If Horizon Had A $1 Monthly Fee

Getting banned for criticizing staff is easier than getting banned for fish/farm botting om Horizon.

Even if you give feedback politely and try to discuss issues as adults, some of Horizon's staff can't handle that. I am all for supporting a private server with a 75 era experience, but Horizon is about as fun as diarrhea. It was a lot of advertising and hype, but Aerec, Kipling, and "GM Violet" are so condescending and petty in their treatment of players in the community. If a new server comes along with more professional staff members who don't try to sext and manipulate women then horizon's population will easily take a hit.

Yeah but it doesnt HAVE to be solo, I can and do do these thing with friends. It is always more fun when you can do it with someone because you get a bit of that low stacks "exp party" feel again just grabbing some pop items and doing and getting some more progress on a Empy. Even just doing Ambu can get that same vib, lots of "oh I cant buy any more hpb, anyone want to trade hpb for some hmp?"

Just seems like people narrowly view what they think the game must belike for everyone by they way they choose to experience it. Even for those who simply experience it through reading forum posts.

You can do old content with friends, but unless you also level sync to 75 (I am not sure if you can do that in those instanced zones though) wearing 75 gears, the experience is still different.

Doing Nyzul in 75 with a static was like climbing a mountain, you have no choice but try to overcome it. this feel doesn't exist in 2023 because the difficulty and progression difference, even with friends.

Technically you can also get 5 friends, each level a lv 75 character(or level sync if they work), collect lv 75 gears and experience the same difficulty. But I am not sure if the same feel can be replicated 100% this way if gear/exp is faster, and it feels like a lot more work for an experience that is offered on private servers anyways.


As someone who've experienced the tears and sweat and extreme frustration/happiness/sadness/satisfaction of collecting alexandrite for a mythic in 75 era/pre-entrance requirement nerf, I can tell you getting the same alexandrite from ambu in 2023 with friends isn't anywhere close to being the same, lol.

I think this is a tough thing to quantify. Some droprates have changed, some combat calculations have changed, playing '75 on retail' is not the same as playing 75 in 2008.

But, private servers have tons of unimplemented quests and content. Tons of battle mechanics are just plain wrong and will never be fixed. Droprates and resists aren't calculated correctly on many, and that's aside from the discrepencies in mob stats in their databases.

The biggest thing in favor of private servers here is that they have a functioning economy. Many things that should be rare and difficult to obtain in a 75 cap playthrough just can't be made rare on retail. You would need to start setting arbitrary rules on AH interactions, and at that point it just gets too complicated to keep up a playthrough.

People are arguing in favor of 75 based on some weird combination of how it actually was and how private servers are now, which further cements the idea that this is rooted in nostalgia. ToAU had the densest small group content, and most of it is still not implemented on LSB/ASB.. I don't think catseye is close either.

So I tried to buy an account for Horizon off of epicnpc and now I am IP blocked, and I think the person took the account back.

What do I do?

Re-evaluate your life, in general

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/54543/free-to-play-is-active/9/#3685061

Live footage of how Derlick Aerec-P copes when his population dips when free 2 play campaign hits retail

we should definitely keep tabs on the online numbers. surely that'll put to bed the age old argument of people only playing private servers because they are poor

Can someone explain the hate for Horizon? I’ve played retail on and off since a was smoll, I currently have 2 active subs. I tried out horizon this week, and it’s ultimately not something that I will probably stick with, but it’s been quite exciting to see such a vibrant community exploring areas of FFXI that are largely gone or redundant in retail. The one thing I’ll say is that it feels like it has retained the old sense of wonder and exploration. And the community is far more open to helping one another than what I typically see on Asura.

I see the two as completely different games but it is fun to see something akin to a museum of something we all loved at one stage of our lives or another. Admittedly in retrospect some of the original design decisions for ffxi were absurd and do not fit any form of modern lifestyle. But it still shines in other areas. And feels a little less disgruntled compared to the current sortie grind. I don’t know I don’t think the two need to be opposed it seems to me they can both exist on their own, without ruffling anyone’s feathers.

it's not professionally done and the changes made are not good.

Private servers are made so that the people who made the server can sell gil

It's hard to sum it up because it's not just one big obvious problem, it's a lot of small problems. HorizonXI has the right idea for a private server: no era of FFXI was ever perfect, so they aimed to go back to the beginning and fix the issues of each era left behind by the original dev team. But then they missed what those issues were.

For example, rather than fixing job balance by fleshing out each job's identity so they don't step on each other's toes, they've started balancing them each along a specific path of either tank, DPS, or healer. Thief is the best example. It's always been one of the most played job in every era of FFXI due to its solo ability, item farming, survivability, and other conveniences. In parties, it isn't just "another damage-dealer" because it has really satisfying spike damage, utility with its status bolts, and strong enmity manipulation with tools like Trick Attack and Collaborator. But the HXI team has tunnel-visioned into making that job a competitive damage-dealer, the likes of Samurai or Dark Knight. They've buffed dagger stats, considerably buffed dagger weapon skills, improved Thief's ability acquisition levels, improved its itemization, and even given it new job abilities. And even though it's by far the most popular job on the server, they're still buffing it.

Another thing they changed without good reason is the game's audio. This is something discussed in another thread. They overwrote a lot of existing zone and battle music with orchestral remixes that weren't designed as background music (especially since they don't loop), and they filled other zones with extremely inappropriate new songs that match neither their area nor the rest of the game.

They changed character models in an objectively worse way, and altered a lot of the game's visuals. Characters run around with new neon or pastel hair colours and bored expressions. Character representation in their (admittedly pretty excellent) launcher are their disembodied and lifeless heads.

Even just economic changes. Level Sync doesn't sync gear down, forcing players to hoard their gear, and driving up prices for new players. They made changes to item values and quest rewards and then didn't tell anyone what those were, so only people in the devs' inner circle knew about it and were able to abuse it. On Aerec's stream when the game first launched, I remember him lording over other players how he had 300,000 gil and gloated about how easy it was.

And that's another thing: the developers themselves - especially "Aerec-P" - have their heads in the clouds. They think they're hot gravy, even though the only things that function properly on their godforsaken server are things that they had nothing to do with. Yet everything they touch, from job balance to city balance to economic balance to other audio and visual changes, are all complete failures. The server is only up to Chains of Promathia so far, and the whole community is putting up with their garbage server for the promises they made a year ago. A lot of the FFXIAH community is already jaded from "Soon(TM)" from the original devs, so we can see right through their crappy façade.

That's why we don't like HorizonXI.

Yeah, I had interest in Horizon right when it launched. Nostalgia. I did like the whole, you get your national ring as a rank 1 to 2 reward.

But then it became apparent everything basic was going to be competed against, even regular monster spawns for leveling in starting areas. And then regular monster spawns in starting areas vs. people wanting to work on crafts.

Then I heard about the THF changes. They're not just trying to make it a competitive DD. They're making it the best option. Triple attack at level 30? Wasp Sting as strong as Tachi Enpi? Daggers with the damage of swords? What's next? Alter Shadowstitch to remove piercing resistance from piercing resistant mobs? Make all daggers deal hybrid slashing/piercing damage? Hell if I know, but that's very sketchy.

But I was determined to not worry about that. I never worried about the meta or the balance back when it was Samurai getting that treatment in original XI, so why should I care?

Well... They announced some race to 75, but that was undercut by, "Oh the devs of the server are participating/giving handouts/leg ups to their own parties."

The list goes on and on. But what really sealed its fate for me was the fact I couldn't play it with my brother if we're both logging in from the same house during the holidays. Gotta get some waiver to play fake XI on a fake server? No thanks.

There's also a head GM who has been corrupt across two servers now. Anytime you point out the favoritism towards her EGLS, she cries about how it hurts her mental health and spins it to make you the bad guy when she was actually the one who spread lies to turn people against you and your rival LS. There is a balance lead and married father who solicits women in the community for sexting. If you turn him down he will block you and advocate for your ban while lying about being in an open relationship. Or if you do sext him for a while but stop and then try to tell others about it, he will blow up your DMs and attempt to suicide bait you into keeping quiet. And then Aerec, the head dev, who spends his days putting players down for having differing viewpoints and will push for your ban if you ask why he enforced server rules differently for your linkshell than what was done for others.

please name this person, i'm ready for the first ffxi cancel

The head GM is Fae/Juul/GM Violet, who to my understanding got caught leaking patch notes to her friends recently, as well as showing GM tickets to her friends--something that also happened on eden. The balance lead is Kipling. The women who messaged me about him do not want their names shared out of fear of retaliation. One was already suicide baited by him after I went public on reddit.

LOL KIPLING I should’ve known lmaoooooo

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HY5mLHdSlHU

It's simple.

This is a forum dedicated to Retail-FFXI with fans who have been tirelessly working on their characters for the past 10 years.

Coming here to say FFXI-CLASSIC > Retail will obviously enrage them. It's like going to the WoW-Retail forum and telling them FFXIV > WoW; believe me, your post wouldn't last 10 minutes without people reporting it for trolling.

The ADMINS of this site should already make the rules clear—Is it allowed to post about private servers? Yes/No. All posts discussing private servers will end badly, especially since the FFXI dev team has already stated that the game will enter maintenance mode, and they will stop creating content when the PS2 development kits break. Sorry my bad.

In fact, one of the reasons Horizon was so successful last year was the tremendous disappointment Square Enix gave us at the 20th-anniversary event. People were devastated and furious with them.

youre posting in a section all about private servers so the answer to that seems pretty clear

It's not semantics. Large parts of those contents listed are outright broken, missing, or otherwise unplayable.

I don't care what you've been told. It's not the first time someone's been hyperbolic about the state of content scripting for these expansions.

I wasn't rude to you, so weird flex with the retort.

100% semantics since you're arguing a point that was never even made. I said they have those things, I never *** said they had them completely recreated and accurate. Those are your words not mine.

Another reason for the hate is their fanatics advertising it everywhere in a really annoying way. Thread about potentially coming back or trying FFXI for the first time? At least one person saying to join Horizon or if not then that person is going to make a huge mistake and is Yoshi P's ***-licker.

Somehow people playing on the other pirated servers act normally, wonder why only this one has cultists.

These two big threads are created by retail players who hate HorizonXI because it's a popular PS. I am sure some of us come to visit here only to see any news about retail.

To be honest, I haven't mentioned any of the threads from this subforum.

I think those players become so fanatical about Horizon because it might have been their first "fresh" start, but many of us in the last decade have experienced that moment four times.

Nasomi
Eden
Wings
Horizon, the most recent.

It's not the same playing FFXI-LV75 with 1000 people as playing it with 4000, but sadly, I say this with regret, Horizon made unforgivable mistakes intoxicated by success, and these failures were the fault of the entire staff, not just one person.

The first unforgivable mistake: "Messing with tanks and healers."

Guys... The most important thing is how quickly your users can form groups to experience the content.

Horizon only had one "viable" tank for months, PLD. It was a nightmare to create exp parties because they messed with NIN; this caused a shitstorm in their forums.

Messing with RDM. Even if it's a "minimal nerf."

Horizon should have offered PLD, RUN, NIN as 100% playable tanks from the start, and at the same time WHM, RDM, SCH to streamline group creation.

The second unforgivable mistake: not adding "DNC" to prevent people from playing solo like retail but brutally buffing BST, causing an even worse impact.

If they had added /DNC, people could kill EP/DC mobs while waiting for a party. Not even the best DNC in the world could compare to the exp that an average BST made per hour, to the point that players preferred playing "solo" instead of in a party and getting similar results.

The third unforgivable mistake is using their characters with the same name Staff/ingame with players.

Unfortunately, when you become a Dev and owner of your server, you must take extraordinary measures to avoid drama.

A) Do not use your "Staff/Dev" name in-game.

B) Never share on any stream what your main character's name is. Create new level 75 characters for your trailers, internal testing, etc.

C) If you're going to play raids, use a voice changer on Discord. You can do this in 5 minutes and never tell them, "I'm X-member of the staff."

D) When you play FFXI, during those hours, you cease to be a dev and become a regular player. No cheating with GIL, items, running faster, or using any other advantages. When you're on Discord, you're a "Dev," but when you're in FFXI, you're just another player without "superpowers."

If you messed up as a staff member, re-roll, change your name and race, but keep your level/items. Leave your LS, don't tell anyone, and raid anonymously. Make it a rule for everyone on the staff, including the owner.

Without any hate, I genuinely wish you the best start for ToAU. I'm not committed to Retail/Classic; I enjoy playing FFXIV, WoW retail, WoW classic, FFXI classic, and FFXI retail. I have no preferences.

I support this.

I had so many friends 'take a break' from retail following that failure of an anniversary event that I was eventually playing solo.

Logging in only to log off is the worst feeling in a mmorpg as a casual player.

This. Life can be so difficult when choosing between retail-FFXI and FFXIV. I've decided to choose FFXIV over FFXI. Now I am considered a "retired player" in HorizonXI.

I won't lie, I was telling my irl friends to try horizons.

Many of my friends refused to play FFXI for years due to the requirement to pay for the game. But were down to play FFXI due it being free.

Horizons was my first ever private server for FFXI that I played. So I suppose I am biased. I enjoyed playing on the game with friends whom I wouldn't have otherwise gotten to play retail.

I haven't played horizons since August-ish. Nor retail since Feb-ish.

Atm I only really play classic WoW.

Out of habit of playing FFXI retail for most of my late Highschool and Undergrad years, I check these forums every other day at work.