Its Numbered, It Counts - Let's Play Final Fantasy XI!

What's up with Super Kupowers?

They removed the cap on the dragon fight or raised it? Either way, even with the original cap, if you had a Monk that was willing to burn his two-hour, you could go in naked and still kick the shit out of the dragon in a heartbeat with 3 people. That's not the way I did it originally, but it was often the way it happened when I helped other people through it later. Man, I spent a ton of time at that particular Burning Circle doing various fights.

Once a week there are 11 tablets randomly hidden across more than two dozen areas. Once they're recovered, everyone gets random distribution of three Super Kupowers for a week until it starts all over again. For reference.

Its gone gone now. Even so, the last time I fought it with the cap I went in as Dancer and easily soloed the fight since it was never intended for a melee with such healing power to go up against it.

EDIT: Previous page has been updated with the conclusion to 2-3. I didn't realize I was only a couple images from being done when I ran out of time to work on it.

12/14/2011 - Infiltrating Castle Oztroja



Another mission, another trip to the gate guard.



And Heaven's Tower on top of that. They might as well be handing out these missions from there at this point.



Arriving at the tower, we receive a Starway Stairway bauble. This will allow access to the upper floors of Heaven's Tower, where Windurst's most important citizens, including the ruling Star Sibyl, reside.



The upper floors house a strange contraption.



As well as an entire planetarium.



Our mission liaison is once again Semih Lafihna, one of the Star Sibyl's personal bodyguards.



It turns out our last mission was mostly pointless, as the Star Sibyl had already divined that the Shadow Lord was reemerging and organizing the beastmen hordes.



Then suddenly, Ajido-Marujido bursts onto the scene!



Ajido is less than welcome in Heaven's Tower (with good reason, judging from the previous missions), but he claims to still have Windurst's best intentions in mind.





He hands off the Book of the Gods, inexplicably blank, as discovered a few missions ago. Once again we're tasked with trailing and keeping an eye on what Ajido is up to.

Checking in with Ajido's underlings, it seems that he's off on a trip to Castle Oztroja, the main stronghold of the Yagudo forces.



Its quite a bit further north than anywhere we have been previously on this continent.



A quick outpost warp to Meriphataud Mountains puts me in the general vicinity of our destination, though.



Goblins roam the area.



Also gigantic dragonflies.



As well as series mainstay Coeurls.



I arrive at the castle near dusk.



The place is nearly empty, with only the occasional bat, Yagudo or path-lighting torch.

It is quite large, even if the Yagudo aren't making good use of the space.



This is where our mission ends. Normally you could activate one of these levers and step back to avoid the blindingly obvious (at least after my nearly 8 years of playing) trap door here. For our purposes, though, we must fall into it to advance.



Down the hatch!



It seems Ajido wasn't nearly as quick on the uptake and was caught off guard by the trap.



It seems that Semih might be underestimating the severity of the situation a bit.





It seems that the Yagudo were the only other witnesses to the time that was originally transcribed in the Book of the Gods. Which is kind of surprising with how often random adventurers show up and "clean house."



A quick warp out and this mission is done! Now to return to Semih Lafihna.





And another successful mission. It seems that Semih still doesn't trust Ajido regardless of his justification.

Next time: Its Like New York or Something

Tch. I dropped this bitch back in 2004. Then came back in 2007. But only for three months! A-And it's not like I keep in touch by reading w-wikis or anything...

I actually knew three of mine right off the bat just from his description.
It's super easy, but risky. He might get a spell out before your Sleep II, or wake early, and you might get one-shot or slept or something horrible. It was a little more complicated for me, but that may have had to do with my lack of Flare and mithra-ness.

*looking at old screenshots with Ronfaure playing in the background*

I'm doomed.

Edit: Dang, reading that log I noticed I cast Sleep II over Sleep for some reason, then I remembered a mistake I made in that fight... my Manafont Macro was "/P" instead of "/JA".

I think I quit 3 times? Yeah, 3 times total. My schedule is such that I simply can't plan around playing the game with the TT folks, so I quit for good a few years back. But I'd still be playing it if I could. It's clunky and weird but great.

Fun Fact: I liked playing it on 360 (with a controller/keyboard combo) a LOT more than playing it on PC.

Just discovered this thread. Don't have time to read it all now but you're insane SL. LPing FFXI? Jesus.

Hi character is like, level nine billion. He practically just needs to show up!

Or would if stuff wasn't level restricted. (Edit: Erm, it's not? Cool.)

I quit twice, but both times were because my linkshell broke up. I've always liked that FFXI forced you to use groups, but the catch was I had a very hard time finding people who wanted to help me out. If I had found TT earlier, I probably would't have quit.

the description "Its weird, but great" is probably the best description for FFXI.

I was very lucky in that some RL friends were running a LS when I joined, and were also highly knowledgable about the game. (In fact, one of them quit when he'd figured FFXI out and got bored. Seriously, this guy is in the top .1% of smart people.) Going into it without a preset social group, I might not have gotten far at all, since they are not very forthcoming even about the interface, or would have quit shortly after soloing got dreary and too difficult, or when it came time to get subjob items, as happened with my brothers when they played shortly after it came out.

I went through two linkshell dissolutions, and one where I had personality conflicts with the leader (he was too harsh on his people, and directly insulted me...exactly once. One minute after it happened, I dropped his linkpearl and blacklisted him).

I quit the game because after four years, I felt I'd seen enough, so despite some minor temptation at times--my husband's been plugging away at it two years since I've been gone--I really don't think I'm coming back except to sub in for him occasionally and get all fractured from performance anxiety.

12/21/2011 - The One Where I Cheat a Lot



Skipping another optional mission for now (will come back to it later).



Another mission taken and once again off to Heaven's Tower!



This time I finally have audience with the Star Sibyl herself.





It seems that I've done such a great job around here that the Star Sibyl wants to send me off as an envoy to the gigantic city Jeuno, the central hub of Vana'diel. All this despite the fact that Windurst already has a permanent consulate there to make deals with the Jeunoian leaders.



Jeuno is located centrally between the two major continents. Normally this would be quite a trek in the level 20~30 range that most players are when they reach this point.



Jeuno Music

Me? I've got places to warp too and end up in Jeuno in little to no time flat.



Ru'Lude Gardens Music

Jeuno is vertically oriented, with its port district on the lowest level and then the Ducal castle on its highest level in Ru'Lude gardens. Even the music up here is a bit snootier.



The central section of the consulate region features a monument with an eternal flame. I couldn't tell you what it signifies, though.



It seems that the ambassador is out at the moment, so I guess we have to wait around for him?



Suddenly, my dark-haired twin Wolfgang strides into the consulate also looking for the ambassador. The receptionist gives him the same line she just gave me, that he's out surveying Delkfutt's Tower.



In some kind of weird coincidence, the local doctor Monberaux also walks in looking for the ambassador.



Like most in Vana'diel, Wolfgang is fairly suspect of foreigners.





Seeing as how I've got nothing better to be doing, Pakh sends me off to investigate Dalkfutt's Tower and look for the ambassador. Its cute how she's so concerned about my equipment quality and the fact that I'm riding solo.

The tower lies deep within Qufim Island. The island has more of those bone-like structures running through it (as seen in Meriphtaud Mountains last update) seemingly converging at the tower itself.



There's bats!



Ugly five eyed monsters!



Giant worms!



Giant crabs!



Giants!



Skeletons! But they're only out between 20:00 and 4:00 i.e. at night).



Giant fish!



And leeches!



The northern lights only appear this heavily during light weather, which is kind of rare here as I've only seen it a handful of times in 7+ years.



Here's the tower itself, quite tall and imposing.



Hanging out at the base of the tower is a Light Elemental, the source of the current weather. Killing it will more often than not drop clusters of crystals of its respective element.



Into the tower I go!

Delkfutt's Tower is kind of a maze inside, with a lot of the areas looking very similar. Its 10 stories tall and is separated into three zones total (lower/middle/upper).



You go through 10 floors of this using these telepad thingies...but I cheated and took the elevator straight to the top since I've already got a key and the path up here isn't exactly riveting.



This is the Notorious Monster that drops the key needed for this mission, though.



He's super easy, though I did link like the entire room of giants when fighting him.



This is the key needed to get where the consulate ambassador is being held. One of the later updates lets you convert it into a key item so it doesn't continue to waste inventory space after you use it for this mission.



This elevator takes me all the way to the basement, so the mission really was kind of busy work to get nearly right next to where we started.



You do have to take the last little bit down to the ground.



And here's where our ambassador is stored. There are actually three separate rooms for each of the starting nations' ambassadors since this mission mostly overlaps.



Oh no, he's dead!





Just kidding! Even though he couldn't handle himself before, he runs off on his own to head back to the consulate. No skin off my back, though, since I hate escort missions.





Running back to the consulate, the ambassador awards me with Rank 4! Also 5000 in pocket change!

Next time: A Source of Power

I make jokes that Wolfgang and Jakes came from the same vat in Jeuno. (Those black-robed dudes seem to have the capacity, don't remember what they're called)

Quite the surfeit of masculine FFXI hotness here. Just what kind of "doctor" is Monberaux anyway, running around in a belly shirt....

Edit: elementals always drop at least one cluster, whether you get XP from them or no.

I always figured the weather brought out the elementals, rather than them causing it.

And man, Qufim. Any time I see that place I actually feel nostalgic for trains, if you can believe that. They were a constant source of amusement for me back then.

For the folks who didn't play or didn't get into it until later on, Qufim was total madness at the game's North American release. Here is some context.

The typical path people took was to level up solo until level 10 in their nation's starting region, then move one region out for a few more levels of solo and small group leveling. Most were not doing the missions. At that point it got really slow and risky, so people would tell you to form or join a full party at Valkurm Dunes (or Buburimu Peninsula, Shakhrami, or Korroloka, but in practice, always Valkurm.) This was also a place to do the subjob quest, so folks could get stuck here if they weren't lucky enough to get that done quickly.

That was the point most people quit the game.

If you managed to survive your fellow newbies' attempts to make you kill yourself in real life, at around level 19 "everyone" would tell you to go to Qufim, which you can only reach by passing through Jeuno. It was quite a journey, since the areas immediately outside Jeuno have stonger enemies than you find in Qufim; up to level 36. Enemies that have enhanced running speed. The road is long and not safe.

So! In Qufim the players were just as green, but the terrain was much more difficult. To get in, you have to travel a long tunnel populated some enemies too strong for the newbies, which aggroed to sound and magic, so no sneaking behind them. There were two open areas linked by narrow passages, with the only nearby zone boundary being the entrance to Delkfutt's tower. What often happened was that night would fall ,the undead would come out, and the parties trying to fight in the open would be overwhelmed. They typically would run the mobs to the tower, picking up more in the way and perhaps to face a similar train on the way back.

Sometimes they would go back to the tunnel instead. That's when it got "fun". Whether they made it or not, they created a plug of monsters that the players entering the zone had no chance against. Which then started slowly making their way back out. On my first trip there I leveled down immediately and had to fight in my undies. Later, upon returning from feeding my chocobo, I found the exit of the tunnel plugged by a lone gigas. I didn't want to wait (and people would just walk into it and get killed) so I cast Sleep and called for help. To my surprise, the others players milling around did actually attack it. After I explained to them that they could. And convinced them there was enough of us to pull it off. Sleep only lasts 60 seconds, which made the situation pretty tense, as they all could have just walked past it at that point. We won, nobody died, and we could all go kill worms and fish, hooray!

Months later I had some fun breaking up trains in Qufim, Kazham, Garlaige, and Crawler's Nest.

My only real experience with training was at the lizard entrance of Dunes. At times there would be clots of goblins at the zone line, or drifting back to their spawn points ready to pounce on your innocent lv. 10 butt.

Of course, there were people that discovered ways to MPK (Monster Player Kill, basically using a monster as a tool to kill another player), and it wasn't too too long after I'd started playing that they'd patched it such that monsters vanish once too far from their spawn point.

I'm almost sorry I missed the excitement at Crawlers' Nest and Garliage.

Most of my MPK experience was in the jungles outside of Kazham. Everyone would always fight over the one safe spot outside of the goblins' path back out from town.

for those of us from native Windurst, you'd take the boat to the dunes. There are a lot of gobbies between your party invite and you...

I was doing the mission to go give the food and drink to the yags and got MPKed by every yagudo in Giddeus. Only player I ever blacklisted.

I never had much trouble with trains on the island, but I did have a LOT of trouble with them in Garliage Citadel.

I ALMOST miss the trains (but not really).

Do you guys remember when mandragoras sleep would affect any player? And then you pack 3-4 parties just past the zone in the jungle and you get slept by the next door party because you're the white mage and trying to stay out of bomb range? that was fun...

On my first boat trip from Mhaura to Selbina I met the Sea Horror. I discovered that when the ferry reaches it's destination the corpses are dumped on the dock in a heap. That's first class service, yup.

I was actually doing a level 1 run to San d'Oria to complete that mission. Guess who I ran into in La Theine Plateau?

Wonder what's up in this thread.

Right, then. Turning right the fuck back around before any memories come back. Good days, sirs (and madam.)

Hey I remember that Mission! I wish I still had time for FFXI

Yes, that's all I have to contribute.

1/6/2012 - (Arch)Ducal Duties



Once again to the embassy for a mission!





I would have received permission here to visit the archduke's chambers had I not already done the mission for another nation previously.



This is the archduke's castle, high atop Jeuno. Also the first appearance of my little brother's character Princelaharl.



This is the archduke Kam'lanaut. Its amazing he still lets me in here since I beat the shit out of him in a Rise of the Zilart mission.



He honestly is just bored with everything despite living in the most vibrant hub city in the world.



This diminutive fellow is Kam'lanaut's brother Eald'narche. Despite appearances he's still a force to be reckoned with around Jeuno.



It seems that the beastmen are after the power of the world's magicite, some kind of ancient all powerful tool. The reward for this mission would be a super useful airship pass...if I hadn't already received one over 7 years ago.





On the way out I'm approached by one of the archduke's creepy monk-like attendants. He sends us to speak with Aldo at the Tenshodo before embarking on our mission. The Tenshodo is a (sorta) secret organization in Jeuno, with membership attained only through a special permit. Their leader Aldo is actually the child from the opening movie of FFXI.

"Oh, hey, it says I'm supposed to tell you about magicite. Here's a vague clue to where they are, but you should really just ask other people."



First stop will be the Quadav hometown of Beadeaux.



Getting there takes a trip through the Pashhow Marshlands.



Notable monsters of the area include the Goobbue (complete with layered rows of teeth like a shark...



...and series mainstay the Malboro.





Nothing is really all that amazing about the part of Beadeaux we'll be visiting, so here's a picture of one of the summon avatars Garuda instead.



The magicite is in a sub area of Beadeaux called Qulun dome. Normally you'd have to do some tedious fetch quests back and forth to Jeuno to bet beyond this door, but they've been done already so its a quick in and out for me.



Voila!



We find another one of Vana'diel's mysterious bone-like veins running beyond the door.



And inside of it, the first of our three magicites.

*cue flashback*



Young Raogrimm here is what the Galkan people refer to as their Talekeeper. As Galka are asexual, when they grow old they wander into the mountains and disappear. Within a year they return reincarnated as a child completely lost of any previous memories. The Talekeeper is special in that he retains the histories and teachings of all Galkan people when he is reborn making him wise well beyond his years.



*Flash forward to Palborough Mines in the future*

So the persecution of the Quadav was for nothing after all?



No, it turns out the "evil" Quadav were just trying to protect their cache of eggs.



*Flash forward to Xarcabard further still*

Raogrimm and Ulrich's dispute has come to a head.



But before Ulrich could land the killing blow Cornelia throws herself upon his sword!

(I know this is all kind of confusing but it'll make sense in time.)





Cornelia saves the Talekeeper's life and we return to the present, first magicite in hand.

Next time: Orc Central

The Archduke's "rear chamber"? I shouldn't make replies full of pervy comments....

...but sometimes it's just way too easy.

You end up beating the snot out of him, too, don't you?

I don't think there are any of the spines out in Pashhow itself, though it stands to reason there would be some somewhere between Konschtat and Rolanberry. The ones in Meriphataud are much more prominent.

Do these scenes play out the same in the Bastok mission line? oh dear god subligar nooooooo

Funny thing about the chap with the eyepatch: at the correct camera angle, you can see straight through him due to some problems with the polygons on his coat.

I always kinda assumed the "dragon spine" in Meriphataud Mts was exposed because of high wind erosion or something...

The Airship Pass is really not a big deal in modern FFXI, but when I first got my airship pass, oh what a relief to be able to actually get between the four cities! At the time, there were much fewer travel options. I had a pretty disorganized linkshell at the time, but I did manage to get through this mission with their help and that's about as far as I ever got, until joining the TT linkshell. Before this mission, I had to be very careful where I set my homepoint.

In most final fantasies, the airship is when the game opens up and a symbol of your freedom to explore the world. I felt like FFXI was the same way. Today, the airship is almost completely obsolete. There is almost always a faster way to get between cities than the airships, and I think that is kinda sad... (though a lot more convenient)

Yeah, between the occasional Explorer Moogles and whatever else, the airship is pretty redundant. I do like how the airships played into the overall leisurely pace of early FFXI.

I barely remember getting my regular airship pass--I much more vividly remember getting the keys for the Kazham pass. Which more or less entailed standing at the zone line while a high-level friend with Treasure Hunter got them for me.

One time, I was doing something or other in Fort Ghelsba (trying mining in one of its side areas I think) when I came across some poor lv. 20-something player trying to solo the Kazham key quest. I was RDM/WHM or WHM at the time and offered to port him around and help him get all his keys. Speaking of leisure! Though it didn't take all that long in the grand "350+ days of playtime" scheme of things, and the player seemed happy for the help.