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Couple of questions from a casual adult player
Tangogulf
Member UncommonPosts: 58
Hi all;
I purchase this game in the summer time , but failed to use it much due to time constraints.
What I really want to do is to attempt a mmorpg with a co-worker who also likes mmorpgs. We are looking for a game that we requires a fair amount of time to develop our characters, so we think that FFXI maybe the game for us. A couple of questions:
1/ Is it possible to two box with this game? We would like to have a ready made group for those ocassions when there are time constraints. Could 3 characters do it, if one of us two boxed?
2/ Server limitations. As I recall, FFXI chose the server that I was on. Could we get all three characters on the same server, or is this going to be a major pain in the butt?
3/ Graphics. My friend is a graphics hound. As I recall, FFXI was a little pixellated when I tried it. (My settings may have been off). The demo/benchmark utility makes the graphics look very good and clean. Are they this clean?
Again, we may not be able to sit down for 6 hours at a time, but certainly 2 hours once or twice a week would certainly be possible. Is FFXI the game for us?
Thanks for any and all feedback!
Comments
1: You can NOT run two instances of this game on the same computer without the use of a 3rd party program. This program (called a windower) is against the EULA and will get you banned if you're caught. If you want to do this (legally) you'll need a seperate computer.
If you were to play Beastmasters, you could essentially duo practically 1-75, after getting to lvl 30 initially.
2: All you need is for one person to start a character, and then buy a World Pass. This world pass will allow other people with the code to create a character on the server you bought the pass on. You can obtain World Passes from NPCs in each of the major cities.
3: Uhh.. Someone else can handle this, because I have no clue what you mean.
Now with 57.3% more flames!
yea thats pretty much what i was going to say..
and i dont know about the graphics either i played on a consol and you cant adjust it on there
1. Not on one account. An account can only be signed on from one place at one time. If you want to play on two boxes at once, you'll need two accounts. Technically, sharing one account between two people is against the EULA anyways.
Edit: I may have misunderstood what you meant by "two-box". If you meant run two FFXIs on one machine, than the person upthread is correct, it is not possible without a third-party windower which is also against the EULA (but Square will never catch you unless you are stupid enough to state in game chat that you're using a windower, and if you don't run cheat programs along with it.) Be careful where you get your windower, there's been reports of some people putting up windowers that are actually trojans.
2. You can get all the characters on one server with a little work. It's only a minor pain in the butt :-). You need a worldpass. What happens is somebody with a character on the world buys a worldpass from the vendor. Its cost varies depending on how crowded the world is but is generally 1000 to 2000 gil. He gets a worldpass code. Using that code allows a player to specify that a character be created on that world. The code is good for seven days or five character creations, whichever comes first. If you go to a forum for players of a given server (ffxi.allakhazam.com has good forums) you can probably get a Worldpass to the world if you ask nicely, since the cost is very minimal to a player with any experience. Or you could create your character, earn the money yourself in a few hours, and buy one.
3. The graphics in the benchmark are definitely the graphics in the game. If you found them acceptable, then you'll probably be OK. You may want to to turn up the resolution (you need to use the configuration utility to do that).
4. Hum. To be honest, two hour sessions in FFXI are a little short. While I'm not going to say six hour sessions are absolutely required, I think things would go better if you could manage at least three to four hour sessions.
Chris Mattern
Hey thanks for all the replies.
To clarify, I will have two computers available with two separate accounts = two boxing.
The four hour sessions are doable, however, become alot less likely when considering my co-worker and I must sync the times we play.
Tell me, can a group of two or three players actually cut it in this game? Our habit in EQ was always to attempt to isolate our combat to 1 or 2 mobs at a time, fight, rest and repeat.
Can this be done with a group of three in the game? Uber loot etc is really quite secondary.
Do able yes..
you couldnt go to all the main xp spots that the average group would go.. i mean you can but the dunes for instance is for levels 10-20 you would most likely go there around 14 or so just to make the mobs a decent challage or even match
So you will end up staying there past 20.. which isnt bad just not the average
but yes.. as long as you have a healer tank and a damage dealer of some kind it deff can be done
Turtle;
Thanks for the response. I have no aversion to grouping. If my duo or trio goes out to one of the main areas and sees others who want to play, then yes, by all means its a group.
I just dont have the time to be spending 2 hours looking for a group. Just hoping my homemade one will suffice.
Thanks again
Hmmm. Standard levelling is a full group of six, simply because you get the best XP that way. There's generally not much loot to be had in levelling, so that's not a consideration. The way the XP is structured, the best XP is a group of six doing the toughest mobs they can easily handle, one at a time, but as quickly as possible (you get bonuses from stringing kills of difficult monsters together in a short amount of time). A group will generally try to do four or five mobs in a row without rest. This is in fact the reason why I mentioned longer play times, as assembling a party of six takes time, and people will want a nice long XP session with it once it is built.
Grouping for two or three will result in less XP but is certainly doable, and will work much better than trying to solo. As an additional bonus you will have less need for long sessions. You will, however, level rather slower. You will find other players are biased to standard parties of six. FFXI is a difficult game, and a lot of players become resistant to trying something other than what they know works, unfortunately (I myself always try to stay open to doing things different ways). But if you and a friend plan to duo, with sometimes picking up a third (pointing out to your prospective third that he can join you and immediately start levelling without waiting for more people may help recruiting) that shouldn't be so much of a problem.
Most of the general knowledge on how to level out there is built around six-player parties, so you'll have to figure out good levelling sites and who you should be fighting as you level for yourself, by and large, whereas with six-player parties, the best XPing as you progress is well known. Whether this is good or bad depends largely on how you look at it, I guess. :-)
Chris Mattern
I don't know why people are not cutting to the chase. FFXI is a very time consuming game. Very rewarding but extremely time consuming. I would not recommend this for a casual gamer.
Some reasons:
If you want to duo only in this game, you can only be a beastmaster. Both of you. That's a job that can only be unlocked at level 30. Then start over at level 1 as your beastmaster. I've played for 3 years, have started over many jobs and have never been approached to join a party that wasn't a 6 person normal xp party. My static parties with our LS (clan) take 45 minutes to find the one rdm/brd we can't complete ourselves then it takes even longer to reach the leveling grounds. Most xp sessions are more than 4 hours. You have a job in FFXI and you play it like clockwork.
Since you already bought it, then you are commited to at least try it out for a month. You and your friend might even enjoy playing with the normal groups.
I disagree; I think a non-BST duo could handle Toughs, and you can advance that way. It'd be slow, but doable. It would, of course, ultimately take more time than doing it as part of standard 6-man parties, but you could do it in smaller chunks.
Chris Mattern
Well you have to remember what is best for the characters playing. The guy did state that he and his co-worker wanted a game that took a long time to develop their character and personally i think 2 hours a week would make the game last an age yes, but if thats what you want out fo the game that thats what they should do.
Even with just two hours a week, with at least one maybe two other characters joining you guarenteed every week at the same time the time will fly by and you cant take two steps in most places without making some sort of friendship circle.
I would recommend however not having your own LS as this will definately isolate you from the rest of the game cause itll only consist of the three of you, and anyone else you invite to it wont stand for being alone all but 2 hours a wekk if they're even on then. Joining another LS with lots of members will have any info you need at the press of a button, along with advice and help + whats going on in Vana'diel.
Also dont forget that you can create your own parties, so for instance if your in La Theine lvling, in your party of three, whenever you rest just use the search engine for other members around your lvl looking to party. So each week you could quite easily have your party of 6 and if not you havent lost anything. Even having a party of 6 for the last 20 mins of play or whatever wont get you blacklisted or anything for having to leave. Even if any players did hold any particular grudge they would be well away lvl wise by the next time you log on.
Personally only playing a few hours a week is the perfect way to play games like this, yes its slow but you get so much more gameplay than the regular players who i often dont understand when all they want to do is lvl all the time. Sometimes you need to kickback and make some friends or just go exploring.
peace
x
"and the fires of heaven rained, and humanity was brought upon its knees..."
I have to admit I've never heard of anyone duo leveling pass level 15. If duo leveling is possible, even with the best job combo, getting to high level, let alone end-game, would take a massive amout of time.
Frankly, more time than I gather the OP has. Esspecially without powerleveling or a decent sized Linkshell to help them. Final Fantasy simply requires large and frequent chunks of time in order to see progress.
I'm not saying it can't be done per se, just that this thread is the first time I have ever caught mention of someone who has duo leveled sucessfully. Really don't want to start a flame war, but it seems that FFXI is too group and time intensive for someone with the OP's requirements.
1. No it's not unless you're willing to take the risk and be banned. If you want to do that has to be on two seperate computers.
2. Yes you can get on the same server but whoever creates first will have to have some spare gil to aquire a world pass to invite the other(s).
3. If you're looking for cutting edge graphics FFXI is not for you. It is indeed very pixelated. Not to mention the variety in terrain/mob models are very slim due to PS2 limitations.
4. In the beginning yes 2 hours is doable for sure as you get into the 60's if you intend on getting anywhere only two hours just won't cut it. 2-3man parties is doable just do your research on where to camp. Either play a beastmaster or pick jobs that would benefit. (namely one of you play a red mage or bard) Overall though if you intend on seeing a good majority of what this game has to offer casual is not a word you wanna associate with it.
Originally posted by Gothos
3. If you're looking for cutting edge graphics FFXI is not for you. It is indeed very pixelated. Not to mention the variety in terrain/mob models are very slim due to PS2 limitations.
4. In the beginning yes 2 hours is doable for sure as you get into the 60's if you intend on getting anywhere only two hours just won't cut it. 2-3man parties is doable just do your research on where to camp. Either play a beastmaster or pick jobs that would benefit. (namely one of you play a red mage or bard) Overall though if you intend on seeing a good majority of what this game has to offer casual is not a word you wanna associate with it.
Turn up the rendering resoultion if the graphics are pixelated. Unless you have an anchient video card you can get very sharp graphics.
Sadly on point 4 you are correct. 2 hours just isn't enough to get past lvl 60 really.
i know what you mean there is a registry hack that improves the actuall 3d graphics res i made a post last week on how to do it at
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/72713 i found it at this other forum and i tested this myself and the game runs almost perfectly antialiased (no jagged edges on the graphics)
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