Below is a message I gave to my fellow Linkshell members almost a month ago.
Happy New Year.
If the holidays were good to you, that is great.
After much deliberation and discussion with my fiance, Foulei, we have decided to take a break from FFXI for a while. The way the game has been lately, both social and gameplay, it has raised many questions and uncertainties, not to mention confusion. The game content raises many questions; tons of gear pouring out but little in content. Final Fantasy 14 showed promise but after its release it was as if.....well.....all of the worst dates you have had all combined into one MMO such as 14; saying this took great effort I assure you but like the way it is and what FFXI seems to be for the time being, its like a shiny new car but without an engine to run it. Abyssea is a two-way streak in my eyes. It has given us enough to keep things going for a good while and that is fine but it has made a majority of players lazy and complacent, making it difficult to do things outside of Abyssea such as leveling, seeking help, to name a few things. Keep this in mind, I say this to not ruin any fun that everyone else is having with it, it is just how I feel right now with FFXI.
Ironically with the disbandment of The Interlopers LS and things are running quiet with a group that Fou and I are with for the time being, I have free time and I could do things like skill up, attempt to level a job, that kind of thing. But, after much thinking and putting time off the game these past few weeks short of helping some old friends with missions it has been feeling good to stem away from the game for a while. I myself can't make up my mind on what to do at this point anyway first since there is a list as long as my arm on what need to still be accomplished on this game. With all of this said it is best to just step back and take a break to clear my head as well as devote time to other things while doing so.
I also say all of this to clear any assumptions that were made last time. I myself have the honesty and decency to go out of my way and give my reasons to my friends and aquaintances for my actions. There's people out there who don't even do that. This is a game that involves teamwork and in order for a team to function one of the important foundations of that is communication. And I have been in groups that have had such poor communication it left people with bridges burned, confused and cheated. In conclusion to this matter, I have no matches, torches, flamethrowers, etc. Let's leave it at that since I've said my peace.
As for the Walk of Echos group that BB, Minsc and Oz I will have to step down for the time being for all the reasons I have mentioned until I return, whenever that will be.
On a much more good note we have had the chance to play the DC Universe Online beta and also the full release as of yesterday. The game has been fun, and quite a dream come true for me on a personal note since I've been wanting to try out a Superhero MMO for years. I had a hard time to decide on City of Heroes and Champions Online when I tried them both out as a trial run. While those are good games DC Universe presented an opportunity to start out fully fresh with everyone giving it a shot. The gameplay is fantastic; not really much grinding at all in levels since you get exp doing missions and there's pleanty of that so far. The powers and skills you set and enhance determines your role as you progress as well. There is actually a good PVP system in here too which I haven't tried yet (fou has though). From what I've been told about it you have to be tough to deal with it since everyone and your grandmother will be fighting each other. The servers come in PVP or PVE and you can choose between the two. I don't know yet if you can hop back and forth though. I doubt it. I will devulge more info about DC universe online on my blog, facebook and here, moreso on facebook and my blog.
Well until then everyone, see you when I see you.
Peace.
-Rusty.
Even before I wrote this there was a minor issue with the group as well but to be peaceful about the situation and with a lot of uncertainties of FFXI as a whole right now, I took advantage of the situation and decided to take a break from it, probably indefinately. If I do decide to quit the game, the last thing I will do will be the missions on both Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess.
Heck, I may just change servers entirely! I really don't know right now but it is best to just take a break from it with all the changes going on.
As for this blog I will keep it but it will be dedicated to other things, not just my adventures of FFXI. From this point I will make it into a Social/Geek website.
Firstly bear with me in advance if this thread may start of a little vauge but I will do my best to give you as much information as I can about DC Universe Online and I will post pictures and a few vids up later today.
I managed to play the beta for a week or two before its full release and purchased it since I've been wanting to play a Superhero MMO for quite sometime now.
There is a great degree of addiction to this game, heh.
To sum up the plot real quick it goes like this: In the near future the villans and heroes make a final stand with each other, with Lex Luthor being the victor...or so he thought. Then good ol' Brainiac steps in and takes over but not before stealing his item(s) called Exobytes. He then travels to the past which is present day, releaseas them into the earth.
Here's the catch; The exobytes contains powers from both heroes and villans. When it is released into the earth many humans are bestowed powers. The future Lex Luthor warns the League about the upcoming threat before he takes his leave. Its up to the League to guide the people with their newfound powers and guide them in both use of their powers and to combat the threat of Brainiac as well as other villans.
At this point you start off with the character customization. It's easy in a nutshell though not quite as diverse as City of Heroes(coh) and Champions online(CO). You can make a custom to suit whatever you want or you can pick a premade set up based upon ispirational characters like Superman or Mister Freeze.
At that point you can select a weapons type (brawling, hand to hand, one hand, dual weild, etc), primary and secondary powers/skills. Keep in mind the powers you pick will determine your role, with your secondary powers playing a more active role as your primary will help you with traversing and combat. For example when I made one my first character I chose Staff/Acrobatics/Nature; a defensive healier. My partner on the other hand chose Two Hand*ex; great axe/Acrobatics/Fire; an offensive tank. As you progress you can manipulate your powers to be either offensive or defensive or something in between and you gain more abilities and skills along the way. Armor and weapons help influence your stats, much like how it is here on ffxi so you want to be wary of your role and the stats to make sure you pick the right weapons and armor needed of course.
Also, during the process you can choose which mentor to have and what allegence you want. The mentors are Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman for good, Lex, The Joker, and Circe for evil. Your missions will be different with whom you are with while some missions will be the same epending on the situations.
Once all this is set up, you start off trying to escape one of Brainiac's ships. You get a vocal advisor to help you get through the ship and off to freedom. Throughout the game you'll have many guides to help you and send you off missions like this. You will get rewards doing missions such as money, weapons and armor as well as a huge chunk of exp and you dont lose exp when you die. I forgot about that; the exp grind is very easy and freelowing, not like a grindfest that we would deal with. You can also do a majority of missions by yourself or with a friend.
There are two different types of servers; PVP and PVE. I'm only on the PVP since I want to enjoy the game without having some joeschmo attacking me out of the blue every 5 seconds on PVE whereas on PVP you can set up a match with a person and fight 1 on 1, 2 on 2, whatever. I have yet to try it out still but my partner tells me its great but you need to invest in PVP gear since your armor and weapons get damaged in the game. You can repair them though, and while it is not costly it can be if you decide to be hardcore. Thankfully the economy is not influenced by players like how we have the AH and that is influenced by players.
The only downside I've witness is a few minor bugs in the game such as not getting the credit for the some of the missions you would win which my partner has had a few problems with and has reported it to the developers and once in a while my character would get "stuck" if i did certain actions like lifting something but it has been fixed apparently over the last few days. I am sure the Sony and the DCUO team are fixing and addressing these issues as time goes on. I for one have been patient.
So far, the level cap is around 30 from the last time I checked and they have added some additional content. It is 15 bucks a month and you can make up to 6 characters per server with no additonal fees. You can also set up for a lifetime suscription of 200 bucks but personally I'd rather wait until how things play out much further with DCUO in the coming months before I shell out that kind of money. The first month is free to play but you have to buy the game to try it out rather than download a trial version, which I'm sure they will do hopefully.
So there you have it in a nutshell. I personally love the game, me being a comic book geek :-P At first I was going to try out CoH or CO but since this came out it made more sense to me to have a fresh start with something new.
My partner's Character.
Costume Change customizations.
As you go along the game you can "collect" the gear you obtain. What this means is even if you decide to sell it your menu "memorizes" what you have sold and you can therefore customize how you want your character to look even though you may have something else equipped. Its to generate a more uniqueness of your character while equipping the appropriate stats you may have.:
Fire Tanking. Though he died a few times he did last quite longer than most other job combinations, save Ice which I've heard, is another tank type you can use.
Mission demo. This was on the beta version, with my character here having some fun. Needless to say I was rather levid when I couldn't keep my character from the beta, I got lucky getting the Deadman Hoodie dammit lol :-P
TotalBuscuit's thoughts.
A person me and my partner subscribed too on youtube, a show he hosts. He's raised some really good points about MMOs in general and the beta, etc. It's a bit long but definitely listen to what he has to say; very sage words if you ask me.
I will be posting additional pictures later tonight sometime so stay tuned :)
Tale of the tail
14 years ago
