I'm so glad I had more time when I was younger to wait around for parties, if the game was released today in the original state I don't think I'd make it very far at all. Luckily I got a few friends playing part way thru including one that tanked so it was easier to set things up ourselves. A little off topic but auto-translate was so much fun to play with and we would use phrases even outside of the game like \[Hello!\] and \[What's the battle plan?\] in our chats.
I remember just hanging out in Valkurn Dunes as a lvl 13 THF, with my IRL friend a Galka Monk, back in like 2004. Just making friends with other folks with flags up, sitting around... . Waiting for hours. By the time someone was finally willing to [invite] us, it was like 2 in the morning haha. And we were total n00bs, no idea really what we were doing. But once we started fighting as a party, I loved it. I even got to take turns pulling with my boomerang. My friend finally crashed at like 4 am, but I couldnt give it up. I had gone too far and was having so much fun. He logged off and shortly thereafter, I finally leveled up enough to learn Sneak Attack, and suddenly, I could bring something to the table. It was so motivating and rewarding, and my new friends all encouraged me and valued me. It really was an amazing, unforgettable experience.
Man, to relive those late nights as a kid again, am I right?
I have a screenshot of my non lfp roaming as brd with multiple party invites in seconds. Ngl compared to playing thf or mnk brd was awesome. But just trying to live my life sometimes w/o being anon.
I remember that leveling WHM sub. Like I’m not trying to be a turkey but the minute you go not /anon you get tell spammed for parties, if not tele or raise requests. Or even plucked out of existing parties 🤣
Ha I remember those days fondly. Tells while in parties when a different group wanted to pluck you because you were 1. A well sought after job and 2. Good at it.
Logging in as MNK:
...!!!
...no response...
Literally could not bribe my way into a goddamn group in the Dunes or Qufim and gave up on the job because of it. lolMNK. le sigh...
Me and a good friend of mine duo'd DRG for a while and had a fuckin blast. I think at first he went /WAR and I went /WHM, but I switched to /DNC when it became viable which actually was really dope and fun, kept us going with little to no downtime but man the odd looks I used to get lol
I honestly dont remember what he subbed later on but I know he ditched WAR at some point, I just cannot for the life of me remember what he switched it out for. It was kind of our side gig so we only got into the 50s before he ended up quitting the game (and me not long after) but would have been fun to get it to cap.
Alexander eh? How far back did you play? I was an Elvaan mostly RDM named Dracion from Alexander and I played from just after NA launch till most of the way thru Treasures of Aht Urhgan. I came back to play about 5 years ago but a friend lost my character and Alexander had already been closed anyways so I just started over.
Dude wow that hit me like a thunderbolt. I also started on Alexander back at NA launch, and that name is etched into memory. And I'll admit I was a kid and no good at the game, but I was logged in constantly because I was obsessed with Final Fantasy, the world of XI, and was completely content with spending every free second there outside of school, even if the game was too complex or confusing to me haha. And I made so many friends just by being around and interacting with the community all of the time .
Just curious... Race and nationality? Primary job?
Name was Dracion, Elvaan male face 6B (red hair, pompadour or rooster style) started as a RDM from San d'Oria. That was my primary job though I did jump on the WAR/NIN hype train late in my play time (vivid memories of endlessly chaining birds with a BRD friend of mine until school let out and it started to get crowded). I feel like I changed to Bastok as well but I know I finished as rank 10 Windurst (fairy certain I had both the Kingdom and Federation Aketon).
My primary group of friends were Vivejun, Camaki, Crushbent and 1 friend whos name escapes me at the moment. I wish I remembered more names but my primary sky LS leader was named Sayan (or some variation of that). One more name I remember was a Galka named Negrodamus who was forced to change his name to AshleyLarry (said he misspelled AshyLarry from Chappelle's Show).
I remember plenty of days where I would just spend time in game talking with friends and helping out people and not really getting much progress done but it was one of the best experiences I ever had gaming. Even coming back years later was still fun playing with a friend and being able to speed thru all the story I missed after leaving the game. Sorry if the response is a little long but I could talk about the game forever if I tried to!
Dude it IS the guy I was thinking of. I literally could have described you perfectly and the exact same way to this day without you even saying it. I actually was brand new to the game and sucked and you came along and gave me some gear and healed me. I thought you looked so cool in the robe and as an Elevaan and everything that as soon as you left, I actually logged out and created a new character lol. An Elevaan RDM (exactly the same, but shorter and with the blonde hair instead of red).
It's remarkable. I see people all the time thinking about people from their past or those special moments when someone comes along and makes your day. And as a 12 year old kid, that moment has stuck with me and weirdly I'll never forget the details of that day. This was all in East Ronfaure btw. It's funny you mention just hanging out and helping people because that is exactly what happened here. Thanks for that memory dude. Was a really cool moment and really what the spirit of that game is all about, in my opinion.
I'm so glad I could be a part of your happy memories of the game, that will stick with me more than anything else I accomplished in the game. Amazing how small the world can be sometimes. Ronfaure was a zone I really liked, the music is one of my top tracks I listen to. How long did you end up playing the game for? I was a little older than you at the time, I hope you were able to learn and meet some of your goals in the game and make lots of friends.
I eventually settled on a Hume Thief after creating like 20 different characters lol. I played all the way up to lvl 40 something and got the Marauder's Knife AF. I desperately wanted the artifact armor but the game was so insanely difficult back then, it was something I never accomplished. I probably played for a few years off and on, I was mostly casual and liked just hanging out and meeting people. I think I stopped around 2008, when I became 18 and started doing things more in real life. Then laid dormant for many years and came back a couple times years later as an adult. The game had changed a ton. Back last summer though, I did finally go and get all of my THF AF gear and that was still very rewarding. Still a lot of cool people playing too that want to help you. It isn't quite as magical as it used to be back in the day, but I am so grateful the game is still running and there is still a community. Did you ever go back?
I did eventually come back about 5 years ago, a friend started playing again so I jumped on. I had to start a new character but I was able to experience the story again including all the new content I never did. The game was a bit different with trusts and the new level cap but still alot of fun. I was able to solo most of the Sky god pops and we killed Kirin and actually got his Osode to drop. One other goal I was able to do was farm for Excalibur relic even if it wasn't the best anymore (or ever) it was one thing I always wanted. Unfortunately life happened and I haven't played in a few years but I still have alot of fond memories of my time back. I'm glad you could come back and make it further in the game, it sounds like you character was still there. Enjoy your time playing if you are still active.
Congrats that's awesome. I can relate to the feeling of getting the stuff you used to only dream of. One of the first things I bought when I came back as an adult was the scorpion harness haha, despite it being more or less obsolete now. Unfortunately, I had no clue how to even begin to find my old account or even what info I would have used, so I had to restart. But with the new system and QoL enhancements, and a couple new helpful friends, I was able to breeze thru leveling and made it to where getting the AF gear and stuff was relatively easy. It was still fun though.
I'm offline for now, but I guarantee I'll be back eventually so long as the game keeps running. Can't stay away forever and don't want to either. If you ever come back, give me a holler. Would love to reunite all these years later!
They do make it easier than ever to get started once you get the controls down in the game, but it was like riding a bike and it all came back to me soon. It's good to take a break sometimes and it doesn't seem like the game is ending any time soon so I'm sure you'll get play again. They do have free log in times during the year so you can always hop on and check things out. I forget what server I am on now but it would be cool see you in game if we happened to be on the same one. I'm sure I'll see you around reddit and feel free to message me anytime if you want.
Yea I had been gone before it happened but I just looked and they merged with Shiva in 2011. I know they had to do it for population reasons but it would have been nice to be able to come back and see old friends I had made on Alexander. Chances are most had stopped playing or transferred anyways and a friend lost my character after I let him use it as a mule when I stopped (was sad about it but no hard feelings).
Back then you waited maybe hours for a group, then traveled to the camp for another 30 min or longer. Arrive and hit chain 3 and then tank or healer says "sorry, I gtg." Group disbands.
Ok that's a bad experience and didn't happen that often to me at least. This can also be avoided by having a static party as well. I may be a masochist, but I liked it. You may often make friends with your party members or even become LS buddies. The travel time and sneak/invis to camp was an achievement in itself and would often have to help others if they were unfamiliar or did not have a map for the area. You may have felt immersion, riding that airship, taking that boat, or renting that chocobo. The game world felt large and vast.
I dunno I am kinda rambling, but I feel like mmos don't have this anymore. I've tried many, but an example is World of Warcraft now. It is just auto create a group using group finder, instant fast travel to dungeon, you attempt to say hello or chat in the group and people ignore you, and heaven forbid you make a single mistake or they don't like you, you are kicked. I remember having a ton of friends in game and on my friends list and the game gradually changed and I became more and more alienated. I have 28 friends on my friends list and I haven't talked to them in years, some I don't even know who they are sadly. I feel like mmos used to be about the journey and now it's just the destination and that next dopamine hit.
I digress, what are some of your LFG stories?
Jungle party, rent a Choco, spend 10 minutes running out, party disbands.
Dragoon LFG, look for party, fall asleep after 3 hours of waiting, find missed tells.
Back in my Pld days in the very early days, I had made 2 static pals... One was a JP Sam who invited me to odd zones. The parties mostly spoke in Japanese and he translated to me in broken English.
I remember one party where there seemed to be a LOT of discussion at camp. No one pulling, just them talking. Finally I saw an "OK" show up in the chat. My JP pal said "Party worry you no Japan. I say not worry. She okay to die. I see before. They happy now."
The other was my Drk counterpart. Party members we ran in to more than once called us the ying yang siblings. One girl character, one guy character. Both red haired Elvaans. One all in white and one all black. It was cute.
I was extremely lucky in that we had a 4-man static of IRL friends with tank, heals and pulls covered so all we needed to find was a pair of DDs to fill in. Used to play every Tuesday night from after work until like 10pm and then go HAM on Friday nights until like 4am or even later. I had a ventrilo server running on a decrepit media center PC so was really pretty tight and unless things went really sideways we were always pretty productive because of it. Even if all the primary camps were totally locked up we could 4-man somewhere off the beaten path and still make progress (albeit at a slower pace), honestly I had a lot more fun doing that then the traditional boring ass camps that everyone did at a given level range because at a certain point you're like "christ im so sick of the goddamn jungles" or whatever.
But goddamn, so much of playing this game was just preparing yourself to actually play the game. Like I remember at my peak (I quit right as they started raising the level caps) I had 4 mules that were stationed in Sandy, Windy, Bastok and Jeuno so I could access all the AH markets as they werent linked yet then. All of them had all the expansion quests done which was brutal and I had a crystal mule, crafting/food/consumables mule, My 38-75 gear mule, and my 1-37 gear mule. I would spend no less than 45 minutes just bouncing shit around and managing my auctions (thank god for FFXIAH for that shit lol) before we even started making our way to camp which of course could take 20-30 minutes on top of that. Run around and recharge all your bands, pick up a reraise scroll and an instant warp scroll for good measure, make sure you have foods for the upcoming exp session lol...
Then when it was all done at the end of the night, another half hour muling all your loot around the goddamn world so you could keep your main light cuz nothing sucked more than seeing "\_\_\_ doesn't meet the requirements to receive whatever, whatever has been lost" when money was so damn hard to come by so you wanted to hold onto as much crap as you could to try and sell it off.
Games like classic FFXI just wouldn't work today. The grind was just insane but goddamn was it addicting and I still miss that shit like crazy despite the fact that it's been like 15 years since I played. Enough that here I am waxing nostalgic about the shit all these years after the fact lol
If you're talking about the current state if ffxi, you're not even playing the same game really. Not being a gatekeeper or anything like that just saying, in my day there was no crystal warping, no trusts, no vendors to just buy RSE from or any of that shit, it was all old school, camp your ass out for hours or days, spend an hour riding airship to get to camp...
The old school ffxi is just too much of a time sink for it to he viable today.
I’m not talking about current FFXI, I’m talking about classic era FFXI. The server has over 4k people with at least 2.5k -3k playing every night.
Just saying it may not be for you personally but for 2-3k players it’s just fine.
It was for me personally, I played from 04-09. I'm talking like if SE tried to launch a FFXI classic like Blizzard did with WoW, I would ve quite surprised if it would be worth the expense to them.
Its awesome that there are that many people still playing classic on private servers. I tried a few and none of them ever had more than a few dozen players on at a time.
What are you on now? Last one I remember the name was darkstar.
Ha, I was a Black Mage, I never got invited to anything between 60-72. Colibris forced me to learn how to solo on BST pets and Qiqirn RNGs. After 72 though Flan manaburns in Mt. Zhayolm weren't too uncommon.
Follow up:
- You join the party invite, it's only you and the Leader, who is likely on one of those jobs who struggle to get invites like DRG or SMN, and so they're making their own XP party.
- Leader: \[Looking for members.\]
- Awkward 5-10 minutes of silence, in which only one person joins, probably a BLU.
- Leader: Anyone know a tank or PL?
- Embarrassment and shame set in as you start asking in LS if anyone is willing to come tank or PL your party because you really want to get THF to 75.
- Leader finds a ninja tank. They're the only JP in the group.
- Chad friend from your LS comes to PL.
- You finally get to the camp, it's been an hour now.
- JP tank leaves because they don't like to have a PL.
- Leader tries to find a replacement but others get tired of the slow XP and leave too.
- Chad friend continues to PL you while you put your LFP flag back on.
Back in the day if you got a JP party you knew you were gonna get some levels. Thankfully I did PLD on my first job so it wasn’t bad but those poor DDs just sitting for hours was a sad sight. Good times
When I played most of them were far less hardcore. They usually only went a couple hours. The parties I organized we would go for 6, 8 whatever we could.
When some JPs adopted my DRK for two weeks. i don't know why. I guess I was just there in their time slot and passed their test, met their standard. But I enjoyed every minute until I missed a day and the party moved on.
Yup. And after your leave is approved, and the party lasted for 4-5 hours, good XP, and you just cannot stop smiling for having had the most wonderful day ever.
From what I remember, I always stayed up late even on school nights. 6 hours or less of sleep was not uncommon for me. Three hours less is not gonna hurt XD. I can never stay up anymore now though. I need my 6-8 hrs.
I played on Hades bk in the ps2 days. I mained DRK and have waited days in Jeuno falling asleep at ps only to wake up to the noise of a /w or sleeping through it. their were no Netflix back then to watch well you waited and did a lot of reading. COR came out and fell in love at first sight, The Pirate Life for me. Then I was a full 180 and couldn't be showing my info/online or walk in a major city without party invitation. I would go to the dune as COR/ WHMand power level people out side party as my R&R. I remembered the pain of leveling DRK. I made one of my best friends in that game a BST in the dune running for his life, lol. ended up PL ing him for many zones, then partying just the two of us or with other BST just to relax. Slower EXP, but it was nicer. Careful what you wish for is what I learned.
Then you get halfway there and get a message "nevermind, group disbanding"
Once I hit level 75 DRK I loved going /WHM and just healing random parties in the Dunes for awhile, or for friends while they were leveling there.
I love that feeling of being heroes as a high level walking around lower level party areas saving people from links, elemental aggros in crawlers nest, and raising dead people. No other MMOs could give that feeling anymore.
Yeah! It was always nice to be able to save people from all dying or having to try and run the mobs out of the zone! It also used to have a really good sense of not making you feel uber powerful. Even EP/DC enemies back then could totally wipe the floor with you if unprepared or on the wrong job
I never got huge into 11, but I remember getting into a party with some JP players in dunes and it was so efficient that I stayed up all night because I didn't want to leave.
I started as a thief to 30, then I did summoner to 75. Summoner was hit or miss; mostly a cure machine but once I hit 70 everyone wanted me for end game. RDM was my second 75 and boy was that easy to find parties lol.
My husband played a Taru MNK and could never get a party when flagged. As a WHM, I used to seek up and in my search comment it said that I came along with a MNK so he'd always be able to get an invite.
Many times I wouldn't get a join because I had that message and refused to party without him. He always told me to go ahead and I'm like um no lol. It didn't help he was a Taru but did write the Taru MNK guide on Alla.
I didn't have the patience to wait so very early on I started making groups. I got good at it, got a huge list of contacts and made tons of friends that way. Ended up with buddies far more advanced than I just because I was the guy that got shit organized and they just had to show up.
Later leveraged that into an endgame LS. We also did a bunch of stuff nobody else was really doing much do that got me more recruits. I don't even remember what some of it was called.
Y'all remember the cameras you could use to capture monsters then fight them in the arena?
I used to main DRG during the first few years of the game. And around mid-game it would take so long to try to put a party together.
So, Whenever I would switch to a tank role I always tried to grab a DRG just to ease their pain lol.
I miss it so much. It just wouldn't work anymore... being 15 yrs old, staying up all night, getting 2 hours of sleep before school...
Versus- 3 kids later, wife, career... lucky to get 3 hours straight on a weekend night. Boy I wish I could re live that time. No weight of the world, just wondering when I could use guillotine finally
I'm so glad I had more time when I was younger to wait around for parties, if the game was released today in the original state I don't think I'd make it very far at all. Luckily I got a few friends playing part way thru including one that tanked so it was easier to set things up ourselves. A little off topic but auto-translate was so much fun to play with and we would use phrases even outside of the game like \[Hello!\] and \[What's the battle plan?\] in our chats.
Still use autotranslate phrases IRL with my old FF crew
To this day a friend and I still use Huh?! to greet each other on Discord to see if we are active at the keyboard.
BRB Bio Break
AWAY. SHORT TIME. DRAIN. HUME. MAN. WORM.
w
There was always crafting/fishing/farming that you can do in your down time
[Galka] [meat] [pole] [Can I have it?] [You can have this.] [Hume] [back] [cave] JP players: wtf????
I remember just hanging out in Valkurn Dunes as a lvl 13 THF, with my IRL friend a Galka Monk, back in like 2004. Just making friends with other folks with flags up, sitting around... . Waiting for hours. By the time someone was finally willing to [invite] us, it was like 2 in the morning haha. And we were total n00bs, no idea really what we were doing. But once we started fighting as a party, I loved it. I even got to take turns pulling with my boomerang. My friend finally crashed at like 4 am, but I couldnt give it up. I had gone too far and was having so much fun. He logged off and shortly thereafter, I finally leveled up enough to learn Sneak Attack, and suddenly, I could bring something to the table. It was so motivating and rewarding, and my new friends all encouraged me and valued me. It really was an amazing, unforgettable experience. Man, to relive those late nights as a kid again, am I right?
Please take me back ;_;
Logging in as RDM:
-- Welcome to Alexander !! --
Pretty much lol RDM was my first 75, once I got refresh I never stopped getting invites lol
I think I did 41-50 in 2 days which is pretty insane with old world XP.
I have a screenshot of my non lfp roaming as brd with multiple party invites in seconds. Ngl compared to playing thf or mnk brd was awesome. But just trying to live my life sometimes w/o being anon.
I remember that leveling WHM sub. Like I’m not trying to be a turkey but the minute you go not /anon you get tell spammed for parties, if not tele or raise requests. Or even plucked out of existing parties 🤣
Ha I remember those days fondly. Tells while in parties when a different group wanted to pluck you because you were 1. A well sought after job and 2. Good at it.
Logging in as MNK:...!!!
...no response...
Literally could not bribe my way into a goddamn group in the Dunes or Qufim and gave up on the job because of it. lolMNK. le sigh...
Then, here I was, a Galka MNK/WAR, getting /tells asking if I could main tank for a desperate party. Fun times!
LolDrg was way worse
At least DRG was a monster solo machine. I solo’d pretty much all the way to 75 and it was a lot of fun(IMO).
Damn. My DRK/BLM at that time also couldnt get anything.
I, uh, why?
I was young and didn’t know better until a JP party told me “wwww drk/blm”
Me and a good friend of mine duo'd DRG for a while and had a fuckin blast. I think at first he went /WAR and I went /WHM, but I switched to /DNC when it became viable which actually was really dope and fun, kept us going with little to no downtime but man the odd looks I used to get lol I honestly dont remember what he subbed later on but I know he ditched WAR at some point, I just cannot for the life of me remember what he switched it out for. It was kind of our side gig so we only got into the 50s before he ended up quitting the game (and me not long after) but would have been fun to get it to cap.
Alexander eh? How far back did you play? I was an Elvaan mostly RDM named Dracion from Alexander and I played from just after NA launch till most of the way thru Treasures of Aht Urhgan. I came back to play about 5 years ago but a friend lost my character and Alexander had already been closed anyways so I just started over.
Dude wow that hit me like a thunderbolt. I also started on Alexander back at NA launch, and that name is etched into memory. And I'll admit I was a kid and no good at the game, but I was logged in constantly because I was obsessed with Final Fantasy, the world of XI, and was completely content with spending every free second there outside of school, even if the game was too complex or confusing to me haha. And I made so many friends just by being around and interacting with the community all of the time . Just curious... Race and nationality? Primary job?
Name was Dracion, Elvaan male face 6B (red hair, pompadour or rooster style) started as a RDM from San d'Oria. That was my primary job though I did jump on the WAR/NIN hype train late in my play time (vivid memories of endlessly chaining birds with a BRD friend of mine until school let out and it started to get crowded). I feel like I changed to Bastok as well but I know I finished as rank 10 Windurst (fairy certain I had both the Kingdom and Federation Aketon). My primary group of friends were Vivejun, Camaki, Crushbent and 1 friend whos name escapes me at the moment. I wish I remembered more names but my primary sky LS leader was named Sayan (or some variation of that). One more name I remember was a Galka named Negrodamus who was forced to change his name to AshleyLarry (said he misspelled AshyLarry from Chappelle's Show). I remember plenty of days where I would just spend time in game talking with friends and helping out people and not really getting much progress done but it was one of the best experiences I ever had gaming. Even coming back years later was still fun playing with a friend and being able to speed thru all the story I missed after leaving the game. Sorry if the response is a little long but I could talk about the game forever if I tried to!
Dude it IS the guy I was thinking of. I literally could have described you perfectly and the exact same way to this day without you even saying it. I actually was brand new to the game and sucked and you came along and gave me some gear and healed me. I thought you looked so cool in the robe and as an Elevaan and everything that as soon as you left, I actually logged out and created a new character lol. An Elevaan RDM (exactly the same, but shorter and with the blonde hair instead of red). It's remarkable. I see people all the time thinking about people from their past or those special moments when someone comes along and makes your day. And as a 12 year old kid, that moment has stuck with me and weirdly I'll never forget the details of that day. This was all in East Ronfaure btw. It's funny you mention just hanging out and helping people because that is exactly what happened here. Thanks for that memory dude. Was a really cool moment and really what the spirit of that game is all about, in my opinion.
I'm so glad I could be a part of your happy memories of the game, that will stick with me more than anything else I accomplished in the game. Amazing how small the world can be sometimes. Ronfaure was a zone I really liked, the music is one of my top tracks I listen to. How long did you end up playing the game for? I was a little older than you at the time, I hope you were able to learn and meet some of your goals in the game and make lots of friends.
I eventually settled on a Hume Thief after creating like 20 different characters lol. I played all the way up to lvl 40 something and got the Marauder's Knife AF. I desperately wanted the artifact armor but the game was so insanely difficult back then, it was something I never accomplished. I probably played for a few years off and on, I was mostly casual and liked just hanging out and meeting people. I think I stopped around 2008, when I became 18 and started doing things more in real life. Then laid dormant for many years and came back a couple times years later as an adult. The game had changed a ton. Back last summer though, I did finally go and get all of my THF AF gear and that was still very rewarding. Still a lot of cool people playing too that want to help you. It isn't quite as magical as it used to be back in the day, but I am so grateful the game is still running and there is still a community. Did you ever go back?
I did eventually come back about 5 years ago, a friend started playing again so I jumped on. I had to start a new character but I was able to experience the story again including all the new content I never did. The game was a bit different with trusts and the new level cap but still alot of fun. I was able to solo most of the Sky god pops and we killed Kirin and actually got his Osode to drop. One other goal I was able to do was farm for Excalibur relic even if it wasn't the best anymore (or ever) it was one thing I always wanted. Unfortunately life happened and I haven't played in a few years but I still have alot of fond memories of my time back. I'm glad you could come back and make it further in the game, it sounds like you character was still there. Enjoy your time playing if you are still active.
Congrats that's awesome. I can relate to the feeling of getting the stuff you used to only dream of. One of the first things I bought when I came back as an adult was the scorpion harness haha, despite it being more or less obsolete now. Unfortunately, I had no clue how to even begin to find my old account or even what info I would have used, so I had to restart. But with the new system and QoL enhancements, and a couple new helpful friends, I was able to breeze thru leveling and made it to where getting the AF gear and stuff was relatively easy. It was still fun though. I'm offline for now, but I guarantee I'll be back eventually so long as the game keeps running. Can't stay away forever and don't want to either. If you ever come back, give me a holler. Would love to reunite all these years later!
They do make it easier than ever to get started once you get the controls down in the game, but it was like riding a bike and it all came back to me soon. It's good to take a break sometimes and it doesn't seem like the game is ending any time soon so I'm sure you'll get play again. They do have free log in times during the year so you can always hop on and check things out. I forget what server I am on now but it would be cool see you in game if we happened to be on the same one. I'm sure I'll see you around reddit and feel free to message me anytime if you want.
Yep :) I started on Alexander during Ps2 launch. I got RDM to 60 (Seneca) then took a break. I guess they merged with another server later.
Yea I had been gone before it happened but I just looked and they merged with Shiva in 2011. I know they had to do it for population reasons but it would have been nice to be able to come back and see old friends I had made on Alexander. Chances are most had stopped playing or transferred anyways and a friend lost my character after I let him use it as a mule when I stopped (was sad about it but no hard feelings).
A friend of mine got a JP player to join a party back in the Golden age with NA penis so big. JP penis so small.?
Logging in as PLD: (75)search comment "Merit Points, only" 66
54
13
37
37
37
45
::Welcome to Cerberus::
Player: Ah yo LS what's cracking to-
60
25
Then the party disbands as soon as you get there.
After 30 minutes of travel time on foot.
oof
Lol, that brought back bad memories!
Back then you waited maybe hours for a group, then traveled to the camp for another 30 min or longer. Arrive and hit chain 3 and then tank or healer says "sorry, I gtg." Group disbands. Ok that's a bad experience and didn't happen that often to me at least. This can also be avoided by having a static party as well. I may be a masochist, but I liked it. You may often make friends with your party members or even become LS buddies. The travel time and sneak/invis to camp was an achievement in itself and would often have to help others if they were unfamiliar or did not have a map for the area. You may have felt immersion, riding that airship, taking that boat, or renting that chocobo. The game world felt large and vast. I dunno I am kinda rambling, but I feel like mmos don't have this anymore. I've tried many, but an example is World of Warcraft now. It is just auto create a group using group finder, instant fast travel to dungeon, you attempt to say hello or chat in the group and people ignore you, and heaven forbid you make a single mistake or they don't like you, you are kicked. I remember having a ton of friends in game and on my friends list and the game gradually changed and I became more and more alienated. I have 28 friends on my friends list and I haven't talked to them in years, some I don't even know who they are sadly. I feel like mmos used to be about the journey and now it's just the destination and that next dopamine hit. I digress, what are some of your LFG stories?
Jungle party, rent a Choco, spend 10 minutes running out, party disbands. Dragoon LFG, look for party, fall asleep after 3 hours of waiting, find missed tells.
Back in my Pld days in the very early days, I had made 2 static pals... One was a JP Sam who invited me to odd zones. The parties mostly spoke in Japanese and he translated to me in broken English. I remember one party where there seemed to be a LOT of discussion at camp. No one pulling, just them talking. Finally I saw an "OK" show up in the chat. My JP pal said "Party worry you no Japan. I say not worry. She okay to die. I see before. They happy now." The other was my Drk counterpart. Party members we ran in to more than once called us the ying yang siblings. One girl character, one guy character. Both red haired Elvaans. One all in white and one all black. It was cute.
I was extremely lucky in that we had a 4-man static of IRL friends with tank, heals and pulls covered so all we needed to find was a pair of DDs to fill in. Used to play every Tuesday night from after work until like 10pm and then go HAM on Friday nights until like 4am or even later. I had a ventrilo server running on a decrepit media center PC so was really pretty tight and unless things went really sideways we were always pretty productive because of it. Even if all the primary camps were totally locked up we could 4-man somewhere off the beaten path and still make progress (albeit at a slower pace), honestly I had a lot more fun doing that then the traditional boring ass camps that everyone did at a given level range because at a certain point you're like "christ im so sick of the goddamn jungles" or whatever. But goddamn, so much of playing this game was just preparing yourself to actually play the game. Like I remember at my peak (I quit right as they started raising the level caps) I had 4 mules that were stationed in Sandy, Windy, Bastok and Jeuno so I could access all the AH markets as they werent linked yet then. All of them had all the expansion quests done which was brutal and I had a crystal mule, crafting/food/consumables mule, My 38-75 gear mule, and my 1-37 gear mule. I would spend no less than 45 minutes just bouncing shit around and managing my auctions (thank god for FFXIAH for that shit lol) before we even started making our way to camp which of course could take 20-30 minutes on top of that. Run around and recharge all your bands, pick up a reraise scroll and an instant warp scroll for good measure, make sure you have foods for the upcoming exp session lol... Then when it was all done at the end of the night, another half hour muling all your loot around the goddamn world so you could keep your main light cuz nothing sucked more than seeing "\_\_\_ doesn't meet the requirements to receive whatever, whatever has been lost" when money was so damn hard to come by so you wanted to hold onto as much crap as you could to try and sell it off. Games like classic FFXI just wouldn't work today. The grind was just insane but goddamn was it addicting and I still miss that shit like crazy despite the fact that it's been like 15 years since I played. Enough that here I am waxing nostalgic about the shit all these years after the fact lol
Wouldn’t work today? There’s about 2,500 people nightly that would disagree
I’d love to go back to how it used to be. I do like the crystal and book warps though. The travel was brutal back then.
You could always try it out ^ I thought the same thing as you but it’s not that bad.
If you're talking about the current state if ffxi, you're not even playing the same game really. Not being a gatekeeper or anything like that just saying, in my day there was no crystal warping, no trusts, no vendors to just buy RSE from or any of that shit, it was all old school, camp your ass out for hours or days, spend an hour riding airship to get to camp... The old school ffxi is just too much of a time sink for it to he viable today.
I’m not talking about current FFXI, I’m talking about classic era FFXI. The server has over 4k people with at least 2.5k -3k playing every night. Just saying it may not be for you personally but for 2-3k players it’s just fine.
It was for me personally, I played from 04-09. I'm talking like if SE tried to launch a FFXI classic like Blizzard did with WoW, I would ve quite surprised if it would be worth the expense to them. Its awesome that there are that many people still playing classic on private servers. I tried a few and none of them ever had more than a few dozen players on at a time. What are you on now? Last one I remember the name was darkstar.
There's been a few big ones since, generally built on the work they did.
Ha, I was a Black Mage, I never got invited to anything between 60-72. Colibris forced me to learn how to solo on BST pets and Qiqirn RNGs. After 72 though Flan manaburns in Mt. Zhayolm weren't too uncommon.
The pudding parties was a real game changer for my BLM leveling
We need a meme on this. When that ToAU released we BLMs went bye girl to you all.
I keep hearing how it was hard for BLM, but before treasures they always seemed in demand on Midgard
It's surprising me, so many parties where we used MB set ups.
Yup, always saw them in parties
Follow up: - You join the party invite, it's only you and the Leader, who is likely on one of those jobs who struggle to get invites like DRG or SMN, and so they're making their own XP party. - Leader: \[Looking for members.\] - Awkward 5-10 minutes of silence, in which only one person joins, probably a BLU. - Leader: Anyone know a tank or PL? - Embarrassment and shame set in as you start asking in LS if anyone is willing to come tank or PL your party because you really want to get THF to 75. - Leader finds a ninja tank. They're the only JP in the group. - Chad friend from your LS comes to PL. - You finally get to the camp, it's been an hour now. - JP tank leaves because they don't like to have a PL. - Leader tries to find a replacement but others get tired of the slow XP and leave too. - Chad friend continues to PL you while you put your LFP flag back on.
💯
Just go bst and never have to worry about a party.
Back in the day if you got a JP party you knew you were gonna get some levels. Thankfully I did PLD on my first job so it wasn’t bad but those poor DDs just sitting for hours was a sad sight. Good times
When I played most of them were far less hardcore. They usually only went a couple hours. The parties I organized we would go for 6, 8 whatever we could.
When some JPs adopted my DRK for two weeks. i don't know why. I guess I was just there in their time slot and passed their test, met their standard. But I enjoyed every minute until I missed a day and the party moved on.
That’s the best, when you were accepted you’d get those /tells like immediately. Too bad those times will never happen again. Golden era for sure
As per most mmos, dd are a dime a dozen. I was one of those many times sitting in Jeuno.
Then look at time and realize you have to be at work in 20 minutes.
*Calls work* "Yeah sorry I'm not gonna be in today. I just joined a group and we're heading to Garlaige Citadel to fight some bats and beetles."
Yup. And after your leave is approved, and the party lasted for 4-5 hours, good XP, and you just cannot stop smiling for having had the most wonderful day ever.
I hate when it happened close to my bedtime and I'd end up going to school with like 3 hours of sleep lol
From what I remember, I always stayed up late even on school nights. 6 hours or less of sleep was not uncommon for me. Three hours less is not gonna hurt XD. I can never stay up anymore now though. I need my 6-8 hrs.
Ooof, I miss those days. 😭
I played on Hades bk in the ps2 days. I mained DRK and have waited days in Jeuno falling asleep at ps only to wake up to the noise of a /w or sleeping through it. their were no Netflix back then to watch well you waited and did a lot of reading. COR came out and fell in love at first sight, The Pirate Life for me. Then I was a full 180 and couldn't be showing my info/online or walk in a major city without party invitation. I would go to the dune as COR/ WHMand power level people out side party as my R&R. I remembered the pain of leveling DRK. I made one of my best friends in that game a BST in the dune running for his life, lol. ended up PL ing him for many zones, then partying just the two of us or with other BST just to relax. Slower EXP, but it was nicer. Careful what you wish for is what I learned.
Sometimes it’s just “pt?” And yes I’ll take that.
Yep, I got those messages too lol
Then you get halfway there and get a message "nevermind, group disbanding" Once I hit level 75 DRK I loved going /WHM and just healing random parties in the Dunes for awhile, or for friends while they were leveling there.
I love that feeling of being heroes as a high level walking around lower level party areas saving people from links, elemental aggros in crawlers nest, and raising dead people. No other MMOs could give that feeling anymore.
Yeah! It was always nice to be able to save people from all dying or having to try and run the mobs out of the zone! It also used to have a really good sense of not making you feel uber powerful. Even EP/DC enemies back then could totally wipe the floor with you if unprepared or on the wrong job
Literally my experience trying to level paladin as my first job on a 75 cap era server. “Tanks in exp??? Xddddddd”
Got real good at soloing on Monk while searching for parties lol
Part of the reason I picked up DRG in the old days. I got sick of waiting and decided to solo my way through as DRG/BLU.
I never got huge into 11, but I remember getting into a party with some JP players in dunes and it was so efficient that I stayed up all night because I didn't want to leave.
I've definitely done that before as well.
Then 3 pulls later, another person levels up, and the party disbands.
Rookies, always level to a buffer.
Tnl?
I started as a thief to 30, then I did summoner to 75. Summoner was hit or miss; mostly a cure machine but once I hit 70 everyone wanted me for end game. RDM was my second 75 and boy was that easy to find parties lol.
My husband played a Taru MNK and could never get a party when flagged. As a WHM, I used to seek up and in my search comment it said that I came along with a MNK so he'd always be able to get an invite.
Dang wish my spouse played FFXI back then. I could have gotten some party invites XD
Many times I wouldn't get a join because I had that message and refused to party without him. He always told me to go ahead and I'm like um no lol. It didn't help he was a Taru but did write the Taru MNK guide on Alla.
I didn't have the patience to wait so very early on I started making groups. I got good at it, got a huge list of contacts and made tons of friends that way. Ended up with buddies far more advanced than I just because I was the guy that got shit organized and they just had to show up. Later leveraged that into an endgame LS. We also did a bunch of stuff nobody else was really doing much do that got me more recruits. I don't even remember what some of it was called. Y'all remember the cameras you could use to capture monsters then fight them in the arena?
So many sleepy days, thf/nin in Jueno for over an hour. Then like clockwork, "eff this I'm going to bed", and I get an invite...
Leveling THF was rough. Nobody wanted us lol. Luckily I leveled THF most of the time with my friend so we only needed 4 others.
I used to main DRG during the first few years of the game. And around mid-game it would take so long to try to put a party together. So, Whenever I would switch to a tank role I always tried to grab a DRG just to ease their pain lol.
Then you join and it's the worst geared dd on the server asking if you know any tanks, healers, or rdms
I miss it so much. It just wouldn't work anymore... being 15 yrs old, staying up all night, getting 2 hours of sleep before school... Versus- 3 kids later, wife, career... lucky to get 3 hours straight on a weekend night. Boy I wish I could re live that time. No weight of the world, just wondering when I could use guillotine finally
When my children are grown and I have lots of free time I will be playing if this game if it is still around lol.
Being a white mage back in the day was the shit. I wish I'd come back and lvl corsair
I just made my own parties after like 20 mins of searching tbh
There's a SMN that ran to Qufim still waiting for that /tell
Just make a party gg