Rank 26 Walkthrough "Together We Stand"

This week I had the opportunity to experience the rank 26 storyline quest "Together We Stand". Visually this quest was a feast for the eyes and another introduction into other creatures who inhabit the world of Eorzea. This was not a difficult quest and I easily completed it on my Botanist and was rewarded with 78,000 gil. The quest starts in Uldah once again regardless of what city you belong too. Below is the general guideline for the quest as well as a visual walkthrough because I just can't resist taking pictures of the slyphs. Spoiler alert below!!!!


Once you attain Rank 26 on any class head over to the "dunes" or merchant wards in Uldah. It is the same teleport option as the market wards, except choose the second option "merchant wards". Once you zone in speak to Tataru who is just inside the door. She will instruct you to go down the hall to meet Minfila who is trapped inside her office by a few slyphs.

Weeks 3-7 Goals: Check.

Wow where has the time gone....where did my weekly updates go? I think I am like many others who are struggling to find their way in this game which is by everyone's standards very incomplete. So between reading negativity on the forums and struggling to find my own motivations to "stick it out" I think I let my self-reflections slide for a bit. Perhaps I would have been too jaded to have enjoyed writing my blog like I usually do. Or maybe it is the cognitive dissonance I was struggling with while complaining about the game on one hand but continuing to play it on the other. At this point I am not forcing myself to log in if I don't feel like it and I am taking it on a week by week basis.

Rank 20 Walkthrough "Fade to White"

As one of your classes reaches rank 20 you will then be allowed to proceed in the main quest storyline. "Fade to White" unites our 3 nations in Uldah to venture together from this point on. This quest is very easy and requires almost no running around and zero combat. At the end of your cutscenes you will be rewarded 60,000 gil and a path companion to accompany you on your future storyline quests. Be prepared to choose your companion carefully because at this point there is no changing once you have selected! It actually took me over an hour to find a companion I liked...Keep reading for a visual walkthrough and to view my screenshots. Spoilers! You have been warned!

Custom PC Build and Gaming upgrades finished!

So as I previously posted the work in progress last week, my PC is finally done and my setup is complete. Of course it wasn't without its trials and tribulations of building a PC and I made many trips to Ace Hardware for smaller screwdrivers and Best Buy for other last minute additions. A big thanks to my boyfriend for creating and building it for me^^.

Here I go Again...

True to my narcissism of my character Sheeba, I strive to control my environment. However, when I looked around all I saw was silence and solitude. The game is quiet amidst rumors of total annihilation after the first reviews hit, and people have already fallin into their own individual ruts of "getting by" and "making do" while secretly hoping for better things to come. So what do I decide to do in this wake of lonely chaos?


Start a linkshell of course! What can I say...my personality is drawn to these things like a moth to a flame. However, I am limiting my involvement to the creator and originator and keeping it casual. I do still have a dissertation to write after all. So I started a social crafting linkshell for players of Wutai to join and chat about their crafting pastimes and network with each other for materials and such. It runs itself for the most part with the exception of distributing pearls.

If you are on Wutai, or are a new player undecided on a server, check us out. Our website is Epic Production and we have fully functioning forums, galleries, chat and recruitment. The population is adult mainly over 21 (probably so I don't offend anyone with drinking or swearing). Most people have "progression" pearls as well. This game oddly has a function allowing you to hold up to 8 linkshells and watch chat in all of them. We won't start on the practical functions they are lacking.

It has been a week and the members are filling in nicely, we will see what the population looks like in another week or so. In addition to this I will update what my sanity outlook is...

Beckon of The Elementals Complete!

Time for another storyline quest for my character. I finished the rank 15 Gridania quest this weekend and earned some more cool cash for my efforts (15,000). I also was granted the ability to "parley" with vendors, but I haven't tried that out yet. I liked this quest more then the previous as we got a chance to hear some of the vocal dialogue again, I got more of my favorite pudgey moogles, and there was not as much running around. I outlined the quest below with pictures (spoiler alert!)

Head over to Carline's Canopy to talk to Miounne where she will offer you the quest, "Beckon of the Elementals". make sure you are on a rank 15 class before speaking with her. She asks you to head over to the Archers Guild ""Quiver's Hold" and speak to Nonolato to start a cutscene.

Second Week Goals: Check.

     It was my birthday this week so I took some time away from my fantasy life to enjoy some real life fun with friends and family. We are now at our second full week playing the game and one week past retail release. My goals for this week included finishing up some passive crafting skills, gear upgrades, and advancing my rank towards the second mission. So lets take a look at how my time limited play panned out this week.

Are we Being Caught in a Bad Romance?

     I was fortunate to be able to squeeze in some evening hours this week to really give FFXIV a chance to prove itself to me during the pre-order grace period. However, I feel let down and I am beginning to wonder if my own rose colored glasses are coming off regarding this game. Are we indeed being courted in a Bad Romance with FFXIV?

    Most of my experience is with the crafting system so far, and repeating guildleves this week with some independent grinding squeezed in on the side. At first, crafting was interesting, a fun game that held my attention and concentration as I strive to succeed in my endeavors, much like the courtship period in a new relationship. However, as the week wore on and I was taking 8 guildleves at a time to complete, I started to notice the tedious process of equipping the correct gear and going through 8 windows of confirmations was starting to wear on me, and that was before the crafting even starts! As a FFXI player I can put up with the lack of recipes available in game and no tutorials, but the UI and game response timing is just clunky at best. I found myself starting to get very sleepy when it came to my 4th or 5th crafting leve, sort of like a date that won't stop talking about themselves....

Whisper in The Wood Complete!

    I was able to reach rank 10 on my Weaver and complete the second quest in my character's personal storyline Whisper in the Wood (Gridania). I really enjoy discovering more about the storyline, and as other quests in the game have not yet been implemented, these are the cutscenes we have to look forward to now. I also earned some sweet gil for it (15,000). I outlined the quest below with pictures (spoiler warning!)

   The questline starts at Miounne at Carline's Canopy (Adventure Guild). She gives you a short cutscene and asks you to head over to the Carpenter's Guild to speak to A'naidjaa.

First Week Goals: Check

Pre-order opening week is almost done! Although there was much lag, some server closure problems, and much forum whining, things are starting to settle down. At least until Thursday when the general population invades!!!!

As I have previously stated, my playtime is somewhat time limited due to needing to share a computer until I can build a new one next month. So I usually only get a few evenings a week to hijack my boyfriends computer while he works.

Identity Crisis resolved!

Alright, alright...so the game has been out coming up on a week. However I hadn't yet posted the character model that I settled on for my new "Sheeba". I was taking some really great pictures earlier this week of my character's adventures after which I realized fraps was not on....So anyway, I settled on a blond with bangs and a longer haircut. I made sure her face would look good with other haircuts as well should they implement the function in game that allows you to change them. I was very tempted to go pink hair...but it seemed like everyone in beta had pink hair so... yeah.

I also have been trolling some forums this weekend since my playtime is limited until I buy a new PC. I found a great link to a website that will create a custom signature for you in addition to hosting linkshell sites. It is called Enjin and has support for many popular games and sites. So if you are looking for a signature for forums or a site to host your new linkshell, check this place out. Here is my own signature that gets updated daily. FFXIV signature generator

Starting Out in FFXIV

     As I am starting out with playing FFXIV I have gotten past all the busy work, the account setup, the installation, the patches and the character selection. I am in the world walking around and thinking hmmm I know I had a plan.

Exploring the new world can be overwhelming at first, and very easy to get sidetracked in this or that. Some people love that, they experience the game in a fluid capacity molding from one activity to another, absorbing it all at once. That's not me....Perhaps I am missing the important learn as you go gene or perhaps it is more a function of my time limited play. However, for my maximum enjoyment I need goals and organization, my thinking is very linear as is my gameplay. So for those of you that share my genetic makeup and enjoy more goal oriented play and time effieiency, I compiled this guide so I can easy play in windowed mode and refer back to any links I may need. My previous Beta Guide version 3 includes all the basic FFXIV setup links and controls.

Open Beta Experiences: Volume 3

      I decided to write up a post for all the newcomers of Eorzea including some of the most helpful links I have found over the past month or so. Personally I plan to play in windowed mode to as to maximize my productive time spent here and minimize unnecessary running around. I will be pulling from any available resources to compile this reference list.
      
First things first- Once you decided you are psyched to start playing FFXIV you should probably make sure your computer is equally as psyched as you are to run it. This game is very much a resource hog and the graphics are such that it demands a higher functioning processor and video card then any 5 year old PC you may still be using (like myself). First off run a benchmark test to make sure your PC can handle this game, if you successfully meet the requirements you may want to check the list of where your PC is gonna land performance wise. After all what is the point of playing this game is the graphics are gonna look like the PS2 version of ffxi. If you feel comfortable with your PC system and are ready to start up the game, take a minute to adjust your settings and get familiar with the options that will give you the best gameplay. Adjust your settings first because they cannot be changed once in game.
Link to official benchmark
See what tier your graphics card stacks up
See what tier your processor stacks up
Settings for FFXIV
Graphical settings discussion

Beta Memories

Figured I would find a place to put some of my beta memories. So if you didn't get a chance to see the open beta enjoy!!!

Moogles!!!!

Open Beta Experiences: Volume 2

       This week I was able to tear myself away from obsessing over character creation to try out the game play a bit more. I decided to play on a pre-created Thaumaturge that my boyfriend had created previously. I ended up in Limsa Lominsa, as that had been where she was started. My first impression was that the map reminded me of an annoying FFXI Jueno, and I quickly was frustrated with the different levels and maze-like layout. I wanted to give the first mission a try so I found a helpful pre-written guide and set out to earn my easy 32,000 gil. After a lot of running around I finally nailed down more of the map and was ready to set out to the nearest camp and try some guildleves.


     I have been using a controller for awhile now, and find it far superior to the keyboard and mouse due to the hardware fix not being currently available. The menu still feels a bit clunky and the general slowness of menu and window switching could use some improvement.

     So I get to camp bearded rock and pick up a couple of available guildleves, I had forgotten to make sure all 4 were activated in the adventure's guild before I left to the camp...grrr. I killed some bats and some moles and noticed it felt like many of the mobs in the guildleves had the ability to link very easily, even without using aoe spells. The bats by far were the easiest to link, and I am unsure if this was a mob type mechanic or not. The moles on the other hand in the guildleve were different from the surrounding moles, so as long as I didn't aoe, I was fine. After being done with guildleves I then proceeded to attempt to run around and fight with the other masses for mobs that conned blue or green to me. Competition was brutal, as I expect it will be upon release so I quickly learned this is not really efficient for leveling. To regen my health I would use the /sit command, but I was annoyed to find that moving my controller did not cancel the /sit and I had to actually open the menu and select /stand.

     I later tried out the crafting guildleves to get a feel for the crafting system. I received 1 leve through the camp at bearded rock in which I had to make a knife.  I also noticed there is an NPC there to help with crafting support, however it is for a fee. After a few tries and different combinations I was able to make the object being requested and turn in my leve. My Observations on the crafting so far is that there is a lot more windows involved then in FFXI. I had to choose mainhand or offhand, confirm it, accept the materials, and confirm it another time. Making the item itself felt long and tedious. Now I did this craft as part of the guildleve quest so I am not sure what crafting feels like on your own as of yet.

    I plan on giving this game time to develop and work the kinks out even after release, however, I feel that FFXIV will still be a significant time sink just as its predecessor. I am hoping they fix some of the combat related issues and make it feel smoother overall. I am still looking for useful macros that will make gameplay significantly easier, although, I was reading about one that would eliminate the repeated aoe confirmation windows when using spells. I am looking forward in the coming months to guides and strategies being released for efficiency and time management purposes. I strongly feel that the PS3 population will have the opportunity to experience a more polished and smoother version of this game then we are receiving...but what can I say, I guess I am just a masochist at heart.

   

Identity crisis!!!

My various incarnations of the Sheeba character don't often run into identity crisis issues on character selection screens. Since FFXI Sheeba has always been a blonde character with long hair, and either blue or green eyes. She represents me and my fantasy version of myself simultaneously. However, since I have been playing the beta I have been baffled at the shear number of variations possible on creating my new Sheeba character.

Not since I was in my early twenties trying to decide on a license plate frame for a new car I had bought was I this confused. I distinctly remember the salesperson helping me at the time said, "you must be a Libra"! I don't put much personal stock into horoscopes, but I felt it was uncanny how she nailed this one. I guess I was yet "weighing the scales" on another issue in my life I determined to be a personal reflection of myself.

Reflecting back my previous and first Sheeba character in FFXI was very special to me, she was my first MMORPG character, and she was my online persona during great times of change in my own personal life. Subsequent characters seemed much easier to create after that, and I did so with a sort of swift confidence. So, why when another opportunity to create my character has arrived am I stumbling so badly?

Open Beta Experiences: Volume 1

     A couple weeks ago Gaidon was able to get an open beta key for FFXIV, it has only a week before it releases. So we thought we would poke around and see what the fuss was all about. First off however, the game itself is a beast to run from a system requirement standpoint. My own PC can't handle it currently, however it is a good excuse to try and upgrade my 5 year old computer... So anyway, I have popped on a couple times and played around with the first opening mission, the leveling system, and messing with the magic classes.

I won't go into a whole lot of detail, because the game is still in beta, it still needs polishing and tweeking, so I have stayed away for the most part to not get burnt out on an unfinished product. However I did do some research on starting zones and try out a couple. I think I have settled on my new starting city home.....drumroll.....Gridania!!

Yes, visually this city is most akin to a Windhurst starting zone, but monster poulation wise, and ease of navigation this zone seemed far easier to me then the others. It is also slated to be the far most popular starting zone in most polls. But what really sold me was the opening cutscene which has a guest appearance of everyone's favorite chubby character...the moogle!!!!

I have yet to decide firmly on classes professions and a server yet, but will be doing research in the coming week.

I feel the pull of addiction...

     It's that time again. Square Enix is set to release its second MMORPG within the month. Even the doubters will agree thats it is a visual masterpiece, and the world is beautiful. Although I did what I said I never would do and settled with WoW for the last year due to my linkshells merger to that game, I am feeling the irresistible temptation to lose myself in my first love of Final Fantasy.