Random Question Thread (FFXI Related)

its been nearly two years since it was released. you'd know if it was unsafe to use by now, c'mon.

How would we know? Does SE publish reports of the reasons people got banned? Using Thorny's question: do you have evidence-based data showing that packetflow is safe to use, or are you just guessing based on rumors?

Plenty of people have been banned in the last 2 years, do you know how many of them were/weren't using packetflow? Even if you did, how would you possibly hazard a guess as to why SE decided to ban them? Generally speaking, people using packetflow are also going to be using 100 other tools.

Fact of the matter is there's no way to know which programs are "safe to use" and which aren't "safe to use". We can, however, tell objectively how easy it would be to detect and enforce use of different programs and packetflow is, by the admission of the person who published it, exceptionally easy to detect even by addon standards.

You can do with that information whatever you want, but I think it's unrealistic to say that it's "safe" or doesn't pose a risk to your account just because people have been using it and they haven't been banned (yet). People also use bots, tako, and cureplease every day and don't get banned, until they do.

Lot of people putting words in my mouth that I didn't say. I asked if he had any evidence that it actually made things worse, because I've been using it since I wrote it with no consequences. To be clear, it was Byrth's idea, but the majority of the code came from atom0s and the remainder from me. It wasn't really his project.

It is certainly theoretically possible that if the server's CPU is overloaded it could be a detriment. I just have never experienced that personally.

It is also possible that someone is making assumptions based on something rather difficult to measure, because no 2 runs will ever be fully alike in terms of server load on Asura/Bahamut, there will always be other groups impacting server performance.

But, again, I was asking if he had empirical evidence or just assumptions. His explanation doesn't tie with my own experience, and I have done empirical measurements(but again, that's on a smaller server and no 2 instances are alike).

As far as safety, it is exceptionally easy for a server developer to detect and verify. That does not necessarily mean it's dangerous or easy to detect in practical terms. If the developers are unaware, or uninterested in it.. it's very likely that the average GM is totally incapable of detecting it even given the information that it was used. So, it's detectable on a different level from many of the other tools people have grown comfortable with. Make of that what you will, I am not claiming it's perfectly safe either.

there's no publicly available proof for or against, that's the point. just like windower itself, there is a risk but most assume SE chooses not to act. I imagine this is the same thing and cautioning people is fine, but we don't need to go beyond that. would be interested to know the install base from the Windower and Ashita people if that information exists, though.

Back to the subject, why is ***still terrifyingly laggy (or feel it) when you are on healer but not DD or support even with packetflow?

I'd say it's both the Delay between spells is higher than JA/WS and curing has higher stakes.

If your WS takes 1 second to go off instead of .25 seconds, who cares? There's also no casting bar for WS and JA, and if you don't see the results of your WS it doesn't really matter. If you can't tell whether or not your spell went off, or if it got resisted, it affects your gameplay decisions. There's much more precise timing involved in being a mage than there is in being a DD.

Yes. It's perfectly possible. We won our Kalunga like that. Again we just used automaton to tank adds all the time and it was the easiest v25 by far.

If you multi box and use gearswap x6 in laggy areas, turn it off and see the difference. Also use static display in misc.

It's the most common strategy for Arebati, in fact. The PLD just has to be careful not to pull hate on the main NM because it'll reset their hate on the adds and then things go sideways real fast. So RUN needs to go hard on hate, and PLD needs to take 'er a bit easy.

I'm not sure I'd want to do it on Xevioso though, we found WHM's Baraera + BRD's Wind Carol 2 combined to negate wind damage fairly often and it was a huge boon. Plus sometimes that Zombie sticks and you need a WHM to get it off.

Also if your strat doesn't have a RDM you lose Dia which is pretty big, but I think RDM is a great inclusion for Xevioso (instead of DNC which is the other common choice) so that wouldn't be a big concern there.

I don't think RDM is normally used in Kalunga though, so you'd be losing Dia on that one as well as a few other things like the DDs taking more damage/ailments from AOE due to lack of Barfira and might find yourself missing the subtle blow from Auspice. The trade-off though is less concern from the adds so I can see the appeal especially if you have trouble finding a really skilled WHM.

How is 6 boxing with “gearswap in laggy areas” any different from oneboxing with 5 others all using gearswap?

When you're 6boxing, you can instantly turn it off on all characters and see how much responsivity improves. In a party, not so much.

I have a 2nd FFXI up but not doing anything (standing in town) if doing Sortie/Odyssey on WHM. I use gs but not obscenely like some people swapping 12 pieces on every pre/mid/end cast.

How likely is it that it is related to the way peoples luas are written?

I'm not super familiar with the Lua interpreter or really much about Lua at all, but I see a lot of luas that seem to be executing a bunch of conditionals and checks in pre/midcast especially that are unnecessary.

For instance, if you identify that you are curing, then there's no need to check for black magic or enfeeble sets later in your midcast once you load your cute sets. If there are 15 conditionals in a midcast set and you are executing each one every time even though it's not necessary, what impact would that have on lag and responsiveness? Seems like I see this a lot in luas people have written and I'm not sure what the performance impact would be or if it would noticeably contribute to lag.

I interpreted the statement as “your performance will go up if you dont gearswap” instead of you can control the variable of all 6 gearswaps being shut down.

What party setups are being used for Peach Power?

PLD (minimal buffs) Zone hate like Ambu, I just pop Sentinel as soon as we zone in and they always run to me when spawned.
GEO
COR (Leaden Spam)
COR (Leaden Spam)
RDM/BLM (Stymie Sleepga)
Anything that can help heal if PLD gets charmed

Strat is Sleep them and Leaden them down fast.

Pretty unlikely, it's due to the server not sending data in the first place. From my understanding, gearswap queues equips and only sends one equip per slot per packet, so the most suboptimal setup still isn't spamming extra packets past 2x 16-slot swaps. If that's incorrect, then it's more likely.

But, my impression is that it's more of people using things like react and excessive swaps and constantly blinking results in excess traffic/burden. There's really very little reason to use react(aside from it being next to cheating) when you have access to such strong hybrid sets and latency won't allow it to go off in time, but I'm betting a considerable amount of people still have it up.

Further, gearswap sends an action packet out directly when you use a command, so any mashing of macros will result in multiple distinct copies of the same action (and the server needs to process and respond to each, as well as the swaps for each). Macro mashing is a definite way to reduce performance. Without gearswap, the client automatically throttles actions to once per second so you can mash all you want and it's not going to double up.

Individual non-iterative checks like this cost next to nothing. Lua's table lookups are optimized to be pretty close to O(1). I would not expect any kind of performance problems unless you have multiple levels of bulky iteration involved. The instance issues the way I view them are not framerate issues. But, a framerate issue could be caused by a particularly poorly written lua.

(edited a few times to add detail)

Irrelevant because it is so easy but I think Sleepga is unnecessary, usually use RUN tank, and SCH helix does 15k on a MB which keeps ticking when charmed, etc. I think 2 SCH making sure to sc+Helix2 MB each is probably the fastest. TH may or may not increase drops too so THF is often taken.

All this, plus GS users are much more likely to be swapping gear more often. Disengaged? Automatic gear swap. Start moving? Gear swap. Stop moving? Gear swap. Got stunned? Gear swap. Being cured? Gear swap. If you're spamming a button not only is it sending more commands to the server, but it's also sending more gear swaps. If you don't have GS, you'll be sending 1 gear swap at most per second.

Add on to that react telling your character to move, GS attempting to spam Holy Water, using double-up 4 times in a row, etc. and the pace of packets is not even remotely close, from my observations. People who've been using heavily modded FFXI for a long time really underestimate how different it is.

Could you potentially do janky setups for it and eke out a win just fine? I started shouting for it, and got a yell response or two and some hoity toity tells saying it was useless for me to shout for it on Warrior and such.

Like I get they're flans so magic damage is the way to go. I'd figure Lightning and Light or anything you could juice high enough.

Any ideas on theoretical setups?

Irrelevant?

I've done the fight multiple ways and Sleep does make it faster. The can't charm while sleeping and 2 CORs slamming them with leaden kills them 90% of the time before the awake one can charm.

SCHx2 is fast but avoiding charm is faster and CORs wreck the fight.

100% you can, it just gets annoying with all the charm. Pretty much any set up with magic damage can win, try to kill the first couple fast if you can since more awake flans = more charm.

I mean it is irrelevant what I am saying, that sleepga isn't needed because it is so easy, but sleepga isn't needed and most never did it until recently.

You can absolutely use janky setups for Peach Power. I've even done one without sleeps OR a tank OR Embrava although I wouldn't recommend it. I think it was something like BLM SCH COR GEO SMN SMN. We didn't realize we lacked a tank until we got inside and it was total chaos. BLM mana wall tanked for a bit, we eventually wiped after killing a couple, got up, recovered, and still won. (They won't aggro from the bottom of the stairs but you have to be on the bottom few steps.)

If going for the sleep method and the RDM isn't ML35+ then RDM/SCH is better for Manifestation Sleep2. In fact if you don't have a SMN then it might be better either way since it lets you Accession Enfire as well. Although if you got a bunch of CORs and RNGs it'll die so fast enspell doesn't matter much. Just depends how optimal your setup is, but enspells can do a fair bit especially if everyone is just animated the whole time.

In regards to WAR, your skillchains from physical weaponskills will be doodoo, you need actual elemental damage. I don't know much about WAR, but something like Sanguine or Aeolian might be decent.

Honestly as WAR you'll probably end up carried by the rest of the group mostly, but if you're organizing the group and bringing the Impish Box then I feel like that's within your rights! Let them do the work, you've already done the hard part before they showed up.

This is primarily a exemplar point source, the armor is just a cherry on top.
Elemental WS, nukes and MBs, regen, AoE dispel, burn, -mdef debuffs, TP denial and reduction, +defense buffs, -attack debuffs all add to make the fight safer or faster.

Most jobs can bring at least some of the above to the table. Crowd control like sleep (or break if it lands) can help but it's not necessary.

WAR has access to decent elemental WS on axe or maybe they can aid making the fight safer with the att down from weapon break or full break.

Anyone who tries to apply minmax mentality to this battlefield didn't understand it's purpose.


Although I'm kind of surprised no one has attempted to sell party spots yet considering how much of a pain farming the entry KI can be, especially solo. Another present for the multiboxers.

As far as I know WAR's only drawback is lack of MAB and magic damage gear outside of Nyame, I think?

It has access to some fairly potent elemental WSes. Cloudsplitter, Flash Nova, Cataclysm etc.

I'm not 100% on how to drive Cloudsplitter damage up the best way, nor if it can get up to Leaden numbers, but it's got like 8,75 fTP at 3000. 40%STR/MND, no dINT type stat on it at all. So I assume it's just pump Mods, MAB, Macc, and WSD?

Does anyone know if the Princess Flans have different elemental resistance than regular flans or custards?

Can PUP tank Marmorkrebs V25 if using COR+RNG sc to kill it? Other jobs are the usual RDM GEO SCH(this could be BRD?)

I suspect they're very similar, though I can't say I've quantified them. Dark/Ice seem to be reduced (though Leaden is still strong enough to be worth using). I've gotten perfectly acceptable numbers just using Raiden Thrust (which is not a particularly good elemental WS lol), so Cloudsplitter should be more than fine.

Was there like a bot banwave recently or have they all just moved on from ffxi finally? Seems like all the htmb currency farming bots are gone among others.

Just curious.

(all) of the bst 6box bots that flood the market haven't been on all week

Never seem to be bans, as soon as someone mentions they're gone/market dries up, they come back.

Definitely bots disappearing (now) quit or banned we'll never know. If there's ever less than 10 sams in ranps, then you can panic.