FFXIV

[Bebpo]

the way to win is to try again and again and again and again

and someday you will win

this is why the super fights are so super hard. although tbh i didn't think the Alex fights were all that hard. you talking about the Savage ones? i remember beating the final set of levels like two weeks after they came out and only wiping a couple times. was disappointing. the 3.x ex fights on the other hand...  :/

Yeah, like I said, I had fun and I don't mind at all.  I'm used to trying over and over and over again in Japanese games until I beat something.  Like Shinobi PS2's final boss.  I never bail on Japanese games because of difficulty (I say this because western "hard" games are a different style of difficulty design like FPS and that's not for me; but Japanese patterns and really tight execution I find frustratingly fun).  It's just finding a team of 7 other people who have the same mindset is tough.

I could tell after a couple of deaths a few of our team were already getting kind of frustrated and using ALL CAPS and were probably about to explode on teammates.  I need a team of people who are cool with dying over and over and just talk about ways to improve instead of getting angry at anyone.  Then again, hopefully anyone who messes up will catch it for the next time even if you don't get on their case.  I know when I fuck up I realize it and then I don't do that the next run.

I think for me, Odin Trial was the first "shit gets real" FFXIV difficulty spot.  Now T9 is the next level of "shit gets really real" difficulty point showing me the challenge of team coordination.  I'm thinking about buying a mic so I can voice chat for stuff like T9 because it seems like it'd be helpful.

[Positive Touch]

remember ffxiv is discord only. no native chat

[Bebpo]

Ok, I got in a party that was helping a new person with it and the meteor/golem part is easy.  I can do it 100% now.  On our second try we got the boss down to the final 10% HP but we were short one tank and our leader accidently disabled echo and someone used a limit break so we all got hit in a boss diving attack and died.

Every other time afterwards someone else would fuck up.  Things I saw:

-The DPS group hugging the boss (including me) sometimes one person gets tagged and they don't run away and the meteor drops where the boss is
....and then when the 3 greens come up the 3 people go to their usual circle spots not noticing the RED METEOR DROPPED AND IS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM ><

-Everyone spreads out half-click away for 2nd meteor drops.  Player gets tagged, runs out and gets tagged again and doesn't notice he's been tagged twice in a row and stands in the same spot and the 2nd meteor drops RIGHT ON TOP OF THE FIRST ><

-People leading the golems to the meteors on the 2nd drop accidently lead two golems right next to each other and they merge.  This is understable because if you don't have good aggro control of the golems they just run off and do shit like this.  Being short 1 tank made this part harder than it should be.

I'm still not really sure what the strategy is for the ice/fire mechanics other than "run the fuck away from the person targeted" is for now because I've only been in a party that's made it that far once.  So close.  I didn't get wiped by fire/ice though and had them cancel each other.  Got wiped by the dive ><

I think I feel pretty confident I'm at the point now I can play with people who farm it and know what they're doing and pass it.  Seeing an ok amount of turn 9 groups on party finder, so hopefully one of these groups won't have a weak link killing every one.  Asked around on the FC but get the feeling no one really wants to do Turn 9 with someone they don't know.

[Bebpo]

Clear

[Bebpo]

So, after doing T9 with a bunch of people, the fight's pretty fun and the part you wipe the most on isn't the hard part.  Like the meteor/golem stuff in the first half is really easy once everyone knows what to do (first fall, 1 guy with red runs to the outside and drops, 3 in the middle; 2nd fall everyone stands around the outside the right distance and runs forward to a free spot when they get a red drop; 3 in the middle, make the golems eat 2 each & kill).

The second half is the tougher stuff.  But the two parties I was in tonight, we'd only get to the 2nd half every 4th or 5th try because inevitably someone would mess up the meteor/golem part and go "srry my bad" ^^;

The ice/fire stuff was easier than I was expecting from the video since I could just look at what status I had from the last blast and as long as I knew which color chains signaled ice/fire I could avoid the next one that's the same and run into the next one that's the opposite.  But the diving stuff still hurt bad, even when we beat it, the dive wiped like 4 of us and the other 4 beat it.  This was the same dive (not the dragon dives, but the boss's dive in their final phase out of nowhere that does like 30k damage to everyone punching it) that completely wiped my 2nd party.  But I was playing with this guild from Excalibur, Kamazine, including with their guild leader Kesko (nice guy) who was like MAXED top Paladin (dude even survived Megaflare with 1 meteor still left on the field) and so after 4 of us wiped in the dive, him and a couple others finished that last 10% and got us the clear.

Looking forward to Final Coil.  I feel like if I knew how to anticipate and dodge that boss dive I could do T9 any day with people who also knew what to do as it's a lot of fun.  Just like the extreme fights, this kind of strategic battle is exactly what I'm looking for in the game.  The hardest part is just getting a party of other people who want that kind of stuff as well haha.

[Bebpo]

Also in terms of what makes it easier in unsync/sync, reading the guide in unsync you skip the entire dragon dive bomb phase.  It goes straight from Heavensfall after Megaflare to Fire/Ice/Lightning elements dragon -> DIVEBOMB METEOR STREAM.

Although it's weird because the guide says

"Divebomb (Meteor Stream) chooses 3 random party members and deals significant AoE damage to them, and all those around them. Having a single member eat 2 of these is likely death… therefore spreading out is needed."

And that's with sync.  Yet in unsync two parties in a row the first divebomb meteor stream wipes 3-4 of the DPS who are up in the bosses face.  Hmmm...wonder what's causing the wipe.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Yes, when we beat T9 the first time (and every time after that), the general strategy is "kill that bitch before she gets to the dive bombs", cause no one wants to deal with that shit. 

In my very first clear, we just barely got her to 5% before she destroyed the party with the divebombs. I used Holmgang to both root myself on the spot and prevent my HP from going lower than 1, and had to desperately solo Nael from 5% to death before Fire/Ice one shot me. Most intense moment I've had with the game.

[Mupepe]

So I got and installed the game - or so I thought. I never hit play on steam because I didn't want to waste the trial days until I knew I had time to play. I was all ready to play but when I get ready and launch I see 17 gbs of updates and it's downloading slow as hell. Noooooooooo

[Positive Touch]

lolz. downloading that update counts as the start of your trial btw.

[Mupepe]

lolz. downloading that update counts as the start of your trial btw.

yeah that's what I figured. One day gone! Seriously. What the hell still downloads at 300 kb/s?

[Positive Touch]

japan

[Positive Touch]

started doing the feast and it's... actually kind of fun? with a good team and a leader who calls targets it can get pretty intense. it works well enough with the limited movement options in the game, though i wouldn't mind a couple other simple maps. not about to become one of those pvp-only weirdos, but it's fun enough now that it works.

[Bebpo]

Did a crafting day today since didn't really want to put the effort in to start Final Coil and MSQ is still kinda zzz.  Got my crafters up from around 18-20 to 23-25.
Today 230 hours later I learned about Auto-crafting when I saw I could make Steel Ingots and they were selling for like 1.400gil each.  Bought enough to make 50, left it on auto-crafting and when I came back I'd gained 2 full levels

Cost me about 45k for the materials and was only able to sell it for about 60k so there's not much of a profit margin, but the concept of buying 99 materials to craft some item a few levels above you, set it to auto-craft, come back and be 2-3 levels higher and be able to sell it at a slight profit (so at least not losing money)...seems really good way to level crafters.  Way better use of time than leve crafts which take me like 4-6 leves per level gain.

The trick is to find material that is really useless and cheap so it doesn't cost much and then you just auto-craft x 99.  Or you spend $$$ but make sure the things you are making will be worth $$$ so you can sell them.  Gonna try this out with each crafting class over the next week. 

Also found out today that not every cutscene is available at the Inn!  When I finished First Coil my team wanted me to quickly run and unlock second Coil so I skipped all the cutscenes at waking sands & fallgourd float thinking I'd watch them at the inn.  Watched all of coil through Final Coil start and those cutscenes aren't major enough to be available at the Inn.  Only the cutscenes within the dungeons themselves.  I read the quest summaries and it's not like they were important, but good to know that if I'm not in a dungeon DO NOT SKIP CUTSCENES EVER.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

If they're actual cutscenes, you might have to look for those scenes by the name of the Quest itself, not the raid. Those will, naturally, only show you the cutscenes related to that raid.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, not there.  The Chronicles tab with Bahamut has no cutscenes yet.  Googled and other people were in this situation and said "YouTube or start a new character to see it"
It's not that surprising, for example fisher job quest usually has a short minor cutscenes at the end of each 5 levels job quest but under job quest cutscenes only lvl.50 quest is the only cutscenes available.  Pretty sure there were at least a couple in 1-45 quests.

Definitely feel like there are minor cutscenes that still take away camera control to preset cameras but don't end up in the inn book and major cutscenes which are there.  The only thing I can think of is that it's possible after I beat Final Coil that all the in-between cutscenes may suddenly become available from First Coil -> end under the Chronices of a New Era - Bahamut tab.

[Positive Touch]

the only non-dungeon coil cutscene you can re-watch is the ending to the whole thing

[Bebpo]

So I saw something on GAF about a point in the MSQ where you have to grind Lore to get gear above 180 to continue the MSQ and the story just comes to a complete stop in HW as you grind/grind/grind to get enough gear to move forward.  Since that sounds sucky, I checked the AH board to see when I get to that point if I can just buy post i180 gear with gil and dodge the lore grind to progress (although I'm told the gear you'll get will jump you to i240 now).  I looked on the AH and there's only a few i180 or above items, mostly i250 items and they are insanely expensive.  i180 gear is like 1-2 million per piece, i250 gear is like 10 miliion per piece.  Uh, so that's not really possible.

Otoh, I guess that means if I get my crafters up to 60 I can make i180+ gear and sell it for millions as a source of income? 

[Positive Touch]

it'll drop in price some before then, as more people spend the tomes they build up on new gear. and there are lots of ways to get higher-level gear; getting i180 shouldn't even take long unless you're doing like nothing except msq.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

The person saying you have to "grind" lore is literally talking out of their ass and probably going about it in the most inefficient manner. Specially with how much you're playing Bebpo, Lore tomes literally rain like candy these days with all the content/roulettes that drop it, and all your roulettes change from giving exp to giving Lore once you hit 60. Dungeon gear at 60 /starts/ at i160 with the two easiest ones, and you can buy i180 and i200 gear cheaply using Centurio seals, a currency you can start building up the very moment you get to level 53. The most recent dungeons drop gear that's better than what you can get using Lore.



Crafted gear at that level is either for endgame raiding or glamours, hence the high price tags. The people that will use them can pay the cash, and crafting them isn't easy cause they require lots of really rare mats.

[Mupepe]

So like you guys mentioned Hyperion isn't taking any new characters. How much of a PITA would it be trying to wait for them to allow more? Do they change that often?

[The Legend of Sunblade]

So like you guys mentioned Hyperion isn't taking any new characters. How much of a PITA would it be trying to wait for them to allow more? Do they change that often?

It's a relative PITA. You basically have to check in during the early morning or late night periods for the lock on character creation to go away for a period of time, just cuz Hyperion is a pretty well populated server.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/news/detail/80cd4583bf743600105b947d6906d0909189e479

This post updates every 4 hours showing which servers are currently open to new characters.

The only other method is paying more money is to make a character on any server, then pay for a character transfer ($18) to the server of your choice, but that's more for desperate people who want to get into the even rarer servers no matter what. You'll get in eventually.

[Mupepe]

Thanks! Damn damn damn. I really wanted to play tonight. I guess I'll keep it up and keep refreshing the server list

[Bebpo]

The person saying you have to "grind" lore is literally talking out of their ass and probably going about it in the most inefficient manner. Specially with how much you're playing Bebpo, Lore tomes literally rain like candy these days with all the content/roulettes that drop it, and all your roulettes change from giving exp to giving Lore once you hit 60. Dungeon gear at 60 /starts/ at i160 with the two easiest ones, and you can buy i180 and i200 gear cheaply using Centurio seals, a currency you can start building up the very moment you get to level 53. The most recent dungeons drop gear that's better than what you can get using Lore.



Crafted gear at that level is either for endgame raiding or glamours, hence the high price tags. The people that will use them can pay the cash, and crafting them isn't easy cause they require lots of really rare mats.

Ok, so sounds like it should be fine.

I haven't done a roulette in ages at this point (probably 100+ hours) and it feels great   I've been getting enough Poetic tomes/xp just by doing all the content that I'm already at i123 and about 1/4th of the way to i130.  Already have 3 of the 9 i120 pieces upgraded to i130 and I've still got a handful of first-time tome bonuses left in T10-13, Lev Extreme, and remaining 2.3-2.5 Primals regular & extreme + Hilde fights.  Should be lvl.54, i130 by the time I start HW.

[Bebpo]

Also I hadn't thought about selling old gear as I get new ones.  I probably should.  At least my HQ i115 ring I bought for 20k since you can't have two of the same i120 rings from poetic turn ins.

I've got up to like 650k gil now, but I still don't know good ways to get money.  I can get at least 150k per marlin, but that requires rng and I haven't felt like grinding it since I don't need the cash right now (better for queues, but no queues left atm that I need).  All the crafting stuff has super thin margins with my lvl.20-30 crafters, like gain 10% more than the mats cost, so I get like 10k.  If I'm in Gridania and it's raining I always catch raincatcher fish since they're required for the fishing job quest and you're fucked if it's not raining.  These sell about 2k each and I can usually catch 4-6 before it stops raining so it gets me 10k.

Selling FC items has DIED.  I was doing this for like a week, just 1 set of 99 per day.  Making 30k profit per day if not twice per day on Iron Ingots.  But then they just stopped selling and the competition on the market bottomed out the market so I'm lucky if I can sell them for 20k and make 15k profit. 

So I've been making like 10-30k a day from a few things, but that's it.  Those things don't take time and aren't consuming and sometimes help me level crafters so it's not big deal but it's not bringing in money.  And the only thing that brings in money aka 150k Marlin requires going out of the way to sit and grind for 15-30 mins.  So hmmmmm...

At somepoint, hopefully in HW I'll find ways to make more money.

[Bebpo]

Tonight's thoughts:

-Working on MSQ 2.3, did

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ramuh fight

[close]

Nice music, but kinda easy, no interesting mechanics, just dodge AoEs, kill adds, win?  Looking forward to the Extreme fight.  Also what's up with that beard lol

-Did T10 of Coil, figure even if I'm not in the mood to run new coil on weeknights, I can probably do like 1 turn a day.  Party didn't even wait until 8 people joined, took off with six people unsync even though I'm basically at sync with my ilevel, so that's 5 unsync.  Almost wiped on boss even though it was straightforward lol

-Party made some comments that made me think T11 will have some important mechanics, so gonna watch a guide before looking for a T11 party next time.

-So I've been really confused because I thought after I buy some gear for 20,000 gil and the move on to better gear, I can sell that gear and make some of that back.  Like I've been really confused for 90% of the game as to why I can't sell on the market most equipment.  I always thought it was because green/blue unique stuff is market prohibited.  But then I pooled together all my outgrown gear I'll never need again (crafting/gathering gear since I'm omni-crafting/gathering leveling my sub-jobs) and then I couldn't sell almost anything!  And this was just normal gear.  I was so confused until I googled and apparently in MMOs once you use a piece of armor once, it becomes soul bound to you (even if spirit bond is less than 100%) and you can never sell it to anyone :|  So all that 20,000 gear because useless and can sell it for 100gil to an NPC vendor to clear inventory space  

The only thing I can thing of to get out of this is if I can desynth old used equip to material and sell that?  I don't even know if that's possible.

-Market fluctuates like crazy.  Marlins were down from 250,000 a week or two ago to now there's tons of listings for 100,000 or less.  I caught a few more tonight and was kinda bummed how low they had dropped.  Otoh, found some other FC items that were selling for like 90,000-100,000 gil that cost like 8k at the FC.  Now I know about diversifying.  I'm selling lots of stuff and hopefully some of it sells.  Made about 100k tonight, so at 750k now.  One day will pass my first million saved.  (although I've had over a million already, since I spent 300k on my FC room + like 100-200k on various gear at times).

-ATMOS.  So even though I'm not doing the Zodiac Weapons because I'm not crazy, I've been keeping an eye out for every Fate I run across figuring if I run across an ATMOS fate I'd equip my relic zenith and do it.  But I've never even seen one of these Atmos fates anywhere.  Do they even exist??

-Really like that starting in like 2.2 MSQ, all the main story scenes are now voiced. 

-Did a trial duty roulette for the heck of it, got Garuda Hard and man, after doing Extreme bosses and Coil and stuff, (hard) boss trials are such a joke.  Hardly any mechanics matter, everyone can just burn the bosses down.  I mean it's a quick and easy way to get some xp/gil and maybe poetics on roulette, but yeah it's tough for me to have fun fighting non-extreme bosses/raids because the combat is just too easy.  And dungeons and their trash mobs are kinda boring, mainly just fun for party chatting.  The Extreme boss fights (and Odin) are fun though, as is Coil T5 and T9 so far.

-I have to say, I find the world lore of 14 kinda boring compared to other FFs or other rpgs.  The only interesting things seem to be the Primals, but so far they don't have much depth, they're just like "people wish for them and they materialize and come down and mass mind control people" which is just sorta...boring?  I'm hoping they go somewhere interesting with the Primals, because otherwise there's ANCIENT HI-TECH ALLEGAN which was cool for the Crystal Tower, but it's pretty generic ancient hi-tech mysterious civilization, and then besides those two things it's just like evil empire vs elves/humans/orcs.  Basically while I enjoy the story enough right now, it's just really plain from a worldview/worldlore.  Almost every good rpg I've played in the last few years have had much more interesting setups.  Like Trails in the Sky does ancient hi-tech civilization and mysterious masked characters way better and Xenoblade does ancient hi-tech mysterious civ way better too.  Even FF15, which I haven't really played much seems to have a more interesting world lore based on kingsglaive. 

Just really hoping FF14 goes in some interesting directions with regards to Primals and the mechanics of the universe Eorza fits in.  I guess it's a bit too grounded so far for my rpg tastes.

[Positive Touch]

  I find the world lore of 14 kinda boring   

[Bebpo]

^^ eh, it's ok.  I just don't think pre-HW so far there's a lot of depth to the history, culture and mysteries of the universe compared to a lot of other rpgs.  I guess I'm waiting for some BIG INTERESTING TWIST or something that makes the plot Xeno~ level of fan theories holy crap this is interesting I can't wait to find out where these plotlines go.

Like my problem with Primals, is they're huge god-like entities and potentially they can have huge influence on the balance of the universe.  Ideally I think I would liked if primals were basically the Originals from Dark Souls 1; before Mankind, kinda thing, then something happened and they all were banished into the aether and now they've begun coming back for some reason...dun dun dun.  But the explanation they gave in 2.3 was "Primals don't really even exist or have personalities or anything, they're just a collection of energy that gets brought down, feeds on soul energy and reflects the combined wishes of a group momentarily until you beat them up and they disappear again".  Like I felt that explanation took away from their personality of being major important characters of their own.

Because if you take away Primals all you have left are Ascians and Garleans and Ascians are generic masked cult as they come, and Garleans are generic empire from star wars.  Waiting for some deeper and more interesting layers to the universe the game takes place in.  Trails in the Sky franchise is a really good example of how to do that kind of world lore & mystery even though it's basically an evolution of Suikoden x Xenogears.




So in other news, I googled these ATMA fates I was looking for and I'm an idiot.  The names of the Atma of XXX aren't the names of specific FATES but the drop items you get from any fate in that area lol.  Ok, I guess if I'm ever doing fates I'll equip my zenith weapon in case I get an Atma drop.

Watched a video of T11 last night before sleeping with the hydra dragon.  Seems fine, the only tricky part being when you get the weird dna strand between two people and they can't get too close or too far, but since I know that I think it'll be ok.  Will try to find a party for T11 tonight.

[Freyj]

You can't go expecting Xenogears levels of narrative out of this thing, it's just a well done MMO and Final Fantasy narrative. XI's is pretty decent too despite being in a much less accessible game.

2.3ish onward are definitely a step up though. There's some bits of the HW leveling in Dravania that feels very very FF.

[Positive Touch]

^yup, there's more layers to it, but it never approaches anything like a Xeno game. i like it because there's just a ton of detail to it all. there's a history to every place in the game, and tons of npcs have stories and histories that fit in with everything. everything right down to the swearing seems meticulously designed, and they've kept it remarkably consistent over the years.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I agree.  But you can do both as Trails shows.  From what I hear XI's plot went pretty crazy and interesting at some point.  FF plots usually do, at least single player ones from FF4 onwards.  Hoping XIV's plot will go to at least FF7-13 levels of interesting craziness.


So when I got home tonight, put up a PF for T11 unsync w/bonus, had 2 different paladins join and drop at different times and a few dps, but never more than 3-4 people at a time.  First time I've had trouble filling a PF.  Wonderous Trails has been great for filling Coil unsync PFs lately since apparently a lot of stages are on WT.  Will keep trying on different days I guess.  T11 looks like a 10 minute quick run from the videos, seems like it should be easy to get a group and blow through fast.

[Bebpo]

And right after I said that I got a party finder for T11...that wanted to go along to T12....and then wanted to keep going through T13...and finished coil (albeit unsync).  Nice music in the last two stages, and nice loot in T13.  First spot since I hit lvl.50 where the loot is legit.  Carbontwine drops = 400 poetics saved, which is nice.  lvl.130 gear drops means gear I don't have to upgrade using a carbontwine so again 400 poetics saved, i135 weapon drops

Considering how easy and short < 8 mins T13 is unsync, if I had a farm group I would totally farm it because that's a hella fast way to get my character to i130 (at i125 now).

Overall, the story for Binding of Coil was...just alright.  I liked Crystal Tower's story a lot better with Noah and Nero and all that.  Plus I think Coil is ruined a bit by the 2.0 MSQ final two dungeons issue of having cutscenes throughout the dungeon.  When I played World of Darkness which was like lvl.50 sync average item level 110, it was perfect difficulty with everyone between 110-130 so slightly overpowered but nothing crazy and balanced by weaker players.  Wipes are common enough that everyone needs to learn the mechanics somewhat along the way and do it right.  The cutscenes were at the beginning before going in and at the end after finishing.  So it was just this great epic challenging stage, some good loot and you get to watch and enjoy the story along the way.  Very satisfying and fun.

Otoh, Coil is like skip cutscenes, have no idea what is going on, burn through everything in 5 mins unsync without even learning mechanics because impossible to find sync parties anymore, lots of time spent finding parties even unsync between turns, then go back and watch the cutscenes in the inn and figure out what was going on...it's a mess and not particularly satisfying and it probably hurts the overall story of the quest even if the story is solid.  Yeah, cutscenes should never go in dungeons, only before dungeon starts and after the dungeon ends.

But hey Coil is done, so now there's nothing to sidetrack me at this point from finishing 2.3-2.5 MSQ and Hildebrand.  Should all be easy & straight-forward and after 2.5 I'll run the remaining Extreme Primal fights and youtube the Lancer/Dragoon job quest to 50 and then start HW.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

But... outside of the scene in turn 1 and turn 7, all of the cutscenes happen before anything happens, as you queue in. The party can't move or do anything until everyone is ready. /You/ made the decision to skip the scenes, but you could have just watched them and no one would have been bothered. It's really not a big deal, and anyone that IS bothered by it shouldn't have joined a clear party in the first place .

Really, after Praetorium and Castrum, you never ever ever have a reason to skip a single cutscene. Specially in later 4 person content where the party either waits for you to finish or wiped.

I'm taking a bit of a break due to studies, but when I get back on, we'll take you through those fights unsynced but with four or less people. That's how I cleared Final Coil during 3.X, and it gives you plenty of time to actually learn and practice the fights

[Lucretius]

There is a huge cutscenes before You can start T12 that most WT PF folks don't want to wait for you to watch. . And a huge cutscenes afterwards which happens to be the best cutscenes in the game.

[Mupepe]

So after 2 days of checking Hyperion to get in (at 1am and 4am - still no dice) I gave up and created on Marlboro.  I got to level 6 and I'm enjoying it so far.  If I end up sticking with it long term I'll bite the bullet and pay 18 bucks to get transferred to Hyperion.

I did waste gil on a leather grimoire and a bandana at the market before the quest line gave it to me for completing the next quest.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

[Bebpo]

But... outside of the scene in turn 1 and turn 7, all of the cutscenes happen before anything happens, as you queue in. The party can't move or do anything until everyone is ready. /You/ made the decision to skip the scenes, but you could have just watched them and no one would have been bothered. It's really not a big deal, and anyone that IS bothered by it shouldn't have joined a clear party in the first place .

Really, after Praetorium and Castrum, you never ever ever have a reason to skip a single cutscene. Specially in later 4 person content where the party either waits for you to finish or wiped.

I'm taking a bit of a break due to studies, but when I get back on, we'll take you through those fights unsynced but with four or less people. That's how I cleared Final Coil during 3.X, and it gives you plenty of time to actually learn and practice the fights

There's still really long cutscenes all the time, especially if you're doing multiple turns in a row.  Like at Turn 9 after the stage introduction, you take two steps forward and there's a long cutscene.  And no, nobody waits in FFXIV for 2.0 content anymore.  Doesn't matter if your PF says "story cutscenes", if it's unsynced, your party does not need you and 95% of the people who join your pf after 30 mins+ of waiting are only their for their WT clear so they rush in and out and if you want to be part of the fight and not miss the fight entirely, you have to skip all of the cutscenes and watch them in the Inn.  Even the cutscenes at the end of the fight, if you want to keep your WT party happy so they'll do the next turn with you the last thing you want to do is sit and watch a 3 min cutscene while everyone is waiting for you to make your roll on the loot drops.

It's basically the exact same situation the final 2.0 dungeons are in.

And it's been incredibly difficult and lengthy to get parties together for Coil Turns and that's with being willing to do unsync so I get WT people.  Trying to get non-WT people who want to watch cutscenes or do it sync is basically impossible at this point unless you have a full party of 7 other friends in agreement to do it together with you, but that's a lot of effort and very few people are willing to do that for someone else.

So after 2 days of checking Hyperion to get in (at 1am and 4am - still no dice) I gave up and created on Marlboro.  I got to level 6 and I'm enjoying it so far.  If I end up sticking with it long term I'll bite the bullet and pay 18 bucks to get transferred to Hyperion.

I did waste gil on a leather grimoire and a bandana at the market before the quest line gave it to me for completing the next quest.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

I'm surprised Hyperion is hard to get into.  I didn't have an issue when I signed up 2 months ago and I've never had to wait in a queue so it's not like the world is hopping and full.  Weird.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

It's less that Hyperion is full most of the time and more an effort to get people to join lol pop servers in general. Wish they had a more reliable method of checking though. 

There's still really long cutscenes all the time, especially if you're doing multiple turns in a row.  Like at Turn 9 after the stage introduction, you take two steps forward and there's a long cutscene.  And no, nobody waits in FFXIV for 2.0 content anymore.  Doesn't matter if your PF says "story cutscenes", if it's unsynced, your party does not need you and 95% of the people who join your pf after 30 mins+ of waiting are only their for their WT clear so they rush in and out and if you want to be part of the fight and not miss the fight entirely, you have to skip all of the cutscenes and watch them in the Inn.  Even the cutscenes at the end of the fight, if you want to keep your WT party happy so they'll do the next turn with you the last thing you want to do is sit and watch a 3 min cutscene while everyone is waiting for you to make your roll on the loot drops.

It's basically the exact same situation the final 2.0 dungeons are in.

Again, none of that is accurate. Yes, during the 2.0 dungeons, you risked getting left behind if you watched the cutscenes. That was a mistake. Yes, people DO wait for cutscenes for 2.0 content, because I see it all the time and I do it for other people, because I had the opportunity for it, so why shouldn't they? During the entirety of coil, outside of the two cutscenes I already mentioned, there are zero lengthy cutscenes inside the battle content proper that people can ditch you over. They all happen either before the fight starts (and no one can engage until you're finished watching) or after the fight is over. In the latter case, who cares? Don't let other people make your experience worse for you. You don't even need eight people to beat this stuff anymore, let the grumpy impatient people leave and go with the people who are willing to let you get the full experience. If people can't wait with a simple "hang on, im unlocking the next turn", they aren't worth pleasing.

Finding people willing to do this stuff synced is near impossible, yes, because most players aren't interested in the fight itself but the reward for doing so. But asking people to wait the few minutes it takes for all the newbies in the party to watch the intended story cutscenes isnt even remotely an unreasonable request, and if you run into people who can't even do that much, you're better off letting them leave. More so if its the party /you/ assembled.

Like really, SpeedStats and I have completed most of the Coil fights/ARR Extreme Trials as a War/Sch duo. The ones we haven't cleared, it was only due to it being mechanically impossible (T9 golems, T10 adds). You won't lose anything out of having those dumb people leave.

[Mupepe]

Marlboro doesn't seem bad. The beginner area is very well populated so I think that's a good sign. I was fearing my experience with XI where it was rare to see anyone in the beginner areas after the first couple of years

[Bebpo]

It's less that Hyperion is full most of the time and more an effort to get people to join lol pop servers in general. Wish they had a more reliable method of checking though. 

There's still really long cutscenes all the time, especially if you're doing multiple turns in a row.  Like at Turn 9 after the stage introduction, you take two steps forward and there's a long cutscene.  And no, nobody waits in FFXIV for 2.0 content anymore.  Doesn't matter if your PF says "story cutscenes", if it's unsynced, your party does not need you and 95% of the people who join your pf after 30 mins+ of waiting are only their for their WT clear so they rush in and out and if you want to be part of the fight and not miss the fight entirely, you have to skip all of the cutscenes and watch them in the Inn.  Even the cutscenes at the end of the fight, if you want to keep your WT party happy so they'll do the next turn with you the last thing you want to do is sit and watch a 3 min cutscene while everyone is waiting for you to make your roll on the loot drops.

It's basically the exact same situation the final 2.0 dungeons are in.

Again, none of that is accurate. Yes, during the 2.0 dungeons, you risked getting left behind if you watched the cutscenes. That was a mistake. Yes, people DO wait for cutscenes for 2.0 content, because I see it all the time and I do it for other people, because I had the opportunity for it, so why shouldn't they? During the entirety of coil, outside of the two cutscenes I already mentioned, there are zero lengthy cutscenes inside the battle content proper that people can ditch you over. They all happen either before the fight starts (and no one can engage until you're finished watching) or after the fight is over. In the latter case, who cares? Don't let other people make your experience worse for you. You don't even need eight people to beat this stuff anymore, let the grumpy impatient people leave and go with the people who are willing to let you get the full experience. If people can't wait with a simple "hang on, im unlocking the next turn", they aren't worth pleasing.

Finding people willing to do this stuff synced is near impossible, yes, because most players aren't interested in the fight itself but the reward for doing so. But asking people to wait the few minutes it takes for all the newbies in the party to watch the intended story cutscenes isnt even remotely an unreasonable request, and if you run into people who can't even do that much, you're better off letting them leave. More so if its the party /you/ assembled.

Like really, SpeedStats and I have completed most of the Coil fights/ARR Extreme Trials as a War/Sch duo. The ones we haven't cleared, it was only due to it being mechanically impossible (T9 golems, T10 adds). You won't lose anything out of having those dumb people leave.

Eh, I've had very different experience with other people in my encounters over the last 2 months.  In my experience no one waits for cutscene watchers anywhere.  Even in 4 man dungeons, I wrote earlier about the experience where 2 of us players watched the 10 second boss intro cutscene and when we got out we were locked out of the boss fight because the DPS and Healer ran straight in and didn't give a shit...and they still won.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

This is kinda what i meant about the standalone PC version of the game, haha. These kinds of sales happen all the time, meanwhile the Steam version mostly ever is just part of the seasonal sales, maybe.

Eh, I've had very different experience with other people in my encounters over the last 2 months.  In my experience no one waits for cutscene watchers anywhere.  Even in 4 man dungeons, I wrote earlier about the experience where 2 of us players watched the 10 second boss intro cutscene and when we got out we were locked out of the boss fight because the DPS and Healer ran straight in and didn't give a shit...and they still won.

2.0 leveling dungeons and everything after that are very different experiences. I've done up to like, Qarn hard with all types of party members missing without a problem, but I'd be hard pressed to do any of the 2.X or 3.x dungeons without the full party.

[Mupepe]

Haha luckily I hadn't purchased! I'm still going on the 14 day demo from steam. There won't be an issue with buying this and just using my SE login for the pc download version from the SE store, right?

[Bebpo]

This is kinda what i meant about the standalone PC version of the game, haha. These kinds of sales happen all the time, meanwhile the Steam version mostly ever is just part of the seasonal sales, maybe.

Eh, I've had very different experience with other people in my encounters over the last 2 months.  In my experience no one waits for cutscene watchers anywhere.  Even in 4 man dungeons, I wrote earlier about the experience where 2 of us players watched the 10 second boss intro cutscene and when we got out we were locked out of the boss fight because the DPS and Healer ran straight in and didn't give a shit...and they still won.

2.0 leveling dungeons and everything after that are very different experiences. I've done up to like, Qarn hard with all types of party members missing without a problem, but I'd be hard pressed to do any of the 2.X or 3.x dungeons without the full party.

It was the Brayfax Longstep (hard) 2.3? dungeon

Anyhow, it just sounds like it's a flip of a coin whether your party waits or not if you watch cutscenes.  I watch intro to dungeon cutscenes and exit from dungeon cutscenes, but I usually skip every cutscene in a dungeon, even boss intros and deaths and watch them in the inn after.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Man, that ain't right. Don't skip those, they're lame to watch after everything is said and done.  :'(

Oh yeah, Brayflox hard is the one other exception. That dungeon was pathetically easy even at launch, with most people making competitions about how quickly it could be destroyed.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Haha luckily I hadn't purchased! I'm still going on the 14 day demo from steam. There won't be an issue with buying this and just using my SE login for the pc download version from the SE store, right?

There shouldn't be, I don't think. You only get "locked" in once you add the license for game to your mogstation account.

Bebps should look into giving Mupepe a recruit a friend code before he spends any money on game time (which is the time limit for it). Gives you both some extra goodies for doing so.

[Bebpo]

Haha luckily I hadn't purchased! I'm still going on the 14 day demo from steam. There won't be an issue with buying this and just using my SE login for the pc download version from the SE store, right?

Bebps should look into giving Mupepe a recruit a friend code before he spends any money on game time (which is the time limit for it). Gives you both some extra goodies for doing so.

Can we do this on different servers?

And yeah, you get good stuff Mups.  +20% xp head armor and chocobo feathers that can net you lvl.120 gear when you hit lvl.50.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Yup, servers don't matter. Just need to have him punch in the code you can generate on the mogstation.

[Mupepe]

Haha luckily I hadn't purchased! I'm still going on the 14 day demo from steam. There won't be an issue with buying this and just using my SE login for the pc download version from the SE store, right?

There shouldn't be, I don't think. You only get "locked" in once you add the license for game to your mogstation account.

Bebps should look into giving Mupepe a recruit a friend code before he spends any money on game time (which is the time limit for it). Gives you both some extra goodies for doing so.

I don't know what that means haha. I guess I'm only level 6 so even if they make me start a new character because I bought the other version I'm ok.

I'm up for that bebps! Just tell me what I need to do. Much appreciated! Do I need to wait for your code before I go purchase from SE?

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Here: https://secure.square-enix.com/oauth/oa/oauthlogin?response_type=code&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.square-enix.com%2Faccount%2Fapp%2Fsvc%2Ftop%3Frequest%3Dmogstation&client_id=ffxiv_mog&facflg=1

That's where you log in to access your account details and shit. You can put in a referal code at any time until you pay for your first game time. So until you buy the game, play the included 30 days and /then/ buy game time.

I don't know what that means haha. I guess I'm only level 6 so even if they make me start a new character because I bought the other version I'm ok.

The way SE accounts works, you can only have one PC license tied to your account, but there are two different PC versions: Standalone and Steam. Once you purchase either one, you are effectively "locked into" that version for all future expansions, so you always have to buy that version. Has nothing to do with making characters, of which you can have  eight per server~

[Mupepe]

ah ok.  Gotcha.  So it's not until I pay for my first month basically.  Cool beans.  Thanks!

[Mupepe]

Bought the SE online store!  w00t!

[Bebpo]

I'll pm you a code when I get home tonight.  FYI more game patching tonight 9:30pm-1:30am-ish PST.

[Bebpo]

Next milestone hit: passed 1 million gil yay.  Sold about 300-400k last night.  I feel like when people are buying I can probably make like 200-300k gil per night if I put 20 mins in.  I mean it helps that I don't buy much, so I'm just saving it all.  I buy low end materials for my daily GC turn ins if I can't easily just grab it myself and then I spend a ton teleporting, but that's about it.  Will continue to stockpile money so when I need to buy higher quality mats or equipment I can buy some.

Bought a 4th venture because the quick 1H assignments to instantly grab a bunch of any specific material you need is really helpful when omnicrafting all classes.  Now I've got 1 battle, 1 miner, 1 botanist, 1 fish retainer...and it only costs me $100 every six months ;_;

Bought the SE online store!  w00t!

Sent you a PM  

[Positive Touch]

how do you have four retainers

[The Legend of Sunblade]

   

[Bebpo]

how do you have four retainers

Well, the non-paid way to do it is make multiple characters with 2 each and switch between them all.  Some of the people in our FC do that.  But that's too much effort for me.  Lazy way is to pay Square an extra $4 per month for 2 more retainers  :'(  Then again at least I don't care about vanity stuff or paid mounts at all so I'm not buying collector's editions and I'll probably never been any DLC items.

[Lucretius]

<---- has 8 retainers on one character.

[Positive Touch]

do each of the multiple characters have to be on the same server? bc I'm only paying for the plan that lets you have a single character per server

[Bebpo]

Yeah, because the whole gaming the system is using the company chest to log out/log in and switch inventory between characters.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Yes, the multiple characters have to be on the same server for obvious reasons. 

[Positive Touch]

dammit that's too much work. will continue my usual pattern of hoarding everything until I get mad at the lack of space  and sell it all to start over.

[Bebpo]

dammit that's too much work. will continue my usual pattern of hoarding everything until I get mad at the lack of space  and sell it all to start over.

This is me in SMT games when I just kamikaze fuse all my demons together to make stock space and hope everything turns out ok.