HorizonXI – Era+ 75 Cap FFXI Server Launching December 17th, 2022

[Kipling]

Lol. Yeah the wall of text was literally like unmoderated twitch chat during an esports tournament at one point. Gave me a headache.

[Draylo]

Someone wanna link me to that Draylo thread again pls

lol what thread, I've posted about it in a few places. Not going to hate on them while they are riding a nostalgia wave here, but I still love retail and think it should be supported. Its a shame most have moved on and others decided to do things like this instead but oh well. You can tell the current dev team still cares about the game but they are working on an extremely limited budget by the big cheese Yoshida and that XIV candy crush machine. It doesn't help the XI community itself loves to divide themselves even further with these things. Enjoy it while it lasts I guess.

Yeah I totally get that. I just bring it up because there’s this really sour vibe I’m getting from people who don’t want to play on the private server. Like awesome if that not your thing, I’m not trying to convince people to play. But it’s weird how some people act like it’s only neckbeards who would be interested in it. There’s that ah thread Spicy posted with Draylo having a shit fit over it that I just can’t wrap my head around.

We had some major laughs already this week with dunes and sj items. If the devs shutdown the server tomorrow, I don’t think my time was wasted.

And again, that’s just me. Not expecting everyone to feel that way. Just maybe it’s ok to let people enjoy things.

Everyone knows the real reason people enjoy things like this, nostalgia. I can't for the life of me understand why someone would seriously think 75 era content itself had the best design... most of them were horrible messes. This past week in the XI scene these people have tried to revive their dead youtube channels thinking they gonna hit it big all while shitting on retail, I barely made more than a few posts and on youtube when it came up lol. I couldn't care less that they created yet another p server, but they come to crap on retail constantly so I figured why not leave my comment too. My main thing is that they are fracturing an already small community into an even smaller one and trying to persuade people over to private servers instead of retail. Retail XI is still a lot of fun, and yall are missing out but don't morn it when its gone because most of these people actively helped bring it to where it is today.

[Prothescar]

Some people might not even be playing on a private server cause of the content itself. Even you have to admit, old buddy old pal, that modern XI doesn't foster companionship and camaraderie the same way that it used to. The community is more fractured and fragmented than ever before and a lot of it is to do with the design of the game in general.

[Drai]

Retail XI grew up with its audience, most of the people who would wake up at 2 am to get to a King spawn were the same people who were most vocal in eventually complaining that the game was too much of a time sink.

Retail as of now can, for a large chunk of it be played as a single player game, when I went back awhile ago to finish off the storylines I had missed and to complete Rhapsodies, I was actually happy that I was able to complete most everything with either Trusts or my one friend who also came back with me.

We had tried a few times to Duo Cloud of Darkness with what we had but kept failing, so we just spent like, 3 hours or so leveing Runefencer and Geomancer from 1-99 and ended up being able to Duo it using those.

Frankly imo it was the difficulty in finding large groups of people to constantly be able to do anything that ended up causing most people to quit, the fact it’s much easier to low man or solo shit in retail at this point is a huge positive and I do wish more people supported it, but nostalgia is a hell of a drug sometimes as well and I don’t begrudge people wanting to take things slow and just kind of…reminisce.

[Arauge]

Anyone having issues with button presses not registering on controller? They go from working fine to not working at all, but the joysticks will still work for camera/movement. It seems to happen any time there's even a little lag. Like I'm 100% unable to scroll through the AH using my controller, but step 30 feet away and the buttons start working again. Any time i've been in a group of more than 2 ppl they dont work like 75% of the time. If it weren't so predictable I'd think it was my USB cable or the controller itself.

[arus2001]

Some people might not even be playing on a private server cause of the content itself. Even you have to admit, old buddy old pal, that modern XI doesn't foster companionship and camaraderie the same way that it used to. The community is more fractured and fragmented than ever before and a lot of it is to do with the design of the game in general.

Frankly imo it was the difficulty in finding large groups of people to constantly be able to do anything that ended up causing most people to quit, the fact it’s much easier to low man or solo shit in retail at this point is a huge positive and I do wish more people supported it, but nostalgia is a hell of a drug sometimes as well and I don’t begrudge people wanting to take things slow and just kind of…reminisce.

Coincidental quote combo just kinda tees me up for my point that forcing people to play together doesn't mean you're actually building a community. I know some circles like to argue that matchmaking and cross-server stuff in modern MMOs killed that, but all that did was take power away from control freaks. Yes, you'll have some enthusiasts, but there are also the reluctant volunteers (play along or no goodies) and then those that just step away most will never know about because they're not in their immediate social circle. The whole "massively" tag of MMOs winds up an oxymoron when you start analyzing how content funnels people into small tribes, but somehow we're supposed to believe raids are what everyone wants and that they're never big enough. The irony of ("classic") XI's execution was that rewards were so frugal that taking as few mouths to feed as possible was the ideal.

So, while I may not be happy about modern MMOs, not having to slave away to the whims of juvenile asshats isn't one of the reasons. If community is actually the goal, you can't be instancing all the important content off to private quarters. You need an open world that matters, but at the same time, remains accessible and immune to the worst of humanity's manipulations. Activities not tied directly to combat need more weight than they tend to carry. Slowing down combat input pacing to curb optimum meta rotation grinds and gogogogo rush mentality couldn't hurt in allowing people to type, to communicate, either. And that's just scratching the surface. Shared suffering may work for some people as some kind of war buddy similarity, but I'd say the industry at large has a problem confusing competition with cooperation, or that the latter can't be a singular driving force.

[Ksandra]

lol what thread, I've posted about it in a few places. Not going to hate on them while they are riding a nostalgia wave here, but I still love retail and think it should be supported. Its a shame most have moved on and others decided to do things like this instead but oh well. You can tell the current dev team still cares about the game but they are working on an extremely limited budget by the big cheese Yoshida and that XIV candy crush machine. It doesn't help the XI community itself loves to divide themselves even further with these things. Enjoy it while it lasts I guess.




Everyone knows the real reason people enjoy things like this, nostalgia. I can't for the life of me understand why someone would seriously think 75 era content itself had the best design... most of them were horrible messes. This past week in the XI scene these people have tried to revive their dead youtube channels thinking they gonna hit it big all while shitting on retail, I barely made more than a few posts and on youtube when it came up lol. I couldn't care less that they created yet another p server, but they come to crap on retail constantly so I figured why not leave my comment too. My main thing is that they are fracturing an already small community into an even smaller one and trying to persuade people over to private servers instead of retail. Retail XI is still a lot of fun, and yall are missing out but don't morn it when its gone because most of these people actively helped bring it to where it is today.

Draylo probably:




I played retail. Is it fun? Yes. Does it replace the fun Horizon is giving right now? No. They can both be fun. That’s the beauty of it. I have no desire to play retail atm because I did it already. I accomplished everything I wanted to do in retail. These aren’t the same game.

[Karbuncle]

I can understand hating on a game and the stupid people who buy it causing mediocrity year after year. I've been on that side.

But HorizonXI is a free product and its not a yearly launch release with microtransactions and half a Pokedex. This is one of those instances where "Just shut up and let people have fun" applies. Nobody cares if you want to play Retail and don't understand why 75 was fun and appeals to peoples want to go back to that era, even if just for a little bit until the nostalgia wears off.

I still go back to Retail as well, it has huge benefits for its population size, I like how much I can do on my own or duo for actual upgrades, I like not feeling locked out of progression for /most/ content, even if it means I'll have to do it significantly slower. Both have their pros and cons and their appeal.

[NynJa]

But HorizonXI is a free product and its not a yearly launch release with microtransactions and half a Pokedex. This is one of those instances where "Just shut up and let people have fun" applies.

[Ksandra]

I can understand hating on a game and the stupid people who buy it causing mediocrity year after year. I've been on that side.

But HorizonXI is a free product and its not a yearly launch release with microtransactions and half a Pokedex. This is one of those instances where "Just shut up and let people have fun" applies. Nobody cares if you want to play Retail and don't understand why 75 was fun and appeals to peoples want to go back to that era, even if just for a little bit until the nostalgia wears off.

I still go back to Retail as well, it has huge benefits for its population size, I like how much I can do on my own or duo for actual upgrades, I like not feeling locked out of progression for /most/ content, even if it means I'll have to do it significantly slower. Both have their pros and cons and their appeal.

[Wulfgang]

Everyone knows the real reason people enjoy things like this, nostalgia. I can't for the life of me understand why someone would seriously think 75 era content itself had the best design... most of them were horrible messes.

The game fundamentally changed when it went from horizontal progression to vertical during the 75+ cap raise in Abyssea. A whole lot of folks disliked that change, including myself. Nostalgia is a factor for sure, but 75-cap FFXI is very collaborative, socially-oriented MMO that doesn't really exist outside of private servers of XI, EQ, etc. these days. Retail FFXI has very little of that as a borderline solo experience outside of some content. There's 4k players right now playing Horizon for a variety of reasons; it's difficult to argue that there's not a certain appeal to this era beyond simple nostalgia. That number may wane to 3k/2k/etc. over time and your prognostications come true, but Eden has been around for ~3+ years at this point and I don't see an immediate genesis for sudden decline here.

[Botosi]

I quit retail because I couldn't find a static to play with and I hate Odyssey with a passion. Retail felt like a ghost town - even on Asura.

Horizon has been easy to get/make groups and everyone is SUPER friendly. You make an exp party and everyone's really nice & patient. I've been enjoying the exp grind. It's also refreshing not having to control 4 characters at once.

[Madeline]

Retail feels like a ghost town because unless you got lucky and got in with a group, the only people left are RMT and mercenaries that are also likely RMT, lol

Least that's how it was when I quit a year and change ago.

[Ksandra]

Made a thread for player names:

https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/13...75#post7656375

[Gredival]

Everyone knows the real reason people enjoy things like this, nostalgia. I can't for the life of me understand why someone would seriously think 75 era content itself had the best design... most of them were horrible messes.

Because it was legitimately the best designed content in any MMO ever.

i would skin every one of you alive to be able to walk into a time machine and restart ffxi from 2003

I WANT PEOPLE SHOWING UP TO OTHERS HOUSES WITH GUNS IN REAL LIFE BECAUSE OF IN GAME DRAMA THAT HAD ZERO IN GAME OUTLET WHATSOEVER, I WANT ZERO SUM COCK BLOCK MONOPOLIES, I WANT THE DAILY CHOICE OF SUCCESS AT FFXI OR REAL LIFE, I WANT COPS BEING CALLED AND PEOPLE BEING RAIDED BECAUSE OF LINKSHELLS SENDING UNDERAGE PICS OF THEIR MEMBERS TO RIVALS TO GET THEM OFF THE GAME CUZ PRISON

[Draylo]

Draylo probably:




I played retail. Is it fun? Yes. Does it replace the fun Horizon is giving right now? No. They can both be fun. That’s the beauty of it. I have no desire to play retail atm because I did it already. I accomplished everything I wanted to do in retail. These aren’t the same game.

In reality they are the same game. Almost all systems from 75 era have been replicated and refined for lv99 cap, only now we have way more choices. The reason teaming up and community "spirit" isn't as high as it once was is due to multiple factors. Mostly the low population as a result of repeated defunding of the game thanks to XIV and people quitting. Second, and as a direct result from 1, the community has embraced cheating pretty hardcore and it has lead to people multi boxing en masse now due to everyone being older and most have expendable incomes and because SE does not police their own game.

I get that it can be fun to go back and replicate that experience, but to me I see it as another thing to hurt retail. I personally still enjoy retail and from my point of view I can't understand why people love that era so much. I lived thru it, grew up with it and experienced literally everything during 75 cap and I would never want to go back. I honestly think theres some psychology behind it and mostly stemmed from Abyssea making so many people butthurt. Then you look and see most are just hypocrites, like even the guy in this thread making this server has like tons of lv90s in XIV, all jobs maxed. Clearly he likes that game and its playstyle, yet was so hurt over Abyssea outdating gear that we used for over a decade. Anyhow, I barely made a few comments, these p servers pop up every few years and I just ignore them like always, have yet to play on a single p server (also if you see my name, I can guarantee you it isn't me.) I just left my comments in a few places because literally 90% of the people jumping on this bandwagon (and most were ex youtubers for XI who think they gonna become popular streaming themselves hitting a bee and taking an hour to swing) were attacking retail.

I personally don't feel like the group/community aspect is gone from retail. People still team up all the time, yes there are mercs and RMT everywhere which I explained. We just had our last alliance content not even that long ago with Dyna D/Omen/Escha. They've done a 6 man w/Odyssey but I'm almost positive another alliance event will come and repeat the process. The problem is more people quit because we get things at such a slow pace due to reduced funding. The "announcement" they had for the anniversary was a huge bomb, they should have announced literally anything else but oh well. I care about XI probably more than most and it really baffles me how people like 75 era content so much but dont realize this current dev team has bent over backwards to try and replicate and refine it in retail, but to no avail. Most people skip master levels and job points, yet it is exactly the type of "content" you are doing now on private servers lol.

[Gredival]

Retail SHOULD die. They should have killed it in 2010 instead of desecrating it like they did if they wanted to clear the deck for XIV.

Better to burn out than fade away.

[AoE]

They probably kept it up just in case FFXIV flopped again then said fuck it, we're getting paid anyway when it didn't.

[Fondue]

the idea of spending hours to grind 1 level on a private server is not very appealing but I think I'll try it if I can get through the downloader boss

[Fondue]

well my launcher messed up downloading, so I closed it, reopened, new errors
>deleted everything
>download launcher again, it's got my info and download location saved still
>new errors, cant specify new install location

cool