Makin' Bank, and a Gift for Fhox

(cha ching)

Tonight, after the Y, I took care of some farming, after waiting about 30 minutes flagged up on SMN. Giving up on that, I changed outfits and flagged back up on WHM of all things. Then I took off for my two farming spots.

From the Ruins, I got a set of Test Answers and a Gravity. Then I went to Norg and bought another set of the :Ichi elementals. Then I took off for Jeuno to start selling.

Fhox and I chatted for quite awhile about RDB. I told him it was time to plan another "rush week" and get back to the fun. I also assured him that I wouldn't leave unless he left first, that I'd discuss any "shell of my own" plans up front, and that I wasn't ready to do that anyway.

His response was quite insightful: When one can lead successful parties in the 40's, then one is ready to lead a LS. The reasoning makes sense - Once past the subjob levels, people's jobs start to really take shape, and things get a little more serious.

That said, I really wanted to try meeting up with Archer or one of the others - I miss them terribly. I thought I might get the chance as Arch was in Qufim, AKA Jeuno's basement. But by the time I was done selling, he had moved on to a Tower crawl and I had to log.

Yesterday, I made Fhox a gift - feel free to let him know it's here. Basically, when learning he meant RDB to be a Red Mage shell, I started kicking around some ideas for RDB icons using the Light Warriors pattern I used for my mood bar. I went ahead and made the RDM, and then a similarly-styled pimp-hat-wearing dragon. The hat is a cut & paste but the dragon is all mine.





I kept the dragon 20x30 with the same margin as the others. It's also 4-color, same as the rest. If I get really bored I might go ahead and finish him off, canvas size be damned.

I'm toying with the idea of replacing the pearlsack image in my Gamercard with the dragon. We'll see.

Other tidbits:

Sony dropped another PS3 update, 2.42. Supposedly it adds PS Life to F@H. And maybe, just maybe it will fix TheAlmighty's freezing problem. I was able to download the update but it locked up waiting for me to press the PS button to process the file.

While catching up on some old entries on Vagustae's blog recently, I saw the "which FFXI job are you" quiz and remembered I had done one too. I posted it, but backdated it to 3/30 (when I took mine). {Please} {check}

Help Me Out!

(Eternal optimism)

Can anyone help me find something? I've been trying for several days to re-locate a FFXI webcomic that included a special panel, commissioned for a friend.

The webcomic centers on a Mithra (iirc) Dragoon and her Wyvern, and there were several entries. Many of the comics were LS-related.

The special panel, which is what I'm really after, was done for a crafter friend of the Dragoon. It shows a Mithran crafter toiling away on Noble's Tunics in the hopes of getting a HQ result. Near the end it shows her in Jeuno selling her wares off a table.

I had found it by accident while searching for crafing advice. I saved a copy but the drive I saved it on... Well, let's just say the smoke came out. This was a media drive so it wasn't backed up.

I really would love to know where that comic went. Frequent searches on Google Web and Images haven't turned up anything. Well, anything *related*. I've seen more Mithra "art exercises" than I ever wanted to.

Heck, I'd like to add the comic's site to my blogroll - it was good stuff!

Taking a Break

(Really, really tired)

Today I took a break. I meant to email Fhox but never logged in. In fact, TheAlmighty is still hosed up and I haven't found an answer.

We had Fam Game Night instead, playing Star Wars Monopoly until almost 11, then Ape and I hung out and I helped her with her lesson plans.

I finally found the Tr2n trailer, on a blogspot site. Apparently Dailymotion (original site) and YouTube are yanking the cam version and the "stabilized" cam version. This guy had it posted on Vimeo, and all I can say about the grainy, crooked vid is... Geekgasm!

I've been enjoying Vagu'Stae's blog (see link to right). She's an interesting and unique person and as it happens, the crew she runs with are familiar to me - I've partied with almost all of the people she showed after a group event (Promy?). In any case, if you should ever happen upon my site Vagustae, "Hi!"

Finally had to change headphones on my PSP, TinyWonder. The puck half was dorked up. The cord at one end or the other (most likely the PSP connection end) was fraying internally and not allowing puck keypresses through. It still works as headphones but I got sick and tired of being stuck on certain songs/episodes. I had just purchased a phat PSP headphone set for like 10 bucks on Toys R' Us clearance, so, yay.

After Y night tomorrow I plan to try logging in again. DFLS is gone so at least when I do log in, I get in rather than waste half an hour fighting error dialogs.

Somebody hire me as a PHP/MySQL programmer!

Slow Learner

(One less Dunes job)

June 25-27, 2008

This weekend was all about Scholar. I went from 16 to 20 over two nights. Friday wasn't going to be productive party-wise because of Date Night and getting home late from the movies (Step Brothers). I think all I squeezed in was a Ruins run and a set of elemental Ninjutsu scrolls for the Jeuno customers.

Saturday was long, owing to Ape babysitting much of the evening. Valcrowe invited me and the five of us under his command learned that he was pretty new. At the behest of one of the more experienced, I gave Val a very quick but very effective summary of NIN tanking:

NIN casts shadows > Puller brings mob > NIN vokes > Off-tank vokes when shadows fall > NIN recasts and revokes > lather, rinse and repeat last 2 until mob is dead.

He got the hang of it very quickly and we carried on for awhile. Then he had to go and we also had some DC issues. I asked for lead and rebuilt the party and we stuck around for a while longer. But I only managed 1 level, to 17.

I logged off soon after Ape's return home but promised the Brigaders that I'd come back in a couple hours. When I made it back on, only Fhox and Isa were still on, at about 2:30am. Fhox needed a raise in Battalia Downs [S] and so I started there on foot. He and Isa were working Gnoles over for a claw he said went for 10k on the AH. After misreading my map ("Amateur") I found them and got Fhox fixed up.

I accepted his invite to kill Gnoles for a bit. On the second one Isa got a little too muck loving from a smilodon and Fhox called for zone-out. But I refused to go and we actually succeeded in killing both the gnole and smilodon. I think we took on 3 more but no drops on any. The kills offered a good skillup opportunity but took quite awhile per beast. At 4:30 I took off, as did they.


Sunday would be much better for Scholarly endeavors. Glorf responded to my flag and I outposted to the Dunes. (Note: "tnl?" is a bit abrupt, dont'cha think?) This party covered some beach pulling and a relocation to Qufim and quite a bit of worm XP. Other than an odd bit of aggro running from the OP warp spot to the lake, in which I wound up with a mob train (Trapper, its Leech and Bats), things went pretty well.

Glorf had asked me to come /BLM for nuking since he had a PL. I decided to stick with /WHM because the last time I checked /BLM at 17, the gains in black magic were obliterated value-wise by the losses in white. At 20 it might be a different story, so I need to check again.

Some notes: I'm feeling a lot better about my SCH macro setup. I have the Light and Dark Arts separated nicely and some recast lines. Also, all spells are loaded as auto-trans entities. But sometimes I found myself searching for my C2 macro in emergencies. That said, on Light or Dark my Cure power seems to be very good so I might put C2 on each bar.

I don't have nearly enough MP to nuke. I had to sit out several fights to rest up MP. When I did nuke, I usually did pretty good damage, and I used Parsimony to cut Fire's cost in half. I still kept running dry.

Holy Crap! (hyperventilating)

(News Flood!)

The Bad:

Randy Pausch, of "The Last Lecture" fame died yesterday. /sorrow Ape and I watched his story on Diane Sawyer and we were both very moved. This guy seemed to be the real deal - a nice, honest fellow that anyone could be friends with. And the fact that we was a CompSci professor, and created Alice as a way to teach programming and logic concepts was plain awesome.

My dad was told yesterday to expect to lose about HALF of his annual salary. And this is after a recent cut during his company's ownership change! Ape and I are still conflicted on what to do job-wise as well...

The Good:

Penny Arcade Adventures: OTRSPOD coming to PS3? Hells yes! Now I don't have to buy an Xbox! Oh wait, dead PS3...

Two words. Well, a word and a float: Tron 2.0. Yesterday at Comic-Con a teaser was shown for the audience of about 6,500. I will be surfing YouTube tonight!

Tron and Star Wars are fully to blame for me taking an interest in science and technology (and computing). I am what I am career and intellect wise because of choices made after having my mind expanded by these films.

To quote Tycho re: Tron: "This is the most important thing that has ever happened."

Today is Friday!

Navigating By Sonar

(PS3 is wearing me out)

Well, TheAlmighty is not back to full health yet. I logged in at 7-ish to check on something, and Kitty and I had a nice chat. I think it blew her mind to see me up and about with the Sun still visible.

I didn't stay long though because dinner came. I logged back in after 9, and about 5 minutes later, *bzzt* lockup. So I yank the PS3 off the TV stand and take it apart again. I wanted to check the heatsinks. This time, it only took like 15 minutes to strip it down, but then the fan wouldn't come off. Either the paste is really holding or the heat's fusing stuff together in there...

I got it back together and back online (so far, NO DFLS!) at about 9:40 and Fhox asked the shell if anyone wanted to static in the 14-16 range. I asked to go but said I'd have to finish up game night with the fam, which would end at about 10:30.

Luckily, game night ended on schedule and I hastily made my way to the OP. I warned the party that I might get knocked off again. Fhox was only able to round up 4 Brigaders (Fhox, Isa, Puma and me on SCH), and random seekers were ignoring his LFP requests. So we made do with bunnies and crabs. Fhox even remembered to throw out an {Amateur} for good measure. I joked that maybe I'd forget to cure him when I saw red HP.

We were doing all right on T and VT action but the resting was slowign things down. And the XP penalty was huge - VT's were only worth 105 XP, *banded*. Seriously, what's that all about? Fortuantely, the camp we chose (crab camp in the trees near Oasis) had lots of prey for Puma to work with.

On one particular pull we were getting close to finishing off a VT snip when a gob wandered over and started hating on Fhox. The crab and Fhox went down at almost the same time but the gob then ignored the rest of us. Interesting. Even though we generated no hate, I figured its aggression at our level would have led to a wipe.

Isa volunteered to switch jobs in Selbina to raise Fhox. Not long after she left, Brothermist runs by with gob in tow and dies not far from us. I informed Isa she had more customers. And then, of course, I get aggro. I haul tail for Selbina ("Run Forest Run") and actually make it. And then Puma goes down. So I change too and while Isa is helping Fhox and Puma (she got back before me) I help out Mist. I got a shot in at Fhox too (paraphrasing): Aer> I told you I might "accidentally" forget to cure. Fhox > You sure did. Aer > I didn't piss off the gob. All > lol

(When they make chat logs saveable on PS3 I will be sooooo happy)

We switch back and return to camp, which Fhox has cleverly relocated to one side of the grove. As we resume the business of killing beach animals, my screen freezes. Argh! At first I thought it was a total lockup but I could still hear things. So I tried some chats, casts and a call. Everything was working except I couldn't see what I was doing.

I regretfully say my farewells and shut down. I hope they did OK after I left since they had no other healing support.

As for TheAlmighty, I have one last thing to try. On this overheat (assuming that's what these have been) the fan never went into high speed mode. I don't know if the case being off is affecting the temperature sensor, but tonight I'm going to reassemble the whole thing and try again.

I had elevated the PS using the screwheads, and propped the BDD sideways as well. But the mainboard is STILL getting incredibly hot!

I'm also looking into other people's experiences with the video-lock problem. And I'm trying to track down a way to manually change the fan speed.

This Post Has Been Removed

Check back later, OK?

Rolling the Dice

Tuesday I had promised Aleu COR quest help. We set out almost as soon as I had logged in, around 11:40, and after much boat riding and waiting for boats, she, I, and two friends from her sis’ shell set out. The borrowed muscles belonged to Caldor and Demolisher. They met us after I was fixing Aleu up post-wipe. Big octopus…so many arms…/shudder

We slogged our way through the Mire since Aleu hasn’t had any chance to unlock portals yet (her first visit was that afternoon). For some reason, Cal and Demo opted to fight rather than grab the free key. Long story short, after making it to Arrapago and trying to farm for a bit, Caldor disappears. Aleu and I joke that he’s gone for the freebie, and sure enough, he comes back a few minutes later with key in hand.

On the boat with the first of the two COR ??? spots, Aleu clicks for her cutscene. I somehow get aggroed by a Merrow Enchantress and die trying to sleep it. I asked the rest of the party if they went for a nap. No, it turns out all three of them were flagging COR. I was the only one stupid enough not to do so. /sigh I apologized for my rudeness and waited for them to finish.

It took major work and TWO MORE deaths on my part, plus Demo’s demise once, but we finally cleared the way. By now it was after 2am and I really had to go. The three of them carried on after I bade them luck.

Deaths: Aerin x4, Aleu x1, Demo x1

A couple of times Aleu started to say something about Fhox and Archer. Apparently something was going on with Fhox and Isa that bothered Arch but she seemed to think he had calmed down. Apparently he threatened to leave RDB! She said something about RDB getting to be like high school. I commented that whatever it was, people deserved happiness and that I hope it worked out.

I shut down and the PS3 locked up. I couldn’t get any kind of response so I did the hold-power-for-8-seconds trick and went to bed. When I woke up Wednesday, Matt, Cole and Bran were up and Matt reported the PS3 wasn’t working. I tried some troubleshooting but couldn’t get it to stay on. Eventually it stopped booting at all. Further repair attempts would have to wait.

It's Elemental, My Dear Watson

(Lots of good news)

Even though I'm back to all-WHM mood-wise, yesterday had some challenges. I apparently missed Ape's signals Sunday night, thinking she'd gone to bed. I had logged in around 11:30, plenty late, but she was not very happy the next morning...

So I dedicated yesterday to her. 4 hours at my parents', for dinner, game night, and PC repair, then hanging out until 12:30 at home. But I did log in, and on the first try too ^^

I didn't have a lot of time, so aside from hellos to the few Brigaders still on, and some quest-planning with Aleu, it was going to be a quiet night. Aleu needs her AU boarding pass and wants to unlock Corsair. I don't have the details on COR but I told her what she was in for on the pass. Turns out she already has 4 of 6 items needed. So once she grabs the other two she's gonna pop the quest and hope she can get the pass for tonight.

Tonight, my focus was on the elemental Ninja scrolls I could have been using all this time. After puttering about in Jeuno with some final sales and crap item disposal, I fired up my Yhoat teleport. Almost immediately upon landing in the jungle, I get a blind tell asking for a tele-Holla, 5k.

It's already 1:35am by now and I desperately wanted to be done by 2. But I gave in and walked to where the party of two was waiting. I told him it would only be 2k and after that was sorted, I zapped them off to La Theine. Buffs, one skillup, and much appreciation later I return to Yhoator.

This time I make it just into Yuhtunga before being stopped. This time, it's Corina on DNC soloing one of the Yutunga Mandies. It's a long fight and she's making progress but occasionally dipping into the middle of her health. Then I see the "network issue" icon over her head and dismount, curing as soon as I hit the ground. I was concerned that even with a brief freeze the mandy would be able to finish her off. But luckily she came back quickly.

During the fight I healed and threw hastes out. Once it ended I tacked on protect and shell. She was very appreciative and I said not to worry and that it's what we (WHMs) do. At least, what we're called to do ^^

From here it's a long run to Norg and I realize outposting would have been far faster. It would also cost more, at about 800 gil versus a free tele and a bird for about 250, but maybe the time savings would've been worth it...

Once in Norg I finish off the Kurayami quest, since in one more level that one will be usable. Then I find the scroll NPC called Chiyo and learn the shop is closed. So is the general store guy behind me. I log out, ad realize I have a little homework to do IRL. Once that's done it's close to opening time for the scroll guy. So I try logging back in, and once again I'm in with no DFLS. I log out and do it once more, with no error. Here's hoping that particular gremlin is gone!

I check the sundries shop first, noting their price on the -ton ninjutsu tools. Then I review the scrolls and lo and behold, FAR cheaper than Jeuno. {Hmmm.} I buy one of each of the -tons and log out.

So hopefully Tuesday night will be a successful job unlock with Aleu, and I'll give the new scrolls a whirl. And maybe do a little market speculation...

Somewhere late in the evening, Aleu and I chatted a bit about Ape. I'mgoing to have to paraphrase here since I forgot to grab a summary of the convo. Aleu, my apologies if I mess this retelling up:

It started with a comment about the lateness of the hour. I told her I try to get on earlier but that tonight, due to a mistake on my part I had to wait on FFXI. Ape has first claim on my time soI get in when I can.

She said I should get Ape on and my answer was "If only there was some way. If only..." She actually apologized at this, so I felt bad. I let her know that, "I'd much rather have her and be sleepy than be married to someone else. She's my best friend and we get along" (great, but this got eaten by the input box ><)

She thought that was sweet.

Yes, I do wish Ape would get into FFXI or something similar. I figure one of my spawn will before too long. Runescape didn't work but there's quite a few other choices. In all honesty, I worry for my family's health should Ape and I join forces online. We'd be sucked in and chores and responsibilities IRL would remain undone!

As for the networking, if the fix holds for a few more days, I want to look into undoing the DMZ setting and possibly the static IP mapping. I'm wondering if I'd get better performance out of my ISP's DNS servers rather than hopping out to OpenNIC. And since I don't feel DNS was the real issue it shouldn't matter.

Tanks for the Memories!

(Lower-level loving at last!)

July 17-20, 2008

Thursday was a non-day: "Aerinravage was defeated by the DFLS." Many people have this problem and most seem to think it's DNS or firewall/port-blocking related. But I have an issue with PSN also, where I get dumped out randomly, and especially on entering or exiting PS3 mode from PS2 gameplay. Also, some reports suggest Linksys and FFXI don't like each other. NOW I find this out?!

So far, I have tried the following to improve connection reliability:
* Put TheAlmighty into the DMZ
* Turned off DHCP and statically mapped IPs and DNS settings
* Made sure uPnP was enabled on the router and in POL's net connection
* Changed DNS servers (currently using OpenNIC's 208.67.222.222 and 220.220)
* Set up port triggering per various recommendations (this should be redundant with uPnP but I'm desperate!)
* Set up port forwarding (see "redundant" note above")

Note that currently ALL SIX of these stratagems are in place now. I should only have had to enable uPnP but nope... As of the last change (forwarding) I got in 1/1. Let's see if it works again. If it doesn't I think I know what I'll be spending my $75 gift card on...

Friday was a Dunes party on Ninja. A party with some very nice people having a good time getting the s-l-o-w-e-s-t XP I think I've gotten in a party. But I'm really getting the hang of Ninja now, and did a good job holding hate and getting shadows up in a timely manner (usually). I'm pushing for Skillchain work in my melee parties now because faster kills means less grief, and it's just plain cool.

Saturday was more NIN action, but this time in Qufim. This party worked much better and the XP flowed in. I dinged twice this time, taking me to 22. Also, our leader and I discussed DDR after I broke out my Dance macro in response to his /dance emote. Took me a sec to realize he meant DDR when he asked if I could freestyle.

After about 3 hours I set up my rep (Mordare) and then we wound up with a link and two deaths besides mine. I told them I'd HP, come back on WHM, raise and then bail as my rep should be on site by then. The timing worked out perfectly too; Mordare was ready to take my spot once the raises were handled.

I eventually went AFK to put Ape to bed at about 2:30. I told them if I came back I'd PL. And about 45 minutes later I did. I don't know if he meant it but the leader teased my saying he didn't realize I'd been helping. :P I was glad to be there because twice they wound up with hard links that most likely would have ended at least one adventurer's activities.

Last night was Paladin's turn at the XP buffet. I got an invite from Fheyr (fear? neat) almost instantly and outposted. I'm convinced now that this is far better to reach any Qufim camp than going through Jeuno and having to get by the Weapons in the tunnels. Running from the OP to the lake camp takes only a few minutes, and it's easier IMHO to avoid aggro.

While the party started out all right, we had some trouble at the lake when not one, but BOTH banshees aggroed us while we worked on a worm. I used my Reraise scroll once I figured out the end was nigh but it failed to activate.

Now, get this... After homepointing with intent to raise, the party dissolves. I ask the leader what happened and he says he doesn't know. I stop near Rottata and poll the others - they either HPed themselves or survived. Then Fawnaa mentions that Fheyr said he had to go as it was late. She didn't seem happy - this was her first Qufim trip.

So I suck it up and try to rebuild the party as its leader. I'm able to get Fawnaa, Toiletpaper and Chiroptera back in, and two invites and five minutes later, we have a MNK and SMN to replace Fheyr and that other guy who left after the DB. We pick up where we left off, in the lake area. I took over pulling and did a good job there. When night fell I was able to successfully avoid spectral attention.

Tonight while tanking both parties, I did much better at hate control than in previous outings. In fact, I cure-voked more than once to pull a mage-hungry mob back to me before it made it to the back line. I got some SC action in, too. However, getting other melees to recognize {Ready to start skillchain!} as a sign to call their TP has been a so-so effort so far.

We pulled solid XP in both parties, with many dings, until Jet had to jet. At this, we had to downgrade to worms and T/VT snips instead of the IT's we had been creaming. Some worms still gave up 3-digit numbers but it was rough. And man, the lake got really crowded too! I think there were three full parties and at least one guy soloing!

All in all, a fine weekend and I managed not to stay up as late as last weekend.

Reflections:

While roaming Qufim, I stood near a NIN from another party. They were using elemental ninjutsu at our level. Clearly I'm under-equipped spell-wise. Time to find a good Ninja guide and go shopping.

My tanking is improving although I think I need to figure out why my damage output sucks. I turned off some of my party combat filters and others were routinely putting up 3x the damage I was, even for the same moves. I don't think it can be all weapon, as the Flame Sword I'm using is one of the nicer pieces DPS and effect-wise at these levels. I'm wondering if it's racial-my STR might be doing me in, or I may need more Att+ gear instead of Eva.

One example - my Shield Bash seems to only ever do 7-8 damage. Someone else this weekend was on PLD and was getting 42+ per bash! Whiskey Tango Hotel!

I think I'm getting into tanking. I really enjoy my time on these jobs now, even though I never thought I would. I still think it's because of my "protect the others" mentality that dominates my WHM. Being the one to soak up damage and control hate just means I'm saving them with different tools.

On looking at my Gamercard, I see that fully 8 of 10 jobs in use are magic- or magical-ability related: WHM, BLM, SCH, RDM, SMN, PLD, NIN and DNC. Even BST has some neat tricks but it and WAR are physical damage and ability only. These jobs are the only ones I use with NO party support ability, which may be why I'm not sold on them.

OK, TBH I usually go WAR/PLD for the cures and eventually Shield Bash. Plus PLD has some good bonuses too. But at 24 I may switch to /NIN and dual-wield axes and use shadows + Berserk for damage output effectiveness.

And of the magey jobs, I roll 7 of 8 with some level of party support (curing mostly). Only NIN/WAR has nothing for party members. It can enfeeble mobs and enhance me, but that's it. But it's soooo cool.

In RDB news, Wednesday will be another static and I'm wondering if it'll be a 30-level. I can go as either DNC or RDM at those levels, so I guess it should be a challenge.

Stupid Network

(What gives? A week with this thing and I'm already going BLM!)

Wouldn't you know it - I finally get my big TV back and I can't log in... DFLS seems to want to play more frequently with me lately ><. (text that was here was eaten by Blogspot's code because I used the angry-face near an italics tag... Attempting repair...)

Tonight was supposed to be RDB Static night, but instead it became movie night. April, the boys + friends went to see Get Smart while I saw Hellboy II. I really enjoyed it, and also enjoyed the last 10 minutes or so of their movie waiting for them to finish. But after all this I got home after 10 and then had to go back out to pick up some groceries. In the rain. If you know me, rain + driving is actually a good thing, but it also means I didn't rush home.

Long enough story shortened, I didn't try logging in until 11:10 and didn't make it past DFLS until 11:30. And by then the gang was wrapping things up. Fhox invited me to come PL while it looked like Yalto was going to stay longer. Hopeful for a chance to level SCH I head out.

Fhox and I PLed 5 other Brigaders (Ali, Enzio, Isa, Yalto and Aleu) plus Wrex for about 40 minutes. They were a mix of 14-16's and were taking on pugs at the boat beach. Hits for 30% were not uncommon and Fhox and I had our hands full.

I took over escorting Isa on pulls and sure enough, on one long pull she got her pug plus a BH add. I tried casting C2 on her but she made it out of range before it stuck and moments later she got dropped. Thinking back I don't know if I could have done anything to prevent that. I could have flashed the gob but the pug was already doing heavy damage. If she stayed put she probably would have taken more hits - I don't know if the gob was close enough to hit her yet. A C1 might have landed faster and pulled enough hate - I may have to test that out in a less-stressful situation.

I still felt bad especially since the party was ending soon. But aside from Fox's inevitable teasing nobody mentioned it.

After the party disbanded I thought Yalto and Serro (who had logged in just after) might want to start something but they didn't. Since I was In Selbina now, I decided to hitch a ride on the ferry and see if I could fight some pirates. Despite taking two rides none came, and in fact I was the only passenger both times. I did get two water clusters for taking out a Water Elemental, so, there's that.

Then I teleported to Jugner_S en route to Campaign but since the San d'Orians lost their hold on the forest I couldn't find the CA. I skilled up a bit on the fortification before warping to safety and logging out.

With the recent Campaign "updates" that's less of an option for me for late-night action. I'm either going to have to play during the day and limit it to 2 hours or I'll go ahead and break out the Adventuring Fellow Quest...

As for DFLS, all signs point to a DNS issue despite several different fixes - public DNS, manually setting, etc. Someone else mentioned disabling uPNP so I'll try that later.

Design on a Dime

July 14-15, 2008


(I hate the DFLS freeze)

Upon logging in Monday, I started pestering the Brigaders for help with the stupid Quicksand Caves ramp. Archer thought I should try (J-7) but that didn't work. Oh, I also started getting aggro from Antican Secutors... I grabbed the laptop and pulled up the map again and this time I saw where I needed to go - (J-9) in the little nook.

Out of nowhere, Gojira asks if I'm ZM5 item-fetching and I tell him I'm trying. He mentions that a bunch of others are on the Fei'yin piece but I already have that one. After some distractions I start into the caves and am met by a complement of 6 ShinraSoldiers: Oryatni, Zeroknight, Elvtin, Decurion, Cynnc and one more whose name escapes me ATM. We set up an alliance and begin.

Even with no fighting required, there's enough aggro that it takes awhile to find our way to the headstone. Maybe an hour. And then they want to rocket off to Cape Terrigan for the first of the fights. I decide to go but warn them I can't do much more as Ape was home and wanting me off the TV.

If Quicksand Caves was frustrating because I got lost, Terrigan was bad because it took so freaking long to get there. Te fight itself, against a Shadow, was nothing and *poof* 5/8 fragments done. I logged out after warping home.

Tuesday almost didn't happen because we didn't get home until after 9 and I spent the next hour or so hooking up our new TV. Then Ape and I watched Rock the Reception and I peeled away long enough to log in and check my auctions.

My last batch of Jeuno stuff was a bust - 2 sets of crystals, the Cornette and the Protectra all came back. 500+ gil in fees for nothing. I tossed the crap onto Windy's AH.

And then I decided to redecorate. My Mog House has been annoying me for awhile now and I did some shopping. I grabbed a Bronze Bed and a Bahut. Not only does this finally make my place livable but it adds some storage.

I'm probably going to ditch the Festival Dolls and Windy Christmas tree. Both are horrid to look at. I want to get a desk-type thing to complete the cubicle area formed by my bahut and chest. And I want to find a chair for my dinner table. I'm trying to keep the decor Windy-based but some things I want are not designed here.

With my newfound storage I think my safe will be focused on gear sets for access at any MH/Nomad location and the storage will go to farming stacks, crafting materials and things like keys, orbs and seals.

{Sleep} {Can I have it?}

July 11-13, 2008


(happy but exhausted!)

I don't remember Friday night. Wait, let me rephrase that. I don't remember Friday night in Vana'diel. Before my memory loss, a whole bunch of us went to eat, Ape and I looked at TV's, rented 2 movies from Blockbuster and watched one (Be Kind Rewind). By the time all this was done it was almost 2am. I picked myself up off the floor at 5-ish. I think I partied in the Dunes on PLD for a bit but it must not have been a long party as I only dinged once. I think it was a 4-man + PL where the leader was 2-boxing the PL. Slow XP and a death or two but it was alright I suppose. And no, I *KNOW* I didn't fall asleep while in-party.

I do remember mentioning to the Brigaders earlier in the night that I had played the new WoW song for GH3. It's called "I am Murloc" and it's actually pretty nice riff-wise. But I told them I felt dirty playing it and I got a few lols.

Saturday on the other hand, I do remember. All 7 hours of it. Saturday was the scheduled ZM4 run with the ShinraSoldiers, the mission-based shell I got from Gojira recently. I logged in at about 11 to make sure I would be ready. I spent some time reading up on the mission and it seems I missed a few of the pre-reqs, but it turned out fine.

In actuality, Gojira had set the /lsmes to say it was ZM6, not ZM4 they would be doing at midnight. But when I switched shells, he was setting up ZM4 for me and a couple others. ZM4 is a 3-NM fight in the Temple of Uggalepih. And like everything else in this game, 80% of the time required is transportation and logistics, not combat or other action.

When I jumped shells, Gojira invited me into a party. Elvtin joined not long after and the three of us entered the temple. Then others joined in via alliance. Ultimately, 10 of us made our way down into the Den of Rancor for the fight. Kirstyana was there and recognized me. If she wasn't in RDB at one point I must've partied a few times with her because I know we've had a few chats.

Oh, one other detail - at 68, I was the lowest level in ShinraSoldiers and this 10-person party. Most everyone else was 72-75 with a couple of 71s. Seems like SS might be a "helpful end-gamers" shell. This might not be so bad after all.

Once in the Den and at the NM gate, we talked strategy and split into two 5-person parties. Since it's a 6-cap, we had to split up and nobody could do it twice so there was some concern about being undermanned. The group I was in went first and we cakewalked it. I did the cure/buff thing and drew hate from a pet after a Curaga II. But there was no danger and we finished in 5:30 (including like a full minute for buffs and rest). The second party did equally well.

After that, I thanked them all and we split up. By now it was about 1am and I wasn't in the mood to start ZM5. So I flagged back up on PLD hoping for 20. Not long after I got my invite and made my way to the outpost where the rest were waiting. This was another Mithra-heavy party and Moonshorty, waiting near us (but not in the party) says "I bet some of you are guys >.>". I shoot back "Aye", then "And?" He didn't reply ^^ My two counterparts clarified in party-chat that they were female IRL.

We headed out as 5 with a 6th on the way. Turns out this was more of a "get subjob items" farming party than an XP run. Two of them needed items, even the RDM20. So XP was lousy and it was taking longer than it should have because Silentss kept voking off me and hate was ping-ponging.

Once Bomoise arrived to round out the roster, it was clear we needed to sort strategy. Bomo and I seemed to be the most experienced and we eventually settled on him pulling and me voking as soon as I saw his shadows drop. It took convincing but Silent laid off the vokes for the most part. Turns out he's a Marine in real life and preservation of teammates is a strong instinct for him. I /saluted him, in all seriousness. I also mentioned that as a WHM main I find myself doing the same kinds of things.

This new plan worked much better for hate control. And we got the crab and worm drops we needed. In fact, I wound up dead on the final worm which was actually a Fly and two gobs. They all survived (barely) and I congratualted them on their teamwork. I said it was OK that I died because that's what a PLD does. As I returned from homepointing, they began chatting about the skulls they still needed. Bomo suggested he and I go to Gusgen on higher-level jobs and the others remain in the Dunes and lot remotely.

I stopped short of outposting thinking I'd have to change jobs but then our leader vetoed that plan and we broke up not long after. Three of us wanted to stay and Bomo took lead. We were in full XP mode now so it was time to move to Qufim. Our WHM, Sarrie, had never been to Jeuno and did not have any gate crystals. I accepted Bomo's request to escort Sarrie while he built the party back up.

Sarrie andI went to Selbina so I could change. She was appreciative of my gear and asked my opinion on hers. She had a few nice pieces of INT+ or MND+ gear, and she even had the Mist Silk Cape I've been trying to get for SMN and SCH! I warned her the walk would take nearly an hour and she said she planned to be on at least 2 in order to get one more level, hitting 20.

It was a long walk through La Theine, Jugner, and Battalia, but we made it safe and sound. She and I chatted a bit. Aside from some helpful advice, I learned her brother has been on for a year or so and she finally succumbed two months ago. I think she's English. Just before zoning into Jeuno, I asked her if she was ready to see the capital. She chuckled and we both zoned.

Once inside, I took her to Waag-Deeg's for some scrolls, then the AH. Her initial reaction to Jeuno was "So many people". Yeah, coming from a sleepy town like Windy and its pastoral surroundings into the hub of activity Jeuno is can be quite daunting.

During the walk, Jaadin joined and kept asking when Sarrie and I were going to make it to Qufim. Bomo told him more than once why it was taking so long. I told Bomo privately that I didn't think I'd be able to stay long since it was going to be almost 5am before setting foot in Qufim.

And in fact, after Sarrie finished her shopping and we entered the icy tunnel, it was just about 5. But I stuck it out for almost an hour and finally bailed once my rep (handily arranged by Bomo) arrived. Jaadin seemed to be annoyed I was leaving so soon and I don't know if I was clear with him that I had been in this party since like 1:30am. Whatever. It was nice to experience Sarrie's wonder and I can't help but be reminded of that one YouTube video about the meaning of adventuring. Please watch it here.

Sunday was a short run for the crystal fragments needed for ZM5. One of eight is the reward for ZM4. 3 more are fetch-quest style items. However, the final four are drops from NM fights... Damn, I didn't think ZM would be so hard or involved. I logged out seeking the crystal in Western Altepa because I can't find the Quicksand Caves ramp ><

Just before logging out I confirmed Fhox wants another RDB static, again at 8:30 Wednesday, for levels 13-15. He said he might push back to 9.

Photoshop Hero

"Filter Power Ready!"

I've been wanting to do a little graphics project for my blog...and today I wnt ahead and did it. Basically, I wanted a "mood meter" graphic I could add to posts. I've hinted at this sort of thing in shell chat before but the final vision came together in my mind a few weeks ago.

What I wanted was a White Mage facing a Black Mage, and some sort of scale between them. Adjusting the scale would indicate my mood, in the same fashion that various forums/Myspace/etc. do it. It needed to be simple, recognizable, and fun. In other words, 8-bit style!

Google Image search failed to produce a simple image I could use, so I rolled my own. Using a cross-stich pattern for the FF1 Light Warriors found here, I opened trusty Photoshop and prepared to skill up.

First I cut the white mage out, pasted her into a new image, blew it up and flipped it so she faced right. Then I made another new image sized 20x30 and hand-built my copy:




I repeated the process for the BLM.




Then I tried finding a simple crystal graphic I could use for the scale. Finding none, I made my own after a few experimental drafts. I made a green Wind crystal and a gray Dark crystal. If I get bored I can use the replace colors tool to make other kinds.



Finally, I made a new image, 90x30, and pasted in my new elements. Inside this .psd I have both mages and a row of 5 dark, and a row of 5 wind crystals. After arranging the layers, I can hide green crystals to get the different combos I want. This is a similar trick used for my Gamercard and its 30 layers so I can easily access each job's layer-pair. Here's the final results.










This was one of the most fun diversions I've worked on in some time, and I picked up a few points in my PS skill too ^^

Twist of Feiht

After the conclusion of the Phase 10 match (Ape won again), I logged in and immediately got an invite request to rep someone. Luckily, I was still in the Dunes from the previous SMN party and was only one square away from the new camp. A few minutes later and I had been swapped in for Omegix (sp). Again, we have a PL so I mix it up with summons, melee and enfeebs.

Early in the party Serro asks me for a raise in the Dunes but I had to decline as we had already started. I shouted and our PL takes off! My LS mate got the raise he needed but I never meant to divert our PL for it...

And then the deja vu kicks in. I think this fellow was the same PL I had a few weeks ago in Saromugue fighting weapons. Both Sedge (Scholar) and I had to cure quite a bit, and there were too many deaths. Remind me to check my log and compare names...

Anyway, we work our way through gobs and lizzies at the G-9 rock camp and move to the crab camp after some dings. Even with the PL, some of the pulls are rough. Our NIN puller, Feiht, would take extreme damage if her shadows fell before the DRK could voke off her. But despite the challenges, we're gatting pretty good XP and having a few laughs in party chat.

Then the PL starts complaining. He seemed annoyed about a delay as we switched camps, and made random comments about doing us a favor and that he couldn't or wouldn't control the gobs. He mixed his english with Japanese that I wasn't able to comprehend much of. At some point he said {Summoner}ですね～ probably referring to my meleeing. He never followed up and no one else cared.

He disappeared a couple of times only to return. Eventually, during some more bitching, Feiht and someone else (Sedge?) thanked him for his help but told him to go if he felt the urge. And he did not long after. Weird. But wouldn't you know it Feiht brings back a snip and a second gets aggroed in somehow. 4 dead, leaving only me and Sedge. We both opt to change in Selbina and split the raises.

We each took two partiers and I helped a neighboring party in which Drewsapocalypse was seconds from death. When I cured him, their mob stuck to me and they finished it off. I was able to raise their fallen comrade then, with appreciation and apologies from Jason and Drew.

As Sedge and I returned, I asked him if he wanted me to PL instead and he said I could but that I'd miss out on XP. I told him I was happy getting to 15 and that I didn't have a lot of time left and wanted to get the level back for whomever just deleveled. On returning, we let the rest in on the plan and I told them I would try hard to "suck less". See if you can guess what happens next!

I started off great, escorting Feiht on pulls and hasting when I could. With only 5, on what were certainly IT's, pulls were scary. Feiht especially gave me palpitations any time a snip or gob got through the shadows.

After one pull, when I thought the group was resting, I commented that our previous PL had been right on one thing - not voking once the mob was locked onto the PL. As I'm typing all this trying to be helpful and encouraging, I see "Feiht was defeated by the Goblin Leecher".

Ni~i~ice. I never saw her leave and since I can't touch-type, my eyes were off the screen during my mini-lesson. Argh!!! So now I have to eat crow, raise Feiht, remove my foot from my mouth, and hope I find some way to live this down ^^ I stayed 10 minutes longer than planned to make sure Feiht got some good XP and Sedge got his level.

Honestly, they were all good natured about it, laughing when I said I was still ahead of the other PL on "deaths allowed". All in all, other than the miscue on that pull, I think I did a proper job PLing. But I will have to update the guide: "Pullers like to take off when the PL is not looking."

Northern Exposure

I've been messing about with Google Analytics and today I see that my readership is expanding! Someone (or someones) from Indiana is checking in regularly, and there've been a few one-shots from Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, and ITALY. The Keyword report suggests a few players are finding me looking for themselves, but some of those could be me testing things.

If you are reading this and play FFXI, please feel free to post a comment or hit me up in-game. I know this blog isn't much to look at, but I hope someone will learn something neat from it, or at least have a laugh or two. I know I learned a few things from Halifirien and Vagustae that way.

Also, if anyone knows how to properly set Analytics filters so I can exclude my traffic, I'd be grateful!

Double Dragon

[edit 7/11/2008 - How did I miss Double Dragon? As soon as I saw the finished post, I realized I missed a much better title opportunity, so, edits ahoy!]

Tonight was the night for the planned RDB static in the Dunes. I logged in just after 8 to get ready and see what the plan was. I also played Phase 10 with the fam IRL since I knew I was going to be online for awhile. I leveled up to Phase 4 before we split up.

Fhox eventually announced we were going as two teams of 5 each since there was so much Brigader interest. He wanted me on SMN12 and gave me lead of the second party. I grabbed my gear, Signet and a few EB recharges then outposted.

Fhox was PLing Aleu to 11 and didn't call us together until a bit after 9. I had Aleu, Yalto, Vaudian and Starfirex in my party. Since I was the only healer, I started searching for a 6th almost immediately, and eventually got ahold of Ryukia, a DNC11. We desperately needed healing support because Yalto had just died because I couldn't dump HP into him as fast as a gob was taking it out.

Even better than getting a Dancer was that she brought along a PL called Etherial. They seemed to be friends ^^ After a bit of a rough start while Etherial found his groove, we really took off, beating up every gob and VT lizard Aleu could find. At about 10:30, Star asks to leave but she already had a replacement waiting, an in-game friend called Lilinfamous. Star also asked for a pearl for Lilin, which I gave her between battles.

I checked out just past 11, tracking down a rep and leaving with only 200xp tnl. As I left, Fhox PMed me to see how it went and I told him it was all good. I never did figure out where his party wound up but hopefully we do this again - it was a lot of fun!

I spent the rest of the night updating my PS3 to 2.41 and TinyWonder to 4.01 M33-2, with 1.50 kernel and Pops 3.80 v2 support. A big /slap to whomever wrote the readme for Pops 3.80 - Nowhere in the two lines of instruction does it say one has to track down decrypted .prx files from previous update eboots... Maybe Mom can pull down a full set via BT {Hmmm...}

Multiple Personalities

I took advantage of Ape's dance class to log in. Well, I fought the "lobby server" error for 30 minutes, and THEN logged in. I flagged up on SCH and hoped I'd be able to figure out how to best use its abilities. I subbed WHM assuming I'd be main-healing with a chance of enfeebling.

At around 8:30, Kryno invites me out to the Dunes and I outpost there. The camp is not at the outpost as he had said to me initially, but I made it safely to them in the northeastern ram camp. And instead of main-healing, he asked me to nuke. We had a PL, so healing was taken care of. Interestingly enough, I think one person was running Kryno, Krynn and Downfind (PL). Kryno mentioned that in WoW, he 5-boxed a shaman crew that could own almost anything.

I won't bore you with details, but I went from just-into-12 to 15 and a nice buffer in about 2 hours. I was able to equip the Soleas and Headband, but I forgot the Druid's rope. My nukes were so-so, but definitely better when I remembered to put up Dark Arts. I died twice from botched pulls or adds and I kept forgetting to re-apply the effect.

We worked on skillchain > magic bursting. Ayiden, our BLM kept trying to land Aero after Tachi: Enpi > Raging Axe and I soon joined in. Bad timing, and WS misses meant we didn't burst often. But I did get 4 or so, and 3 of them hit hard. Noboby was macroing their weaponskills with /party alerts so that really screwed timing up. Or I missed the yellow text and never fired.

I actually got teased for missing MBs (no warning) and at the end, for pulling hate between WSes and wrecking one chain. I think last night was the first time in my history as a mage I was asked by the leader to stand front-line!

When my time was nearly up I asked Kryno if I should get a rep and he said {Yes, please}. I found a SAM15 and WAR17 seeking. The SAM ignored me but the WAR, Bhikkhumin was raring to go. I let the party know my rep was coming and Kryno said flatly that he wouldn't take him - "too high". Whiskey Tango Hotel? The party was 14-16. /grrr So I had to let Bhikkhumin know not to come and he seemed annoyed. We commiserated a bit and I told him if I had been leader this wouldn't have happened. So when my time was up I said my goodbyes and left it in Kryno's hands as I warped out.

All in all, I enjoyed myself and everyone was still polite when I left so I guess I didn't seriously annoy anyone. Doomcky, Ayiden and Kryno were really talking smack to each other and retelling Dynamis (Die-namis) horror stories for some comic relief.

I worked out a functional macro palette for Scholar and once I learn more about the Grimoires will hopefully be a little more useful. I definitely plan to stick with Scholar but I guess for future parties I need to figure out my role in advance for appropriate sub selection.

Campaign Conflict

July 6-7, 2008

I didn't get much Scholar work done Sunday but I did try to buy the Doublet armor I planned to use with SCH and SMN. Guess what - SCH can't use Doublet gear >< And the next useful armor set doesn't kick in until 12...

I also took some time to rescue Enzio from the Kraken in Qufim that guards the final Beastmaster fetch-quest item. I asked him when the item depops because by the time I made it into Qufim it was already about 2:50am. He never answered so when I found him I cast Raise and then engaged the Kraken, planning for him to wait a bit for the Kraken to focus on me. Unfortunately he popped the Raise immediately and was killed just as fast. I recast and he re-died, this time courtesy of the Goblin Bounty Hunter. One more time (waiting for the recast timers to wind down) and he was able to get the cutscene.

Between the Kraken and the gob I wound up in red HP-land but eventually took care of both. I cloaked him out of the zone and we parted ways at the zone. Other than some AH work and a free ride for Kenji, Sunday was a quiet night.

Monday, Fhox said he wanted to do some Campaign battles with Archer and me. I told them to let me know when they were going since I can get to most of the past zones in about 5 minutes. I spent most of my time unlocking North Gustaberg [S] and then I see Fhox announce Campaign XP - he had done a battle without me. He then tried to get to West Saruta [S] but couldn't, since he's never visited the zone. I have 11 of 12 battlefields open to me, and only need East Ronfaure to complete the set.

Later, I finally got SCH to 12, clearing the way for me to finally get rid of all those Bonanza marbles and put all my starter gear into my locker. Since I have no plans to start any new jobs I shouldn't need this stuff any time soon. I think I spent 90 minutes on inventory management alone. I got my gear sets organized and found a few things I could sell off. I grabbed three of the Linen pieces and once hitting 13 can add the Light Soleas to the set.

P.S. Yalto announced he was able to /kick Esimt back on Thursday. We were having quite a chat because we have two new Brigaders, Serro and Okali.

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July 3-6, 2008

Wed: Apparently Esimt wasn't finished with the RDB - talked smack about RDB and me. Must be really bored. Fhox issued "/kick on sight" orders. After two teleports for Brigaders, worked on SCH but only got to level 8. Also saw Hancock - very funny and good action. And he used my idea - Soul Bridge!

Thur: Clearwater. Barak requested replacement RDB pearl; leveled SCH a bit waiting; Ib-warped to AU; got recruited by Gojira in Windy for ZM shell and picked up pearl while in AU; got stuck in Besieged trying to rent choco to meet Barak - 1440xp; delivered pearl to Barak and chocoed back; Helped Lordbrax help someone else with LB2 - name?; did something in Jeuno...

Fri: Helped Fhox and Isabiel with Garlaige scroll farming off Dromas and also assisted Gice and Darkone with a coffer hunt.

Sat: SCH11, Doublet doesn't work on SCH, did second run of Celestial for upgraded yukata, scroll/armor shopping trip to Aht Urghan is a bust: SCH doesn't get its JSE scrolls until much later.

{Garrison} {Defense} {Down}

After Y Night, I logged in at about 9:15 and found Brigaders prepping for a Garrison run in North Gustaberg. Many Brigaders. 11 girding for battle and one more occupied elsewhere, making the new record 12. I think we might have touched 13 briefly… Log was going, and Vaudian must be a new Brigader that I’d get to meet.

Fhox asked me to come as PLD/WHM then quickly requested /WAR. I began my journey on WHM so that I could tele my way there, figuring on a quick change in Bastok. I grabbed some food and tried out the new shortcut. It wound up taking nearly as long as a standard tele-choco run would’ve, about 12 minutes.

The good news is it was free and didn’t take me through Pashhow. The bad is that, unless your destination is Palborough Mines, the exit of the shortcut isn’t convenient to Bastok or the OP. After a lot of running I was able to enter Bastok, change, grab some arrows, and hoof it to the OP. My bow was in Storage back in Windy so I asked Fhox how important Ranged would be. He seemed to think “very” and Kitty offered to lend me one.

As we massed near the OP, Vaughn began going over strategy. I think he’s done this before ^^ The basic plan was to have all melees /assist me, while hopefully keeping one mob per wave alive for full rests between each of 4 waves. I’m not sure how I wound up tanking the whole thing, but it was cool. That was the plan, anyway… With a two-party alliance, this garrison throws 4 Quadav, then 6, then 8, then 8 + NM Boss. Vaughn wanted to make sure we all had macros and strategy ready, so the kickoff took like 20 minutes after everyone had arrived.

We did OK for the first two rounds but we didn’t get the last mob sleep-and-rest off right and the third wave wiped us. After Fhox had homepointed and outposted back to us for Raises, many Brigaders had to leave as it was after 11pm now. We were able to keep a six-man party for another go. Credit to Kitty for encouraging (read: browbeating) Archer to stay. As a one-party group, the waves would be 2-4-6-6 + Boss.

Kitty and Vaughn chose to voke and kite one mob while the rest of us worked other the other quads. This was important as the NPC Recruits were interfering by killing what we were trying to save. We did pretty well through the first two waves, and I even remembered to heal the NPCs too. But the third wave ended when all the NPCs died.

I think only 3 of us survived this go-round, including Aleu and I trying to kill quads before the Recruits all dropped dead.

Overall, it was a lot of fun doing a massed Brigader event. Despite the XP lost, and the two delevels, I think we all had a blast. Fhox apologized profusely for the trouble but a few of us said the event was worth it regardless. I sure wasn’t expecting phat l00tz. I think that cheered Fhox up. I think with a better battle plan and job mix we might have a chance. Assuming we can get Archer to come back that is. I don’t think he liked this style of battle. Honestly, I don’t either, preferring straight XP parties and Campaign. But being able to do something goofy WITH the RDB is what makes the difference for me.

After that, I took a break to watch some late-night Deal or No Deal. Then I came back at about 12:40 and returned to Windy after changing outfits in Bastok. I decided to try the current Moogle event: Celestial Nights. This is another case of “follow something while avoiding/preventing ‘aggro’ to win”. This time, a pair of actors walks around and players have to help out with the performance. The actors are role-playing (meta-RP? HA!) as a prince and princess, and another actor plays the vixen spoiler trying to break them up.

The kicker is that the actress is developing feelings for her co-star and it’s up to me (and anyone else nearby) to make sure our fair princess can finish the show with good spirits. This is done by “agreeing” to the personal thoughts she expresses, distracting the vixen, and slapping the prince if need be. I’m going to edit the event guide because while it explains all this, it doesn’t make clear that the vixen distraction must happen *before* she moves in on her prey.

In game terms, the player has to aggro the sight-detecting mob before it detects the NPCs, turn its gaze away until the NPCs pass safely and then rejoin the NPCs “buffing” as needed. After failing miserably so many times before learning this valuable tip, I thought soloing this might not work, but it does. I got a fireworks-dispensing yukata for my trouble. Just as I wrapped up (literally), I see an LS tell from Esimt asking for a Raise.

I don’t recall ever seeing the name before and thinking it’s a new Brigader, I accept, wanting to make a good impression. I teleport out to Konschaht, but in the TWO MINUTES it took, he began getting pushy. I run all over G-6, where he said he was, but I can’t find him. I keep asking where he is and he keeps basically ignoring me and whining about the HP timer.

Yalto had already jumped into the LS once to tell Esimt to be patient. In private chat, he apologized for Esimt’s behavior and complimented me on my patience. I tell him not to worry and that it’s no biggie. But then Esimt says he got a friend to raise him. *That* wasn’t cool. He still refuses to tell me where he was and said in seemingly-halting English and auto-trans that he needs to register an expansion.

I snapped back that it was ok but that I wanted to know where he was hiding during my ten-minute jog through the area. Yalto and I discussed Esimt’s future as a Brigader and I commented that people like him rarely last long in a tight social group like ours. Hopefully so.

In any case, a long and interesting night!