Final Fantasy XI Then...

[siegeuk]

Talikzer, Darwock, Saturday night would likely be a good time if you're on, failing that, if I see you on I'll make myself known

[mikewl]

Hmm, this is annoying.

When I logged out earlier it kind of hung in the game instead of leaving and I had to force my machine to exit, now i cant log into Playonline at all.

[Bayan]

Oh Good, I Thought I Was Only One
Havent Been Able To Log In For 45 mins!

[Vanicent]

Same here Wedge.

It happened about half an hour ago for me.

[mikewl]

Oh good,

I thought my character was going to be forever logged into the game when im not.

Funny thing was it happened just as i was logging out after 5 seconds to log out was on screen.

I hope its back up soon.

Update:

I logged into playonline on the playonline website and sent Rarehero a message, it says he is online.

Update:

Rargh - still cant get back on.

[C']

I just tried logging off and it froze for ages then chucked me off. They are performing emergency maintainence in about 15 mins. Servers seemed screwed again

[talizker]

From:PlayOnline
Oct. 15, 2004 06:00 [GMT]

PlayOnline Server Maintenance (Oct. 18 )

At the following time, we will be performing an update on the PlayOnline servers. During this time, PlayOnline, Tetra Master and FINAL FANTASY XI will be offline.

Further, the Friend List Plus, Q&A Database Search, and "Registering a Community Site" features of the official PlayOnline website (http://www.playonline.com) will be unavailable.

We appreciate that this is a particularly long maintenance period, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

[Date & Time]
Oct. 18, 2004 16:00 (GMT)

[Affected Period]
From Oct. 18, 2004 16:00 to Oct. 19, 2004 00:00 (GMT)

*This update's completion time may be subject to change.

[Affected Services]
PlayOnline

8 Hours of maintenance on Monday Guess I will plan something else...

Siege - Saturday sounds good to me. Will be arround at 10pm ish as usual. Hopefully be on tonight as well...

[Darwock]

Can anyone confirm what happened last night? I couldn't even connect - spent ages trying to work out why my internet connection sharing wasn't working, then decided my network adapter must be bust! Should've looked here first but I'm a bit worried some people seem to have reached PlayOnline at least.

[Marvelon]

We had the same thing yesterday, when I tried to log out I just ended up disconnected rather then logging out properly.

About Statistics and Derived Statistics:
From what was made public by Squenix in an interview: Increasing a statistic is always beneficial, if you want to do more damage increasing STR is a good idea however increasing Attack directly is a better idea. (this is where the old 2 STR = 1 attack comes from)

Now, it is true that when you get two extra STR you also get an additional point of attack. also, when you increase VIT by 2 you gain an additional DEF.
As for the effects of these statistics, much is unknown. What is known is that at the higher end of the Derived statistics curve, it's usefullness decreases.

Let's take a level 40 WAR/MNK they would have (example number, not actual) 45 STR base, and, with maxed GreatAxe skill 150 attack.
When this character hits a mob equipping just the Great Axe they hit for 30 to 50 damage.
If this person had unlimited choice of +Attack gear they might be able to pump it to 200, then their damage would be 30 to 70 damage per hit. Attack increases the maximum damage one can do.
If instead they chose to increase STR to say 60 they would hit for 40 to 60 damage per hit. STR increases the damage average.

Now, you see how further increasing attack by little amounts (say attack 200->204) wouldn't make much difference. Potential maximum damage would increase slightly, but as you don't always hit for maximum damage your Damage Over Time (DoT) wouldn't increase very much. If however you had the 200 attack and then increased STR the average damage curve would be raised and thus your DoT would increase significantly. That's why lower level PLDs tend to go for High-def items and mid level PLDs tend to prefer VIT. (The fact that high level PLDs go for HP+ has to do with the fact that the IT-mobs they fight are still 9 levels higher than them, but their stats are relativey higher, thus the PLD takes more damage overall, and HP becomes a factor rather preventing how much damage you take.)

These ideas should be valid for all statistics and their derived statistics. (STR-> Attack, VIT-> Def, DEX+AGI -> (Ranged) Accuracy+Evasion) Increasing the derived statistic is more efficient to an extent.

I tend to feel it out per item, if I have bought something for it's def, I tend to keep the old item (that might have VIT) and swap them out, and see which one works better.

[C']

If this person had unlimited choice of +Attack gear they might be able to pump it to 200, then their damage would be 30 to 70 damage per hit. Attack increases the maximum damage one can do.
If instead they chose to increase STR to say 60 they would hit for 40 to 60 damage per hit. STR increases the damage average.

See I read it as something slightly different (which I think has come from the same interview.

Going with the same WAR/MNK example (and again all hypothetical numbers), I read that:

STR increases your highest potential damage. So if you have your basic stats with no boosts your potential damage will be between 30-50 per swing. Every attack will make damage that falls between these figures. This is your potential damage curve. However, boosting your STR + 20 will then take your maximum potential damage to 60 so your potential damage curve now falls at 40-60. I think we are agreeing on this point yes?

However, then how does it determine whereabouts you hit on that curve per swing. This is where I was told boosting your attack comes in. The higher your attack stat is the increased likelihood you have of hitting at the peak of your damage curve. This is where our thoughts differ slightly. Boosting attack will not increase the potential maximum damage you can do. So if the damage curve you have is 40-60 but there are no further boosts to attack then you are less likely to hit for the higher ranges of 55-60. Boost your attack separately from the STR and you will be hitting in the 55-60 range more often.

I think the system works similarly for VIT and DEF. Say you have a mob hitting you for between 100-150 per hit, boost your VIT and that will drop to 80-130. However, if you don?t boost your defence separately then the mob will hit more often near the 130 mark rather than 80.

Taken from here: http://ffxi.crgaming.com/interviews/...iew.asp?Id=209

However, reading my explanation and that interview I have spotted inconsistencies in what I wrote and frankly, I'm more confused than ever ><

[Darwock]

This makes interesting reading to me from a BLM point of view, because I've always considered those numerous spells which lower stats to be of zero practical use. Particularly 'Shock' - meant to lower the enemies mind but when I use it my attack spells don't do any greater damage than if I hadn't used it.

[C']

That?s because to lower an enemy?s resistance to black magic, you need to lower INT. Lowering MND will only lower their resistance to white magic attacks (such as Banish).

[Darwock]

Wow, I was told INT was attack and MND was defense. More lies!!! Curse them all!

[mikewl]

I have been having a great time lately with BST, Duo partying in Quifm yesterday was simply great fun non stop action, taking on pugils, weapons, snippers and worms.

Exp has been really good and its a totally different party experience.

It was good to be constantly moving, not just staying in one place waiting for one person to pull.

If you like me tried BST before and gave up due to the difficulty I would reccommend giving it another go and getting past those early lvls, 2 person partys are very fun and challenging and being able to solo is cool too.

I would suggest if maybe two both lvled at the same time you could go through the lvls at a high speed.

Oh and if anyone has a melee job at lvl 26 you could party with me and get a nice 50 to 140 exp a fight, let me know if interested.

[Hohum]

Anyone else noticed that the times for maintenance on the EU site are always wrong? GMT is PDT+8 from my experience, yet they're using PDT+7...

US site

[Affected Period]
From Oct. 18, 2004 9:00 to 17:00 (PDT)

...which is 5pm GMT to 1am GMT. Yet..

EU site

[Affected Period]
From Oct. 18, 2004 16:00 to Oct. 19, 2004 00:00 (GMT)

Which is 4pm to 12am..

(Huh!?) (Um...) (/confused)