Aywren Sojourner: Gaming and Geek Life

Warning: May Contain Mild Spoilers for FFXIV Stormblood.

I spent way too many hours logged into FFXIV this weekend, to the point my poor eyes were aching from strain. This was partially because Stormblood has been a captivating experience, and partially because Syn and I were working to get through as much story as we could before she was away on yet another business trip.

Between Friday and Saturday, we made a lot of progress. We knocked out the second dungeon, grappled with the first primal, unlocked flying in two zones, and reached the Steppes. I know we have another dungeon facing us in the storyline soon, as well.

Sometime late Saturday afternoon, story did finally catch up with my levels, and I needed to hit 65 in order to continue. A couple daily roulettes took care of that, though. Yesterday, through a combination of leveling roulette and a few rounds of PvP, I got my Red Mage to level 66…. so I’m hoping that by the time Syn gets back to do story again, I’ll be at or close to 67, and ready to tackle story with no more interruptions.

I’ve also been working on leveling my gathering jobs, mostly through daily turn-ins. Fishing is lagging behind, but Miner and Botanist are getting close to level 64. I also got both my retainers set up for level 61 gathering ventures.

Story & Location

Overall, the Stormblood story has been a pretty solid one, and an experience I’ve been enjoying. There was one little point in Yanxia that I felt a companion was acting out of character, and that my own character was forced into making a choice I wouldn’t have made if given an option… but that’s a minor thing, really, as long as we don’t see a lot more of that.

It was pretty obvious the writers were pushing the story to get us to a specific situation, and once we got to the Steppes, all was forgiven. This is mostly because these last two zones are practically oozing great atmosphere. The design team really nailed it, and the music is superb.

I love Yanxia for feeling exactly like I expected from a Far East experience. The zone’s design, coupled with music that felt pulled straight out of a traditional folk song, make the place a joy to explore.

The Steppes, however, speak to me on a whole different level. Where Yanxia felt somewhat like an enclosed, secret oriental grove, the Steppes became this sprawling plain of tribal culture and mystery. And oh my gosh, the music there!

I was totally channeling the Au Ra culture, and fascinated with the worldbuilding there. It kinda makes me sad that I love my kitty so much… I wish there was something as colorful and interesting for Miquo’te as the Au Ra. I mean, I guess there’s that tribe down in the desert, but… let’s just say, it doesn’t give me the same vibes as the love and attention the Au Ra are getting on the Steppes.

And, then, when you go to meet a key figure on the Steppes, the theme song of pure nostalgia hits you square in the face. I was grinning ear to ear, totally geeking out. FFXIV truly does its tributes to classic Final Fantasy games well.

RP Inspiration

All of this has served to strengthen my desire to get some RP stories off the ground. Earlier, I struggled with how to RP a character that used my own name, and while I tried to spin up something for her, it never felt right. Also, with the coming of Stormblood, there’s no way I’m going to sit through the overpopulated queues on Balmung to log in to document a little bit more story.

(Some fiction writer rambling about to happen, please feel free to skip if this bores you.)

Honestly, the character I’ve wanted to bring into Eorzea has always been Ben. I’ve actually rolled him several times with all intentions to do just that over the past years. Seeing that he’s a dimension hopper from a FF world, and alternate dimensions have been confirmed by FFXIV lore, it would all fit well. It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything from his point of view, so it would be nice to visit with an old figment.

However, the issue always came up that Ben is already an established mage in his dimension, and one who can usually figure out the flow of energies fairly quickly. Dropping him into Eorzea and telling him that he knows nothing more than Ice 1 (when he’s usually a fire mage) was always something that bothered me.

Also, the dark lore around Black Mages (heck, and White Mages) was never very suitable for his character. I could see him backing very slowly away from that strange group of Lalafell who preside over the Thaumaturge guild. On top of that, to unlock Black Mage, you used to have to level Archer to 15… and… well… that didn’t make a lot of sense and it wasn’t fitting to Ben’s character at all.

Basically, I just wanted to document the story in fiction format, and not have to deal with all the leveling and gear restraints. Also, Red Mage is far more suitable a job for Ben in style and temperament than Black Mage. But you can’t start Red Mage until you’re already level 50 in an existing job.

Well. Ben reading a certain Tales of Adventure took care of all those problems. 😉

Now I just have to figure out how to organize the project. I’d like to make it so that I can write from the point of view of any of my Wayrift characters, since I do have a number of them in FFXIV. I’m just hoping to get back into the swing of fiction writing for fun, because I do it so little anymore, and that’s sad.

Warning: Mild Spoilers for FFXIV Stormblood.

So after a few scuffles and misunderstandings in Kugane, we finally got out of the city and into the Ruby Sea. I was itching to get out and unlock a new zone, especially since I want more options for my gathering jobs, and I was looking forward to progressing to new areas.

While the zone itself has some interesting areas, inhabitants and unfolding story, I have to admit that one of  the features I’ve looked forward to is diving (and eventually spearfishing).

Swimming in MMOs… has rarely been one of my favorite things, and underwater battle rarely takes full advantage of what it could be (GW2, I’m looking at you). I’m not much of a swimmer IRL, so I hate games that have a breath meter and drowning as a mechanic. Thankfully, FFXIV gets around this with a neat questline and Ninja Turtle ritual.

And now, I can happily swim under water with no fear of drowning ever again! Not only that, but we get to ride cool (temporary) mounts.

Along with cities on floating islands (which they’ve already done), underwater dome cities are another one of my fantasy favorites. So I’ve been in a happy spot seeing sights like this.

I reached level 63 RDM just before the quests started asking for the level, so I still feel like I need to be working on some PvP or something on the side. We’ve been hitting up FATEs as we find them, but not doing many of the side quests yet… until Amoon mentioned that some of those side quests leads to Aether Currents (doh).

I wanted to save some of the content for my second job, but I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end. The content and leveling will all get done one way or another.

I have an itching feeling we’re creeping up on another dungeon or our first primal, though. So, I’ll see where the story carries us tonight.

Other than that, my Squads have dutifully brought back enough Crafter Scrips for me to buy the last Master IV crafter book that I needed. I still need to go back and work on the Master II books I don’t have yet, and maybe work on some of my desynthing, which I haven’t touched in a long time.

I’ve not touched my crafters at all yet, since I only just got to Kugane last night, where the leves are located. But I have already spent some time looking at the leves, the materials required, and the guides players are making for leveling. It’s on my mind, I just haven’t sat down and organized things for it.

And then there’s this little guy…

Thanks to Reddit, I have a good idea how to get this minion. I just have to get my retainers the gear to do it. That’s going to be a work in progress this weekend.

It feels like it’s been a long road from 50 to 61, but finally, my Red Mage is on level to where I left off with my Bard. I didn’t go very far into the story because I wanted to use Red Mage as my main for the MSQ, and also because Syn was out of town for work, and I’d like to duo the story with her.

The story roadblock kept us from getting very far over the time we did have this weekend… but despite being behind most my FC, it might turn out to be a good thing. This way, I don’t have to keep playing catch up with my Red Mage, which is the job I want to main for sure.

I thought I was going to spend all weekend in the PotD for leveling, but that really didn’t happen. I did run a few 51-60 floors, but for the most part, doing Leveling Roulette, daily Beast Tribes, daily hunts, and a bunch of PvP got me through.

I had so many various ways to make it that, while I didn’t do it in a day or anything, I never really felt bored by repetition. FFXIV now has a pretty good spread of leveling options… I just need to finish getting my last few jobs up to 60 to call that a done deal. 🙂

I haven’t really put together a glamour for her yet — I just picked the Augmented Cashmere Robe of Casting I’ve had on hand due to the neat particle effects and glamoured my easily-bought Augmented Shire Rapier with the CE Chicken Knife cosmetic.

I took a look at all the neat primal rapier glamours, and I’m especially taken with the Manipulative Moggle Mogfoil (less for the moogle, but more for the neat music note particle effects). However, while I have the recipe to craft it myself, the materials aren’t cheap, and neither is the blade on the marketboard. I don’t have 5 mil to my name, and certainly not to spare for glamour, no matter how cool it is.

Maybe one day.

Making Stormblood Progress

(Story talk follows, only mild spoilers.)

Syn did have a little time and a decent enough hotel internet connection last night to work on some of the story with me. Up until now, nothing much had happened around Rhalgr’s Reach aside from us just helping out NPCs and gaining their trust. Well, that changed pretty epically.

We made it through the second point that was a story roadblock for players over the weekend, an instance that you entered by talking to Pippin. I can certainly see how this complex instance (which I didn’t fully expect) could have hung up the servers. It was much longer than the previous one, and had a ton of cutscenes and action.

I won’t give away too much, but I’m pleased with how Stormblood has set up an antagonist that’s a true threat to the Warrior of Light. Especially after the disappointment that was the Warrior of Darkness. After so many major successes, and thinking she’s so powerful, my character just got schooled in a one-on-one.

I like it. Even if she doesn’t.

The Empire isn’t something to mess around with before you understand what it is. This has made it very clear. The team has lost valuable people and resources, so I’m going to assume this is where we reach out to Doma for help.

I’ll hopefully see soon enough!