Final Fantasy XI: The Lure of the Blue Mage

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com

I meant when you resubscribe. If you resubscribe at the end of the month you’ll be billed for 13$. And then another 13$ the first of the month.

And add to the list an awful patching system. Half an hour to just scan the files, 800+ Mb to patch the client since the last expansion and the UBER STUPIDITY of Square that sends you the files uncompressed (the 800Mb would become 300 if zipped).

(about the quest system)
It doesn’t lead you around by the hand like WoW does, but I would hardly call it unusable.

There are no marks on the NPCs, so you have to go talk to each everytime you ding a level if you want to check if they have to offer a quest. You have no ideas about the reward and the quest description gives you NO CLUE about what you are supposed to do or where to go. Zero xp points as reward and mandatory grouping on nearly all quests.

I always remember a newbie quest in the first five levels that gives you just obscure text that makes no sense and expects you to go out in one of the zone, kill one particular mob to get a precise “trash loot” (that you would usually toss or sell to npcs), then target one precise tree at midnight and trade the item you got to this tree to recive one special item. Even when I knewe EXACTLY what to do it took me ten minutes to find the special function that made the trade work. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong even if I was following a step-by-step guide. There are just ZERO POSSIBILITIES that you can questing without using a spolier site.

And noone goes questing. Often it is really, really hard to get something done you severely need. The important quests become impassable barriers extremely frustrating because you have to go through them and you are still swamped without being able to get a group to accomplish something.

(about the slow content progression)
Would you care to elaborate?

Lots of grindage. The great majority of the players just skips 90% of the content and goes to the zone of choice to grind for hours the same couple of mobs before logging out for the day. Then rinse and repeat the following day.

Since the game has huge problems with LFG downtimes it’s really, really, really hard to try to do some non-obligatory quest or even convince a group to move even a little from the beaten path.

Well, that’s your fault for following the cookie cutter progression. At 10, you really should be in Tahrongi Canyon. You don’t even need a full party to level there. From there, the Maze, and then Buburimu. If you really want to go to Valkurm, you can bust your hump to reach the ferry at Mhaura, but it is a crying shame that more people don’t use the opportunities available to them on the Windurst side of the ocean.

The point is in your last line. Both the canyon and the maze were always quite deserted when I played.

Plus, in these sort of games I’m an “achiever” and I like to go play in the different zones and finish the quests. But it’s extremely hard already to find a group to do the standard grind, nigh impossible to build a group and go questing.

If your point is that FFXI isn’t WoW, OK, point taken. FFXI is a hardcore MMOG, parts of it suck, parts are very grindy, but despite all that, some parts are good and others are downright excellent. I have had some of the most satisfying moments in my gaming experience in FFXI. I think it’s a good game, but it requires a major time investment and it won’t suit everybody’s tastes.

That’s what I said. It could be one of the very best mmorpgs out there because noone builds a “world” like Square and FFXI is truly unique. But there are many accessibility problems that cripple this game almost to an unplayable state.

Ok, what game are you thinking of? Most quests and missions do not require a group. But I’ll agree that the quest system gives you very poor information about what you’re supposed to do. Boo hoo. That’s what the internet is for.

I always remember a newbie quest in the first five levels that gives you just obscure text that makes no sense and expects you to go out in one of the zone, kill one particular mob to get a precise “trash loot” (that you would usually toss or sell to npcs), then target one precise tree at midnight and trade the item you got to this tree to recive one special item. Even when I knewe EXACTLY what to do it took me ten minutes to find the special function that made the trade work. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong even if I was following a step-by-step guide. There are just ZERO POSSIBILITIES that you can questing without using a spolier site.

It took you ten minutes to find the “trade” option? The same one you always use with every NPC and every player in the game?

And noone goes questing. Often it is really, really hard to get something done you severely need. The important quests become impassable barriers extremely frustrating because you have to go through them and you are still swamped without being able to get a group to accomplish something.

What quests became impassable barriers for you? The only ones I’ve had trouble with are the Chains of Promathia ones, because they’re really just too hard for the average pickup group.

Lots of grindage. The great majority of the players just skips 90% of the content and goes to the zone of choice to grind for hours the same couple of mobs before logging out for the day. Then rinse and repeat the following day.

Since the game has huge problems with LFG downtimes it’s really, really, really hard to try to do some non-obligatory quest or even convince a group to move even a little from the beaten path.

How the hell far into the game did you get, and what job were you playing, that you couldn’t find a party? Because for most jobs, the invite rate isn’t really that bad. In fact, it’s only really bad for melee jobs, and then only past 37 or so. But you can always make your own party.

Plus, in these sort of games I’m an “achiever” and I like to go play in the different zones and finish the quests. But it’s extremely hard already to find a group to do the standard grind, nigh impossible to build a group and go questing.

That’s because the game isn’t about quests, and again, you do most quests on your own. The only ones that you can’t solo tend to be the ones that are necessary for progression, which means you can usually find people willing to group with you to do them, or else one higher level person willing to help. Also, there are extremely few of these, and if you’re bitching about the Dunes, I can almost guarantee that you didn’t run into a single one of them.

Christ on a crutch, how slow is your hard drive? On nothing more than a 2 meg DSL connection, last week’s patch scanned, downloaded and installed on my PC in under 10 minutes. It was far less painful then dealing with a hokey peer to peer patch system, or one that is so overloaded that you continuously get disconnected from it, like other MMO’s I’ve played.

Not to mention that when I bought the last expansion it came with an updated copy of the full game…

Just a little thread necromancy designed to indicate that, after playing Blue Mage almost to 30, I can confirm that it is indeed awesome. You guys should get this.

Are there dedicated US servers yet?

No, and there aren’t going to be, because there’s no reason for them.

Yeah there is but thats ok!

Oh yeah and do you still have to use that god awful Playonline shit?

/me bites

Ok, what’s the need for them?

Lower pings and less frustration in dealing with the asian population.

They should have had US servers at launch but the are cheap bastards.

Well, whatever. As someone who actually plays the game nearly every day, I can tell you that lag is far from a major issue, and as someone who doesn’t have an irrational hatred of asians, I’m not bothered by your second gripe.

I never said the pings caused a problem but lower is better and I dont have a hate of the asians I just think it would be a lot easier to communicate with people that well speak english and who hadn’t beat the game the day it came out state side.

Thats something else that sucked about it. When we got the game they had already burned through all the content so we pretty much didnt get to see anything for the first time because they had already done it. We didnt get to start the economy on the server we picked because they already ruled it.

There is a laundry list of reasons why US servers would have been a great idea but again they are cheap bastards.

Oh yeah, you’re the guy that thinks MMOs suck if you aren’t the first person to do everything. Keep dreaming. Regardless, you wouldn’t be the first person to do anything if you bought it even a month after the US release, so it’s absolutely irrelevant at this point.

I’m not that guy because it doesnt bother me all that much but what does bother me is trying to level the first week and having level 60 chars run through and kill the shit are you trying to exp on. Thats loads of fun.

Or having them camp the nmd mobs that you need is also great fun.

First of all, if that even happened, it would happen now, because the game has been out in the US for years. So it’s not worth discussing with regard to how good the game is now.

But more importantly, that’s retarded. High levels don’t go around killing low level xp mobs, because there’s no reason to. And what NM’s do you “need” at that level?

And what NM’s do you “need” at that level?

Oh I dunno how about the ones geared toward your level?

Yeah why should I get gear thats geared for my level when a level 60 can walk buy and one shot the mob and then sell that shit in the AH for more money then I’ll have for a long time.

High levels don’t go around killing low level xp mobs, because there’s no reason to.

I am really sorry to break it to you but they did it was pretty retarded actually.

with regard to how good the game is now.

Sounds like the game sucks just as much as it did when it first came out.

Oh yeah do they let you alt-tab yet either? What about upping the resolution?

That’s my point: There is exactly one low-level must-have NM drop, and it’s only a must-have for thieves, and it’s not a must have at level 7 when you can use it, and it’s not even salable anymore and hasn’t been for over a year, and it’s easy to get anyway. There’s barely any other low-level equip that even drops from NMs, and what little there is is stuff that nobody even bothers camping, so the NMs are there if you want them.

(Edit: defining low level here as less than 20.)

I am really sorry to break it to you but they did it was pretty retarded actually.

Well, I have no idea why, and I’ve never seen it happen.

Oh yeah do they let you alt-tab yet either? What about upping the resolution?

You need a third-party app to run the game in a window, yes. Upping the resolution was never a problem though… I think you’re thinking of Starcraft.

ANYWAY! My intention was not to rehash the same ridiculous argument about this game, but to let anyone who was interested in Blue Mage know that it’s actually quite what they may have been hoping for.

Na you couldnt up the resolution past a certain point with out editing the reg when the game first came out.

How many games let you just enter in a custom resolution? The answer is most definitely not “all of them except for FFXI.”

Not talking about a custom resolution but more like what games let you go past 1024x768 FFXI wasnt one of them when it was released.