Hello there! I am new to this game, but an old friend to roleplay. I recently discovered that this game has a flourishing roleplay community, and I'd be lying if I said that wasn't what drew me towards Final Fantasy XIV. I have roleplayed quite actively for the past four years on Lord of the Rings Online, but the lore is beginning to feel a little suffocating after all this time. That being said, I have a few questions.
Is getting into Balmung as difficult as it sounds?
I am enjoying the trial version of FFXIV for the time being, and I don't mind not being in Balmung while I am working out the game mechanics. However, if I do end up subscribing, I would prefer to be able to roll a character in Balmung. Some topics I have perused have suggested transferring to Balmung might be easier than actually creating a character there. Is this so?
What are the peak hours/locations in Balmung?
I know that in Lord of the Rings Online, the roleplaying community has its peak hours of activity, and the most common places to find roleplayers at those times. Is it the same for Balmung? Is roleplay active all-around, where you can just wander into major cities and come across roleplayers?
What sets this roleplaying community apart from others?
If you have experience roleplaying in other games, especially in Lotro, I would love to hear what differences there are between the community. Similarities, even, if they are positive ones. What makes this community unique?
Should I be afraid of Square Enix's customer service?
While I have not seen many reviews that deter me from getting involved in the game, most of the negative reviews are complaints about customer service. I.E. account suspensions without reason, hours on hold on the phone, unwillingness to help customers, etc. Is this something that I should genuinely be worried about?
Do you recommend Steam?
This, I don't expect anyone to have the right answer for. Do you use Steam to launch FFXIV, or not? Do you know of any pros or cons related to Steam?
I can't answer everything, but...
Is getting into Balmung as difficult as it sounds?
Transferring a character bypasses the whole character creation lockdown thing when there's too many folks playing on a server. As such, moving an existing character to Balmung is easier than trying to sneak a new one on, if you don't mind the extra cost involved.
Do you recommend Steam?
While I don't have the game ON Steam, I DO use the Steam launcher to get it going. Mostly to let my Steam friends know that I'm there and basically around. Often it's a sign for "Hey, I'd totally play TF2 with you guys, but I'm kinda in the middle of something" but sometimes they'll shoot me an invite anyway.
As for peak hours, it
seems to be a US evening time-frame mainly (EST/PST evenings), but that's usually the only time I'm on during the week so I can't fully say about that. This is my first real MMO RP experience, so I can't fully compare what makes it the same/different from others... and I have been lucky enough to avoid any issues that require contacting SE customer service.
Um... hope that helps!
Hi! Welcome to the RPC. I'll try to answer those questions as best I can.Â
Is getting into Balmung as difficult as it sounds?
It can be a little hard sometimes. Usually, it's easiest to make a character just before/after a maitenance period, because there won't be as many people logged in to the server. Non-peak times also have varied success, depending on social foactor. I've had the most luck making characters on Balmung around 2AM to 6AM PST.
What are the peak hours/locations in Balmung?
I would say Balmung's peak hours are when your standard American/Canadian is awake. while we're an NA/EU server, most of the people I see tend to be online during NA time ranges.
What sets this roleplaying community apart from others?
We have law enforcement RP that works? We also have a very large open-world RP community. You can walk into a populated RP area and walk up to people completly out of the blue and start conversations!
Should I be afraid of Square Enix's customer service?
Never had to deal with them, but I've heard they can take a little while. BACKUP YOUR SOFTWARE TOKEN REMOVAL PASSWORD! <- this is the #1 reason for having to deal with them.Â
Do you recommend Steam?
I used to use steam to coordinate with some friends in-game. For a quick voice-chat, it works ok, but isn't too great. For payments though, buying through steam is apparently awesome.
I'll answer these to the best of my ability.
1) Balmung is kind of challenging to roll onto. Our server's pretty crowded and we wind up with a lot of closed periods. I've heard that transferring a character skips the process somehow, but cannot verify myself. For the most part, character creation is most possible immediately before/after maintenance and in the earliest early mornings. I know there's sometimes windows around 5am EST.
2) Peak hours vary. We've got a fairly lively EU population that rolls through long into the night when I'm asleep and up way early when I'm at work, but I also know a fair few folks spread all across US timezones. There's a lot of people active across the NA/EU ranges, I've found in my occasional days off and the like.
3) My experience with RP in other MMOs is light, I suppose. XIV's been completely comfortable for roleplay, though. Random walk-up RP? No problem (in Ul'dah, anyway. Not sure how it goes in Limsa or Grid). Community-run events? I can think of at least one regularly-run tavern night, a Fight Club and a number of major-plot-arc-running Free Companies that are all available. It's cozy for newbies getting their feet wet, it's comfortable for vets looking to tell stories, it's good for people just wanting to drift and listen.
4) SE's customer service is the stuff of legend. If you have problems, things turn out one of two ways: Immediate solutions or a lot of run-around. It depends on your issue, really; I've had a friend accidentally lock himself out of his account with his security code and that got resolved in one phone call. Appealing bans, though, frequently ends up being a nightmare. That being said, I don't know anyone in XIV who was ever banned for improper reasons (or proper ones, come to think of it).
5) Steam seems interesting: I know if you have the game on PC, Steam won't recognize it as an official game, only an imported one (if you've ever added a non-steam game to your library, you know what I mean). I don't know if it works in reverse; If you've got Steam!FFXIV, I don't know if you could run it stand-alone on another machine without Steam. Still, I can't think of any reason to skirt the game there. More than a couple of my friends on Steam play it there.
Edit: Double scooped! Damn you coworkers, I'm doing important nonwork stuff here!
(01-09-2015, 04:07 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote: [ -> ]What sets this roleplaying community apart from others?
We have law enforcement RP that works?
Good thing that question mark is there. Said law enforcement is majorly hit-or-miss.
Dear Sultansworn, if you want to roleplay the law that badly, roll a Brass Blade.
(01-09-2015, 04:24 PM)Melkire Wrote: [ -> ] (01-09-2015, 04:07 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote: [ -> ]What sets this roleplaying community apart from others?
We have law enforcement RP that works?
Good thing that question mark is there. Said law enforcement is majorly hit-or-miss. Dear Sultansworn, if you want to roleplay the law that badly, roll a Brass Blade.
Personal security =/= police. That's the biggest hurdle I've seen when it comes to 'Sworn.
Thanks for the speedy replies, everyone! n.n
I also see that there is quite a large artistic community here as well, which is very encouraging to me.
From what I've seen in the very short time I've been on Balmung, you can come across RP at any moment of the day. I've actually been rather impressed by it, I haven't seen a server before that truly was active almost 24/7.