Do something about the AH and lower level gear????

[Kazen]

Funny I didn't use FFXIAH, I looked directly on the AH I'm currently standing at to see what things that drop from low level mobs I could farm. FFXIAH/wiki didn't exist when I started this game and I did the exact same thing I did just now to find out what to farm.

As for mining tools, who buys those from AH? You buy them from a vendor which is located in each of the starting cities. When I started this game I farmed silk to buy mining tools which I then took to Zeruhn and Gusgen to make a much larger profit. While mining I leveled my smithing to make iron/bronze/etc ingots as I farmed to further increase my profits. I mined every time I played for about 1hr. I'm only posting this for fun but Iron Ingots 40k/stack.

[Fiarlia]

Beehive Chips, crystals (don't forget Signet!), Silk Thread, Wild Onions, Gardening seeds (to sell, as a new account has crap gardening for 90 days), Sheep Skins, gil from beastmen mobs (may not be much but every little bit helps), some scrolls.

Some NM's exist in the starter (or near starter) cities that have (some) good drops, either for selling or using.

There's also some rewarding quests that can be done easily. There's also fishing, crafting and synergy and HELM.

All of this is off the top of my head without much thought at all, and all contained within either the starting cities or their immediate outdoor areas (Sarutabaruta, Gustaberg and Ronfaure) Most is applicable to people under level 10, certain NM's may be an exception. There's plenty of ways to make gil in the low levels, despite how much you (or anyone else) may or may not like the methods. Some of the stuff you may have to look up and do a bit of research, or perhaps prerequisite quests (also involving research).

Low levels for new players was never about speeding through the levels as fast as you could (if you wanted to gear yourself and be good), I have no idea why people seem to think this has changed. And while it's true that buying from the NPC's may be more expensive, leveling is also exceedingly faster than it used to be, making the minor incremental upgrades you'd get every few levels less important, as it may be better to wait a tad longer for something (comparatively) cheaper and/or more useful. And those who say it may be more dangerous to solo.... tackle slightly lower level FoV pages.

[viion]

Umm Kazen, obviously I wasnt talking to you, read above your post.....

this is just getting stupid now, you have existing players thinking its easy "just do this get this" when its easier said than done. No existing player has any idea how difficult it is for a new player and your post all just results in a complete waste because most suggestions are just out of reach for a very long time for new players. Also added onto the list of having absolute nothing, understand the drop rate sucks, to get some gear 20+ by just beehive chips would take 10hours on my server due to bad drop rate and that i'd be in level 1 gear with most likely level 1 weapon, trying to kill and avoid aggro from anything else (yagudos for example)

Ya'll like spoilt rich folk who dont realise how tough the poor life is.

And FYI there are much-much easier ways to make a lot more gil than suggestions being said, but all require knowledge and websites, which a new player wouldn't have and shouldn't be forced to use (Respectively)

Not to mention Playonline site still has no direct link to the forum (other thanthe news post which will fade away soon) so new players will soon not realise a forum exists and never be able to ask.

If gil was so easy, people wouldnt be requesting changes and asking how to make gil all the god damn time.

[Greatguardian]

Great Scott, players who read community websites have more information on hand than players who don't.

FFXI has always been a community oriented game. It's not going to hold your hand. There is plenty of information out there for those who look for it. No, the game may not link you to ffxiah; but any player with half a brain will.

Anyone can make gil just doing random shit and NPC'ing things. It's an income. If they want to know about better ways to make a more efficient income, they ask other people (who would direct them to community sites), they read community sites, or they try things out for themselves.

Gil is easy to make if you know how. If you don't know how, you look it up. If you don't know where to look, you ask. If you can't ask, you're retarded. I don't care if you're new or not; it's not hard to ask where to find information about the game.

[Gennadi]

Chub dont even bother with "help posts" people here are flame trolling wannabes who think they know everything. This forum is 10% useful 90% of an eye strain.

Just deal with it your way and move on

[chubrocka]

I saw this but just a few things

1. The prices are ridiculously stupid. They were most likely set high so people wouldnt buy here rather than crafters. But now theres no one crafting these item and the prices are still high, its a lost cause.

2. Conquest points are hard to earn to be spending on gear and you need the missions done, which can be tricky when no one is helping any-more unless you're very lucky to find help, a lot of new players can be easily stuck prior to rank 3.

3. Crafting currently has zero appeal for new players, infact in my entire 5 years playing prior to quitting I never crafted once and I don't now as it just takes too much time and I'm a casual player.

4. It isn't much about no gear on starter AH's its about the whole scene. There is lacking amounts of gear anywhere even Jeuno and the gear that is in, is usually over priced due to low quantities and a greedy player base (but that's just life).

Now it is true you do level quite fast compared to before but I was stuck in level 1 gear all the way to 22+ until someone donated their old gear to me, a full set! I had collected 30k and people were selling low level gear for almost same price as venders! I could upgrade my weapon and buy body/legs with that, if I'm lucky.

Those who are not new or not returning have absolute no idea how difficult it is for a new player. You think its all just a breeze "do this, get this and viola!" but its difficult.

no gil
no skills
no spells
no armor
no parties
no chocobo
no teleporting
no friends
no linkshell
ziltch.

Also just to put it out there, a game shouldn't force you off game in order to figure out stuff. I love clopedia but thats because im a returning player and know of it, but a new player will not know it and will become frustrated being in this crappy situation

Man i got to say.... You hit the nail for sure. maybe i should have taken the time to type as much as you did and how you did, but thank you for putting it in the words needed to be said.

[Greatguardian]

If you care that much about using community sites, you can look on the actual auction house and find things that sell frequently for a decent amount of gil and farm them.

What is this? People who don't want to bother learning effective strategies from other people will actually have to apply a modicum of effort to learn some themselves?

Inconceivable.

[chubrocka]

Chub dont even bother with "help posts" people here are flame trolling wannabes who think they know everything. This forum is 10% useful 90% of an eye strain.

Just deal with it your way and move on

GENNADI!!!! nice to see you.... I understand what you mean. Its tough though. There are too few players like you and i left i guess.

This post wasnt a help post but a try to get SE to see what is happening to new players. It was also to reach out for ideas on how to make it better for them also. It seems it turned to "How i make money" and you suck if you cant do it crap.. Well if it gets to one person SE side and they see it, maybe it can make a difference.

I just wish there could be open thought on fixing something, not bashing. Ive only seen what 3 real ideas on how we can improve it....

[RAIST]

I knew about various sites before I even started the game... why? Because I googled the game first before I even bought it just to see how it was doing since I came to it several years late (got the gold Vanadiel combo pack with COP included)--and I got hits on cyclopedia, ZAM, crafting timers, all kinds of stuff in a 10 second search (had a slow PC at the time).

Anyone who plays games on a regular basis and uses either a store/ebay bought game guide or the internet to look anything up about their games would know how to find this kind of information, which I would hazard a guess is most any normal MMO player would be inclined to do. Even if they didn't have anything to guide them, inevitably people in an LS or party would eventually point them to the info online when they started asking questions. To say a new player wouldn't gain access to this info is laughable at best.

1. The prices are ridiculously stupid. They were most likely set high so people wouldnt buy here rather than crafters. But now theres no one crafting these item and the prices are still high, its a lost cause.

Those items can be crafted by the veterans if they would just ask. It may very well cost them the same amount to get the items crafted if they have to purchase the materials to get them crafted by someone. So, either they farm mats to send to a crafter, or they farm the gil to buy things from the AH or NPC. Either way, they still have to fork out either the time or the gil...pee in one hand, poop in the other to see which fills faster scenario.

2. Conquest points are hard to earn to be spending on gear and you need the missions done, which can be tricky when no one is helping any-more unless you're very lucky to find help, a lot of new players can be easily stuck prior to rank

CP is gained at twice the rate as before. You can get 12 points a kill off an EP. If you are in a party killing stuff for upwards of 200 a kill, you are getting over a hundred CP per chain5. CP is not that hard to come by. As for getting rank missions done--you are uncapped all the way to Airship Pass now. Pretty much all you need now is help from one veteran player to get each one done. Are you saying they can't find ONE person in the shell to help? I find that hard to believe. I know we are a tight knit group in my shell... but still, I doubt people are so freaking selfish they won't go help do a fight that only takes 3 minutes in some cases--if so, they may need to look for a new shell.

3. Crafting currently has zero appeal for new players, infact in my entire 5 years playing prior to quitting I never crafted once and I don't now as it just takes too much time and I'm a casual player.

That's just misleading information all around. I sent 3 stacks of ice crystals to an lsmate who needed some gil. By lunchtime the next day, he was at 4 alchemy and had 20k gil in his inbox from selling his wares. Crafting is not hard to skill up to level 30 or so, and if you do it right it pays for itself along the way. 10 Minutes of research saves you a butt-load of time and may net you double the return.

4. It isn't much about no gear on starter AH's its about the whole scene. There is lacking amounts of gear anywhere even Jeuno and the gear that is in, is usually over priced due to low quantities and a greedy player base (but that's just life).

Again...it's not a greedy player base as much as the cost of the raw materials. Stuff used to sell lower because the raw materials were more readily available. Case in point: Meat Mithkabobs. People used to regularly farm the mats to make them and sell them on the AH for quick gil. Prices were kept low to keep them selling faster, thus making more money. Kabobs were cooked and sold for a profit to offset the expense. Now, those mats are farmed/sold less often and the price has gone up. It is easier to just pawn the cockatrice meat at times because the AH is just too full and the price drops. But...the cost of wild onions has doubled because of the high demand and low supply. If more people were farming gobs and listing them--onions would drop from 20k a stack back to 10/11k again, and the price of kabobs would drop accordingly. And guess where the most popular mobs for onions are? Close to the starter cities, where most of these crafters are not hanging out. Hmmm.... wonder if the lower level players might benefit from farming onions and selling them....just a thought.

The problem isn't so much with laziness with the veterans, as laziness with the starters. This game is not designed to be a walk in the park for someone to solo their way through it. It is SUPPOSED to present some sort of challenge that encourages people to work together to progress. If they are having trouble getting stuff done, perhaps they need to ask around. If they don't get help from one group, then they need to seek out another group.

Take some initiative and stop expecting the developers to do all the work for you...

[Fiarlia]

GENNADI!!!! nice to see you.... I understand what you mean. Its tough though. There are too few players like you and i left i guess.

This post wasnt a help post but a try to get SE to see what is happening to new players. It was also to reach out for ideas on how to make it better for them also. It seems it turned to "How i make money" and you suck if you cant do it crap.. Well if it gets to one person SE side and they see it, maybe it can make a difference.

I just wish there could be open thought on fixing something, not bashing. Ive only seen what 3 real ideas on how we can improve it....

I don't think anyone is bashing, and I don't think anyone is saying that making it easier would be bad.

Just that it's... not necessary, since it's not. There's a ridiculous amount of ways to make gil, and many ways to learn about it, even without having to look a a single website.

It'd be nice, sure, but in no way is it as big a deal as it's being made out to be.