Random Question Thread IX: Mathology 101

[Forte]

I am currently trying to run FFXI on my laptop which has an nVidia 9700M GT card on it. Sadly, the current drives I have are causing the game to run at maybe 30 FPS. It's a noticeable drop from what it runs on my desktop. Does anyone know of a good driver set to use for running FFXI?

[Hank]

FFXI caps at 30 fps

[Ddboner]

There's a sticky in the tech thread about a fix for vista laptops, but a few posts explain a good nvidia driver for ffxi and how to make said driver work for all nvidia cards, but to be honest 30 fps on a nvidia laptop is decent, if its vista as well that might be the best your going to get

[Ddboner]

Speaking of gfx cards......

Question: If i replace all the player summoned avatar .dats to something like say, elemental .dats will it my ffxi work like I'm expecting. Just summon and the elemental appears, no animations for anything, but in general work decently.

If this does work, will i still see some effects? like heavenly strikes little ice thing, or the little seal on the ground when I summon, or will all of these things be gone?

If it doesn't work with switching them to elementals, would switching them to something like detectors work better.

Basically I'm just looking for a fix, when 2 or more avatars are on my screen i get crazy slowdown to the point where its almost unplayable... I don't care if it looks like crap I just don't want my ffxi to crash when someone uses p.claws and i have an air elemental dat in there for example.

Thanks.

[Forte]

I missspoke. It isn't 30 FPS, it's something far lower. I'm not sure what I should call it.

I should also mention that I am running Windiws XP.

[Ddboner]

Well in anycase, I'd use the drivers listed, its like 174.XX or something. Follow the directions to make it work for your vid card, if its not supported.

[Salodin]

Can some one suggest a decent tanking/ohshi~ set for samurai? Atm I got...Arhat Body, Arhat head, Gavial Cuisses, Askar Feet.

I want to get jelly ring sometime soon, but just saw that question about the 20def rings. For hands I'm just using Seiryu's Kote for now cause I don't really have anything better. Also, I only guessed, but I figured Arhat Jinpachi is better then Genbu's Kabuto on the things that hit hard. Anything else I'm really missing?

[Dooom]

Darksteel hands; earring from Alexander Prime; Patronus Ring; ASA legs are nice too if you're not using them for another job. And get an MDT set too! My MDT set sees just as much use as my PDT one.

[Midnightjade]

Can some one suggest a decent tanking/ohshi~ set for samurai? Atm I got...Arhat Body, Arhat head, Gavial Cuisses, Askar Feet.

I want to get jelly ring sometime soon, but just saw that question about the 20def rings. For hands I'm just using Seiryu's Kote for now cause I don't really have anything better. Also, I only guessed, but I figured Arhat Jinpachi is better then Genbu's Kabuto on the things that hit hard. Anything else I'm really missing?

If you go to Oubliette for Jelly Ring, these days there's nobody down there.

A couple months ago I popped Sewer Syrup but then realized I was late for an appointment in RL, came back 4 hours later and he was still up.

[Salodin]

Sweet, I hate camping with a passion but it doesn't sound too hard. How about gear for a MDT set?

[Dooom]

Coral pieces, mainly (I got it for rdm MDT too), including rings and earrings; askar feet still work for MDT; Resentment Cape/Lamia Mantle+1/Alexander Cape depending on area. It's mostly AH stuff.

[Forte]

Well in anycase, I'd use the drivers listed, its like 174.XX or something. Follow the directions to make it work for your vid card, if its not supported.

That appears to be for Vista, and I am running XP. I've asked in said thread, but I can't seem to find a set of drivers that will work...

[noodles355]

Is no one disputing these Def/it > PDT claims? Are they actually accurate? What about all the loldef lolvit I've been lead to believe in these last few years?

Does it mean the def+20 ring is definitely > patronus (outside campaign)? Also, should I be using Genbu's Kabuto over DS Cap+1 on brd? What about skote/suzy sune ate that boost a good 10+ def (and hp on kote) over the DS+1 counterpart (which both have 2% pdt).

How come only just now someones standing up and saying Def is useful when people have been saying loldef and lolvit for years?

[Tsuko_Asura]

lolDEF =/= lolVIT

Having a healthy amount of defense has always been important, but the usefulness of VIT diminishes very quickly because of enemy base damage

[Salodin]

In that case, Seiryu Kote > DS+1?

[Tsuko_Asura]

Not qualified to make that assessment, but I'd imagine it would be competitive if nothing else

[Salodin]

Defense (and attack) from food factor before or after gear/abilities?

[Nightfyre]

Question regarding STR vs. VIT for Cannonball (obviously shit's situational, shut up)

Bobcat Belt (STR8 ) vs Warwolf (STR5 VIT5)
Ire Torque +1 (STR7) vs. Auditory Torque (STR4 VIT4)
Random ranged bullshit (STR2) vs. Bibiki Seashell (VIT4)
Koggelmander + Acheron +1 (STR4 DEF28 ) vs Vulcan's + Brave (STR5 Crit dmg+3.5%)

Full merits + AF2+1 head, AF+1 body, etc etc. Also assume max STR spells, fuck magic fruit and others.

Ignoring defense:

Warwolf
Ire +1
Bibiki
Vulcan's/Brave

That said I would use Auditory over Ire +1 (7 DEF for 0.33 base damage) and keep Koggel/Acheron +1 on hand for really high defense mobs. Choices may vary with WSC rounding but I'd need to know the exact build involved in order to check that.

@ above: Food is the final variable for attack ({other sources}*food), I'd assume it's the same for defense.

[Ddboner]

There should be a 174.XX for vista and one for xp.

Always remember that all nvidia drivers work for all nvidia cards. You just need to replace the install file with a modded one so the little installer recognizes your card as supported. The website shown in that thread has a ton of good info. It also has all the nvidia drivers over the years in their forums.

Id start with the 174.XX for XP. Install it, try it. If it FFXI isn't running well still, try another until you find one that runs well. Tedious but its what saved me from FFXI being next to unplayable on my laptop.

[Salodin]

I guess I shouldn't get ahead of myself, it isn't very hard to reach 400 defense between protect and food. Jelly ring ftw.

Mages would probably benefit more from that information though.