Goals for the group

[Inquisitor]

There is a possibility that we can join the "Radiance Alliance" which is a group of linkshells on Asura (inccluding the 7th) that does alot of events, ranging from things like Garrison to more end-game-ish content.

I have been asking if that's something we can formally participate as SSX in, so BD and I can have access to higher level content without losing the ability to be SSX (most end game groups are pretty draconian), it's probably the only way *I* will experience end game content, power gamers like BD might be able to put up with the BS typical of some of hte groups that "traditionally" do that sort of thing.

What does it get for you? Access to group events like the Promies BD is struggling with, additional resources to call on to do BCNM type events, etc.

Before I pursued the request, I wanted to have a brief discussion on the subject.

Thoughts?

[BlackDove]

Like I said, this is really the preferred way because there is a lot of inherit bullshit that comes with HNMLS linkshells - however since I don't mind conforming to assholes (not all of them are tho) to get what I want (being one myself so knowing my way around them), there is always that way for me to take.

If this is possible, it would be a far better thing to dedicate my time to that and those people than anyone else.

[Stracius]

Being lvl 25, endgame content isn't really something on my mind, but I don't want to disclude others from access to it. Just as long as it doesn't interfere with my own comings and goings, I probably won't mind.

But I'll definitely need more information about them. I might be a bit adept at navigating a-holes as well (takes one to know one after all), but I still try to avoid them when possible. Especially when I just want to play a game. Maybe I'll be more willing to put up with the type when I get higher, and end-game is harder to get to. I dunno yet, as I lack the experience (literally ).

[Inquisitor]

http://www.radiance-alliance.com/index.php

Don't bother registering, all accounts need manually activated and you have to be a member of a membershell to get activated. They are very serious about avoiding the morons. But there is some information there.

The interesting thing about it, is some of the "end game content" starts at levels 30 and 40 (specifically the CoP stuff, alot of it is level capped). There's also things like BCNM's and specific gear hunts.

With the other shell I have been playing with, we have been playing events with this group for about a year. It has always been a positive experience. Rank fights, AF coffer hunts, BCNM and Promies. Alliance membership allowed the 7th to maintan it's own identity, rather than have arbitrary HNMLS rules enforced on us, or have us forced into giving up the ability to talk to our friends.

I'll find the thread on the 7th forums where we discussed it, I believe I raised some of the same questions. Any fears I had we obliterated after we started doing things. Events are well run, well organized, and usually alot of fun.

[Gryphon]

Having read over the forums, the background and affiliated LS Posts, I can only imagine the Radiance Alliance to be a positive endeavour. I'm all for it.

[Inquisitor]

There's no certainty we'll get in, but I'll start asking the questions, provided nobody object.

[Pixistix]

W00t! My login still works over here!

/wave! I know some of you from in game, and some of you from back in the day when we had a shared forum for our LS here on your boards .

So Radiance...

Ari and I have talked about this a bit recently. I was heavily involved in the decision making process that lead to 7th joining so I think I might be able to help answer questions you guys might have.

First off and most import, the individual LSs in the Alliance are their own comunities and maintain a high level of separation from the other LSs. This is nice because merging LSs for added resources doesn't work. Plain and simple. People have their personality quirks and those rarely mesh.

However, FFXI is an extremely resource taxing game as you get into some of the missions and to higher levels. For example, Ariones, Convict and I got to participate in our first Dynamis this week. 24, 65-75 players went in. None came out! XD. It's a good time .

I guess our expectations for member LSs are:

Bring your A-game to any event you come to. This means things like upto date gear, specific items (if required), background cutsceens completed, stuff like that.

Respect other people at events. Virtus has some pretty strict rules about swearing and graphic language, so when we run events with them we try to keep it PG . Additionally, many times people will come to events that are just there to help, not because they need to be there. Try to keep that in mind and tell them thanks . My rule is that if people come out to help me get something specific, I pass on everything else that drops as a thank you to the people helping.

Enjoy the game, have fun and leave the drama at home !

We really focus on teamwork and kicking butt! It's a lot of work sometimes, but it's totally pays off .

Right now there are Tene and Virtus which are both 50+ish. Tene's really small right now, but Virtus is good sized. Sameritans does stuff with us from time to time, but they aren't an Alliance LS anymore. Illuminate are 70+, but they aren't an active LS atm. 7th is more mid level being predominatly 30-50 with a smattering high and low. I think it would be awesome to bring y'all in because you would be around the same level as 7th and would be able to support each other with things like the Promivions and other CoP missions.

I'm rambling... you can ask me questions here (I'll come check in ), or send me tells in game.

Once you come to a decision Ari and I can work on talking with the other LS leaders to bring you in.

Edit: for spelling >.>

[Anubis]

Having read over the forums, the background and affiliated LS Posts, I can only imagine the Radiance Alliance to be a positive endeavour. I'm all for it.

Ditto.

Honestly I don't really see why we need an alliance, I dont see why not being a part of one damages your role at endgame content etc (maybe thats still my view taken from WoW, you can stand alone and still make the friends to help you at endgame), but if people think its best I wouldnt really object to going for a place in this one, seems decent enough to me from what Ive read. I just like independance I guess and dont see why we'd try and move away from that, be that my ignorance of how endgame works or whatever

[Inquisitor]

No objections then, I'll see what I can see.

As for why, well, higher level content usually is accessible by well established groups, that have a mix of jobs and levels.

End-game-ish content is usually restricted to those groups who operate more like traditional clans, in some ways it becomes competitive. Thos linkshells frequently have very restrictive membership and participation requirements. Think "Raiding Guild" and in order to participate, you have to folow their rules (often one clan/pearl, forced partipation in events).

This allows us two things.

* We don't have to recruit random idiots because we need a certain job for a certain type of event.

* We don't have to not be SSX and still be able to access the endgame content.

There's no real downside to joining it, they don't "make" us do things, and nobody tells us "what to do." We participate because we want to, and we like the folks involved

It's an online game, you knew there had to be drama SOMEWHERE

[Pixistix]

Anubis, you hit the core of the issue. Can a small tight nit group of kick'n players, level to 75, get good gear, and enjoy the game? You bet! Will you be able to participate in all of the content the game has to offer? That's where it gets tricky.

One of the main difference between FFXI and WoW (along with a number of other games), is the developer's nasty habbit of making monsters and "instances" that require a freaking army to take down.

I'm not kidding. There are monsters in some of the high level zones that require up to three alliances (18 people each), for players to have a shot at them.

Is the Radiance Alliance to the point where we are considering the end game wyrms and Gods? No. But we would like to be !

I get a kick out of planning the meaga fights. Figureing out strategies for some of this stuff is a favorite past time for me. I love researching, thinking about ways to aproach things and then seeing my plans carried out. Ask Ari about me and BCNMs sometime . I totally understand that not everyone is into that kind of stuff. This has actually been an issue in the past. There are people who aren't interested in the big game hunting that I am. I forget sometimes *laughs*.

The other entertaining the SE likes to do is set up fights that seemingly require certain jobs. (Anyone who has seen people yelling for summoners in Jeuno will know what I'm talking about).

What the Alliance has to offer is bodies for the big fights, people with all sorts of jobs at all sorts of levels, and a network of experienced players that can help new players and help eachother. This game is a lot more cooperative than some of the other MMOs out there. Radiance takes a lot of the guess work out of finding the help you need.

Like I said before, the Alliance is a means for getting resources, without compromising the identity of your individual group.

Additionally, I should mention that the Alliance is a pretty singular phenomenon on out server. I personally don't know of any other organizations like ours. Except for some gil sellers *laughs* (that's another story). Most people hit a wall around 60, and leave theri social LS to join HNM (hyper notorious monster) LSs. The HNMLS scene is ugly. It's very competitive, and there are a lot of people with dubious morals. This is our answer to that. A way for good people to do the things they want without "selling out" if you will ~.^.

From everything Ari has told me about you guys, I think that you would fit in well with our merry bad of adeventurers .

[Inquisitor]

I think we're ready to talk to Ery

FYI, WoW has 40man raids, before a WoW player jumps on that So they have big boss battles.

Still, apart from that, everything else is spot on, esepcially the job part. We can grow at our own pace without worrying about how many Warriors we have

[BlackDove]

Everything pretty much said, let's see what the verdict is I guess.

Like Pixi said, I don't think there are many establishments like this on our server (and I would even say all servers) so it would be real fortune to be able to get into it instead of paying tribute to something I wouldn't look at twice if I didn't need it.

[Stracius]

Good arguments. I'm fine with it.

[Pixistix]

FYI, WoW has 40man raids, before a WoW player jumps on that So they have big boss battles.

BAH! That's a lie and you know it ~.^. Everyone who plays WoW is on the PvP servers trying to kill Gabe and Tyco.

</joke>

I'll send Eri a note of recomendation, if you want to contact her directly Ari. Eri, Ari... *laughs*! Moving on. I've been talking with Hilde on 7th and he's going to be putting together some really fun sounding social events for anyone with a job to 20. There is the upcoming garrison, a possible level 1 run from Windy to Jeuno, and an Eco-Warrior. These will all be good opertunities for y'all to mingle with our crews and see what kind of players we are .

[Eriyalle]

So... with all that said maybe I don't need to formally introduce myself here afterall. XD

I am the only remaining original founder of the Radiance Alliance left playing FFXI. (Wow does that sound scary or make me seem old, or what? But sadly the others decided to move onto other games and are playing WOW and DDO) However, we have some great linkshell leaders who've been around with us a while now *cough*Pixistix*cough* so I feel like we're in good shape.

To give a brief history while I'm looking over my shoulder typing frantically at work (by way of explanation in case this makes no sense), the Radiance Alliance was originally founded by 3 small linkshells who were not particularly interested in growing bigger as far as number of players, but who wanted to provide their membership with a wider network of resources in FFXI while maintaining their own rules and identity. There is a phrase that comes to mind when I think about the standard way players accomplish the more difficult game content in FFXI... which would be "Go shout in Jeuno". The other choice which usually occurs from them shouting in Jeuno would be to feed the high level mercenaries who will assist players with things like subjob or 50 cap items for a price, sometimes a very high price. In my own personal experience with FFXI, it is a really rare experience to see a functional alliance of players pull together without them first having some bonds in linkshell or close friendship. As with other MMORPGs, FFXI is highly competitive and there are a lot of players willing to scam or take advantage of others for their own gain. Whoa! Rambles away, back to the topic Radiance.

The primary goal of radiance is to work as a network or additional resource. Linkshells are most successful with the alliance when they bring what they want to do to the alliance and post it up. And then we all pitch in, cross-post and gather together to get things done. No one person leads the alliance, rather we have a council which includes the shell holder for each member linkshell. If we need to make a decision on rules or policy or anything, then all of the linkshell leaders get an email regarding what is up asking for their feedback and they each have a say.

One linkshell that is no longer with the alliance recently criticized that Im only looking out for the needs of my own members. To be honest, theyre right and they're wrong. My members are my #1 priority. I feel that any FFXI linkshell leader's first priority should be to their own members. You know best what you all need, just as I know best what my players are asking to do. So I post up what my group needs and wants to do. Just as Pixistix and Ariones post up what their groups need and want to do. As long as we are all communicated and open with our planning, we can support each other and draw together to meet those goals together. If everyone just waits around to come to what I post... well, ya'll might be waiting for what you need for a very long time. So let's not do that. Where the other group was wrong, was once I commit to helping someone with something, inside or outside my group if a player comes to one of our events - then we are there until we get it done. Sometimes death and resources and time run out for a specific day, and if that's the case we reschedule and we go back and we hit the pavement until the job is finished. I'm a bit stubborn that way. ~_^ The particular example here can be CoP missions. Even with teams made of the perfect jobs with the perfect gear and items... things go wrong. Any loss is a team loss, not any one particular person's fault. Sometimes we may go in fighting 5 times making changes to improve each time before we get the teamwork right for the particular party and strategy. But I'm willing to go there and I do go there for the players we assist. I won't count how many times my ninja has already died kiting PM 2-5... and I'm sure there will be more coming once we get another batch of players through chapter 1. Failures are always disappointing, but we need to remember we have a group to support us, make changes if things aren't working, and try again. Which in my opinion is better than going back to shout in Jeuno again, rolling the dice and gambling again that the new party will work out better than the last one.

Regarding alliance event planning - any alliance member can create an alliance event. The event leader (the person who created/posted the event) is the decision maker for thier events. They are also the person everyone is supposed to be listening to for instructions, strategy, etc. Thier power includes dictating loot distribution except in the instances where the alliance has a specific loot distribution policy. Do things your way, that is what we want. We just ask that members respect each other and that special rules/prep or loot distribution are posted prior so people know coming into an event what to expect.

Ill talk to Ariones on the side as well, Pixi and I will need to prep an email if yall are interested to all of the linkshell leaders Carceri of Illuminati, and Koz of Apollo for feedback on your application. ^^ Pending their response we can activate accounts for you on the radiance website should that be your wish.

Please please if you have any questions just ask that includes game questions and not just alliance questions. Ive been playing since the NA PC release in October 2003, so while I am not the wikipedia and dont know everything, I have a few tricks up my sleeve by now. Also feel free to friendslist me in game if you wish. Just send a /tell along with it so I know youre from these boards so I accept it. ~_^

Nice to meet yall and looking forward to knowing you better!

Happy hunting!
~e

PS - Don't let my chattiness scare you... if I'm leading an event I tend to get really quiet because I have a hard time holding multiple conversations and making sure people all go safely in the proper direction. XD

[Pixistix]

w00t!

Y'all should see Eri in the promies. The girl is DRIVEN! One of my most memorable events was when we went to do Holla (I think), and our party wiped with the mob at just a hair of health, Eri re-raised and shot the sucker, finishing him off and winning the fight for us! It was awesome!

In general the Alliance event leaders try to bring that kind of intensity to all the fights we plan. We will get you what you need even if it means sacrificing a taru to improve drop rates!

And if you don't find that funny, you will cause I die a lot <(~.^)>b

[Inquisitor]

And if you don't find that funny, you will cause I die a lot <(~.^)>b

If your companions would just remember to chainspell-->escape...

[Pixistix]

That's only happened...

/em starts counting on her fingers, thumps down and takes off her shoes...

a couple times.

~.^

[Eriyalle]

I'm not so sure about the escape part of that Ari... the last time we were all in Ifrit's Cauldron farming damp hakutaku eyes (one of the banes of my existence), we had an elvaan die, a mithra die (me), a hume die... no drops... 3 hours... 4 deaths... no drops.... then BAM! Pixistix DIES! It was GLORIOUS! The dodomeki sang in praise and joy and dropped two damp hakutaku eyes in a row. And we got 2 more eyes within 45 minutes after her death.

Add in the 5 cauldron coffer keys and 4 queen bomb ash we got that night and it turned out to be the most successful cauldron farming I've ever led. All made possible by a Pixi. *wipes a tear*

I don't know about everybody else... but I'm beginning to believe in that sacrifice the taru schtuff. And at least if Con is around we can get the pretty girl a raise 3 along with a gold star.

~e

[Pixistix]

Good thing I HAVE to die tonight for the tractor party! We can't loose!

I'm sorry I got totally side tracked >.>.

I'll be posting some of our event info over here for your perusal. The big thing right now is for us to all mingle and play together and see if it's a fit .

[Eriyalle]

I completely agree. ^^ Party time! Complete with some mix-n-mingle and some scare goodness so people can see if we crack under pressure. Guess that sounds like Promyvions....

but don't let me pick for all of you. What would you like to do?

Oh also, for other events to which you are all invited you can click the link to my linkshells forums in my sig. If you can see the thread on the forums (if it doesn't have a V next to it on the calendar) you are welcome! Just please let us know if you're joining us so we don't forget you. I'd repost it all here... but for this week the list is pretty long and it's all up there. >.<

~e

[Pixistix]

HNMLS {No thanks.}

[Anubis]

I'm not so sure about the escape part of that Ari... the last time we were all in Ifrit's Cauldron farming damp hakutaku eyes (one of the banes of my existence), we had an elvaan die, a mithra die (me), a hume die... no drops... 3 hours... 4 deaths... no drops.... then BAM! Pixistix DIES! It was GLORIOUS! The dodomeki sang in praise and joy and dropped two damp hakutaku eyes in a row. And we got 2 more eyes within 45 minutes after her death.

Add in the 5 cauldron coffer keys and 4 queen bomb ash we got that night and it turned out to be the most successful cauldron farming I've ever led. All made possible by a Pixi. *wipes a tear*

I don't know about everybody else... but I'm beginning to believe in that sacrifice the taru schtuff. And at least if Con is around we can get the pretty girl a raise 3 along with a gold star.

~e

Oh so similar to gnomes in WoW. You can pretty much guarantee that if one dies or is brutally slaughtered in any way things will go right, because by allowing them to die you've done the game a favour. Maybe Taru's are an off branch of Warcraft gnomes. I might have to think about branching out the Confederacy....maybe they complete extinction of gnomes ISNT enough. The gods will only be satisfied when the purge has been extended to the Taru!

- Anny (Leader - Anti Gnome Confederacy - WoW EU)

[Pixistix]

/point!

Heightist!

[Inquisitor]

BD and I have been kicking around some BCNM's, there's the upcoming Garrison, soonish people will need Promies (BD is struggling with those atm).

We've no shortage of "need"

I am just keen on getting people together to have fun.