Ayrlie's FFXI chocobo blog

The greatest early waxing crescent session ever

2009-05-25T23:20:00.005-05:00

I set a few new records on 7% Darksday Early Waxing Crescent in the wee hours of Monday morning

The 5th Dark Ore came on successful dig 100. The first 3 came in the first 10 stacks of greens. The ores came from digging in 2 different zones.

This is the first time I have ever pulled 2 in a row, and the first time I pulled 5 in a session. I have never seen more than 3 in a session until then.

lucky la thiene

2008-09-15T08:57:00.002-05:00

I get home from work in time to dig at 19% waxing, so I went back to La Thiene (woodworking mule needs all the Chestnut Logs I could get to make HQ beetle jugs), and wind weather pops soon after. Not long after the digging starts, 2 more ores are pulled up.

2 earth ores

2008-09-11T21:18:00.002-05:00

I was planning on digging on Windsday, but 25+ Wind Ores already on the AH made me change my digging plans. Since my Lightning Ore from the week before still hasn't sold (actually I haven't even listed it on the AH because there were 12 of those already up), I had to dig on Earthsday. 105k value and only 6 ores up on the AH, time to rake in some money. I got rewarded with 2 Earth Ores accordingly, which came on the 71st and 86th successful digs.

Labor Day success despite it being weekend to work

2008-09-03T04:27:00.002-05:00

I pulled up 3 ores over the entire Labor Day weekend, because the timing came at when I could do it (despite the fact it was my weekend to work). 2 fire ores in Buburimu on Friday and a lightning ore in pashhow on Monday. It was well worth the lost sleep I suffered Friday morning and the lack of sleep I got on Monday afternoon.

woke up, get ore

2008-08-23T03:59:00.003-05:00

I woke up in time to come away with 1 earth ore during the most recent early waxing crescent.

><><><

2008-08-20T02:30:00.000-05:00

Its been a while. 200 chances to dig up elemental ores, got away with nil.

heating up

2008-03-07T20:02:00.002-06:00

during most of february my chocobo was on a dry streak, then last friday it came away with an fire ore (it was 96th or 97th successful dig) at 10%. (No screenshot of this one, I forgot to turn on Fraps and I'm now using official windower.)

I didn't go to work monday night because of an ice storm, but early tuesday morning I was praying that the power would just stay on. It did, and I got myself 2 wind ores at 7% for my reward. The second wind ore came on my 100th successful dig.

I set my alarm clock today so I could dig at 21% waxing, which was lightningday, because lightning ores are going for much more than the other elemental ores. I got two before fatigue, so I made a major profit.

lot to catch up

2008-02-22T20:17:00.002-06:00

good news is that elemental ores went back up in price, but the bad news is that I have been on a dry streak for the past 3 weeks. I either had to miss it due to work or failed to dig one up. I don't have a lot of spare time right now, though, since work went back to 8 hour shifts. I am looking forward to the next version update, however.

4 more ores

2007-12-11T09:41:00.000-06:00

Today was a chance to get 200 digs in during early waxing crescent (due to the JP midnight falling on a favorable time), well I pulled up 2 ores during the time, Wind Ore at 17% in Pashhow (Water Element) and a Dark Ore at 7% in East Ronfaure (during Fog). The Wind Ore came in on successful dig #94 after the JP midnight.

I decided to dig at 21% waxing, even though I never had any success at that moon phase in the past. I was surprised to see this in Pashhow, also during the Water element:
I was supposed to work over the weekend but a fever with strep throat kept me home all weekend. Oh well, I was able to dig during this early waxing crescent and pull this with the 97th successful dig of the day:

Aside from this, I have done little digging because I got the new WoTG expansion nearly 2 weeks ago and I been wasting more time leveling Scholar and doing Campaign Battles.

ronfaure

2007-11-07T15:28:00.000-06:00

After Tohma was bragging about his light ore haul on Sunday, I decided to give Ronfaure a try the next early waxing crescent. Thankfully, I did not have to work or sleep during that time. This phase did not fall on iceday, thankfully, as I would had just went AFK during that game day.

It was Darksday, and Dark Ores go about the same price as Light Ores go for. So I went for some and wound up with this within 20 digs:

I continued to dig during the cloudy weather but got no more ores after that.

tohma and ice ores

2007-11-04T14:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was having a quick conservation with a fellow competitor called Tohma. He was getting tired of the price decline of elemental ores, namely the Ice Ores. Well the RMTs ditched digging and went to elemental ore gardening in recent months, usually going for Ice Ores as the failure of that tree sapling recipe is an item that sells to NPC vendor for ~1600 gil and each sapling plant yields about 4-8 of them on failure.

Even though I was getting an extra hour of sleep, I went to bed rather early after dumping excess stuff (BST and some PLD) gear to one of my mules. I woke up on Iceday but did not dig as Ice Ores sell less than Orich. Ores right now. I dug on Lightningday, which is right before JP midnight but failed to pull up any ores before fatigue. I mostly got crap except for enough mythril beastcoins to finish off a stack. After JP midnight passed it was lightsday, so I hit teleport-dem to the highlands after water element quickly ended in Rolanberry, as lightning was up. Within 5 or 6 digs I got an light ore, and the zone quickly ran dry after that with nothing else digging up of note. I went back to Rolanberry as the water element came back up but wound up with tons of crap.

Couple weeks ago, I was forced to dig at 7% again, got a single wind ore for my troubles - it was fitting as it was the first elemental ore since the end of August.

Just as I was getting ready to head off for church, Tohma told me he pulled up 2 light ores in Ronfaure in foggy weather. He skipped Iceday as well.

a lot to catch up

2007-08-29T07:42:00.000-05:00

despite all the crap going on at my job, I been able to make early waxing crescent sessions for the past 2 weeks, even if it means having to crawl out of bed sooner than normal. On the 15th, I woke up an hour early to do this before work in Jugner Forest, even though it was the one day of the week I really didn't want to do it (Iceday):

I got nothing during the early waxing crescent that took place the ensuing weekend, partially due to the fact it wasn't elemental season in Jugner/Carpenters.

The next early waxing crescent was on August 22 right before JP midnight time, so I had a chance to do 200 successful digs during that moon phase. Due to the timing, however, I had no choice but to dig during 7% (where I never have success) but I was surprised to see this shortly after digging:

However, it was the only ore of that session, due to very high competition (every high level JP A10 digger was pretty much accounted for). Pashhow remained dug out for the rest of that moon phase.

I got home from work the ensuing Saturday just in the for early waxing crescent, so I went to Jugner as elemental season was starting to take shape. I failed to pull up ores, but made a little profit off Oak Logs and Mistletoes.

Then it comes today. Moon phase was in middle of the night/early morning hours. I decided to crawl out of bed at 05:00 CDT because I'll be waking up at that time for the rest of the week due to work. I quickly get enough inventory cleaned out (by muling or putting on AH), and then bought enough greens. I took my chocobo to Jugner at 14% Lightsday, even though there were 20 light ores on the AH. I have yet to dig a light ore myself and this moon phase rarely falls during lightsday, and my given success at 14% in recent session made me do it. It was now Thunder Elemental season, and before long this happened:

It was the only ore of the session. JP midnight is 2 hours away but the moon phase will be over by then.

When it hasn't been the early waxing crescent phase, I been doing time in Rolanberry pulling up 1 to 3 orich ores per run. With the newest update, I expect the ores to go up in price.

fire and water

2007-08-12T20:03:00.000-05:00

early waxing crescent came right before JP midnight time, which gave me 200 items instead of the usual 100 items. As a result, competition was expected to be high and I found at least 2 other A10 JP diggers out and about. Thunder elemental season was starting to get going again in Jugner, and at 10%, I made a trip into that zone. One of the competitors manages to dig it out on me, but not before I did the damage: I pulled up Fire Ore at 10%.

My fatigue hits soon after that, so I had to wait for 14%, as JP midnight will pass. Another competitor was already in Jugner/Carpenters, so I decided to check Pashhow after another competitor decided to leave that zone. About 25 digs later, I got an Water Ore.

I was cutting videos during the process but none of it has been edited.

grand total is up

2007-08-11T04:44:00.000-05:00

I put the grand total up. It actually took me just over 8700 stacks of greens to cap digging. This number is low compared to what other diggers been talking about, but I believe that the update last July has helped contributed to the low numbers. It only takes me 15-18 stacks of greens to hit fatigue with a rental chocobo, 12-14 stacks with a personal chocobo. With higher success rates, there is higher rates of ranking up.

The last rank, though, was a doozy. It took me 1700 stacks over 4 months to rank up. However, the rank up did happen within my earlier projections of a Summer 2007 ding time.

The first early waxing crescent since the rank up yielded in a bunch of crappy items. The next early waxing crescent is due to happen shortly before JP midnight time on Sunday morning, which means double the chances of pulling up an elemental ore.

A10, at last

2007-08-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

Finally dinged A10 today after I got home from work. 1700 stacks of greens from A15 to A10. I'm glad that this 19 month journey that started in February 2006 is over, now I'm going to think about focusing on profit zones whenever possible.

ice ore, at least that slump is over

2007-08-02T06:47:00.000-05:00

I managed to pull an ice ore in Jugner during the thunder elemental season that is starting to wind down there at 10% early waxing crescent this morning. (despite what I had on the screenshot, it has actually been just over 2 months since the last time I pulled up an elemental ore.)

The bad news is that I'm still A15 and I'm approaching 1600 stacks into the level.

><

2007-07-14T22:51:00.000-05:00

since the past month, the digging results have been so-so. Zero elemental ores since the session I have pulled up 3 of them, I still can't pull up Kaolin outside Al Zahbi (and then the price on them and Ebony Lumber started to drop so I don't waste my time out there right now). The past 2 weeks were even worse: I haven't pulled up any Orich. Ore in Rolanberry, and the past 9 or 10 digging sessions I have actually lost money.

I decided to take a day off from digging (based on JP time) earlier in the past week hoping that luck would change, well it hasn't. I noshowed the last early waxing crescent, opting to sleep instead.

I'm closing in on A10, however, but the next two weeks I'm going to have spotty access to the game due to a remodeling project in the house I live. I may just move my PS2 (not hooked up to the internet and no way to get it hooked up b/c dad bought the wrong type of wireless internet system) to the basement and play more Disgaea 2 to pass the time. After next week, I'm moving back to nights at work for at least 2 weeks.

triple the excitement

2007-05-27T03:09:00.000-05:00

I got home from work around 01:00 early Sunday morning, waited for moon to hit 12% waxing, and got to work. I been looking forward to this, as I had been shut out for the past 2 months and I had to miss the last 3 windows to dig elemental ores because of work. I went to Batallia at lightningsday, and within the first 6 stacks of greens with a RENTAL chocobo I had pulled out 3 lightning ores during the same earth weather effect.

The all-star crew of JP A10 diggers have been out in the other zones and gotten themselves fatigued while I chose to kill crabs during the 7% to 10%. I just waited and got rewarded.

Since my last update, I'm usually getting 2 orich. ores per session in Rolanberry. They're only 25k a pop now, but usually move within a few hours. I also been inside Wajaoam provided that the stables npc isn't in some cell in the middle of Halvung as it was the case for 8 straight days last week. Ebony Lumber, Petrified Logs, and Adaman Ores have been major sellers as of late, and I get my fair share of them in the woodlands.

Veteran Rank Digger - at last

2007-04-16T02:10:00.000-05:00

I finally dinged A15 over the weekend, which was nice because the past two weeks have not been yielding good results while digging. The only other highlight was pulling up 2 Adaman Ores in Wajaom and a Whistle Coupon from VCS crate on Friday.

It took me 1314.24 stacks of greens to level up. Just one more digging rank to go, and at least I don't have to worry about focusing on hidden rank up items. Its just pure profit zones from now on.

dunes chocograph

2007-03-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

I got my dunes chocograph this morning, went digging in valkrum dunes, and ended up with the usual 100% piece of crap. the digging results in kazham were better, but no reishi mushrooms have been dug out of yhoator for quite some time.

I won't be digging the next early waxing crescent. I have to work during this time, and by the time I get home that moon phase is over.

I am looking forward to chocobo racing (bred my mule's chocobo for that purpose) but that six hour maintenance on Wednesday going to suck. I'll be gone for 5 of the 6 hours due to work, however.

slept in til 14% waxing, paid off

2007-03-24T08:26:00.000-05:00

when i woke up today 14% waxing crescent was up, and so was thunder in carpenters' landing. I called DoreAvenger and thunder weather soon ended but it was still cloudy so I continued digging. Soon, I pulled up a Water Ore. It was the only elemental ore I pulled up before fatigue hit, but it was icing on the cake after a digging session that featured 14 Oak Logs.

coastal chocograph

2007-03-22T19:09:00.000-05:00

i failed to dig up elemental ores on Tuesday evening, but that night did not go to waste. I finally got a coastal chocograph and I did hot and cold game with that chocograph, and came up with whistle coupon. Wednesday in the jungles was uneventual but again got my usual dose of crap with hot and cold game. Thursday got more crap but should have enough successful digs for dunes chocograph.

Luck of the Irish

2007-03-17T13:48:00.000-05:00

after being shut out of elemental ores during early waxing crescent for the past 2 months (although work caused me to miss a couple of them), the latest early waxing crescent occurred during the early afternoon hours of St. Patrick's Day. I put on my green clothes, and went into Pashhow Marshlands at 10% Waxing Crescent. It wasn't until 21:00 until the water element finally came up but I had no competition and in less than 15 digs later my chocobo DoreAvenger came up with an Fire Ore. Well, a short time later a new game day happened and boom an Earth Ore. This is the first time I have pulled up 2 elemental ores in a single digging session, much less on the same chocobo whistle call. This is a yield of just under 400k profit in just two digs, by the time those ores sell.

I uploaded screenshots at my FFXIOnline photo gallery, since the other FFXI screenshot viewing site seems to be down.

sigh

2007-03-10T19:29:00.000-06:00

after maintenance screwed us out of the past early waxing crescent, I was so thankful for the next one coming on my day off from work. with thunder elemental season underway in Carpenter's Landing I went there, but came out with only 9 oak logs and 4 elm logs for the trouble. While I made a profit today, its going on 2 months since the last elemental ore was dug up.

uneventual week

2007-02-25T20:26:00.000-06:00

its been an uneventful week. I spent most of it digging in north gustaberg to pull up darksteel ores for a friend that was leveling up smithing and needed some. i didn't use my chocobo for this like usual, as I did not want to dig up crystals at all.

now with that part over, I'll be heading into kazham this week, as he wants Rattan Lumber, and beastmen have control of elshimo lowlands on our server.

gold ores

2007-02-14T22:03:00.000-06:00

last 2 days i dug in altep. 2 alum. ores, 6 gold ores, 4 coral fragments, 4 philo. stones, and 3 darksteel ores later, I felt like I made a good judgment. A little consolation prize for having to miss the upcoming early waxing crescent because of work, but at least I'm over 100k richer as a result. I sold the alum. ores, and saving the others for later (though will eventually sell the stones once I get a stack).

my mule's chocobo will be black :)

so-so

2007-02-11T21:47:00.000-06:00

its been a so-so week in chocobo digging. last 2 early waxing crescents yielded no elemental ores. the chocobo is being stubborn about digging up items and as a result i been forced to use 15-18 stacks instead of the usual 11-13 to hit fatigue. today, however, I came up with a very hard to dig up dragon scales (even with a first class discernment chocobo with bore and adept digging rank) and enough turtle shells to break even. I think I made a small profit with the elm logs I dug up the day before too.

i'm still 0 for the good stuff (aside from alum. ores where i'm 2 for) on the hot and cold digging game. all week long its been failures or 100% crap, with the exception of a single fresh mugwort.

competition, whatever

2007-02-05T05:10:00.000-06:00

a lot of diggers out today for this early waxing crescent. yes, this was in the middle of JP prime time as it was 3 AM here, but I was able to get about 6 wildgrass seeds, reishi mushroom (rank promotion item), and some other assorted junk yet no elemental ores today. my chocobo also failed at hot and cold game today in Pashhow, so I have to head to a different zone for that game tomorrow.

Getting Elemental Ore through Chocobo Digging

2007-02-02T11:30:00.001-06:00

DoreAvenger scores in La Thiene Plateau at 12% Early Waxing Crescent today. It was an icing to the cake that yielded 6 wildgrass seeds and enough iron ores that resulted in a steel ingot. This video is uncut, and I added some music to it.

grrrr

2007-01-29T19:03:00.000-06:00

another early waxing crescent, went to batallia, no competition, earth weather, and what do i get? 3 tree cuttings, enough iron ores to make 2 iron ingots and a steel ingot, and 4 wildgrass seeds. no elemental ores but at least i made a little profit.

buburimu

2007-01-28T21:03:00.000-06:00

tahrongi had a competitor already present, so I went into buburimu. Pulled up coral fragment and platinum ore, two items that are difficult to pull up there.

Early waxing crescent will hit right before bedtime for me, but right after JP midnight time. I expect heavy competition in the morning.

hot and cold connects

2007-01-26T20:05:00.000-06:00

I did hot and cold today and after several days of crappy results, I finally got an alum. ore from the game today. However, I was unable to dig during early waxing crescent early Friday morning due to work, but was able to dig up orich. ore in Rolanberry before I left for my overnight shift.

better yields

2007-01-24T21:39:00.000-06:00

The last 2 days of hot and cold games were successes, but no whistle coupon or alum. ore to show for it. I went to tahrongi today to dig and came up with 5 demon horns, gold ore, 2 gold beastcoins, and 3 demon skulls.

bummer

2007-01-22T21:48:00.000-06:00

today i go back to night shifts at work, but I made sure to wake up for early waxing crescent. I kinda wished I just slept through it, as DoreAvenger started being very stubborn after it pulled up 70 items. No elemental ores, but couple demon horns and HQ pugil scales in Tahrongi for the trouble.

saturday

2007-01-20T19:24:00.000-06:00

i got a rare weekend off, and I went digging on Full Moon Darksday in Tahrongi today. I came out with 2 Demon Skulls and 5 Gold Beastcoins with DoreAvenger, the rest of the stuff wasn't worth mentioning. I did record a video but having problems with editing it with Windows Movie Maker right now.

treasure finder

2007-01-20T00:03:00.000-06:00

finally I got those blasted cutscenes and the key item that allowed me to teach treasure finder to DoreAvenger. First story (after eating 40k on chocoexilir) attempt and it learns it.

I did another game of hot and cold and it yielded in crappy results. I went chocobo digging in the mountains and pulled up alum. ore with bore (which is very hard to do even at A20).

tahrongi today

2007-01-18T20:23:00.000-06:00

Today i kept my promise and took my chocobo DoreAvenger (average discernment, bore) to a different zone, and it was Tahrongi Canyon. The chocobo simply amazed me: dragon scales, 3 demon skulls, 2 wyvern scales, 3 gold beastcoins, gold ore, 2 titanicus shells, 2 demon horns, and 2 high-quality pugil scales in 12 stacks of greens (on 21% waning crescent darksday). The dragon scales totally surprised me as it has the same difficulty of pulling up as an elemental ore.

hot and cold

2007-01-17T19:47:00.000-06:00

today, another game of hot and cold with slightly better results: gausebit grass and fresh mugwort.

i decided to take the black one out digging today in pashhow marshlands (that has bore) and got tons and tons of crystals and no yellow ginseng or wildgrass seeds. I been trying for treasure hunter as it second ability. I'll be at another zone come tomorrow after I get home from work.

Mule's chocobo had strength rise to outstanding, but the endurance stat been stuck on outstanding for some time.

bah

2007-01-16T20:30:00.000-06:00

i went into buburimu yesterday as there were diggers already sitting in Pashhow waiting for the moon phase to change yesterday night. I had that zone all to myself with wind element up. I used my chocobo and got 4 spider webs, 2 demon horns, 1 demon skull, 5 red moko grass, and no elemental ores.

Today I went back to the marshlands hoping for more wildgrass seeds. The results were tons of crap: 1 wildgrass seed, no tree cuttings, 5 mythril beastcoin, and inventory full of junk.

I been doing hot and cold game every day and I either get failures are 100% piece of crap items.

more pashhow digging

2007-01-14T16:28:00.000-06:00

for the third straight day, i went into pashhow marshlands to target wildgrass seeds. I wound up with 5 today. I'll be staying up later than normal tomorrow as early waxing crescent will happen around bedtime. At least I don't have to be at work until 07:45 in the morning.

I also made this after I got back in the game:

sunday maintenance

2007-01-14T12:50:00.000-06:00

the evil empire strikes again. regularly scheduled maintenance. . . on a Sunday! It never fails, they had to schedule it on my only day off. I haven't gone digging yet today, but here is a little image of the chocobo that my Sandy mule is raising.

i'm back

2007-01-13T21:42:00.000-06:00

I got my new computer on Thursday afternoon and hooked it up after I got home from work. I had to wait til Friday morning before leaving for work, however, to check on my chocobos. The one on my main character pretty much behaved, although slightly behind on the discernment stat. The one on my mule, had outstanding and impressive stats in strength and endurance, but hated me and did not obey commands. I'm working on getting both whipped back into shape. I'll explain more at a later time.

I went digging on Friday night, as I did not had time to do so during Friday morning because of work (which also caused me to miss early waxing crescent). The results weren't amazing. Today, I went in same area and came out with 3 Tree Cuttings and 2 Puffballs.

Its a long time

2007-01-06T21:41:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the long layoff. My computer died on 8 December and I have been off the game since. The good news is the fact my new computer has been ordered and I'll be back online sometime late next week if all goes well.

calmer tides

2006-12-07T19:56:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-06T19:14:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-05T13:21:00.000-06:00

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!

2006-12-04T15:05:00.000-06:00

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 ><

2006-12-02T21:21:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-01T13:37:00.000-06:00

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.

al zahbi bore = lame

2006-11-27T18:47:00.000-06:00

i took my chocobo digging outside al zahbi but bore yielded just elm and oak logs for the most part and flint stones for burrow. I didn't stay there for long, I simply went back to La Thiene and dug my way to Sandy. Fatigue hit just after 12 stacks today.

tooth hurts

2006-11-25T12:55:00.000-06:00

I been feeling a bit bummed this week. I try to do about 100 stacks a week but this week it only took me little more than 88 stacks because the chocobo was getting fatigued between 10 and 12 stacks ever since I switched to digging with raised chocobo. On the other hand, the success rate went from 43% to 49%, I been getting better digs, and as a result saving money on gyshal greens.

Tomorrow is EWC. I haven't decided where I'll be digging at. I hope to take my chocobo digging outside Al Zahbi on Monday but I'll be having a root canal at the dentist on that day and I may not be feeling up to par.

2006-11-23T10:27:00.000-06:00

its been a long week. the chocobo egg on my sandy mule hatched and it inherited Bore from AmberII. I won't know the color for another week but I plan on going the endurance route with that one.

chocobo digging has been uneventful all week. bore ability still won't kick in while digging in meriphataud. I took it digging in every zone but the desert, where I plan on trying to get digs in there today if competition allows it. After that, I have to camp king truffles if I want to go up to Adept anytime soon. My personal chocobo is taking just 9 to 13 stacks of greens to hit fatigue, as opposed to my personal chocobo taking 17 to 20 stacks.

<3 batallia

2006-11-19T21:23:00.000-06:00

after getting home from work in time for early waxing crescent, I tried out pashhow and rolanberry only not to have much luck to I zoned into batallia and got paid with an ice ore. I pulled up a stack of yellow ginseng as well along with a tree cutting to finish off a stack.

more new items

2006-11-17T21:12:00.000-06:00

i went into bibiki today to dig with my chocobo after I got home from work. I pulled up titancitus shells, high quality pugil scales, phoenix feathers, black chocobo feathers, wyvern scales, and spider web. Wow, a nice skill up area for high level diggers, as most of those items cap either at adept or veteran rank.

another EWC

2006-11-16T11:30:00.000-06:00

I camped the upcoming EWC in Carpenter's Landing as lightning weather was due to be up. I did not get any competition but failed to pull up any ores prior to fatigue.

There has been good news, however. During that session I pulled up 7 Oak Logs, 1 Elm Log, and 3 Light Crystals (which been going for 15k a stack lately). Also, my chocobo's discernment rose to Outstanding (1 level below cap), so I hope to cap that by the end of the week. My sandy mule also mated my chocobo with a blue one and got an egg today, so I have two chocobos to keep attention to.

chocotonic

2006-11-15T21:57:00.000-06:00

I was digging in pashhow with personal chocobo today, and thanks to bore ability I was pulling up yellow ginseng - almost as often as pebbles. It makes the hard to find chocotonic, so I made some with my alchemy mule and sent them back, and put them around the same price of vomp carrots and zegham carrots been going for in others bazaar (4k a pop). All 27 of them sold within an hour, which pocketed 108k gil in my pocketbook. I could had made more off them if I wanted to, but I simply wanted them to move.

I also pulled up wildgrass seeds and tree cuttings in pashhow with bore. Burrow been pulling up shrooms in the jungles, while bore pulls up logs there.

Tomorrow morning is early waxing crescent, so time to get some sleep. My alchemy mule also got my chocobo mated with a blue one today.

got bore

2006-11-14T20:55:00.000-06:00

after I got home from work today, I went straight to my computer, logged in, and my chocobo got bore after only the 5th story I told.

I been getting a lot of various kinds of beastcoins, ores, crystals, and flowers with the burrow. I have seen just a few ginger roots so far with bore but I only got it today and I was digging outside Sandy.

My chocobo is only on Day 45, so it has 15-20 days before I have to raise a new one at least. However, it is lovesick and breeding it to other peeps haven't taken care of the problem. Today, it has been battling an injury.

first real test of burrow

2006-11-12T13:08:00.000-06:00

I did my first real test with burrow today, in Tahrongi and Meriphataud with my chocobo. In Tahrongi, the ability pulled up various types of beastcoins, and in Meriphataud a lot of different ores. I only needed 12 stacks of greens to hit the 100 item limit today, so at least it was an effective run in terms of ghysal greens.

burrow!

2006-11-11T10:28:00.000-06:00

on day 42 my chocobo AmberII had discernment rise to Impressive. I told it story of worrysome chocobo and it learned burrow. I'm going to take that out for a test drive.

lots of crappy digs

2006-11-07T11:40:00.000-06:00

took only 15 1/2 stacks before fatigue hit but my chocobo pulled up way too much junk and only 2 gold beastcoins for the effort. I was not satisfied with the results, considering of what it is capable of digging on a normal day.

My personal chocobo discernment went up to better than average, but it hasn't learned burrow yet (I've been telling that story 1-2 times a day since I got that key item about 6 days ago).

work :(

2006-11-06T10:05:00.000-06:00

after a crappy weekend of work, I came home this morning in time for EWC. However, a who who's of JP A10s also showed up. I didn't end up with any elemental ores, but did pull up 3 puffballs, 2 elm logs, and 2 oak logs. Fatigue kicked in after 15 stacks, so I still have 5 stacks for tomorrow.

I hit 800 stacks into my level yesterday. I pulled up 7 gold beastcoins yesterday, which is an all-time high.

My beastcoin stacks and my ice ore sold yesterday night, so I'm happy with that, though.

finally got second story

2006-11-03T03:32:00.000-06:00

it took 2 walks but my chocobo finally got story of worrysome chocobo. however, my chocobo was low on energy when i got the key item, therefore I couldn't tell it to him right now.

i went digging during early waxing crescent, and finished off a stack of mythril beastcoins and got 8 elm logs but zero elemental ores in just over 20 stacks (before fatigue kicked in). I still made a profit, however, so I'll take that as a accomplishment considering it was getting into JP primetime.

chocobo growing up

2006-11-02T03:40:00.000-06:00

my chocobo now has average discernment. still can't get the blasted cutscenes that lead to key items. once it maxes out discernment, i'm switching to basic care until i'm forced to retire it.

today digging: 3 gold beastcoins, but nothing else to note. I have been beginning to see an increase of black chocobo feathers in the past week, and pulled up 2 elemental ores in the past 3 early waxing crescent periods.

I work this weekend, but will be on day shifts once i get off work on monday morning. this will last until early december.

<3 pashhow

2006-10-30T17:13:00.000-06:00

another early waxing crescent (which i had set my alarm clock for this as it began around 16:00, and I had to work tonight), i went into pashhow as water was up (digging in carpenters with lightning didn't yield any ores but enough stuff to break even), and wound up with an ice ore within a minute after zoning.

slow updates

2006-10-30T00:53:00.000-06:00

thanks to a new work schedule, my blog updates have been a bit slower. However, I have been making time to dig and check on my chocobo. My second chocobo is an adult now, and if you are on the Remora server it is available for breeding at a negotiable price. I'm still working on raising it for digging purposes, but those NPCs won't give me the key item for the stories (actually they haven't been popping up on those walks, which has been very frustrating). I wished I raised it in Windy rather than Sandy, since one of the most important key items comes from the stables owner in Windy.

I decided last week to change alliegance from Sandy to Windy, so I could do missions. I obtained Portal Charm and worked my way back to Rank 5. I did this to allow me to raise future chocobos in Windy.

Its back to work Monday night. I'll only have Wednesday/Thursday night off this week. The good news is that this is the last week of night shifts and I'll be going back on days.

elemental ore score

2006-10-23T23:43:00.000-05:00

water element in pashhow marshlands, 23:37 CDT in earth time, 7% early waxing cresent, scored 1 wind ore.

I still have 70 more items to dig before fatigue hits, maybe I'll score again.

on the other day i did pull up orich. ore in Rolanberry. Digging results have been uneventual as of lately.

the gold assault continues

2006-10-13T17:44:00.000-05:00

I been continuing to target gold while digging, and it has been paying off. I'm making about 10k to 40k profit per session (which right now is a huge profit considering of the nerf and deflation), don't have a lot of competition, and it has been my money maker as work has really cut into playtime (gardening has helped to some form but the results have been less as impressive recently).

I hit 400 stacks into my rank today. Only 1600-2100 stacks to go before I hit the next rank. I estimate that I will hit that rank sometime in January or February. I still pray that the evil empire will increase the number of stacks we could dig before fatigue.

I heard that the Bore ability has yielded a more variety of items, but the diggers that have it mentioned that they're only digging up different crystals or different types of logs depending on zone.

gold gold gold

2006-10-07T21:25:00.000-05:00

because of work, I had no choice but to miss the elemental ore period as it fell during work hours. I went digging later that evening and despite some competition (Rolanberry was dug up when I tired to dig there), I pulled up 6 gold beastcoins. This permitted me to finish off a stack (which sells for 150k on the AH). I made approximately 50k in profit today, so I am happy.

tgif, kinda

2006-10-06T19:00:00.000-05:00

sucks that I have to work when the next early waxing crescent comes by. oh well, I got Rolanberry and Sauromunge to myself today, and pulled up 2 gold beastcoins and 5 coral fungus in 17 stacks of greens.

my mules did 20 vegetable plants and they were ready for harvest. I got 4 stacks of lightning crystals and 6 stacks of frost turnips. Its time to craft goblin drinks for a certain gobbie on Sunday.

more gold

2006-10-05T18:02:00.000-05:00

3 gold beastcoins and a gold ore in 18 stacks of greens before fatigue kicked in today.

my new chocobo chick is a male.

some hauls

2006-10-04T18:04:00.000-05:00

last night was early waxing crescent. 15 stacks, wound up with mistletoe and 2 oak logs but no elemental ores to show for it .

tonight, fatigue kicked in after 19 stacks (used a 20th to confirm it). today's haul was 4 gold beastcoins, 4 mythril beastcoins, yellow rock, and 3 coral fungus.

I'm not using a parser right now. Stack counts may be off a little bit.

Digging has been a stress reliever. I'm working 6 days a week this month (only getting Sundays off), and as a result my game time been cut. I been using digging (digging as many stacks as fatigue allows) to try to sneak in revenue (and gardening on my mules) as my farming time has been cut to almost zero.

seed digging

2006-10-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

I spent the last 2 days (jp time) digging in West Ronfaure targeting Vegetable Seeds (must garden Frost Turnips, not paying 100k for a stack at AH and nobody has control of Valdenuia for the second week in a row - which is very unusual for this server). I need turnips to make goblin drinks on the cooking mule.

I'll probably spend every day this week doing 10-13 stacks of greens after I get off from work.

digging time again

2006-09-30T11:15:00.000-05:00

another early waxing crescent, another rental chocobo, zero ores dug by the time fatigue set in. the evil empire really nerfed chocobo digging to the point I get zero competition during early waxing crescent (before hand, there was hardcore competition and getting an ore was an accomplishment). On the good side, I did pull up 2 gold beastcoins, so at least I made an profit (also finding a bazaar that had ghysal greens for 40 gil a pop didn't hurt either). SE made digging too restrictive, and they need to loosen up a bit (how about increasing those stacks from 10 to maybe 20-30, because now it will take a year to gain a chocobo digging rank).

I know I should be digging every day but I haven't except for that certain moon phase. I got called back to work and have to report Tuesday. I didn't go meriting this week (opted to farm instead) because my brother just got home from his deployment with the navy. He was gone for 4 months.

I also retired my first chocobo today, but not before I breeded it to couple peeps. I concede the fact it will take couple generations of chocobos before you can really notice a difference. The two major stats you have to focus is endurance and discernment. So when you care, you have to take it on the longest walks that you can and have it either to basic care or listening to music every day for care plans. For feeds, I occasionally give it greens (to get it used to the taste of ghysal greens) and mainly give it carrots or cabbage.

rental birds blow

2006-09-27T02:44:00.000-05:00

i hate to admit it, but rental birds were obviously not raised for digging purposes. since that update back in late august, the results with rental chocobos have been as retarded as you can get. my personal chocobo gets better digs and is still Poor on discernment stat. oh course I been raising it for digging purposes, working on discernment and endurance stats as much as I can. The upcoming update will help on that cause.

early waxing crescent finally arrived, but where is that darn weather icon?

Peddlestox has a big grudge against me. third time i traded mermaid parts to him outside kazham, the third time he has screwed me with drops. 2 beastmen seals, fruit seeds, light opal; what the heck? It took me the better part of 2 days to get the items this time around.

I won't be digging the next early waxing crescent. My brother is coming home from his military obligation on Friday just in time for his birthday.

my bird an adult

2006-09-23T23:15:00.000-05:00

my chocobo became an adult

this evening was early waxing crescent so i went out to buburimu and called it when windy weather was present. did not end up with elemental ores by the time fatigue set in, but one of the shall shells turned into a black pearl (now going around 25k a pop) and I pulled up 2 turtle shells, so at least I made a profit.

today's result

2006-09-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

i went digging in the woodlands shortly after JP midnight time. fatigue did not set in until I was on the 10th and final stack of greens (thank god). Got a fairly good haul with a spider web and 2 ebony logs, but no adaman.

finally got in a xp pt on my THF after waiting 30 hours from the last invite and dinged 64 today.

resumed digging

2006-09-05T11:15:00.000-05:00

i resumed digging today after a break

dig 33 items (nothing worth mentioning about) then fatigue set in. this took less than 7 stacks of greens (used a 8th stack to confirm it) for this to happen.

i got 2 mules with wildgrass plants, with pure intentions of cutting costs on some of the feeds. neither mule is ready for harvest yet, as i did the planting on saturday afternoon and moogle has yet to ask for a crystal.

raising new chocobo chick

2006-08-31T16:36:00.000-05:00

last week i been working on raising my new chocobo chick, I named Lady III.

I haven't been doing much digging. The chocobo stables manager keeps being taken prisoner, and the profits in other zones have not been back to normal yet.

working

2006-08-08T21:37:00.000-05:00

good news is that I got ungrounded

bad news is that I'm working 4 nights a week, and only got time to play the game 3 nights.

gotta leave for work in a hour so I need to get going.

grounded

2006-08-01T00:09:00.000-05:00

Having a fight with {Impossible to Gauge} mother is never a good idea.

As a result, I'm grounded from video games until further notice.

liking the new areas

2006-07-28T12:53:00.000-05:00

yesterday, pulled up orc. ore and 2 petrified logs in the thickets, and another adaman in the woodlands. fatigue set in after 10 stacks.

today i used up the 5 stacks I still had in the woodlands and wound up with crap.

new areas

2006-07-26T13:59:00.000-05:00

today digging fatigue set in shortly after i started on the 13th stack of greens. i did use a few stacks of the 2 of the new zones, got an adaman ore and ebony log, but nothing else amazing from that session. i also pulled up black chocobo feathers, dates, pebbles, moko grass, dried majoram, and blue rocks.

the evil empire strikes

2006-07-25T20:04:00.000-05:00

bots lost, but so did us

digging fatigue sets in after 20 stacks of greens?!? WTF?!? 50 stacks would been fair, but 20 stacks was too drastic. Once fatigue sets in, you got to wait til the next JP day before you can dig items again. Lame.

update is here

2006-07-24T19:32:00.000-05:00

after a long 7 hour maintenance, the update is here and i'm back in the game. As soon as I get a few other in-game things done I'll be digging.

sigh

2006-07-21T00:35:00.000-05:00

Still on my mini-vacation from digging. I don't think I missed much, the prices are still down. I've been just leveling PLD and trying to level parry skill whenever I can. I'll resume digging after the FFXI update next week.

damn undercutters

2006-07-15T13:55:00.000-05:00

I think I'm going to take couple days off from digging and level up PLD. The person that been buying gold ores/beastcoins from me is out of gil from leveling up goldsmithing, and darksteel ores are at all-time low prices right now.

finally. . .

2006-07-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

just dinged A25 rank. 1180 stacks of greens to get from A30 to A25. Thank god, as the prices of the items I was targeting have dropped during this time, and they dropped when I was out of town. :/

almost to dinging

2006-07-11T22:57:00.000-05:00

i got in another 120 stacks of greens today. I could had pushed it to 150+ stacks if I wanted to, but competition really heated up in the final 20 stacks and I called it a night after that. It also sucks that darksteel ores dipped to 17k a pop when I returned to vacation, but I'm making due. My alchemy mule dinged 74.3 today as well.

mondays suck

2006-07-10T22:40:00.000-05:00

its monday, and back to digging. first 80 stacks digging in gustaberg: 2 darksteel ores. last 20 stacks in same area: 4 darksteel ores and 1 cactus stems. I also pulled up 22 mythril beastcoins and 11 grain seeds in the 100 stacks I did today. I have hit the 1000 stack mark of the craftsman rank, I should be dinging within 500-800 stacks.

got home today

2006-07-09T23:33:00.000-05:00

I got home around 5pm today and been doing unpacking/grocery shopping/etc. I'll resume digging either Monday or Tuesday. I'm tired right now.

stuff finally selling

2006-06-28T14:07:00.000-05:00

I decided to leave my character logged in while I slept. All but 4 darksteel ore and all but 3 stacks of bone chips sold while I slept. The stack of grain seeds should sell in a while, and 4 stacks of mythril beastcoins are still waiting to sell.

I opted to skip this early waxing crescent. Undead besieged was coming up during this time but I opted to skip that as well, as I got a lot of real life chores to do (finish cleaning those showers, and get laundry started). With yours truly leaving for the southeast in less than 48 hours, there is a lot of things to get done in a short amount of time. With my mother unable to do much in the way of house cleaning due to her bad shoulder, I'm stuck with the dirty work as my dad won't do it and you can't convince him to help.

couple days til vacation

2006-06-28T03:22:00.000-05:00

in just over 48 hours from now I'll be leaving for vacation. No FFXI which means no digging during the 9-day vacation. As a result, I'm hoping everything I got in bazaar and/or AH would sell before then. For some reason, the turnover rates have not been living up to par lately.

I did 60 stacks of greens Tuesday. I was AFK for part of the day for a while after the besieged with mammols, to get some errands done. So much things to do for vacation.

Early waxing crescent will begin in a few hours but I don't think I'm going to do any digging during this time. If those darksteel ores would hurry up and sell it would be one thing, but they haven't and right now it isn't worth the time to turn them into ingots as they're moving even slower.

darksteel pulling

2006-06-27T01:30:00.000-05:00

today i did 100 stacks of greens (could had done more if it wasn't for the fact i went afk for 3 hours for funeral home visitation) in north and south gustaberg. the results were much better than yesterday. 11 darksteel ores, 20 mythril beastcoins, 7 grain seeds, and 6 1/2 stacks of bone chips. 74.4k spent on ghysal greens, made a approximate profit of 373k when everything decides to hurry up and sell. The fact I did some digging around full moon helped, as a good chunk of the day before fell during quarter moon.

halfway point

2006-06-26T01:03:00.000-05:00

700 stacks into my level. today i pulled up 2 darksteel ore, 1 cactus stems, 9 grain seeds, 14 mythril beastcoins, and 4 stacks of bone chips in 70 stacks of greens. not a great haul of goods for that number of stacks, but it was better than the results I had Saturday. Bone chips have dropped in price considerably, which doesn't help my cause either. Today, spent 52k on greens, made about 90k in profit. Right now, trolls will be entering Al Zahbi soon (about an hour from now), so I'm waiting for them to show up so I can get some sleep.

I don't think I'm going to get much digging done this week prior to vacation that I would like. Had a death on mom's side of the family over the weekend (this one everyone knew it was coming it was just a matter of when) and I have to go to the funeral visitation monday and the funeral itself on tuesday. I got first cousins coming in for this, and some I haven't seen in years so I'm going to try to visit with them while I got a chance.

On a positive note, Sandy claimed Sarutabaruta on the Remora server for the second time ever. This one I wasn't expecting, but its nice to have 200 gil outpost warps to Windy again.

tired

2006-06-25T01:55:00.000-05:00

i got home from my niece's recital in time for early waxing crescent, but this one was in middle of jp primetime and on a weekend. as a result there were tons of diggers out. since it was very late at night, I only did 20 stacks with lackluster results, then went to bed. I was very tired.

TGIF, sorta

2006-06-23T22:38:00.000-05:00

Just went past 600 stacks into my digging rank tonight. Only 700-1000 stacks to go at the very least til I ding again. I doubt I will ding before leaving on vacation next weekend, because aside for one or two days in the past 2 weeks I have done little digging due to real life stuff and those recent besieges.

I have pulled up 8 grain seeds (to finish off a stack), stack of mythril beastcoins, and 4 darksteel ore while digging today in gustaberg region, along with 6 stacks of bone chips. However, for some reason, undercutters have hit bone chip prices hard and the other stuff on AH hasn't sold yet.

Last night our server lost besieged for the first time, to the undead swarm. Lack of peeps (only 200 in Al Zahbi where there is usually 500-600 peeps) and starting with 3 serpent generals did not help matters out at all. The Astral Candescence was recovered about 4 hours 20 minutes after undead took it. I was praying that a new besieged would take place sometime during the last quarter moon tonight but I guess not.

yay

2006-06-21T21:36:00.000-05:00

I got home in time from the store for the start of early waxing crescent. Competition was fierce, but I made one of my successful digs count

That one happened on the 460th stack of my current digging rank. Very first elemental ore I ever dug up. I expect more in the near future, even though it probably won't happen for a few days at least.

chocobo stables in al zahbi opening soon

2006-06-21T12:21:00.000-05:00

just found out that SE is opening chocobo stables in Al Zahbi next month following the version update. soon it will be time to bring in greens and see what new items can be dug up.

parser now works, more post-maint besieged

2006-06-21T00:41:00.000-05:00

b/c of a second day in a row of emergency maintenance, the besieged timers were reset again and guess what, I had to be in the thick of 3 besieged back-to-back-to-back. our server managed to win all 3 of them at the expense of just 9 prisoners but 3 of them were serpent generals and 1 warp taru. Got ~1950 IS from the 3 besieged (didn't get the max the first one b/c of lack of curing in part b/c one of the serpent generals I had targeted was one-shotted by a TP move of a mob), which I'm starting to stack up again for future use later.

i did managed to do 30 stacks today. would done more but the moon phase wasn't favorable (i hate digging during quarter moon). dug up a red rock that turned into a garnet, a darksteel ore, a gold beastcoin, enough bone chips for 2 stacks, and enough mythril beastcoins to finish off a stack. not the best digging results in the world, but hopefully SE would quit pulling off screwballs and I can get back into an rhythym that I was pulled out of thanks to real life and emergency maintenance.

parser working again

2006-06-20T12:05:00.000-05:00

for now, I'll have to record the stacks by hand. the dig parser software broke last night and I had to delete those logs as a result. the parser started working again after I cleaned out the logs, but now i'll have to add 420 to the "stack total" until I hit my next digging rank.