I've noticed something about Kupo d'Etat...

It seems like this is a message from Square-Enix to try out some things which might be considered "underappreciated" in the game to date:

-- The repeatable Key Quest is actually a HELM situation (Harvesting one item, Logging another, and Mining a third)...

-- A later quest involves Chocobo Digging...

-- The one after that involves the Sahagin Key Mini-Quest...

-- and a later one still seems to take some events from some of the live festivals...

I can see the method to their madness (at least a bit), but, still, they have major work to do...

1/46...

Well, finally done with it, and that one's not repeatable. Thank God.

92 mobs total for three drops.

(Of course, I hear one on the wiki say he was 1/147 on just the Yags.)

Now, on the other hand, let's give some credit where due...

The Union System.

I actually _like it_ -- even though my lots suck.

Here it is in a nutshell... When you tag up for Campaign, you can then make an additional call to the C.A. to have him or her put you into one of five Unions.

If you get approximately, by my read, about 400-500 or more XP, you can lot for various "spoils" -- mostly crafting items, but there is the occasional single Dynamis currency (and I have gotten one already!), as well as the occasional medicine.

I actually do like this. I think it's a solid way to get people into the fight.

There is one problem though: They really need to address what, essentially, are null fights -- offensive fights against no opponents, with the Fortification nerf making it worthless to hang around.

(Worse, about the ones where the Beastmen flee and the fight continues as a Fortification-fest...)

You'd think they'd have learned this by the last mini-expansion debacle...

Nope. In fact, this one is worse.

I have literally had to quit Moogle Kupo d'Etat for the time being.

Why? Because the fucktards at Square-Enix did it again!!

First mission: Another farming quest. This time in the attached dungeon areas to the starter areas -- minimum second-tier beastmen.

Orcs went fine. 1/7.

The Quadav drop was ridiculous. ONE FOR THIRTY-NINE.

And, as a direct result of the over an hour it took me to dick around to get the Quadav drop, I can't do the Yagudo one in Giddeus, for every open area of the goddamned zone that is relevant has SIX people standing in it to wait for the few Yagudo which drop every five minutes.

You've made it WORSE!!!

And this is only three hours in. What's going to happen as Japanese and Euro players get in on this???

Screw this. I'm off to Campaign and the Union System -- and second-tier meriting my Dragoon.

So, as I download the update, some thoughts...

I think we are about one more update from officially abandoning the promise of new avatars. It had been discussed for the last two, but is still not in this one.

Union System starts with the new update -- looking forward to it, but:

1) No more de-tag/re-tag until we get the hang of it, since de-tag/re-tag resets your "contribution" to the effort for the Union System.

2) Gonna have to remember to get Reraise at all times, because I fully suspect the idiots are going to leave us dead so as to have fewer people to lot against once the Union lots begin. Be careful for the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Wow. Finished downloading it in about 25 minutes. May have some more to do once the game comes up in another hour, but...

Two more things, both charity-related:

The Speed Gamers are almost already at their $20K goal, about $1800 short, and they haven't even started FFVII yet.

And congratulations to my roommate and a literal cast of thousands on Second Life: $263,000 (and that's real money, not SL currency -- it's actually the amount of SL currency converted to real money, which is legal in cases like this) raised through on Relay for (Second) Life for the American Cancer Society.

Weekly update before the update...

Well, next Monday is the update, so I had planned to take it kinda easy this week and not do too much other than tele-whoring and the like. First task to tele-whore: About 550K or so for Gobbiebag X and the Grand Greedalox. (75K toward that...)

Then I notice that, with Dynamis and other things we did this week, my bank reserve has slipped about 25% over the course of the last three weeks or so (new gear, not farming but levelling WHM and now PLD) instead...). So, started farming in the Promies again. My bank loves me again. :)

Sunday: Dynamis-Jeuno. Win. Did a bit more attacking the statues than normal, since we were low on BLMs. Then, after that, Kiana took a few of us to Beadeaux (Shadowrealm), where we tried a couple NMs, but were far too low-man to take them on.

Wednesday: Dynamis-Windurst with the sub leader. Basically went in to farm, and didn't do too badly at that. Ate an Astral Flow in each run, though. (Eek.)

Then, something interesting this week: Kwazie from my Dynamis shell decides to recruit for Nyzul Isle!! So I did my first four Nyzul Isle runs -- got the first six floors saved.

You get the wrong draw on that, and it's a BITCH!!

WHM 38, RDM 64, PLD 29 (would like to do 30, but my roomie has a triple-shot of projects tonight (and the rest of the cancer fundraiser I mention in the next blog post below).

And then on Monday?? Campaign Union, new Ranks, Meriting 2nd-tier Dragoon stuff with Campaign, and Kupo d'Etat...

Two very important things for you all to do this weekend...

1) If you are on Second Life at all, my roommate and literally hundreds of other people are doing the Online Relay for Life event, raising funds (actually, the completion of a long campaign of fund-raising) for the American Cancer Society.

It starts at 10 AM today (Saturday, 7/18/09) and goes for 24 hours.

Cancer doesn't just kill the people who get the disease. Cancer kills the spirits of those around them too. It's one of the reasons that, when people get the opportunity to work on raising funds to beat cancer, you see a lot of wonderful efforts being made. (Which see the recent ESPN Radio "V Foundation" auction for the Jimmy V Foundation (1-800-4-JIMMYV) and the "Extra Life" initiative, which a second one will be done this October.)

2) I know this has been mentioned several previous times on the TTTO, but I'm following the efforts of The Speed Gamers (thespeedgamers.com) in their efforts to raise $20,000 for Autism Care and Treatment. They completed Final Fantasy I in about 8 hours or so, and are now in the 13th hour of a week-long marathon of speed runs for the Final Fantasy series.

Check out both of these online charity gaming events. Please.