Is Ryota Iwagami doing okay? Is he working on Monstrosity still?

[Edyth]

I've just noticed that Ryota Iwagami is in the credits of FFXIV 2.55, as "Crafting, Gathering and Item planner".

That's so sad. He made extremely ambitious content in this game. Arguably the most ambitious ever besides Abyssea. Now he's just doing items in XIV? Granted, items in MMOs is a ton of work, but it lacks the glory of Monstrosity.

[Karbuncle]

Woah there! You can earn some Sparks and Unity Accolades from Monstrosity... slowly.

Actually...there were no rewards... shit rewards would be a step up.

There are rewards though, just not for... Monsters.. only for players who defeat monsters.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Fiend_Torque (Which links to other items). There were like 6 torques I think? All of them being complete trash save the Avatar one which I think has either been outdated by now or is such a minor upgrade its not even worth 1/20th of the effort to obtain it.

[Economizer]

All of them being complete trash

That they are. I don't even think it would be that hard to give the 99 ones augments that you can get from leveling your monsters though, which would make them not trash, especially if the augments were just any 15 points of instincts you've earned. Bam! You just got ilvl torques (without the more OP instincts like Toad Instinct III, which is 20% Haste).

[Enochroot]

You just got ilvl torques.

Getting level-appropriate torques with instincts augmented onto them is a fantastic idea. None of them would really be game-breaking, but they'd certainly shake things up and some would be situationally best-in-slot. Every job would benefit from at least one of them, and it'd be an easy-to-implement way to cap off the Monstrosity content if they weren't going to add further species or anything like that. It'd be an actual worthwhile reward. I love that idea.

[Karbuncle]

Idk, Some instincts are really overpowered for a neck item. But to keep it from having hundreds of torque variations (which would take up a lot of memory im sure), they could simplify it based on species, unlocking a "Specie" augment based on combined levels in that species. They could easily add a 99 torque (Item level 119) thats blank that can be augmented with unique stats based on your progress in monstorisity Something like this -

Beasts:
STR+6 VIT+3 Accuracy +5
"Triple Attack" + 2%
"Lizard Killer" + 10

Lizards:
DEF:20 HP+4% VIT+10
Damage Taken -6%
"Vermin Killer" + 10

Plantoids:
MND+8 Magic Accuracy +4
Light Elemental Magic Attack +6
Healing Magic Skill +6
"Beast Killer" +10

Vermin:
DEX+6 AGI+6 Accuracy +5 Evasion+10
Critical hit Rate +2%
Critical hit damage +3%
"Plantoid Killer" +10

Bird:
AGI+8 Ranged Accuracy +8
Ranged Attack +14
"Snapshot" +3
"Aquan Killer" +10

Aquan:
VIT+5 Accuracy +8
Physical Damage Taken -4%
Converts Damage taken to TP +2%
"Amorph Killer" +10

Amorph:
HP+30 MP+30 Accuracy +5 Attack+5
Pet: Accuracy +9 Attack+9
Magic Accuracy +9
Magic Attack +9
"Bird Killer" +10

Special (Other):
Increases chance of obtaining Crystals +4%
Occasionally nullifies Physical damage taken +2%
"Steal" +2

Each one taking elements from popular/well known species of that list as well as influence from instincts. That would keep the rewards down to a handful, not much memory, but still variable enough to be valuable to many types of players, unfortunately need to shoe-horn pet there unless you got a better idea (I thought Beast cause of Kirin but...).

They could also limit it so you can only possess 1 at a time, making the first augment free, but having it costs a good chunk of Infamy to rewrite it.

[DarkBEWD]

Unpopular Opinion Guy here, as far as the neck accessories are concerned, as long as they stay Gladiator-only (i.e. not the main goal of Monipulators) anything they do with them is all gravy with me, although I'd like it if they really poured on the SMN love for level 50-75 and threw in some perp, not-horrible-latent: refresh, BP delay reduction, and maybe some rare/unique stats or traits.

As far as rewards for playing as a monster goes, I still stand by the notion of not turning that into yet another silly hoop to jump through to get a shiny trinket from. The way I see it, Monipulator side = For Fun and Gladiator side = For Glory. If you're here for shinies, keep your clothes on and go out and fight those monsters, if you're here for a good time, lose the pants 'cause it's time to run wild. That said, I do understand that some people somehow think their Level 99 adventurer-smashing-badass HNM fitted with the latest and greatest instincts is not enough to show for their time and effort spent (probably because the Devs dropped it before we even got to see the intended end game), so what I would do to answer their cries is give these two things: an Icon and an upgradable Key Item. When you hit 99 on ANY monster, talk to [appropriate NPC] as that monster, boom, you get your Monipulator Icon to wear over your pearl as an adventurer and a Key Item that gives you a hidden +3 to all attributes the same way merited stats do, on top of that, each time you get a whole category of monsters to 99, your Key Item gets upgraded to the next one that gives you a whole two point boost up from the last one. Why would I do it this way? To tie it to lore of course! This way, you can make it like the deal with Blue Mages, now that you're a Monipulator you're technically no longer human and spending more time as a monster doing monster things bumps up your overall strength little by little. There, short and sweet, no soulless gear grind involved, and now you get your trophy prizes to take home and brag about to your moogle.

[Karbuncle]

Unpopular Opinion Guy here, as far as the neck accessories are concerned, as long as they stay Gladiator-only (i.e. not the main goal of Monipulators) anything they do with them is all gravy with me, although I'd like it if they really poured on the SMN love for level 50-75 and threw in some perp, not-horrible-latent: refresh, BP delay reduction, and maybe some rare/unique stats or traits.

As far as rewards for playing as a monster goes, I still stand by the notion of not turning that into yet another silly hoop to jump through to get a shiny trinket from. The way I see it, Monipulator side = For Fun and Gladiator side = For Glory. If you're here for shinies, keep your clothes on and go out and fight those monsters, if you're here for a good time, lose the pants 'cause it's time to run wild. That said, I do understand that some people somehow think their Level 99 adventurer-smashing-badass HNM fitted with the latest and greatest instincts is not enough to show for their time and effort spent (probably because the Devs dropped it before we even got to see the intended end game), so what I would do to answer their cries is give these two things: an Icon and an upgradable Key Item. When you hit 99 on ANY monster, talk to [appropriate NPC] as that monster, boom, you get your Monipulator Icon to wear over your pearl as an adventurer and a Key Item that gives you a hidden +3 to all attributes the same way merited stats do, on top of that, each time you get a whole category of monsters to 99, your Key Item gets upgraded to the next one that gives you a whole two point boost up from the last one. Why would I do it this way? To tie it to lore of course! This way, you can make it like the deal with Blue Mages, now that you're a Monipulator you're technically no longer human and spending more time as a monster doing monster things bumps up your overall strength little by little. There, short and sweet, no soulless gear grind involved, and now you get your trophy prizes to take home and brag about to your moogle.

Its not a bad idea to make it to where the rewards are from gladiators side, but without reason to level Monsters for the players who may not be otherwise interested in leveling monsters, the even will stay deserted. Unfortunately what this means is that if we, the players who enjoy monstrosity for its novelty, wish to ever see an update to monstrosity it needs to be more popular, and the only way to do that is to make it worthwhile. Which means bluntly that this comment is silly

no soulless gear grind involved

Because this is the only reason this game exists 13 years later and the only reason most of the population remains, and what drives rather an event goes the way of Pankration or not. It may not be that way for everyone but the only difference XI has than most MMO is its high level of itemization and variety. It may not be everything to you but unless we want Monstrosity to stay a dead, soulless side activity, it needs rewards, on either Monster or Gladiator side, or both. Rewards are what keep people interested, and grinding is what keeps them interested for a longer time.

Monstrosity in itself has a high level of enjoyment for me, I like unlocking the species ans playing as different ones, but I also want it to continue to grow which means rewards need to happen so player interest happens... and in order to grow the population of Monsters as well as Gladiators both need rewards worth having. Even if it is just one slot.

The idea of adding Icon+Small buffs to your character actually isn't bad, and I wonder if it would be easy to develop... perhaps it could be treated like Job Points where its small buffs based on what species you have at what levels?

[Economizer]

perhaps it could be treated like Job Points where its small buffs based on what species you have at what levels?

More like new merit categories. Or even better, being able to unlock all of the existing merit categories. I'm still not a fan of the Merit WS system regardless of if there are more than three WS that anyone even bothers to use.

[DarkBEWD]

Okay, so let's add some equipment to Monipulator play, *poof* there, now you can slap Haste +20% and Triple Attack +10% on an All Jobs 99 piece in a desirable slot. Now what? Now you have a bunch of dudes abusing mules, people coming up with ways to avoid or run from combat, cookie cutter builds and strats, countless cries of "X is too powerful/weak" when it's not, a few nerfs and one-sided power balance shifts later (most likely in a span of a month or two), everyone who is anyone has their new toy until the next best thing in comes out and now we're back to square one, except not really because now it's a dead beaten horse.

"So, Mr. Unpopular Opinion Guy, how do you think being a Monipulator is gonna appeal to players who aren't interested without tying gear to it?" the answer of course, lies in the unimplented, abandoned, final phase and the speed of the previous species additions. I will swear until the end of Vana'diel that the absolute largest mistake in attracting interest is the slow implementation (or cancelled implementation) of monsters people want to be, and of course I mostly mean Dragons. Holy mother of Altana just add the fupping Dragons and spread the damn word about it and you'll see monsters taking over every EXP zone I swear, you do not understand how many people absolutely love Dragons, give me any Wyrm model right now and let me fly it outside of Jeuno I swea-*ahem*. Anyway, it's that and lack of group activity that I believe to be the main loss of interest, like, if I told you that you and your buddies/Shell can go pop a Kirin, King Behemoth, Unity NM, or whatever similar thing as a group of monsters AND get the drops, tell me you would not be interested. Tell me that, you would fold your arms and point your nose sky high, if I told you that you can farm Limit/Capacity Points as a group of monsters. Tell me that, if they copy/pasted Campaign, but instead a bunch of present-day notable NPCs and/or Heroines and NM/HNMs/Story bosses are what made up all of the AI armies you could fight alongside in a huge crossover struggle, that handed out modest rewards such as things you need to collect eleventy billion of to knock out a gear upgrade, or event rank, or crafting related thing, in a reasonable fashion, that you would say, "Nah, eff dat shit B."

All I'm trying to say is, as far as playing as a monster goes, I would dread for it to become another lame pain-in-the-ass thing players do for a few days to a month or so just to get some golden underpants with the shiniest of +1s on it then forget about and I really don't think it has to. The idea that you could be/create one of the strongest monsters if not the strongest monster in the game and take it out to challenge adventurers and their latest pimped-out gear, or not and just be the friendly-neighborhood-unstoppable-demigod-MK-3 should be good enough, and seems to be, seeing as I do in fact see a handful players out leveling monsters still. I'd like to see Monipulator play remain something one does to enhance their overall enjoyment of the world of Vana'diel itself, make Vana'diel seem a bit more lively (does anybody else think it's a shame La Theine is so huge, yet there are no giant monsters stomping around in it?), and continue to help promote more positive player interaction (no really, it does, it surprises me too).

Anyway, I did refer to myself as Mr. Unpopular Opinion Guy for a reason, just sayin'.

[Enochroot]

Meh. I think a lot of the folks who discount Monstrosity simply because of the lack of a good reward simply haven't spent much time doing it. It's fun that stands on its own, regardless of a reward. The reward of unlocking more and different species as you level is nice - it's a reward, just not a tangible. If they added better rewards for leveling monipulators, more people would do it and some of those people would be bound to find the content itself fun. Those folks would hopefully then add their voices to our chorus (ahem) calling for SE to finish the monstrosity content by releasing the rest of the species/instincts and opening the content up to new areas.

It's not that your opinion is unpopular, it's that your method of expressing yourself leads me to not read your blocks of text so I have no clue what your real opinion is. Sorry.