Hmm, fruit seeds in E. Ron - weird. Thanks for letting me know! I've been wanting to update the chocobo page for awhile, it's looked like crap ever since we changed from a black background to a blue background. Now I just have to revamp the gardening page.


As to digging, I personally tested 2 ways each level. Using a macro, and using an actual timer and hitting it from the moment "Loading Zone" comes up. Other diggers did the same and we compared times. So you know your times are right, I know my times are right - and honestly I'm convinced little else matters except people realize that the area time goes down after wait 0.


BUT - I added your items, so you should be happy. Oh, if you go digging in Bibiki Bay, let me know. I've been digging there 4 times (not as much as I'd like, but crunch time at school), and all I get are the same crappy things. I'm assuming it's like Carpenter's Bay, in that it's pretty much an exact copy of Buburimu like CB is a copy of Junger's - but in Carpenter's Bay I managed to get pretty much everything. I can't in Bibiki Bay (man, I hate tin ore).

"I've been wanting to update the chocobo page for awhile, it's looked like crap ever since we changed from a black background to a blue background."


Actually, I think it looks a lot better now that it has the blue background. All of the information is laid out in a way that's easy to read and easy to access. The only thing slightly difficult to read from a UI design perspective is the lightish blue zone links against a white background. I'm happy with the look and layout personally.


One thing that surprised me was the macros that are suggested there for testing when you leveled up. Personally, I would never hit the "level 2" macro, and in the interest of investigating the (most likely bogus) test system, I wanted to see which items leveled me up.


I believe it was posted somewhere in this thread, but the suggestion I have for a digging macro before /wait0 is to use this macro for wait16 and alter it based on the same principle as you level up:


/echo Digging -- No error means you leveled up!

/wait 13

/dig

/wait 3

/dig


I've used this from the beginning until now (finally /wait0, see above) and it always let me know exactly when I leveled without having to periodically hit a second macro.

"As to digging, I personally tested 2 ways each level. Using a macro, and using an actual timer and hitting it from the moment "Loading Zone" comes up. Other diggers did the same and we compared times. So you know your times are right, I know my times are right - and honestly I'm convinced little else matters except people realize that the area time goes down after wait 0. "


Where do you see Loading Zone? If you mean Downloading data, then that is where you are going wrong, and would also be why you are getting the variatoin in data that you are. Depending on the zone, and connection speeds that screen will last for longer or shorter, and the longer it last the higher time you get and shorter time the less time you would get. The time you should start the time is after that, and the first time you are able to hit a macro. That is the only way you will get consistant results so it's the only way you can test your area wait time.


Here is my area wait method please try it out.


Try it out with two basic macros, just a plain /clock macro, and just a plain /dig macro. To get your start time after you see downloading data go away , or even during downloading data just spam that /clock macro. Do this untill the chat log comes up, you should see tons of clock times. scroll up in the log and find the first time after the ==== Area:...==== line. Remember the earth time that you get there.


now to get your dig time you continue to use the /clock macro, you don't have to spam it like you did before. Just hit it every once in a while untill you are still below your area wait time but are getting close. After you hit your clock macro hit /dig macro right after it. The first time you are able to use your /dig macro( not actually get the item) without it saying that you have to wait longer that is your dig time.


now just check that time compaired to your begininig time and that is your area wait time.


if you couldn't dig at 38 seconds or 39 or 40, but got 41 or 42 this means you are area wait 40. You will never get below your area wait time, but you might get above by a second or two. This is because of the delay you have to wait after you hit your dig macro once, or other delays. But you will most likely hit right on the number or 1 second after. Never more than 2 seconds, heck I can't even remember the last time I saw a 2 second difference.


"BUT - I added your items, so you should be happy. Oh, if you go digging in Bibiki Bay, let me know. I've been digging there 4 times (not as much as I'd like, but crunch time at school), and all I get are the same crappy things. I'm assuming it's like Carpenter's Bay, in that it's pretty much an exact copy of Buburimu like CB is a copy of Junger's - but in Carpenter's Bay I managed to get pretty much everything. I can't in Bibiki Bay (man, I hate tin ore). "


Yeah I have only tried there a few times also and only got the stuff you have listed one of these days I will dig there more and hope to get some other items.


Edit: PirateGirl try that area wait test a few times, tell me the results you get. Also throw out any results where you messed up.


Also anyone else on here do that test also and post times you get, throwing out any times where you messed up somewhere.

On the topic of exactly what delay is found at which level, it's important to point out that all this should be taken with a very large grain of salt. This stuff is purposely hidden, for reasons that only Square-Enix knows, which means there may be variables that we haven't even found yet.


I don't do any chocobo digging, but I work on a lot of other stuff for ffxi.somepage.com, and I can tell you that for certain that you'll never come up with a method that will work down to the exact same second on every PC/PS2 that has FFXI on it. The client/server relationship is just too... variable, for there to be numbers that always hold up. Anyone who uses Job Abilities like Provoke or Boost knows this; the "timer" in the client can be off by 2-4 seconds either way on a regular basis, depending on server load, client lag, net issues, or just plain flakiness. This is even worse when you're talking about something that starts right after zoning in, since some computers take much longer to load up a zone than others.


PirateGirl updates the chocobo digging pages with the best info available, but on something this problematic it might always show up differently for different people, given all the variables listed above. The main gist of the info we try to get post regarding these "hidden abilities" is to emphasize what is known, and point out other possibilities if they seem reasonable.


In short, while tests like the one mentioned above are useful in pointing in the right direction, we'll never know for sure unless S-E gives an official word.

Yet I, and everyone who has tried this that I have talked to has gotten the expected results for the levels. The reason that zoning time isn't an issue is that the timer starts when you can first hit the /clock macro. so it doesn't matter how lot it takes to download the data, once you enter the zone and are able to hit the /clock macro is when the time starts.


And yes there is some variation, but it's extreamly small. and 90% of the time you will be within 1 second of the time.


You can test the dig level area wait time, it's not that complicated, you just need to know how to do it.


Please people tell me the times you get.

The whole concept of AWait is based on the method darkhorror is mentioning --- to clock from the first time macro shows up (but rejected) until the first time the macro is accepted and digging occurs. I do not know of any other way to measure your AWait.


If you used "loading data" for AWait measurement, it will be affected by the "loading" delay, which seems to differ from time to time.


Those of you who haven't used darkhorror's method should at the very least give his method a try, IMHO.

I said in my previous post that I used BOTH a macro and manually timing it.


I'm not arguing this anymore, I'm trying to be pleasant about it, but it's not happening. This is info I verified myself, why would I exchange it for someone else's? Any info you have on stuff that can be dug up, great! I'd love to see it. But I'm not arguing this issue of dig times over and over.

I'm at level 4 and have area wait 45.


EDIT: Or level 3 depending if you start from 0. Whichever it is that you consider the first to be with 0 between digs.

 

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Can people please just test out my way and give the times they get.


Your dig times wouldn't be an issue if they droped by 5 seconds every level and were just generally higher. But since they drop by 10 seconds then 5 seconds, I know that they are just wrong. I don't know how you could test the time one way and get 10 seconds between levels.


What way did you test those area wait times?


I am not trying to make you angry, Can you just give me the area wait time you get using what I said. Also tell me how you got your previous times?


Edit: thanks Scarne keep the times coming.

If you are trying to present correct information to the public regarding chocobo digging times and someone challenges your data, saying it's wrong, for the public's best interest it is at least worthwhile to verify that the results are in fact correct.


Contrary to the stance you may think I'm taking based on the previous paragraph, I tested this last night and my results conflicted with darkhorror's assertion.


I just bought 4 greens because I was curious to see which of you were right, at least for level 4. I didn't have my web page open, so I wasn't even sure which A-wait I was supossed to have.


As soon as I saw "Downloading Data" or whatever, I spammed the hell out of a macro that had nothing at all in it except /clock.


I selected the earth time from the clock output that was listed immediately after the "Area: Sauromungue Message" and then I set up my macro differently to be like so:

/dig

/clock


After the time got to around 35 seconds, I started spamming this macro once every second. When I finally began to successfully dig, I selected the /clock output without the error (ie, the last one). Start time was x:08:29, end time was x:09:20.


So my A-wait for Lv4 /wait0 is 50 seconds, which is consistent with the digging page.