Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Tobal]

it a way of shutting down fire walls for a while, also make sure you have a full stack of oils and powders, that includes mages.

[Kerushi]

ice clusters can reduce travel time

[Kerushi]

lol yea bombs like to blow up mages

[Tsingtao]

I think the inventory would look like this

1) Ice CLusters (about 3 each just in case we get split up)
2) Reraise item as rasing in the cauldron could be fatal for both the raiser and the raisee
3) 2 stacks of oils (almost certainly over kill)
4) 2 stack of powder (almost certainly over kill)
Below is another quest you can complete at the same time if you bring an item

->Open Spoiler<-

5) 1 garnet to get you opo necklace after the fight if you tade this to the headstone, very useful for the Maat fight ^^

In other news if everyone is free tonight I'm going to be on and quite willing to give this a go.

[Kerushi]

i think i will be free!

[talizker]

May be a little after 8pm but tonight is great for me

*Update* hehehe, just remembered Darwock is afk for a few days with work...

[Jei]

Hi Guys,

Can I have your honest opinion here,

I bought FFXI on release and have never got around to installing it/playing it, now i've got a load of spare time on my hands and have been contemplating waiting for the 360 version, or installing the pc one and getting on with it.

Am I not gonna enjoy starting this game seeing as it's been online for so long or is it likely not to matter?

I'd prefer to play the PC one seeing as i've already got it but is there any benefit waiting for the 360 with the new 360 players?

Cheers in advance guys

[Daragon]

FFXI isn't kind to the new player these days. The economy is rather ****ed basically and most of the servers are overrun by gil sellers and spawn campers (probably one and the same) If you can overlook all that though, you'll find a fair bit to enjoy here - Good storylines, quests, missions and plenty of other players to group with. As for the 360 crowd, they will be able to co-exist on the same servers as the PS2 and PC gamers so probably not much benefit there, unless Square-Enix decide to open up a new server.

As for versions, the 360 will beat the PC in terms of visuals and accessability - although I'm not sure how it will fare without a keyboard accessory.

You may as well give the PC version a try and benefit from the free month at least and try out the FFXI beta which comes with the Jan Issue of OXB360 magazine.

[Tsingtao]

I'd say FFXI still has an awful lot to offer the new gamer, we have had new starters join our Linkshell regularly over the last year so definitely there is a constant if steady stream of new people on the servers. What Daragon says above is true however I'd say it is for all MMORPGs and I don't feel honestly that our server is all that bad. The inflation has been uniform across most items though some of the big tickets are rather crazily priced now.

What I would say thugh is FFXI has a massive amount to offer a gamer, I have been playing for around 14 months now and have not yet reached end game. The world is huge with many story lines, jobs and a new expansion not far over the horizon. If you have the game go for it, you can use the 360 when it come out with the character you start now so there's no reason to hold off.

So come join us, if you want to enter the same server as everyone on this thread we will give you a warm welcome to the Rargh Linkshell and help you get started and show you around a little (not to much mind that would take all the fun away). If you want to get onto Seraph (our server) send me a PM and I'll get you a world pass code, this will be valid for 5 days and ensures your charcter is created on this server otherwise its random.

If you want my view just got for it, the game is truely awesome. I play lots and still haven't burnt it out.

[vwilsonuk]

Jeimuzi - plenty still to play for, most high level characters also have lower level jobs they're working on and the 360 will bring another influx of new players. Have been playing since July 2004 and there's still tonnes to do. The economy is supposedly expensive on Seraph, and gilsellers have increased the gap between the cheap items and the expensive items. All the same, relative server economies have little impact if you're buying and selling on the same server, and there are still plenty of ways to make money - its just a case of finding them.

Darwock - I feel your pain, my first pickup xp party in some months, a few weeks ago, was dire. I won't rake over the details to avoid setting myself off fuming again but suffice to say it really was pi$$ poor. Not the most encouraging thing to return to. But I realized that what I had done was not acted on any of the signs I would have recognized (when I was playing more often) to bail out of the party early. As it happened I went on to spend a good few hours with one of the people who had been in the dire party and got some good xp, and then all the parties I've had since have been better.

[Tobal]

Even though Big ticket item are expensive, bottom tier farming items for crafts have actually increase in % more than expensive items (earlier this year haubie 3.5m to 5/6m gill, bst-blood 17k to 110k) so in to 2 weeks of farming you could easily come up with 1-2m in cash without having to craft at all, dependant on drop rates and supply/demand.

[C']

Beastman Blood wasn?t 17k earlier this year. Back when I farmed it (so we?re talking September 2004 onwards) the price was 20k and would occasionally go up to 30k depending on market fluctuations. It stayed steady for a fair few months until gilsellers moved into the market and eventually people stopped bothering and when gilsellers got an almost 100% share of it, prices crept up steadily. Gilsellers left this market eventually (still the odd one but nowhere near how bad it was a year ago in this market) but the levels of people farming never reached the same amount so lack of supply led to further increased prices.

Prices on the server (and other servers by all accounts)have literally shot up on end products since last weeks update (for example, Scorpion Harness has seen a 50% price increase in a week, going from 8m to 12m, Haubergeon has gone from just over 5m to 7m, similar with Hauberk etc. Same with other ?high ticket? items such as Erase) I always hear that inflation is across the board but in this case it honestly isn?t as I checked it out.

Last night I looked at the Jeuno AH and picked 15 of the commonly farmed items (stuff like Beehive Chips, Beastman Blood, Silk Thread, Slime Oil, Tree Cuttings etc.) I found that in almost all cases the prices were more or less identical (fluctuations 1-2k either way) to before the price rises that started a week ago, and those that have risen are to nowhere near the same percentage (Beastman Blood was 100k just over a week ago and is now 110k).

Price rises are not uniform. If a player was farming Blood to get a Scorpion Harness 2 weeks ago they would have needed 80 stacks (100000 x 80 = 8m). Under the new prices they would have to farm 110 stacks (110000 x 110 = 12.1m).

The concept of prices all rising in tandem within an economy only works if there are no external factors at play but there is a big one in FFXI economy and that is gilselling websites. And this is why the prices have seen a massive hike over the last week. Sites such as IGE have literally slashed prices. 1m gil is now available for as little as $5-$9 which is nothing. Says a lot when a company like IGE have more influence over the economy than S-E themselves

[Tobal]

So thats why lewis had all that money..

[Darwock]

Do we need an Ice Cluster(s)? (handily D and I got one each on Saturday en-route to Fei'yin^^).

Bah, that would have been handy if I hadn't cashed mine in the moment I got back to Windurst (not just one either, I fought a few more with my NPC and sold them all! lol).

Well I needed the cash for oil/powder anyway so I guess it makes no difference. Wednesday is fine with me btw, I'll log on before and get clusters.

[Tsingtao]

The clusters are far from mandatory, I reckon half of what we buy we'll sell agian but if we've got it then we're good just in case. As always I'm working on over prepared being good, things can always be sold again but theres no AH in the Cauldron!

After this one we're just a few evening away from Sky, may see if we can fit ZM6 and ZM8 into one night ^^