Grott

I completely agree with this. Shameless fanservice. I'm highly opposed to it.

So I shouldn't even try? What kind of attitude is that?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/61151-Lalafell-Naming-Conventions Naming conventions for lalafell. Also, while everyone is sort of everywhere, Plainsfolk tend to farm in La Noscea, while Dunesfolk are the economic foundation of Ul'dah and the founders of the city-state.

Really when it comes down to it, SE absolutely needs to create an auto-kick function. But there isn't one. So we need to kind of police ourselves a bit. It's definitely tempting to stay logged in. I've considered it myself once or twice, but in all good conscience I can't do it. Even with the fact that I, too, don't get home from work until peak hours. It's all about being a good neighbor to your fellow gamer.

I'm not trying to lecture anyone here, but you'll excuse me if my character's personality has rubbed off on my own a bit. I've noticed a lot of people will go to an inn and stay logged in while they go off to see a movie, go shopping, or even work or go to sleep. Queues are annoying, and being told you can't even get into the queue is even more annoying. I understand that, but staying logged in is part of the problem. FFXIV doesn't have an auto-kick function to help with server congestion, and taking advantage of that is making it, not more difficult, but virtually impossible to make new characters on Balmung. Initially I was upset because I created one of my alts in phase 4 and now I'm unable to make my main, Uther Skystrider, on the server. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to empathize with newcomers who can't make any character at all on the server. Imagine how you would feel if you hadn't been following the game too closely and never pre-ordered it. It's launch and you can't even make a character until next week because everyone refuses to log out and give you a chance. Of course this isn't the only reason for the server problems, but every little bit helps. Be part of the solution, not the problem. We talk a big game here about welcoming new players, yet we won't even give them the space to play with us. It may take some time for us to get back online, but at least someone else gets to play the game. So please, log off when you're done playing. It's the courteous thing to do.

Well, as much as that'd be a bummer for everyone else, it'd be great for me. I work on the 31st and I don't on the 7th. So at least you'll be making one person happy, right?

Damn, Inja. You take a lot of pictures. I'll have to doll my characters up next time you're around.

Interesting introduction. Welcome to the RPC. Don't hit me. I'll hit you back. One day we'll be able to discuss hitting people IC, if these servers ever let me make my main (let's play on an alt through phase 4/EA! Good idea, me!) Either way, love the screenshots, love the captions, welcome to the community.

I only read the title and the OP but I need to let out some rage WTF SQUARE JUST LET ME MAKE UTHER ON BALMUNG KICK OFF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN IDLE FOR MORE THAN 20 MINUTES, GET BIGGER SERVERS, MAKE MORE SERVERS, DO SOMETHING YOU MORONS. IT'S 1 IN THE MORNING EST, IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S PEAK HOURS. JUST LET ME CLICK THE DAMN BUTTON. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'm so broken.

I feel like if you have to impress someone to win their RP approval, you should find a different crowd. All I'm saying is, if you don't mind telling someone "((Hey this isn't an axe))" or whatever, you should have every right to go for it. Anyone who gets insanely upset about it isn't worth RPing with. Hell, in Misericorde, we bring up RP inventions constantly to explain things, or just for fun. And it's a blast. If someone were to try and put the kabbash on that because it "takes them out of the game" I'd be livid. This is what's fun for us. Gun-scythes might be fun for OP. Who am I to say "no" to that? I do think some justification is fair though. For instance, why does Eko fight using his bare hands and a knife? Because he was born on a jungle island unknown to the rest of Hydaelyn and that's what he was raised doing and what he's most comfortable with. That's just playing by the rules. You should be free to do whatever you want, but if someone asks you should have reasoning behind it. That's my thoughts anyway.

I can agree to this. This is fair. Whatever weapon you have should have some reasoning behind it. I said earlier "Because it's cool" is a valid reason, but allow me to rephrase: If you want a different weapon because it's cool, that's fine, as long as you justify it somehow. I think having bare fists and maybe a knife is cool as shit. But it also makes sense to the character. Then again, I designed the character based on what I thought was cool, but I'm not going to get into circular logic here.

Yes, they should. If they want to. Because it's their character and no one should be telling them what they are and are not allowed to pretend. If, hypothetically, I'm playing a warrior and I say "((Hey everyone, I know warriors have axes, but my character is a swordsman so I'll be RPing I have a broadsword.))" and someone responds with "((No. That's a violation of the lore. You have an axe because you're a warrior and no one has broadswords.))" I'll probably dismiss them as a pompous ass. Lore is great, but no one should be able to tell you what your character has and doesn't have. Let's move to the pugilist glove scenario you mentioned. Someone would never come up to me and say "cool gloves", because like I mentioned earlier, Eko fights bare-handed mostly or with a knife. My weapons aren't shown when sheathed. That's meta-gaming. If they said it after a fight, (My sheathe speed is 1 second, not the average 3, thanks to some simple character options.) I would kindly say "((Eko isn't using gloves right now.))" If they threw a fit about it, that's their problem. I think it's ridiculous to discourage RP weapon exchange when we have people in this community with magitek robot arms and no one bats an eye (No offense if you're reading this.). If anyone is that concerned about what weapons someone is RPing vs. what weapons their character is using, they need to calm down. It's not a big deal. At all. It's not a question of can you complain, it's a question of should you complain.

Well, everyone died because the moon fell from orbit and released a Lovecraftian god monster who destroyed a continent in two minutes flat. No amount of healthy rivalry is going to deter that in the future. Even against the Garlean Empire, they have jet propulsion and we're using balloons. Plus it just makes more sense to me that in a world that's still rebuilding itself, there'd be a lot of skirmishes falling through the cracks that the official city-state military doesn't want to take credit for. The world was just blown up, it's bound to be in a state of civil and military unrest. I don't see everyone holding hands and sharing military tactics with each other in a time like this.

I have a macro I use after really tough boss fights, but it isn't realm/faction specific. /psych motion /em roars the savage, challenging cry of his people. (Male Miqo'te /psych looks like a roar if you use your imagination...) It's kind of my own signature macro. I plan to use it in pvp as well after winning a close battle. ...Patent pending.

War games is the only lore explanation that makes sense, but it's kind of a boring cop-out. You might as well say it's a civil war reenactment. My characters, as well as many other characters I've seen in the RPC, are tooth-and-nail badasses because that's the kind of world I see them inhabiting. The idea of them going to battle to play pretend with soldiers of other companies is kind of ridiculous. It's a little lame to say that none of these battles really count and no one gets injured beyond minor cuts and bruises. I think it'd be cooler to just have border disputes between the Grand Companies. Sure, they're united against the Empire, but they're also not exactly best friends. I could see some minor, unsanctioned combat happening over territorial disagreements like the Shroud/Thanalan border. That's just me though. If SE wants to baby it up with war games, they're free to do so. On a side-note, /roll PVP and emote PVP are incredibly boring to me and usually get awkward because of people misreading what exactly the other character is doing. It's like watching two children play the ol' "No, I dodged your bullets!" game.

Well you're going to get a lot of nay-saying because people don't like anyone shaking things up. My response: Fuck 'em. Do what you want with your character. Eko lived twenty-some years of his life with his teeth, his fists, his nails, and a stone knife. (I won't get into it now. Think Tarzan.) I have to RP that as a pugilist because this game can't give us a decent knife class to save its life. But you can be damn sure when my avatar is doing slow kung-fu style one-inch punches, I'm imagining him stabbing and biting his way to victory. Another example I can think of is Shuck. He RPs all of his crazy shield lobbing and flashing as inventions rather than magic or anything, because that's who his character is. He's an engineer, not a wizard. He only had to explain his inventions to me one time each and I still remember all of them. So don't listen to people who say it'll be a hassle for the RPC as a whole to deal with. If you tell me you have a gun-scythe, I promise you I will remember and respect your choice to use a gun-scythe (despite the fact that imo a farming tool on a gun does more harm than good. Either way, not my decision.) You paid the money for this game, you put the thought and effort in to make your character. You do whatever the hell you want with it. You shouldn't have to conform to people who don't have the imagination to simply picture you with a different weapon. Also, "because it's cool" is the only reason to do anything in this game. It's a pretend world. Why would you want to be lame? Disclaimer: That's not an excuse to god-mode or meta-game or anything weird.

I've seen about a hundred Highwinds, so yes. You can. Have fun RPing as family!

First of all, I'm glad you enjoyed Uther Skystrider's wiki! I put a lot of work into that character, so thanks for the kind words. As for writing about my characters' futures: I like to break my character up into three parts. Pre-FFXIV, FFXIV, and post-FFXIV. Obviously this is back story, game itself, and future. Back story I try to keep simple and streamlined like I said earlier. (I also edited that post to give an example of one of my character's back stories) I see it as sort of an origin story for my character. That's a good analogy, lets roll with that. If you think of your character like a Western (or American) Super Hero, you have your origin story (pre-FFXIV). Origin stories are easy to understand and easy to draw personality from. For instance, Bruce Wayne's parents get shot = Batman broods a lot, Clark Kent is raised on a farm by two loving parents = Superman is a really good guy, etc etc. Then you have your actual story, or FFXIV. This is like your hero's career. Batman starts off working against the law fighting mobsters, eventually working with Gordon to fight villains, Gets and loses sidekicks, villains become more intense, eventually the whole story goes from one guy vs. the mob to a bunch of heroes in outer space or whatever. Everything cool that happens to your character happens here in the "FFXIV" chunk. It's still full of call backs to the origin, or "pre-FFXIV" era though. Then you have your "post-FFXIV" era. The future. Sticking with the accidental Batman analogy, this is your The Dark Knight Returns era. The war is over. You're retired. But there are always references from your "FFXIV" and "pre-FFXIV" life that force you back into the game. Your character is old, experienced, and has nothing left to learn. This part of the story is just freebie time. Want to kill off your character? His or her career is already over, go ahead. Want to make your character live happily ever after? Up to you. This is my favorite part to write, because I can do whatever I want with my character and it won't effect how I RP them now. Plus, I'm a fan of the "seasoned hero" archetype and I love The Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come. I hope that makes sense. Also, I've read a ton of wikis too in my free time. They're nice, but I'll never be able to stick a face with a wiki at launch.

The problem with too much backstory is that you don't leave much room for character development. If your character has already gone through a strong developmental arc, there's probably not much else he or she could learn, and he or she might then be set in his or her ways. Furthermore, the game should be your story, not happen after your story. What's the point in RPing a character who's already done everything and experienced everything? The game is the journey, not the destination. Also, and this is the most blunt reason of all, no one cares. Everyone has their own character history and they're pretty focused on it. When everyone is trying to tell everyone their back story, you get a lot of talking and not a lot of listening. You could come up with a 600 page back story, but it will still fall on deaf ears most of the time. Personally, I keep it simple and streamlined so there's room for development in the future and I don't bore people to death talking about myself. That doesn't necessarily make it boring. Eko Tenok - The intellectual savage. Eko was born on an unknown jungle island somewhere in the south seas. His people are a sub-species of Miqo'te that can not be defined by Seeker or Keeper. They have no written language, no oral legends, a very limited spoken language, no religion, and only have mastery over basic stone tools. Four cycles ago, Eko was found, captured, and brought to Limsa Lominsa by pirates hoping to make a fortune off of their discovery. He was freed by the Port Authority and taken in by a sophisticated old gentleman who taught him how to speak, read, write and function in society. That's pretty much it for my character. It's interesting (I think it's interesting at least) and it's streamlined. Plenty of room is left for character development, but he's not just a blank and standard character either. I'm no expert, but I think my character is a pretty decent example of making a back story basic and in-depth at the same time. Still want to write about your character but you're afraid of adding too much back story? My solution to that problem is writing post-ARR stories. Things that happen to my character after the events of FFXIV. I have a direction I want my character to progress in, and I use the finished product of that as my slate for writing that kind of stuff. That's just me though.

I'd contest that. There are a handful of super heroes who can take Superman in a fight, and plenty of villains have brought him to his knees. Either way, you have a point about the potential for godmode characters to be interesting, but the examples you gave aren't comparable to the average joe. Superman being the last surviving Kryptonian and Dr. Manhattan being a quantum being. Superman being good at everything compared to a Midlander Hyur makes perfect sense, whereas one Midlander being good at everything compared to every other Midlander makes much less sense. In short, if someone RPs a Kryptonian, he's allowed to be better than the rest of us. If someone RPs a Midlander black mage and then tells me he's also better at using spears than my dragoon, I'm going to take issue with it. I'm a bit guilty of god-moding myself with Eko. He's not either of the miqo'te clans and he grew up on a jungle island not on any of our maps. Because of this harsh environment, he's extremely strong and agile and his instincts and reflexes are nothing short of amazing. However, I try to counter that a little with a lack of ability with magic or technology, and having little grasp on what it means to be civilized.

Eko is a primitive savage born on a lost world. The most intricate technology he had ever seen before joining society was a stone knife or spear. That being said, I'm starting him off IC with what he knows. He'll be a pugilist, because he's used to fighting with his fists, legs, and teeth in the wild. Eventually he'll be a lancer because of his familiarity with a spear. Then eventually he'll branch out to archer, marauder, and gladiator. All of these jobs will be IC for him. He'll never be a magic job IC though.

Hmm. An item that best describes the character is probably a crude stone knife. It pretty much meant life or death for him in his past. An item that he carries around with him would be the few beads he has in his hair. They're the only thing from his homeland that he still owns.

I can relate to this. I'm a big fan of being the cool and sometimes mysterious supporting character in the niche role, or just doing plain old group RP. I write my own back stories and get really into developing my character, but always in terms of how other characters would interact with mine. So you're not alone on that.

I'll reply to you. Wuddup. In all seriousness though, the welcome wagon isn't what it used to be, since everyone's caught up in their own preparation for launch. Or they're just being jerks. Who knows? As for your server woes, I would suggest looking into what each offers you and choosing what's best for you. I realize your issue was with both servers not allowing character creation, but I can almost guarantee that problem will be remedied by launch. Don't lose hope yet. And I think I speak for the RPC when I say "Sorry we didn't reply earlier. That's our bad, and you shouldn't have been ignored like that." It's a bit of a stain on our name and a huge disappointment to see that a new member posted a greetings thread and was completely ignored.

Thought I was the only one. Welcome to the RPC. Enjoy your stay. It can be a madhouse sometimes.