Almighty Apkallu: Found, and then lost again.

[Airenn]

But seriously, Airenn from Alexander trying to hop boat asap tomorrow. Logging at docks, gonna see if I can catch first ship, will post App Results/etc tomorrow.

Night all. If you're doing the same post your server/results please!

[Yaggi]

I intend to start camping this NM religiously until it pops. My logic is as follows:
I've killed every other ToAU "RMT NM"(NM that drops sellable items) and they are almost all lottery spawn. I don't really see why this one would be any different, except that this one spawns on a boat that has weird conditions. Obviously either people don't camp it for a long enough period of time, or there is something tricky to it's spawn, but I highly doubt it's anything as crazy as trading an item, or having a certain amount of people on the boat. When SE said that it's luck based, they probably just talking about the lottery, just like any other NM, if you're lucky, it will spawn. I've camped Jaded Jody sometimes for 6 hours until she pops, and somes days she'll spawn after the first set of placeholders die. The only reason i suggested the weather theory was because it hadn't been listed yet, and we have seen monsters previously that spawn under weather conditions. I control 2 characters, so i can be on every ship that runs for quite some time, unless the NM is bugged, I expect to see it within a days time. Call me crazy, but i camp A LOT of NM's by myself just to farm or whatever. So i'll get back on these forums with results when i can. I play on ps2 on my main char, so the only screenshot i can take is via ps2 method, however if i get it to spawn, damn skippy i'm gonna post that pic. 8)
I wish you all good luck camping this guy, I hope someone finds it before i do.
--Yaggi, Lakshmi

[Khamsin]

Here's a step-by-step guide on how I'm checking stuff in memory, for anyone curious/confused:

Step 1: Get on the boat
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...Zero/boat1.jpg
A good place to start.

Step 2: Fire up POLUtils
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ro/aastep1.gif
Note that I renamed my mobs... don't worry about it, you don't have to do it if you don't want to. Just take note of the IDs associated with the mobs. In this example, let's search for this Apkallu, the one that we know for sure has popped for everyone.

Step 3: Fire up ArtMoney
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ro/aastep2.gif
Start ArtMoney, select the Final Fantasy XI process and hit Search. Set up your search like this and hit OK. Note the specific memory range I use. I don't know if this range will work for you, but if you aren't getting any results, you can change it to ALL instead of Custom. This will make it take longer to search, but take note of the general vicinity of your results so you can narrow down your search next time.

Step 4: Still searching
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ro/aastep3.gif
Remember that apkallu's ID? 01 03 B0 08? Note that the order here is reversed, so search for 08 B0 03 01. If you want to look up another mob instead, substitute something else for the 08. See the POLUtils screenshot for other IDs. One thing to be careful of is, for some reason, entering a number like 11 will turn up results for hexadecimal 11 and decimal 11. So if you want to search for Almighty Apkallu (or Proteus on the other boat), you might want to enter 17 instead of 11. It's kind of stupid; I don't know why it can't just assume everything is hexadecimal, especially with the B0 in there.

Step 5: Red herrings
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ro/aastep4.gif
Chances are, you may get multiple results for your search. To find out which is the right one, click on one of them, and hit CTRL+M (or use the menu) to take a peek in the memory around this spot.

Step 6: This isn't it
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ro/aastep5.gif
If you see a garbled mess with nothing that means anything to you, then move on to the next result and check it out. Keep checking each one until you see something like...

Step 7: This is it
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ro/aastep6.gif
...this. Note the key features in this segment of memory. We have the name of the mob, it's ID, it's HP, the works.

Beware that if you searched ALL memory ranges, you may get several results including some that do show some of the same information, but if it doesn't look like this, it isn't what you want. The full .dat is in memory, including mobs like Almighty Apkallu that actually haven't popped, and will show its name and ID in a list with all the other mobs' names and IDs, but it looks different and is a more condensed list than this screenshot. You may also encounter results that are actually referencing your target (if you're searching for something you currently or last had targetted).

So if the memory ranges I show above in step 3 aren't working for you and you have to search ALL ranges, once you do finally find the right result be sure to limit your next search to a broad range around that so you don't have to sift through all the other crap again. There is also another location in memory that will contain information on whether a mob has popped, and it's just a condensed list of nothing but the mob IDs (or 00's in place of the ID in the list if it hasn't popped), but the location I show in this screenshot is probably easier to recognize and also has information like HP.

Step 8: Fun with HP
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ro/aastep7.gif
This isn't really a step, it's just to show the HP in action (64 is hexadecimal for 100, and 51 is hexadecimal for 81).

Step 9: Get off the boat
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...Zero/boat2.jpg
Naturally.

Epilogue
Note that we searched for Apkallu #8, which is the one that everyone sees on the boat occasionally. I picked that example because you will get a result for it, and know what to look for. Once you figure out what you're looking for and not looking for, you can try searching for Apkallu #7 or Almighty Apkallu, or even some of the fished up mobs that might not have been fished up yet since maintenance (e.g. Bathybic Kulshedra) just to check yourself. If you look for them, but get no results (or you get a lot of results, but none look like the screenshot above), it probably hasn't popped. Note, Apkallu #8 was up in my example, and I was fighting it. But even if he isn't up, he'll still show up in that spot in memory. You can look for Cyan Deep Pugil or either of the Bigclaws if you want, they all pop fairly frequently and so you should have results for them, whether or not they're currently up for you.

Another thing of note is that both ferries (to and from Nashmau) have nearly identical .dats, with the exception of Almighty Apkallu for Proteus. The ferry to Nashmau has an Apkallu #7 and #8, too, and both of them have popped before. Just Apkallu #7 on the ferry to Al Zahbi hasn't popped.

[Pergo]

khamsin, you rock.

i tried using that before and did basically what you were doing but I had no clue what any of it meant, thanks for spelling it out

i'll check my dats hopefully before maintainance today

[Koga]

Kham can I Ninjar your posts to the OP?

[Khamsin]

Kham can I Ninjar your posts to the OP?

Sure, but before long you'll have to hold page down for 30 seconds just to reach the bottom.

[Terrifyingstorm]

Has anyone tried the lol4leafmandragorabud <_<?



nice stuff khamsin I've been wonderin how to read most of Artmoney.

[TacoTaru]

Has anyone tried the lol4leafmandragorabud <_<?



nice stuff khamsin I've been wonderin how to read most of Artmoney.

My guess would be no, and since no one is seeing it spawn this would rule this theory out as to how its popped since its spawning with no one seeing it. I think people are reading too much into the word luck.

*Edit*

Too many pops >_>

[Airenn]

Actually, yes, I did. lol.

I had it in my inventory and road boat a time or two. Didn't eat it though.

EDIT To Taco since I am not making a new post: I had just never mentioned it, so no worries. ;P

Second edit: After riding the boat.... A lot... The only thing I can really say that seems consistent is that Apkallu seemed to pop when low# to no monsters were on the ship. If I killed off all monsters there was a high chance of an Apkallu jumping on board mid-ride. :3

[TacoTaru]

I stand corrected 8)

[MaachaQ]

Second edit: After riding the boat.... A lot... The only thing I can really say that seems consistent is that Apkallu seemed to pop when low# to no monsters were on the ship. If I killed off all monsters there was a high chance of an Apkallu jumping on board mid-ride. :3

This is an interesting theory... kill mobs other than apkallu ASAP when they pop to possibly pop an Apkallu, and the Almighty might be chance to pop when the Apkallus jump on.

[fantasticdan]

Second edit: After riding the boat.... A lot... The only thing I can really say that seems consistent is that Apkallu seemed to pop when low# to no monsters were on the ship. If I killed off all monsters there was a high chance of an Apkallu jumping on board mid-ride. :3

This is an interesting theory... kill mobs other than apkallu ASAP when they pop to possibly pop an Apkallu, and the Almighty might be chance to pop when the Apkallus jump on.

This is what I usually do while riding the boat (killing mobs besides apkallu), and never seemed to make a difference in apkallu pop rate, and I've obviously never seen AA... The apkallu (unclaimed) seem to despawn rather quick regardless of what else is on board as well.

[Sho]

A friend of mine claimed that it jumped onto the ship and walked around for about twenty seconds before jumping back into the sea. He said it happened about five or so days ago, right after the boat had taken off. He ran up to the deck and charmed/uncharmed a kraken and then saw it. He didn't attack it because he heard figured it would have killed him. He said it was the size of a small hume.

If this is true then it's probably a timed spawn and despawn resets the timer. Something like 72 hours after 'death'.

Most likely based on this, AA is just a damn random spawn, not associated with a timer of any kind. SE did say it was based on luck... AA also took off quickly when no one (the guy on the boat at the time) stayed close by.

[Airenn]

SHIP LEAVING NOW, HERE'S TO HOPING! (nothing gonna pop, lolol)


Yea, nothing on ship at all. No Apkallu have popped at all. (Cluding AA.)

Two crabs, a pugil and a kraken have popped on ship since server up tho, not this one.

This one a crab popped. We killed it. Kulshedra popped. We killed it. Wind happened. (before Kulshedra actually) We docked.

Two people on boat.

[meeeeeep]

Leaving ship no. 2 from Alexander, here goes lucky number 2? >.>

EDIT: Typos

[Airenn]

GL Man, lemme know how it goes, I had to head off to camps.

[meeeeeep]

Nothing... Bigclaw on ship when we got up there.

Hopefull someone else on another server had better luck.

3 on ship.

[fantasticdan]

Should try using artmoney or w/e ASAP. It's possible AA (and/or the missing apkallu) is only spawning on the boat rides immediately following server up, before players can log in.

[Airenn]

It had not popped on Alexander when I was riding. I checked memory programs. :/

Did no one else ride after maint on any other server?

[Treacherous]

I was the other person riding with airenn, he only mobs that had popped before we got there was the 2 crabs, a pugil and a kraken.

Second boat ride, the one that normally pops, popped. Killed and nothing happened.

Waiting on the third ride...and even more I guess ._.