Returning To FFXI, Need Update Help/general Advice

Hi all.

My roommate and I are returning to the game, hopefully within the next few days. We haven't played since the Heroes of Abyssea add-on was released.

Our biggest concern is getting the game updated, and we both remember how absolutely horrid the POL Viewer's usual patching was...taking DAYS to update from a new install. I seem to remember reading about people hosting the update files on another website and users being able to download those and put them in the proper folders to significantly speed up the update process. Where is this website, what exactly do you do, and does it have everything from Abyssea to this latest April update?

Our other concerns are how long it would take to get us caught up...obviously it's been a few years and there's a shedload more content since the last leg of the Abyssea days...where would we even begin? I've gone over the Returning Player Guide here on the forum already, so we know about Trusts and Home Point warps (THANK GOD for those). Is there anything else that's rather pressing that we should focus on? After setting up macros and whatnot once again, that is.

One last thing, roommate used to dual-box two characters. Is Windower still around, that allows you to do this? Or is there a new thing out now?

Thank you so much for the help, in advance. Hope everyone had a great week and will have a great weekend!

with regards to updating - download the zip files from the POL website. That will take 30-90 minutes. After that, you will need anywhere from 4-8 hours of updating depending on dspeed.

About getting caught up, its not the same game you left behind. Its much easier to get geared up than ever before.

There's no large man content. Nothing needs 12 people let alone 18, sadly.

The game is still a good past time, and gearing up is fun. After about a month back though, I am wondering what I am gearing up for?

I found the website! Looks like it won't take long at all.




Sounds fantastic, actually. One of the reasons we quit was because the only way to advance at that point was to get into a large end-game linkshell, but the last 3-4 we were in ended up either disbanding shortly after we joined, screwed us over, or mistreated its members (including us). Being able to solo nearly everything with Trusts sounds incredible.

Yeah the game has come a long way since the days of being chased down by a mob of Goblins in Valkrum. There's no real threat anywhere. There's still some content that is "challenging"- and if you're lucky to get into a good group of solid players who aren't obsessed, you will find it enjoyable judging from your history with the old style "BIG HNM shells".
Good luck!

Thank you VERY much for the detailed post! Extremely helpful!