Ellion Goto

I've tried a variety of class types so far, from the adventuring, to the harvesting, to the crafting. I've noticed that if I play an adventure class my physical level goes up faster, a harvester class levels both the class kill and physical level up pretty consistently together, and the crafting class promotes a faster skill level than physical for me. Just things to keep in mind. Even with an Nvidia 465, the game is being terribly laggy at the moment. I know they are constantly working out packet issues with their servers however, so that's a plus. Every time I log in, the send/receive signals are in yellow - red. However I'm not terribly concerned about these problems because that's on their priority list of issues to resolve. Controls: Interface: Game Mechanics: Graphics: Potential: It's very much there, overall I'd say for a Beta the game looks great for a pre-launch. I agree with Axl and a few others who stated that people are just never satisfied. Most of the people say things like they were in other Betas and they didn't look this bad, but this is untrue. If they were in other Betas they'd know that things were far worse in the game's development. WoW being a primary example. The game was absolutely terrible pre-launch. Aion had a good Beta launch because it was already pre-assembled, we just had to configure it for America so I exclude it, and others like it, from the Beta testing consensus. We have access currently to around 20% of Final Fantasy XIV in the Beta phases, and that seems about the norm. Because of this, there will be some issues at launch but those should be things such as environment interactions, class mechanics, and maybe UI functionality. The important thing that they fix at the moment is game performance. This is an absolute must for a pre-launch. New players will test the game for about the first 10 levels and make their decision then. It's critical the game runs smooth at this time. Things like higher-end interactions, other areas, balance, are able to be worked on after launch as players find them. I think it's a positive direction, although it certainly won't be flawless at launch. It probably -would- be a lot better if it were going to launch in November/December as originally intended, but I'm sure there's a reason. Plus we get to play early so I see it as a fair trade-off.

This is an excellent point and I agree with you 100%. To emphasize on that point, most everyone who passes by my Electronics department in my store knows what World of Warcraft is. I even have shopper moms stop by and pick up the cards. However, they couldn't tell you the title of another game... period. The game has entered the realm of popularity with other legendary socially accepted gaming titles such as Halo and Guitar Hero/RockBand. The community puts these on a pedestal and they have become a staple of what people look for. So yes, I agree wholeheartedly that another MMO would first have to branch out and become globally renown before it can even think about dethroning World of Warcraft. Old as it is, it's still easy to learn and fun for the general public, which everyone can relate to, and because it has secured its place already that means that its just an uphill battle for any new challengers from the get go (Though I believe FFXIV has potential).

Hahahahaha

That's a pretty short list of PS3 games for a 5 year old console. I'll be on PC simply because I like the freedom to tweak graphics and I prefer the keyboard controls (I know it's weird).

It is OOC. I think you do have to pay to get a chatserver up and running for your site if you want it very streamlined. However they do make free Chat setups: http://www.everywherechat.com

I think Castiel said it best when he said that Moderation is key.

Truth be told, Fillion had so much game-time because of this that He ended up being my main very quickly. It was just simply put that the character was so charismatic that by the end, he had the people convinced of his cause, he had the power, and he was going to execute it. However, it worked so well that everyone saw him more of a Hero than a rebel who planned to take over. He started out as a gimmick character that I made a tribute to Nathan Fillion with and decided to play my very first villain. I had so much fun that I just stayed on him. Leading the guild in this crazy direction that this dimented character had so humurously set them on, and they didn't even know it. The other guilds/legions usually had an "idea" that something wasn't right about him but no one ever really paid it second much thought. This is because He didn't look like your stereotypical villain either. He was small-framed, very preppy (parted hair-style), southern accented and just smiled and charmed you out of your pants. All the while telling you corrupt stories of how the government is leading you down a stray path. He was not taken very seriously but he had a very, very high intelligence and wit. This made his tongue super sharp in conflicts and his ability to recall information (since that was his trade) caused him to be a political force to be reckoned with. For this reason, I've decided I'll be making him a Villain once again in FFXIV. I don't want to force him to be a more noticable villain though because that's adding my influence. However, I've noticed that everytime I make the same character in a different MMO, different things happen and this will be no different. I can't wait to see what he's capable of in this universe! Also, he wore a cowboy hat.... at all times.

That... After I read that, my mind forgot about the rest of your post and ran the salsa dancing jesus image.... and it was glorious.

...You hit level 35? Also, I played Aion. I thoroughly enjoyed the game up until level 30. Granted it was at the launch of the game so there were absolutely no level 50s, I was in the higher end of the higher leveled players at the time so it was pretty fair for the most part, but then it hit me. "You need 3,600,000 Experience to reach level 31" or something -very- similar to that amount. You achieved roughly 10,000 xp per kill around that level and it just felt excrutiating. At level 40 it was going to take me about 40,000,000+ with about 25,000 xp per kill. That's about 1600 mobs. If it took you 15 seconds to kill a mob, that's 4 mobs a minute without a single second of delay. That's about 400 minutes (or 6.6 hours) of Non-Stop Action-Packed Souless Genocide of a single mob. I say mobs because there were no quests in Aion. There was torture and then randomly some guy there that looked like he was going to give a quest, but instead just wanted you to kill 30 mobs for the XP reward amount that you'd get if you just stayed in that one spot and kept fighting that mob instead of running back and forth. Also, he might've wanted you to kill some elites of the opposite faction, in their fortress, that may or may not be owned by you at that time. If you owned it, "quest" was garbage. There was also the amazing ability of high level ranged classes to hit one button and blow you up, regardless of level. The PvP rewards were decent but only if you were willing to sink down to the depths of total asshattery and literally gank lowbies all day to slowly gain enough points (by enough I mean get your coat, it will take awhile) to get a single piece of epically glistening armor that glows in the dark. Which really didn't matter because casters had the ability to blow you up with the single push of a button. They'll use this button on you as soon as you're level 25, so you'll get to handle this problem, along with their flock of friends that they're babysitting as well as trying to gain that 6.6 hours of no-delayed mob grinding. Which isn't happening because you're now being camped WoW style. You can return back to your Obelisk (that you paid like 15,000 Kinnah to set) and then run all the way back, or you can purchase a group-designed kisk (portable HomePoint) for yourself at about 36,000 Kinnah and take with you, however if they find it and destroy it, you're SoL. The customer service was pathetic, Long story short on this, I won a roll for an Elyos polearm (dropped off Elyos only raid boss) from an event the GMs setup on Asmo side for St. Patricks day. It was a raid polearm and would've done me for the rest of my career, but it was publically ninja'd with the GM standing right there. The entire alliance shouted at the GM, posted on the forums. Took pics and posted those. not a single thing was done. It took the community to basically rep-grind the Ninja looter into the ground because that was probably going to be the only Elyos polearm on Asmo side. Sad enough, the looter was a ranger and couldn't use a Gladiator's Polearm. He also couldn't sell it because nobody wanted that kind of server rep. Did I also mention that you can fly? Yea, that's pretty cool. I'm not bitter.... P.S. - 250,000,000ish for upper Aion levels.

This sounds like something simuliar that happened to me, but I was on the other side. Also long response is long. That's quite the similar stories for sure. I remember that scenario Armi. From what I remember we had some serious lack of communication situations within the guild as a whole. Probably due to unfamiliarity with each other but these things tend to happen. I think to be specific I remember my character being angry at both Armi's and the girl's male character for silly decisions made. My character was actually more annoyed with Armi's character than the girl's male character. Ellion actually got along with the male up until an event decision was made by that character that Ellion just completely didn't agree with. At this point he grew a distaste for the character which was all before Armi and the male character hit their crazy, weird relationship pew pew. So add in that relationship failure to the already existing rivalry that was building and that girl's male character had quite the chip on their shoulders I'm sure. However, since I have more RP time with Armi by default, those areas got explored by her character and not so much by the male character. So a heated tension built up between Ellion and GirlGuy (as I've grown to call him) and at one point I remember me asking if it was alright if my character could slug the girl's male one. The agreement was made and the outburst commenced! It was quite the Soap Opera overall. However the girl assumed that Ellion was against GirlGuy because I'm affiliated with Armi irl. Not really the case, because one thing to note, "you should always leave your RP shoes at the door when you're done." She just needed to RP with Ellion more to find out why. This is why communication between guilds/families is oh so important, and we must all understand that it requires a friendly atmosphere to be comfortable. We must be open with each other about what we want/intend and it gives an idea of where to go. But Armi and the girl never really resolved any of their issues because of lack of communication and theorycrafting for lack of a better term. It's a shame when sides are taken just because, with no justification other than "it's my friend so there" scenarios, so I feel for you if that happened. And also, to be fair, the game itself was not very conducive to open-ended RP. It was strict in storyline that just kinda wedged characters to a certain setting. Not very fun to create a story around let me tell you. As far as acceptance of videogame relationships go. Me and Armi are in a relationship, I have no problem with one of her characters knockin' boots with some other character because it's a videogame.It's a story in a fictitious universe involving people that's not really her, regardless of how much of her personality is put into it. Simply because who cares. It's a character.

To this list, I'd add: The Orphan - I didn't add this to the CPM list because, well, wars kill a lot of people. Plenty of people are going to have dead family members in the wake of a massive, savage, years-long war. We had a lot of people with no real family to speak of in CPM and given the setting, it seemed appropriate enough. In other settings, though... It can be incredibly common and it gets a bit weird when more people had their entire family murdered/disappeared/etc than not. Generally speaking, most people 0-40 have living parents. The Kleptomaniac - They are a Thief, and they steal things! They pick pockets and break into houses! Why? ...'cause they're a Thief/Rogue/analogous jobclass and that's what they do, right? Well, not necessarily... Job classes tend to describe fighting style, not define personalities (though it's true certain personalities are drawn to certain job classes). We've established that the character is a Thief, but why do they steal everything in sight? All characters of this type that I've seen never seem to quite think that far. Do they do it for the adrenaline rush? Did they have a hard upbringing and seize any and all opportunity they see? "Because they're a Thief" isn't a legitimate reason - stealing is risky and dangerous, not something to be done on a whim "just because". Plus, all the pickpocketing can grate on other players as everyone in the area has their pockets systematically rifled through. The Walking Autobiography - Often coupled with The Dark Past. It's perfectly understandable and quite common among new RPers - Someone comes up with an interesting, in-depth background for their character and they just can't wait to share it! So their character shares, at length, their life story, hopes, and dreams with whatever random passerby strikes up a conversation. Now, some people are like this. If your character is, great! Talkativeness can be an endearing trait. A lot of people aren't, though. Someone you sit next to at random on the bus isn't likely to spill their entire life story to you just because you said "hi". Pace yourself, think about what your character would and wouldn't be comfortable sharing in the given situation, and how appropriate it is for them to talk about themselves at all. The Pokémaniac - I want to be the very best, like no one ever was! Okay, okay, bad joke. But common concept. I've seen this done well nearly as many times as I've seen it done poorly. A character, for whatever reason, is obsessed with being the best. The most powerful mage and the most skilled martial artist are two of the most common. Okay, fine... why? If you can come up with an interesting, compelling reason for their obsession then congratulations on a dynamic, motivated character. If you can't... Well, people don't just suddenly decide "I'm going to be the best damn PHP coder EVAR!" for no reason. The Spontaneous Savior - A new character arrives on the scene and brings a dire warning of impending disaster. For whatever reason, they are the key to resolving it safely. This can be an awesome jump-start to a plot... IF you run it by the community first, make sure it doesn't conflict with anything, doesn't contradict the setting, and that people are generally okay with it. Don't be surprised or upset if they aren't; people often don't like things getting shaken up out of nowhere by someone they haven't RP'd with before. You can easily wind up the following situation. Char #1: "The world's suddenly in danger for a reason I just made up, and I'm the only one who knows how to save it!" Char #2: "...Who are you and why wasn't it in danger before you showed up?" I've only run into possession twice - one made a lot of awkward situations for the linkshell. The other was very subtle and interesting, surprising everyone when the truth finally came out. There have also been a couple of incarcerations in CPM history, but to my knowledge there was only ever one breakout and they faked it to look like a death, then the escaping character moved to a different city under an assumed identity until things were eventually resolved with some backdoor diplomacy. Not terribly cliche, and I had fun watching that plot develop since the char in question was my char's adoptive little sister. We never had any halfbreed characters, but I was opposed to them until I read about Enid Ironheart. According to game lore, all the in-game maps were drawn by Gwynham Ironheart, a Bastokan hume... And his half-Elvaan daughter Enid Ironheart. With a halfbreed built right into the lore like that, the LS decided they were possible but rare due to low fertility rate to explain why so few of them are seen. We also decided Tarutaru and Galkan crosses weren't possible due to the former's stature and the latter's technical asexuality. I don't really accept WotG as precedent for canon since it contradicts the rest of the game in several places in ways not explainable by time travel. I have to say, this post is full of win. To be 100% honest with each and every single one of you. I do believe I was guilty of doing 85% of this entire list all at once with my very first character... and it's so true. Ah.. memories.

Uh-huh.

We are asked to keep in mind that further comments made in this thread are simply to address concerns, changes, and other methods of modification to our guild regime. This is to prevent unfair bumping of certain guilds to the "top" of the list so to speak. Thanks in advance.

Don't think you're being called absolutely wrong here (least I'm not; apologize if it seems so) I just disagree. I'm reminded of a very comical skit about this though from comedian Eddie Izzard. Funny as hell. P.S. - Ah yea.. there it is... hahahahahahaha.

So wait... let me get this straight. You're basically stating that if society believes it to be right, then if you think differently you're wrong? So when the Mayans considered a sacrifice as an ethical need to get things done that was the absolute right? When slavery was the most popular method of cheap labor that was the correct way? These concepts either don't exist anymore or are no longer tolerated for a reason. I'm sorry but Society is not always right, thus the reason for change.... Hell the United States was founded based on that exact concept... that society is not always right. However, just to be fair, each and everyone of the scenarios listed above had a justifiable reason for their existence... it just doesn't make it right by my viewpoint... and now society's viewpoint. Now you seem to basically be arguing in favor of what Armi's point is... that everything is subjective but you don't realize it.

Gotta agree with Armi. I don't really know of anyone that just hurts things, places, or people without some justification. Whether you subscribe to it or not is irrelevant. It just means you disagree, therego justifying your side, case in point. Honestly if we stick to the movie genre where a villain is "truly evil" it doesn't really make a lot of sense. For example, in Fifth Element, where the Zork (I guess that's his name) fired 1 million workers instead of 500,000 within his company as a blatant display of his alignment... it didn't make a lot of sense... Unless you take into consideration he's saving money which is his justification. Other than that... I only know true evil characters in the form of like supernatural beings that are not tied to consequences in this world.

I really like where they are going with this so far. It looks like XIV is now starting to really branch away from XI and take its own place as they said it would.

From my understanding, the classes are supposed to be rather bland (at first) as opposed to the games in Final Fantasy past. This is because they wanted to make the classes general enough to build and customize onto instead of reaching into a specific niche.I'm honestly surprised to see anything related to Samurai and the like specifically at all to be honest. From my understanding they only have names in the English version because we like to categorize a lot. In the Japanese version I heard they were just called like, "Fighter" or "Caster" or something. I don't care so much about the general growth of the classes because the real charm comes from blending them to make your own out of the archetype list.

Totally should interview ArmachiA... Or me.... Or us both....whatever.

It's a thought. I wanted to play one of each character (except for a Mi'Qote... never got into being a cat) originally. I do think that kinda blows because it limits your evaluation of the races unless you delete your progress. Oh well though, that is the way of things. It forced me to change Ellion to a Roedagyn because I wanted to play that race this round but didn't want to pay an additional 3 dollars for two hyurs and a Roedagyn. We'll see though, I may end up yet forking that over till Star Wars: The Old Republic domes out just to evaluate. Also Dunefolk Lalafells are awesome.

My last test ran around 3200. Some of the CB crew though are getting a little higher. I'm working on reconstructing our entire CPU by building off our existing setups. My goal is 5000+ for this specific game.

Nice job. Looks very good even where it currently sits and will help immensely. Thanks.