plan to play FFXI while waiting for endwalker, is it still active?

[gumas]

when i said active i mean the population, do i still see people roaming around, or its more like wow where most player just idling on town.

i remember playing this 15 years ago, was to dumb to understand the mechanic so i stop around level 20ish also because it was so hard for me at that time, i come from ragnarok and lineage (game where you solo 80% of the time and aggro 20 mobs in one go) so iam not used with the game forced me to get party starting level 10ish

i'll never forget i die to a butterfly? or is it a lady bug? i though it was an easy fight at level 10ish only to die within 3 hits lol

[Ralph2449]

Assume would depend on datacenter but in a JP dc server starting areas are filled with people and sprouts including myself, still at stormblood and still see people around everywhere I go so I am guessing endgame content zones are even more populous, and I ve even been doing all old extreme trials via duty finder while on that expansion (Though from what I understand that is more of a JP dc thing)

[WhiteArchmage]

I actually asked this in the GamerEscape Discord back in... November? From what I remember it's still kind of active but it's usually Asura that's active because of the reddit community. I was there for a while but the Shout chat can get... overwhelming. The "good" thing is that XI added Trusts a long time ago so they're basically a party for you once you unlock them at... level 10? You need to hunt down the trusts yourself, though, but I know there's a campaign where you can choose some and keep them.

[gumas]

oh they add trust system? that should help a lot now.

i just asked around discord too and they said the game is pretty much soloable until endgame thanks to the trust system. guess i try it then, not much for me to do in 14 so now its a good time to try 11 i guess

[Jeeqbit]

From what I hear it's still going. Some people just prefer FF11, but obviously the graphics are very old and low-resolution by todays standards.

[Undeadfire]

Depends how you want it for FFXI. 2 very active Private Servers exist that aims on classic style. One has 1k+ characters, other about 300-400.

[RareItems]

Your probably better off trying Black Desert Online instead xD. It's almost like FFXI minus the clunky menus, outdated graphics, and the non stop RMT spam on the server chat lol.

[Nethereal]

Your probably better off trying Black Desert Online instead xD. It's almost like FFXI minus the clunky menus, outdated graphics, and the non stop RMT spam on the server chat lol.

Considering that fact BDO just went free to play because their publisher went under/gave it up to the developer and the fact they did a fresh start server some months ago I would say don't go to BDO thinking you'll find any worthwhile investment.

It is fun for a bit but asian games always end the same way. In the long run you'll find much more fun especially if you join communities, in ffxiv.

And right now everything is close ish to dead because the tier has essentially been unlocked except it isn't and the game will die even more when the tier is unlocked and then will pick back up a little bit before end walker releases.
So if you're interested in raiding now is a good time to get a head start.

[gumas]

i would love to play BDO if not for the open pvp system, i heard when you reach certain level, the game will become open pvp for you, meaning that at anytime anywhere someone could just suddenly ambush you while you doing your own business

iam not really keen with that kind of system to be honest, and knowing most people behavior in open pvp game, grouping, ambush and ganking is probably more common instead of fair 1 on 1 fight

[Saefinn]

FFXI is still active, especially on the Asura server. I return to it from time-to-time, especially during content lulls in FFXIV. When I was last playing, cities were populated, shout chats filled with people trying to recruit people for content and linkshells active with people.

FFXI is still very dated and in many ways is challenging to approach versus more modern MMO's (not because it's difficult, just because it lacks many things we take for granted) and chances are you'll be playing with BGWiki open. BUT they have improved on QoL stuff, made it more approachable in places - heck their Record of Imminence feature they added gives you a path of progress to follow. You can now teleport between crystals and you now have a mount system in that there's not dependent on chocobo raising, so travel is a lot less of a problem. There's plenty of content to keep you going and they do monthly patches and also try to keep some old content relevant at endgame. And they have a "Trust" system in the game, which is where FFXIV stole the idea from, but their trust system does work differently and can be used almost anywhere and can be made to be almost as useful as players, the will even open and close skillchains for you and even hit that magic burst (this is why I love having Shantotto in the party, she will always go for the magic burst and melt mobs for you) and there's a huge range of Trust NPC's you can collect to customise your party make up.

But of course being an AI, there's things they're less useful for, but they are still very useful. No more waiting in Valkurm Dunes for ages hoping to get a levelling party. :P There's also so really good EXP rings out there to help make the process easier. Heck one of the trusts is a Corsair who will apply an EXP buff if you have an EXP ring on.