Exploring adoulin is such a chore

So I decided to give adoulin a try recently and it's such a pain to get around. As soon as you leave the city, it starts hurling key item requirements at you, want to travel ceizak? Too bad you need logging! Want to get to yorcia wield? Not without climbing you don't! Want to do the main story? Guess what you need!

It's just such a turn off, I can't get immersed in this area when I'm trying to explore or enjoy the story when it throws these stupid key item blockades at me constantly. I want to get into adoulin but I don't want to go through this constant key item grind just to get around. Maybe if it was naturally intertwined with the story then sure, but it's not, the story gets abruptly halted cause you need a bunch of key items that you have to side track to go and get. And to get those key items, you need other key items to get to the places to get those key items and it's just this horrible web of wiki pages that I can't be assed to follow...

It's not as bad as you think it is, you only have to do it once and you can do the preparation for a few of them beforehand.
http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/C...urvival_Skills

Just do it in one go with collecting waypoints and it'll be over with as traveling Adoulin after this becomes something utterly trivial.
P.S. The resistance skills are completely optional.

Nearly every Adoulin area is available without doing any missions. How many missions are required to get to Al'Taieu? Ru'Aun gardens?

Edit: Specified Adoulin areas

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

So I decided to give adoulin a try recently and it's such a pain to get around. As soon as you leave the city, it starts hurling key item requirements at you, want to travel ceizak? Too bad you need logging! Want to get to yorcia wield? Not without climbing you don't! Want to do the main story? Guess what you need!

It's just such a turn off, I can't get immersed in this area when I'm trying to explore or enjoy the story when it throws these stupid key item blockades at me constantly. I want to get into adoulin but I don't want to go through this constant key item grind just to get around. Maybe if it was naturally intertwined with the story then sure, but it's not, the story gets abruptly halted cause you need a bunch of key items that you have to side track to go and get. And to get those key items, you need other key items to get to the places to get those key items and it's just this horrible web of wiki pages that I can't be assed to follow...

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I totally agree with you, it's bad design.

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Originally Posted by Catmato

Nearly every area is available without doing any missions. How many missions are required to get to Al'Taieu? Ru'Aun gardens?

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Two things:

a) Different era, different MMO expectations, different FFXI populations

b) At least those restrictions naturally were lifted *while* doing the missions. Adoulin you're trying to do the missions and you have to backtrack to get KIs

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Originally Posted by Olor

Two things:

a) Different era, different MMO expectations, different FFXI populations

b) At least those restrictions naturally were lifted *while* doing the missions. Adoulin you're trying to do the missions and you have to backtrack to get KIs

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I won't disagree with either of those, but three of the quests are simply "talk to NPC" and "trade AH items to NPC" with the outlier requiring finding mining points. Yes, there's backtracking, but you need to do it to access the (non-mission) content behind it anyway. It's a video game, expect to have to do stuff to progress.

sure sure I expect to do things to progress, it is just nice when those things are part of the mission line, not annoying little chores you have to do outside of it.

Anyhow, what I am saying is, yes, it's a chore but it's not as bad as the OP makes it out to be.
Along with getting all the waypoints you may be spending a few hours and depending on your playtime a couple of evenings but in the end it's worth it in my humble opinion.

Adoulin's got a good story, it'd be a waste if a couple of quests that eventually help you get around easier than all the transportation methods of all other expansions combined would stop you.
Just prepare, do them once and then never look back.

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Originally Posted by Shirai

Adoulin's got a good story, it'd be a waste if a couple of quests that eventually help you get around easier than all the transportation methods of all other expansions combined would stop you.

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Unfortunately here lies the problem, it is a shame and a waste to have this frustrating barrier that's stopping me getting into the story and the content that might actually keep me interested. I'm getting turned away at the door, it can be the most awesome amazing thing ever once I get into it and it won't matter if I can't get into it.

The journey so far:

Got to adoulin, went to ceizak and couldn't get around because of roots, looked up how to get past them, got logging KI. Not too bad so far, still willing to give it a chance.

Decided to start doing story stuff, got up to Ortharsyne, literally run into a wall, can't progress until I get more KI's. Can't be bothered, leave adoulin for a while and go do actually fun stuff instead.

Hear about JSE capes and decide I want that, finally make my return to adoulin. I decide to go to Yorcia wield to farm rieves there. Get through Sih gates to Cirdas caverns, see the entrance to yorcia wield on the map with what looks like 5 ways to get there. Biggest troll ever, all 5 possible routes are blocked by KI requirements and walls... Once again, leave adoulin...

Cool off a bit and decide to begin this arduous KI farm. Go back to Sih gates and get to the foret de hennetiel. Find I need a boat KI to progress to Dho gates to get to where I need to go for climbing. Grind my teeth but press on, find the boat guy, he wants 3 dhalmel leathers and some other stuff, go back to adoulin auction house to buy the leathers, there are none, I don't have crafts levelled, currently sitting in middle dekfutt's tower /thf farming the 8 goblin furriers that pop here and drop the leather while writing this...

Not amused, it shouldn't be hard to see why this is stopping me getting into adoulin.

The "adventure" continues: having farmed the leather from the goblins I had a bit of nostalgia fun climbing to the top of dekfutt's tower to get the home point at stellar fulcrum then warped back to adoulin and farmed the umbril ooze in ceizak, looked up the twitherym scale and grinded away the last of my teeth as I saw it was only obtainable through level 64 alchemy and once again none on the auction house...

Farmed the wings in ceizak and had a spare lightning crystal lying around, shouted in jeuno for a crafter and got it crafted by a nice person who did it for free. With all the items finally went back to hennietiel via waypoint to hand it all in, had a little chuckle that the NPC said "back already? That was quicker than I anticipated". Did the rest of the quest picking up waypoints as I went, finally started to feel like I'd gotten the ball rolling again. Collected a few more waypoints then made my way to Dho gates.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

Cool off a bit and decide to begin this arduous KI farm. Go back to Sih gates and get to the foret de hennetiel. Find I need a boat KI to progress to Dho gates to get to where I need to go for climbing. Grind my teeth but press on, find the boat guy, he wants 3 dhalmel leathers and some other stuff, go back to adoulin auction house to buy the leathers, there are none, I don't have crafts levelled, currently sitting in middle dekfutt's tower /thf farming the 8 goblin furriers that pop here and drop the leather while writing this...

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Nothing in Sandy's Tanner's guild?

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Originally Posted by Shirai

Nothing in Sandy's Tanner's guild?

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Nope, think they only have it if someone sells it to them. Gotten one from the goblins so far, only using TH 2 so probably gonna take a while.

I think all the ease of use changes made to the original content (and more) have spoiled a lot of the player base, as evidenced by this thread. Quit QQing and put some hard work in.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

Nope, think they only have it if someone sells it to them. Gotten one from the goblins so far, only using TH 2 so probably gonna take a while.

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Didn't they change it within the past year so that guild vendors restock themselves?

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Originally Posted by wintermute

I think all the ease of use changes made to the original content (and more) have spoiled a lot of the player base, as evidenced by this thread. Quit QQing and put some hard work in.

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Lol I've been playing since launch, I did all of zilart, CoP and ToAU without any of the QoL changes or nerfs such as level restriction removals and none of it ever felt as clunky as hunting these key items, yes there were annoying sections but they were part of the story and usually deep into it so I at least had stuff to keep me interested and immersed while doing it. The problem here is that it is a chore thrown at you before making me feel any kind of invested in this content.

CoP set up an interesting mystery before throwing promyvion at you which was an interesting new dungeon even if doing all 3 was a nuisance, collecting zilart coffer keys to get to kazham to start zilart was a minor inconvenience at best, same with collecting a testimony to begin ToAU. None of them had this many side quests and going out of your way (unless you consider doing the story out of your way) just to explore the area.

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Originally Posted by Deadvinta

Didn't they change it within the past year so that guild vendors restock themselves?

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Dunno but this was the first place I went and all they had was hides.

Did you get it done, though?

Considering when expansions were released and the requirements at the time, Adoulin is pretty much straight forward and for what you can do it's the most accesable expansion as far as I'm conserned. CoP was too difficult for many when a new batch of missions was released. Same goes with WotG. ToAU was also accesable for most of the areas but you don't interact with the enviroment as much as you do with adoulin. If you want things just served to you, adoulin is the one that makes the best job at it. Key Items are just a little hurdle you have to do.

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Originally Posted by Shirai

Did you get it done, though?

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Getting through slowly, I can keep updating my story on the previous page if you like :P lol. Got to marijimi ravine finally then got hit with the back track mallet again and now I'm in yashe hunting grounds heading to morimar for the pulverising KI. Picked up poison resistance on the way too.

Keep the good work. Enjoy the expansion.

You can basically travel anywhere in Vana'diel today in the blink of an eye with Telepoint crystals and such... and we're complaining about talking to an NPC, trading him 2 items, and waiting for a cutscene to finish? I mean, yah, MMOs today are different than when XI came out but these key items are the epitome of "baby's first quest" even by modern standards, theres not even a wait time. s'matter with ya'll?

Grumpy old man complaining aside... I understand the "overwhelming" bit, and yah they were a bit redundant, but my recommendation is to simply do them as you need them... I think very few places in adoulin require these Key items so thats lucky. Take it one at a time instead of sprinting and it'll not burn you out as much. Good luck.

Let me first say I agree that these quests should probably be simplified at this point. That being said, I don't think these were intended specifically to be annoying timesinks (well, I'm sure that was part of the thought process, this being an MMO and everything).

I think when you consider that the key word for Adoulin was "Colonization", it puts things into perspective a bit. (Though if they enable Mounts in these areas it'll further diminish that motif)

The idea was that Ulbuka is a harsh land, left unexplored for many generations after colonization was closed off 200 years ago. So you needing to learn how to chop through logs, climb vines, endure toxic fumes or destroy certain kinds of rocks was supposed to play to that motif. In gameplay terms if all you're thinking is, "I want to beat the game/I want to see the plot" you'll only see making your character learn these skills as meaningless busywork. Doesn't really help that the teleporters are already everywhere- when Adoulin first came out, those weren't there, so that feeling was a bit more significant- that and ilevel wasn't a thing yet so areas actually felt a lot more dangerous. So I guess in some ways, the way the game has changed gameplay-wise since the release of Adoulin has kinda killed the original motif for it, so I can't really say I'm against them changing these quests up somehow.

Kind of interesting to think about though- CoP's strict level caps was what allowed SE to "control" the difficulty of encounters. They didn't do this with any of the expansions after that, so people usually just rushed their characters to level cap ASAP and then steamrolled all the story by overleveling it. I guess these days people would frown upon CoP's style being used again. I'll agree before level sync existed the tedium of keeping lots of level-appropriate armor was ridiculous but I think it after that was introduced, it's an interesting compromise between allowing players of all levels to progress the story and keeping the difficulty "static" for all players. Wonder how things would've played out if Adoulin had ilevel sync or something.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

Lol I've been playing since launch, I did all of zilart, CoP and ToAU without any of the QoL changes or nerfs such as level restriction removals and none of it ever felt as clunky as hunting these key items, yes there were annoying sections but they were part of the story and usually deep into it so I at least had stuff to keep me interested and immersed while doing it. The problem here is that it is a chore thrown at you before making me feel any kind of invested in this content.

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Lol, ok? I have been playing since launch too. What point are you trying to make here?

The fact is, you're complaining about some tedious quests in a game built on tedious quests. If you've been playing so long you shouldn't have much problem with "talk to this guy" then "go get this item and bring it back", etc etc. Simple stuff, man. I understand that you're older now and want an easier less time-consuming game to play, that's fine because I feel the same way a lot, but at least admit it.

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Originally Posted by Stompa

I actually enjoyed the mini access quests for SOA areas, especially the watercrafting!

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The best part was that everyone was calling it "waterboarding".

Why not look up the quest requirements beforehand and bring them with you? Adoulin is definitely more forgiving exploration-wise than CoP. The quests are easy. Get them over with and don't look back.

A friend returned to the game two months ago and I helped him get all of this done in a matter of a few hours. We bought the things off the AH and ran out.

Unsure of where all apex mobs are in these zones, I used sneak and invisible too. It's been two years since I did the quests so I really didn't recall any of the details, we looked it up and went.

Asking for these quests to be made easier is crazy. They're fine the way they are.

If you really went through all the old mission lines when they were remotely difficult, you should appreciate that Adoulin just has some run-around quests.

I'm still amazed that some people enter a whole new expansion expecting everything to be linear and easy. Seekers of Adoulin is not just a quest, it's a whole story on its own.

I disagree. Exploring Adoulin and gradually opening the zones via quests was one of the most fun I had in the game.

Doing Adoulin and getting all the KI made me wish they would remove a lot of the padding now, the missions are disgracefully terrible in terms of time wasting.

Was understandable at the time of adding them due to the delays between but not now.