[FFXI] Vana'diel 8th Census Released

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

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.

CoP starts around 30 and progresses up to 75 where you gain access to Sea. Your rank missions start at level 1 and lead you on to Qufim and eventually have you fighting the Shadowlord. After you kill him, usually around 60, then the Rise of the Zilart missions unlock and they go on to lead you to Sky. Wrapped up in that lot is some of the finest cutscenes and fun fights you could choose to play. Problem is, the 1-50 game is seriously terrible for the first time round player and without dependable, non-tard, friends then you ain't seeing shit.

[Aria]

I hate FFXI and even I admit it has the best story ever. Were you seriously pulling that shit out of your ass and then saying you were only level 20?

[Fakuss]

For those curious about the storyline since they left, here's a site that shows the entire storyline, with pictures!
Updated through end of Chains of Promathia storyline


History of Vana'diel
The History of Vana'diel

[Chrisb3]

Originally Posted by Aria

I hate FFXI and even I admit it has the best story ever. Were you seriously pulling that shit out of your ass and then saying you were only level 20?

What shit? I never claimed nor implied that I got any further than lv20. I just said there are no good quests/story for the new player to get you into the game.

It's in my sig btw.

[Fammaden]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

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

I left FFXI for WoW when it released and haven't played anything but WoW seriously since. I get angry when people talk out of there ass about a game they played for a month, yet feel the need to make sweeping generalizations. You are the equivalent of someone playing WoW to level 30-40 and then coming here and saying something like "WoW has no raiding". How stupid would that person look? Maybe in the first post you could have said "but I didn't play very long or get very high, so maybe I missed something" rather than coming off like a know it all.

I admitted that the game beats down newbies to the point that most people do in fact quit around level 5 like you said, and yes that is maybe a bit much. The game really starts after about level 15, and I think I really started getting into quests and stories more around 40, but if you were focused and had a static group you could easily be doing more earlier. WoW welcomes players much better obviously. But once again, who gives a fuck. Something about FFXI works since this thread is about how the game somehow has retained respectable numbers. This may just be a fluke or a matter of people feeling tied to all the time they have invested. But it does give some hope that not every game to come will be bending over backwards to emulate WoW due to the millions of subs.

[Chrisb3]

How is saying there are few quests and no story between lv1-20 a sweeping generalization? Every post AND my sig says "level 20".

[Guzrog]

Originally Posted by Fammaden

stuff..

I'd tend to agree here. I only got to 65 on my Red Mage, and in a later run at the game, a 65 Corsair with a sprinkling of jobs to 25-37 but I'd be lying if it wasn't one of the more memorable games I've played since EQ.

It was painful as hell at times but theres alot of great stuff in there if you have the time to put in. Story was cool, my armor lines were awesome from a story point of view, not just cause I got more loot since loot wasn't everything. I certainly don't have the time for it these days and wouldn't want to play that much again but I digress.

The grouping was a blast, I actually felt like I was contributing instead of just hitting a couple of keys. Actually fuck that I was contributing, RDM refresh order with PLD tank I was WORKING IT. Vinen knows whats up! Anyway. It was/is a good game that doesn't get enough credit. It has some very innovative features and I think its biggest downfall is the initial investment of time required, the accessibility, and the fact that art style may turn some off. Personally I value the time I spent in FFXI very highly.

[AladainAF]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

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.

You can start the rank 1 missions at level 1. If you wanted, you could do the windurst storyline, then san d'oria storyline, and bastok storyline and in the end be rank 10 in each assuming you did them all. I'd imagine you could beat the rank 10 missions with a job around level 55-60. The Zilart+ storylines require higher level though.

FFXI has a lot that I love, but definitely has a lot of bad aspects of it. Subscription system sucks (agreed), there are some time sinks that are unreasonable (Chocobo quest for example. While you can do other stuff while waiting on it, its still a time sink, and a useless one at that). Grouping isn't too bad once you're a little higher level. It does suck at lower levels though, only because "IT" mobs are way harder for a group to kill then "IT" at higher levels (as has been mentioned). Theres a lot they can do to make it better, but like it was said earlier SE mainly caters to the Japanese crowd/culture, and really they don't mind the grind and timesinks, even for the new players.

I tried early on to help some people out with some gil, and some help from my white mage early on to at least get out of some of the rut. If you decide to give it another whirl, just start on Fenrir and shoot Vexacion a tell and I'll hook you up. All I ask is that if I lend you ITEMS, that you return them to me if you want to retire (Some on this board didn't, they know who they are =\ ). Money is free to keep though!

[Zakas]

I started up again on FFXI a week or so ago. I probably played like 5 years ago or something when gil buying was still bad, and i was young. What a waste of money that was. At any rate I was something like a 23rng/nin and quit due to not feeling like farming for ranger.
So I am on diabolos with a lv 8war/mnk at the moment, looking to go for samurai! The game is challenging, and fun at the same time. Running 24/7 and things like that kill me inside, though!

[AladainAF]

At any rate I was something like a 23rng/nin and quit due to not feeling like farming for ranger.

A RNG/NIN is an extremely expensive job to play. =\

I'm leveling SAM in my static group. We level 2 days a week. In the last 4 weeks we've gone from 12 to 51. Hoping to hit 70 in 2-3 months. $$

If you want to start again for whatever reason, Zakas, feel free to start on Fenrir, and I'll lend you some starting gil and shit if you need it.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Fakuss

For those curious about the storyline since they left, here's a site that shows the entire storyline, with pictures!
Updated through end of Chains of Promathia storyline


History of Vana'diel
The History of Vana'diel

The History of Vana'diel

Still my favorite end sequence of any of the expansions. The music to the second half of the battle is just epic.

Anything post CoP is missing from that site. No ToAU, no true ending to the Zilart/CoP Storyline.

[AladainAF]

For those that are still playing, get your marbles!

Final Fantasy XI 6th Anniversary Mog Bonanza - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki

Grand prize is 100,000,000 gil (That is valued at $3,600.00 at IGE btw).

[Danz]

So some friends of mine where talking about picking this game up seeing that so many still play it. We would be complete newbs. Any recommendation of server selection, we all live in the states, or websites to read?

[Aikar]

Well, Odin is INSANELY over crowded and begging people to not go there.

Leviathan is pretty well populated still, a few servers are hard to level lowbie jobs due to lack of leveling low level jobs from other players.

I think Titan is still in good shape too but I'm not there anymore so no clue, maybe vinen can ask one of our old friends there.

as for new players to the game, yes it fucking sucks hard core at the start, consider it a 'weed out' process.

Game gets alot better 30~+ when you can activate many other jobs, level in non crowded places that are good and start CoP etc.

And ffs play PC and get Windower, it'll make the game sooooo much better (many people would quit w/o windower). Just hit our forums for help with it if you need.

So in summary, the endgame, but still exping player who has a lot of jobs leveled might have something like...

Social LS
Sky LS
Dynamis LS
HNM LS
Static group #1 LS
Static group #2 LS

Heh I have 3 LS's,
1) Social I never really go on much I got when i had some newb friends start game so I got them a social ls and i got a pearl to it too.
2) My Main LS: We do Sky, Sea, Salvage, Limbus, HNM, Ouyru/Bahamut v2, KS99, Pop NM's every day of week (with mondays being free days excluding HNM)
3) Einherjar/Dynamis LS (Same shell for both) which is pretty much the same as my main LS with some outsiders.

[AladainAF]

Damn, I couldn't imagine a single LS managing all that stuff, but if it works, it works I guess. Everyone I know has about 5-6 LSes for everything. I only have 1, because right when I started hitting 70s I started having to go on business trips and havent been able to login till I'm back home =\