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[JRPereira]

So I've played everquest, world of warcraft, and city of heros, and have found lots of little things about them I don't like, and I'm reading about and looking at final fantasy XI and it looks like it might be a refreshing change. What do you guys think about final fantasy XI compared to the other MMO's? Below is a list of things that I didn't like about the other mmo's.

Do you think final fantasy XI will be any different?


*World of Warcraft*
Ended up being a continual instance grind for the next set of armor.
Mages and the like could toast warriors in seconds before they got into range.
There weren't any casual quests for level 60 players.
Had so much travel time and so little to do in between major areas.
Had such dull and uninteresting music (no situational/battle music)
Had terribly uninteresting spell/attack effects.
Had few opportunities for casual grouping.
No ability to que in the next spell/ability.
Leveled too fast.

*Everquest*
Crafting system was such a chore that everyone I know used evercraft. I didn't even bother with crafting.
There were so many trivial quests that didn't have much of a story behind them.
The game ran like absolute rubbish.
Had so many insignificant and confusing abilities.
Had such a generic art style - felt like something out of create-a-rpg.
Had generic music.
Had terribly uninteresting spell/attack effects.
Practically required groups - if you couldn't find.
No pvp/battleground areas.
Not a lot of changes in scenery from place to place.

*City of Heros*
Had the worst sound environment of any game I'd played.
Had the worst art style of any game I'd played.
Had no real significant missions or story.
Required groups for everything.
Ran terribly for its visuals.
Hardly any items at all.
No basic auto-attack/wand ability.
Not a lot of changes in scenery from place to place.

 

[Jonnyram]

FFXI
*has the best background & story of any MMORPG ever, possibly best in a game even
*fantastic graphics - nice design, nice spell effects
*pretty well balanced
*grinding is a major PITA after level 55
*crafts are a major PITA all the way
*community is a mixed bag depending on your server
*JP and English players are mixed, miscommunication/racism abundant

edit: :O at your avatar

 

[Belfast]

FFXI is good, but rough. It's one of those MMOs that looks repetitive and focused on grinding, but there's just this deeper level of reward that's the best I've seen in the genre yet.

As I've said before, WoW has its good points, but its focused on instant gratification, which doesn't jive with me.

 

[duffey]

I really hated the total focus on grouping, it's nearly impossible to solo after a certain level depending on your class. It's a cool enough atmosphere and the game has some good ideas but oh god after level 20 I wanted to die.

 

[jiggle]

I really like this game.

Only major gripe being the daily increasing prices on my server I watch as a noble bed pratically go up by 10k each and everyday.


edit: oh ya, don't like the grouping part also. And the, sometimes, reliance on high level help on quests.

 

[Gattsu25]

It does nothing new and doesn't set itself apart that well...still the most fun I had in the genre because what it does do it does well

edit: yeah...it's also got the best story in a long while
great party mechanics...too bad you'll never experience them because 100% of the playerbase are morons who think that there are only 2 or 3 viable party combinations

 

[Reilly]

It's cool if you're Japanese and living in Japan.

 

[Tyrone Slothrop]

i used to be a MMO junkie back in the day; miraculously kicked the habit ...

i remember FFXI being a great game, but 90% of the players seemed to be 12 years old or mentally deficient in some way, and of course this really fucked me up in important battles where concisive strategy means everything. maybe i was just on a bad server or whatever, but they pretty much made me give it up completely despite the fact the game itself was quite enjoyable

 

[Diablos]

What do I think?

Leave the MMO's to the other guys, I want more single-player FF's and faster, thanks

 

[Hyjinx]

I loved FFXI but it turned into the worst time sink ever. If aren't the exact job with sub job no one wants to group with you. If you can't group leve 20+ you can't play. Even if you are the right class, you can spend 4 hours waiting to get a group and log out losing 4 hours and not accomplishing a thing. I played casually for a year and a half and only got to level 37 at which point no one wanted to group with my Dragoon because everyone had this misconception that they suck, but that's another argument. I really liked it and wish I could go back to it if it wasn't such a grind and soloing was possible.

 

[PC Gaijin]

I enjoyed FFXI more than any other MMO since UO, but based on your listed dislikes, I'm not sure it's the game you're looking for. A few thoughts:

The game becomes a tremendous grind in the upper levels (I'd say after level 60 or so). That said, level 60 could take you through a significant portion of the game storywise. I got rank 10 (the highest of the original story missions) and finished the Zilart missions by level 62, although granted I did have higher level level help for some of those.

Speaking of story, FFXI has the best story/lore of any MMO I've played (and any FF game for that matter). If you can make it through even just the missions to rank 6 or so, XI has an excellent story. The world/setting is very well fleshed out, and while most of the quests don't have an xp reward like WoW, they tend to be more varied/involved than WoW quests.

I enjoy crafting in MMOs but FFXI has one of the most tedious crafting systems ever.

FFXI still looks very nice, although that's due to art more than anything else (spell effects and such still look good though). Not a lot of variety in character models/armor/weapons due to its PS2 roots, but what's there is extraordinarily polished as you would expect in a top-tier JRPG.

Interface could be a problem if you're used to mouse control. Gamepad or keyboard control both work perfectly fine.

Although Square has made some changes recently to help soloing (increasing xp for easier targets, gear that gives xp bonuses, and the ability to summon an NPC partner to help leveling) grouping is still necessary to make decent progress for most classes by at least level 20. However, I've noticed that some of the old rigidity as to what constitutes an acceptable xp party has eased so that a "perfect" party isn't as expected/demanded anymore. It's possible to solo the entire game as a beastmaster (other classes can solo, just the reward/time spent generally isn't worth it), but even beastmasters will generally duo or trio with other beastmasters in the upper levels (post-60). The xp curve simply becomes daunting later in the game.

End game can be a ridiculously juvenile drama-fest from what I've heard, but I've pretty much avoided all that. I participated in a couple of Dynamis runs and HNM fights because I had friends that allowed me to tag along a few times to see what it was like, but I had no desire (nor time) to get into the end game. I leveled every job in the game to at least 30, took bard to 73, beastmaster to 64, thief to 60, and dragoon to 57 and I enjoyed the game immensely. The xp grind can get to you sometimes, but there is actually quite a lot of content outside of xp parties that you can try (and not all of it is end game either). Burning Circle fights, Empty Notorious Monster, all the quests, garrison fights (one of my favorites), Ballista (FFXI's PvP), and once you've leveled a job a bit, simply exploring Vana'diel and taking in the sights is fun.

 

[ronito]

I really enjoyed FFXI, but finally got fed up that you can't do anything on your own eventually I got sick of having to play around other people's schedules and gave it up. I still miss it from time to time.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

FFXI was my first MMORPG.... and it kicked my ass... significantly. It definitely wasn't a game I could just pick up after work, play, and have fun with for a few hours before dinner. It took way too much dedication that I simply could not supply.

A shame... because the world is fucking beautiful.
Even now I wish there was a way you could just explore the insanely detailed world without having to screw around with fighting/leveling. I probably only saw 1/20th of the amazingly vast world of Vana'diel.

No Uematsu soundtrack was also a big turn-off as far as a game with the 'Final Fantasy' name goes, but that's just a personal gripe.

 

[Shouta]

Full of great ideas and filled of poor decisions. I love the game but it does have its massive flaws.

 

[Snaku]

Picked the Vana'diel Collection up Sunday, and have put in about 7 hours so far. I'm liking it, it's a nice break from WoW.

 

[ghibli99]

It was a major time-sink when I played it in late 2003... made me realize that I needed to go out and spend more time interacting with people in RL instead of in-game. I sort of have an inherent distaste for MMOs sociologically because of that reason... it's like, hey, this is your one shot at life, but you're going to spend hundreds of hours in this fake online realm while the world around you passes you by? Kinda sad when you think about it that way.

Never mind that I was just sitting in front of my TV for 4 hours just now playing Paper Mario 2. :lol

 

[Spiritreaver]

Picked the Vana'diel Collection up Sunday, and have put in about 7 hours so far. I'm liking it, it's a nice break from WoW.

A word of warning, don't play Ballista. You will never be able to quit the game.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

is there anyone here (or any good sites) that can sum up the whole story of FFXI so far for those of us who will never really be able to experience it??

 

[Spiritreaver]

is there anyone here (or any good sites) that can sum up the whole story of FFXI so far for those of us who will never really be able to experience it??

I would think it would be nearly impossible to sum it up in a single post, for anyone. This is a nice site though with some rather detailed entries of the main storylines.

http://www.shadow-ffxi.com/HistoryofVanadiel/

I really couldn't sum up what I love about this game, there's just too much I enjoy about it and the whole issue of it being a huge timesink that I always see people gripe about flies by for me personally. Perhaps if all I cared about was seeing that exp bar fill it'd have been an issue for me.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

cool- thanks for the link, Darth!

 

[Jonnyram]

The site above is fantastic and contains images too.
It's hard to summarise because the story basically covers thousands of years, from how the Goddess Altana's tears became five races, to the near-destruction of the world by the Shadow Lord and Beastmen. The Zilart and Promathia expansions are two separate expansions which basically build on specific areas, and cover both history of the world (how it got to where it is) as well as current+future activities, depending on your progress.

The new expansion (Treasures of Aht Urhgan) is mostly set in the East of Vana'diel, which has yet to be revealed properly. Promathia was pretty much in the West, and Zilart was new areas all over the map.

 

[TheDuce22]

It is potentially the most entertaining (if you managed to get in a good group with cool people) but more often than not the most frustrating mmog I have played. I got up around level 57 before I quit. It is possible to get that high just playing casually if you pick the right job. Like bard or rdm for instance.

 

[brocke]

It's a great game but depending on the type of person you are coming in now might be kind of rough. Depending on the server, there are a ton of higher lvl players already. For some people the can make their achievements seem unimportant because almost everyone else did it a long time ago.

 

[Snaku]

A word of warning, don't play Ballista. You will never be able to quit the game.

Heh, I'm just playing it to experience the world and story. Don't really care about PvP or leveling all jobs.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

the game is almost 4 years old now (well, since the original Japanese release) and they haven't added any new races for the player to choose. I wonder if they ever will?

I also wished there was more personalization- body-size, facial variety (maybe even SIMS 2-esque, where you could actually design your character's face yourself), etc. Maybe they will add these kinds of customizations with the next-generation versions?

As beautiful as FFXI is, it's really lacking in character variety, IMO.

 

[RuGalz]

You probably will hate these in FFXI out of the ones you dislike from the other MMO:

Ended up being a continual instance grind for the next set of armor. (just about everything is grinding in FFXI be that xping or farming and there's also a bit of what you mention here)
There weren't any casual quests for level 60 players. (there are some but depends on the job you probably will need help)
Had so much travel time and so little to do in between major areas. (ffxi has it the worst imo)
Had few opportunities for casual grouping. (unless you are doing minor stuff with Linkshell forget it)
No ability to que in the next spell/ability.
Crafting system was such a chore that everyone I know used evercraft. I didn't even bother with crafting. (every game should have WoW like crafting system...)
Practically required groups. (yea, unless you are a bard at higher level you probably will be looking for group for a while)
No pvp/battleground areas. (very limited in ffxi)
Required groups for everything. (most of things anyway and depends on your job)

On top of these I find:
* FFXI quest system is so broken. They give you these vague ass hints and expect you to look for more detail information online. Forget about any pointer on the map that tell you roughly where you have to go. You have to rely on the sometimes really vague or no useful information in-game quest/mission log and go from there or look online.

What I like is the aesthetic aspect of the game; the missions and storytelling cutscenes are great. Outside of these, the game itself is a bore after the novelty of the "console game like battle system" wears. I took near a year break and recently went back to the game to grind another job to 74/75. After 2 months, it's getting old again and most of the time I just log on to chat. The game is worth trying out and definately can be fun but there are many aspects of the game just makes you want to go drop a bomb at designer's office.

 

[Jonnyram]

Oh man, that's so true.
Without online guides this game would be so retarded it's untrue.
It's said that WoW holds your hand a little too much for some quests, but FFXI is the exact opposite. You aren't even told what item you need in some cases, never mind where to get it, or that you can only get it from certain mobs, or at certain times of the day. It's really something else!

 

[Shouta]

The best part of the game is getting put into FFXII anyway, the battle system. They just need to adopt the job system, skillchains, weapon skills, and merit points for FFXII and you got everything you could ever want.

The story of the game could make such a great single player game. It's kind of sad that it was wated on a MMO. Of the all the FF games, FFXI is just so incredible in story. Tons of history, lots of interesting characters, and a plot that doesn't involve angsty teenagers trying to save the world.

 

[JRPereira]

Well I have to say, based on what I've read so far, I'm no closer nor further to buying the game. How many hours do you guys think it'll last before it starts to get boring?

 

[ronito]

oh you'll get utterly frustrated with it before you get bored of it. It really just depends on your threshold for pain/frustration.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

it depends on what you consider 'boring'.

If you find people yelling out non-stop phrases such as "ANY1 HAVE FREE GIL?" or "LOKING 4 WHM 2 PARTY PLZ!" exciting, FFXI will never get boring for you. Never. Ever. Neverever.

 

[Jonnyram]

It really depends on the class you start as.
Basically soloing is easy until about level 14/15 as any class. I say easy, but you can still get your ass kicked easily if you get attacked by a monster you didn't plan on fighting, or if you aren't healed properly.

At that level, you generally start to look for parties to fight in either of the two main coastal areas. If you're a mage, you'll probably get a party easily, if there's enough people around Then the real "fun" begins.

 

[Oogami]

So you have to log in every 2 months or else they'll delete your account and it'll be gone forever?

 

[AndoCalrissian]

What the hell is a PITA in relation to a game? Speaking of pitas, if you have a Pita Pit near you, go eat there now.

Anyway, I found FFXI to be like an abusive relationship. It kept beating me down with last second deaths and leveling down, but I kept coming back to play more. Until I stopped to try CoH that is.

 

[Jonnyram]

* pain in the ass

 

[Taibhse]

It's terrible, do not go near this game at all.

They took the imperfect time sinks from other MMOs and made them better faster stronger.

Even walking around a city is a timesink. Think you can save a few seconds by off the side of a staircase, HALT evildoer you will walk down those stairs and you will like it.

Also I hope you like killing crabs.

 

[Ferrio]

It's horrible, if you thought wow was a grindfest then you haven't seen nothing yet.

Here's FFXI in a nutshell


*Look 1-4 hours for a group*
*Go to an area and pull the same monster (single one) kill. Repeat until your group breaks up or you level/delevel outside the range of the group*
*Move to new area, repeat*

Every like 10 levels you MIGHT get a new skills, but it'll probably be a worthless one anyway (or passive so big deal). Oh and there's only like 20 armor pieces in the game. Seriously the only armor in the agme either drops off rare spawn mobs that people camp like no tommorow or are crafted. Every so often (like one in 10,000 kills) an armor piece that is easily crafted drops off a regular monster.

Ya and as the post above me, You'll be killing bunnies at your begginign levels, and you'll be killing them while you're like 40. Crabs? Ya get used to those, the only differences betweeen the crabs will be what skills they have (they'll only have skilsl players can have, nothing unique) and they're hp/armor.

The economy is busted. Everythign is expensive as hell, and inflation piles through the roof. Crafting is not worth it seeing how there's NO item decay, so anything that gets made can be resold, so often times the items needed to craft something are worth way more than what was crafted. I wouldn't be surprised if there's subligar on the auction house that was made the first day of the game.


Also there's no room to customize your character. Literally there's nothing to make you standout from others. There's few little models, styles, armor styles and skills. Also if you try a class/subclass combination that isn't considered the norm, you won't get in groups.

 

[The End]

Yeah, the forced grouping is rough, and de-leveling after you've just upgraded all of your gear bites.

 

[bill0527]

Wow I didn't realize you could de-level in FFXI. De-levelling is so... late 1990ish in terms of MMORPG gameplay. Its ridiculous.

 

[Spiritreaver]

*Look 1-4 hours for a group*
*Go to an area and pull the same monster (single one) kill. Repeat until your group breaks up or you level/delevel outside the range of the group*
*Move to new area, repeat*

Someone didn't play a mage. That sounds like the old issue with there never being enough mages to make parties. Things have actually balanced out a bit now, while melees still seek longer than mages, 4 hour long waits seem rare, especially early on.

Every like 10 levels you MIGHT get a new skills, but it'll probably be a worthless one anyway (or passive so big deal). Oh and there's only like 20 armor pieces in the game. Seriously the only armor in the agme either drops off rare spawn mobs that people camp like no tommorow or are crafted.

Again someone didn't play a mage. All mage classes generally get a new spell almost ever level, some multiple ones a level with maybe one or two empty spots. Even the hybrid clases get (PLD, DRK) get spells. Other classes have the benefit of constantly getting new weapons and weaponskills and most of the skills are useful, where have you been? At best the only worthless skill are the circle abilities (arcana circle, ancient circle, etc).

Mob drops are a given, but many of the high profile items from before have been changed. Several are now BCNM drops with rare/ex versions being put in their original place. Same stats, different name. This makes the number of people caming any items certain to decrease over time.

Ya and as the post above me, You'll be killing bunnies at your begginign levels, and you'll be killing them while you're like 40. Crabs? Ya get used to those, the only differences betweeen the crabs will be what skills they have (they'll only have skilsl players can have, nothing unique) and they're hp/armor.

Actually the only mob that you will commonly see pts killing are crabs, but this is not SE's fault at all. People kill crabs due to how weak they and lack any crazy abilities that can make parties just not fun. The thing is there are plenty of other camps at ever level, and I've actually seen more people suggest areas aside the normal lately than before.

The economy is busted. Everythign is expensive as hell, and inflation piles through the roof. Crafting is not worth it seeing how there's NO item decay, so anything that gets made can be resold, so often times the items needed to craft something are worth way more than what was crafted. I wouldn't be surprised if there's subligar on the auction house that was made the first day of the game.

This is not entirely true as you can craft consumables. Not to mention people make money off HQs and not normal synths. Oh and enchantment items? Those things get bought like mad since usually they can't be recharged or sold after use. There's money to make in every craft, it's just the matter of finding the moneymaker and exploiting it. The only reason I don''t suggest crafts until later though is that most of them are incredibly expensive to level.

]Also there's no room to customize your character. Literally there's nothing to make you standout from others. There's few little models, styles, armor styles and skills. Also if you try a class/subclass combination that isn't considered the norm, you won't get in groups.

First off, I'm a little tired of hearing people mention the job/subjob thing. There's a reason you won't get parties, it won't work. Period. At best you can stray a bit with combos that are a bit useful (RDM/BRD, WHM/NIN, etc) later on. And ballista actually allows for that crazy job ombo freedom as just about anything works, and you can have with anything. RDM/DRK, DRK/SAM, DRK/THD, MNK/SAM, DRG/RDM, DRG/DRK, and so on. Otherwise I do agree, the game is rather lacking the model department, you definitely will have a hard time standing out aside of how your portray yourself through words. I think the game makes up for it in the beauty of the environments. For me, I've yet to encounter anything that can top the zones. I have to say that was major issue with me when I looking at WoW, it just didn't have the artstyle to grab me. FFXI is big on realistic environments which is generally why I think it looks so amazing, even for such an old game.


I see the reason for some gripes and it should be noted, but a lot of the more common ones are absolutely silly. Many issues people have either been fixed or curbed or were entirely wrong from the start. Timesink and exp grinds are issues I can agree with, but that is FFXI. It really weeds out the weak and poorly skilled, and poorly dedicated, players. Yeah, I can see how some would have issues with that, so if you don't dedicate hours you suck, that's pretty much true. That's why I love it, as often MMORPGs are not quick diversions for me. I often play them for months on end. A system that's not dedicated to constantly walking you through everything like a preschooler actually works for me. So if you're into that (which I honestly don't think the original poster is) go for it. FFXI, well no any MMORPG, was never meant to please every person out there. Other MMOs may do all the right things for some, but that's definitely not true for everyone.

 

[Dracos]

If you've been gone for a year, can you get your character back?

 

[Gattsu25]

where have you been?

He quite the game a few months before I couldn't play anymore....I'd say 3 or 4 months before Promanthia



some of my old Pictures:

http://www.ga-forum.com/showpost.php?p=1549284&postcount=62

 

[RuGalz]

Someone didn't play a mage. That sounds like the old issue with there never being enough mages to make parties. Things have actually balanced out a bit now, while melees still seek longer than mages, 4 hour long waits seem rare, especially early on.

Again someone didn't play a mage. All mage classes generally get a new spell almost ever level, some multiple ones a level with maybe one or two empty spots. Even the hybrid clases get (PLD, DRK) get spells. Other classes have the benefit of constantly getting new weapons and weaponskills and most of the skills are useful, where have you been? At best the only worthless skill are the circle abilities (arcana circle, ancient circle, etc).

Not everyone likes to be a mage... Having brought both RDM and WAR to 75 I can say that while melee *can* get party a little bit easier these days, the difference is still pretty significant. There are still times when I go on days without being able to form a party or get into a party as a War.

Mob drops are a given, but many of the high profile items from before have been changed. Several are now BCNM drops with rare/ex versions being put in their original place. Same stats, different name. This makes the number of people caming any items certain to decrease over time.

This is still pretty flawed. (Whenever I say something that's flawed means it makes it no fun for players BUT it's economical for SE.) It's a huge time sink to just gather enough seals to try out BCNM and even if you win there's no guarantee of a drop. Just an example, I recently wasted 200 seals trying to obtain a Peacock Charm; not only it didn't drop, I made only like 300k total. They need to either make seals easier to obtain, or keep the NM and let it drop normal item (give those losers who like to camp NMs something to do) but give BCNM much much higher drop rate but drops rare/ex version of the item. The only reason they wouldn't do something like this is that it will devalue Gils overtime much much quicker than how it is currently.

Actually the only mob that you will commonly see pts killing are crabs, but this is not SE's fault at all. People kill crabs due to how weak they and lack any crazy abilities that can make parties just not fun. The thing is there are plenty of other camps at ever level, and I've actually seen more people suggest areas aside the normal lately than before.

In a PVE game, obviously players are there to find things that are easiest to kill but give the best xp rate. If it's not SE's fault for not having more xp friendly mobs, what is it? How many pickup parties are willing to travel far and try out things? And even if the party is willing to xp on other things, how many of those parties do you think won't take an hour to get to destination and then someone would leave in an hour? Yea, static party would be the answer to this problem but having static party is a luxury, it should not a requirement to make the game enjoyable. The fact is simply that FFXI is not designed for casual play at all. I always laugh at interviews where they say things like "We really didn't expect people to be so addicted to the game but we are trying to resolve those problems." It's like I want to ask "Have you personally played the game to understand how tedious it is 80% of the time?"

First off, I'm a little tired of hearing people mention the job/subjob thing. There's a reason you won't get parties, it won't work. Period. At best you can stray a bit with combos that are a bit useful (RDM/BRD, WHM/NIN, etc) later on. And ballista actually allows for that crazy job ombo freedom as just about anything works, and you can have with anything. RDM/DRK, DRK/SAM, DRK/THD, MNK/SAM, DRG/RDM, DRG/DRK, and so on.

This is an old and flawed design and it's basically because SE modeled after EQ1 too much initially. Games like Guild War let you use just about any class combination and still have fun in PVE environment.

 

[RuGalz]

If you've been gone for a year, can you get your character back?

Either SE stopped deleting characters or your character only get deleted if someone else happen to sign up trying to use the same name. My account was inactive the whole time and my character is still around. My friend's account is still around and he has quit for over a year already.

 

[Gattsu25]

First off, I'm a little tired of hearing people mention the job/subjob thing. There's a reason you won't get parties, it won't work. Period. At best you can stray a bit with combos that are a bit useful (RDM/BRD, WHM/NIN, etc) later on.

Bull and Shit. Players are too fucking stupid to try anything new is all. I've joined extremely desperate parties in "unorthodox" melee combos with great result, only to to get my ass dropped from the party the minute a PLD or THF starts looking for a group...all the times this has happened I stay around long enough to see them flounder about for experience (the entire time with my LFG flag on without getting reinvited) and watch them either s l o w l y rake up EXP or begin dying and see them start leveling down

The players and their inate retardation is the games main limitation...seriously, FFXI players are terrible...mostly in part because FFXI is a MMO that makes no qualms for kicking your ass, so the idiots tend to stick out more

 

[Mister Zimbu]

It's really a game of extremes.

What it does good, it does amazing on. No other MMO has near the charm, immersion, storyline, or musical quality that FFXI has. Gamepad control is incredible; it really allows you to sit back and relax to actually play the game. I honestly wish other MMOs had decent gamepad support.

However, what's bad about it is REALLY bad. As mentioned before, the game absolutely requires groups which come far too rarely. I was one of the most needed classes in the game (Bard) and was still forced to wait 3-6 hours for a group. Melees have been known to have days and even weeks of downtime before they finally get in a group. It's really ridiculous in that regard.

I quit playing this one, but should the Squeenix put out another FF MMO, I'd definitely go for it.

Edit: Is StarsOfDestiny still around? I might consider joining again for a short time if my character hasn't been deleted yet, and decide to stop playing WoW (which has only slightly more depth than a toaster). It'd be nice to finally get around to finishing the missions or even possibly the Zilart missions.

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

I think I might give it a whirl on X360 if/when it comes out here.

 

[Spiritreaver]

Bull and Shit. Players are too fucking stupid to try anything new is all. I've joined extremely desperate parties in "unorthodox" melee combos with great result, only to to get my ass dropped from the party the minute a PLD or THF starts looking for a group...all the times this has happened I stay around long enough to see them flounder about for experience (the entire time with my LFG flag on without getting reinvited) and watch them either s l o w l y rake up EXP or begin dying and see them start leveling down

The players and their inate retardation is the games main limitation...seriously, FFXI players are terrible...mostly in part because FFXI is a MMO that makes no qualms for kicking your ass, so the idiots tend to stick out more

Explain to me what you had going, what did you try, how did it work? At what level range and so on? There are pretty big decisions when you decide to try out different job combinations. I'm only curious, given the number of jobs anyways, I doubt any combinations would be considered new to anyone and it's probably already been tried. If not why not simply educate? I would really like to know myself.

I'd properly respond if I knew what you were specifically tried myself.

RuGalz, I actually agree with a lot of what you said. The system isn't perfect, especially in the mob drop area. Perhaps I've simply just not had many issues with it since I haven't played jobs which have a heavy requirement for mob drops.

I don't agree with the exp area thing though. It's really not going to cost you an arm and a leg to go to a different area and level off other mobs. Like I said, crabs are only done because they're the easiest mobs usually. I never said alternatives were worthless. Things like worms in Maze instead of doing Valkurm, you can even continue on to Korroloka. Weapons in Sauromugue Champaign instead of Altepa (these are actually not as bad as one would think if you hav silence). Beetles in Western Altepa instead of mulling in the latter days of CN in the late 40s. Makara in Yuhtunga. Those are a few examples. There are a number of options that really don't take much effort to get to, or get going. I think the main issue is that many people simply don't know they exist.

Other than that I agree there are some areas that need a lot of work. Perhaps that's not a good sign whatsoever for such an old MMO, but it hasn't stopped me from enjoying it in any way.

However, what's bad about it is REALLY bad. As mentioned before, the game absolutely requires groups which come far too rarely. I was one of the most needed classes in the game (Bard) and was still forced to wait 3-6 hours for a group.

How did that happen? I still have to remind myself to turn on anon after ballista due to all the invites I get. -_-

 

[RuGalz]

I don't agree with the exp area thing though. It's really not going to cost you an arm and a leg to go to a different area and level off other mobs. Like I said, crabs are only done because they're the easiest mobs usually. I never said alternatives were worthless. Things like worms in Maze instead of doing Valkurm, you can even continue on to Korroloka. Weapons in Sauromugue Champaign instead of Altepa (these are actually not as bad as one would think if you hav silence). Beetles in Western Altepa instead of mulling in the latter days of CN in the late 40s. Makara in Yuhtunga. Those are a few examples. There are a number of options that really don't take much effort to get to, or get going. I think the main issue is that many people simply don't know they exist.

Like I said, alternative spots usually takes longer to get to or riskier, I'm all for it when grouping with people who I know will stay for x number of hours and are skillful enough to not die trying to get to those spots. But for a game that relies so heavily on group synergy, often, with pickup groups, alternative xp spots may not be some place you want to be even if they exist because it's just not worth the effort. It's bad enough that sometimes it takes 30-60 mins just to get the whole group ready and get to the spot; the last thing you want is someone (especially mages) has to go in 30 mins after you start killing. In the end, there are simply too many types of mobs you just don't ever want to xp on them because of the skills they have and there's too much risk of xping in unfamiliar area with pickup group. If there weren't xp penalty when you die, more people will be willing to try out different things.

The problem with the game simply comes down to the fact that they go out of their ways to make sure every little thing is as tedious as possible to prolong the game, but rarely a single thing that make you want to quit. However, you add them all up and look at it objectively, it's freaking ridiculous from a player's point of view. (but great for SE)

Is StarsOfDestiny still around? I might consider joining again for a short time if my character hasn't been deleted yet, and decide to stop playing WoW (which has only slightly more depth than a toaster). It'd be nice to finally get around to finishing the missions or even possibly the Zilart missions.

It is still around. A few folks are mostly in their end game LSes but there are usually a few hanging around most of the time.

 

[TheDuce22]

Anyone who tells you the unique setups are just as good is lieing. There is a reason every class looks the same and has the same subjob. If you want to be unique you should not play FFXI.