Just wondering.

[Tukka]

Does Square-Enix still make it as difficult as possible to alt-tab without crashing the game?

Is finding a group (assuming you don't have a static one set up) still commonly an hour+ long ordeal?

Is the experience system still such that one person just a few levels above the average level of the group (say a level 45 person in a group of level 42/43 people) will spoil the exp gains for all in a way massively disproportionate to what their slightly higher level skills bring to the group?

Do they still delete characters 3 months after you deactivate your FF11 subscription?

Does the NA version of the game still lack any method of inputting Japanese characters (aside from using the translator?)

Thanks in advance.

[neighbortaru]

Re: Just wondering.

Yes.
Yes.
Yes, but it's not a massive xp loss unless the mobs are too weak. See, it's not the level difference between players that matters, but the level difference between highest player and monster. So many people do not understand this.
That's still the company line, but I've seen and heard of people reactivating their characters after 6+ months.
Yes.

[Tukka]

Re: Just wondering.

Thanks for the response, NT.

See, it's not the level difference between players that matters, but the level difference between highest player and monster. So many people do not understand this.

Yeah, I realize that. It's just that if you've got a level 45 WHM and a level 42 tank, and everybody else is level 42-43 as well, it was a considerable challenge to chain together kills of level 47+ mobs ... whereas chaining level 45ish mobs, even with a level 42 WHM instead of a level 45 one, is not something that would be too unreasonably difficult. At least that's how it seemed to me back when I was playing the game a while back, unless my memory is completely failing me.

This is one of those things that makes finding groups the exasperating trial that it is, and is one of the things that made forming a static group difficult for me and my friends, because if someone just got three or so levels ahead of the rest of us, they suddenly caused a fairly big increase in the difficulty/efficiency of our group. A better method of determining and splitting experience would allow you to be a lot more forgiving in who you invite to groups.

Oh well. It sounds like they aren't addressing that make FF11 basically untouchable for me. I was thinking about playing again to put my new computer through its paces and to try to sharpen my skill at Japanese, but it seems like it just wouldn't be worth it. I guess it's WoW or nothing for now.

[neighbortaru]

Re: Just wondering.

well the whole point of a static would be so nobody levels their chosen job outside of the static. why would they get 3 levels ahead of you? unless you all didn't start with the same levels...

[Brayden]

Re: Just wondering.

Let me just put in the plea to please not make this thread into an arguement about FFXI vs WoW or anything that involves rants and heated personal opinions /bow

[Tukka]

Re: Just wondering.

well the whole point of a static would be so nobody levels their chosen job outside of the static. why would they get 3 levels ahead of you? unless you all didn't start with the same levels...

Well yeah, I was just thinking of a more liberal use of the word "static" ... people you usually group with rather than people you exclusively group with for a particular job. I never met anybody I liked enough, who shared a similar enough a schedule with me to group exclusively with them on my main job, let alone five other such people.

Double Post Edited:

Let me just put in the plea to please not make this thread into an arguement about FFXI vs WoW or anything that involves rants and heated personal opinions /bow

Nah, I don't feel passionate enough about any game right now to get too heated either way. Right now I feel pretty unenthused about my choices. The more MMOs I play, the more I wish I could mix and match various features and attributes of different games to create the game that would be most enjoyable to me.

Even though the games are always (for the most part) improving, I can't help but think when I'm playing WoW, "they did this part better in EQ, and I wish they had that other thing from FF11", etc., so it seems like I'm gradually becoming less satisfied with them all. I enjoyed these games much more when they sucked a lot more than they do now, I think, heh.

Ah well.

[neighbortaru]

Re: Just wondering.

The more MMOs I play, the more I wish I could mix and match various features and attributes of different games to create the game that would be most enjoyable to me.

That would be utopia.

[InuTrunks]

Re: Just wondering.

"Do they still delete characters 3 months after you deactivate your FF11 subscription?"

No! :D it's now 1year.

Pelase stop saying 3 months Neighbortaru :D

[Kittyneko]

Re: Just wondering.

Seriously?? You can not pay for FFXI for a year now and still get your old character back? Wow that rules! ^^

[neighbortaru]

Re: Just wondering.

Inu, if you show me where on POL it says 1 year, I'll stop saying that.

[Tukka]

Re: Just wondering.

Often times these games will keep your character alive indefinitely, but say they may delete them after X period of time, just in case they do decide to clean up their database.

However, I know that around the time when I quit FF11, I read several people stating that indeed their characters had been deleted after a mere 3 months or so. When I made my final decision to quit, I just gave away all of my money and possessions and deleted my character to end it all right there. I didn't want to feel compelled to resubscribe again in 3 months just to keep my character alive and decided that if I was to decide to play FF11 again in the future, I'd have to want to play enough to start over from scratch.

Possibly what Square-Enix might do is have a periodic character database purge (say every 6 or 9 months), but of course only of characters on accounts that have been inactive for 3 months or more. In this way one person may have their character deleted after only 3 months of inactivity, while someone else might go 9-12 months without having their character deleted.

Personally I think it's silly to delete characters after any period of time, at least those past a certain level. I'm sure they could run a statistical analysis and see that some large percentage of the characters on inactive accounts are under level X (maybe 10 or 20). If they were to keep all characters above this level and dispose of the rest (after a period of inactivity) sure a few people might lose some mules in the purge, but that wouldn't matter that much to most people (unless they unwisely keep many high value items on their mule), whereas the loss of a level 45+ character might result in a great deal of bitterness that would provide a powerful disincentive to return to the game.

[Jei]

Re: Just wondering.

I started from scratch 3 times. All chars were 70+ with multiple 60+ jobs.
It's subjective, but just so you know there are people out there that like this game enough to commit times into something like this. Like me.

Sometimes i'd log in and get PT without even flagging within 5 minutes.
Sometimes I waited for 6-7 hours to get one.
It really is something to be expected. If you don't think you're ready for this, better not return to this game.

It took me 4 months to do 2 chaptors of CoP.
I camped NM for 4-5 hours, every day for 3 weeks just to see it claimed by other campers.
Waiting 10 hours for PT is nothing compare to these. There are more things that require even more patience and time.

[Tukka]

Re: Just wondering.

Yeah, I know a lot of people out there have a lot more patience than I do and go for a more hardcore experience. Overall though, too much of the time spent in FF11 for me is not time spent adequately enjoying myself.

I like several things about Final Fantasy XI. I think I've had more fun grinding in FF11 than any other game and being in a good party felt like gold (this is true of other games too, but for FF11 moreso). Also the cutscenes and the presence of a coherant storyline were nice, but I don't have the time to devote to spending hours LFG (especially if I can't even alt-tab in the meantime to check my email, IMs, post on forums, read web sites, play another game, etc.), plus the camping of NMs and farming to keep my gear up to par, etc.

I'm not the sort of person who can play a game like this halfway. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, like to know how to do my job and have the items, gear and spells necessary to fill any role I may be reasonably called upon to do. Achieving and maintaining this state of readiness involved a lot of tedious activity that, once endured, did provide some measure of pride, but also a measure of shame for devoting so much time to a game when there were other things I could be doing that would be more enriching, more enjoyable, etc.

Plus it just got boring after a while.

Oh well. Thanks again for the info. Maybe one day they'll figure out how to soften the game up a bit for the likes of me without sacrificing too much of what you hardcore folks enjoy so much, if so, maybe I'll see you guys again sometime. More likely not. In any event, enjoy your game, guys.

[Balfree]

Re: Just wondering.

May i express my deep joy in reading a post of this nature that actually doesnt make me wanna shoot myself?

I shall:

[Sanim]

Re: Just wondering.

Yeah, I know a lot of people out there have a lot more patience than I do and go for a more hardcore experience. Overall though, too much of the time spent in FF11 for me is not time spent adequately enjoying myself.

I like several things about Final Fantasy XI. I think I've had more fun grinding in FF11 than any other game and being in a good party felt like gold (this is true of other games too, but for FF11 moreso). Also the cutscenes and the presence of a coherant storyline were nice, but I don't have the time to devote to spending hours LFG (especially if I can't even alt-tab in the meantime to check my email, IMs, post on forums, read web sites, play another game, etc.), plus the camping of NMs and farming to keep my gear up to par, etc.

I'm not the sort of person who can play a game like this halfway. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, like to know how to do my job and have the items, gear and spells necessary to fill any role I may be reasonably called upon to do. Achieving and maintaining this state of readiness involved a lot of tedious activity that, once endured, did provide some measure of pride, but also a measure of shame for devoting so much time to a game when there were other things I could be doing that would be more enriching, more enjoyable, etc.

Plus it just got boring after a while.

Oh well. Thanks again for the info. Maybe one day they'll figure out how to soften the game up a bit for the likes of me without sacrificing too much of what you hardcore folks enjoy so much, if so, maybe I'll see you guys again sometime. More likely not. In any event, enjoy your game, guys.

I feel exactly the same way as you. Too sad