Magian Trial Suggestion

[Annahya]

Dear SE,

Would it possible to create trials for Magian Weapon "Sets?"

Basically, what I am getting at, is that I totally understand that barring one from possessing two identical trial weapons was implemented to control game balance/fairness. It would be totally unfair to allow someone to dual wield weapons and make a pair with the same number of kills it takes others to make a single one. This is fine, and completely understandable.

What if, however, there was a separate quest that one could undertake to allow one duplicate a trail weapon in exchange for doubling the number of kills necessary?

This way, the same number of kills would be necessary to make two of the weapon, but it would remove the tedium of zoning, using repeated confirmation menues, etc. while trying to get back to fighting.

Now, before the "your just crying because you want it easier" crowd gets all fired up, hear me out. I am not speaking of difficulty in any way, I am speaking of boring tedium. In no way does zoning and navigating menus equate to challenging gameplay - and anyone who defends a time-sink based solely upon its elitism is forgetting why we play this game: fun.

Magian trials were an excellent idea, I love the concept and I am glad that SE implemented them. I also completely understand the need to limit the ability to exploit them. But what I don't like about them is the need to spend recreation time on the game's schedule.

While other aspects of the game do require a time commitment, and there are times that if you want a shot at the best equipment you need to schedule an afternoon around a particular NM's spawn or a group of other players, this is a recreational passtime and it can get irritating to feel like you don't control when you are allowed to progess. Coordinating an event, or making room in my schedule to be online for an NM's spawn window, is not as extreme as some of the elemental magian trials require; and is only marginally comparable.

And yes, I understand that I am not required to do them, and that when I am choosing to do a magian weapon, I am taking all the good with the bad.

What I am making this suggestion for is because in choosing to commit to the creation of a magian weapon is already a significant decision to "play on the game's schedule" instead of "playing on your own schedule;" so where would the harm be in shoring up the minutia a little to make it less annoying (not easier, mind you) for the dual wielding jobs?

Having to zone out to turn in a weapon so that the next weapon can get the trial, and then returning to the zone in hopes of catching weather (or the less profitable daily kill) is just a lot of busywork that is profoundly different than having to learn the placeholders and timing of hunting an NM, or coordinating with other human beings to make a plan and follow it through.

So, after this lengthy ramble, I propose the idea of a quest like the following:

Magian Pairing

• Trade 5 geodes of the appropriate element to the Magian Moogle to unlock the ability to assign two of the same elemental trial on a pair of weapons. This doubles the number of kills needed for the trials duplicated in this manner.

Actual gameplay example:

• Trade the Moogle "Qualifying Weapon #1" and select a trial as normal.
• Trade the Moogle 5 geodes and "Qualifying Weapon #2," to be asked for comfirmation that you want to place the previously selected trial on this weapon as well, complete with a warning that both weapons will now require double the number of kills to complete.
• Kill the monsters.
• Return and trade the weapons as normal to complete the trials.
• Repeat this process for the next trial.

With this quest, you would be able to skip a lot of dialogue farming needed to progress a pair of magian weapons, while still needed to spend as much time in the field as everyone else. And for the added convenience, you have to pay 5 geodes for each trial along the way. But, in return, the already annoying process of camping weather, or planning your day around being in zone X during firesday (or whatever) is a little less painful because you don't have to leave and return.

What does everyone think? Does SE have any thoughts?

[RAIST]

seems like a bit overkill....the elemental paths are already pretty easy for the most part. Not that I am against this idea, it's just that most of them are already pretty fast to get through. Some can be done in a day, 3 tops (did an evasion club in roughly 25 hours time...start @9:30, finished @ 10:40 the next nightand some other ice paths in roughly 2 days as well). Not sure if the Dev's will see any urgency for a tweak like this.

[Arlan]

Sounds like a very good idea!
I still haven't finished my trail weapons and i got a lot im working on.
I do get bored and teird having to wait for day/weather just to engage in my Magain Tail content.
I do get bored having to camp an NM or schedule my RL time/day in order to just play the content.

I would like the content more accessable so I can just get them done when I want based on how much time I choose to put in it.

The "play on the game's schedule" instead of "playing on your own schedule;" I agree with.
I prefer to play the game on my own schedule rather than playing the game on its schedule.
The game is made to be fun not to be a chore.

=)

[Annahya]

seems like a bit overkill....the elemental paths are already pretty easy for the most part. Not that I am against this idea, it's just that most of them are already pretty fast to get through. Some can be done in a day, 3 tops (did an evasion club in roughly 25 hours time...start @9:30, finished @ 10:40 the next nightand some other ice paths in roughly 2 days as well). Not sure if the Dev's will see any urgency for a tweak like this.

I recognize that it is not a huge deal, I just wanted to offer the idea when I had it. Although again, in this instance, easy and convenient are two different facets of the issue - a semantic difference, I know, but an important distinction.

I will say, you had amazing luck (or I consistantly have bad luck) to be able to finish a trial so quickly. Perhaps convenience is not equitably distributed amongst the elements, if it is not just a lucky timing issue.

The STR (Fire) Shamshir for my BLU was incredibly painful to advance - and many times was I unable to take advantage of firesday simply because of my full time job. I do not resent the people with more free time to do it in a day, nor do I want it to take less time invested. I merely want the same necessary investment time to be more convenient to the user. It was disheartening to know that what was taking my progress so long was not my willingness to devote a volume of time, but instead when I was able to invest that volume of time. And no, my idea won't fix this, but it would be a way, without making the trials easier, while eliminating the need to squander precious windows of opportunity with repetitive actions/dialogue.

Many times I would spend all morning before work, camping Fire weather in Cape Terrigan so that I could do my aquan/manticore trials because Firesday would fall within my scheduled shift; only for it not to come (even when predicted) or to come just as I had to leave. Then I return home, and the next Firesday would not occur until after I needed to get to bed - so I was faced with the option of lose sleep to progress a quest (and be tired for work in the morning) or put off the trial another day.

This thread is not intended to be a sob story, some people share this struggle and some are lucky (or well connected enough) not to have to. I merely posed this idea for those of us who cannot play when the game says "it's time to work on your sword." For us, a particular weather pattern popping is so very precious, and almost so is [insert element]day actually being up when we can play.

If something like this quest existed, it would be a small way to maximize an occurance of weather without having to leave to turn the trial in, or to miss the last part of a day for the same reason. Personally, and some may not agree with me, I would rather wait to experience the benefit of two upgraded katana until both are done, then have the process take weeks longer because I lost half of the weather I could be using to 4 loading screens, 4 of the same conversations with moogles, and 19,407,312 confirmation windows. It might be three more real days before I see the same weather, or even can play during the same {Day of the week.} While I concede that anecdotal evidence is not always indicative, but I wager a significant number of players understand my frustration.

Also, I kindly ask any "FFXI > Life" jokes be held back. We have all made them, and often they are funny, but I feel that this is a legitimate issue with the elemental magian system. Content should require work and investment - not a completely open schedule. If you disagree with me, please explain why - or help me understand a more efficient way of experiencing this content - instead of making jokes that I should put the game before my family/job/school/whatever.

I love this game, and I play a great deal - and again, I am not in any way, asking for a reduction in difficulty or time investment required to complete them - it is just really disheartening to want to be geared well and be willing to invest hours and hours to do so, only to learn that they are the wrong hours of the day. This suggestion was merely an idea to make a small dent to nudge it into something more forgiving.

Thank you to those who have responded. Does anyone else want to weigh in?

[Annahya]

I found a suggestion in this thread of these forums that would solve the problem completely. In short, a player suggests the creation of weather-runs for MMM so that you can put work into setting up trial specific mazes.

Just thought I would link it here as it is related to what we are discussing.

[RAIST]

Wasn't luck so much as planning.

http://ffxi.lokyst.net/timer/crafttimer.html
Edit: when you click a day in the list, it gives the in-game date in the upper-right panel, so you can see what season that day is in.

Saw the season was coming up for the wind and I wanted that club, so I told peeps I would be busy for a couple days and I just ran with it. Got some day/weather matches along the way since weather was up, and since it was in season there were lots of peeps doing the same targets so was able to team up for almost all of it.

But yeah, fire can be a |bio|tch sometimes with the wait if you are out of season. Had to wait a week to catch the opos in fire weather during summer months in Ifrit's Cauldron for some, but it made the rest go better with fire being in season from that point on.

As for the manticore....that is a common choke point for most everyone. If you can get on during JP primetime, there may still be groups killing them just outside cloister of gales or whatever it's called in teriggan. Might mean putting them off until the weekend or something though. We did a lot of them on firesday there (would drag ls mates there that were stuck on them). Sometimes we would kill so fast we'd actually be waiting on pops, so we'd kill some cockatrice just to keep the momentim going.