Zzzzz (RL, FFXI)

[thistlechaser]

Getting up 30 minutes early should not make this big of a difference. I've spent all morning feeling like I was running early for things (which in fact I'm not, I arrived to work exactly the same time as always). At least I don't feel the loss of 30 minutes of sleep.

So as promised to myself, re-started walking this morning. On walking-mornings (M-W-F) I won't have time to do all the extra little fun pre-work fooling around I usually do, but hey. Gotta do what you gotta do. T-Th I won't have to save time to add onto the 30-from-sleep. (Weights take much much less time than walking.)

Thankfully I was able to go the same distance I had been doing before I stopped, it just took twice as long and was twice as hard. But that's not terribly surprising, being away from it for nearly three months.

People are probably going "Walking? Exercise? Ha!", but it's not "normal" walking. Once I'm back up to speed, it'll be the "as fast as you can go without breaking into a jog" walking. I did not do that this morning (see that "took twice as long!" thing), but once I'm back to how I had been before I stopped, that's how it'll be.

---

FFXI: I think I'm getting worse about MGSing in my old age. (Non-players: MGS = sneaking past aggro mobs without aid of sneak/invisible tools or spells. Getting past them totally on your own skills and on a good helping of luck.) Last night I had to go through Phomiuna Aqueducts alone, past a group of 2 taros and a group of 3 stegos, and my hands were shaking so badly! I don't recall shaking when I had to do things like my AF. Hm, but I did while stealthing on G3. Maybe I've gone back to worrying about death too much... (But I was WHM/BLM last night, so a death shouldn't have mattered.)

But whatever the reason, I got it done and wonderful Draque jumped right in and offered to help with the doll NM fight for the last mannequin quest! Yay! The storyline surprised me quite a bit.



The crafter and his mannequin/beloved.

The story didn't end at all as I expected to. It was actually sort of a happy ending.

To start with, you get the story around the text in the above screenshot. Enaremand (the crafter) has completed the mannequin, now all he needs is to bring her to life, to give her a soul (!!!). He tells you that he knows it's a horrible sin, but he's turned his back on god (since she turned her back on him). He knows he'll be damned forever for it, but it will be worth it to see her smile for a moment.

At this point in the story I'm sitting there like "...". Is that a man-thing? This sort of plot came up in Fullmetal Alchemist as well, and I just don't understand it. When someone dies, they're gone. If I lost a loved one and someone came by and said "Hey, I got this thing that looks just like the person you lost! Want me to animate it so you two can be together again?" I'd never ever accept. It's NOT the same person, no matter how much it looks like them. But men are more visually orientated, so is something just looking like their lost love enough? That seems really odd to me.

Back to the story: Enaremand sends you into the horrible Phomiuna Aqueducts to find a necromancer. You do, he tells you to go get some other item, you do, then you three meet up again to use the item to bring his mannequin to life. Unsurprisingly, things go poorly and you end up having to kill the animated mannequin. (Duh.) Enaremand gets all angsty and calls you a monster, but he and the necromancer talk and things get worked out.

The story ends with Enaremand getting over his grief:



He walks off, you and the necromancer chat a little (he's an interesting fellow; not a bad guy, even though he does bad things). For some highly odd reason, Enaremand gives you a magazine about mannequins before he leaves. (I'm still sort of boggling at that. You help a guy bring a chunk of wood shaped like his lost love to life, you have to kill the wood and the evil spirit in it, the guy hates you then accepts you... and he gives you a magazine?) You take the magazine to the mannequin chick in Mh-whatever (that port city) and she'll let you re-pose your mannequins.

The end!



I've stayed out of these "what will be the new job S-E introduces in the next update?" ponderings, but the mannequin quest might be proof of the next one. It introduces a new mage type Necromancer . How would that sort of mage work? I'd think it could be something like a BST, but with a twist: What if a necromancer could bring dead mobs back to life? And the reanimated mobs would then be their pets? It'd be sort of like a BST, but the necromancer would have to be able to kill the mob before being able to use it as a pet. I suppose they'd have to "work up to" an EM/T pet: Kill EP, use that EP to kill something tougher, use that tougher one to kill something stronger... Seems like an interesting idea to me, though it might be too much like BST for some.

Oh, and here's the result of the final mannequin quest: My mannequins in poses. Why yes, I do now have a man on all fours in my house!

HELP! I had a really, really, really pretty screenshot to share, but the darned lighting problem I'm having made it too dark! Is anyone experiencing anything like this? Or have any ideas what I can do about it? When I view the game, everything looks 100% fine. Perfect lighting, nothing wrong. I take a screenshot. Look at it. It looks fine. I can totally close POL, end the pol.exe process, and the screenshot will still look fine. But once I reboot then I see the screenshot as it really is: too dark. But if I start POL and look at the screenshot again? Looks normal/fine/not dark.

That's what's boggling me: FFXI is doing something to my entire computer, and even when there's not a single pol-related process running, that "something" is still in effect. Only rebooting gets rid of that "something". (Even Firefox and my wallpaper and stuff are effected like this. When FFXI/POL is running, they look "washed out" -- too bright. Rebooting makes them look normal again.)

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Is that a man-thing? This sort of plot came up in Fullmetal Alchemist as well, and I just don't understand it. When someone dies, they're gone. If I lost a loved one and someone came by and said "Hey, I got this thing that looks just like the person you lost! Want me to animate it so you two can be together again?" I'd never ever accept. It's NOT the same person, no matter how much it looks like them. But men are more visually orientated, so is something just looking like their lost love enough? That seems really odd to me.

And in reading this, what I thought of was: Pygmalion

Not exactly how I expected the story to end, but, I've already known for a long while that Anime/Japanese/Asian storylines often clash with my expectations. :)

[zubis.livejournal.com]

FFXI (and most games) increase the gamma (brightness) of the screen to run so you can see the game a little bit more clearly. It depends on the game but it can be an option in the game itself, or a graphics card option. In this case it seems to be a graphics card option.

When the game isn't running, the gamma reverts to normal. Fraps should automatically increase the gamma when you take a screenshot, but sometimes it doesn't work. In that case you can increase the gamma normally when you open the picture in an image program like Photoshop.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep, which is nice. If things always ended as I expected them to, where would the surprise be? And I suppose it's not really a happy ending, since the crafter still doesn't have his love back, but he has his life back which is something.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm, I should try using Fraps and see if it improves things at all. (I'm using Clipper now.)

When the game isn't running, the gamma reverts to normal.

Right, that's how it should be, but for me that's not happening anymore. It takes rebooting to force the gamma back to default. That means that before I can edit a screenshot in Photoshop, I need to reboot so I'll see it as it actually is. Very, very annoying to have to do that.

[zubis.livejournal.com]

Ah. Clipper doesn't improve the gamma automatically. I used Clipper for a while but I switched back to Fraps.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, then I'll have to switch to Fraps for sure then. It's just annoying that I can't seem to get it to use my Print Screen key (is there a way that you know of to force it to use that?).

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

That would be a really odd job choice for them o.O; No other FF game has had has a Necromancer like job (unless you wanted to count BST / Animal Trainer). I'm not sure it'd go over well when there are many other beloved jobs that they haven't touched yet. Hmm... since you're not really familiar with the series. Lemme do a quick run down of some of what they've done in the past, but haven't shown up in FFXI yet. The real "job based" FFs (the ones where changing jobs drove the system of the game) are FFV, FFTactics, FFTactics Advanced, FFX-2, and FFXI.

Blue Mage: This is traditionally a mage job that can learn and us monster abilities after being hit by them. Like, a player gets hit with Whirl Claws or Baleful Gaze once, then it turns up on their spell list and they can use that ability from then on forward.

Berserker: A very simple job. You go into battle, tell them to attack, and then you can't control them again until the fight is over. The *only* thing a Berserker can do it attack until they're dead or the mob is dead. This sounds really useless, but in FFX-2, Berserker Paine was love, so deadly *_*

Sorcerer: They've called this one a few different things. It's a sword-using mage. All their magic is via sword skills. Pretty much they're between a BLM and a RDM for magic power. They get Ancients as their most powerful magic skill. Depending on game, they had en-spells.

Time Mage: This is another job that they really dumped most of the traits into WHM and RDM already. Time mage can do Slow1/2, Haste1/2[usually these spells were exclusive to the Time Mage and not giving to the WHM or RDM] Comet/Metero (Meteor, yes, like King Behemoth), Demi (think a less powerful version of Throat Stab. It removes half the mob's remaining life, but is non-lethal by itself.)

Geomancer: My personal favorite, Geomancers use the environment to attack mobs. Depending on which ability was chosen they could cause a Quake under the mob or call up vines to bind the mob while they ran. Geomancers also usually don't take damage from traps or 'damaged floors' (which really haven't been seen in FFXI).

** Hunter: Yes, we have Ranger, but Hunter was a bit different in that Hunter could call forth a pet familiar to fight with them depending on their level. (They got a skunk at level 31 XD; ) I'd love to have that ability *_* FFXI's RNG more closely matches Archers from FFT/FFTA.

** Dancer: This is another job that they've wrapped up into BRD, though in same games BRD and Dancer are two different jobs. They pretty much do the same thing, only Dancers get the ability to make mobs miss their turn by doing !Flirt (not joking here ^^ )

Chemist: Also called Alchemist depending on the game. This job takes 2 items from your current inventory and creates a new (usually more powerful if you know what you're doing) item from them while in battle. Depending on game they could do things like use items without them being removed from your stock, have said item (like Hi-Pot) cure for double HP, cure status ailments, and Raise1 fallen party members while in battle :)

Mimic: This job is simple like Berserker, but insanely powerful if used right. All a Mime does is duplicate what the party member did before them did. In FFXI terms, if a party member they were Mimicing did Hundred Fists, the Mime would do Hundred Fist. Then they could turn around and Mime someone else the next combat round if their battle order was changed.

(Side note on MNK looking through for job lists. In FFT they had some abilities I'd love to have. One was that their Chakra restored some HP *and* MP. Even better, it was an AoE. Only drawback, it could cure mobs too :} MNKs also had the ability to Revive (Raise1) fallen party members.)

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

Oracle: All of Oracle's abilities were status related (Blind, Petrify, Poison, etc.). In FFT they were the place to get status ailments, but that wouldn't last long on that alone in FFXI's structure.

Mediator: Another job that really doesn't have a place in FFXI. Their abilities, when translated to FFXI terms, do things like reset the TP meter, talks the mob out of gil, lower-stats (only really significantly lower it without the mob recovering from it), and Sleep. Nothing that's terribly useful or can't be found in other places already.

Calculator: This is a hard one to describe o.O By themselves Calculators couldn't do anything useful, they needed their subjob for abilities (usually /BLM). Calculators learn variables as job abilties, then, you could write formula with those variables and excute a spell with it. Like use the variable of [Level] and [5] and cast FireIII. Anyone (friend or foe) whose level was divisible by 5 was hit with FireIII regardless of where they were on the field. That sounds crazy, but if all your party members had Fire-resist armor on and the mobs didn't, you could *really* abuse Calculators... Which is what most people did to win the game ^^

(FFT also had some gimicky classes that only NPCs could have. The only one I'll mention is Engineer since that seems to come up a lot. It's more or less a RNG-clone that uses Guns exclusively and has more Sharpshot-geared abilities. In the past, Engineer has also had an Ability called Peep/Scan that could bring up a window of a mobs stats/abilities. In some FF games, this ability/spell is useable by all jobs. In FFVI, an Engineer character that used tools to cause status ailments like Bio, Flash, etc. Though he did have some purely offensive ones like Crossbow that rocked :3 )

(FFTA had a lot of jobs that were divided / combined of the ones you're familiar with or that I've listed here already. Ones like that are Elementalist (Geomancer/Red Mage), Illusionist (a BLM that only does -ga), Archer and Hunter were split into two jobs, Soldier/Fighter/Warrior were all more or less the same thing with a few different abilities, um.. yeah.. you've seen this all before. Not sure they'll draw much from FFTA unless they were just going to use a jobname.)

On to FFX-2! People have rattled on about Gun Mages, but they're pretty much Blue Mages that use a gun to learn abilities. (See why people are thinking Blue Mage needs to be in FFXI? It comes up so often in other FF games.)

Gambler aka Lady Luck: This jobs abilities depend on how well you do on a Slot Reel or thrown Dice when you try to activate them. If you win, you get huge damage / restorative bonuses. The only ability that FFXI's rendering of it has that you might enjoy is that when HP is low, MP cost on spells is reduced to 0 on everything :) (With a mage subjob, that'd be pretty hot.) They also have THF like abilties of Gilfinder and TH1.

Didn't list Mascot or their individual jobs since those were pretty gimicky and I doubt they'll be seen anywhere b'sides FFXI.

Hmm... looking at other FF games, I mostly see abilities (not really jobs) that might be interesting. Celes in FFVI had an ability called Runic. With a sword equipped she could become a lightning rod for magical attacks. The spells didn't affect her, and they couldn't hurt her party members either 'cause she sucked them up. (It was impossible to get past some fights without her there just Runicing the entire time. She could only do it once per combat round, though.)

Oh well, there's an unsolicitied crash course in FF-jobs. Not every single one is listed, but the ones that aren't 'out there' have been ^^

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I know I have a different POV on these things than most hardcore gamers (heck, or casual gamers!) or people who have played through the FF series. Personally I'd think people would want something new, not something that's been done in so many games before...

Out of all those jobs listed, only Hunter really grabs me (I want a long-term pet! Not a throw-away BST pet and not a SMN's spirit, a real animal that stays with you!). Chemist/Alchemist sounds interesting and handy, but I personally wouldn't want to play it.

I guess a big part of the reason why I stay out of these debates is because I'm happy with how things are. I doubt they could come up with a job I like more than DRK, so as long as they don't get rid of any existing jobs (ha ha ha, could you imagine the uproar that would cause?), I'll be happy.

Thanks for all the info!

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

[grins] New jobs aren't bad, they've been coming up with them since FF2 ;3 But can you imagine the uproar if they skipped out on some of the more popular jobs to create new ones? The fanbase is too fanboy ^^

Yeah, I'd love some of the Hunter abilities added to Ranger. The pets usually didn't help *too* much, their damage was more like an en-spell and they didn't tank for you. Early on you got things like Bees and Swallows XD

Alchemist was pretty spiffy. I can see people going for it if they made it as stupidly powerful as it was in other FF games. Pulling a Curage IV-like curing out of a bottle was damn useful. It would definitely be another gil-sink job like RNG and NIN are.

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The pets usually didn't help *too* much, their damage was more like an en-spell and they didn't tank for you. Early on you got things like Bees and Swallows XD

Yeah, but still. That's what I would like more than anything: Pets. Something to feed, take care of, make sure it doesn't die in battle if you can help it. Even your own chocobo that you could feed and check on every day, stuff like that. Even if it was something silly, like a bee, it'd be so much fun to have it follow you around as you static and quest and stuff.

It'd be nice to come home to your MH and have a mini-coeurl curled up asleep in front of the fire. :)

It would definitely be another gil-sink job like RNG and NIN are.

Which is fine with me. Seems like you really should have to pay for the extra power you get (maybe SE should start charging BLMS per spell when there are more than two BLMs in a party... :P ).

Re: Necromancer

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

I don't play FFXI, I don't follow it, but I doubt most of your possibilities are actual possibilities. The FFT games weren't real FF games, so I doubt they'd use one of those classes only found in FFT or FFTA. FFT was called something entirely different in Japan, or so I've read somewhere, and was done by the team that did Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, so had a lot of non-FF influence anyway.

Again, I don't follow any of this, but I'd bet on Blue Mage. It's probably the most commonly seen class outside of the usuals they've already covered.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Walking is very good exercise and I can't imagine anyone would tell you differently. With all the conflicting health info out there, that's something I've probably not seen a single expert disagree on. Walking = teh good, to be obnoxious with my typing as Zac might do.

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

Ah, no disrespect, but the point of the post was to familiarize Thistle with other jobs that have came up in the past so when people in shell start chanting "Blue Mage!" "Engineer!" "Geomancer!" he'd know what they were asking for ^^

While I doubt very much we'd ever see Oracle, Mediator, or Calculator in a FFXI setting, we've sure as heck seen just about every (unlisted here) job in the game (Lancer, Archer, Knight, Thief, Ninja, etc.) So easily disregarding FFT as a non-source is silly, IMO :) (Though you are correct in saying that team that worked on the Ogre series did that game. It would be wrong to think of FFT as the bastard child of the FF-series, but that's another topic entirely.)

And interesting note that Thistle might enjoy (or I'll enjoy more, just tweaking him about it)... but if memory serves me correctly, only two FF games outside of FFXI have had Dark Knight as a job option: FFIV and FFX-2. Meanwhile Blue Mage has been in every FF in some form since V and with the except of X and XI. (V-job, VI-Strago, VII-Materia, VIII-Quistis's Limit, IX-Quina, X-2-job, FFT-job, and FFTA-job). That tells you something, doesn't it? :3

Re: Necromancer

[zubis.livejournal.com]

Many of the jobs from FFT were based on jobs from FFV. Also, FFXII takes place in Ivalice, the same world as FFT. It may not be a numbered FF game but it's definitely part of the franchise.

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'd vote for Gunner (mmm, gunner), but since RNGs can use guns...

*tosses Neopets at you* :p I just want something to love! *sniffles* Is that too much to ask? Hmmmm, maybe instead of pets we could get mithra! Have a nice little cute naked girl following me around all the time, obeying my every command~

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

but the point of the post was to familiarize Thistle with other jobs that have came up in the past so when people in shell start chanting "Blue Mage!" "Engineer!" "Geomancer!" he'd know what they were asking for ^^

Heh heh, and here I thought people didn't know how clueless I was about all that. :P Basically I just figured Blue Mages would end up with blue AF and Geomancer must have dealt with either the earth or math (don't ask me where math comes from, "Geomancer" just sounds mathy).

Wow, DRKs were in other FF games? I kind of thought they were made just for FFXI!

And on a totally unrelated note, StS is going to end up making me play FF8 just so I can know who is canon and who is original. :P We've just met Enju, but I'm liking him a lot!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just sometimes feel silly saying walking is my exercise. Walking is just something people do to get from here to there! (Eh, when they don't drive or something...)

to be obnoxious with my typing as Zac might do.

*snicker*

Re: Necromancer

[southern-hell.livejournal.com]

In VI Gau was also a Blue Mage/Berserker which though again wouldn't fit in FFXI, was pretty cool. Strago had more HEaling/Enhancing abilities to learn and Gau had all the attacks.

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

Heh heh, and here I thought people didn't know how clueless I was about all that. :P

You've mentioned it before :) Since the topic came up I figured this would be a good time to tell you a bit more ^^

I actually *loved* playing Monk/Geomancer in FFT. Monk had some rangeish attacks, kinda, but it's an 'in your face' job. The Geomancer skills gave the Monk a way to attack at range until the distance was closed and the fistpounding began :) (That's why I'd love it to be in FFXI. I can so see myself playing it that way again...)

The main character in FFIV, Cecil, begins the game as a Dark Knight. He isn't terribly angsty (except regarding his girlfriend ~.~ ) and he does some things of dubious morality. Anyhow, later on in the game he is told to relinquish his Dark ways and becomes a Paladin instead after he defeats himself. [/spoiler everyone but thistle knows and thistle doesn't care about]

In FFX-2 it was a regular job. You should look up the Dark Knight armor designs. They were very, prickly familiar :)

I had a feeling you might like Enju ^^ You'll see a lot of him for a while :) And as for what's canon and not.. um.. that's a really tangled web x.x; It started about 90% canon and by the end it's shifted a lot the other way, but the overstory is the same. The point of StS was to fill in the underpinning plot that was lacking / only hinted at in the game itself :3

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You've mentioned it before :)

Oh, huh, I guess I did...

I had a feeling you might like Enju ^^ You'll see a lot of him for a while :)

The more I see of him, the more I like him! I'm nearly done with text file #8, so I'm seeing lots of him. :)

Are the feather/wings tattoo a FF thing? I know what's his name (Sephroth? I probably misspelled that) had real wings, but tattoos?

Re: Necromancer

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

StS is going to end up making me play FF8 just so I can know who is canon and who is original. :P We've just met Enju, but I'm liking him a lot!

Huh? I've played FF8 on the PS, but who is Enju?

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

That I'm not sure. Enjuwas a Chaos creation (don't hate him now ;) I didn't come up with his look and Chaos has played even less Final Fantasy than you have, even to this day.

It is kind of a recurring theme in the series.. Rinoa had wings on the back of her shirt. And Sephiroth was just *gerogero* yeah.. cliche...

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

gbeans wrote a most wonderful and outstanding (and really long!) FF8-based fanfic. Those in the fandom tell me it's considered the best FF8 fanfic out there. (I've been reading it for days and and I'm not even halfway done yet!) Enju is an original character, she says. A highly interesting and... eee'y one!

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Enjuwas a Chaos creation (don't hate him now ;)

Never~ I actually don't feel anything towards Chaos, other than slightly sad that a common writing issue (using the same words/phrases multiple times in one paragraph... over and over and over again) kept me from reading part of the story. Funny that I haven't noticed the issue since the first half of part six. Either you or the editor caught and fixed it, he grew out of it/caught it himself, or my eyes have crossed from reading this for so many hours and I'm not picking it up anymore. :P It's such an easy thing for a writer to do (eh, repeating the same wording, not catching it yourself and fixing it), and I wouldn't hold such a thing against anyone. Writing is darned hard! And I boggle at being able to get this much enjoyment for free! <3

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

I think it was probably Helen and I that caught it. And I catch myself falling in that trap too and kicking myself if I don't catch it before I post something --; That's why I'm never satisfied with my writing for long, I always see ways I could have made it tighter =/

Re: Necromancer

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

*or me* dammit ; ; Why must you taunt me, English language, *WHY?!* ; ;

Re: Necromancer

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Hmm...might give it a look through when Death Note isn't eating what's left of my cranial matter.

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You should! Poke me for the link when you're ready. :)

Re: Necromancer

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Even for something like LJ posts, I edit them again and again after posting. (I always hope people don't see my post in the first couple minutes! I proofread before hitting 'post', but so often I don't catch things until I see it "in print".)