The Final Fantasy Online FFXI FAQ

[HKR]

This is so horribly out of date now.

Greetings fellow gamers! While we all start getting into the wonderful game that is Final Fantasy XI, a lot of us have questions that need to be answered. However, some people don’t bother to check what’s already been posted, so there have been a lot of threads that are basically the same. This FAQ is here to address the most commonly asked questions I’ve seen here. If you feel something needs to be added, post it here. And with that, on with the show.

What is Final Fantasy XI

Final Fantasy XI is Square’s latest game in the long running Final Fantasy series. What differs FFXI from its predecessors is that it’s a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), like Everquest. This means that instead of playing through a 40+ hour game by yourself, you’re playing a never ending game with thousands of people at once.

FFXI is available for the PC right now, with the PS2 version due in March. The PC version costs $50, while the PS2 version will cost $100, but comes with the PS2 hard drive, which is required to play on the PS2.

There are two versions? What happens if I get the PS2 version, but my friend has the PC version? Will we be able to play together?

Yes you will. FFXI is the first cross platform MMORPG, which means no matter what system you have, you can play with everyone else.

Hey, that’s cool! But wait, don’t MMORPGs cost money to play?

Yes, and FFXI is no different. FFXI will cost the standard $49.99 (Or $100), plus additional monthly charges.

Okay. How much are we talking about here?

Not too much. To play FFXI, you need to pay $12.95 a month. If you wish to have an additional character after your first, it costs an additional $1 per month.

Also, FFXI comes with an online version of Tetra Master, the card game from FFIX. To play this, you need an additional $1 a month.

So let’s say you want to have 3 characters, plus tetra master. The pricing would break down like this:

$12.95 (Game, and 1st character) + $1 (Second Character) + $1 (Third character) + $1 (Tetra Master) = $15.95 a month.

That sucks! Why should I have to pay for a game that I already bought?

Don’t think of it as paying for the game again. Instead, think of it as a subscription to unending new content, awesome tech support, and updates. It also includes paying for the high-speed servers you’re playing on. Plus, you get a buddy list and an e-mail account. Not too shabby really.

Of course, if you feel that it’s still stupid to pay a monthly fee, you don’t have to play the game. Do a run through FFVII again, and pretend every NPC is another person playing or something.

Okay, the pricing doesn’t bother me, but I don’t have a credit card! Will I be able to play?

No. Credit cards are the only way to pay the monthly fee. You can use Debit cards, but people have been having trouble getting them to work. Your best bet is the good old’ Visa card.

Wait! I live in the UK, and the retards at Square Europe are just sitting with their thumbs up their asses about FFXI. Will I be able to import FFXI from the states and play?

Yes you will. There was a bit of confusion earlier, as when you went to sign up with square, it asked you for a US or Canada Address. Yet when they asked for a billing address, they accepted addresses from just about everywhere. Our friend Godo posted this:

It does work! Fist when you are asked where you live, you only have the option of the US or canada, not to panic.... i selected canada and put all my details in ; including UK, and that went through. When it came to credit card billing you are given a list of countries and the UK is on there. So i have obtained a .pol account and my mastercard has been accepted. Now all i need to do is 10 hour download

yes i used canada and the british columbia state. And there was a postal code option. Just put all your address in, inculding UK, i can't forsee a problem. then as i said the billing address will cause no problems.

My computer is a bit slow. Will I be able to run FFXI well?

That all depends. The minimum system requirements for FFXI (As of 9/3) are:

-Microsoft Window’s 98 or higher
-Intel Pentium 3 Processor at 800 MHz
-128 Megs of RAM
-NVIDIA GeForce or ATI Radeon 9000 series graphics card with 32 Megs of RAM
-Direct X 8.1 Compatible sound card
-6 Gigs of free hard disk space

As far as I’m concerned, those specs are a blatant lie. Here’s what I would consider minimum:

-Windows XP
-1.5 GHz processor
-512 Megs of RAM
-NVIDIA GeForce 4 5200 with 128 Megs of ram (Recommended GeForce FX 5600 with 256 Megs of RAM), or an ATI Radeon 9600.

There is a way to test your system to see how good it runs FFXI, download the official FFXI benchmark program (Available here), and run it. If you get a score of around 2300 in the High res mode, you got a system good enough to run FFXI.

What about my internet connection? I’m only on 56k, will I be able to play FFXI

56k players will be able to play FFXI fine, although you will experience some slight lag around more crowed areas. However, when updates are issued, you’re going to be spending some time downloading them. Luckily, Square was smart and lets you resume where you left off, if for some reason you get disconnected. The first patch issued for US players is around 200 Megs, so expect to spend some time just updating.

One thing you haven’t touched on, Play Online. What’s that?

In short, Play Online is the service provided by Square that acts as a font-end for all of its games, including FFXI and Tetra Master. It’s a program that features your buddy list services, e-mail, and technical support, and chat services. Both PS2 and PC users use it, although it’s probably simpler for PS2 owners. I actually find Play Online slightly confusing, but it gets it’s job done.

Okay, I got my PC copy, and there are 5 discs! What do I install first?

Yes, the PC version is a monster, and further demonstrates the need for PC games to come out on DVD’s. The total installation will take 6 Gigabytes, so make sure you have enough room.

The first CD you install is the Play Online disc. Once that’s installed, you must install the other 4 discs in order (The 4th disc is the Rise of the Zilart Expansion, and must also be installed).

Okay, the game is installed, and I’ve registered on Play Online. I’ve downloaded the updates, and I’m finally ready to play. What do I do next?

Create your character! The character creation process is pretty simple, and once it’s done you’ll be assigned to a random server to play on.[/b]

Random server?! I want to play with my friends! How do I get on their server?

Yes, random server. In a vain attempt to control server population, Square decided the best method is to assign you a random server based on how populated the servers are at the time you sign up. This means that you have a higher chance to get on the less populated servers, and the more populated ones, a lower chance.

There are two methods to get on the server you want. The first one, designed by Square, is the world pass. The world pass is an item that can be bought by any player, and allows them to invite five other players from other servers to create a new character in their server.

Yes, that’s right, create a new character. You can’t transfer your old character from one server to the next. So by the time your friend can afford a world pass for you, he’s going to be too high of a level for you to adventure together.

There is a way to choose your server though, although it can take anywhere from a half hour to a reported 2 hours for some people. Thanks to Krel for posting this:

This was mentioned by Sir-Merc in the chat, thought it was worth repeating, as there's been a ton of complaints about the world pass deal so far.

It should be obvious enough, but you can get on any server you want just by deleting and recreating your character again and again. Since the server assignment is random, you will eventually get on the server that you want to be on.

Currently, the people in #ffonline-ffxi are all targeting Midgarsomsr, so that would be a good one to aim for.

Now, make SURE you press escape right when it asks you to link your new character to your handle. It's right after you choose your starting city. Then, go to Delete Character and move over the character you created. Next to "World" is the server you were assigned to. Like it? Escape out of that menu, select the character, and enjoy. Don't like it? Delete it, create it again (race/appearance/class/starting location/name are all saved, and you can use the same name as the character you just deleted, so it's really easy), and escape at the handle linking to check again. Repeat until you're on the server you want.

It's important to escape out of the character selection right when it asks you to link the character to the handle, otherwise you have to endure your starting city's story every time you delete/recreate (and that takes a while).

FYI, it took me half an hour to delete/recreate until I got to Midgarsomsr. On the contrary, a world pass runs for about 500 gil, and after 4 hours of game play, I'm the proud owner of 110 gil. I'm sure you can see the faster option here.

Enjoy.

Okay, I’m in the game now. Any tips?

I’m still a bit of a newbie (level 7 at the time of this writing), so I can’t offer much. However, here are a few tips that bear mentioning:

-Solo for the first two or three levels. This way, you gain the most experience, and level the fastest. Grouping with other players only reduces the experience you gain, thus taking longer to level.

-Group at levels 5 and up. Soloing at this level becomes really hard, and grouping at this point becomes feasible. In fact, you’ll probably do a lot better this way, as you don’t have a chance of dying as much.

-Check every monster before engaging. Do this by selecting the monster, then either hitting the check button, or Crtl+c. You’ll get a message in your chat box telling you how difficult the monster is. I would generally not take on anything higher then an even match.

-Call for help! If a monster is going to kill you, disengage from it and run! The monster will start following, so be sure to call for help. Most people will jump in and finish the monster for you. I can’t tell you how much this has saved me.

Cool! Hey, I want to give you items/join you guys. What servers/cities are you in?

Currently, most of the gang in #ffonline-ffxi reside in the Midgardsormr server, and are in the city of Bastok. I’m a hume monk named Fanhelder.

I’m also looking for a good set of armor :P

wow. kick ass FAQ there...cheers!!

Especially great news for us UK'ers!!

Oh yeah, the download for the FFXI Bencher isn't there..have you got a link to it.

Cheers

[kitty's revenge]

Let's hope this will put an end to the 'would be' hundred repeated threads.

Great work by the way!

[HKR]

Fixed the benchmark link, and am currently looking into how to sub class stuff. Boy, the manual is retarded about it. I think there are multiple typoes in there.

Anyone with a good FAQ to sub classing, please give me a link.

[Yu Yevon]

As far as I’m concerned, those specs are a blatant lie. Here’s what I would consider minimum...

Lower that processor requirement. I play with a 700mhz processor with duel 1028 resolutions and very few problems.

[Krelian]

as far as graphics cards go, my laptop has a geforce 4 go (the very worst of the geforce 4 series, worse than most geforce 3's) with 64 megs ram, and it runs the game just fine. I think any radeon 9000 and above should do fine, maybe even considerably worse than that. Not sure as far as ram goes, but chances are that could be safely lowered to 256 mb as well.

[amaron]

Originally posted by Yu Yevon
Lower that processor requirement. I play with a 700mhz processor with duel 1028 resolutions and very few problems.

And I'm using Windows 2000.

[Nagarroth]

Wait! I live in the UK, and the retards at Square Europe are just sitting with their thumbs up their asses about FFXI. Will I be able to import FFXI from the states and play?

Yes you will. There was a bit of confusion earlier, as when you went to sign up with square, it asked you for a US or Canada Address. Yet when they asked for a billing address, they accepted addresses from just about everywhere.

what if you dont live in the UK and you wanna import, would the method be the same as above?

Hello my computer is 2000 speed and 256meg and my viedo card is a Nvidia geforce4 mx 440-se 64meg well the game run average fine or not very well ? and also at 45 gig hardrive!!

[Naga]

mysteeq, it doesn't matter what size harddrive you got for one, just how much extra space you have on it. The best way to check to see if your computer is comparable is to do the benchmark. He gave a link to it.

[Veers]

My delima = do I have enough time to invest in the game? I mean, I normally 1 to 1.5 hours every evening free, plus I usually have some other time during the day that I use for gaming or goofing off...

How much do you guys log on the game in a week? Will I be eating everyone's dust because I don't have time to play every day?

I'd really like to get this game as soon as I finish Chrono Cross (because if I get it before, I won't finish CC any time soon), but...

Can anyone give me some advice here?

[HKR]

I generally spend 10pm to 2 am playing, so I get about 4 hours per day. I'm currently level 10.

Put it this way. The game costs 12.95 a month. Will you be putting in enough hours to justify spending that money? Can you make more time to play? Can you afford the time it will suck away from you (I once looked back at the clock to see it was 5:30 am, and I had to get up at 9 am).

And give back that avatar!

[Slipstream]

what if you dont live in the UK and you wanna import, would the method be the same as above?

I don't see why not. There's no such thing as regional restrictions on a PC (although it wouldn't surprise me if someone tried it once or is considering it) so all you need is an acceptable credit card to set up the account.

[Boris]

Will the game actually be available to buy off the shelf in the European/Australian regions in the coming year?

[HKR]

Will the game actually be available to buy off the shelf in the European/Australian regions in the coming year?

I have not heard anything announced about it being released in the European/Australian regions as of yet. It'll all probably depend on how well it does over in the US, and if Square Europe will wake it's ass up to translate the game.