The Blue Elephant Brigade

[Vawn]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/06/23/final-fantasy-xi-expansion-coming-next-year.aspx

[Akuma]

[Vawn]

Good catch, I missed that. I'm not sure. I imagine there is still a fair number of people still playing on PS2 (or at least PS3).

[Eisen]

G-G-GEOMANCER?!?!?! (\O.O)/

[Banzai_Kitty]

I still look at the POL page on occassion out of curiousity, and there was a notice a while ago essentially saying that if you're using your PS2 HDD for anything but FFXI, you'll be out of space. I guess the expansion would finally push it over capacity.
_________________
Purring pocket pincher pilfers plenty of pretty prizes.

[Lotan]

Is it April 1st?

[Vawn]

Looks like Tanaka is leaving the company as well due to health reasons.

[Lotan]

We're getting the band back together!

[midget]

I'm down.
_________________
"People really don’t like to hear success explained away as luck — especially successful people. As they age, and succeed, people feel their success was somehow inevitable. They don’t want to acknowledge the role played by accident in their lives. There is a reason for this: the world does not want to acknowledge it either." -- Michael Lewis

[Eisen]

I'd consider it if:

1) I have no idea what the fuck happened to Izan after I quit. I assume he got sold. Either way, I don't wanna start over in THAT game.

2) I had it on PS2 and don't wanna buy again for PC.

I think I'm just gonna wait to try out XIV 2.0 or GW2.

[Banzai_Kitty]

Really you could just download the PC software for everything previous as the keys you registered are still saved with SE and are platform independent.

I played on PC but bought a PS2 copy of CoP for the code, while downloading a torrent for the PC files for example.
_________________
Purring pocket pincher pilfers plenty of pretty prizes.

[midget]

[Splinte]

I restarted in February while being in school full time. It took me roughly 6 weeks to get to 99 and then I got a second to 95+ in about a week. It does take that initial investment to get to where you can level super fast, but its wicked easy.
_________________
http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/portal-no-escape.gif

[Ryken]

[Vawn]

I'm down if everyone starts completely over! New characters. New statics. We can play the old-school way.

[Eisen]

I'd still end up a DRG just because I'd miss Nanaja...

[Splinte]

Ryken - From the beginning, you are able to access the equivalent of WoW quests that are automatically repeatable in which you kill a set amount of mobs to get extra experience. For example, outside of Windurst, after talking to a "Fields Tome" and accepting a "Page", you will be told to kill 6 Tiny Mandragora. After each set of 6, you will be awarded additional XP. This makes leveling from 1-13 or so extremely easy.

After that, most people head to Gusgen Mines where a similar thing can be done. Instead of having to form a party of 6 members with a healer, a tank, and some damage dealers, you merely group up with as many people as possible and everyone accepts the same page from a similar "Grounds Tome" (the difference between Fields and Grounds is that Fields tomes are found only in dungeons). Basically, by utilizing the level sync function you can experience here until you hit 99 if you so choose.

The alternative is to do the Gusgen Mines until you hit 30, and at that point you do Abyssea. Abyssea is a relatively complex system for newcomers that once mastered, really isn't all that complex. It's based off of a light system, where certain lights give certain bonuses. In a typical EXP Party, you are in an alliance of (hopefully) 18 people. You camp at one spot, killing the same mobs over and over and over and over. Over time, the lights accumulate both from how the mob is killed (magic, physical damage, weapon skill) and based on red chests it drops (if this system needs to be explained in more detail, I could certainly try to write out a guide).

So basically after killing mobs over and over the amount of EXP you get per mob increases, eventually nearing 600XP/Mob. Lights and EXP can get capped like that after an hour or two, and once that high you are looking at around 200k+ EXP/HR for a mediocre group. I've done 30 merits, twice, in a matter of a few hours. 600k in a few hours, and I had to build my lights up twice.

Basically, once you have access to Abyssea, and your job is level 30 which is the requirement, you are able to travel from 30-99 in a short week.

If this was unclear, tell me and i'll try better
_________________
http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/portal-no-escape.gif

[Lotan]

[midget]

It's so odd to me that they are putting so much effort, time and money into FFXI still when their next project (relaunch anyway) is in the works to release around the same time. Not something I think we would see most companies do.
_________________
"People really don’t like to hear success explained away as luck — especially successful people. As they age, and succeed, people feel their success was somehow inevitable. They don’t want to acknowledge the role played by accident in their lives. There is a reason for this: the world does not want to acknowledge it either." -- Michael Lewis

[Akuma]

Because FFXI still makes more money, is more popular, more fun, and all around a better game than FFXIV.
_________________
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is the validity of them." -Abraham Lincoln