Informative – Page 2 – Aleczan's New Diary (FFXIV: ARR)

Editing My Screenshots with PhotoScape

By Aleczan Knighthill | October 24, 2015 - 2:09 pm |October 24, 2015 Informative, Real Life, Screenshots

Today I’m going to write about the program I use to process/edit my screenshots from FFXIV. It’s called PhotoScape. http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

It also has viewer, but I prefer Fast Stone Image Viewer instead (I used to have ACDSee but this new PC doesn’t have it and I didn’t want to use cracks or pirate software, so I changed to these because they are Free Ware).

Anyway, here’s an example of my screenshots:

Comparing the 3 pics together.

Now let’s see each of them. Below is the original screenshot from the game.

Using manual Bloom feature in PhotoScape (Bloom can make blur effect, saturation, and Levels of brightness), also adjusting Bright/Color => Luminance Curve, and then Filter => Region (Our of Focus) to make the background blurry, then manually use Tools => Effect Brush to blur the area where Filter didn’t cover.

When I’m lazy, I so the above but use auto Bloom (low) instead. Which sometimes makes skin colour too pale for my liking. But it’s great for scenery pics, especially if there are lights in the dark.

My Personal DoL Collectable Rotations

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 26, 2015 - 4:46 pm |March 13, 2016 Gathering, Reference

Leave a comment

Made this chart for a friend and thought it might be useful for some new DoL collectors.

There might be better or more suitable rotation for this, but this is what I used because it felt natural to me and it didn’t rely much on luck. And since I shaped this rotation to suit me, I cannot provide any reference or in-dept reading for it.

My rotation is good for when you still need 530 collectability to trade for the foil (to buy an equipment or tool using red scrips token). It also, most of the time, leaves at least 50 GP in your pool, so you can spend it on a 50 GP ability (Sharp Vision for MNR or Field Mastery for BTN) which is +5% success.

But if you no longer need 530 collectability, and only want to focus on more yield in each trip, you may want to consider another Rotations, for example, the one below:

This one is not my invention. A friend told me this on Skype text chat and I am unable to find any reference.

Mainly, this rotation is trying to maximize the combo of 3 Discerning Eyes and + Apprisals (2 Impulsive and 1 Methodical). On the 2 Impulsive Appraisals, we could rely on it for 2 free Discerning Eyes. If and when the free Discerning Eye pops (procs), that is the opportunity to spend 200 GP on a Single Mind instead of a manual Discerning Eye. Each of the proc of Impulsive => Discerning means we get 1 extra Single Mind, which equals 1 extra strike (collect).

This rotation can yield 4 collects in 1 spawn. However, it is very likely that you will have to gamble with the success rate, using 95% success rate because there is no GP for +5% success skill. So sometimes, if you’re unlucky, your strike may miss.

Monsters Location Maps: Rank B Clan Hunt

By Aleczan Knighthill | September 24, 2015 - 3:17 pm |September 24, 2015 Exploring, Informative, Map Screenshot, Reference

Leave a comment

Link to my Google Drive folder of Monsters Location Maps: http://goo.gl/iPEYox

I made these maps because I am terrible at spotting places using the coordination, I would have to fumble about for a long time, trying to hover my mouse everywhere on the map to find the correct pos. By marking the pos onto a visual map, it helps me a lot when I need to scout for these Clan Hunts. The maps were originally intended for my personal use, but then it became useful to a few friends, then to a few strangers in the game. Eventually one of them said I should post this on the internet. So here goes…

Note: I’m not going to come back to edit the .jpg pics I post here. However, the Google Drive link will be updated as soon as I notice any unlisted spawn spot or confirm anything new.

Coerthas Western Highlands: http://goo.gl/PYjjnF

The Sea of Clouds: http://goo.gl/wYZ9AO

The Dravanian Forelands: http://goo.gl/kWuIVq

The Dravanian Hinterlands: http://goo.gl/eikZki

The Churning Mist: http://goo.gl/U50mPq

Azys Lla: http://goo.gl/7AK6Ek

My Gatherer’s (DoL) Macros

By Aleczan Knighthill | July 17, 2015 - 1:14 am |July 17, 2015 Chat Screenshots, Disciples of the Land, Informative, Reference

Leave a comment

With the Unspoiled Nodes in Heavensward’s duration being so short, I can’t afford to waste time looking up on the internet or open a bookmarked link on my browser, I made /echo macro to tell me the slots. Then, realizing I have to head to the spawn spot before it actually spawns, in order to allow me a lot of time to pick the skills to use, I also added where to go.

ffxiv_07172015_010119_cr2 /echo ★ ☆ MATERIALS : Unspoiled Heavensward Nodes ☆ ★
/echo  : Falcon’s Nest Chysahl Green [] — Top-left (Dragonspit)
/echo  : Falcon’s Nest Chives [], Prl. Sprout [], T. Leaves [] — Mid-right (Blk. Iron Br.)
/echo  : Camp Cloudtop Hv.Lemon [], Abal.Mistletoe [] — Mid-right (Vundu Ok’ Bendu)
/echo MNR 11:00 Helix Adamamtite Ore [6] — Top-mid
/echo MNR 12:00 Camp Cloudtop Abal. Rock Salt [1], Red Quartz [6] — Top-left (Cold Wind)
/echo  : Moghome Drav. Mistletoe [], Porcini [] — Top-right (Easton Eyes)
/echo  : Idyllshire Cloud Banana [], Morel [] — Low-left
/echo  : Tailfeather Old World’s Fig [] — Top-mid

The 2nd one is for nodes where Collectible items can be exchanged for Scrips. I pair the nodes list with execution of Collector’s Gloves skill as well as changing hotbar 1 to display my COllectible skills hotbar instead. You can manually switch between hotbars by using Shift + the number, or Shift + up/down button.

/macroicon “Collector’s Glove” /action “Collector’s Glove” <me>
/hotbar change 6
/echo    Hotbar changed to collectable for Scrips   
/echo  : Camp Cloudtop Hv.Lemon [], Abl.Mistletoe [] — Mid-right (Vundu Ok’ Bendu)
/echo  : Idyllshire Cloud Banana [], Morel [] — Low-left
/echo MNR 12:00 Camp Cloudtop Abal. Rock Salt [1], Red Quartz [6] — Top-left (Cold Wind)
/echo MNR 2:00 Idyllshire Cuprite [2], Light Kidney Ore [3] — Low-right

Monsters Location Maps: The Sea of Clouds

By Aleczan Knighthill | July 15, 2015 - 11:09 pm |July 15, 2015 Informative, Map Screenshot, Reference, Screenshots

Leave a comment

Made my 4th map for the Monsters Location.

Again, 4 versions, in case some people like cleaner map with less distractions.

This map was truly a challenge to complete, due to the amount of monster’s varieties as well as the cascading pieces of land.
After finishing all 6 maps, I will make a center post containing all maps in the same page. But for now, it has to be separated entries.

Monsters Location Maps: The Churning Mists

By Aleczan Knighthill | July 9, 2015 - 9:21 pm |July 9, 2015 Informative, Map Screenshot, Reference

Leave a comment

Finally got around to making The Churning Mists’ map.

3 Versions, again.

The reason why I made this (despite the fact that there are already monsters maps on the internet that everyone else is using) is that I find things on the map faster with visual aid. Also, on my server, there are a lot of European players, so some of the monsters names are complete different from English names.

Moreover, some monsters drop crafting materials so there might be a competition for kills, so I feel that marking territory of spawn can be useful when monsters become heavily hunted.

Monsters Location Maps

By Aleczan Knighthill | July 4, 2015 - 4:21 pm |July 9, 2015 Informative, Map Screenshot, Reference

Leave a comment

Made Coerthas Western Highlands map the other day and a few friends were using it, so I made a Dravanian Forelands map yesterday. However, s friend commented that it was too messy and qas quite hard to read, so I made a few adjustments and made 3 versions of it.

(On this occasion I revised my Coerthas Western Highlands and increased font size. As shown above.)

Now, onto the 2nd map, The Dravanian Forelands.

First one has approximate territories marked.

Second one doesn’t mark monster’s territories. But I keep the pictures because I recognized mobs better when it’s visual. It took me a long time to scan the map for text when it was text only. ><;;

Version 3 has even bigger font, and is text only, by Dahlia’s suggestion.

Hope these will be useful for me and my friends for Clan Mark Bills. :D

Knight Captain’s Chair in different brown dyes

By Aleczan Knighthill | May 9, 2015 - 12:12 pm |May 9, 2015 Informative, Reference, Screenshots

Leave a comment

Today I made a mistake of dying my chair Rose Pink. So I had to remove the dye using Terebinth. However, I thought it might be better to try to match the chair’s brown to my table (I’m using Glade Dining Table which unfortunately cannot be painted) so I tried many browns. I took some screenshots for self reference in picking the best brown, so I’m uploading them in case someone will find them useful.

Rose Pink

No dye (terebinth)

Bark Brown

Chestnut Brown

Orchard Brown

Russet Brown

Chocolate Brown

Mole Brown

Flag coordinates marker

By Aleczan Knighthill | April 10, 2015 - 11:20 am |April 16, 2015 Gaming tips, Informative, Map Screenshot

Leave a comment

Useful map function of FFXIV: <flag>

I’ve already talked about <pos> which will mark the map at your current position, but now I’m going to talk about how to mark a flag on the map without having to be physically there.

However, I only know how to do it by using keyboard and mouse, because I use keyboard and mouse. If I find out how to do it with a controller, I will add the information later.

– Additional information –

A friend, Kuji, looked it up for me and said:

PS controller it’s R1 on map to set a flag marker

So, R1 for PlayStation controller, it is.

Also,

Austia Silverwing of Midgardsormr says:

On ps3 you can hold L1 and click R3 for mouse. then L2 is left click, R2 is right click. also L1+select gets rid of hud, L1+start is screenshot.

– End of additional information –

First, you have to open the map where you want to mark a flag on. Then, you use your mouse to point at the spot, and hold CTRL button on your keyboard while using right-click with your mouse.

When you mark your own map with a flag in this method, the chat input will automatically type <flag> for you, so that you can hit enter to add text before or after it, or just send the <flag> to your chat channel right away.

When sent into the chat, the <flag> will show coordinates as the pic above. Anyone who sees this message will be able to click on it in the chatlog to mark their own map with this flag.

This flag will stay there until you mark other flag, click other coordinates, or log out.

We can only have 1 flag at a time, so if you click on any other coordinates, the new one will replace previous one.

Although there can only be one <flag> marker for anyone, but you can mention 2 coordinates at the same time if you use a <pos> and a <flag>, like in the example below:

The chat log will come up like the next screenshot below:

If your friend click on the coordinates that you sent, in this situation they can see (and mark) 2 different spot, but only one at a time, because every coordinates flag will overwrite each other.

I guess that’s all to know about <flag>.

Using mounts as height aid for screenshots

By Aleczan Knighthill | January 16, 2015 - 11:03 am |January 16, 2015 Informative, Screenshots, View Screenshots

Leave a comment

I’ve been using my mounts for height adjustment when I’m taking FFXIV screenshots in 1st person camera view for a long time but today was the first time I’ve noticed and compared the height difference between various mounts.

In some circumstances, when you’re trying to take a nice screenshot while in 1st person camera mode, tilting the camera up and down can achieve what you want for your pictures, but it doesn’t always work. Take this screenshot for an example, here I wanted the umbrella to be the foreground of the ocean view. I wanted to see more of the sea water above the wooden floor and to see some of the top of the umbrella without moving closer to the ocean. Tilting my camera up won’t help. The only option I had would be standing on a higher ground. There was nothing to climb on, so my mounts are the answer.