Would you play FFXI on a private server?

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I like this game. But not enough to pay to play it anymore.

I totally understand that feeling. When you want to pop in and see what's going on, but you're just not going to play often enough to justify even $13.

[Malevolent]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I'd use the private server only to try out different job unconventional job combos. a dry sky NM run solo or with a group. So manly as a testing ground. i think it would benefit the users ten fold. i mean imagine the feedback on JAs or spells when SE implements them. It would be huge either bad or good. players will or could add a extra hand into development.

but to assume how SE would feel about that... I dunno

[Tickmeoff]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I'd hit up a decently populated mid to high-rate FFXI server without a second thought.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

players will or could add a extra hand into development.

Never going to happen. Look at .dats, players have done great jobs on some of them, SE has never offered to review them and possibly add them as reskins (for example; on NMs), or even offered a contest on them as far as I am aware. The very least they could do if they wanted players to help would be to allow some mods (UI changes, for instance), but they really don't care. Hell, remember when Assaults were supposed to be private, customizable duengeons? And what did we get? You can set your level range! OOOH, THE CUSTOMIZABILITY IS ONLY RIVALED BY LEGOS.

SE hates the playerbase! No; but in all seriousness they are console game makers, and outdated ones at that. They're a lot like Nintendo: Great games; some of them are getting a bit cheap and repetitive; they do some things that are revolutionary and creative (Spirits Within, for instance); and they're nervous about letting the players mess with their games too much, or really stepping into modern times in their games.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

Hell, remember when Assaults were supposed to be private, customizable duengeons? And what did we get? You can set your level range! OOOH, THE CUSTOMIZABILITY IS ONLY RIVALED BY LEGOS.

Aren't you confusing things a little bit? I believe at the last Fan Festival they said they were thinking about fully customizable assault-like dungeons.

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.

Wow, 1000?

To be honest, if this project eventually will get off the ground and become publicly available (for semi-regular people to install and host).. I really wouldn't count on a stable and half decent private server with more than 50-100 players.

I have a few hours gameplay on my own private servers from other games. For most games you can find relatively easy guides on how to install a private server with download links and all. It was fun but in the end, I do kind of want to show someone my accomplishments, my hard earned levels and so. However it was nice to explore the game(s) a little bit more than I could on the real servers.

These ffxi private server projects have been around pretty much since the beginning of FFXI, which was 6 years ago. It's possible that it never really works out, but I guess we can only hope. I suppose it's like the Ffxi on Linux projects. Also imagine though that even when all of sudden it starts to really work out, it's still very very likely to feature millions of bugs, glitches that won't get fixed for a long time and some even never to be fixed, leaving you with an extremely different gameplay experience of Ffxi.

players will or could add a extra hand into development.

I'm unsure in what you mean, aren't the current Ffxi players (or former players) that have the knowledge and will to try already trying? If you mean regular players helping out, I suppose that's something for the far future in the final stages, finding bugs.


It looks quite promising. However know that at this time for this to work you actually need to have a real FFXI Content ID. You log in and boot FFXI, and that's when the server starts to take over. (And basically you log in to a character on a new FFXI server).

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I really wouldn't count on a stable and half decent private server with more than 50-100 players.

You have to consider that, by the time this project comes to fruition, if ever, we will all likely have computers with at least a few dozen cores. It will almost certainly perform better than we can imagine now; even if it only takes four or five years. Not to mention the fact that there are private servers out there managing thousands of clients (I think the highest I've ever seen was around 2700k for a game about FFXI's age)

. It was fun but in the end, I do kind of want to show someone my accomplishments, my hard earned levels and so.

Screenshots? Invite other people to your server?

I suppose it's like the Ffxi on Linux projects.

Actually, that's not an apt comparison. FFXI on Linux is mostly through the Wine project; which is independent of any attempt to make FFXI work in it specifically. Wine attempts to reverse engineer the Windows API, in such a way that it will run on UNIX and unix-like systems. That is, the *entire* Windows API. Much of the work to get FFXI to run on Linux was done before FFXI existed; and certainly most of it has been done without even thinking about FFXI. Improvements intended to help one thing often wind up helping another as well. FFXI has actually gotten much closer to running in wine-- it's even possible to run the Benchmark program and see little tarus running around. The problem right now is some bottleneck in the login process.

FFXI server projects, on the other hand, have basically two methods: steal SE's official files and distribute them, or reverse engineer it based on the client, and server-client communications (packet sniffing). They deal exclusively with FFXI, and are unlikely to ever receive any support from SE. They have very limited amounts of people who are likely to be able to help, if interested. I doubt they'd run into a specific "Killer" problem that would keep it from working; they just have a metric fuckton of work to do on it, and not many people to do it.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

. It was fun but in the end, I do kind of want to show someone my accomplishments, my hard earned levels and so.

Screenshots? Invite other people to your server?

Well, inviting other people is fun, but that's not what I mean. Because on private servers it's not that big of a deal if you have all jobs level 75. You can simply do this by a command or have some GM do it for you. On the real servers, all 1000's of players know you have done this by yourself. Umm.. I guess you know what I mean now.

I suppose it's like the Ffxi on Linux projects.

Actually, that's not an apt comparison. bla bla bla...

I didn't mean the actual project is the same, but people have been working on it for a long time as well and it's also still not working good enough. It's just another big FFXi project.

Ps.: I think I editted my previous post a 1000 times before you replied. I seem to do that alot.. I post, then edit it many times.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

On the real servers, all 1000's of players know you have done this by yourself.

Not really. You could've just as easily been power leveled, or cheated (botting; buying it off RMT). Seeing a lv75 player, the first thought isn't "Look at that accomplishment", it's just "They're lv 75."

, but people have been working on it for a long time as well and it's also still not working good enough.

But comparing the efforts to try to get FFXI running on Wine and the efforts to try to build a private server is like comparing a company building an apartment complex with people lobbying for better housing standards. There's probably a little overlap, and they're both big efforts and incomplete, but they just don't compare like that.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

Not really. You could've just as easily been power leveled, or cheated (botting; buying it off RMT). Seeing a lv75 player, the first thought isn't "Look at that accomplishment", it's just "They're lv 75."

Ok, so you're saying entering "/setlevel 75" is the same as powerleveling or any other possible way of cheating on the real servers. To each their own I guess. I was just saying for me it feels much better to be on a real server which is protected and much more secure in many ways, to own a high level character than on some private server.
It's just not the same. I can give you a screenshot of World of Warcraft character list with 100 level 255 characters.
Imagine at school/work, where friends/colleagues tell you they also play FFXi.
"Cool! I play too, I got a 75 Red Mage and Paladin."
"I have a 75 Blue Mage, Red Mage, Ninja, Summoner, Paladin, Warrior, Bard, Dragoon, Puppet Master, Samurai, Ranger and Black Mage, with full Artifact2 and Relic weapons."
"Wow, that's so awesome. I play on Carbuncle server, and you?"
"Oh i'm on a private server."

It's different.. almost everyone who played on both real and private servers can agree on that.

But comparing the efforts to try to get FFXI running on Wine and the efforts to try to build a private server is like comparing a company building an apartment complex with people lobbying for better housing standards. There's probably a little overlap, and they're both big efforts and incomplete, but they just don't compare like that.

What?

Edit:
please don't answer that. ... They're just both FFXi projects. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

Ok, so you're saying entering "/setlevel 75" is the same as powerleveling or any other possible way of cheating on the real servers.

No, I'm just saying that you can't see someone with a lv75 character and assume they earned it. Hell, I had a friend give me their account to use for various stuff, so I would often run around on a Lv75 Ninja, and I had done jack shit to earn it.

Besides; it's perfectly possible to restrict access to things on a private server just as much as on an official one. If you want, you could even make the game *more* challenging, or more of a grind.

The only difference is if you get on a private server that is run by people that don't care about leveling, and want everyone's levels to be capped from the start, or if you run the server yourself. Otherwise, it can still be just as much of an accomplishment.

They're just both FFXi projects. Nothing more, nothing less.

You couldn't be more wrong.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I'm gonna try it one more time. Instead of just trying to somehow prove the opposite with twisted logic; I ask you this.

If you do not look at the monthly fee's, where would you rather level your character to 75. On the real servers or a random private server? What seems like a better thing to show your friend? That was all. You can make set the exp rate slower on a private server, yes.


Ps.: I really don't care how you like to define the "FFXi on linux" vs "FFXi private server" thing. What I meant to say was that there are certain people waiting for further progress in both cases since a long time, and it's going at similiar speed to the end goal, which was the whole point of that section of my post.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a discussion, but discussing something way off the initial point anyway.. I don't like that, so I won't bother replying to whatever your reply is regarding these issues.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

where would you rather level your character to 75. On the real servers or a random private server?

It depends entirely on the state of the servers. If one has a better community, economy, is better maintained, I'd go with it.

What seems like a better thing to show your friend?

If you're solely going for bragging rights? It depends entirely on how the private server is set up. A private server that has harder mobs would be more impressive than the official server.

So the private server project and the project to get FFXi running on Linux are not both ffxi related projects.

Yes. Comparing the two makes no sense; they are entirely different in scope, objective, and focus.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I probably editted my previous post before you entered the third quote. I stick to what I said.

It depends entirely on the state of the servers. If one has a better community, economy, is better maintained, I'd go with it.

If you're solely going for bragging rights? It depends entirely on how the private server is set up. A private server that has harder mobs would be more impressive than the official server.

Not only for bragging, but also for yourself, the security of the future of your character etc.

Woosh. Well.. I don't know how much experience you have with private servers, but regardless, it's really, really unlikely (in theory, everything is possible) that there are private servers that are better maintained, less bugs, better community (and on a lesser note, better economy) and what not. There's tons of private servers to find for various games. And some of them are actually really good maintained and you'd be able to have a great game experience there. But better maintained than the real game? Maybe with very old (no longer supported?) games.
Also, this is kind of derailing off the topic. I mean, if there would be private servers (for free) that are actually better than the real server(s).. it would probably be the initial choice of everyone. Especially because if it were that good organised and maintained, it would more than likely grow a big reputation as well.

It's a fact that a typical private server has much more negative sides than positive (besides the free of charge.) If you just don't want to or can't pay for a game, that's a whole different issue then ofcourse.

[KoukiRyu]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

I doubt it'd happen, but I'd join a server with a decent amount of people on it. Ragnarok/WoW private servers already tend to be empty fairly often. So I seriously doubt I'd see a mid-highly populated private server.

If there was one though, I'd most definitely jump on, normal/high/mid whatever kind of rates.

[Feba]

Re: Would you play FFXI on a private server?

What I meant to say was that there are certain people waiting for further progress in both cases since a long time, and it's going at similiar speed to the end goal, which was the whole point of that section of my post.

The only real similarity is that there are a lot of people who would like either one. The two have nothing else in common.

it's really, really unlikely (in theory, everything is possible) that there are private servers that are better maintained, less bugs, better community (and on a lesser note, better economy) and what not.

Of course, but there are cases where a private server can be more enjoyable to spend time on.

It's a fact that a typical private server has much more negative sides than positive

Of course; and I'm not saying or expecting that a private server would ever surpass an official FFXI server, just that that doesn't mean it's inferior either.