FFXI: Seekers of Adoulin expansion announced (yes, in 2012)

[Xellos2099]

$10 for the ultimate seeker? Well i guess it could happen in May since that when first of the final story is coming out

 

[darkewaffle]

The graphics are dated, well the textures in particular, but it still has great design and makes the most out of it's limitations imo. The hills and windmills in Konschtat will always always be one of my favorite places in any game. But if you use Windower and enable 'super sampling' (or modify the background resolution in the registry yourself - which is what I prefer, I don't like Windower's ingame settings so much) it still looks pretty decent. Highly recommend doing that. Windower can also unlock the FPS cap to run at 60.

I don't know if Abyssea is required for Adoulin to be installed but I wouldn't skip it either. It's good for levelling and with the latest patch the 'abyssea' set gear ("empyrean") can now be brought up to current item levels as well. Plus you aren't going to save much by purposefully trying to not get it as far as I can tell.

 

[robvp]

$10 for the ultimate seeker? Well i guess it could happen in May since that when first of the final story is coming out

I bought mine at around the $13 dollar mark, i think it was during the first christmas sale after it was released

 

[robvp]

The graphics are dated, well the textures in particular, but it still has great design and makes the most out of it's limitations imo. The hills and windmills in Konschtat will always always be one of my favorite places in any game. But if you use Windower and enable 'super sampling' (or modify the background resolution in the registry yourself - which is what I prefer, I don't like Windower's ingame settings so much) it still looks pretty decent. Highly recommend doing that. Windower can also unlock the FPS cap to run at 60.

I don't know if Abyssea is required for Adoulin to be installed but I wouldn't skip it either. It's good for levelling and with the latest patch the 'abyssea' set gear ("empyrean") can now be brought up to current item levels as well. Plus you aren't going to save much by purposefully trying to not get it as far as I can tell.

The dunes and the chocobo ride from Windurst to Jeuno were especially relaxing for me, something about the music + ambient sound

 

[darkewaffle]

https://store.na.square-enix.com/pr...timate-collection-seekers-edition-pc-download

$10 for Ultimate Seeker edition

Edit: $5 for Seekers of Adoulin alone and they even discounted world transfers to $9, thats pretty nifty

 

[darkewaffle]

First 'third' of Rhapsodies of Vanadiel released. I haven't heard anything about the story content itself yet (aside from that its easy) but theres been a ton of buzz around the new Key Item rewards from completing the first sets of missions that do some pretty gamechanging things like major reductions to time gates for Assault and Salvage and Dynamis. Lots of gameplay enhancements/additions as well.

Really curious to see where this all leads in ~6 months.

 

[darkewaffle]

And so, Tuesday 11/10/15 marked what is most likely to be the final major content update to FFXI. I don't think people should consider the game 'dead' by any means however - what they've truly done with these updates in XI's 'twilight' (beyond the round-up story and a TON of utility/quality of life enhancements [AoE effect circles, native windowed mode, native buff timers, high res screenshots, and more]) is make the game incredibly accessible. Trusts now go virtually anywhere and you can create an absolute myriad of party assortments with them to compliment any character. Most time gates have been removed or drastically cut down, most recent content now scales depending on the number of participants, the world can be traversed in a matter of moments with home points/survival guides/geomagnetic founts and more. XP and CP have been buffed tremendously. Non NPC-based quests that you can activate and participate in wherever and whenever are plentiful and provide to provide bonus XP and "Sparks" - a currency you can convert to gil by NPCing items or simply spend to buy an array of gear from 1-99.

What they've really done, imo, is make it so that even if in some day in the distant future you're one of only ten people on a server... you can still play. You can see and do virtually everything on your own. That's not to say it wouldn't be better/easier with other players or that it'll be quite equally accessible to all jobs (or that it won't still take a long time to get things like Relic/Mythic/Empyrean weapons), but still, it's pretty neat. And impressive given how the game 'always was'. Essentially you can play it like a single player game if you chose to. Which I think is part of their long term plan. That's going to be crucial to the success of whatever mobile presence they're planning for FFXI imo (which little is still known of).

Personally I plan to be subscribed til the very end lol, whenever that may be. I still really want to finish all the main stories at least - I'm a little ways into ToAU and have done virtually none of Adoulin. WotG was a chore but well worth it in the end, Lillisette is the best. Plus I love playing DNC enough that even just grinding some Job Points now and again is fun.

Also on a bright note the there was a recent announcement.

As announced in March, we will continue minor version updates through and beyond April 2016. Each month we will bring you battlefields, Record of Eminence additions, balance adjustments, and bug fixes. Vana'diel's story does not end here, and in the near future we are planning a version update for December. We will have further updates in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned for more.

Long live Vana'diel!

 

[Silverforce11]

FFXI used to be fun when it was hard and challenging. Fighting Incredibly Tough in a party to level up is fun because teamwork = fun in MMO.

Basically each mob for exp pull was like fighting a Boss battle in other MMOs. One wrong move and team wipes, death leading to exp loss, even drops in levels (oh crap, now you can't equip that level 47 item? lolol)..

Crafting was meaningful since its entirely play driven economy. Then as the expansions came and they chased after WoW's success, each update dumbed down the game. Made leveling easier, quicker, made quest items vastly better than crafted items...

 

[darkewaffle]

That's definitely part of what made it so compelling initially, though times and players change. If it hadn't modernized and eased up on some things I think it probably would have truly 'died' already. Or at least be much, much closer to doing so.

I'm on the very last stages of RoV, I think there's just one more encounter and then some cutscenes. It hasn't been particularly 'moving' but some of the cutscenes (particularly the actiony ones) have been very cool. It's awesome seeing Lilisette and Prishe fight in tandem.

What I think is more interesting than the Iroha/save the future arc however is how they've used it as a metaphor for the future of the game itself. Without giving much away basically Vanadiel is faced with being consumed by "The Void" (when it is one day all 'turned off') but it can be protected (the game will continue) by the "Winds of Time" which blow when the forces of light and darkness interact and clash (when players adventure through the world).

Essentially, as long as there are adventurers for Vana'diel then there will be a Vana'diel for adventurers. It's something of a stirring sentiment imo and a very appropriate (and probably final) send-off.

 

[Entity23]

I do agree. I quit when camping HNM was the thing to do. The only thing really. 3 King windows while Tiamat, Cerb and Khim windows were also open was basically camping 24/7. Became incredibly stressful.

I will say that Sky was my favorite area released. I guess it was when I actually got social and joined a prominent Sky shell and made a lot of good friends from around the world. Since then I was just chasing that feeling.