Life of a Tarutaru

Cookie cutters vs Smart players

2005-05-14T09:34:00.000-10:00

I've seen the term "Cookie cutters" thrown around quite abit lately. People complain that there are too many people that believe you can only have a good party with a Red Mage or Bard in your party, and a Ninja as a tank. It's also used to signify people that only play certain combitions of characters, such as a Taru mage, or a Galka Warrior. The myth is that if you play something outside of your race's norm, you can't be very good at it. I proved this very wrong last night in a Japanese party.

We started off like a normal party, Nin/war - War/mnk (me) - Thf/war - Whm/blm - Blm/whm - Brd/Whm. Things started off slow due to an aggro death, but once we finally got set up it wasn't too bad. The experience points were rolling in fairly quickly, much better then a usual Dunes party. Odd thing was, I couldn't get them to pull, so I ended up pulling even though I had no bow to equip at the time. I would run up to the snipper, attack, turn off target-lock and run back to party. I had no problems doing this though and I was able to successfully get us up to chain 3 regularly. After about an hour though, the Nin/war left party.

Things got weird after that. No tank were looking for party as it was the middle of the night. A Samurai popped up in Selbina, so I invited him. We setup skillchain and I wondered who would tank. Looking at the list of members, I realized it would most likely be me. I ran off to pull again. I pulled another snipper and came running back to camp. Then I provoked. I started tanking like any other warrior, except I was doing pretty good at it. I regularly held hate through the Whm casting Cure II's when the snipper would hit for critical damage. You might think why is this odd? I'm a Taru taru with low hitpoints, low strength, and other factors that contribute to people saying its not possible for me to tank. Last night's party proved their point invalid.

Granted, I could not have been so successful if my party did not know their jobs well. We had 3 mages with healing abilities, and they used them. Instead of the Bard just doing his songs, he would take turns with the White Mage casting Cure I's on me, allowing hate management to be so much easier. The Black Mage did not once over-nuke. The White Mage cast both healing and debuff spells. On the warrior side of the house, the Thief provoked off me if I got hit for alot. The Samurai, recognizing the Thief as backup tank, only voked one time, when the White Mage had to cast two or three Cure II's, taking hate.

So, what's my point in all this? Too often I read posts in Allakhazam and other places about people bitching about not getting invites because they're a dragoon or some other job that isn't the "ideal" job. When will people realize that it isn't about the character at all. I will conceed that anyone wearing crap gear 10 levels behind them should be booted from party. But if there's someone LFG that isn't that ideal job, wouldn't it be better to invite them and see how they perform, compared to sitting for hours, getting no experience at all, while you wait for the "perfect" job to login? I went from level 13-17 in just under 4 hours of partying. Know why? Because of smart players. Remember that. Teach others how to be better at what they do, if they don't know. Don't be rude about it, but just let them know alternative ways of doing things. You benefit from this by getting good experience, and they benefit by becoming better players.

iGames Expo and Karma

2005-05-01T21:23:00.000-10:00

It's been a little while since my last update. So much has happened in that time. First, I attended the iGames Expo event for FFXI being held here in Hawaii. It was a very loooong day! The day started off with meeting with fellow Allakhazam readers at Kim Chee 7, a local Korean restaraunt. I'm not a big fan of Korean food, but this place was pretty good, the chicken and rice were both very well made. I will probably be going back for repeat visits.

Anyways, after lunch we headed over to PC Gamerz. We were arriving rather early because we weren't sure how long the lines might be, and parking would probably be horrible. Well, we actually ended up being in the very front of the line!

We had arrived around 12:30 and the event did not start until 2:00, so there was a good bit of waiting. My wife and I stood around listening to all the hardcore players that talked about jobs, server differences, and how similar standing in this line of people was to standing in Jeuno. Whew, you've got issues lady.

Finally, 2:00 rolled around, but the event didn't start. Of course we started getting antsy. After another 15 minutes, they started letting people in. We strolled around looking at the different booths and such that they had set up.

The first prominent one was the Boss Battle Bash. It seemed like it would be a very interesting event, and there were great prizes to be won. Sadly, it was not such a great event in my opinion. The signup sheets they had were for pre-formed parties of people that came together. They also had a sheet that you could fill out if you didn't have a group, and you could carry it around with you, displaying your job, level, and server. Sort of a LFG in real life. Guess how many invites I got.

So the fights were supposed to be displayed on big plasma screens they had set up. Two hours into the events, they finally managed to get it working. Maybe a little pre-event testing could have been in order? Finally we were able to watch a party get totally wiped by the unknown Boss, who turned out to be Tenzen. They got their asses totally handed to them. Then another group fought the 2nd hardest Boss, Ouryu. They did abit better then the first group, but still ended up in defeat. The only winners were a group that easily killed the rank 3 Boss, Dark Dragon, and another group that managed to defeat the Time Bomb by having their White Mage re-raise himself. This of course brought on quite a few cheers. Everyone thought the battle was over, only to see the mage come back from the grave. Good strategy on his part.

After the BBB was the Q & A panel.

Boy, someone really should have told them that translating languages takes time. This event was honestly a waste of time for me, as I could barely understand anything being said due to the number of people that continued talking in the background, and the microphone static. They linked up a video conference with Japan and several of the game's developers, which was a really great idea. The fact that the developers did not speak English put a drain on things though, as we had to stand by and wait for every question to be answered in Japanese, then the panel would translate. It got rather boring rather fast, and I noticed quite a few people leaving.

After the Q & A was the Cure Marathon. This was quite an interesting event. 35 participants were allowed to play a level 1 Taru Taru White Mage. They were all in Misreaux Coast, near Lufaise Meadows. To win the event, the player had to find a GM controlled player that was selling the Cure spell. Then they had to find a NPC hidden in the area, and cast Cure on him. What made this an interesting event was that 70% of the monsters in this area aggro. It would have been abit better if there were more monsters, but all in all it was quite interesting watching the little guys trying their best to get past the high level monsters. One of the GM controlled "camera" guys even got aggro and died! This drew quite a few laughs from the crowd.

Finally, the Marathon was over and prizes were handed out. A cosplay costume contest was then held, with a whole 6 people that had showed up in costume. Some were quite hilarious to see, especially the Red Mage AF hat. The crowd cheered them on though as they struck poses from ingame, including doing a Taru Taru dance, and a {AFK} {Bazaar}. Again, prizes were awarded, and the big event that everyone really came for started, the raffle!

By this point I had managed to obtain 7 raffle tickets, mostly from friends that had came and left early. Thanks, Drevox! They began the raffle with a few low end prizes, ranging from controllers, to 6 Square Enix games of choice, to some rather nice speakers. Somehow a little confusion happened at one point, when the DJ called my number for a 6-pack of SE games, and a little girl ran to the front with a ticket. Many people around me urged me forward to stake my claim, but I couldn't imagine myself stepping on that 6 yr old girls luck of the day. So I let her walk offstage with the games, and contented myself with dreams of the grand prize. Soon the grand prize drawing rolled around! The DJ played it up more by doing another 6-pack of games instead, but finally the time came. Slowly he called out the numbers one by one. My heart leapt out of my chest as I realized he had just called my number!!!!

I won the custom-painted Chains of Promithia PC! OMG!

So, how's that for some Karma?

Teleports

2005-04-26T23:12:00.000-10:00

Well, after realizing that I had no real source of income, I decided to finally buckle down and work on getting my teleport scrolls, so I can whore myself out to the travelers of Vana'diel. After spending about 5-6 hours working on fame, I finally reached the point where I could get the quests for the scrolls. It took quite some running around to get all that fame too. I took the shortcuts that most people seem to use, the Selbina Moss/La Theine Cabbage runs for Sandy/Bastok fame, and the Cornette runs for Windy fame. It's so not fun to have to do things like this, but I see why they do it. They want people to actually do quests. So after several teleports and hopping around to the various cities, I managed to get level 5 fame in Sandy/Bastok/Jeuno, and level 4 fame in Windy.

Then came the "hard" part. I spent pretty much an entire day after I got off work trying to complete the quests. First one I tried was Teleport-Mea. Apparently this one can be time consuming if you're unlucky and the ??? is in the northern portion of Eldieme Necropolis. That means you have to go alllllll the way around through the Beaucidine Glacier . Lucky for me, it was in the 3rd mound that I checked. Feeling as if I had just accomplished a major task, I warped back to Jeuno. Little did I realize how much traveling you must do after you have visited the ???. I had to go all the way back to Windurst, only to be sent from there to Sandy. Playing it smartly, I had set my HP in Lower Jeuno, so each time I needed to go to a different city, I would warp back to Jeuno to catch a teleport.

Teleport-Holla was not so lucky for me. I guess my elation over getting the first one made me careless. I got the quest and headed out to Gusgen Mines. I've only been there once before, so I used a map off a guide a found. This place is not friendly at all. The upper levels are fairly safe if you have sneak up, but there's a nasty surprise waiting for you at the bottom. Bombs. They aggro sight and magic. Their range to aggro a spell being cast is quite extraordinary. I had only used sneak up to this point, until I realized my mistake. Casting invisible got one coming right for me. Death, we meet again. I bugged my LS mates to check for a possible Raise, but they had little luck in finding one. My own luck seemed to hold though as a passerby noticed my cold dead mini me body, and was kind enough to Raise me. I rested up to full, sneaked/invis'd, and quickly found my ???. Two down, one to go, but by this time it was late and I called it a night.

Today I got off a little earlier then normal, and my anticipation of the coming adventure was high. I had to visit the dreaded Garliage Citadel. Ugg, that place is horrible for parties. Sadly its one of the main places to gain xp for my level. Anyways, I ran off to Bastok to get the quest for Teleport-Dem. Warp back to Jeuno, and I'm off on chocobo to the Citadel. As soon as I entered, I murmured a quick "God help me, what was I thinking", and sneaked/invis'd. I hurried past the parties near the entrance so I could find the spot I was looking for. Low and behold, the ??? was just around two turns, and only bats were flapping nearby! I giggled like a schoolgirl and warped out after touching it. Off to Bastok again to chat with the questgiver, and then over to Sandy to receive my just reward.

I have to say, its funny how accomplished you feel after doing something so trivial. My quest for my teleport scrolls was luckily rather easy, ending in only one death. But I still feel a burst of joyful pride each time I see the scrolls in my pack. I don't think it's really the completed quests or the scrolls though. It's more of the knowing that I'm finally starting to move up in this harsh world. With a guaranteed source of income for many days to come, my past days of pinching every single gil for all its worth are over (somewhat at least). No more will my LS get tired of my complaints of being broke, for it would be my own fault.

Granted, I don't want to taste the pie before it's cooked. I still have 6k xp to go til I'm level 36 WHM. /cry.

Valkurm Dunes, a preview of Vana'diel's players

2005-04-22T11:53:00.000-10:00

In the past month or so, I have taken a few of my lower level jobs through the infamous Dunes. People complain about this place constantly, because of their "horrible" experiences. I've begun to wonder lately though, what makes it so bad? I've seen my share of bad parties here. Just last night I was in one that couldn't handle a single IT fight. Every time I pulled an IT, at least one person died. Eventually everyone got frustrated and disbanded. So what makes a bad party like this come about? For one thing, party dynamics must be understood by the leader, as well as the party members. You must have a healer of some type. You must have a tank, even if it's just a warrior. And of course, you have to have damage dealers, to actually kill the mob.

Our party had all this, but still could not get it right. Part of the reason was our tanks inability to hold hate. A warrior by themselves does not have enough hate holding tools, at least at the Dunes levels. So when the healer had to cast more then one Cure II, the monster would of course come after him. The backup voker obviously did not understand his job, because he would not voke until the healer had already been hit at least twice, leading to the healer needing to be healed. This lead to the mob bouncing all over the party with its attacks, meaning everyone was being hit, and needed curing.

A second thing our party didn't do was skillchaining well. Granted, it's not easy to have the best skillchain because everyone only has 2-3 weapon skills, meaning few choices for skillchains. On top of that, our redmage (didn't have a black mage) did not understand how to magic burst. These are imperative things to know, because they provide much more damage output. Instead, we had very low damage dealing, leading to our inability to take on an IT mob.

But my main question in this is how did this party get to this point? My thoughts are that several members did not understand their own job. You must know your job before you can become good at partying. Knowledge is a key ingredient to playing in the world of Vana'diel. Without it, your chances of making it to 75 are slim, either because you'll get bored or you will stop getting invites from people that remember your lack of skill. I also would point out that part of this is the more experienced players fault. Our redmage said he had only been apart of Vana'diel for 7 days. Yet, no one in the party tried to explain things to him very well. I started trying to explain skillchains and magic burst to him, but was told to just pull, don't worry about it. So now there is a level 18 redmage out there that doesn't understand skillchaining or magic bursts. Who knows how long it will be before someone finally takes the time to teach him?

I personally say the next time you're in the dunes and you're in a party that is having trouble, try to evaluate the situation. If there's a chance someone doesn't know exactly what they are supposed to be doing, send them a /tell and offer some suggestions. Yes, it might take some time. But to me, I'd much rather have that player know his job when he leaves the dunes. It's much better then partying with them in Qufim or even later, and realizing that they still don't know their job, meaning even more bad parties. Just a thought.

Thoughts on updating games

2005-04-20T20:48:00.000-10:00

Well, I try to do the smart thing and start downloading the most recent update while I'm on lunch. Apparently that was a mistake. It disconnected while I was at work, and now it seems that thousands of people are having problems getting the update. So here I sit, dreaming of playing, and staring at a screen that gives me error code after error code. /sigh. Perhaps I'll take a break and go blow some stuff up in a different universe. I miss my alter ego already! I will see you soon, little buddy!

As to the update process, SE really should consider alternate ways to go about it. Requiring all updates to be downloaded and installed through their client really puts a strain on themselves when they have big updates like this one. Why not distribute it through the file servers such as Fileplanet? It would relieve alot of this type of problem, and limit the amount of complaints about this sort of thing. Take a look at what I mean >> http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1114029144408765070&num=350
This is only one example post, there are plenty more where that came from.

Racism

2005-04-20T00:16:00.000-10:00

Hume. Elvaan. Galka. Mithra. Taru taru. All of these are the races of Vana'diel. Each has their own unique attributes, their nuances. The Hume are normal, they fit well into any role but excel at none. Elvaan are agile and somewhat strong, but lack in the magic arts. Galka are huge hulking brutes, looking ready to smash down walls. Mithra are catlike women that are graceful and quick. Taru taru, such as myself, are short and excel in magic. But does this mean that a Galka should never be a white mage? Or a Taru taru a warrior? I ran into a conversation on Allakhazam about people playing jobs that their race wasn't made for, and it really made my blood boil. I have played quite a few jobs already, including warrior, paladin, samurai and most recently, thief. I feel like I have done well in each, even though I am Taru. What some people seem to not realize is that it is not about the race. It's about the skill and willingness to learn of the player behind the character. I have been in some parties where a Taru black mage would spam his spells, causing chaos in the party because the tank couldn't keep the hate. Eventually it lead to the black mage taking a dirt nap. I've also been in parties with a Galka black mage. He knew how to use his magic effectively, without using it all up every battle. I will always look for those players who prove they are skillful, knowledgeable about their job, and who are willing to learn.

Discussing this also brought another point home to me though. Is this not true even in real life? We see even today the stereotypes of white Americans working office jobs or positions of power, while minorities such as mexican Americans work in manual labor jobs. Yes, these are not the only choices to them, but it is more prevalant then many realize, especially where I am from closer to the southern states. Something to consider. Should a black American in a office job or position of power be considered a more skillful "player" in real life? Odd, how such things strike you at a moment when you're thinking about a virtual world.

Beginnings

2005-04-05T19:59:00.000-10:00

So I started playing Final Fantasy XI(FFXI) quite awhile back, originally as a Mithra on the Ramuh server. ^^ But I wasn't fully into the game at the time, only made it to level 20 or so before I grew bored with it, and other games pulled me away. Back then my wife also played, moreso because another online friend bought her the game. It's weird how some friends you have online sometimes seem like better friends then you have in real life. Anyways, I decided to come back to the game after I got fed up with my old game of choice, Ultima Online(UO). UO has been on a steady decline, and the supposed roleplay community that I was apart of had really become a craphole. So I took back up FFXI, but decided I would try something different. I deleted my old Mithra and started as a Tarutaru, which I have really come to enjoy more then anything. They're just so much fun. I took the job of white mage, as I saw many possibilities with it. After many months, I've made it to level 35 so far. I've actually tried out quite a few jobs, including Bard, Paladin, Summoner, Black Mage, and most recently, Samurai. Trying out so many jobs has really hurt my supply of gil and hindered me from reaching the higher levels, but I wanted to see which job I liked the most. Samurai has really appealed to me lately the most, even though it's only level 20 so far. I realized that I would need to go and level different jobs to use for a subjob, mostly Warrior and Thief. Playing both these jobs as a Tarutaru is a real struggle, because you have such low hit points and strength compared to other races. Ah well, we'll see how things go. For now, I'm not able to play due to being away from home because of my work, but soon I will be back to it. Until next time!

- Ghylnar

n00b

2005-04-05T19:54:00.000-10:00

Ok, so I'm totally new to this but I figured I'd try it out since it seems to be the going thing. Mostly this blog will revolve around my current addiction, online gaming, specifically Final Fantasy XI. Hopefully you will enjoy reading it and not get bored or wonder if I'm too insane. ^^ Here's to my wive, Cindy! <3

- Ghylnar