Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

[JoePNYY]

Hey all,

I tend to write WAY too much on forums, so for my first post, I'll try to make this as concise as possible.

I used to play FFXI quite a bit. I guess march of 2004-August 2005. After this I spent some time on WOW, which was an absolute blast...all in all, I've max lvl'd characters in both games.

That said, I haven't played an MMO in some time, but bought an xbox360 in August. Now there are tons of games coming out this holiday season for the 360 that will keep me more than busy but I have kind of been itching to get back into an MMO...and obviously, for at least some time, FFXI is the only MMO offered here.

My questions are these:

1) Is it worth my time to start up a new character at this point? I know this game has been out for several years, several expansions, etc....and I do not want to start leveling up a character only to realize that I'm just too far "out of the loop" to really ever progress at any steady clip once I get to 25+.

2) It's obviously going to take me over a year to max out a character. More time to play with it, more time to keep progressing etc...what I'm wondering is that by THEN, will I be one of maybe 30 people running around Port Jeuno heh? This is another thing that's leading me to believe that it might be too late to start afresh. By the time I progress to the high levels, the game will be flat out deader than a doornail.

3) What other MMO's are confirmed for release on the 360 as of now? I don't want to wind up, same thing...leveling a character all the way up only to have a brand new MMO come out for the 360 within a few weeks and everyone flocks over to that.

4) What should a player who hasn't played in a couple years know about the game now? I mean I certainly will do MASSIVE amounts of research and bury myself in the forums like I did back in the day, but just off the top of your heads...anything you can think of?

Of course, I could go on and on with questions...it's already started: I even join an MMO site and I'm itchy to get my character going heh.

I appreciate any and all responses and perhaps you'll be seeing me running around Vana'Diel later on tonight.

Joe

P.S. I could certainly, if I needed to, circumvent any financial problems I would find in game if it's still appropriate to buy gil. I never did this when I used to play, I always viewed it as cheating, but if at this point that's really the only way I'll get myself going, I'll do it. Just let me know...the affordability is not the problem, it's the "etiquette" if you will.

[eticket109]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

You'll probably find some good answers to a few of your questions here...

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/ret...iscussion-344/

As far as 1 and 2, there was a huge thread about the future of FFXI which was posted a little ways back. Unless something major happens, I would expect FFXI to be around for quite a while still. Content is being updated continually and there are rumors of a 4th expansion in the works. When SE starts talking about consolidating servers, then I may worry. For now though the population across all worlds is fairly consisent.

[Xalu]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

you might want to wait 12 days for PSU, phantasy star universe. It's coming out for PS2 PC and XBox 360, but on 360, you have your own seperate servers, so you won't be able to play with people from the other systems.

[JoePNYY]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

you might want to wait 12 days for PSU, phantasy star universe. It's coming out for PS2 PC and XBox 360, but on 360, you have your own seperate servers, so you won't be able to play with people from the other systems.

PSU isn't really up my ally...unless of course this becomes a mainstream of course.

WoW, FFXI, Warhammer:Online...games along these lines are what I'm looking for...

[Gentoo]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

1) Is it worth my time to start up a new character at this point? I know this game has been out for several years, several expansions, etc....and I do not want to start leveling up a character only to realize that I'm just too far "out of the loop" to really ever progress at any steady clip once I get to 25+.

You should be okay. I very recently started leveling another job from level 1, which required me to also level an appropriate sub. So two back-to-back trips through the Dunes, and then through Qufim.

There were, of course, plenty of veteran players doing something similar, but I ended up being surprised at the number of new players I encountered. Nearly every party I got into had someone "new" to the game. You should have enough players around you to progress nicely all the way through.

2) It's obviously going to take me over a year to max out a character. More time to play with it, more time to keep progressing etc...what I'm wondering is that by THEN, will I be one of maybe 30 people running around Port Jeuno heh? This is another thing that's leading me to believe that it might be too late to start afresh. By the time I progress to the high levels, the game will be flat out deader than a doornail.

Shakes, then gazes into the magic 8 ball, and the answer is: Concentrate and ask again.

Seriously, who knows? The population seems steady on servers. SE certainly would like to keep the cash flowing from FFXI for as long as possible. Microsoft likes having a popular MMO for its platform.

I could certainly, if I needed to, circumvent any financial problems I would find in game if it's still appropriate to buy gil.

I don't think it's ever been appropriate to buy gil, and being outted as doing so will certainly put you on a number of blacklists.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

I don't think it's ever been appropriate to buy gil, and being outted as doing so will certainly put you on a number of blacklists.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. Don't become part of the problem. Sure it's hard just starting out, but eventually you get into the swing of how to make gil and survive on the Vanadiel economy.

[Jei]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

There's a new FFXI collection pack coming out in a month that will includes all expansion pack. Really nice to have, unless you want to start right now.

[Dragonly]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

Hate to say it, but don't come back if you plan to buy gil. Harsh but true.

[JoePNYY]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

Thank you for the replies...

FYI- I didn't say I was going to buy gil, I said I never have in the past but would if it has suddenly become accetable and/or necessary.

I mean if I'm a level 25 thief and I want the peacock's charm (I forget the exact names, I'd have to dig deeper into my memory heh) I might have to spend what...3 months farming for a 2.5 million gil item? That's not reasonable...a new player would be scared away by this.

That's all...just saying, if the economy has reached a point where it would basically put any realistic chances of a new player ever attaining enough gil/per level, I either won't play, or will buy gil. Only two options there then...

[Gentoo]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

So awhile back SE updated the game so that items like the Peacock Charm, Leaping Boots, and Emperor Hairpin were moved to drops from BCNM fights.

The NMs (Argus, Lizzie, Emperor) all drop Rare/Ex versions now, in an effort to keep these NM's from being dominated by a small group of players that were selling the drops exclusively for profit.

No need to buy gil -- just get yourself into a helpful LS, to camp for the Rare/Ex version, or do the BCNM events.

[eticket109]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

On an only slighty related note, I'm not sure how much I would recommend the PCC for a THF anyway, but yeah Lizzy and VE are a lot easier to get now. Argus is still pretty well camped because of his ungodly spawn time and the fact he shares a spawn with a money drop NM still

[Desideratum]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

Those items are never "required" for leveling. Certainly not a Peacock Charm by any stretch. If buying gil is the only option that a player feels that they have, then they aren't approaching the situation in the right way.

[tdh]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

I think it's worth it to come back, however you ~may~ find that things are really slow up until about Lv.20. I decided to take up BRD to level with a friend of mine's WHM, and it took us FOREVA to find a party in the Dunes. But I picked back up a Lv.20 sub job, and leveled pretty quickly. So don't be too frustrated that you may spend a lot of time solo until you get to the 20's unless you are certain jobs. (I'd imagine WHM and BLM would quite popular in the Lv.10~20 range regardless.)

I don't think FFXI is going to fall of the map any time soon. We just had an expansion pack that introduced 3 new jobs, Merit system has been around for quite some time, and has had new Merit abilities added. S-E has mentioned they plan to adjust nearly all of the jobs in various updates to come. (Some of them being rather "big" updates. SAM getting two Abilities before Lv.40 seems pretty big to me.)

End-game competition still appears to be pretty fierce, new recipes are being added, new NMs added, and the list goes on. My dedication to the game is still quite strong, as is a number of friends of mine. I know a few of us will still be playing this game for quite a while.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

End-game competition still appears to be pretty fierce, new recipes are being added, new NMs added, and the list goes on.

The 100+ in the Aery and also the 50+ in Ulli Aery would agree with you...

[Meepster]

Re: Former FFXI Vet-Thinking about coming back on my 360, please read

as far as starting a new character... unless you ENJOY doing quests and the like, i'd advise against it. If you want to just jump back in to kill some time until perhaps a new mmo comes out that better suits you, I'd reccomend trying to get your character back. I believe there's an "Undelete character" thread on here for more info on that. As far as the game dying out soon... I don't see that happening any time soon. As for 360 MMO's, FFXI and PSU are all that i can confirm. There are some really good RPG's comming out soon tho: Lost Oddessy, Blue Dragon, and Mass Effect to name a few. BTW: dont waste your money on Enchanted Arms.... It's the biggest P.O.S. Cookie cutter RPG i've ever played in my life. And lastly, the gil buying thing. I don't feel that it's necessary to buy gil bro. Especially now. I mean, when i first started playing, Emperor Hairpins were only 100k but that was then. I'd say prices are fairly low on items now compared to that god forsaken christmas price jack we experienced. SH is down to 2.2 mil on Ragnarok if that gives you any idea of where the economy stands. That doesnt necessarily mean it's going to be easy to obtain gil tho...We still have RMT idiots on every server and probably always will. Alot of mobs are still way overcamped, its expensive to craft, the easy things return minimal amounts of gil... i could keep going on and bitching, but i'll point out some of the better things. SE in an effort to pwn the gilsellers has made some significant changes. PC, Emp Hairpin, LL boots and the like now have thier own Rare/Ex counterparts. The PC now drops in a BCNM 40 that can be owned by a rdm and 2 nins easily. There's always teleport and ninjitsu scroll quests to do for money. I wouldnt even make money a real issue here. If that's the most important thing to you... what some 12 year old kid that lives on the other side of the world and what he thinks of your gear... then you shouldn't play cuz theres no fun in that.

but thats my 2 cents... hope this helps you bro