Would you play FFXI on a private server?

[Feba]

While looking for something unrelated, I came across a project that seems to be reverse engineering FFXI's server; with a fair deal of success. So far, they're able to create zones and wander around them, change from night to day, trigger music, and so on. They can't do NPCs yet; which obviously means no quests, missions, monsters-- even things like doors don't seem to work yet. It's obviously very bare bones, (you even have to be able to access FFXI with your character before you can switch to a non-official server) but it does show that it could some day be possible to run an FFXI server completely independent of SE.

You can see more on their progress yourself (Deleted)

Which brings me to my main point: If it were possible to run FFXI more or less the same as an official server without involving SE, would you play it?

Private servers have lots of opportunities-- you can screw with stats to make the game easier, or harder; quicker or longer. You could restrict it to a small group (say, 100~ or so people) to make it extremely intimate; and to take some of the frustration out of end game. You could make a server where RP was mandated. You could even have a server just for your static, so when you save the world, you're really saving the goddamn world.

They also have their downfalls, of course-- Not as many people to play with; questionable legality; admins who make the game too easy (EVERYONE STARTS AT 75) or too hard (BEHEMOTH IN RONFAURE. HAHAHA.), or are just plain sadistic (I fully expect that at least 20% of FFXI private servers would have some asshole name a character Dave, give it GM flags, and spawn Jormungand all over the place); probably less reliable; missing out on things like events that the official servers would have (although it would of course be possible to make your own events, with a small enough community)

So, in short, if it were possible to run a reasonably or completely accurate FFXI server privately, would you play on one (or even, run one?)
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This forum needs poll editing. For srs.

AKosygin EDIT: I apologize to be a party pooper myself, but I was "asked" to remove the link.

[Kailea]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

would be interesting to try out ;p I have played many UO free servers and alot of them are well done

[KingOfZeal]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

Yes and no. I think it would be fun if I could use it to test out things, such as equipment and how well I could solo mob X on such and such job.

It would also be awesome to be able to get all the storyline without as much work as is needed now. I really do love the storyines and the lore they put into every little thing. Sometimes I wish I could just see all the CS's back to back in the order they were meant to be.

That being said though, I would be too tempted to spawn about 500 level 600 Jorgy's in the newbie areas.

[Jei]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I heard a lot of stories from other Thai and Japanese players that there has been private servers running in Japan for a long time already. Many people mentioned university students running the game on their university's server. Whether it's true or not, I never found out.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I find it hard to believe that people would bother working on a project like this if there was something already out there. Those are probably either baseless rumours, or someone who didn't really know what they were talking about or was mistranslated (like someone running the program I'm talking about; or SE taking one of their small servers like Chocobo to a university event)

I also have a hard time believing any university would let students use their servers for gaming.

[Jei]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

They won't officially. I don't know how strict it is in Japan, but I was in computer engineering university before. There, they let student volunteer to admin the servers. We we had tons of game servers running on them. They're not allowed of course but you wouldn't believe how much freedom the university gave us. Some of the admins even host porns on them : /

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

There isn't anything like this out there yet. At least by far not fully functional. But yes, if I'd know how to host it myself, I'd probably mess around on it a bit. However, for it to be interesting to "mess around" on, it would have to be decently functional. This is really, really far ahead of now.
Basically, the first step, actually getting a host server to work properly hasn't even been done yet.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

Basically, the first step, actually getting a host server to work properly hasn't even been done yet.

Did you, by chance, read my OP? It does work, it's just so incomplete as to be useless.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

Did you, by chance, read my OP? It does work, it's just so incomplete as to be useless.

It's yet impossible to get the official client to work with this.

The reason there aren't any items, monsters and what so ever, is because they haven't created any databases yet to work with their server.

[Raydeus]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I voted "No, because of social benefits on official servers (lots-o-people, etc.)" because that's what these games are about, people.

Now... if only there were less people in each server (read noob filter) and the game included a Matrix like Japanese-language-upload with the installation process that would be perfect.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

It's yet impossible to get the official client to work with this.

uh, no, in fact it requires the official client to log in to your character in the first place.

You might be thinking of something else, but they very much do appear to have servers that work; albeit they are very incomplete.
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I voted "No, because of social benefits on official servers (lots-o-people, etc.)" because that's what these games are about, people.

Well, there are some very large private servers out there. Private doesn't mean empty; they just usually have fewer players than official ones. The noob filter you speak of is something that could only really be done on private servers; though it would take a bored GM to do it.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

uh, no, in fact it requires the official client to log in to your character in the first place.

You might be thinking of something else, but they very much do appear to have servers that work; albeit they are very incomplete.

You can't just connect it from your PC one of their servers from around the world.

Also note that something similiar been done a long time ago, by changing the target IP address of the area upon zoning, you can switch to a different server(The different FFXI or a private world) or even other people's Mog House using this method... (Does it ring a bell?)

I study networking, but I must say I don't really know exactly how to go into much details without making mistakes.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

You can't just connect it from your PC one of their servers from around the world.

Well of course it requires *some* modification. Requiring someone to run an external program and saying that "the server doesn't work" is a huge, huge difference. Likewise if you mean that you can't connect to a dedicated server already, because people don't bother to run them.
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ProjectXI :: Index link for those interested and unlikely to notice that it's been updated in the main post. Pai Pai said it should be alright.

[Raydeus]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

uWell, there are some very large private servers out there. Private doesn't mean empty; they just usually have fewer players than official ones. The noob filter you speak of is something that could only really be done on private servers; though it would take a bored GM to do it.

How many people are we talking about though? Anything less than 1k players would be pretty empty to me.

I'd probably resort to playing the game on a virtual server in my computer and simply modify lvl and other caps so I could solo everything instead.

[Telera]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

If I could play this game for free, I'd come back to it in a heartbeat, if only to have something to do (read: toddle around on a taru for hours doing nothing) when I'm a bit bored of LotR or PSU.

So if there was a private server, my ass would be on it as soon as I could. I like this game. But not enough to pay to play it anymore. It's more something I'd like to be able to just get on, know it wasn't costing me a dime anymore, and mess around. Kind of like how I came and went from Monster Hunter. If it was pay to play I would've ditched it long before the servers went down.