Just started

[Shahes]

Hello Cerberus!

Started playing the other night, Elvaan THF. Having fun so far. Ran a bunch of the San d'Oria town quests and slowly working my way up in level. Just made my way to King Ranperre's Tomb. I have been devouring all the info I can on the Wiki while I play.

I am looking to meet some of the personalities on Cerberus and start socializing. I would like to make FFXI my main MMO (right now I dabble in Eve and been playing DDO off and on) I like how FF has unique looking classes and the ability to change jobs without re-rolling my character really appeals to me as I like to try everything to find what I like.

The only issue I have so far is the lack of control I have over the interface and camera. I might feel more comfortable playing on my xbox than I do on the PC as the setup just seems more suited to a controller than a mouse.

Sorry, I am rambling now. Anyways, I play nights EST time hope to be on around 10 tonight. Hello and I look forward to meeting you all online.

[Daos]

Howdy. If you need any help figuring anything out or anything, just ask.

I agree, the mouse doesn't handle the camera very well. I prefer to use the keyboard instead. Once you get used to it, you can become quite efficient with it.

[Yellow Mage]

mouse.

The keyboard is your friend.

Trust me on this one: you'll forget that you can even try to use a mouse, once you get the hang of it.

[Shahes]

I started using my 360 controller while playing on my PC with the wireless adapter and it works great.

[IfritnoItazura]

Keyboard and controller is the way to go.

Mouse has but one use: picking out a PC (or NPC) in a crowd--and, that's only if the person isn't in party.

[Feba]

Keyboard is the best way to control FFXI. Period.

All you need is a keyboard. Throw the controller and mouse away.

[IfritnoItazura]

I just can't get used to moving around using the keyboard. Hold "forward", tap "left", hold "left", let "left" go, tap... Argh! I just want to make a (changing radius) left turn without bumping into anything!

Much easier on the controller, where you just push the analog stick in the direction you want to go, instead of continuously fiddling with the numeric keypad's keys and watch your character doing the stupid zig zag on screen all the time.

Not to say that the controller wins all; getting to the equipment and weapon skill menus are definitely faster on the keyboard. (Which would've been important enough for me to switch to keyboard as the primary input device, except most of my equipment switching and WS usage are macro'ed.)

[Feba]

keyboard directional control is nearly as good as a joystick once you get used to it, without having to take your hands off the keyboard it definitely has the advantage.

You bring up an interesting point though-- the equip/WS menus. EQ screen is definitely easier to pull up on keyboard, but it can actually be faster to switch via the menu than macro sometimes if you're used to using the keyboard. For example, instead of having equip changes in spell macros, a lot of the time I would just switch during my cast time. Saves me from swapping when I DON'T want to, and I don't have to use Windower macros to get all the changes I want in.

[Ellipses]

My taste on controls has changed over time. I used to play pretty much exclusively with a controller, and only used the keyboard for F8 and chatting.

Now, I only break out the controller very rarely, and it's usually only for farming or something where I don't need to pay too much attention. In a party, I'm all keyboard. That might be different once I start maging and barding, and have more than one macro set in use.

Keyboard movement is good enough, and not that functionally different. The controller is a hell of a lot more comfortable for it, though.