Merits, HNM LSs, and no screenshots! (FFXI)

[thistlechaser]

It feels like a while since I posted screenshots, but I checked my folder and it has nothing of interest in it. I guess that makes sense since I've been doing not much of interest lately.

I spent the weekend Campaigning... and of course got bored of it again. But I got merit #9 before doing so, so upgraded STR again. Upgrade #4, just one left to go.

I made a few more Cerberus Mantles for PlusOne people. 11 total, I think. All NQs, none failed (whew!). Good money, nice and thankful people. Nice and thankful people who keep asking me to join their LS. :/ TC (and yes, it's so odd to talk to a guy named TC -- that's me!) sold the LS hard to me this morning, so I told him I'd think about it (usually I just outright say no). And I did think about it. I've been really bored lately, so maybe doing new stuff would be a good change? I poked around their website and read most everything there, but in the end I decided it's really not for me.

One of the larger problems (or bonuses, depending on how you look at it) would be they'd want me to finish getting Sea. They have a small group of other people needing it, and he said I could do it with them, but man... even if my hand was held through it (which I don't want) I hate CoP and want nothing to do with it. Plus if we beat CoP then I'd have to go to Sea and I'd probably be eaten by a goldfish or something really embarrassing like that.

Amusingly, when I was new to FFXI and just leveling leather and heard about HNM LSs for the first time, I had hoped to become a "pet crafter" to one -- not a real member who had to go do stuff, but the person who did all the crafting work for them. That's what I have now, and I find I'm pretty satisfied with the arrangement.

Can't wait for next week and on-game life to go back to usual. No more Campaign all day every day! Eco, Escort, XPing, Assaults!

/ramble

Comments

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

If you ever want a small taste of HNM life, join a Sky shell. =p You know you got recommendations for my shell if you ever want it, but I'm not going to put any pressure on you about it.

But yeah, a lot of people are working towards Sea stuff now. Even my shell is planning to start Sea in Spring. Know you don't want your hand held through it, or even to do CoP at all, but you know I've offered it to you before as well. =p

But yeah, just food for thought. =p

[citizenbleys.livejournal.com]

Heh. I just got Sky (Yes, after over 3.5 years of playing) and I haven't been back since I went there for the first time. Now I want sea so I can farm ancient beastcoins. You can get good shit doing that. I want a brutal earring. There was something else good for brd, but I can't remember what it is right now.

[quistie.livejournal.com]

Silly Thistle. You can't die to a goldfish at Sea. You either get eaten by a big blue shark, or a giant UFO-like jellyfish from above. The dolphin-like creatures will "aggro" and follow you around like a lovesick puppy, but they won't attack unless you deal damage to them.

COP is a mixed bag at best. Some of the missions are kinda fun, others are...less so. And some I don't ever want to see again. It's not all bad, though.

[draymor.livejournal.com]

Musical earring which is +skills, loquacious earring which is fast cast and MP. Some of the BRD AF+1 pieces are godly as well.

No I haven't spend months pining over them wishing my Alt would get sea already and spend the 100+ coins I've stockpiled for him. >

[draymor.livejournal.com]

You can die by a goldfish if you happen to "link" one while soloing on SMN and muscle-for-brains Ifrit decides to attack the one you didn't already do damage on...

I lucked out the first time and found a static from Ouryu on that powered through together till we all got Sea (it broke right after and we did the rest on our own 9_9). This time around I'm stuck waiting for folks with super erratic schedules to try and get together and attempt to think about getting the CSes done. Ugh.

Getting dragged through missions isn't very much fun for the dragger or the dragee, if you're content being a pet crafter (Kittie! /patpatpat), then by all means (why is this sounding sterner than in my head?), don't force yourself into anything you're not comfortable with.

[draymor.livejournal.com]

You know, maybe if you ask them, they'll let you become a honorary member :D
Tag along the fights (more NMs to collect, c'mon!), maybe get the titles, but leave the loot for the paying members! XD
Then again, you might have to give them LS discounts on crafting. :P

[phoenix-leandra.livejournal.com]

"COP is a mixed bag at best." QFT, seriously.

A lot of the missions suck because of level caps, but it also has one of the best storylines. The ending of Aht Urghan was pretty damn good, but still doesn't hold a candle to the end of CoP. If you're not a fan of Sea or weird stingray/sharks and kidney/dolphins fine. But at least do it for the story!

[onionkiri.livejournal.com]

Not to sound pretentious since I've barely played with you in game, but judging from your journal and comments, I think you made the right choice - your playstyle definitely does not suit a HNM shell. That said, being an 'honorary member' could work out great if you've been bored lately, and it'd mean you wouldn't have to get sea. Just my two cents!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seems like I wouldn't fit in, even though I wouldn't mind meeting new people. It feels like the right choice not to join, though I wonder if I'll be missing out on fun (I suspect not, since my version of fun likely doesn't match HNM LSing...).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Eventually someday maybe! (How's that for an answer! :P )

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That's another part of my wariness -- the money is darned good now, but if I joined them I'd stop charging them. (Some crafters do charge their LSs, but I don't like that idea and I've never done that.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

=^.^= Yay pats!

Heehee.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, good to know! Being eaten by a shark or a UFO would be less embarrassing than being eaten by a goldfish. :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah... That's another reason why I've always leaned away from this offer -- I don't want anything. I don't need more armor or earrings or anything. There's very little I want in the game at all (COR 75 and not to be bored).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You won't see this until after you have your new tummy, but I'm thinking good thoughts your way! Hope everything goes okay! :)

Yeah, your offer is always in the back of my mind, too. :) But I think the best thing right now is for me to keep going as I'm going, nice and laid back and not doing much. (Maybe! But maybe one day I'll get so bored that I change that! I don't know, I keep dithering back and forth.)

Know you don't want your hand held through it, or even to do CoP at all, but you know I've offered it to you before as well. =p

I know you did, and thanks. <3 :)

[pomr.livejournal.com]

I'm an outsider to this scene - I haven't played FFXI in over a year, and really don't know much about the HNM LS scene.

That said -- it really seemed to me that HNM LSs were quite demanding of their members usually and required a considerable investment of time and effort that I don't think you'd want to pay out.

That's just me. :) I loved the folks in the LS (and still DO love many of them!) but the game made me nuts with all the hamstringing and road blocks. The stories about this fight or that, like that one guy -- guh, forget his name, you have to get a hat? He changes classes and stuff? Dunno. Him. A lot of the stuff about Sea...just..no, HELL no. :)

[deckardmagnus.livejournal.com]

HNM can be alluring... ask Ket, I've been tempted, but I've never done serious HNM in my FFXI career. I do the activities I enjoy, generally on my own terms. You should do the same, and I know you do.

You should finish CoP though, when you have the time and motivation. It's easier than it used to be, you don't lose exp in the battles, the storyline is abso-fucking-lutely amazing, and the gear you can potentially get for DRK is outstanding. Brutal Earring and a couple AF+1 pieces are some excellent pieces of gear.

But you have to do it because you want to and stuff. But I'll tell you what, if you don't have the motivation to do CoP, then joining an HNM group would ruin the game for you.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Maat, I think you mean? The hat guy? :)

And yeah, now that I'm back to a five day work week (no more holidays for a while!) it seems like the time demands would be way too much.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

But I'll tell you what, if you don't have the motivation to do CoP

It's not motivation so much as... hm, how to phrase it. CoP offends me. It seemed like SE went "How can we best piss off players? How can we make this the most annoying (not challenging, annoying) to do? How many hoops can we make them jump through?". Things like level caps (heck, not just level caps but multiple level caps for one event!). Things like it often being harder to get to the fight than the fight itself is. All that sort of stuff. How could they have expected players to have fun with that?

From what I hear, seems like a lot of HNM LSing would be much like that. (Yay sitting in a zone for hours waiting for windows during which we'll spam macros for a couple seconds, then more waiting!) I'd sort of semi like to do new things, but sneaking/invisibling through new places/zones and jumping through hoops really doesn't thrill me.

[deckardmagnus.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I think CoP's design was marvelous. I enjoyed every bit of it - it was a challenge on every level with no filler missions and no filler battles, which the ZMs and AU missions were rife with.

The level cap is a bit of a pain, sure, but it also forces you to know your job at every level. How many level caps you do in one event is up to you... when I ran a CoP static, I never set one night of different level caps. Even when we got to Chapter 5, which has 50 and 60 caps, I organized it so that we did all the 50-cap stuff one day and all the 60-cap stuff another.

Honestly, CoP is what every expansion should be, to me. It was very carefully crafted and the design to me seems to have been very meticulous in all aspects, as opposed to AU and RoZ, which seems thrown together (especially AU). There was no filler content. No jobs that have no grand purpose, lots of *great* gear for every job at varying levels, plus great storyline, and just... yeah, I loved CoP, even if it made me pull my hair out at times.

Give it a chance one day and enjoy it for what it is - it's NOT easy, but it wasn't meant to be. But seriously, the rewards are well worth the effort. CoP is hands-down to me the most rewarding mission-based experience the game offers. But it -does- make you work a little for it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The level cap is a bit of a pain, sure, but it also forces you to know
your job at every level.

And to buy/keep/store armor and weapons for every level, too.

There seems to be no middle ground with CoP -- people either love it and think it's how all expansions should be or hate it and wish the people who came up with it would be fired and then shot and then set on fire. :P