SMN Quest Confusion. Please Help!

[Snowball]

What is the best time of day to try and get this elemental fire icon thing in Altepa? I tend to play in the evenings round abut after 10:00pmGMT.
Or is this thing random?

I just wish that SE wouldn't make this this thing so DAMN rare!
That's the really annoying thing about it.

All the others are not rare, so why do they have to cut off their noses to spite their face? I think it's just VERY STUPID!!
And so far it's made this damn thing very unlucky for me

[Icemage]

Actually, Snowball, it's relatively easy to pick up the fire element icon if you just spend some time levelling. You'll eventually get invited to XP in Altepa in the mid-30s, which gives you all kinds of opportunity to pick up fire element (which is mostly random - check with the weather NPCs to see what your chances are at any given moment, but they're only about 90% accurate).

Unless you're hell-bent on making SMN your main job, stop wasting time waiting for it - it'll happen on its own sooner or later if you're religious about carrying the ruby with you.


Icemage

[avimage]

If your wondering about an approximate timeframe in game its generally between 12:00 and 16:00 in both valkurm and altepa. Any time not in that time frame is rare but still occurs, but I noticed this while leveling ni altepa, then later lvling brd in the dunes.

[Snowball]

You said between 12:00 and 16:00. Do you mean in game time or real time?

Also, regarding Altepa.
~avimage~ you give me the impression that Altepa is the next place for partying after Garleige Citadel. Is this correct?
If not, then please could you tell me which place is next for partying cause I don't know.

A while ago, someone wrote out a long list of places in FFXl and wrote them out in the order of levels for which places you go to for partying. I don't know where it is now.
If anyone comes across it, please could they send me a link to it.
Thanks

[Taskmage]

http://campsitarus.blogspot.com/ <= This is a good site for knowing where to camp at what level. There is no one place to party at any given level, even though some people think that way.

12:00-16:00 is game time. During the heat of the Vana'diel day.

[Snowball]

I don't really understand that site. Does that page tell you where to go for levelling? Since I am Lvl 31 WHM it starts off by saing that :

30-32 Batallia Downs (Evil Weapon)
30-32 Rolanberry Fields (Evil Weapon)

This isn't correct because at LvL 31 you go to Garleige Citadel for partying.
Well everyone on Fenrir does anyway. (this is the server I am playing on)

I think I need something more easier to understand than that site.
I'm sorry.

[Taskmage]

You're reading it correctly. If you look a little farther down the list you'll see:

30-35 Eastern Altepa Desert
and
32-35 Garlaige Citadel

They're both bolded in the list because these are the popular leveling spots andare likely to be overcrowded.

As I said before, there is no "one place" to party at any given level. Most people just think that way. In fact, there's a huge world full of viable targets and campsites that are rarely taken advantage of.