Real Life is Full of Fail
Of the things that make me sad perhaps I should be more direct, I'm looking at you cancer. About three weeks ago my grandfather, the only stable male role model I had growing up, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer. I'm not certain of the name, but I imagine it is something horrible. At any rate without chemo he was given 6-8 weeks to live, with chemo they think they can add another six months, and there is a rare outside chance that he could last another six years. For that last time-frame one must be a very healthy person to begin with, which my grandfather is not, he's already in the early stages of Parkinson's and he just had quadruple bypass surgery in October, oh, and did I mention they discovered the cancer while he was in the hospital for pneumonia? To further complicate things my grandfather has stopped prepping properly for chemo (drinking fluids), I think he's giving up and the worst part is, I would to if I were in his shoes.
So on top of my grandfather, I was talking to my brother this weekend and it seems his cancer fears are creeping back into the picture. My brother, whom some have met in game as Abile, has suffered most of his life from bouts of Melanoma (skin cancer), he's had least three incidents and fortunately each one was caught in time. Now whether his concerns are a manifestation on what my grandfather is going though or he really has something to worry about is irrelevant, he needs to go to the doctor for a check up. The problem is he's unemployed with family and too proud to ask for help, and since he lives nine hours away I can't always play brother's keeper and make sure he gets his shit sorted out.
And it doesn't stop there, I spoke to my vet today (the cats had their annuals on Friday) and my oldest cat had elevated calcium levels in his blood tests. Now this can mean many things for cats, but one of them is cancer. The vet doesn't seem to think this is a likelihood since he appeared to her as happy and healthy, but he's been awfully needy lately and I'm concerned. We'll be doing a followup in July or so on his blood tests to see if the calcium levels were an anomaly or not. I hope it's not cancer, I had a cat die from Leukemia when I was a teenager and it was an awful experience for me, and probably even worse for my cat.
Wings of the Goddess
I started the new missions for this and as usual, it seems all the action and dialogue revolves around San d'Oria. It's frustrating because all the cool shit is going on in Windurst and Bastok, but the main story revolves around a gay dude and a bunch of elves talking about how awesome the are. At any rate, I'm as far as I can go, and unfortunately me and Rudi's static fell apart when Dean and his wife quit the game. We're gonna have to go back to the drawing board and find people with all the city missions complete if we want a 100% finish to this expansion. Sigh.
I checked out two of the three new areas that were added, Baileys and the Keep, for anyone hoping that they could warp directly to these zones, guess again. It's like the other Beastmen castles, you gotta walk there, which means inv and snk the whole way. The layout is a bit different than it is in the present and there are some new "structure" NMs throughout the castle. I avoided these when I found them as they looked like a belfry and I was worried something might pop out if I hit them. I've since discovered you can "kill" them, though their exact purpose has yet to be determined.
They also introduced the last two medals, and I'm happy to report that I was one of the first people in the world to get the Medal of Altana and the Lex Talionis sword. Personally I was disappointed with both, you get a slightly longer cutscene with the medal, but nothing memorable and for something that, at the very minimum, takes 95 days to complete, I was hoping for a bit more. And speaking of hoping for more, I can't begin to describe how disappointing the new Campaign only weaponskill Glory Slash has turned out to be. Here is something that you need the Medal of Altana AND 100,000 Allied Notes to obtain and at best it does 450 damage, my Blade: Jins routinely top that. Yes, Glory Slash is AOE and yes it does stun the mobs, the AOE is nice if you can get group of mobs corralled by the NPCs, but other than that it's more likely to get you in trouble than anything, and the stun is damn near useless, it lasts maybe three seconds at best. Very, very disappointed, I was hoping for a WS that routinely did 1k damage and if not that then at least make the stun last like 10 seconds or more. Sigh, I guess at least NIN can cap ACC on Campaign mobs with a sword, some of the other jobs that can wield this don't even have native sword traits, it must be a massive wiff-fest for those folks.
Overall, I find the new WotG content to be a disappointment, sure there is some great gear to be had if your are a PLD, but beyond that, no one really benefits from any of it.
Trial of the Magians
There is one word that best describes this new feature: frustration. Nothing is overly hard to do at this point, but it's insanely conditional (be it weather, weaponskills, triggering additional effects, etc) and as such can be very disheartening. That said, in the end all the frustration is rewarded worth some fucking awesome augmented weapons!
Lots of folks seem to be flocking to the super damage weapons and the Occasionally Attack Twice weapons, but imho, the really kick-ass stuff is in the other weapons. The super damage ones I understand, the Ninja katana Mozu, for example, has a DPS of 11.37 when fully augmented, there is only one katana in the game with a higher DPS and that's the relic Kikoku (which, ironically, can be augmented to a DPS of 12.86 through the Trials). The Occasionally Attacks Twice stuff, though, I simply don't get. Not only do they do low damage, but fully augmented they have longer delays, these Trials are too much of a pain in the ass for this nonsense if you ask me. Using NIN as an example again, a fully augmented Isatu has a DPS of 8.79, which is surpassed by a metric shit ton of katanas, many with much better attributes, for me the term "Occasionally" isn't going to cut it if I'm trying to hold hate, it needs to be "Often".
So what does have me so damn excited? Well it's the Kuina katanas, there are two types with buff and debuff attributes. The buff katanas have a DPS of 10.75 and the debuff katanas have a 10.86 DPS, there are only two katanas that can top those and I discussed them in the last paragraph. For me, I'm looking at three buff katanas in particular, AGI +4/EVA +12, VIT +4/Physical DMG Taken -5%, and MND +4/Magic DEF Bonus +5, any combination of these three will go a long way to making me an awesome tank (and should I be able to wield two of the same katana at the same time, then holy shit!). All in all, I think the addition of the feature is a plus for the game, for me, I now have something else to do on my own when I'm bored with Campaign, I can't wait to get some fully augmented katanas!
This weekend Obsidian plans to do some passes at the new VNMs, which drop some insanely awesome rings. The system looks similar to ZNMs and should be a lot of fun to test out.
Stating the Obvious
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
That's the Name of the Game
So Sunday SE drops the mother of all bombshells on the FFXI Community by stating they will raise the level cap to Level 99 and then they said a bunch of other stuff. I have quite a bit to say about Level 99 (as does just about anyone with a blog who plays FFXI, and rightfully so), but like I said, SE said a bunch of other stuff and most of that was good stuff. So let's get to it and review the other interesting things that are coming up.
Wings of the Goddess
WotG is set to be concluded in the September update, which I won't go so far as to say, "about time" but it has been a long time coming. The last update left the fates of Windurst and Bastok hanging in the balance, and those damn kids are still alive in San d'Oria. Many questions remain, with the largest (imo) being is there a connection between the Walk of Echoes and Tavnazia? This has been an exciting, though frustrating, expansion and I can't wait to see how it ends.
Walk of Echoes
Speaking of the Walk of Echoes, SE has teased us with a new endgame event and all signs point to this being that event. Yet, I find myself puzzled as it is coming to us in two parts in the June and September updates. Why would an endgame event come in two parts? Just what the hell do the have planned here? Will it be like Dynamis or will it be like Einjerhar? And finally, will Gawayne be ready to adjust the website so Obsidian can be on the front lines exploring this new content? Aside from the .DAT screenshots, no one quite knows what to expect here. I'm excited, that much I can confirm.
Campaign
SE has been keeping the most intriguing piece of Campaign under wraps as no one was prepared for Castle Zvahl (S) being added to the action. Even better, the Shadowlord himself will get involved from time to time! They are also completing the medals in the March update, something that has been long, long overdue, why they dragged their feet so long here is anyone's guess. In addition there will be new Allied Notes rewards (woot!) and we will somehow be able to access the weaponskills the NPC Generals use. How that last part is implemented is a good question, but it will most likely involve obtaining the highest medal and spending an absurd amount of Allied Notes. All in all, the updates to Campaign sound like all kinds of win.
Job Adjustments
So far they have announced adjustments specifically for BST, SMN and PUP, with the promise to make tweaks and changes to all the jobs. Does this mean NIN will finally get the Ni tier of spells completed, or that San spells are forthcoming? How about BLM getting Tier V nukes and Tier IV -ga nukes? With 24 additional levels there's a lot SE could add to the jobs, I can't wait to see what they come up with.
BST - I'm not sure how this is a job adjustment, but they are adding new synergy recipes for what sounds like new kinds of jugs. Personally I think this is just SE forcing Synergy on the population, but in the end it's lolBST getting the ugly end of the stick, the rest of us can continue to ignore the madness that is Synergy.
SMN - Summoners rejoiced at the news of getting two new avatars (Odin and Alexander) for about five seconds, then SE announced the catch. These Summons can only be called during Astral Flow. While I don't care much about what happens to summoners, even I have to ask if that's all the Summons are going to do, then what took so fucking long to add them?
PUP - A job that actually gets a useful update! People will really need to consider what a PUP can bring to a party with an A in Hand-To-Hand AND an automaton. Definitely a good update for an oft ostracized job.
Trial of Magians
If I've understood this correctly we will be able to upgrade our gear WITH the upgrades we want through quests. Finally, they fucking get it, let us choose what upgrades we want and people will actually bother with it. For over a year now we've received one shitty Augment system after another and almost everyone has lost interest within a week of implementation. I have a feeling this will tie in nicely with the Level 99 developments by letting us keep our current gear and pimp it out.
New Abyssea Expansion/Add-Ons
To me this feels more like an expansion as opposed to an add-on. They are adding new zones, new gear and new monsters, not much else is known, but the screenshots look very promising, I'm sold.
New NMs and HNMs
I've had a lot of fun with the new NMs, buggers are everywhere and it's always nice to challenge them despite the awful drop-rates. I expect more of the same here, but obviously the NMs will be harder for the level cap and the HNMs are bound to have some awesome gear that most of us will never see! :D
Removal of CoP Area Level Caps
Fucking win! They can keep the caps on the battles, but it'll be nice to finally explore these zones (and finish getting the maps I need) without fear of instant death. Plus there are a few NMs that I wouldn't mind getting some payback on.
Job-Specific Emotes
Kind of depends on the actual emotes I guess, but I like where they are going with this. In truth it's not something we need, but unlike the damn bells, it's something everyone can have fun with.
Merging Servers and Opening Odin and Bahamut
Another one of those things that has been a long time coming. I reside on Odin, and while the JP side of the house has hardly dwindled, the EU and NA communities have taken massive hits and it's been depressing. Now with the server reopened, all the people who got conned into leaving can come back, yay! Another benefit is we can create mules again, I don't have any mules I want to create at the moment, but I never liked the idea that I was stuck with what I had. The drawback to reopening the server is the damn RMT will be back (and my guess, in force), and who knows what kind of bullshit and mayhem will follow.
As for the servers merging, I feel bad for those folks. 16 server worlds are going to be turned upside down overnight, their economies will change, all the shells from the lesser server will have to be recreated, people's character names will get changed, it all sucks. I feel for these people, but it was bound to happen eventually, doesn't take away from the sucktatude though.
Level 99
And now for the biggest game changer of all (by far), Level 99. There's a lot to be excited about here and a lot to be concerned about. The first thing that jumps out at me is everything that was hard is now easy. Everything. If they don't implement zone or battlefield level caps, virtually every current monster in the game becomes Easy Prey. Need Kitty Pants? Well you can get the pop item and solo Kirin. Want Nashira? Then grab a friend or two and smack Proto-Ultima around. The problem with this is that all the end-game content just became soloable or low-manable, which means linkshells for those events are going to die. Even Dynamis will see a big hit, now a solid group of six can clear pretty much everything, which means even MORE scheduling conflicts. I'm not opposed to those events becoming easier, but with less people needed to do them, I fear our sense of community will dwindle away. I hope whatever Walk of Echoes turns out to be that it is so hard and the rewards so awesome that everyone is forced to go in massive groups.
On a individual (i.e. my character) level this is a real drag because now I have to level all my subs again and my main two jobs. I'm still working on merits for crying out loud, 24 more levels will just gimp me for that much longer. As I've said before, I hate leveling and this is going to be one hell of a grind (thankfully I only have 2 75s to worry about, I would hate to have a dozen or more to level). I just want to complain and whine, but we're all in the same boat so me and everyone else are just going to have to accept it and move on.
That said, I'm seeing a lot of people scream bloody murder over the level raise and I just don't get the rage and the threats to quit. Sure, you'll have to level more stuff but you get to continue playing the game. At least this way SE is giving us progression and not five more years of the same thing. To me, a lot of the people upset by this are looking for an excuse to quit and it's a very convenient thing to latch onto. I wish them luck, I may piss and moan about the grind, but I still want to keep playing.
All in all, I welcome the changes and am excited to see what FFXI-2 will turn out to be like. I think SE has breathed at least a few more years into the game and bitch all you like, that's a very good thing.
Wings of the Goddess
WotG is set to be concluded in the September update, which I won't go so far as to say, "about time" but it has been a long time coming. The last update left the fates of Windurst and Bastok hanging in the balance, and those damn kids are still alive in San d'Oria. Many questions remain, with the largest (imo) being is there a connection between the Walk of Echoes and Tavnazia? This has been an exciting, though frustrating, expansion and I can't wait to see how it ends.
Walk of Echoes
Speaking of the Walk of Echoes, SE has teased us with a new endgame event and all signs point to this being that event. Yet, I find myself puzzled as it is coming to us in two parts in the June and September updates. Why would an endgame event come in two parts? Just what the hell do the have planned here? Will it be like Dynamis or will it be like Einjerhar? And finally, will Gawayne be ready to adjust the website so Obsidian can be on the front lines exploring this new content? Aside from the .DAT screenshots, no one quite knows what to expect here. I'm excited, that much I can confirm.
Campaign
SE has been keeping the most intriguing piece of Campaign under wraps as no one was prepared for Castle Zvahl (S) being added to the action. Even better, the Shadowlord himself will get involved from time to time! They are also completing the medals in the March update, something that has been long, long overdue, why they dragged their feet so long here is anyone's guess. In addition there will be new Allied Notes rewards (woot!) and we will somehow be able to access the weaponskills the NPC Generals use. How that last part is implemented is a good question, but it will most likely involve obtaining the highest medal and spending an absurd amount of Allied Notes. All in all, the updates to Campaign sound like all kinds of win.
Job Adjustments
So far they have announced adjustments specifically for BST, SMN and PUP, with the promise to make tweaks and changes to all the jobs. Does this mean NIN will finally get the Ni tier of spells completed, or that San spells are forthcoming? How about BLM getting Tier V nukes and Tier IV -ga nukes? With 24 additional levels there's a lot SE could add to the jobs, I can't wait to see what they come up with.
BST - I'm not sure how this is a job adjustment, but they are adding new synergy recipes for what sounds like new kinds of jugs. Personally I think this is just SE forcing Synergy on the population, but in the end it's lolBST getting the ugly end of the stick, the rest of us can continue to ignore the madness that is Synergy.
SMN - Summoners rejoiced at the news of getting two new avatars (Odin and Alexander) for about five seconds, then SE announced the catch. These Summons can only be called during Astral Flow. While I don't care much about what happens to summoners, even I have to ask if that's all the Summons are going to do, then what took so fucking long to add them?
PUP - A job that actually gets a useful update! People will really need to consider what a PUP can bring to a party with an A in Hand-To-Hand AND an automaton. Definitely a good update for an oft ostracized job.
Trial of Magians
If I've understood this correctly we will be able to upgrade our gear WITH the upgrades we want through quests. Finally, they fucking get it, let us choose what upgrades we want and people will actually bother with it. For over a year now we've received one shitty Augment system after another and almost everyone has lost interest within a week of implementation. I have a feeling this will tie in nicely with the Level 99 developments by letting us keep our current gear and pimp it out.
New Abyssea Expansion/Add-Ons
To me this feels more like an expansion as opposed to an add-on. They are adding new zones, new gear and new monsters, not much else is known, but the screenshots look very promising, I'm sold.
New NMs and HNMs
I've had a lot of fun with the new NMs, buggers are everywhere and it's always nice to challenge them despite the awful drop-rates. I expect more of the same here, but obviously the NMs will be harder for the level cap and the HNMs are bound to have some awesome gear that most of us will never see! :D
Removal of CoP Area Level Caps
Fucking win! They can keep the caps on the battles, but it'll be nice to finally explore these zones (and finish getting the maps I need) without fear of instant death. Plus there are a few NMs that I wouldn't mind getting some payback on.
Job-Specific Emotes
Kind of depends on the actual emotes I guess, but I like where they are going with this. In truth it's not something we need, but unlike the damn bells, it's something everyone can have fun with.
Merging Servers and Opening Odin and Bahamut
Another one of those things that has been a long time coming. I reside on Odin, and while the JP side of the house has hardly dwindled, the EU and NA communities have taken massive hits and it's been depressing. Now with the server reopened, all the people who got conned into leaving can come back, yay! Another benefit is we can create mules again, I don't have any mules I want to create at the moment, but I never liked the idea that I was stuck with what I had. The drawback to reopening the server is the damn RMT will be back (and my guess, in force), and who knows what kind of bullshit and mayhem will follow.
As for the servers merging, I feel bad for those folks. 16 server worlds are going to be turned upside down overnight, their economies will change, all the shells from the lesser server will have to be recreated, people's character names will get changed, it all sucks. I feel for these people, but it was bound to happen eventually, doesn't take away from the sucktatude though.
Level 99
And now for the biggest game changer of all (by far), Level 99. There's a lot to be excited about here and a lot to be concerned about. The first thing that jumps out at me is everything that was hard is now easy. Everything. If they don't implement zone or battlefield level caps, virtually every current monster in the game becomes Easy Prey. Need Kitty Pants? Well you can get the pop item and solo Kirin. Want Nashira? Then grab a friend or two and smack Proto-Ultima around. The problem with this is that all the end-game content just became soloable or low-manable, which means linkshells for those events are going to die. Even Dynamis will see a big hit, now a solid group of six can clear pretty much everything, which means even MORE scheduling conflicts. I'm not opposed to those events becoming easier, but with less people needed to do them, I fear our sense of community will dwindle away. I hope whatever Walk of Echoes turns out to be that it is so hard and the rewards so awesome that everyone is forced to go in massive groups.
On a individual (i.e. my character) level this is a real drag because now I have to level all my subs again and my main two jobs. I'm still working on merits for crying out loud, 24 more levels will just gimp me for that much longer. As I've said before, I hate leveling and this is going to be one hell of a grind (thankfully I only have 2 75s to worry about, I would hate to have a dozen or more to level). I just want to complain and whine, but we're all in the same boat so me and everyone else are just going to have to accept it and move on.
That said, I'm seeing a lot of people scream bloody murder over the level raise and I just don't get the rage and the threats to quit. Sure, you'll have to level more stuff but you get to continue playing the game. At least this way SE is giving us progression and not five more years of the same thing. To me, a lot of the people upset by this are looking for an excuse to quit and it's a very convenient thing to latch onto. I wish them luck, I may piss and moan about the grind, but I still want to keep playing.
All in all, I welcome the changes and am excited to see what FFXI-2 will turn out to be like. I think SE has breathed at least a few more years into the game and bitch all you like, that's a very good thing.
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