Army of Mules

Finally put away the procrastination that lurks inside me each and every day and made ll my gardening mules. I sat through too many of the same stupid cut scenes. I went though various rosters in my head, trying to think of mule names that make me laugh. Well, the final cut is here. Introducing my team of gardening whores!

Clandroxmysox: This Galka was my money whore character during the time I got hacked, so I decided not to get rid of him.
Galkapoop: A Taru, of course. The name is amusing to me.
BoxeyBrown: I'm a big fan of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, so I named a Taru BoxeyBrown.
Ignignokt: One of the Mooninites on ATHF.
MCPeePants: Another character from ATHF.
ShoeHorn: A Taru. It's funny.
BudLight: I chose the Galka that looks drunk in the character selection screen. His eyes are glazed over and he looks pissed off.
ISellGilForRice: Cause who doesn't?!
PottyMouth: Mithra. Inside joke really.
LightFluid: I wanted to convey that Elvaan are H-O-T hot. Most won't get it, but it's a silly name so that's all that really matters.
BillyMayz: Billy Mays would keep me up with his OxyClean commercials. He really sounded like he believed in this product! Unfortunately, someone already took BillyMays, so I gave him some street cred by changing the S to a Z.
SpottedDick: A wonderful traditional English dessert that Americans love to laugh at.
ShamWow: Who doesn't love an overpriced towel?
Bruno: Named after the new most popular gay character.
Toiletbrush: A Taru.

So, there you have it folks, my army of mules, who I pay very little to slave over plants all day and all night. I made sureto equip all my moogles with whips in case any of them get out of hand.

New Blog

I've decided to track my gardening progress in another blog, to keep some clutter out of here. Check out Martha Stewart Ain't Got Shit On Me once I get some actual data up. I'll be registering it on TTTO as well.

The Source

So I've been plagued with terrible migraines for the past...almost week. I thought it was related to my super awesome allergies to...well...everything imaginable. But yesterday, I had an epiphany.

A while back I was friends with this chick who worked at Bath and Body Works. She would constantly come to my house with bags of free stuff. So I had acquired more hand lotion than any single human being could own.

I stopped being friends with her because she decided that getting high 24/7 was the cool thing to do. (Hi, I'm 24. High school ended for me years ago.) So I've been slowly trying to get rid of this shit by giving it away, and whatever I couldn't give away I just used.

I started using this Pumpkin Cinnamon lotion that smells god awful but what do I care? Lotion is lotion and I am not picky. I didn't use it on Tuesday because I rushed out the door to my aunt's house. I used it Tuesday night and an hour later, HELLO MIGRAINE!

So I've come to the conclusion that it's this lotion, and once again I'm cursing this ex friend of mine up and down for causing me this misery. Thanks a lot, bitch.

A Noob Ad

So I'm talking to my buddy Berzerk on Ventrilo, and he stumbled upon an aadvertisement on some site. He immeditely started laughing hysterically in vent chat and said "omg noob ad." He took a screenshot of it, and I find it so funny, I wanted to share:



Apparently, it's Opposite Day.

Firesday to Darksday is our weekly wrap-up column on O's Kote and it will be covering the week that was in FFXI, going over good blogs you should check out, interesting threads on any forums we might notice or anything else that might have slipped by in the night. We are always on the look out for FFXI information for you!

It has been a busy week for Japanese gaming coverage, not just for FFXI but also for FFXIV. There were some interesting tid-bits about the future, but nothing you couldn't have guessed or already knew. That being said it was nice to get some confirmation on the status of both games. Let's start with our favorite Japanese translator Elmer who has recently moved over to ZAM! and is providing some great information for us in the last couple of weeks!

First off is Elmer's translation of a new Connect!On interview about FFXIV. The interview didn't have much in the way of new information but it was informative and had some decent speculation. Also, it had a nice statement about FFXI to assure players that it wasn't going anywhere.

For more coverage of this week's news check after the break.

Second, Elmer does it again with his translation of Famitsu's interview regarding Pandemonium Warden. The article is very good on the explanation of the design of PW, and why it drives most players crazy. Makes you wonder what the developers are thinking sometimes.

A real treat is that a writer on Massively.com, a site dedicated to all things MMO, has recently picked up FFXI again after a long break and is providing coverage of his return. Starting last week, the story chronicles his beginner feeling all over again, and this week they started experiencing partying in FFXI and still enjoyed it! LOL

Sometimes you can look at a story and get a feeling for it, but sometimes what people report isn't really what happened. The Chinese banning RMT story was a big hit for a couple of days, but the Blue Gartr forums seemed to really understand the story. The Chinese really aren't banning RMT, they are trying to stop other people from using RMT to cover up other crimes. Pretty interesting info in there.

If you find anything interesting out there in the vast and infinite net send it along and we will get it out to everyone! Thanks!

So I log in last night to do the little event for my three furnishings and the two robes…..I also decided to level my little Paladin. So I go out into East Saruta because I want to get the chest that has the Pile Chain in it….levels 10-13 nothing and I even found Spiny [...]

Don't worry, I'm still little ol' virgin Achika. FML.

Today, we're going to talk a bit about my mounts on Lotorin. And probably some other gear too.

I've been making a solid effort to do Argent Tournament dailies every day. That's five champion seals minimum per day, and a chance at up to four more, as you can occasionally get a champion's seal in each champion's bag.

Rather than attempting to make money off of this, which as I bring it up now seems like a much fucking better idea so I can get a Cord of the White Dawn, I've been saving up for mounts.

Let's take a look at how much I've spent in seals so far!

Argent Hippogryph-150 champion seals. This was the first one I bought, because it was the most expensive.

By the time I got that, they added some more mounts in for five seals and 400 gold each.

Great Golden Kodo-5 seals, 400 gold.

Swift Red Hawkstrider-5 seals, 400 gold.

White Skeletal Warhorse-5 seals, 400 gold. Supposedly this one looks like the same mount a boss in Naxxramas rides!

Swift Burgundy Wolf-5 seals, 400 gold.

Swift Purple Raptor. I believe this was the last of these five that I bought.

My next goal was to start working on the 100 seal mounts. I just got my first one today, having been exactly one seal short after my dailies yesterday.

Silvermoon Hawkstrider-100 seals.

So in total, I've spent 275 seals so far. Pretending that I got no seals from the champion's bags, that's 55 days. I did get several seals from the bags, so that shortened that amount of time. Also add in the days spent towards becoming a valiant, then becoming a champion.

I have four seals currently. I need 96 more for the next mount, or 396 for all four. Again, assuming no seals from bags, that's another 80 days.

Kill me now.

In other news, I have been making some bank from doing dailies. I was having debates on what to do with my gold though. Should I buy some of that fancy BoE gear from raids? Should I save for a mechanohog (For the non-WoW people, it's a motorcycle that you can let a buddy sit in too.)? Should I save up for a traveler's tundra mammoth (Like the motorcycle, except this can carry two people, and when you summon it, it has a repair vendor and another vendor. Portable repairs, yay!).

I chose to buy me some gear.

I bought this hand armor that drops from Thorim in the new Ulduar raid. It has less spellpower than my old hands, but that's only because my old hands were enchanted and my new one is barely lower even including that. I'm going to need to look into getting stuff enchanted.

I think for now, I'm going to work on getting new gear that's BoE. When I can't find any, I'll save up for that mammoth.

In other WoW news, I've been playing an Alliance char lately. Gasp, shock. With my current guild, I'm not getting much done because there's not a damn person ever on. After talking to my friend Sivvy, she convinced me to play on her server again. I've actually been playing it more than I have any other attempt at an Alliance on her server, but that's maybe because I'm actually not playing a class that I've played before.

Hypocritically, I made a Human mage. I've always stated that Humans were probably the most boring race to create, because they're kinda blah as far as not looking like people I see every day. My other choices were Draenei and Gnome, and I'm not making a goddamn Gnome. Draenei was tempting, but all my other Alliance chars are Draenei. In retrospect, I should've chosen that because of their racial passive, Heroic Presence, boosting my hit rating up. Luckily, I shouldn't need hit rating outside of instances and raids. With it affecting everyone in your party group, I don't see myself not having it available. I can't imagine raid setups being much different than FFXI alliances. Tank party, and a bunch of DPS parties? I can't imagine that if you have a bunch of Draenei of assorted classes, you couldn't spread them about each party.

Tonight's the first at school class I've taken in several terms. Not looking forward to it. Too used to going home and playing games all night.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm working on leveling Ranger.

But, before starting that up, I finished BRD37. I used up all my Campaign Ops tags doing the obvious easy-solo Op of choice.Terrorist attacks on Quadav Strongholds are fun stuff. :-p

Then, I stabbed some fish.And I dinged 37 Bard, yay!

I'm not sure what uses it actually has other than Raptor Mazurka, but whatever.

ForestNeo!

He's all grown up now with maxxed physical stats.Now I'm working on getting Gallop and Canter and will probably do a few training regime things to get his mental stats up a level or two.

It'll be extraordinarily boring.

Ranger Leveling!

I shot the crap out of Colibri for an hour or two yesterday and went from 37 to 41! And then my party disbanded immediately when I dinged so I had no buffer. I was surprised by how high my accuracy was even without any Prelude or RNG Rolls. I had no problem hitting the birds at all really. The Pot-au-feu were really awesome. I hope Lesser Colibri are similarly pathetic leveling fodder in the 50s.

Holy Bolt damage seemed to resist a lot, but they're birds and kind of resistant to magic in general. I was surprised how much ammo I went through. About 750 bolts in not very much time. I'll probably make a few stacks of quivers myself to save money. Or just go fishing and buy some.

WS damage was only ~20% more than a regular shot which was a bit disappointing. I'm looking forward to Slugwinder. Barrage was quite fun. It only whiffed entirely once and did ~300 when all the shots landed.

I hope to get to 45 or so today.

Assault/Nyzul Isle!

I did some Assault runs a few nights back.I think it went well. ;-p

We did Saving Private Ryaaf. Other than the picture above it did actually go pretty well and I got a bunch of points.

The next day I did a Floor 100 Nyzul run.I think it went well. ;-p (Getting old yet?)

We had a Hydra boss which spammed stupid TP moves rather than spamming Physical Shield over and over. I fought it Weakened (see above), but Weakened has nothing on Hundred Fists.

The win got us Burning Fists (MNK, 100% since I used tokens as MNK) for Davik, and a Sasuke Katana (NIN) which I think ended up trashed.

It also got Jacinda the Floor 100 clear which was mostly why we didn't just spam Floor 80 like most people seem to.

Being a dumbass, I didn't realize I only had one tag until two hours or so later from Assault two days earlier, so I had to leave after the first run.

I should organize another soon when I'll be able to go for four runs.

Or try and see if I can get people to come help me get new Assault clears and rank up. I've got ~8/25 points and plenty of new clears available.

Anyway...

King Vinegaroon!

After most of the week watching other people kill it, Epic claimed it last night!After an hour watching it walk in circles, we SV buffed and fought it.

Or, so I imagine.

I didn't get to see more than about 90 frames of animation the entire fight.

What happened was after the BRD rotation, the kiting party was brought in, a PLD Invincible'd, CS Stun commenced, and we engaged it.

I used a 300% TP Footwork Dragon Kick for 813 damage (lolDragonKick). Popped Hundred Fists. And then.... My PS2 stopped mid-Hundred Fists activation animation. It didn't black screen, but just sat there. There was still some battle sound effects.

After ~20 seconds of this I got another frame of animation and KV was at 80% HP. My PS2 was still completely unresponsive, so I couldn't use the 100%+ TP I had now.

A while longer and KV's HP dropped to 20%. So, whatever the hell was going on was going well. I guess.

Another pause and it's HP dropped to 0%, there was something in the treasure pool, and KV disappeared instantly as my framerate returned to normal. Our "phatty lootz" included three Earth Crystals and nothing else of value.

Yay.

Several other people in the LS experienced the same thing. I don't know if I was engaged hitting it the entire time or if I just got the WS plus a few melee strikes listed. I didn't even get the loot pool to show in my chat log or the EXP I gained from it.

Quite irritating.

TTFN!

And that's it for today!

Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Stalkers and goblins, oh my!

I never got into the NPC/Fellow thing, but I know that a lot of people used to be into it. I remember back in the day when they came out and there was a huge line to get into BC to get your Fellow, or at least I remember seeing pictures of it because I was probably out XPing at the time. I did eventually get an NPC, but I never bring him out because I have no use for it. Now it seems that SE is bringing back the idea with the Goblins in MMM. I don't know how I feel about it because I never understood the notion of playing with an NPC in a game designed to be played with other, you know, PCs... but a lot of people have fun with them so it's definitely something SE might be interested in.

I also don't do MMM much at all, but I do know that it does have some popularity, especially because you can get some pretty good rewards especially that sword for BLU. In fact, some of the rewards are quite good and rather unique and I think that completely blowing off MMM like I have may not be the best idea. LOL I don't know how the new Goblin companion is going to work out for those that have been farming MMM. Are they going to want to give up farming MMM? I heard the drop rate on some of the items that people want can be pretty low. I just don't know how important another NPC companion is to the game at this time.

Are you going to have a MMM Goblin companion? Do you farm MMM for the unique gear from that event? Do you think it is worth it? Is it something that I should be doing? :) Leave a comment and tell us what you think!

So.. Einherjar last night both amused an annoyed me. I don't know exactly why it happened, but we ended up with 3 people outside of the chamber. Normally party leaders are told to make sure all their members are there before lamps are handed out. Maybe it was the lateness in the day, or nerves, but that didn't happen last night. (I'm thinking this should be routine and not something someone has to be told to do). One person was, I assume, AFK without notice. 2 people being left behind I understand, but three? There was some miscommunication inside and the puller thought he was being addressed when a go ahead was given. Plenty of "wtfs" I'm sure, though not in /l or /p. I, myself, was ranting to Riz whom I was speaking to on MSN chat.

One of the people left behind was a BRD that was supposed to rotate through parties with me. I was perplexed as to why I got invited into a party with another BRD before I realized that he was left behind (AFK). Maybe I'm expecting leadership to remember things such as having a 3rd BRD that could rotate, and maybe that's too much to expect. I told our other BRD to rotate with me, addressing which party leader should invite him first. I ranted a bit to Riz at that - I think people should be able to think on their feet and adapt as necessary to changes in a situation. To me it's an important skill that should have been acquired on the journey to 75. It's times like these when I wish SE would bring back mobs trailing a person to a zone and that mob potentially aggroing everyone around. It keeps people on their toes and exercises the ability to adapt and think quickly.

Morbol Emperor was the boss to defeat and it seemed like we were constantly slept. Bad Breath would occasionally hit us with poison and I was -__- when someone asked for it to be removed. Come on, people, by this time we should all know that being poisoned prevents you from being slept. It's not difficult to remember and I'm sure that by this point in a person's FFXI career s/he has had poison on them/used poison pots. to stay awake. I made a mental note to add poison pots to my list of things to always bring to Einherjar. Too many mages were left asleep, too many 2 hours eaten by sleep.

We did win, with just a little over five minutes to spare, and were grace with H.Feet that Veovis won.

Tikal did a great job with the BRD rotation last night. I'm certain that including a /t macro with my disband macro helps out quite a lot.

Before bed I found a txt message which I assume was from my LS leader poking fun at my rawring over things that go wrong over events. I was puzzled until this morning when I looked up the area code and stalked on FB. I KNOW IT WAS YOU, BOSS MAN!! :/

Assaults
My assault static forged ahead and completed 3 new wins with the help of Riz. We were short two regular members - one who's PC got fried thanks to a lightning strike, the other to birthday revelries. Had Super come along, LC would have been completed for 3 people. Tsuruya and myself got our promotion quests, and I believe Tsu completed hers that night. If we win 3 new assaults each week, we should all be FL in about 11 to 12 weeks. I'm excited and happy that our group is doing so well. Captain, here we come!

The August issue of Famitsu PSP + PS3 has been released and inside is an interivew with Mizuki Ito and Daisuke Sase. These are the people behind the creation of such monsters as Pandemonium Warden and Absolute Virtue. Suteki, a member of the editorial team for Vanatsuu (A Final Fantasy XI mook) sat down with [...]

I really do get why some people feel that about Square Enix. There is a certain level of perversion present when  over 4 96-100 Nyzul Isle runs (one we dropped out of, gear at every lamp was just causing hell) we not only see no head armour drop but the one weapon that keeps dropping [...]

Every two weeks “From The Forums” will provide a list of popular and interesting topics that are being discussed on Final Fantasy XI community forums. Our new Forum Scouts are hard at work going through several forums to dig up some great threads to share with us. With the announcement of the head gear for “A Moogle [...]

1. Log in. 2. Find “Hide Blog” on the right side of your screen. 3. Select desired blog from the drop down list. 4. Click “Add”. Thank you

There is simply so much to discuss on this topic, that I'm breaking it up into separate parts. In this first part, I'll discuss HNMs and dynamis. (I'm also splitting this up into parts because there is a terrible thunderstorm barreling its way through my area, and I'm prone to lose power)

Introduction

Final Fantasy XI is one of those MMORPG's that different from anything out on the market. Everything from the game mechanics, to the story lines and lore, to the sheer amount of end game activities is what makes this game unique.

However, there are key elements of MMORPG-ism that are left out on FFXI that are present in other games, and can sometimes make those games surpass FFXI. For example, the element of PVP, while in some games dominates, PVP in FFXI is close to none, barring 2 specific events. This is just merely one example of how FFXI is different from other MMORPGs.

It has been said that Square-Enix wanted to make a game to promote cooperation and healthy competition amongst its players. However, now that FFXI is 7 years old, some of SE's thoughts on events that were healthy competition is actually causing rifts in the community.

Hyper Notorious Monsters

HNMs have been around since the release of Rise of the Zilart, or the very beginning in North America. These monsters, which only spawn once a day, drop various items that are deemed "uber" by the community because of their stats.

HNMLS's gather daily across all servers and try to out-wit (out-bot) their competition in hopes of obtaining claim of HNMs like Fafnir, Behemoth, and Adamantoise. The what I like to call "lesser HNMs," although still camped to this day, do not require full LS's, but lesser HNMs like King Arthro are still botted to this day.

In my honest opinion, this is more harmful than anything to the community.

HNMs are botted. Plain and simple. People can argue with me all they want about if these things are botted each and every day, SE would've banned them already, but until you are in the HNM scene and see people from your very own linkshell botting, and read forum posts written by LS leaders asking who has enough firepower on their PCs to run these bots, you're wrong. So let's draw that line in the sand and cement it in concrete now. HNMs are botted.

That being said, the almighty TOS that everyone absolutely loves to throw up in each others' faces explictly says that botting is against the rules. But that doesn't stop people. Just look at the statistics of how many people actually use the most popular bot, FFXIApp:
(For those that are curious, pXI is a group of developers working to make private servers viable for FFXI. World of Warcraft private servers are a dime a dozen, if you're wondering how big the demand of private servers are. Check out this massive list of private WoW servers to see how big this trend really is.)

Alright, so as of today, July 1, 2009 at 10:46pm EST, those are the statistics of people using this bot program. The percentages aren't that impressive, but if you look at the hard numbers of this, I must admit, even I was surprised that this many people are botting and haven't had their accounts taken away. On Cerberus, there are, apparently, 312. I was surprised this number even reached over 100, honestly.

Square Enix attempted to counteract the standard practice of "wait and see and let the bot do the work" by integrating a new way of camping HNMs, which is equally, if not moreso annoying than the "traditional" way.

Sandworm Dark Ixion have the chance to pop in one of a number of zones, and the way LS's determine if and where it pops is by use of the Wide Scan ability on RNG. Square Enix, while commendable in their actions to thwart off attempts at botting, seem to be falling behind the trend, as I also found this on the App website:


That's right, ladies and gentlemen! You don't even need to use Wide Scan anymore! As you can see, this is posted on 6/28, just a mere 2 days ago, however, the version tells be that this was already in place. How long? I don't know. I don't use this application, and only went to the website to research for this piece of writing.

So how exactly is this healthy to the community? If 4.3% of the Cerberus community bots, how are their actions healthy to the 95.7% who (supposedly) doesn't bot? How does this promote the "healthy competition" that SE has been shoving down our throats all these years?

Square-Enix has tried to remedy this situation by making a lot of coveted pieces from various HNMs also drop in Einherjar. However, Einherjar also has horrid drop rates. And it's also one of those things that can only be done once every 3 days. See the problem here?

In my opinion? It doesn't. Not in the slightest.

Solution: There is a number of ways in which this can be resolved.

First and foremost, Square Enix has to realize that third party app development is alive and well in the FFXI community. They need to stop acting like FFXI has an impenetrable bubble around it and that it can't be hacked, exploited, and tampered with. The game and servers most certainly can, and are.

Secondly, they can embrace third party apps, or "add ons." WoW and EQ2 already do this. What is considered a legitatement third party add on are things that do not interfere with game, but simply emhance it. Such as, a maps telling you the location of an NPC, or an interface that it customized to your job to help you do your job more effectively.

Thirdly, they can edit their policies that determine what is considered as "evidence" against those that break the TOS. Currently, you can only say to the STFU "I was in Dragon's Aery and I think xxx linkshell botted Fafnir." You can't send them a video, or post a screenshot of a linkshell saying something about botting. Sure, people can and will doctor screenshots, but it doesn't take a professionally trained eye to see it. Even those that aren't Photoshop users (*raises hand*) can pick out a doctored screenshot in an instant.

And lastly, SE can change the requirements to pop these HNMs. They can take a page out of ZNMs, for instance. Maybe even up the difficulty of these HNMs since it will be easier to obtain the gear and weapons.

I understand that casual gamers and hard core gamers shouldn't be entitled to the same equipment because of the amount of dedication it takes to get a piece of equipment. But when the hardcore gamers are only considered hardcore gamers because of a 20 dollar application they purchased to do all the work for them, then there's a problem.


Dynamis

Ahh, dynamis. I do love doing dynamis with my LS. The past 5 years of failed dynamis linkshells and corrupt leadership left me feeling pretty shitty about the whole dynamis situation in general, but the key is finding a good linkshell and sticking with them.

However, there are 2 things that are very, very, very wrong with dynamis:

1) Piss poor drop rates
2) They aren't instanced.

Let's start with Piss Poor Drop Rates:

AFv2 has some of the most invaluable situational pieces in the game. I'm not sure what I would do without my Cleric's Pantaloons, or even my Cleric's Briault. These pieces help me be a better WHM.

But why oh why are the drop rates so terrible!

I hear it ringing throughout every dynamis shell: "No RDM yet again." "Dynamis Xarcabard being stingy" "We haven't seen BLM drop in 20 runs."

I understand the key to an MMORPG is to keep people playing. People who keep playing means they keep paying. More money for the corporation. Yay for big corporation!

But the fact that certain pieces are rarely ever seen? C'mon. How does THAT keep people playing? And how does THAT promote healthy competition? People are willing to ruin their reputation over some of this gear, and I've seen people do it. How does that help anyone, in anyway?

I understand the drop rates have been upped, however, they are still rare enough to have people going apeshit over these pieces to where they ruin their reputation by ninja lotting, or LS leaders give them to undeserving people, or people are just flat out desperate.

Secondly, dynamis zones aren't instanced.

Ok, the cat's out of the bag, SE. Can't blame this one on "PS2 limitations" because we now have Salvage and THAT'S instanced. Why couldn't you and can't you make dynamis instanced?

We've all experienced it. You get ready for your dynamis run, only to get there and find out that another group is in there and that have 2 hours before they get out. Now don't act like you DON'T want to pull your hair out at that moment. I have better things to do than wait for another shell to leave their dynamis.

Or, if you're really special, your LS leader has pissed someone off in the past, so they go and form a dynamis shell and schedule their runs an hour before yours and steal the zone you want to do right from under you, just to be a douchebag. Seen that happen too.

There really is no good explanation behind why dynamis ISN'T instanced. Is SE trying to control the amount of coins by permitting only one group at a time, for each zone? Hell if I know, but it's still a pretty dumb reason, in my book.


Solution: The solution, unlike HNMs, seems pretty black and white and simple to me.

First, increase the drop rates of AF. Sounds easy enough, right?

Secondly, instance dynamis. Another easy step.

Thirdly, and lastly, make hourglasses act like linkpearls. What do I mean? Well, simply put, allow designated leaders of a shell the ability to break someone's glass if a situation gets out of hand. Example:

You're doing Dynamis...let's say Xarcabard. Valor Surcoat drops and the leader announces who the winner is or who is able to lot. Someone gets butthurt by the situation and lots it (and wins), then drops party to avoid being D2'd. Now, you have a whole group of pissed off LS mates. Sure, his pearl got broken, but he still ended up with a Valor Surcoat he didn't earn, and now you have 1 guy who did deserve it really upset about it.

If hourglasses worked like linkpearls, the situation could've easily been remedied by a simply glass break, similar to a linkpearl break. To determine who would be the "leaders" of dynamis, the hourglass can be somehow linked to the linkshell list, and the current sack holders would be designated the leaders. Or, a much simpler way, the original glass breaker is the leader of the dynamis, and has the ability to break anyone's glass.

This may have potential to backfire, of course. No system is fool proof, especially in a game where the saying "Nice guys finish last" rings truer than anything.

I do not know anything about coding, but this is the internet, and more stupid ideas have been proven possible.


Part 2 will be up whenever I finish it.

Today is quite a special day, for it is the day before my main character’s reactivation! Hip-hip-hurrah! My friend Ghidorah (who’s main is Raybrant) and I decided to travel to Jeuno to celebrate. With the help of field manual re-raises and raising earrings we were able to get there in one piece. (or reattached pieces [...]

http://tinypic.com/r/20hn9kx/5

In our last poll, we wanted to know what you were looking forward to the most with the upcoming July update. The results are in: Lets hope the job adjustment announcements meet players expectations! This week our poll focuses on the newly released 9th Vana’diel Census. We want to know what part was your favorite or interested [...]

Dealba. Fake chicken. Gobbie fellows and more! Fusion wipes to his first Odin Steak gets family aggro Chin does Odin This Weeks Guest Music used in this weeks show: Tavnazian Safehold Jumpen@Aydeewa Sorrows Relieved

The July 2009 Update is just around the corner so we have put together this guide to all the information we have about the coming update, including information about missions, job changes, events, equipment and even the Moogle Kupo d'Etat scenario! Stay tuned for any new information!

The July 2009 Update for FFXI is looking to be a decently balanced update with additional zones that we have been promised for a while. The much anticipated Campaign body pieces will become available after getting the new Campaign ranks. The two new zones - Beaucidine and Xarcabard - look to be very Campaign oriented and if the development team fulfills their promise, they will be oriented to high-level players. The "Union" system is being introduced to Campaign and the rewards look to be potentially pretty damn sweet. New Wings missions are being added, but it doesn't look to be too many. Moblin Maze Mongers is getting an NPC-style addition. Finally, there are currently unannounced Job Adjustments.

Our complete and comprehensive coverage of the July Update is listed after the break!


Update Information

Wings of the Goddess Missions

→ Two new missions added.
*"A Traitor in Our Midst!" and "The World Will Choose..." both listed as titles in the update notes.

New Areas

→ Beaucedine Glacier (S) and Xarcabard (S) will be opened.

Job Adjustments

Campaign

→ Beaucedine Glacier (S) and Xarcabard (S) are available for Campaign conflicts.
→ Two new Campaign medals will be available.
→ New equipment - including Campaign body pieces - will become available via purchase with Allied Notes with requisite Campaign medal.
→ "Union" system introduced.
*The Union system is an open, campaign-based battle system.
*Success under the Union system will yield rewards including Dynamis currency, synthesis materials, and spoils of the Beastman Confederate. Treasure will be distributed via caskets after each battle.
*Participation is required, and rewards will only be awards based on a minimum level of participation.

Moblin Maze Mongers

→ A new Maze Voucher and Goblin companion added.
*Goblin companions will be able to level up and specialize similar to NPCs.
*Goblins initial start as the "All-Rounder" then other job options include "Walloper" melee, "Barrager" ranged attacker and "Spellslinger" mage.
*Each Goblin job will have unique special abilities.
*Maze Runes that enhance your Goblin companion added.
→ New augmented gear unique to MMM added.

Site Coverage

*POL News: A Warm Day in Xarcabard.
*Morning in Vana'diel: Questing Missions and Missing Quests.
*POL News: On the Campaign Trail.
*POL News: Wings takes flight.
*POL News: Moblins Take Up Heart Surgery

Square Enix POL Announcements

*Campaign Gets Reinforcements!
*Winds of the Goddess Missions!
*Moblin Maze Mongers Delve Deeper Into Your Heart!

I finally plunked down for Ranger gear, ammo, and food earlier today. It ended up costing ~150k.

The gear provides:Ranged Accuracy +46 (not counting AGI+'s effect)
Ranged Attack +9
AGI+11
MND+1(I'm using a crossbow and holy bolts.)

The food is Pot-au-feu, which according to the Wiki:Food Effects: (30 minutes, All Races)
Strength +3
Agility +3
Ranged Attack +15~25??%
Ranged Accuracy +10~25??%
Intelligence -3 And my ammo of choice is Holy Bolts. I'll carry some Acids too, but they don't stick on Colibri, so I'm unsure how useful they'll actually be.

I'm looking forward to seeing how I do in a party.

Good morning everyone. We’ve got a lot of stuff to go over today, so we’re going to cut right to the heart of things… or is that stab? I don’t know, long as it’s from behind I guess it doesn’t matter either way does it? <<>>> First off, if you follow me on Twitter I’m sure you [...]

Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today, Ring wonders if Omoikitte cries a little on the inside every time he talks about his jobs at 75, because she hasn't seen his DRG in years. :(

My "main" is SAM. It's got my best gear, it sees the most action, and it has all the merit focus. It used to be more varied because I always had to take MNK to Salvage, but I don't really do that as much anymore even, because I have to go as WHM more often and SAM when Blaize doesn't come. That being said, I do still use a good variety of jobs, like WHM, BLM, RNG, SAM, MNK and even occasionally NIN. I don't use DRG at all anymore, and I think that I may have used WAR one time since it hit 75.

The notion of a main job was an important one back before Treasures of Aht Urhgan because people usually only had one or two jobs at 75. It helped them know which job to expect to do events on, and it helped leaders to know what to expect and what people might want to lot on. Things are different now. A lot of people like to do things in smaller groups and that means you have to have several jobs that are well geared. You can't really have a main job when you could be expected to tank, DD or support at any time, any day.

Is it good to not have a main? Maybe, then again, some people hate playing some jobs and refuse to do so even though they are their main and still want to lot things for it. I never really understood not wanting to play a job in this game. It is really that bad to hit a different set of buttons than on other jobs? To me the best part of the game is succeeding at whatever goal is set out for you, and that jobs are just a way to accomplish those goals.

Do you have multiple "main" jobs? Do you wish it was more limited and you could just focus on one job? Do you like being able to switch between jobs? Would you get bored if you were only able to play one job? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!

So this is a big, random, congrats to my Limbus shell, Shenanigans, for finally breaking the drought and getting not one but *2* Homam Corazza’s off of Omega in the last two runs, after not seeing *ANY* for over a year! This is also how the Random Number Generator of FFXI is making plays to suck [...]

Two questions to gamble on here. Keep in mind sales for the new Moogles in Black (I like that, thanks Katarzyna) start July 5th #1 When do you think the update is going to hit? My Answer: July 22nd #2 Do you think SE will give summoners our new avatars THIS update? My Answer: Nope, they might give us [...]

Because  of recent shell drama I’ve been thinking a lot about how as a leader I am forced to deal with certain situations. A linkshell is not made from one person alone.  A linkshell is not its leader. However a linkshell leader has to be a pretty strong focal point and does have certain responsibilities. The further [...]

It was our first Dynamis run. I am still paralyzed how awesome everything went