Removal of Mercenaries

[orionis]

I would like to propose an idea to rid the servers of so called "Mercenaries". Essentially someone/a group of people charging huge amounts of gil to gain weapons for someone whom would normally create a group and essentially 'play the game'.

They do this by fighting high level monsters, in a group of characters. A treasure piece would drop, and then they would use another character (in town) to 'yell' for someone to join the party and lot the treasure from the treasure pool for an amount of gil.

We have a situation where people are simply standing there to gain weapons, experience/cp. This completely condracticts the whole concept of FFXI and its fundamental principles. Generally the entire yell screen is buy this or buy that. It's out of control.

What are these people doing with all this gil?

Here is my suggestion:
Alter the treasure pool. Make it so new people can't join the party while there is treasure within the pool. Maybe this will start enticing people to play together once again, face a challenge, and win that piece of weaponary or armor they have been after.

Or I would hate to thing what kind of path this is going to lead us to, if its not nipped in the bud soon.

[Justuas]

Mercs have existed since the beginning of the game.

[Isola]

Alter the treasure pool. Make it so new people can't join the party while there is treasure within the pool.

This should've been a day zero thing that they did. Far too late now.

Also; Songs and Rolls should be dropped if the bard/cor leave the party.

[orionis]

Mercs have existed since the beginning of the game.

That may be the case, it was virtually unknown on the servers I have been on before. If people did it, it was very hush hush and behind the scenes. I never saw any kind of yell for mercing.

Now it's overkill, totally widespread and every other yell shout on Asura. What's the point of a game when you can just stand there and pay for stuff that you would have otherwise joined a group (and had fun) to obtain? As the game is meant to be played.
The treasure pool wasn't designed to be used the way it is used by mercs.

People will always be drawn to an 'easy option'. FFXI was never intended to be easy, which is what made is stand out. Eradicate mercs, and get people out there, doing stuff together, learning and achieving something in the process.

[Afania]

Here is my suggestion:
Alter the treasure pool. Make it so new people can't join the party while there is treasure within the pool. Maybe this will start enticing people to play together once again, face a challenge, and win that piece of weaponary or armor they have been after.

No :<

This should've been a day zero thing that they did. Far too late now.

Also; Songs and Rolls should be dropped if the bard/cor leave the party.

No :< and no...….


First of all, placing a restriction on treasure pool will NOT remove merc in any way. Merc will just invite buyers to pt instead since capable merc will not have any issues carrying a leech in pt. In fact, people also merc master trials and ambuscade, both content doesn't reward people with a treasure pool.

Additionally. It also removed the option for LS/friends to let new people come in and lot stuff. The whole concept of FFXI is to help others and build community, and people frequently do so by saying "anyone need X item in pool" in LS chat. If there's a restriction on treasure pool, then those gears will hit the floor.

Another thing about merc: Its actually one thing that keep vet players playing. I know more than a couple of people that's been playing for years, has capped aeonic, omen drops and everything. Essentially there are no other things to do in game for them except merc and make more money. If merc isn't an option, they'd all just quit because there won't be ANYTHING to do in game when they have every thing.


Top end players are the backbone of community, they organize events for more casual players to join, write guides, share strategy, basically keep the entire community together. I came from a small server, and I know for sure that if some of the more hardcore player quit because they have nothing to do in game, the endgame community would collapse because the rest of player would not go out and organize events, they'd just quit or server transfer. And merc is basically what keep people still log on everyday to do something at this point.

Basically, merc is a thing and necessary, just deal with it. If you don't like seeing yell with it, there are 10+ other server without merc yell for you to choose from, since merc yells pretty much only happen on Asura.

About songs and rolls, having the ability to buff and drop multiple pt gives BRD and COR more "weight" in the alliance. We can invite a brand new COR with a roll set that buffs 3 pt, that'd give them more weight in the alliance and worth a spot.

If buff and drop isn't an option for them, they'd have to do more in the alliance to worth a spot, such as DDing. Essentially that means newer COR are less likely to get invited to high lv endgame because they can't contribute more than 2 rolls.

So no thanks to BRD and COR nerf.

[orionis]

First of all, placing a restriction on treasure pool will NOT remove merc in any way. Additionally. It also removed the option for LS/friends to let new people come in and lot stuff. The whole concept of FFXI is to help others and build community, and people frequently do so by saying "anyone need X item in pool" in LS chat. If there's a restriction on treasure pool, then those gears will hit the floor.

Strange logic. Surely the point is to invite the Linkshell member in the first place (thats the point of a Linkshell, right?). If they need something from said battle, then they will generally want to attend. If they aren't there fighting and having fun for the item they need, then chances are they are not going to be online, afk, or involved in something else.

Another thing about merc: Its actually one thing that keep vet players playing. I know more than a couple of people that's been playing for years, has capped aeonic, omen drops and everything. Essentially there are no other things to do in game for them except merc and make more money. If merc isn't an option, they'd all just quit because there won't be ANYTHING to do in game when they have every thing.

Again, I don't understand the angle you take on this. You are basically saying mercs have nothing to do and do it specifically for gil. If they have done everything in game, then why do they need large amounts of gil?

Top end players are the backbone of community, they organize events for more casual players to join, write guides, share strategy, basically keep the entire community together. I came from a small server, and I know for sure that if some of the more hardcore player quit because they have nothing to do in game, the endgame community would collapse because the rest of player would not go out and organize events, they'd just quit or server transfer. And merc is basically what keep people still log on everyday to do something at this point.

How many of the notorious mercenaries actually do something for the communtity? They stick to their own groups of their own players, or on the rare occasion invite someone else in that they may share a small portion of the gil earned.

[Afania]

Strange logic. Surely the point is to invite the Linkshell member in the first place (thats the point of a Linkshell, right?). If they need something from said battle, then they will generally want to attend. If they aren't there fighting and having fun for the item they need, then chances are they are not going to be online, afk, or involved in something else.

There are times that people farm things in escha solo/duo/trio for KI or different item and one thing happened to drop but nobody in the pt wants them. it's nice and convenient to give it to other member of LS.


They don't "attend" those because those NMs like warder etc are soloable and generally don't require a party to do, nor bringing a bigger party makes them more "fun" to do. It saves everyone's time if other member who need the item do something else and only come into the pt to lot after the item drops.

Again, I don't understand the angle you take on this. You are basically saying mercs have nothing to do and do it specifically for gil. If they have done everything in game, then why do they need large amounts of gil?

People always like to gear more jobs or work on expensive gears, or work on craft shield etc. So there will always be an use for gil.

That's not the case for ex/rare, getting most ex/rare that's not glowy body can be done very very fast.

How many of the notorious mercenaries actually do something for the communtity? They stick to their own groups of their own players, or on the rare occasion invite someone else in that they may share a small portion of the gil earned.

Typically yes, the nature of merc is that the group will be keep small. Because if you bring a bigger group with more people splitting gil resulting less gain per member, people won't come for merc anymore, then you may as well don't do it.

That being said, if the option to do NM for gil is completely removed from the game, they'd just quit altogether. Because having the option to kill stuff and still get something out of it (in this case, gil) after all the ex/rare are obtained, gives people motivation to stay subbed.

Say if you have been playing for 2+ years none stop, What is the point to do omen/escha after you obtain every ex/rare after 2+ years of doing it weekly? None. So why would you do those event again when you already have ex/rare that you need? You may as well cancel account and play a different game. But if you know you'd make money doing omen/escha tonight, this will be a good motivation to log on and keep sub active.

I think you misunderstood what I meant by "do something for the community". It doesn't mean charity work, but more about mutual benefits. what I mean is, by staying subbed, those well geared, experienced player would still do random things here and there and play with other players when they are not mercing.

For example, sometimes people who doesn't belong to merc groups that would make ambu PUG and such. And even people that belongs in merc groups would still join those pt when they are bored. If all these well geared, highly experienced player all quit, it would be more difficult to make PUG pt for harder content like ambu VD.

Just because they merc a lot, doesn't mean they can't benefit those who doesn't belong to their groups. They still join other groups for things occasionally. And that benefits people outside of merc groups.

Basically, merc service is like prostitute. It's necessary evil in our community because people need them and benefits from them, and I believe our world is better with them even if it doesn't seem so on surface.

And even if they place a restriction on treasure pool, do you really think all the merc in town would suddenly yell "Escha T2 team up? /tell job" (aka "play together" with others) instead of "escha T2 item buy? /tell"? No they won't. They won't even bother doing those T2 NM because they don't need drops from those NMs. They would just sit in town, got bored and quit.

[Isola]

If people that merc can't find entertainment in this game without ripping people off (pretty much all mercs charge double or even triple what things are actually worth) maybe they should play a different game. I hear WoW just got a new expansion.

[VoiceMemo]

Speaking from my standpoint of playing 12+ years and having everything I want aside from 2 items. 1) Judgement day 2)Finished T4 wwing shield. I merc stuff because 1) it gives incentive for those in my group to continue to go to omen that have everything aside from 1/2 rare drops(bodies, hands).

Are you saying we should just invite people and give them items for free? When we are doing all the work? I help out those I know and my 2nd linkshell which is comprised of majority of new/returning players when I can but I have only so many hours of play time. If you're saying veterans should just help out others out of the goodness of our hearts for free all the time, imo that is akin to slavery already.

I still have an obtainable end game goal of my shield, NPC costs alone for 6 step skillchain will run approximately 130m so gil is still needed.

Anytime I yell to merc omen gear I have negotiable in my yell, so if you don't like the price negotiate. If we can't meet in the middle so be it, no one is forcing you to buy, it is YOUR gil you can use it how you see fit. If you wish to pay others to do the work for you to get a drop no one else has a right to tell you that you can't do it. It is YOUR gil.

FFXI economy mimics IRL economy. Much like how you pay someone with money to do the work for you, IE you hire someone to build a cabinet for you. They do all the work you get the result, you pay them money. Same is it in ffxi, you hire someone to kill a mob for you, you get the item, you pay them gil.

[Afania]

If people that merc can't find entertainment in this game without ripping people off (pretty much all mercs charge double or even triple what things are actually worth) maybe they should play a different game. I hear WoW just got a new expansion.

And why would you want them to play a different game? What's the benefit?

If they stay we have more people to pt with for our ambu VD PUG, we have people to sell our crafted items to, we have people to go for when we need something crafted. The list goes on.

Basically, the bigger the community, the better it is for everybody. If they leave for wow, we'll get a smaller community and why would you want that?

without ripping people off (pretty much all mercs charge double or even triple what things are actually worth)

Gears in MMO isn't life necessity. There are no moral issues involved with "ripping people off".

If you don't like the price, don't pay. Merc didn't take away people's right to get gears "legit".

If someone want to merc, just let them. Even if SE place a treasure pool restriction, people aren't going to magically "play with everybody and have fun". FFXI doesn't work that way.