Final Fantasy XI play thread

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:22 pm

Here's a thread for everybody who has indicated that he actually wants to play FFXI. Plan your job, plan our starting city, coordinate our server. Post reviews.

Japanese trailer for your viewing pleasure. Probably slightly old.

http://download.watch.impress.co.jp/gam ... ff11ex.wmv

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:32 pm

Based on what I've read the ring you get for starting in your home city is basically a newbie ring, and doesn't justify splitting up your group of friends just to get, since traveling long distances at early levels is extremely difficult.

So in summary we should just start in whatever city will give us the max number of starting rings, unless one city is better than the others for newbies, because ease of leveling is far, far more important than any newbie item.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:34 pm

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/multim ... index.html

Download the FFXI benchmark program.

Score < 1499: Upgrade your damn computer.
Score > 2500: Run in high resolution mode.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:36 pm

Concerning World Passes.

I was thinking that the best way to do this is just to let everyone just go ahead and start characters and go ahead and play, with the goal of getting a World Pass. Whoever gets one first goes ahead and posts the password and then everyone deletes their characters and joins that server (provided you can delete characters to change servers).

In the first few hours of playing you're still getting used to stuff anyway so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:39 pm

Alright I've wasted far too much time reading and posting about FF XI today. Time to go eat lunch and the get back to studying.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:42 pm

Okay one more post.

I'll probably start out Red Mage, so I can probably handle healing/support. Haven't decided whether to sub White or Black mage, probably will end up going White if that's in much greater demand.

So I think we'll need a main tank, a thief, and a nuker/offensive tank. Anything after that is gravy.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:45 pm

Couple more things about World Passes: The server selection obviously gives weight to lesser populated servers, so new players fill up empty servers. The World Passes cost more the higher the server pop. Also, all the current servers are located in Japan and have lots of Japanese on them. They've indicated there will be no hard and fast division between NA and Japanese players. They have basically three options:

Start new servers, put them in NA. Allow randomizing server code to push new NA players towards the new servers.
Start new servers, put them in Japan. Allow randomizing server code to work its magic again.
Don't start new servers. Let NA players fill up the less-than-full Japanese servers. Add new servers later, when server pops justify it.

There's conflicting rumors as to what they'll actually do. Most things indicate option One. There are some nasty rumors that they'll do number Three. I bet they'll do number Two myself, but that's just my personal weirdness.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:48 pm

Uh, I think my point is we may want to pick a server using more criteria than just whoever first generates a world pass. What would be nice is a list of all servers, their locations, and server populations, but I don't think they're exactly rushing to publish that data. There is a list of all servers, though. They have like 32 or some shit. It's fucking huge.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:24 pm

noooo, im gonna ignore these threads now. I am not a casual gamer! I know if i start playing and get addicted, ill want to play 24/7 and spend all my time on campus reading forums or even installing it there! loleol

tho if everyone starts playing and my cs clan starts playing too, i may have to join!but i need a joooob!

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:45 pm

Gamers.com: So where are the servers located -- are you going to have some in the United States and some in Japan?

Honeywood: They're all in Japan. The game is designed to work on narrowband as well as broadband, and as you can see, it runs fine.

Another thing about the game is that, assuming whatever server we play on will have had Japanese players on it for a year, the different towns will control different amounts of territory. So we may want to try to take that into consideration.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:47 pm

Dave wrote:tho if everyone starts playing and my cs clan starts playing too, i may have to join!but i need a joooob!

bah! stay mired in academia and play ff nonstop.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:48 pm

Anyhow, I like nothing better than being the nuker/offensive tank. So count me in for some form of that role. I just don't know what yet.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:51 pm

There's also the Conquest system. The way the Conquest system works is, there are three towns to start off, and they're all fighting amongst each other for territory. The more territory your town gets, the economy starts to improve -- you get to sell more items, more traders show up to sell you items, there are more missions and quests to be had, and at the same time, the other towns start to grow poorer. So there's a constant conflict between the towns.

Not sure how much this system will affect your play experience as a newbie or middie.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 8:25 pm

http://ffo.warcry.com/index.php/content ... /index.php

Guild search engine.

Only persons I know who are playing this game are from waterthread.org. WTO players are pretty much self-selectively nonasshats. They pretty much comprised the guild that ruled War on Shadowbane. But I don't really know any of them, so that's basically something if we have no other leads.

Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 8:27 pm

I'll probably start out Warrior. I am sick and tired of just getting killed by shit. Although probably being warrior, I'll have all the aggro and will die the most.

Peijen · Post by **Peijen** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 12:14 am

I call ninja/thief

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 1:10 am

Peijen wrote:I call ninja/thief

Why does this not surprise me at all?

I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing but it'll probably be either:

RdM/BkM
RdM/WtM

BkM/RdM
WtM/RdM

Brd/RdM
Brd/WtM

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 1:11 am

Alright, after studying 7 hours today, 10 hours yesterday, and 5 hours over the course of Thursday and Friday for my OChem exam tomorrow, I think I've earned the right to cram my head with FF Xi stuff and forget everything I've studied for OChem.

VLSmooth · Post by **VLSmooth** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 2:07 am

VLSmooth wrote:Hmm... definitely looking at Mithra, probably thief/blk mage, with a little monk for hp until lvl 30. Then it's ranger/ninja and maybe samurai ass-kicking

Peijen wrote:I call ninja/thief

Guess I could edge more toward ranger/samurai. From what Jonathan posted though, one can switch just about instantly? (guessing skills don't come with the package).

i.e someone could be lvl70 warrior/lvl35 monk, then instantly switch to lvl70 summoner/lvl35 black mage so long as they go back to town? That sounds kinda crazy.

Post by **Jonathan** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 2:12 am

VLSmooth wrote:
VLSmooth wrote:Hmm... definitely looking at Mithra, probably thief/blk mage, with a little monk for hp until lvl 30. Then it's ranger/ninja and maybe samurai ass-kicking

Peijen wrote:I call ninja/thief
Guess I could edge more toward ranger/samurai. From what Jonathan posted though, one can switch just about instantly? (guessing skills don't come with the package).

i.e someone could be lvl70 warrior/lvl35 monk, then instantly switch to lvl70 summoner/lvl35 black mage so long as they go back to town? That sounds kinda crazy.

You can switch at any time with no penalty any time you're at town. But you have to be in town.

Other things to know: You have to hit level 18 and do a quest in order to get a support job. You can switch jobs before 18, but you only get one at a time. You have to hit level 20 and do a quest to get a chocobo. You have to hit level 30 and do a quest for every advanced class you want to use. I think there may be other classes that are in the expansion, or possibly they are included in the main list.