Item Levels

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Adoulin and beyond

Let's take a step back for a moment. "And beyond?" Really? Are the folks on your end sitting on something big that we don't yet know about? Because on our end, the players' end, saying Final Fantasy XI is "treading water" is feeling a bit generous.

It doesn't exactly help that Final Fantasy XIV is making it so easy to see the contrasts and to draw conclusions from that. It's real hard to see the "beyond" in XI when the "beyond" in XIV is dazzling us. Heck, these very forums can't seem to get "beyond" beta.

So talk to us. Give us something, preferably not more talk about specific jobs or specific equipment, because that's getting stale. What's up with the (PC-only) UI you're working on? How will that change gameplay beyond making it more "mouse-friendly?"

Speaking of improving the user experience, have you given much thought to actually new players recently? I mean, FFXI on top of POL on top of S-E Accounts doesn't exactly make this an easy game to pick up and play, and parts of the game manual are at least three years out of date.

In short, if the devs really are thinking about "Adoulin and beyond," why are we only hearing about the "Adoulin" and not the "beyond?"

[Nebo]

Again, having item levels displayed on equipment is just a different way of showing character growth instead of having your character physically level up past level 99.

Showing iLevel as a display of character growth is fine.....pointless....but fine.

But spending precious development resources on having iLevel perform a level /check against monsters to determine exp gained is more than a little silly....even for you guys.

Gearswapping multiple times per battle means that your iLevel is constantly changing and adjusting your exp score.

No one is concerned with exp after reachign level 99. This change is pointless.

Please abandon development work on this update and put resources into something that actually matters and needs atention. You have more than enough to choose from.

[Creelo]

Because of the fact that equipment changing is part of FFXI's core gameplay, this item lvl crap is pointless.

And this adjustment is just so we can't gain exp as fast on mobs few people regularly fight? Really????

Nobody cares. If we could just scrap this entirely, the dev team could focus on other, more desired content. Perhaps this next update could come sooner as well? Maybe we could even get a date given on when this next update is coming too because atm... it seems like it'll never come. <_< (The update regarding Skirmish II, new Wildskeeper reives, etc)

[Zhronne]

Late reply, but they already do send monster level to the client, it just isn't displayed. You can see it with THIRD PARTY TOOLS. From what I hear anyway.

As far as I know that data is sent to the client only during a Check command, not with the rest of the data that gets normally sent from server to client.

[Zhronne]

Again, having item levels displayed on equipment is just a different way of showing character growth instead of having your character physically level up past level 99.

It's not?
So much fail...
So much confusion. Do the dev bros even know where they're going? What they're doing? What their customer demands and needs?

Why spending resources on this crap, really, why? With so much stuff that needs to be fixed.
Sigh... Instead of fixing stuff they prefer to break more.
How can anybody look at the future with hope in their hearts?
How can we believe in FFXI, how can we believe there's gonna be a "beyond" for this game at all?

[Zhronne]

Oh and btw we already had a system to show "character evolution past the level cap" and that was called the "Merit System".
Which was a fantastic and perfectly coherent idea which, if anything, hasn't been expanded enough yet.

This item level crap copy/pasted from other games with COMPLETELY different phylosophies and models has NOTHING to do with stuff like that.
Merits were a great idea to offer character progression and evolution beyond the cap, this item level thing is just crap.

[Alpheus]

Best case scenario is that they have something mind blowing as the reason for doing this, and for the sake of surprise are burying the lead. I have my issues with it that I already posted so all that's left for me is to just wait and see what method there is to their madness.

[hideka]

Greetings!

One of the major questions and concerns we have been seeing thus far in regards to the newly introduced item levels and the changes to how "check" will function is "will Trial of the Magians be affected?"

This is definitely a valid concern and we will be making sure these can still be completed at higher levels. To accomplish this we will be keeping the experience points received for monsters level 99 and below the same and only making adjustments to monsters level 100+.

So basically, everything before Adoulin will still work the way it does currently, and all the monsters for Adoulin and beyond will have this adjustment applied.

Again, having item levels displayed on equipment is just a different way of showing character growth instead of having your character physically level up past level 99.

hello "LFM RANDOM RAID, GS 9000+ ONLY" shouts.
Glad i canceled my account last week.
if anyones looking to play a better mmo: please move to FFXIV. they actually care about that game.

[Merton9999]

I never thought I'd say this, but at this point, can the "storyline" be wrapped up so that those who want to move onto FFXIV can do so without feeling like they missed out on the conclusion of the game? I mean, end-game can go for the end of time if people want to play it, but I think it's about time the story come to a close.

The only reason I say this is because I fear that there will never be a conclusion. With all of these item levels being implemented, I feel like the game is being artificially extended until people stop playing and at that point the plug might be pulled without a conclusion. If we can be guaranteed a conclusion, then i'm fine with it, but I honestly feel like it's time to start looking towards the direction of a full conclusion.

This is what I've been thinking too. I was hoping to reactivate later when the story content was added but the way it looks I won't be able to see it anyway because it's going to require all this item level 120 stuff to complete the missions.

So do we have to have a macro to equip all the highest item level equipment just to /check something now? Do you calculate experience points (I know, who cares...) for 100+ mobs based on the accumulated item level at the mob's ToD?

[Catmato]

Greetings!

One of the major questions and concerns we have been seeing thus far in regards to the newly introduced item levels and the changes to how "check" will function is "will Trial of the Magians be affected?"

Why would anyone care about Magian trials anymore? Any weapon that requires exp-yielding mobs is rubbish. You spent so much time and effort on the system and made it, and almost every weapon from it, obsolete.