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+--- Thread: Looking for RP, without RPing (/showthread.php?tid=17390)
Looking for RP, without RPing - Yian Kutku - 10-04-2016
It's weird, I know. I'll get to it after the introductory information.
I'm new to FF14, and still on my early days of the free 14-day trial (second day today, probably third by the time I get back to this thread). I was waiting for the game to be officially available in my country (Singapore, GMT+8 for those wondering), and then put it off until now due to the 30GB install requirement.
I've spent most of the past few days looking up "how not to be a complete idiot in gameplay" guides for FF14, which still does not seem adequate. I hope I won't stumble over any unseen pitfalls.
My previous MMO experiences are myriad, but mostly keeping to myself in silent soloing, and usually no more than a few months before lapsing. The one exception was my very first MMO, and the reason I bounced around so many others: City of Heroes, of dearly departed memory and eight years' playtime.
As fellow former CoH players might guess, I played on Virtue.
One of the things I discovered there was that I'm simply not very good at RPing. As far as I know I wasn't actively terrible (at least, I never got any complaints), but more often than not actually participating stressed me out, and I ended up trying to fade back into the crowd rather than jumping in.
However, I loved watching RP going on. It was like awesome stories and performances happening all around me that I can spectate and enjoy. Again, I never got any complaints about it, so I assume it's not a huge problem, but I don't know how FF14's RP etiquette works.
I can roleplay if I have to, if that's what it takes, but I would much prefer to be a passive audience. And yet I find it helps my enjoyment immensely to know that other players around me actually care about the lore, and aren't just in it for the pursuit of bigger numbers.
Which is one reason I'm trying out FF14; the lore of CoH was one of the main anchors for me, and I'm hoping the vast amount of story in the game so far will be the same.
I'm currently playing on the Aether Datacentre, specifically Adamantoise and Cactuar, mostly to see what the game was like before making long-term decisions about whether to subscribe. I'm a bit worried that it took me several hours just to get to level 10, since it means rerolling on another server might be quite tedious. I didn't go to Balmung or Gilgamesh (the RP servers according to Google) because they appear to be locked to new characters, and I don't feel up to sniping maintenance times.
(If you're wondering, Archer N'arga Cuga and Arcanist P'liko Cuga respectively, Miqo'te Keepers of the Sun. Having much more fun with P'liko, who hit level 10 just before I had to go to bed.)
What else? I get slightly better pings from the NA Datacentres (282ms) than the EU (352ms) or JP (timed out) ones, but that's still not too good, so I'm taking it slow and careful. I'm still looking for more newbie guides, since a lot of what I found on Google suggested a site (ffxivrealms) which told me my IP address was blocked. Obviously not through any fault of mine, since I've never been there before.
My tabletop RP experiences are probably irrelevant, since I mainly saw them as a way to hang out with friends, rather than get into character. D&D (3.5, 5) and nWoD, if it matters.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this game goes. I'm leaning heavily towards subscribing; I'm giving it a few more days of gameplay first (or until I reach level 20, whichever is sooner), and then I'll see if Square Enix accepts my credit card.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - SicketySix - 10-04-2016
Welcome to the RPC!
If you are just looking to snoop on others RP while remaining unnoticed, Balmung is where you will want to go. It's the most active of the servers and there around teh evening EST hours, anyways from 30-50 players located in the Quicksand (tavern located in Ul'dah) and the majority of them are Roleplayers.
That being said, Balmung is constantly locked to new characters unless you manage to grab a spot right after maintenance. However that spot is only available for maybe 3 seconds before it's closed.
A much more reliable way is to create a server full of characters, and then after the 3 day wait period, pay $18.00 to move all the characters over to Balmung at once.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Gegenji - 10-04-2016
I have to admit, this is the first welcome post by someone actively looking to only lurk!
Six has the right of it, though. Pound for pound, you're going to see the most open-world RP and events on Balmung, which is stuffed to such capacity that new characters cannot be easily created on it. He mentioned the server full of characters because the transfer cost is a one-time $18 fee to move as many characters from one server to another, and it's usually recommended that for those who might want to play multiple characters (for RP reasons, usually) to make them all on one server and move them all over at once.
... It might not be something you would be interested in as an observer, though, since you can be every class and profession on one character. However, it might still be worth creating a character or two to carry along with should you ever feel the itch to RP. Or just to make that transfer fee feel a little more worthwhile.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Yian Kutku - 10-04-2016
(10-04-2016, 08:20 AM)Gegenji Wrote: Six has the right of it, though. Pound for pound, you're going to see the most open-world RP and events on Balmung, which is stuffed to such capacity that new characters cannot be easily created on it. He mentioned the server full of characters because the transfer cost is a one-time $18 fee to move as many characters from one server to another, and it's usually recommended that for those who might want to play multiple characters (for RP reasons, usually) to make them all on one server and move them all over at once.
... It might not be something you would be interested in as an observer, though, since you can be every class and profession on one character. However, it might still be worth creating a character or two to carry along with should you ever feel the itch to RP. Or just to make that transfer fee feel a little more worthwhile.
I was going to ask, yes. I'm not familiar with how FF14 handles multiple classes and alts (I only played a month of FF11 way back in the day, and only got up to level 10 or something), so I wasn't sure whether it's considered valid to create a whole bunch of characters. I mean, I did it for CoH and SWTOR (much, much more for CoH), but this is an entirely different game.
I mean, most of the beginner's guides I've read tell me that alts are pointless, but checking random discussions on other forums about FF14, I see several people mention a variety of alts (usually three or four).
I'll probably just start with the one character to transfer, though. I won't really know how I'll feel about FF14 (much less its RP scene) until I've really gotten farther into the game than the free trial lets me (level 20, one character per server). US$18 is a bit steep, but the lure of free open-world RP is strong.
Also, I have trouble keeping track of more than three different characters' personalities for long-term RP purposes, so that's another limit. After three, they kind of bleed into each other by accident.
EDIT: Completely off-topic additional questions, inspired by minor events when playing: firstly, is there any way to passively indicate to other players that I am on a free trial, and thus cannot reply to /tells inviting me to FCs? I feel kind of bad when I come back from a brief AFK only to see a nicely-worded /tell in my chat log, and no way of replying.
Secondly, is there any sort of in-game user-editable profile that other players can check out? I'm not sure how to describe it; CoH had something like that where players can write backstories, descriptions, bad jokes etc, but I've not seen any other MMO do anything remotely similar.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Gegenji - 10-04-2016
The main draw of the game from a mechanical standpoint is that your class is tied to your mainhand weapon. Throughout the game you can pick up various quests from the various guilds that give you new weapons and new classes that you can level. For example, you can start as a Thaumaturge in Ul'dah (babby Black Mage), but you can also pick up Pugilist (babby Monk) and Gladiator (babby Paladin) in the same city for combat classes, along with a number of non-combat professions - Weaver, Goldsmith, Alchemist, and Miner.
And each citystate has roughly the same number of classes and professions of their own. You usually have to hit level 10ish before you can pick up new professions, though, so you likely just hit the cusp of when you will be able to do that. At around level 15 you'll be able to travel to all three citystates and collect all the base classes and professions on one character if you so desired. Being able to be everything on one character - plus a lot of content being gated behind the Main Story Quest (MSQ) - is why many folks are imply the game isn't very alt-friendly, since you can do everything on one character anyway and you have to do a lot of monotonous retreading if you want to level an alt to a decent degree.
However, there are some reasons to have alts. RP is the most obvious one - having a different character to portray a different, well, character. Some people have alts on different servers to play with different people. And some folks just want to try out being the different races without having to shell out the money for Fantasias (the "redesign your character" item). There might be even more that I'm not even aware of.
My best recommendation is to do basically what you're doing already. Feel out the game in the trial and see if you like the base game itself - since you mentioned you're not certain on whether or not you'll want to RP... it would make sense that you make sure you enjoy the rest of the game at least. Otherwise you're paying money just to sit around town watching people RP at each other. Then, if you decide you like the game and get the full version, then you can see about transferring over.
And if/when you do transfer, I'd at least recommend bringing both Miqo'te and at least one more character (or one of them and two new alts, or even three whole new characters if you decide you want to keep the Seekers on that server) over to Balmung with the transfer. You specified three is you limit, and your uncertainty on whether or not you want to RP. Having the three there "just in case" - you don't even have to play them if you don't want to - will ensure that they're there if you decide you want to take the plunge, and help you avoid having to pay the transfer fee again in the future. Plus, if you get the special edition, you get a free Fantasia or two... so you could even change the characters "waiting in the wings" to whatever else catches your fancy.
... That got a bit rambly, but hopefully it was informative and helpful.
Edit in response to your edit!: Unfortunately, there's not really any marker to imply that you are on trial. However (and I'm not entirely sure you can do this in trial but you might), there is a Character Info block. It's a bit limited in space, but you can use it to identify such things as gear level and RP character summaries. You access it by clicking on the Party icon, right-clicking yourself, and choosing... I think it's "Update Character Info" or something like that. If you examine folks, sometimes their character status window will have a little word bubble icon - hover over that and it'll show you what they put in their info block!
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - ExAtomos - 10-04-2016
(10-04-2016, 08:46 AM)Yian Kutku Wrote: I mean, most of the beginner's guides I've read tell me that alts are pointless, but checking random discussions on other forums about FF14, I see several people mention a variety of alts (usually three or four).
While most players don't see the need or point, there are two main reasons people have alts. 1. For raiding. There's some loot and practice hokey-pokey that raiders do for endgame content with lock outs. They'll have an alt for this. 2. For roleplay. It's a way to rp as different characters, which keeps things lively and more interesting for many players. (I actively play and have leveled 6, so I can vouch for this. xD )
(10-04-2016, 08:46 AM)Yian Kutku Wrote: EDIT: Completely off-topic additional questions, inspired by minor events when playing: firstly, is there any way to passively indicate to other players that I am on a free trial, and thus cannot reply to /tells inviting me to FCs? I feel kind of bad when I come back from a brief AFK only to see a nicely-worded /tell in my chat log, and no way of replying.
Secondly, is there any sort of in-game user-editable profile that other players can check out? I'm not sure how to describe it; CoH had something like that where players can write backstories, descriptions, bad jokes etc, but I've not seen any other MMO do anything remotely similar.
You should be able to edit your search info by targeting yourself and right clicking / using square button. But many FCs who focus on the quantity of people in their FC instead of the type of people, will just send out blind invites to everyone without a FC tag, regardless of what you put in your search info. ^^; This info box is REALLY limited on character space though. Any stories etc. that you want to write have to be put out of game either here, on the Lodestone blogs, or on some other social media website.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Skae - 10-04-2016
(10-04-2016, 08:46 AM)Yian Kutku Wrote: I mean, most of the beginner's guides I've read tell me that alts are pointless, but checking random discussions on other forums about FF14, I see several people mention a variety of alts (usually three or four).
Not quite pointless. First of all there is of course the potential for roleplaying more than one character, but even disregarding that there is one reason for making a couple of alts:
In each of the three starting cities (and surrounding areas) there are a number of quests than you can only get if you start in that city, so if you want to see it all you need to create at least three characters, each of which start in a different city. (The unique quests are all level 15 or lower so after all those are done you don't need to worry about missing any more.)
There are also some dialogs that are slightly different depending on your starting class/city but nothing major or important.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Yian Kutku - 10-04-2016
(10-04-2016, 09:02 AM)Gegenji Wrote: And if/when you do transfer, I'd at least recommend bringing both Miqo'te and at least one more character (or one of them and two new alts, or even three whole new characters if you decide you want to keep the Seekers on that server) over to Balmung with the transfer. You specified three is you limit, and your uncertainty on whether or not you want to RP. Having the three there "just in case" - you don't even have to play them if you don't want to - will ensure that they're there if you decide you want to take the plunge, and help you avoid having to pay the transfer fee again in the future. Plus, if you get the special edition, you get a free Fantasia or two... so you could even change the characters "waiting in the wings" to whatever else catches your fancy.
... That got a bit rambly, but hopefully it was informative and helpful.
Edit in response to your edit!: Unfortunately, there's not really any marker to imply that you are on trial. However (and I'm not entirely sure you can do this in trial but you might), there is a Character Info block. It's a bit limited in space, but you can use it to identify such things as gear level and RP character summaries. You access it by clicking on the Party icon, right-clicking yourself, and choosing... I think it's "Update Character Info" or something like that. If you examine folks, sometimes their character status window will have a little word bubble icon - hover over that and it'll show you what they put in their info block!
The two Miqo'te are on different servers, due to free trial restrictions. So I'll have to create new alts on Cactuar/Adamantoise anyway, and leave the other where she is.
I admit I was surreptitiously checking to see whether anyone would complain about the names I gave, which were entirely "just let me into the game already" placeholders. (If anyone is wondering: Nargacuga and Palico.) Since they are thus far unremarked upon, I assume they're good enough to pass muster as lore-valid.
Otherwise, I'm open to spending even more money for a character rename. Then again, I don't have any real inspirations for lore-friendly names, so it'll likely just be hitting the Random button until I see something I can tolerate the sound of.
I'll try the right-click-on-self thing, thanks. I was looking through the various UI bits and menus, and didn't see anything like that, but I hadn't tried the Party option.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Gegenji - 10-04-2016
Both names are completely valid for female Seekers (if they are, in fact female - your identifying one as "she" leads me to assume this)! Seeker names are (Tribe Letter)'(Name) (Father's Name) for girls. So they would be Arga of the Aldgoat Tribe (N) - daughter of N'Cuga Nunh - and Liko of the Basilisk Tribe (P) and daughter of P'Cuga Nunh respectively. You can find out all about Miqo'te naming conventions here.
In short, the names are perfectly fine and you won't have to worry about name-changes.
... And yeah. The Character Info block is kinda squirreled away in a weird place. Fortunately, it retains what you put there... so you can put something and then forget about it for months at a time.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Yian Kutku - 10-04-2016
(10-04-2016, 09:27 AM)Gegenji Wrote: Both names are completely valid for female Seekers (if they are, in fact female - your identifying one as "she" leads me to assume this)! Seeker names are (Tribe Letter)'(Name) (Father's Name) for girls. So they would be Arga of the Aldgoat Tribe (N) - daughter of N'Cuga Nunh - and Liko of the Basilisk Tribe (P) and daughter of P'Cuga Nunh respectively. You can find out all about Miqo'te naming conventions here.
In short, the names are perfectly fine and you won't have to worry about name-changes.
Thanks, and yes, they're both female. (I like creating female characters in MMOs, because I love the female fashion options. Dresses for everyone! Ballgowns for all!)
Part of my research into Not Being Stupid In FF14 while the game was installing was, indeed, checking out lore-valid stuff like names, which did lead me to that link. I was slightly disappointed that there isn't an Eorzean Dictionary or something, so I could have my Miqo'te names mean something proper instead of Monster Hunter references.
Other than Hyurs (ie standard humans) and Miqo'te, I'm also interested in the expansion Au Ra race, but I'm not sure if I should buy the Heavensward expansion just for them, or even if I should buy the expansion immediately should I subscribe.
Off-topic: I love the Arcanist. I love pet classes in general, especially if the pet is sturdy enough to give me plenty of warning if the fight is going badly.
I'm a little worried about the mandatory story dungeons I hear about, though, as well as how the Arcanist is considered a DPS class, with the queue times that implies.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Gegenji - 10-04-2016
I have good news all around, then! ... Kinda.
First the actually good news - when the base classes get to level 30, if you level the proper "subclass" to 15 you can unlock special Job classes. Arcanist is unique in that it has two: the continuation of the DPS angle in Summoner, and a healer version called Scholar. Summoner requires Thaumaturge 15 and Scholar requires Conjurer 15. And if you have them both unlocked, their level is based off Arcanist, so when you level one, you also level the other. Which means you'll have a high damage class with a tank pet for when you want to do stuff solo, and can switch to the healer for faster queues for the story dungeons!
As for Heavensward, keep in mind that it contains more than just letting you pick a new race at creation. It raises the level cap (50->60) and has a lot of new content regarding that for all classes, and also includes three new Jobs (Dark Knight, Astrologian, and Mechanist) to play around with once you actually hit Heavensward content. However, there is no particular rush to do so unless those sorts of things interest you. And, as mentioned, if you get the collector's editions (of the base game, Heavensward, or both), you can get a free Fantasia. So... you can always change one of your characters into an Au Ra later if you decide you want to get the expansion.
Like, perhaps, one of those two other recommended characters to be made for the transfer. Then you can have a Miqo, a Hyur, AND an Au Ra if/when you pick up HW! I actually had a character I created specifically to be an Au Ra prior to HW dropping... leveled him up, and then Fantasia'd him into an Au Ra once the expansion came out. Just had him "properly named" ahead of time to avoid a name change fee.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - ExAtomos - 10-04-2016
Having just skimmed previous posts (sorry ^^; ), I wasn't sure if it was mentioned that having more than one character per server is a slightly higher monthly subscription fee than the base subscription which limits you to one.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - SicketySix - 10-04-2016
(10-04-2016, 09:54 AM)Gegenji Wrote: As for Heavensward, keep in mind that it contains more than just letting you pick a new race at creation. It raises the level cap (50->60) and has a lot of new content regarding that for all classes, and also includes three new Jobs (Dark Knight, Astrologian, and Mechanist) to play around with once you actually hit Heavensward content.Also just to add, my personal opinion of Heavensward Main Story is far better then the vanilla games main story. It's personal the best MMO storyline I've played.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Yian Kutku - 10-06-2016
A couple of days of intense playtime means I hit level 20, and had to make a decision on whether to buy the game.
It was an easy decision, made when I hit 15 and discovered that I can fish.
So now I've purchased the full game from the Square Enix online store (at a heavily discounted price, curiously not listed on the FF14 site itself), which apparently includes both the base game and Heavensward. (Yes, I triple-checked; it's all listed on my account details page.)
While I wait for the servers to come back up, I should mention that I have the default 30 days of playtime for buying the game, but have not yet applied a subscription plan. From what I can see, if I get a Friend Code from another player, I'll be able to apply it and get a few goodies. Specifically, the "Friendship Band", which gives me some amount of extra experience at lower levels but more importantly it's a little feather tucked into my hair so cute.
Hopefully someone here will help me?
I'm also not sure if I should get the Standard Subscription right away, or try out the single-character (per World) Entry Subscription for now. Having done the big tour of the three starter cities and collected all the classes, I'm not sure I want to go through all that again on another character so soon. While technically I have 30 days before I have to decide, it does have implications on whether my first server transfer to Balmung is just the one character, or multiple.
RE: Looking for RP, without RPing - Skae - 10-06-2016
(10-06-2016, 05:00 AM)Yian Kutku Wrote: A couple of days of intense playtime means I hit level 20, and had to make a decision on whether to buy the game.
It was an easy decision, made when I hit 15 and discovered that I can fish.
So now I've purchased the full game from the Square Enix online store (at a heavily discounted price, curiously not listed on the FF14 site itself), which apparently includes both the base game and Heavensward. (Yes, I triple-checked; it's all listed on my account details page.)
While I wait for the servers to come back up, I should mention that I have the default 30 days of playtime for buying the game, but have not yet applied a subscription plan. From what I can see, if I get a Friend Code from another player, I'll be able to apply it and get a few goodies. Specifically, the "Friendship Band", which gives me some amount of extra experience at lower levels but more importantly it's a little feather tucked into my hair so cute.
Hopefully someone here will help me?
That Friendship Band (and other stuff you get from a Friend Code) is indeed quite nice.
Feel free to use my code: 5X8S5CDB
(I get stuff too if you use the code and pay for a subscription, so I hope you use it
)