I probably mentioned that a few weeks ago I was on Limit Break Radio. Well, I am going to be on it again. Episode 53 should be coming soon, and it is about the changes to the Chains of Promathia areas for the most part, and a little bit about the upcoming version update. If you like listening to me rant about FFXI, then this is the show to listen to. The structure of this show is definitely different than most of the LBR shows, as it is more of panel discussion. It is the same structure that we have been planning for our new podcast. Oh? I didn't mention that yet? :)
Coming very soon, we will be creating our own podcast. After looking at the big guns in the FFXI podcasting community we noticed that there was a complete lack of a podcast focused on end-game. We also noticed that there is generally a lack of discussion time spent on some of the shows. They are excellent as information sources but at end-game a lot of things are not as cut and dry as just providing information. We will be discussing gear selection, NM strategy, even linkshell management. I think the best way to approach a show like this is to use a discussion panel for every show. The episode I did on LBR this week was a good learning experience for our new show. I don't know if we will follow the same exact format, but it will be something like that. The first show line-up is already set. I will be the moderator for the discussion and the panelist will be Omoikitte, Izman, Blaize and Iceblazek.
The only problem we are having right now is that we don't have a name for the show yet. We could just use this blog as the name, but that seems a little bit redundant and not everyone on the show is going to be from this blog. We could call it the Ringthree FFXI News Hour, but that is a little lame. If you have any good ideas then please leave them in the comments and we will definitely consider them. We are looking to record the first show this weekend, but I don't know how long it is going to take for the show to be fully produced. Hopefully you will be able to listen to it sometime very soon. :)
Monday, June 07, 2010
Gorilla Radio.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Ready or not, here it comes.
You know it's coming but are you doing anything about it?
SE is going to massively inject life into the leveling aspect of the game as soon as they raise the level cap. There will be tons of people crowding camps everywhere so they can get to level 80 (the assumption for the new level cap after the June update). Since most people already have several jobs at the current level cap they will need to do this several times so there should be quite a few people to make parties with.
The real question is if there will be a large number of people leveling up their sub jobs. Most people hate leveling sub jobs (basically everyone except for Omoi), so some people may delay it until it is an absolute necessity. Some people may do it ahead of time but only on a limited basis, 40 at first, 45 after the first update, and then finally 49 before the last update. Some people (like me and a few friends) have just decided to get in a few levels here and a few levels there to make sure we are ready before it's too late. Right now, my DRK, the first sub I am leveling, is already level 40. I picked DRK first because even though I don't use NIN that much anymore, I figure that one of the most needed jobs after the level cap rise will be a tank so I want to have that ready just in case Iz is the only other person with a tank job that has an appropriate subjob.
What sub jobs are you going to level? Are you going to do it ahead of time?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Real Life Happens to Other People: Obsidian Above and Beyond!
Obsidian Linkshell is most likely to be the oldest, consistently performing dynamis ls on the Odin server. It is by far and away the most successful North American dynamis shell, despite having gone through its own amount of internal turmoil it has always managed to hold together with one of the finest points system databases in FFXI.
New horizons are potentially rumbling through as the leadership takes a possible look at expanding the ls to cover a few more end game events outside of just Dynamis. An idea that grew from a small seed, it could be worth watching to see if this becomes a successful transition, Obsidian has a huge memberbase it can draw from for this, even though a large number of its members are from other endgame ls'.
While a largely casual player base, everyone has to start somewhere, most people only need a bit of experience to adapt to endgame and its various rigours. It is definately worth keeping an eye on developments to see if we have a behemoth rise from this!
POL News: Cute stuff abounds.
Do you ever actually fill in those questionnaires that SE sends around occasionally? Remember the one where they asked "What would you most like to be turned into a purchasable?"
Well, looks like the Tarutaru won. BAH! Totally should have made a plush of the gnat or leech from Zi'Tah! Oh well. The new FFXI trading arts collection features a little pantheon of luminaries from Windurst who play significant roles in the plots and storylines that revolve around Windurst and the Tarutaru race. While Shantotto is probably the one figure out of the lot to transcend beyond her original designated border, its nice to see a few of the others, like Robel-Akbel who I rather like and who is as ruthless as the Little Miss herself.
If you wish to equip yourself with this fine little treat, then swan over to the SE Shop Online to part with your valued money! Sorry $ only, no gil.
POL News: Free range lottery!
So to celebrate 8 years of FFXI and a way for everyone to enjoy the VanaFest in Japan, SE have released a NOMAD Moogle Bonanza, not just a regular common garden moogle bonanza, this one is loose and roaming free. To be drawn live at their VanaFest.
It all feels a bit random, and it is a good gimick to drum up interest in an event 99%of the non-Japanese player base will not be attending. I have to say, the reward for winning this is pretty darn nice. If you are that one person, you will get to pick your very own mythic or relic weapon.
I am sure there has been some negative backlash against this from those who actually sweated the blood to get theirs the hard way, and there is a good chance that the person who wins one will get sneered at a little for just wafting into a relic, unless the ultimate irony happens and it goes to someone who already has one.
Anyway, if you DO want to enter, get your skates on as you only have till the 21st to sign up for it! To drool over the rewards and provios, check out the POL article about it.
Oh, did I mention there is only 1 winner? ^.^
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Back in Business
Definately been a little while since we have had any posts in here, sadly it has been insanely busy at work with very little free time to do much at all, however now the tide of booking forms has finally ebbed and things will be on a slightly quieter note for a while, I have the time available to get back into the swing of things!
See you soon with more updates ^.^
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
POL News: The Mog Bonanza is back.
So its back! With the usual host of goodies and loot for players to drool over, and inevitably not win! Just like real life /grin. Yes I know, I am deeply cynical.
BUT! Since you are a scrooooge if you don't! All the details of the prizes are available to drool over here
Yes yes, I know, a miniscule post, but what is there to say, buy balls for gil, win stuff hopefully, suffer a month of -10 inventory space!. That is really all there is to it.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Mr QQ Says: POL Maintenance
SE are performing a server maintenance to the POL face to FFXI, on the 23rd November, which will take down FFXI and Tetra Master.
Expected times of maintenance:
8:00am - 13:00pm PST
10:00am - 15:00pm EST
4:00pm - 21:00pm GMT
Presumably "fixing stuff" LoL.
Nice to finally see whom ever is writing the system messages finally gets GMT time, rather than the last 4 years of always being wrong by an hour. /amused.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Real Life Happens To Other People: POL Shantotto Art Winners Announced.
SE have released the winners of the Shantotto Art Competition held to celebrate the release of the add-on featuring our favourite psychotic female Black Mage from Windurst.
As per usual the quality and standard of the entries selected is very high, my personal favourite was the pop-up book, I liked the creativity behind it as much as anything else, although the winning image is dynamic, exciting and brings Shantotto to life.
Have a check in the news section on POL's website for all of the superb entries for this event.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
POL News: FFXI Collection on Steam.
So my first reaction to this was... what is Steam!? LOL, after a bit of investigating on the rarely explored EU version of POL, it is only NA specific. Ok, my curiosity is piqued, so I checked out the Japanese portal for FFXI as well, very interesting. Generally I only ever look at the NA version of the site as it provides me with all the information and Europe tends to get gyped on the "fun activities" front.
ANYWAY, I digress, if you feel the need to buy the whole game over, or want to start from scratch you can now get your hands on it digitally via Steam. Which appears to be a downloadable content website and community.
Seriously what is it with every site these days having to invent it own version of facebook/myspace/twitter, I don't use any of the aformentioned, its bad enough that I invest all my time in an online game, and while I love the community I am involved with online, I don't want to create a more empty version of that elsewhere.
Just feels like every website you sign up for now wants to "create a community", which kind of ends up spreading you a bit thin doesn't it, although its impressive to what level people will go to generate that. Oh well /end rant. ^.^ Its available for $19.99, which is pretty darn cheap for everything.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
POL News: The release of the Do-It-Yourself Wedding Kit.
As previously promised, SE have finally released the website that will allow FFXI players to design and create their very own weddings in this new fully automated service.
Giving the player base the power to select objects, create messages and personalise the event to your hearts content. As well as the outfits and rings, players also gain a wedding certificate to hang up in their moghouse, just like real life.
The website does give pretty detailed instructions on how to make sure everything goes to plan, all you have to make sure is that you aren't left at the altar, but be you the twitchy groom or the blushing bride, you can enjoy this special event.
I can't actually be too snarky about this, LOL as I did get hitched ingame to Ringthree ^.^ And I still have all the pictures to prove it.
Friday, November 13, 2009
POL News: The Ultimate FFXI Collection.
I find this release a little amusing, but here goes. SE have released the full works for FFXI all in one bundle, so you can get the original game, all the expansions and all the add-ons for a cozy little price of $20.
For those people who didn't buy the add-ons the first time around, it seems more of an investment to just buy the entire game all over again and get them that way rather than have bought them individually as the majority of us players will have done.
To soup up things a bit, they have released a new trailer to advertise their product, and while I am fairly skeptical of corporate fleecing activities like this, I do have to say I rather like the artwork for the set. It is funny, poking around the site they have to flog each incarnation of the game they have, I have never been to it before having had all my games bought from the shops or just downloaded via POL.
At a time where waning interest in a game that feels abandoned to drift along in the shadow of FFXIV is prevelant, I view the release of a box set like this with deep cynicism. Just looking at the server load on Odin last night: it was low, unusually low for the time of day.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Mr QQ Says: Emergency maintenance!
Perhaps none-too surprising as it has happened every single time there has been an update in the history of updates in FFXI, servers will be going down for a while today from 9:00am - 11:00am (PST) while they fix what they cocked up in the update.
12:00noon to 2:00pm (EST)
5:00pm to 7:00pm (GMT)
POL News: The Version Update
So, it would seem as though the updates for FFXI are now going to look more like nouvelle cuisine, looks pretty but leaves you kind of hungry after eating, and probably seeking the nearest WoW junkfood vendor to fill the hole.
Soo, what did they release?
More quests for Wings of the Goddess, which is nice, I like the quests, I have been striving to do them all but I am not stuck at the Jeuno pass and haven't managed to progress beyond that as of yet. Although seriously, between working and running events I also haven't had that much time to invest in it either.
They have expanded some of the options in the Moblin Maze Mongers so you can enjoy that further if you ever participate. I think I did it once? maybe. Again I just don't have the time to start messing with it any more. Too many other things vying for my attention.
The previously mentioned chocobo circuit rewards have been plumped up to make it more interesting.
You can play dress-up with your adventuring fellow even more if wearing certain kinds of gear when you call it! Did you ever play with dolls when you were a kid?
They've added synergy but you can't use it! Woot, have to wait on that one.
A whole slew of new NM's have just ravished the landscape in virtually every zone we have.
The job updates for SMN, BST and RNG have taken place: although they dropped the -enmity buff they were going to give ranger, and beefed up the BST release to be a little more effective from the get-go. On the theme of job-related changes, they have rather predictably closed the loophole on the SCH JA Modas Veritas that allowed you to chain DOTs for a ridiculous amount of damage.
Then a slew of little system changes, like corrections of spellings, additions to the auto-translator, new items, recipies and furnishings for us to fiddle around with.
The biggest by far of the download was the release of the mini-me expansion Shantotto's Ascension. Early days on this particular release, but the addons do seem to have increased in quality as they went along and this was by far the most eagerly awaited so we will see!
Enjoy the update, like a plastic whistle from a cracker the novelty will probably wear off fast.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Real Life Happens to Other People: Allakazham Pumpkin Carving competition.
Since Kallo has dropped off the face of the planet, I have decided to pick up the slack on his posts. The buzz in the community as and when I actually go and look heeh ^.^
This particular one is one of those premier site events endorsed by SE, designed to encourage more fan interaction with the people who provide the information and the fan base itself in a slightly more positive direction than merely angry rants on forums.
I have to admit pumpkin carving is something that interests me, we have Halloween in the UK of course, but it isn't any where as close to the kind of event the US make out of it, including this strange temporary artform of pumpkin carving.
Now I will admit I don't visit this website very much, although I used to find it had the best quest layout information back in the day. These days I tend to find its navigation a little heavy handed and cumbersome, but to enjoy the level of dedication people will put into carving FFXI related images into a squishy gourd, I will persevere. It always impresses me what people come up with.
If you want to check out who won the competition you can take a gander over at their website, while I think my personal favourite was this one...
Sunday, November 08, 2009
While In Whitegate: Dragon Age: Origins
If you are an RPG fan there are some names that stand out in the industry. Regardless of whether you like their style of games or not, it doesn't change the fact that you should know about them. One such company is Bioware.
In terms of having their fingers in some of the most influential rpgs of our time, Bioware have not only had their hand in the cookie jar but most of their face and arms as well. Building on the rich gaming history of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, they bring this their latest offering to the table and WHAT an offering.
I love these games, I am a complete sucker for them. I played Baldur's Gate way back in the day when I had no clue at all what I was doing and created a Wizard with 10 INT and 10 Constitution. He would fall over dead at a stiff breeze and had around a 15% chance to learn spells but I still loved it! And that was pretty much it, I have picked up every one since with the exception of Jade Empire. This game is WAY up there on my "DO WANT" list, right next to the lightsaber chopsticks.
This game is Dragon Age: Origins.
I went and downloaded the Character Creator and had a play with it. The level of detail and customisation is just insane. Just from that you could get a feel that this game is going to look crisp and smooth.
It was only released a few days ago, so I have yet to go pick it up. I will be buying it for the PC not the Xbox or the Ps3 although it is available on all platforms. For the most immersive play you have to go with the PC version. That is the meaty, all-singing, all-dancing grown up version of the game, although the console options are scoring only slightly under the pc version in terms of ratings with the PS3 coming out slightly more ahead of the Xbox.
As of yet, I have not heard anything bad about this game, the critics are praising the story, the combat, the graphics, the score. Infact if what they say is to be believed: they want to go right ahead and have Bioware's children, this game is that sexy.
I am totally hooked, I want to play this sooo much, even enough to install it on my precious PC and have it vie with FFXI for my attention. ALthough, lol my pc is a bit decrepit now so I am not 100% I can run it. Here's hoping, or I am going to end up with a very nice box waiting for the day I can afford a pc again to play it on.
*drooooooool*
Saturday, November 07, 2009
While In Whitegate: Dissidia
Its been a while since we have had any "While In Whitegate" posts, but a few games have come out or are pending to be noteworthy above all others. Until I get my PS3 set up my options are fairly limited on this particular aspect as I would be playing any additional games on that while I run FFXI on my pc!
Of course, while I am bound to only do one thing game wise on my pc (this doesn't stop me having Photoshop and Dreamweaver open at the same time LOL), it does leave me hands free for anything I want on my PSP. I've been leveling THF recently which means loong periods of seeking as I am being far too idle to create my own parties.
Now I didn't actually buy Dissidia to play while seeking in Whitegate, I took it away with me on holiday, which was apparently a HUGE mistake as Ringthree commandeered my PSP and was nose deep in Dissidia every time there was a lull in our daily activities on the cruise. I think there were even a few times where I had to confiscate the PSP *grin*.
The premise is very simple, take the 10 main characters from FFI to X and stick them on the side of Cosmos, then take their shadowy counterpart on the darkside throw them on the side of Chaos to create a very fluid battle system for one of the most gorgeously involving fisticuff games I've seen in a while.
If you are a fan of all the FF pantheon of characters, there is not much to dislike about this game, sort of an amalgamation between a game of chess, a fighting game and an rpg with the ability to level up your characters, learn new fighting techniques and unlock special content through the PP Catalogue which allows you to wallow in nostalgia with images, voice captures and music from the games gone by.
You can focus on one character, or try and go for everything there are so many elements you can do it is very easy to pickup and put down again, but it will just keep you coming back for more over and over once it gets its hooks into you.
The primary character if you will for this game is the Warrior of Light from FFI, who is the leader of the pack and most of the main FMVs center around him on point. Each character has a progression storyline you can explore in order to gain their own path, and while they do tend to be repetative they are a source of rewards and a very easy guided path to leveling up if you need your hand held. Alternatively you can take part in a quick succession of small battles where you set the opponent behaviour, level as well as the usual beat e'm up options like arena and music.
An aspect of the game that I appreciate is the fact that leveling up is not an arduous affair but instead based on bonuses from your friendly chocobo and the amount of damage you do to the opponent. The higher your damage the more exp you are going to get in general. Although a protracted battle is going to garner you exp through every successful hit. My highest earning so far was a hit worth 21k exp off defeating an enemy of the same level.
This is ultimately a game with its feet firmly planted in the beat 'em up genre, but it definately feels like it took the best ideas from Erhgez and planted them firmly in a Final Fantasy setting. It could be hailed as simply a cash-in on the FF brand and to a certain extent that is true, but you quickly forget that this is just a spin off from a larger entity, with a fully realised three-D environment where your characters can make complicated aerial attacks as well as the more traditional earthbound attacks, impressive special effects and a use-friendly interface mean that you can become involved in the fights very quickly. There is also the option for you to make it as complicated or as simple as you want, appealing to button mashers and strategists.
At the end of the day I have found this game to be highly addictive and well worth the money I spent on it, and if Ringthree ever looks up from the psp he would agree with me! If you are a fan of dynamic fights in an inventive setting then Dissidia won't disappoint.
FFXIV News: To Coupon or not to coupon.
The release date of FFXIII is racing forwards for Japan, while the rest of the world gets to wait in line and merely drool over the pretty pictures that are emerging to tease and tantalise us.
One such hook to reel in the eager masses was the release of further magazine images of the game which also contain a little caption at the foot of the page suggesting that a coupon will be available in Japan to those who buy the game that has some bearing on the next mmo from SE, FFXIV. Credited source goes to Finalfantasy.cc
Speculation is rife as to exactly what this coupon will allow you to do, with the leader being access to the beta testing of the game. If nothing SE is being consistent with its game plan of offering ingame articles for money, branching out across their games now rather than just being internal.
It IS a lure, although with the fan base being teased with the melting pot of images, teasers and tips I suspect there will be no small queue to aquire this game. While this seems to be currently only a Japanese promotion I do wonder if they will offer anything similar to the US/EU people, although a somewhat skeptical me doubts that will happen, particularly as it eventually trickles down to the EU side of the world, a small twinge of sadness realises that we get cut out of the loop a lot of the time. Sometimes it definately feels like we are the smaller, younger child bouncing after the grown ups going "hey look look, include meee too!"
Hey! I'm a gamer too! I don't want to just read about all the cool stuff other people are doing! I want to particpate too!
Friday, November 06, 2009
POL News: Version Update Preview!
Even more news about the impending version update for FFXI peppered POL today, as the run up to the files been released becomes more imminent, SE feed the hungry fanbase with their tidbits of information regarding what to look forward to and expect.
With the announcement of the Evolith system most likely being the biggest thing in this particular update, it is not overly surprising that what we have as followups are going to seem a little less glittery.
As such, it is with no great surprise that the preview notes for today will only appeal to a minority of the fanbase rather than the majority. I would be REALLY interested to know what the % interest is on these mini events that SE throws at us, like the Chocobo circuit. You can check out all the update details on SE's site if you are really interested in it right here if you are desperate to know about the exciting and innovative additions, amendments and inclusions to chocobo racing.
If you are a keen angler then SE are offering bits of gear for fishing up a prized haul in the Mhaura quest "Inside The Belly", which is nice, I think. I guess it depends what gear they are talking about, although don't expect it to be anything amazing. More than likely just quirky.
The most interesting part of this update was the "And finally some common sense" additions to the end, no longer do you have to fear dying as soon as you zone into Xarcabard_S to do Campaign, which when you think of it was kind of a big oops in game design there! "Whoo hooo campaign.... err... can anyone come raise me please?! .. please????!!! I'll pay you.." and to tempt? people back to Eldieme one of the biggest putoffs for me at least, those darn gates will no longer lock you in once campaign ends, forever dooming you to wander the necropolis till you fall down an open grave and die from the 40 IT bombs sat down there just waiting for it to happen.
So! There you have it, a preview indeed.... on the other hand.. here are some dancing hamsters!
Thursday, November 05, 2009
POL News: Synergy! Synthesis enmass.
Further details of how the Evolith system is going to work in terms of the actual nitty gritty on creating the synthesis process to fuse the evo-stones to your weapons, and a hit on how to remove them as well.
No longer will you be able to hide in your moghouse and conceal those horrible critical failures on expensive items, you can now share the joy of it with everyone in your party as well.
Yes, this was my first thought on the whole synergy process when reading about it, sad really isn't it.
A fancy pot-bellied oven in public areas, or a personal one you can summon out into the field via a quest that will most likely come with either a once-summoned it melts, or a recast cooldown of about 3 days allows you to access the new synergy process.
Interestingly enough this new method is something that will promote leveling a crafting skill to effectively manipulate the new synergy process. A great many more elements than the regular synthing process, beyond just the slog of skilling up are required to be successful in just starting the synergy process. Simply heating the oven isn't enough, as with the more familiar crafting process once all the aspects are in place there is no guarantee that you will succeed. At least SE is throwing in the ability to skill up synergy levels to become more proficient at it and reduce the number of breaks.
So what do you need to synergize! Beam me up Scotty!
Each synergy requires a certain skill level before it can be performed, the skill level drawing on two different sources before you can even think about starting.
The first is the basic craft level of the article you want synthing, someone in your party is going to need to have the relevant craft to level X before you can start. In addition you need to fill up your party, to a maximum number of 6 in order to create an elemental balance and fewell, which is the name of the new source of power that fuels the furnaces.
From what I can gather everyone participating needs a fewell crucible, which is a quested item that remains with you till you quit FFXI so you only need to quest it the once and since SE wants this to appeal to everyone, I should imagine that it won't be that hard of a quest to access or complete.
At the moment SE are being kind of vague on who you can invite into your party in order to fill up the maximum amount of fewell needed in order to start the synergy process, merely hinting at certain prerequisits. What these are, are anyone's guess. Could be job type, job level, holding a pumpkin, eating a cheese sandwich, casting a spell or activating a job ability, we don't know. Fortunately the npc guarding the oven will let you know and even give you more fewell for a "nominal fee".
Once you have filled your crucible with fewell, you then need to stake your claim on the oven in public areas, or summon your own private oven if you are out in the field. Depending on how popular this is, I can forsee this being incredibly laggy, just like Moblin Mazemongers was in the first days of it being released with a horde of people trying to click on a single target.
Once you have successfully claimed the oven, now you get the pleasure of claiming inanimate objects as well as that HNM every 24hours, you can shovel all your ingredients in and hope it works... WAIT! Nope, again, SE have taken it a step further.
The implication is that during the process, there will be certain triggers that have to be met in a timely fashion in order to prevent your synergy from just simply detonating. You can't just shove it in the oven and ignore it until it is done, there is more work to be done on top of that. Again, what these conditions are, as of yet are unknown, but it will be interesting to see how complicated they are making this process.
Tada, after all that you either succeed or fail.
Will it be a critical failure every time and all your ingredients are destroyed?
Will it be a little more like conventional crafting and you can retrieve something from the mess of a failed synergy?
How long is the whole process going to take, omitting the actual hunting down of the evo-stones to start with?
There are some fairly big questions overhanging this at the moment, in this modern world of instant gratification, getting 6 strangers to stand around for 30mins while you try and synergy something is going to put people off using the evolith system VERY quickly, unless you can find all the requirements amongst your friends.
They do emphasis leveling up your synergy skill in order to access more complicated recipies and to further ensure you don't ruin the whole synergy in the process. Which sounds suspiciously like a new craft using old tools more than anything else. We will have synergists popping up to specialise in this particular craft.
I really like the overall idea, its combining a lot of different game play elements into something that requires team-work. However, the rewards from the evo-stones has got to be something astoundingly amazing for it to really get off the ground given the level of hassle you have to go through to get anywhere with the evo-stones and synergy. Not everyone comes with a bucket of patience and most people who leveled a craft the first time around know how hard, and how time consuming it is.
I see no reason as to why this would be any less expensive, time consuming and hard work, just even more complicated than crafting on its own. When it comes out in the November update I will definately be taking a gander to see how it pans out in real terms.
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
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