Alt Fiend

me:

Eorzean Aesthetics - The Black Shroud

I’m having fun

Sabs is not.

Wikis

Gamer Escape - Probably the most comprehensive wiki for the game.  Tons and tons of info on basically everything, plus Discus comments at the bottom of each page.

ConsoleGames FFXIV Wiki - Another wiki, also very comprehensive, but in a more familiar, traditional, Wikipedia-esque format.

Final Fantasy Wiki - A good solid wiki, but has information for ALL Final Fantasy Games, so requires a bit of navigating.

FFXIV Guild - Somewhat out of date, but offers several still-useful guides for leveling things.

Gathering and Crafting

Garland Tools Database - Extremely comprehensive, constantly updated.  Amazing for making lists of what you want and doing all the math for you on how to get it.  Lots of other tools on the site, but this one’s the one you remember it for!

Teamcraft - Simliar in many ways to Garland, but has tools the above does not, and vice-versa.  Requires a login, but also gives you access to community input, such as rotations people have figured out, as well as tracking your crafting and gathering logs.

XIV Angler - For when you need to know HOW to catch that @&$%ing fish.  Baits, weathers, windows, even hooking info.

FFXIV Crafting Optimizer - Never lose mats to figuring out a rotation again!  Also saves your stats in a cookie, so once you plug everything in, it’s easy to keep yourself up to date and come up with the best rotations.  Also makes macros for you.

FFXIV Clock - Does exactly what it sounds like it does.  For an alarm that will make noise regardless of what you’re tabbed into, use these settings.

Crafting as a Service - Find out what gear you need, find out what mats you need, and figure out how the HECK to level DoH.

Forum Thread - Desynthesis Guide - Exactly as advertised.  Useful to get through items you can get from ARR and HW, but drops off there.

FFXIV Gardening - How to crossbreed, what to crossbreed, and what success rates you’re looking at.  “Worth nothing that the efficiency ratings on FFXIV Gardening are NOT success rates! They are an efficiency calculation based on price of the seeds, how hard they are to obtain, and a few other factors.”  Thank you @renofmanyalts for the clarification!

Hunting

Ariyala Hunt Tracker - Ariyala has several other tools, but this is probably by and large the best dang tool on the site.  It’s broken down by server, and it relies on peoples’ inputs for kill times.  Of note, trackers for Behemoth, Odin, and Ixion are included.

Horus Hunts - Dedicated exclusively to tracking hunts.  User interface is a little complex, but isn’t difficult to figure out at all.  Does require accounts for reporting, but accounts are linked to Lodestone profiles, making it easier to tell if the site is being trolled or not.  Of note: as of May 2019, the site is prone to long load times and frequent downtime, usually due to the (probably unexpected) volume of user traffic.

FFXIV Hunts Pathfinder - For daily hunts, shows you the simplest ways to get them all knocked out in a manner that doesn’t make you want to punch Yoshi-P.  Has ARR, HW, and SB pathfinders.

Cable Monkey’s Hunt Maps - Never ask where Squonk is again!  Spawn points for ARR, HW, and SB hunt marks, B, A, and S ranks.  THIS SITE WILL NOT BE UPDATED FOR SHADOWBRINGERS

FFXIV Hunts - Almost identical to Cable Monkey’s site, but a much more user-friendly layout, with collapsible sections by expansion.

Collections and Logs

Sightseeing Log Helper - Where to go, when to go, what emote to use.  Also keeps track of which sightseeing log entries you’ve done, and can filter them out.

Eureka Tracker - THE Eureka tracker website.  Create and share NM spawns in each zone, check the weather, even tell people if the local Pazuzu is up or not!  Also has a logos tracker!

FFLogos - For keeping track of what mnemes you’ve got, what you need, and what actions you’ve unlocked.  Will tell you if you can make something based on your input of what you’ve got in your inventory.

Eorzea Music - Excellent way to keep track of what orchestrion rolls you have and don’t have, as well as where to get all of them.  Asks you to create an account, but is free.

Apkallu Falls - A rather comprehensive collection of collection trackers.  Does require a login for manual tracking, but covers just about everything you would want to collect except Triple Triad cards.

Glamour

XIV Style - A comprehensive catalogue of What The Heck Does It Look Like, very neatly sorted and categorized.

Eorzea Collection - We all know glamour is the true endgame, and this is the catalogue to look at if you want glamour inspiration or just want to see what other people are wearing.  Basically the Vogue Magazine for FFXIV.

Miraprisnap - Very similar to Eorzea Collection; a gallery for inspiration, but entirely in Japanese, with no translation available.

Miscellaneous Tools

FFXIV Squadron - A website that does annoying squadron math for you!  Find out if you actually can do that mission or not the (relatively) easy way.

Chocobo Color Calculator - Accurate results for what to stuff your birb with to get the color you want, plus or minus RNG.  Because it’s not really FFXIV if there isn’t RNG in it.

FF14 Housing - Images of housing items in the game, as well as where to get them.  Updated regularly, very comprehensive.

Housing Snap - A housing magazine, basically, chock full of ideas, inspirations, and really pretty pictures.  Of note: the website is in Japanese, and does not seem to have any translations to select from.

Skywatcher Plus - Just in case you want something that does nothing but tell you the weather.  Does not include Eureka weather.

Character Card Generator - Fun little character card generator.

Instant Sloppy - Because this list would absolutely not be complete without this.  You already know what it does.

Credits

Special thank-yous for contributing go to:

@roses-and-grimoires - recommended Apkallu Falls

@ooc-llorne - recommended Housing Snap and Teamcraft

@renofmanyalts - clarification of % rates noted on FFXIV Gardening

This is one of my worst pet peeves in Role playing or doing any collaborative writing with other people. It’s something I myself have been guilty of, especially if my muse is running low and I am forcing out replies. It’s something I see a lot of even from very good writers. It’s a widespread problem, that is exhausting for an RP partner to deal with in threads especially if it’s every reply.

And just like any problem – the first step in resolving it is looking out for it and realizing it’s there to begin with. Being conscious about this I personally believe separates a good RP partner from a great one.

I’m talking about passive replies.

Passive replies come in various forms. They can be anything from a novella sized reply – to a one-liner but they all share a similar trait. They do not contribute to pushing the action of a thread forward. They tend to be a summary of the reply preceding it through their character’s eyes with a small verbal or nonverbal reaction to the character they are interacting with. They do not add any new information for the other character to react to because the reply is pure reaction without any proactive elements.

This means your thread basically becomes the equivalent of a conversation like this:

Hey, you!  Oh, Hey! How are you? Oh, I’m good. What are you up to? Nothing much, really. Have any plans? No. Not really.

It’s a functional conversation – sure, but it’s one-sided and relies on one person driving the action while the other simply responds. It is exhausting for one mun to constantly be the one driving the action of a scene forward. It makes things harder to respond to because you’re giving your RP partner fairly little to work with. The example above is obviously an extremely simplified example - but I hope you can get the gist of what I am getting at.  

Even if your character is shy, or anti-social, or maladjusted in someway – your replies can still play and active role in the situation. Being an active participant in a thread doesn’t meant that your muse has to be crazy and outgoing. It means that you have to do more than simply react to what is happening. Every reply should add at least one new thing for your partner to react to.

This can be anything from adding to the conversation – not just reacting to what was said prior. This can be your character doing some non verbal action. This could be and NPC or outside situation or the weather doing something to react to. No matter what the situation is – there are things your muse can do to be an active part of the scene, and not just a reactionary prop.

If your replies or even your starters are one of these two things:

1) Expecting someone to find or stumble upon your muse in someway. Or relies on your partner to initiate some action between your characters. 2) Is just a summary of what happened in their reply through your character’s eyes without adding anything new.

It’s a passive reply – and by nature harder to respond to. It means you should consider looking over your reply and tweaking it to give the other character something more to work with to take the pressure off and your partners should be doing the same for you. After all a conversation like this:

Hey, haven’t seen you in forever! I know right? What have you been up to? Honestly – nothing much. Work’s been murder. What about you? Ah that’s unfortunate. I’m the same, but I’m going out for drinks later want to come? I can’t tonight, have to wake up early tomorrow. Maybe we can catch up later?

Is a much more interesting conversation because both parties are doing their part to drive the action forward.

It’s easy to say that passive replies are spawned from laziness or poor writing. But they’re not (the vast majority of the time anyway). Even good writers who make beautiful replies do it. I personally think it spawns from equal parts insecurity and good intentions. People don’t want to rock the boat, or take risks with their writing in case they accidentally step on any toes. Not realizing of course that they are putting strain on the writer they are working with by letting them drive all the action.

It can be exhausting.

Roleplaying is a collaborative writing experience. A great RP partner is someone who works with you as a team to tell the story of both your characters. Each person should be putting forth new things to react to and being an active part in building something awesome. It makes for a more interesting read and more dynamic plots and quite frankly more chances for characters to build genuine chemistry.