Some people have been asking about me, the author
of this
site. I’m really not sure why… I’m just a player that had some free
time and
wanted to encourage people to do CoP missions. But okay, I guess I’ll
take the
time to talk about myself and my experiences in CoP, and do a little
ranting on
the side. There’s nothing in here about how to win CoP missions so if
you’re in
a hurry you can just skip all this.
My static party was like the 3rd NA party to
reach sea on Sylph. Guided by little more than rumors and vague hints
that
formed other guides at the time, our static pioneered many of the
strategies
through sheer force of will. In other words, we died a lot and
eventually
figured out what was killing us.
After successfully leading my own Promyvion runs
(back in
2004, when you needed an entire alliance to get to the top, ick) and
saving my
entire alliance on the aqueducts mission I was hooked on CoP. I began
to read
around on how other people were doing missions and brainstorming my own
strategies. I became sort of a local expert on Promyvions and ran
through them
about a dozen times to help others. I didn’t realize it at the time,
but I was subconsciously
starting to write this guide.
Riverne A and Diabolos were massively problematic
for me as
there were only a handful of people on the server that were far enough
to even
attempt the missions with me. Somehow I busted through. My one attempt
at Ouryu
fell flat and I basically abandoned CoP due to general lack of strategy
and
people. I decided I only wanted to see Promyvion – Vazhl, the last of
the promise
that I had become so good at, before quitting the game. That was pretty
far
ahead and beyond any of my hopes at that point. Things were going
poorly in my
linkshell and I actually quit the game for about two weeks.
There would be no For Glory guide save for Brimah
sending me
a message on AIM one day that there was a 4/6 Riverne B shout looking
for two
BLMs, but he had managed to convince them a WHM would be useful too. We
logged
on and totally destroyed the fat dragon. That very same night we
attempted
Sacrarium and, with the help of a ranger for extra firepower, completed
it as
well.
The rest of my road to sea, as they say, is
history. Of the
seven people that went into Sacrarium, six teamed up to form a static
party
that went unbroken all the way to Promathia’s demise. I realize how
lucky I am
for having a static survive more than one mission. Maybe it was the
fact that every
mission we beat was so unfamiliar. Maybe it was the fact we were too
stubborn
to give up. Maybe we just were doing it so long that stopping never
really occurred
to us. We lost missions dozens of times and spent millions on
medicines. But we
made it all as a team and it was the best experience I’ve ever had in
this
game.
After the end, we went our separate ways. Dank
basically
stopped playing. Brainbender formed his own linkshell. Koukla became
her
linkshell’s official CoP officer. Ebibant began to scour the world for
more CoP
related quests. Brimah focused mainly on leathercraft. And I, well, I
began to
write.
As a white mage, I believe I have a more clear
perspective
of the battles we fight in FFXI. My job is reactive, not proactive. I
don’t
care about hitting the monsters with weapons or spells. When bad things
happen,
I save the day. It’s the role in this game that I enjoy. Therefore
knowing more
about what bad things will happen and, even better, preventing them
outright is
of big interest to me. Learning strategies to fight monsters has always
been my
big interest. And I love taking screenshots too, for reference and to
bring
back memories.
I had always thought of writing a strategy guide.
My first
idea was a white mage guide, but there are so many of those and the
research is
mostly done. It’s more a matter of putting the information in a more
understandable format. There’s no new ground there. Also, my theories
as a
white mage differ significantly from other mages as my choices of
certain gear
pieces clearly shows. Rather than maxing out MP or Mind or any one
stat, I
prefer to be far more well-rounded. Self-preservation is important –
dying with
1200 MP or with 0 is still dead. I get the feeling my theories would
spark more
conflict than it would help newcomers to the job.
I never really considered writing a CoP guide
until
Promyvion – Vazhl and didn’t actually act on it until the 6-4 airship
battle.
There were other, very good guides on the early missions and I didn’t
think I
had much to contribute. After a while though I noticed there were only
two
sorts of CoP guides: the extremely good ones that only cover about
until
chapter 2, and the ones that go all the way in such vague detail as to
be
mostly useless. Nothing covered all the essential points of every
mission. And
so, in a fit of insomnia while looking through my screenshot gallery, I
opened
up Microsoft Word and started to write. I left anything I couldn’t
remember
blank. A few hours later I found myself complaining about how Diabolos
cheats.
And I thought, y’know, this is pretty decent. I’ll add some screenshots
and see
what people think. Maybe my linkshell would like this.
They did. Quite a bit.
Originally everything was in HTML format on forums
with the
pictures hosted at Photobucket. After a few days of people telling me
how cool
it was I got big dreams. With the help of Linsaran, an extremely great
guy, I
set up this website. Things weren’t going too hot for me in game though
and I
quit just after the site was finished. I didn’t really think anyone at
Allakhazam would find my mutterings enjoyable but released there as
kind of a
going away present.
I was gone for about two months. Brimah, my best
friend in
real life, still played. Around the time Limbus came out Brimah told me
that
someone recognized him from the guide. I decided to check up on Alla
and with
Lins. The results were quite staggering – people were actually reading
the darn
thing. Hundreds of weekly hits, gigabytes of monthy bandwidth. And,
weirdest of
all, I was getting waved to basically everywhere I went.
I honestly didn’t think about it. Every one of my
screenshots
has my name and character in them. Anyone who has read the guide has
seen
dozens of pictures of me. So when that same character goes running by
looking
exactly like they do on the site, it’s not easy to recognize me. Me,
Erecia,
the person that had been kicked out of a linkshell for having a bad
attitude,
was suddenly one of the most well-known people in FFXI history for
doing good
helpful deeds. The irony was too good to pass up. So I rejoined the
game, and
gathered new information, and began to update the site regularly.
I figured people would eventually get used to
having me on
the game, kind of like living next door to a celebrity, that things
would die
down. It hasn’t. It’s actually gotten more intense. I get tells asking
for
battle advise. Tells on activating cutscenes. Tells asking me if I have
a few
hours to help on a mission. Waving and joyous motions as I run by. And
tons of
tells just thanking me for doing all this writing. It’s been
mind-blowingly
positive. Linkshells MPK eachother over HNMs, people bitterly stare at
eachother waiting for NMs to pop, players try to screw eachother out of
as much
gil as possible on the auction house. But with CoP, everyone’s nice. At
least
to me. And really, that’s all I can judge.
One thing though – no one has ever said “This
guide is
BRILLIANT! Here’s twenty million gil.” I haven’t made a single gil off
any of
this stuff and, in fact, affording g earand medicine to continue my
research is
expensive. No, I’m not asking for gil. Not that I’d refuse it… but
don’t send
it. I’m just saying that writing a strat guide is definitely not a
get-rich-quick scheme.
So what am I up to these days? Basically,
everything. My
linkshell Synergy keeps me busy. They’ve begun a massive “get everyone
to sea
so we can start farming sea gods!” campaign that has me scrambling
around
between missions and answering questions. Recently I had an opportunity
to
fight Sea gods and obtained an
For Glory has been a great experience for me and continues to be my driving force in the game. The almost daily tells I get from people thanking me for writing this really makes me feel like I’m doing something greater than myself. Yeah it’s just a guide about missions in some video game, but I’m inspiring people to meet their goals and making their days a little better. That is the essence of For Glory – fighting not for drops or for gil, but because it is fun. Because this game is fun. I hope it is fun for you too.
I leave you with this. The big hot topic on a
lot of forums
is the new expansion, ToAU. People are beginning to get geared up. I am
one of
them. I’ll see you on the shores of the near eastern empire, and I’ll
be sure
to write about my trip.
(back to the main page)