It was a dark and stormy Noct...

Still no email. Bah.

Got 8 hours of sleep Saturday night, but too few last night. Zzz.

FFXI-only below:

Project Noct was quite a success.

Recap of plan: Get clothcrafting up to at least 31 levels over the highest Noct item. When new moon and right day hits, try for HQ items.

Yesterday was the new moon, so I did the math to find out when Darkday and Windsday (strong to earth crystals) would hit. Windsday would start after midnight, so it was out. Darkday was about 9:30 PM, so that was my goal. I was logged on to FFXI about 9:10, in the clothcrafting guild and waiting. Just before 9:30 I got advanced imaging support, then the second the day changed, I started working.

In the days before this, I had farmed and made most of the raw materials I would need:

* Linen thread, linen cloth: I bought the flax flowers from an NPC, and made flowers -> thread -> cloth. This made the price of a stack of cloth under 20K, where at the AH it'd be 40K. I didn't check the prices of thread at the AH, but I expect I saved quite a bit there, too.

* S. Cotton: Three nights of farming gave me almost 6 stacks of it. At the AH a stack sells for 7-8K. Sadly, I used almost all of it.

* Sheep leather: Had in storage, likely made by me at some point.

* Chocobo feathers: Cheap from NPC (7g each).

* Earth crystals: Mostly farmed. Also "bought" two stacks of signing crystals from leather guild.

Stupidly I threw away my note with the list of exact numbers of materials I started with, but here's a rough estimate:

Linen cloth: 7 stacks
Linen thread: 5 stacks
S. Cotton: 5.5 stacks
Feathers and leather: 2 stacks.

I had enough raw materials to make about 10 of each of the 5 items in the Noct line.

Breakdown of normal vs HQ:

Baret: 6 normal, 5 HQ
Gloves: 10 normal, 6 HQ
Brais: 9 normal, 2 HQ
Gaiters: 7 normal, 0 HQ
Doublet: 7 normal, 5 HQ

Though crafting guides listed three of the noct items as clothcraft 26 and three as 27, I don't fully believe that. Some items I had a really hard time HQing, while others HQed almost half the time.

Amazingly, I only failed two out of all those synths. One had zero raw materials lost, and one lost like three items. This is an almost unbelievable thing, when we're talking about 50+ synths.

Money: I really wish I had kept better records, both of the raw materials cost and the cost of leveling cloth from ~25 to 58. However, I think that even with just this one night of crafting, I probably came out ahead. (Clothcraft is very cheap to level, unlike leather.)

Prices of items in Jeuno AH, as of last night:

Baret: 5K, HQ: 37K
Gloves: 5K, HQ: 60K
Brais: 6K, HQ: 40K
Gaiters: 9K
Doublet: 5K, HQ: 75K

Note: Prices appear to be currently falling. Probably because other crafters made a lot over the new moon and so more are on the market? Only one item (HQ hat) sold overnight, and though I bazaared in Jeuno, only one item sold (non-HQ gloves).

So all in all, I can call this plan a major success. I was able to make signed HQ items, which Draque currently has. (kelen, philia mentioned wanting items. If the timing works out, maybe Ead can be the new home for the HQs you have once you're done with them?) A number of non-HQed signed ones are in my bazaar.

I don't think I'll do another intense crafting like this one, but instead focus on the items which sell better (gloves, hat, body, I expect). I'll also need to do a lot more farming before I can, and Sandy will need to get back into first so that I can get more flax flowers to make linen out of. I also need to find out what other cross-crafting items might be useful to make. Maybe level bonecrafting up to 60 (about 12 more levels) to work on the Shade line of stuff?

It was a dark and stormy Noct...

Still no email. Bah.

Got 8 hours of sleep Saturday night, but too few last night. Zzz.

FFXI-only below:

Project Noct was quite a success.

Recap of plan: Get clothcrafting up to at least 31 levels over the highest Noct item. When new moon and right day hits, try for HQ items.

Yesterday was the new moon, so I did the math to find out when Darkday and Windsday (strong to earth crystals) would hit. Windsday would start after midnight, so it was out. Darkday was about 9:30 PM, so that was my goal. I was logged on to FFXI about 9:10, in the clothcrafting guild and waiting. Just before 9:30 I got advanced imaging support, then the second the day changed, I started working.

In the days before this, I had farmed and made most of the raw materials I would need:

* Linen thread, linen cloth: I bought the flax flowers from an NPC, and made flowers -> thread -> cloth. This made the price of a stack of cloth under 20K, where at the AH it'd be 40K. I didn't check the prices of thread at the AH, but I expect I saved quite a bit there, too.

* S. Cotton: Three nights of farming gave me almost 6 stacks of it. At the AH a stack sells for 7-8K. Sadly, I used almost all of it.

* Sheep leather: Had in storage, likely made by me at some point.

* Chocobo feathers: Cheap from NPC (7g each).

* Earth crystals: Mostly farmed. Also "bought" two stacks of signing crystals from leather guild.

Stupidly I threw away my note with the list of exact numbers of materials I started with, but here's a rough estimate:

Linen cloth: 7 stacks
Linen thread: 5 stacks
S. Cotton: 5.5 stacks
Feathers and leather: 2 stacks.

I had enough raw materials to make about 10 of each of the 5 items in the Noct line.

Breakdown of normal vs HQ:

Baret: 6 normal, 5 HQ
Gloves: 10 normal, 6 HQ
Brais: 9 normal, 2 HQ
Gaiters: 7 normal, 0 HQ
Doublet: 7 normal, 5 HQ

Though crafting guides listed three of the noct items as clothcraft 26 and three as 27, I don't fully believe that. Some items I had a really hard time HQing, while others HQed almost half the time.

Amazingly, I only failed two out of all those synths. One had zero raw materials lost, and one lost like three items. This is an almost unbelievable thing, when we're talking about 50+ synths.

Money: I really wish I had kept better records, both of the raw materials cost and the cost of leveling cloth from ~25 to 58. However, I think that even with just this one night of crafting, I probably came out ahead. (Clothcraft is very cheap to level, unlike leather.)

Prices of items in Jeuno AH, as of last night:

Baret: 5K, HQ: 37K
Gloves: 5K, HQ: 60K
Brais: 6K, HQ: 40K
Gaiters: 9K
Doublet: 5K, HQ: 75K

Note: Prices appear to be currently falling. Probably because other crafters made a lot over the new moon and so more are on the market? Only one item (HQ hat) sold overnight, and though I bazaared in Jeuno, only one item sold (non-HQ gloves).

So all in all, I can call this plan a major success. I was able to make signed HQ items, which Draque currently has. (kelen, philia mentioned wanting items. If the timing works out, maybe Ead can be the new home for the HQs you have once you're done with them?) A number of non-HQed signed ones are in my bazaar.

I don't think I'll do another intense crafting like this one, but instead focus on the items which sell better (gloves, hat, body, I expect). I'll also need to do a lot more farming before I can, and Sandy will need to get back into first so that I can get more flax flowers to make linen out of. I also need to find out what other cross-crafting items might be useful to make. Maybe level bonecrafting up to 60 (about 12 more levels) to work on the Shade line of stuff?

Porn!

While it may shock and surprise some folks, I've never ever paid for online porn. However, that might be about to change. StraightCollegeMen.com (which is not work safe) is talked about in this story (which IS work safe), sounds just fascinating.

Quote:

The premise here is that straight men might be persuaded to get naked, to touch each other, even to become sexual with other straight men, given enough incentive. That incentive might be $200 or it might be $2,000, depending on what the producer is asking them to do, and sometimes even that is not enough to keep a guy from walking off the set. Those who stick around to perform often do so with anxious giggles, macho posturing or an endearing awkwardness.

It's fun to watch because you don't know what's going to happen next, whether you're going to get to the money shots or whether a guy will draw the line.

Even aside from the sexuality angle (which also has caught my interest), it's got a whole "reality TV" thing going on, too. Plus it'll feed into my "just what won't people do for money?" thing.

I wonder how much it costs? And how much content the site has? I can't wait to find out when I'm not at work!

Porn!

While it may shock and surprise some folks, I've never ever paid for online porn. However, that might be about to change. StraightCollegeMen.com (which is not work safe) is talked about in this story (which IS work safe), sounds just fascinating.

Quote:

The premise here is that straight men might be persuaded to get naked, to touch each other, even to become sexual with other straight men, given enough incentive. That incentive might be $200 or it might be $2,000, depending on what the producer is asking them to do, and sometimes even that is not enough to keep a guy from walking off the set. Those who stick around to perform often do so with anxious giggles, macho posturing or an endearing awkwardness.

It's fun to watch because you don't know what's going to happen next, whether you're going to get to the money shots or whether a guy will draw the line.

Even aside from the sexuality angle (which also has caught my interest), it's got a whole "reality TV" thing going on, too. Plus it'll feed into my "just what won't people do for money?" thing.

I wonder how much it costs? And how much content the site has? I can't wait to find out when I'm not at work!