H.E.L.M Guide and Etiquette.

[Vair]

Harvesting, Excavating, Logging, and Mining. What do these things have in common? People have to go out and work to get them. Without the Farmers, Archeologists, Lumber Jacks and Miners most of the crafters would be at a loss, unless they go and obtain their own materials. We keep the game growing, we keep the economy going, we are the base of almost everything.

So, shouldn't we have a few rules?

Way back in the day we had guidelines that we followed and made everything go along a lot smoother. But now that I've come back I realize that they might have been forgotten. So I'm going to write these guidelines to follow.

Keep in mind that these are only guidelines, I'm NOT telling you what to do. I just want to make this experience enjoyable for everyone.

H.E.L.M Guidelines For Beginners

Welcome to the unofficial H.E.L.M Handbook. Let me take this time to thank you for reading this and maybe even taking it into consideration. I will continue to expand on this Guide and Etiquette, any suggestions and help would be appreciated.

~Vair.

---

Leeching
The point belongs to whoever found it first. It’s that simple. Let me give you an example: A person has been working on a mining point for a fair bit of time. They keep digging up pebbles and copper, this usually means that a Dark steel ore is behind it all. Then another person comes up and mines it while the first person is. They get the Ore and the first person is left with a bunch of pebbles.

Leeching is the number one Cardinal Sin. Please, don’t do it, it’s just plain rude.

Price Fluctuation~ Auction House
Keeping the prices at one level is very imperative. Raising the price results in aggravated Crafters, Lowering the price results in angry Workers. If the price is kept at one level then everyone can remain moderately happy. Trust me, your items will sell, just give it some time.


Contracts
Setting up contracts with Crafters can be a fun and enjoyable experience and everyone benefits. Here are some simple steps to follow:

a.) Find a Crafter whom you can trust.

b.) Set up a quota for them for monthly, weekly, daily, bi-daily, etc.

c.) Offer to lower your prices in exchange for guaranteed buys.

d.) Keep your word.

Maximizing Profit
Maximizing profit is simply turning what money you have into even more money. It’s very possible to turn 2,000 Gil into 200,000 Gil in a matter of minutes (If you’re lucky).

• Buying your supplies
  Buying your pickaxes, axes and sickles from NPCs is probably the best idea. They’re usually much lower in price than the Auction House.

• Clothing
  Start out small. Don’t buy any clothing until you’re absolutely sure you want to continue doing that as a means of making money. Then, when you’re fairly sure you want to keep on doing it, buy the level one gear. When you’re ready for hardcore hours of work for great profits buy the Plus 1 gear.

• Watch for trends
  Find what’s in demand and what’s not. For example, Cooking might be a rising popular trend, so start harvesting. Remember you’re not limited to just one job.

Courtesy
Don’t be rude to your fellow workers. Making friends is much better then making enemies. You’re not going to be Working the entire time you’re playing FFXI, a friend might come in handy for filling an empty spot in an EXP party or Mission/Quest party.

Find a job that suits you

• Harvesting and Logging
  If you enjoy the outdoors and seeing a great number of people then these would be great for you. Lower levels might benefit from this more seeing as how the outdoors usually have lower level mobs.

• Mining and Excavating
  If you like being alone in dark, secluded places these present you with just that. Mining and Excavating allows for a lot of alone time without that damn sun in your face.

Working Smart
Lower level areas don’t usually present you with much of an opportunity to make much money. But you don’t want to wait to level to 50 to start mining in Gusgen? Well there’s a simple solution for that. Leveling WHM to 25 gives you sneak and Invisible, which allows you to roam freely in such an area. (Avoid Ifrit’s Cauldron… Trust me; mining there is a death wish)

Places to buy:

• Pickaxes

1. Bastok Markets: Boytz
2. Port Bastok: Numa
3. Upper Jeuno: Champalpieu
4. South San d'Oria: Ostalie
5. Windurst Waters: Upih Khachla

Final Note~

Harvesting Maps. Previously posted by Jei: http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/gulif/ziq_topeng.html

I will continue to expand upon this. Any comments, suggestions and help would be great.

Moderator's Edit: Stickied and edited for clarity, spelling, and readability - Icemage

Note: (Sunday, September 17, 2006 7:15 P.M Central) I will not be able to finish this guide for a long, long period of time. I have recently started college and it's not easy at all. I only have time to do the basics such as level and do quests and missions. Thus, I do not have enough time for anything else. Please forgive this. I can resume probably next summer.

[Omniblast]

Leeching) There was once a article or complaint about leeching, how "if you don't claim something it is not yours" What is to stop someone from going up to someone else and trying to get their dig? I suppose nothing, however that is where competition comes in or something like that.

I'm not condoning the action of someone stealing someone else's H.E.L.M. point, however there is nothing to do to stop them from doing so.

[Taodyn]

While I applaud you for the excellent effort to educate beginners, I do take a cynical view toward the effectiveness of the guide.

The problem has never been educating people about etiquette. Even someone who has never even discussed farming/HELM etiquette should understand basic social graces and avoid unsavory behavior.

Everyone knows what is and is not acceptable. I mean, would you honestly believe someone who said "I didn't know it was wrong to steal mining points?"

The problem with this system is making people adhere to the etiquette system through a system of checks and balances.

The mob system has been designed so (usually) it is impossible for another player to take a mob you are currently fighting. The nature of HELM points, however, does not allow for any sort of claiming.

This means that anyone who wants to abuse the system has free reign to do so. Etiquette or not, people who want to break the rules will break the rules.

Basically, it comes down to good people should already understand the etiquette and bad people aren't going to pay attention to it anyway.

I honestly think this is a great guide and, if there was some way to enforce these concepts, would no doubt be a boon for the community. Unfortunately, people are a little too stubborn for our own good some times.

Still, good job.

[Vair]

Yes, I agree that it basically comes down to whether or not a person has common courtesy, which isn't somthing you see often any more. When I post somthing involving Etiquette I know that it probably won't help, but I feel like it's necessary for some reason.

There is the way things should be, and the way they are. Theoretically speaking it would be nice if people followed what I wrote, but they probably won't. It's more or less for people who want to learn the basics of H.E.L.M "at a glance".

[Taodyn]

Yes, I agree that it basically comes down to whether or not a person has common courtesy, which isn't somthing you see often any more. When I post somthing involving Etiquette I know that it probably won't help, but I feel like it's necessary for some reason.

There is the way things should be, and the way they are. Theoretically speaking it would be nice if people followed what I wrote, but they probably won't. It's more or less for people who want to learn how the basics of H.E.L.M "at a glance".

I entirely agree with you.

Discussing etiquette is very important. While I do question it's effectiveness, I cannot undermine it's importance.

If people stop disseminating ideas like this, noone will ever be exposed to them.

[Balfree]

mining in olton movalpolololz (cant spell!) is usually more hassle than its worth, alot of people have the great habit to steal your points, then what do i do? i steal them back because im not to be tempered with! >8-|

but this once.. it was like.. wee! both me and the dude were on a similiar pace and reaching the points at the same time, what did we do..? /randoms XD, we followed eachother to each point, we would wait until the other's done, and we would random to see who gets the point, fair and civil, and we did it for HOURS, simply because it wasnt a boring experience... much better than running around mad about other workers, good times

[Ayrlie]

i gave up mining long time ago, but i used to let legit peeps that claimed the spot to have it. gilsellers got no respect.

i now do digging, while gilsellers have taken up that craft as well, they are extremely predictable and i have managed to get a lot of good digs on their turf.

[dsynfull]

Question With this Helm guide does anyone have a Link to maps to show where you can Harvest and stuff? I saw a thread here with a link to a map section but cannot find this thread now.

[Jei]

http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/gulif/ziq_topeng.html

[pearlsea]

#1 rule of mining, do not undercut...i have seen the price of adaman go from the good price of 110k all the way down to 30k, im not going mining again looking for adaman till the price rises again.

BTW this on fairy

[dsynfull]

thanks for the mining map location.. hmm seems i cannot find no harvest spots in West Sara to start my harvesting.. Are there Better spots? I even got a Gyshal green from it once.. gave it to a LS member since they was doing the chocobo quest.

[Lucky and Elizabeth]

Courtesy
Don’t be rude to your fellow workers. Making friends is much better then making enemies. You’re not going to be Working the entire time you’re playing FFXI, a friend might come in handy for filling an empty spot in an EXP party or Mission/Quest party.

Once when I was mining I meet someone who was just mineing Tin Ore to make Tin Ingots. He asked me if I could give him any Tim I found.

Of course I also needed the Tin for Bronze Ingots, buyt then I had an idea. I could also make Copper Ingots at that low lv.

So Iasled him if he could give me Copper ore if I gave him Tin. We agreed and we traded, and we mined different location and when we were full we traded the ore we didn't need. for the ore we did and we became friends.