I wish you a Happy 2006! May Vana'diel be kind to your pixelated avatar in this new year! =^_^=

In 2005 I hosted an Even-Numbered Monday Evenings Promyvion ENM. For 2006 this will be changing to a more ad-hoc, more generic event; more generic in the sense that anything in the CoP Expansion is fair game, more ad-hoc in that you need to be flexible, for what is ultimately delivered for the evening may not be what was initially advertised.

*** 2006 EVEN-MONDAYS COP EVENT ***

I will be the hostess for a 2006 Even-Mondays CoP Event. This means Monday Jan 2, Jan 16, Jan 30, Feb 6th, etc. etc.

The first portion of this Even-Mondays CoP Event is actually not CoP, it is Cooking. I will show up in Ru'Lude Gardens, next to Venessa, at 8PM Eastern and I will cook for an hour. Bring your crystals, bring your ingredients, bring your favorite recipes. Mid-way through cooking I will begin to formulate what we are going to be doing for the Monday Evening's CoP.

So Even-Numbered Mondays will see some free cooking, if you bring the supplies. Hopefully if you are going to ask me to cook you will be sticking around to help out with the CoP Event. Seems like a fair request.

By 9:10 PM Eastern I hope we will have determined what we are going to be doing in CoP and we can be on our way. Note that this means a bit of preparation in advance - you probably will want to have some level 30 and level 40 gear with your Moogle. Remember, you don't have to always have the best level 40 outfit; sometimes a level 39 item is only marginally better than a level 29 item. I myself have no problem storing both level 30 and level 40 armor in my Moogle's Safe because some things I don't swap out (shield, necklace, footwear, etc.) when going from level 30 cap to level 40 cap.

By 9:30 PM Eastern I hope we will be on our way to the Even-Mondays CoP Event.

GUIDELINE NUMBER ONE!

The first GUIDELINE (there are no hard rules to this Event) is that there will be a DEFAULT SETTING, announced in advance, for the Event. For January 2nd the Default Setting for this Event will be Phomiuna Aqueducts Key-farming and Subligar Farming. This will go on till 1 AM so for those who need to sleep please bring a Warp Scroll or Warp Cudgel. Also stacks of Sneak Oil (three stacks should get us from camp to camp to camp) and stacks of Holy Water (two) should help you to survive Stegotaur DOOM. There will be NO Minotaur fight. We are hunting for Keys, we are hunting for Zodiac Subligar (useful for this quest):
http://www.koolaid-ffxi.org/linkshell/space/Brygid+the+Stylist+Returns

GUIDELINE NUMBER TWO!

The Japanese have coded Chains of Promathia to be complicated, so SOME VOTES ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS. This means I will be pulling the Event together from Available Resources (those who make an effort to come to Jeuno for the Event). There is no point in doing a Minotaur run if two folks showing up for the Event do not even have the Spire Boss Missions completed. The Hostess will try to determine the best event for those interested; the Default Setting will be overridden by the Hostess if participants appear in Jeuno who have other CoP Needs.

In other words if we have two folks who Have Farmed for their Anima (see Maior's CoP posts) and need the Spire Bosses then the January 2nd Event will turn into a Spire Boss Fight (and possible ENM run). Note that Venessa can be stingy with her Censers (five day cool-down), so a Spire Boss Fight with no ENM run is a distinct possibility.

Guideline Number Two requires for you to be flexible. If we decide on Zodiac Subligar Farming and then we find out the Jeuno Auction House is out of Sneak Oil, or we have no Ranger sub in the Alliance, then the event may have to reverse course based on the Hostess's decision.

GUIDELINE NUMBER THREE!

I am loathe to cancel this Event, so even if just three folks show up in Jeuno Gardens the CoP Event will likely take place. It may just be simple farming for Memospheres in the Crags for CoP ENM Maps but it is my intention for the CoP Event to go forward in some fashion.

GUIDELINE NUMBER FOUR!

Some Americans view an evening in which their pixelated avatar did not advance in the game as a wasted evening. If this is your philosophy please do not show up for this event. I should have stopped farming Recollections for Anima months ago based on such logic, but I still have a full set of Anima in my safe. This CoP Event's Primary Objective is helping out your Linkshell Comrades and that will be the guiding philosophy for this Event.

GUIDELINE NUMBER FIVE!

At one A.M. Eastern Time I am heading back to Jeuno to finish up on cooking. Some folks have informed me that one hour is not enough to cook up all the sushi they consume in a two week period of gaming.

GUIDELINE NUMBER SIX!

Now, for a new twist - a corollary that goes with Guideline Number Five is that as the event breaks up I will be soliciting input for a potential Odd-Mondays CoP Event. The reason for this is, once-again, the complexity of Chains of Promathia. Suppose numerous folks vote (as the party is breaking up) for a future Mammet Fight; it is quite possible the next Odd-Monday will see Drake Scale Farming for two or three hours (Scales are an infrequent drop) with the following Even-Mondays being a series of parties (only six can fight the Mission) assembled to take on the Mammet Mission. Mammet Fights require: Re-Raise Earrings, Yellow Liquid, Drake Scales. Mammet Fights will require a Monday Evening's Preparation, then a following Monday Evening's Event slot. Minotaur Fights may require: lower Fomor Hate, fight the Minotaur, head back into the Aqueducts to get the cut-scenes at the Libary (yes, Minotaur Fights too can be split across Monday Evenings).

So in 2006 there will always be Even-Mondays CoP Events with the occasional Odd-Mondays CoP Event.

GUIDELINE NUMBER SEVEN!

At some point, during some Monday CoP Event, you are going to be unhappy. Probably due to you wanted to finish CoP Mission N+1 and and someone showed up who needed CoP Mission N-1. Cheer up, it is just a game. We try to do the best we can to move all players who paid for the Chains of Promathia Expansion through the missions. This is all I can promise - we are trying to do our best to be fair.