Faster access to FFXI?

[Sirmarki]

Hi,

This has probably been asked many times before.

I was wondering if there is a way to almost by-pass POL and go straight in to the character selection screen (once passwords, if any, have been entered)?

Currently it takes numerous steps in order to get in to the game.

Thank you.

[Dragoy]

Yes, indeed, it has been asked a few times. ^^

Here's the latest(?) response from 2022:

We’d like to consider decoupling it if possible, but it would be no easy feat since FFXI is an application built to run on the PlayOnline framework.

I'm sure they could, if they had the time and/or money/people to do it.

If something like that were to ever happen, I, for one, do hope the PlayOnline Viewer would still stick around so that one can use it if one wants to, because the PlayOnline messages and the friend system in general are very useful to me.

[Alhanelem]

Hi,

This has probably been asked many times before.

I was wondering if there is a way to almost by-pass POL and go straight in to the character selection screen (once passwords, if any, have been entered)?

Currently it takes numerous steps in order to get in to the game.

Thank you.

The only thing you can do to speed it up is use the FFXI shortcut whith takes you to the play button without waiting for the POL menu to load in. The game is heavily intertwined with POL and uses its systems for the friends list, online status and account related stuff- content IDS for characters and so on. The FFXI program file is actually a DLL file which has to be called by another application and can't be run on its own.

[Sp1cyryan]

This is never happening. Just log in, it's only a chore because you are used to everything else being instant.

[Alhanelem]

Eh. I mean, FFXIV still has an external launch process, it just doesn't have any unnecessary fluff in it. The fluff belongs in the game, not the launcher.

Playonline made sense when it was still trying to be a fully featured online service for many games. But that should have changed back when it became apparent that FFXI was the only reason anyone cared about it.

[Sirmarki]

The only thing you can do to speed it up is use the FFXI shortcut whith takes you to the play button without waiting for the POL menu to load in.

It does exactly the same thing with the same steps as POL.

[Sirmarki]

This is never happening. Just log in, it's only a chore because you are used to everything else being instant.

The PC I play FFXI on is 10yrs old - nothing is instant :P

[Tarmarkvar]

It does exactly the same thing with the same steps as POL.

The shortcut button used to do something, many many years ago. I think that it would take you straight to FFXI, bypassing the "Select Handle" screen. Or it might have bypassed the screen where you select whether you want to play Tetra Master or FFXI. Remember Tetra Master? How long has it been since they got rid of that?

[Alhanelem]

It does exactly the same thing with the same steps as POL.

I didn't say it was less steps. It's less time. That button appears before the menu loads in, so its like 5 seconds faster than if that feature didn't exist.

The shortcut button used to do something, many many years ago. I think that it would take you straight to FFXI, bypassing the "Select Handle" screen.

What "select handle screen?" I don't have to select a handle every time I start the game up. As far as I know you only need to have more than one handle if you have a lot of characters, which most people don't.

The shortcut button just saves you from waiting for the main menu to load in. That's it. it's the same number of button presses, yes. It is, however, less time spent.

[Dzspdref]

The PC I play FFXI on is 10yrs old - nothing is instant :P

Only 10? Mine is from 2007 and uses Windows Vista as the OS with a dial-up DSL! And waiting literally 48 seconds for me (not including typing in both passwords) is not bad at all. If you're too impatient to wait less than a minute for getting into the game, the black-outs when changing areas and reloading access to MH/satchels must also drive you nuts!