Ever since I’ve started working again, I’ve had (gasp!) less time for FFXI. I’ve fallen into routine, where Mondays and Thursdays I’m doing Limbus, Mondays and Fridays I’m doing Assault. Tuesdays I play Magic, so that only leaves Wednesday during the week, which I’ve been usually spending fishing for moat carp. I tried doing the bulk of my other stuff on the weekends, but it’s hard — there’s so many more people on then, because they’re all in my situation. Leveling PLD has been very hit or miss on the weekends, I can sit for hours waiting for an invite, or sometimes I get one before I even put my invite flag up. And I’m done leveling it for a while, got to 70 and have to take a break, because of the part that’s getting me depressed:
I currently have 98,000 gil. Later this evening, after Limbus, I will have 48,000 gil, which means I won’t have enough for the next Limbus unless I make gil somehow. As people in linkshell chat may know, I’ve often complained that I can’t ever find something to do to make gil. I’m not lying. I can’t find it. I’ve tried crafting, but I chose cooking (mistake). I’ve tried fishing, but I’m at the point where I can’t easily skill further without a Lu Shang’s fishing rod (hence the moat carp). I’ve tried camping NMs, but I rarely get the claim, and it’s not worth the stress to stare at empty space for two hours then blink and see the NM with a purple name, claimed by the guy who just got there five minutes ago. I’ve thought about gardening, but I’m just not on regularly enough. I’ve tried farming everything from silk thread to buffalo hides, and I get horrible drops. Last night I tried killing buffalo, and I was there for two hours… after what it cost to pay for the outpost warp to get out to Ule(tab) Range, what I ended up getting barely made me break even. Breaking even in two hours of work when I only have three or four the entire evening? WOW, SIGN ME UP.
Way in the past, I used to get gil from selling crystals I got when leveling on my mule, as well as all of the random crap I’d get. Because of the way the economy has been changing recently (deflation and more high-level players) and the monsters that people have been meriting on, Wind and Dark crystals aren’t worth it anymore. Fire crystals aren’t worth much, either. Pretty much the only crystals left that are worth anything are Light, and it’s nigh-impossible to farm those. Also, because of the deflation, selling anything is tough, because the price keeps going down, and I keep getting undercut.
Based on my forays into all of these, I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never make the amount of gil I’d need by myself (at least until I get fishing moving again). I’d need the help of others, which is hard to coordinate with the small amount of time I’m online each night.
Not so far in the past, I was in an HNMLS, and by participating in its activities, I would get a constant stream of gil that was usually enough to pay for the things I needed. Now, with a job, I’m not sure I’d have the time for an HNMLS, not that any seem to want me.
Not too long ago, I became one of the Black Mages who would do KS30 mercenary runs for the linkshell, where we would take a percentage of the high-value items that dropped, with most of the proceeds going to the orb supplier. While this was very infrequent and not so good as a reliable source of income (it was very spurty, sometimes we’d only get one money item in 20 runs), it was still something. Since one of the four of us recently quit, the other three of us haven’t gotten around to either choosing a new fourth (although I think they had someone in mind) or just actually getting around to doing the dang thing.
Technically, I was in an agreement with two other people that we’d keep doing BS40 runs until we each got a peacock charm. We got one early on, but then we kept trying and trying and trying for the other two, but we haven’t done it yet. I haven’t given up hope, though. The problem is actually getting all three of us to choose a time and get our level 40 gear and go do it. (That and one of us ran out of beastmen’s seals… it wasn’t me…)
I’ve basically come to the conclusion that I have to start selling my Ancient Beastcoins in bazaar. On paper, it seems like a good idea, each run costs 50,000 gil to enter, and coins seem to be in people’s bazaars for around 70,000. Since we get anywhere from 3-5 coins each on a typical run, I’d still be getting ahead. The problem is that I hate relying on bazaars for profit, as some times I’ll just end up sitting there for days without anyone buying anything.
Now I understand why people buy gil. I’d never do that, of course.
I also understand how people can become disallusioned with the game and leave. We’ve had a recent trend of drama in the linkshell (though it’s more inter-linkshell, not intra-linkshell), that doesn’t make me happy.
Is there an easily searchable market or auction or something? I made a good amount of money in eve simply by putting out high ball buy orders and low ball sell orders.
Sadly (or not so sadly, depending on how you look at it), arbitrage is hard to do in FFXI. When you go to the auction house, you can see how many of each item are listed, and the history of sales, but you don’t know what the minimum bid is for each of the listed items. It’s sometimes possible to do it over time, or between the auction houses (although most people just use the central one), it’s hard because you only can list seven things at a time and, in most cases, arbitrage is looked down upon.
I’ve been away from the comp for a few days. I have no new advice, but wanted to congratulate you on knowing the word arbitrage. If I had known that you knew, my previous comment would have been much more concise.
hah, i know that feeling. I’ve got the same dilemma in wow currently, and everything i try to get money is putting me deeper in the hole. What’s always worked for me in the past is finding something crazy that people think you can’t do, and do it anyway. Otherwise, do things people don’t want to do, and charge for it. Though I can’t think of anything in ffxi that you can do in that way, except maybe charging people for your help with their level cap quests or something. Then again, nevermind. I never even had money for my spells when i played. lol.
another idea: merit a few hours, grab a bunch of friends, and go do the ISP3000 puk bc.
keep one blm or brd specializing in taking care of the summoned puks (getting rid of them via blizzaga 1 or keeping them asleep via horde lullaby) , and the bc ends in 5 minutes or less.
on top of it, not much other than food needed when ppl get the hang of things.
come to think, my life savings is down to about 300K now as well… i should start thinking of getting gil myself. >.>
As I currently have about 28,000 IS, this might be an option. Most of the items in the ISNM fights have dropped in price (*shakes a fist at buying a Weskit a few months before the expansion came out*) so I don’t know how worth it it is.
Alternatively, I could just turn my IS into gold coins and sell those on the AH…
Stop being a loot whore.
Stop being an asshole.
http://ffxiah.com/browse.php?sid=5&cid=1 Just look for stuff.
http://ffxiah.com/item.php?id=2187&sid=5 = 40k
http://ffxiah.com/item.php?id=2185&sid=5 = 7k
1 Gold piece = 10 Silver pieces
http://ffxiah.com/item.php?id=13689&sid=5&stack=0 =10k
http://ffxiah.com/item.php?id=4132&sid=5&stack=0 = 2k
1 Tank = 20 Potions
Well, potions are not the way to go – they are stupid cheap, now that they spill from Assaults like water, and using 1 tank to grind through 20 potions on the AH would take forever.
Here are the methods I have used in the past (note that with the economy the way it is, these are always flutuating in success, and lately they have been falling):
-Crafting: I started goldsmithing for no good reason, and would not recommend that anyone get into it. However, I have done a few other crafts for sub-craft purposes, and many of them are much more forgiving cost-wise:
*Clothcraft: All of the cost is in the beginning, from saruta cotton and wool. Later, skilling on fletchings is not profitable, but is probably the cheapest skill you can buy. Eventually, you can make velvet cloth, hiraishin, or shinobi-tabi for profit.
*Alchemy: Also cheap, as many early crafts are water+herbs from a regional vendor. In the 30s, you get to make oils and powders, which were very profitable for me (though I was at this level on the ToaU launch, when sneak items were in very high demand). you could stick with sneak items for profit, or end up doing bullets in the 50s, which is where I am now.
*Leatherworking: My leatherworking is at 2, which is the cap for making Sheep Leather. I only made it because you could move more sheepskins per AH slot that way.
General crafting notes: Camping the guild salesrooms will save you lots, but limit the amount you can craft on any one day. I almost exclusivley leveled by making materials into other materials, and usually only ones tha sold well, thereby reducing my overall cost for skillup.
-Farming: Silk stacks still go for 20k each. The best places I have found for farming silk are the far North areas of East Sarutabaruta and the far West areas of West Sarutabaruta and the ‘crawler room’ of the Maze of Shakrami. As I turn silk into velvet, I’ll buy your stacks for 20k each, no AH involved.
-Strange Apparatuses: You need to spend a lot to make a lot – see my wiki page about my strange app runs for more data. However, adaman nuggets and cermet stacks often spike up high enough to make this very profitable, albeit random. I vendor off the rune weapons (non-blade) to minimize inventory clutter, as they are all a loss.
In general, I can’t seem to make more than 20k per AH slot by crafting, barring market flux. But, the AH requires less maintenance than gardening, and is far more reliable than camping anything.
Incdentally, I’m more than happy to join in any BCNM runs for cash if I can be helpful. The same goes for ISNMs or assaults (many assault items sell very well).
Edit: just checked ffxiAH, and cermet and adaman nuggets are in the toilet right now. scratch Strange apparatuses from the profitable list for the time being.