Aywren Sojourner: Gaming and Geek Life

It was a busy weekend for FFXIV with all the info dropped at the final Fan Fest before the expansion. We had both a Keynote and Live Letter event that brought a few surprises – though not everyone was happy to hear them all.

The First

We’ll be getting more information on how this all ties into the MSQ with tomorrow’s patch, but now we know the location for the expansion is going to be The First.

What exactly does that mean?

Well, Lore says that a long time ago, the struggle between Zodiark and Hydaelyn caused an event that shattered the Source dimension (the world we play in) into 13 copies – making 14 in total. They indicate these by numbers.

So, the First is an alternate dimension, one of the copies of the Source, and was actually the home to the Warriors of Darkness who visited shortly during the MSQ story arc. They told us that their world had expelled Darkness so much, that the Light had grown too powerful and was now destroying the First.

I guess that’s where the whole becoming Warrior of Darkness theme is going to come in for us players.

The interesting thing is that the First has a Crystal Tower, just like in the Source. It was made clear that the Tower did not exist before the dimensions split… so somehow, an identical Tower was built in both dimensions for… well, they said we’d find out how and why!

I’m pretty stoked about revisiting the Crystal Tower because my RP and stories revolve around these elements. I’m totally ready to see it become relevant again and to have fun merging my stories into whatever the team is about to drop on us lorewise!

Dancer is… DPS?

Dancer being announced was expected. Dancer as ranged DPS was not. Most folks (including me) speculated that this would be a healer. It made sense – we’re getting a tank, we just got Blue Mage as DPS, Stormblood brought two DPS… but… well…

Dancer is DPS.

On one hand, I was surprised and a little sad for healers who were hoping for a new playstyle. On the other hand… well… I’d never really play it if it was a healer (I play DPS only, pretty much). I’d planned on switching one of my RP characters to Dancer because it would fit her story, but I had every intention of leveling and leaving it if it was a healer.

So… yeah… it sounds selfish to be happy that it’s a ranged DPS class. But… I’m happy it’s a ranged DPS class. I plan on leveling it and playing it. So there it is.

Sorry, healers. Hopefully the team will have something for you soon! 😦

Hrothgar and Genderlocked Races

Ever since the last Fan Fest, folks have been pressing their faces against the window trying to catch a glimpse of the elusive male Viera. They exist, but Lore says they’re rare. So rare, in fact, that they aren’t going to be playble.

Yikes!

Instead, we get a completely new race – Hrothgar (Ronso). But, guess what? They’re a male-only race. Yep.

We already kinda knew the Hrothgar were a strong possibility due to a coding error that dropped the race’s name in the French version of one of the past patches. Poor FFXIV just can’t release a surprise, can they?

The team claims that the facial features for both new races are very customizable. There’s even a note from an interview that says Hrothgar may have a wolf face. Maybe that one to the left there?

I have to say that I’m curious why we get another feline type race – I know they’re basing them on Ronso, but still. We have plenty of cats.

I understand that we could use another beefy race, since Roes are all we have to represent that. But when you hold the race up to other games, the first thing they make you think of is Charr, to be honest. And sadly, I admit, I like the designs for the Charr better than the prototype video I’ve seen of the Hrothgar.

But the real sticker is the community’s uproar in the face of gender locking the races. I’m not going to get into this debate here, because I really don’t have a horse in this race. I can feel for the folks who wanted their male bunnies and female Ronsos, but I’m of the mind that the best we can hope for is possibly a future inclusion of the missing genders.

I’ll play around a bit with the character creators when the benchmark releases. I can see myself playing a Viera, likely. A Hrothgar? I don’t know. I’d have to find something I really, really liked for that. But maybe if the lore was appealing enough, I could be swayed to add another character to my stable. Especially with World Visit dropping in late April.

Patch Schedule

Speaking of that, here’s what we’re looking at for the future patch releases.

We’ve got the last story patch dropping tonight/tomorrow. The FF15 collaboration event coming April 16. World Visit and Crystal Data Center opening for us in the US on April 23 — two weeks of free character transfers after that.

Some other something something patch in May. Then the Early Access of Shadowbringers on June 28.

This is what the future of FFXIV looks like from where we’re standing. I’m ready for tomorrow’s story patch – bring on the Crystal Tower!

It’s more of a dance room than a ball room… seeing that ball rooms make me think of huge open areas, chandeliers and sweeping curtains. But, when you’re decorating a small private room in a FC house, you do with what you can.

Dancer hasn’t been confirmed officially as a job for the Shadowbringers expansion just yet. But we all have our suspicions and we think it’s probably going to be a healer. I’m not stoked about the healer aspect, but from an RP perspective, I might be unlocking it on my character, Zuri.

She’s currently a bard, but I have a lot of them across my stable of characters. Dancer would make sense for her. So, in looking to the future, I decided to make her private chambers in the FC house a small dance room.

Syn and I have discussed using our private rooms as themed locations for RP purposes. A couple of different times, we’ve tossed together backdrops for our RP posts from random furniture in a character’s room. But, really, we want to expand on this more.

So far, we have a secret lab and an infirmary (being built by a fellow FC member). We have ideas for a library, kitchen/dining room, maybe a garden, an art room, a music room… those sorts of things.

Part of my goals for this year is to really dive into themed decorating for all off my characters. I keep putting off my main’s private house, but am enjoying working on these smaller projects when inspiration strikes.

I always learn something new about how decorating works. This time, I discovered you can use something (like the curtain below) to hide the doorway, but still leave the exit click-able. The Hingan style door just didn’t fit with the aesthetics I wanted in the rest of the room, but covering it like this worked great!

I still have many characters and many rooms to decorate in the future — that’s not counting if I decide to buy apartments for some of these characters on down the line. For now, this is more than enough!

I told you in my goal post for this month that this would be the month I finally get this done! I don’t know why it’s been one of those goals that I kicked back month after month, even to the point that I finished Dragoon instead of Summoner one month.

It’s done now, and was both enjoyable and interesting. I still have no idea why I kept putting it off. But now, I have a slew of other jobs at 70 that I need to finish… so no rest for me!

I’ve also been pushing forward on leveling my Astro — I hit level 53 this weekend, which got me to the point of doing Sohm Al with my squad. I heard the level 50 dungeons were annoying for the amount of effort to put into them, so I skipped them by doing beast tribes. Sohm Al wasn’t too bad.

I also earned my ilvl 390 weapon on my RP Alt this weekend – yes, he has it and my main doesn’t. She hasn’t finished Alphascape yet. ><

Ah well. It’s the end of the patch cycle anyhow. No real need to struggle too hard at gearing up, right?