So this is happening right now.
Is FFXI worth going into at this stage, I'd be going in from Level 1 through all the expacs without buddies.
I always hear the combat is a great deal better than XIV and would like to know if it would be easy and worthwhile to get started with even this late in the game.
you missed out, ffxi in its prime was an experience that was truly something special. the game is a shell of its former self.
but i feel you, i got to 60 rank 6 and i never really cared about the story, i never messed with the expansion storylines and shit and everything who has played it will tell you the story is fucking top notch.
im fucking sick of playing ffxiv and i am really tempted to grab ffxi just to play through the story myself solo, ive already got a decent character i could go back to or just make a new one
>>316426673
You missed FFXI's glory days, but it's still a good game. The main difference is that leveling speed and parties are totally different. If you wanted to play it for the oldschool partying scene or for it's good endgame you're too late.
Now it's "casual" mode by comparison but it's still fun. There's been a lot of quality of life changes due to the server populations being smaller than they used to. I say if anything, play it for the story.
Play all the rank missions for the 3 nations, play through Zilart then through Chains of Promathia. Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess have alright stories too but nothing compared to the older stuff.
Like any MMO, it's always fun with mates. Just don't be an antisocial sperg and meet people. Best results if you know someone that already plays or have a couple of mates that would join with you.
If you want to be a massive jew there's always private servers. The servers "Myera" and "Nasomi" are locked at the XI's primetime, with none of the modern bullshit. Give those a look if you want to save some dosh.
>>316428042
by the way, if you decide to go Retail go for a busy server like Asura, Shiva or Odin.
If you go for a private server then let me know. I play on Myera these days and I'd gladly party and kill shit with some people from here.
>>316426673
The years of my life wasted on this game.
Used to grind hard for all HNM gear. SE said "lvl 75 would be max, will never raise cap" then guess what the fuck happened.
Used to be fun 2-3 man-ing content made for full parties but after Abyssea, things became more and more casual.
>>316428978
>years of my life wasted on this game
Don't think of it that way anon. It's the memories that are important. Things change, it's just part of life.
To be honest it wasnt the level cap that killed the game, Level Sync did. It only took 3 months and the only 3 exp camps people did was Dunes, Qufim and East Ronfare burns for their easy 25k/hour.
>>316426673
I'm not sure that FFXI's combat is better- it depends what you want in a combat system. If you're one of the people who complains about FFXIV's GCD, I'd stay away- most of the abilities have recast times measured in minutes. Most melee combat is autoattack and weapon skills.
>>316426673
I played this from launch and then for about 6 years on. I was an addict.
A few months ago I picked it up again.
The first few days, I was lost on what to do, and just wandered around in the main city. Then I got the bug again, and for the next month or so, really enjoyed myself. But I think a lot of that was being glad about seeing the areas and hearing the music again. Still, I really enjoyed a lot of the new content. Lvling up with Trusts is great, and I did not miss the old partying syste, which many will tell you were the glory days. It's much faster now, as it should have been then, but your ability to play well and pick good camping locations still counts for a lot. The game isn't at all desolate, I joined a linkshell (a guild) and actually did stuff with the members.
All in all I had a good experience. I don't know how it would be for a new player. I can recommend the game, though. I mean, you have nothing to lose from trying it. Oh, I quit again after about a month, because my girlfriend asked me to play WoW with her, and I can't do 2 MMOs at once. But I guess I might go back to it again in a while. (Have to reinstall again though, and boy is that a hassle) So yeah, that's about all I have to say about it.
>>316429918
i hate ffxiv's 2.5 gcd but ffxi's combat was fucking great
>>316431196
I'm still unable to explain why I dislike modern MMO combat but still enjoy XI's so much.
It'd be easy to write it off as nostalgia, but I'd like to believe it's more than that even though the combat appears clunky at first glance.
Fun Game - I've done zero end game content. But I've been working through the story... if you want a huge cheap time sink, this is your game.
>>316431614
Because modern MMO combat is about constantly pressing buttons for skills that have a minimal overall effect, while FFXI let you auto attack and communicate with party members while your manually activated skills were much more important.
>>316429918
>>316431196
>>316431614
>>316432054
A lot of people say it's because in most "modern" WoW-clone MMOs abilities and skills do literally nothing and have a quick, spammable cooldown.
XI's combat was slower and the cooldowns were longer (generally around 5minutes) but as a result the skills were WAY more powerful. When you used Berserk as a Warrior or /war you noticed a HUGE difference. Same goes with weaponskills, skillchains etc. Took time to build TP and set those up but the end results were well worth it.
>>316431758
Fucking this. If any anons in the thread have never played XI and need something to occupy them for a couple of months, then do it. Like >>316428042 said, play on a private server if you have to and just have fun running all of the storyline shit and missions.
Chains of Promathia is 9 hours of cutscenes just by itself, not counting the 2-4 weeks you'll spend running around preparing for fights, doing quests for it and doing the boss fights.
Can't decide if I want to play on a ~200 population private server for the authentic pre-WotG experience, or just resub for XI and play through normally.Though what I really want is just XI HD.
I want to resub. Why isn't this discount available on Steam? I'd feel more comfortable buying it through there than S-E's store.
>>316426673
I'l be playing it again starting tonight, if you dont want to play alone. I have 12 years on Leviathan server, so join there and I'll be glad to duo shit with you and just generally have a better time at it than solo.
/id/spookit if interested.
>>316431614
i liked it because every fucking hit matters. one miss could be life or death
>>316432451
>"This PC Download version is compatible with any past FINAL FANTASY® XI: Ultimate Collection compilation packs, which may have been purchased through Valves Steam platform."
You're fine anon.
>>316432605
I don't really have the money right now, I'm gonna try to buy this before it spikes up to $30 though. I'll screencap this and keep you in mind for sure all the same, thanks anon.
>>316432382
2-4 days you mean. Travel has become trivial, and the only missions that will really ever be long are Promyvions if you don't know the paths.
I'm planning on starting again but I can't decide if I want to revive my 75 male Hume self-insert or start from scratch as the qt Mithra I was too ashamed to be the first time around.
>>316432842
Just be sure to pick Leviathan as your server and hit me up on steam. I'll be glad to help you out, maybe even start another character myself.
>>316432436
To be honest, most of the retail servers are around 500-700 pop (with one or two exceptions) which if you consider that 2/3rds of those people are afk vending Dynamis currency... works out to about the same.
At least with one of the private servers the community is tight-knit, everybody knows everybody and does stuff together. Most have a "Server Linkshell".
My advice, if you do a private server AVOID the ones with lv99 cap, 10x exp etc at all costs. Stick to Nasomi or Myera.
Nasomi:
>for the pure 2005 experience
>No FoV
>no warp NPCs
>no level sync
>nothing
>original 1x exp rates (the retail servers are 2-3x the exp rate that they used to be back in the day)
>around 50-80 pop (might be more in other timezones, I'm PST)
Myera:
>Set at the last WotG update before level cap was increased
>has everything that was in the game at that time
>like 3x exp rate, but it has an option to set your character as 1x exp rate (with the added bonus of exclusive gear and benefits if you do so)
>around 80-160 pop
>>316432905
Yea if you use the warp crystals. To be honest though, if you're new to the game and going straight for CoP missions you probably wont have half of the warps in the first place.
>>316433068
I'm playing on Nasomi right now and it's sitting around 160 people at the moment. Haven't looked into Myera.
>>316433390
160? damn nice. I havent checked out Nasomi in a long time. I might have to give it another go.
I made a thread back in July where a bunch of anons and myself tried 6 or 7 different private servers and we pretty much settled on those 2 being the best.
It's good to hear that Nasomi's got more people on it too. I'm gunna see if I can still log on that account.
I'm still sad that I missed the boat on XI.
I played till lv50 during early CoP but was too young to really understand how the game worked.I am still embarrassed over how many people I probably pissed off with my incompetence.
By the time I had given the game another shot, it was already knee deep in WotG and level sync had been implemented.
>>316433290
Yeah, but you only have to go there once. The trouble before was all the constant back and forth to out-of-the-way places.
>>316426673
Do it
The glory days people are talking about were waiting around for hours to get a group just to be able to travel outside the town gates. It was new and different back then so I can see the appeal it had because I felt it too.
I buying it in order to play through all the story stuff a year ago and could not have been happier about doing it. The trust system is something that should have been in a long time ago but either way its in now and it will allow you to do everything you want on your own without waiting around for people to help. There is still end game group content and people are doing it and usually people arent douches about letting new people in to learn what needs to do.
Its an experience that people should have now and not a month before they decide to finally close it down which I fear will be sooner than later.
>>316434253
To be honest, a good 50% of CoP was waiting for static members to log on, 90% if you were shouting for pick-up groups.
I was pretty lucky, I smashed it out in about 2 weeks with a static party, not long before they removed the level caps on all of the fights. Shit was intense.
Anyone still know if Lordofthebeast LS still has their original All-BST CoP videos on the net somewhere?
>>316434476
>Its an experience that people should have now and not a month before they decide to finally close it down which I fear will be sooner than later.
Any official word on closure?
>>316434827
I've heard mixed information.
One source said that XI would be closed within a month or two of this final expansion release, while others have said they only plan to cut console support and continue with mini-updates for PC.
>>316434827
The official word is just that this is the final update and PS2 support is ending, but the servers will stay up for the PC version for the foreseeable future.
>>316434827
Not exactly but there was a letter from one of the devs that previewed the actual "end" of the story and they are finally going to be dropping support for PS2.
>>316434476
>shutting it down sooner rather than later
They're ending PS2/Xbox support in March 2016 but they're keeping the servers up for at least a few more years anon. Sure the game doesn't have a fuckhuge population anymore, but now that they're not developing it anymore or releasing any more updates it costs them literally fuck all to keep the game going.
Across all 16 servers there's around 8000-10000 people online at any one time. That's half of Eve Online's active (online) population.
Plus the server hosting stuff is up for download all over the net, so there are gunna be private servers until we all die in our 80's farming fucking Dynamis.
>FFXI is being developed for mobile
Nice, maybe I will get to experience it in-
>Nexon
;_;
>>316435087
>shut down servers 2 months after releasing an expansion
I highly doubt that.
>>316435087
Wrong
>>316435186
>>316435132
Yup, see >>316435223
>>316435257
XI mobile is just gunna be an isometric FF Tactics-style spinoff, just like the Ragnarok Online mobile game was back in the day.
>>316435478
It's actually 2 games, one is XI, the other is the spinoff.
>>316435223
Why don't they do like Eve Online and just put everyone on the one server? It's such an old game that it uses literally no resources and runs perfectly on dial-up internet speeds.
>tfw you'll neversnugglea girl in Mithra cosplay
>>316435978
>Merge all to one server
>Bring back classic leveling
Will never ever happen, but doesn't hurt to dream I suppose
Ok so question, will the 30 free days begin upon making the PlayOnline account or when I first boot up the game proper?
>>316435978
The server architecture probably means it's not feasible, and developing a new one isn't economical. Hell EvE is pretty unique in how it's a single cluster
Anyone play on Asura? I'll probably play during the free period starting tomorrow. Only like level 20 as a monk, but I'd love to play with people from here.
>>316436461
I believe it's when making the playonline account. That's what it used to be. Probably best to get the client and updates from somewhere else so you don't end up in 8 hr update hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZkVv4pJqNc
Get used to it
>>316436650
Oh I remember when I did the 14 day free trial. That update took forever
>>316436060
>muh dick
FFXI was always garbage, especially back when parties absolutely had to be in a 2 lv range between eachother. The only good thing about it was the OST and all the glorious mithra porn.
>>316436650
I wish PlayOnline came back for other games just because the music was so good for it.
https://youtu.be/01MYnK0kwzo
>he fell for "Final Fantasy XI is good" meme
lol
Anyone else not mind updating just because of this song?
https://youtu.be/BahaZZmyH0Q
>>316437001
I liked PlayOnline too, it made me feel like I was getting ready to play a real life .Hack, as though i were booting into Altimit OS or something.
It made me more immersed than most MMOs
>tfw no other MMOs or Online Games will have {Auto-translate} ever again
Fuck man, this is the thing that makes me the saddest. FFXI was unique (and still is) in that everyone played on their server together. Japanese, Americans, Europeans, Miscellaneous. {Auto-translate} made partying, groups and events with people possible across language barriers not normally passable.
Now MMOs just get around it by making shit so unbelievably simple that no communication is required or by locking people into servers by region.
>>316436852
Yea, download the game client and update it the same way people do for the private server then, when it's all ready to go, make your PlayOnline account then.
>>316437306
FFXIV has it. Then again, it's FFXIV.Still hoping that one day it will magically become good.
>>316437001
Playonline was so superfluous it was painful. The music was good but the UI was slow and wonky not to mention that using SE's slow as fuck servers for updates instead of letting it run partly of torrents, which wow had done like a year earlier, meant the entire thing was a pointless delay.
>>316437406
I actually am doing that right now, I got the Seeker's Edition of the Collection downloading and I plan on updating overnight before making the account
>>316437446
Yea but no-one uses it on 14.
By the way, anyone from here on a private server right now? I've been stuck at lv60 on Myera for a long time now trying to do genkai quest, fucking sick of running around... thinking of partying or making a new character on Nasomi.
>>316437446
I was hoping FFXIV would magically become good for a long time now. I feel like at this point the game mechanics are too set in stone for the developers to make some of the drastic changes that are needed.
I'm still unsure if I want to accept it for what it is, or just keep playing XI.
>>316437691
If you haven't touched XIV yet, just keep playing XI if you're still having fun. By the time servers for that die, there should be enough content to fix some of what's wrong with the newer gamehopefully.
>>316437801
I had heard the Nexon game will actually be putting in to keep the game alive.
>>316437619
I'm on Nasomi at the moment, but I need to head to sleep soon and I'd only really be able to play heavily on the weekends.
>>316437801
I have all 50s on XIV, but then I heard that Heavensward ended up being just a reset. Pretty much killed any desire I had to touch the game again.
I tried coming to this game with private servers (Didnt get to do much in the official servers other than getting to sea after they raised the lvl cap to 95) but I'm on a laptop with windows 8.1 built in and XI just refuses to play nice with it. Sucks.
>>316437901
I have no problems running XI on a Windows 8.1 laptop. What's wrong with it? Lag? Crashes? Just doesn't start up?
>>316437619
I heard the level down sound manually.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTIwBDNDO4M
>>316437901
I hear that the Knights of the Round EX fight you can do at item level 190 is difficult and hype, but I wouldn't know.Only at 178
>>316437901
Heavensward is actually pretty fun for the first time through, and if you have everything at 50 already, then you've gone through the worst of it, really. I've been trying to level other classes to 50 and it's been hell since it's so boring doing the same dungeon over and over for 5 levels or so. Now, Hard Mode dungeons actually give normal experience for level 50 and up, so they're somewhat relevant again. When you reach 60 is when the game becomes boring again due to weekly caps. They did get rid of that for the Alexander content, so that's also less awful. I'd say Heavensward is worth playing for a month.
>>316437001
The nostalgia is real.
>>316437001
Take this in return.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLabpUdgs1U
>>316437114
FFXI predates this meme board.
>>316438514
Man they really fucking wanted playonline to succeed didn't they. So many neat tunes.
>>316438718
I also remember a catchy tune with a voice in it that played like once when you were registering with POL for the first time. Pretty sure it plays only on first startup anyway. Can't find it on YT atm.
>>316437691
>>316437801
>>316437901
Don't bother with xiv. By the time you come back and try to do the things you missed in xiv, they will all be obsolete. Not only the rewards are junk by then, you will be too strong for the content by multi folds. Imagine being lvl 60 and doing lvl 50 content and you're basically 2-3x tougher than you are at lvl 50 and you'll be 3-4x stronger than the content expects you to be. You'll be slicing through enemies like butter and some insta kill mechanic might not even kill you anymore. Years of content can be blasted through in a day or two.
Just like going through COP after they raised the cap to 95 (which I unfortunately had to go through since i quit XI around cop prime years due to irl reasons). Really, they say xiv is friendly to new comer. But only if the new comer only cares about having the same level of gear as the long time players and don't really care about the adventure. There is none to be had in xiv because old content does not have a shelf life and new content is shallow and unbalanced.
Any word if Final Fantasy Grandmaster is coming to the states? So far it looks pretty fun, think they'll have all the FFXI jobs or only the starting ones?
>>316438917
This?
https://youtu.be/zPdEKfzG4nQ
>>316438917
If you have POL installed you can set the 20-something tunes on shuffle, including the one when you first install it.
>>316437901
Yea no worries. I might just get high and join a dunes party in Myera instead if anyone's down. IG name: Copperfield
>>316438083
Really terrible FPS. Like 15 fps low. Windower also doesn't work.
>>316439529
Ah low framerate. I had that too but found out recently that it's bump mapping and supersampling setting killing the FPS for some reason. Try turning those off.
As for windower.... I had trouble with that once I think. Cant remember what I did. Try the windower forums or some google-fu.
>>316439379
>>316439174
Yes! Ty.
i'll be brutally honest,if that game is the same as it was 02-06 the game is a fucking disaster...
I heard a lot about the game changing, but fuck, that game was horrid...
Even when everyone left for early vanilla WoW I stayed on FF being a weaboo in sophomore year in high school still. Just a run down of the shit this game was...
No solo leveling, took way to long, could only kill easy prey for grind, fighting decent challenge to even match, required cool downs being blown, then waiting 10-15 of sitting to fully heal up. Items were way too damn expensive, and gold sellers really fucked the economy up.
The game had no reliance on anything other than buying your way to victory, it was a pretty much an early beta version of play to win.
Grind gold, go to AH buy good gear go get started, it was until the fuck munches finally decided to make all really good gear BOP before this shit started, other wise even if you wanted to go get good gear, you'd have camp out vs 20 other japs who saw spawns 5 seconds sooner.
Good spells weren't learned just bought, or dropped, and 9/10 no one in that game gave a fuck if you needed the item, the priority was always greed before need.
leveling required parties unless you were a beast master... truest form of a level grind, and gear seldomly dropped.
Ready to finally go to crawlers nest?
>okay party we need a tank
>I found a tank
>hold tank only wants a japanese party
>you guys want to go there and see if we can get a tank?
>sure
>I found a tank!
>No wait japanese party only
>Well guys i g2g
>wait!
>now we need a healer too
>wait found a tank!
>hey we just need a white mage
>found a rdm with whm SJ
>wait japanese party only
>i g2g this is taking a bit long
>okay lets replace the DD
>wait did someone else leave?
>wait
>party disbands
every fucking time
visually sure it was nice.
Story wise okay.
Honestly looking back I can see how WoW crippled this game. Glad i'm not a weab anymore
>>316438981
What the fuck are you talking about.
With sync the old content is still fun
>>316440536
>Required parties
I liked that aspect. I just don't know if the game should have been so difficult right from the start.
If I'm just going to solo, why would I ever bother with an MMO?
>>316432971
Are you me?
>>316440880
but thats the thing, even in a game like wow, you have options. FF forces you...
It either takes too long to find a party, due to language barriers even with an auto fucking translate, or when you get to the area guess fucking what. Too many parties to get any good experince.
Traveling times in some aspect weren't bad, frustrating sure... If you started off in windurst.... good fucking luck... once at 10 you'd have to make the pilgrimage to the dunes which wasn't easy, memorable sure.
Leveling in the game is monotonous too, go to dunes till 20, go to jeuno then north till 25, go to an island till 30 yada yada rinse and repeat. No actually mechanics other than
>gob bomb black mage stun it
the end
Majority of the people are right, it was great in glory, days had it came out earlier than WoW and fixxed it's issues, it would have done way better.
Yeah i think it's a shitty game, but when I first touch that game, i refused to play WoW until i finally tried WoW and became unbiased it. While I played FF it was enjoyable, but miserable if that makes sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu_Ev7w53OA
This was my jam,I miss Online Tetra Master;-;
>>316441558
WoW and FFXIV party options can't really compare ever since raid finder was introduced.
I agree that looking for a party for hours on end isn't enjoyable, but at the same time it's far more rewarding to create your own party than it is to be forced into a party with people you will never ever see again.
XI parties were and still probably are one of the best experiences available when you were able to find them quickly during its prime.
Is there still a monthly sub?
>>316426673
In it's golden years, this game was something incredible, a once in a lifetime experience. It's still good though.
>>316442221
Yep. Hence private servers' popularity.
>>316442157
not denying it, made good friends, made enemies (as much of ones as you can on a game) days on bahaumut during the ps2 era were something
I just got this game and my only question is: Why is the camera so fucking horrid? No amount of messing with the settings fixes it. Any attempt to turn it with the mouse makes me slowly lose control over it, and has an annoying habit of trying to shoot itself up my characters ass by smacking itself onto the floor. I can't go from one side on Windurst to the other without it trying to somehow magnetize itself to the floor and it's almost unplayable because of it. Like I said, no amount of adjusting the settings fixes it, what a crock of shit.
>>316440536
Sorry you had a bad experience.
>>316444426
Use WASD and Cursor. You should never need your mouse on FFXI.
Change 3rd person camera X and Y axis to inverted.
>>316444426
That doesn't sound normal. If you aren't against this, then I highly recommend using a controller. The game was built to accommodate them, if not for them. However, if the camera goes rogue on you, it may have to do with the mouse. Try a hardware cursor setting or a fullscreen windowed mode. The game has a good number of settings but showing them clearly to you isn't it strong point. I always played with a controller but I think even people who use the keyboard don;t need the mouse, just wasd and the numpad.
>>316444778
>recommending a controller for FFXI
Oh so you were one of "those"...
>>316445234
I was never super into FFXI back in the day. How was controller any worse than keyboard?
It seems like the combat was slow and methodical enough that controller wouldn't be any problem.
>>316426673
This game needs to be on Vita. I want to play while laying in bed, dozing off to that soundtrack.
>>316445234
It is a PS2 game. The combat, the macros, the entire interface, it was all designed around using a PS2 controller. FFXI is home with a PS2 or PS2-like controller. The PC game was, is and always will be a port. A bad port, I might add. A port that was never optimized for the controls of the platform. You really think a menu-driven interface makes any kind of sense for keyboard? What kind of moron are you?
You can certainly use a keyboard to play it, the same way you can use a controller to play an FPS game. There are people who swear by playing FPS games with controllers, and become quite good at it even. They'll never be optimal, but I guess it's how they learned and they'll never know any better. Whatever.
>>316446308
IMO FFXIV has a nice soundtrack too and you can technically play that on Vita using remote play.
Sadly this probably won't be on anything but PC seeing as they plan on killing off their console versions.
I see people complaining about a raised level cap, revised speeds and solo-ability, but why are those bad?
>>316448874
Raised level cap isn't so bad now that there is content for it, but they still invalidated a lot of the older items.
Revised speeds is probably a good thing.
Solo-ability was never really the point of the game, but I understand why it needed to be implemented.
I miss this game so fucking much sometimes. It's crazy how important this FFXI is to me.
It's like having a home you can never return to.
>>316450359
Private servers can decently fill the void, but it's not the same as seeing people in every area.
