25 Obsolete Things About FFXI

[Areya]

Final Fantasy XI, a game that seems like it's been around forever.  A lot of veterans remember the way the game used to be, but those that have been gone a while might be surprised at some of the ways the game has changed over the years.  So here's a compiled list of 25 different areas that have changed or are mostly obsolete, roughly grouped by type:

Travel Related

1)  Rental Chocobos

Who doesn't remember the long treks from towns or crags on the back of a rented chocobo?  Whether it was through the jungles outside of Kazham or the trip from the Crag of Mea towards Boyahda or sky, chocobos were vital for cutting down the travel time.

However, with the addition of mounts, the needs for paying gil for a bird are gone.  Now you can simply summmon your own ride, for free.  There are several to choose from, too!  And even if you're wanting to go chocobo digging, if you've raised your own chocobo, you can even call that.


2)  Tele-Taxis

There used to be quite a bit of these around.  White Mages could make a little extra gil in Jeuno by simply ferrying people to telecrystals, then warping back.

Although there are still rare shouts asking for teleports, there's a lot less demand, and it's a lot easier to get around by alternative means such as Survival Guide teleports.


3)  Airships

One of the main perks of getting Rank 5 back in the day was the precious airship pass, making travel between the three nations and Jeuno easier.  You could just board the airship, then step away for a few minutes while you flew to your destination.

Now, however, it's a clunky and time consuming process compared to the best alternative:  Home Point warping.  Now that you can just pay a little gil and teleport to any Home Point you've previously visited, you can just skip the airships entirely and go straight to the town in seconds.

In addition, with Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, you're not even required to get the Kazham Airship Pass, as you can now sail from Selbina or Mhaura directly to Norg!


4)  Long Runs to Burning Circle Arenas

These were a particularly annoying timesink for some folks.  Running back to Horlais Peak, Mine Shaft, or Monarch Linn every time was a massive hassle, and in many cases required items or work (such as refarming Giant Scales in Riverne).

Fortunately, SE recognized this and dumped HP Crystals outside of most of these arenas, so going back is trivial now.  There's still a few not covered, such as Promyvion spires, however.


Crafting Related


5)  Manual Repeating of Recipes

Once upon a time, one of the biggest hassles of being a crafter was having to reselect all the ingredients of a recipe over and over.  Not an easy task if you were doing dozens and dozens of complicated synths.

Now, if you're doing the same synth over and over, you can simply type in /lastsynth and it'll automatically reattempt the last synthesis.  In addition, the game keeps a history of the last 10 synths, so you can simply go into the menu and click a particular option and it'll automatically load the synth ingredient setup.  It'll even indicate if you're missing any ingredients!


6)  Nonstacking Ores/Logs, etc.

Another big headache for crafters was the large amount of ingredients that would not stack, thus creating massive inventory clogs.  Some of these items include logs, ores, and flour.

Now, all of these stack up to 12 in a single inventory slot.  Not perfect but still much more helpful!


7)  Non-Food Consumable Crafters

There were lots and lots of these back in the day.  Many players' entire livelihood were tied to churning out massive quantities of shihei, arrows, bolts, silent oils, prism powders, and similar consumable items.

To be fair, some people do still make these, and you can still save money by making these.

However, with Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, Curio Moogles will sell most of these items to players, and most are at reasonable prices, so there isn't a lot of demand.


Fighting the Good Fight


8 )  Seeking Experience Parties

Arguably the biggest change since the olden days, things like seeking parties and spending hours sitting in one spot are mostly gone.  In the past, you'd often sit in town with your invite flag up, hoping that someone would start a party or that a spot would open up.  This was particularly awful for jobs like melees, while some like Red Mage or Bard would get swamped with invites.  Many times, a party would die before it even started because you were missing a particular role in the group. Static parties would often be formed to get around these problems, where 4-6 people would just play together and possibly pick up filler.

The primary motivation for even joining an experience party in the first place was the fact that solo experience was slow and often very dangerous.  Most jobs couldn't heal effectively, and anything difficult would give too few exp for too much effort.

Trusts changed the dynamic.  Trusts don't cause any experience points penalties, and once the ability to summon five at once is unlocked, a single player can bring the power of an entire party for a solo exp excursion.  Not on a healing job?  Can't tank on a mage?  No problem - simply summon Trusts to cover it!

The actual experience values are higher than they used to be too.  Before, you'd earn 100 experience for killing a monster checking Even Match to you.  This value has been roughly doubled, and the payout for Easy Prey mobs is significantly improved.  In addition, thanks to several of the Rhapsodies of Vana'diel Key Items, the base amount of experience you earn from a kill can be increased significantly as well.

There are places where you can earn over 4000 experience in a single kill as a solo with a team of Trusts, before exp rings.  Who needs a party!?

However, there ARE some experience-like parties still:  Capacity Parties do basically the same except they fight for capacity points.  Apex parties or Escha burn parties are like this.


9) Beastmasters Using Charmed Pets

Once upon a time, Beastmasters would primarily rely only on charmed monsters and some extreme survival tactics to level up or take on powerful opponents.  Many experience parties rued the presence of a Beastmaster in an area, as they'd often steal targets from the pullers.  And Beastmasters would very rarely get party invites as familiars were fairly weak.

There were entire communities built around giving Beastmasters advice on what camps were available, many of which were in particularly remote areas, and a good Charm set was important to cut down on deaths.  Probably the trickiest part of the strategy was using Leave right before the mob died so the BST could finish it off alone to reap all the experience.

Trusts obviously make this sort of strategy much less hazardous, as you're not really alone anymore, but in addition, jug pet familiars are much more viable now.  With Ready, you can simply choose the move you wish the pet to perform, and can even be used strategically for skillchains.  And with Snarl, enmity can be shifted to the pet, making survival much easier.


10)  Pies and Cookies

Food has always played an important part in performance in FFXI.  Meat Mithkabobs were staples for melees at lower levels, and sushi was and is still useful for boosting physical accuracy.  Tanks had food like Fish Mithkabobs, Steamed Crabs, or Tavnazian Tacos.  Mages, however, had particularly lousy options in general.  Many mages relied on small boosts from Melon Pies (a little INT and MP) or Ginger Cookies (+5 MP regained while healing), with some like SUmmoners opting for high MP% food like Marron Glace.

All jobs have better food options now, but nonmelees in particular got new choices.  Mages can now get actual MAB from some foods like Fruit Parfait or Cehueztl Snow Cones, and against hard opponents, many opt for Pear Crepes which add +45 magic accuracy.  Pet jobs have wonderful options in the various Mochis and Daifukus, which all add impressive pet boosting stats.


11)  Trains to Zone

These are the subject to all sorts of wonderful little horror stories from the early days.  Parties camping near the zones in places like Yhoator Jungle, Garlaige Citadel, Crawlers' Nest, or Kuftal Tunnel, when someone comes by being chased with a large amount of linked monsters.  They run past the gruop and safely zone, but the monsters then start slowly moving back, often disrupting the party at the zone for quite some time!

The problem was particularly bad in Garlaige, where pullers would often attempt to pull Siege Bats on the other side of pits, and they'd fly through side rooms and pick up Wingrat adds.  Goblin Smithy trains in the Jungle were pretty infamous as well.

This issue was largely removed when the change was made a few years back that non-NM monsters despawn when left idle outside of their normal roaming areas.  However, special monsters are immune to this, and targets like Guivre could still potentiall be dangerous.


12)  Low Shield/Parry/Guard/Throwing Skill

Several of these skills were notoriously difficult to increase in the past.  Parry and Guard could only increase on a successful activation, and even then, it was particularly rare.

However, this was changed a while back, and skillup chances can be received even if you fail to parry or guard, but COULD potentially parry or guard.

Throwing was particularly aggravating as well, as most jobs have pretty lousy ratings and had difficulties hitting.  Ninjas have a nice workaround now thanks to their ability to add autothrows to their normal attack rounds thanks to the Daken Trait.  It doesn't even consume shurikens, so they can just fight as usual and get occasional throwing skill increases.

Skilling in general has become easier.  The chances of getting skill boosts has been increased overall.  In the past, a monster had to be Even Match or greater in relation to the level of your skill in order to gain increases; this has been changed to Decent Challenge.  With Item Level gear, you can artificially increase your skill a lot too to make hitting even easier.  And as a last resort, there are skill up tomes that let you get free skillups without even leaving town.


13)  Competitive Notorious Monster Camping

Anyone who ever attempted to claim monsters such as King Behemoth, Valkurm Emperor, or Serket knows how painful this used to be.  Interestingly, each of the three aforementioned monsters aren't particularly hunted anymore, and each for a different reason.

Ground King camping used to be one of the biggest headaches for HNMLSes.  Nothing like sitting around in Dragon's Aery, waiting 29 minutes for the next possible window to open, followed by 2 minutes of pure tension while the window is open, then back to waiting.  And often, claimbots would win the claim on the NM, making the time spent there a total waste.

Now, the ground kings are no longer timed spawns, instead they are spawned using pop items, so no drama there!  ...Well, except if a THF is taking forever stacking Treasure Hunter to crazy values on Behemoth and holding up the line.

For critters such as Valkurm Emperor, Simurgh, or Argus, who had rare drops that were particularly valuable on AH, many of their drops have been swapped to rare/ex, so there's not really money in camping them now.  Some such as Simurgh and Argus had their repop timers shortened as well.

As for some such as Serket (who was moved to a side room on the bottom floor), the main reason they're not camped now is the fact their drops aren't particularly significant anymore.  Venomous Claws aren't really useful now that Scorpion Harness is very dated.

There's still some areas where competition occurs, though it's not nearly as prevalent as it used to be.  Some of the Abyssea NMs, such as Sisyphus, can still be contested, and some timed NMs with valuable drops such as Lord Ruthven still have competition.


14)  500+ Person Besieged

Besieged used to be a particularly epic event.  In 75 Cap, high level attacks would often field very large numbers of players, often hitting the cap of 700 players in the zone.  Fighting was difficult, and the attack leaders were often very difficult to down.

The population on the entire server can often struggle to break 500 in ALL areas now, let alone in Besiged, but such a laggy cluster isn't necessary with lv 119 gears.  A handful of skilled players can turn the tide now, and often only about ten players show up to an attack.


15)  Old Dynamis

Another example of an event that many players thought was time consuming and difficult is original Dynamis.  Sixty-four players could enter, and passing around the hourglasses was a struggle.  Pullers would attack statues and trigger large groups that had to be dealt with, along with dangerous SP abilities such as Astral Flow or Mijin Gakure.  And if you were really lucky, you'd win the chance of lotting some elusive Relic AF.

Dynamis is a far different beast now.  Instead of forking over gil for an hourglass every time, one 50k hourglass KI is good for eternity.  Enemies simply spawn like normal, and AF is a lot easier to nab.  Farming currency is definitely doable, although there are some special mechanics in the zones that can be exploited.  And you can even use Trusts inside.


16)  Solo Maat

This was one of the rites of passage for the FFXIer.  Red Mages and Black Mages in particular often have stories about beating up the old man (or, in many cases, the other way around).  Lv 70, no subjob, one on one!

Even THIS trial was made absurdly easy...

One of the Rhapsody of Vana'diel KIs allows you to use Trusts in this battle, which really makes this an unfair fight.


17)  Level Capped Missions

Chains of Promathia used to be one of the trickiest mission sets in the game, in large part due to the level caps imposed on the vast majority of the missions.  From lv 30 caps in Promyvion to 40 for Aqueducts and Pso'Xja, 50 and 60 for some of the later missions (including the infamous airship fight), it was a challenge for many groups to wring out as much power as they could while being denied access to high level gears and abilities.

With these caps removed, traversing through this mission line is significantly easier, to say the least.

The caps for the dragon fight (2-3) and lich fight (5-1) in the original mission line are gone as well.

There ARE still level capped events, however!  Many BCNMS, Garrison, Eco-Warrior, Expeditionary Forces, ENMs, ISNMs, and some other special fights are still level capped.

[Areya]

Quality of Life Changes


18)  Separate AHs

Originally, there were four different AHs:  Bastok, San d'Oria, Windurst, and Jeuno.  Rabao had a counter tied to Sandy, Norg's was tied to Bastok, and Kazham's was linked to Jeuno.  The nation AHs had lower fees, and often you'd find goods listed related to the nation's craft guilds in high supply, such as lumber being listed in Sandy.

The auctions are all unified now, and the auction fees are also universal.  So whether you're checking the Auction House in Jeuno, Adoulin, Whitegate, Bastok, or wherever, it's all the same goods.


19)  RolMart

If you don't remember RolMart, this was the large group of bazaars that would stand around in Rolanberry Fields just outside of Lower Jeuno.  If you were looking for goods, this was a common place to scout.  The primary reason for the congregation here was the bazaar tax.  This applied in Jeuno, Whitegate, the Chocobo Circuit, and in some other areas.

This tax was first repealed in Jeuno only, and later was eliminated everywhere, and with it gone, people went back to bazaaring in town.


20)  Centralized Town Hub

Which town was the center of the universe has changed a few times over the years.  For such a long time it was Jeuno.  When Aht Urghan came out, many people tended to stay in Whitegate, and when Seekers of Adoulin came out, Adoulin became a hot spot.

Now, however, there's not really a particular crowning winner.  In addition to traveling between towns being made simple by Home Point warping, one of the biggest reasons to stay in one town has been eliminated:  Seeing the shouts.  The /yell command works much like shout, except it covers nearly all the major towns.  Jeuno, the three nations, Mhaura, Selbina, Norg, and more.  As well, party invites are no longer region only, you can invite from almost anywhere in the world.


21)  Long Lockout Timers

With all the different contents out there, one problem that often crept up was the fact you could only do many of them once per day.  Dynamis?  Originally once every three days, then one entry per day.  Assault was sluggish too, as you'd only get a tag every 24 hours.  Einherjar had a long wait as well.

Rhapsody KIs help make much of this a lot more tolerable.  With the right ones, Dynamis has no wait on reentry, many contents such as Assault, Einherjar, and Salvage can be reattempted after one GAME day, and other items such as the pheromone sacks for Meeble Burrows regenerate much more quickly.

Many of these contents also have the advantage of no longer requiring three people minimum to enter, so a single person can spam to their heart's content.


22)  Lack of Inventory Room

With 22 different jobs, and a host of all sorts of gear, you need a lot of inventory to survive in FFXI.  Considering the original starting inventory was 50 slots in Mog Safe and 30 in inventory, it seems like a daunting task.

Now, however, there is PLENTY of inventory available.  Not only does Inventory go up to 80 slots, but Mog Safe does as well.  You can add up to 80 slots in Storage.  With the expansion to a second floor in your Mog House, you add Mog Safe 2, which also maxes at 80 slots.  In Aht Urghan you can rent a Mog Locker, which can be expanded to 80.  Mog Satchel, a reward for adding the token to your account, is another 80.  Mog Sack can be bought with gil and adds 80 more, and Mog Case is another 80 that requires doing nothing in particular at all.  Finally, there are the Mog Wardrobes, which only accept equipments, but not only add 80 storage each, but you can EQUIP gears from them!  Two of these are provided for no charge, and two more can be accessed for a small monthly fee.

Even if you don't use Wardrobe 3 and 4, there's really not a good reason not to have enough room on a character.  However, there's still more you can do to save space.  Storage Slips allow you to store different items such as armor sets or accessories with certain requirements.  For example, Storage Slip 18 stores all lv 119 Relic Artifact gear.  You can potentially cram dozens of different items into storage at the cost of one inventory, then use a Porter Moogle to access them as necessary.  In addition, many ex items can be sent to characters within the same account, thus you can mule many things over as needed.


23)  Ugly Outfits

FFXI has a bunch of good looking outfits, but let's face it, there's some ugly gear too.  Anyone who played back in the day knows the kind of look I'm referencing:  Scorpion Harness, Optical Hat, all matter of color-clashing, fashion disaster getups.

The /lockstyle and /lockstyleset commands are wonderful in this regard.  You can simply define a gearset of armors and weapons of your choice and lock your appearance to the set.  The only requirement is that you must possess at least one job capable of donning the piece.  Additionally, weapons can only be lockstyled if you're equipped with a weapon of that type (even if your current job can't actually use it!).

FFXI has a vast libarary of armor sets and weapon skins so this ability allows users to really customize their looks.


Stop the Robots

24)  Fish Bots

There used to be quite a few of these around the world.  Fishing was originally a very simple process and required little attention.

The fishing system was overhauled a while back, now taking shape in the form of a reactive minigame, which is more difficult to automate.

In addition, Goblin Bounty Hunters were added to several popular spots to help kill low level fishers.

The real nail in the coffin of this practice, however, is probably the fact that fishing isn't really as lucrative as it once was.  Some of the vendor prices for fish were nerfed and there's not as much demand for some of the fish.


25)  Spam Tells

There were periods of time when these were particularly prevalent.  You'd know they were coming when someone ahead of you alphabetically commented on getting one.

There's probably less demand for sellers in FFXI with the release of newer and flashier games, but there's also another reason these aren't seen as much now:  A much needed /tell spam filter.


Just thought I'd share this insight~

(And wow, this list got so big I had to split it in two...)

[Selan]

The game seems so much easier!

[Areya]

The game seems so much easier!

It is, but there's still plenty of hard opponents, lol...

Sure, your gear makes you effectively lv 119~120, but then you have to fight stuff that still have 10-30 level advantages over you.  And they're chock full of cheap, gimmicky moves.

And thanks to the whole infamous "16 hour Pandemonium Warden" debacle a few years back, nearly everything has a time limit now.   Sometimes the difficulty isn't surviving, it's killing a tough opponent with a 15 or 30 minute time limit.

[Vivec]

Posting 18 months late. But wow they really changed the quality of life in the game. I think how time consuming and social it was is what made it better than XIV and other MMOs . But I can also understand why they made the changes