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Worth playing again? How many players left?Follow

#1 Jan 21 2014 at 7:50 AM Rating: Good
Hey guys I just created a new account on this website to ask some questions.

As you can see in the title my main question is if it is worth playing again.
I stoped playing the game for around 4-5 years now and I think I will be
totally lost now. Is it still worth playing it? Does FF XI still have a future?
I loved this game so much it's kind of my favourite MMOPRG of all time.

Another important thing is the amount of players left in the game. Is there
a way to figure it out? Starting to play the game again with only a handful players
on the servers is not very satisfying...also heard the game is now too easy??
Is it true??

Or is FF XIV with the new update a better choice?



Edited, Jan 21st 2014 8:50am by Juori
#2 Jan 21 2014 at 9:15 AM Rating: Excellent
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If you want a more modern game with the wow feels then go XIV

XI is still its charming, classic, chugging along self

"Too easy" depends what you mean. The difficulty of end game content is same or harder than at any other point in game history.


If you think running from Selbina to Jeuno is "hard" then yes, the game is much easier.

There have been many quality of life improvements making travel a lot faster and levelling a lot less painful.

Because the player base is mostly at max level and doing max level things SE has done things like uncap missions and introduced systems like records of Emininece and trust.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Records_of_Eminence


http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Trust

So again, if your thought of FFXI being challenging was the difficulty of getting exp, then yes the game is easier - but fFXIV is easier still in that regard

But the focus of the game has shifted to being max level and killing big bads etc.

Personally I am enjoying XI more than ever, but I am also an old fart who enjoys the look, pace, job system etc of the game.

I find XIV too plastic - but you'll get to play more with others as you level there since XI is very top heavy.

The starter cities don't have a lot of people in them because most are in adoulin (think of it as today's whitegate)

#3 Jan 21 2014 at 9:20 AM Rating: Good
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That said since the intro of trust I am seeing a lot more people out and about and levelling.

Unfortunately they are still working on letting you summon npcs in a party so there is less incentive to duo or anything at this time. But it is nice to be able to just exp whenever you want without having to flag up/shout for a party
#4 Jan 21 2014 at 9:29 AM Rating: Decent
Thank you for your answer.
Never thought of the travel thing. I always enjoyed running around and try avoiding/fighting some monsters but ok.
The max. level is now at 99 or something like that right? So a way to go for me :) when I stopped playing the cap was at 75.
I mean there werent many people in the starter cities when I played it...always concentrated in whitegate and jeuno...
You know how many people are playing on your server? Or do you have any source where I can see how many people are in the game? Would be interesting :)
#5 Jan 21 2014 at 9:30 AM Rating: Decent
Oh really? Well that system is kind of interesting too... so you can go to 99 all by yourself is it like that?
#6 Jan 21 2014 at 11:37 AM Rating: Good
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Juori wrote:
Thank you for your answer.
Never thought of the travel thing. I always enjoyed running around and try avoiding/fighting some monsters but ok.
The max. level is now at 99 or something like that right? So a way to go for me :) when I stopped playing the cap was at 75.
I mean there werent many people in the starter cities when I played it...always concentrated in whitegate and jeuno...
You know how many people are playing on your server? Or do you have any source where I can see how many people are in the game? Would be interesting :)


Well you can still run around if you want to - I took the boat from Selbina to Mhaura the other day just for a change.

Asura has around 1000 online most times, lots of NA players. I think pretty much all servers are around the same,but I read somewhere Asura is one of the smaller ones (since it didn't get merged last round as it used to have the largest population).

Yeah you can get to 99 using trust NPCs, Records of Eminence etc - of course you'll probably want to do some abyssea once you're in your 80s and above especially if they do the promo where you get free atma again (atma is a key item you equip to get super powers in abyssea)
#7 Jan 21 2014 at 1:39 PM Rating: Good
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I just saw SE has released an "adventuring primer" you can take a look at as well: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/contguide/
#8 Jan 22 2014 at 5:38 AM Rating: Good
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Juori wrote:
Oh really? Well that system is kind of interesting too... so you can go to 99 all by yourself is it like that?


Well you can but once you hit the 75+ mark and you find the tnl's (to next levels) getting bigger and bigger, the pace starts to slow down a bit.
On the other hand, you urn points (Sparks) from Records of Eminence objectives and tabs from field's of Valor that really do add up.
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#9 Jan 22 2014 at 1:03 PM Rating: Good
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Juori wrote:
Oh really? Well that system is kind of interesting too... so you can go to 99 all by yourself is it like that?


Solo I went from level 1 to level 80 on MNK in about 4 days, just using the Trust NPCs and various new EXP systems SE added, like Fields of Valor and Records of Eminence. Then I went from 80-99 in a worm party in Abyssea.

So yeah you could definitely solo to 99 if you wanted, it would just take a decent chunk of time. You wouldn't have to though. The old school EXP party structure no longer exists but you can get a lot more EXP either low man or in an alliance in Abyssea than you ever could before.

The game isn't necessarily easier it's just less of a time sink. For example any Home Point you find, you can warp to/from any other Home Point. And they made it a lot easier to start from scratch.
#10 Jan 23 2014 at 3:53 PM Rating: Decent
I've come back after a few years and I've really enjoyed it so far. I played for a few years back from the NA launch off and on through 2008. It's much more casual now that it used to be. You can get on for 30 mins or an hour and actually do something productive. It is a little sad when you go through the old zones like the Dunes and there are no parties. You can actually camp nm's now easily, so it's kind of fun to get gear. I'm sure there is a lot more grinding in the end game content now, but for me now it's a lot of fun. I guess the drawback is, it's less social now. It's harder to meet people because you don't really need as much help with everything through the level 75 content anyway. There are some good guides on there for returning players. All of the changes are kind of overwhelming.
#11 Jan 24 2014 at 5:12 PM Rating: Decent
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After a lot of deliberation I've decided to re-buy the game via Steam after being on a 4 year hiatus, largely thanks to MrHappy's Let's Play channel on YouTube. Brought back memories (I recommend looking it up). I'm in the process of trying to re-activate my old account, but I can't for the life of me remember my old password - hoping SE's online help will, well... help. I'd rather not start the process from scratch, not due to having to re-level & gear up my character (I actually enjoyed the 'grind' as a BST), but the quests & missions etc. I completed; my concern is I won't be able to get many of them done.

I'm looking forward to seeing what's happened post-75, albeit I was never in to the end-game stuff 4 years ago. I'm hoping I can either get in touch with old friends or failing that, find a friendly LS/group who I can chat with & hopefully meet people in a similar situation to what I'm in.

I've not really got any questions, just thought I'd add my two cents. A little apprehension (really hope I get my old account back) and curiosity, I just hope the game and the people are as good as I remember.

A lot of what I've read on these message boards makes me think so :).
#12 Jan 29 2014 at 2:15 PM Rating: Excellent
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Quote:
the quests & missions etc. I completed; my concern is I won't be able to get many of them done.


It's almost all soloable at this point, especially for BST
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