Writing a Walk-Through Guide for New Players -- Opinions sought.

I don't know if there's anything against linking to guides or self-promotion (not really trying to promote it as I have nothing to actually gain from such work), but I've started typing up a Walkthrough for the New Player.

This walkthrough is intended to make the game as easy to learn as possible, to give them a very clear, cut and dry path with almost zero confusion to get from Level 1 to Level 99 and teach them most of what they need to know on the way there, so that they have everything or have access to everything that they need, so that when they ding Level 99, they are ready to grab Vana'diel by the horns so to speak.

Here's the Guide:

http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/2...rough_by_Aysha

It is still a WIP, and thus far I've covered up to Level 50 and Genkai 2.

If I've missed anything major, or if there's something I left out, or even opinions about the format/layout of the thing would be appreciated.

Thanks!

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana'diel

That's a "Returning to Vana'diel" type thing. It is not aimed at brand-new players.

The purpose of my guide is to provide clear and concise directions in such a way to avoid information overload/confusion (there's a LOT of stuff in FFXI and it can be confusing to a brand-new player, lol) for the brand-new player who has never touched FFXI before. The article you linked would confuse the crap out of somebody who's never played the game before I'd think.

But the guide you linked is good for those who once played a long time ago, sure. No arguments there.

EDIT: So I scrolled down through that, and LOL. They say that Voidwalker NMs are "useless"... well, except for the fact you are required to do the 3 nation ones if you want the Magian weaponskills (like Rudra's Storm, Chant du Cygne, etc). Oops. Someone should edit that in.

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Originally Posted by Aysha

That's a "Returning to Vana'diel" type thing. It is not aimed at brand-new players.

The purpose of my guide is to provide clear and concise directions in such a way to avoid information overload/confusion (there's a LOT of stuff in FFXI and it can be confusing to a brand-new player, lol) for the brand-new player who has never touched FFXI before. The article you linked would confuse the crap out of somebody who's never played the game before I'd think.

But the guide you linked is good for those who once played a long time ago, sure. No arguments there.

EDIT: So I scrolled down through that, and LOL. They say that Voidwalker NMs are "useless"... well, except for the fact you are required to do the 3 nation ones if you want the Magian weaponskills (like Rudra's Storm, Chant du Cygne, etc). Oops. Someone should edit that in.

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You only need to mess w/ Voidwalker NMs if you are actually working on the actual Empyrean weapon (like Twashtar, Almace, etc). You DO need to mess with Voidwatch NMs if you are trying to unlock the WS for use w/o the Empyrean weapon tho. Blame SE for making two things that sound almost identical.

Looking good so far. One suggestion for later if possible, have links at the start of the guide so one can hop to relevant parts for what they are doing latter.

I might suggest Upper Delkfut's Tower instead of Garlaige for 35-50 once one has gotten to Jueno, and the mobs should all be DC or lower unless wander farther up. It has a nice Grounds Tome of kill 6 gigas, and have to make the climb up there for Nation Quests anyways. First time getting up there can be a pain, but once have the KI for the elevator its a pretty easy return trip.

Since the Grounds tomes were added, I have preferred using them over the field ones for leveling due to the stacking buffs and the xp bonus that accrues from multiple completions. I tend to do Korroloka Tunnel from ~20-33, Upper Delkfuts from 33-50, Garlaige from 50-when I feel like can take Antica, and then its Quicksand Caves (western altepa J-9 entrance) from there up until 90(It works til 99 but slows down a lot post 75). Some other options for leveling along the way if people want to mix things up.

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Originally Posted by Hawklaser

Looking good so far. One suggestion for later if possible, have links at the start of the guide so one can hop to relevant parts for what they are doing latter.

I might suggest Upper Delkfut's Tower instead of Garlaige for 35-50 once one has gotten to Jueno, and the mobs should all be DC or lower unless wander farther up. It has a nice Grounds Tome of kill 6 gigas, and have to make the climb up there for Nation Quests anyways. First time getting up there can be a pain, but once have the KI for the elevator its a pretty easy return trip.

Since the Grounds tomes were added, I have preferred using them over the field ones for leveling due to the stacking buffs and the xp bonus that accrues from multiple completions. I tend to do Korroloka Tunnel from ~20-33, Upper Delkfuts from 33-50, Garlaige from 50-when I feel like can take Antica, and then its Quicksand Caves (western altepa J-9 entrance) from there up until 90(It works til 99 but slows down a lot post 75). Some other options for leveling along the way if people want to mix things up.

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Hmm. I will have to take a look at Delkfutt's. It's been awhile since I've leveled there, and I know I don't really like sending people to Garlaige, but it's the only place I really know of in that level range with "easy" mob types like Beetles and Single Bats that's also in a Grounds Tome area with minimal travel. It's a suggestion I'll look into.

That or I will mention in the guide that there are other places to go to level? Not sure yet. I will keep that in mind.

And there is a jump -- the contents list at the beginning of the guide will send you to each chapter when clicked, though a couple of the chapters I could rename to make it easier and/or add more chapters to make jumping easier.

Sadly I'm somewhat of a wiki editing newbie.

RE:Voidwalker/Voidwatch/Voidwhatevers: Yeah, SE ... kinda made things confusing there. My bad, lol.

Just made an account to say thank you for the walk through so far. The information about game configuration and inventory management at the beginning was especially helpful to me as someone who knew nothing about the game going in as a lot of the other resources I've seen skip ahead to Records of Eminence and leveling spots.
So thank you for helping to smooth out my experience in XI.

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Originally Posted by Alteva

Just made an account to say thank you for the walk through so far. The information about game configuration and inventory management at the beginning was especially helpful to me as someone who knew nothing about the game going in as a lot of the other resources I've seen skip ahead to Records of Eminence and leveling spots.
So thank you for helping to smooth out my experience in XI.

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Cool!

I'm glad you like it. I'm actually amazed that someone has found it already (it isn't even done yet, lol! I just added a huge section onto it today), and yeah I try to start from the ground-up, as it is aimed at absolute newbies.

I also thank you for giving this game a chance. It's a game with a lot of history behind it, and some of its systems and such will feel archaic, but there's a huge mountain of sentimentality behind it, and I hope that in time, you can see the charm that we see, and I hope that my guide will help you get to that point where you can get comfortable and not be so confused.

Another thing I see other guides doing, is going "OK, you can start the game, get levels and then do ________" and they will give you a metric ton of information about content that is either out-dated, or way out of the way that you'd probably never bump into on your way up to 99 and it would only serve to confuse you with too many terms to try to remember.

I decided to instead provide a no-frills "This is how you get to 99 and I will tell you what you need to know as you get there to avoid confusion with stuff you don't need to know yet".

I hope you continue to enjoy it, and I hope it will help you get there.

Trust me, you don't want Honest opinions.

The only Honest opinion you'll get is mine; "You're in the top 10 last people I would take any game advice from".

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Originally Posted by Halley

Trust me, you don't want Honest opinions.

The only Honest opinion you'll get is mine; "You're in the top 10 last people I would take any game advice from".

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Wow, that's... pretty rude. I don't understand what I did to you, that you would say such things, especially as this is your first post here and you don't even play on the same server I do. But... okay, I'm sorry you feel that way.

I see you mention some interesting configs that in my opinion are very interesting and some returning players might not even know like the status timers.

I would add /partyinfo showtp on as it's very useful.for those of us who don't play with windower.

I would also mention either a 2 window configuration, which I don't use but many people I play with seem to like, or putting the party chat on hold so you never miss any chats when participating in linkshell events. Yes, a starter player will probably not do anything in a party for a long time, but to me those configs are good to do right as you start so you can get used to them over time.

These are good suggestions, thanks!

Yeah, that 2 window thing is confusing to me, and I tried using it and it was "eh". I can see the appeal behind it, but yet at the same time I doubt it is something a newbie wants to mess around with just yet.

The "Hold" thing, though, I can see what you're saying there.

You may want to go though on the section "Before doing anything else" and provide more detail. Maybe this changed in a recent update or something dunno, I am brand new to this game. Took me a long time to find where the Key Assignments were actually located and where Background Aspect ratio could be changed.

I still have not found how to get to a Config 1 or a Config 2 menu and change the Status Effect Duration or Target Status Effect Display.

Thanks for the guide, just offering a perspective from a brand new player on where I have been in the guide so far.

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Originally Posted by Lukasha

You may want to go though on the section "Before doing anything else" and provide more detail. Maybe this changed in a recent update or something dunno, I am brand new to this game. Took me a long time to find where the Key Assignments were actually located and where Background Aspect ratio could be changed.

I still have not found how to get to a Config 1 or a Config 2 menu and change the Status Effect Duration or Target Status Effect Display.

Thanks for the guide, just offering a perspective from a brand new player on where I have been in the guide so far.

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I explained the Config 1 or Config 2 thing, I thought? Or maybe I explained the Menu 1/Menu 2 somewhere else and somehow put it in the wrong section... that could be. I need to add images and such anyways.

Hit the "-" key on the number keypad to bring up Menu 1.

Hit it again to bring up Menu 2.

In there, you should see a "Config 1" "Config 2" etc.

The background stuff... I will likely link wiki's article on that, as they could explain it far better than I could (it has to do with regedit).

Logged in and used the - key from the num pad twice, but I only have a "Config" as a selectable tab, no 1 or 2. Maybe my UI is different for some reason due to a change I made? That is what I did before, just did it again to make sure I was not having a senior moment earlier ..lol. So basically I see no option to select Config1 or Config2 on the menu, only Config.

The guide looks pretty good, nice job! Just a few additional things I might suggest:

-in your game glossary, adding terms like kite, pull, MB, MH, widescan and muling. Although you describe pulling later on, you never actually call it that

-a few more useful game settings are /partystatus on, /timestamp on, /ignorepet on, ...in fact, you could just reference the reddit page for all of them, including commands like /checkparam: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/commen...text_commands/

-while I like how your guide actually encourages players to explore zones only when they are ready to actually exp there, you can expect some will want to see the world sooner rather than later. For that reason, it might be good to mention things like sneak oils and powders earlier than you do in the guide, or the importance of setting 'reraise' (the scrolls can be bought with cp, or even given for free by the artisan moogles) and strategic home points for D2/blood warping.

-in the same vein, it might be nice to get players exposed early on to things that accumulate over time. You mention coalition ops late in the guide, but someone could actually activate them much sooner and start on some of the easier ops, like hitting the bivouacs or turning in materials that can be bought off the ah. The exp rewards from these could help jump them several levels very quickly (yet you do make a point of getting players leveling slowly enough that their skill levels aren't crippled. I respect that, but skillbooks are also an option). Also useful to unlock early on to "start the counter" are gobbie chest rewards (once you pass the obligatory wait after creating a new char) and the voidstone accumulation. Also, remind players to turn in their login points before they're lost (the first point I see you mention login points is for the Maat items. Maybe you should mention them sooner, especially as a way to make money and grab new trusts/mounts depending on the month)

-you discouraged players initially from taking the Al Zahbi boat, yet the only way to get mog lockers is to become a mercenary in Aht Urgan. It might be nice to remind players to go there at some point, especially since Beseiged is another place for easy skilling and exp

-While it is nice that you teach players how to get to hard-to-reach places like the Glacier, it is also an option for them to get there via Unity Wanted NM warps (yes, it's cheating them of the scenic route, but you *did* also advocate for them to use the RoV shortcut that gets them to Norg without using the airship, so I know you're flexible in that regard)

-it might be good to mention the NPC in Ru'lede Gardens that manages the waypoints as another quick way to get around. Since you're encouraging players to explore the zones, they might as well be collecting geomagnetic points while they're at it. It also unlocks the weekly quest that refills your kinetic units by 1500.

-finally, a big thing I see missing from your guide is macros and equipment sets. While it's nice that you talk them through how to use mog wardrobes and set up SATAs, using macros and equipment sets is a big boost to their battle efficiency.