Catch up post! (FFXI, WoW)

[thistlechaser]

I've not been posting much lately, so there will be lots here. Screenshots, too!

First, how exciting! On this night in 2005, I beat Maat! :D "Happy Maat Mashing Day!" as Renard put it!

Second: Dynamis - Beaucedine was tonight, and we finally had a run like people were posting about when drops were first increased! 15 drops! I got RDM body and BST feet (freelot). RDM AF2 sure does look spiffy on my model! That makes me 4/5, just need the hat. :D I'm tempted to sell my scorp harness +1 now, since I can wear that to Campaign (the rare times I go), but if I ever solo stuff on COR I might need it... *ponders*

Speaking of Campaign, since today was the last day of my vacation (*SOB*), I made myself do that. I got my merit #5 and did my final upgrade (downgrade?) to Random Deal's timer. That puts me 6/10 on the first group and 8/10 on the second for COR, but I really have little idea what to do from there. Nothing jumps out at me as really needed... *ponders more*

My linkshell did two nights of Bomb Queen runs. Fight and drops on my pop. Avengers went to a confused LS MNK 75 who was oddly overly pleased by them (and debates the value of Destroyers). *does not ponder to avoid head hurting* Oh and don't ask me what Desant is doing to Renard. *cough*

This is why I still do the Hot & Cold minigame. Check out that treasure pool! A 50K flower pot. A coral bit I can make into a reraise haipin (20K value, I think?). The med is worth 5K. Peas are vendor trash. Buck slip is good for 5 chocobucks.

And this is why no one should ever level goldsmithing:

Let me tell you the history of this synth. I'm trying to make a ring for myself. It takes an ori ring (ori ingot x2) and a cut elemental stone.
Attempt 1, just cutting the stone: Failed, stone lost. 100K gone. (Chaser is 20+ levels over cap.)
Attempt 2, full snyth: Cuts the stone successfully. Crit fail on ring. Ring and stone gone. 500K gone.
Attempt 3, just cutting the stone: Failed, stone lost. 100K gone.

That's 700K lost to try to make one item. With her well over cap. This is why I laugh at people when they claim cooking/alchemy are hard. ;)

---

WoW: As much as I put down the graphics on WoW, they do do two things well: Water and the moon. The last few times I've been on, I've only been fishing. One night I watched the moon rise while I fished.

How can the water look so realistic in such a cartoony game? I had been swimming up and down the coast to get those pools of fish thingies.

If you could take the characters out of this shot, it could pass for not cartoony at all! I <3 nighttime in the game. Everything's so dark and peaceful.

Moon rising over a village. Pretty sky!

Hm, these screenshots make me want to keep the game turned on just so I can go and hang out and relax and fish sometimes. :P

A few nights back I mentioned that I found an elite mob, but Kirby pointed out it was the wrong color, so it wasn't really one. The next night I found one with gold around the name! Hello there, big fellow! Unfortunately a few minutes after that shot was taken, he snuck up behind me and killed me. :P

And lastly, when I had been playing last year, this NM killed me and kept interrupting my quest. He tried to do the same while I was fishing (twice!) so it was very satisfying to kill him now (twice!). Deepstrider Someoneorother

I've been thinking about WoW a lot lately, and I wonder if people have an opinion on this. I don't think I can be fair about it, because I like FFXI more and FFXI is such a different game and because I don't have a strong background in video games:

Is WoW coded lazily or am I just not aware of something that's normal in games?

While the full moon is beautiful, it bugs me a heck of a lot that it's always full. Wouldn't it be easy as pie to have it go through phases? Why doesn't WoW have that? I'd guess that traditionally video games would have a static moon, but since they have day/night cycle, why doesn't the moon change as well?

The auction house is the other part of this. It bugs the heck out of me, too. Yes, with a plug in the auction house can be used fine. But what was it like before this plug in existed? Did the game designers expect people to just randomly guess at a price for something they wanted to list? Were they planning to come back and improve the AH themselves, then when the players made a plug in they didn't have to anymore? What's the reasoning/excuse/logic behind such a poorly planned AH? (Or is that how auction houses are in all MMOs and FFXI just has an outstanding one?) For non-WoW people: WoW's AH has no price history at all. If someone else isn't selling what you want to sell, you have to 100% guess at a price for it. With the player-made plug in, history can be built up as you visit the AH, for easier listing later.

BAck to work tomorrow! *sniffle*

Comments

[darte.livejournal.com]

The AH used to bother me too, but why bother the developers with trivial things like that when they can have the players who would ultimately know best what they want develop it for them.

Part of what makes WoW, WoW is the almost 'open source' code you are freely given and allowed to do whatever you can with it (which in this case would be plugins). They give you a basic interface, and it is up to the players to enhance it with their own methods.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Part of what makes WoW, WoW is the almost 'open source' code you are freely given and allowed to do whatever you can with it (which in this case would be plugins).

I've seen plugins to run players' characters while in a party. That just boggles me so much (both that someone would use it and that it'd be permitted). If it were coded well I could see it work out maybe better than a player-run PC, but still... gah.

The AH used to bother me too, but why bother the developers with trivial things like that when they can have the players who would ultimately know best what they want develop it for them.

I'm really not sure about that. I wouldn't call the AH trivial, and I'm really, really not sure I like players having such free rein. I'm not saying that I like FFXI's naziesque stance against third party stuff, but how about somewhere in between?

[keylimes.livejournal.com]

There are a few things I'd really like them to do with the AH. First, of course, is to somehow indicate what items had sold recently for what price. For example, looking at a listing of an item, some up for 1g, some for 5g, and others for 10g, if a player can see the 1 and 5g versions had sold, but the 10g haven't, then it would be a lot easier to know how much to price the item at.

Beyond that, I don't know if you've noticed "battle groups"? It's a group of servers that all can join battlegrounds together. Because of that, it seems as though the databases for the realms must be linked in some manner... so, why not share the AH between them? In theory the pricing across servers would become more normalized, if nothing else.

I mean, on one of my servers I sell a stack of copper ore, collectible by simply getting the mining skill, mind you, for over 4g/stack(!) It's great for making money, but there's nothing that can be made to justify that price, so gathering professions make money, and building professions simply burn it, and that kind of makes me sad.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

For example, looking at a listing of an item, some up for 1g, some for 5g, and others for 10g, if a player can see the 1 and 5g versions had sold, but the 10g haven't, then it would be a lot easier to know how much to price the item at.

That'd rock, yes.

Beyond that, I don't know if you've noticed "battle groups"? It's a group of servers that all can join battlegrounds together. Because of that, it seems as though the databases for the realms must be linked in some manner... so, why not share the AH between them? In theory the pricing across servers would become more normalized, if nothing else.

Nope, hadn't encountered battle groups yet! I wish FFXI would do that as well -- make one AH for all cities if not across servers. Do Windy/Bastok/Sandy really need one apart from Jeuno/Whitegate's?

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

To be honest, the moon is merely cosmetic. It's not like FFXI where you have a weather system and seasons, etc. that affect the game. I suspect they thought the full moon looked cool and left it at that.

As for the AH, yeah it is pretty hard to use without a price history. It lends itself to bigger price fluctuations as people just price according to what is already on the AH. It goes through daily and weekly cycles, so if you can track that sort of thing you can make quite a nice bit of money buying and selling at the right times. If you have no price history or existing auctions to work with, I usually try estimate how useful or wanted the item is and then mark up from its vendor price accordingly. Usually about 300%.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

To be honest, the moon is merely cosmetic. It's not like FFXI where you have a weather system and seasons, etc. that affect the game. I suspect they thought the full moon looked cool and left it at that.

Yeah, I knew the moon was just cosmetic, but even then, it'd be more realistic to have it go through phases! (And yes, everyone always mocks me for wanting things more realistic in these games. :P ) It is beautiful while full, but having to wait for something makes things even better; if you didn't see the full moon every night, when you did see it it'd be all the more beautiful! ...though, looking at it that way, I guess being full all the time makes more sense for WoW, where making you wait for something good is more FFXI-ish. (Sometimes I wonder at my willingness to defend such a sadistic game. ;) )

If you have no price history or existing auctions to work with, I usually try estimate how useful or wanted the item is and then mark up from its vendor price accordingly. Usually about 300%.

Oooh, it's great to have a rule of thumb like that! I was usually just bumping it up a little over vendor price.

[iniadelphinae.livejournal.com]

That's 700K lost to try to make one item. With her well over cap. This is why I laugh at people when they claim cooking/alchemy are hard.

Alchemy and cooking? Hard? With 99% of materials available (cheaply) from an NPC and/or easily farmed? Not to mention stackable to begin with - unlike logs, ores and hides. Someone needs to hand these people a dictionary :/

Also, did you get the coral and the flowerpot in one H&C? I want to know how you managed that because I generally only get one (what should be but isn't always a) high ticket item to go with the other stuff in the desert.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Alchemy and cooking? Hard? With 99% of materials available (cheaply) from an NPC and/or easily farmed? Not to mention stackable to begin with - unlike logs, ores and hides. Someone needs to hand these people a dictionary :/

Yes. I've had multiple people tell me that all crafts are equal, that gold is no harder than cooking, etc. It drives me wacky.

Also, did you get the coral and the flowerpot in one H&C? I want to know how you managed that because I generally only get one (what should be but isn't always a) high ticket item to go with the other stuff in the desert.

Yeah! All those items came from one H&C attempt. It was the Jungle, whichever side you land in when you teleport in. That was much better than average though, usually my reward is more like you describe. (That flowerpot might be the top item from that area. PUP attachments used to be worth more, but they never sell...)

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Have played many MMO games. Most AHs are like WoW. Lineage2 had no AH system - it was all player bazaars. Age of Conan cut & pasted WoW's AH code, I think, as its so similar. Just as a couple of examples. FFXI really does have the best and most auction like AH i've ever used in a game.

[quistie.livejournal.com]

The AH system in FFXI is the best one out there? I mean, I don't hate the AH system or anything, but I don't think it's anything to write home about. Good thing I don't play any other MMOs...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's pretty cool! Good to know, thanks!