calmer tides

after getting over being screwed out of an early waxing crescent digging session thanks to connection problems, I gotten in an uneventful digging session. the next day I came out with 3 spider webs while digging outside of Al Zahbi.

on a more positive note, I got a brand new chocobo chick named DoreAvenger, residing in the Windurst stables. It inherited the Bore ability, just like its sibling DamePrincess.

the evil empire strikes

around 15:00 CST I was getting ready for early waxing crescent digging session outside the stables in Windurst and I get d/c. I have not been able to log into the game since then, and the elemental ore window is closing quickly. It isn't me that is having problems, its being discussed on various FFXI forums on the Internet. Perhaps its an return of the infamous DDoS attacks of last year. . .

I'll try to get an update later.

quick choco update and parser results

the chocobo being raised by my sandy mule is going to end up being a blue one (from its mother), but it has at least 2 more weeks before being ready for breeding. It is progressing very nicely right now.

now on the parser results I promised. Out of the 7265 items successfully dug, 1021 were pebbles. The next highest was Insect Wings at 611, then Flint Stones at 568 and Bone Chips at 555. There were 311 Lizard Molts. Those 5 items combined for 42.2% of all the successful digs. Elemental Ores were only dug at 0.04% of the time. I'll release the full results of the parser online at a later time. 115 different items were dug up during that rank.

Right now is too early to tell on any increases of certain items since going up to Adept. As I get deeper into the rank, I'll keep an eye out on the results of my digging sessions.

Adept Rank Digging!

Today, I hit Adept Rank (A20) in chocobo digging, 6 to 8 weeks ahead of schedule. I was expecting to ding after 1600 to 2000 stacks of greens, but I dinged at just under 1190 stacks of gyshal greens. This was a very nice surprised, and supports my theory that the chocobos raised for digging purposes (ones with burrow and bore) not only increase the success rate but also increase the chance of getting a skill up. It took me around 1600 stacks to go from Craftsman to Artisan (which happened right before the digging fatigue system was introduced). I'm not a fan of burrow myself, but it has its use in trying to skill up digging.

I'm still keeping Summer 2007 and Winter 2008 as the projected times of going up to Veteran and Expert ranks, despite the good news. I still hope and pray that SE will improve digging a bit (such as being allowed to use chocobo whistle in more outdoor zones) and improve chocobo raising where both discernment and endurance could be raised.

I will be getting all the data recorded and posted in the next day or so.

work ><

sunday morning is early waxing crescent, but its my weekend to work and as a result I have to miss it, especially when it starts right before JP midnight.

I'm starting to target the king truffles (rank up item), as I'm approaching 1200 stacks of greens into my level. I hit the 50% success rate last night.

bastard

I scolded my chocobo the other day for the lackluster digs since that ice ore it pulled. It responded by making good digs in the past 3 days but I'm still a bit dissapointed as I have seen better results. Bore still hasn't kicked in Meriphataud at all, and it won't pull up Adaman there. Today I saw only 2 gold beastcoins and a gold ore in that zone and a lot of crap. At my digging rank, that result along with a full moon is not a very good one.

I'm retiring that chocobo and raising a new one, probably as early as tomorrow.