Mae

Same. Of course, there'll always be people who will disagree and say that it was 1577 when they joined (regardless of how many years from now they'll join the game), so rule of thumb is to be vague with anyone who's outside your group/community's timeline until you are sure they're running on the same calendar you are. (Do we have an RPC-Community timeline? Was the possibility of one discussed a long while back? The idea worked out wonderfully in the big RP community I was in in the past) Anyways. To go by the in-game clock isn't viable. By the in-game clock, one month of Real-World time equals out to be just under two In-Game years. That equals out to almost twenty years have currently passed since ARR launched, and sets us up for having holidays that lasted half a year or more. And whole years where there wasn't a single holiday. And a conversation can last days without needing to stop for at least a nap. SE has some very strange ideas about time, and XI set up some weird precedents. While it makes sense that the clock moved faster there because of some mechanics (Undead only popping at nighttime, moon phases, guild/shop hours, the day element effects, certain weather effects, 'wait one Vana'diel day before progressing', versus the only thing I've encountered in XIV so far that relies on the time of day was the Halloween event), the XI devs maintain that a full Vana'diel year has NOT passed in XI. Yep, twelve Real-World years of content, over a dozen crisis', something near 300 Game-Clock years later, and apparently a Vana'diel year hasn't passed yet. Maybe I'm being a bit early in this, but I would not be surprised if the same happened in XIV down the road. ------ And before someone tries to argue RP-agrues that maybe these planets are just -that- small to be rotating this quickly... I'm not an expert, but I believe a planet that rotates this quickly wouldn't be able to keep an atmosphere or have enough gravity to keep anything stuck to the surface. It's just a game mechanic in XI that allows you to not have to wait days (or months) for conditions to be right for types of crafting, specific quests, monster pops, etc., and I suspect in XIV it's directly linked to why I can't talk to NPCs while mounted.

As I clicked on the thread, this is halfway done: Aaaand as I finish up posting... Guess I'm having an 80's day, heh.

In the past and in other games, I've done long trips/vacations to places out of reach, 'covert missions', intensive training, kidnapping, illnesses, and 'family upheaval'. I personally try to avoid kidnappings. They were great when I was newer to RP, but these days... *shrugs* I find them overused I suppose, and soap-opera-esque, and do my best to avoid it. Coma (caused by illness or injury) is even moreso overused and soap-opera-esque, but if I need a reason to be out of action for a while and not put a lot of extra story behind it, I'll still use it; "hit head in accident, sleep for however long time I need to be gone". My two favorites have been 'family upheaval' and long trips. The former, was for a character that was part of a large merchant family and there was politics and an internal power struggle that kept her out of action. The latter was a ruins exploration/mapping/treasure-hunting/cataloging trip for a new employer.

I just want to apologize to everyone who was interested in the Botany classes. I haven't forgotten about them, but life has been throwing me a lot of curve-balls ever since I spoke up about running the classes (family stuff, then sick, then broken datacard, then an RP slump), and now I'm in the process of preparing for a major shift in my lifestyle. For the foreseeable future, I'm going to say that the classes will continue on Sundays at 2pm EST (as this seemed like the time frame that most people interested could attend), but I will not going to confirm the class actually happening until that morning before noontime. I'm sorry it'll be such short notice and I apologize if this inconveniences people, but with how hectic things are getting and how my energy is getting quickly sapped at times, it's the best I can do.

The two jobs that I can comment on (Bard and White Mage), the storylines very much have a "you're the only one" feel to them, and I'm under the impression that some of the other jobs are the same. If XIV were a single-player game, for those jobs there would only be one soul stone for it in existence. Buuuuuuut, it's not a single-player game, so the storyline lore doesn't quite make sense. All that being said, I personally ignore the existence of soulstones up until someone someone else specifically brings them up... and then I go back to ignoring them afterwards. Mostly because I can't really find a good reason for them to exist other than a game mechanic that could be tied to why I can't talk to an NPC if I'm sitting on a mount. Mage/casting jobs could possibly justify them through saying they're a foci of some sort that's needed to channel special spells, but for the more melee jobs... it just doesn't make much sense to me. "Ohhai, I can't punch/stab/hack/jab/shoot you like that unless I wave around a magic stone first and transform!" It's kind of Sailor Moon-ish to me, and while I love Sailor Moon... it's just weird here. There is almost always a way out of those unhappy situations. Sometimes you really have to search for them OOCly, and sometimes you have to have a character really crawl through the mud on their hands and knees before you can get there. I actually look forward to those times because I see them as opportunities to either make a character stronger or break them further so that later they'll get the chance to grow strong again. My XI character (yes, I still play and RP in XI), the past year or so has totally chewed her up. Friends have disappeared, are going insane or changing, the guy she's in love with is dying, and every thing she's tried to do to help and protect the people she cares for has failed. And while I haven't personally liked going down the mental/emotional paths that everything has taken that character, I have every intention on turning the situation and further bad ones (cause I know things aren't going to start getting better for a long while) into a huge milestone in her personal growth. I tend to find that characters I make that have absolutely no angst/trauma in their backstories are harder for me to motivate. They have everything they want, they really -would- be content to just sit around and be a normal person. This is another problem I had with my original character here; she was so stupidly happy and had as close to a perfect childhood as could be imagined, that the ONE bad thing that had happened to her (getting lost for a couple years), she barely even noticed. She's actually made for a much more amusing Retainer than an RP character. Depends on the character. Kara doesn't have retainers ICly yet. When she does, the one that'll be dealing with Gridanian business will be my first RP character, which did get turned into a retainer (Silke/Sillke). The rest will be random people she gets assigned or hires. The Gardener won't ever have IC retainers. Same with Swyn. Neither have the personality to have them. Luc'a will also have Silke as a retainer. The other slots, I've no idea how I'll fill them. Maybe I'll make one of them his brother. Whisper, hers will be refugees that got out of the camp and into real jobs. My villain, his are personal slaves. Mallow... her 'minions'. Stray children that she's found. I'll make them all Lalafells and give them flower names. Or after Titania's retainers in Midsummer Night's Dream...

Regardless of if Eorzea has actual members of the Coffea genus growing, I RP that there is coffee and whether or not it's actual coffee beans or a coffee substitute (various other barks, roots, and seeds/nuts in Real Life work this way), I leave that up for other people to personally pursue. In general, I go on the idea that if the ingredients (or if it's reasonable that similar ingredients should exist) and technology for a food exists, then it's fair game. And really, with that logic there's not much (short of things that NEED a blender and "astronaut ice cream") that can't be made in some form or another. We have cow-like creatures, we have bread, we have mustard, we have tomatoes, lettuce, onions, zucchini, vinegar and cheese. We have the ability to dice or grind meat, pickling is a VERY old method of preserving food, and grilling is possible. With that in mind, it is totally possible that someone could make a cheeseburger with the typical toppings... I'd just personally grimace if I saw someone calling it a cheeseburger (and downright do a facedesk of epic proportions if I saw someone call it a Wopper or Big Mac). On a personal character's side... Kara grew up in a camp in Thanalan, and food could be a bit scarce there at times. As long as something isn't maggoty, rancid, rotted, or moldy, it could be used in a potential meal as far as she's concerned. She likes savory over sweet, and likes things that can be easily eaten on the go or partially eaten, then wrapped up and saved for later. For drinks, she likes black coffee and water. ... I'm not sure what the Gardener likes to eat (... or even if she DOES eat o_O; ). If she does, she's probably a strict vegetarian. She does drink water, though... and only water.

Apologies about the Botany class for today... I've gone my whole life without plant allergies and gone from one side of the country to the other, but apparently there's something that blooms in eastern New Mexico/western Texas after it rains and that something is trying to kill me. I've taken an allergy medicine, and it seems that until I'm out of this part of the country and my system clears this out, my choices are "sneezing/coughing constantly with bleary eyes and running nose" or "nodding off every five minutes". I'll look at the schedule in a day or two and try to pick a new date off of that. Sorry again.

BAH! I -knew- I was missing a class... sorry about that. Time zone changes and going in and out of the deserts in the Southwest have both messed up with my perception of time and availability to do much. S'all good ^^ It's a class for a reason, y'know? First Botany class was designed to give basics on how to not get hurt out in the field (I wasn't able to fit in 'how to test for edibility' since I ran out of time), as the gardener doesn't have a lot of patience with people and would get quickly annoyed when/if people started coming down with contact rashes and cases of poison ivy. Next class should be far more interesting. ----- I'd like to thank everyone who did make it to the Botany class. That day had a loooot of panicking from me (from first realizing I was in the middle of the desert of Arizona and not likely to have a signal to having no-one show up to suddenly having a crowd!). Hopefully the next one will go just as well! Speaking of which... http://doodle.com/dzhqepn8wmn9d44y Same poll as last time, just edited to include further-out dates. Please check it and make any adjustments; as of right now it's looking like we'll be doing 2pm EST on Sunday the 25th.

I have the best husband ever; he offered to take an early and long break today, so connection isn't an issue. Hope to see people in a bit~

Horrible fate of the double post! Botany class will take place tomorrow at 2pm EST at the Greatloam Growery (Botany Guild) in Gridania. You don't have to be a botanist ICly to attend. On the off-chance that I'm still in the desert in Arizona/California and my connection is spotty when class starts, I may have to call a reschedule. Check back here around the start time; I'll try to leave a message if I'm going to be late.

First, wait until your current billing cycle finishes. SE supposedly adjusts/pro-rates if you change an option mid-cycle, but I haven't tested this myself. Log into SE's site or Mog Station. Click "Account Services" up near the top. Click "Reoccurring Subscription Setup" on the Final Fantasy XIV tab. Scroll down to your billing information, first option is your subscription type. Click from "Entry" to "Standard". From there, you do need to continue through your billing information. You're basically just confirming that the rest of your information is still correct at this point. If you back out/close/cancel before you finish going through this information, your account won't be changed from Entry to Standard.

Also, regarding the times, if you sign up for the classes on Doodle and re-check the times, the site automatically converts for your timezone.

I've... been avoiding this thread for a few reasons, but my confusion has reached a point where I feel like I have to jump in, especially now that this has been stated to be like a social experiment... The choice to RP children is, of course, a personal choice. Some of the characters I've liked to RP the most are children/children in their society (meaning physical and/or mental development does not always reflect on their actual age, used mostly for long-lived races). Some have been orphans, some have had family around. I'm not going to say I'm an expert on the subject, but I'm at least familiar enough with the concept. I've also been on the other side of the fence and RP'd being a mother; pregnancy, caring for babies, children, and teenagers. That being all said... I'm going to address this claim of social experiment. Realistically, a five-year-old child that was dumped on the streets and walks around calling for Mommy would be given over to/picked up by local and, after no parents can be found, be placed in some sort of child protective services, be it an orphanage, a church (or equivalent), a foster home, or a workhouse. Once in any of these situations, the child wouldn't be allowed to wander around alone. The other possible scenario for that would be waiting to see how long until Fagin comes along and picks up the child. RP-wise, the character concept and social experiment may be putting people in an uncomfortable position of "To do the 'right' thing could be construed as Godmoding, to adopt would throw off everything I had planned, but ignoring would be rude". The godmoding is a result of realistic chains of events: Lost/abandoned child is found. Lost/abandoned child is handed over to law enforcement/child protection services. Lost/abandoned child is then effectively locked up/locked down. This last part basically equals someone locking this lost/abandoned child out of RP. Adopting/including a small child into one's (real or RP) life is a MAJOR step. Real Life requires an enormous commitment and even putting life's dreams on hold. RP-wise is almost the same. As someone who RP'd a character that got pregnant and had a baby, I can say that it is an experience I will -never- go through again; it put a huge damper on what I could reasonably RP, and I had to leave a lot of my plans for that character unexplored/unrealized. That character actually only lasted another half-year or so in RP before I retired her because it was just -not- fun to sit around RPing caring for a baby when everyone else was out adventuring. This might seem selfish, but I think it's totally reasonable. A Real-Life child is a major commitment. It is (or at least should be) an even more serious commitment than marriage(formalized partnership, whatever term you want to use), and not everyone is prepared or wants that sort of commitment. It's not that people do not empathize with orphans/abandoned children, it is a case that many (most) people realize that they are not qualified for it (many are correct in this), so they don't adopt. Even if it's "just RP", people who take their RP seriously would likely have the same line of thought. Which brings us to the fact that ignoring would be rude. You're RP'ing, we want to acknowledge it. But to properly acknowledge it, many people would have to either skirt uncomfortably close to godmoding or include a major deviation to their plans/expectations/story progression that, for one reason or another, they don't want. I'm confused on what you're wanting to accomplish with this character. You've said that the character will hit a wall if someone does not adopt her and you've made yourself seem quite upset when people turn down adopting her (which could make a few people feel guilty), but you do not want to create NPC's to adopt her and you have stated that you will not force someone to adopt her. Ignoring the fact that a five-year-old would not last long on the streets alone, unless you make NPCs to take care of her, this character probably has a -very- short shelf life. As a social experiment, there really isn't much to experiment with; a logical chain of events has long been in-place in equivalent societies for a very long time. So... yet again... I'm confused on your plans for the character/the purpose of the social experiment.

That was a lot of fun! Thank you for bringing Luc'a too. The dynamic between the two men was very well done, and hilarious at times. I already have the new doodle for the next lesson made. I invite anyone and everyone. Even if you aren't a Lancer, you can watch http://doodle.com/ypfviuag7mytc3np A curious Lalafell scholar came to the previous lesson, and said he was sent by the Twin Adder to oversee, and act as a healer if needed. He watched for quite a while. Another mysterious stranger watched from the guild porch. I would prefer more students, but anyone who wants to come to the lessons and interact as a background character is free to do so as long as they aren't being disruptive. Hah, glad you enjoyed Luc'a. I tend to get nervous RPing him because he's a bit of a brat, but Kujh ran his mouth enough for the two of them. I really did enjoy the class, and if things work out I'll be joining the next class. Signed up for Saturday and Sunday, but Saturday could be a bit of a stretch for me, as I've got RP in another game that day and depending on how long it runs I might be a bit on the mentally exhausted side. Sunday, though, I foresee no problems at this time attending. As for the Botany class~ Majority at this time seems to be for 2PM EST on Sunday the 18th, and at this time will begin at Greatloam Growery in Gridania. Depending on how fast 'content' is covered, I expect the class to run between an hour and two hours.

What times would work? I am only available after 6:30 pm PST M-F, which makes it more difficult for most people in EU or EST. Though I am available almost all times on Saturday and Sunday. ... I didn't put on Sundays? *checks Doodle* ... Holy crap, I apparently did not... Hm. Can I fix that..? ... Yes. Yes I can. Doodle has been updated to include some Sundays, I'm going to be sending PMs to the people who have already signed up to update their days and times.

EDIT: Hah, seems I hit post just as you got ahold of Customer Service. I'll leave this here, though, cause this is bound to happen to someone else. A friend of my husband is going through the same thing... however, the guy is too stubborn to get on the phone and actually call SE; he'd rather complain for hours about a service he's paying for but can't access. Which is likely exactly what you'll have to do: Sit on the phone for a few hours until you get through the CS queue. They CAN verify your account without you logging into the Mog Station or SE's site (when my husband's account was hijacked, SE utterly locked down his account for over a month but they could access it whenever he called); they'll ask you account information and for you to email a picture of your ID to prove ownership. Once they verify your ownership, they can remove the code for you. Once you get that taken care of and get your account back, when you put the security token back on you need to remember to save the emergency removal code in a place where you can access in case of another phone update, loss of phone, etc. This was actually part of the instructions given when you set up the token ( >___>; sorry...). I have mine saved on my desktop, in one of the cloud services I use (in case of both iPod and laptop failure/loss), and onto an external harddrive. On the bright side... this SHOULD help prove that the security token concept does work; you can't access it until you get that authorization code or prove ownership to SE <_<

I personally don't see a problem with learning multiple classes ICly, except in cases where someone is going to try to pull off being The Best at them all. Specializing/excelling/mastering one and having good, solid understandings of complimentary classes is (in my opinion) perfectly fine. Moving on to the actual topic, though... Unless you're planning to let the first fifteen or so levels and the Main Scenario have a Big Influence on your character, there's no real reason (that I can think of) that you can't just pick the city you want. CNJ, THM, and ACN are all complimentary classes, you're likely to want to get all three up to at least 15 for cross-classing skills and Job requirements. You can also make a bit of nice money this way, by holding onto the gear you get during your first 1-15 leveling spree, and taking the Allagean coin rewards when you run the other two classes. As for which Archon you're dealing with... as far as I've seen, once you get past your Envoy mission it's all sort of moot. You deal with whatever Archon is already paired for the region you're currently questing in (Y'shtola for Limsa regions, Yda and Pap...something-or-other for Gridanian regions, Thancred for Thanalan). There might be slight text variations in cutscenes, but you'd really have to look for them. Now... if you're wanting those first fifteen levels/Main Scenario stuff to have effect on your character... Gridania/CNJ and Uld'dah/THM are easy. With a bit of luck or with an escort, you can run between Gridania and Ul'dah at level 1. Pick the city you want to do the Main Scenario with, run and get the job you want to use, come back to the city you chose, and then just work it into your story that you periodically need to travel to do your class quests. Limsa classes and Main Scenario stuff with another city as your starter... the way I see it, it would require some more working that you may or may not be willing to do. Essentially... you'd have to run two characters until past the Envoy quests. Character A being the one you're going to keep, grind that up to where you get your airship pass, move to Limsa, then grind up to fifteen again on ACN. Then make Character B with a similar name and appearance, have them start out as ACN, and then level up through the Envoy quests, mentally matching up the Main Scenario quests with your Class quests for your RP. And then once you get to the point where both characters are the same point, you just switch back to Character A and continue on. Past that point, there's only one CS where your starter Archons interact with you, and the event is almost identical in context between the three options... and maybe one line of text in another is slightly altered (NPC says something along the lines of "and you've already met X"). Anyways, that's my thoughts on the matter. Personally, if you really have no plans for the first fifteen levels and related Main Scenario, I'd just go with picking your starting city, leveling the affiliated class, and then go for your preferred class and start RPing from that point. The other way, it can be done but if you're not mentally prepared for it you could run the risk of burning yourself out.

What times would work?

... I think I did this right... http://doodle.com/dzhqepn8wmn9d44y Class Name: "Things That Grow -- What The Botany Guild Doesn't Teach". I am willing to do TWO UNIQUE classes a month, on whichever days and times holds the majority of votes. So please, when checking the schedule, mark ALL days and times that you can attend (and won't be in conflict with another class you are signing up for). When I decide which day we will be gathering (HA! Get it?!) I will do my best to give a full week of notice ahead of time. I am also willing to do ONE MAKE-UP day per unique class, for anyone who is adamant about attending but it is truly impossible because of their personal schedule. Make-up days will be as catered as possible to these people, but is not restricted to them only (if you attended the regular class but think it would be IC for your character to seek a refresher/have further questions to ask, feel free to attend if your schedule allows). Please also be aware that, while I will do my utmost to keep every scheduled class, I am on a mobile connection and very likely to be running these classes while on the move (cross-country trucking isn't a 9 to 5 job). This does cause cases where I disconnect when the datapack jumps from tower to tower, and this typically lasts only a minute or two. There may even be rare cases where I'll have to cancel a class because a new load is sending us through an area I know is prone to long or frequent disconnects (Nowhere, Texas... Haven't-seen-another-human-for-three-hours, Montana... Asscrackofnowhere, West Virginia... T2-R5, Maine... entirety of Ohio) . Please bear with me when these happen, and we'll try to reschedule if there's enough interest. DISCLAIMER ABOUT THIS CLASS: While I think everyone here is intelligent enough to know better and I shouldn't have to say the following, I should still just cover my butt... In Real Life, I would call myself a wild foods/wild medicines enthusiast. While I do have the knowledge on how to identify and use various plants, there is no way possible for me to impart this use for Real Life application through the internet. There are so many plants out there that are healthy/tasty/beneficial but have deadly poisonous doppelgangers where the only way to tell the difference between the two is a slight variation of leaf structure, scent when crushed, or soil type that they're growing in. There is also cases where a plant is toxic only to certain people and require testing beforehand to gauge safety, and plants that can become toxic depending on things as simple as where they are growing and the time of year. There are so many factors involved, that I must STRONGLY STRESS THAT THE INFORMATION THAT I GIVE DURING THE CLASS SHOULD NEVER BE USED IN REAL-LIFE APPLICATIONS unless you have successfully completed a Real Life wild foods/wild medicines/wilderness survival seminar... and even then, don't rely solely on what I've said. Your character is make believe, and in-game you'll never mistake wild carrots for their poisonous counterparts (or if you do, there'll always be some sovereign specific or a White Mage with Esuna/Raise or Scholar with leeches to fix you). In Real Life, though, that mistake can very quickly cost you your life. So, please, just don't risk it in Real Life. The exception to this would be anything that I specifically mention to be part of a normal household's produce stores and spice rack. And dandelions... provided you're not the type to dump fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides all over your lawn.

I can totally understand. I went through much the same with my original character, Silke. I loved her concept, her backstory, the personality I gave her. Everything I had imagined for her made me excited to play XIV (because, at the time, I was very much against this game but all my friend were coming here), and I just couldn't wait to RP her. But when it came time to RP her... I hated her. Getting into character for her was like having needles shoved under my fingernails and then being told to type. In November, after a month of grimacing every time I clicked on Silke to log her in, I rolled Kara. I went into the character creator with no existing concept or design; I simply played with the creator until I made a character I liked the look of. Got some levels under her belt, and then went into a 100% blank slate RP with one of my best friends. I had no backstory, no nothing. The character that Kara is today is the result of keeping and discarding (mostly discarding) ideas that had popped up during that RP session. I will not say that Kara is the best character I've come up with, but she's in the top five and I enjoy playing her. Silke sat on my character login screen until March, when I finally deleted her. I was only logging her in for holiday/event stuff so that I could have armor/item rewards it if I ever decided to play her again, but by March I was certain that it'd never happen. And I realized when I started liquidating her inventory that, despite how much I had really wanted to play her and how excited I was about her initially, I wasn't even flinching or second-guessing the gear and excess crafting materials I was vendoring off or the gil and materia I was passing to my husband's character to pass on to Kara. Silke was just simply a character I was never meant to play. Sometimes a character is just missing something, and you can eventually find that that thing through various methods. Sometimes it's just a matter of needing to take a break from the character and when you come back, everything is fine again. But sometimes... you just need to admit that while the idea was nice, it just wasn't going to work out. So, my suggestion would be to roll an alt and play that for a bit. Maybe in the process you'll get lucky and realize what the problem is with your current main. Maybe you'll come up with a totally new concept for a character. But whatever happens, as long as you rediscover/find a character you're happy with, you're doing what you should be doing. Nothing saps your creativity and enthusiasm more than a character you just can't stand.

I've got a character that could be conned into doing the Botany classes, or part of them if someone wants to team up on that. She'd be more inclined to a "field trip" type of setup, and I'd be playing her more towards my RL knowledge of herbal lore and wild foods/medicines.

Rules vary from group to group, and person to person. What goes well with one group/person won't always go over well with others. Communication and knowing your environment are key. The group I RP with mostly, I'm pretty much free to pickpocket from them whenever I feel the want to. They're also just as free to catch me whenever they want. Would I freely pickpocket another player that I randomly encounter? Not without asking OOCly first, and I keep it simple. /t [[Hey, are you okay with me picking your pocket?]] If they say no, I don't do it. If they say yes, I let them decide if they catch me in the act, and if I'm not caught they decide what I get away with. But running up and just ganking someone's shirt, shoes, and wallet? Nah, that's not going to fly with most people. Murder and rape... if you're dead-set on being a murderer or a rapist, it's best that you keep such actions targeted on NPC's you made up. Murder, because (realistically) you're forcing another character out of RP. Rape because... it's messy and hits a LOT of really touchy subjects, both ICly and OOCly. Not to say that I haven't seen both happen (murder in the case of one character was doing a perma-retire... the rape one, it was coordinated with OOC volunteering on victim's parts, and did have a storyline purpose), they just require a LOT of OOC discussion and, again, can turn messy very quickly. That being said... I still highly advise against having a character along those lines. In the case of someone just randomly walking up to you and emoting that they kill/rape your character... just ignore it. It's probably someone trolling. Swearing... It happens. It's against the ToS, but it happens. I had questions about it myself, and my take from the discussion was that most people agree that when you hit the point where you're being excessive for no reason other to be excessive, you're crossing a line. There is chocolate (made from kuruku beans, which are basically just renamed cocoa pods). The Valentine's/Valentione's event was based on trading chocolates. Coffee... well, it seems there WERE coffee beans in the game at one point, but have since been removed. A purist could probably argue that if the item doesn't exist/isn't referenced in the game, it doesn't exist at all. I say that coffee is a common enough drink and various real-life cultures created coffee-like drinks from various sources (beans, bark, seeds, etc), so I don't see a problem emoting that you've gone and got yourself a cup of coffee. And I don't think there'd be a problem with sherbet either; all you need to make that is sugar, cream, and whatever fruit juice you want to use, toss that in a can/jar that you can seal up, then put that in a larger can/jar that's full of ice and rock salt (or ice shards, I suppose), then take twenty minutes rolling that back and forth across the floor. Utterly do-able in the context of the game... but, again, a purist might argue against it. I personally go on the idea that, if I can find the ingredients in-game and the "tech" to make such a food is reasonably around/suits the setting and time period, it's fair game. I'd OOCly roll my eyes at breaking a wall with one's fist (unless it was a paper wall, or a thin drywall-equivalent one). A stone wall... I'd argue that only a Monk has a chance of doing that. I tend to like a bit of realism in stuff like that, but that can change from group to group.

I never played FF11, but I do hope we can let guests into our personal rooms. And I hope the rooms are at least the size of a small house's main floor or even the size of a small house's basement. Watching a video talking about this stuff on youtube, the guy mentioned that personal rooms would come before personal housing, so most likely personal rooms in 2.3, personal housing after, maybe 2.4 or 2.5. As long as we can let guests into our rooms, I will be happy. Mog houses in XI are at least as big as the small FC houses... I personally, though, want to say they're bigger. Or at least my mog house feels bigger than most small FC houses I've peeked into. And having people visit mog houses eventually came... I think with Wings of the Goddess? I just remember the ability wasn't there when I took a hiatus from the game towards the end of Treasures, and when I came back for a bit sometime after Wings launched it was an available feature. (Just went and took these screenies, for anyone who's never seen an XI mog house. Bastokian house that I managed to fit a bedroom, kitchen, living/sitting room, and study area into. Floor-space wise, I could fit more into the room, but... XI being an old game, furniture stays in your house's inventory my setup takes up 70 of my house's 80 inventory slots. My couch alone takes up five inventory slots.) I'd been wondering if FFXIV would ever get that kind of emotes, such as carrying someone, hugging someone, taking someone's hand, or even sharing a mount. I guessed it wasn't possible due to the different races and heights, so I'm surprised (and very excited) to know that they're actually considering it! I believe it has to be limited, though. I doubt lalafells can carry anyone, even less a Roe. ... Just for the hilarity of it, I would not complain if the system allowed for a Lala to carry a Roe. I can imagine them doing it like some little super-hero with an one-arm lift. Limiting, though, would probably go something along these lines: Roe can lift anyone, Elezen can only lift themselves, Midlanders, Miqo'te, and Lalafell, Highlanders can only lift themselves, Midlanders, Miqo'te, and Lalafell, Midlanders can only lift themselves, Miqo'te and Lalafell, Miqo'te can only lift themselves and Lalafell, and Lalafell can only lift other Lalafell. I hope they do give a /changepose option for how you're carried. Like... piggyback, bridal/fireman carry, and "sack of potatoes". Or give us an option for a Cu Chulainn-type mount that we can customize.

I haven't had much issue, to be honest, doing things with the group because I'm a higher level. Open-world fighting, I have the option to just sit and auto-attack, play support by taking on non-related links or heal, or I have the option to switch to a class that's closer to the pacekeeper's level and participate in the fight without overpowering the situation (yes, Kara sometimes gets frustrated, throws her bow, and starts punching things. She also runs out of arrows!). Phased fights (when you enter the little private one-person instanced events) can be a bit tricky to handle, but for those who have already done the event we just take cues from those who are currently doing them, and react to their RP and descriptions. For example, at level 10, there is a fight with a monster. At the time "Team Ul'dah" went to do it, I was level 30-ish, AND (due to me starting my character as an Archer) had done the Gridania variant OOCly. The character that was the pacekeeper for the Ul'dah storyline went in, and transcribed the event into /ls for me and the other member of Team Ul'dah to see what was going on. The pacekeeper did the technical fight, but myself and the other member RP'd into /ls as if we were still there. My character (at the time) had just learned to be a miner, so I RP'd her going into the fight swinging a pickaxe. In reality, I was just standing there picking on Spriggans to pass the time until the pacekeeper came back into phase, and we just continued on from there. Other MSQ's that just involve running around talking to people or we're sent to go fetch items for one reason or another, the pacekeeper again transcribes the NPC text into /ls and we react to it. It takes a little bit more imagination for those who have already done the quests, and a bit more work for the pacekeeper because part of their job involves so much extra typing, but it works for us. Dungeons are probably the one that's going to give us an issue, now that we're reaching that point. Up until mid/late 40's, all dungeons are 4-player content. I imagine that if we go to do one and we have eight people, we'll just split into two groups and 'split' the content in the dungeon (OOC'ly, maybe one team takes bosses 1 and 3, other team takes bosses 2 and 4, and then we just hang around until both teams are on the final boss and run that at the same time). If we have more than four players but less than eight, we would prioritize the team that goes in for people who are on the same content as the pacekeeper, and those who have already cleared and don't go in just, again, react to the events described in /ls. Some who already cleared the content might use it as an opportunity to go and do something else. ... Written all out, it sounds kind of complicated. But in actual practice it's fairly easy. For those of us who have already cleared content, it's a lot like RPing in a text-based MUD.

Hah, well... having known and worked with people who had genuine Tourette's syndrome... the profanity thing isn't as common as media makes you think. Most people are just twitchy. A very small percentage stutter, restate partial phrases, or have random vocalizations. And while it can transfer into sign language, it wouldn't transfer to writing/typing. Same with someone with a form of coprolalia. Even if the person was RPing someone with Tourette's or coprolalia, the excessive use would've been outside and without any context... and there was plenty of context.