Alluvion Skirmishes

[Stompa]

I think Alluvion drop system on weapons, and random augments system, would be great. IF the gear was going to be useful in a years time. The reason it isn't so great, is because of the wider built-in-obsolescence problem in ilvl.

It would be worth it IF the weapons had a shelf-life of at least a year. But they don't either the weapons will not upgrade to 125, or the augments will be lost in the process. Either way its a monumental joykill. "Yay I got the weapon drop and uber augs finally! Unyay, my mannequin will be rocking this item in 6 months time."

Results on Gaxe, used around 35 stones, at average 33k gil each.

Svarga : Accuracy +18 Store TP +5. [I'm very happy with this gaxe.]

Alluvion is fun, the bosses are cool. Being able to play most jobs and have casual players in runs for tier 3~4, is cool. The problem isn't the bosses random weapons, or the random augments. The problem is what will happen in a few months time when ilvl lurches upwards, and your precious weapon is used for chopping firewood.

[Glamdring]

I think Alluvion drop system on weapons, and random augments system, would be great. IF the gear was going to be useful in a years time. The reason it isn't so great, is because of the wider built-in-obsolescence problem in ilvl.

It would be worth it IF the weapons had a shelf-life of at least a year. But they don't either the weapons will not upgrade to 125, or the augments will be lost in the process. Either way its a monumental joykill. "Yay I got the weapon drop and uber augs finally! Unyay, my mannequin will be rocking this item in 6 months time."

Results on Gaxe, used around 35 stones, at average 33k gil each.

Svarga : Accuracy +18 Store TP +5. [I'm very happy with this gaxe.]

Alluvion is fun, the bosses are cool. Being able to play most jobs and have casual players in runs for tier 3~4, is cool. The problem isn't the bosses random weapons, or the random augments. The problem is what will happen in a few months time when ilvl lurches upwards, and your precious weapon is used for chopping firewood.

this is basically the problem in a nutshell. If all rewards require us to grind to make them worthwhile only to be thrown away when about 1/3 of the playerbase have acquired them in favor of the next shiney item... well, eventually even the hamster on his wheel realizes that all the running in the world isn't going to get him anywhere, so they finally just get off, ignore the wheel, enjoy the food and just get fat and start to smell.

[Malithar]

I think Alluvion drop system on weapons, and random augments system, would be great. IF the gear was going to be useful in a years time. The reason it isn't so great, is because of the wider built-in-obsolescence problem in ilvl.

It would be worth it IF the weapons had a shelf-life of at least a year. But they don't either the weapons will not upgrade to 125, or the augments will be lost in the process. Either way its a monumental joykill.

Or the third option which they've already hinted at, the weapons will remain the same, but new stones will be added for more augments. I'm not going to dig for the post, but it was around the time Alluvion Rala and Cirdas was added. It said something along the lines of "moving forward, we will add ways to add additional augments to the weapons. We're also discussing adding helms and body armor to the next Skirmish." Or something along those lines. I'm pretty sure they learned from Skirmish 1's mistakes when it comes to wiping augments.

When ilvl first came around and the whole fear of things quickly being outdated popped up, I bit, I felt similarly. But for the most part, this has not been the case with FFXI. Skirmish 119 gear is still very useful, Delve 119s are still very useful, most 119 AF and relic is very useful (unless it sucked outta the gate, that's a different story ._.; ), etc. Most of these things are approaching their 1 year mark, or have long since past it such as Delve 1s 119s.

Not going to say things won't ever be outdated or anything, they surely will, the game steps forward. But carrying an irrational fear over losing out on your investment is only going to cause you to lose out on the benefits you'd have until something came along that was better, whether that's sooner or later.

And for some wild baseless speculation, this was posted in a .dat mining thread 6 months ago. My money's on it being the light armor set from Alluvion Skirmish. There's a similarly over-the-top styled concept art of heavy armor that was shown prior to SoA's release that I'd peg as the heavy Alluvion armor.



And just cause I'm bored, here's the heavy armor mentioned.

[Stompa]

Or the third option which they've already hinted at, the weapons will remain the same, but new stones will be added for more augments. I'm not going to dig for the post, but it was around the time Alluvion Rala and Cirdas was added. It said something along the lines of "moving forward, we will add ways to add additional augments to the weapons. We're also discussing adding helms and body armor to the next Skirmish." Or something along those lines. I'm pretty sure they learned from Skirmish 1's mistakes when it comes to wiping augments.

When ilvl first came around and the whole fear of things quickly being outdated popped up, I bit, I felt similarly. But for the most part, this has not been the case with FFXI. Skirmish 119 gear is still very useful, Delve 119s are still very useful, most 119 AF and relic is very useful (unless it sucked outta the gate, that's a different story ._.; ), etc. Most of these things are approaching their 1 year mark, or have long since past it such as Delve 1s 119s.

Not going to say things won't ever be outdated or anything, they surely will, the game steps forward. But carrying an irrational fear over losing out on your investment is only going to cause you to lose out on the benefits you'd have until something came along that was better, whether that's sooner or later.

And for some wild baseless speculation, this was posted in a .dat mining thread 6 months ago. My money's on it being the light armor set from Alluvion Skirmish. There's a similarly over-the-top styled concept art of heavy armor that was shown prior to SoA's release that I'd peg as the heavy Alluvion armor.

Re; Alluvion specifically, I do really love my h2h gaxe and twin axes. The actual weapons look stylish, I especially love the gaxe which is my favourite gaxe in FFXI for purely visual reasons, and it hits like a truck full of plump ppl, which is always nice. So I would be really happy to keep my Alluvion weapons for a long time and just scale them up the ilvl ladder.

I could live with having to get new augments, but I just don't want to keep getting new weapons all the time lol. Its not like the Knight Of Solamnia, where your Dad gives you a sword that his great-great-grandfather used, family weapon you will be holding in your hand when you fall. I'm not wanting a weapon for life, just one that has a few years of life in it.

[Glamdring]

my hamster wheel point-in addition to trying to be funny-was that things like the augmented gear still are generally not the best gear for the slot. Eventually, players get tired of endless grinding for an ALMOST piece and just spam fights for the dropped one with locked stats that generally IS the best piece in the slot. And as they seem to add a new piece like that with every MAJOR content addition even that piece changes. Working hard to get nowhere indeed...

[Kaeviathan]

I'm done with playing this game, random augment is very unappealing to me and many others. I haven't even bothered looking at what the base stats from the new skirmish equipment. February 2015 will become my last payment contribution to the game if there won't be any changes to the reward system.

Another note, obtaining 100 Job points for these new gifts are not worth the effort. I don't know what SE's market strategy on this game is, but it seems to me they are trying to get people to dislike the game so much,they want us to migrate to FFXIV.

[Raydeus]

I'm done with playing this game, random augment is very unappealing to me and many others. I haven't even bothered looking at what the base stats from the new skirmish equipment. February 2015 will become my last payment contribution to the game if there won't be any changes to the reward system.

Another note, obtaining 100 Job points for these new gifts are not worth the effort. I don't know what SE's market strategy on this game is, but it seems to me they are trying to get people to dislike the game so much,they want us to migrate to FFXIV.

Back when they destroyed the community by making Abyssea lvl 30 instead of 75 they just assumed everyone was going to leave XI and migrate to XIV anyway (lolololol) so I'm not sure if they would make the same mistake so soon after.

But then again we did get the ilvl BS in XI so...

/wait&see

[Malithar]

I'm done with playing this game, random augment is very unappealing to me and many others. I haven't even bothered looking at what the base stats from the new skirmish equipment. February 2015 will become my last payment contribution to the game if there won't be any changes to the reward system.

QQ

Seeing as though you haven't even looked at the armor, I'm to assume you haven't bothered to try and augment it. Many people are getting very good augments out of +1 stones, and it's even possible to get good augments from NQ stones. This isn't nearly as bad as the original set of Skirmish armor. I really recommend you give it a shot.

Quick cheat sheet for augments:

Snow: Augment 1 - + combat stats such as +Acc, +Att, +MAB, +Def, +RAtt, etc
Leaf: Augment 2 - + unique stats such as Fast Cast, DA, STP, Conserve MP, TA, Snapshot, -Perp, etc
Dusk: Augment 3 - + base stats such as Str, Dex, Mnd, etc, as well as some unique stats such as WSD, BP+ damage, Occult Omen, etc

Slit: Melee augs
Tip: Ranged augs
Dim: Magic augs
Orb: Pet augs

It's possible to get a stat outside of what you'd expect, say MAB from a Snowslit stone, though it seems to be much rarer than it was on the weapons.

[Kaeviathan]

I did try trade 2 Refractive Crystals for an augmented cape, but all i got was one with STR+3, and another with DEX+3 on Yokhaze Mantle. I wasn't amused by the results.

[Demonjustin]

The randomness is simply a way for them to draw out the limited content they release and make sure we keep dumping money each month to play the same content over and over again in hopes that RNGesus will grace us with better luck this time. It's this exact design methodology that helped drive me away from the game. After all, why put in time and money to experience the exact same frustration constantly?

In the time I've been gone, it seems like things have kept on the same way even. The only good content I've seen is Unity NMs, which seem to have fairly consistent rewards. But new Skirmish, Incursion Capes, it's still random. Even if my odds are seemingly better by narrowing the possibilities it doesn't help the fact that every bad augment I get as I make a vain effort to improve myself feels like little more than a kick to the groin. The best system they've had for augments since the game's inception was Delve's, it was a progression model as opposed to a random model. If they incorporated that into more events, I'd gladly put more time into the game and events like Skirmish. The fact I'm still playing with dice every time I try to make my gear suck less however? No thanks, it's not worth my time.