Episode XXXI! – Inspector Aikirees and I heading deep into the Dusk Vigil on a request from Ishgard. Luckily for us, we had some very good heavy coats for such an outing to a place that has some incredibly strong snowstorms.
Kosmikros Sisters
The State of Things
There will probably be more of these as time goes on, but this is a departure from my usual types of things I post here. Sort of a “how I’m feeling” stylized written thingamajig I suppose. What I didn’t want for this to be was something more emotionally driven than anticipated and I’ve been mulling over exactly how to write/say what/how I’ve been feeling. Way back in the beginning of November 2023, I departed Mastodon on a much needed break from social media.
The Social Media Departure/Break
The apex as to why I departed was caused by getting into another quibble with another person in the Final Fantasy XIV community that was saying that parsers (a 3rd party tool used to check how well someone’s damage output is) were okay due to their wide usage within the community. I countered back stating it’s not as it’s still against the Terms and Services of the game itself. Both of us doubled-down on our sides of the debate, and something just clicked that it was time to leave.
It wasn’t the first time, and I doubt it will be the last time I got into a discussion that changes to something more heated, but in that moment I think I just finally realized it wasn’t worth it to have this keep happening. Before this ‘final’ one was another having to do with someone perpetually liking practically 100% of anyone/everyone’s discussions/posts, which triggered memories of someone who was attempting to stalk Aikirees within FFXIV (even if that wasn’t their intention, it was still an unsettling feeling.) As a result I said something, not well stated, and that in itself resulted in a not-so-great ripple effect. I still feel bad about how I handled this to this day.
These were the two big ones that made me realize it was time to step away. There were, of course, incidences and typical drama that online communities have that happened before these two. Even from within our little group of friends we had made there were things that happened as well; however those were resolved, resolved themselves, or happened outside of what I knew was happening and ultimately resolved there too. I did step into some of them to help cool down heated parties, which sometimes worked and other times it didn’t.
Starting up this blog site and posting here as regularly as possible has really been good for me though, and whatever I end up doing in the future, I’m going to keep posting here because I really like doing it and it’s pretty therapeutic. Eventually EOCA’s Eulogy will go up and that will tell the tale of how that started and it’s eventual closure, and that will also touch on some other things as well.
How I’m Feeling in General Towards the Final Fantasy XIV Community
Generally speaking, my feelings towards the FFXIV community as a whole have really begun to deteriorate over the last few years. I’m not flat out saying the FFXIV community has become completely sour by any means because there are so many lovely and wonderful folks out there that I’ve come across, and the community as a whole is very friendly and welcoming. It’s just since the community has gotten so huge over the last few years, that the bad actors are starting to appear a lot more often than they used to, which is unfortunate but expected.
I’ve made mention of this in passing of times of the past where when doing even content folks were more warmly welcoming and content runs were light jogs with talking banter sprinkled in as opposed to now with the mentality of ‘go go go!’ being the primary driving force. Anyone with a ‘Legendary’ title or has one of the weapons from those series of Ultimate fights seems to very much amplify this. I realize this is a very generalize statement, as I do still see the more fun laid back style of runs, but I just wish it was the norm again.
The Modding/Plugin community I fully detest now as opposed to just having sour feelings towards – and this debate has been done to pieces with the argument being a near stalemate from both sides of it, which is unfortunate because it really does split the community up into separate camps. A community close to me decided to ditch traditional methods of making dances & performances via macros and go full-blown into using a plugin really didn’t help my feelings towards any of this either.
Content creators I personally feel are becoming another sour space in the community with I think only a small margin that are alright and genuine. Even one that I was a guest on, a simple podcast, fell into that trope the rest tend to of just looking at numbers and statistics. I understand that may not be the case in its entirety, but when that’s all you hear continuously is “look at how my numbers/followers I’ve acquired” as a status symbol, then there’s something off-putting about that. Chasing after more popular content creators/players within the space is something else that could be debated as well, but I know this is well beyond what I can discuss aside from what little observations and hearsay but that’s not helpful.
One last thing that comes to mind since you cannot get away from them in city-states are the perpetual spamming of Venues. To the best of my remembrance, venues started to really pop up during the pandemic, with before that I’d only hear about small tavern-like RP oriented places. I really miss those and I know they still exist, but seem to be on a much smaller scale nowadays. I stylized having small events like that over at EOCA HQ’s fire pit because it reminded me of an old cafe I used to go to and do the exact same thing. Nowadays, at least of this writing, they’re full of adult-themed pleasures and twitch-streaming DJ’s. I know I can just disable shout in chat, but they do come in handy to hear on occasion in city-states and while out adventuring.
“Keep Moving Forward“
I suppose it comes down to ‘what now?’ I’m still not exactly sure, and I’m still hurting a bit.
As for Mastodon, I miss the little group/community we started and created within it, and I will return to Mastodon eventually. Just, not exactly sure when yet – it could be a day or two after writing this all out, or it could be another month or so. There’s no other social media I’m involved with (Instagram I kind of used to parallel, but stopped long ago), and if there’s a time that I depart from even Mastodon, then that will more than likely be the end of any social media for me. Without Mastodon and the friends I’ve made there, EOCA would still not be a home and just a house, nor would I have had so many wonderful memories and moments throughout most of 2023 and late 2022 when I departed Twitter.
As for the general Final Fantasy XIV community, I’ll probably stay on the side of extreme caution as I have been doing. Normally all of the above doesn’t really bother me, and I know it should never, but sometimes it just all hits me and doesn’t… feel as warm as it once did. It’s disheartening to think about sometimes, and then just adding in all of the perpetual venue spam as a reminder, hits it a bit harder.
Regardless, I won’t leave Final Fantasy XIV for the foreseeable future as I really and truly do love/enjoy the game. Even with all these rougher spots appearing and happening, there is such a vast and larger more positive force within the community still and we’re all here just trying to have fun and enjoy the world, share our adventures & stories, make some wonderful friends & meet folks along the way, and look out for one another.
I know there’s a lot of wonderful & helpful folks out there, and I’ve met so many along the way as that’s the majority. I’ll keep moving forward, taking care of my lovely small FC, enjoy making new adventures, remembering all of the wonderful ones prior, and listen/share them with all of the friends I’ve made along the way. ♥
Dragon Tails: Sirius Night
It was a clear windy night out in Western La Noscea, and Laureine had just found her mark for the week. Before departing the area, she stopped at The Brewer’s Beacon and just looked out into the sea towards Pharos Sirius. The cool breeze gently moving her dark blue/teal accented hair, and simply enjoying the tranquil view with nothing more than that as company.
Even with it being near the sea at night, the cool night didn’t affect her at all. The warmth of her Allagan Suit comfortably kept her warm even on the coldest of nights. Not long thereafter though, her exhaustion caught up from all of the day’s adventuring and she decided to head back at HQ with her cousin awaiting already asleep in the bunk.
Star Bunny IV: Episode 1
After the rather brisk time with the U.S.S. Astera III, it was time for another promotion and a brand new starship. Out of all the choices for the successor to Astera III, the Galaxy Class was definitely going to be the choice here.
The U.S.S. Astera IV is almost identical to a standard Galaxy Class. The color patterns on the hulls along with the bulges at the rear of the warp nacelles being the only major changes, and even at that, they’re pretty minor. Nearly all of the missions involving The Cardassian Struggle and the Borg Advance are where the Astera IV’s missions resided before the successor came along. The Cardassian Struggle was pretty unmemorable, but the Borg Advance was fun even if the difficulty really began to show itself.
After a quick shakedown around Earth Space Dock, it was time to head out to the next set of missions. Initially having us head out to Deep Space Nine to start these next series of missions, which eventually led us back into the Badlands to find out what this sub-group of Cardassians, named the True Way – a terrorist group within the Cardassians, were up to.
This whole ordeal had something to do with an Orb that the Obsidian Order failed to return after the war, and after hearing about raiders, there is suspect that has something to do with said missing orb.
So we go into the Badlands, poke around for said orb, find some ‘friends’ waiting for us, blow some ships up, and discover where said orb is being held. So we head to said location, an outpost near a moon, and beam over to said outpost to take it back. The outpost section I can’t really recall being all that eventful, it was really just an over-the-top ‘retrieve’ quest and then back out into the Badlands’ space. I’m not necessarily complaining about this mission being so straightforward, as there are a bunch of ones before and after that are bonkers long and pretty challenging.
Anyway, back in Badlands’ space, some True Way ships are hot on our nacelles, so we have to deal with them pretty quick but soon discover that this somehow has the Mirror Universe involved too! We end up scanning the Mirror Universe tear anomaly, which has a couple of Mirror Ships come through that we’re swiftly dealt with and thus the mission concludes.
This was a fairly quick mission session, and I think I either ended up heading back to Earth or staging the next area before heading out. I know I did mess around with some of the emotes and such as I hadn’t done so a whole lot since starting out playing Star Trek Online, so I did that and kind of just relaxed for a spell.
The next mission ends up being a bit more involved, but pretty fun nonetheless with some rather interestingly chosen cut scenes to go all along with it.
Until next time, and the next Episode of Star Bunny IV~!
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XXIX
Episode XXIX! – Enjoying a lovely outing together at Costa del Sol with me having a nice hot cup of tea and Aikirees with her large mug of chocolate milk.
Dragon Tails: Clear Beach Night Skies
A tuckered out Lizicus rests her weary head on Laureine’s, as they both bask in the warm campfire’s glow on a beautiful starry night sky relaxing on the beach after a full day of adventures.
Dragon Tails: Little Ladies’ & Hatching-Tide
The cousins got all dressed up and had their Little Ladies’ & Hatching-Tide outing the other evening, even with Laureine insisting that Lizicus wear a pair of bunny ears for the occasion. Even with the two of them radically approaching the festivities in their own way, they kept the spirit of both seasonal events to heart.
The event itself is incredibly short, only with a couple of things to do around Gridania before it migrates over to Ul’Dah to conclude. It’s still a bit of fun though with a nice mount acquired at the end, along with all of the wonderful festive decorations that can be seen across the realm as both of these are celebrated together.
May y’all have a very wonderful Little Ladies’ Day & Hatching-Tide event 2024! Head on out there in your favorite outfit, hug a bunny or two, enjoy some deliciously confection delights, and have lots of fun with it all!
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XXVIII
Episode XXVIII! – Twinning it up while bringing both Dark and Light magics along as well!
A Very Relaxing Island Sanctuary Start
We’re still only Rank 4 as of this post, but just from getting through all of the basics to being let loose on our islands, it has been such a relaxing and zen experience. We did ultimately get a couple of workshops built with full schedules for the week for the both of them figured out and all gathered for too.
I was surprised how much time can pass just going from gathering node to node and just enjoying the super relaxed pace of it all with nice lush scenery for as far as one can see. I can tell even with the absurd amount of gathering we’re going to be doing getting up the ranks as relatively quick as we can, this is going to be a pretty chill time.
After everything we’ve accomplished up to now in Endwalker, I think that this the kind of change of pace, even if it’s only for a little while, that will be very nice to mosey through.
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XXVII
Episode XXVII! – We had two very wonderful friends pay us a visit, so we all decided to do this week’s Fashion Report together and then retreat over to Azem Steppe for a lovely evening of catching up and talking about whatever came to mind. It was certainly a very memorable evening.
Dragooning it Up
One objective for Aikirees after completing the role quests was to finally get around to adjusting her Dragoon attire, which had been the off-shoot of the first Artifact Set acquired after completing the level 50 Dragoon Quest. She’s had a few lances since then before dawning the current one that has a nice blue/red glow when wielded; that one she acquired with Crystal Trophies.
It took a bit of fidgeting to keep some of the dragon-like aesthetics and combine it with something else more in line of what she’s usually wearing. One idea was to role in some Stormblood attire since she initially started out her adventure in the late Stormblood era (hence also why her Black Mage outfit has a strong homage to Shisui of the Violet Tides), and once she discovered the Tigerskin of Maiming top that kind of pointed her in the direction she was wanting.
Her top being the Aforementioned Tigerskin of Maiming, her gauntlets just being simple Fingerless Goatskin Gloves of Gathering dyed blue, legs are the Virtu Dragonlancer’s Cuissots (PvP Crystal Trophies) dyed Gunmetal, and the boots being the 90 Dragoon Artifact Greaves – Tiamat Greaves.
Overall I think this was the ‘glow-up’ she was looking for. There were some other iterations considered, but adjusting the colors was becoming very messy. Some items like the Tigerskin top washed out a lot of the details once dying was attempted. It might be rectified in DawnTrail with the dual dye system, but for now she’s got her Dragoon look for the foreseeable future!
Dragon Tails: Island Getaway
With all the battles fought, going to the far reaches of existence and back again, along with delving into adventures on the Thirteenth, the two weary cousins finally take time to enjoy some quiet island relaxation.
There is quite the surmount of tasks to do on their islands still, but the far laid back take to these said tasks will be a good change of pace, especially for the ever punctual Laureine, as we get ever closer to heading westward to Tural…
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XXVI
Episode XXVI! – The Iron-Armed Pirate Sisters have spotted land off the Port Side!
Meanwhile off in the distance a voice shouting out: “Uh, ladies? This boat is permanently docked, please get off the mainstay mast!”
Endwalker: Adventures in Role Quests II
Over the past weekend, we completed not only the remaining two role quests series left to do, but also the finale series after one has completed all of those as well! Bearing in mind that the last ‘bonus’ questline doesn’t appear until after completing the Endwalker MSQ, but just up to 6.0.
Note: Minor spoiler talk about the bonus finale role quest series, along with the achievement image.
The Caster Role Quest series was pretty good, nothing really to write home about but did a nice job adding in an additional story relating to Heavensward. The instance fight at the end was super fun and even Black Mage friendly! The Healer Role Quest, however, was by far the absolute best one in terms of story. The ‘fight’ was fun and required using an ability that most of the player base keeps forgetting about (this would be Esuna). To me, it felt more manageable of an instance fight than the Shadowbringers’ one was, but that might have also something to do with how they fixed how heals work with NPC’s in these sort of scenarios.
Originally, to the best of my recollection, AoE heals wouldn’t work correctly and everything had to be hard-targeted to NPC’s for them to work in instance fights. I can’t say for Trusts as I’ve never healed for them before. I could be very inaccurate in this thinking, so definitely take my thoughts about this with a cup of salt.
Anyway, in terms of Role Quests stories, I’d place them in this order from my favorite to ‘least’: Healer -> Tank -> Caster -> Ranged -> Melee. Melee and Ranged aren’t ‘bad,’ but they just didn’t hit any interesting notes with me. I think I said in the prior post about these, that one’s mileage will vary with how one feels about them as well.
Speaking specifically of the healer one without getting into spoilers, it just had me moved to tears on a number of occasions. If one appreciates the later Stormblood MSQ sections, I’m certain one will very much appreciate the entirety of the Healer’s Role Quests series as well.
Moving on, once we were able to access the final bonus questline, it had us heading to Garlemald to deal with one more Blasphemy with all of our friends from all of the role quest series. The entirety of this whole adventure was an absolute blast! Everything upon entering Garlemald to the instance fight (dungeon?) it had was so darn fun. One recommendation I will say as of right now the instance fight is not iLevel Sync’d, so go in with whatever one is more comfortable with and/or highest iLevel for a fun tail kickery.
Once it’s all done, everyone goes home, and hints at something to come that I believe was mentioned for Dawntrail, but we’ll see. We’re asked to return to Radz-at-Han and let them know that the end of the Blasphemies are upon us and all is well once again.
Overall, I cannot recommend these enough to anyone wanting to see the entirety of it. It’s just so fun, but please don’t go out of one’s way to level 5 different job types just to see this specifically. If one is already going to level said job types, then that is where I recommend looking at these.
Comparing it to Shadowbringers’, I think it suffers a little bit in terms of anchoring the stories as well as those did. However, they’re nice little additions and follow-ups (or perhaps conclusions) to specific areas of previously told parts of the story/MSQ. One nit-pick is I hope in Dawntrail and beyond is they start them again at base expansion level (i.e. 90 for Dawntrail) instead of halfway through.
With those behind us, on wards to the next adventure~!!
Dragon Tails: A Wonderful Morning
Another beautiful morning, and may y’all have just the most wonderful day ahead! Y’all got this!
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XXV
Episode XXV! – I-I’m not sure what we did, but apparently we’re wanted for 60,000,000,000 Gil.
Dragon Tails: Snowy Solitude
A short moment of time that feels like it was frozen for far longer with Lizicus away from her cousin; just looking off into the snowy night sky.
Moment in the Rain
Just a small quiet moment while enjoying the rain out in Thavnair. My dear little dragonet perched on my should, while I have a moment or so thinking about things as the sound of the rain just feels like it’s pausing time for a spell if only to collect my thoughts before heading on wards to another adventure.
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XXIV
Episode XXIV! – Ready to have a fun night on the town for this week’s Fashion Report!