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[Silvawuff]

I can still feel my addiction to it. Stopped playing 11 years ago had 500 plus real life days on my counter was a wild ride incredible especially the human drama that comes with it.

Aery drama was some of the best. Someone pulling Darters followed by a CFH and watching the whole room get flattened by a flipped tail spike or whatever it was called...good times.

I was an addict too! It got me through some hard times. Made a lot of buddies that I still chat with today. My 75 Mithra RDM decked out in blood cuisses, joyeuse, shadow ring etc. now sleeps peacefully inside Full Moon Fountain.

 

[Shouta]

It's a shame that they did the item level thing. I think the eventual cap increase from 75-> was inevitible, and it actually created some cool main/subjob combos that you wouldn't have previously considered, but the ilevel equipment meant that one of the biggest benefits to players in the game (lateral gear progression) was destroyed in one move. Not that some of the best pieces weren't still viable to a degree, but it just made all that effort I spent getting stuff like Scorp Harness +1 and Hauby +1 and all that type of stuff feel worthless. It's what ultimately drove me to quit for good after coming back and trying to get back into the game several times.

Trusts are fantastic, however. I'm kinda glad we didn't have them back in the day, because it forced social interaction and making friends and helping each other. But to be able to go experience all of that content today by yourself, what a great system.

The game is still all horizontal progression even in the ilvl-era. Item Levels just gave them more room to grow equipment and the strength of characters without breaking the level 99 cap though they actually just did that recently, in a way. You still get a bit of vertical progression once and awhile but it's definitely not like XIV at all.

 

[OsirisBlack]

This is one of those rare moments where we are in full agreement.

People reminisce about FFXI but there’s a reason everyone left. I had my fun with it back in the day, but the experience was varied. Utsusemi tanking with ninja? I flew through those levels stupid fast. Monk? No one wanted you in a party until late game leveling for bones parties. But you had to get lucky to be invited because all anyone would ever fight were crabs. There were many a night spent LFG and accomplishing absolutely nothing and I do not miss any of that.

I made a fortune selling food for leveling with my capped cooking, so thankfully I didn’t have to farm for gil like most players. I watched linkshell after linkshell fall apart due to drama over drops in sky. Dynamis was conceptually neat, but it was a laggy shitfest and a general nightmare trying to get 64 players in one spot on time.

I relived my FFXI experiences in FFXIV when Eureka debuted and most folks hated it. Grinded out levels in zones before they patched out the difficulty. I didn’t mind it since I had dealt with worse in my XI days but it just reaffirmed that it’s outdated design.

I like challenge in games like Elden Ring where the player is responsible for the outcomes. In games like FFXI back in the “golden era”, you could literally be stuck LFG and accomplish absolutely nothing in the span of two hours, sometimes more. That to me isn’t difficulty, that’s just wasting a player’s time.

To the main points of your post some of this is accurate and to be honest I couldn't really relate from the point of a DPS as the only DPS I really played was SMN and then BLU when it was released I Mained PLD and RDM so I never really had issues getting into a party and yes they were a grind but I actually miss that part of the game. As much as I love FFXIV I miss being able to get into a random party and go farm zone mobs and there were several places you could level if you had a competent party. Pots in SKY Imps near the Khim pop lots of things off the beaten path if you were good enough or had a party that wasnt horrible at traveling through the zones to get to those camps. Eureka was my absolute favorite thing to do in FFXIV before they patched out the difficulty but its still where you will find me most times when I dont have anything else going on.... I wouldnt say outdated design but I would say most players want everything handed to them now. If you look at FFXIV as it stands you can find a million paladins with the ultimate sword and shield combo from dragonsong already and that just released. I honestly do believe if SOME not all things were more exclusive it would add to the game just like the relic armor and weapons used to in FFXI.

About the Dynamis thing .... we had so many at one point we would run two different zones at the same time on Sunday. Had one city group farming coins so Sandy,Windy,Bastok or jeuno and the Better equipped group running Xarc or Glacier for mats. That doesnt even get into our Einherjar runs. Not many people knew what all went into that type of cooperation and planning and none of that exists anymore. Id have to talk to other LS leaders to get our times together as zones were instanced and you couldnt have more than one group in at a time. These would be the same people that would be fighting you for POP items in Sky and Sea or trying to outclaim you for different mob spawns so there was a lot of politics and drama involved also.

As far as the Elden ring bit in FFXI at higher levels the player was most definitely responsible for the outcome. (Edited to add) One bad pull or dumb mistake could ruin an entire pull or run.

 

[OsirisBlack]

Aery drama was some of the best. Someone pulling Darters followed by a CFH and watching the whole room get flattened by a flipped tail spike or whatever it was called...good times.

I was an addict too! It got me through some hard times. Made a lot of buddies that I still chat with today. My 75 Mithra RDM decked out in blood cuisses, joyeuse, shadow ring etc. now sleeps peacefully inside Full Moon Fountain.

I miss RDM being an actual RDM. WHERE THE HELL IS SLOW, SLOW II, PARALYZE and PARALYZE II SE?
Edited to add... Phalanx, and an actual Refresh spell. That shit would be so awesome in FFXIV.

Edited to add I’m going to blame you all but I just deactivated my account I’m Xarus or Kittylitterx on valefore and lakshmi

Edited to add:
Looks like I’ve been automatically server moved

 

[Boss Mog]

To the main points of your post some of this is accurate and to be honest I couldn't really relate from the point of a DPS as the only DPS I really played was SMN and then BLU when it was released I Mained PLD and RDM so I never really had issues getting into a party and yes they were a grind but I actually miss that part of the game. As much as I love FFXIV I miss being able to get into a random party and go farm zone mobs and there were several places you could level if you had a competent party. Pots in SKY Imps near the Khim pop lots of things off the beaten path if you were good enough or had a party that wasnt horrible at traveling through the zones to get to those camps. Eureka was my absolute favorite thing to do in FFXIV before they patched out the difficulty but its still where you will find me most times when I dont have anything else going on.... I wouldnt say outdated design but I would say most players want everything handed to them now. If you look at FFXIV as it stands you can find a million paladins with the ultimate sword and shield combo from dragonsong already and that just released. I honestly do believe if SOME not all things were more exclusive it would add to the game just like the relic armor and weapons used to in FFXI.

About the Dynamis thing .... we had so many at one point we would run two different zones at the same time on Sunday. Had one city group farming coins so Sandy,Windy,Bastok or jeuno and the Better equipped group running Xarc or Glacier for mats. That doesnt even get into our Einherjar runs. Not many people knew what all went into that type of cooperation and planning and none of that exists anymore. Id have to talk to other LS leaders to get our times together as zones were instanced and you couldnt have more than one group in at a time. These would be the same people that would be fighting you for POP items in Sky and Sea or trying to outclaim you for different mob spawns so there was a lot of politics and drama involved also.

As far as the Elden ring bit in FFXI at higher levels the player was most definitely responsible for the outcome. (Edited to add) One bad pull or dumb mistake could ruin an entire pull or run.

There's still plenty of grind in FFXI today. Once you get to level 99 you then have to grind 2100 Job points to achieve Master status for that job and recently they've added Master levels once you achieve Master status and these new Master levels are the biggest grind ever, so when people like Captain Toad talk about soloing everything, they have no clue what they're talking about since both Job Points and Mater levels are mostly done in parties(soloing those is extremely slow). So even for people who, for some reason, love to grind in parties, you can still do that in FFXI today except that it's more fun, since fighting at iLvl is way more fun than at 75 cap, and the jobs are pretty balanced these days.

 

[rubik's dude]

so when people like Captain Toad talk about soloing everything, they have no clue what they're talking about since both Job Points and Mater levels are mostly done in parties(soloing those is extremely slow).

I didn't read that person's post, but they may have been referring to being able to solo all of the story content? Job points and master levels do require a group to be efficient, but they're not necessary if somebody's looking to do just the story content.

 

[Doom85]

Fuck my post-nap brain. I wake up, see this title a few minutes later, and my eyes gloss over “20th anniversary”, add a V between X and I, and I get insanely hyped. Then I actually read the thing and am now:

Cheers to XI fans, but goddamn my mood went from “fuck yeah!” to “……oh.”

 

[Faust]

Fuck my post-nap brain. I wake up, see this title a few minutes later, and my eyes gloss over “20th anniversary”, add a V between X and I, and I get insanely hyped. Then I actually read the thing and am now:

Cheers to XI fans, but goddamn my mood went from “fuck yeah!” to “……oh.”

I keep reading it as FFIX myself!

 

[Meicyn]

I wouldnt say outdated design but I would say most players want everything handed to them now. If you look at FFXIV as it stands you can find a million paladins with the ultimate sword and shield combo from dragonsong already and that just released. I honestly do believe if SOME not all things were more exclusive it would add to the game just like the relic armor and weapons used to in FFXI.

Uhhhh… what? There’s like, two groups in the entire world so far that have cleared Dragonsong’s reprise which is basically sixteen people. Folks that clear that content went through actual skill-based difficulty, the grand majority of the playerbase is not skilled enough to clear it. More will eventually clear it, but the number of people who clear ultimates will always be a small fraction of the playerbase. As it should be. That’s not a handout, so I don’t understand the argument.

I don’t know what happens in FFXI these days, but getting a relic weapon done in FFXI had little to do with player skill when I played Dynamis, and everything to do with time commitment. It’s an achievement, sure… but no different than the achievement to grind out 2000 mentor roulettes to earn the astrope mount, or the pteronodon mount through the Ishgard restoration which like, less than a hundred people across all servers have last I checked. Clearing Dynamis required very little out of my character individually and has less skill-based checks than most hard mode encounters in modern MMOs.

What you are asking for literally exists in FFXIV. There are numerous status symbol achievements for titles, mounts, and so forth that are earned via massive grinding. Barely anyone has the triceratops mount in FFXIV. Most will never have the “of Dragon’s Deep” title because it requires massive patience doing fishing.

As far as the Elden ring bit in FFXI at higher levels the player was most definitely responsible for the outcome. (Edited to add) One bad pull or dumb mistake could ruin an entire pull or run.

Sure, and doing a mechanic incorrectly in a savage or an ultimate fight in FFXIV could wipe a party as well. You’re missing the point. Time-based difficulty is, to me at least, not nearly as interesting as skill-based difficulty. FFXI was a game full of primarily time-based difficulty. Elden Ring is skill-based.

FFXIV offers a huge mix. You have the faceroll easy stuff to make it accessible to everyone, you have the skill-based stuff like the ultimate fights that require massive amounts of team coordination to succeed, and you have time-based content needing massive grinding such as the triple triad mount (I still have to date seen only one person with it).

 

[OsirisBlack]

Uhhhh… what? There’s like, two groups in the entire world so far that have cleared Dragonsong’s reprise which is basically sixteen people. Folks that clear that content went through actual skill-based difficulty, the grand majority of the playerbase is not skilled enough to clear it. More will eventually clear it, but the number of people who clear ultimates will always be a small fraction of the playerbase. As it should be. That’s not a handout, so I don’t understand the argument.

I don’t know what happens in FFXI these days, but getting a relic weapon done in FFXI had little to do with player skill when I played Dynamis, and everything to do with time commitment. It’s an achievement, sure… but no different than the achievement to grind out 2000 mentor roulettes to earn the astrope mount, or the pteronodon mount through the Ishgard restoration which like, less than a hundred people across all servers have last I checked. Clearing Dynamis required very little out of my character individually and has less skill-based checks than most hard mode encounters in modern MMOs.

What you are asking for literally exists in FFXIV. There are numerous status symbol achievements for titles, mounts, and so forth that are earned via massive grinding. Barely anyone has the triceratops mount in FFXIV. Most will never have the “of Dragon’s Deep” title because it requires massive patience doing fishing.


Sure, and doing a mechanic incorrectly in a savage or an ultimate fight in FFXIV could wipe a party as well. You’re missing the point. Time-based difficulty is, to me at least, not nearly as interesting as skill-based difficulty. FFXI was a game full of primarily time-based difficulty. Elden Ring is skill-based.

FFXIV offers a huge mix. You have the faceroll easy stuff to make it accessible to everyone, you have the skill-based stuff like the ultimate fights that require massive amounts of team coordination to succeed, and you have time-based content needing massive grinding such as the triple triad mount (I still have to date seen only one person with it).

Not an argument and I do agree but if you think it only took time to hold a nm with just a pld/nin and rdm/whatever while waiting on 10 or more other people to gather didn’t take skill then I don’t know what to tell you. Properly timed shield bash knowing when to cast reprisal or when to let utsu fall on purpose took a lot of practice and skill. Look in the Elden ring thread that’s currently my second favorite game only behind FFXIV so you’ll get no dispute there. I’m on Excalibur server go chill in Limsa or Uldah there are more people than you think with those weapons… and yea the titles and mounts no one will probably ever get but honestly I think people are more concerned with the armor and weapons than mounts and titles.

 

[Meicyn]

I’m on Excalibur server go chill in Limsa or Uldah there are more people than you think with those weapons…

The world first clear for Dragonsong’s reprise happened 10 hours ago. On a EU datacenter. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that a bunch of people have the ultimate weapons from Dragonsong’s reprise on the Excalibur server in the last 10 hours and no one is talking about it.

 

[Ailike]

I havent played since 2012, but I just want to say to those that still do or ever did, I love you all and you gave me the best memories.

 

[OsirisBlack]

The world first clear for Dragonsong’s reprise happened 10 hours ago. On a EU datacenter. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that a bunch of people have the ultimate weapons from Dragonsong’s reprise on the Excalibur server in the last 10 hours and no one is talking about it.

Just walk through uldah two warriors and a bard have it one’s been playing music and crafting I’ll record him and not saying a bunch yet but more than you suspect.

Edited to add: Its a good thing

 

[Boss Man]

FFXIV is an iterative improvement over WoW. Comparing it to FFXI is like comparing Dragon Ball Z to Moby Dick. They’re both MMOs called Final Fantasy, that’s all they have in common.

FFXIV is a polished, fun, and extremely accessible game, but it makes a lot of sacrifices in order to be that. Example: they couldn’t even make Blue Mage a real job because the concept is too novel to fit into the handful of rigid class templates that they have. No real theorycrafting exists, it’s boring. Even gear is just a matter of upgrading to whatever is best in slot this patch, and once you’ve got that for SUPPORT or TANK you’ve got it for all of them.

There’s also no reason to be in the world of FFXIV. No reason to ride through areas with your friends, nowhere to go together, nothing to talk about (or opportunity to talk about it), and nothing to remember except for boss patterns. Is duty finder better than LFG all day? Well, yeah - but it still misses a lot that FFXI had.

There’s obviously demand for something like WoW and FFXIV, but I think there’s also room for something in between those and FFXI. Who knows exactly what that looks like though, Tanaka apparently didn’t figure it out with the initial release of FFXIV.

 

[rubik's dude]

There’s also no reason to be in the world of FFXIV. No reason to ride through areas with your friends, nowhere to go together, nothing to talk about (or opportunity to talk about it), and nothing to remember except for boss patterns. Is duty finder better than LFG all day? Well, yeah - but it still misses a lot that FFXI had.

There’s obviously demand for something like WoW and FFXIV, but I think there’s also room for something in between those and FFXI. Who knows exactly what that looks like though, Tanaka apparently didn’t figure it out with the initial release of FFXIV.

I definitely agree that you could probably make something like older FFXI nowadays, with some QoL improvements, but like you said, I don't know what that would look like. The problem is that, from what I can observe in current XI, a lot of players just don't want to socialize anymore, they want to get stuff done. Which makes sense, because a lot of the current players have jobs and families. So with a limited amount of playing time available, and considering that we socialize less as we get older, that kind of playstyle ends up having different outcomes from what we had in 2007:

1. Dual/tri/quad-boxing: people will just do the content themselves while running multiple instances of the game and automating multiple characters through scripts. Probably a third to half of the players on the most populated server right now, Asura, are just alts.

2. Mercenaries: this allows people to gain levels or do content without the timesink. This also causes the gil buying/selling market to thrive. Buy gil, pay mercenaries, mercenaries are usually the ones selling the gil, and it creates a cycle.

The game's current playerbase is its own worst enemy when it comes to trying to rekindle anything resembling the older style of XI. Adding content like master levels, or even a classic server, won't change that. So it would have to be an entirely new effort in a new game.

 

[rubik's dude]

Link to the stream:

 

[Kilau]

I had no idea this game was still going. I remember when folks were ditching EQ for this.

 

[RPS37]

Man that Q&A is so sad. S-E seems one of the worst big devs for backing up and cataloging their own games. Didn't they lose the original source code for FFIX too, which is what kept them from re-releasing it for so long?

I'm not saying "get the files from a private server", but....

Anyways, time to break out this thing again.

NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Wake me up when they link FFXI and FFXIV accounts under one sub fee. Thanks.

 

[rubik's dude]

Rundown of what was talked about in the livestream: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56667/may-8th-2022-livestream-thread#3623548

Unfortunately it was a whole lot of nothing, with no major announcements, outside of some plans for future version updates.

 

[Pejo]

Rundown of what was talked about in the livestream: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56667/may-8th-2022-livestream-thread#3623548

Unfortunately it was a whole lot of nothing, with no major announcements, outside of some plans for future version updates.

Man, can't help but be a little disappointed for a 20th anniversary. What a shame.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Rundown of what was talked about in the livestream: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56667/may-8th-2022-livestream-thread#3623548

Unfortunately it was a whole lot of nothing, with no major announcements, outside of some plans for future version updates.

The game is 20 years old and only has a small remaining player base. I don't think anyone was expecting anything, and quite honestly the fact that Squenix hasn't turned the servers off is amazing in and of itself. In the world of MMO's, being 20 years old and still operating is basically unheard of.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

XP parties sucked for the most part. You spent hours looking for party if you weren't leveling a popular job and when you finally got one it would disband shortly after you got there. You often had douchebags in your party or people that didn't know how to play their job. You spent hours fighting the same mobs over and over to gain a couple of levels if that. Sure there were some fun XP parties but i think nostalgia is blinding you to the reality of how things were; the most exciting thing about XP parties was the dopamine hit you'd get when you finally leveled up. It's kind of sad that with all the great story missions and quests your fondest memories are of grinding XP.

Just to beat it all, you spend 20-30 minutes to get to moon gate, get to the pt, it wipe once, you delvlv and thewn pt disband. or just simple GC or CN mpk chain.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

Just so we are on the topic.... anyone here have that crawler nest bst mpk japanese song video? I saved a copy of the swf but it is kind of hard to play lol

 

[Ailike]

I really want some of that merch, but as is often the case with these types of situations, prolly gonna be jponry

 

[rubik's dude]

The game is 20 years old and only has a small remaining player base. I don't think anyone was expecting anything, and quite honestly the fact that Squenix hasn't turned the servers off is amazing in and of itself. In the world of MMO's, being 20 years old and still operating is basically unheard of.

Very true, I think the high expectations for something more though came from the fact that they teased this as being a big thing for over two years. Along with the mobile remake they originally planned on doing, which ended up getting canceled.

 

[MonarchJT]

boh literally i have lost every single drop of interest in any FF game at his point.

 

[Meicyn]

In the world of MMO's, being 20 years old and still operating is basically unheard of.

Dude, Ultima Online, Everquest, Tibia, Runescape, Anarchy Online, and Dark Age of Camoelot are all older than FFXI and still running. Ultima Online will hit 25 years running this September.

 

[Panajev2001a]

The game is 20 years old and only has a small remaining player base. I don't think anyone was expecting anything, and quite honestly the fact that Squenix hasn't turned the servers off is amazing in and of itself. In the world of MMO's, being 20 years old and still operating is basically unheard of.

Well I still expect something I can play on PS5 or on TV again (Steam Deck? Mmh… prefer it to be on PS5). I really like FF XIV, but I like XI more.

 

[Robot Carnival]

I really should get back on it just for old time's sake. this game had consumed my life for 8 years or so and I still have the account active to this day. would need to find a LS thou since my old one had died a LONG time ago.

also, that "A little FFXI story" video gets me right in the feels every single time. I started as a WHM back in the days and did a lot of exploring by myself because of that, so that video always brings back memories and make me misty eyes.

 

[Woody Nvincible]

I was addicted to this game for 5-6 years. I was on Titan server, forgot the name of the ls I was in. Something-knights; anyways, at 3am on a Saturday morning in San d'Oria, I came around the corner to see a high-up guy in the ls hanging out with the ls owner's mom who also played the game. They were emoting in the corner and didn't see me. Totally screen grabbed the whole thing and blew up the linkshell the next day.

It was awesome.

 

[Pejo]

I was addicted to this game for 5-6 years. I was on Titan server, forgot the name of the ls I was in. Something-knights; anyways, at 3am on a Saturday morning in San d'Oria, I came around the corner to see a high-up guy in the ls hanging out with the ls owner's mom who also played the game. They were emoting in the corner and didn't see me. Totally screen grabbed the whole thing and blew up the linkshell the next day.

It was awesome.

I was talking to this milf (at least 10 years older than me at the time) from a state away on the game, somehow talked her into coming to visit for a (fun filled) weekend, but towards the early evening on Sunday my psycho ex-girlfriend drove by my house and saw her vehicle (which she correctly assumed was a woman's car). Then she proceeded to try to break into my house to fight this lady and I had to call the cops on her. She left before they got there and the milf from FFXI took that opportunity to get the hell out of there. It was a really awkward end to a pretty good weekend.

Good ol' Final Fantasy XI.