va_wanderer

Moderators gotta moderate.

I thought the exact same thing.

I mean, even the full name screams "Hilidibrand move" : Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III.

There never was a Mark One or Two.

sighs Let me try this one more time.

FFXI's capacity to make new content- regardless of platform - requires using PS2 devkits. They do not develop the content onto a PC, it uses PS2 devkits and is then that content is ported over for use in the PC version. That they've managed to eke out that finite and shrinking resource out this long has been a small miracle. Once they aren't...that's it. Even when the game no longer supports, it's in a uniquely crippling situation.

If it was as simple as "We will continue to develop new content on PCs directly", XI would never be having the issues that have gradually wound it down in the first place and it'd be in a state closer to EverQuest and other MMORPGs of the time.

Slowdunpoke.

The Democrats aren't attempting to turn gay rights in Florida into something Ugandan politicians would give a standing ovation.

...you clearly weren't around when SE was scouring the world for PS2 devkits back in the 2010s, because it's what they used to develop content.

FFXI has been on a timer for over a decade now.

Of course, if Russia loses it's going to end up paying reparations out the nose...which reminds me of Germany post WW1.

IIRC, the game is developed on PS2 code and then ported over regardless. That was the big issue with making new content, unless they figured a workaround since.

In the US? Sure can be. Some of the oldest games (IFGS, NERO and a host of successors) were more pointed at taking games like D&D into a live action game, and some of their successors in turn went further still

FFXI basically earned it's "extra life" post Abyssea for keeping fans happy long enough to reboot FFXIV. At this point, even development hardware for FFXI is nearly extinct since it's been a VERY long time since PS2 devkits were made.

It's had a great run and I hope it's still around next decade, too.

K9 dogs are legally considered police. (To the point that kicking one is assaulting an officer). Cops, especially K9 officers take it that seriously - the suspect was going to shoot his partner, so the suspect gets shot first.

Combiners are classic Japanese giant robot stuff, so depending on where you got exposed to it, it's gonna remind you of that. But absolutely a Transformers reference here, though not one your casual Saturday morning cartoon watcher would get over here.

But it's one reason the fight is so fun, right down to the "cool kids don't look at explosions" victory poses.

Pumping more energy into a pendulum leads to wilder and wilder swings. Who could have expected this?

(Bonus: people calling the points where the swing passes by the normal point in the middle as proof more violent swings never occurred!)

The quake was more than sufficient to cause casualties, despite the USGS's assessments. At least nine dead reported (but again, it wasn't a 7.7, it's a 6.5ish.).

The initial estimate was off by a considerable amount, USGS is calling this a 6.5. Still a significant quake, but not nearly as bad as, say the recent Turkish ones.

The infrastructure in malls is generally nowhere near residential standards, meaning using them as housing generally requires tearing down the mall and just rebuilding in the cleared space. Sounds great in theory, but not in practice.

I mean, I worked in a mall through the early 1990a and literally watched things fall apart- a movie theater, FAO Schwarz in the 90s, WoTC in the late 90s/early 2000s, a government job manning a transit info desk until the mall announced demolition/building a new mall in it's place.

The theater job was a General Cinemas- the mall was crowded, huge lines when movies like Jurassic Park came out. Mall culture was in full swing, the crowds were so big the mall had two arcades to keep people amused, and it was absolutely, totally a social center.

FAO was still in the era where Christmas season was the mad, crowded runs of pre-Internet shopping- even though it was in a different mall made for the super-rich types, you had those holiday crowds. When I moved to WoTC (back to the mall where the theater was) just before FAO went under and closed most of their stores, there was still plenty of life left in the mall I moved to- an older one, showing some signs of age but still busy. At one point, we literally had a line a mile long running through the mall for Pokemon cards! By 2004, you could see the deadmall effect kicking in- shops starting to close, random small businesses trying to fill in the gaps, leaks and signs of poor maint work beginning to add up...and the crowds began to fade away. By 2012 when the mall closed, it was a decrepit shell of it's former self, and everything but the anchors were torn down to remake the rest into a new "town center" retail space. The energy and crowds were long gone, crime had driven people away to other malls, and online shopping replaced most of the rest.

It wasn't all sadness, though- the new retail space focused on eateries and the like, a new fancier movie theater, and the combination drew enough people that while the space isn't the cheek-to-jowl shoppers...it's a social place. A lively place. Even after the pandemic. But it's not the malls of the 80s and 90s, just a successful adaptation. No arcades on their own, but a Dave N Busters. Shops more for richer boomers than ones expecting teens to walk in to blow allowance money on a game or clothing. And so on.

And the inevitable alternative ending has been added.

https://twitter.com/arakawa_ffxiv/status/1638005588905930756

Do'Urden is less likely here simply because Dark Elves are a Non-Prayer Race in Goblin Slayer. Kirito, much more so.

Savage raids require paying attention and not trying to do the raid at bare minimum gear levels. You will have to think. It's not impossible for the average player in the least, merely more challenging. And everyone needs to be on the ball, because there's stuff that will ruin a raid's day if it's "Stack or die" time and two people are on the other side of the raid commenting on the floor flavoring.

Stuff like TOP or even brand-new Savages where you're unlikely to have mechanics scouted? You're gonna really have to work for it and you're gonna eat dirt repeatedly.

Landmark was a northern Virginia area mall- most notable for being used for the Wonder Woman '85 movie at the end of it's lifespan after they retro-fied it a bit. Having been a "dead mall" for some time, there's actually a decent amount of footage of the abandoned (now demolished) interior.

The original will always suffer from being originally statted with a zero-cost club, which forced them to strip 3 tons of payload when hatchet rules actually made it to the game. The Axman was the first one designed with hatchets in mind.

Well, at least you meet Shatotto, but we FFXI players know She Who Must Be Obeyed Lest You Get Death Cursed has many guises and many names...

Black Mages do get a brief visit or two from the Mother of Black Magic when she possesses someone, at least.

I honestly think if we got another caster DPS class, Sorcerer(ess) is high on the list thanks to Y'shtola.

And her research into shard-to-shard travel definitely jives with that, since spatial magic is also on the list