[FFXI] Back to the past
In FFXI, I've nudged Yara's DNC up to 30; she's high enough level now that she's got Spectral Jig, which casts Sneak and Invisible without using TP or magic. Apparently, DNC is just that awesome. I abused the hell out of those abilities tonight by going to the past, stopping every 30 seconds to a minute to cast Sneak and Invisible again.
The last time I went to the past, I had only unlocked Cavernous Maws in Rolanberry Fields and Batallia Downs. My goals tonight were to get the Red Recommendation Letter to join San d'Oria's Knights of the Iron Ram and unlock as many maws as I could along the way to Sandy.
The first goal involved going to Garlaige Citadel [S] (the bracketed S indicates a place as it exists in the past, according to the game and all support material) in Sauromugue Champaign to talk to an NPC. Adventurers new to the past can't enter Jeuno [S] without questing for access, it seems, so I had to travel through Batallia [S] and Rolanberry [S], then wind my way to that stronghold. Eerily, I met with few mobs on the way there. The citadel itself, being held by allied forces, was almost empty save a few heavily armored elves and taru. I got my letter, opened the Cavernous Maw in Sauromugue while I was there, and then traveled back to Jeuno through a less-threatening present-day Sauromugue Champaign. I rented a Chocobo and headed back to the maw in Batallia.
I warped back through the Cavernous Maw to Batallia Downs [S], thinking that I would just hop on over to Jugner Forest [S] and make my way up to East Ronfaure [S] around the north side of the lake at the top of the map. Turns out there's an annoying wall of boulders that blocks the path I wanted to take. It's the old problem of arguing against arbitrary limitations on a video game character. I can raise the dead as a white mage, I can do a dance with this job that affects sound waves and light around me to make me invisible and quiet, but by default no character can jump over obstacles no taller than a taru? Oh well.
Moments later, standing beside an impenetrable Orcish gate with orange mantle-clad tigers loitering all around, I was at a loss as to what to do next. Thank goodness for Allakhazam. I looked up Jugner Forest [S] and found that someone had posted a walkthrough on how to get from Batallia to Ronfaure.
I traveled northeast of Spore Hollow to the northernmost entrance of Vunkerl Inlet [S], which does not exist in the present and for which I had no map (apparently, the quest to get the map is back at Garlaige Citadel and easily done with sneak). I followed the instructions to getting through that zone and made my way from F-4 to D-10 with little worry, though initially I got a little lost. There were some pretty views off old bridges, plus lots more tigers, tree monsters, bombs, pixies and sprites, orcs with names I'd never seen before, etc. I reentered Jugner down at J-12, then traveled all the way north and went west of the lake (past a gang of water elementals that can evidently smell fear; just glad I had no jobs equipped with magic) to get to East Ronfaure [S].
East Ronfaure is a place I rarely go in the present, as there are only a couple of notorious monsters, I've done most of the quests that involve the area, I don't go to King Ranperre's Tomb much (having given up on being able to fight the Spook), and all my jobs are way too low-level to really bother with the northern regions that connect through Ranguemont Pass (Fauregandi, Valdeaunia, where I've recently gone to get outpost warp and the Vahzl teleport crystal). It is a lot more interesting in the past, with burnt trees, craters from artillery, broken fences, stone walls, and lots of incredibly tough monsters hanging out with forest hares, carrion worms, wild sheep, and other two-weak mobs. I unlocked the maw there, then went into South San d'Oria [S].
Sandy of the past, what little I saw before logging off, is pretty awesome. I don't know whether it was just the hour at which I arrived (after midnight) or whether it was part of the plot, but most doors in the city were shut tight. The auction house area is where you get missions and talk to suppliers. There were players running around whose names I've seldom seen in the present. There were cannons everywhere. Your mog house has bunk beds where you ostensibly bunk with other adventurers. Overall, there was a more serious, more exciting feeling to this world than there is to the present, a feeling for me no doubt influenced by my first non-garrison quest giver who, instead of giving me a simple fetch quest, launched into a cutscene about the legend of a dragon that transforms into a female elf, about a tribe lost to the world of the present. I think it's awesome how much awe the really high-level monsters inspire and how, among the NPCs and players, there's a spirit of war, danger, camaraderie, and seriousness, like we're all there to do important things. I love it. I just wish Yara was high enough level to take part in more than sightseeing and unlocking the Wings of the Goddess expansion's jobs.
I am saving unlocking scholar for if/when not_the_droid returns.
The last time I went to the past, I had only unlocked Cavernous Maws in Rolanberry Fields and Batallia Downs. My goals tonight were to get the Red Recommendation Letter to join San d'Oria's Knights of the Iron Ram and unlock as many maws as I could along the way to Sandy.
The first goal involved going to Garlaige Citadel [S] (the bracketed S indicates a place as it exists in the past, according to the game and all support material) in Sauromugue Champaign to talk to an NPC. Adventurers new to the past can't enter Jeuno [S] without questing for access, it seems, so I had to travel through Batallia [S] and Rolanberry [S], then wind my way to that stronghold. Eerily, I met with few mobs on the way there. The citadel itself, being held by allied forces, was almost empty save a few heavily armored elves and taru. I got my letter, opened the Cavernous Maw in Sauromugue while I was there, and then traveled back to Jeuno through a less-threatening present-day Sauromugue Champaign. I rented a Chocobo and headed back to the maw in Batallia.
I warped back through the Cavernous Maw to Batallia Downs [S], thinking that I would just hop on over to Jugner Forest [S] and make my way up to East Ronfaure [S] around the north side of the lake at the top of the map. Turns out there's an annoying wall of boulders that blocks the path I wanted to take. It's the old problem of arguing against arbitrary limitations on a video game character. I can raise the dead as a white mage, I can do a dance with this job that affects sound waves and light around me to make me invisible and quiet, but by default no character can jump over obstacles no taller than a taru? Oh well.
Moments later, standing beside an impenetrable Orcish gate with orange mantle-clad tigers loitering all around, I was at a loss as to what to do next. Thank goodness for Allakhazam. I looked up Jugner Forest [S] and found that someone had posted a walkthrough on how to get from Batallia to Ronfaure.
I traveled northeast of Spore Hollow to the northernmost entrance of Vunkerl Inlet [S], which does not exist in the present and for which I had no map (apparently, the quest to get the map is back at Garlaige Citadel and easily done with sneak). I followed the instructions to getting through that zone and made my way from F-4 to D-10 with little worry, though initially I got a little lost. There were some pretty views off old bridges, plus lots more tigers, tree monsters, bombs, pixies and sprites, orcs with names I'd never seen before, etc. I reentered Jugner down at J-12, then traveled all the way north and went west of the lake (past a gang of water elementals that can evidently smell fear; just glad I had no jobs equipped with magic) to get to East Ronfaure [S].
East Ronfaure is a place I rarely go in the present, as there are only a couple of notorious monsters, I've done most of the quests that involve the area, I don't go to King Ranperre's Tomb much (having given up on being able to fight the Spook), and all my jobs are way too low-level to really bother with the northern regions that connect through Ranguemont Pass (Fauregandi, Valdeaunia, where I've recently gone to get outpost warp and the Vahzl teleport crystal). It is a lot more interesting in the past, with burnt trees, craters from artillery, broken fences, stone walls, and lots of incredibly tough monsters hanging out with forest hares, carrion worms, wild sheep, and other two-weak mobs. I unlocked the maw there, then went into South San d'Oria [S].
Sandy of the past, what little I saw before logging off, is pretty awesome. I don't know whether it was just the hour at which I arrived (after midnight) or whether it was part of the plot, but most doors in the city were shut tight. The auction house area is where you get missions and talk to suppliers. There were players running around whose names I've seldom seen in the present. There were cannons everywhere. Your mog house has bunk beds where you ostensibly bunk with other adventurers. Overall, there was a more serious, more exciting feeling to this world than there is to the present, a feeling for me no doubt influenced by my first non-garrison quest giver who, instead of giving me a simple fetch quest, launched into a cutscene about the legend of a dragon that transforms into a female elf, about a tribe lost to the world of the present. I think it's awesome how much awe the really high-level monsters inspire and how, among the NPCs and players, there's a spirit of war, danger, camaraderie, and seriousness, like we're all there to do important things. I love it. I just wish Yara was high enough level to take part in more than sightseeing and unlocking the Wings of the Goddess expansion's jobs.
I am saving unlocking scholar for if/when not_the_droid returns.