It and FFXI

[thistlechaser]

When people say "Stephen King would benefit from a good editor", I'm sure they had It in mind. 1,100+ pages. The first 500 or so totally unnecessary (to my mind). I'm about 600 pages in, and still not hooked on the story. People have said it's a good story. They've said it's scary. I've seen neither. (And you'd think that after 500 pages of nothing but character background and history that I'd actually care about the characters, but no. I don't like any of them.)

Does the book get better? Does It get scary at some point further on, or if I was going to be scared would it have happened already? (The adults are wandering around town on their own, visiting whatever their feet carry them to.)

I hate to think I've put 600 pages of reading into the book only to drop it now, but if I put 500-600 more pages in and feel the same about it I'll be even less happy...

---

FFXI: I've been spinning my wheels all week. Other than Eco/Escort on Tuesday, I feel like I've done nothing all week. I forced myself to go farming at times, but even that wasn't very successful. Last night nothing was scheduled, and since I still need money and haven't really been farming well, I tried to force myself to go last night. As happened in the rest of the week, it didn't go well. (I've been trying to farm something new, but the mobs are spread out across whole zones and thus hard to find -- I spend way way more time running around looking for them than I do killing them. I'd sub RNG for widescan, but then I'd lose TH...)

So when Beanie's request to join them for Sandy mission 7-1 came in, my first reaction was to bounce and cheer. Finally, something exciting to do! Then I recalled that I'm somewhat too low for it. :P But they needed a DD and I needed the mission, so I ended up going!

I don't count mission mobs or BCNM mobs as "real" NMs, but I got a screenshot of it anyway. Orcs have very strange names.

I've found a very odd thing with mission mobs: My absorbs stick to them much, much, much better than lower level XP mobs. We did the 7-1 battle twice, and I tried to absorb three things each time (VIT, STR, DEX). The first fight all three stuck, and the second fight two did (the third one stuck on the second try). *boggle* On a XP mob I have (at best) a 50/50 chance of it sticking or not. But on Sandy mission mobs? CoP mission mobs? It's like the darned critters drop their pants and are begging me to suck their stats!

The hardest part of the mission was sneaking through Bostaunieux Oubliette. I've started to get paranoid about sneaking through things. (Invisible isn't so bad, since you can cast it over itself.) It was my understanding that if your sneak falls you can just stay still and you'll make no noise, thus not get aggro (we tested that at Summerfest last year), but they seem to have changed it or something, because that doesn't seem to work now. Bah.

I was thinking about Bostaunieux Oubliette, Sandy, and general FFXI stuff a lot this morning. If FFXI were real and I lived in Sandy, I'd be darned angry that they let part of the city be taken over by mobs. (Yeah, it's under the city, but it's still the city. Right?) Most of the mobs were Too Weak to the 74/75s in our group. Sandy should hire a couple high level adventurers and have them clean the place up.

And that got me thinking about taxes. Sandy (and the other cities) really should be charging folks for living there... (How else are they going to reward adventurers for doing missions?) And when you rent a mog house in another city? As realistic as stuff is in the game, it's amazing there isn't a fee for doing that.

Comments

[kelen.livejournal.com]

That whole standing still thing has never worked. Sounds like you just got lucky a few times while testing it. I can only assume the mobs here you breathing. Or something.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, drat. It also might have been something special for Summerfest, too. Who knows what settings they might have changed to allow that perma-sneak/invisible...

[aelice.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about Bostaunieux Oubliette, Sandy, and general FFXI stuff a lot this morning. If FFXI were real and I lived in Sandy, I'd be darned angry that they let part of the city be taken over by mobs. (Yeah, it's under the city, but it's still the city. Right?)

Actually, an oubliette in history was a labyrinth prison for those who committed unspeakable crimes, neh? They'd literally just toss men inside, lock the ceiling door, and let them rot away. I think San d'Oria is doing their worse criminals a FAVOR by letting monsters finish off the job quickly, so the criminals dont have to slowly starve or try to eat each other to survive.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, is that it? Then yeah, I'd rather be eaten by a bat (teehee) than have to starve to death.

Mobs sure must like living down there...

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Oubiliette is French for 'A Place for Forgetting'. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense. Oh well, I guess we'll have to leave the mobs down there and make all adventurers on Sandy 7-1 sneak through them. :P

[aelice.livejournal.com]

Serious? That's so cool! :)

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly (and I could be wrong since this was a year and a half ago), but in the beta you paid a fee when you moved your moghouses around. That was lifted at a later update. Kazham and Norg AH used to be taxed a lot heavier than normal ones (like the Jeuno AH is taxed now.) And likewise, Jeuno used to be a lot heavier taxed and the rate varied from zone to zone.

As for Mission mobs, they really aren't like anything else. Normal XP mobs don't have a bajillion HP either. And for this mob, you're only a bit under for it. The next BCNM fight is recommended 65+ by Alla, but again, Alla can be a bit over the top at times. (They were the same way for Windy's BCNM fight and I did that with a party of 60s (the static I was in with Meyoh, Fye, Nyp, Ashn, and Sylf did it then. It was hard, but do-able.))

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly (and I could be wrong since this was a year and a half ago), but in the beta you paid a fee when you moved your moghouses around.

I wonder why they changed that and the AH taxes? I wonder if it was because people complained about it (which I'm sure they did) or if there was a better reason...

Seems reasonable to me that the other AHs (Norg, Kazham, Safehold) would have higher taxes, since they're accessing another city's AH instead of having their own.

And for this mob, you're only a bit under for it.

Yeah, I was happy to see I hit it on nearly every swing. On the second time I didn't make TP as fast cause I was casting more (ha ha ha, Cure III had like no effect on your HP! :P ), but on the first fight I almost got up to a second WS.

And more than that, it was fun! :) I love doing stuff with you guys.

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

My idea for why (and I can't prove this) is that they make small adjustments like this as event "rewards". Like, the Christmas event a couple years ago with the treants. If all 10 were defeated, then Outpost warping was opened up on that world, etc.

The AH tax adjusting they've done to try to moderate/influence world economies, that much they've stated. As the economy morphs, the method/rates have adjusted as well. It's good to see that they're at least monitoring it and trying to keep it reasonable.

(Though it's hardly perfect. I feel bad for Jaide 'cause she's hit the magical lvl40 Gilwall in MNK. At current prices it would cost her 6mil gil to equip her MNK the way my level 40MNK would be equipped =/ (All of MNKs expensive gear comes into play between 34-40, it's a real pain in the tail.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense. And ugh, that's really early for a gilwall. Other than sniper's rings (which I consider necessary for a DRK, period, end of story), my big ticket came later.

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

Sure, Dvogzog looks wierd to the eye, but say it out loud. Now try to stop saying it. Dvogzog Dvogzog Dvogzog, whee!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

...you know, I was all set to call you a freak, then I did say it out loud. It is actually sort of catchy to say. Strange, but catchy.

Damn you.

:)

[yohshee.livejournal.com]

It is different things to different people. I had a hard time getting through some of the background the first time I read the book, but the second time I enjoyed it considerably more.

The thing is, with that book, you have to realize that the title does not reflect what King's original intent was: the intent was the complete creation of a town and its lifestyle and people. As well as a hidden monster that lives in the sewer.

He was originally going to title it Derry, after all.

And yes, the scariness comes later.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm. Derry fits a lot better than It, in my opinion. I could deal with a book creating a town and all that, but the title makes it seem like the book is about It... and it hasn't been, thus far.

And woo, I'll stick with it then. Maybe slowly, but no tossing it out the window yet.

o_o

[gechmir.livejournal.com]

I remember "It". I saw the movie when I was -- like -- in First grade. I got very suspicious of toilets and drains from that point on. I STILL AM :-\ Darned communist appliances! What was I talking about again? o.o"

Ah yes. There are no fees for Rent-a-Rooms! Socialistic governments? :d I'm glad they don't charge you! I have already had to sell all my Taru love-children in order to pay the evil AH fees of Jeuno. EVIL.

"Hay i want 2 sell my lu shang lolz. 3.6 mill rite???/"
"PAY ME 75k >8U"
"wut"
"PAY ME 75k OR I WILL ATTACK YOU FROM TOILETS AND DRAINS IN YOUR BATHROOM"

At this point, I folded my card and paid the evil evil fee to the evil eviller (NEW WORD!) AH. Jeuno shall get its just desserts when the stock market crashes. Hopefully into something hard :-( 'Cuz it deserves it.

Re: o_o

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the fee for selling my LSR hurt badly ... then even worse when I had to list it a second time. Grumble. And when I outgrow my Hauby (as poopsed to 'hubby') and have to list that? It'll be worse than the LSR.

And you are very wise to not trust toilets! Never know what might come snaking up from them...