Availability of HMPs, Riftcinders, Riftdross

[Pups323]

But then a full alliance would go and get 18x what a solo player would get, so essentially oyu're just saying drop 5x more of them. They will never do that, as they've basically established. We need to play a little give and take here if we want to get them to do anything. It just needs to be set up such that a solo player doesn't get drastically punished for being able to solo something that wasn't originally soloable.

Also, it sounds like you're talking about the NMs that drop singles, I would direct their attention to the NMs that drop bags. They're stronger NMs so they should drop more, but in actuality the drop rate on the bags is bad enough that it's not really worth it.

Again your missing the point of my post....

I was saying when solo it should be the same drop rate as when there are 18 people. And when there are 18, it should be normal (current) drop rate. So that you are not penalized for having fewer people. Alex you are rewarded for soloing it because you get the same # but dont have to share it. HMP you are penalized because you get 1/18th the drop rate.

Solo = 18x current drop rate
18 man = current drop rate

Also, for people saying its hard to cap lights...it isnt, not sure why people have an issue, with all of the key items, 1-2 blm triggers is enough to cap red. I did 18 hahava kills yesterday with 150 red light (cells), 400 red light (procs), and th1 (thx lion 2). I got some of the most beautiful logs with capped lights on 18/18 fights (i know it doesnt drop hmp, just an example of how easy it is to cap lights and still get crap).

[detlef]

So your proposal is to harshly penalize people from teaming up even with another person? I'm not sure I see why SE would ever go that route.

[Daisansha]

Again your missing the point of my post....

I was saying when solo it should be the same drop rate as when there are 18 people. And when there are 18, it should be normal (current) drop rate. So that you are not penalized for having fewer people. Alex you are rewarded for soloing it because you get the same # but dont have to share it. HMP you are penalized because you get 1/18th the drop rate.

Solo = 18x current drop rate
18 man = current drop rate

This is so wrong. You are not penalized, you do not get 1/18th the drop rate. You are only one person, whether killing the NM by yourself or in an alliance. Go kill the NM 18 times and you get the same drops whether you are solo or in an alliance of 18 people. You do not get the drops from the other 17 people in an alliance, they do not belong to you. There is no reason whatsoever for SE to improve the drop rate just because you want to solo the fight or are unable to get others to fight with you. All of the VW fights are pretty easy to solo, you just need to go do it.

[BurnNotice]

It's an idea thrown out there that can be modified. Anything would be better than whats happening now. I believe as paying subscribers, we shouldn't be penalize for obtaining upgrade materials.

[bungiefanNA]

This is so wrong. You are not penalized, you do not get 1/18th the drop rate. You are only one person, whether killing the NM by yourself or in an alliance. Go kill the NM 18 times and you get the same drops whether you are solo or in an alliance of 18 people. You do not get the drops from the other 17 people in an alliance, they do not belong to you. There is no reason whatsoever for SE to improve the drop rate just because you want to solo the fight or are unable to get others to fight with you. All of the VW fights are pretty easy to solo, you just need to go do it.

Except that server populations are lower, and most people don't bother with Voidwatch anymore, so you have fewer plates entering the economy. Increasing drop rates would give more incentive for people to do the content. With the only option being to solo it, and with the limit on voidstones, it's hard to get people interested in grinding the content again. HMPs, Riftcinder, and Riftdross are about the only items of worth still in the content, and the amount of time it takes to get them, compared to currency for upgrading Relic and Mythic weapons, plus how the stats on the weapons compare to mythics and relics, make it not worth the time to keep grinding the content. You pretty much have no choice but to solo the fights with Trusts if you want the clears, or want to try to farm HMPs and such to put into the economy or to build your own weapon.

[Pups323]

Except when you solo Voidwatch, you get 1/18 the total drops the mob had.

When you solo salvage, 100 alex drops, and can be shared 18 ways or go to 1 person.

When you do voidwatch it was intended that there be 18 pools of loot at the end, so by soloing it you have gone from 18 pools of loot down to 1 pool of loot, and while the drop rate per person is the same, the drop rate for the monster is effective 1/18th what it was in regards to the number of potential heavy metal plates entering the game. The fact you get 18 pools of loot in voidwatch is the single biggest reason they dont want to increase the drop rate.

And how does it penalize 18 people by having the drop rate scale from 1 to 18. Its not like 18 people are going out to do voidwatch at the moment, i can pick any mob that drops HMP and find an open camp and run kills for hours with no issues. Chances are, if someone tags along they are just going to be selling the HMP to me anyways. SO in the end the same total number of HMP would enter the world.

[Creelo]

I think if they just added Riftcinder/dross and Heavy Metal Plates to the Goblin in Reisenjima that would be a huge benefit.

They could easily do like 3000 merits for a Riftcinder or Riftdross and like 500 merits for a Heavy Metal Plate, and even that would be a HUGE benefit to increasing supply of these items. They really need to expand on what items the Reisenjima Goblin exchanges in general; the Voidwatch selection is basically limited to grinding endlessly for a glow body/weapon.

[Pups323]

500 merits per 1 hmp? While that is inline with the other stuff (delve beads) the goblins sell, i can get 1 hmp faster than i can get 500 merits, just saying.

[Creelo]

500 merits per 1 hmp? While that is inline with the other stuff (delve beads) the goblins sell, i can get 1 hmp faster than i can get 500 merits, just saying.

This is FFXI we are talking about, and I gave those numbers precisely as you said, to be in line with the other items offered. Personally, I would rather have 100-250 merits for a HMP, but those goblins are quite greedy. I think this is the point though of the goblins; to provide an alternative path for certain items that can be obtained through getting merits that can be obtained while doing other, more relevant content. If you do the event itself directly though, you'd likely obtain the item or w/e it is faster than building the merits for it.

The point is there is an easy way to add an alternative way to obtain REM upgrade items that isn't nearly as convoluted as trying to adjust the drop rate based upon how many players are participating in a VW fight. A greatly increased drop rate for Riftcinder/Dross/HMP for solo players would just divide the playerbase up, possibly crash the market completely, and/or create a highly competitive atmosphere over who could pop VWNMs first due to the huge incentive for fighting them solo.

We need to be realistic here if the dev team is ever going to take our suggestions seriously.

Other suggestions for increasing supply of Cinder/Dross/HMP would be to add them to VNMs, since those have to be done to farm relevant crafting materials for some of the most valuable hexed armor in the game. Adding REM upgrades to these NMs would help incentive players to kill these NMs more, which would also help out crafters/players who want the hexed armor materials. Or they could also just increase the drop rate for these upgrade items, especially Riftcinder/dross. Having only a 1-4% drop rate for these items with capped red light is absolutely ridiculous.

[BurnNotice]

The Dev Team can go as far as to even add them to abyssea to relevant NMs that are tied into creating weapons. This was actually suggested a long time ago when VWs were introduced. Folks were confused to why add it to only VWs but not in Abyssea since the two do have connections.