The Celestia Citizen (“House Party” Series Edition)

Hello, fellow Celestians! Welcome to yet another edition of the Celestia Citizen newsletter! Apologies for the delay on this latest newsletter. Circumstances beyond my control kicked in. To make up for it, we are going for a double whammy, a double newsletter to cover for the last month, and for this month.

This will cover significant news and updates in the last several weeks, to ensure there is no missed content covered!

In wrestling around with this month’s theme, I found my inspiration per the Housing changes that had dropped. Given the celebrations at play, and the big changes coming, it seems fitting that a House Party is to be had. And that is what drew me to this niche comedy movie series from the 90s: House Party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Party_(1990_film)

This movie series was a teen-aged comedy set with a simple premise: A house party. It was also a who’s-who of many prominent African-American performers in the 90s. Cameos ranged from Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell (both she and Martin would go on to star in the TV series Martin soon after), Robin Harris (who inspired the animated movie Bebe’s Kids with his comedy sketches), Daryl Mitchell, George Clinton (musician), and others. One big detail about this movie was that it was originally written as a vehicle for Will “The Fresh Prince” Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff (when both were a musical duo from the late 80s to early 90s). The movie became a cult classic in the years since it premiered in 1990, originally seeing critical acclaim and a box office return of 10x its production budget ($26 million revenue vs $2.5 million budget). The movie then saw two sequels made with the same starring duo, Kid & Play (another musical duo), and then two standalone sequels many years later with different stories and characters. A reboot of the series is aimed for 2022.

Anyway, here’s the news!

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Final Fantasy XIV News

First off, the big news. Patch 6.1, the coveted “Housing Update”, released Tuesday, April 12th, 2022.

Specifics on the Patch are included here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/c73cd284013587066d8f9e697fab1db9f007372

Patch 6.11 also released this past week, focused on class/job adjustments, as well as the newest Ultimate fight, Dragonsong’s Reprise. Read here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/6a3e8bf216810babcbe07b2842488577ec22cb54

Additional updates to 6.1, the 6.1x updates, are slated to occur in the next 2+ months with major content drops occurring in individual segments (such as the following):

A new custom deliveries client (Ameliance), Arkasodara tribal quests, Tataru’s Grand Endeavor sidequests, and Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures sidequests are scheduled to be released in Patch 6.15.
Data Center Travel is scheduled to be implemented in Patch 6.18.

Next, we need to bring up Housing again. Because of the ‘lottery’ system being impacted by unforseen issues, fixes are on the way to address the current issues. There were many details provided on the state of the fixes, resulting in multiple “Follow-Up” posts on Lodestone. The latest Follow-Up regarding the fixes are detailed here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/a04aa2f766072f369cd5db272b325a133ef8216a

As for in-game events, this last month or two had been jampacked with content.

PvP saw the release of a new mode: The Crystalline Conflict, beginning with Season 1. The following post details the new mode and the current ranking status here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/c7a0cab3202cdfefebaf7510c3fd40fbc8bf917e

A collaboration also had returned, thought to never come back. The Garo Collaboration event, originally released during patch 3.5 in January 2017 and running until patch 5.1 in October 2019 (over 2 and a half years!!!), has now seen a return to Eorzea! Currently, the ETA on the Garo Collaboration “Redux” is TBD. However, if you are looking for details into the sweet mounts and armor sets that you can get, refer to this post here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/181c211c4f26a40b0e1af3b31a5fdaf0ea5dae82

The next in-game event, the return of the Maiden’s Rhapsody (centered around Iroha of Final Fantasy XI), began on April 28th, and will continue to May 18th: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/special/2022/The_Maidens_Rhapsody/u8fwlp9ev3

That is everything for now on the FFXIV news front.

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Free Company Updates and Social Events

First, some big news! Celestia is NOW situated in Ishgard as of the new Housing patch!!!

Here are some sunny shots from our ward in Ishgard and the Empyreum area!

Next, we have some coverage on one of our social events, occurred March 19th, is to be covered: The FC Bingo!!!

The winners of this previous event are: Jean Cardona, Elyn Softflame, Blood Spark (from left to right)

Be sure to give all 3 a round of congratulations for their success on this special event!!!

The next social event occurred April 30th, focusing on a House Decorating/Tours contest! Here are the winners:

1st Place = Jin Theaceae

2nd Place = FenFen Kittenpaws

3rd Place = Taryn Stormfall

Also in 3rd Place was Ivy Leaf

Honorable Mentions, and Tied for 4th Place goes to Sadie Black & Z’attania Tsu (No pictures available at this time).

Be sure to give congratulations to our winners and all participants for their imaginations, investment, and interest in showing off their lavish homes!

Now it is time to take a segue from social events to bring up a point cited at the previous FC meeting.

The usage of bots or botting is NOT allowed within the FC. As Final Fantasy 14 is an MMORPG, it is essentially a game (like others) that thrives on the participation of a player in investing both time and money into it. This applies not just to participation in combat, but also in participation in non-combat activities (gathering, crafting, exploration, etc). It is a Terms of Service (ToS) issue, and it also reflects upon the FC badly. If an FC member is confirmed in any form to have evidence of botting or using bots, they will be punished up to and including removal from the FC. If an FC member believes another member is botting or using bots, please notify an Officer ASAP and provide as much evidence as possible.

Here is also another reminder, as brought up in the previous newsletter: Because of the existence of all manner of perspectives, it is being emphasized to ensure that all FC members are being both respectful and considerate of other FC members. As Final Fantasy 14 is a game that prides itself on a wide-reaching scope to encompass all folks of shapes and sizes, beliefs and thoughts, backgrounds and histories, it is eventual that a player may meet someone else they are inclined to agree or disagree with. We must observe being the best we can be not just as a Free Company in performance, but also in observation. The goal in Final Fantasy 14 is to have fun, support others, and be kind and excellent to each other.

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Beyond the Light

Now, we are trying something new here for this newsletter. Near the end of March, I created an interview form for a new section of the newsletter that would give social reach to the FC regarding its members.

The social reach would be in the form of getting to know more about members of the FC, whether it was an Officer or a regular member.

To test drive this, a couple of our guinea pigs Officers volunteered was blackmailed for the task.

There will be some finishing touches on the interview form coming soon. Once it is done, we will move forward to give the FC access to it. From there, one drawing of the lucky member will be conducted and their interview posted here. Be sure to also get some amazing snapshots of your character, as these will also be featured in this section too!

Refer to the next newsletter for further details on this coming soon feature!

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Reminder: 2 Factor Authentication/Multi Factor Authentication

This is being revisited in another newsletter. And it will be vital for us to keep beating our FC members over the head with this critical news, for it is for their security that this is being done.

Please ensure that you safeguard your Final Fantasy XIV account, and your Discord account. Below is a copy-and-paste of my prior announcement made on our Discord server:

I am making a general awareness announcement to the FC in regards to security and safety for both your FFXIV accounts and your Discord accounts. With all of the rampant account hijackings occurring in the Discord world, you may have seen other servers stressing to avoid clicking on ‘sus’ (suspicious) links and downloads, especially from fellow server-mates. We are encouraging the same behavior in Discord so nobody has their Discord accounts hijacked and endangers others. If a member from the FC here does provide suspicious links or downloads directly to you, please reach out to one of our Magistrates ASAP. But what of the FFXIV front?

It turns out that ‘Yes’, you CAN have your FFXIV account get hacked. If a hacker gets your SQEX login that has a XIV account and sub attached to it, they could log in and give you a bad day. Do your diligence and safeguard yourself through the glory of 2-Factor Authentication in both Discord AND in FFXIV.

In Discord: Follow the safe link listed here for how to setup 2FA for your Discord account (this will just require you to download a free authenticator such as Google Authenticator, or Authy): https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/219576828-Setting-up-Two-Factor-Authentication

In FFXIV: Go to your Mog Station page (where you can manage your licenses, go to the shop for buying stuff, etc) > Square Enix Account Settings > “One-Time Password” > Select your choice of “token” or authenticator (per the image attached):

Security Token (key ring type, physical token): Retails for $14.99, no software on phone to juggle

Software Token (smartphone app): No cost, and uses Square Enix’s official Software Token app

Software Authenticator (smartphone app): No cost, offers flexibility on choice of authenticator app (Google, Microsoft, IBM, Authy, etc)

As always, be safe and keep yourselves secure for full enjoyment of these wonderful services, everyone!

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Conclusion

Well, here we are. At the end of yet another fun newsletter. As we go into May, looking forward to the coming of the next patch, the next events, and warmer weather, we are reminded fully of how important this year is to get back to normalcy. People are meeting up with each other again, looking forward to celebrating and having good times again. One may be inclined to wonder where to go from here. Believe in the idea that as long as you are kind and excellent to people, that you carry hope and love in your heart, that you look beyond the worst to appreciate the best, then you will come out of top. And people will celebrate you for that in the days to come. Be sure to party responsibly, drink moderately, and have a pleasant time this year. See you next month, space Warriors of Light!