You can solo up to Lv20 pretty easily these days. Grab a emperor/empress ring and try some Fields of Valor for pretty decent XP, not to mention Decent Challenge and Easy Prey monsters give substantially more than a few patches ago.

There was a short time last year I think where billing was suspended, but that was because of issues with the billing system. It wasn't an intended thing.

Likely, the only time they're going to remove the fee is when the game is about to close, like they did with Blue Burst.

Originally posted by NotArkard

 

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Originally posted by ic0n67

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Originally posted by zanfire

 

have you seen mithra males? they are weak emos XD they explain in WoTG that they were too weak so the females did all the hunting.

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>.> Did Naja say that or something? I don't remember that at all. But seriously the Mithra is based off the idea of a lion. Unlike most other spieces in the world where the males hunt and the female take care of the young, the female lions who are more agile and inconspicuois do the hunting while the male who are stronger and more (can't think of the word) stay and defend the den. Same thing in FFXI. The males are defending Kazham while the females are out adventuring in the world.

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They could've at least made mithra male models, just not playable ones. It's hard to believe the idea that they're defending any den when they're nowhere
to be found.

To help the lore out, I just tell myself the mithra are into some serious bondage action and the males spend all their lives bound and gagged in basements around Kazham. Now that's something for a cutscene.

Search around with the Model Viewer and you'll find there is a male Mithra model. In fact, he shows up in a cutscene somewhere in Wings of the Goddess.

I don't think that being able to see mobs before other players is even possible because you only see what the server tells you is there. YOUR player model is client-side, but mobs, NPCs, and players are all server. That's why it takes a second or two for them to appear when you zone in, and why they sometimes move less smoothly than you do.  The server is set to tell you what is where at certain distances, and that's not something you can really change.

The actual zone, however, is all completely loaded onto your computer when you zone in.

That being said, I never really used plugins for Windower other than that because it makes the game actually look decent for being six(?) years old. Also, the official windower has a bad habit of mucking up game performance, while the normal windower, for whatever reason, makes the game run as well as if it was fullscreen.

The cool thing about FFXI is that there's a ton of stuff that either doesn't require you to be 75 or actually caps you at a lower level in order to complete, such as certain Nation/Storyline missions and BCNMs (instanced boss fights basically. Some have level caps as low as 20!).

You'll find quickly that being a higher level doesn't put you in a different, I dunno.. group of players like in WoW, where being above a level cap for a dungeon won't allow you to queue for it or use the meeting stone to summon, it just opens up more stuff for you to do.

 Also, Mithra.

Originally posted by drogtor

I used windower back when i was playing FFXI, it was honestly no big deal (just played in a window and had buff / debuff timers .. thats it !

If SE was to ban me for using that silly piece of software (that should have been impplemented in ithe game), then good riddance of the game altogether  [one might say ^^]

Honestly, SE doesn't give a crap about windower and are too busy with RMT and stuff like speed hackers anyway. They mostly just do it because their protocol is to not allow third-party applications. They can't detect it as far as I know because it just hooks into the exe's memory. 

I believe that SE's official stance on Windower is that they will not actively pursue Windower users, but allegedly people who have been banned for using it, so my guess is that you only get banned for using it if you say you're using it and someone rats you out or something. That, or they were using Windower as well as some other kind of actual cheating tool and are simply hiding the fact.

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Let me see if I got this right. Draw distance. This will increase distance out that your game will see things. So things like buildings, mobs, npcs, players etc that would normally not be seen by me because they are too far away would be seen by you if you are standing right next to me. That's correct right?

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I wouldn't suggest crafting for profit as a low level player. You'll likely find you're losing money much faster than you gain it back. Your best bet is to farm, farm, farm. While crafting in general is not terribly profitable at low levels, there are some crafts that you can make that can net some cash if you really do them. One such thing is sheep leather. You can make it with 0 leatherworking skill without much difficulty, but you'll need to carry the materials around while you farm/level. You can collect sheepskins from sheep in Ronfaure (San d'Oria) or Gustaberg (Bastok). You might need to be about level 4-5 or so to fight them, but after that you're solid.

The recipe for sheep leather is 1x Dark Crystal, 1x sheep leather, 1x windurstian tea leaves, and 1x distilled water. The dark crystals can be purchased from the auction house (check your server's prices, usually around 1000-2000 gil), or farmed from funguar enemies in Ronfaure and Ghelsba Outpost. (this might be the best idea for a player without cash). The tea leaves might need to be purchased from the auction house, but they're usually not too expensive, and the distilled water can be purchased from a vendor in South San d'Oria for cheap. To craft, simply select the crystal and then place the ingredients in the box that appears, then wait as your character makes the item. You can fail crafts though and lose materials as well as the crystal, so keep that in mind (this is why crafting can lose money fast if you're not careful).

In general, always make sure never to leave the city without Signet when you farm. This is a buff that you get from your nations Conquest representatives who stand next to the gates leading out of the city, designated by an abbreviation next to their name typically (R.K. for San d"Oria, I.M. for Bastok, and W.W. for Windurst). Simply talk to them and ask for Signet.  Signet will allow crystals to drop from enemies, give you Conquest Points for killing enemies (I think that you gain about 10% of your EXP in conquest points per kill). Conquest Points are redeemed for special items or equipment (the equipment can be sold, mind you), with more items available as your nation rank increases from missions. Also, Signet keeps you from losing TP when you rest. You also get some stat bonuses when fighting enemies rated Decent Challenge or lower.

Lastly, basically just collect stacks of whatever you find and sell it on the AH. In San d"Oria, items that sell well besides crystals of all kinds are Rabbit Hides which you can gain from any rabbit-type enemy, including the Lv1 ones just outside the gates.

If you have the old vanadiel collection here's what you do:

Uninstall PlayOnline ONLY if you've already installed it. Uninstalling POL will not affect your FFXI files. They're in separate folders.

Download the vista compatible POL and install it, update,etc. Then you can log in and update FFXI or install the expansion packs or what have you.

The 2008 collection is 100% vista compatible. I think the 2007 version was as well, as are the FFXI trial packs you can find at places like GameStop for about $3. I installed FFXI using one of those and am curently up and running without a hitch on Vista Home Premium 64-bit. One thing of note though is that you will need to fully update FFXI before you can run the config program on Vista. If you try it without updating, the program will simply crash, so update, close FFXI, and then go and adjust settings as you please.

There's a free trial client available on Fileplanet, but I'm not sure if it has all of the expansion data. It's a 2GB download, and a full install of the game with every expansion is about.. 8 or so GB according to my Windows control panel.

I believe there's a separate trial for the US and EU versions, so make sure you get the right one. Also, if you can, start downloading during an off-peak time, because fileplanet queues can get nasty.

I've actually been using one of those 14-day trial discs for my installs. It's Vista compatible and has up to ToAU on it. I don't see why the 2008 Collection wouldn't be Vista compatible if that is.

Originally posted by Maggotscream

It doesn't matter what kind of graphics the game has, people who enjoy it will still play it.

Hence why I still own my snes and play it often.

I think there's a difference between dated graphics and crappy graphics.

That being said, using the same engine for all those F2P games would make a lot of sense. I'm surprised when stuff like Atlantica or Perfect World comes out and it actually looks like it was made this decade. And don't get me wrong, I love sprite-based stuff, but it's very very easy to do badly.