Val

I figured that would be the case. It's part of why we're just waiting. Their IC life is far too hectic anyway right now to take a step back and have a wedding.

Most people know that Val can't read or write to save his life. He also only fairly okay at cooking unless it's over a campfire, and he can't really shoot a bow either. He can't use magic (through traditional aether) and he's pretty bad at understanding most metaphors. When he hears a philosophical question, he tends to have a mental breakdown and ask the absolute, most ignorant stuff in response--basically fretting over meaningless questions such as "If you drop soap, does the soap get dirty or does the floor get clean?" It's still hard for him to show affection in public--not because he doesn't want to show PDA, but he feels like it'll show some form of weakness. That's.. not necessarily a skill though, and he's starting to get over it anyway. When it comes to technology, he just kind of beats at things. He's okay when it comes to strategy of war and combat, but anything else he fails at unless he can somehow manage to relate it to combat. He's also prone to falling asleep in long meetings that bore him or have nothing to do with him. He also lacks most social grace, but that's just because he's a prick and doesn't much care to learn any. He orders food and eats with his bare hands, much to his lady's dismay.

Apparently so I tend to avoid them if I can, but this year has been pretty dry. In other news, I completely uninstalled and reinstalled the game and it seemed to fix a majority of the bugs I was having. Rather, I managed to play it for three hours and didn't run into a bug every twenty to thirty minutes.

These four letters are a dime a dozen and every magazine / store / DDP / website has their own award. All you need is one to slap it on the box. You can generally ignore a GotY award. Generally, but this one actually won the award at the show and got a trophy for it "GOTY Edition" means nothing, but the actual title does. It's not my fault a bunch of people see "GOTY" and think that it means the game was literally the best thing critically acclaimed without actually taking the time to look it up.

You can't schedule the weddings at all right now. When you try, it just tells you to wait until Friday to start scheduling. From what I gather, the schedule resets every Friday (which I find weird, as that's when most people will be available and so you're going to have a lot of twitch weddings). It should be Tuesday like everything else. Huh... So does that mean you can only schedule a week in advance? I think so. I'm honestly not very sure =( Guess we'll find out more come friday.

Not a problem man, anytime! And if you want to do some RP outside of the tavern night, feel free to hit us up whenever =)

Yep! It's still held every Thursday night =)

You can't schedule the weddings at all right now. When you try, it just tells you to wait until Friday to start scheduling. From what I gather, the schedule resets every Friday (which I find weird, as that's when most people will be available and so you're going to have a lot of twitch weddings). It should be Tuesday like everything else.

I agree entirely. I don't see how this game got GotY e_e or why so many people are rabid over it. It's a buggy mess and about 70% of the game is filler content.

Love it, Art =D Looks wonderful!

Cutest fox ever *o*

That's the thing, we don't get to decide what's "just game mechanics" and what isn't. We could debate until we're both blue in the face about what counts as lore and what counts as just a mechanic, and we'd both be cherry-picking. It doesn't matter anyway, even if we discard all mechanics evidence the scene with Jacke at the end is enough. I think it's pretty obvious what is and isn't game mechanics. I feel that deciding not to say something is a game mechanic is little more than accepted ignorance just to justify playing it a way that someone wants to play it. And SE has on more than one occasion came up with some dumb reason to have a game mechanic work a specific way. Even then, Jacke isn't your character. The character you play in the story and the NPCs you encounter are super special powerful people. Our PCs simply aren't. And, as someone else already said, it's little more than a literary device--a very, VERY obvious one. If we go with that logic, I guess Val can ninja flip everywhere and defy physics entirely because Thancred did in a cutscene earlier.

The majority of what you've listed here are just game mechanics. Hide suddenly doesn't work anymore in level 50 dungeons because game mechanics. The creatures don't have any super special ability to suddenly see it. People simply shouldn't be able to hide in the open.

I pretty much agree with what's been stated, and this as well. There are many ways to detect people, so outright invisibility isn't going to work. If they do try to use some aetheric bending of the light, then it would cause a shimmer when the person moves so they'd have to remain perfectly still the entire time--and even then, I'd be very skeptical. Stealth works as a game mechanic, and that's strictly it. It does not make the person invisible. I don't mind using the animation to denote sneaking so long as the person realizes that they aren't 100% invisible.

Oh, I don't discount the sense of smell. What I mean is that the scent of smoke could likely be stronger and dilute their sense of smell, making it harder to detect them through the smoke. And regardless, smell =/= sight. You may be able to tell that someone is in front of you, but that would be pretty much it. You wouldn't be able to tell if they're punching or kicking at you. EDIT: And I also agree with what you stated about the archetype. It isn't needed. It's something that Val is embarking on spiritually and for his own personal reasons. As for the character, he's never been more than a Miqo'te with a lance and a pair of daggers =)

It does fit with my personal headcanon of usage of mudras. Also, you might be using that as a way to explain why you get less tired. More water = Less exertion of your personal aether maybe? I like the idea. The thing is that they don't use personal aether at ALL. They just use some sort of hidden technique to manipulate aether AROUND them. That's why I decided to go with a geomancer-like approach =)

Kell's roguish charms are only level 15 so I wouldn't know (and canonically it is the least likely class he'd grind) but I'm mostly using other media interpretations of ninjutsu/mudras so I'm not too aware of how FFXIV mentions it. But due to how the elements work in FFXIV it'd be hard to find a spot that has absolutely no trace of an element. I know the Ehcatl quest that requires you to mine pure water shards/clusters, IIRC, has the item description for these key items mention that they're quite rare. To my knowledge, they really only state that they manipulate the aether that is around them in order to cast their jutsu and that it is incredibly tasking, leaving the caster fatigued and in need of recharge. It's obviously just an excuse for the game mechanic, but I'd imagine in RP it means that it takes a LOT to do it. Val's always been a mostly physical fighter, and giving him Ninjutsu just helps to level the playing field against casters--but I don't want to cheese it and make him OP. As far as having no trace of an element, I agree! I just want to have him use or manipulate what's around him as it states. He always has the ground/air/sky if there's nothing else around. They also briefly mention that they believe that their Gods are in everything around them. I... probably should have wrote it all down, to be honest. I was too busy trying to hit 50 ASAP to care to e_e

I understand! It's just my personal interpretation on the matter. It makes sense to me that they'd have to have that kind of aetherial element nearby to be able to use it, since they don't actually use their own aether--they use the aether from the world around them.

I've taken more of a geomancer approach to it, myself. Since they absorb the aether from the world around them, I'd have Val shoot the lightning from the sky. If he's inside a building, he obviously wouldn't be able to use it. He has to be near water to use water-type skills, etc. With those limitations, I don't think it's right to strictly limit to in-game skills, either. I like the idea of being able to come up with new, fun attacks and stuff based on the three combinations of mudra and mixture of aether. That's just my idea on it, though.

Miqo'te are NOT the "acute hearing" race. They have a stronger sense of smell but it's the Elezen you go to for sensitive ears. Would be funny if someone roleplayed a Miqo'te smelling you through smoke, but then again, doesn't that smoke clog up the nostrils as well? Heh. Not that I'd know. I don't have a cat's or dog's nose, either! I keep hearing different things about them, and I've seen some people RP that they have good hearing, smell, and powerful legs. I've SEEN where SE says they have a great sense of smell and powerful legs, so I just made it to be a Miqo'te to show that it would be one I would at least be somewhat willing to accept. I'd say smelling through smoke would be harder than hearing someone, considering what you said. It would clog the senses and likely cloud over whatever scent the enemy has with that sooty smoke smell. Not to mention that being able to smell someone =/= knowing what that person is gonna do.

Pretty much this. I expect the same to come of Ninja shortly, if it hasn't already. I've already seen a bunch of Narujas flipping around and spamming lightning mudra like it doesn't take any effort and seeing through smoke using sound :v Meanwhile, Val hasn't mastered a single mudra. He can barely use water, and even then it takes a looooong time to concentrate. I suppose some people just don't like the build-up, but I prefer it. It gives your character... well. Character. But what if they were always a ninja from Doma and not someone trying it out just now like Val? Doesn't it make sense then? It does, but the class has limitations. Unless they're a miqo'te or another race with acute hearing, I'll never believe someone can "hear through fog"--and even then I'm going to be very skeptical. With mudra, the lore specifically states that it takes a LOT of energy to use even one, and that quick-firing them is out of the question.

Pretty much this. I expect the same to come of Ninja shortly, if it hasn't already. I've already seen a bunch of Narujas flipping around and spamming lightning mudra like it doesn't take any effort and seeing through smoke using sound :v Meanwhile, Val hasn't mastered a single mudra. He can barely use water, and even then it takes a looooong time to concentrate. I suppose some people just don't like the build-up, but I prefer it. It gives your character... well. Character.

Pretty much all of this. As I said, I'm fine with Dragoons using it. That's never been questioned. There is, however, a time and a place, and just blindly jumping at things isn't going to necessarily work in their favor. Can they jump off from something and drop down on unsuspecting, smaller foe? Yeah, sure. Better yet, they could be intelligent and get the enemy to look toward a source of light (the sun or something) and leap into the air to momentarily blind them. There's ways to go about it. Jumping for the sake of being able to do so isn't one of them--not if you're hoping to actually down an enemy.

Idunno. There's a stigma behind it, but at the same time there isn't. Someone posted that the Dragoon could keep their aether charged in their legs the entire time. That's acceptable, but then it would also require them to keep that aether concentrated in one particular spot in their body for a lengthy period of time. Aether manipulation is not as easy as moving an arm or a leg, something you do naturally and without thought. It's something that takes time and effort, and you'd have to hold that same amount of effort for the entire battle--something that likely wouldn't happen if you're also trying to dodge things and not get hit and all that stuff. In short, I think only a master could do that, and I can't conceivably accept that any character in their 20s and 30s could consider themselves a master at anything. Real world physics, as people have stated earlier, are a thing. They are our starting point to find some logical way to do things. Game mechanics have nothing to do with RP. I refuse to believe that dragoon jumps can be instant. If that's the case, I guess Val can just Shukuchi around all over the place and never get tired and never have to worry about getting hit by said dragoon jumps. There are limits placed on things for a reason, and every attack has to have its balance. That's the driving force behind RP combat. A strong strike will either take a long time to use, take a LOT of energy out of the person, or will be hard to hit something. Obviously, physics come into account there as well. The larger the creature, the easier it will be to hit things. Dragoons ARE a major portion of Ishgard's military. Why? To fight dragons. I still reiterate that their skills would not work nearly as well against smaller, more agile targets.