Friday Fantasy Alpha 14! - Logs from Eorzea Entry IV
It's that time again, and once more we had two tests this week, but we will be focusing on today's run through. More partying, more exploring for this test. A friend and I decided to get a little crazy, get some XP and explore further than we should. Also, tons of screen-shots this time. Enjoy!
We met up on the highlands surrounding Camp Bearded Rock, I was attempting to solo, and failing, because I'm a squishy Conjurer Rank 4, and PR7(Physical Rank). We're going to call my friend Lalex, so Lalex came up as I was running into a small canyon, I asked him if we could party up because he was a big tough Gladiator Rank 12 even if he was a Lalafell, he was feared by those mobs!
Lalex decided to firstly show me his 'secret camp' filled with Nanny's, which are these huge goat looking things that also look like Llama's and we took them down quite easily, with our Steiner/Vivi like battle tactics. Biggest issue with being a Conjurer so far is the MP management, at this early stage in levels I only have one ability, Tranquility, which gives you a percentage of MP and I can only use it once every 30 minutes. One my Conjurer is out of mp I'm fairly useless...I decided I'd go buy some Ethers at camp, regen my MP at the Aetheryte, and resume Xping with Lalex. After that, things went much smoother, I used less of my MP by using the no cost Conjurer ability Spirit Dart, which is basically the original Magic Missile spell. Mainly using my actual elemental spells once or twice a fight just to end the fights sooner or if I felt that the fight was taking too long.
Eventually, curiosity got the best of us and we headed Far far north of Camp Bearded Rock, but we passed over a ridge into another valley, and our ADHD got the best of us and we decided to go Cedar Wood, the sort of...outpost of Camp Bearded Rock. There is where we met the biggest people eating crabs. Very scary, but we decided to take a shot at them. Ha! We bested the very first one without much of a scratch at all.
Pressing on further, Lalex lead us to a place called Tiger Helm Island and what we found there put that fear right back into us. Some kind of big dragon thing that we've never seen before, I went in for a screenshot as close as I was willing to go without catching aggro and dying right then and there Lol.
After passing the scary dragon thing, we were offered a beautiful scenery of water hitting the cliffs base.
At this point, it felt as if we were going in circles, funny thing, we were. From the first bridge we crossed where we saw the dragon, it went along narrow paths through fields of monsters that were all Incredibly Tough and we thought we would die at any moment by stupid aggro. But once we passed the gauntlet, we found ourselves walking towards a little green arrow on the minimap, soon enough we zoned into a new map.
Along through the travels, we found many outpost aetherytes, which work as save points. When/if we die, we just poof back at our last touched save point. It feels so much like meshing old FF's with FFXI. I'm so in love with this amazing game.
Yes this entire post was a total rant, but the Alpha 1 is at its end, and there is very little more to report on. Crafting is still a complete mystery still but the core of the game is there. In the end, it's the game we all wanted, the game we all loved for so many years and completely addicted to. It's FFXI + 3 and MasterCraft.
Once Alpha 1 is over, if they skip Alpha 2, or completely remove all Alpha accounts from further testing...I won't be able to bring you the hot information from the game. But...it was so worth it...for even a glimpse of this beautifully magical game and I absolutely CANNOT wait till retail hits. With that, this is still Wicked, and we are still euphoric about FFXIV, signing off till next week.
Yes this entire post was a total rant, but the Alpha 1 is at its end, and there is very little more to report on. Crafting is still a complete mystery still but the core of the game is there. In the end, it's the game we all wanted, the game we all loved for so many years and completely addicted to. It's FFXI + 3 and MasterCraft.
Once Alpha 1 is over, if they skip Alpha 2, or completely remove all Alpha accounts from further testing...I won't be able to bring you the hot information from the game. But...it was so worth it...for even a glimpse of this beautifully magical game and I absolutely CANNOT wait till retail hits. With that, this is still Wicked, and we are still euphoric about FFXIV, signing off till next week.
Just found this blog today...loving all the info--especially that the Aetherite works as save points!
That 'scary dragon thing' was a Peiste, which were also in FFXI. I remember fighting these two that came in with an NM when doing Campaign in Quadav territory. Scary bastards.
I do have one question: What sort of penalty do you incur for dying in FFXIV? I loved FFXI and played for a long time, but hated losing XP at lower levels from death. Do you lose XP in XIV for dying? If not, what penalty is there? Thanks and looking forward to more entries!
Glad you found us ^^
Yes, later on I realized what it was, at the time though, I called it scary dragon thing and scary dragon thing it shall be! lol -runs away-
I was talking about that the other day with a friend of mine who's also in the Alpha. The only penalty I've noticed thus far is a 5 minute period of weakness. So no XP loss, which makes things less than OMG MUST LIVE THIS FIGHT! but you do have to realize in FFXIV the distances are much greater between Aetherytes and possible camps. The only way you're going to get MP is if you are near that Aetheryte, so expect either some change concerning how we regen MP or lots and lots of crowded camping near Aetherytes.
I hope this answered your question, and I look forward to more :)
p.s. funny thing, your name, its one of my old char names on another game. Hehe