i'm in the middle of one of the completely insane projects of the month... copy my ffxi install from my current laptop (which is having overheating problems) to my new laptop (which is a bit better, newer, and hopefully won't have the same problems. the catch is... that i don't have any of my ffxi discs handy (don't feel like re-installing from scratch either) and... drum roll for insanity please... the new laptop is running vista. whee! so, i used a little trick from the windower forums... to copy everything, then using the freshly provided PlayOnline Viewer for Vista to install. the downside is that it installed with Ver.1.18.00p, which i guess is not current, and had to download 286 files, mostly media files of some type. oh well. we'll see if it works when i finish. anyways... as far as the game goes, i beat Maat first try. even set a record for the time to beat him. then, i proceeded to get Red Mage to lv75, then continue with the new 'Merit' parties for a while, until i unlocked Paralyze II. then i got bored. I leveled a bunch of other jobs up, and went back to Bard deciding that it would be my next job to take to 75. currently, i'm almost 68, on my way there.

so, things with the linkshell static have been a bit slow lately, so i've switched to RDM/BLM, and i've gotten it up to level 66. i've had alot of fun recently as a Red Mage, and also partying in the new areas of Aht Urhgan. Two of my LS mates, Abunai and Kalain have taken non-ls static jobs up there, and have both recently fought and beat maat, which is arguably one of the biggest goals to complete in the game. congrats to them both, and i'm on my way there!

two sites in the ffxi world are making a huge splash in the community recently, FFXI-atlas and FFXIclopedia.

FFXI-atlas went from just having copies of all the maps in the game to now having full spawn locations for NM's, elementals, coffers, chests, quest points. Then, a few months or so ago, they started what appeared to be a side project, Vana'diel Bestiary. They took information from all the FFXI sites, collected it all into one source, and made it extremely readable. If that wasn't enough, once that was done, about two weeks ago, they linked the two projects together, in the form of useful tabs on the maps. You look up the zone that you're in, you get a complete map, then click a tab, and get all the monsters for that zone, their levels, and what they aggro to, with links to the mosters' details. i've since stopped using some of my old standbys for lookup of that information.

FFXIclopedia took what is a wealth of information about everything relaeted to the game, and used the MediaWiki in one of the best implimentations i've seen yet. It's by far the most complete reference for all FFXI related things to date. I've succummed to the pressure, and have taken a somewhat active role in helping out. lots of fun, a bit of work, but i really feel like i'm participating in something that's great for the community.

things continue, the world goes on, but websites, namely journals are forgotten.

the problem with web-journals that are not tied into the system that they are being used for is that they get forgotten easily. there have been rumors with the next PlayOnline update that they will be adding a Linkshell community forum type thing, and possibly journals to PlayOnline. hopefully hooking into character data so that i don't have to write anything to mirrior the damn data.

i think the whole thing is a good idea. in some way, it'll alienate the people like me who spent the time developing a forum system for thier linkshell(s) to use, but in many others, it'll give them access to something they never had.

i'd like to think that they're going to be forthright in planning, and allow the forums / threads allow to be locked, public, and whatnot, so that other linkshells can benefit from each other's conversations about tactics and whatnot, while we get the ability to have linkshell-only threads planning our next mission or campground.

i guess we'll see. PlayOnline seems to have the inate ability to release features like these without completely thinking about them, noticing that the system is being abused or used improperly, and then take six months to update it into something useful... but... maybe they can change their strategy.

...

on the other side... i've capped NIN to 37, as a sub, unlocked BLU & PUP, gotten BLM to 61 (58-61 entirely solo), BRD almost to 60 with my linkshell static party, and a bunch of other leveling that is in conseqential. i also crafted my own Vermillion Cloak which made me happy.

i seem to forget to update here, while i update everywhere else. oh, well. i've been busy.

static :: i've got a static party going with my ls: GreenCherry which has been going amazing. we've gotten from lv 23 to 47 in the past three months, playing once, sometimes twice a week. it's alot of fun playing with a group of people who you know in real life, as well as online. we always get a level (sometimes two levels) per session. it's starting to slow down lately, as we've all got lost of stuff going on outside of the game, but it's still fun.

laptop :: i recently received a laptop from my job that has the capability of playing ffxi. the nice thing is that i now have another system that can go with me with all my macros on it, and i run it at work and do non-critical stuff like crafting.

crafting :: i've gotten a bit addictied to crafting. it started with woodworking. two other members of our LS and i were all leveling woodworking at the same time, which was a blast. then, i started to get into some of the other crafts to see what was about. and then i got addicted. i just can't stop. farming & crafting, that's what i do when not playing static. so far... i've got to: woodworking:60, bonecraft:60, leathercraft:58.9, clothcraft:58.7, goldsmithing:16, and smithing:13.8. i'm gonna take clothcraft all the way, and i've already got my clothcraft "AF1" (spectacles) for a nice +1.

jobs, levels, ranks :: in between everything else, or when i'm tired of crafting, i've managed to get to rank 4, unlocked all jobs except summoner (that ruby is quite ellusive, i've killed almost 200 leeches so far, looking for it.), and even leveled a few of them up. you can click on the jobs link on the left side to see where i'm at with any of the jobs, as i'll try to keep it updated. i've also managed to get lord or hero fame in all major cities, working on the outlands now.

windower :: since it came out, i've been a fan of the Windower which is now up to version 3.21. the biggest advantage, no matter how much people argue about how legal using it is, is the fact that you can alt-tab back to windows and use things like a web-browser. this makes crafting (see above) much easier, as i can use all of the resources of the internet at my disposal, without having to log off and back on. some of my favorite links of late:

FFrecipie.com : a great resource for crafting, with recipies and locations to buy for almost everything in the game. lokyst's FFXI Crafting Timer : which i swear by. a great tool to use while crafting, especially when attempting to skill-up any craft. FFXI MysteryTour : a comprehensive, and frequently updated site with just about everything related to the game. has the best concise recipie listing that i've found.

fellowship :: everyone's talking about it, so why shouldn't i? i got the fellowship quest done a few days ago (see my post on ffxi.allakhazam.com) and have been trying the npc thing out. all in all, it's kinda fun, but i don't think it's been released to it's full potential yet. being a little taru, i got the best npc i could get, a big ass galka. he's my new tank. *grin* but, it's a bit hard to play, because there's so much unknown. you don't see the npc's health on-screen, which is a pain in the ass (he's already died on me once) you have no idea when he's gonna use his WS, and you have no idea how long he's gonna stay. i'm gonna try out the "healer" type today with my 25NIN and see how that goes. butarget="_new" t, i'm not gonna fight anything too tough, because he'll probably get owned again. and the 20 hour recast sucks.