Screenshots – Aleczan's New Diary (FFXIV: ARR)

Lord Hubby – Lavender Beds

Went out to the Lavender Beds with Raykit’s Lord Haurchefant for a session of photo shoot.

Yesterday, late night, Raykit told me she was going to play FE (something like that) and thus she would log into her Lord Haurchefant alt to let me take screenshots while she’s half AFK. So, here goes my spam. XD

Lavender Beds has some wonderful spot for photo shooting.

Even at night, with proper lighting from grouppose control, we can still take pictures with good exposure and colours. The photos below, however, were mostly adjusted outside of the game using PC program called PhotoScape and one of its presets of Film Effect.

Night turned into morning, and I was still there spamming my screenshot button gleefully, LOL.

I took about 200 screenshots in this session, and I’m posting 42 of them. Most of the pics were repeated shots of same thing, trying to achieve best lighting/position/direction/details.

What’s a bummer was that while I was adjusting the camera angle and distance of the pic below, it became 8 o’clock and the weather changed, giving us Fog.

//screams with frustration!

At least the fog wasn’t too ugly and did not obstruct the photo that much (like, for example, Dust Storm is a hair-pulling kind of weather for any screenshot freak.)

The new /gpose features are really, really great. SE did a wonderful job.

The tree in the mist does look pretty, after all.

Another extreme adjustment from Film Effect.

The one below was natural lighting from in-game.

Nice pose, nice angle, but that Botanist NPC…..

I could even tilt the camera 90° and take portrait pics.

Love it! Great job, SE.

Teeheehee!

Happy time.

Then, we moved to other part of the Lavender Beds.

This lotus pond is nice.

Background…. foggy green sky. Cry.

I adjusted color temperature in PhotoScape and turned it more blue.

Self note: I have to go back there again and take this pic with bright blue sky.

It will be a nice wallpaper for my phone. XD

After that, we moved to Dappled Stalls. It’s a nice small field of flowers, with chocobos in the background LOL!

Sunset…

And then night time came. I had to rely heavily on gpose lighting, otherwise the characters look too dark.

The 2 pics below took 24 attempts, as it cannot be done smoothly in gpose. The hand position was achieved by having Lord-sama stand in a specific pose where he kind of runs his hand through front hair, or smooths it back, and I entered /gpose and quickly capture the photo in 1 second. Cannot adjust camera angle or lighting before taking pic, and if the timing failed, I had to exit /gpose and re-enter again. XD

What a fuss! But it’s totally worth it.

Night sky.

Embrace and salute.

Really gotta love the stop/pause function in /gpose.

Can pick the best frame of the emote to create desires positioning.

:3 Same pause, different angle.

Many different angles, actually.

Cannot achieve this without stop/pause function. Bravo SE!

Could even take a vertical pic.

Huggle!

Our old trick, using /bow to make Lord-sama lean closer into the hug.

Last pic, it’s purely in-game lighting, without additional lighting from /gpose. Day time in the game really gives nice and vibrant colours. Really love it.

Mastering the Land

By Aleczan Knighthill | October 24, 2013 - 3:08 pm |October 24, 2013 Cutscene Screenshots, Disciples of the Land, Quests, Screenshots

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*Possibly spoilers* I tried to make this entry spoiler-free, but the screenshots and some short quotes might give away some clues of the quest’s story.

Summing up my activities in the past recent days again, but this time I’ll be less lazy and write more, instead of dumping a set of screenshots.

Apart from getting the Halloween Costumes for Thanatos (on Masamune) and taking screenshots with Inari and some others, I have also been trying to catch up on main scenario quests, because I’ve been lazy and cannot join linkshell friends in many of the dungeon/boss runs that requires story progress.

After walking a hundred thousand malms on various errands for Buscarron while investigating the disappearance of the elder Sylph and then beating Toto-rak, I managed to plow through Fallgourd part of the story, where Noraxia advised for me to check for the suspicious masked person. Then, with immense help from 2 friends and a stranger from random Duty Finder, I passed the Haukker Manor.

The investigation got more complicated and after reporting to Minfilia and the Scions, I was sent out for more information regarding beastmen and Primals. Remembering what Zanel said about NPCs in the headquarter changing their spot and pose after each quest, I always check out the big room in the Waking Sands whenever I come here to talk to Minfilia.

What I found this time…. Biggs and Wegde are probably imitating General Raubahn and the Sultana, LOL.

But this!!!!! Noraxia…is…unbearable! The other 2 unnamed NPCs stared at me as if to ask “Are you a friend of this person?” NO!!! I have no association with this weirdo!!! By the way, some of you might recognize the red underwear. It is the red swimsuit from an event 2 years ago, I believe. This year you could also buy them from the Cascadier NPC during the Bombard event last month.

Then, as I was stuck in the main scenario quest due to level restriction, I went on my Arcanist to get some EXP as well as to do the class quest. I could actually change to other level 50 class to blow through the story, but I wanted to reap the extra EXP from main story quests reward, so I tried to stick to using ACN for the main quests.

Before getting distracted by other activities, I only managed to get to the Forgotten Springs, though. Now I have a bunch of errands from the Nunh and other Miqo’te guys to finish before they let me get the ingredients to deliver to Costa Del Sol.

I then changed to Disciples of the Land class and grinded my Miner level until 50. I finished my Botanist earlier, and did the guild tests all the way to 50 as well. I also picked up in my Fisher’s guild test from where I left off (I got to level 50 long ago but was lazy in questing when it tried to send me to Coerthas for some flying fish, bad me!)

“These trees will save lives.”

“The Mazlaya Marlin was a monster.”

“Accept that you were beaten.”

So I have now finished leveling up all 3 Disciples of the Land, and completed the guild test quests for all of them.

I must say SE is brilliant in writing some of the quests’ stories. They are, most of the time, entertaining and interesting. Some quests were also addictive and made me really want to find out more! I now have to finish Alchemist and Weaver quests, just for the sake of satisfaction of knowing what happens next.

However, despite all of the exciting things I’ve achieved, like getting to level 50 on Botanist and Miner (earning me the achievement “Mastering the Land“) and getting fully geared with level 50 HQ equipment on Fisher and Botanist (courtesy of Corn as the weaver and leatherworker), the most exciting thing I did was to go to The Wanderer’s Palace as a Monk!!! It is not that special, but for me it is very special. I usually go as White Mage even though my heart lies in the art of fists. So, to be able to join an end game activity as Monk is a big deal for me, and it felt totally satisfying.

I hope to go to WP on Monk more in the future. But I have to gear myself up first. We were quite slow in killing the mobs in there so I will have to improve my damage output in order to kill faster.

Fishing and Fishing

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 27, 2013 - 2:49 pm |November 6, 2013 Disciples of the Land, Screenshots, Self Screenshots

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Days went by so quickly! I didn’t intend to neglect my weblog this long, but it’s been a tough week for me. Real life stuff got so busy and I hardly had enough time to rest a spell. As my real life duty was exhausting and deprived me of my sleep, when I had spare time to get on the game, I wanted to be as lazy as possible LOL. Plus, my brain had quite slow reaction due to lack of sleep, so I didn’t want to do any brain-straining activity.

So what had I been doing? Gathering, of course. Mostly fishing, specifically. I went around fishing in new locations, getting new fish, trying new baits, and stuff. So this week I finally got my Fisher to level 50.

Bronze Lake has nice nighttime sky. I love the stars in FFXIV so much.

Moondrop

Giga-fishing, oops, I mean cave-fishing. It’s quite annoying at Moondrop, because people always come here to kill the gigas for quest or maybe hunting log. Someone got me in the crossfire and then proceeded to die because s/he ran around while fighting a giga and ended up aggroing 3 more. That was dumb LOL.

Raincatcher Gully

Rain Catcher Gully Docks. The spot is called Agelyss River, though. I guess it was East Agelyss River, can’t really remember.

Zahar'ak

Trying to finish the fishing map in Southern Thanalan, I had to go fish in the beastman’s stronghold, Zahar’ak. LOL. Gotta love the Stealth ability.

Dune Fishing

Dune fishing. Fishing without water! It bugs me, though, that when I land a fish, there is water splash sound effect. There is no water!!! Make Sand Splash sound please, SE! Damn you!

DUne Manta

By the way, there are 2 locations for Dune Fishing in Southern Thanalan. One is called Sagolii Dunes, at around X:25 Y:36, in the gorge (cliff) on the east end of the desert, the other is Sagolii Desert, on the west end at around X:12 Y:36. Here’s a quick screenshot of the actual map next to the fishing log map.

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Fishing Forgotten Springs 2

Me looking serious while fishing at Forgotten Springs.

Fishing Forgotten Springs 1 Forgotten Springs Foggy

Foggy weather. And then I took a rather derpy-looking screenshot of my character LOL. Gotta hate when you take pics and they blink or half blink! Looks like a kitty on crack, don’t I? XD

Forgotten Spring Fishing

I also went stealth-fishing at Sapsa and Reaver Hide, in Sahagin’s stronghold. Here, too, my peace was often disturbed by other adventurers. Hate when battle noises are so loud I couldn’t hear my fishing rod when it creaks, as I usually fish by ears.

By the way, here are short clips of “The fish gets away” messages that I got at Sapsa Spawning Grounds. Guess I didn’t have enough Gathering for the fish. Still can’t guess what fish it was, though. My fishing log at Sapsa was completed and none of the fish I got had reacted that way!

Fish Gets Away (Sapsa) #1

Fish Gets Away (Sapsa) #2

My new Lalafell

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 12, 2013 - 2:09 pm |September 12, 2013 FFXIV Festivals, Screenshots

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Ah….ahem, I have noticed that there is an influx of visitors to my blog recently due to the information regarding Pigments and Dyes. Friendly warning, though, my blog is usually full of silly screenshots or random scenery screenshots from the game, and sometimes my rants about things or people. Ah, and most importantly, although I try to keep my blog Safe For Work, sometimes it might contain y-a-o-i-(ish) stuff such as screenshots of Ina and Tos. I’ll try to remember to put a warning at the beginning of the entry so people can avoid seeing what hurts their eyes. LOL.

All in all, it was just because I was crazy about the dyes that my blog TEMPORARILY became informative and seems like a source of information about in-game stuff. So, don’t expect much out of my blog, it usually contain random topics! XD

Anyway, back to my intended subject today, I made a new Lalafell character on Ragnarok just for the fun of it and to accompany my friend’s Lalafell. Maybe you can say we made these chars just for the Moonfire Faire event (and the swimsuits) hahaha!

Having fun at the Faire, playing with the fireworks (sparklers) wearing the swimsuits.

The morning arrived and Ina exclaimed “No! Sunlight!” Haha.

Full-sized Ina and Tos

Those Lalafells above are the mini version of these two chars of ours: Inari and Thanatos.

In order to avoid posting NSFW content into this entry, I hereby finish my today’s topic. Talk to you later!

Bikini Battle

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 11, 2013 - 7:00 pm |September 11, 2013 FFXIV Festivals

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So, yesterday, a Bikini Battle has broken out in Costa Del Sol. This event consists of men dressing in clothes smaller than their smallclothes, fighting almost naked on the beach while we ladies watch with amusement.

No, I jest! It was actually Moonfire Faire 2013. (Read official announcement >> here <<)

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Scenery Screenshots #1

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 5, 2013 - 9:26 pm |September 5, 2013 Screenshots, View Screenshots

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A dump of random screenshots from my folder. I especially love nighttime sky in FFXIV: ARR. They really did a great job with the stars and milky way or whatever we see out there. Really mesmerizing.

Western Thanalan, outside Ul’dah’s Gate of the Sultana, looking northwest.

At the Eighty Sins of Sasamo, looking back at Ul’dah.

La Noscea. Somewhere around Cedarwood? I am not sure.

Silver Bazaar Docks.

Limsa Lominsa Upper Deck, the Bismarck’s balcony.

Somewhere in Eastern Thanalan, I guess.

On a hill at Costa Del Sol, looking into the sea.

Coerthas, of course.

Coerthas, still.

Camp Tranquil’s harvesting spot, Lower Paths.

FFXIV Dye Reference

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 4, 2013 - 6:33 pm |January 11, 2014 Informative, Reference, Screenshots

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*For screenshots of the 6 new crafted dyes from patch 2.1, please see my new entry.*
*For store-bought dyes from merchant NPCs, please see next entry.

Some screenshots as color reference for FFXIV: ARR dye system. I did all 13 colors on both sets of my gear. These screenshots will show how each of the new (craft only) dyes look on different type of materials (cotton, velveteen, leather, metal, etc.)

The set on the left consists of:
Head – Mythril Magnifiers
Body – Velveteen Gown
Hands – Cotton Halfgloves
Legs – Cotton Breeches

The set on the right consists of:
Head – Steel Goggles
Body – Velveteen Doublet Vest
Hands – Woolen Work Gloves
Legs – Boarskin Culottes

By the way, I’m sorry that the second set toward the end had its pics taken around sunset, so the colors might seem a bit weird due to the lighting. ><;;

Snow White Dye

Soot Black Dye

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Color Pigments And Dyes

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 3, 2013 - 10:13 pm |September 13, 2013 Gathering, Informative

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*UPDATED* 13 Sep 2013
This entry was almost ALL wrong due to my stupidity. At one point while dragging the pics around arranging the order, I put the map screenshot 1 slot wrong, so everything down the line was also 1 spot wrong, making most of the info mismatched. Now I have corrected it all. My sincere apology to every of my readers who had gotten the wrong information and was probably confused and unable to find the items. Terribly sorry. ><;;

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Okie dokie, instead of spamming my mouse trying to log in, waiting for a miracle to be placed on queue, I would rather do something informative and compile some info I’ve gotten from playing around with the new dyes. I really like that they added more of the new colors for armor/clothes dye system. These “new” dyes cannot be bought from vendor NPC or shop stalls like Dyemonger in Limsa or Independent Merchant in Ul’dah, but have to be crafted using level 30 recipe of any of the crafting class. The ingredient to make a pot of dye is one color pigment and 2 crystals. The element of the crystals required depends on your crafting class.

I’ve been going around to use my Disciples of the Land: Botanist and Miner, to gather all of the available pigments. There are 7 colors of pigment, and they can be crafted into 13 colors of dye in total.

The pigments and gather spots are as follows:

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Blue Pigment: Grouped with Water Crystal.
Method: Logging (Botanist, main hand)
Location: Eastern La Noscea – Bloodshore

Blue_Botanist2

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Fishing is Fun

By Aleczan Knighthill | August 31, 2013 - 3:44 pm |August 31, 2013 Disciples of the Land, Screenshots

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So I am back to fishing again. I regret going back to fishing in FFXIV. Why? Because I can’t stop fishing after I started fishing. I even forgot my dinner because I was too happy fishing. Damn. ><;;

I really love the new fishing system. It is less tedious and much more interesting. It yields quite low EXP, but if you manage to land a HQ fish, the amount of experience points you earn will make your jaws drop. I got, for example, 4000 EXP from landing a HQ Copperfish at Raincatcher Gully (as a fisher level 15). As for my high level fisher on Ragnarok, using the skill (ability) Mooch is a hell lot of fun. At Aleport (location is named Skull Valley, though), I landed a Wahoo (43.3 ilms) from using HQ Merlthor Goby as a bait, netting me 5253 EXP at level 43.

Fishing in Limsa

Also, I like the reeling animation now, especially when the fish is very big! It is entertaining to watch. (Yeah, I am simple and easily entertained, LOL.) And look, when we land a HQ fish, the character looks very happy. Alec laughs gleefully with open mouth when she gets HQ fish, as opposed to wide smile for NQ.

I am looking forward to roaming the continent for more fishing locations and new fish. ^_^

Victory Belongs to the Bold

By Aleczan Knighthill | August 26, 2013 - 4:45 pm |December 31, 2013 Interesting Quotes, NPC Screenshots, Ul'dah

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***This entry may contain story spoiler, especially for those who haven’t done the quest “The Ul’dahn Envoy” yet.***
***หัวข้อนี้อาจมีการสปอยล์เนื้อเรื่อง โดยเฉพาะสำหรับผู้ที่ยังไม่ได้ทำเควสต์ “The Ul’dahn Envoy”***

Here comes yet another jeweled statement (well, 2 of them, to be precise) found in NPC dialogue. This time, it is by the Flame General Raubahn Aldynn.

“In remembering all we’ve lost, we’re reminded of what we still have.”
“And should your path be barred by man or beast, strike fast and true, for victory belongs to the bold.”
– General Raubahn Aldynn –