Gegenji

Well, if people can't look at your gear and tone it down some (especially if you let them know)... that's more on them than you, I think. Worse come to worse, Ala Mhigo iLevel syncs... so you could run that a few times for some verity and the i200 dungeon gear. ... but yeah. Poor target prioritization gets me too. Even discounting Summoners, if the DPS is going all out on a different target than you're focusing on, they can rip it off you before you know it.

Highlanders and Hellsguard are pretty common in Ul'dah, so there isn't any real reason why one couldn't be part of the Sultansworn or trained in their arts to become a Free Paladin. And the Monk questline involves talking with a Highlander scholar and assisting a Highlander Monk, so I'm pretty sure you're safe there too. In fact, considering Ala Mhigo has a high(lander) population of them, it's probably the race of choice. Not that you couldn't probably finagle being a different race if you wanted. As for the second question, the Warrior of Light is almost always considered to be an outsider/foreigner of some sort. Even playing a Xaela Au Ra out in the Xaelan lands, you apparently don't get treated as kin. I would think Highlanders would (unfortunately) be treated the same. I think it mostly comes from the fact that you really don't get an option to pick your character's nationality - just their starting city, which they migrate to at the start of the MSQ anyway. If they allowed that to be set and tracked it, there could likely be a lot more "personalized"-feeling dialogue with NPCs. (... like the smiths of Kugane talking to my Doman about how to make a katana.) ... Also, I did run through the MSQ up to the end of ARR on a Highlander in prep for HW (he became an Au Ra), and I don't recall anyone saying anything unique in Little Ala Mhigo or even amongst the refugees outside Ul'dah. Then again, I was also kind of rushing my way through so I skipped through a lot of dialogue and cutscenes in my quest to prep the guy for the expansion. NPC interactions, however, really don't matter all that much in the end for RP, though. If your character is Ala Mhigan, the folks you RP with definitely will react to it when identified! Especially if their characters have opinions about the nation, which many do - especially considering the events of Stormblood right now.

I suppose the next question is how frequent ships go from Eorzea to Kugane, and what types. Again, the MSQ had you sneaking your way there aboard a smuggler's vessel - which would imply that obtaining a vessel to get there would be difficult (though, going from Kugane to Doma proper seemed even more so, considering). However, Kugane itself seems to be a bit of a cultural hub and destination point for sightseers and the like. Its enforced neutrality also seems to make it more approachable than one would think. There's also the fact that future travel there seems relatively simple. I mean, one could just attribute being able to find a ship there and back over and over is a gameplay concession... but you also travel there for both the Armorsmith and Blacksmith quest lines. While BSM doesn't have you actually heading there until the level 70 capper - it still has not one but two Kugane citizens come to Limsa with no apparent trouble. ARM has you heading out that way as early as level 63, which - if you were following general level progression, would still be well before the liberation. So, I'm trying to remember. Was the reason why the WoL and crew used a smuggler ship because they were trying to sneak in unnoticed as opposed to one of these many other ships that apparently head out that way on the regular? Or was there some other reason why the difficulty of travel out that way seems so heavily emphasized despite how regularly and easily merchants and tourists seem to manage it?

So, I've been having a discussion about how one can travel to Kugane. In the MSQ, it makes a pretty big deal of having to manage to get a ship to sail all the way out to Kugane. And, if I'm remembering correctly, someone stated that traveling by sea to Othard is a two month affair - referenced in the lorebook or something similar to that. Once you've actually traveled to Othard, though, you can use the aetherytes to teleport willy-nilly if you have the gil to spend. But what got brought up is... why couldn't one travel there in an airship? If you followed a similar route, skirting the southern edges of the Garlean Empire, couldn't you make the journey in potentially less time? The WoL certainly would've had access to airships to travel that way and, even if they needed a specially modified one - I'm sure Cid and them could've modified the Enterprise or something to make that journey. So, why wasn't it an option? I'm trying to remember if the MSQ actually brings up a reason why it was unfeasible. Was it because the Garlean Navy would've detected them and shot them down? If so, wouldn't have just normal sailing have been just as dangerous? I mean, I suppose it was/is since you had to make a deal with smugglers to get to Kugane to begin with. But then afterward, you can sail back and forth without incident (which could, again, just be a game consent to keep you from being able to go to and from). Or was it a fuel issue? How much ceruleum gets used up by the airships just going around Eorzea? Maybe they don't have access to enough of the fuel or efficient enough engines to risk flying over the ocean like that? Could Cid and company have designed something that might've fixed that, or would that still have required an airship of a size they just didn't have access to or time to modify? To tl;dr this whole thing down to its base: how hard is it to get to Othard and what options are available to people?

Finished the chibi sketch. Aaa! That's adorable! :lol: Lookit his big ol' head.

That's just it, though. They have every right to object to you imposing yourself into their scene if they don't want you their. It's their RP - just because you can see it doesn't give you some magical dominion over it.

An interesting question got brought up by Zhavi in the chat that kind of fits the theme of this discussion. My apologizes if I butchered the framing of it. Anyway, the basic idea of the question was this: Would you rather: a.) See all open world RP (minus ERP, of course), but with the understanding that you may be unable to interact some of it (so sort of how things are currently), or b.) Have all the "not really" public RP confined to party chat and whispers, and ONLY see the few public RPs that you could immediately interact with without having to ask first? Something like that. I'm sure Zhavi could come in and slap me upside the head if my phrasing is too far off from the idea. Anyway, I was of the mindset that... even if you can't actively engage and interact with some people's open-world RP, it's still a nice thing to have. It adds substance and life to the world, makes it seem more alive regardless of how interactive it may be. It's still set dressing, background noise, and I feel it heavily helps in that desired feeling of immersion with the world itself. Situation B just seems like you'd have all the people still standing around... but with nothing (seemingly) happening. All in a dead silence, which just seems more creepy and potentially upsetting to me than anything else. I'd rather the "fake" bustle that I can't actually jump in on to what would - to me - seem like little more than a wax museum.

TBH, I would say you've got increasing amounts of RPers who have encountered players who have responded harshly to them or who have gone through drama and are now just afraid to reach out to others, no matter how much they may want to. This is why I try to send a follow up /tell of "I'm sorry my character is being horrible to you right now!" just to keep it clear that the blow-off is IC only and /not/ OOC. Too many people blur the two. >.>; Haha, I've done similar things myself! Mostly with Gogon, since he's very much an abrasive character. I get super worried that people might think I'm mean rather than it just being my character. ... Which, I think (and hope) is more a personal neurosis rather than assuming the worst of the other person.

Snark aside, the point I'm making is that you're dealing with a gathering of a people who - by nature - tend to be shy, reserved, and afraid of stepping on toes. Sure, not everyone in the culture is like that, but it's a known thing. Also, someone's personal nature - especially considering something like stepping into the unknown or approach to potential conflict - is not something they can easily turn off. Some can, many can't. That's bullshit. Utter and complete bullshit. Roleplayers aren't just shy people. To say to is fucking absurd. It's the dumb American PC culture what just rules on Balmung. THEE MUST NOT OFFEND ELSE I WILL DEMONISE THOUUUUUUUUUUUUU. American culture is predominant on a US server? American PC culture, yes. Because other games I've roleplayed before this 'you must not offended anyone ree' shit became all the rage, US people weren't as fucking terrified to just roleplay with randoms in the open. It's like ???? What happened to you guys. You used to be so cool, and not give a fuck, and just roleplay. Now this idiocy is seeping into roleplay as well. It could also just as easily be the fact that maybe MMO RP is becoming more popular and widespread, so you're getting more people who don't know that it's okay. Or are afraid to make that leap. Or any other number of situations, issues, or problems that could be keeping them from just diving right in. Pinning it just on US PC Culture is, again, somewhat of a strawman argument.

So nerds should stop being nerds. Got it. Yeah, some people can get over the fact this is not real life, I'm sorry to give this huge revelation to you. Snark aside, the point I'm making is that you're dealing with a gathering of a people who - by nature - tend to be shy, reserved, and afraid of stepping on toes. Sure, not everyone in the culture is like that, but it's a known thing. Also, someone's personal nature - especially considering something like stepping into the unknown or approach to potential conflict - is not something they can easily turn off. Some can, many can't. That's bullshit. Utter and complete bullshit. Roleplayers aren't just shy people. To say to is fucking absurd. It's the dumb American PC culture what just rules on Balmung. THEE MUST NOT OFFEND ELSE I WILL DEMONISE THOUUUUUUUUUUUUU. American culture is predominant on a US server? I would say it's actually widespread low self esteem that makes people terrified of other people. An attempt to buffer against anticipated rejection and all that. :< Also this. I think you're strawmanning US culture a bit hard there, Virella.

So nerds should stop being nerds. Got it. Yeah, some people can get over the fact this is not real life, I'm sorry to give this huge revelation to you. My own personal snark aside, the point I'm making is that you're dealing with a gathering of a people who - by nature - tend to be shy, reserved, and afraid of stepping on toes. Sure, not everyone in the culture is like that, but it's a known thing. Also, someone's personal nature - especially considering something like stepping into the unknown or approach to potential conflict - is not something they can easily turn off. Some can, many can't. It's probably why the whole wallflowering thing has been/was/is an issue. So you can yell at them all you want (or yell at them by proxy by making angry posts on a forum)... but that's not going to fix things. Heck, with some, it might just make them draw further into their shells or dig in their heels and get indignant.

So nerds should stop being nerds. Got it.

ERP has a massive stigma to it, though. It's something "everyone" says should be hidden. And I'm pretty sure if you were publicly ERPing in /say and /em, you would get reported and get in trouble. Your regular RP... doesn't have that same sort of consequence. If someone is doing their personal RP in /say and you don't like it, they're not really going to get in trouble. So it's not quite the same thing, there isn't the same level of gravitas there as compared to ERP. ... Also, I thought of something after I had already written that wall of a post above. Another situation where someone couldn't go to Party Chat. What if they're queued for a dungeon and they're just RPing to kill some time? They CAN'T go to Party Chat because then it'd end their queue.

We had a pretty in-depth conversation on this whole thing in the chat but, I figure it's worth it to put my opinion on the matter here. Buckle in, it's probably going to be lengthy given my penchant for rambling. :blush: The main crux of this argument is, from my understanding of the chat conversation, the concept of a "fully immersive RP environment." A situation that you can see and interact with any RP situation that is openly set in front of you. You see someone having a drink at the bar, you join them. You overhear a dastardly plot, you jump in to help/interrupt it! The entire RP world is your oyster to partake in. While that's still technically true, it's also not the whole truth. Especially with a community as large as Balmung (and even among smaller communities), people are going to have personal preferences on what they want to RP and what sorts of situations they're willing to RP with. A good example of this is just to ask yourself and those you know what type of characters they're playing. Are they playing a Warrior of Light? Are they playing some gritty, down-on-their-luck street urchin? Are they playing an ancient Allagan bioweapon who has accidentally reawakened and somehow has a penchant for hanging out in bars? Someone RPing as a major NPC? A traveler from another world - such as FFXI or another setting entirely? Next question: how would your (or their) character react to any of the characters above? Especially ones that are outside the realm of play that you/they are comfortable with entertaining. Would you ignore them? Or would you engage them and simply assume that their character was crazy or a liar? Now, turn that on its head - what if you were RPing with someone who did the same to you, waving off your character's claims because they were "unbelievable" to that player? Is one way of play really wrong compared to the other? If so, where is this hard-written rule of How One Must RP? Or is it simply more of you trying to enforce the type of RP you're comfortable with and/or want to see? Because, technically, the beauty of RP - and storytelling in general - is that there aren't set rules like that. You can technically tell any sort of tale you want with whatever characters you want. Sure, people can cite common RP no-nos - no power-gaming, no meta-gaming, no lore-breaking - but these are all, in truth, simply more concessions in order to get along with other RPers and try to make it a more fun experience for everyone. If you play One Punch Man Comes to Eorzea and take out everyone effortlessly, there's no RP Police that's coming to bust down your door and arrest you. The worst that will happen is that you may find difficulty in finding someone willing to RP with you. But that - I believe - is the beauty of a massive RP population like on Balmung (and why it remained the go-to up until SE straight up kept people from getting onto it anymore): there are so many RPers that even your One Punch Man could find a group willing to RP with them - though it might take some time and effort some may not be willing to put into it. However, toning such things down and following more of the RP "guidelines" simply means more chances to find someone willing to "accept" and play with your character. That's generally what that popular, somewhat passive-aggressive statement so prevalent here on the RPC stands for: "You can RP what you want, but people might not RP with you." Translated, to me, it means: "It's not something I want to RP with." And, shockingly, that's okay. You don't have to make a character that pleases anyone - simply one that makes you happy and, hopefully, amongst all the masses you can find others with similar mindsets. A bit tangential, but it circles back to the point at hand. You have all these differing styles and levels of "power" and preferences and goals going on independent of one another. So what happens when these different circles interact? Such as in the situations raised - that of coming across someone in public RP? You find two thieves openly bragging amongst themselves that they just robbed and murdered some wealthy merchant. Something must be done, right? Well... you would think, but! Keep in mind that the only person whose RP you have any control of (and really, any right to control if you want to think about it) is your own. You cannot and will not have the authority to tell others how they "should" RP, you can simply enforce your preferences by RPing with those of like minds. If you just step in and seek to enforce your RP will on these two braggarts... is it technically any worse than someone claiming to be the love child of Shiva and Bahamut trying to force you to accept their style of RP? An exaggeration, perhaps, but at its simplest it's the same concept: their RP doesn't mesh with your RP. And that's okay - again, the beauty of large RP groups is that you're not forced to RP with these people! You can go find something else. But maybe these thieves WANT to be stopped, maybe they're doing this BECAUSE they want someone into interact. That's certainly a possibility. However, since it is not a KNOWN thing, the oft-suggested idea of "asking first" is paramount. Send them a tell, see if they're willing to have you to step in. After all, this is you seeking to impose on THEIR RP - whether it's in a tucked away location or the middle of a populated city. They are under no more compulsion to accept your addition to the scene than you are to accept Shivhamut or One Punch Man waltzing into YOUR RP scene. Maybe it'll work out - they'll agree to have you jump in and the result could be an engaging experience! Or maybe (if, for example, their goal for their RP is to have a power fantasy of having the always successful, smug thief type who always gets away and always has a quick, witty quip) they'll end up forcing a situation where they get away anyway, rendering your efforts moot. Or maybe your character will end up in a power bracket beyond theirs and it quickly turns into an OOC argument on how your character is power-gaming theirs. Or they could just let you know that they're not wanting any intervention - be it because they're "technically elsewhere", it's part of a closed-circuit RP, or they just don't want someone else coming in and potentially "ruining" their scene. Or they just ignore you and you move on. Sure, in the latter cases, folks have said that this sort of situation could be circumvented by the people just having their RP in party chat or other closed-circuit environment. But, again, they're under no obligation to do so - just as you aren't. Maybe they think party chat is for OOC stuff - maybe they like using emote actions, which can't be done in party? It's simply more of a concession to the "benefit" of others, not a hard-written rule that must be followed. So, what can you do? Well, technically, you can still do whatever you want. You can seek to interact with them - but they're not obligated to accept you or what you want to do with the scene. You can seek to let them know OOCly what you feel they "should" be doing - but, again, they aren't obligated to follow your advice. Or you can go find RPers more suited to your preference of play amongst all the many others on the server and let them do their own thing. Worse thing I can see in that case is they could come posting about how no one wants to RP with them. :tonberry: Ultimately, the choice is yours. And theirs. And everyone else's. Or something like that. I'm sure I lost track of what I was saying and trying to convey at some point during this wall of text. Maybe there'll still be something worth gleaning out of it. :blush:

It mostly just debunks the idea of someone from Doma not being able to speak to Eorzeans. Maybe they use a slang term or word that the other might know, but basic conversation should still be able to take place.

The Behemoth sounds right up Chachan's alley. (This may or may not be due to my own personal preference for Supreme pizzas)

That sounds dumb. Whenever I party with SCHs, I always switch to Diurnal. ...even when I was more comfortable with Nocturnal Sect. (4.0 actually flipped this for me and now I generally prefer regen-healing, but I get lazy and don't switch. ...and if there's a WHM, I sorta expect that I'm expected to be Noct in that setup.) It is dumb and I don't really get why they're doing it. I mean, isn't the lower overall healing bonus for Diurnal specifically because regen is really good passive healing, and it stacks with other regen? I mean, I'm fairly certain I've had two Medica IIs on me in a double-WHM group. So if you stay in Diurnal with a WHM, I don't think it's nearly as "bad" as staying Nocturnal with a SCH. Only the shields get overwritten... and only if it's a"stronger" shield. If it just doesn't happen to be strong enough... well, you've wasted, what, half of the "healing potential" of that Nocturnal-Aspected Heal or Adlo/Succor? It's just super counter-productive. ... Also I think Yian ran into the PLD version of the "I don't have Unleash yet!" DRK I mentioned a couple posts back. :lol:

So, I've found a downside to AST Nocturnal sect being +15% to healing compared to the +10% of Diurnal or whatever. And that's, as a SCH, seeing said AST stay in Nocturnal and we basically spend a good portion of the time just overwriting each other's shields. Rather than, you know, have shields AND regen. Because that would be useful. Is that extra 5% on all your personal heals really worth basically being a second SCH with your Aspecteds?

I think the million Gil is only for transfers. I hit 30 on my MNK on Mateus and only got the additional play time.

Datamined by Reddit, under "Blackbosom gear". No idea what form it will take in-game, be it something obtainable in-game or a Mogstation purchase. Man, that link's a rabbit hole. Ended up looking at the other weapons that were datamined, presumably from the new tomestones and then the Savage version of Omega? ... Okay, I was only really dragged in because one set is apparently called Genji gear, which was the Gegenji's namesake ages ago (shocker, I know). Now we have a baseline for how good Chachan's dad is at making equipment. Even when Chachan was a kiddo in ARR, his dad was making high level gear for level 70s.

I would've just called him "Mogir." Mogir Kuposon.

I was about to argue that you could also be able to do more Emergency Tactics'd Adlos as well with the reduced ET cooldown, but then I realized that an ET'd Adlo and one that isn't still technically "heals" the same amount - just whether part of it is barrier or not - regardless. Bleh. I concede that point. :blush:

Well shoot. Mateus Character is a MNK too, so I was banking on that bonus XP to help offset the DPS queues. :blush: That's what I get for not giving him a lot of attention, I guess. Since he's specifically for RP, I don't think his levels matter all THAT much, especially given his profession. Worse come to worse I could budget for a jump potion for him if needed. I've leveled MNK to 60 once already on Gogon, so it wouldn't be like I'd be diving into unknown waters (even though I looked at BLM again on him recently as the potential next thing to level and I immediately went "how does this go again?").

The fact that Adloquium's cost is still a bit high sucks, but on the whole it seems like all good changes to me: The changes to Emergency Tactics and Indomitability help by bolstering SCH's AoE healing potential, as well as let you use Adlo for a big, shieldless heal more often. Needing to spam them a bit less should also help with the MP drain inherent in trying to heal an entire group effectively. But that could just be me - I have a nasty habit of trying to use Succor just as an HP heal even without ET if my team is low. Excogitation now actually looks like it'll be usable rather than just a worse Lustrate. I do agree that it'd be nice if it popped the heal or turned it into a shield should the "trigger" not go off, but then it would definitely need a longer recovery time for balance's sake. At least I'll be more willing to try to use it, especially if I'm aware enough to toss it up before a tankbuster. The changes to Fey Union and the Fairy Gauge hopefully will mean that it'll be more useful for tank healing. I still don't know if turning off your fairy's other abilities to do this is still a good thing, but I suppose it'd be less of a problem if I actually micromanaged my fairy and toggled Fey Union on and off to use the other abilities. Quickened Aetherflow seems like probably the unsung "best buff" for this. It guarantees you'll be able to use your Aetherflow (and the MP recovery from it) basically 25% more often. And if you pop your fairy for more stacks, then you can cut the recovery time in half for those MP-tight situations. SCHs will still need to be a bit more careful with their MP, but being able to heal more and use Aetherflow more often should help balance it out some. Will have to actually run Gogon through some dungeons as healer to see (I've been taking him as a RDM instead for the past couple weeks. :blush: ).

Bleh, I knew this was coming at some point. And yet I only got my Mateus character to around 34-ish and then got caught up in leveling my Balmung characters. Really, I think the big "sticking point" for this is whether or not people who joined/created on the servers when they WERE still preferred will get the +XP bonus until they get a job to 50... or if they've basically had that bonus revoked now. I would assume the latter, which is a pity mostly because I had hoped to eventually circle back around and level the guy once all the "new stuff" feel settled down for me... but now it's a bit too late. :blush: Ah well, will have to see. And I'm sure I can slog the guy up some more levels at some point, maintained bonus or no.