Oli!

Gearing up for plotlines. You know why. Watch this space carefully.

Will be checking around for those that still need invites over the next few days!

Round of invites will be sent out this week!

can i be morpheus

Might have just been the primal offered; chances are a lot of people don't really see fighting Shiva as making much sense considering the current story of the game.

My current experiment:

Freckles are under the "Makeup" section, similar to XIV. They're on my character, if you want a preview of what they look like.

Made one of my launch characters last night.

You sign up right here! We'll keep an eye out for you in-game!

Your post leaves out the idea that by questioning concepts in certain ways, people are in fact treating people the way that they would like to be treated. I for one would be much more comfortable with having my concepts questioned and prodded for faults before I put them out for people to look at, only to experience rejection and realize I've been using the source material poorly.

It's also factual. It's a real thing that happens, and telling a person a fact for their benefit is hardly destructive. That doesn't mean that one has to like the fact, but it's still there, and it would be worse to ignore it. That's like saying we shouldn't tell people about how using more resources will result in a worsening environmental state; it's a grim fact, but it's still something that should be faced when making further decisions.

I think it's about time we started getting specific examples if we're actually going to take a closer look at what the OP raises.

Do we know whether or not the bodies have been identified as theirs yet? Either way, it's a tragedy in the making, to be sure. I hope that the families of all involved receive the support they need.

Still here, still suplexing!

This is an extremely generous idea! 1.) Owlet 2.) Thavnairian Set 3.) Lord of Levin Lamp

Ok... Well, let's imagine that some conjurers are as potent as thaumaturges in terms of aether and in tune with elementals and the woods... Some of them at least must be strong in aether. Then, it renders the point a bit moot... Not really; there's nothing that says a Conjurer can't draw from themselves, and Sylphie and her mother are proof that you can (but they do it poorly). The main thing is that most Conjurers don't operate in that way. The likely reasons for why most don't have been outlined by myself and others: -- Belief; the point of Conjury is to attune yourself to nature, not to maximize your power output. If you're not using that nature, you're not attuning yourself to it. Considering that Hearers (those that are more attuned to nature than anyone else) have a natural affinity for Conjury, and that skilled Conjurers can also become Hearers after enough Conjury practice, it's likely that the two (affinity to nature and your power in Conjury) go hand in hand. -- Inability; having enough aether for Thaumaturgy isn't an every-day thing, and it's stressed that you need a lot of the stuff in order to be a successful Thaumaturge. It's possible that if you try to take up the art without having enough aether, you'll burn yourself out in a similar manner to Sylphie. None of these say that a Conjurer can't use their own internal aether. If they did, they'd likely be a very good Conjurer with very potent spells. What stops all Conjurers from being that way, or even most or many of them, is the fact that using aether in that way isn't something that just anyone can do, and / or that Conjury as a type of magic just works better when you use the elements you're attuned to.

If I remember right, the implication is actually that using your internal reserves for magic is better than using your surroundings if you've got enough of it; your average Thaumaturge is packing more aether than the area around them in most circumstances. Sylphie's healing magic is very potent as a result, and Thaumaturges require much more aether than the common man as a prerequisite. Drawing aether from your surroundings as a Black Mage isn't a replacement for your inner aether, it's just a supplementary practice. (The THM questline and other places touch on this a little more. The youngest lalafell brother is unable to become a Thaumaturge because he just doesn't have enough aether in him. Voidsent also love consuming the powers of Thaumaturges, because while the world around them is like picking for scraps, thaumaturges themselves are like walking four-course meals. If you try to use Black Magic without a soulstone / The Gem of Shatotto to focus it, the aether inside of you catches fire and you burn to death.) As for why Conjurers don't do that, it's likely that for many of them, their internal reserves just aren't very large; most of the officially-trained Conjurers in Gridania are picked based on how in-tune with the elements and elementals they are, and not how much aether they're packing.

It only eats away at your life if you do it wrong. Think about it like using a buzzsaw. Sylphie isn't trained in using a buzzsaw, so every once in a while she cuts one of her fingers off while using it. Everyone around her is very concerned, because eventually she'll run out of fingers. However, if you're a someone who studied and practiced, you'll be able to consistently use your buzzsaw with minimal issue and without cutting off your fingers. That's thaumaturgy (ideally).

I'm not sure this is accurate, considering that many people on these boards are excited for the likes of Blade and Soul and Black Desert. Not to mention that, again, it's possible to like some portions of a game and not other portions. Liking something in its totality is not at all necessary, and only liking portions of something is a common and expected way to approach many facets of life.

It's always been this way, sure. Doesn't mean that people can't or won't grow tired of it. I really like the game and I'm trying my best to keep playing it, but I really wish that they would do something that doesn't feel like it's getting totally pointless.

If I remember correctly, the issue is this: When a thaumaturge or a conjurer uses aether, they draw it from the source, and then they put it back somewhere. A Thaumaturge might expel it into the environment where someone or something can reabsorb it later. A Conjurer might just let it disperse into the environment in the same way. On the other hand, when a White Mage or a Black Mage uses aether, in order for the spells they use to have the effects that they have, that aether dissipates entirely instead of returning to the environment. In other words, when they cast their spells, they contribute to the "magical heat-death" of the universe.

I really don't know how much longer I can run the tomestone treadmill.

Wait, who said anything about new tomestones? That's not actually a thing, is it?

Considering the scale of SquareEnix as a company, I'm sure that they've hired English-speaking staff that lives in the West in order to service members of their Western release.

Although the dev team and the production / oversight team are two separate entities at first glance, they are nonetheless merely the left and right arms of a larger entity. The fact that they aren't coordinated, or the fact that one or the other is not doing their job very well, can still be a source of disappointment for people, especially since a failure to do their jobs on an individual level still reflects poorly on the entity that they serve.