Does it get better or lively after lvl 10?

currently, i am lvl 5 gladiator on the behemoth server. so far,

1. none of the enemy npcs flagged with the red status. they aren't attacking.me - boring

2. it feels empty. no one does low lvl fates. very few group hunts. - no grouping.

3. chats are silent. no one answers questions. - anti-social

4. random guild invites without tell conversations - desperate guilds

what kind of playerbase i am dealing with?

does it get better or lively after lvl 10 in terms of being npc attacked, finding groups and active stable guilds, chats?

I mean this in a nice way, but level 5 is nearly nothing. hell, people say that leveling to 50 is just practice for the real game.

nothing is going to change much at level 10.

I have no idea what you mean by getting attacked by NPC's

finding groups, active stable guilds and chats are nothing to do with level however. You can do all of that without even getting past level 1. By the sounds of it you need to go out, find a good, medium sized FC, talk and ask questions and fall in love with the game and people. Out of all the complaints I've heard from this game, I don't think I've ever heard anti-social being one xD

Perhaps it's your server. On Gilgamesh, it's not really like this (The Antisocial, non-helpful people, I mean.) It gets better around level 15~25.

When you unlock the duty finder it becomes very easy to find groups and parties. I myself just resubbed after being gone for a year… And I found a very helpful FC, a two nice linkshells, lots of people willing to help within a few hours of being online. And today, someone crafted a friend of mine an entire slotted set of gear with materia for free without them even asking. Perhaps it depends on your server.

I agree with Calypso. Once you unlock DF and dungeons, it's a lot more fun. You'll find things get a bit more social as you climb in level.

I find it odd that if you ask a question in chat, no one would answer. I assume you're using Shout, right? That could be a server thing, or maybe there aren't as many people on when you play?

In FATEs, I find that if I start one solo (no matter what level), usually by the end at least one or two people who were passing through have joined. Once when a player I encountered wanted help with a FATE (for an accomplishment I presume), I did a shout for help and about 10 or 12 people rode over and joined. Again, that could be a server thing though idk.

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Originally Posted by Kiro_Moth

I mean this in a nice way, but level 5 is nearly nothing. hell, people say that leveling to 50 is just practice for the real game.

nothing is going to change much at level 10.

I have no idea what you mean by getting attacked by NPC's

finding groups, active stable guilds and chats are nothing to do with level however. You can do all of that without even getting past level 1. By the sounds of it you need to go out, find a good, medium sized FC, talk and ask questions and fall in love with the game and people. Out of all the complaints I've heard from this game, I don't think I've ever heard anti-social being one xD

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the npcs aren't attacking me automatically when i go near them. normally, npcs have a red status bar and ready to attack automatically when go you near.

anti-social means not helpful, not friendly, non-responsive or having an elitist,throw-to-the-wolves,watch-you-fail attitude without responding or by being quiet.

by NPCs, it appears she is referring to the open-world mobs. The ones at the low levels won't attack. Higher levels and not near the cities will. Take a ride through the Sylphlands and tell me how nothing agros on you when you walk by. :P (it's a lv40-50 area)

Lvl 5 is very early days yet, have you tried reaching out in your main city?

In this game NPC generally refers to any non player character that isn't a monster.

I think youre talking about npc monsters, and the low level ones aren't aggressive. A little hint: blue beside their name means they wont attack unless provoked. Red beside the name and they will attack if you go near them.

I am low level but when I got to around 10 or so I started encountering mobs / NPCs that will automatically attack. I think they (developers) keep it easy for low levels while you learn the ropes and earn more skills / gear. I just resubscribed and look forward to starting to play again. I am going to start my new character on Faerie I think. I was looking for a medium-high population server so it isn't too lonely in the lower levels.

I just think you picked a bad server OP. And still not sure about what you mean about NPCs attacking you. In this game all NPCs are neutral. Only thing they attack will be mobs when they come close to where they are posted up at. If you mean mobs that will automatically attack you when close. They are in the game, but not at low level areas.
If you shout for help on something most times people will show to help out. If not you may have picked a server filled with a holes.

Lol later you will wish that they shouldnt have added auto aggroing mobs. ihyheavy. Also dont go running into a huge out of place mob now in the area >D. U might just get instant killed by an A or S rank LOL.

Short answer, it gets better.

The game spends a lot of time easing you in to the concept of an MMO. Most veteran MMO players have complained about the slow start and the fact the game does not require you to party at all until lv.15. Mass exp grind parties just aren't needed until lv.15, and you will find that hunts and world bosses are exclusively lv.50. FATEs are different though and you might run in to players there, depending on which FATE it is.

Behemoth has quite a few Oceanic, North American, and European players. If you're looking for world shouts as indicators of player activity, I'll warn you that most players have turned off shouts to avoid goldseller spam. You're probably too low level to post outside the new player forums, but feel free to check out your server forum. If there's anything that interests you, just ask and one of us can post your contact info for them there. That Autumn Affair player event sounds really interesting actually and a good opportunity to meet players.

thanks all for you reassuring responses. you will try other servers and be more chilled out on the starting areas. i am used to very aggroed and aggressive starting areas in the other games.

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Originally Posted by Shinokaze

the npcs aren't attacking me automatically when i go near them. normally, npcs have a red status bar and ready to attack automatically when go you near.

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It's not actually the status bar, but the icon next to their name that tells whether the mob will attack on sight or not. This wiki page gives a listing of icons in the game, and if you go down to the "Mob Difficulty Icons" section, you'll see the ones I'm talking about. The "Passive" row of blue icons indicates mobs that won't attack you unless you attack them first. The "Aggressive" row of red/yellow icons indicate mobs that will attack on sight.

The color of the status bar indicates whether you have engaged that mob. It will be yellowish when nobody has engaged a mob, red when you have engaged it, and purple when someone else has engaged it. (In the case of multiple people or parties engaging the same mob, the color will indicate who engaged it first.)

In the areas right next to the starting cities' gates with mobs at levels 1-5 or so, that area is designed for new players still trying to figure out how to activate skills, so the mobs are all passive. As you move into higher level areas, there are a mix of both passive and aggressive mobs.

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Originally Posted by Shinokaze

anti-social means not helpful, not friendly, non-responsive or having an elitist,throw-to-the-wolves,watch-you-fail attitude without responding or by being quiet.

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It wasn't a comment about not knowing what it means, just surprise that you found such a reaction. It's pretty uncommon. It is true that global chat channels like /shout are frequently silent (as the majority of chat actually takes place within Free Companies ("guilds" by several other MMOs' terminology) or Linkshells (private chat channels). But asking a question will usually bring several people in to answer. Most players like feeling they can be helpful to someone, especially to new players.


Oh, and the game will get significantly more social after level 15, when you get to group dungeons. At that point, you start needing to play in groups for certain portions of the content. Before then, grouping is just for those who choose to group up for social reasons.

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Originally Posted by ExiaQuanta

Lol later you will wish that they shouldnt have added auto aggroing mobs. ihyheavy. Also dont go running into a huge out of place mob now in the area >D. U might just get instant killed by an A or S rank LOL.

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You mean that time I ran up to a random player to res him and didn't know there was an A-rank waiting around the corner. I don't think I've ever run for my life so fast lol.

@Shinokaze - give it a couple more days/levels & join an active FC. If you feel like it's still quiet or people are rude/unhelpful, consider switching servers and see if the environment is better.

ok. i will give the server until lvl 15. after either i stay or go to another server.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

It wasn't a comment about not knowing what it means, just surprise that you found such a reaction. It's pretty uncommon. It is true that global chat channels like /shout are frequently silent (as the majority of chat actually takes place within Free Companies ("guilds" by several other MMOs' terminology) or Linkshells (private chat channels). But asking a question will usually bring several people in to answer. Most players like feeling they can be helpful to someone, especially to new players. Oh, and the game will get significantly more social after level 15, when you get to group dungeons. At that point, you start needing to play in groups for certain portions of the content. Before then, grouping is just for those who choose to group up for social reasons.

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on the other game i played, the chats were very socially active. especially on the rp servers, starting areas, main cities, and fleet space stations.

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Originally Posted by Shinokaze

on the other game i played, the chats were very socially active. especially on the rp servers, starting areas, main cities, and fleet space stations.

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This is most likely because FFXIV does not have any global chat channels like a lot of MMOs. /say /shout /yell are all range based, tell(whisper), party, linkshell, free company are all direct to specific people or groups of people.

If you want socially active you need to seek them out or join a FC or LS.

You should also follow the game in the beginning. I get the impression you just ran outside and tried to fight til you were lvl 5 when even a new player can reach lvl 5 in under an hour by following the story. Its set up to be a tutorial and the quests let you lvl fast. The overall pace of this game lets you get to 50 quickly where most of the group content is.

As Peachy above me said, Shouts only go out to every player in the immediate map you're on. So if a player is in Limsa, they won't hear you if you're in Ul'dah. Even in the city, a player on the New Gridania map will not hear a shout from a player in Old Gridania. That said, players tend to use shouts to socialize in 2 areas: Mor Dhona (where you turn in tokens for endgame gear) and North Shroud (endgame raiding).

You can shout in town, but you will get more responses if you are on the same map as the marketboards since players tend to congregate and socialize in those areas more often then the quest ones (Ul'dah - Steps of Thal, Limsa - Lower Deck, Gridania - Old Gridania).

Also, most players have stopped shouting for parties, although they may occasionally advertise on shout in their particula area. Many players like to use Partyfinder to organize parties for low level content and the toughest endgame stuff. It's a good way to build up your network, and as a tank, you'll be in high demand for any party. Try putting a group together for a guildhest at lv.10, or a first-time story dungeon run at lv.15.

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Originally Posted by Shinokaze

what kind of playerbase i am dealing with?

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Welcome to the post-WoW MMO generation.

no. i am a quest-er first and a grinder second

Npc (mobs) with blue icons only attack if you attack. The ones that will attack you by getting too close are orange icons. at 5 you have not really started the game, since you can do 1-15 in less than 3 hours. Grouping starts around level 10 with guildhests, then at 15, assuming you are caught up on story, you will do you first dungeons. As for fates, it depends on the time of day. Higher level players will do low level fates because of ATMA farming. You need to follow your story and class quests. You are basically in a tutorial right now, and learning to play your class. Read the quests, follow instructions, get to 15. Then you will find the world opens up for you and you will meet more people.

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Originally Posted by Shinokaze

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1. Enemy mobs will not auto-aggro until you get to around Level 15 or so. This is to give new players a chance to get used to exploring without having to worry about stopping to battle mobs every ten steps or so. Auto-aggro will stop on those mobs when you outlevel them by 10 levels however. So if you're Level 30 and a monster is Level 19, it will ignore you. If it's level 21, it will attack you. It doesn't work in reverse though: If you're level 10 and a monster is Level 50, you might want to run because it will murder you.

2. You're coming into an MMO on a server where the vast majority of the playerbase has at least a three month headstart over you, if not a year. Low level Fates are generally ignored because most players got super burnt out on hunting items called Atma for their high level weapons (it involves you doing Fates in certain zones and can be a grind.) Grouping doesn't really happen for overworld content until Level 50 when Hunts are unlocked and you can tackle Elite Marks (Notorious Monsters). You can party up and share certain content, but if someone is too high level over you, you'll stop gaining EXP while partied with them (this is to keep Level 50s from carrying new players through stuff.)

3. Chats are silent because chat commands are relegated to distance or specific groups. /say, /yell, and /shout are all based on distance - with /shout being the entire zone, but not the entire server. /tell is relegated to a specific person (like whisper), and then /fc and /l1 - /l6 are relegated to Free Companies and Linkshells, respectively. Best thing to do is to find some Linkshells to join.

4. I don't consider this desperate so much as just attempting to help new players mesh with the game and the community on the server. You can just ignore the invites if you want. Keep a look out for recruitments in Party Find and in /shout. Free Companies can really have a positive impact on your experience of the game as whole.

Overall the playerbase is just fine. It just looks like you personally game into the game with expectations of it being like some other MMO you have played, and it is not that.

It never gets better. The end game is like the Sims, with less options.

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Originally Posted by Spot

It never gets better. The end game is like the Sims, with less options.

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I think I've been playing the sims wrong

maybe, I have to learn how to be laid back in the starting areas. or fight more than one starting area npc at same time to form an aggroed, grouped mob to make more fun, challenging and exciting until i get to lvls 10-15 and after.

thank you all for giving me sound advise to solve my starting area issues. now, i have something to look forward to.

I was randomly invited to my first free company and I did not stick with it, but I found a group of friends that I'm still close with. Sometimes random invites are helpful like that if you don't know anyone as FCs and LSes are where people are most social.

Level 5 isn't enough to get a feel of the game. You could say the Tutorial phase is through Main Scenario quest level 15 When they let you out into the world. The mobs start becoming aggressive around level 7-9. As for the guild spam, as I tend to not join Guilds, or Free Companies as they are called in this game) if they do that. I was getting spam up until level 44 when I joined a free company because I had grouped with them before hand.

People do do low level fates. Fates are level Synched and the relic weapons demand they be done. They are also used for getting Grand company Seals which you will learn more of around level 20. I usually hit most fates I come across.

As for grouping at that level. Most of the content is solo content. Fates can be done in groups, but you are going to find times in your Main and Class Quests that there are things that you can ONLY do alone and some things in your main scenario that require you run a dungeon (Around level 15).

I would give the game a shot at least until you can unlock your actual job. I think thats when things actually get interesting. It was boring for me before then, but I got interested in my job quests and now I love the game! it has its lulls in entertainment, but when it does pick up again there is often a lot to do!

besides what everyone else said, after your level ten class quest you unlock the ability to try other classes. In Ul'dah (gladiator starting city) you also have Puglist(monk) and Thaumaturge (black mage). Reason I pointed this out, is because the first time I tried GLD it was slow/unfun while I began to like it the second time I picked it up. Trying out other classes could also be helpful.
At 15, you have a series of Main Story Quests. One will allow you to use the airship, giving you the ability to go to Gridania or Limsa. Another will unlock the first dungeon to run. The other cities have other jobs you can try or might need.
If you continue Gladiator to 30, you can become a paladin (its job) by leveling conjurer to 15 (to unlock, or up to 34 for the best cross class skill) Paladin can also take some abilities from marauder (last cross ability is at level 26)
if you decide to change servers, if leviathan is available message me in game; I'll give you an invite to my Free Company.

I am at lvl 11 and loving it. after lvl 6-7, players were coming together and doing fates. the fates kept my attention up. i was not bored. the fate npcs attacked me by being near them. it felt great being challenged first and kicking buts and sometimes dying. i don't mind that. i am addicted to fates and the hunt log. i have to research and learn gear, rotations/procs, distribute attribute points wisely, review do's and don'ts in a ffxiv group. i yet to find an active, helpful, group oriented free company to help low lvl players. the random fc invites were from mostly inactive or number interested free companies. at lvl 15, when i do the first dungeon, i will see which free company is good or not and/or befriend some group players.

There's not much to attribute points. Your main stat on your class is what you put them against. Each class has it's own set of 30 and they don't go over to other classes.

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Originally Posted by ruskie

There's not much to attribute points. Your main stat on your class is what you put them against. Each class has it's own set of 30 and they don't go over to other classes.

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ok. thanks.

lv50 is when the action really picks up. Please look forward to it.

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Originally Posted by Danbo05

lv50 is when the action really picks up. Please look forward to it.

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i know. hopefully, by then, i will be in the good guild. i really do not want to pug at lvl 50.