The serial is on the back of the manual, at the bottom. There are a lot of codes inside the case though, for like your Onion Helm and your invite-a-friend pass and stuff. So make sure they get the one on the back of the manual.

Not just "might", they will be online tonight (assuming the launch doesnt screw over and the servers die) at 9PM EDT.

Oh yeah, one other thought about this:

Is it possible to break a linkshell and remake it? Did anyone try in beta? If it's possible I'll just make the linkshell in advance for you to get the name reserved.

I could try to make a random one and then break it and then try making a new one with the same name or something first. They're free to make now, right?

You definately could in FFXI, I think I seem to recall Hokuten (i think) getting broken in a fit of crazy rage and then you immediately rushing to the linkshell vendor and remaking it, lol.

Its not a big enough deal Ket dont worry. If someone takes Cobra Kai Dojo we will make something else up. I dont give a shit what we are called, so long its the same people. Ive got two back up names I would love to use.

now let me tell you about my trip to gamestop.

Ok actually im still annoyed so ill make it quick. The gamestop I placed my preorder at told me the vendor fucked up and didnt ship the game on time. I was told they expect to get it in tomorrow, but of course they dont know for sure.

I was pretty open about how pissed I was. I placed this pre order in June\July and I had plenty of places to choose from.

So then I started hunting around. Walmart spent about 30 minutes looking, but couldnt tell me if it was in or not. The system made it look like it was in, but no one could physically find a copy. EB is connected with GS so they had the same vendor issue. Futureshop gave me the run around too. I was told to come back in 45 minutes when the General Manager was off his lunch (it was fucking 5:00PM EDT). I didnt even respond, I just rolled my eyes and walked away mubling some profanity.
Then I had one last stop, Best Buy.
The first person to help me was a retard and told me the system said it was in, but she wasnt sure. She suggested I just come back tomorrow to find out for sure. Luckly another employee was walking buy who interuppted and said "oh I can go look in the back if you want" and I quickly turned my attention to him and asked him to check the back and thanked him.
HUZZAH! He brought the box out and everything, then he turns to me and goes "Why isnt it on the shelf, its out today right? Its tuesday, all the software is out on tuesday" and I quickly respond with "Im not sure, I promised my brother I would pick this up for him as soon as possible since hes stuck at home with a busted legg" and I went on to make up a story about Talisin breaking his leg and how I was gonna pick this up for him as a surprise. So the employee was like, "right on, I'll help you out, lets go up front and check this out" so I pretty much shit my pants but acted very cool about it.

To bad Im not that lucky.

When we got up front he was having problems checking it out (since its tomorrow it comes out, bb wont let you purchase it early) so he then asked his supervisor to try and put it through manually. The supervisor was as clueless as the guy and he started to put it through. As the supervisor was manually putting in through a Manager came over (she was passing by) to see what they were doing and to see if she could help. Then she realized at the 11th hour that the game comes out tomorrow. So I was like "oh really? Thats Strange, I could have sworn he told me he could have got it today if hadnt busted his leg on the weekend," but the manager wasnt going to budge and I couldnt talk them into it.

So the good news is that I have a copy on hold for me right now. I will pick it up at 10:00AM EDT.

Ket,

How long did it take to install (I have a sata plextor dvdr drive, it installs shit pretty quick) and how big was the patch?

Also, do you have a copy of the patch file on your PC? Id be tempted to upload it to ytp.com as a super fucking top secret download for people having problems downloading. Im tempted, not sure I want to risk it.

_________________
COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

I was so fucking close to having it I was holding it in my hands the entire time. I FUCKING HAD MY COPY IN MY HANDS. Its pretty frustrating, but the people at best buy were so nice, I almost felt bad for making up a big lie. The one guy was like "I could probably get in a lot of shit if this isnt suppose to be sold" and I was like "nah, its today man, the system says its released in 0 days. Thats today right?" and he was all geared up to sell it so I could cheer up my little brother!

_________________
COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Next time you should actually break Talisin's leg and bring him with you so they can feel bad about not giving the game to the cripple!

The game took about 45 minutes to install and about another 20-30 to patch, it downloaded at like 700KB/sec even with 0 remote connections. The patch was about 400MB, but unfortunately I don't have it anymore. The game deletes the patch after applying it. People who obtain and upload the patch are people who obtained it using uTorrent (which gives you a chance to make a copy of it).

I think I saw on a forum someone uploaded that patch to Mediafire. Let me see if I can find it again.

Reading BG forums it seems people have been mining the dats but haven't found anything new. They're starting to speculate that there will be another large patch when the servers go live tonight.

Ok here they are, FFXIV retail patches, get them while the link works:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1ISSMQ7M

Nice story Yarr...so close. Atleast you know you will have it tomorrow.

I will try downloading the patch file when I get home today. SE's client took me 12 hours to download 14% of the Beta (2 days before it ended). If I didn't download finish the download in Vuze, I wouldn't have gotten to play at all. Vuze downlaoded the rest in about 2 hours. I'll avoid downloading through SE's client when possible.

_________________

2 more hours...

Gamestop better have my copy tomorrow. No map, no tumbler... I'm basically paying two months worth of play for one extra week, and I want all of it.

_________________

We are hopeless, lol

I called my gamestop earlier; the guy kinda laughed and mentioned that someone else had called earlier asking if they could pick up their copy tonight, but they said they would be available tomorrow morning. I couldn't tell if they actually had them or if they hadn't actually arrived yet. Regardless my new PC parts did come in today so I'm going to shut my PC off and pimp this shit out yo--see you guys tomorrow hopefully.

_________________
Retired 8/21/06
Don't click this link.

I just got home with mine from GS, but I'm friends with the manager. All the GSes and EBs should have gotten their shipments today since it's dated for tomorrow.

I'm sorry to hear all that effort for nothing Yarr.

For install speed, it's about half way after 5-7 minutes of putting it in. I have a SATA drive, not sure if it's 1.5 or 3gb/s though. I believe the top speed is 22x but I don't think that has anything to do with read, right?

_________________
[In Yarr we trust.]

its cool, ill get the game tomorrow with the rest of the world. Ket giving the patches could be a big help.

_________________
COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

I posted a link to download the patches. It's not mine though, I don't have the patch anymore (it gets deleted when it's applied).

i think he meant your previous action could turn out to be a big help

_________________
RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

yeah could lol, ill try to download them legit, if not ill use this, makes me nervous, but ill have the security key.

_________________
COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

got mine and installed!

only took 15mins for me to install and patch

FUCK YOU TOO JONG.

_________________
COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

20 minutes til server up and/or login server black hole implosion.

AND YOU TOO YARR

Me and Jong gonna go kill all the wharf rats so there's none left for anyone else.

Though actually I'll have to goto bed soon, lol. Jong has the advantage because it's not 2AM.

EDIT: For the record, we're sticking with Trabia, right?

Yeah Tribia for sure. That server has been good to us.

_________________
COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Is everyone using the same game name?

I'm loving this tumbler

5 minutes!

I'm curious whether I should bother poking around the character creator first, since there was talk of them adding new hairstyles, or if I should just jump straight in. I also wonder if SE have learned to beef up their servers for launch after the Open Beta fiasco. We'll see..