Zyrusticae

T'rahnu's is pretty easy to figure out: Yup.

If they could implement gliding ala Aion, that could work, but it'd be far too much of a racial advantage, and as we can plainly see, they really, REALLY want to avoid having strong racial differentiation in the game, at least when it comes to gameplay.

Man, if they do release a Samurai class, I'd really like them to use Iaijutsu like the PSO2 katanas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thbs12GX4DA Though from the looks of that list they're probably going to use bigger katanas (ala Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur), so I guess I can scratch that off my list of 'things to be excited about for the future'. Oh, well, I still have PSO2 for my lightning-fast katana-drawing action!

My reaction to finding out phase 4 is a weekend long and also still a week and a half away: Fortunately, I got over it pretty quick.

Ooohhhh yessss, I would take this in a heartbeat! Really, I just want a race that doesn't have human faces and bodies for once. Being human is boring, why would I want to play the umpteenth race that's just another weird variation of humankind? (I'd rather have the Aion route where they just let you make really weird-looking humans instead of separate races for all the different types...) Plus it'd be great to see how Squeenix tackles the problem of making a race with a very alien physique relative to the humanoid races. I just know they wouldn't disappoint.

Gods, if they could implement a race similar to the Iksar or Skyrim-style Argonians, I would never leave this game (at least until EQNext is released, anyway). What can I say? I love my humanoid lizard people. Bangaa, not so much - they really do look more like some kind of weird mix between dog and lizard. Playable Mamool Ja I would be okay with, though with their rather alien physique (relative to the other races), they would need a LOT of art work done to fit them in armor...

I would definitely be more interested in a dragon race than anything else... But as far as Viera vs. Miqo'te goes, I just have a preference for catgirls... and short heights, for that matter. Tall and lanky just isn't my kinda thing, y'know? I tried it with the Elezen, and, well, that just didn't work out. I also have to agree that Viera and Miqo'te would overlap a little too much as it is. Better for the sake of variety that we get something else instead.

Heh, not the only one. See: Well, in all honesty, it's not too bad. Since I'm somewhat ambiguously gendered it's easier for me to just kind of 'live with it', as opposed to someone who's, say, unambiguously feminine who would almost certainly have a harder time of it. (By the way, Teranu/T'rahnu are kind of like my ideal self, which should give you an idea of just how confusing things can be with regards to my gender, heh.) Also, video games and RP tend to help. One of the reasons I spend so much time in PSO2 is simply because I can live vicariously through my own characters, as limited as that may be. My rather extreme social anxiety also precludes the possibility of being able to live through the social ostracization I'd go through if I actually went through a transition, as well. I have a hard enough finding a job as it is... I can't imagine how difficult it would be with that added hardship. Hence, anyone willing to actually go through that sort of thing must be respected. That's rough stuff.

Mate, I have tremendous, absolute respect for you for going through with this stuff. While I can't promise sending any funds your way (I live with a family that's constantly toeing the poverty line and only work part time myself), you have my unmitigated support and I wish you all the luck in the world on your endeavor. Also, I'm incredibly bloody jealous of you right now. I can't even think of transitioning right now due to both my family and monetary situations, plus the process of a MtF transition is somewhat more limited than the FtM transition (no real change to the voice, for example). And, er, there's the part where I'm only biologically transexual and am otherwise ambiguously gendered... Man, this world has a sick sense of humor sometimes, producing someone as dysfunctional as myself. But I digress. This isn't about me, heh. I'll see if I can't get anyone I know to throw some funds your way. Good luck, man!

These three are up there for me, and I have to throw in... Honestly, though, there are simply far too many good Final Fantasy tracks to pick just one.

AFAIK there is only one code: You generally don't have to enter anything else after you have Early Access, but Squeenix COULD be doing it differently. I doubt it, however.

I'm so confused right now. I could have sworn I posted in a thread just like this one, except it was under a different name... but I can't find that thread anymore, so I'm just kind of lost now. Anyway... I've been playing LOADS of PSO2. Like criminal amounts of PSO2. I mean look how many screenshots are in my PSO2 folder, and then consider that I culled about 200 shots from it earlier this year, and that should give you an idea of how much I've been playing this thing (or at least, how many screenshots I've been taking of it). Aside from that, I dabble in a bunch of other random shite every now and then, but it's been becoming increasingly rare for me to bother with anything other than more PSO2. Something about being unable to get invested in the avatar makes it very difficult for me to play other games (with Dragon's Dogma being a notable exception thanks to its excellent character creation). Right now I'm (still) looking forward to Blade & Soul, as a sort of minor distraction (I really don't believe the game is going to be something I want to pour hours into like PSO2), and EQNext is very, very strong on my radar right now, even though I barely know any details about how the nitty-gritty of the game will actually function. Pretty much none of the so-called "next-generation" console games have piqued my interest, so it's just... yeah. That's about it, really. Kind of depressing how little I look forward to nowadays...

Pre-order code seems to depend entirely on who you bought it from. I pre-ordered mine from Amazon and they gave me the pre-order code immediately (even though I can't register it until the 20th).

NOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Now I have no choice but to deal with my character's sub-par appearance and embarrassing name for at least a week of game time... :cry: (Btw, I take it changing race is not an option?)

I'm confused on something... Will I not be able to rename or recustomize my legacy characters for Phase 4? This is important!

I take serious issue with this. If people want to discuss it, let them discuss it! What harm does it do? It doesn't matter if no one gets anywhere, trying to squelch the discussion is about as productive as trying to get people to stop rolling on Gilgamesh. The only way you could really stop it from happening is to lock every thread on the matter as soon as they pop up, but that's incredibly counter-productive and produces a highly oppressive atmosphere. BS. There is absolutely no risk of of "broken game mechanics" whatsoever on a Legacy server. The only difference is that there are some people who are already ahead of the game, but judging from the "How far did you get?" poll a considerable majority of Legacy players never made it past level 30 with one character. More to the point, I consider splitting the community to be THE WORST POSSIBLE SIN. There is nothing that justifies splitting the community. Nothing. Absolutely nothing! You can't do it. You just can't do it. There's literally no possible answer that would convince me that "yes, it's okay that people are splitting up an already niche and incredibly tiny community". Every single excuse - and they are excuses - that's been stated here and elsewhere on these forums has been far, FAR from justifying this ridiculous divide. Right now, we number maybe in the hundreds, with maybe 3/4 going to Balmung and 1/4 going to Gilgamesh. I mean, that's bloody terrible. There are already so few of us to begin with, why do we need to be split up on something so incredibly trivial? The worst part is that there will inevitably be dozens of players who just burn out over time and that leaves us with a scant few dozen active players by this time next year. I've seen this happen so many times in so many MMOs that I'm absolutely astonished that this is even an issue. Why take the risk? Why? No, don't answer that, you already know I won't accept any of your answers. Ugh, I can't even describe how angry all of this makes me. Yes, it's completely trivial, but it's BECAUSE it's so trivial that it makes me so angry. It really, really wouldn't be that difficult to just roll on a single server, but no, some folks have to take it upon themselves to be... different. To spite everyone else, just because they can. I'm sorry, but I cannot respect that. If you ever decide to reroll on Balmung, you are all welcome to do so (I won't be nearly as angry then because, y'know, I'll just be playing the game), but don't expect any sympathy from me whatsoever if things go south.

That's the materialism I was talking about, but that has little to do with what the person I was responding to was talking about (which was entirely about 'needs'). And a lot of that is societal, created by a consumerist culture where having the next great thing is fetishized to a possibly unhealthy degree. Imagine a society where 'making do with what you have' is given the highest order of importance, and you'd have a very different picture. Also, too late, this train will not be derailed!

I don't even think you'll get agreement on that. Property, from my perspective, is a fundamental consequence of human nature and natural rights. If you don't have a right to the food you grow, the clothes you make, or the shelter you've constructed, you necessarily don't have a right to live as all of those things are prerequisites. To say property is a concept born of a materialistic culture completely neglects this basic fact of reality. No, what you're talking about is entirely a consequence of scarcity. Remove scarcity as a factor and property is completely unnecessary. If everyone's needs are met, "stealing" ceases to exist as a concept. And when I say 'property' is unnecessary, I am very obviously assuming that everything becomes everyone's 'property', as in you have an automatic, assumed right to the things that are required to live, not that no one has a right to the things required to live. There are entire generations of human culture where the idea of 'property', at least in the sense we think of it, simply did not exist. At most we had a sense of 'territory', which is not the same thing at all (and is something present among all kinds of predators across the entire animal kingdom). The most prominent (and relatively recent) example I can think of are Native Americans, who lacked both the concepts of exact time and individual property that the colonists had, and frequently got into trouble with the colonists when they simply nicked things because they didn't understand their idea of 'individual property rights'. Remember, everything was 'property of the tribe'. At most they traded things between tribes, but within the tribe you simply took what you needed when you needed it. I suppose I should amend my statement to say 'private property' is what is in question here, not necessarily the very concept of 'property' itself. And while I'm at it, it is extremely plausible for Miqo'te tribes to have an idea of 'property' that is very similar to Native Americans, as they would simply share needed tools and food within the tribe proper, and may have something of a culture clash when moving to typical Eorzean society with their idea of 'ownership'. Of course this can vary from tribe to tribe, but I would not consider it implausible that someone simply has difficulties understanding that idea when they were not raised with it.

Alternatively, perhaps that character simply doesn't possess the same sence of materialism that normal, civilized people possess and doesn't understand the concept of 'property'? I honestly find it quite a stretch to say that thievery, in and of itself, is a 'vile criminal act'. Most people who engage in thievery do it as a means of survival, not simply because they can. I find it highly disagreeable to paint all such individuals as 'completely untrustworthy', as simply being willing to take from others does not say much about whether or not that person can be trusted. It is entirely possible that you are willing to go quite far for the sake of survival but also hold those who aid you in high esteem. "Property" itself is a concept born largely of a materialistic culture, and I think it's important to recognize that. Not everyone will see eye-to-eye in that area, and that's something that I think will be interesting to explore. That being said, simply saying "I nicked your coin" is godmoding and should not be tolerated in any case. I would say that any sort of PvP in RP (which stealing from another player is) should be avoided just to steer clear of this situation.

I already have far too many distractions as it is, between Phantasy Star Online 2 (goddamn, that game's a timesink), Skullgirls, a whole crapton of other random games, a bunch of anime from this season (I'm following like 7 shows right now), and a whole bunch of internet stuff... it is simply impossible for me to fathom someone who is unable to find ways to keep busy while waiting for phase 4 to start. Speaking of PSO2, have some character shots:

I suppose this is as good a place as any to note some of my finds. I have a Core i5 2500k running at 4.5GHz, 16GBs of DDR3, and two GTX 670s (with 4GBs of VRAM each). Using maximum settings at 1920x1080 with exception for LOD and occlusion culling being enabled because I don't see the point of disabling them: Single-GPU: 10,860 - 96 Avg. FPS Dual-GPU (SLI): 17,753 - 170 Avg. FPS Dual-GPU (SLI) with 4x SGSSAA: 9,551 - 99 Avg. FPS (?) I find it quite curious that 4x SGSSAA only halves the performance, when it should be cutting it to a quarter (hence the 4x). It performs far better than downsampling from 4k would, so if you have an Nvidia card and really want some good AA, it is the preferable option. Also of note, the SLI scaling is quite good, at 77%. However, I would only recommend going with SLI if you already have an SLI-compatible motherboard and power supply unit, otherwise you're likely better off just upgrading to a bigger single-GPU card with what you'd save from not upgrading your MB and PSU (this was not relevant to me at the time because the only higher card was the 680, and Titans and the 700-series were not released yet).

Funny that you say that. I mean, considering my character is essentially nothing but three colors - black, brown, and yellow. And a bit of pink in the makeup, I guess. All the same, I'm pretty happy her with being 'plain' color-wise. Edit: Looking at it a bit more, I think the problem is that your character all tends towards the same 'middle' values (as compared to my character who varies between black hair, dark brown eyes, and light-yellow skin), which can look a bit boring. Looks better now with the brighter hair, but it's not very often that I think the colors are the problem as much as the range of values. Try to have some contrast somewhere and generally you won't have issues. On the other hand, maybe having a character that doesn't stand out can be a boon, as well...

Hmmm. I ended up with this Keeper...

A little over nine thousand.

This isn't a creation screenshot, but I don't see the point in making another thread just for benchmark shots, so here you go: 1920x1080 w/ 4x SGSSAA (functional equivalent of 4k resolution) + SweetFX running at an average of 99 FPS. I love my PC.