Starters Guide

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=Starters Guide=
~~Under Construction~~
Please check the talk page before editing, thank you.
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==What is the Starters Guide?==
Welcome one and all to the starters guide, this is a guide for anyone who has no knowledge of FFXI (Final Fantasy XI) and as such attempts to be as thorough as possible in all instances where information is given. This guide will give basic information, straight forward descriptions and helpful hints for those with little experience of the game under their belts. So without further a-do, lets begin.
==Welcome to FFXI==
Final Fantasy XI(11) is an MMORPG, that's, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. First released on the PS2 in may 2002 in Japan, then the PC version was released in November 2002 in Japan, then a year later in October 2003 for North America (with the PS2 version releasing of march earlier that year) and a year later still in September 2004 for Europe (there has been no EU PS2 version released,) and the game saw a release on the Xbox 360 in April 2006 for all regions.
If you would like more information on some of the games statistics and a general passive over-view, read the Wikipedia article.
What you have is a game taking place over the expansive 3D game-world of Vana'diel, with its own economy, culture, weather system, conflict, history and future! Immerse yourself as an 'adventurer' and explore this world on your own or get together and make new friends with people who are sharing your experiences!
===The Basics===
Welcome to the world of Vana'Diel!
====Race====
One of the first questions a new player will be prompted involves the race a player has to choose from. There are eight options available: male and female Hume, male and female Elvaan, male and female Tarutaru, Galka and Mithra. There are no gender options for Galka or Mithra, as Galka are primarily perceived as an all male race, and Mithra as all female.
Below are basic descriptions of the gameplay stats each race possesses. All other features, such as face, hair and size are strictly cosmetic. 
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Galka
The Galka are a hardy race, well known for their physical abilities. They possess intense Vitality and HP.
Tarutaru
The short Tarutaru (sometimes simply called Taru) are capable of wielding the highest degree of magic. Their high Intelligence and MP are their keys to success.
Mithra
The quick Mithra are an all female race whose abilities include the highest Dexterity and Agility.	
Elvaan
The Elvaan are a race primarily of warriors. Their peak attributes are Strength and Mind.
Hume
The versatile Hume are the most common race found in Vana'Diel. They have no notable weaknesses.
====Job====
(As a quick note, you don't need to go into great detail about the pros and cons of a job, I mean we are talking to a person who at this point wouldn't even know what a party is, so use a simplistic description, along with what role they play, and please be objective.)
	
Black Mage(BLM)
Warrior(WAR)
Monk(MNK)	
Thief(THF)
Red Mage(RDM)
White Mage (WHM)
====Nation====
That's right, FFXI has its own nations and nationalities! On the two main continents of Quon and Mindartia there are four nations, the Federation of Windurst, the Kingdom of San d'Oria, the Republic of Bastok and the Grand Duchy of Jeuno
When you first create your character you will be given a choice to ally yourself with one of the first three nations. Each nation has a populous comprising mainly of one or two native races;
=====Windurst=====
Windurst is the only nation on the Mindartia continent, located at the southern most point. It is considered the 'Mage' nation, being the nation who first discovered and begin to utilize magic, its population is largely made up of native Tarutaru, although the Tarutaru here also share their nation with a small Mithran community, who originated from Kazham located on an island south east or Windurst. Windurst is a wise choice for anyone starting their career as a mage class (BLM, WHM, RDM and so on.) Every Tarutaru and Mithra who ally themselves to Windurst when they enter the game will receive a Windurstian Ring.
This nation is home to the Fisherman's Guild, Weavers Guild, Boneworks Guild and Culinarians Guild.
=====Bastok=====
Bastok is located along the south east coast of Quon, it is considered the home of technology and is the birth place of the industrial revolution of Vana'diel. This was owed to the brilliant war-time (and current) engineer, Cid. Bastok is home to a large Hume community, and also houses a small Galkan populous. Bastok is best equipped for those choosing heavy set fighters as their opening job in the adventuring world (WAR, THF) but also has facilities for other fighting role jobs, to a lesser extent perhaps RDM or MNK. Galkas and Humes who patriate to Bastok are rewarded with the Bastokan Ring
Bastok boasts ownership of an Alchemists Guild, Blacksmiths Guild and Goldsmiths Guild.
===== San d'Oria=====
San d'Oria is located on the norther half of Quon, it is a chivalrous, proud and profoundly religious nation, and is home almost exclusively to the Elvaan. The Elvaan are a traditional people, they learned to utilize many forms of both magic and weaponry, and as such tends to be a jack-of-all-trades nation, though still strongly catering for prestigious roles (such as MNK, WAR and perhaps WHM?) if you are an Elvaan, you can't really go wrong starting in this nation. Elvaans who do choose tradition when it comes to nationality are graced with the San d'Orian Ring.
San d'Oria proudly contains a Tanners Guild, Carpenters Guild and a Blacksmiths Guild.
====Controls====
Well, everyone needs to start somewhere, we might as well start with what you can do to control your character and its actions in the game, We'll start with a basic description of each control and then show you how to perform them.
Move Character
Plain and simple, this is how your character will move around, this is a 3D game, but your character cannot jump (your character can however, fall down holes). In this game there are two modes of view which will be defined later, each mode of view adjusts the movement actions of your character. 3rd person view (looking down on the character) makes any movement of the control move your character in that particular direction, whereas the 1st person view (looking from the eyes of your character) will make you move forward and backwards with the respective keys, and pivot left and right.
Action/Select closest target
In this game everything that can be interacted with will usually fall under the category of 'target', which selects that object/character for further actions, some targets such as doors will only have one function, when the action key is hit, the door will open. However when a character is targeted and the action key is pressed, a whole host of other options are available.
Cancel
Plain and simple, Use cancel to un-target, close menus and other windows, and even exit a chat dialog (when interacting with a NPC).
Open Chat Input Window 
This simple little button activates the text input box on things that require text input, such as macro boxes, chat, and so on. It prepares the game to receive the next text input, and after that is ready, the action key will input that text into the field.
Move Camera
This is what lets you see the wonderful world of Vana'Diel. The controls differ in each camera mode: in 3rd person view the camera will turn in that direction, in 3rd person view the camera will pivot from the axis which is the position of your character's head.
Auto-run
This is a very useful function, specially if you need to get somewhere in a hurry and someone starts talking to you. Auto-run, when activated, forces your character to continue moving in the direction you were moving in when it was pressed, and that movement could be either running or walking. While in auto-run you can move left, right, and of course stop. To stop while in auto-run, either hit the auto-run button again, or press backwards to whatever direction you are moving in.
Toggle Walk/Run
This is a simple function which toggles walk on/off. Your character's default movement on foot and while riding a chocobo is running; hitting this key will make you, or your chocobo, walk!
Lock on / Heal
Healing is most important in this game, specially for characters with MP, and early leveling. Healing is an action which regenerates your HP and MP over a period of time, however healing without signet active will reduce your TP by 10% with every regeneration (tick) of your HP/MP. Lock on is a feature which moves the camera over the shoulder when focused on a target, of course you need to be targeting something first in order to use Lock On. When lock on is active you will constantly face the target, any movement in any direction will only move you to the point where you are still facing the target (forward and backward will move slowly to and from the target, left and right will strafe around the target). Lock on has a limited range, and will deactivate when the target is out of range.
Select Active Window / Options Settings
This is handy for keeping up with conversations, with this you can keep track of everything that has been in the chat box; you can also use the same key to filter the chat box for specific chat channels for even less confusion! Isn't that handy? The same button is used to access the little options box on the right upper of the menu screen, its used to sort items and macros, basically whenever you see that little box in the top right corner you can use this button to access it!
Menu
This is how you access the game's finer functions, the menu will be described in detail further down; for now I'll simply state that this button accesses the menu, and when tapped again it'll access the secondary menu. To exit the menu, press cancel.
Switch Target 
This is a handy little function, specially in a party situation. This function basically lets you scroll through all available targets on screen from left to right, this is perfect when hunting for chests or mining points.
Zoom In 
Zooms the camera in, only available in the 3rd person camera mode.
Zoom Out
Zooms the camera out, only available in the 3rd person camera mode.
Hide All Windows
This simple function removes all visible function boxes and menus from the screen, so that you are left with a complete view of the game world from whatever perspective you're using.
Strafe
This key combined with left or right in 1st person camera mode will strafe the character left or right, instead of pivoting it on the spot. Strafe is common to other 1st person view games, but here it simply adds to the functionality of this camera mode.
Fixed Third Person View
This function simply centers your character in the middle of the screen and is a lot more rigid and set-in than the dynamic 3rd person view, this function is helpful indoors.
Snapshot
Say Cheese! This button takes a picture of the game screen and saves it to your photo album, which is accessed through the PlayOnline Viewer. You can only take a snapshot when "hide all windows" is active.
 
 
 Keyboard
 Xbox 360 
 PlayStation 2 
 Compact Keyboard (PC) 
 
 
 Move Character 
 8, 2, 4, 6 (Num Pad) 
 Left Thumbstick
 Left Thumbstick
 W, S, A, D 
 
 
 Action/Select closest target 
 Return Key (Enter) 
 A
 X
 Y
 
 
 Cancel
 Esc
 B
 O
 N
 
 
 Open Chat Input Window 
 Space Bar 
 RB
 R1
 Space Bar 
 
 
 Move Camera 
 Arrow Keys
 Right Thumbstick
 Right Thumbstick
 I, J, K, L 
 
 
 Autorun
 7 (Num Pad) 
 LB
 L1
 
 
 
 Toggle Walk/Run 
 / (Num Pad) 
 
 
 R
 
 
 Lock on / Heal
 * (Num Pad) 
 Click Left Thumbstick
 L3
 H
 
 
 Toggle Camera 
 5 (Num Pad) 
 Click Right Thumbstick
 R3
 V
 
 
 Select Active Window / Options Settings
 + (Not Specific) 
 Y
 Triangle
 F
 
 
 Menu
 - (Num Pad) 
 X
 Square
 -
 
 
 Switch Target 
 Tab or
 0 (Num Pad) 
 D-Pad Left/Right
 D-Pad Left/Right
 
 
 
 Zoom In 
 Page Up or
 9 (Num Pad)
 
 
 , (Comma) 
 
 
 Zoom Out 
 Page Down or
 6 (Num Pad)
 
 
 . (Period) 
 
 
 Hide All Windows 
 Scroll Lock 
 Back
 Select
 Scroll Lock 
 
 
 Strafe
 Shift
 
 Hold O
 Shift
 
 
 Fixed Third Person View
 Home
 
 
 Home
 
 
 Snapshot
 Print Screen 
 Start (with HUD hidden)
 R1 (with HUD hidden)
 Print Screen 
 
In addition to those basic controls there are a number of quick "shortcut controls" to save time with menu navigation, these are only available to those using a keyboard, and are displayed in the Purple Box. In the yellow box there are a number of useful target shortcuts and what not, particularly handy in battle situations.
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 Action
 Command
 
 
 Start/Stop Auto Attack 
 CTRL / ALT + A
 
 
 Check target 
 CTRL / ALT + C
 
 
 Open Equipment Window 
 CTRL / ALT + E
 
 
 Call for Help 
 CTRL / ALT + G
 
 
 Open Item Window 
 CTRL / ALT + I
 
 
 Open Job Abilities Window 
 CTRL / ALT + J
 
 
 Hide/Show All Windows 
 CTRL / ALT + ]
 
 
 Confirm / Auto-target 
 CTRL / ALT + Y
 
 
 Toggle Walk/Run 
 CTRL / ALT + Z
 
 
 Open Linkshell Input Window
 CTRL / ALT + L
 
 
 Open Party Input Window
 CTRL / ALT + P
 
 
 Open Tell Input Window
 CTRL / ALT + T
 
 
 Reply To Last Tell Received 
 CTRL / ALT + R
 
 
 Open Say Input Window
 CTRL / ALT + S
 
 
 Toggle Camera Modes 
 CTRL / ALT + V
 
 
 Open Weapon Skills Window 
 CTRL / ALT + W
 
 
 Perform Ranged Attack 
 CTRL / ALT + D
 
 
 Cancel
 CTRL / ALT + N
 
 
 Select Active Window 
 CTRL / ALT + F
 
 
 Take A Screenshot 
 CTRL / ALT + [	
 
 Action
 Command
 
 
 F1 ~ F6 
 Target party members in the order they appear at the bottom right corner of the screen, F1 being your character. 
 
 
 F7
 Target yourself (Same as F1) 
 
 
 F8
 Target the closest NPC or Monster 
 
 
 F9
 Target the Closest Player 
 
 
 F10
 Target the first character in your party's member list. 
 
 
 F11 ~ 12
 When part of an alliance, target the first member of the corresponding alliance's party. 
 
 
 CTRL and ALT (PS2) L2 and R2
 Press and hold to open a menu with your defined macro pallet. (L2 and R2 do not need to be held.)
===Chat Functions===
Explain different chat modes?
/Commands?
Macros?