Dear Lakshmi: lolseacom! (A How-to Guide!)Follow

This kind of thread has been written before, no doubt, but some things bear repeating, so Uncle Angina's on the scene to fix Lakshmi's ignorance! Please note right off the bat that if you (A) already know what a /seacom is, (B) use them, and (C) read other people's /seacoms, this thread will likely be of no interest to you until it invariably derails into a flame war. Please refrain from posting such tripe as, "I already no wut a /seacom is lol!" or "lol ur an idiot Agnina!" Or: "LOL f u dun wanna b invieted jes dun put ur flag up LOL!"

This thread is for the new players, the old players who aren't any better at the game than new players, those whose ignorance is justified by a severe learning handicap, and extremely stupid people. Illiterates are not welcome here.

Q: What is a /seacom?

A: Your ticket to excellence! No, probably not, but it can distinguish you from Random Melee #643, who's also looking for a party. Basically, a /seacom is a three-line tag advertising your best qualities, area access and/or restrictions on what kinds of parties you will accept. It's entirely customizable; some people prefer to put song lyrics here because they're emo, and have no game-related qualities to boast about. (I kid, Deathbeckons. I kid.)

Seacoms should always be used when looking for party, as they are the only way for people who don't know you to determine what it is that makes you worth 1/6th of their experience. Nobody likes rolling dice with idiots; don't make them have to do it. Distinguish yourself!

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Q: How do I get a /seacom?

A: You already have one! You've just never used it. Open your main menu, then scroll down to "Search". Click on it and select "Edit Comment". This will open a three-line box in which you can enter any text you'd like, in the hopes of landing an invite. Make it count, or you might as well not have used it at all.

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Q: What do you mean, "Make it count"?

A: If you have your flag up, you're obviously looking for a party. So using your /seacom for trash like {Party} {Yes, please.} {Please invite me.} {I want experience points.} is completely redundant. It flags you as an idiot, and if I'm building a party, you'll be one of the last people I consider for your position.

Here are a few examples of reasonable /seacoms, though there aren't many hard and fast rules:

@5,000 JP/EN OK
World:O {Level Sync}O
117 merits

^ This player will join either English or Japanese parties, but they might hate the French. This is normal. They have access to the entire world, and will sync to any level. They're heavily merited, which shows dedication to their job.

@250 {Language} ANY
SJ: BLM, WHM, SCH
MP+216, MND+37

^ The second /seacom indicates that the player will party with anyone, even the filthy, uncultured French. They're flexible with subjobs and seem to gear well, judging by the stat boosts they advertise.

@27,000 {English} {No thanks.}
NO {Level Sync} 1-55
{Vali's Bow}O

^ This /seacom is different: this player does not want to join English parties. If you invite them in English you're a disrespectful moron. Don't do it; even if you need a RNG, respect their wishes. They also do NOT want to sync any lower than level 55. If your party is between levels 1 and 54, you're likely to **** this person off by inviting them. Judging by the third line of their /seacom, they're not interested in losing the stats from their Vali's Bow to Level Sync, and a RNG with a Vali's Bow is hot stuff.

{Level Sync} 50+
{friend} Morwyne {Corsair}
{Invite to join party}

^ Pay special attention here. A player mentioning a {friend} in their /seacom (this may also be denoted by the word "SET") will only accept your invite on the condition that you invite their friend. If you invite FFXI Player A with this /seacom and don't have room for Morwyne, the COR, you're ******** up royally. That's just freakishly disrespectful; don't waste their time if you don't want both of them at once.

(Credit here goes to Morwyne, who pointed this issue out.)
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Now that you know how to build and analyze a /seacom, there's one last thing you have to understand: reading these things is not optional. It's just not, period. When you run a search for players to invite, anyone with a green dot in the upper-right corner of their name has a /seacom listed. (Other colors indicate interest in non-experience parties, such as events, ENM, etc. As a rule, don't invite people with a dark blue /seacom dot to an XP party.) When you click on these players' names to send them a /tell, their entire /seacom will pop up in your chat log, giving you a chance to consider what you're doing before you end up looking like a drooling ******.

If their /seacom says they don't want to party with a BLU, don't invite them if you have one. Let the prejudiced ******* stew in town with his flag up. If they refuse to pull in Caedarva Mire, don't ask them to do it. Take their simple, easy-to-read requests into consideration before you send that /tell, because they're doing you the favor of advertising themselves for the sake of streamlining your party formation. The least you can do is respect that enough not to get their hopes up only to find that, yeah, it's another dummy asking them to tank Valkurm as a Black Mage...

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Q: I'm stupid, and don't like to read. Give me the cliff notes version, please!

A: (1) Seacoms are your friend; always use them. (2) Seacoms are easy to make, and totally customizable. You're stupid if you don't use them. (3) Read a player's /seacom completely before you invite them to your travesty of a party. (4) No exceptions.

On a personal note, I frequently limit my acceptable Level Sync range in my /seacom. I make it easy to understand, and type it exactly like this:

NO {Level Sync} 1-35! ><;

If you invite me to a party that's lower than the restriction in my /seacom, I will insult you and black list you on the spot. Period. Make note of these things, people. You have no excuses.

Edited, Mar 30th 2009 4:03pm by Angina

Edited, Apr 2nd 2009 11:34pm by Angina

You have my vote. For anything.

I'm very tempted to invite Angina to my level 1 West Sarutabaruta party now when his seacom says no level sync 1-35. :P

Level sync won't even work until level 10, so technically, it wouldn't even be a level sync invite!

I know, but Angina is the one that types...


:P

I make seacoms, amidoingitrite?

It is a rather sad thing. Considering how old this game is, Seacom is a rather ingenious addition for the time it was made. Simple, efficient. Yet the lack of use kills it. You can save so much time/frustration with a seacom if people would read the damn things.

This is only exacerbated by levelsynch. When i was leveling mnk, i always put level synch 1-30 no thanks because I had boreas cesti at level 30 and they are sexy. Did the same thing at 50 with my retaliotors. Didnt help at all. So instead I ended up soloing Mnk/Dnc from about 45-55. (GOGO guard skillups!). Oh speaking of pain in the *** defensive skillz, parry 212 Angi.

(Mhuara)hahaha! I slipped it in completely naturally!

Edited, Mar 31st 2009 2:17pm by Banalaty

Don't forget to explain "JP ONRY".

*Steps in*

Long time no see guys!

On the JP ONRY thing there are exseptions to the rule when you have JP players already in pt with you and you ask them to do the /t to that player more often that not said Japanese player will join the party if its a good setup, Just my 2cents thrown in :).

*Steps out*

Oh while i think of it bloody POL wont take my sodding credit card so i cant come back -.-;.

This example of a /seacom is totally contradictory.

Morwyne doesn't have any friends.

Well, it's not completely contradictory if Morwyne uses that /seacom

Is that some kind of sick euphemism?

O HAY I DERAILD MAI OWN THRED