Gegenji

I have a character idea I'm workshopping on this very forum that I plan to bring over to Mateus should it be on the list! And with all those bonuses, it might not take long at all to get him all leveled up and set to play! Kinda getting stoked about it.

Will Mateus even be a designated server? That's the hope. It was one of the smaller servers before the sudden influx of RPers with the Balmung lockdown. Just have to see if it's still considered small enough on numbers to stay on the list. Considering the wide spread of numbers, though, I think it should be on there. I think it was mentioned as one of the smallest population servers along with Zalera. Something like that.

Man, I just had a thought. It'd kinda suck that we've been trying to build up the RP population on Mateus... what if the growth ends up being enough that it drops off the list of choices? I hope that doesn't end up being the case.

I dunno. Knowledge of how long it takes you to write things might just be good thing to know for courtesy's sake? If you can hammer out a paragraph in a minute or two, then feel free to wax poetic all you want. If it takes you five minutes to write a couple lines... maybe be succinct.

Now that I can get. There's a reason I don't look in my DnD/Pathfinder Player's Handbooks anymore. Too many character ideas, no one to play them with. :blush:

Hitogata and Karakuri actually seem kinda neat name options too. But yeah, a good name that implies his profession of making toys would be great. ... Maybe I should just call him however you would phoneticize "Geppetto" in Japanese. :lol:

Ah, I'm glad you like it! As for how to describe it... I'm vaguely basing the idea off the FFXI class of the same name. However, I had quit far before it had been added, so I never actually saw it in action. I suppose I could look it up and base it more closely off it if I really wanted to... But the current plan is to basically describe Moku doing general puppeteering-style motions... but focus mainly on what the minion is doing. So, something like this, I suppose? * Moku sweeps his hands to the side quickly, causing his little mammet to lurch sharply to the left - as if yanked by invisible wires. Once it composed itself, it leapt back into the fray, leading with its tiny, needle-sharp sword. And as for the whole "x number of characters" thing, I think the biggest issue is trying to give them all a good amount of attention. Chachan is my main and I manage my other two by usually just having them active on certain days/certain events. Moku seems like one I'd want to put a bit more attention on, so I'm trying to wrap my head around how it would work... :dazed:

Unfortunately, I do believe it's more of the latter. The place may be vaguely inspired by the realm of Ivalice, but it is a Hydaelynian (?) take on it. I believe there was a quote somewhere about it, since I think there were a bunch of similar questions that got asked when the raid name was announced.

Just a word of warning, I think they made trading outside-of-game items (like art and real money) for gil against the ToS as part of the crackdown on gil-sellers and the like.

I've been avoiding these threads like the plague for a while now, but this is a point I think needs to be emphasized. For every person like foxfirestorm who is taking time out of their own day for a hobby to push and promote and try to inspire more RP on other servers, for each of those hardworking folk... their efforts can be so heavily undermined by the vocal minority that gets snippy and entitled and downright vicious towards people who aren't immediately jumping on the bandwagon to leap to the other servers. People who do that? You are undoing their work with your attitude. A few careless comparisons and posts and comments are undoing a lot of actual effort that is being put into this. If your ranting and negativity is driving people away from going to that server, you are doing far more damage than the "inactivity" and "lip service" of someone on Balmung. Far more, you are actually hindering growth - since people seem more inclined to speak up about bad experiences than good ones. As an example? I'm not really going through all these different threads on the matter but... the people from Balmung who do transfer or make an alt? The ones that are trying to help? I've been hearing that some of them are getting backlash anyway for doing so. From people on Mateus who don't want them there or don't want them buying up the housing plots. It sounds very much like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation that is not going to be healthy for anyone involved. And even if it's in the minority of encounters, the fact that such things are getting to folks like me who aren't paying that much attention? That's not going to help things. And, making folks less willing to help by berating them and making them dig in their heels because you feel they're "obligated" to lend a hand? Again, even it's a small number of people doing it, it's going to cause negativity and less willingness to help out. As Askier said, no one really "needs" to do anything in this situation. There is no "obligation." For example, SE doesn't "need" to mark servers as RP servers - Besaid/Balmung and to a lesser extent Gilgamesh built up without any effort or extra work on their side at all. And we have alternatives popping up now like Mateus that also have required no input from SE's side. The free transfers might help with that, but that's specifically to try to trim numbers on overfilled servers than help the RP effort. You cannot and should not expect help from them - anything they do is purely out of goodwill for a small subset of its player-base. More close to home, no one "needs" to transfer from Balmung to Mateus, or Faerie, or Siren, or wherever else the other RP communities are. The people that are doing this are doing it out of their own good-will and a personal desire to help in what is essentially a hobby that honestly shouldn't impose the kind of obligations that these few vocal people are apparently demanding of them. They are selflessly uprooting themselves from a place of establishment and comfort to help foster and help those that can't get there. Rather than bashing the people who aren't doing it, we should be praising and commending those that are. Making what they're doing more of a positive might even make more people willing to do it, which is a far sight better than getting on the ones that don't and subsequently making them dig in their heels all the more and spreading all this negativity. Heck, we don't even "need" to try and promote other servers if we really want to get down to it. Balmung is locked and so people are going to have to find other places - that's a given - and people from those places are hopefully doing things to point the newcomers their way. There's no obligation for anyone else to do it for you, yet we have people doing that anyway. It's like opening your own store - you have to advertise and get word of mouth going on your own - you can't expect people to stop going to, say, Wal-Mart and come to your little place because you're new and just starting out. In fact, that sort of self-entitlement actually has hurt a lot of mom and pop stores - and that's people doing that with a job instead of just a hobby. With real money and livelihoods involved. And yet here we are. Not only are folks from Balmung and the RPC letting new folks know "Hey, we know Balmung's locked... but Mateus is open and building up!", we have people who are moving from Balmung to Mateus to help them along. And, yet, we apparently want to instead focus on the ones who aren't doing it. Or, worse, get on the folks that are and villainize them for somehow harming this burgeoning community or harming the RP community at large by "fracturing" the RP player base. It's mind-boggling. It's frustrating. And, to be honest? I think it's pretty stupid and self-defeating. We're polarizing ourselves. Making it into an "Us Vs. Them" situation. Movers vs. Stayers Those for keeping RPers together vs. Spreading them out Balmung vs. Mateus RPers vs. Non-RPers And I think doing that is going to cause way more damage to the RP scene than anything else. It's these self-made lines in the sand that will continue to cause the problems. From what I heard? Gilgamesh floundered from this "Versus" mindset - both non-RPers actively harassing the RPers and the Gilgamesh RPers themselves thinking they were in some sort of "competition" with Balmung. How much of that is true and how much of it is just hearsay, I don't know, but if any modicum of it is true then that goes to show just how much this sort of behavior can ruin thing. So, all in all? 1.) Folks like foxfirestorm? You keep being awesome. You're getting these other RP locales noticed. You're helping the overall FFXIV RP community by allowing choice and diversity, especially in the situation we got blindsided with. You are to be commended and lauded for the efforts you are doing of your own volition to help better the RP environment in this game. 2.) The people who are actively moving over to these servers from Balmung - either with their mains or alts? You also keep being awesome. Uprooting yourself and/or trying to balance giving attentions to alts in this very-not-alt-friendly game is a big move to make for something that is ultimately a hobby. Kudos on you guys, and double-kudos if you're also helping start up and run events on these servers. 3.) For those who are just pointing all the new folks to these other servers? Guess what? You're also awesome. Even giving direction and help to someone trying to get into this hobby (perhaps for the first time!) is something that should be commended. Not only that, you're helping out those servers with additional advertising that helps take just that little bit more workload off them. That's awesome. I, personally, want to continue praising those who are stepping up for their hobby when they didn't have to. Rather than bash those who are simply enjoying the hobby or are unable to put as much effort into it as they would like due to whatever constraints there are. And I'll keep using the word "awesome" to describe them because they are, in fact, being awesome. And that more or less ends my rambling, potentially pointless tirade about this whole situation in general. I think. I don't even know anymore, I think I ranted myself into confusion. Not to mention edited it a couple times to try and clarify some points and I'm just throwing up my hands at this point and saying "I'm done." I've said my piece on the matter and now I'll likely just go back to avoiding these threads again.

... Double-post, but here is his potential look. As promised: Definitely think I made him look pretty haggard-looking and down on his luck. Or just fed up with everything. I'm not sure. And delving into the question of who taught him... the first thing that comes to mind with a guy like Moku is probably "pay it forward." I get the feeling he had someone who made toys he absolutely adored playing with as a youngster and was just fascinated with some of the more intricate ones like the wind-ups. So, when he came of age, he sought to get himself apprenticed to that old toymaker and took up the man's passion and trade.

I mentioned this to SapphireSkylines, who had taken up a twin-sister character a little while back but that stuttered out... but unfortunately due to her background (which interweaves with a couple others), she really couldn't do a younger sibling. I was going to suggest maybe another member of the now-defunct tribe or something similar, but you specifically mentioned a sibling... :blush: In either case, we both wish you the best of luck in finding someone to do this sort of RP with!

Yeah, the surname was sort of a troubling point for me. I wanted to see if there was a term just for "dollmaker" or "toymaker" to fit the profession name thing. I just grabbed "Gatchapon" as a sort of placeholder and I wasn't sure if using "Omocha" (toy) or something similar would work... :blush: I'm not too up-to-snuff on my archaic Japanese. EDIT: Swapped in Omocha for his surname for now. Also added potential goals to seek with him. Might throw up a screenshot of a potential look when I get home this evening?

So, I've been wanting to help provide a little RP on Mateus. I have far too many connections on my main guys to move them over, so I figured I'd take the (potentially crazy) route of making another character (this would be my... fourth character?) if/when it gets named as a server to make new characters on for the whole bonus XP thing and all that. Maybe sooner, but I'd want to level it at least somewhat for the glamour endgame... and to get the gil needed for his "gimmick." ... Perhaps I should just explain the character idea. It's a variation on something I suggested to someone else that they ultimately never ran with. And recent conversations have kind of brought the idea back into my mind. ~*~ Name: Mokujin Gashapon Omochaya (Omochaya no Mokujin?) Race/Tribe: Raen Au Ra Profession: Toymaker (Mechanically: Goldsmith) Age: Late 30s, early 40s Moku, despite his generally imposing-looking appearance, is a gentle soul whose passion is making little toys and trinkets for children. Specifically dolls and figurines - especially ones that you can wind up and they move on their own. Seeing the delight and hearing the yelps of surprised joy of youngsters as his little doodads start moving fills him with a sense of glee and accomplishment that little else does. Imagine his surprise, then, when a visitor from Sharlayan compared his creations to the various animated objects of their homeland. His curiosity piqued, Moku inquired further on the matter and - after some insistence and a promise that it was only meant for the children - he was taught how to imbue his little dolls with what seemed to be benevolent kami. Now it was all the easier to create little dolls to brighten those young faces. However, he didn't get much time to show off his new tricks. It was barely a moon or two later that the razing happened - forcing Moku, like many others, to flee. With no workshop and no home, he still tries to live out his passion - selling what crude knick-knacks and toys he can make with the gil he can scrounge up. The Sharlayan's gift has helped somewhat in this regard, since the intricacies of clockwork requires costly tools and materials, but most of what he makes goes into food and materials to continue his income. At least he still garners some degree of satisfaction when even those more crudely-made toys bring a smile to some child's face. Potential Goals: Gain membership with Goldsmith's Guild Re-establish toy shop (apartment?) Join a merchant's circle or similar for connections (read: Join FC) Getting roped somehow into Lords of Verminion at the Saucer? Potential progression to Puppetmaster-esque combat style (to PROTECT THE CHIL'REN, of course) ~*~ So yeah, I kinda like the idea of someone who makes and/or utilizes all the little minions and such. The original idea was for someone who wanted to play an antisocial information-gatherer who used their clockwork minions to do the gathering and interaction for her. However, I personally prefer playing someone of a more friendly bent. Plus, I would think I could get plenty of hooks with having him selling his various toys (animated and non) on some random street corner. ... Thoughts?

... I really like that oath. :surprise:

It's hard to say with Chachan. I keep flitting between Compassion and Hope. Leaning more towards Hope, I suppose. Hopes for peace, that everyone can get along, that bad guys will learn their lessons and turn away from doing bad things. Then again, his friendliness and care for most people could be very Compassion-y. Blagh! :dazed:

The opposite of down.

Jajajajajara's back! Welcome back!

Now to see if someone can do a Papa Shan's-style joke image for this one.

I got it, I got it! ... I don't got it. :<

Linkshells are a "special" chat group. Anyone can make them and you can invite people to them, and then you can see and participate in any chat that's going on in there. Kind of like guild chat, but minus having to actually join the guild (which still exists in FFXIV, they're just called Free Companies instead).

A lot of pretty scenery there. I really liked the foggy swampish area of the Fringes. And I'm curious about that Jenga-esque tower that was dominating the background of the Ruby Sea area. ... And it looks like Kugane will have a legit hot springs area as opposed to the mostly medicinal one that is Bronze Lake. I'm sure folks will get a kick out of that.

Massive Gamble sounds like an amusing Hellsguard name, just saying. As for looking for EU RP, I wish you luck in finding it! If it helps, there's been talk amongst the EU folk on the forums about picking an unofficial server specifically for EU players. However, I believe the current decision is to wait until SB hits and when the new EU servers are added. Maybe you could pop into the thread and offer Phoenix up there? Some might be eager to get to RPing on an EU server sooner than SB release so you might get some potential hooks? :blush:

I think I'm revisiting that old feeling of "I totally thought I posted in this thread." While some things change, some remain the same... Anyway... Chachan's fighting style has always been on the more defensive, protective side. He leaned more to using his shield than his sword, and his desire to keep others from harm oft put him in a position where that preference is utilized. His pacifistic nature just further kept him from using the sword of the sword-and-board combo, frequently pulling his strikes and purposely blunting his weaponry. Of course, he's been pretty frequently chided for his viewpoint in a world that is as dangerous and unfriendly as Hydaelyn. However, in his own stubbornly childish way, he sticks to trying to figure out a way to fight without hurting people too much. To that end he actually has developed a sort of... deterrence-style for fighting? It heavily revolves around both his skill at smithing (most notably being able to quickly identify weaknesses and flaws in weapons in armor, usually for repairs but turned into a sort of combat ability) and some understanding of pressure points and the like from a scroll he got from one Berrod Armstrong. Plus a bit of unarmed knowledge that was kinda-sorta "absorbed" from his frequent training with Virara. As such, he's sort of moved to a hammer-and-shield sort of style - with his hammer being used to strike at those key points to destroy people's equipment. Should they continue to be aggressive (or are the type of fighter that eschews armor or weapons, such as monks and caster-types), he tries to go for knock-outs and disabling moves. Thanks to his practice with Virara, he can continue doing these latter techniques even if divested from his armor. In a sort of ironic twist of things, he's managed to adapt a couple of her more basic skills (which were all designed to be highly disruptive and potentially lethal) into less dangerous but still relatively effective alternatives. ... How this will proceed into Stormblood, I'm not so sure. I've mentioned him potentially going the SAM route since I've joked that's kind of what he's been for a while... but I'll have to see how that all plays out. Maybe downgrade his shield into a heavily-armored gauntlet to allow for more mobility and quicker transition to using unarmed if needed. At the very least, I have a fun little headcanon of him - at some point or another - doing that very anime "samurai finish" iai-strike style move with his hammer and just causing all of someone's equipment to explode apart simultaneously. Still a bit of a pipe dream, though.

Chachan for Event A too! I'm... not sure how much he'll help, but maybe being the considerate dork he is will keep things from being too hectic...~