What Are You Doing Now In Game?

We have 8 most of the time. If we had 10 I would feel comfortable splitting that up. I'm not going to ask 2 people to sit out even while we're rotating - those people would be bored just like they're bored in escha - and making busywork for the 2 who sit out doesn't really sound fun for me or them. I also wouldn't trust Gessho on anything past N and we only have 1 tank so I don't really see splitting into two groups of 4 as an option.

I'm trying to figure out a cool way to get 2 CORs to duel each other using Quick Draw only when someone gives them the signal. Like so:

...and then it just has to catch on.

We have the same issue. Too many to do HTBF and most people do not want incursion though we have run incursion runs on non event days for those that want in the past. No one needs delve drops, or really want to do delve, so that leaves us basically with Vagary and Escha for end game events, so been rotating both of those for a mix up in things to do. We normally run with over 2 parties of people though, so our numbers are a little bigger in who all goes with us.

Like I said in my post "if I remember right", and I talked to Apollymi right after this happened, and had some discussions with others about it after it happened and I know he was not happy about losing those ki, and seemed surprised/amused that he taught the GM a little about incursion.

^ this so much. I hate leaving people out, the only choice rolling 6+ is vagary, incursion, and escha. Sure you could do Delve but why? I think IF Escha wasn't black and white I could handle being there longer. I've also decided that I hate 15 minute timers.

It's also disturbing that this page ad is showing me adult diapers. I have PLENTY of time between things to go handle my business, thank you internet. The days of go in a bottle cuz you're tanking are gone!

adsense is based on your browser history, echandra into some freaky-deaky stuff

Cuz someone asked on BG, I figured I'd share it here too. This is the drop information regarding the BCNM event going on.

For the most part, the drops are similar; crappy item, scroll/material x2, Abyssea +2 upgrade item, and then one unique item. The unique item is usually just a Kupon I-Seal or Kupon A-Lum, but can be something special based on which BC you are doing. Going by FFXIDB, the unique drops seem to be:

PHOBOS ORB (30 KCs):
Horlais Peak: WoE Coin pouches, Devious Die pouches
Waughroon Shrine: WoE Coin pouches, Liminal Residue pouches
Balga's Dais: WoE Coin pouches, Ergon Tinctures

DEIMOS ORB (50 KCs):
Horlais Peak: Corvine Abjurations
Palborough Mines: Supernal Abjurations
Balga's Dais: Transitory Abjurations
Chamber of Oracles: Foreboding Abjurations
Sacrificial Chamber: Lenitive Abjurations

ZELOS ORB (30 HKCs):
Boneyard Gully: Kupons for Absolute Virtue and Pandemonium Warden gear (no scoria)
Bearclaw Pinnacle: Tier III Skirmish segments

BIA ORB (50 HKCs):
Mine Shaft #2716: Dynamis Currencies (1s and 100s), Heavy Metal Plates (singles and pouches), Alexandrites (singles, cottons, linens)
Monarch Linn: Hexed armor (NQ and -1)

These drops have been consistent every time this event has come up, so you might want to save this list if anything there appeals to you.

Hearing more bans went out last night (none in my group were involved) but some people know others who were banned. Was not a mass ban but seemingly another automatic ban thing occured.

I've been a GM for another MMO, trust me, we players often give GMs too much credit.
One of my colleagues from then has been working for FFXI as well.

There are competent people of course, but when that happens it's usually because of that single person's merits, not because of very awesome selections at start when they pick people to hire, or how these people get trained.

More often than not these companies do NOT WANT people who are to obsessed with the game. (too much knowledgeable etc). Such people represent a higher danger of information disclosure compared to people who enjoy the game moderately or simply do not care.

You get told some basic information, you have several rules you have to follow, a plethora of standard copy/paste sentences that you use for a really high number of really different questions.


I swear hoshiku, most GMs are no more than very very average players, whereas we often imagine them as this kind of super hardcore player who's an insight and so has a plethora of exclusive secret information.
It's totally nto like that.



In a game as old as FFXI is now and with as few people as FFXI has, I imagine it's even more true now that it ever was in the past.

I don't think the GMs they have now are particularly more clueless than they've ever been.

It's us players who are way more knowledgeable about the game and its mechanics than we were, say, 8 years ago.

GMs aren't even required to play the game or know all its details Cyl. More often than not, people who aren't super-fanatic of the game are actually preferred for the role of GM, like I explained before.


There are some exceptions of course, and from time to time you might find more knowledgeable GMs. I guess in the past that probably was a bit less rare than it is today, but other than this aspect (and our increased knowledge) I don't really think there's that HUGE difference in cluelessness with GMs today and back then.

Oh boy you are gonna summon the hardened ex GM

Hahahahaha look out!

He died in a car crash, needs an Arise first.

Well I am not sure I want to cast Arise.... :P

There's always DM2 as well.
Dunno if your people have everything, but that's something to do with >6.
There's also Unity NMs, but that's more restrictive.

Yeah most things I have to do now I have to bring my 3 chars. I hate to tri-box but with the population now I dont have much choice. It seems though ALOT of new players are on which is cool, but now it has converted game to lolPUGS. Might just gather a bunch and level and train them....idk.

True ive been making mad gil so I wont complain TOO much just hate doing 3 times the work sometimes cus itll be something like whm, brd, and DD. But youre right though.

My group is pretty maxed out on DM2 drops. Some of the newer people might need a earring or something and we have done DM2 in the past, but most members really do not want to do this at event though I try to keep in mind if people still need anything from it (do not think anyone really does anymore since we used to do this as event a lot when it came out). We do not do unity NM as event because we have a larger group, and it is hard to make sure everyone has 50k unity acc when some people cant play much (only sign on for events), do it on non event days etc. Trying to get everyone to be ready to do unity or anything that requires farming stuff (we farm silt at event time if someone does not have but breaking up into smaller groups for farming then getting the group back together for NM fights works well). Ideally a person would have cap unity acc, have silt already farmed, etc but we have people with families etc that can not play that often, and mainly come on game on event days, and I do not really want to make people sit out.

Yeah, we're in the same boat as TLOU. Capped on DM drops and UNMs are what we tend to do at non event times. I think we may end up going back to vagary two night a week. :x We don't need many drops from there but we can sell the etchings and the mats for gil... and the zone has the added bonus of making me crash so that makes it an excellent event.

Lowmanning DM2 is a lot of fun, at least in my experience. We usually go PLD and NIN plus whoever is bored.

Hilarity ensues when the ninja gets charmed, then slept by the red mage....who then proceeds to virtually Bad Breath the poor sleeping ninja for the lols. (Yes, he removes all status before it affects anything.)

Then the pld *** that the ninja was feeding him TP due to all the DW and stuff...

Not everything has to be serious.

Hoping today's announcement about abjurations fixes this a little. You don't need a ton of people for Legion, but having a decent group of 6-9 people can make for some super smooth, efficient farming.

I have done legion successfully with DRK WHM RUN SMN with great results, because RUN is damned good at holding the spares while mythic DRK rips everything to shreds.

If you don't want to do the rather plentiful content which is balanced for alliance (to be fair, that's most post-Adoulin stuff only excluding HTBF and Skirmish - and you can also do older alliance scale content like VW and Legion for drops/completion/fun), just be a little creative.

Got 8 people on for High Tier fights? 2 gotta sit, sorry, but give the ones who sit out a little reward for their inconvenience. Say, (1) nobody ever has to sit out two high tier fights in a row and (2) people who sit get to pick a high tier of their choice for next fights (and maybe even lock a drop).

Or work out a drop system: my LS used to do Abyssea by taking turns of each member picking one item (or a set of seals for an Empy armor), we worked on each "round" of items until everyone got their request then moved to next. Could easily do similar for high tier fights: every member gets to pick an item, do the fights until each member gets their selected drop then move on to a new round. While people might have to sit out a fight, everyone benefits in all getting their turn at an item they actually want.

Got 10 people? Split into 2 parties with a couple trusts, do N to get it down. Don't want to use trusts or need a particular job, well, shout for it (maybe you even find a new friend who becomes a regular). Or do one high tier group and one UNM team of 3~4 people & trusts (maybe on some older UNM that the high tier group already has drops from, but helps the more casual attendees get some gear). Or mix events in other combinations: skirmish group (no accolade/merit pre-req), high tier, UNM, CP/accolade/merit party (also helps farm them points for next event)... surely you can find SOME combination of activities to break into two groups if you're greater than 6 and not wanting to do the alliance content.

And if it comes down to it, if your members don't have slit for Escha, accolades, merits for HTBFs... AND the LS doesn't want to run the content that doesn't have these prerequisites. Well, run the event for the people who do have the stuff and let the others farm during that time so they have points for next time. You're locking out your entire LS from doing content because of those who just log on at event times and can't do the farming in advance, so if that's the only time they can log on (fair enough for busy people, I get that real life takes priority) let them use THAT time to do their farming and socialize with the LS but not prevent the rest of the LS from actually doing events.

It's taken me multiple posts to figure out what the *** "HTBF" means.

They're BCNMs same as they've ever been! *grumble*

I have done legion in the past but no one wants anything from it atm because we used to do it for event a lot(Maybe this will change with the next update cause of abj), and when its mentioned everyone is like meh (also we have low manned it for the drops we wanted on non event days (like esper earring) so not much needed anymore), same with vw even though the synth mats sell for decent no one wants to do it as event. As far as unity goes for event it has been mentioned in linkshell and discussed and most said they would rather just do it on free days (non event days). We normally run with 12-13+ people on average days depending on who is on or not, some days more, some days a little less but rarely are we under 10 people.

As far as drops go having each member pick a item and get that item then working on the next member's request is good but the problem I have seen in many ls's with that is that once someone gets what they want they tend to not show up to help the others get their drops >.<. Not that it is much of a issue anymore with everything pretty much low man but still people that do that are meh.

In addition, I am not locking out my ls from doing content really cause it is discussed in ls and my ls has a lot of say in what we do for events. Yes, I am shell holder and make decisions with my sackholders but I always get input of members, and ask in shell what people want to do for events. Rarely if ever do they say unity (alot of us have done this outside events), never say legion or vw (they actually say heck no to those most times), and all of them still want drops from Escha-Zitah (though this event sucks cause of silt farming etc but like I said we break up into 2 groups to farm during event), few want drops from Vagary (mostly T. Mail), so we try to do the stuff that most members still want stuff from.

Thank you for the ideas and feedback though, always is nice to see others perspectives of things. :)

My LS is slowly pushing through Escha because we've become more casual as a group in the last year. Before that we were capping out on DM and before that Vagary (until we got tired of it). I'm pretty down on a lot of the recent content outside of Alluvion Yorcia Skirmish but I'm hoping the 2nd round of Escha alleviates some of the existing issues and is fun.

Capu I apreciate the inputs and suggestions, but I'm afraid you have no clue what you're talking about.
Of course, it couldn't be any other way since you don't know us ;) Absolutely not your fault.

We usually have 2 full pts. Sometimes a bit less, sometimes it's a bit more.
We don't do VW because we've been spamming that stuff and now people are either bored or burned out, nobody cares for VW.
It's kinda the same with DM2, Legion and partially Delve as well. We've been farming that so much people can hardly stand it anymore.

When we play in a group like ours it's because we want to play together. If we were looking to play in groups of 6 or lowmanning stuff, know what? We would be doing that instead of having joined an organized shell to do large group content together.
In light of this, when someone logs and wants to join it's "Oh yeah! Someone else to join the group! Let's rock!" not a "Omg another annoying *** coming online, how am I supposed to call out Kupofried now?!"
Not saying one reaction is "right" and the other is "wrong". I'm just saying that one of those reactions is ours, and the other is not, just that :D


We do a lot of what you mentioned already btw, it just happens on our free time and not during event days.
After the release of the Delve scaling system FFXI really took a "bad" direction for the few people who liked alliance content.
Not saying that it could or should've been any other way because I understand the reasons why SE did what they did.
I'm just observing what I see with my eyes and describing it.

Totally agree with you Sechs. Our members are all close friends and most of us been in ls for a long time (I actually joined it on Pandy server before server merge, so you can see that was a long time ago lol), so we do not like leaving each other out to do low man stuff like HTBF. We do it non event days, or whenever people might want a go at them.

We did spam the heck out of delve, legion, etc for events (this shell been around for a long time like I said above (it has changed name a few times cause of shellholders quitting, etc but core still there), so we did this stuff for events a lot when they first came out, and even after), and many of us are burned out on that stuff. That being said we like to try to do things that the majority of ls wants to do for events, and stuff like unity etc is done on non event days.