Okay, I know I have expressed my opinion about the Dynamis changes already in another thread. I also know that that thread has decomposed into a fairly unhappy place of bickering that is hardly worth keeping up with. I appreciate that the dev team also got back to that thread once in clarification of what was actually meant.
The goal of this thread is to actually ask questions and hopefully get some answers from the development team about how this update is going to happen. Hopefully it will not devolve into a general discussion of what we all think of the updates.
My current questions and concerns are:
1) Regarding monster distribution: Can you elaborate on what is meant by "Monster distribution will receive drastic revisions." Will Dynamis still be a progression of a group of individuals through the zone as it is now, with simply the layout of the monsters and their spawn points changed to make it interesting and require us to work out new methods of working this out (much as we had to do when Dynamis was first introduced)? Or will it become a zone with monsters that respawn every <some number> minutes much like the other zones in the game?
2) Regarding instancing: Perhaps the largest hope of many players is that this would be an instanced event. While my understandings of the game's mechanisms precludes this option, is this what you were thinking? It would be nice to have a definite answer. If not, will there still be a limit on the number of players that can enter each Dynamis zone?
3) Regarding lag for large groups: Currently, my experience and that of many others I know is that with 30+ people in Dynamis, even if we split up and follow different paths to be away from each other's site range, is that there is a significant amount of lag that we experience, even with a near-top-of-the-line computer. It concerns me that we might now have multiple alliances in the same area, as combat would become very difficult with even more lag. What plans do you have to resolve this issue?
4) Regarding monster difficulty: Will the moster distribution changes include a change in the difficulty of the monsters?
5) Regarding trigger items: Will trigger items be key items or regular items? If they are regular, will they be rare and/or exclusive? Will they be able to be sold on the auction house? Will they be good for more than one run, or will they be run exclusive much like the cells in salvage?
6) Regarding time extensions: The time extensions in Dynamis currently are acquired by killing a specific monster or Notorious Monster. Is this going to remain the method for acquiring Time Extensions? Will time extensions still be available or will there be a set amount of time? What methods do you have of preventing competition for the time extension monsters?
7) Regarding time and currency drop rates: While I do love Dynamis and aspire to acquiring one of the rare and greatly treasured relic weapons, I am concerned with the idea that currency drops per session will be lowered. My concern rests with the idea that I might now need to put 16-28 hours per week into Dynamis to obtain the same amount of currency rewards. Are the lowered drop rates only on the scale of how much the new Treasure Hunter abilities have increased the drops, or is it really going to take me many more times the runs to accumulate my currency? On a related note, are runs going to generally remain the same length, temporally?
8) Regarding the oft asked question of "why": While I do not know what all changes are to be implemented, I do worry about how these will affect my long-standing dynamis LS. Many of us wonder why you feel dynamis needs to be changed, as we still enjoy it thoroughly and feel the proposed changes threaten to end or infringe on that enjoyment. Having spoken with many of my fellow adventurers, I find the opinions to be vastly varied, and it has become heatedly debated. Can you enlighten us on why you feel Dynamis needs to be "Reborn" and what goals the new changes hope to achieve, as well as perhaps how you feel these changes will meet those ends?
Cariadora
Dragoon of San d'Oria
Asura