Hold down the Windows and R buttons to bring up the Run command. Type regedit in the box and click OK.

You'll see an Explorer style directory. The following is the path to get to the FFXI registry:

My Computer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
PlayOnlineUS
SquareEnix
FinalFantasyXI

As soon as you get to FinalFantasyXI and select it, you'll see a list of 21 registry entries, ranging from 0000 to 0033, and a (Default) which we won't be touching. In the Data column for entries 0001 and 0002, you'll notice the familiar values that you set as the 'overlay graphics' resolution (they'll be listed in parentheses).

Now notice that entries 0003 and 0004 have the values you set for the 'background' resolution (1024x1024 for most people with large monitors). These are what you're going to edit.

Double-click 0003, which will bring up an "Edit DWORD Value" window. Toggle the Base button from Hexadecimal to Decimal. This is important, so go slowly and make sure you've done this. Once in Decimal mode, change the Value data to the desired horizontal resolution (in my case, I set this to 1440). Click OK.

Double-click 0004, and repeat the process (remember that Decimal base) and set the value to your desired vertical resolution (in my case, 900). Click OK.

If you want to get rid of the annoying flickering of distant backgrounds, you can also bump up your mip mapping value in this registry. This is updatable in key 0000. The suggested value for smoothing distant textures is 4. This enables you to turn off anisotropic texture filtering on your card to improve performance.

Close your registry editor, and you're done.

If you'd like to know what the rest of the registry keys do, check the allakhazam guide. Note that some of these options are now updatable via the FFXI config screen.

Ok, now you want your fonts to look all nicey nice, so it's time to download a .DAT pack. I got mine from FFXIdats.com. I browsed the application skins section and found what I wanted here.

Once you download the pack, look at the ROM files and folders in the set and be sure to back up the original SE versions of these files to a separate directory before you mess with them. Whenever a .DAT mod even touches a directory, I personally back up the entire directory before moving the new files over.

This is because any subsequent updates from SE can potentially introduce glitches with your custom DATs. For instance, the latest update made some changes to status icons, and I had the custom set of status icons included with the aforementioned pack. Cancelling 'Defender' would bomb my Playonline session until I restored the original DATs.

Be sure to peruse the readme file on the .DAT pack. It will explain the function of the files, enabling you to pick & choose which ones you want, and it will tell you how to upgrade your window style as well.




Voila. Hope this is enough information!

Light of Dem

I just want to quickly report that Lifthrasir was successful in getting through Promyvion Dem on Saturday night. With the exception of a party wipe at the 'bottleneck' area on the third floor (agro'd a Gorger and Wanderer/Weeper), we had a fairly straightforward run. I took point on the sprint though the gauntlet and made it to the spire zone with 120HP left. {Adventure}!

I've left Frohike sitting in the Tavnazian Safehold as I attend a conference in Orlando. Yes, I'm in a Disneyworld resort, and yes, it is an exceedingly bizarre location for a convention. >.>

I'll be quite busy tomorrow but hope to upload pictures soon; love...Lufaise Meadows!

Congratulations to everyone on the team who made the run a success.

Addendum: Here's the photo set (click the image to launch the set).

Good timing!

Looks like Lifthrasir decided to get the CoP stuff underway at the right time. The current update has made a couple of adjustments:

• Players will no longer lose experience points when KO’d in Chain of Promathia mission battlefields.

• It is now possible to seal memories and reset Promyvion missions using the “Shattered Telepoint” found at the crags.

It also looks like it's a good time to take up some lowbie jobs and get them leveled. Namely WHM for me:

The following bonuses have been added to the Signet effect.

- Increased Healing HP while resting
The initial value for Healing HP (based on the character’s level), as well as the incremental jumps in Healing HP (based on the character’s maximum HP), will be increased.

- No TP loss while resting
While this bonus is in effect, TP will not be lost while resting.

- Bonus experience in small groups

- Increased defense and evasion against attacks from your auto-attack target

I was wondering when/if they would spruce up Signet to be as advantageous as Sanction, and I think it's a fair idea, especially if SE wants to continue to draw new players into the game. However, considering how many RMT countermeasures they are taking with this update, they might not want to make it too easy to level.

For example, some exploitable quests have now gained level requirements, so the prices of some scrolls will probably rise again, making it easier for legitimate players to make some cash on these quests without competing with RMT bottom-feeders... assuming those bottom-feeders don't level too quickly.

If you read the rest of the update, you'll notice a large number of adjustments to drops, drop rates, and additional pop items, a sign that SE is actually trying to do something about bot-campers since they're obviously not able to hit 100% of them with the ban stick. Good to see.

Light of Mea

Last night, Lifthrasir had a very successful Promyvion Mea run. We were all a bit saddened that Murrdoc wouldn't be joining us, and not necessarily for the selfish reasons of enjoying his company and help... He was dealing with one of his dogs, who had become very ill, and probably lethally so. I know what it feels like to go through something like that, and my heart goes out to him.

The run to the spire went extremely well. Not a single death was suffered by anyone in the group, although we unfortunately lost Lexxi to a disconnect between floors. She had been graciously escorting us to the spire, since she's already on CoP chapter 2-3.

Unlike the Holla run, we had to sprint through quite a gauntlet of enemies on the final floor. And in a strange reversal of the last Promy, I neglected to take snapshots until we were actually at the spire and in the BC fight. Go figure.

The final battle went extremely well, despite a couple of un-hystero'd Carousel moves. We barely got through our hysteroanima rotation before the battle was over, setting a new time record.

A special thanks to Zorrandor for his navigational skills, and to Quan for stepping up to the plate and coordinating the anima rotation. Good job, everyone!