Where to from here?

[Ruebyy]

With every Final Fantasy game there has always been some sort of activity to distract you, if only somewhat, from the main focus of your adventure. Over the years the Dev team has tried to introduce such systems into the world of FFXI, but have met with limited success. The lack of popularity of these "minigames" can be credited to two major factors, a lack of achievement, and a lack of immersion for the player, two aspects that are of vital importance to any game, and especially an MMO.

The game play in a a massively-multiplayer online type games is that which is driven by player interaction and immersion. And while the most recent attempts at implementing mini-games have been considerable additions to the game in their own right, they did not incorporate these basic elements.

Pankration, while somewhat involving interaction between players, left the player having little involvement throughout, other than the initiation process of taking pictures and the light customization options. Even more discouraging to the event is the fact that, for the average player, there is no real reward or reason to participate other than to distract yourself from other worthwhile things you could be accomplishing. While that is an understandable quality for a mini-game to have, Pankration failed to be a compelling enough game for it to be justifiable.

Chocobo Raising/Racing was also a widely anticipated addition to the game world. Chocobo Raising is a very immersive activity, almost dangerously so. The chocobo raising process relies heavily on player input, and players' decisions have a definite impact on the end result. However the majority of the process isolates you from other players. While it's reasonable that this should be a solo activity, during chocobo racing, where you would expect the player interaction to come more into play; It ultimately does not. Additionaly, even the concept of having your own "custom" chocobo is rewarding in itself, that reward is somewhat diminished by the fact that no one really rides chocobo much of anywhere anymore. The result is that the output of the activity isn't matching the input required to raise and maintain a worthwhile Chocobo, leaving the player with little satisfaction or motivation.

With the 99 cap swiftly approaching, and the need to redefine endgame activities, now is a great time to evaluate additions and adjustments to players' activity options. While there are small flaws in the previously mentioned activities that prevent them from possibly being thriving activities, there is one system in FFXI that is at once immersive, driven by player interaction, and provides some sense of personal achievement. This activity has had a dedicated and persistent fan base over the years and is prime for attracting new and retaining old players alike. That is Final Fantasy's "Conflict" PvP system, known better as Ballista.

While the popularity of Conflict has somewhat declined recently, it's community is very much alive, and still retains as much potential as it always had. The issues that need the be addressed aren't in the system itself, but in it's implementation. A majority of the FFXI fan base is deterred from participating in Conflict in its current state because there is no tangible reward, and thus no driving reason to do so. Over the years the player base has voiced their desire for a reward system or simply a reason to participate in an otherwise great game, but those voices seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

To the enduring gamer it would seem as if the once thriving PvP community of FFXI has been forgotten and neglected. To continue to do so would e a great disservice, not only to the loyal fans, but to the Dev team themselves, as a thriving PvP community is a major driving force in the success of many games today. Let's Face it, online game players today love to beat the crap out of each other just as much as they love to brave perils with their comrades. Some times the only thing that makes you feel better than putting down your rival is feeling like you accomplished something along the way.

While i will be making several suggestions in a follow up post, The purpose of this topic isn't to make a grand wishlist for all Ballista players. My goal is to get the people who create the game that i so love to take some serious consideration when it comes to an activity that has been long overlooked, yet can be just as potent as ever with just a little bit of polish.

[Ruebyy]

My suggestion is that rather than revisiting and making adjustments to the old Ballista format, it should instead be reinstated in a newer, more polished capacity, with several tweaks to its existing systems. It's also to be noted that these are simply suggested ideas to be taken into consideration that may help push Conflict in the right direction and in no way are meant to be demands.

#1 -New Areas-
Two new Areas designed for PvP. Ideally the areas would be arena like having boundaries for the match to take place in. Places that aren't exceedingly large in area, maybe comparable to a zone of Windurst. One zone would have relatively flat terrain while the other would have mountainous or varying topography, such that it may be used strategically. And all zones should be subject to all weather possibilities, to alleviate some of the disadvantages of events only taking place on certain days of the week.

#2 -New Match Types/Rotation-
New match types based on rook migration, and a four cap rotation schedule.

The Rooks in these areas rotation in a specific manner could drastically change the course of the game. Having one centralized rook would cause a much more aggressive and personal match, which would also require a lot of team work and communication. The rook would be located in one spot in the center of the field between the two opposing encampments. This idea can also be also be expanded into a two rook system when the two rooks would be centrally located on an axis in the middle of the field (like one north one south).

Another rook migration type would be one which focuses on coordinating attack and defensive efforts. In a two took situation there would be two rooks, one each located near the encampment of each team. Playing effectively in this environment would require good communication and the awareness of your team as well as the enemies presence and status to decide when best to attack or defend. In a one rook format the rook would alternate between one teams encampment to the others calling for coordinated team efforts of attacking and defending. many game variations could be created by mixing and matching these basic ideas that are a slight departure from traditional rook migration.

Seeing as quite a bit has changed since 75 was the level limit, it wouldn't be the best option to re-implement the caps as the currently are. A four cap rotation between 50-65-75-uncap alternating zones/match types would work well.
On paper i have it worked out like this, so that there is time between like caps for different parts of the world.
-1|2
50|75
65|99
75|50
99|65

#3 -EXP Reward-
Increase it. Everything else that gives EXP has gotten a buffer. I don't feel like 5k for an hr spent is asking for too much.

#4 -Skill Gain-
The idea behind Conflict is that its no lethal friendly, competitive battle training between countries. Shouldn't practice increase your proficiency in your art? These battles sharpen our minds, and give us experience in playing our jobs that most would find hard to come by. And hasn't sharpening your mind always gone hand in hand with sharpening your sword.

#5 -Perks-
With the advent of Abyssea it is now known to be possible to apply similar concepts to other areas of the game. I recommend players be given a max HP/MP boost while participating and the option of choosing one or two atma-like buffing effects. This both adds yet another layer of depth and strategy and player preference to the system and helps to solve one large issue with the current state of uncapped Conflict. For most jobs their offensive capabilities far outmatch their defensive and damage mitigation capabilites.

The addition of being able to select these perks would open up a lot of strategic possibilities, and possibly provide jobs with ways to deal with hardships that they previously might not have been able to. If properly implemented you could address balance issues via specific perks as opposed to trying to balance jobs individually, such as making an "atma" aimed at pet jobs that allows your pet to take a certain percent of the dmg you receive in your stead.

#6 -Stat Tracking, Titles-
We as a community love to parse and compare and measure ourselves against each other. And what better way than with actual numbers. Light Stat tracking should be feasible. Nothing too difficult. Perhaps total times KO'd and total KO's, petras scored, highest DMG done. Maybe it could be broken down further into tracking by jobs. Perhaps only the top 25 list in each category would be viewable by everyone while an individual could access the entirety of his own records for programming constraints.

Titles should give the option of having job specific "perks"(were they to be implemented).

#7 -Resist Rates-
Magic resist rates should be increased for participating players. Us players have no innate magic resistance, a weakness that has become crippling in recent updates.

This may seem like an extensive list but all of these improvements are drawn from other aspects of the game and already implemented systems and seem to require only minor tweaking to be applied to the Conflict formula. And to reiterate, all of these are only suggestions to help maybe get the ball rolling or spark other ideas of ways to make a great game even better and more relevant in the new state of FFXI