Friends

Since I don't make a lot of time free anymore to post the occasional ffxi screens, here's a collection of pictures on what I've done in ffxi past year. Enjoy.~

( To the pictures on my LJ. (Beware! Bandwidth intensive!!!) )

without the use of 3rd party programs such as Windower or the application of what is called "reverse engineering"?

First off, I just wanted to be clear that I am not attempting to begin an argument about the ethics behind windower, botting, parsing, or any other third party program available for use when concerning FFXI. I would appreciate if this topic was discussed in it's appropriate threads, as there are already multiples of them on this forum.

But with recent discussion as it is, this topic came to mind and I wanted to see what other people thought about it.

I ask again: How much would we really know about the workings of FFXI without the development and applicable use of third party programs to reverse engineer?

I ask this because I realize that without these things, many of the in-game testing that has been done and more importantly, the information those tests have provided to the community, would not be available without the original practice of reverse engineering.

For those interested, Article 2, Section 4 of the FINAL FANTASY XI Software License Agreement specifically prohibits the practice of reverse engineering. See for yourself at http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/FINAL_FANTASY_XI_Software_License_Agreement

The reason this question interests me is because of how many players have benefited from these works. Windower plugins such as Distance and TParty taught the community a great deal when it came to Area of Effect, and (in the case of TParty) when certain mobs would ready specific abilities at direct HP percentages. This information directly lead to the formation of commonly accepted battle strategies. 3rd party parsing software was able to prove differences between equipment setups, showing what would be best for certain actions and situations. One of the games most famous reverse engineers was Kaeko's enmity testing, a project that taught players how the enmity system worked and could be used to create advantages during battle.

I am fully aware there are more examples than what I just listed above. I just wanted to be clear that works and testing such as those above have directly led to the quality of information found in widely used resources such as FFXIclopedia, something used even by players condemning 3rd party programs and ToS breaches.

The introduction of said information has undoubtedly made the general player community more knowledgeable overall, and thus created better players. Even those who do not directly benefit from the use of these programs have indirectly benefited from the information these programs and tests have given to the community. If these things had never become available or were never tested, how good do you think we'd really be at playing this game? I'm not saying it would be impossible to figure these things out on your own, but the amount of time and effort involved would have been drastically increased, stacked on top of incredible amounts of trial and error failures. That being said, I feel the information provided to the player community by the use of 3rd party tools and the application of reverse engineering has completely changed the way we play the game and allowed us as players to become more successful during events and battles.

Thoughts?

You can get the Final Fantasy Online Ultimate collection on Steam (steampowered.com) for $11.

That's everything, including the three add-on scenarios (which by themselves are currently like $10 each iirc)

Also it's steam so that means no more having to track down your cd/dvd to install it. On the other hand, Final Fantasy is a BIG game (~10 GB) on windows, so installation could take a while depending on the connection speed you have. On the gripping hand, some people can't stand Steam, as it has some DRM and stuff, and relies on the Valve servers to enable your logins. (I know mmo games you can generally bypass steam once the game's installed, but not sure about FFXI).

I actually know about 4 ppl interested in joining me and my buddy Gel, but I'm on Odin, where none may trespass. (they burned out on Aion already. that took all of what, 2 months?)

I haven't been playing much (read: more than one blm solo exp session per month) for the past year. Do people still level in camps past Yhoator Jungle anymore? Every invite I've had from levels 38-52 on my drg has been Qufim or the jungles except for one wonderful, glorious party on Colibri in ERon(S).

A lot has changed in the last year, apparently. Anyone remember skillchains? Skillup parties? People in Jeuno who aren't either bots or just passing through? Social linkshells? People doing nation missions? Promyvions? Being able to get anything done by /shout groups instead of linkshells? I miss these things.

Speaking of linkshells, both of mine disbanded while I was a non-player. I recall a time when having no shell would quite quickly get you invited to a social shell, but since those apparently don't exist anymore, people assume that lack of a shell means you've been kicked out of an endgame shell for a good reason and are therefore the antichrist.

What the hell has happened to the game I used to love?

Ethereal Linkshell of Diabolos zergs in 45 seconds from pop to kill.

I was tying up some loose ends on quests in The Eldieme Necropolis, when I decided I'd also use the Strange Apparatus there. So I go through all the legwork to drop down to Mark D on the map, which is apparently the only way to fall down into that specific area... and land into an area that, apparently, only leads way back to the very start! What gives? I'm really agitated about this; there's GOT to be something I'm missing here.

Also, for that scroll of Teleport-Mea quest "Acting in Good Faith" does anyone here know how often the question marks (???) move? Because I checked all four god-awful areas in what could only be described as an epic misadventure of incompetence and frustration, and... they weren't in any of the four areas they're supposed to be. Which means that it moved in the two hours it took me to explore them all. Now I know why I never finished this "easy" quest.

If you didn't know, I'm a member mod on the RPGamer board.

They've been doing a Year of Final Fantasy; they're sorta skipping FFXI, but. I've gotten permission to do something so we won't be ignored completely. Next month, they're doing FF10. Alongside that, I'm going to post a FF11 spoiler thread. I'll post it here when it's up...

I'm gonna be sticking to the windy storyline (summary only) but if anyone else would like to come help, please do. Only thing I ask; read the board rules and follow them, please!. I don't want to have to remove a bunch of too big sigs, for example. RPGamer runs a very tight ship, board wise; no trolls allowed, pretty strict sig pic limit, etc. I'd rather not have to hexa strike anyone from here. ^^ (The spoiler tag rule will be relaxed for that thread and only that thread since it will be clearly marked "SPOILER!" but other than that, I will enforce the rules.)

Keep your eyes peeled; I'll have it up in a couple weeks. ^^

[Edit] since the guy who commented said "we're not welcome"..Au contrare. The goal was to get though as many Final Fantasy games as possible before FF14 came out. FF11 got cut for time reasons, and possibly since it's a MMO. Also there's at least 5 RPGamer staffers (not counting this little member mod, who isn't a true staffer) INCLUDING the webmaster, Firemyst, who have played or do play FFXI. Not welcome my butt. ^^

I just got my FFXIV closed beta invitation in my email box. Ok, actually it's an invitation to apply for the beta. I figured, why not give it a shot. I'm not leaving FFXI until it's quite dead, but I'm a sucker for MMOs, really.


Anyone else get theirs? I'm hoping my husband gets one too, that way at least one of us might have a chance at getting it.

Neko did. :)
Text version on gamefaqs -- Shadowneko's Newbie guide

I might suggest neko put that on FFXI Wiki too; but it's been a fight since the PS2 version of FFXI came out to get this on GameFaqs. Go Neko!

I recently won the lot on Shura pants and I'm wondering if I should be full-timing them? I don't have Byakko Haidate because 1. he's cheap and likes to horde them and 2. I've been letting the people with melee jobs as main lot ahead of me. Instead, I've been using Shinimusha pants to get my 6-hit and Dusk Gloves in the place of Hachiman Kote. If I were to fulltime Shura, I'd switch the Dusk to Hachiman to keep my 6-hit - but is the accuracy I gain worth the Haste I lose?

I'm mostly entertaining the idea because I'm about 40 accuracy under capping @ birds (and Hachiman is cheaper than Dusk + Shinimusha...).


Also, for the bards: Korin Obi > Gleeman's Belt on lightsday/light weather for Lullaby? It seems like it should be, but the only proof I can find is from people that say "Yes, it is, just because," which is a rather frustrating answer when wiki's page about it says the bonus doesn't apply to magic accuracy.