Final Fantasy XI Then...

[C']

S-E have trademarked the name "Blood of Bahamut" apparently.

Now it could be nothing (the trademark of Dirge of Cerberus was attributed to an FFXI expansion and became a PS2 game) and no doubt some people may think it's too early for anew expansion announcement (it is).

However, it does tie up with similar time frames of previous expansions. Based on past add-ons, the announcement for the next game comes approximately 12 months after the release of the previous one (CoP released Sept 04 > ToAU announced Sept 05, ToAU released April 06 > WotG announced May 07)BUT the name was often trademarked a few months prior to this so it could tie in nicely.

Of course, it could be something completely unrelated but Bahamut is long overdue a return (although no doubt it would be a canonical nightmare to implement him again for people at various stages of CoP completion).

It could be nothing but apparently the next FFXI Fan Festival is scheduled for early December. Announcement then maybe?

Dates would tie in but WotG feels so under developed at the moment, a new expansion couldn't be announced (could it?!?!?!)

[Daragon]

I'm hoping it's our long overdue follow-up to CoP. A Bahamut central expansion sounds like exactly that.

[Rep]

If it is a follow up to CoP, it could likely be a story around Tenzen and his homeland. Echoing what Rare says though, the content for Wings thus far has been piss poor. Cool name though.

[Tobal]

I don't know about you but i've enjoyed the new expassion, lots of Solo content and while the missions are not challenging yet the story(4 threads and could be more once Jueno and Tav are involved) and escpecially the cutscenes are well above whats gone before it. Also if your doing the new mission the 3xBCNM from 3 of the story lines can not be solo'd and you'd be hard pushed to trio it. And if i can ever get those lazy gits in my Linkshell to help i would want to take out the Invasion NM's.

Next expassion is either the Far south(talked about inthe new Windy missions) or the far,far east CoP/ToaU based or could even be both, as for those that completed the BCNM involving the shadow last patch dragon,

->Open Spoiler<-

i think emptyness is the key tieing all all the story threads together as we know from Tenzan the FFE are in a fight with emptyness and Ah Urhgan and now we've actually seen a proper form of it outside of the crags inner dimension messing around with past.

[C']

Part of the problem is that S-E appears to still be playing catchup with Treasures of Aht Urghan. Only the most recent update (10 months after WotG got released) did the ToAU jobs get their Relic/AF+1/Relic+1 and the update previous implemented that expansion’s trigger NM system.

I guess the majority of stuff for ToAU is sorted now so hopefully WotG all the way for future updates. Have Jeuno [S] and Tavnazia [S] zones been confirmed as present in the DATs? I know the Northlands [S] zones have been found (and the music for these areas is on the OST which was released months ago).

I do think the Wings of the Goddess story has been good so far (especially the main mission line with the whole past not playing out as it should angle) but it's just taking so long to implement it. Yes I am aware that I do actually have ToAU to finish but try getting randoms to take a NIN into that final BC

[Rep]

Next expassion is either the Far south(talked about inthe new Windy missions) or the far,far east CoP/ToaU based or could even be both, as for those that completed the BCNM involving the shadow last patch dragon,

->Open Spoiler<-

i think emptyness is the key tieing all all the story threads together as we know from Tenzan the FFE are in a fight with emptyness and Ah Urhgan and now we've actually seen a proper form of it outside of the crags inner dimension messing around with past.

Maybe my take on things is wrong, but events seem out of place.

*Contains spoilers of new quests*

->Open Spoiler<-

I was under the impression Tavnazian had been ripped apart from the mainland when the Elvann kid draws Lightbringer (as told in the Sandy storyline). Then once you reach there in CoP, the citizens explain how they've been cut off. One the the first things i noticed when the expansion was released is how Tavnazian is still seperate from the mainland, on the Campain map. Then with the lastest set of Sandy quests, Excenmille after disbanding the Griffons is sent to Tavnazian and on a Chocobo no less.

[C']

->Open Spoiler<-

One the the first things i noticed when the expansion was released is how Tavnazian is still seperate from the mainland, on the Campain map.

I would just attrobute that to laziness on S-E's part than anything. How many of the [S] zones reuse the present day maps when the areas can actually be quite different in layout?

I think if a new expansion is related to the Emptiness I would predict we will be traveling beyond Aht Urghan to the Far East (Tenzen's land). Wasn't it specified in CoP that his land has been ravaged by Emptiness?

The only difficulty with developing expansions like this is how do you possibly avoid plot contradictions for people who are at different points in the related strands? This is something that S-E have specifically tried to avoid in the past by attempting to make all expansions independent entities. RoZ and CoP were essentially intertwined but the difficulty was evident even here with some awkward explanations of why the Arch Duke of Jeuno is not available (to accommodate players who have completed Zilart or not).

[Tobal]

If your doing the current San'd mission line, Tav hasn't been blown to bits yet as you see an expedition leaving to go to Tav(could they possibly be carrying the lightbringer). I think it certainly lead up to a battle in the northlands but tav has got to be part of the history if the main goal of the story is not to stop what happened in the past but stop it becoming worse than it should be because of emptiness behind the scenes meddling, and battling to save tav civies and get to the tav safehold could be a mission (or i hope so) as that has to happen for the northlands to be invaded.

[C']

The joys of NM camping.

Van EXPed NIN and made a couple of levels in the space of an hour taking him 1k tnl to lvl23. When it disbanded I said we should hop onto RNG/THF and head to Valkurm Emperor and try and get an Empress Hairpin sorted.

I get their first and manage to identify the PH and sure enough 5 minis later the NM pops on widescan. I track it, hit Flee and see it unclaimed but a WHM is running towards it closer than me and I can't get into Shadowbind range quick enough. No problem, turning up and getting drop 5 mins later would be a little lucky.

So we hang around and head back an hour later. As soon as we arrive a WHM61/BST28 named Cutietaru runs up to us and exclaims "newbs". A little odd, but I attribute it to te fact that we've both turned up as the optimum job combination for camping VE and he didn't really want the competition. This quickly becomes evident when widescanning identifies that he's charmed the placeholder. I send them a tell asking if they know that they are holding the NM PH. They try to act cute at first "what's a PH?" then come lies such as "I'm killing flies to help a friend get SJ" (they are not partied up) then "my friend is in party and disband once i get drop" (only 1 person in a party without a SJ in the zone and they dont have a clue who Cutietaru is). Clearly this person knows what they are doing and is not best pleased at having to camp against 2 RNG/THF and wants us gone.

So I tell them that holding like that is GMable (wasn't actually sure by this point XD), made the GM call and stuck myself on /follow onto the Damselfly so I didn't lose it. 10 minutes later get a response from GM and I explain what I think is happening. To my surprise, the GM understand completely what the issue is (the fly had been dragged to secret beach by this time) and asks how long the PH has been charmed (about 10-15 mins at this point). GM says they will investigate and sure enough 5 mins later the WHM sets the Damselfly onto a Thread Leech and is promptly killed (clearly the GM had a word and I'd love to have known what was said).

Set the 5 minute timer and rush back over to VE spawn area and sure enough in come the insults via tell from the WHM (apparently I need to "grow a set" and learn to deal with my problems without telling). Would be interesting to know how to deal with this issue without GM intervention but meh. Obviously the insults didn't bother me (as I said, this kind of attention usually means the player in question doesn't like their chanes of competing against you) and after about 15 mins of simply following me as we killed PH (which clearly wasn't going to work if NM popped far away as I'd just Flee there) and ignoring the majority of his comments (I couldn't resist one little dig) he pisses off just as Rep arrives to help us camp.

However, this is a good story and 90 minutes later I spot Valkumr Emperor pop in my line of vision (and literally a second behind a BST who ran away from it) and I make towards it and have no problem with Shadowbind. Barrage for 1k damage then a a final shot and it's dead long before Rep and Van even see it and a lovely Empress Hairpin drops.

Feel we earnt that one

[Daragon]

What a nice story, wish I'd have been there - congrats on the drop too Reminds me of my BST exp session in Garlaige Citadel early last week and taking out Hellmines with bats/beetles.

An exp party was camping in the tunnel connecting the basement between the hellmine room and main basement where serket pops, I have a beetle set on this one hellmine, but the beetle dies the hellmine does - so I'm running back for another pet before the bomb catches me. I look back behind me and somehow the hellmine has gotten unclaimed and sat itself right next to the exp party, about to despawn. What happened next was the act of either a complete noob or an insane genius, as the party's DRK stuns the hellmine before it disappears (it still has 50&#37; of it's HP left at this point). Two or three blows on it later and there's a quiet rumble - the party members try and make a run for it, but it is too late. Within seconds 6 players take a dirt nap and in prefect unison, you saw several "level downs" appearing followed by the familiar accusation of MPK resulting from the angry individual responsible for the whole mess, which I just put down to frustration which I can totally relate to when it comes to FFXI so I decided to let it go and /Blist him.

Hopefully, he realised the lesson to be learned from such an experience, but I wouldn't wager any money on it.

[Tsingtao]

Had fun this week too, BLM is now 52 and fishing 45 ^^

Now if aspi woul stop being a jerk with drops that would be nice

[C']

Oh forgot this but on Friday evening I finally appraised a ??? dagger from Evade & Escape into:



Me and Lutann went to farm some Assault points after Limbus and walked out with 4 ??? daggers. Couldn't believe it when the second appraised as this. Must have appraised 20-30 before. Plan to give Karasuageha/Perdu Blade combo a tryout in Nyzul Isle this week.

[djtickle]

Grats rare glad u finally got it! Not mucht to report here, apart from ding 70 pld

Havnt really been working on anything latley apart from my campaign rank, which is nice and easy to upgrade every 5 days.

Cleared 4 wings in Einerjar too which is still a very nice event.

Oh and after maint we did some camping and in a week we bagged 1 nid and 2 faf! I missed the nid and ebody thou ><

[Daragon]

How is it that this game loves you so much tickle? Are you secretly an asian in disguise as a fat northern bloke?

[C']

Grats rare glad u finally got it!

Whilst it's nice to finally get it, it just means I need to move on to the next appraisal desire. Me and Lutann need another 13-14k Lebros Cavern points so I'll do another couple of weekends of Evade & Escape (yes I plan to use 20000 points on an item for RNG that I will use for 1 level, assuming I have Blood Finger Gauntlets sorted soon).

After that I'll try for Divisor Ring. That thing is awesome.