Friday, April 3, 2009

Semi-frustrated/bored of FFXI again

Yes, I'm bored of FFXI again... seems like I go through cycles of lots of interest, then getting sick of stuff and backing off again.

Let's see... what's annoying me lately...
1. More people leaving, and not by getting banned
2. Super-low annoying drop rates as usual
3. Losing fights where we should be winning
4. Difficulty of gathering people to do things

Of these, some are just seasonal... #1 & #4 are... well, I guess related. As people stop logging in for one reason or another, it gets harder to do things. Some people I'm hoping will come back SOON (/stare Vanh), while some others are just LAZY and don't even login without me bugging them even though they know they have events! (/stare Zurar & Ghiren)

#3 losing fights is... kinda related to #1 & #4 too. Another bad series of floors in Nyzul means that we can't get to the boss floor (Zurar is cursed). One more person would have made a difference during our last Omega. Losing another pop set like that is very annoying, especially since the last pop set dropped crap >.> For someone at the top of the list for Limbus, it seems pretty hard to actually use those points!

#2 is... SE as usual -.- Low Dynamis drops, horrible ZNM drops are normal matter of business... However, some things did look up for a brief period of time...

On the flip side...
Some nice things did happen at least. Nyzul went 3/4 for item drops, with Dexie finishing her full 15 armor pieces last night. We also got two Askar pieces, which is a nice change from the Goliard & Denali pieces that we've been getting lately. While I appreciate getting armor, the fact is that we have 4 people who want Askar, compared to just 2/3 for Golaird and Denali, so it would be nice to get more Askar drops overall.

Also in Nyzul, finally a Wamoura fight ended with me picking up Exuviation. At long last! The mob actually used it just before it died, so I guess I lucked out there. Next time I come BLU to some big event, I'll probably end up killing myself as I'll want to experiment with it... This spell is Erase + Cure II in one, and supposedly it generates a ton of enmity. Supposedly if I add in Diffusion and use it on a party, it would generate as much hate as Invincible. I'm thinking I'll show up at the next Mahjlaef the Paintorn fight and see how crazy it gets.

Also, finally Connie & Zuzu got their first pieces from ZNMs >.> Their lists are pretty difficult to complete, but I'm glad that they are finally getting some pieces...

Finding motivation
Bigger problem is finding motivation to get around and do things... It's getting a little tiring to login to do the same things over and over again without much progress for anyone involved. Needs more drops... let's start finishing some things at least >.>

Last night I very nearly didn't bother doing Nyzul as I was getting tired of the disappointment. Also, we didn't have the usual people, and I wasn't in the mood of checking out the expertise and explaining Nyzul's do's and don'ts to another person. No offense to Caselin, but I've found that every group does things just slightly differently, and Nyzul is something where every second counts (as we saw with our win last night with 3 seconds left on the clock). If Ghiren didn't login to AIM right then, I'd probably have started watching TV. Also, Karou, please go read up on lamp floors in Nyzul. It does matter to have an extra set of eyes out there searching the floor for lamps, especially if it is a large 5-lamp floor. Also, we do not know what type of lamp floor it is until we find and check a lamp, so you can stop asking once we zone in.

Einherjar is an event that I probably won't end up going to much simply because the time is right during my dinnertime. Dynamis is another event that has a start time around my dinnertime, but Dynamis is much longer, so I can have dinner and come back later. Einherjar is 30 minutes at most, and even accounting for the gather/travel time, the start or end times is during my dinner -.- I don't like missing dinner :P

Job wise... I still have a few more merits for Dancer to finish off... I'm also interested in doing some Scholar & Blue Mage merits... I've just been tired and haven't bothered seeking at all. For Paladin, that's another thing I'm having problems finding motivation to do... Sad part that it's easy too... I just need to find some time, then buy some armor and a sword.

Get off your butts!
Meanwhile, here's a /prod to some people out there... specifically, Conceptx, Karou, and Zurar! Go get you CoPs done! You're not only missing out on content, but also on some of the better gear (Rajas Ring anyone? Also, Tav Ring? Wanna save on Warp scrolls?) and what I think is the best storyline of the 4 major storylines in FFXI (Zilart, CoP, ToAU and WotG)

Also, consider the following: You each have 2 level 75 jobs, and you have people who can help you. Further more, since level sync was released, you don't even need to buy level capped gear! Compared to when me and Utty did it, you're in a much better position! When we did it:
- We were on our first jobs
- We were not even level 75. I didn't even get past Genkai 5 when I finished CoP
- When we had to get help, people had to mule or buy level capped equipment
- From start to finish, it took us only 2 months of meeting once a week. During which time I had to exp heavily in order to even keep up with the level capped missions.

So get out there and do it... It's simple really, set a day & time to gather together for a specific fight. Before the fight, it is up to you individually to go get the necessary cutscenes done. Ask the rest of us before hand to help you with the fight. Go buy or farm the necessary materials before every major fight, get a few fights done at once, then do all the cutscenes on your own Here is a good guide for everything you need in order to pull this off:
http://promathia.runtimerepairs.com/


4 comments:

Zurar said...

Sounds kinda like how i feel atm... FFXI seems to have lost it's hold over me lately in that I only enjoy it during events such as Nyzul or ZNMs, and even then I only keep my account active because i can do them with friends. WoW is also losing my interest rapidly and I've only got an active account there for the same reason i do FFXI... friends. If i were smart though, i'd cancel both so that i can stop turning in projects that are mediocre (at least by my own standards anyway... the teachers love em for some reason ><) and start turning in better projects... but first i need to actually say no to some people (myself included). Not sure when that will happen.

Anonymous said...

No one is on when I ask for CoP help, and I took a 4-2 Party at random and guess what... Morons. Nothing but fucking idiots. When you lose easy PM Fights over and over and over and over, you lose your motivation to give a flying fuck about completing it. I don't do stuff w/o friends because I lose that way. Right now I just want to finish ZMs. I'm on the last fight, Crystal Nexus and I desperatly want to win that fight so hard. My 3rd finished Storyline. Then I can focus on Wings/Crystalline/Promathia. But also it's really hard to do at work. If I do farming or questing or shit I can get away with it because I don't have to pay attention. Although I have to sneak behind everyone's back at work.

I've got a bad history on XI of getting fucked over on missions and it doesn't make me want to finish any /sigh

Dex helped me farm a coffer last night for my map and I'm so greatful to her for that. A coffer that Remmie and I couldn't find years ago and I finally got my map, got my outpost warp to Vollbow and even visited the cermet headstone for the flagellant's rope. But that's a coffer vs PM. When I have open timeslots, no one's around, and I am not blaming anyone for that. It's how life is and I accept that. I wasn't meant to finish these missions and that's okay. Aht Urghan was more special to me because I kept up at the start and as for Wings, same thing but I fell behind and trying to catch up sucks a lot of positive attitude out of me. I would rather get FL rank so I can help you get captain. I was so sad when I gave up those 2 runs in Nyzul that you failed on and It wasn't your fault, but I felt really bad for you. If I had been there we might have made a difference.

I'm starting to give up on this game.... All I am is a burden to people when I ask for help. Why did I say that you ask? Because that's what everyone else in Aht Urghan says to me when I dare ask for assistance. It's become depressing.

Zurar said...

"I'm starting to give up on this game.... All I am is a burden to people when I ask for help. Why did I say that you ask? Because that's what everyone else in Aht Urghan says to me when I dare ask for assistance. It's become depressing."

Funny... that's the exact opposite of how I see you... I always feel like the one hindering people. Though I do have moments where I seem to be able to concentrate much better than others and can occasionally take charge if need be. Though these moments are rare and I'm not sure what triggers them yet (i used to be extremely self motivated and preceptive in the past... dunno what happened). It's likely just too much stress though that prevents it.

I'd love to help you anytime you plan to go too, but, I just have too much time tied up in either doing homework or at least trying to motivate myself to do it. My schedule fluctuates so much it's hard to set times right now as well. If doing each mission didn't take so long and I could just log on when I have time and do them, I'd have had them done long ago, but getting a party setup takes too much time and I seem to have trouble getting the respect required to be a leader of any events ie: people don't show or drop after a week or 2 or just plain don't follow directions from me and so I lose confidence in myself. Even though it's pretty normal now it seems... regardless who's leader, I also don't have time to do it... and so here I sit. As previously stated... the only reason i still keep my account active is because I have friends in game and I hate to disappoint them by leaving... even though I really should focus on schoolwork.

MMOs seem to be a hole that no-one ever comes out of until it's filled in (ie: the game servers are shut-down) and even then, some seem to be buried alive (move on to other MMOs) in the world of online gaming. The only ones that escape are those that aren't afraid to climb the corpses of their fallen comrades to escape the clutches that are the MMO addiction.

Sorry for the graphic depiction... but in all reality... that's pretty much how they work... and here I am, going to school for game design with hopes to make my own, lol!

Anonymous said...

Zu! PM4-2 next tuesday You're sorry butt will be there. Then the tuesday after that is a Crystal Nexus run I hope to set up. Failing a fight that should be easy sucks. I'm tired of random n00bs failing. You are exepct from the random n00bs, zu, you random n00b :P