"Recollections" (Black Mage AF quest) Feedback

[Schutz]

Having done "Recollections" (the quest involving getting the "Bag of Seeds" item from elemental monsters in Crawler's Nest, then subsequently getting the "Whine Cellar Key" from demons in Castle Zvahl Baileys) it occurred to me at the time that the portion of the quest involving the elemental enemy target would have been better designed as a popped-target from a dedicated "???" location.

As it currently stands, players have to wait until a weather pattern occurs in the area (Crawler's Nest/Rolanberry Fields.) In practice, because each game day is about 57 mins or so and because weather patterns tend to "trend" to be similar game-day-to-game-day, players can spend whole real-life days waiting on the appropriate weather to occur in-game.

This then results in players unable to progress in this particular quest, which then prevents advancement in the subsequent "Root of the Problem" quest--or even the flagging of the related "Borghertz's Sorcerous Hands" quest (although, obviously, coffer keys can still be farmed up in advance.)

If a dedicated quest-monster ("Elemental") could be spawned by touching a quest-??? instead, it would make this part of the quest less luck-related and more similar to other AF quests at this character level range.

I do understand that with the current leveling progress in FFXI that few players spend much time at this level before advancing--and fewer still make the effort to do the Black Mage AF quests currently--but I think that a better design for this portion of the quest would be beneficial to those newer players that wanted to complete it, without it being such an unreasonable time-investment should they attempt it during a "sunny" stretch of game-time.

[RAIST]

eh... it is only publicly documented as not being common about 5, maybe 6 real life days in roughly a two week cycle in earth time....and that may only be one year out of the overall 12 game year cycle of the weather patterns. It may be almost constant during some game years, hard to know for certain without more data collection. The sampling on the weather site is only a partial sampling of one game year in the complete 12 game year cycle. You also don't have to have the quest flagged, or be on the job to get the seeds to drop...so they can be farmed anytime you see the opportunity present itself.

Just saying...SE may not see this as a problem when looked at in the big picture.

[Schutz]

Well obviously it's the case that their analytical tools have a greater capacity to analyse the impact of this than player-made tools, but even with the small samples indicated from such a resource (or even in-game empirical tracking through the Weather Checking NPC) there is a potential imbalance for quest completion, compared to other AF quests.

Other quests that have a similar time/window of opportunity, such as the Ranger "Sin Hunting" AF quest--which involves waiting until a Full Moon--have a decidedly much more even chance for a given player to complete even if they were only able to log in at particular parts of a real-life day, as that window is much more predictable in scope and doesn't vary as widely.

I was able to get the seeds, and I did complete the quest, so it's not so much a question of player ability as it is of the quest design's reliance on in-game weather variables. I just would think this could be a very frustrating quest for a new player to attempt because of the potential of the limited window.

But thanks for your opinion on what their opinion might be.

[RAIST]

That's just it though... weather isn't actually random. Guess that point didn't come through very well. It just appears random to the casual observer because they aren't watching it enough. It follows a specific cycle...and thus can actually be predicted to some degree. For instance, I can expect Fire weather to be forecasted tomorrow morning around the 9:00-10:00 time frame because I tracked it before (mine and friends magian trials over the years), and it has come back around to fall within that expected pattern again.

Oh yeah... they have been documented to drop off of fire elementals there as well. Granted, catching it there may be rare and short, but it does happen--so basically if you find weather at all in there and see an elemental, kill it if you need the seeds.

It just happens that water is more frequent there, so that's what everyone looks for. Unfortunately, water in CN isn't tracked as fervently as some other weather cycles, but you can at least narrow it down by seasonal pattern for the region. Rain is heavy in season for Rolanberry a little over 1/2 of the game year (ramps up at end of Summer and fades out in Spring). So, you pretty much have a decent shot at finding it almost roughly 9/14 days, best chances fall roughly every other week. So, in a way, it can at least be planned for to some degree based on the time of year.

That's why I don't expect this to be a priority for SE...on average, you have a 50/50 shot of catching the weather in the forecast. Sure, a highly casual player might have to wait until their next week/weekend of play, but in the grander scheme of FFXI's normal time sinks....that's actually pretty good odds and pace.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

There's not much BALANCE!!11!!!11 between the AF quests of the varying jobs, really. If you think BLM has it bad, you haven't tried THF yet. And that's before you get into which jobs need coffer keys from which dungeons (I'm looking at you, Castle Zvahl!).

Looking at collecting artifact for post-Zilart jobs, I think S-E has basically shrugged its shoulders, thrown up its hands, and walked away.