Chocobo Digging

Well, I picked up my FFXI chocobo digging recently and finally made it to the rank of Initiate. That means that I have slightly better accuracy than someone just starting out and I can dig every six seconds instead of every sixteen. Wahoo! My area wait time is at 50 seconds, meaning that I can't start digging until 50 seconds after I've zoned. This is down from a full minute when you start out.

I raised a digging chocobo with the Bore and Burrow abilities to increase the rate of successful digs. With maxed out discernment I'm finding that my successful dig rate is way better than I had ever encountered before and I can stay competitive in the jungles without a problem. With 67 woodworking skill, I synth the higher priced logs into lumber and have been surprised with a few HQ's that result in more lumber than logs and increase my income. At this point in the game, though, I'm still aiming to pay for my digging sessions. Anything extra is just a nice surprise.

I think I made a mistake by getting the Sky Blue Racing Silks. It seems, after doing some reading, that it is rather inconclusive what they do for your skill. Sure, I get the messages that my chocobo has gained knowledge from digs quite frequently, but what does that mean exactly? I still haven't found any comprehensive arguments that can say with any certainty that this is actually directly improving skillup rates to cut down the time required to level up your digging skill. Why is that so important? As an initiate I see a slightly better accuracy rate and I can dig quicker. The next rank is the first one that really starts setting you up for the big leagues. Players will often refer to the Novice rank as A45. The reason being is that, of course, your area wait time drops from 50 seconds after zoning to 45, but furthermore, this is the first rank where you receive 0 delay between digs. So, instead of waiting six seconds to dig again, you can basically do it back to back. Going on with this, each successive rank contiunes the decrease in area wait time by five seconds while maintaining the 0 delay between digs. On and on it goes until you finally reach the rank of Expert with an area wait time of 10 seconds. This rank is often referred to as A10, catching on?

Aside from the obvious benefits of ranking up your digging skill, higher ranked players also gain access to digs that would be impossible for newbs like me. We're talking about elemental ore, orichalcum ore, adaman ore, and precious metal beastcoins plus other hard to obtain items. This is where all that hard work starts to pay off. You no longer worry about whether you're going to break even on greens, now we're talking about putting the little Tarus through college. That's the idea, anyway. The problem is that after the anti-RMT actions instituted into the game, the fatigue system will only allow you to dig up 100 items a day, which resets at midnight in Japan. From everything I've read, that puts you on schedule to obtain your A10 rank after a mere 20-22 months of digging to cap every single day. That's right, no holidays, no birthdays, no anniversaries off, digging every single day to fatigue. Bleh!

I suppose that's why I had such high hopes for the Sky Blue Racing Silks. With the idea that I could shorten that time, well, I was pretty stoked. I have since learned that I may be much better off going with the Blue Racing Silks, which increase the number of successful digs per day substantially. Hmm, immediate payoff. If FFXIV weren't right around the corner I might be tempted to just stick it out and see how these Skill + silks work out, but the truth of the matter is that I really don't have the intention to stay in this game for that long. Sure, the quest for 99 sounds like it might be kind of fun, but let's face it. I have become a loner in this Final Fantasy game. My friends have moved on or only log on once in a blue moon and it gets lonely. I work full time and I've got a family and I just don't have the time to try to foster new friendships. Let's face it, in this game it's always been a crapshoot of hit or miss and generally these things include helping other people with the things they MUST have in the hope that they reciprocate later on. In my experience, I end up spending a lot of time helping others who are quick to forget the good deed. New addons or not, I think it's time for me to move on. Until then, though, I'm having fun seeing what I can dig up in my old stomping grounds.

Last night I got a few gold beastcoins and some choice pieces of ore and logs. I made more than I spent on greens and, who knows, maybe I got a few good skill increases somewhere in there. I'm already halfway to getting my new racing silks to increase my successful digs and I suppose I'll keep the others in my storage in case some new information comes to light later on down the road.

My experiences so far have left me hoping that an improved version of chocobo raising and digging find themselves in Final Fantasy XIV. I also hope that the developers find better ways to mitigate RMT activities than dictating what real players can do with their time in game. There will always be other ways around it. And really, what's to stop an RMT joint to bot up a few more mules and keep the dig botting going around the clock? All it really does is make it harder for real players to track competitors. I would much rather avoid a zone always occupied by a single player who dig bots than try to keep up with his many alts. But, alas, we digress into the topic of how Fishing and Digging have had their noses cut off to spite the face -- and that, my friends, shall be for another day.

Until then, happy digging!