FFXI, Aion, and what you should know.Follow

The OP is completely right about Community perspective. No other game has a greater community like Final Fantasy XI does. No other game has a bigger database and wiki either. But this is actually due to a lot of common factors. Aion and other games seem to have a World drop list on all their mobs. Where common items will always drop at a percentage off a level 1 monster or a level 100 monster. Regardless, FFXI is still the stronger MMO out of them all community wise.

And definitely information wise. But FFXI is also pretty linear too so it's a lot easier to provide information on. My second favorite game is Warhammer. Whenever I feel like PVPing; I play Battlefield Bad Company or log on my Warhammer account on Dark Crag and smack people around. Now, with that said. I'm glad SE is recognizing premier sites as the reason for their popularity all these years. If it weren't for the sites; FFXI wouldn't be what it is today.

The real thanks goes to each individual gamer that plays the game and contributes to the community. Thank you everyone.

Bolded my favorite part of AION. Now me? I get lost in FFXI so easy it isn't even funny. And I hate having to look for a ??? in one huge square. The only *ONLY* thing that comes remotely close to what Aion has for finding things is BST's and RNG's wide scan option. But that only works for NPC's and mobs. Not for little quest items or where ??? locations are.

Oh and if you don't know where something is, you can type /where *insert name here* and it will show you where it is on your map. I also believe there is a path option to show you how to get there too! While yes, it makes Aion look like a easy game, it just points out that Aion doesn't need countless websites dedicated to it to point out where every little thing is in this game.

And I'd also like to point out how hard it is for someone just new to MMO's to get into FFXI. While true, they've made it easy to bridge the gap but think pre-ToAU, pre-level sync and think about all those nerfed farming spots that got over run with RMT but it ended up ******** the normal player base over too. Just think back to how it was trying to farm up money for gear when you just started out, with no link shell and sometimes no other friends playing FFXI with you. When you start out you only get what? 200 gil to your name and your only option was to farm crystals and beehive chips? In this game, grinding = money + exp. At level 20 you *can* have 1m just by NPC'ing things and putting stuff up on the broker.

I'm not dissing FFXI at all. I still love FFXI as much as I did from the first moment I played it. There is no other game like FFXI that can compete with its story lines. *shrug* I'm still just saying give the game a chance and stop being unbiased.

Thing is, I play both games. I've listed my experience in FFXI and I'm currently progressing though Aion and I'm greatly enjoying the experience.

That's the whole point. Your opinion here is valuable and can't be disproved. I won't try to convince you that Aion is boring; I just said that it's starting to quickly lose it's lustre for me. People need to stop trying to convince each other that they are right or take it personally when discussing matters of opinion.

All games have that. I'm not a huge fan of PvP and I do plan on trying to avoid it as much as I can but this game was designed to be PvPve. There are times, where I don't want to do quests or grind. So I just find a nice quiet place and enjoy the scenery and the music. xP

Well, some are trying to blow opinions off as fact, and some are even eating it up for the sake of promoting the cause of FFXI. Yes, FFXI forum, I know, to be expected. MMOs aren't a marriage, though, and the temptation to cheat on the game (Don't confuse this with cheating IN the game) isn't a sin. By the logic some were implying with EXP gains, all of us should've quit FFXI before the TNL adjustments or ToAU. Oops?

Now, opinions on things like graphics and music are certainly more up in the air. I know a lot of people don't listen to FFXI's music at all and just have Winamp going. People hate WoW's cartoony look, myself among them. I also think FFXI still looks decent for its age. This line gets a lot blurrier when we start talking actual game mechanics, though, and some complaints are those made against MMO genre staples, present in Aion, WoW, FFXI, RO, Mabinogi, and so on. We even have the retardedly racist "It's a Korean game, lol!" demographic popping their heads in to make insignificant pot shots.

My earlier offer stands for people curious. If you have a question about the game, I'll do my best to answer it relative to FFXI terms. I won't tell you Aion is the best game ever. I won't tell you to quit FFXI now. For all the blind hate that's sprung up, though, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if XIV plays similarly. That'll be a fun time.

tl;dr.

Aion is a major league grind fest. Not my cup of tea.

well, to be fair, FFXI's level time is a slightly different formula also:

Sub-Jobs from 1-18
then main from 1-37
then sub from 18-37
then main from 37-75

FFXI also has a STEEEEEEEEEP learning curve - as in, you need to travel the entire world, by foot, gather points for teleports, purchase (and sometimes farm) spells that you need to understand first (because sometimes its not worth 300k for stonega just yet..), learn secrets that aren't even published in the game (elemental staves with secrets x100) so you don't end up laughed out of a party, extreme (very extreme) seek times for parties, learn to cope with super-uninformative-quest-dialogue that is poorly tracked, etc.

I love FFXI, but your opinion stems from someone who has 'just' entered a new MMO... one that will undoubtedly change largely over the years. If you think its less daunting for a newcomer in FFXI these days, I think you are very largely mistaken. Hell, I think about the only things they did that makes FFXI more 'newcomer friendly' over the years is add Level-sync and XP rings (and that's if someone figures out how to get XP rings). I remember my first couple days in FFXI being damned-confusing. I had to use the shout-channel just to figure out how to change my keys so I could move, since it wasn't ever published that the keyboard needs to be in the 'mini' mode or whatever in order for your key-binds to take effect. Lucky for me, when I joined everyone was a newbie and the english-speaking Japanese players were the ones lending us a hand.

My honest opinion is that the only two 'good' MMOs that were ever 'user friendly' to newcomers was WoW (it actually surprised me) and the newer Dragonica free-to-play MMO.

I will say though, that FFXI users 'were' (not are, most have changed over the years) - but they 'were' the most helpful and insightful and friendly group of people I've ever gamed with. You are right in saying WoW is full of idiots - as an ex-hardcore-WoW player I will agree with you full heartedly - you have to sift through thousands of people before you find say, 5-10 people worth a damn. I will also say though, that upon my last FFXI return, I saw almost as many idiots in FFXI - more than it ever used to be. People were letting just about everything slide... I couldn't believe all of the 'DD' ninjas that thought it was fine to not have Utsu:Ni, I couldn't freaking understand why the Sam-Onry mentality grew to what it is today... as I solo'd to 75 on a very well geared Monk... I had the hardest time understanding why and how a lot of things came to be the way they are now... and the only conclusion is that the 'old' players are so freaking distant from anyone outside the 'endgame circles' that they forgot what anything outside of those circles is like. I had several people give me an 'in' to endgame stuff, so I could participate, but for the rest of the game, what I considered the real 'meat' and 'core' of what made FFXI fun and unique.. that part is basically dead because that "WoW/Aion" mentality has spread heavily into FFXI, and in my honest opinion, its even WORSE in FFXI these days than WoW, since in WoW, theres enough constant influx of new people that all it takes is one person with leadership to take hold and train them, and you almost instantly have a working group of people helping one another out.

Granted, there is still a heavy amount of "I want this" and "I need that" in WoW, but to say that 'every-man-for-themselves' mentality isnt rampant in FFXI is foolish. I am pretty sure that the person who is wearing a kraken club for the 'better of the linkshell' is much more rare than the person who is wearing the kraken club for 'themselves'. Because I'm pretty sure that if they were 'for the linkshell' it would have been sold and split, just like we did in the old days... Those days are DEAD.

People call Aion "wow2" because even though, as you say, its more like a "sister" - its so damned similar that a person who played ANY wow endgame can damn near instantly understand, fight, and survive the endgame encounters Aion presents - and unless FFXIV is a -complete- innovation, one so far-stretched that it humbles even the most avid of FFXI players, you can expect that the people coming from FFXI will be just as cocky, just as snobby, and act just as stupid as they do in any of the other games out there. Because until 'everyone' needs 'everyone elses' acceptance and assistance, they can act however they want and get away with it. Originally, in FFXI, you either acted responsibly and treated people respectfully, or you got no where.

In conclusion, I want you to know that I love FFXI and it's playerbase - I think the majority of us all feel like we have a bond somehow formed just for putting up with FFXI's crap over the years, but please realize that times have changed, and just because you have built yourself a 7-8 year nitch in the world of FFXI, doesn't mean the person with one month of FFXI under his/her belt is going to feel like anything is remotely easy, or that anyone is 'overly helpful'. Remember that when you laugh at someone in FFXI for doing something stupid... maybe its a good idea to /tell them what they could do to fix the situation politely, instead of simply saying "lol drg/smn"... although admittedly, that's a damned tempting route to take.




ps. lol drg/smn


edited to correct lol drg being one word, to two since alla changes it to "i'm a moron" - but that 'auto correction' alone speaks volumes for how 'helpful' everyone is.

Edited, Oct 19th 2009 4:08pm by FUJILIVES

It isn't the ideal solution (ideal would be no RMT), but it's very efficient way to avoid RMT while taking you like 2 seconds to do. Do note that even when Invisible, you can still receive whisper/mail from anyone. It's just that your name won't show up on search list which is how RMT finds out about your name. So you can still "hear anything else except the stupid neighbor" rather than "can't hear stupid neighbor but can't hear anything else either".


What your friend forgot to mention is that by then, kills and quests completion easily give hundred of thousands - millions EXP. Though TNL is inflated, EXP gain is also inflated that the increase of length between level is actually quite minimal.


This is incorrect. OP is right that whoever deals most damage gets to loot the mob, not whoever damages first.


I agree. I love FFXI's story, but damn the quest/mission page isn't helpful at all. There are way too many "Go to this zone and find a single ??? to advance the quest" without any single clue as to where the ??? is located. If there's no FFXI database websites, people probably can't progress at all. With Aion, I have yet need to use such websites to progress in-game.

Then of course there's also the mysterious crafting ingredients too in FFXI. Gosh I remember when the western FFXI players had no idea how to make the Goblin drink or whatever to pop the Parade Gorget for PLD for years. With so many possible combination of ingredients to craft, I have no clue what purpose hiding recipe serves. In Aion, I think Work Order is a blessing to those who want to skill up their crafting. Much easier, much cheaper, much quicker than relying on traditional method of "make money to fund ingredients, craft, resell for slight profit or loss, hope for skill up".


I don't mind your opinion of not liking Aion. But I do wonder why the very biased opinion to the point that your opinion contradicts the facts (e.g.: not being able to preview how armor looks, soulbinding on everything, making money so hard, need to grind, no websites so you're left alone, etc). At your level, you should've known about all that.

Edited, Oct 19th 2009 5:01pm by Vaagan

I found out that you are correct. WoW uses a system where the first person to tag it gets to loot, so they are different in that respect. Aion does use a different looting method for party play (like a random or round-robin loot). I haven't had a problem with people stealing my mob, or heard any complaints from people I know so I can't say the problem has gotten out of hand yet.

From reading the forums, I see that the loot system was not this way in previous beta versions. This is probably a bug that should be fixed soon as there are several bug reports now regarding looting mechanics for solo and party play.

Edited, Oct 19th 2009 2:44pm by sixgauge

I can tell you that wow is not like this. In wow, whoever first claims the mob will get the loot if he kills it.


Edited, Oct 19th 2009 2:58pm by Skmm

You pretty much set the tone with the thread title alone, the rest of the post just urged people to correct you on points that weren't just mere opinion. Hell, some of them weren't targeting you specifically, but more the phobia of people possibly ever tolerating a game other than FFXI.

This is a pretty charming example of the FFXI community in action, though. If they disagree with you, they'll let you know it. Covering your ears and pretending they're not there doesn't make them or you any more right or wrong. If I've made an erroneous claim, call me out on it. I'll either clarify or admit my mistake. On its own, that's not simply me 'knowing better', but is actually me being, you know, open-minded.

Transparency options would be nice for the chat window itself, however you can color each of the 10 default channels to help separate the information coming across your screen. It's important to note that there a lot more people playing Aion than FFXI, and you can mute any channels you don't wish to hear from at any time.


Popular games have gold sellers - it's a fact of life. In the initial week, gold spam was quite out of hand; however a number of chat filters have been put in through various patches since launch. As with any filter, if you play at it long enough you'll find ways around it. I've been playing since closed beta and have received a grand total of 5 gold spam mails in my inbox, 3 of those characters were already banned by the time I chose to block them.


I'm not so much a fan of this system myself. From my perspective, it appears whoever tags the mob first will get claim, however anyone else also attacking the mob will share in the xp. More than a few times my group has had to switch channels while doing simple low level areas such as the Black Claw quest lines as we had people following us attacking elite mobs for free xp.


Really don't know what to tell you here - community is a point of view thing. I was never impressed by the glories of the FFXI community which people praise here constantly. Yes, there are idiots in all facets of your life; many in-game, many irl. Use your block list to filter out the idiots, never accept a blind invite (been doing that one since FFXI's NA release, not new to MMO's for random idiots to invite anyone or anything they see near them).

Should also be pointed out that WoW didn't invent these "buzzwords", the UI, or anything really about their game. If FFXI was the only MMO you've ever played, I can see how you'd think that.


Mostly same as above. You'll get blind invites from idiots and randomly kicked for any number of reasons in any MMO you play. I'd have to say you're lying, overlooking, or have repressed memories about this if you claim its never happened to you in FFXI as well.


Popular games have bots - FFXI has/had bots since its dawn of time. They're annoying; sometimes developers are proactive in getting rid of them, sometimes developers enjoy the monthly subs they generate. Not defending any company in this matter - would be nice if an MMO existed that was bot free.


Fairly common practice in any MMO to make the "better" gear bound to your character. You can't do anything with R/E armor but NPC it either. Armor designs have always been an issue for me with every MMO I've played. Used to be excited about my RDM in FFXI until I saw its armor sets too ... There is a small saving grace which some games (Aion and LoTRo come to mind) in allowing players to dye their gear so at least whatever mixed up set they do end up wearing somewhat matches.


aionarmory.com
aionsource.com
powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/aion/

Just to name a few, also countless fan-sites to find quest information, crafting guides, leveling guides, class specific guides, mapping information, mob locations, etc ... google is your friend.


Ok, I'll go with you on the English voice overs - they're awful, especially the combat sounds. However, the fun part with Aion is that it's been released in Korea, China, Japan, NA, and many EU countries - here is where localization becomes your friend. Hate the NA voice overs? Want everyone to speak Japanese, German, Chinese, French, Korean, etc? Just put the sound backs in your EN1U fodler and voila - problem solved.


Don't really know what maintenance you're speaking of. Again, been playing since NA closed beta and I've yet to see a maintenance during prime time that was anymore than a simple server reboot. Aion was originally developed to have appeal across the board, however given that the developer will also cater to the market they understand the best - their own country, they have to go through a learning process. When the game launched last November in Korea, you didn't get a dungeon crawl until level 40-ish - that wouldn't go over so well with a NA audience. That would be why the 1.5 version (NA launch) added 12 new instances, 2 new zones, blah blah more stuff to appeal to our senses. The survey's you occasionally get (I think they've done two since retail launch, more happened during closed and open beta) are to poll the community to get a better idea of peoples impressions and what they want focused on.

To me, that seems to be light years ahead of SE sending out press releases explaining how much everyone loves their "cash grab for a single quest line" series. Again, not really trying to shine a light on NCsoft, its not a secret they've had a number of horrible failures - then again I can think of very few game/MMO companies that haven't had a number of horrible failures.


I hear about this "grind" from many people crying in general chat and on random forums. Sure, if you don't want to talk to NPC's and do quests, you can grind your entire way to level cap. That sounds incredibly boring to me, but whatever does it for you. FFXI is no more or less a "grind" if you subscribe to this line of thought, except FFXI doesn't really offer you a questing system that offers xp in return. It's more of sit in random city x for a few hours trying to get a group together, then spend another few hours trying to find an xp camp that isn't overly full, then after 20min of fighting everyone is bored/tired/has to go anyways.

Quests, like google, are your friends.


Kinah is more akin to gil than gold/plat/coin in other MMO's. Sure you'll see people who've finally made an HQ crafting item trying to sell it for hundreds of thousands of kinah in the games first month - doubt very many of those sell. I generally prefer to have a number of alts that all do crafting for my gear/items - the only items I've purchased from NPC's were social clothing to run around town in on a crafting alt.

Yes, you can buy soul healing to buy back your lost xp from death. If you don't want to buy back your lost xp, don't. Nothing in game forces you do to so.


I'm actually liking most of the music so far. The one exception would be Asmodian battle music - after your first few levels that gets to be a bit much, Elyos has it much better in this department. Until you get into the common or PvP zones, you really do get the sense of two completely different games in terms of the music and color schemes. There are, unfortunately, a few similarities in zone layout for the two sides - would be nice to add additional starting areas or alternative advancement paths in upcoming patches.


MMO "reviews" are nothing if not biased in one direction or another - my favorite line from a friend when asked about Aion was - "it's like FFXI and WoW had a baby". If you're a quest-***** as myself, you'll never grind. If reading is too hard for you, which it may have been for the OP, then yes - run around aimlessly killing whatever you see in front of you for 50 levels.

It's not the promised land, it follows the same basic MMO framework that has existed for the last decade or so - go kill X of Y and bring it back to me. It's a visually stunning world, you'll spend hours playing with the character creator making your char look just as you want them to. You can replace voice packs if you can't stand the sounds your char makes. You will get ganked in PvP - just as you get ganked in any game that offers PvP. Why fight someone solo with a chance of losing when you can fight someone 5-1 with no chance of losing? See mob mentality since the dawn of time for more.

All in all, it's a fun game. FFXI was fun too, but after however many years its been ... gets kinda old. If you're looking for a new shiny, try it out - if its not your thing, meh.