Dat Oni

I feel like an idiot. Sorry Cuideag!

I'm in the same boat as K. The patch has really just beaten me down, and compounding the issue is an IRL problem. Yesterday, due to problems involving the Administration too many to count, the Touhou Hale 2 Server was shut down permanently for Team Fortress 2. I was an active participant in the community and it usually was considered the best part of many people's days, mine included. It also held the distinction of being the only real Touhou community-made server I was involved with on TF2. I feel rather displaced, now.

See, I never liked him... He always struck me as a suspicious person, and I was justified in my suspicions! The "Friend I had back when times were tough and then we went our separate ways only for him to be tempered into a bad guy while I became a good guy" cliche is all over this. In all its wordy glory.

I am praying that Jenlyns is right and the fact of the matter is Nanamo is horribly fucking crippled and ill, not dead. To have Nanamo make a big deal out of the end of the Sultanate in 2.4, and then have this fucking happen, comes across less as a serious plot twist and more "LOL NOPE". Why even fucking bother? I see what they tried. I really do. They wanted to make us think Nanamo was gonna fix everything and then, bam, out of nowhere that chance is swept out from under us. Except for the fact that I am laughing. Because it came across as a fucking joke. When I can feel that the death of a walking, talking Macguffin in the form of Xion from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is justifiably heart-wrenching and acceptable in comparison to the way SE has killed off Nanamo, that says a lot. It says a fucking lot. Like, they stopped caring after 2.4.

Banned for inexplicably losing soul.

Not necessarily. This design decision has its effects on the Lore, and we being a Roleplaying community that works with said Lore, how we interpret it has a big impact, and that still warrants discussion. In other words, the thread doesn't just end at "Devs said no."

Melodia~!

That statement in parenthesis reminds me of why I should be careful when using the words "Job" and "Class" in regards to FFXIV. I should have used Class. In regards to Red Mage, you're right. I focused too much on the fact that they did not exist in FFXIV for a moment, there, to consider they actually were relevant to the topic of trends. Fuck up on my part. What isn't wrong, is that you can't call Paladin a Mage in Armor. Its healing abilities, from a mechanics standpoint, aren't even inherent to its normal skillset, and if the need to level CNJ to 15 to unlock the Job weren't there, it wouldn't have any to BEGIN WITH. The point of Paladin is wearing heavy armor and wielding a sword and shield, not a wand, killing things with those implements and protecting the rest of the team from harm. This is not a Battlemage, where, yes, both have access to magic (one more than the other), and both wear heavy armor, but the Battlemage uses magic and sword in equal parts, whereas the Paladin relies almost entirely on the sword and shield.

First, RDM is not confirmed for FFXIV at this time. They're not terribly relevant, at least in context to this and your post. Second, PLD can cast basic conjuration magic through cross-class skills, but I stated this, already: PLDs in the past have had the ability to cast simple White Magic. This is just a nod to established trends regarding the class in the series' history. Might I add that it's a grand total of 4 skills we're talking about, here? Ones that other classes can also use? If the ability to cast either Cure or Physick were enough to qualify a Job as a mage, every single job would be a Healer on the side. Finally, DRK has barely been fleshed out in the time before the expansion's release, we know about as much about it as we do the Astrologian and Machinist. Saying "Oh yeah, they use magic!" is a big assumption, because although we know they use Darkness, we don't know how they go about it. Whether it even qualifies as a Magic is speculative, at best. (Unless you have canon material for me stating it is magic, outright, in which case, point the way!) Give this man a cookie.

My theory, here, is that from a Lore perspective it's to show that Eorzeans are more specialized, from their equipment to their skill lists, whereas Garlemald is a military, and as such, much is left to "standard issue". I don't think anything seems wrong with the Eorzeans, it's more the Garleans who have a serious problem. The Garlean infantry wears the same uniform for the majority of its roles. Even the guys with axes are wearing the same clothes as the "mages", and if it is true that there is some animosity towards the mooks in the Garlean war machine, I doubt its really the best armor ever, especially compared to Centurions and the many Magitek automatons. In fact, the Eorzeans seem better equipped to deal with threats in spite of an apparent loathing of helmets. Holy fuck, have you seen what that Black Mage does to a Reaper with one Fire III in the Battle of Carteneau? He blows it the fuck up and kills everyone around it. One shot, dead. So many, just, dead! Another theory is that since Garleans use Magitek, not true magic, they're free to wear whatever they want. This is quite speculative, though. The last theory, from a design perspective, is that it's so we can tell these guys are a bunch of conscripts, whereas we're the "humans". We're Eorzea! We're unique! The bad guys have no faces under those helms! It's a bad trope of dehumanizing the enemy so we can hate them more easily that's been oft repeated throughout various mediums, and I will admit I'm tiring of it, at least when it's not done to any great effect (I preferred it on Darth Vader more than I preferred it on the entire Imperial Infantry, for example). Now then, I wanna talk Clerics, because it's the very thing that'd scratch your Mages-in-armor itch. Here's a typical Cleric, right here. Kinda kickass, right? Notice the orientation of gear towards a fully offensive stance, the use of a blunt weapon, and the total lack of fucks to give. So why don't we have these in the game? It's really a combination of the Devs wanting to stick to the tried and true Jobs of FF that were the most easily recognizable for players to choose from, and that giving Cleric Stance to WHMs and SCHs (and thus making them damage dealers as well as Healers, which is basically what a Cleric IS) kind of made the point of a true Cleric class/job in the game a moot one. Why spend all that time developing a Healer/Hinder dedicated class and all the gear, quests, etc. that goes along with it when Cleric Stance does the same thing while also adding a bit of micromanagement to the primary healing classes? You don't. That's silly. Compounding the issue further, Paladins and Clerics are like two sides of the same coin. In FF, the Paladin class can learn healing magic, and has a high hp score and defensive abilities (Just look at Cecil in FFIV and you'll know what I mean). These aspects influenced the design of the GLD/PLD in FFXIV and are still apparent to this day. The Dev team would have to go to some extreme lengths to differentiate the Cleric from the Paladin, and that might eventually go so far that the term Cleric no longer applies. Is it possible to do? Yes. Would it be time-consuming and difficult? Yes, and when combined with the stretching of its original identity, that's probably why RED and BLU have barely made it past the idea phase for FFXIV as potential jobs. Being creative and staying true to the source material is a major problem.

Okay, I've seen this complaint too many times to let it fester any longer, but the subject itself would have derailed the thread in which this post by Ryoko was made, so, here it is in its own thread. Excuse me for a moment while I get on my soapbox... There we go. Ahem. The first thing that comes to my mind in regards to justifying this, right off the bat, is good old Dungeons and Dragons. In DND, from which Final Fantasy draws about 70-90% of its main assets, concepts, rules, and overall inspiration, traditional Mage classes are bound by the light-no armor rule for a very specific reason: Magical interference. It is stated in the rulebooks that use of heavier armor will call for dice rolls that determine spell failure if worn while casting spells. For Mages, the more extreme the armor, the harder it is for them to focus a spell and properly cast it. Therefore, Mages and light armor go hand in hand. But clearly, DND had to take inspiration from somewhere else, and they did, and this is the better argument, right here. Even before the days of DND, it was a fantasy trope, hell, a trend, even, of storytelling that Mages are typically robe-wearers and the like. My favorite example is Odin. Of all the people you'd expect to be wearing brilliant gilded platemail, Odin was often times shown as a Gandalf-esque old man in robes. I think this was kind of a trendsetter, implying that the people who wielded God-like powers (such as conjuring lightning or such) were humble looking, and that just doesn't fit the heavy armor archetype. As we go on, we see Witches wearing rags and Warlocks are decked in cloaks. Spells and light armor/clothing just go hand in hand. These are traditions that have been going on for centuries we're talking, here, from fables to novels to board games to video games. It's embedded in our culture. Does that mean breaking the mold every now and then is a bad thing? No, it doesn't. But talking FFXIV, the GIANT equipment overhaul that would have to take place just to please a select few individuals such as yourself who want a change of pace and play a Black Mage in a set of full Mythril is not, I repeat, NOT worth it. And having explained the history of Mage equipment to you, in the most brief way possible, I think I really dislike this suggestion of ignorance on Square's part, because on close inspection, you see that they did in fact do their homework on this one, in that they noted the trend in Mage designs and the favoritism towards light armor, and with their lack of a Battlemage-esque class/job in mind for the game (aka the kind of people you EXPECT to wear armor and sling spells), as well as keeping in mind their OWN tropes, tropes that FF fans have supported for years, made the appropriate decisions. And that's weird, because I arrive at this conclusion on a lot of issues, with a few exceptions for some truly stupendous lapses in thought. It always seems that we focus so heavily on "Oh, it's this trend again" that we forget to take into consideration that, yes, it is this trend again, because that trend happens to be what the people want, and the game industry, at least the honest part of it with some slab of integrity, is centered around giving the fans what they want so they can make money so they can continue to make games or improve upon existing ones. It's a mutual relationship in the best cases, like the one we have with the team behind A Realm Reborn. Mages in light armor is a familiar trend that helps rope people into the Fantasy experience. It's part of a largely unwritten and not always, but often followed, set of rules for designing a believable, but fantastic setting. It is bad for a game company to break these rules? No, and if they are successful as a result, well, more power to them. You do what works. But at the same time, I'm not going to fault the others who do follow the rules, because, again, you do what works. So long as they also have just a little more to offer that so happens to make their experience more enjoyable, and doesn't focus so much on these core aspects or trends to the point of redundancy. Sex-appeal MMOs, I'm LOOKING AT YOU. *Pant...Pant...* Okay, I'll get off my soapbox, now. I hope I've made some sort of point, here. Please, discuss.

Did someone say Brrynhildr?

What staff is that, if you don't mind my asking? Ifrit HM WHM staff.

That'd be a nice thread, actually...

Edgar is often alone. Many assume that he is reading or sleeping, and for the most-part they are correct. But when he's absolutely certain no one else is around... Edgar sings.

More importantly, WHERE IS YOUR FRUIT SALAD PHOTO? FUCK YOUR SALAD.

WHY. WHY IS THIS A THING. AND WHY AM I LAUGHING SO HARD.

"Silence, you. The Dragon eats the pious and impious alike."

One of the first people I ever met in the game, and has stuck with me since. Absolutely adore ya, Cuideag!

Okay, best sweep the vagueness aside, then. It appears to be a new Trial-esque instance, with a focus on defending a specific point against attackers. I like that idea, because up until now, it's always been about us going through a dungeon to kill something, or meeting at a specific point...to kill something. This looks like it could be less of a standard epic confrontation deal, with failure/success dependent more on our ability to protect key targets than just our mere survival. That's what I've gathered from this collection of screens and description, anyroad.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/pr/special/2_5_Before_the_Fall/ishgard/#patch DEFEND, DEFEND, DEFEND

Harping on the attachment Ed went through with Delial, this song is just too damn fitting, and it's weird I found it after Ed swore to be platonic with her. [align=center]gBe7Wq6vhWs [/align]

Edgar is always posting "Did you died" on Delial's timeline.

Please send an invite to Edgar Gandervalt, my Miqo main~