thistlechaser | FFXI Day Two: Anyone in the mood for mutton?

I logged on about 9 AM. (I forgot about setting the clocks ahead last night, so I slept an hour later than I otherwise would have. I needed the sleep, so that was okay.) Logged off 7:30. Time played: Only 9.5 hours. (It really does feel like 'only'!)

Signs I've been playing more than not playing: Out of habit, I'm now moving my mouse with major caution -- in the game, it makes the camera angle swing wildly if I'm not careful. Big pain!

Since wild rabbits and tunnel worms were no longer a challenge, I started the day by venturing out a little further than I had yesterday. Almost immediately, I died. Eek! Big bug got me. Munch, munch, yummy white mage snack! I didn't bother waiting for anyone to raise me (since it was a low level area), and went home and took the XP penalty (which turned out to only be 100 or so XP, not bad at all!).

Once I got back outside, Aurina (

loneguardian) came by for a visit! This was uber cool as she was way, way higher level than me and nothing in the forest could eat her! We battled sheep and goblins and orcs together (with me hitting them and her keeping their attention to try to keep them from hitting me back). Zoomed up fast! Finished the level I was working on, and got a whole additional one! Woo! I'm thinking it must have been about 1,500 XP I got with her help! Possibly more! (Things today blurred together a lot.) As of logging off tonight: Level 7 (about halfway to level 8).

Also, she gave me a much, much better weapon (no longer do I look like a black-challenged goth! No more using a giant cross to beat things with!) AND a fishing pole! While fishing was one of the very first things I wanted to do in this game, I still haven't tried it out yet. *sniff* I need to find the bait-seller first. (Needing to find an NPC -- that could be the motto of this game for me!)

The biggest "excitement" (FRIGHT!) of the day came a few hours after she left: I was innocently killing bugs when this nasty goblin came up behind me and started attacking me! From behind! While the bug was attacking from the front! EEK! So after one round I saw I had no chance in heck of winning this, so I turned tail and ran. Of course, the two monsters followed me. Then something happened that I handled poorly, and knew I was doing so at the time:

While I was running, suddenly the goblin was alternating its hits between me and someone else. I hadn't seen this someone else (he must have saw me running with them behind me). Just yesterday one of the people on the linkshell (non FFXIers: a comm system set up for a small group of players) told me outright not to run when I was being chased and someone was trying to help, and I figured that this new person was trying to kill them for me... but I was scared of dying and so I kept running. (Part of me said it could be some other new person who got in the way by mistake, but most of me figured he was killing them for me.) Finally he told me to stop running, and at that point I did. He killed each of the two monsters in a blow or two. While I thanked him twice, I still felt bad that 1) I made it harder for him to help me, and 2) if I had been correct and it was some other new person, I had been leaving them to die in my place. I don't know how it is for everyone else who plays, but sometimes the emotions feel so real! All I could think about was that I was going to die, so I just ran ran ran. Oh well...

That spooked me for a while (and made me feel like I owed something), so for an hour or two I stayed close to the doorway and healed people newer and weaker than me, as well as killed a couple monsters chasing people. (I hate to admit it, but the sight of someone fleeing a wild rabbit made me giggle.)

Funny, I've only been playing the game for two days, but already I'm able to help people. I showed one person how to use his map, and two where to find things. If all new folks were nice/good, I think I might be happy staying in the starting town and just helping people. It's the new people who go "ne1 got gil i can have" and "SOME1 GIVE ME MONEY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!" that make me want to leave that town and never come back.

Oh, this is getting long and I still need to clean the catbox, take the trash out, and do other stuff tonight. I'll end this with some screenshots. (I tried one third-party screenshot taker, but it lagged me to heck and back so I had to stop using it and go back to the default system. Sorry these are small, I'll try the other screenshot taker tomorrow.)

While this picture doesn't do it much justice, the sunsets and sunrises can be so so so pretty! You can't really see the details there because it's so small, but it's just totally wonderful to see.

I wish I could have gotten a better shot of this! I *think* it's a Dragoon (sp?) guy. I'm guessing that's how the dragon that they get looks? *DROOL* I want!

Another environment shot. Look at that sky! This game just totally amazes me: You can watch the clouds move! I've watched the stars come out! You can see the grass and leaves blow!

Aurina and I sheep-killing: Dark out, but pretty sparkles! and light out (me with my old weapon still).

Last one: Smite the rabbit! I took this one to show off my new weapon, but the angle is wrong and you can't see it well. But you sure can see its effect on rabbits! (Also, my clothing is different now. I found a robe with a little higher protection that I could wear. Sure, I look even less like a fighter now, but at least I don't look like all the other new people running around!)

Rrrr, want to log back on and play more, but must do non-game stuff. Must!