Came back today after a few Years. Any activity in the game? Any good forums?

[Sabotender]

So i hopped back in after not playing since 2011, but have been playing since 2002.

Where is the place to be? Barely any people i Jeuno, and i can't remember how to get to the other town. And with the new expansion i know even less. Is it even possible to play the game? Enough to do the end game stuff?

Tried finding an active forum, but they all seem dead with the most recent posts going back either a month or several months back.

[Catmato]

Most people are in Adoulin.

Servers have varying amounts of people. Some are more populated than others, but there's usually enough people for most content.

Bluegartr forums are probably the most active forums.

FFXIclopedia still has a lot of information, which should help you get caught up.

[bungiefanNA]

Reddit's FFXI board is also very active, as is FFXIAH, if you don't like BG.

[Verahs]

Same boat.

Just kinda, you know. Lost. I was younger when I enjoyed the game. My game purpose was social and maybe achievement. Still, would be nice to find a group from the start.

[Zarchery]

The hot spot is Adoulin. That's where most people are when they're not out adventuring.

Getting back into the swing of things is difficult. Your best bet is to find a new linkshell. Check with the linkshell concierges, particularly near West Adoulin mog house. If they don't have anything good, do some /yells in Adoulin to say you're looking for LS.

[bungiefanNA]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/wiki/qol

I summed up the biggest QoL changes from patch notes there, which will help you learn some of the new things to do in the game, to help you level and get to endgame.

[Verahs]

and get to endgame.

I am so disappointed to hear that.... Would have made me leave if I hadn't spent my money for the months.

Since when did FFXI become about the endgame? What happened to the mid-game or at least enjoying being able to become level 34? The one difference that had me playing FF instead of WoW is because every level mattered now I hear that only the last one does? Like I have to wait months now just to be able to play the game?

I definitely would have to find a few new LS. I ran a couple of my own back then even those I was level 32 with max level members.

btw arent the only zones you can make your account are the main three countries?

• ave been added in all the starting town zones that direct you to quests, as well as giving you a tutorial.

So not necessary to dumb this game down..... This was common sense then.

[bungiefanNA]

The game became topheavy after being out for 8+ years, and most veteran players having all the jobs geared and leveled that they wanted to play. It became harder to find people at the lower levels, hence level sync and later QoL changes. Old content was designed for old level caps, and leveling was designed to be a grind because of the limited amount of content besides leveling until ~4 expansions were out. Now there's dozens of endgame activities, so they didn't want leveling to be a multi-month grind if you were a new player recruited by veterans. If it would take you 4-6 months of play to even be able to join your friends, you'd likely move on to something else, as the competition had faster leveling to actually be able to join other players.

Leveling to 99 is now about 20-30 hours of play, since EXP is doubled as of 2013, plus the number of other EXP boosts you have from Eschad Ring, Qultada and Kupofried Trusts, the 180% EXP boost from Rhapsodies of Vanadiel, and the occasional double EXP campaign. This month I've been in Crawler's Nest killing things for 5000 EXP per kill. You won't play for months to start playing the game. 1 week and you will be 99 with a set of level 117 armor and weapons, allowing you to start on events that other players do. As of Abyssea's release, they give you a nearly free set of armor just below max level that is adequate for starting the new content in the latest expansion. When they released the first part of Abyssea and raised the level cap to 80, they released 3 sets of level 78 armor that only cost a few thousand cruor, which you would earn while leveling in Abyssea. In December 2013 they did the same thing with the armor from Records of Eminence vendors, 3 sets that cover all jobs and are nearly free with currency you earn while leveling.

Abyssea is where they decided that they were tired of the census showing that most people had a level 75 job, but most people hadn't completed an entire storyline, stopping as far as it took to unlock the zones people used for events (Limbus, Nyzul Isle, Ru'Aun, etc). So they started making it easy to speed through the old content that had been out almost 10 years and the majority of players hadn't finished. To do so, they had to speed leveling up.

Also, with the game being topheavy, the market for low level equipment on the auction house collapsed, so they had to give alternate ways of obtaining equipment as you leveled, which is what Records of Eminence did, by having some objectives reward with armor and by having the NPCs sell armor and weapons for every level for Sparks.

Any MMO that is out for so long will become topheavy, and the usual way to deal with it is to speed up leveling for new players so they can catch up. It can be slow at release, but it needs to speed up to allow new players to catch up to the curve.

Yes, you can only start a character in the 3 starting cities, because they can't be guaranteed that you have every expansion registered. That starting nation only affects which set of missions you initially have access to for the core game. Every other expansion can be done regardless of nationality, and you can change nationality when you don't have a core game mission active.

The tutorial NPCs are because it WASN'T common sense. You needed a guide book or a wiki to figure out most of the quests, or you had to ask someone who had those resources. A lot of old quests and missions are obtuse, and they have you hunting for ??? points where maybe they tell you the zone, but there can be 10+ of those ??? points in the zone and you don't know which is for which. Unless you are working two monitors and keeping the wiki up, there's no way you'd figure out so much of the content nowadays, without hassling your linkshell for information that you could easily look up now. FFXI is an ultimate case of the "Guide Dang It" trope. We still have no idea how Absolute Virtue was intended to be defeated. There are hidden effects of items and recipes for crafting that we only know because they were in a Japanese Ultimania book that someone translated the content from.

[kylani]

I am so disappointed to hear that.... Would have made me leave if I hadn't spent my money for the months.

Since when did FFXI become about the endgame? What happened to the mid-game or at least enjoying being able to become level 34? The one difference that had me playing FF instead of WoW is because every level mattered now I hear that only the last one does? Like I have to wait months now just to be able to play the game?

I definitely would have to find a few new LS. I ran a couple of my own back then even those I was level 32 with max level members.

btw arent the only zones you can make your account are the main three countries?

• ave been added in all the starting town zones that direct you to quests, as well as giving you a tutorial.

So not necessary to dumb this game down..... This was common sense then.

There is no game like FFXI. There is no need to rush towards end game. Solo, you can play and have a great time doing so many different things, slowly as you level. I have heard of linkshells that are casual and welcome people who just want to enjoy the game, not rush to end game, but I don't know of any personally. I have seen shouts asking if others are interested in joining a social ls.

Yes, leveling is easier than it used to be. Travel is much easier than it used to be, and once you've done some of the story missions, you can do the rhapsodies missions to get more benefits. I do like that exp and travel are better. I am happy time every time I get a new homepoint. There are still lots of levels to get through even with those buffs (assuming you don't leech exp to 99 - sadly, most seem to).

The more story you complete, the more rhapsodies you can complete. There are too many types of content to list (bcnms, ksnms, scnms, voidwatch, besieged, abyssea, choco racing, monstrosity, etc), not to mention the fun of stalking gear, spells, avatars, etc.

If anything, FFXI can be overwhelming because there are too many choices of what to do. I don't understand why people rush to end game. Unfortunately, the game has trouble drawing in new people due to a lot of factors, but if you could find a group of like minded individuals, or even one or two folks to duo/trio with, I bet you'd have a ball.