WARNING - New Players or Players thinking of coming back - Consider this first.

[Octaviane]

Why don't you actually do something in the game before you tell us how easy it is.

I think this comment is well...........uncalled for.

Getting help depends a lot on your attitude, and this kind of comment doesn't help your cause at all. Saying please and thank you and being just a tad civil goes a long way. There are still quite a few people who will gladly help other players out with almost anything for no reward other than it gave them pleasure to do so.

When asking for help, you also need to make sure you are ready to go AND know what you are about to do and where you are going. Nothing is more irritating than having someone ask for help, then when someone says "sure"! You ready? And you say, oh, I have to go to the store, gotta feed the cat, kids, take the dog for a walk, and I need to do 10 cs's (well maybe not that many, but not far off in some cases) before I am ready, brb and 2 hours later you're still gone, come back and get mad because they didn't wait for you.

Many things in game can be solo'd and if you show people some initiative to do what you can on your own instead of complaining, they might be more inclined to help you with the things you can't solo.

Not sure a bulletin board would help tbh. I certainly wouldn't read or use it. I do agree that /seacoms are not read, at least, not these days. I can attest to that when I have put up a /seacom that specifically states Party? No Thanks? and they still ask..........

Best choice overall would be to make some friends who have like interests that you can buddy around with help one another and perhaps others.

[RAIST]

eh... I get tells for party when I'm already in party.

The point I was trying to make earlier is that /seacom is used and does work for some, so to patently write it off as not working and no one uses it is technically false. And it's really easy to use... you can macro them very easily for something you routinely put up. To search a category, you can just type /sea all <enter>, <enter> and scroll to the category you want to filter. Searched last night in fact and had 73 users with translated text in the others (most of them were magian trials, people still tend to use others and not magian on my server, only 2 listed under magian). A good bit of those may have actually been JP because they had the funky font for the numbers and the PS2 button shapes also.

The bigger issue I think is getting people to use ANY of the grouping resources. Regardless if it is the current resources or something new added--people just don't seem to be inclined to use them. Maybe it's because they see Shout (and now Yell) being used so much and it appears to be the way everyone else is doing it. When in Rome......

Oh, and for the new users who are unfamiliar with what we are talking about when we reference /seacom:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Th...earch_Comments
(note: /seacom also has a shorthand command of just /sc so when you set up macros and such you can use /sc 1 instead of /seacom 1)

[Kari]

My main problem with /seacom is the lack of categories.
Example, let's say /seacom was much more popular than it is right now.
If I wanted to find people for CoP 3-5, I'd have to wade through every "Mission" search comment, looking specifically for this fight or anyone near it. Even if only 20-30 people had seacoms up, this would take a while and wouldn't likely be productive.
Not to mention, making my own would be just as annoying for others to find me. Search comments are also very passive, as it requires someone ELSE to think "Oh, I want to do this mission! Let me check if anyone has it in their search comment."
This is why people resort to shouts.

Shouting not only is easier, but will cause some people to join you without having thought of doing that mission themselves.
An example using what I said earlier, if I shouted that I was recruiting people for CoP 3-5, there's a higher chance of someone seeing the shout and thinking "Oh, I need that mission, I should see if I can join." or similar.
Which, is actually how I got Divine Might done. I saw a shout in Jeuno and decided to join. I had zero plans on doing Divine Might that morning.

I can't think of any better systems to "replace" seacom or shouts, but still, I can see why shouts are more commonly used, being a lot less passive.

As far as the topic goes, noobs who think this game is hard at low levels should probably quit ASAP.
This game no longer has any difficulty for leveling, so I'm not sure what the OP is complaining about.
Solo til about 15 [which takes no time at all with new exp rules and FoV/GoV].
Do a /sea gusgen
^This will show you how many people are in Gusgen Mines, a popular low-level Ground of Valor party location on most servers.
Player names in white are people without a party, gold are party leaders, and blue are people in a party.
If most of the search turns up gold/blue and there are a bunch of [fairly] low level people, it's likely there is a GoV party going on.
Head to Gusgen Mines and join up.
Depending on how many people are around and such, you should get good XP/hour for your level off the pages. [The page caps at 1320 exp, for killing only 6 Skeleton mobs.]
You could probably also solo this, if no parties are going on. You may need to be around level 18 though. Eventually someone else may come along, team up, and keep expanding.

If you're 30+ you can usually do the same with Garlaige Citadel.
Page 2 in Garlaige caps at 2320 exp, and is also fairly popular on most servers.

I personally took my BST from 15 to 30 in Gusgen, and 30 to 66 in Garlaige.
It's not very difficult, and the jobs that actually require gear to perform well only have to buy level 30/40 gear once, due to level syncs.

As far as Gil is concerned, you should earn more than enough to keep yourself afloat with the game-day page gil.
If you get the chance to claim and open Brown chests when they drop, high chance of getting something to either NPC or AH for good money. In my Garlaige parties, I found the Dispel Automaton attachment which sold for 500k on Shiva at the time. You'll also find things such as Elixirs which NPC fairly high. [Around 8k I believe?]

Noobs who think they have it hard NOW should really be thankful, the game just keeps getting easier at all levels.
A year or two ago, noobs had to solo/duo their way up for the most part, and it was MUCH slower than it is now, and actually required a couple risks depending on job to get decent exp.

[Rosina]

I'm returning player and never had an issue. This game was never really unsoloable. It just took longer. I'm on the same server I was on and re met friends. Plus i rekindled my relationship with my former ex bf. (yay) I also made new ones. This game always had elitism issues. Can be people be a bit more friendly and helpful? sure. But this game isn't that horrific. I seen worst communities. LIke Aion, I tried asking for help on thaat game only to be troll'ed, bullied, told off, called out for asking for a guild at level 10 stating i had to be level 25. (player rule not game rule) I never found any help to learn the game or how to make money. I never conneted with anyone. I left after 6months of trying.

World of warcraft also has a less then desireable community. But not everyone is bad.

[Sortis]

I have come to find out that the community in-game is not helpful or friendly one bit. They seem to be very clique oriented and will IGNORE you because you do not have 7 jobs to 90 or have not been playing for 8 years like them. Not to mention the language barrier cuts the already dwindling population of people online even further (The other half are gil farmers.)

IF YOU ARE THINKING OF STARTING BACK I RECOMMEND YOU CONSIDER THIS:

You will need to solo the majority of a game NOT MEANT for soloing. You will not be able to do missions, get a subjob before level 30+ (normally lvl18), level at any respectable rate, and forget about unlocking jobs because it more than likely will not happen without paying people in-game HUGE amounts of gil (YOU WILL BE DIRT POOR) or unless you have been lucky enough to get into a linkshell but even then that promises nothing.

Its funny how a dying games community can be so shallow and cold towards new players. You would think that they would appreciate new players more since it keeps all their level 90 jobs somewhat relevant and keeps THEIR game populated. Instead its just the opposite its about who you know rather than what you know or do that makes or breaks you in this game currently and it will only get worse by the day.

If soloing a un-soloable game is your thing, play this game. If being ignored by other players because they do not know you is your thing, play this game. If playing a game where you can not unlock anything solo but a chocobo at the appropriate level is your thing, play this game. If not, I suggest you play WoW (a game you can solo if needed and can actually find a party) or even... FFXIV, which I have not played yet and with this SE game experience will more than likely not.

I am really sorry this happened to you, if I was still playing (quit because of this retarded new payment system) I would invite you to come play on my server with me, my LS and I...we take care of our own, in fact we actually enjoy helping new people. Really sorry this happened to you, sounds like you just got screwed and unlucky. =\

[Tunechi]

First off, "LOL" I havn't been back to these forums in a while (Been playing FFXI ) and there are 104 replies xDDD. I didn't mean to stir up anything guys I wrote this originally out of frustration and my opinions expressed originally were a bit off. (I have not read all the post and also will not because I know its mostly flame) After playing the game a while (BLM-19, WHM-10, THF-30, WAR-15, MNK-13, PLD-24, BST-2 xD, RDM-14) I've gotten 3 total parties (Gusgen, Dunes, Qufim) so far, and no linkshell.

This game is worth trying out if you never played it before or if your computer can not handle FFXIV.

Pros:
More EXP
A lot of items that used to be 1m+ are now a fraction of what they were.
HUGE AMOUNT OF CONTENT
Level sync


Cons:
Population
Starting a fresh character (Money and you will out level your gear pretty quick)
Hard to find a linkshell
Might take a bit to find a party
People would rather play with themselves than others (They make a separate account so they can dualbox with it, to farm Abyssea)


This is all a new player really has to worry about from what I've noticed in the game. I didn't mean for this thing to snowball out of control I figured people would just ignore it and move on. For everyone who might have gotten offended somehow I apologize again. <Take Care> everyone.

Also new players should come to Odin since its the best server out there.

PS Send me a /tell in-game if you (meaning anyone who needs it) need help. OR a LS D

Sorry again

[Rakeesh]

I'm also new to the game and I'm currently on Odin, do you guys have a linkshell?

[Chadx]

I want to add also that struggling new players is not a new occurrence and I don't want people thinking I am just 'whining' and bashing. I like/want to like this game and I am pretty determined to MAKE it work. Their are just glaring faults that frustrated me a bit.

@Zelke - You should come to Odin if your not heavily invested in your server yet like I am. I only have a 20 THF so the other 5 starting jobs are fair game :P. I can also help out a bit on starting gear and what-not. Also, I was in Valkrum earlier looking for help with getting my subjob items and there was only 21 people there (11 of them were 45+ x_X) and no one would help I even tried to bribe some to no avail xD.

time and place ill be there if still needing people

[Chadx]

I'm also new to the game and I'm currently on Odin, do you guys have a linkshell?

no wish i could find someone willing to take a noob like me

[Rakeesh]

no wish i could find someone willing to take a noob like me

Maybe us newbs should bind together and start our own LS. I'm loving the game so far (just hit lvl 30 Warr) but it gets boring with no one to run around and chat with.