Please sell the ability to instantly level your character's jobs to level 99.

[Halley]

Though I know what I'm doing,

This negates your whole need for responding. the FIRST time you did it. You had assistance.

[Nyarlko]

This negates your whole need for responding. the FIRST time you did it. You had assistance.

The very first time I did it? Actually I did not. I stalked another party of players (who I didn't know,) sniped my way in when they opened the trap door, and waited til after they got theirs to try to get mine. I think they were actually trying to go further up the ramps, forget what that area's for. Got it np, just waited til everything had their backs turned. Took like 30min for the stars to align properly IIRC. Then D3 back to town since I knew I wouldn't make it back out alive being low level anyway. ^^ This method still works, even if there are fewer strangers to stick to. So try again. lol

I did my research, knew where to go, and how to get there. Had maps physically printed out and routes marked in HI-liter taped together and everything.

[Stompa]

...

As to "the journey is the destination bit", certainly not everyone feels that way (I don't), we all enjoy this game, and all of life, in different ways, there's no cut and dry right or wrong here, there's only what makes the most amount of people happy.

...

I agree with you, and I am just expressing my own preferences. I do feel happier when I am building something, rather than when I have finished building something.

But, and this chimes with the later posts about "LB3 is too hard" etc., a lot of things have changed in the last few years. I was literally heartbroken when I saw the SE video announcement about the end of FFXI, a few years ago, and I cried in real life, and I ran around Vana'diel taking screenshots of my favourite places. And I didn't know how I was going to say goodbye to my automaton. It was a terrible time.

And then SE announced that FFXI was staying online for (hopefully) many more years. I cried again, but this time with joy! I was so happy. I was hugging people in the street on my way to work.

And ever since then, I have been logging in to FFXI with a sort of gentle reverence, like I am handing a priceless statue, or a new born baby. Every time I see the game load, and I log in, and I see my Tarutaru, and I wave to my Automaton, I am just so very thankful and happy.

I really love Vana'diel, and even though I have criticised SE a lot over the years, when the level went above 75, and when ilvl gear arrived, I no longer feel angry about things. I just feel very grateful that FFXI is still online, and I can still spend my free-time in Vana'diel.

And so, I levelled six of my mules to level 75, and I solo'd LB3 on five of those mules. LB3 does take a while to solo, but you can do Magicite at the same time, which is what I did. But when I was doing all those quests and travelling, I wasn't feeling sorry for myself, I was just thinking how fortunate I am that I can still travel round Vana'diel. I feel blessed to be able to roam this world that I love, even if I am doing old quests on mules, lol.

I think that people who complain about how this game is such a chore, the quests are too complicated or lengthy, have not considered what it would be like if Vana'diel was not there. What games would I play? First-person-shooters? No thanks! How about some other MMORPGs? LoL, right.

The truth is that there has never been another world like Vana'diel, including the supposedly complicated lengthy quests. The cultural memories of all the adventures we have had together over so many years, have become woven into the world of Vana'diel. It is a truly precious and unique world, and I absolutely cherish every single hour that I can spend in Vana'diel, regardless of what quests or battles I'm doing.

[Sirmarki]

.....with help, lol. The majority of them had help to clear the room.

Not true. There was a low level new player soloing the it two days ago. I thanked him because he literately opened the trap door as I stepped into the room avoiding the need to enter the password. He Sneak/Invis up then got the ??? with no problem whatsoever.

I also soloed it myself years back.

The original idea of getting through the LB's like this was to wise up players via a set of tests.

[Numquam]

I agree with you, and I am just expressing my own preferences. I do feel happier when I am building something, rather than when I have finished building something.

But, and this chimes with the later posts about "LB3 is too hard" etc., a lot of things have changed in the last few years. I was literally heartbroken when I saw the SE video announcement about the end of FFXI, a few years ago, and I cried in real life, and I ran around Vana'diel taking screenshots of my favourite places. And I didn't know how I was going to say goodbye to my automaton. It was a terrible time.

And then SE announced that FFXI was staying online for (hopefully) many more years. I cried again, but this time with joy! I was so happy. I was hugging people in the street on my way to work.

And ever since then, I have been logging in to FFXI with a sort of gentle reverence, like I am handing a priceless statue, or a new born baby. Every time I see the game load, and I log in, and I see my Tarutaru, and I wave to my Automaton, I am just so very thankful and happy.

I really love Vana'diel, and even though I have criticised SE a lot over the years, when the level went above 75, and when ilvl gear arrived, I no longer feel angry about things. I just feel very grateful that FFXI is still online, and I can still spend my free-time in Vana'diel.

And so, I levelled six of my mules to level 75, and I solo'd LB3 on five of those mules. LB3 does take a while to solo, but you can do Magicite at the same time, which is what I did. But when I was doing all those quests and travelling, I wasn't feeling sorry for myself, I was just thinking how fortunate I am that I can still travel round Vana'diel. I feel blessed to be able to roam this world that I love, even if I am doing old quests on mules, lol.

I think that people who complain about how this game is such a chore, the quests are too complicated or lengthy, have not considered what it would be like if Vana'diel was not there. What games would I play? First-person-shooters? No thanks! How about some other MMORPGs? LoL, right.

The truth is that there has never been another world like Vana'diel, including the supposedly complicated lengthy quests. The cultural memories of all the adventures we have had together over so many years, have become woven into the world of Vana'diel. It is a truly precious and unique world, and I absolutely cherish every single hour that I can spend in Vana'diel, regardless of what quests or battles I'm doing.

I played since NA release. Midgarsormr was my home until merge. Then I went on to Quetz, then Phoenix then finally Asura. I have made 5 characters. Saverio is my last one. I made a Tizona for him last year and man, its a fun toy on BLU. I think I'm missing maybe 3 jobs to 99. DRG/PUP/PLD...I think WHM as well or w/e. You are right, there will never be another Vana'diel. I tried 14, its pretty, but nothing like 11. I woke up last week and made this thread thinking it was the answer, but its not. I cancelled my membership for now and might reactivate later on. Maybe Christmas. I just don't have time to play as much as I did when I was in school. Really, I would love to see the cash shop for the Ambuscade items, hell SE can keep the caps on the items if they want to. I'm just tired of wanting to do something or needing something and there really isn't real help to do it. Also, I miss the people I played with. They've moved on, some have families, some have their careers, some moved onto to other games, while others just stopped playing any MMOs altogether. And to be honest, its hard making friends on this game when my time is limited. I don't want to make promises I can't keep. This thread was made as I tried to rationalize what has happened to me and with the game. I looked forward everyday to log in and ask people what they needed or how can I help or what the LS goal for the month was. I have kept some of the same players as Facebook friends over the years and have spoken with them to see how they are. I feel sad when I want to ask them if they will come back to ffxi but I know the answer so I don't even ask. FFXI taught me how to follow rules, take chances, research, work in small teams, compromise, how to be honest with myself, and most importantly it recaptured my hope that there are good people out there. I'm a firm believer that your online character is a true reflection of who you are irl. I just don't any more. Thank you for posting. Your words are inspiring.

[Shiyo]

"I want a cash shop for ambuscade items".
Please square enix, I beg of you, completely ignore all of the above posts feedback.

[Kishr]

What ambuscade items in cash shop? The gear or gill items?
Gear easy to get and cash shop for making Rema?
Noooooo

[madmartin]

Please for the love of all things Altana and Final Fantasy Xi dont infect this game with a cash shop. Adding the ability to go straight to 99? wtf, you can do that in a few days anyway by like playing the sodding game!

The game is allready a shadow of its former self, But without various things such as cros server instancing and too much instancing in general it still remains more of an mmo than most other mmos on the market right now. Adding a cash shop will just be another nail in the coffin to this once great mmorpg and continues to kill the niche it once had. Just no.

[Peregrin]

I hope they don't add a cash shop, too.

I think companies usually make a cash shop or go free to play when a game is still relatively new but not bringing in as much money as they hoped. Investors ask for more return, so the game company has to add these features to get short term profits. Fortunately, SE doesn't rely on investors and they spend their own money to develop games. Besides, the cost of development of FFXI has been paid off a long time ago, I'm sure. I heard that FFXI is the most profitable game in the series, so I doubt they will make a cash shop.

[Nyarlko]

I hope they don't add a cash shop, too.

I think companies usually make a cash shop or go free to play when a game is still relatively new but not bringing in as much money as they hoped. Investors ask for more return, so the game company has to add these features to get short term profits. Fortunately, SE doesn't rely on investors and they spend their own money to develop games. Besides, the cost of development of FFXI has been paid off a long time ago, I'm sure. I heard that FFXI is the most profitable game in the series, so I doubt they will make a cash shop.

Most games that have cash shops are banking on the shop for the majority of their profit. It really wouldn't make sense to add one to FFXI at this point, and I think the devs have already said that there is no way to add the infrastructure that would be needed. If they did decide to add one, as long as it was restricted to things like mounts and lockstyle equipment, I would not opposed to it. Possibly non-gil old zone currency farming boosts (ie: a KI that doubles earned Conquest Points, Imperial Standing, etc) since the old ones can be difficult to farm up, increased supply would not affect the economy for the most part, and I'm sure that some players would be willing to pay for them. Basically, as long as it's only low/no impact on actual player performance, I don't see any problems. Anything that actually affects gameplay though would be a rather poor decision to make at this point IMO.

SE does have investors. I'm pretty sure it's a publically held company, and shareholders are investors. FFXI is such an old/fringe product at this point though that I doubt that there's many who care about it.

OP: Why would you want to pay to hit lv99 when that means you would still need to skill-up alllllllllll your combat skills, allllllllll your magic skills, have no gear for ilvl content, AND it only takes a weekend to push a new character from 1>99 anyway?