gaes fete ark angels

[Tidis]

A staple of RPGs, hell, good game design is that if you're not sure of something in game, there is someway to discover it, be it through discovered lore or NPC dialogue. It's not good game design to just put something in the game and leave it up to the players to try all sorts of random combinations to discover. Of course the problem with Escha is we have a zone devoid of NPCs so NPC dialogue giving away pop item info is a non-starter.

Unless there are certain conditions that reveal what you need to pop the Ark Angels but it shouldn't be a load of guesswork, there is no challenge in that it's just frustration.

[Hoshi]

Frankly we got lucky on the sky gods. My friend traded me a bunch of stuff he had lying on a mule after I had exhausted all the possibilities from my own inventory and it turned out to be scraps from the 4 gods. I doubt that the arks are much more obscure we just haven't tried trading the right thing yet - and just maybe that's because it requires 4 things!

[Kraggy]

A staple of RPGs, hell, good game design is that if you're not sure of something in game, there is someway to discover it, be it through discovered lore or NPC dialogue. It's not good game design to just put something in the game and leave it up to the players to try all sorts of random combinations to discover. Of course the problem with Escha is we have a zone devoid of NPCs so NPC dialogue giving away pop item info is a non-starter.

FFXI has been like this ever since release, inscrutable clues at best, hell you needed the cheat book even to be able to begin to progress through the starter cities due to the moronic rep-gated quests in a game where there is ZERO indication rep. EXISTS from the game itself except for the inscrutable rep. NPCs which a newbie would have no idea WTF is going in with!

The vast majority in quests in the game give no clue as to where one needs to go and often little idea of what to do .. an no, that's isn't 'exploration and discovery' that are the basis of RPGs, it's simply hugely aggravating and frustrating. FFXI IS UNPLAYABLE WITHOUT THE WIKI which is a damning indictment of the game's design IMO.

I just don't believe people who say they play it without reference to fan sites or data mining, it isn't possible!

[Catmato]

FFXI IS UNPLAYABLE WITHOUT THE WIKI

Yeah, good thing SE made the wikis instead of letting the players figure it out.

[Jile]

Yeah, good thing SE made the wikis instead of letting the players figure it out.

I'm assuming your joking but to be clear, SE didn't make the wiki's, XI player base made them due to necessity.

[bungiefanNA]

FFXI has been like this ever since release, inscrutable clues at best, hell you needed the cheat book even to be able to begin to progress through the starter cities due to the moronic rep-gated quests in a game where there is ZERO indication rep. EXISTS from the game itself except for the inscrutable rep. NPCs which a newbie would have no idea WTF is going in with!

The vast majority in quests in the game give no clue as to where one needs to go and often little idea of what to do .. an no, that's isn't 'exploration and discovery' that are the basis of RPGs, it's simply hugely aggravating and frustrating. FFXI IS UNPLAYABLE WITHOUT THE WIKI which is a damning indictment of the game's design IMO.

I just don't believe people who say they play it without reference to fan sites or data mining, it isn't possible!

Records of Eminence Tutorial quests and Content quests have gone a long way to pointing out such things exist. Also, the JP manual for the game at PS2 release was about 300 pages, and appears to have covered a bunch of such details. The NA manual was maybe 100 pages at NA release. JP is also more information-dense per page of text, due to kanji taking up less space on the page than English words.

JP developers seem to make a lot of Guide Dang It (look it up on TV Tropes) stuff to their games though. It just seems to be part of their design philosophy.

[AtrixWolfe]

A staple of RPGs, hell, good game design is that if you're not sure of something in game, there is someway to discover it, be it through discovered lore or NPC dialogue. It's not good game design to just put something in the game and leave it up to the players to try all sorts of random combinations to discover. Of course the problem with Escha is we have a zone devoid of NPCs so NPC dialogue giving away pop item info is a non-starter.

Unless there are certain conditions that reveal what you need to pop the Ark Angels but it shouldn't be a load of guesswork, there is no challenge in that it's just frustration.

The original Zelda wasn't easy to solve and couldn't be solved just by clues in game and the designers made it that way on purpose! A lot of the success of the franchise was aided by the fact that without talking to other people about it, solving it was near impossible. Later installments in the series steered away from that, and that is probably a good thing for solo RPGs. But imho for MMO's this isn't bad game design at all but rather, just like with testing tons of spells, and figuring out the math behind stuff and so much else we as a community have accomplished, it is part of the draw.

I just don't believe people who say they play it without reference to fan sites or data mining, it isn't possible!

It's not really supposed to be possible having challenges that require a community to solve is part of good design for a multiplayer game.

[AtrixWolfe]

A friend of mine thinks it could be a upgrade piece from each of the level 135 UNM and an Ashen Crayfish, anyone tried that? So Hidhaegg's Scale, Sovereign's Hide, Tolba's Shell and Ashen Crayfish and if it works like the god KI's you need to have killed the originals.

[Hoshi]

An interesting suggestion. I guess it would make sense with their use of unity mats for other monsters in escha. My accolades continually go to popping T2s in ru'aun so it will be a while before I could test that suggestion.

[Tonan]

Some more hints if that is helpful:

Item 1: One of the two items needed to make Ark Pentasphere (common)
Item 2: Ditto
Item 3: Gathered/fished in Escha maps
Item 4: Gathered/fished in Escha maps

For those who want the exact item lists:

Ark Angel HM's Coat

1. Parchment
2. Illuminink
3. Ashweed
4. Gravewood Log

Ark Angel EV's Sash

1. Parchment
2. Illuminink
3. Ashweed
4. Ashen Crayfish

Ark Angel TT's Necklace

1. Parchment
2. Illuminink
3. Duskcrawler
4. Gravewood Log

Ark Angel MR's Buckle

1. Parchment
2. Illuminink
3. Duskcrawler
4. Ashen Crayfish

Ark Angel GK's Bangle

1. Parchment
2. Illuminink
3. Gravewood Log
4. Ashen Crayfish