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I like booze.
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Sep 20, 2023 04:59
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 20:47 |
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I tend to like spirits more than beer, but not to get drunk so I only have a little at a time. Spirits have an interesting variety of tastes. It's kind of a shame various old-fashioned soft drinks like switzel aren't as popular anymore.
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Sep 20, 2023 08:57
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There has never been an alcoholic drink that I did not dislike. Even when there is very little alcohol, I can taste it and it ruins the drink for me. Add on my family's history with alcohol use, I consider myself quite lucky.
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Sep 21, 2023 22:31
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Jetrauben posted:I tend to like spirits more than beer, but not to get drunk so I only have a little at a time. Spirits have an interesting variety of tastes. It's kind of a shame various old-fashioned soft drinks like switzel aren't as popular anymore. A lot of old timey soft drinks can be made with seltzer and the right bitters. If you look around you can find all kinds of odd flavours of bitters fairly easily and then you can make cucumber or elderflower or whatever sodas easily. Some of the more inventive gins are great for this too.
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Sep 22, 2023 12:21
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Chapter 62: Grindhouse Before Kheris left Rhalgr's Reach, she was waved down by one of Rowena's girls. The merchant spoke only in whispers, informing the Warrior of Light that the House had a proposition for her that would require a journey to Kugane. She need only ask for a private table at the Shiokaze Hostelry to accept the invitation. The bar's proprietress would take care of the rest. Kheris comes armored since this scenario seems shady even by Rowena's standards and is greeted by a genuine triple threat.  Maybe I should fetch Alphinaud to absorb Krile's snark, just in case? Hancock spins the tale of a Company trade galley that recently discovered an island while traversing one of their more obscure routes. This find struck most people involved as odd because said land wasn't on any of the charts, but where some might see a mystery and possible danger, East Aldenard's leadership saw a tax haven. You see, Kugane's tariffs are quite high because they have no real competition in the region for deep-water traffic. If the Company could establish a Unfortunately for capitalism, the well-funded and well-armed expeditionary force sent to stake a claim was nearly obliterated. The survivors reported aetheric anomalies and monsters of terrible power. However, they also brought back reports of ruins filled with treasure, magical artifacts, and vast deposits of crystal and other natural resources. Unwilling to allow something as minor as certain death get in the way of a cash cow, the Company reached out to the House of Splendors and proposed a joint investment for a second expedition. They want the Warrior of Light to lead their charge into this untapped frontier. Kheris is ready to tell them both to jog on. She has no interest in helping these two set up a lawless freebooter colony so they can grow into even fatter cats through unregulated commerce. Then, Krile pipes in and makes the assignment a personal request. She claims the Scions have a vested interest in this island, so the Warrior of Light's participation is paramount… but she also won't explain the nature of that interest.  Scions keeping secrets from the Warrior of Light but asking her to dive into a morally dubious situation anyway? When did I get back to ARR? Kheris acquiesces because she's a good girl, so Rowena informs her that Gerolt is waiting at the docks. Since it's Gerolt we're talking about, we find him doing what he does best—no, not drinking. Not smithing either, the other thing. That's right: arguing with a well-dressed scholar!   Krile identifies this young man as one of her surviving colleagues from the Students of Baldesion, an aetherologist named Ejika. His first words to Kheris are a command to stay out of his way, while his first to Krile are accusations that she's deliberately kept this expedition a secret at his expense.  How charming. Rather than get into a protracted argument, Krile offers him a billet on our transport ship. He accepts without further word. Let's hope there's room in the cargo hold for his ego. The only question left is where we're going. Krile says they've named the place after an Allagan legend, the tale of an underground labyrinth where the deadliest weapons on the planet were hidden from the reckless hands of man. Weapons that ALLAGANS thought were too dangerous to tamper with? We might be in for a rough time.  To understand Eureka in gameplay terms, we should begin with what you can learn from Rodney, the NPC who sends you there. The island is an entire instanced overworld (or, rather, four instanced overworlds) where up to 144 players can inhabit a map simultaneously for three hours at a time. You can enter alone or in groups; once inside, you can join or leave parties at will without leaving the instance. Your Return button is even modified to take you back to the zone's main town. Rodney also tells you that the weird elemental flux of the island's aether interferes with standard weapons, armor, and abilities. In practice, this means item levels are capped, incentivizing the player toward special gear with stats that have been optimized for Eureka. Your character level is also affected. While inside the instance, you operate on the new Elemental Experience system, starting off at Level 1. Thankfully, this does not lock off your buttons like POTD. But that's not all!  That's right, folks! EXP penalties on death, to the point of losing level-ups! The only way to avoid this is to have a friendly player raise you before a 10-minute death timer expires. We're going old-school! This information is enough for the player to enter the first region, Eureka Anemos, Greek for "Wind." The opening cutscene greets the player with images of a lush jungle valley in the shadow of a fortress with familiar architectural features. The zone track,  "Wicked Wind's Whisper," seems to vacillate between a deep sadness when the strings are in control and a cautious curiosity when the piano takes over. We'll see the appropriateness of that vibe shortly. …  The expeditionary force has established a ramshackle port by erecting wooden fortifications around a few strategic choke points. There's also an Aetheryte in the town center, which struck me as an exorbitant expense. However, if you attune to it, you'll notice that it's referred to by the UI as an Aethernet Shard, implying it was already here when the team arrived. The player is not kept in the dark for long. Krile and Ejika immediately recognize where we've landed, so the former holds to her promise and reveals why the Scions care about this place:   Oh, drat, that's a plot point we haven't heard about for a while! In case anyone forgot, Krile reminds us that Val was the headquarters of the Students of Baldesion. Way back during the ARR patch cycle, it was struck by what Urianger called "Ultima-scale magic," and disappeared. Krile was the only known survivor, attributing her rescue to the personal intervention of the Mother Crystal. This event coincided with the simultaneous disappearance of prominent scholars around the world who were studying Dimensional Compression, so we'd assumed the Ascians were to blame. Everyone also believed that the magic we'd detected was literally Ultima or something similar and thus vaporized its target. Now we see that the spell must have been some sort of large-scale teleportation. Why our robed friends would do something like that is anyone's guess. Alongside the recap, we get useful snippets of Ejika's personality. First, his initial priority is to search for survivors. Despite his bad attitude, I suppose he's not a complete prick. Another important trait is a mild obsession with notions of fair play, put on display when Kheris calls him out for trying to ditch us.  …  In that little exchange, we get a third trait: an inferiority complex. Galuf Baldesion is the leader of the Students and Krile's adoptive grandfather. Combining this snippy remark about how Galuf always said Ejika was ungrateful with an earlier sarcastic quip about how Krile was the great scholar's "chosen heir," paints a pretty clear picture of internalized bitterness. He also seems to extend that bitterness to Krile being granted the power of Echo. That said, there's more going on here than meets the eye. Before the player even gets a chance to start judging the little louse for his petty jealousy, Krile indirectly sticks up for him.   More data is needed. ~*~*~ The fortress we saw in that cutscene is the actual Baldesion Headquarters building, but someone has switched on its perimeter defenses, hence the sparkly shields. Direct teleportation is a no-go with those online, so our second best option is the island's aethernet. Unfortunately, it's not functioning properly, so Kheris' first task is to get into the field and figure out why. Of course, we haven't forgotten the monsters. Local critters have been infused with tremendous amounts of elemental aether, altering their natural behaviors and abilities. Add in the disruptions to our magic and equipment, and it's little wonder the first team was slaughtered. To counteract this, Krile and Gerolt devised an invention based on Cid's elemental converter, which they call a Magia Board.  The infographic pretty much speaks for itself. Every monster in Eureka has an Elemental aspect. If the player spins their board by clicking that button, they can play a bit of Pokemon, either matching the enemy to get a defensive boost or selecting its opposing element for offense. The correct choices are highlighted whenever you target a monster, so no chart memorization is required. You start with five spins, which regenerate over time or can be instantly refilled by this golden ring thingy. The board slots up to five boosts into any one direction on the dial, which gives you a hard cap on the extra power you're allowed, but you're also free to mix and match those boosts while in town. The source of the powerup is a new magical rock called magicite. Or rather, it's new to these guys because Kheris already ran into it in Heaven-on-High. According to Krile, they either create or are created by confluences of aether powerful enough to obstruct the natural flow of the Lifestream, a phenomenon that occurs frequently in Eureka. Does that imply the ones inside HoH are products left behind after a summoning calls Primals out of the Lifestream? Possible, but that wouldn't explain how they got across the world from where those Primals appeared. I guess it's something to ponder. Magicite immediately becomes the driving force of the narrative in Anemos. Kheris finds one at the center of some interference that's contributing to the disabled aethernet, and our plan from that point becomes clear. Krile will do SCIENCE to pinpoint the exact location of further disruptions, and Kheris will fight her way there to extract the rock, adding it to her board as a bonus. In parallel to this mission is a second task, undertaken at the behest of our financiers. Two new types of crystal, Protean and Anemos, have been discovered on this side of the island. Rowena thinks our favorite drunk can turn them into something useful. As usual, she's forced Gerolt to be here by leveraging a crippling debt he's incurred while drinking top-shelf booze on her tab. Is this cycle the product of serious alcoholism or a convenient excuse for the exes to stay close to each other? I'm going to go with both.   …  The Stormblood legendary weapon system begins even more straightforwardly than its predecessors. Rather than making something from scratch, Gerolt plans to use the crystals to improve upon the Job Sets you got for finishing the Level 70 Job Quests. The higher the upgrade, the more and better crystals you need to rank up, and your armor can be improved alongside the weapon. Normal monsters drop the Protean Crystals, while Anemos Crystals are dropped by mini-bosses called Notorious Monsters. These are basically the same as single-enemy FATEs on the normal map, appearing after a large number of specific enemies have been killed, occasionally contingent on the time of day and/or weather conditions.  Gerolt also offers a handy trade-down system where he'll give you a slightly variable number of Proteans in exchange for the big boys to make the whole process smoother.  With this last system explained to the player, we've finally completed the preamble and can get down to the meat and potatoes of what you do in Eureka: grind. The entire zone is nothing but an old-school open-field grindfest for EXP and currency in the tradition of Everquest. Or rather, based on some of the prizes you can pick up, in the tradition of Final Fantasy XI. The only way to make progress is to kill monsters by the boatload, so you'd best learn to enjoy "Magicked Skulls," a variant on the basic Eureka theme used for combat music. You'll be listening to it a lot.When you're starting out, killing monsters is not an especially easy task. Even a bit of carelessness can see you swarmed by three or more enemies, leading to a quick death unless you're fighting as a tank. Sometimes, even that won't be enough to save you. Enemies are placed strategically to funnel players along specific paths through the map as they rank up, but that means taking a wrong turn or trying to explore can land you in big trouble.  The idea seems to be that as a player grows in power, their ability to explore becomes more freeform, the gradual opening of the world functioning as a type of reward. In practice, it more often felt like I was being constrained and punished for weakness.  Even the ability to mount and run past certain enemies is only of so much value because if the wrong baddie catches you for even a second, you can get one-shot right out of your saddle. One aspect of the design that contributed to a feeling of initial powerlessness was that the enemies have unusual aggro rules. Some will attack based on proximity, with range reduced based on relative levels, the game's usual system. Others focus on line-of-sight and will only attack if you walk in front of them. Still more react to 'sound' and will strike if you're running but ignore you if you toggle on walking. I even discovered that some will attack only if your HP drops low. That's not something you want to learn when you're in the middle of a pack of ten beasties, let me tell you! I don't hate the idea behind this, but it's just one more new rule for a fresh player to learn. In such an unforgiving environment, hiding mechanics like that is pretty mean. This is not to say that the designers have given the players nothing to tilt the scales in their favor. For example, you can find Eureka Elementals around the map. These spirits bless you with a one-hour buff that increases your EXP gains, damage, and health recovery. Upon entering the instance for the first time, you'll also unlock an entire new page of the Challenge Log that rewards fat chunks of experience for killing specific types of Eureka enemies.  …  Through the challenge descriptions, one can learn about the existence of two special enemy types, Ashkin and Elemental Sprites. These appear only at night or during specific weather, granting significantly more EXP than standard enemies. This attribute makes them perfect targets if you're leveraging the Kill Chain, a bonus meter that increments every time you kill an enemy within its countdown window. Every ten you defeat without the clock hitting zero means a big EXP reward. Dragons also grant disproportionate experience, and don't worry; they're all VOID dragons. There's nothing morally questionable about destroying them by the dozens!  Benefitting from horrific crimes doesn't implicitly validate the perpetrator's actions retroactively, right? …I think we should probably just move on. To be clear, few of these systems are what I'd call intuitive. Luckily, the questions I ended up having were readily answered by the talkative and friendly players inhabiting Shout Chat. More so than any other area of the game I'd visited, Eureka Anemos was full of people eager to help anyone in need.  If I got killed, a simple call out with my coordinates had healers rushing to my rescue. Veterans were happy to advise me if I needed clarification about what to do next or where to find a specific monster. Parties let me tag along and soak up EXP, even if I was too weak to help them with their current objective, and never booted me if I needed to break off to work on progressing the plot. Once, my group actually dropped everything to help me clear out a pack of night-only enemies squatting on my objective so I wouldn't have to wait until dawn to continue the story. There's a genuine sense in Anemos that everyone is in the same boat. We each have a mountain of crystals to grind, and we're going to be here a long while, so what's a few extra minutes to help out a newbie? The attitude proved infectious. By the time I was closing in on the Anemos cap of level 20, I was going out of my way to help everyone I came across and answer every question posed. I was so enamored by this MMORPG Community Spirit, a phenomenon that I hadn't seen to this degree for years upon years, that when I started cashing out to get my upgrades, I elected to do something kind of crazy: I made my Job of choice for progression Astrologian. Admittedly, going with a healer made doing anything alone significantly slower, but in the end, I think it was the right decision. For one thing, AST has some impressive burst AOE damage potential on top of many instant and over-time healing effects, so I could grind larger groups of enemies than many DPS when I played by myself. For another, even when I was uselessly sponging because my spells were too weak to hurt anything, my Arcana Cards and Divination could still buff my party. But the real benefit of the choice came from the consistent ease I had finding groups to kill Notorious Monsters. If you're with a hardcore premade, there are better options for leveling up in Eureka, but nothing beats the NM train if you're doing things casually. (And yes, the NMs have their own BGM, a techno remix of the FATE theme called "No Quarter.")Making NMs your primary farming target also gives you the bonus of collecting hundreds of Anemos Lockboxes.  …  One cool thing about Eureka is that while you're making your way through your leveling and upgrading, there are treasures to be found. Many NMs have special drops, like Glamour Sets and Minions. They also carry lockboxes, classic Gatchapon loot holders that can pop out most of the NM drops, and several unique rewards.  …  …  The boxes are the icing on Eureka's cake. Once you're in the groove of grinding mobs, spawning NMs, collecting crystals, buying upgrades, and opening lockboxes, you start to feel that every action you take produces tangible progress. Even the "garbage," results from the boxes, Materia and Eureka-only healing potions, feel like they're worth gathering in large numbers. The Materia, in particular, is nice because the upgraded armor and weapons supplement their secondary stats with more Materia slots than I've seen since ARR.  Once I got over that initial hump and saw how all its pillars fit together, I honestly felt like Eureka Anemos was a triumph of design. I've never played any of the Pre-WoW MMOs, but I'd heard stories from friends. Finding a game designed with such player-punishing sensibilities enjoyable seemed utterly foreign to me. Basic enemies so powerful that they demand grouping for even basic play? No path to leveling up other than killing the proverbial bears for their proverbial butts? Loss of progress as punishment for dying in an environment where death is common? Who would want to return to such Dark Ages (of Camelot)? Regardless of any pros and cons of those old games, Anemos struck me as a take on their philosophy that had a place in the modern age. If you make your digital sandbox right, it still feels good to go Head Empty, mow down some pixels, and collect the shinies they leave behind. ~*~*~ Wait a minute! All I've been doing is prattling on about gameplay! Wasn't there a story here? Well, kind of, but not until the last minute. As I mentioned, pretty much the only thing Kheris and Krile do between Levels 3 and 17 is figure out where the magicites are so we can fix the Aethernet. Besides that, the only story to be had is in the environment, which is eerily empty of humanity, much like the Lochs. Ruined Sharlayan houses and research facilities are everywhere, and despite Ejika's resolve to locate his colleagues, Kheris doesn't even manage to find a single corpse, let alone a survivor.  When she zeroes in on the last aetheric confluence in the area, Kheris encounters Ejika again, who seems no worse for wear. After we compare notes, he compliments Krile on her accurate assessment of the problem and her goal of restoring the Aethernet. However, he is not interested in helping us and plans to find another route into Baldesion Headquarters. He does at least recognize how obnoxious it is for him to go off and play Batman while we're trying to do something so difficult. He thus decides to hand over the final magicite as a show of good faith in our continued cooperation.  I'll say one thing for the little jerk: it's pretty impressive that he's wandering through this death jungle without a Magia Board or any other tools to help him. He doesn't have a scratch on him, which means he's either very stealthy or a huge badass. When Kheris reports to Krile, she elects to table discussing Ejika's nonsense in favor of using our newly restored Aethernet. We can't forge a route directly into HQ with just the Anemos network, but it should have the power we need to reach another sector of the island. The only problem is a familiar one: our lack of attunement to an Aetheryte that might not even be there anymore. Fortunately, instead of our typical plan of crossing our fingers and trying the teleport anyway, we can use a fancy device the Sharlayans invented for such emergencies called an Aethernet Relay. Kheris finds the thing quickly enough, but it's broken. Krile has a solution:   Despite any misgivings she might have about that math, Kheris inserts   That's one hell of a hello. Kheris is too stunned to answer the question, which provokes anger from the mystery man. He asks if she's a pawn who will welcome the dark rather than strike it down, then seems to grow distracted, staring up at the sky and muttering about a burning light within. Whether he's still talking about Kheris or himself isn't completely clear. After a moment, he regains his focus.  A vision from the Echo strikes as soon as he finishes speaking. We see four men on the cliffs near the Sharlayan Colony that is now Idyllshire: a Lupin, a Xaela, and two Hyurans. They stand in a circle, contemplating a mysterious device.  Each man speaks vaguely, expressing a desire to destroy something dangerous. Unfortunately, their analysis of their target determined that such an effort would be useless because it has "a nigh-bottomless wellspring of aether." Despite some consternation, they agree that the only option is to seal their enemy away until a permanent solution can be found. Such a prison must be built in secret to ensure the metaphorical Wrong Hands won't interfere and make things worse. One among their number, none other than Galuf Baldesion, has an idea:  So I guess the masked man was Krile's grandfather! A Xaela's horns or a Lupin's snout couldn't have been hiding in that cloak. It might be the other man, but somehow, I doubt it. At least the guy's alive, although clearly unwell. A side effect of the teleportation? Here's hoping he's not too far gone to help. Krile, concerned over the linkpearl's sudden silence, elects to test the relay by teleporting into the room. Thankfully, she doesn't come out smelling like a turd covered in burnt hair. Masked Man is already gone, but Kheris shares what happened. Based on Krile's reaction to the story, neither one of them jumps to the same conclusion I did about the identity of our watcher. She does share that seeing three others with her Grandpa is significant because four Archons founded the Students. Galuf never told her anything about a prison, though. It seems that a secret is hidden behind the founding of her order, DaVinci Code style! God grant us a resolution less dumb than that book. Krile's story goes on hold here, but there is one last thing to handle with Gerolt. The final rank of my starting Eureka Weapon can't be achieved through Crystals alone, but he isn't sure what materials will help him take it to the next level. Fortunately, we get a clue from an Expedition Scholar, who informs Kheris that with the magicites gone, their instruments have detected some unusual wave patterns coming from the caverns beneath the jungle. Entering the caves is a rough prospect. Those Level 23 crabs I screen-capped live down there, and they're the weakest monsters on offer. Remember, Anemos caps the player as Level 20! It's a group or nothing in this area. If you do manage to carve your way into the depths with a few allies (and trigger the appropriate FATEs), you'll discover that the sources of those signals are top-class Voidsent who've been drawn to Eureka by its unusual aether. These aren't the first Void critters we've seen in Anemos, but they are far stronger and smarter. The mightiest is a demonic bird, Pazuzu, who announces that he's not here to feed but to conquer.  Well, I think the actual reference is to the Mesopotamian king of the wind demons, but close enough.  Pazuzu is a significant threat compared to all of the NMs that came before him, on the level of a Dungeon Boss or even a lesser Alliance Raid Boss. His mechanics are basic and easily handled, but it's still a night-and-day difference. If nothing else, he foreshadows that Eureka won't be afraid to step up the challenges even more in the future. As if there was any doubt, his feathers turn out to be precisely what Gerolt needs for my weapon.  …  Eureka kicked off with a great first impression despite a few teething problems. When I was done with Anemos, the number of people who had expressed trepidation at me covering this content seemed silly. I mean, a few had gone so far as to tell me I shouldn't even consider trying to do Eureka without a premade group! I was happy I didn't listen to them because it let me appreciate that sense of community and how the zone-wide teamwork made doing things easy as a solo player. I ended up having a great time, and this was only their first attempt at using this throwback FFXI-inspired ethos. Surely, there's nowhere for future examples to go but up! Surely. ~*~*~  With the Eureka expedition on hold until Krile does boring teleportation math, Kheris has time to snoop around town for another acquaintance, a fellow Eorzean who also made the trip. She finds the big oaf gawking at the statue near the Aetheryte.  Why has Blanstyr come to the Far East? Oddly enough, for training. When Kheris first popped in on Naldiq & Vymelli's before her trip, all seemed well. Forgemistress H'Naanza told her that the customers were happier than ever with the big man after he incorporated the lessons on customizing his products to suit the buyer. It was, therefore, quite a shock when he suddenly informed her of his intention to quit the guild. He's refused to tell anyone his reasons, so Kheris agrees to pester him until he offers an answer. As a show of respect, Blan admits to Kheris that he's leaving because his products still feel inadequate compared to hers, even after all the growing he's done. His technique is better than ever, but his finished armor seems to lack personality. Thankfully, a chance encounter has inspired him to take his smithing in a bold new direction.   Oooh, holiday event continuity! Neat. It's a good reason to seek a fresh apprenticeship abroad, and H'Naanza is completely satisfied when Kheris informs her why Blanstyr is leaving. She does feel the need to point something out to our dear colleague before he departs, though:  I love the big doofus, but man, he is dense. We make our way to the warehouse district, where we find the same blacksmith shop Kheris made into an ally of the Blue Kojin. It's called Kokajiya, literally "The Little Blacksmith Shop," in Japanese. Its proprietor, Fugetsu, is the man who designed the twelve Heavensturn Helmets. He finds himself intrigued by the conviction of someone who would cross an ocean to learn from him.  ...  Damnit, I was just standing here! This always happens! At least Blanstyr seems happy.  Well, it's something to do. After we craft him a suit of Eorzean armor so he can see our preferred methods and general skill level, Master Fugetsu gives us our first lesson on traditional Hingan techniques, specifically the use of overlapping leather or iron scales in armor. He correctly points out that this design's primary function is arrow defense, as opposed to the sword or spear defense enabled by the Western method of shaping metal plates. This factoid is rooted in the real-life origins of the samurai. When they first emerged as a caste, they generally fought as horseback archers first and swordsmen second, and their armor reflected that. In turn, the katana's design became specialized for defeating their anti-arrow armor. Fugetsu doesn't mention that another reason for this method was the relative scarcity of quality iron in Japan during historical periods. That's to be expected since I'm guessing Hingashi doesn't have that problem in the story's universe. To test our understanding of the scale armor, we're instructed to craft a pair of gloves, but then we get another bit of continuity when Blanstyr asks Fugetsu what particulars a user might look for in such a piece. The Master is intrigued by this approach and suggests we go straight to the source and inquire at the Sekiseigumi barracks. The swordsman we ask suggests that protection in hand armor must minimize any compromise to range of motion.  This is another historically accurate answer, as the gloves of samurai armor often cut back on metal to extreme levels to ensure that the wrists and fingers aren't obstructed. In line with our last factoid, this was originally less about swordplay and more to ensure accuracy with a bow. Fortunately, we don't have to skimp on protection to make our armor abnormally articulate because we have fantasy materials to work with. Fugetsu is pleased with our work and how we integrated the customer's needs into the final product. Unfortunately, Blanstyr finds himself unsatisfied with the praise. He could have done this sort of work without leaving Eorzea. What was the point of this trip if he's not learning to imbue his designs with character?  Our next task is to fill a commission for a man named Gyosei, the heir of a hereditary Samurai family. The man isn't thrilled to have his armor crafted by foreigners, particularly ones who have only just started their apprenticeship, but his trust in Master Fugetsu is absolute, so he's willing to play along. The armor he's after is head protection for an upcoming tournament, the "gozen-jiai." Aristocracy from all over Hingashi gather to observe this event, headhunting for their various martial needs, so a Samurai's performance can make or break their career. Blanstyr proposes we make this commission into a contest so he can try out some ideas he has cooking. He hopes that if the work sufficiently impresses our Master, he can skip over the "basics rubbish," and get into the advanced lessons about stylizing designs. Unfortunately, he has style on the brain and immediately decides to focus on making something flashy and attention-grabbing. Since the idea behind this tournament is to impress potential employers, grabbing eyes will be the most important thing, right? When Kheris follows their old method and asks for advice on the tournament's requirements from that Samurai Cop, it turns out that the answer is no.  In addition to this advice, he suggests that the nature of the contest favors preserving one's field of vision, even at the expense of overall protection. Kheris follows these guidelines, and Gyosei picks her design on the spot. Blanstyr is crushed. He exhaustively researched Hingan helmets to get every detail of the heavy kabuto right. He even looked into Eastern mythology to inspire his flashy silver snake design. All he wanted was to match the flair of the Heavensturn Helms! How did it all go so wrong?   ...   So the lesson is the thing that sent Blanstyr across the ocean in the first place was made using the same lessons he'd already learned about meeting a client's needs. By selfishly focusing on his desire to express himself artistically, he got further away from his goal. The irony! Fortunately, Fugetsu understands that the big man's heart was in the right place and accepts his apology. They go back to their lessons, and this time, Blanstyr throws himself into every aspect of Hingan smithing, not allowing his veteran status to cloud his appreciation for the basics. A few days later, Gyosei returns from the tournament with news that he managed to impress a dignitary from the Hingan home island and has been employed to lead up efforts to quell banditry in their province. The rest of us offer congratulations, but Blan has a favor to ask before the man leaves. Since that helmet commission was essential to his progress as an artisan, he wants to express his gratitude by making a full suit of armor suited to these new duties. The generosity of this offer floors the young warrior, but he has no choice but to decline since his ship will leave long before such an elaborate commission can be completed. To finish in time would require a miracle.  One miracle at your service! Kheris is assigned the breastplate, while Blan takes the helm for himself. He has something special in mind for the armor's design: he wants to use Western metal-shaping techniques to produce a full plate set that mimics the Eastern aesthetic, maximizing protection without compromising the wearer's cultural identity. Kheris does her best to meet these specifications while her comrade pours his soul into the helmet.  WOW, does that not match. Red, Blan? Seriously? If you'd warned me, I could have dyed the stupid breastplate. My disgust at the poor display of fashion aside, our client is pleased beyond measure. His body is more protected than with any armor he's ever worn, but it's just as flexible as those he's used to. Better still is the helm, which is not just a symbol of good fortune like the snake but also Gyosei's family crest.    After all his effort, Blanstyr finally created a work of art without compromising his client's needs. It's a happy ending that's only made stronger when Master Fugetsu sheepishly asks his apprentice to remain in Hingashi a while longer. He wishes to be instructed in the Eorzean art of shaping platemail.  I'm a bit of a sucker for a "the master is still eager to learn," moment, so that made me smile a bit. Sometime in the future, when Kheris goes back to Limsa Lominsa, H'naanza wraps the entire Armorsmith experience up in a nice little bow by musing that this exchange with Hingashi may ring in a new generation of innovative metalworking techniques. She sees it as an echo of when their ancestors first learned from the Kobolds. Her final words remind us of the core theme that this Job embraced from the start: that competition and collaboration are both necessary for a craftsman to grow. After all, she's still the head of the guild, and she doesn't intend to get left in the dust by her rival. By the time the big ox returns from the East, she'll make sure she's learned a few new tricks to put him right back in his place. ARM 60-70 isn't the most exciting conclusion Blanstyr's character arc could have asked for, but it did its work effectively and was a significant step up from the Heavensward set. What I most appreciated about it content-wise was how well it brought the Job's oldest seeds to fruition. Everything Kheris and Blanstyr learned in the first two arcs came into play. It would have been nice if there was a better climax after our protagonist's backslide than "He already had everything he needed to make great art," but it's a serviceable finish. It's too bad ARM never again reached the storytelling peak it achieved during 1-50, but at least it didn't crash and burn attempting to touch the sun. They gave me an interesting organization with compelling characters and told a complete story about them. Sometimes, that's good enough. Next time, more Eureka! I'm sure we'll have a grand old time. Sanguinia fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Sep 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2023 08:08
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Sanguinia posted:One aspect of the design that contributed to a feeling of initial powerlessness was that the enemies have unusual aggro rules. Some will attack based on proximity, with range reduced based on relative levels, the game's usual system. Others focus on line-of-sight and will only attack if you walk in front of them. Still more react to 'sound' and will strike if you're running but ignore you if you toggle on walking. I even discovered that some will attack only if your HP drops low. That's not something you want to learn when you're in the middle of a pack of ten beasties, let me tell you!
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Sep 27, 2023 08:57
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The other types of aggro not directly mentioned include "magic" (this is basically mostly limited to the wandering elemental sprite enemies) - if you cast any magic in their range, they'll get mad and start blasting, which is something of a problem when trying to resurrect people who die near them (or to them), and also "true sight", but this is the exact same as the regular line of sight aggro except that it also sees through invisibility (you can Hide as a Ninja and walk through a lot of enemies' lines of sights, but don't try sneaking past a griffin that way).
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Sep 27, 2023 08:58
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Ah, Eureka. You did an excellent job summing up the general idea of it; it's an instance of content that creates a lot of opinions. I enjoyed it for the community ("Is Pazuzu up" is a pillar of Eurekan shout chat), the fashion, the gacha... and the frankly ludicrous amounts of gil it's possible to make there if you know how.  The hefty Echo bonus you have nowadays certainly helps smooth over some of the initial rough edges the content had, not to mention that you no longer have to wait until you're done with a zone's plot to be able to ride mounts. (Yes, you had no mount in Anemos before EL17.) As a sidenote, ashkin are typically 'blood' aggro, as people seem to call the low health trigger. Sprites on the other hand also have a special type of aggro: they respond to spells! So any caster or healer in the area is liable to get their face stomped in, but melee get off without a hitch. Sanguinia posted:Eureka kicked off with a great first impression despite a few teething problems. When I was done with Anemos, the number of people who had expressed trepidation at me covering this content seemed silly. I mean, a few had gone so far as to tell me I shouldn't even consider trying to do Eureka without a premade group! I was happy I didn't listen to them because it let me appreciate that sense of community and how the zone-wide teamwork made doing things easy as a solo player. I ended up having a great time, and this was only their first attempt at using this throwback FFXI-inspired ethos. Surely, there's nowhere for future examples to go but up!  Oh, what tales we have yet to tell.
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Sep 27, 2023 08:59
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Quantum Toast posted:I think there is a bit of that outside Eureka (eyeless plant enemies like Kedtraps and Morbols tend to have "sound" aggro even in ARR, and I've noticed I can often get closer to something without it noticing from behind than in front) but it's a pretty easy thing to miss especially if you tend to pull from a distance. Yeah, unless you came from FFXI or games that inspired it's aggro system, and are actively looking, those still existing in XIV is really easy to miss. Not nearly as critical as a game where things were intended to be fought as a party vs 1 at a time.
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Sep 27, 2023 09:07
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Ah, Pagos. Be careful Kheris. That's hell you're walking into.
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Sep 27, 2023 09:19
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Taking account of various aggro sense styles can also be useful if you're unfortunate enough to get saddled with a "haul this box" quest at a level where local enemies will attack you.
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Sep 27, 2023 09:32
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Eureka was something that unfortunately didn't click with me at all. I played it at launch, while this version has Echo buffs making it easier (not to say you wouldn't have enjoyed it back then), and killing a single monster at the start took loving forever. Also you couldn't mount up at launch, not until you finished the story in that area or something. Plus I was apparently cursed with awful drop rates, I swear it took something like 40 minutes of slowly killing crabs on the beach before the first crystal dropped for me. Then I died and lost all my XP. I've tried Eureka a few times since then, but it's never grabbed me. Never finished the first zone, so looking forward to seeing the story unfold.
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Sep 27, 2023 09:56
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My personal enjoyment of Eureka went up a bunch when one of my fc-mates started doing runs of the final dungeon of the arc for fun. One day, he gave me a set of the elemwntal bonus armor as a gift, and it really helped make the zone feel better. Being able to solo prep all but the top end NMs of any given zone certainly doesn't hurt!  Also, this is minor, but I have to point it out all the same: there's no "C" in Baldesion! 
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Sep 27, 2023 10:20
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Eureka has legitimately been one of the most miserable things I've ever done in all of FF14. I have never had even an ounce if fun in it.
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Sep 27, 2023 10:45
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as someone who mostly plays very late at night when the place is empty, is mediocre at combat, and has minimal patience for grinding, even less for new systems, and none at all for punishment on death, let me tell you that that is exactly the opposite experience to what I saw in eureka sure, it's probably great when you're an old-school mmo murderhead who has access to a large crowd of players but if you're not, it's suffering from top to bottom
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Sep 27, 2023 10:59
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I appreciate that it doesn't work for all, particularly now - hell, it turned off a bunch of my FC when it launched because the idea of grinding for levels in any form at all turned them off (despite being people who spent weeks mashing their faces into ARF for poetics). All I know is that when I went in at launch, after a bit of tentative small grouping to roam around smashing low level critters, by the second day people were already beginning to cotton onto fighting Notorious Monsters and forming big trains essentially just chasing them around. Once the exact spawn conditions were worked out (which didn't take too long, either), you'd have groups parking nearby and encouraging at least some of the instance to assist in grinding solely the trigger mobs, but pretty much nobody expected everybody to be constantly fighting while in the zone, just wanted them to pitch in from time to time as they were able. The rest of it was people making conversation and bad jokes in shout (so many bear puns), and also coordinates for rez-bots to speed away towards. We didn't even have the challenge log experience then, and for the mounts, well, people were rather happy to have reason to use their multi-seaters as taxi service. That was the environment I played Eureka in, and did nearly all my leveling through NM trains (you could still get experience even from the ones above level, though we did start having separate trainers to bounce between the low-level NMs for the benefit of the newbies as more people got into the high ranks). The first protean crystal being RNG is real frustrating, though, since there's so many story-related unlocks you can't do until you get that, and when I was trying to walk one FC mate through it they had terrible, terrible luck and we went through a whole lockout before they finally got one. (I'd gotten mine on like the third thing I killed.)
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Sep 27, 2023 11:18
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Chapter 63: Thin Ice The second region of our island adventure is called Eureka Pagos, which translates to both "Frost," and "Mountain Peak." It is an appropriate name, given the terrain.  You can actually see that giant ice tower from the beach in Anemos. It's neat that they completely planned out the geography of the island of Val so it could stay consistent. The expedition has set up shop in the ruins of a small town, and it's rough going for them. The out-of-control ice aether has frozen most of the local water supply, and snow has buried many structures, compounding the difficulty of salvage operations. Fortunately, none of those things are Kheris' problem. As before, her primary mission is the restoration of the local Aethernet in the hope it will grant us a road into the main castle. Ejika pops in to touch base, and we share what we know of the Cloaked Man and my Echo vision of the young Lord Galuf. The news makes him antsy.  He has no idea what the four Archons were talking about regarding a prisoner on this island, but the existence of such a thing would make sense of measurements he's been taking on the Headquarters' shields. Force is being exerted on them, but it's coming from inside the barrier! Logic would suggest the defenses were switched on as a last-ditch effort to contain this mystery enemy, not to repel the island's new dangers. That does not bode well for anyone who might still be alive in that fortress. Ejika resolves to continue surveying to see if he can learn anything about this threat and gives us his blessing to work on the Aethernet. But only because he doesn't have a better idea, not because ours is actually good!  Oh, by the way, do you like the outfit? The top comes from a vendor on the Kugane docks named "Nostalgic Fellow." Given the presence of references like the Wind-Up Mithra in Anemos, I figured it must be an iconic bit of FFXI kit. To me, it's also a throwback to ARR thanks to being a helm and dress all in one. Several people advised me to invest in buying my fancy parka because it comes with a unique attribute, Elemental Bonus. The stat functions only in Eureka and boosts your power significantly by replacing some of the standard stats, which are restrained by the item-level standardization system. Personally, I cared a lot more about how well it matched my now-dyable Astrologian pieces. It's a good look!  Pagos follows most of the same basic rules that Anemos established, but there are noticeable differences from the start. For one thing, there is no "lesser," crystal in this region, only Pagos Crystals, which only come from Notorious Monster kills. This is a bummer because it significantly reduces the value (or at least perceived value) of killing ordinary creatures unless it's specifically to set up one of the NMs. It also highlighted a fact I hadn't fully noticed before: NMs do not give rewards other than EXP unless you are near or above their level, even if you get Gold participation credit. This shouldn't be too large a problem in theory because it just means that you should focus on NMs close to your current level and ignore the others, right? Well, virtually no one bothered to activate the weakest NMs while I was playing through Pagos. There are reasons for that, but I'll discuss them later. Why not trigger them myself? Because every single one can only be spawned by killing enemies roughly five levels stronger than the FATE. This was also true for Anemos, but it sticks out like a sore thumb without veteran players hanging around the baby areas. The player's progression loop has been effectively reset, forcing you to play like you're level one again, but all substantive rewards for those initial steps besides EXP are now gone. It's a frustrating situation. Instead of every action feeling like progress, large swaths of potential activity now feel like spinning your wheels, at least at first. Is there anything in the first few levels that does feel rewarding? Well, kind of.  The rumor of beasts chasing bunnies sets the stage for the Happy Bunny FATE quests.  Kheris remembers these weird half-rabbit-half-moth creatures from last year's Hatchingtide, where they caused endless trouble for the poor chickens. They are no less disruptive in Eureka, having managed to raise the ire of various fauna by stealing from them or pranking them. If you take the time to rescue them from their well-deserved punishment, one Happy Bunny out of the crowd will thank you by guiding you to a treasure through a simple game of Hot-and-Cold.  This is only "kind of," rewarding because the chests' locations are randomized. They can be hidden in almost any part of the map, and the system doesn't account for your level when it assigns you one. Your bunny could easily lead you into the proverbial lion's jaws, especially when you're first starting out. Remember how exploring in Anemos could easily get you killed? Well, now it's ten times worse. Enemy packs are more populous than before and spread out over more ground to make circumventing them a bigger chore. The geography also tends to funnel you into combat. Anemos had a lot of open areas and wide thoroughfares, but these are rare in Pagos. Unscalable rock formations, one-way drops, and narrow chokepoints are the new norm, making navigation annoying even without accounting for monsters. The developers seemingly placed some threats only to punish low-level players who attempt to dodge combat with clever pathing. You'll see monsters squatting at the base of cliffs or completely blocking off chokepoints to a degree they never did in Anemos. The most iconic example of this is the Frozen Void Dragons.  These bastards are scattered across Pagos, snoozing away, waiting for someone to step anywhere near them without first toggling on their RP Walk. If they wake up, you're almost certainly dead. Notice that its level is 40. The Pagos player cap is 35. On one level, they're a cool idea. There's something exciting and immersive about being able to stumble upon a creature too dangerous to fight in your MMORPG and being forced to sneak around them. On the other hand, these dragons were placed at some of the map's most critical choke points. That would be enough of a nuisance in general, but they end up being a disproportionate punishment for new players because once you pass certain level thresholds, you can avoid most of them by teleporting. Dealing with these, on top of everything else, put me in a less-than-stellar mood for Pagos' first stretch. ~*~*~ To reactivate the Aethernet, Kheris returns to hunting down aetheric confluences. Krile's instruments claim those in this region are far weaker than we've previously observed for some reason. When I find one, there's weirdness afoot.  The earth around the rock is scarred and barren. When Krile inspects the depleted magicite, she determines it was soaking up all the confluence aether to replace its missing energy. Something, or someone, stole the magic from the stone and left it behind, turning it into a sponge for aether and thus killing everything in the area. (Side note: it takes her three quests to figure this out. I guess they needed to stretch their material in this section.) Kheris immediately suspects the hooded man might be behind this, but Krile rightly calls that baseless conjecture. Unless we catch the culprit in the act, we shouldn't jump to conclusions. On an unrelated note, there's a full-strength confluence further up the mountain, which Kheris hurries to investigate.   See? This is what you get for doubting the Warrior of Light's unfounded speculation! As before, we're robbed of the chance to ask the man what he's babbling about by an Echo vision. Luckily, the Four Archons of Baldesion are discussing the same topic. They speak incredulously about records demanding "a bearer," who must be "just and true." The texts claim this person will be in no danger if they meet that vague criteria. What the person is bearing and the nature of said danger isn't clear. However, they do drop a significant clue:  There's a Primal on this island! Since they can't agree about the "bearer," the group concludes they have no choice but to maintain their prison. This decision pisses off the Lupin, who sees it as passing their problems off to the next generation. Their precautions could be undone one day. If that happens, all progress in defeating their captive will be reversed. His choice of words sparks inspiration.   Dare I say... EUREKA?! Krile needs time to meditate on these revelations, pausing the story for about five levels. Gerolt fills this narrative void by unlocking the next stage of Eureka Weapon progression. Sorry, no armor this time. As he explains it, the ambient wind aether of Anemos seeping into his materials made any further upgrades impossible. Now, he's developed a method to bring the thing back into elemental balance and open the door to greater improvements. All we need to do is distill aether of various aspects into a new type of crystal and infuse them into the magical matrix until everything is equalized. Only then can we apply Pagos Crystals and take the thing to the next level. Luckily, my old compatriot has the perfect tool to collect all that energy!  ...  It's nice that he's still finding the time to practice his REAL smithing passion. Blanstyr would be proud. Once Kheris has sufficient aether, she must bring the kettle to a crystal forging facility. The fact that Gerolt has no idea where such a thing might be found almost ticks her off enough to lay the smackdown on him, but he promises that one exists somewhere in Pagos, at least if we can trust the notes various Students left behind. She just needs to explore until she finds the thing. It turns out to be quite close to the expedition camp. The clue is a mysterious metal pipe sticking out of the cliffs that can be followed into a secret cave.  ...  So, this system is probably the biggest reason for that lack of interest in low-level Notorious Monsters I mentioned, and thus why starting Pagos is such a pain. The chance of proccing aether collection and the amount of aether gathered per kill depends on the amount of experience the target monster can provide the player. As a result, veterans are incentivized to ignore the weaker monsters and, by extension, the low-level NMs. This problem is further compounded by the map's design. Once they've learned what the zone has to offer, players can divide Pagos cleanly between "The good part," and "the trash part." Guess which one is the area for lower-level players.  The aether farm isn't the only thing luring the stronger players to stay in the north. The treasure system also got a revamp for Pagos. Standard Pagos lootboxes still drop from NMs, but there is very little of value inside them, just a single minion and some glam sets. The more exciting rewards have been split between the bunny minigame and a special drop called Cold-Warped Lockboxes. This type only appears when fighting enemies that are higher level than you AND only after they activate a new ability called Mutation.  Mutation and its sister ability, Adaptation, were exciting to me in theory. When the time and weather conditions are correct, certain enemies can transform into a stronger version of themselves, adding significant spice to combat. If anything, I wish more mobs had these powers because I only saw them a few times during my entire stint in Pagos. But tying them to unique treasure and making it so you can't get them at level cap unless you're fighting the zone's most formidable enemies only further segregates the weak from the strong. Believe it or not, that isn't even the worst problem. That prize goes to two specific NMs, King Arthro and Copycat Cassie.  ...  These otherwise unremarkable monsters carry unique loot, an earring and a ring with the mighty Elemental Bonus stat. These drops are exceedingly rare, purportedly in the 1% chance range. Worse, they can be SOLD ON THE MARKET BOARD. When I checked, their prices were typically in the 10-20 million range. As one would expect, if either of these creatures is on the verge of spawning, every person in Pagos will beeline for their arenas. Someone is guaranteed to attack the second they appear out of fear of missing out on a payday or an otherwise unattainable power boost. Both of these enemies appear in the north, and the newbie area in the south has large tracts of land without access to an Aetheryte, meaning you increase your chances of missing these valuable targets if you hang out down there. The ultimate result of all these factors is a severe breakdown of the zone-wide comradeship I observed in Anemos. Every pillar of the first area's design was angled toward rewarding community effort and the strong having reasons to help the weak, or at least no reasons NOT to help. The Pagos changes incentivize the strongest players to look out for Number One. Some of that team spirit still exists. I eventually found random groups willing to stick together and farm the zone until our eyes bled once I put some effort into searching or making them myself. Still, it's far more fragile than before. ~*~*~ After her lengthy analysis of Kheris' intel, Krile embraces the ultimate wisdom: she knows that we know nothing. More specifically, we don't know where this imprisoned Primal is, what form it has taken, why the Robed Man is stealing aether, or how/why the Isle of Val was sent to the far side of the world. She suggests consulting Ejika, whom Kheris finds can only be reached by falling off a cliff. This acts as a tutorial for any player who hasn't yet realized that Pagos has caves (including the one with the crystal machine) that can only be reached with death-defying jumps. Thankfully, fall damage doesn't kill in FFXIV outside of PVP... unless, as it turns out, you're in combat! Funny, I never needed to know that until Pagos put me in a situation to find out the hard way.  ...Bruh.  ...  Never underestimate the power of a good "Bruh." Ejika admits to the feelings of envy he foreshadowed in the last area. He has an axe to grind against Echo users, but not for the reason you might think. He objects not to the power itself but to the notion of being "chosen," to receive it. He came from a poor family and had to work himself to the bone to earn his place at the top of the Students of Baldesion. Only the best of the best had any hope of being made assistant to Lord Galuf, and he accomplished that not through both natural ability and the discipline to hone it into something useful. But Krile? The Mother Crystal chose her to have a special magic, just like the Baldesion family chose her to be their adoptive daughter. She reached the same level he did, with less talent and less work. The elites decided that it would be so, and it was so. Just so we understand this isn't entirely personal, he also name-drops the Leveillur family as a point of comparison. Sharlayan is supposed to be the world's greatest center of learning, but Ejika has observed that prestige counts for more than brains ever could in his homeland. So... he's Nero. Lalafel Nero. But there is one noteworthy difference between their characters. When Captain Sunglasses recognized the full scale of the injustices of classism, he abandoned all restraint and morality in an effort to shatter his glass ceiling. Ejika kept his sense of right and wrong but withdrew into an emotional shell and stewed in the fear that some people might actually be born with divinely mandated superiority that he can never surpass. The bitterness that followed was inevitable when he was dwelling on such dark thoughts.  Kheris attempts to assure him that the Echo isn't always a blessing (lord knows she's had plenty of angst over being a so-called Chosen One), but he's not in the mood.  If nothing else, venting his feelings and recognizing that he's taking out his biases on allies seems to improve his demeanor. He latches on to the line in the vision about "reversing the flow," and suggests that a more thorough survey of Eureka's fluctuating aether might give us greater insight into what the Archons were hiding. There is an ideal tool on Val to perform such a study, a machine called the Proto-Aetheryte.  There's one problem with this plan: the Proto-Aetheryte is stored in a system of caves far to the northeast and can't be reached on foot thanks to the altered weather patterns. Krile needs to reprogram the Aethernet to get us there, but there's a final roadblock in the form of a disruption that has nothing to do with magicite. Kheris is forced to go there and take measurements, a dangerous task because the magical energy has attracted some particularly aggressive griffins. Thankfully, she only needs to defeat one to reach a suitable survey point.   One wonders why I couldn't have done that from further away. Regardless, Krile accepts the data happily and gets to work, completing the Pagos storyline. The Warrior of Light's only remaining duty is to gather the materials for Gerolt to complete her weapon. After collecting 500 Pagos crystals...  (gently caress YOUUUUUUUUU VIDEO GAAAAAME!!!) ...she enters the region's darkest cave to track down the final ingredient. During her adventures, Kheris noted that there were even more Voidsent infesting this area than Anemos. Lesser entities were all over the place, not even counting the drat dragons, and the Notorious Monsters featured higher-ranked demons than those she'd fought before. The only reassuring thing was that none were on Pazuzu's level. Then she met Louhi.  The NM's in Pagos, in general, were more demanding and mechanically complex than those in Anemos. It would be fair to compare the difficulty jump to dungeon bosses between ARR and HW. I wouldn't go so far as to call most of them challenging, although one or two could kill a group that wasn't paying attention (looking at you, random Behemoth NM). Louhi, on the other hand, raised the bar like Pazuzu did before him. He boasts untelegraphed attacks that can only be avoided by recognizing their names and some surprisingly large AOEs, given the tight space where you fight him. I like this concept of a Zone End Boss, and I'm eager to see if they and the NMs below them will continue ramping up the challenge. Gerolt, being his usual douchey self, wants five pieces of Louhi's ice to finish my weapon rather than the three Pazuzu feathers he asked for last time. Since Louhi only drops three ice per kill, this was my first opportunity to use a handy NPC, the Expedition Birdwatcher. He exchanges boss materials for Crystals.  Developers, thank you for the mercy that is this NPC.  Calling Pagos a disappointment feels like I'm being too easy on it. I liked Anemos despite its flaws, and Pagos made every aspect of that design worse without stumbling into a single improvement. I don't begrudge some of the changes conceptually, like the Bunny game or Mutations, but how they fit those pieces together and reconfigured the old pieces took a sledgehammer to a carefully balanced arrangement of incentives and sucked out a huge portion of the fun for a first-time player. I'll admit that once I reached 35, it at least recaptured the enjoyment of a Head Empty Grind as I worked to finish my weapon. But, drat, was getting there ever a needlessly irritating chore. The most damning thing I can say about Pagos is that in Anemos, I was having so much fun that I stuck around for a while helping newbies in a half-hearted effort to nab every last collectible. I didn't even try in Pagos because it felt so onerous. The last time I felt that way about collectibles in an MMO was... wait for it... World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. The grapevine suggested to me Pagos is as bad as Eureka gets. Here's hoping they're right.  Hm? What's this? An epilogue?  Curious. Krile also commented on that distinction in the nomenclature and said that any differences between Eikon and Primal are entirely academic. Is there some substantive distinction we haven't yet uncovered? Unfortunately, Ejika doesn't get the chance to explain.   ...   ...   That's a thickening plot if I ever saw one. ~*~*~  The last person Kheris met before crossing the sea was good old Beatin at the Carpenter's Guild. He considered her visit fortuitous because one of his apprentices, a Mooncat named Cemi, has been down in the dumps and won't tell him why. Kheris investigates, and the source of the gloom turns out to be as mundane as it is catastrophic.  The Reverse Disco Stu! What worries her more than the balance sheet is how Beatin is handling the crisis. He's taken it upon himself to right the ship personally, putting in long hours crafting everything he can think of without even taking meal breaks! Perhaps this stubborn desire to fix things with his own hands is why he kept the problem from Kheris. Cemi suggests we take the pulse of the Gridanian people to find out why sales have slumped. When it comes to furniture, everyone's head is in the same space:  Dear God. The scourge of weeabooism has corrupted the Shroud. The logical thing to do is to ask the Elementals to call forth the Greenwrath and scour the forest for our sins. As an alternative, we propose that the guild alter its output to exploit this lucrative fad. Tensions are high as we prepare for our meeting.  Thankfully, Beatin is open to the idea, but he does raise a concern about quality. The guild built its reputation training the best woodworkers Eorzea has to offer; if they start throwing out cheap knockoffs of Eastern designs, it will only make the problem worse by flushing their credibility. To ensure this doesn't happen, he proposes that Cemi visit Othard personally and learn more about the cultures that created these designs. Cemi leaps at the chance, of course. Who wouldn't take a   The Timbermaster asks the Warrior of Light to get to Kugane and ensure the girl gets some studying done when she comes up for air from the buffet table. Alas, there are many restaurants in the great port, so it took this long for Kheris to sniff her out. The good news is she wasn't entirely wasting time.  Still, Beatin sent new instructions. Rather than merely play tourist and passively absorb the culture, he commands Cemi to seek out locals and learn about their troubles. Then, she will solve those problems by creatively applying her carpentry skills. Cemi takes to these orders a little too enthusiastically. She's out the door pestering people almost before Kheris can finish talking, and by the time we catch up to her, she's managed to make a woman cry.  We try listening to the lady's problem, which turns out to be a crisis of confidence. She thinks of herself as a Plain Jane, incapable of leaving an impression, the kind of person doomed to be forgotten because they blend into the crowd. Kheris isn't sure how carpentry can fix someone's low self-esteem, but Cemi drops a genius idea almost without thinking. Why not ask the Kabuki actors, who make a living by grabbing people's attention? Several performers all give the same advice:   Liking your outsides can give you a big leg up on liking your insides. Kheris is inspired and returns with the perfect idea of what to make for our client.  I almost picked the spear. Everyone knows that a good glamour is the quickest route to attention. Dress for the job you want and all that. No, I didn't notice anything weird in the background. Why do you ask?  Cemi takes the initiative with our next client. Ume, the Teahouse matron whom Kheris has met a few times before, wants to improve her bottom line by cultivating a consistent base of regular customers. To that end, Cemi has created a colorful sign to draw the attention of random folks who happen to pass by the shop. Wait, that doesn't sound right.  Once again, Cemi made the first thing that popped into her head instead of researching or thinking critically about the client's needs. Kheris comes in with the assist and asks the patrons what might make them spend more time in the shop. The most common answer ends up being a smoking section. That tracks. If there's one thing you'll learn within five minutes of visiting Japan, it's that people LOVE smoking. You don't know what surreal means until you've seen a crowd of twenty people puffing away between bites of their burgers at a McDonald's. The Warrior of Light prepares a fancy pipe box, which Ume loves. Seeing the quality of the product and how well it satisfied the customer's wishes leaves Cemi in a glum mood. She even begins muttering about how hopeless she is at carpentry. If only someone would come along and cheer her up.  If you're wondering, his excuse for having followed us to the far side of the world is, "I felt the call of the wood." He then proceeds to compliment Kheris on her sense of humor.  Kheris, of course, has no idea what he's talking about. I love this man. Beatin informs us that the time has come to expand our horizons in Othard by crossing the Ruby Sea and doing some carpentry in Doma. He also takes a moment to reassure Cemi that she isn't a lost cause.  ...  Reinvigorated by her master's words, my fellow carpenter zips ahead to establish herself in Namai. Who knows what new and exciting woodworking techniques she might acquire by studying Yanxian culture?   HA! Heavensward's emotionally heavy plot aside, Carpenter may be a contender for most consistently funny Job Quests. Cemi's joint passion for carpentry and food is oddly apropos for our next task. After Kheris finishes chewing her out for losing focus, we discover a villager who wishes to open a restaurant. With the Empire gone and the Enclave rebuilding, more travelers are passing through Namai, and the locals are starting to have money to spend. There's pent-up demand for a place to enjoy a professionally prepared meal. The would-be chef's problem is that he lacks furnishings for such an establishment. Our client suggests that we ask the locals about Yanxian dining customs, as his biggest concern is that both country and city folk are comfortable in his place, but Cemi locks in on his need for basics like tables and chairs. She also, tragically, proposes we make this into a contest. Maybe someday they'll learn... The biggest tip from the locals is that urban Domans strongly prefer privacy while eating, so Kheris elects to make a fancy partition. Personally, I would have gone for the sneeze guard.  Whoa, deep breaths, tiger! Cima admits that she only asked for this competition in the first place because she's feeling anxious over her repeated failures. She fears that Beatin might be on the verge of kicking her out of the guild because she can't hack it and hopes that the extra push of a challenge might get her to a higher level as a carpenter. This, of course, is her overactive imagination leaping to conclusions again. Beatin was actively praising her talent the last time he saw her. Still, the anxiety remains. Highly relatable. We present our products to be jud-  Beatin is a treasure.While the Contest Quest as part of the typical DoH plot has become trite at this point, this one goes a little differently than I expected. When the Timbermaster inspects our work, he praises Kheris but seems more impressed by Cemi's table. The engravings she invested hours into strike his fancy so much that he even implies she made the superior piece of furniture overall. Is the Warrior of Light actually going to lose a crafting competition?  HAHA, as if! While Cemi's potential as a craftswoman shone in that table, she failed to listen to Beatin's advice in Kugane. She chased perfection instead of giving the customer what he needed most. Beatin declares our expedition to Othard at an end and bids his apprentices to return to Gridania. The order crushes Cemi's spirit, as she is now certain her days with the Carpenters are over. Is she right? To find out, we need to skip forward to when Kheris returns to Eorzea. She discovers the boss being swarmed in the wake of his vacation.  Cemi takes the opportunity to ask why the people of Gridania love Beatin so much, and a random patron explains that it's because every job he takes is uniquely tailored to that one person. Whether fixing a drawer or crafting a masterwork weapon, he never fails to account for the needs of the one he's serving. That's what makes him a true artisan. The speech triggers a memory of the day Cemi decided to study carpentry. Coming from a poor family, she had to watch her mother work herself to the point of exhaustion every day to keep food on the table. Eventually, those years of effort caught up with the woman, and she developed a chronic back injury that left her barely able to walk. Not knowing how else to help, Cemi crafted her first piece of furniture, an armchair where her mother could rest her weary body. It wasn't much of a chair, but the joy the gift put on her mother's face changed the young Miqo'te life.  No wonder she was so worried about Beatin working himself to death for the guild. With the Timbermaster's blessing, she vows to begin her studies all over again, keeping the lessons she learned in Othard AND her original motivations in her heart. Once she's out of earshot, Beatin also gives Kheris his personal thanks.  What an adorable little story. CRP 60-70 is nothing world-shattering, and it's not trying to be a grand epic of great thematic import. It's just the tale of a young apprentice crafter brimming with potential but struggling to unleash it. I loved the subtle ways that events showed Cemi was a talent to rival Kheris, to the point of producing a superior piece of furniture during the contest. Beatin's presence was entertaining, but that last line did a great job of recontextualizing his weirdness. His awkward behavior isn't pure eccentricity. He struggles to communicate with people in a 'normal' way. He stalked us to Kugane and did all those Beatin Things because he knew Cemi needed his help, but he wasn't sure how to convey his approval in a way she would understand. It would probably go too far to interpret him as neuro-divergent, but I wouldn't be surprised if this story made that type of person connect with him a little more strongly. Regardless, having Kheris help bridge that communication gap so they could work together and put Cemi on the path to potentially surpassing both of them was a beautiful ending. What do you mean that's not the ending?  Oh, hey, it's that guy who's definitely Beatin's boyfriend.   Since Kheris got Gairhard that bow in time to fight off a small army of Ixal, he's become a bit of a local hero. The Twin Adders were quick to capitalize on his popularity for recruitment purposes, and now his unit's ranks have swelled. Many of the new faces come from the Shroud's sparse Ala Mhigan refugee population, as one might expect since the man on the posters is one of their own. This has caused some tension with the native Gridanians in the unit because, you know, Gridania is still pretty racist. Gairhard, ever the optimist, decided to host a tea party so everyone could get to know each other, but it ended in disaster. When we ask around to learn what went wrong, the answers are... unfortunate.    ...   I'm sure the intent here is supposed to be that the Ala Mhigans were culturally insensitive and, therefore, partially culpable for the misunderstanding. But I can't read this as anything but the Gridanians being the biggest Karens. How dare the foreigners fail to blend into our society seamlessly so we don't have to notice that they're different?! Natural cultural evolution? More like the end of our society at barbarian hands! Let me tell you about my 4-hour YouTube essay explaining how feminism caused the Fall of Rome... Have we forgotten that any Ala Mhigans in the Twin Adders would be part of a group hand-picked by the Elementals to be allowed to live here? The locals feeling entitled to dump on them for having THE WRONG CULTURE is in direct defiance of their gods' wishes. But hey, ignoring the Elementals when they're inconvenient and using them as a shield to justify lovely behavior is quintessentially Gridanian, so why am I surprised? Unfortunately, Gairhard has to deal with the practical problem of this group going into combat together, so he can't just wash his hands of the dipshits. Like last time, he needs some way of mending the fences no matter how much more at fault one side might be than the other. Kheris brings the story full circle by suggesting we try the same plan again but make it a traditional Hingan Tea Party. We shall exploit the Gridanian weeaboo fad to make everyone happy!  Then we find out this whole set-up was more or less a pretext to allow this to happen:   Cima completes her character arc by independently speaking to the soldiers, reaching the same conclusion about their needs, and building the same item as Kheris. All without anyone needing to help her! Huzzah! The tea party is held, and all the soldiers show up despite their misgivings out of respect for their leader. Certain idiots realize they were being prejudiced assholes for turning their noses up at foreign tea.   ...  Truly, the power of God and Anime are on Gridania's side. As an epilogue, Beatin feels the need to puncture Cemi's ego a bit, noting that her tea bench wasn't as good as Kheris' work. That tracks since the time she was using to make her furniture extra-great went into client research this time. It just means she still has room to grow. I hope we get to see more of her. The idea that there's one craftswoman in the lore that has the potential to surpass the Warrior of Light is kind of exciting after all the time she's clowned on the best of the best. Oh, and one more thing:   ...  ...  Beatin, never change. ~*~*~ With that, Kheris has finished her entire To-Do List! With all the time she's killed, it won't be long until Hien calls for her to help with the prisoner exchange. So much hangs in the balance of this event. Will the Empire and Doma somehow take the first steps toward peace despite Asahi's machinations, or was the whole thing a deception from the start? If only she'd gotten the chance to get some insight into Garlean politics, like Alphinaud hoped. Ah, well, even the Warrior of Light can't accomplish everything. Still, one thing is certain: nothing could tear her away from the Far East now.  "Message for the Warrior of Light, Kupo!"  Hm? quote:To Kheris, S-s-secret admirer?!  Well, I mean, what's a little expensive and exhausting intercontinental teleportation on the eve of a world-altering geopolitical event? It's a holiday! Let's live a little! Sanguinia fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Sep 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2023 11:33
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lmao beatin
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Sep 27, 2023 11:49
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Beatin is the best. Out of all the guild masters, he's the one who has stuck with me the most. As for Eureka, I never played any of the old-school MMOs that it's emulating so coming to it after FFXIV as a whole was a bit of culture shock. It makes for excellent podcast backlog content, though, and I really should look at some relic weapons one of these days ... My advice for anyone reading along who hasn't tried it yet would be that you've got the weekly challenge log for a reason. If you're just looking to level through Pagos and don't care about relic weapons, I'd strongly recommend you just fill out the challenge log once per week and otherwise leave it alone. You'll hit max level pretty quickly and then you can speed through the story. Staggy fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Sep 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2023 12:11
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Beatin doesn't need to use aetherytes, he can teleport through the woods of the world. It was ham-handed but I still like the reminder that yes, yes there are Ala Mhigans who have taken residence in Gridania, and are remaining post-liberation despite the other Gridanians. Pagos was the back-breaker of Eureka for certain. Though the concept of the fighting monsters five level above is pretty much that they're meant to be the strongest things a team can handle without too much trouble. Of course that means that the sleeping dragons are "meant" only for level-capped groups. What a terrible zone lay-out. Well, after we dipped into Mesopotamian mythology for Pazuzu, this time we turned to Finnish mythology and the Kalevala for Louhi.
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Sep 27, 2023 12:26
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Pagos was created before Square received any feedback from Anemos, from before they realized what players wanted to do in that sort of content. So they figured, instead, that what the players really wanted was a hell grind through pure bullshit. Quelle surprise, the man in charge of creating Eureka was the old 1.0 director, and reason why nobody liked the first many iterations of the Diadem.
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Sep 27, 2023 12:45
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Pagos was genuinely the worst content in the game when it came out. You have only experienced post-nerf Pagos. I was there, in the olden days, the days of yore...
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Sep 27, 2023 12:51
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Pagos probably us still among the worst content of the game post nerfs. You just get through it faster.
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Sep 27, 2023 12:54
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Ahhh... Eureka. I maintain that Pagos has some of the most insane arguments in shout chat, because nobody wants to be there. But either they need to, to continue the Eureka plot, or they're in the self inflicted hell of farming a Cassie Earring.
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Sep 27, 2023 13:24
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Pagos. 
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Sep 27, 2023 13:39
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I dug into Eureka for a few weeks early this year, and I think what turned me against it the most was the fact that the Aethernet shards are level-locked, so any satisfaction I would have gotten for sneaking/fighting my way over to them was lost because I was never high enough level the first time around. After that, it was the 3rd zone that ground my enthusiasm to dust. Everything felt like it got too spread out, and even going in at max level for zone was still incredibly dangerous (even moreso than the 4th zone, or at least it felt that way at the time). The 15 or so bots camping the lower level Happy Bunny FATE in Pyros all the time didn't help. Edit: YggiDee posted:Ahhh... Eureka. I maintain that Pagos has some of the most insane arguments in shout chat, because nobody wants to be there. But either they need to, to continue the Eureka plot, or they're in the self inflicted hell of farming a Cassie Earring. The funny thing is, the shitpost-y atmosphere of Cassie/Louhi/the third one I've forgotten the name of farming felt a lot more comfortable than Pyros was, because like 90% of the groups I ran into in there were very serious about setting up FATEs. Also, if I have to fight that drat tree in Pyros again it'll be too soon. S.D. fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Sep 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2023 13:44
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DoubleNegative posted:So they figured, instead, that what the players really wanted was a hell grind through pure bullshit. The community outrage over this 'derailing of the NM train' got this decision reversed in very short order.  (Oh, and also those two north aetherytes used to have much, much higher elemental level requirements. I think they were 31 and 33 instead of 23 and 25, or something along those lines.)
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Sep 27, 2023 13:51
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One day I'll set foot in Eureka to unlock the challenge log for it. One day.
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Sep 27, 2023 13:57
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quote:Your Return button is even modified to take you back to the zone's main town. This is actually not Eureka-specific. Using Return in any Duty takes you back to the entrance, where there will be a glowy thing you can touch to leave in case you're too cool to take it from the Duty menu. There are a few instances besides Eureka where this can be useful. In Haukke Manor after the second boss you have to return to the start to progress and it became so common to Return that the devs eventually added a direct clickable teleport in the revamp. I'll also admit to using it occasionally in 24 mans at spots where there's a lot of running and pausing in between fights. Instead of doing that you can Return, go get a drink, and click the teleporter to catch up when you get back.
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Sep 27, 2023 13:57
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I believe the general consensus on Anemos was "long and tedious, but kind of enjoyable if you turn your brain off since the lockboxes are easy to get." Pagos, though...dyslexicfaser posted:Ah, Pagos.
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Sep 27, 2023 14:06
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/return is very useful in Frontlines pvp because it takes you back to your base. Just don't get attacked while using it.
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Sep 27, 2023 14:07
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Ibblebibble posted:Pagos was genuinely the worst content in the game when it came out. You have only experienced post-nerf Pagos. I was there, in the olden days, the days of yore... Only because Original Flavor Diadem was already dead and gone by the time Pagos came out. But it was close. Release Pagos was really fuckin bad, and led me to abandon Eureka entirely for two years before I finally went back and finished it. And even now Pagos is still probably the least fun content in the game that isn't pure busywork. The write up does a pretty good job of covering the ways Pagos fails to work where Anemos does. And to be fair, release Anemos was also really bad, but at least later changes significantly improved the experience. Pagos' badness is partially due to the zone structure and incentives, so there's only so much that could be done to make it suck less. And you'll never guess which member of the dev team was the lead for Eureka content! Or maybe you will, as a meticulous consumer of XIV side content.
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Sep 27, 2023 14:57
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Oh, incidentally, Eureka is an optional dungeon in Final Fantasy III that is below the Crystal Tower. I believe you fight Leviathan there in addition to finding a number of strong weapons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUjDe34yGI I remember being disappointed that XIV's Eureka never used this music for the field.  On the topic of Final Fantasy references, these lads would be Final Fantasy XIV's version of the Warriors of Dawn from Final Fantasy V. In that game, Bartz's father, one of the current party members (Galuf), and two other guys saved the world from Exdeath in the past by sealing him into a tree. In modern day, Exdeath begins to escape again, and all of the Warriors of Dawn gradually meet their end until only Galuf is left. He eventually also dies 1v1ing Exdeath and passes his powers on to Krile, with her becoming a replacement party member in his stead.
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Sep 27, 2023 15:22
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With all this talk of Eureka, I have to quote my pal Frida:Frida Call Me posted:Restless from the lack of casual content this expac? Krile Krew has you covered! https://discord.gg/9FjjDQthhF We run on Excalibur in Primal, so only NA datacenter can participate. They do additional content besides just Eureka including Bozja and Blue Mage content. Eureka is best done as group, and Frida and Krew can get you from 0-60 in something like 6 hours or so spread out over a few Krile Krew days. If you are doing any Eureka content, I cannot strongly recommend enough that you roll in with Krile Krew. Mr. Nice! fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Sep 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2023 15:33
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Nthing old Pagos was pretty bad even though I liked old Anemos. Anyway time for some FF11-Eureka fun facts. First a lot of the Notorious Monsters(an FF11 term) like King Arthro, Capricious Cassie, and Fafnir come from 11. Cassie drops her earing in 11 but it is much less impressive:   King Anthro strikes fear in my heart as it likes to spam Hundred Fists a move that basically gives its attacks no cooldown, these attacks also paralyze, he also hits like a truck. He drops a pretty good haste belt and materials to upgrade it. Fafnir is a pretty tough NM from Rise of the Zilart, I've never fought the real version of it. I'd be here all day if I were to compare every NM in Eureka to their counterpart. So I won't. Gear! So like I said earlier Cassie's earing exists in 11. Simurgh's Strider(Simurgh in 11) drops Strider Boots while the Scorpion Harness drops from Serket(also from 11). These drops are not from those specific NMs though. Vermilion Cloak is indeed from 11 as is the Kirin's Osode. The wind up races are the races from 11.  The elemental wheel... Elements actually matter in FF11. It isn't just extra damage, sometimes the correct element does special things like stunning/weakening a monster or increasing drop rate. Combat in Eureka especially before patches mimicked the struggle that was 11's combat(before modern 11). Every fight could be a desperate battle to the death, you were safer in a party. Funny enough Eureka's XP loss when you died was way worse than 11. 11 hasn't had serious XP loss for over a decade except in extreme cases for the highest of high level players going after the final master levels. Finally "Magicked Skulls" from the song are from 11 and are used to unlock your Sub Job primarily. They were pretty rough to get once upon a time, now not so much.  Painful memories. Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Sep 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2023 15:35
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The Strider Boots own and give you an extra 10 seconds on sprint inside cities.
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Sep 27, 2023 15:43
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Sanguinia posted:Baldescion Just a couple of quick notes on names: It's Baldesion and Heaven-On-High.
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Sep 27, 2023 15:47
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S.D. posted:The funny thing is, the shitpost-y atmosphere of Cassie/Louhi/the third one I've forgotten the name of farming felt a lot more comfortable than Pyros was, because like 90% of the groups I ran into in there were very serious about setting up FATEs. Also, if I have to fight that drat tree in Pyros again it'll be too soon. Speaking of third ones, I just remembered that there was a Speed Belt originally from Pagos, but then Endwalker got rid of belts. So now you can trade in your Speed Belt for a ring instead. Mr. Nice! posted:The Strider Boots own and give you an extra 10 seconds on sprint inside cities. I wish I could glamour that effect onto other boots without copying the appearance.
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Sep 27, 2023 15:48
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Blueberry Pancakes posted:Speaking of third ones, I just remembered that there was a Speed Belt originally from Pagos, but then Endwalker got rid of belts. So now you can trade in your Speed Belt for a ring instead. My big complaint is there is no command line to equip gear so you cannot macro to equip the strider boots in town. Instead you have to set up a separate gearset. I'm playing a tank right now and decided heavy armor is the best tank so my boots literally don't show anyways right now.
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Sep 27, 2023 15:51
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I have an entire separate gear set for the Strider Boots that I never use because why bother with 10 seconds more of sprint in cities when I have 100% Peloton uptime. Or, you know, aetherites. Basically the boots sound nice on paper but they're both too awkward and too niche to be actually good.
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Sep 27, 2023 16:01
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