Mae

Garlean materials. The people who use guns the most are the most likely to have developed materials to stop bullets. If the possibility of being shot at with a gun on a regular basis enters Kara's mind, she'll be mugging Garleans on a regular basis for materials to line her clothes with.

(Purists are probably going to nitpick that I'm going to tell this story/joke wrong. I don't care, the message I'm trying to convey is there) A man was taking a cruise on a ship. He was up on deck, alone, in the middle of the night and slipped overboard. No-one saw him fall, and the ship sailed out of sight. "Please, God! Save me!" The man prayed. The man tread water for an hour, and then a Coast Guard boat arrived. They tried to pull him on deck, but he resisted. "No! God will save me!" And the Coast Guard boat left. The man tread water for another hour, and a Navy rescue helicopter arrived. They sent down one of those platforms for the man to climb onto so they could hoist him to safety, but he refused to get on it. "God will save me!" And the Navy rescue helicopter left. The man continued to tread water, refusing help from fishing boats, shipping barges, and tankers that passed by. Hours and hours passed before, exhausted, the man drowned. When he arrived in Heaven, the man stormed up to God. "Why didn't you save me?!" And God looked at the man. "... Who do you think sent the Coast Guard, Navy helicopter, the fishing boats, the shipping barges, and that oil tanker?" This is the relationship that some of us who were there when this thread was originally posted had with the author. Someone who came to the community on a couple occasions asking for help, but either didn't put in much effort (look at the posting dates) or snubbed those who reached out. And then sort of turned around and blamed the community. It's fine that people want to discuss that it's sometimes hard to break into RP. And it's fine that people want to offer advice to help others break into RP. It's just that those who are aware of the actual context of the OP would rather see this particular thread fall into obscurity and not be necro'd. That's all.

Lotus pods? Nah, that's not creepy. Watching a Surinam Toad 'give birth', now THAT is creepy.

If I must, two patties. I'm one of those weird heathens that doesn't like bacon. Which is it in your mind: DragonWarrior or Dragon Quest?

Depends on what they're being used on. I wouldn't want soy sauce on my chips, and I wouldn't want salsa in my soup. Star Wars episodes IV, V, and VI Original Release or episodes IV, V, and VI (current) Special Edition?

Wrap, because it's portable. Ice cream or popsicles?

Hiss (displeasure, annoyance, pain) Rumble (varies. One tone can be annoyance, precursor to a full-on growl. Another can be approval or a precursor to a laugh) Chuff/puff (varies. One tone can be displeasure or to indicate tiredness. Another can be a type of quiet laughter) Chitter/titter (varies. One tone can be nervousness or anxiety. Another can be excitement or a type of laughter) Bay (excitement, an alarm) Screech (pain, surprise/shock) Yowl (pain, displeasure, anger) Whimper (pain, fear) Trumpet (an alarm) Pant (tiredness, excitement, pain, fear... bunch of things) Lol/lolling (not an actual sound, but a behaviour where the mouth opens, teeth remain mostly covered by lips, and the tongue is left relaxed. In canines, it's sometimes called 'canine laughter'. In humanoids it's silent laughter that doesn't bare teeth, as lips pulling back to expose teeth can be interpreted as a sign of aggression in animals) If I think of more, I'll add them.

In other games, other RP communities, I've seen bad guys (the unpleasant jerks and the villains) thrive for years time. Part of it is server/community/group climate, the other part is the actual work they did, both in developing the character and socially. OOC connections/communication/presence seemed to be key for them. OOCly these were some of the nicest and most social people in the community, which probably helped smooth things over when things got hairy. People are also more likely to compromise with someone they're friends with, so for the villains this allowed them to have a much more 'enjoyable' ratio of wins to losses in confrontations -- meaning they're not always getting curb-stomped. For the villains, their motivations were reasonable and well-thought out. None of them were mustache-twirlers doing evil for the sake of doing evil. They were businessmen and researchers who didn't care about laws, morals, and who they stepped (or tested) on. Religious leaders who followed evil gods, but was on a mission of conversion rather than a mission to sacrifice everyone they come across. One that was entirely focused on bringing down a government organization he thought was corrupt (granted, it -was-, but that was OOC knowledge) that everyone who showed even a bit of sympathy/cooperation with the organization became a target too. One that I remember hearing about, he had periods where he just went feral, akin to one of those man-eating tigers that sometimes go on a rampage around settlements, and the rest of the time he was fairly normal and no-one suspected him. A unit of soldiers that was 'disowned' while still behind enemy lines (I know there's an actual military term for this, I just can't remember it). The unpleasant jerks, they often had either an important skill that kept people coming back to see them/'force them' to attempt to be social, or had some redeeming quality/trait that they'd occasionally pull out for a few moments. Healers who hate everyone and weren't afraid to scream it from the rooftops, grumpy town/local guards who have a soft spot for kids. An extreme racist who loudly speaks about how the others are filth, but is one of the first to jump to save someone regardless of race because "you may be below me, but a life is still a life". Also consider that being an unpleasant jerk doesn't always mean being the grump. I've seen snobs who don't realize they're being condescending and unbearable. And that guy who swoops and and saves a woman from an 'uncivil' situation, only to turn around and reveal to be chauvinistic pig himself.

Seventh is called "The Crown"... or something that starts with an "S". Chakras was a branch I never quite got into >_> I haven't leveled MNK, so I have no real idea on the context works here, but maybe this and this might help?

See, I wouldn't actually think this. Keep in mind that before the Calamity, the Black Shroud was a far more dangerous place. The Gridanians kept the elementals wrath at bay through rituals, but you still wouldn't want to wander it alone. If you play through the archer quests you're introduced to a fairly racist/classist Elezen. From the way the guild master talks about him, he's not a particularly unusual individual in that regard. This leads me to believe that classism is alive and well in Gridania, and that you'd see a lot of resistance to mixed race marriages there - especially between Elezen and non-Elezen. Social classes (the 'poor', the 'workers', the 'merchants/artisans', and the 'elite'), not races, or whether or not someone is a local or not (Silvarre's arguments were racial and "outsiders can't understand our ways"). Gridania as it is now, there seems to not be much of a difference between the poor and the merchants, and there's not many in the elite class. As for not wandering the Shroud... that's just about anywhere that's next to or in an untamed wilderness. Dangerous, but a couple of hormonal teenagers who want to go and discuss the differences between boys and girls will go and risk it if there isn't a handy haystack, barn, storage shed, or root cellar to use instead.

Gridanians probably marry more 'freely' between whatever there are for social classes, and probably at a younger age (all that forest for a young couple to go 'walking' in, so best to get the girls married before any potential baby bumps start to show), and is probably the more proverbial country-folk type weddings. Limsa... probably has a very loose definition of what marriage is. Lonely wives, horny sailors, with quite a few cases of 'a woman (or man) in every port', so a lot of give-and-take with the concept to keep people happy. Or either has a very low marriage rate or a very high divorce rate. The weddings are probably a case of a captain shows up, the couple says their versions of "I do's", and then the drunken party starts. Ul'dah... marrying outside your class (AKA 'who you can afford') probably isn't that common. The poor marry the poor, the working class marries the working class, merchants and artisans marry merchants and artisans, and the upper class marry the upper class. And among the merchants/artisans and the upper class, I'd imagine there's some manner of arraignment in the process. The son of a, say, cooper (barrel maker) who's being set up to inherit the family business might be shown more favor and given more encouragement by a vicar/wine distributor who has a daughter of marrying age because (in theory) the vicar might be able to get a discount/form a partnership to get the barrels he needs cheaper from his new son-in-law.

The Botany levequest "Caught in the Long Grass" mentions Sharlayan marriages... ... Which don't really sound like a fun thing... Eh... not necessarily. At least possibly not in an Ishgardian chapel. Ishgard seems to be very much a church-run state, where the priesthood has significantly more power than the knighthood. From what I got from the various quests in Coerthas, questioning/denying/defying the church is an unthinkable act, or at least one that's best done behind closed doors and in trusted company else you run the risk of being branded as an unbeliever, heathen, or (worse) a possible heretic. Even Haurchefant had to step carefully during the 30-something MSQ or risk being accused as a heretic (Guillaime's actual legitimacy to make such accusations at that point doesn't factor in). If the attending priest said no (medieval Europe has many stories based around a priest denying a marriage because of lack of "recognized" permission/consent for the bride, to the dowry wasn't enough, to someone marrying below their station, to the priest not liking the family of one of the parties, to someone's position in the church was questionable, and to "God said 'No'"), it's likely that that could be the end of it. The couple could try to bounce around to various chapels until they found someone they could convince to carry out the ceremony, but the previous ones that said 'no' could come out of the woodwork and annul he wedding, call for the knight to put his/her spouse aside (especially if the spouse is "of lower class" or unbeliever/outsider), or even face excommunication or loss of station. Going outside Ishgard for a wedding, the wedding might not even be recognized back inside Ishgard. *shrugs* It's just speculation on my part.

I think something that's being forgotten is that we're used to the prices of things in today's economy. Let's look at flour (since it's a food staple that's been around at least as long as currency has) and the prices it's had in the US in the past 300-ish years: In 2015 (today), the average price of flour in the US is $2.60 per 5 lbs. In 1900, the average price of flour in the US was $0.12 per 5 lbs. In 1800, the average price of flour in the US was $0.02 per 5 lbs. In 1700, the average price of flour in the American Colonies was... uhh... 10 pence per 5 lbs... and since 12 pence equaled one shilling, and twenty shilling equaled one pound (currency)... uhh... someone else can do the math on that one. So, I think the basic, 'raw' prices of standard things from NPC vendors would probably be... somewhat accurate to base the worth of gil on. Same with basic/low-level clothes bought from vendors. HOWEVER, there's something else to consider that complicates and confuses things even more. We don't know the volume of what we're buying from an RP perspective. Mechanics-wise, the game requires just as many 4gil NPC units of sunset wheat flour for a Starlight Cake as it does for a Bowl of Raptor Stew. Meanwhile, anyone who cooks in the Real World knows that a cake as big as the Starlight Cake would require MUCH much more flour (several cups) than what would be needed to make a roux to thicken a single bowl of stew (a teaspoon or two). It's not just with the food, either. Mechanics say a cotton scarf (that little bandana-headgear that just covers the mouth) uses just as much cloth as a whole cotton acton, which is stuffed, quilted, and has multiple layers of the quilted/padded parts.... etc.

Alrighty! We managed to get everything done juuuust in time! So many thanks to (in no particular order) Qhora Bajihri, Jullienaux Sintierre,Nebula Stardancer, Floria Raine, and Iyrnisil Aerstmerlsyn for mucking through our long runs!

... I don't know why I find liquid cats so amusing...

Welp. A series of events happened this evening, so we're postponing for now. Disappointing, but hopefully Friday will go better.

Limit Breaks were for leveling, only. A level 50 (highest level you can achieve without doing chores for Maat) -could- complete quite far into various expansion storylines with a group of high-leveled friends without breaking a single level cap. There were no items from raids (since XI didn't have raids), none needed from HNMs. There were two Burning Circle fights, any other item needed dropped from regular mobs. Sometimes you needed parties to get items, but you certainly didn't need one for running around towns and handing out items you'd been receiving since level 1 >_> -- Core Game, you could progress quite far through the Nation Missions provided you had friends to carry you. I personally had my airship pass (a rank 4 mission, meaning the recommended level to complete is 40) at level 20 because I had a friend drag me around by the back of my harness. -- Rise of the Zilart (first XI expansion) storyline required a Shadow Lord kill (a rank 5 mission from Core), but you had access to various zones provided you could survive running to them. -- Chains of Promathia (second expansion), the first mission became available at level 25 regardless of where you are in Core and RotZ. Tavnazia access was gated behind the Promyvions (level 30 content), but other zones were accessible provide you could survive running to them. Some dialouge changed if you had completed RotZ and Core. "Apocalypse Nigh" was the ONLY mission that required you had completed RotZ, and it was technically an optional mission. -- Treasures of Aht Urghan, your ability to access any of it depended on a short rep grind with a Core faction and farming a couple items to access. Solo, you could get this done as early as level 18. With a high level friend to help, you could get it done at level 1. -- Wings of the Goddess... lowest level I've personally escorted through the Maws was a level 30, I think. So... at least level 30, and not dependent of the previous expansions. -- ACP,ASC, and the Moogle add-on mini-expansions, you can flag as early as 30. And doesn't require previous expansion progression. -- Abyssea... welll..... if you've played XI since Abyssea was released, then you KNOW about Abyssea Leeches. -- Far West expansion (I am totally drawing a blank on it...), again accessible by at least 30. Independent of all the other expansions.

While the Lore Panel did say that most of Eorzea is illiterate... I'd like to point out all the posters and flyers laying about that have writing. And all the quests that have you bringing notes/letters to people, and there is only ONE NPC that I've ever encountered that has said "Sorry, I can't read, can you read it to me?" Formal education in many places was historically (yes, yes, I'm going to go there and make a Real World comparison!) for the privileged/upper-class and the religious -- children of poor families were often turned over/pledged to churches for a chance of education. If you were middle-class, you got vocational education, which did include a certain amount of knowing how to read, write, and maths for ledger work and taking orders. Lower-class, you might know what your name looks like and maybe a prayer or two; MAYBE over the course of your lifetime you'd self-teach to recognize fixed signs (name of town living in, types of shops).

The pessimist in me is still expecting to discover, upon installing the expansion, that even the new race is gated beyond 2.55. "Surprise! Only way to have an Au Ra is to use a Fantasia potion! Guess who has to go to the cash shop and buy one AND a name change~?"

My husband has been looking back at me like I was a lunatic while I've been speaking out-loud for the past fifteen minutes, trying to figure this out. Au Ra is, probably, the correct plural. Same rules as fish, sheep, moose, etc. "Au Ras" looks, sounds, and feels cumbersome and awkward. However... "Auri" sounds and feels acceptable when speaking out-loud. I have a suspicion that this will probably become a "technically incorrect but casually accepted" thing. Similar to how, in speech, saying "Mark dove into the deep end of the pool" would be accepted, but the correct way to say or write it is "Mark dived into the deep end of the pool". Could even possibly be covered by the same rule that turns "goose" into "geese". "Five Au Ra sat in a circle." "Five Auri sat in a circle." *shrugs*

Well... yeah, actual "hit the button to queue" will probably be later than 8. But I've gotten a few hits in interest to watch us, so... for them, we'll be doing stuff earlier.

Word of God Fernalwhes. It's... also part of the flavor lore/text for the clans in both the benchmark and on the official Heavensward site.

Thank you soooo much for everyone who's responded so far, both here and in my PM box (of which I'm happy to report, all the PM's I've received have been volunteers. Whoo!). Augh! Yes, this as well! We'll gladly take fresh 49's/50's who are on these missions, mains or alts! (I had included this in my initial post, but I've got a twitchy laptop and mouse that likes to click elsewhere on the screen. I hit backspace at some point to fix a typo and BAM! Lost my post.) Regarding tonight, I'm going to try to start confirming the availability of volunteers between 6:30/7:00 PM. The RP group musters at 7pm, barring any major hiccups we should be ready to queue within the hour. First dibs on the spots will go to anyone who has a fresh 49/50 and needs the missions themselves. From there, I'll take whoever says they're ready first.

My RP group has recently suffered a loss of members/available members due to school, work, and various other RL-obligations (... apparently, we even have one that's currently serving his second month of a six-month grounding...), and this has impacted the group at-large with our ability to do certain events that we've been planning on. Normally, we'd just push it all off until things started looking better, but it seems we're dealing with just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to attendance. We'll be down by even more people by the end of the month, and it's not looking like things will start getting back to normal until sometime mid-summer. With the new expansion on the horizon and members wanting to start shifting gears, putting our current plans off for that long is... well... not really appealing to the group. So... I come before the community, hoping to recruit some Really Awesome People who are willing to be warm bodies so we can get into some 8-man trials and dungeons. You won't be required to RP with us (unless you want to), and you won't have to see what we're RPing (again, unless you want to); all you have to do is not rush us through cutscenes and let us take our time getting from point to point. Or you can leave as soon as you help us enter the trials/dungeons. Your choice. "Oh, Mae... why don't you guys just PUG your missing slots through Duty Finder?" We could, I suppose, if we really, REALLY have to. However, for people who are doing Roulette, it's not exactly fair to them to suddenly get stuck with a bunch of people who are going slow. It's all fine when there's only one or two fresh 50's who want to watch the CS's for the first time and the rest of the group are Roulette who are overgeared for the content, but it's a totally different story when it's the other way around. We'd rather not frustrate anyone without warning. "Psst... there's also this thing called 'Party Finder'..." Yes, yes. I'm aware of Party Finder's existence. I'd rather try to have a handful of people who I can just tap on the shoulder and be ready to go within a few minutes than to sit for an hour or more, waiting for random people to sign up for a lengthy Party Finder run. "... Uh... doesn't your group use MSQ in RP..?" Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. Yes, we currently do RP the MSQ. And, yes, that's what we're doing these runs for. Which again is why anyone who is awesome enough to volunteer their time is not required to RP with us -or- see what we're RPing. If any volunteers choose to participate (either as a one-shot character, a dream, actually been there, or an alternative-universe thing or whatever), we'll get you an invite to our RP linkshell -- we like to think our group's take on MSQ is open-ended enough that anyone can join in. Otherwise, you're (again) just a warm body to let us queue to get into the instances and you can be entertained by our OOC chatter and our tendency to pick on each other over our typos. For those who would volunteer: -- The dates that we're currently looking at to push through these events are: 5/12 (that's tomorrow, Tuesday), and starting some time after 7pm EST POSSIBLY 5/15 (this Friday), time currently unknown 5/16 (this Saturday), starting time after 10am EST POSSIBLY 5/17 (this Sunday), starting time after 10am EST -- Over the course of these days, we'll be doing Cape Westwind, Castrum Meridianum, and Praetorium. Depending on some variables, we may only need two days. We might need all the days. You don't have to volunteer for all the days if your schedule doesn't allow for it, even one day would help us out! -- Starting times aren't necessarily going to reflect the times we go into the instances. Depending on how things go (lead-up RP might take more than just a few minutes, for example), it could be an hour or a bit more before we're ready to queue. Please try to be patient with us. -- If you're planning to queue and then drop, please let us know. If you're planning on queuing and staying, please let us know what job/class you'll be coming as (or be willing to come as) so we can adjust accordingly. Anyone who's willing to volunteer, please respond with name, day(s), and whether or not you'll be a queue-and-drop or if you'd be willing to stick around. If you're in the latter, please also include any jobs/classes you'd be willing to bring. Our group does have one tank and one healer already, as well as a few people who could fill in in a pinch, but we certainly won't turn down someone who's a die-hard tank or healer. Also, please include what the easiest way to contact you will be (in-game /tells, PM here, or something else) to let you know if you've been tapped for the day. All volunteers will receive plates of positive-karma cookies. And maybe some of the random stuff I keep in my inventory. -->Please please please please PLEASE keep this on-topic... if anyone feels like discussing how horrible and terrible it is that (my group or people in general) would dare to RP MSQ, please go make your own thread for it or send me hate-messages via PM. I'm posting this here rather than the RP Discussion forum because I'm making an OOC request, and I'd appreciate it if people respond only in regards to the OOC request.<-- -->If anyone has a genuine question/curiosity on how MSQ RP works without being an all-powerful Chosen One, feel free to PM me.<--