Six year anniversary!

I know we haven’t updated our website in a while, but we’re still here and today is actually the sixth anniversary of our Free Company! As per usual we got together and played some games and gave out some prizes and a lot of Gil. So much Gil…!

In previous years I’d made people wear an outfit with a cowl, partly because it makes us look like a cult, but partly because it’s just fun for everyone to be wearing matching outfits and running round a public area! However, this year I made a whole new outfit and here we are wearing it:

Don’t we look fancy!

If anyone wondered, it’s Thick-rimmed Glasses (Soot Black), Falconer’s Shirt (Pumpkin Orange), Dinosaur Leather Gloves (Soot Black), Dragonskin Bottoms (undyable) and Expeditioner’s Thighboots (Pumpkin Orange).

We usually start with a small climbing parkour puzzle, but this year we did two. First of all the small one that’s in Rhalgr’s Reach (which I think most people dont’ realise is there) and then we moved onto the Bokairo Inn, Kugane. There were Gil prizes for coming first, second or third.

Jump my minions, jump!!!
Huzzah, we made it!
Relaxing in the bath!

Next we headed off to Gridania to play some hide and seek. I had six characters hidden there and it was as simple as the first three people to find them won Gil. I think I did quite well this year as a lot of them took people a while to find and with one of the characters one of them only one person found them, huzzah!

Go away nasty rain!
We’re not a cult, honest!

It might have been raining, but that didn’t stop us having fun! Amusingly despite changing our outfit to look less like we’re in a cult someone still commented…

Awesome! Next we headed back to the FC house for a mini quiz, where the first correct answer is worth Gil. Most of the questions are themed on the FC (ranks, permissions, things in our house/garden, that sort of thing), partly to see if people are paying attention, but also to make sure people know about FC related things that maybe they didn’t hear about (like we give all our members a free FC room after they’ve been active for 10 different days).

Back at the FC house
Party time!

We also did the raffle at this time where we had 20 prizes where the winners could pick from a bigger pool of prizes (see below) as well as some straight up Gil prizes.

Next we moved back into the world to throw outselves off of tall buildings. Basically playing lawn darts with our characters. I put a marker on the floor and everyone has 3 tries to try and land as close as possible. 2 points for dead centre and 1 point for the edge. After 3 jumps the scores are tallied up and the top 3 winners get more Gil (you can never have too much Gil!).

You want us to land on that tiny red dot? Are you crazy?
Geronimo!!!

Then we moved onto the final event, the mini PVP tournament! We did 5 battles with best of 3 for each and we tried to match up the jobs as best as we could and win or lose people still got some Gil for making the effort!

This took up a large part of the afternoon, but I had a really fun time and I hope everything else did too! This FC is great, but only because of the people in it, many whom have been here for many years now, thank you! Also thanks to Lyallon Estaqur and Ria Skybreaker for letting me use some of their images on this post.

Oh finally, the total prize money we gave out was a rather large 13.3 million Gil (that’s 1.5 million more than last year) and here is a list of who won how much:

NameGil won
Hime Miyumi2,050,000
Zolukai Pestishyde1,800,000
Driess Raronek1,750,000
Ria Skybreaker1,600,000
L'ireiya Tia1,400,000
Prandine Archibald1,150,000
Bifi Bifi750,000
Maralade Ferilla700,000
Rem Anastasov650,000
Lyallon Estaqur550,000
Nekomi Hounami350,000
Sarah Sugarcube300,000
Adrilith Nelhah100,000
Octavia Rosethorn100,000
Pome Kneeknibbler50,000

And here is a list of all the prizes that were won in the raffle:

NamePrize won
Adrilith NelhahBlack Hayate
Bifi BifiDedicated to Moonlight Orchestrion Roll
Driess RaronekWayward Daughter Orchestrion Roll
L'ireiya TiaForged in Crimson Orchestrion Roll
Lyallon EstaqurAnswers Orchestrion Roll
Lyallon EstaqurLandslide Orchestrion Roll
Maralade FerillaGates of Paradise - The Garden of Ru'Hmet Orchestrion Roll
Maralade FerillaRoyal Lunatender
Nekomi HounamiGlade Gazebo
Prandine ArchibaldAdventurer's Hooded Vest
Prandine ArchibaldModern Aesthetics - Scanning for Style
Prandine ArchibaldSeitei
Prandine ArchibaldWind-up Leviathan
Prandine ArchibaldZurvanite Barding
Rem AnastasovEastern Canopy Bed
Ria SkybreakerDrawing of Character by Blithesome Carl
Ria SkybreakerThe Final Day Orchestrion Roll
Sarah SugarcubeSophic Barding
Zolukai PestishydeBacon Bits
Zolukai PestishydeDress-up Alisaie
Zolukai PestishydePrivate Pachypodium
Zolukai PestishydeRoyal Lunatender

And to end this post, here’s a picture that Ria took that I thought looked quite amusing and in a way I feel this sort of sums up our FC…

Thank you all again, you’re all awesome!

Congratulations to our winners!

The raffle has ended and we had 7 main winners who each won 1 million Gil and 20 runner-ups who each won 100,000 Gil. We also had 7 people who didn’t win anything at all, so they each received a 50,000 Gil consolation prize anyway!

This means the total prize money for the raffle was 9,350,000 Gil and here’s a table of the winners:

DateWinnerRunner-ups
25 December 2022Ninuh KhatkaBearn Livinstone, Ellie Burrfoot, Lyallon Estaqur, Maralade Ferilla, U'anna Nitsah
26 December 2022Bifi BifiAlex La'neral, Ashelia Nightfall, Kayoko Yumi, Octavia Rosethorn, Raanham Bloodmoon
27 December 2022Bearn LivinstoneNinuh Khatka
28 December 2022Tas BurrfootBlithesome Carl, Lauraliviel La'neral, Scutts Fletcher
29 December 2022L'ireiya Tia
30 December 2022Terazoic WillowstarElsa Moon, Finnel Tsuga, Geralt R'ivia, Hime Miyumi, Primatus Soprey
31 December 2022Ashelia NightfallBifi Bifi

Congratulations again to everyone who won and I’m sure we’ll do another raffle again in the future!

Raffle (2022)

It’s December again which means that, for the fourth year running, we are going to be holding an FC raffle! This is free for all FC members who were with us at the start of 17th December and have been active within the last 30 days.

Like last year we are going to be giving away 1 million Gil on each of 7 days and all runner ups will get 100,000 Gil. Anyone who doesn’t win anything at all will still get a 50,000 Gil consolation prize at the end!

For more information, please see this years special page for the event!

Don’t miss out, enter without delay and pick your (hopefully) lucky number!

If you want this outfit for free, just ask Scott!

Good luck to you all!

Five year anniversary!

Another year has passed and I’m glad to say that our Free Company is still here, now at the ripe old age of 5 years old, wow! So like in previous years we all got together and played some games!

Last year I made everyone wear a “Altered Woolen Cowl” and admittedly not everyone likes it, but they still got into the spirit of things and wore it for the duration of the event, even if it does make us look a bit weird! Many thanks to Bifi Bifi who took the time to assemble them all!

We look like a cult don’t we?

Throughout the event we had multiple raffles, based on /random. Some of the prizes were fixed, such as specific amounts of Gil, but others could be picked from an available pool of prize, on a firstcome, first served basis.

For the event itself, in previous years we’ve started off with climbing the small lighthouse in Shirogane (where our FC house is), but this year I wanted a change and with the new Empyreum housing area that offered us the chance for another climbing puzzle. So I made them climb it, with the temptation of Gil prizes for the fastest three!

Jump, jump, jump!

Once three people got to the top we switched to playing Hide and Seek. I had 6 alts hidden around the world and the first three people to find each of them won Gil. We started off in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks and immediately we caused quite a stir with people commenting on a cult arriving:

Invasion!

They found the two hidden characters in that zone quite fast, but because we can now fly in “A Realm Reborn” areas this time we also had two characters in Upper La Noscea and another two in Eastern La Noscea. Some of them were trickier to find than others, but the maps just aren’t that big and everyone was found before things got boring.

Then we moved back to the FC house for a short quiz and each correct answer was worth some Gil. Some of these were counting questions (like how many flowers are in the garden…. top tip… make sure you know the correct answer yourself first!) and other questions were related to the FC itself such as ranks and permissions etc.

Meeting up in the FC house

Then we moved onto another game… Lawn Darts aka Lemmings. We mark a target on the ground, everyone throws themselves off a cliff and tries to land as close as possible. Two points for centre, one for the edge and everyone gets three tries each.

We know how to queue!

Originally everyone was queueing up to jump in order, but it turned out to be workable for everyone to just jump at once and stay still until their score was checked off/they could move out the way. When everyone jumped at once all you heard was thud, thud, thud!

Then after this we finished off with a quick PVP match. Not everyone wanted to do this, but we had 5 pairs of people who each had a fight (paired up as evenly as possible, tank vs tank etc.) and everyone got some money, varying on if they won or lost.

This all took about three and a half hours so after that we called it a day! Thanks to everyone who came, I hope you had as much fun as me, but thank you most of all for making this FC what it is, it’s nothing without the members!

The total prize money given out was 11.8 million Gil and here is the list of who won what:

NameGil won
Sahmon Zhier1,600,000
Geralt R'ivia1,350,000
Zolukai Pestishyde900,000
Gwynevere Cateye850,000
Tiny Ice850,000
Ashelia Nightfall750,000
Hime Miyumi600,000
Lyallon Estaqur600,000
Sylvia Flutterstar600,000
Malison Fey500,000
Rydia Nishiyama500,000
Sarah Sugarcube500,000
Bifi Bifi450,000
Driess Raronek350,000
Nekomi Hounami350,000
Asahimaru Onishi250,000
Maralade Ferilla250,000
Neroxx Bladestorm250,000
Primatus Soprey100,000
Scutts Fletcher100,000
Shinichi Fukuda100,000

And here is a list of all the prizes that were won in the raffle:

NamePrize won
Asahimaru OnishiDress-up Yugiri
Ashelia NightfallBallroom Etiquette - Decadent Decoration
Ashelia NightfallCalca
Bifi BifiKoala Joey
Bifi BifiFat Cat Rug
Driess RaronekAnemos Suspenders
Geralt R'iviaScarlet Peacock
Hime MiyumiWind-up Estinien
Lyallon EstaqurHippo Calf
Lyallon EstaqurCalamari
Malison FeyTight-beaked Parrot
Malison FeyMandragora Queen
Maralade FerillaAbroader Otter
Neroxx BladestormFlying Chair
Rydia NishiyamaDrawing of Character by Blithesome Carl
Rydia NishiyamaBallroom Etiquette - Apples with Aplomb
Sahmon ZhierBallroom Etiquette - Decadent Decoration
Sarah SugarcubeLevin Barding
Sarah SugarcubeUgly Duckling
Sarah SugarcubeAnemos Jacket
Scutts FletcherByakko Cub
Shinichi FukudaAbroader Otter
Zolukai PestishydeMagic Broom

Finally, here’s a picture that Sarah Sugarcube took with lots of us all sat on the same bench, in the same outfit, merged into some sort of mess!

What the…

Rank changes and two new Sapphires

Bullet point TL;DR version:

  • New rank – Peridot (270 days)
  • New rank – Emerald (365 days)
  • Ashelia Raphael and Tiny Ice changing to Sapphire (Congratulations!)
  • If you’re inactive you’ll now keep your rank on Discord


Much longer, rather detailed and boring version:

We’ve had a few people ask about the possibility of adding new ranks and although we don’t really have any extra permissions to hand out (we try and give everyone as much access to everything as is possible anyway), I am glad to announce that two more ranks are being added!

Currently the maximum rank is Jade (active on 180 different days) and we are going to be adding Peridot for 270 days and Emerald at 365 days. Although they are still all shades of green, this is partly because the ranks don’t add any extra permissions over Jade, but also so that it won’t be massive change to existing Jades who are now becoming something else. I’ll be updating the ranks in-game within the next few hours, but please be patient as they won’t update on Discord until after the Lodestone has updated (this is an automatic process, but will probably take 6-8 hours). !active in #bots should already be working to show your next rank.

Since we started the FC in 2017 it has grown quite a bit larger and I felt it would be a good idea to add two more people to the Sapphire rank so that they can help with some FC things like making sure the company chest had enough Thavnairian Onions and also enabling people to get their free FC rooms, etc.

I’m happy to announce that Ashelia Raphael and Tiny Ice have confirmed they are happy to step up and take on some extra work, even though this is a non-paying job! They both originally joined the FC soon after it started, nearly 5 years ago and I thank you for both for sticking with us, we’re lucky to have you!

The last thing I’d like to bring up is the “Inactive” rank. At the moment if someone is offline for 100 days we temporarily lower their in-game rank to Zircon (the lowest rank we have) until they start playing again. This is merely to try and protect us from compromised accounts where things such as our FC chest are at risk and the real owner of the account might not even be aware, because they aren’t playing right now. This is a real problem during free login periods and sadly something we’ve seen happen before.

The side effect of this is that on Discord it also means you also lose your rank/colour, even though you are still part of the FC. I’m going to change this slightly and instead of being changed to Zircon you’ll be changed to a new rank, “Inactive”. This also means I can separate it from Zircon you’ll keep your rank on Discord for as long as you’re in the FC.

I’ve also spoken with the Sapphires, but for the same reasons we’ll also be temporarily lowering their in-game rank due to inactivity, but after 30 days, not 100. This is just because they have a lot more permissions in-game and it could cause us a lot more problems if their accounts were compromised.

As before though, if you are inactive for over 6 months, then I’m sorry, but you will still be removed from the FC so it better reflects our numbers and removed from the main chat channels on Discord. I will do my best to send you in-game mail to explain what has happened (for if you should return), but obviously you are of course welcome to re-join us should you start playing!

Any questions, as always, please let me know!

New look to the FC house: “Cafe Walls”

It’s been a while since the last website update, but our FC is still here and we’re all eagerly awaiting 6.1 and some new content! However, it was time for a new look for the FC house… so introducing… The Crystal Cafe!

Only comes in green!

Sadly you can’t actually dye it, so it’s that shade of green whether you like it or not. Using dye only changes the roof colour… which you can’t normally see! Oh well, it could be worse! So here’s a quick tour around:

Poroggo water feature, wooden deck and chocobo stables
The house entrance with level 1 and level 90 striking dummies either side of it
More seating areas and our Lara Croft NPC operating the baker’s stall
Side of the house (all cafe skins come with these tables and chairs)
Little seat added at the very end and demonstrated by Maralade, myself and Zolukai

However there’s more to it than that… thanks to some skin swapping with the Forge skin I was able to place an Oriental Deck into the wall…

Dyed white so it’s fairly suble

Doesn’t look like much right? What’s the point of that? Well if you go up to it and type /doze then…

Woah we’re on the inside of the house!
I spent 100 gemstones on this stupid boat, so for now it’s “inside” the house.

But it gets better, from the inside of the house we can jump up the columns to get onto the roof:

HEY YOU GUYS!!!!

And not just the roof… we can get into the balcony area:

For an area that you wouldn’t normally see, it’s rather detailed!
Zolukai and myself looking out at Maralade who’s on the outside!

I’m sure some parts of the garden will be adjusted, but for now I’m happy with it. It’s been 7 months since the last major change to the FC house so it was about time!

Congratulations to our winners!

The raffle has ended and we had 7 main winners who each won 1 million Gil and 34 runner-ups who each won 100,000 Gil. We also had 21 people who didn’t win anything at all, so they each received a 50,000 Gil consolation prize anyway!

This means the total prize money for the raffle was 11,450,000 Gil and here’s a table of the winners:

DateWinnerRunner-ups
25 December 2021Lyallon EstaqurAlistair Theirin, Cookie Snurr, Driess Raronek, Ellie Burrfoot, L'ireiya Tia, Octavia Rosethorn, Spingus Fleeb
26 December 2021Rydia NishiyamaElsa Moon, Noda Moonlight, Thea Belles
27 December 2021Gianix GiariGazes Also, Meow Chow, Mona Makoto, Roy Yunomi, Tas Burrfoot, Tiny Ice, Zorlaq Rex
28 December 2021Ghaima KuMomo Blakes, Sylvia Flutterstar, Terazoic Willowstar, Zolukai Pestishyde
29 December 2021Mel ArkyAshelia Raphael, Kanos Kon, Ninuh Khatka, Soli Dus
30 December 2021Elsa MoonRydia Nishiyama
31 December 2021Aaeru XuhBearn Livinstone, Blithesome Carl, Elza Kanzaki, Geralt R'ivia, Lex Miahto, Lilide Lide, Maralade Ferilla, Tim Bro

Congratulations again to everyone who won and I’m sure we’ll do another raffle again in the future!

Raffle (2021)

It’s that time of year and I am happy to announce that, for the third year running, we are going to be holding an FC raffle! This is free for all FC members who were with us at the start of 17th December and have been active within the last 30 days.

Previously we’ve had 5 days where the prize has been 1 million Gil (each day), but this year we are extending it to 7 days! As before all runner ups will get 100,000 Gil and anyone who didn’t win anything at all will still get a 50,000 Gil consolation prize at the end!

For more information, please see this years special page for the event!

Don’t miss out, enter without delay and pick your (hopefully) lucky number!

Good luck to you all!

If you want this outfit for free, just ask Scott!

We finished the Hidden Canals of Uznair!

It’s Sunday so as usual we were doing some treasure maps and this week we really hit the jackpot. Not only did we get a lot of “Timeworn Thief’s Maps”, but Ashelia also managed to actually beat the crazy RNG and get us to the the of the Hidden Canals!

So much loot!

Getting to the very last room requires opening the correct door, 6 times, from a choice of 3 doors each time. We don’t know for sure if there actually even is a correct door each time, but it’s very common to get thrown out on the first room, so making it all the away to room 7… wow! It also gave each of a us quite a lot of Gil:

Can’t argue with that! There’s also an achievement for finishing it, I personally did that one about 2 years ago (only the one time!), but everyone else in our group got it today:

We actually ended up doing treasure maps for nearly 4 hours (overran, a lot!) but we got two hedgehoglet minions worth 2 million each, 1 gold whisker (worth 1.1 million) and a Matanga elephant minion worth 400k (and other smaller items). We finished with 1.4 million in Gil, each (largely thanks to that 500k Gil mentioned above!) as well as few people who got the above mentioned minions. It was a very good week!

Finally here’s just a group picture of us looking awesome!

Lucy Evercraft, Hannibal Glamdring, Kamisato Ayato, Ashelia Raphael, Scott Pilgrim and Elza Kanzaki

I don’t think we’ll get even close to this next week… but we can try! Thanks all who came today, I hope you had fun too!

New look to the FC house: “Florist’s Walls”

It’s been a few months since the FC house exterior was changed and with the start of the Moonfire Faire in-game event, now seemed like a good time to try out the “Florist’s Walls”!

It’s quite tall so unfortunately I can’t quite get it all in!

I’m sure you’ll agree it’s very different to the “Forge’s Wall” skin we were previously usin and it’s much more colourful! Here’s some other pictures from different angles:

Chocobo stable, fountain, flower stall (retainer inside it) and garden toolshed at the bottom left
Another flower stall, one of our two striking dummies and the new pool area
General overview of the garden
Garden plots are round the back out the way and also we have this… so we can get on the roof!
“I can see London from here!” – Moby, SSX Tricky, 2001
I’m so far up, everyone looks like ants!
Chilling out in the new pool area at night

Finally, we rarely manage to actually get everyone in the same place at once and today, is no different, but here’s a picture of some FC members that I managed to rope into posing for a picture!

Don’t we look awesome? 😀