[FFXI] Vana'diel 8th Census Released

[Chrisb3]

Originally Posted by Fammaden

There were fucking tons of quests in Windurst.

I remember there being one single questline in the entire game from 1-20, maybe two as I can't remember if the multiclass quest was linked to it or not. Was I doing it wrong? I though it was 95% aimless grinding.
This was during expansion 2, probally near the european release date.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

I remember there being one single questline in the entire game from 1-20, maybe two as I can't remember if the multiclass quest was linked to it or not. Was I doing it wrong? I though it was 95% aimless grinding.
This was during expansion 2, probally near the european release date.

lol? Dude, there were an ungodly amount of questline's in the game. Most just didn't feel like them. Some required you to be X level to get the next and so forth.

[Fammaden]

Yeah man, missions too, which are essentially a questline and all. I don't know what the hell game you played. Two quests? Maybe you needed to, like, talk to NPC's in addition to just going LFG for XP grinds?

[Zakas]

Quests are fun and all, but besides the fame for better quests with better rewards, you don't get much out of them Not even a little bit of xp!

[Chrisb3]

Quests Involving Gustaberg (Bastok Newbie Area):
Allakhazam.com: Final Fantasy XI: Quests by Area: South Gustaberg
Allakhazam.com: Final Fantasy XI: Quests by Area: North Gustaberg
I count 15 quests for something like lv3-12, more than I thought so maybe FFXI's quest finding/tracking UI is bad.

Here are the three quests for lv12-20+
Allakhazam.com: Final Fantasy XI: Quests by Area: Valkurm Dunes

For comparison, quests involving Elwynn Forest in WoW (lv1-12):
Quest Lookup :: World of Warcraft :: Allakhazam.com
Yeah the page doesn't load properly for me there are so many.

Perhaps the website doesn't work properly for FFXI? Anyway I stand by my slight exaggeration that this game has two questlines

EDIT: they give no exp? :\

[Kevincheese]

Oh NOS!

NO EXP FOR A QUEST?

WHAT AN AWFUL PRE WOW WORLD WE LIVED IN THEN!

[Fammaden]

What the fuck does WoW have to do with anything? You said some dumb misinformed shit that people who actually played the hell out of the game seriously knew to be much more than a "slight exagerration". But now just forget all that cause WoW is better anyway, holy shit look at all these quests in Elwynn!!!

[AladainAF]

Originally Posted by Fammaden

Yeah man, missions too, which are essentially a questline and all. I don't know what the hell game you played. Two quests? Maybe you needed to, like, talk to NPC's in addition to just going LFG for XP grinds?

Apparently NPCs were missing

?

on top of head.

Anyway, FFXI is much more difficult than the average MMO, in respects to getting rewards and certainly starting out (Doing the 1-20 thing the first time DOES suck, and I do believe FFXI punishes newer players heavily). Gear also doesn't rain down from the sky, and as for quests - FFXI has a lot of them, but not the traditional "Go fetch me X of Y quests". Comparing WoW to FFXI is silly - they are both great games for the type of gamer that each appeals to, but are very opposite of each other.

No, quests don't give EXP, however, there are a lot of repeatable quests that DO give items that you can "use" for experience on the job of your choice. See: Dragon Chronicles - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki, Miratete's Memoirs - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki, etc. Also, you do get a very large exp bonus for killing ENMs (some over 3000xp), which generally require a quest first to get access for that "try", thus could possibly be called "the reward" for the quest. Also, if you die during ENM attempts, you do not lose experience.

Its just a different game that caters to different people.

They should get a new one out there.

SE does apparently have another MMO in the works. However, it is being worked on heavily by the FFXI team, therefore, I'd expect some things to stay the same. I think its good to have a "less rewarding" MMO on the scene. Its variety in a market saturated by MMOs that feel the need to reward you constantly.

[Vinen]

Biggest problem with less rewarding MMO's is you do the content once... then you go.. why should I bother farming this again? I've done it already... thats what happened to me. My only motivation was to be in a group that defeated Odin. A week after my LS dropped Odin I quit.

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally Posted by AladainAF

Anyway, FFXI is much more difficult than the average MMO

Don't confuse laborious with difficult. The game in itself isn't hard, it's just full of so many blatant timesinks and a playerbase who generally won't help other people unless there's gil involved.

[Fammaden]

Well it is also "harder" in the sense that you just aren't doing jack shit of much value in the game solo. Forced grouping in full effect for better or worse, and that has lots of implications but regardless of semantics it does make the game harder in a sense. You run around in zones near your level solo and you better damn well be prepared with invis/sneak/deodorization and a healthy respect for the environment or you will without a doubt get your ass handed to you and lose XP.

Different strokes for different folks, I think this type of game has enough niche left to be successful still to some degeree. VG just didn't turn out to be a shining example of that. Maybe S-E is the company to keep it alive. They have enough success, autonomy and franchise built up now to "take a chance" on those mechanics. Plus they quite clearly pander heavily to the Japanese playerbase, and we know Asians aren't afraid of grinds. FFXI managed to make a game that had massive timesinks, grinds, travel, death penatly...yet made the world feel real, quirky, charming and in depth as well, much like the way EQ was once upon a time. I'm not particularly clamoring for this style or claiming it is "better", but I still think there is enough of an audience for it out there to be profitable. They just need to plan for international server localization better and sooner, and maybe make the game less consolish.

[Chrisb3]

Originally Posted by Fammaden

What the fuck does WoW have to do with anything? You said some dumb misinformed shit that people who actually played the hell out of the game seriously knew to be much more than a "slight exagerration". But now just forget all that cause WoW is better anyway, holy shit look at all these quests in Elwynn!!!

I said that the game had about 2 quest lines for me when I played 1-20, someone said I was wrong and I pointed out how there are indeed fuck all quests for 1-20.

Fair enough it may not be a quest centric game but there is still virtually nothing to do lv1-20. You just wonder around the winderness killing things until you are forced into a group and sit on the same spot on a beach for hours on end.

It's a joke that a Final Fantasy game has zero storyline (unless you count "go and take some samples from the hot springs! oohh dramatic!"), there has to be some reason to play other than getting exp so you can kill bigger rabbits. I 'msure something will tell me how wrong I am and an awesome storyline starts at lv40 or something, tbh I'd rather gouge my own eyes out with a rusty spoon.

Mentioning WoW always makes non WoW players very angry, never understood that.

[Grizzlebeard]

While I have plenty of issues with FFXI, especially lack of localized servers, even I would be a lying bastard if I said FFXI has zero storyline. The game is one huge storyline. Unfortunately, the game pretty much blows if you're a Euro and that coupled with the need for a healthy circle of friends and higher levels than you achieved pretty much conspired to prevent you from seeing some of the richest storylines I've come across in any online game to date.

[001001102]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

It's a joke that a Final Fantasy game has zero storyline (unless you count "go and take some samples from the hot springs! oohh dramatic!"), there has to be some reason to play other than getting exp so you can kill bigger rabbits.

This game has a more fleshed-out story in the main questlines of the game than any other MMO on the market that I know of. You just have to do the goddamn quests. It's not Squenix's fault you didn't do the city missions to advance in rank to actually see some of the story.

[Chrisb3]

I did as much as I could in my one month but nothing interesting started.
Unfortunatly I'm the most hardcore out of my friends so they all dropped out around level 5 whereas I got to level 20/10.

I'm curious as to when exactly does the good storyline start? I always wanted to give this game another go but it's just too much hassle to resub.