Free Trial Player with Questions

[idioch]

Hi everyone, or those that look at this at least (hopefully reply!!). I thought I'd check the game out with Final Fantasy 14 coming out sometime next year to get a feel of what it "might" be like. I'm sure there will be some similarities.

To start things off I was reading here a couple days back on the New Players thread area. I came across one post where I found out players on this game are more concerned about getting themselves to max level ASAP. I'm not judging being a new player in all.

So my question is how exactly does this encourage any player base growth? Would you say it's worth subscribing to this game until 14 comes out? Am I going to be able to find people at whatever level it is that I need to start partying at? And I'm assuming my server is somewhat more active then it appears, but is the game dying down? Or are players just power leveling in whatever area that is at in game?

I've yet to try and track down a linkshell yet, what's the easiest way to go about doing this? Also is Shiva decent in activity or are there better ones? I mainly picked it because it's my favourite summon.

Class wise I was starting a mithra thief but stopped after trying to understand a certain combo. Could someone clarify how SATA is properly performed to me. Do I activated the 2 skills behind the tank first then go around to CC a monster? OR Am I suppose to be using a ranged weapon of some sort to pull this off? Thanks to whoever is able to help me with this.

One concern I have is the game sometimes crashes on me, I'm currently playing windowed but I started out full screen. Usually the crash happens when the level up effect pops up, like the game gets overwhelmed. But I did notice that on my thief character who has the effects part in config set to all on it was indeed every level up, even with just the first one on. But I left them all off on my white mage and all is well, it still happens but it's a much larger gap now. Just wondering if there's some sorta setting setup to fix this issue? It's not my computer too, bought it this year, and it's able to run The Secret World on high graphics settings just fine. That mmo is by far the most heavy graphics mmo I've played thus far too. My minds blank on any other questions for this but I'd welcome any info or tips or help of some sort on this. Also what does the effects section on the config in game deal with?

I'm leaning toward probably picking the game up on steam once my time runs out, try it out for 30 more days see what comes of it. Sorry for the long read and thanks again to everyone the replies. If I end up with more questions I'll just ask on here again, I think that was everything though.

[Arcon]

So my question is how exactly does this encourage any player base growth?

By allowing people to reach Lv.99 easily. As the game has been around for a long time, more and more content that was released is catered to endgame players, people who have maxed their characters. Hence, the bulk of the content these days centers around Lv.99. Now, if people would take a long time getting there, they would be excluded from participating in that content. Hence, quick leveling allows people to get through the overhead quicker and reach the relevant content faster.

You need to understand that, while leveling up may seem like an essential part of an RPG to you, it's not what FFXI is focusing on. I like to tell new people that the game only really starts at 99. EXP is not the only way to develop your character, as you will quickly realize as you progress through the levels.

Would you say it's worth subscribing to this game until 14 comes out?

Despite what you said in the first paragraph, XIV and XI are two very different games. If you like XIV you may not like XI and vice versa (I feel that is the case for most people playing each game, but that may be just my perception). XI is an old MMORPG, one that requires some commitment. You may get some enjoyment out of it, but unless you plan to play it for a while, you may be overwhelmed with everything that's available in there. I'm not saying you won't like it, as I know several casual players that did, but personally I feel this game only gets really good once you get into it a bit more, and I'm not sure if the time until XIV comes out will cover that.

Am I going to be able to find people at whatever level it is that I need to start partying at?

Level Sync removes that concern. You just party up with anyone within 30 levels of you (and only because higher levels will usually level in different places, otherwise they could join as well).

And I'm assuming my server is somewhat more active then it appears, but is the game dying down? Or are players just power leveling in whatever area that is at in game?

See above, most people simply want to access the actual game content, which does not really become available (or at least viable) before level 90 or higher.

As for what server is most active, here's a database of active characters:
http://www.ffxiah.com/database

Class wise I was starting a mithra thief but stopped after trying to understand a certain combo. Could someone clarify how SATA is properly performed to me. Do I activated the 2 skills behind the tank first then go around to CC a monster? OR Am I suppose to be using a ranged weapon of some sort to pull this off? Thanks to whoever is able to help me with this.

Once you active SA or TA, you get a certain buff. That buff will enhance your next melee attack (it will not work on ranged attacks at all). SA will only activate if you attack an enemy from behind with that buff active, while TA will only activate if someone else is standing between you and the enemy (again, only with the buff active). So you need to activate Sneak Attack, then run behind a monster and attack it, and you'll see your first hit doing significantly higher damage.

One concern I have is the game sometimes crashes on me, I'm currently playing windowed but I started out full screen. Usually the crash happens when the level up effect pops up, like the game gets overwhelmed.

This should not happen, and unfortunately I can't explain why this is occurring. Maybe someone else can provide better insight into this.

[idioch]

Thanks for the reply Arcon, I did have one more question I just remembered. The field manuals for doing individual trainings, I've been trying to figure out if I can do each page a day to get gil (in game day). Or do you just do one page and that's it for the gil reward/tabs?

For the crash I brought up, it bumps me back to play online with a 9001 error code message if windowed, or a message I don't quite remember if fullscreen (think about fullscreen being interrupted).

Think I will pick it up on steam, I can use a change in gaming at the moment. I was wondering if I do get it and activiate it does it add the time to what I have left on my free trial? I'm assuming it does, but you know what they say about assuming.

[Arcon]

The field manuals for doing individual trainings, I've been trying to figure out if I can do each page a day to get gil (in game day). Or do you just do one page and that's it for the gil reward/tabs?

Unfortunately, the latter. One page, regardless which one, and you have to wait until the next day again to get the full reward from any page.

For the crash I brought up, it bumps me back to play online with a 9001 error code message if windowed, or a message I don't quite remember if fullscreen (think about fullscreen being interrupted).

Ah, that I do know about. It's actually working as intended, as weird as it sounds. SE disabled leaving the full screen mode for a number of idiotic reasons. Unfortunately, there is no legal way around it, unless you wanna play it in windowed mode. There is, however, an illegal solution to that problem, and it's called Windower. For obvious reasons I can't officially recommend you to use it on here, but it is currently the only way to avoid crashing on leaving full screen.

Think I will pick it up on steam, I can use a change in gaming at the moment. I was wondering if I do get it and activiate it does it add the time to what I have left on my free trial? I'm assuming it does, but you know what they say about assuming.

I wish I knew, but honestly, I wouldn't expect it. SE is far from the most customer friendly company. If someone else knows better, though, they're free to correct me.

Also, I see you already started on Shiva, but if you have trouble meeting people, you're welcome to start over on Leviathan. It's not too high up on the aforementioned activity list (although my experience contradicts those statistics), but we have a lot of newcomers here, and several linkshells willing to help you out. Just leaving that here as an option.

[idioch]

Thanks again for the reply. I think I'll try shiva out a while longer, if I do end up having trouble I just might move over to there. Also I was never leaving full screen the game for whatever reason was thinking I was, don't want to make this a bug topic though so I'll just leave it at that.

I've yet to meet anyone or find a Linkshell though, is there a easy way to find the later on my server. Do I just shout about it or something?

[Arcon]

I've yet to meet anyone or find a Linkshell though, is there a easy way to find the later on my server. Do I just shout about it or something?

There isn't really a proper way to find a linkshell. Shouting does work, usually you just talk to people you party with through the levels and end up somewhere.

[Cowardlybabooon]

The sooner you can get your character to Jeuno, the more you will learn about what the game is, and the more people you will meet. If you shout in Jeuno for help on noob stuff, people will likely be bored enough to be interested in helping, but the starter cities are pretty barren these days. A couple commands to get very familiar with:

/sea all
This searches the server for everyone. If you type /sea all cow, you would get a list of everyone who's name starts with cow. There is also a /sea region, /sea (defaults to area you are in), and /sea all inv (people seeking party), or /sea all 10-30 inv (searches for all people anywhere that are seeking party in the level range you prescribe). After you have been to a zone, you can search that zone too. There are abbreviations for each zone unfortunately, but there is a trick using the auto translate feature (press the tab key while typing the name of the zone).

Example: South Gustaberg
/sea "{South Gustaberg}
You do need the quotation in front of the word for some reason, but not after it.

So if you're typing this, you would do /sea south -----Press Tab----Select South Gustaberg----use arrow keys to go back to the beginning of the word and put a quotation mark------Press Enter.

I'm telling you this because this is how you find parties. If you search Gusgen Mines for yellow names (party leaders) you will usually be able to ask them if you can join their group. (Make sure you have been to the zone first, or it won't work, plus you'll need to know how to get there for the party).