I’m going to go ahead and post this since I’ve been continuously seeing, at least on Discord (as of right now, I have still not returned to Mastodon), ‘Very High’ and ‘Extremely High’ scores. My current PC is an Intel i7-4770K CPU with a nVidia GTX980 GPU. The hard drive is still a mechanic so that’s why the load times are very high.
The reason I wanted to share this is when they announced the new requirements, I was absolutely terrified that I was dead in the water until I could get a new system built and running. This just shows that if anyone out there is concerned their current set up might not be able to run Dawntrail to give the Benchmark a go and see how their system fairs. Hopefully it will ease any major concerns about not being able to play at launch even if the score isn’t where they want it to be.
Minding this score, I have over many months now been in the process of building a new couple of systems for the Dawntrail launch since a 4th gen Intel is a rather aged CPU, but I’m just relieved that I do have a back up plan/system in lieu of anything go astray before and/or during the initial said launch.
Episode XXXIII! – The Report for this week has led us into two very different predicaments. Aikirees route has taken her into looking like an adorable local news or paper girl. Meanwhile, I’m stuck with what I can only describe as ‘Drafty & Fringy.’ I believe Aikirees is the clear winner between the two of us again for this week’s report in any case.
Upon returning to HQ, Laureine heard something faint but familiar coming from downstairs.
“Let the revel begin!”
“Susano!?” She thought with a quickly flashing moment of panic, but she knew that couldn’t be as he was dispatched many summers ago while traveling through the Ruby Sea. She paused and gathered her thoughts for a moment as to how this could logically be possible.
“The seas part for we alone!”
The Susano-like voice could be heard faintly echoing across HQ once again. Laureine snapped to her senses, and rushed downstairs to see what it could have been, ready to summon one of her weapons to assist in stopping the Primal once again if necessary…
…Only to be bemused upon discovering Lizicus knocked out from a teeny-tiny version of the Lord of Revel. Recalling a gift she had acquired from Missus Sirena a few moons ago, Laureine wouldn’t have thought that her cousin would actually attempt to spar with the innocent looking wind-up figurine and be completely knocked out by it’s finely crafted replica of Susnao’s famous sword.
Laureine let out a sigh of disbelieve and relief, covered her cousin with a blanket, turned off her miniature Susano to not cause anymore unintentional havoc, and went to bed. She knew once her cousin awoke she would stumble into the bunk eventually, as it’s not like Lizicus to miss out on sleep when she can.
I’m fairly certain after the last Cardassian Struggle mission, I spring-boarded right into the next one. This one stood out a lot as it had quite the couple of unique locations for it: Jabberwocky. Since I had already done all of the Terran Gambit, hearing that I would be seeing the Mirror Universe again in this mission got me really intrigued (and I also wanted to see if this would introduce some characters from the Terran Gambit as well).
It starts off heading to Bajor to place the Orb of Possibilities recovered in the previous mission, so we headed on out from Deep Space Nine to make the trip there!
It’s so beautiful!
The place was absolutely gorgeous! I took in the scenery for a little bit and explored here before continuing on with the mission itself. The area was kind of limited, but there’s just so much detail packed into it, that it felt much larger than it was letting on.
After exploring and relaxing for a bit, I headed to where I was needing to go, and it was where the Orb of Possibilities was to be placed: on an altar of sorts, which apparently wasn’t the right altar for it to go.
THIS IS FINE!
So, apparently this version of the Orb belongs in the Mirror Universe and was brought to the Prime universe some eons ago. We’re tasked to take it to Mirror Bajor and place it where it’s supposed to go, and that leads us into the Badlands again to find the rift to take us there!
Returning to the Badlands, there’s some resistance from the Cardassians, but we do eventually find the rift that we’re needing to head into and blast the critter with Tachyon Radiation, because that’s always a good idea to do.
Is this even good to be flying through so much…?
Once the Tachyon Radiation is delivered, the rift to the Mirror Universe opens and we’re able to hop on through. One thing that did crack me up was the interface to enter said rift literally said “Press ‘F’ to enter rift,” and I got a good laugh out of it.
Upon entering the rift, we were now in the Mirror Universe as well as their version of the Badlands. This version traded out all the orange for a lovely ‘Blegh Green.’ Only moments upon entering this Badlands, we’re greeted with the welcoming party and a metric ton of phaser fire! This fight was kind of rough, part of which was due to said ambush and having to orient where they were versus myself. I think they might have been stronger ships, but that’s speculation comparing to the previous missions.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
Once recovered from nearly being blown out of the stars, we headed to Mirror Bajor. It’s a quick warp from the Badlands to Mirror Bajor, not really a large galaxy map to fly through, so getting there was just a simple click.
Mirror Bajor was something else. Upon arriving there, it felt like something way out of place for even the Star Trek universe. Then again, this is the Mirror Universe so I suppose it works quite well since it’s the complete opposite of everything the Prime Universe stands for. The place was gloomy, rainy, rather suggestive neon signs everywhere, and really felt like a scene out of some cyberpunk universe.
Gloomy Mirror Bajor is Gloomy
There was a bit of Mirror Universe fighters here that we had to contend with to go and acquire the Orb, for in which most were dispatched with fairly easily. The ‘boss’ of the area turned out to pack a bit more of a punch, but we were able to succeed without any major setbacks.
The altar here was similar to that on the Prime Bajor’s, except instead of it being surrounded by beautiful buildings, it was tucked away in one of the skyscraper-like buildings and felt more like any other alleyway. Finally the orb was ours to take back to our universe! One more vision upon picking up the orb and it was finally time to head back to the Badlands to return back to Prime Bajor!
THIS IS ALSO FINE!
A couple of hops, warps, and jumps later, we’re back in the Prime Universe and on Bajor to deliver the news. I can’t recall from here if we brought the Prime Orb of Possibilities back or not with us on this mission, that part of the mission itself I can’t exactly recall. I know once it was returned in the Mirror Universe, the altar on Bajor Prime had one as well. Perhaps it materialized there once we took it back to the Mirror Universe or something like that.
All’s well that… end’s well…?
I loved this mission; it was so much fun! I’ll probably have to revisit it eventually for some equipment in the Mission Replay options to help where I am nudge in the right direction to continue more of the missions. However for now, it was a really fun mission that had us delve into the Mirror Universe and see other aspects of it!
April 7th 2019 is Churning Mists Day, the day Aikirees first made it to this gorgeous area. It’s an important day for her and it happened well before my arrival in Eorzea…
Up on the floating peak of Sohm Al on a clear crisp day, Aikirees while wearing similar attire as she did the first time she arrived here, looks off into the vast sea of clouds that make up the Churning Mists. Far off into the distance she looks upon Zenith’s magnificently colossal structure jetting far up into the heavens. She simply stands there gazing with a smile, while enjoying the cool winds on her ears, and gently moving the grass and puff bolls around her. Aikirees closes her eyes and lets in a deep breath, and just like that time seems to stand still in this tranquil moment.
“Oh, you’re already here!”
Aikirees’ ear flips towards the direction of the voice, and she turns to see that I’ve finally arrived at the summit to meet her. She smiles and goes back to gazing off into the distance, while I approach to join her.
“Ish zee fifth’sies zee year’sies nao, zee Sissy… Five’sies zee year’sies since I furrrrrsteded visited here…”
Aikirees says, not looking away from Zenith. I smile while doing the same, and joining her in just gazing outwards. After what felt like an eternity, I spoke up.
“It has been quite the adventure; I still remember when you left Kugane that faithful day. All full of excitement ready to seek out new horizons. There’s that part within you that just yearned for travel, and I still haven’t quite figured that part out.”
I glance at her and see the smile on her face still there strong as ever.
“…And you certainly found it. Saved Eorzea, ended the Dragonsong War, and even helped take back Ala Mhigo. All before I finally was able to catch up with you. You’ve grown so strong, Little One.”
Aikirees breaks away from gazing off into the distance and looks up at me with grin, and I return the gesture in kind.
“Sew zee has yew, zee Big Sissy! Yew were alway’sies zee stronk’sies one’sies doe!”
I chuckled lightheartedly back at her.
“I appreciate the notion!”
She simply smiled as not a care in the world, even after everything we had seen and done whether together or apart, she always has and continues to see the best and brightest in everyone around her.
“Thank you for always letting me come with you on this day to reflect; I know it’s important to you, as you reminisce about the past.”
Aikirees nods an acknowledging nod back.
“Ish zee nice’sies to has zee company’sies. I’sies know yew zee worrrries’sies about zee mi’s lot’sies, but yew’sies dun has tew. Even’sies with zee upcoming’sies jourrrrney’sies, I’ll be zee fine’sies! We’sies gone’sies tew zee edge’sies of dish existens’sies togethurrrr’sies after zee all’sies!”
I pause not really sure what to say, she is right, and it just shows how much she really has grown. Instead of saying anything to contest, I simply smile warmly at her my dear little sister.
“You’re right, Little One. Just, promise me you won’t lose anymore lives.”
I chuckle back, mostly in warmth but with a hint of precaution hoping she doesn’t sense it. The rest of this special day, that Aikirees has simply named ‘Churning Mists Day’ we go and visit places she remembers very fondly during her first time here all those years ago now, making sure to visit with both the dragons and moogles, see some of the beautiful views, and ultimately with it ending in a peculiar spot where she shared a warm fire with some dear friends – one of which whom sacrificed herself to help end the Dragonsong War.
Episode XXXII! – Hitting study hall extremely hard for this weeks’ Fashion Report. Looking over books about quantum physics and the reflections. Meanwhile, I’m pretty certain Aikirees is examining notes on the various types of Carbuncles that exist. Somehow some of these books even include notes and essays on an unsundered one that we tangoed with not too long ago…
After many, many, moons, Lizicus finally managed to get a bathhouse going close to the shore of her Island Hideaway. With that all being taken care of, she invited her cousin over to enjoy a gorgeous sunset while getting some much needed relax in the nice rejuvenating hot spring waters.
This might have been the absolute best April 1st event I’ve ever done in any MMO. Star Trek Online is(was) doing something pretty comical for April Fools. Most of the sound effects for practically everything were replaced with Artisanal Audio from the developers making the sounds themselves. Everything from ‘Pew pew!’ for phasors and weapons, all the way to things exploding and hearing all sorts of sounds from fart noises, ‘booms,’ and literally one person saying the word ‘explosions!’
Going to warp had someone bellow out ‘WARP!’ and using slipstream one time had one of the developers simply saying ‘Yaaaay~!’ That one did change though, so each time it was something just as comical. Just… so many really hilarious sound effects that were just pure bonkers and for fun!
It was such a hoot! To do missions or just sit near Deep Space Nine and see other ships shoot off fireworks, or do whatever effects they had at their disposal and hear all of these absurd sound effects was great fun. Even the menu sounds were all made up. Doors would do ‘swish’ sounds and nearly every NPC at both Deep Space Nine and Earth Space Dock was playing an accordion!
This was great.
I wasn’t on very long, but that whole session was so great and memorable. Will have to make time next year for the next April 1st just to hear all of these sounds make a return while doing whatever Mission I’ll be on at that time. I kind of wish other games/MMO’s would do this as well. Just think… back in Eorzea we could just repurpose all of Hildibrand Manderville’s sound effects for April 1st.
The sky crackled with lightning, and the fierce battle between Nidhogg and us two was beginning to show just how treacherous this was about to become. He narrowed his eyes, gazed upon our souls about to let loose a fiery attack, while sending out his horde to protect him in the process.
Once the horde was dealt with, he let our an ear piercing roar of sheer rage before lifting off the ground with his majestically massive wings. The sky crackled once again before turning a hue of red. Looking around to see where he might strike next with all of the rage he had been building up, I paced back a few steps signaling to Sirena to get close.
The ground shook with red symbols forming, and once I noticed what was about to beholden the two of us, I thrust my blood sword into the ground for anchoring and channeled what aether I could muster into my trusty Allagan Shield that has served me well for more summers than I can recall.
As the sky grew blood red and the symbols on the ground around us began to glow even brighter, I knew the time was nigh. Using the aether channeled into my shield, I released it into protective wings to keep the both of us from feeling the full wrath of Nidhogg’s mighty blow.
“You will not hurt, Sirena; you will not hurt Aikirees, Juli, my daughter, nor the cousins. You will NEVER hurt anyone I care about ever again. As long as I have this shield, I will continue to protect those I hold dear. You, Nidhogg, you time is nigh… you will never hurt anyone again!”
With that, the mighty wyrm descended with such force the ground beneath us quaked and shivered for a moment. The sky continued to stay red and when the dust settled, Nidhogg had returned to the air just floating there, possessing Estinien’s body, and looking down at us beckoning to finish this battle once and for all…
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.
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.
This is really exhausting to keep seeing these every. single. time.
“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.
These and so many more wonderful memories & moments, all thanks to our little community on Mastodon.
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. ♥
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.
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.
Beauty shots of the U.S.S. Astera IV
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.
Setting up my Ready Room with previous U.S.S. Astera ship models.
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.
Into the inferno! I mean the Badlands.
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.
Also made for a really neat screenshot location!
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.
Captain relaxing moment.
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~!
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.
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.
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.
Couple more images showing all of the scenery an their outfits close-up.
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!
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.
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.
