RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

dametualma · **12-15-2017, 09:50 PM**

Hello all,

I am currently looking for a decent MMO to play. However, I'm way more interested in the roleplaying aspect of MMOs. I have a few questions regarding the RP community of this game, and was hoping some of them could be answered. I've tried looking for answers on the forum and on other sources of material, but none ask the 'right questions'. Normally, I'd whisper someone for help in game, but I am unable to /tell in free mode. I'm sorry if you get asked these multiple times a week, but I just really want to be informed before I drop $60 on a game. I hope that's understandable.

Server Selection
To begin, my first question revolves around server choice. I've learned that there is a lot of controversy around the unofficial RP server, Balsomething, being hardlocked. Mateus is suggested as a secondary, but that one is currently locked, too. How do I make sure that I pick the right server? It would be very unfortunate to pick...say Faerie, and learn that the RP community is dying/dead there, and I'm stuck on a dead server. What's the dealio on that?

Character Customization
I wasn't able to see a store or some way of looking at outfits. How many different choices of attire are there? I RP'd in SWTOR, and they have sooooooo many clothing options, whereas BDO has bupkis in comparison. Where does FF fall? Can I make something that looks unique, or are there 4 overused outfits that I have to choose from?

Lore
I've never played a Final Fantasy game. I know who Cloud is and I know what a chocobo is. I think I saw the CGI movie a long time ago? I know 7 is known as the best. How screwed am I for RP? Obviously, I'd learn as quick as possible what the basics are, but is his universe very unique in the way it is created?

The game in general seems super cool. I wish it was cheaper. I might wait for the Christmas Steam Sale and see if it goes down a bit. Hopefully this isn't too annoying to y'all. I feel like I have so many more questions, but these are all I can think of for now.

Sounsyy · **12-15-2017, 10:44 PM**

(12-15-2017, 09:50 PM)dametualma Wrote: Server Selection
To begin, my first question revolves around server choice. I've learned that there is a lot of controversy around the unofficial RP server, Balsomething, being hardlocked. Mateus is suggested as a secondary, but that one is currently locked, too. How do I make sure that I pick the right server? It would be very unfortunate to pick...say Faerie, and learn that the RP community is dying/dead there, and I'm stuck on a dead server. What's the dealio on that?

Balmung is FFXIV's biggest RP server, but it is locked for the foreseeable future so no new players until then. Mateus is one of the next biggest RP servers for NA timezones, while Omega is considered the RP server for EU. There are also a number of smaller communities on a number of other servers, such as Lich, but we don't hear as much from them. You can look through some of the linkshells (chat channels) and free companies (guilds) on other servers by clicking on the "Free Companies" and "Linkshells" tabs near the top.

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(12-15-2017, 09:50 PM)dametualma Wrote: Character Customization
I wasn't able to see a store or some way of looking at outfits. How many different choices of attire are there? I RP'd in SWTOR, and they have sooooooo many clothing options, whereas BDO has bupkis in comparison. Where does FF fall? Can I make something that looks unique, or are there 4 overused outfits that I have to choose from?

While there's a few who consider the character creation to be a little limited in comparison to a few other games, there's still a good bit of customization to be had. There's definitely a lot of outfits to choose from, as well as a glamour system (and a new revamped glamour system coming next patch) so you can adjust how your character looks at any time after unlocking the ability to glamour via a level 15 quest in Vesper Bay.

That said, there are a lot of outfits that people tend to favor, so while there's a huge variety of outfit pieces to choose from you'll see a lot of people wearing many of the same or similar sets. Sometimes different pieces are harder to find or farm, while others are so uncommonly glamoured you'll see few on the Market Board so learning to craft might come in handy depending on your server's economy.

You can check out some gear pieces over on XIVDB. A quick armor > body/chestpiece search yielded 1289 results.

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(12-15-2017, 09:50 PM)dametualma Wrote: Lore
I've never played a Final Fantasy game. I know who Cloud is and I know what a chocobo is. I think I saw the CGI movie a long time ago? I know 7 is known as the best. How screwed am I for RP? Obviously, I'd learn as quick as possible what the basics are, but is his universe very unique in the way it is created?

You don't have to have played any FF game to pick up on this game's lore. The FF universe pulls inspiration (even copy and pasting entire themes, cities, monsters) from previous games, but the lore behind Ifrit in FF7 is vastly different from the lore behind Ifrit in FF14. This game in particular has a lot of fan service to the series. So if you're wanting to RP in FFXIV, you'll just want to look into lore for this game.

That said, you'll find individual free companies or roleplayers with a wide range of views on lore and how closely they follow it in their roleplay. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, try to find roleplayers who feel similarly. Most people will tell you that you don't need to know everything there is to know about the world of Hydaelyn to start RPing in it.

If you're wanting to learn some stuff though, I've got an index of lore posts I've made in the past HERE or in my signature below. There's also a pretty good timeline of the last 1600 years or so found on Gamerescape here. If you have questions, feel free to ask them in the Lore Discussion forum on the RPC (or, if it relates more to developing your character in the Character Workshop forum instead). But avoid ffxiv.wikia if you're looking for reliable info.

Hope this helps! ^^

Nako Vesh · **12-15-2017, 10:48 PM**

(12-15-2017, 09:50 PM)dametualma Wrote: Character Customization
I wasn't able to see a store or some way of looking at outfits. How many different choices of attire are there? I RP'd in SWTOR, and they have sooooooo many clothing options, whereas BDO has bupkis in comparison. Where does FF fall? Can I make something that looks unique, or are there 4 overused outfits that I have to choose from?

There are a loooot of options, especially since you can change your class to have new outfit options. For example, my character is in no way a Summoner, but I switch to Summoner to wear an outfit only DPS spell casters can wear. This site can give you an idea of the diversity of outfits, and they add more quite frequently.

(12-15-2017, 09:50 PM)dametualma Wrote: Lore
I've never played a Final Fantasy game. I know who Cloud is and I know what a chocobo is. I think I saw the CGI movie a long time ago? I know 7 is known as the best. How screwed am I for RP? Obviously, I'd learn as quick as possible what the basics are, but is his universe very unique in the way it is created?

You don't really need to know much, if anything, about previous FF games here. Aside from names and some themepark-y things, everything is unique to XIV. There is quite a lot of lore, but it's fine if you don't know it all, because chances are your character would only know a tiny portion of it. The stickies in the Lore Discussion board are a good place to start.

Edric W. · **12-16-2017, 07:45 AM**

FFVI is the best, not VII. Anyone who disagrees can cash me outside, behind the Tescos on a Saturday at around 2pm, I'll be holding a stale breadstick.

Anyway, one thing to keep in mind with the outfits is that a lot of them, especially higher leveled gear, are restricted to a certain class, and you can't cross-class glamour, as far as I know. They're adding new glamour stuff that I'm too lazy to read though, so this might be changing. There are also some big differences in appearance for some gear depending on the race. For example, a Hempen Undershirt on a Midlander man looks like a simple tank top. On a Highlander man, it's a few strips of fabric across his chest that doesn't even cover his nipples. So... there's a couple things to consider.

As for the lore, luckily for you mate two places have just been freed of the main bad guys being in charge of them. If you want a quick and easy way to get into RPing in FFXIV, you could always just read up briefly on the lore of one of these places (Ala Mhigo/Gyr Abania, and Doma), and be a foreigner who came to the older city states. Then it'd be reasonable for you to not know much. Alternatively, you could just be the 18727th character with amnesia. Whatever works, right? Â¯\_(ãƒ„)_/Â¯ Plenty of things you could come up with as an excuse for you not knowing much. It's not as if education is too common in Eorzia. If you actually want to read the lore though, Sounsyy and their resources are top notch.

chatterbox · **01-08-2018, 01:47 AM**

You don't need to know anything, because most of the Final Fantasy games happen in their own universes and are not connected at all.

There's plenty of clothing, don't worry about that at all. There's almost TOO much. Seriously.

The server question is the only real problem you have to worry about. Balmung is THE RP server, and it used to be so full that the only way to get in was to transfer. SE locked it up now so that doesn't even work.

Gilgamesh was another alternative RP server, but the "progression" community murdered and chased RPers off the server, so don't even bother with that place

Mateus is the new hotness, and its turning into what Balmung was before Balmung was locked.

My recommendation is that you just try the game without worrying about RP servers first, just to see if you like the game, If you do, then shill out to transfer to Mateus or Balmung if its unlocked by then.

Inquiries on everything RP.

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes