Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

I've mentioned before that I rejoined FFXI to prove to myself that it really didn't hold up. One thing that I thought for sure I was remembering solely through nostalgia lenses was the leveling process. But not only did I quickly find out that it wasn't the case for me, I think I realized why...

Taken on its own (and not as a means to rush to endgame content), leveling up pretty much only serves to beat up tougher enemies. You aren't outright required to be a certain level for most content, it just makes it easier. The leveling system itself has an exceptionally well-crafted feedback loop. Something about it makes you actually feel stronger, even if you're fighting the same crabs at Lv.99 as you were at Lv.10. As you level up and acquire new gear and abilities, the enemies that once troubled you start falling faster. When you move on to fighting new enemies, they feel tougher again, but the process loops.

When I really compare the RPGs that I do like against the ones I don't, that's a pretty common difference. It's not the numbers going up or the enemies getting visibly larger, it's about the health bars. Seeing a well-timed skillchain/burst knock an IT+ enemy down 99% of its HP is just so dang satisfying.

/randomthought

Yeah, but what was your conclusion in the end?

I'd concluded that the game is enjoyable in spite of nostalgia. That a lot of important elements still hold up as good design choices, and those that weren't had mostly been solved by QOL patches since I left. Though the framework itself is pretty cruddy. It was cruddy 19 years ago, and it's only gotten worse since then lol

um, yes you are...

Man, I love cats.

At most, a lot of it's arbitrary. Like, you can't do "blank" until you've hit level 30, but you probably couldn't really contribute meaningfully until (at least) Lv.75 anyway. Like, would you really have played around in Dynamis pre-65?

Abyssea is one of the reasons why I quit before. I'd just reiterated how I really like the way leveling up feels in XI, and Abyssea gutted that altogether. You get Lv.30, open chests for 3 hours, you're Lv.99. Not only did that mean any new "Explorer"-style players would never again have an opportunity to experience the fun leveling dynamic, but it meant it was nearly impossible for us to make it happen even if we wanted to, because it was so much less efficient.

Just made me sad seeing all these Blue Mages at Lv.99 with like 1 or 2 spells in their entire repertoire, 5 magic skill, completely missing out on the thrill of spamming Head Butt and Bludgeon back-to-back until the Goblin collapses, or the rush of their first self-skillchain.

I know now that the entire expansion/addon was for the "Achievers". But it did sort of mark the end of the most nostalgic era of FFXI. That said, now that there are Trusts, it's really easy to level up the old way if you just want to do that :)

I love FFXI, i just think most criticism comes from unreasonable expectations.

You can get most offline game, surely you can beat most of them in like one or two weeks of effort. Thats about how much that said game is worth in time for you.

While, even for a returning players, you surely gonna have a solid 1 month of playtime before you start getting bored. And thats not just once. Its everytime you spend a couple of months away.

So people are criticizing because you cant play it like for an entire year? Or entire decade? Its actually a bliss you feel the need to stop after a month otherwise it wouldnt be different than a will to escape reality

Life is good too, lets watch the sun goes down

Well, too much low carb food is misleading. I almost ate more than what i should

It’s good to see you again, and alive.

Waxing/Waning/Seasonal content cycles are my favorite for this reason. Problem these days with XI is that it wanes for many times longer than it waxes, which is expected but still disappointing.

I can't think of any content you could enter that had a level gate and you couldn't contribute at least at that level (on certain jobs). You still can't enter dynamis until at least 65 last I checked, so I don't understand your inquiry.

edit: tl;dr it is the opposite of arbitrary.

My GEO is 99, zero spells, and 16 skill thanks to Abyssea, *** ya.

I had a friend let me leech CP on my alt's GEO and other's brd, both mastered and only recently bothered to get geo spells, or any gear, still haven't got songs (do have the ghorn tho...)

I have problems.

That's why I said you probably wouldn't be doing Dynamis until you'd hit Lv.99 or so anyway. My point is you can enter it before then: as early as level 65. But you probably wouldn't do that until you were Lv.119 anyway. The fact is you can, and my point is that leveling up tends to serve as a means to make tougher foes more manageable.

Actually, one of the coolest parts about FFXI are the level-capped fights, because they altogether inhibit the idea of leveling up. It's less pronounced in the modern game, but there are still some BCNM fights and such that can test your mettle equally whether you're level 30 or 119.

Man. Level capped parts were the ***that you had to be skilled for. People, to this day, still talk about their adventures in basic promy and what was that Tenzen fight?

Edit: I can still hear that Black Mage use a water one and down a promy boss. ***like that was awesome.

Only piece of XI content that I can think of that has no HARD level requirement to "participate" is Escha. You can enter that to XP as soon as you can get to the portal.

Everything else has a 100% non-arbitrary level requirement to enter or participate.


Dynamis is a particularly bad example because when it was made the level cap wasn't even 75 yet, and since then it has been completely remade and reworked and they never changed the level requirement to go with it.

Yet you didn't say that, at all.

I disagree, they should remove them entirely, they are really only a negative to the current game.

If people want the grind: there's CP/EP. If people want challenging fights: there's difficulty settings for HTMB. About the main thing lacking currently is more large group content, we're down to only 1 real large group event and even that is getting weaker as the gear/bonuses creep up. Now I like dynamis, but for a lot of people it gets old doing the same content 4 hours/week. I absolutely loathe that they made odyssey 6man only and make it so you have to daily spam it (needs the Omen adjustment).

Omen, Ambu

Odyssey abc might not either but not 100% on that one. I know Gaol you need 99 to get in zone but then can go down on a level 1 job.

That sounds more like an oversight than an intentional design decision, like they put the requirement for 3 99 jobs on the entry conflux and forgot to do so for the one inside or some dumb ***.

I still think they should give an optional level cap for mission fights, those were fun back in the day and good way to add weight to the story where you don't just one shot stuff.

have you ever done an assault lower than your level? have you ever gone out of your way to purposely choose a lower cap on ANY of them?

(except maybe trying to lower your cap for azure ailments)

That's the beauty of options. It gives the people who want to use them... the option.