Suggestions: Quality of Life Stuff and other suggestions

[FallenE]

We appreciate your suggestion and hope you'll continue to offer new ones in the future.

Then fix the Ambuscade wait:

• Restrict solo and low-man (3 person or less) entry when wait page is 5 or more. Party will not be ejected if number of members does not meet requirement after entry.
• Further reduce or completely remove reward when solo.
• Force confirmation prior to entry. i.e. all players must be present and press enter to bring the party into Ambu. If the party is held in place because someone AFK, after 3 min. the next party in line will gain entry.
• Eject party if not engage in action within 3 min of entry regardless party size (i.e. AFK wait).

SE, you've designed a single go-to event to replace much of the old game content so people can gain access to materials/currencies, but the event still has the identical old mechanism from 2002. After a year of launch, there is not a single improvement you've executed to ease player's suffer and frustration due to wait time. Please fix.

[Folken]

Then fix the Ambuscade wait:

• Restrict solo and low-man (3 person or less) entry when wait page is 5 or more. Party will not be ejected if number of members does not meet requirement after entry.
• Further reduce or completely remove reward when solo.
• Force confirmation prior to entry. i.e. all players must be present and press enter to bring the party into Ambu. If the party is held in place because someone AFK, after 3 min. the next party in line will gain entry.
• Eject party if not engage in action within 3 min of entry regardless party size (i.e. AFK wait).

SE, you've designed a single go-to event to replace much of the old game content so people can gain access to materials/currencies, but the event still has the identical old mechanism from 2002. After a year of launch, there is not a single improvement you've executed to ease player's suffer and frustration due to wait time. Please fix.

Please limit these restrictions to Asura. Thank you.

[Nyarlko]

Then fix the Ambuscade wait:

• Restrict solo and low-man (3 person or less) entry when wait page is 5 or more. Party will not be ejected if number of members does not meet requirement after entry.
• Further reduce or completely remove reward when solo.
• Force confirmation prior to entry. i.e. all players must be present and press enter to bring the party into Ambu. If the party is held in place because someone AFK, after 3 min. the next party in line will gain entry.
• Eject party if not engage in action within 3 min of entry regardless party size (i.e. AFK wait).

SE, you've designed a single go-to event to replace much of the old game content so people can gain access to materials/currencies, but the event still has the identical old mechanism from 2002. After a year of launch, there is not a single improvement you've executed to ease player's suffer and frustration due to wait time. Please fix.

I don't understand the venom constantly being sprayed at the soloers/lowmanners. :/ You already miss out on gallantry and fewer hallmarks (no way you're going to efficiently farm V1VD) by going in with less than a full party. If they are willing to take the hit, let them, and let them be. >_>;;

I oppose all of your listed suggestions. ^^;;

• The event was intended from the very first announcement to be a 1-6 man event, with smaller groups doing lower difficulties. There are reasons why they keep removing group size minimums for content, so why would they even consider adding a new party size restriction?
• Smaller party = smaller rewards, so that is already "punishment" enough. You get 25hm/0gal for soloing V2VE, which is already close enough to nothing as far as obtaining gear rewards goes.
• This could overload the book npc. We had problems with it before the queue was added, why would we possibly want to have those problems come back?
• I've had full party runs where 1-3 ppl dc'd on zone-in and we had to wait til everyone got back before we could buff and start the fight. Definitely took a lot more than 3min to get rolling. Still took less than 3min to finish the fight after that. XD It might be acceptable if they make it 10min before ejection. Anything less than that could hurt legit groups. It would still be easy to grief everyone else for the rumored AFK'ers btw.. Pop Reraise > pull mob > die > get up and wait out the timer...

The devs have done a pretty good job of incentivizing group play for the event, and though I'd like to see a lowering of the number of runs needed to get full armor+metal, I still remember the old days of Land King camping, 1hr+ wait times to get into mission BCs, etc. so 15min really doesn't seem that bad to me. XD If you compare it to other games' dungeon queues, it's actually shorter here to get in than most.

IMO, the best solution would be something that gets us the armor+metal in fewer runs. The congestion is bad because it's a long grind to get them. Make it easier to get the armor+metal and I have a feeling that the majority of the dreaded soloers would move on to something else once they get them. Lowering the cost by 50% and shifting 5x of the metals from gallantry to hallmarks would probably do more to lower congestion by the 2nd week of each month than any other solution that I've seen proposed.

I'm hoping the incoming "new methods" to get more abdjhalis seals provides enough to get the armor farmers done faster, and fast enough to be worthwhile. I'm going to be rather nonplussed if it's only 1-2 more per month.. -_-

[Songen]

Then fix the Ambuscade wait:

• Restrict solo and low-man (3 person or less) entry when wait page is 5 or more. Party will not be ejected if number of members does not meet requirement after entry.
• Further reduce or completely remove reward when solo.
• Force confirmation prior to entry. i.e. all players must be present and press enter to bring the party into Ambu. If the party is held in place because someone AFK, after 3 min. the next party in line will gain entry.
• Eject party if not engage in action within 3 min of entry regardless party size (i.e. AFK wait).

SE, you've designed a single go-to event to replace much of the old game content so people can gain access to materials/currencies, but the event still has the identical old mechanism from 2002. After a year of launch, there is not a single improvement you've executed to ease player's suffer and frustration due to wait time. Please fix.

Official responce to your post but was on a different thread

Greetings,

First, I would like to apologize for not sharing this information sooner. When we first made the announcement on the Japanese forums, we saw a large amount of feedback regarding it. Therefore, before moving forward with posting the exact same information, we wanted extra time to confirm that the suggestions made to alleviate the queue times for Ambuscade were just suggestions and not finalized.

That being said, the development team is currently examining every possible measure to alleviate the congestion issue; however, we are not able to make any further adjustments to the system itself.

We presented two possible solutions which may make an impact; however, we felt that these options would be poorly received by players. The first option was to place a time based restriction on challenging Ambuscade, similar to what we currently have for Omen. The second option was to remove the equipment and their upgrade materials from the list of rewards altogether.

Why only these two options?
There were many suggestions from our players, operations team, and the dev. team; however, when considering the options, we needed to make sure it is something that we can accomplish, and something that will make a clear impact to alleviate the situation. As a result of considering various options, the two suggestions we made above met these conditions.

We felt both of these options aren't viable for players, and as we can see here on this thread, there are far more comments against such changes. Therefore, we will not move forward with these measures. We will continue to look for other possible solutions; however, please note that the final decision we make may not be the outcome everyone can agree on.

Again, I apologize again for not bringing up this matter sooner, but we wanted to confirm these points before posting. We ask everyone to continue leaving feedback and possible suggestions, so we can relay them to the dev. team investigate.

Also, to give you all a better understanding to the situation, here are some common questions we've seen thus far.

• If you were to place a time based restriction on entry, do you have plans to ease the materials used for other content obtained from Ambuscade?
  We have no plans to make adjustments to other corresponding battle content. For example, we have already made adjustments to the effect of cells for Voidwatch, adjusted the price of the Phase Displacer, removed the restriction on how many can be purchased, and adjusted how many can be purchased at one time. For this reason, we believe the difficulty has been eased. With this adjustment, the difficulty to create Empyrean weapons have also been lower than what we originally assumed. Therefore, we do not have any plans to consider any further adjustments to ease these, as they may lose their purpose entirely.

• Would increasing the number of NPCs used to enter resolve this issue?
  This adjustment would be only be a visual one, and would not change the number of players that can enter the content on the system end. Instead, by having more NPCs available, we worry that more players will talk to these other NPCs at the same time, causing the queue times to be longer than it is now. At the very least, this would not change the current situation.
  
  In addition to this, we are not able to increase the amount of players that can enter at once on the system end. This goes without saying that we do require additional resources and staff to do this, but furthermore, the major factor for this content relies on the base foundation of the system. Please note that any type of system-side adjustments to reduce queue times is near impossible.

• Isn't it possible to lower the amount points needed to obtain items?
  The attributes set on these items were set based on the difficulty and effort required to obtain them. For this reason, we have no plans to adjust this; however, we are able to take another approach, such as adding other ways to obtain items like Abdhaljs Seals. While it does not directly affect the point requirement, it does have the same effect as lowering the points. It is a very subtle change, but we believe we can expand a bit more into making these type of changes.

[Jakuk]

I would laugh and cry if they ever implemented a time restriction to Ambuscade after all this time simply because of one, over-populated, server.

[Zuidar]

Can we have more Key Item triggers added in Large Gold Pyxis for other NMs that drop materials for upgrading Empyrean Weapons?

targeting Key Items for certain NMs that have to do with Empyrean Weapon upgrading to be included in large gold chests

Apademak popped by "Torn Khimaira Wing", dropped by Dhrome Khimaira in Abyssea uleguerand
Orthrus popped with "Steaming cerberus tongue", dropped by Amarok in Abyssea Altepa
Alfard popped with "Venomous hydra fang", dropped by Ningishzida Abyssea Grauberg

Minax Bugard drops "Bloodstained bugard fang" which is one of the three KIs used to spawn Sobek in Abyssea Misareaux

There's alot of Key Item triggers that pop other NMs for empyrean weapon upgrades, so why not include the rest that involves upgrading empyrean weapons?

Examples for NMs that has empyrean weapon upgrades have full popset KI triggers availible in large gold chests such as Isgebind, Dragua, Itzpapltl,Cierin-Croin.

I don't see no harm in adding the above KIs I've mentioned above on top as it will significantly reduce downtime for those who prefer to farm KI triggers through large gold pyxis. There's no reason now that those KIs should be left out at this point since the NMs have Empyrean Weapon upgrade materials as there's other NMs that do have pop sets obtainable from large gold chests.

[Avero]

Might already have been noted (sry): Please make Reisenjima stones Stack to x99

[Urmom]

I would laugh and cry if they ever implemented a time restriction to Ambuscade after all this time simply because of one, over-populated, server.

It's not really just asura. Beginning of this month I was seeing some pretty big lines and in other months (not the last couple since no new gear) as well usually during jp prime times. Part of it comes down to a combination of just how much of them you need to do with the natural bottleneck of time periods to do them created by the monthly roll over and small lulls between campaigns if they are popular ones.

This month in particular was bad because not only did they create a whole new set of things to farm for upgrades but they set the prices such (particularly the gallantry ones) in a way that encouraged significantly more farming than previously for upgrade items especially if you ever do things in groups of less than 6. For example normally I trio a lot and I can get my monthly dyes if I still cared by the time I get to the 14.5k hallmarks that is the last of the armors. Now by the time I get enough gallantry to get all the metals and nothing else from gallantry I'll have farmed 50k hallmarks. So over triple the amount of farming. Even full pts are about double

[FallenE]

I don't understand the venom constantly being sprayed at the soloers/lowmanners. :/ You already miss out on gallantry and fewer hallmarks (no way you're going to efficiently farm V1VD) by going in with less than a full party. If they are willing to take the hit, let them, and let them be. >_>;;

I oppose all of your listed suggestions. ^^;;
...

Nyarlko I'm not going to respond to every one of your line item comments... You've been chasing and responding to all my posts on this particular matter and protect SE anyways you can with your personal micro experience. I'm thankful but you are not helping.

You don't see the big picture and a larger problem which came towards SE's managing attitude and response.

The root of the issue is SE reuse existing infrastructure to host a new single go-to event that replaces much of the old contents so all players go to one place to acquire whatever they need to enjoy the game.

That's fine.

But when there is a congestion and people started complaining since day 1, SE simply acknowledged the players by blaming "it's a system limitation" and "we don't have the resource to change it".

Well that's fine too, people expected that.

Now lots and lots players provided recommendations, knowing "it's a system limitation" (a lie) and SE "can't do much" (a lie), SE still ignores the complaints and repeat the same excuse. That's not acceptable.

Nyarlko, if you are thinking waiting 15-20 min (if lucky) for a 3-5 minutes fights is OK then that's your personal choice, not mine, so please be realistic. If SE can improve and bring it down to 5 min wait, WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE? Why do you keep counter punching every comment people made about the Ambuscade congestion? You want to wait, fine go for it, wait at Jeuno if you want. Stop bringing your own personal preference onto others.

[Nyarlko]

Nyarlko I'm not going to respond to every one of your line item comments... You've been chasing and responding to all my posts on this particular matter and protect SE anyways you can with your personal micro experience. I'm thankful but you are not helping.

You don't see the big picture and a larger problem which came towards SE's managing attitude and response.

The root of the issue is SE reuse existing infrastructure to host a new single go-to event that replaces much of the old contents so all players go to one place to acquire whatever they need to enjoy the game.

That's fine.

But when there is a congestion and people started complaining since day 1, SE simply acknowledged the players by blaming "it's a system limitation" and "we don't have the resource to change it".

Well that's fine too, people expected that.

Now lots and lots players provided recommendations, knowing "it's a system limitation" (a lie) and SE "can't do much" (a lie), SE still ignores the complaints and repeat the same excuse. That's not acceptable.

Nyarlko, if you are thinking waiting 15-20 min (if lucky) for a 3-5 minutes fights is OK then that's your personal choice, not mine, so please be realistic. If SE can improve and bring it down to 5 min wait, WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE? Why do you keep counter punching every comment people made about the Ambuscade congestion? You want to wait, fine go for it, wait at Jeuno if you want. Stop bringing your own personal preference onto others.

If I disagree with a post, then I will post in disagreement. If I agree with a post, I will post in agreement. I know that I also have a bad habit of taking the long-winded "Devil's Advocate" role. It's absolutely nothing personal. (Usually, I don't even check who the poster I'm responding to is before responding, and always try to include an alternative to what I'm disagreeing with.) ^^;; However, I have gotten rather tired of the witch-hunt mentality blaming solo/lowman for all of our Ambuscade woes, and will defend their right to play the game as intended if they are willing to accept the pittance of a reward they get for doing so compared to grouping up.

There are potential solutions other than removing the ability to solo/lowman. I suggested cutting the prices on the rewards by half as that would cut the number of required runs for gear by half, which would be quite likely to reduce congestion significantly after the first week each month. This would be a benefit to all who Ambuscade and harm no one. I'm sure there are other viable+implementable+harmfree solutions. Suggesting that they should remove part of the playerbase from the queue by force is not viable in my opinion. Do you have any suggestions that would not exclude anyone and would improve the QOL for everyone? ^_^ I would genuinely love to hear any.

If you really think that a system based on PS2 architecture would not have issues/limitations, then you should probably think a bit harder. ^^;; It's not a lie that there are going to be technical limitations in software this old. They have actually done work on this issue before when they maxed out the number of layers and added the queue. The congestion at it's worst now is less than it was at it's best in the beginning, so we should not forget to give them at least a little bit of credit there. XD