I can't believe I'm going to say this

[Mostfowl]

Quote'd this ! because this is the Right words . I will no post link to "other" forums that we all already know , where ppl's Selling , yea u heared me SELLING wins for 30/40 even 50 mills . How game get to this ? , this is a Game , not a Work ! I play FFXI not since start but already 5 years , but i never saw that some one selling any wins because content pretty Impossible for pick groups ! Idk DEV's need really do something with Delve Fractures about now . Maybe add easy/hard modes , where easy mode will no guarantee drops , but we will get just KI atleast , and hard where it stays as it is .

The reason you didn't see it before 5 years ago is because back then most players had a competent ls, wait strike that, had a ls period lol. The game has become so solocentric that ppl have to resort to buying wins simply because they do not have a ls that is willing or able to complete content with/for them. A problem very few ppl had pre-aby. Even the most horrifically difficult battles and missions you could find ppl for. There was more cooperation and people actually had in-game friendships. Now its a dog eat dog, cut throat world out there where ppl are just passing voices in this week's ls. No one wants to help, no one cares who you are or what your doing and most are only interested in you if you are able to provide something they want.

[Camiie]

OP, if you want the people around you to be as awesome as you think you are, then gather up a ragtag bunch of misfits and help mold them into the players that you want them to be. Don't complain about others being gimp or incompetent when you aren't doing anything yourself to remedy the situation.

[Stompa]

Also, allow exchange of conquest points, ancient currency...etc between each other. How many of those do we have now? Too many currencies in the game now, we need to reduce it so people can have more options. Abuse problems? FFXI is bleeding players, you need to remove barriers to let people have fun again. That means let them 'abuse' the system to make their lives easier and remove those cumbersome hops and ladders.

When Magian weapons arrived they were /saluted by many people including me, as what I consider 'democratisation of weapons', meaning anyone could solo a weapon with powerful augments (magian99 weapons still have some of the best bonus augments in the game) and a higher base damage than the best AH weapons. You could farm a magian on your own time-frame, a few hours after work or w/e, you didnt need to /sh for alliances or beg people to farm Aby nm drops for you. Granted magian were never as good as REM, but they offered an inbetween tier of weapons ; far more powerful than AH weaps, and entirely soloable at your own casual or OCD speed depending on the player. I totally applaud SE for the magian weapons system, I wouldn't have added the geodes/etc. stages but made those stages like earlier stages, thus enabling you to build your 99 weapon with no gil cost at all. I still rate the magian TP bonus weaps as the best offhanders in the game, and they cost 0gil and you can solo them casually if you want to. Also the PDT and MDB weapons are excellant pieces and again soloable by anyone.
We had hoped that SoA would have more of these type of solo-effort weapons, maybe a few notches more powerful than magians. I don't include bayld weaps, they have no useful augments just dmg, but they are soloable they just suck compared to magians.
What SE has missed completely this last decade, is an alternate gradual-progression points system for obtaining any weapon in the game. For example if you can't farm Mythic or w/e in the normal way, there should be a soloable points-based system where you can grind out a few hundred points after work, and they add up slowly over the year, and you need a lot of points to get a weapon that would be much faster with a Mythic static group. That way casual players who have busy lives, could actually obtain any weapon in the game, just very slowly, but the feeling when you log-in would not be total hopelessness, there would be a flicker of hope coz u know even though its going to take ages, you can chip away at it solo. I had honestly hoped that, after the popular Magians, which were very soloable, SE would add similar powerful weapons progression system in SOA, that you could build even if you don't have time to hang round with alliances all day long.

[Mostfowl]

When Magian weapons arrived they were /saluted by many people including me, as what I consider 'democratisation of weapons', meaning anyone could solo a weapon with powerful augments (magian99 weapons still have some of the best bonus augments in the game) and a higher base damage than the best AH weapons. You could farm a magian on your own time-frame, a few hours after work or w/e, you didnt need to /sh for alliances or beg people to farm Aby nm drops for you. Granted magian were never as good as REM, but they offered an inbetween tier of weapons ; far more powerful than AH weaps, and entirely soloable at your own casual or OCD speed depending on the player. I totally applaud SE for the magian weapons system, I wouldn't have added the geodes/etc. stages but made those stages like earlier stages, thus enabling you to build your 99 weapon with no gil cost at all. I still rate the magian TP bonus weaps as the best offhanders in the game, and they cost 0gil and you can solo them casually if you want to. Also the PDT and MDB weapons are excellant pieces and again soloable by anyone.
We had hoped that SoA would have more of these type of solo-effort weapons, maybe a few notches more powerful than magians. I don't include bayld weaps, they have no useful augments just dmg, but they are soloable they just suck compared to magians.
What SE has missed completely this last decade, is an alternate gradual-progression points system for obtaining any weapon in the game. For example if you can't farm Mythic or w/e in the normal way, there should be a soloable points-based system where you can grind out a few hundred points after work, and they add up slowly over the year, and you need a lot of points to get a weapon that would be much faster with a Mythic static group. That way casual players who have busy lives, could actually obtain any weapon in the game, just very slowly, but the feeling when you log-in would not be total hopelessness, there would be a flicker of hope coz u know even though its going to take ages, you can chip away at it solo. I had honestly hoped that, after the popular Magians, which were very soloable, SE would add similar powerful weapons progression system in SOA, that you could build even if you don't have time to hang round with alliances all day long.

No thanks.

Read my above post, the ability to solo so much helped to deconstruct this game. And if you actually made an effort and looked it wasn't impossible to set up a static for farming r/m. Its an mmo not a single player game and it bugs me when ppl think that everything should be soloable just because its more convenient for them. That's what offline games are for. Sure its great to be able to solo some stuff but when you make a majority of the content and the most hardcore weapon (at the time) something you can solo, the game looses something. And oh look ffxi lost that thing made it great, as well as a whole lot of players

[Stompa]

Actually you miss the point. The whole inherent problem with online games is they are global, and people play in timezones. If you have two hours gametime maximum per day because of work/family etc. you need to find people who are doing mythic statics during those two hours only. And you will fall behind the static because they are doing longer hours. Ditto Empy's you would need to find people who are willing to give up that specific 2 hour slot to help you farm your empy, and to forgive you for not being online when they are farming theirs. So good luck with that, champ.
And forget Delve& wk.rieve, it takes two hours+ just to get off the ground.
So you completely missed my point about casual players obtaining HQ items via a point system (which would be incredibly slow increments and take LONG time to complete, but allow them at least the chance to work on it in their own time).
You also don't know me at all, I am a long term outspoken supporter of the Old Game, party dynamics, learning your job, being a humble and friendly person in pt's. Thats how it was in 04 when I joined, if you were afk or being an Ahole etc. u got kicked and not invited again. By a process of erosion this created a playerbase who were polite and friendly for the most part, and highly adept at their jobs.
I actually /liked your earlier post hours ago, where you talked about the old days and friendliness and competence and party dynamics.
However that does not apply to obtaining power weapons, which requires luck re; your timezone and how much slack the static is willing to give coz you only have 2 hours to play at certain specific times.

[Yinnyth]

Actually you miss the point. The whole inherent problem with online games is they are global, and people play in timezones. If you have two hours gametime maximum per day because of work/family etc. you need to find people who are doing mythic statics during those two hours only. And you will fall behind the static because they are doing longer hours. Ditto Empy's you would need to find people who are willing to give up that specific 2 hour slot to help you farm your empy, and to forgive you for not being online when they are farming theirs. So good luck with that, champ.
And forget Delve& wk.rieve, it takes two hours+ just to get off the ground.

That's not an inherent problem with MMOs, it's an inherent problem with us living on a giant rock which revolves around our primary source of light, which is much harder to fix. What you are suggesting is that even the most casual player should have the ability to obtain everything in the game, which is noble to the extent that it's non-exclusionary. But just like removing sports from school because they make fat kids feel fat, making the game more casual gives players less ability to do extraordinary things. Beating Tojil for the first time is an extraordinary feeling because it's an accomplishment. It's the culmination of a lot of strategy tweeks, member training, and experimentation.

Tending my mog garden every day is boring in contrast to extinguishing that dino. If you want to make it so everyone gets a sports trophy just for coming to school 50 days, then what's the point of excelling at sports? Most people would have just given up and said "Eh, Tojil is too hard. I'll just wait until I can buy his drops." Unless of course you're serious about it taking all year to farm enough points to buy something, in which case, the system would be worthless because as soon as you've saved up your year worth of points for oatixur, there's gonna be something better out there, and you're gonna have to start saving up a new type of points for another year.

[FrankReynolds]

That's not an inherent problem with MMOs, it's an inherent problem with us living on a giant rock which revolves around our primary source of light, which is much harder to fix. What you are suggesting is that even the most casual player should have the ability to obtain everything in the game, which is noble to the extent that it's non-exclusionary. But just like removing sports from school because they make fat kids feel fat, making the game more casual gives players less ability to do extraordinary things. Beating Tojil for the first time is an extraordinary feeling because it's an accomplishment. It's the culmination of a lot of strategy tweeks, member training, and experimentation.

It's actually more like having a league just for fat kids that get's TV coverage and pays just as well. They actually have something like this in the real world: http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/

:P

If you want to make it so everyone gets a sports trophy just for coming to school 50 days, then what's the point of excelling at sports?

Just to be good at sports?...

If they gave every kid a trophy would that make you suck? I mean wouldn't everyone still know that you were awesome? That's how it is in the real world right now, I can go to the trophy shop and buy one that specifically says I am better than you at literally any sport. Hell, I could probably even buy a super bowl ring. Just the other day Justin Bieber touched the Stanley Cup...

Most people would have just given up and said "Eh, Tojil is too hard. I'll just wait until I can buy his drops."

Isn't that what they do now? What's the difference? You only want really rich kids to buy them?

No thanks.

it bugs me when ppl think that everything should be soloable just because its more convenient for them.

So we should all just quit and go play a different game because this one is convenient for you? Nope. It bugs me when people think everything should require a huge group. I play just as much and just as well as you. I pay just as much too. You are not entitled to better things just because you know 10 other guys who have the same schedule.

I have every right to come in this game, interact with my friends, farm and craft and fish and feed the economy as you do. I can buy, sell, grow, make, fish things all day long while interacting with thousands of people and never set foot in a battle. That is what an MMO is for and that is the basis for a large portion of them.

[Yinnyth]

It's actually more like having a league just for fat kids that get's TV coverage and pays just as well. They actually have something like this in the real world: http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/

:P



Just to be good at sports?...

If they gave every kid a trophy would that make you suck? I mean wouldn't everyone still know that you were awesome? That's how it is in the real world right now, I can go to the trophy shop and buy one that specifically says I am better than you at literally any sport. Hell, I could probably even buy a super bowl ring. Just the other day Justin Bieber touched the Stanley Cup...



Isn't that what they do now? What's the difference? You only want really rich kids to buy them?

My apologies, I was using the analogy to draw a comparison to what would happen in game. You're right that we do live in a world where you can just outright buy the trophy for cheap instead of winning it in a competition, I was attempting to say that it is not that way ingame (or less that way, at least... it is still possible to buy a tojil win).

I don't understand what you're saying about rich kids though. I just want the game to have some hardcore goals for me to strive towards, and a good reason to strive towards them. Yes, some games I love enough to create my own artificial goals, such as KH2 when I beat sephiroth on proud mode with no items at level 37. I got no reward for doing that, it was all in my head. But for this game, I need some additional motivation. Some type of awesome treasure which I can only get if I slay the beast guarding it. Beating Tojil wouldn't feel nearly as good if all my LS members already had his entire drop pool wash ashore of their mog garden.

[FrankReynolds]

My apologies, I was using the analogy to draw a comparison to what would happen in game. You're right that we do live in a world where you can just outright buy the trophy for cheap instead of winning it in a competition, I was attempting to say that it is not that way ingame (or less that way, at least... it is still possible to buy a tojil win).

I don't understand what you're saying about rich kids though. I just want the game to have some hardcore goals for me to strive towards, and a good reason to strive towards them. Yes, some games I love enough to create my own artificial goals, such as KH2 when I beat sephiroth on proud mode with no items at level 37. I got no reward for doing that, it was all in my head. But for this game, I need some additional motivation. Some type of awesome treasure which I can only get if I slay the beast guarding it. Beating Tojil wouldn't feel nearly as good if all my LS members already had his entire drop pool wash ashore of their mog garden.

The problem is that you don't want a trophy. You want steroids. You want something that is going to continue to widen the gap between you and the other kids. It would be fine if you just wanted a trophy.

It would be fine if you just wanted everyone to know that you and your crew beat the game in "God mode" because the armor you got was a different color or shape or something, but you guys want the gear to actually be better. That means that the next thing they come out with has to be that much harder. Which in turn means that the guys behind you are that much further behind.

SE always nerfs things after a year or two, but it's always too little too late. It has to stop eventually.

[Yinnyth]

The problem is that you don't want a trophy. You want steroids. You want something that is going to continue to widen the gap between you and the other kids. It would be fine if you just wanted a trophy.

It would be fine if you just wanted everyone to know that you and your crew beat the game in "God mode" because the armor you got was a different color or shape or something, but you guys want the gear to actually be better. That means that the next thing they come out with has to be that much harder. Which in turn means that the guys behind you are that much further behind.

SE always nerfs things after a year or two, but it's always too little too late. It has to stop eventually.

You should work as a speech writer for a politician because you have a talent for smithing words to make something innocent look deplorable.

I don't care about you. I don't care if your gear is better or worse than mine. It's not about me being better than you. It's about me being better than yesterday me, and how challenging it is for me to proceed to the next step. (I should mention I am oversimplifying because I also want to help my LS grow as well, but I don't care if your LS is stronger or weaker than mine.)

I want my character to grow, and I want it to be challenging to grow. I want to be forced to adapt my play style. I want to be forced to team up with people and develop new strategies. I want that random guy who I thought was a newb to come up with a profoundly good idea which reshapes how we handle things.

I don't want a game where I just log in, grind away solo at something which is so easy I cannot possibly fail, and have my character maxed out until next update. When I want the feeling of massive character progression with no real challenge or teamwork, I play disgaia.