Farming Out: The FFXI Winter 2008 Update

The Winter 2008 update for FFXI dropped on Monday, and as fully expected, I didn't play at all that night. I had two machines and the XBox to update. But, unlike with previous updates, it didn't drop me anywhere near as many times. I think I needed to restart the PC update twice - it finished before bed. o.O The XBox update completed flawlessly overnight. That's considerably more hassle-free than past updates, where I've spend two full days in frustration as I countlessly restart the update process and pray the next restart doesn't bomb my system.

There were quite a few things added in the new update, and I've decided to dedicate one full post entry to some of the more noteworthy changes:

-Introduction of "Fields of Valor": a new system in which players can take on voluntary training regimes to slay a number of specified enemies in an assigned period of time. ... If successful, players will receive experience points, gil, and Fields of Valor points redeemable for other benefits.

So, lets say you have a low to mid-level job, or have a friend who has one, and they want to get some experience, but don't want to put together a whole party. Hell, they may only have 30mins until they have to call it a night. All you need to do is go to the area you want to train in, register a training plan, level sync to your friend (if needed) and kill the mobs on the plan. They're all outpost areas, so you can easily warp to them. As long as the mobs yield some kind of experience, they count. Once you meet the quota, you get a big bonus.

Pretty amazing stuff, really. Keri and I teamed up with Relme on our BSTs with his DNC and synced down to 39 and did a few rounds in Beacedine Glacier. While the experience per mob wasn't outstanding, the bonus at the end made it worthwhile. The total exp/hr was actually comparable to our run-of-the-mill sessions duoing, but with the safety of partying with someone and being really, really close to a way to get home. About that -one of the things you can use the points for is a warp home. The manual is at the outpost area. So if the region is owned by the beastmen, you can still use it to go home. Keri and I also duo'ed in Xarcabard for a few rounds on BST to similiar results. Each round only takes about 15mins, so its perfect for the casual gamer or to simply pass the time waiting for something else to start.

-Members of a Level Sync party will no longer lose beneficial status effects such as Protect should the synchronization designee level up. Accumulated TP, and the effect of the Charm ability on monsters, will also no longer be lost.

-The following equipment attributes have been added to the list of those which will remain in effect, and be adjusted accordingly, during Level Sync: Evasion / Enmity / Healing HP / Healing MP

They should have had an emergency maintenance over this issue when Level Sync was implemented, in my opinion. I've heard tales of people getting synced while trying to get into very dangerous places, having their beneficial effects wear off or having their pet decharm, and dying in a place where they had to homepoint because no one could get to them. That they included this in the update seems a little late. At least my Dark Staff isn't completely worthless anymore and I can get hMP+ while synced.

-While the query selection boxes associated with the white magic spell Raise and the black magic spell Tractor are being displayed, the same spells will no longer be able to be cast on that player.

This saves me more MP in events/dynamis/besieged than I can rightly put into words.

-The enchantments on the following items can now be recharged in Al Zahbi, Aht Urhgan Whitegate, Nashmau, Southern San d'Oria (S), Bastok Markets (S), and Windurst Waters (S): Chariot Band / Empress Band / Emperor Band

Finally, a good use for those 230,000 some-odd allied notes. And here I thought I'd have to use them all on chocobos and sprint shoes...

-The tax levied on bazaar purchases has been abolished in the following areas: Ru'Lude Gardens / Upper Jeuno / Lower Jeuno / Port Jeuno

Which resulted in the mass-exodus of RMT/LS bazaars from The Shoppes of Batallia Downs. They're all on the Upper Jeuno Bridge now, just inside from Batallia.

-Players can now warp to Aht Urhgan Whitegate from Jeuno by talking to the Salaheem's Sentinels representative deployed there.

-The locations of outpost warp NPCs in San d'Oria, Windurst, and Bastok have been changed as follows: Northern San d'Oria (D-9) -> Northern San d'Oria (K-9)Bastok Metalworks (F-8) -> Bastok Mines (K-8)Port Windurst (D-5) -> Port Windurst (L-4)

In other words, the amount of time spent travelling on foot has been drastically reduced. Especially in the case of those OP NPCs - they put them RIGHT NEXT to the mog house entrance. Very nice. And I always thought it was weird that Jeuno had an invitation quest, but not a warp representative like the other nations.

-The sale prices for the following items have been changed:Black Ink / Bugard Skin / H. Q. Bugard Skin / Orc Piercer / Yagudo Freezer / Shellbuster / Leech Saliva / Bird Blood / Beast Blood

{begin rant}

This just pisses me right off. Seriously. You might recall that over Thanksgiving, I NPC'ed off the Beast Blood that dropped off Lesser Gaylas to afford the Apollo Staff for my BST. Earlier this year, Talon, Keri and I would farm Castle Zvahl for those weapons to fund our BLM. Many, many other legitimate players use these farming methods to get what they need. But everytime the average player finds something that they can really cash in on, SE nerfs it so that it can't be used by RMT. Instead, why not fix the root cause: that the amount of gil needed to do endgame activities is too difficult for the average player with 1-2hrs/day play time to get without spending weeks farming. All this does is drive players who would otherwise be honest, rule-abiding players to buy their gil from the very sites SE is trying to fight, and at an even more inflated price due to the increased difficulty of getting said gil.

Wake up, SE.

{end rant}

Overall, this update leaves me with more game to play and less means needed to play it. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. A little confused? I mean, how did they put so much win AND so much fail into a single update that didn't take two days to download? I'm gonna just have to suck it up and spend a week doing nothing but fishing in Nashmau for the gil I need to do endgame stuff.