A plea to SquareEnix: Linkshell - Quality of life improvements and current problems.

[Tiktaks]

Hello everyone, my name is Tiktaks. I am the leader of the official Reddit Linkshell over on Asura. We are one of the largest active Linkshells to date and we have a major problem in hitting the player cap of 64 people online at once.

While I understand there are many technical problems on the side of Linkshells from your end SquareEnix, I really would like to see this problem addressed somehow.

My biggest problem as a leader is trying to please everyone. Our community is focused on helping all new players and returning players feel like they have a family in-game they can depend on. Teaching them the ropes of Final Fantasy XI, showing them what they have missed, and much more. While I understand some players would just suggest making a second shell, I don't want to split the community in two. It would be like asking a family to split in two. It just isn't the same.

I know SquareEnix has a lot of problems they are dealing with everyday, as well as new content getting ready to be released, I ask of this change with the greatest of intentions. We willingly go out of our way to help new players get started in the world of Final Fantasy XI and many players have told us that if it wasn't for this Linkshell they most likely wouldn't have continued playing the game. Final Fantasy XI is a very unforgiving game to new players, especially if this is their first MMORPG. While I know we are not the only Linkshell that helps new players, we have one of the largest communities (the Reddit community) that does this. We help new players get into an older game, which results in more subscriptions for you SquareEnix. We just want to be able to keep our community together without having a 64 player limit/cap and you just want to continue getting those subscription numbers up, as well as keep your current subs. Why not help each other out?

I know many other Linkshell leaders would also love this change. Even if most Linkshells don't have the problem of reaching the cap consistently, we are one of the Linkshells with this problem and it does effect us heavily. I hope you can help with this and I hope other people who think this is a problem can show some support for this issue.

_____

While the problem listed above is my primary concern there are also a few others problems that are worth mentioning, so I will put them in this topic as well. These ideas were brought together by Zenoxio, a mod over on /r/ffxi and a Pearlsack in the Linkshell.

- Ability to invite players to LS from anywhere
- Basic permission/rank system so a LS doesn't just die out when the leader vanishes
- Ability to break pearls/kick players while they are offline

I repeat - I know some things have technical limitations on your part SquareEnix, but this is just some of the things I really hope can be worked around somehow. I want our community to continue growing, so we can help more and more new players get started and feel like they have a home. Thank you!

What the Reddit Linkshell is about: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/comments/1z401s/are_you_currently_playing_on_the_asura_server/

The Reddit Linkshell Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLinkshell/

Final Fantasy XI Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi

[Greenkin]

Totally agree with OP. The LS is central to the play experience. I resubbed last month because I knew there was a large, healthy LS on asura. Without a good LS im not sure I would have resubbed so readily or with as much confidence that I would be able to make friends.

The world feels empty compared to the early days, but its awesome having a full and thriving LS

I have a good friend from college that just resubbed and he may not be able to join the same LS as me because there is not enough pearls.... Friendships and in-game connections are what will keep people subbing. The community needs to be strengthened. For this to happen, I agree that LSes at least need the option to expand to take in new players.

What should the LS membership limit be? 100? 200? I don't know, but anyone who is friendly and can contribute to the community should not be excluded from having one.

[MDenham]

I'd be in favor of the LS "number of people on at a time" limit being 750, like Besieged's limit is, but I have my doubts that raising the cap that far is feasible (or necessary). ;)

128 might be enough, 160 probably is, and 192 almost certainly is, though.

[Limelol]

I think a lot of people might see this and think that it's not a big issue because they're not currently in this situation.

For those people, I'd like you to think of your first social Linkshell that really made you feel at home. Great experience, right. Of course it was. Now, can you imagine how terrible it would be to log on one day and want to talk to all of these new friends you made only to be denied access to the Linkshell due to having too many people online? I know I would never want that.

Ideas like splitting the shell and creating a second one wouldn't be a great idea in my opinion. Everyone would want to be in the main one, but they'd have to settle for second best in that scenario. A less than ideal situation, no?

Because of this, I think the best solution going forward is to increase the number of online Linkshell members allowed. Nobody has to settle for second best. New players get the full welcome. When someone is trying to talk to a few Linkshell members, they won't have to figure out which shells that the other people are in.

[Volkaru]

I agree that this does need to be addressed. Even a boost to a 100 limit would be more than enough. But as it is many people are being turned away at the door, as it were, because of this archaic restriction.

[Almet]

I'm also in agreement with this. If I hadn't discovered an active social LS, I would not have the same level of interest in the game that I do.

[ebox86]

Yes! fully support this

I don't see why, given the lifecycle and stage the game is in currently, why the linkshell limit would not be able to be raised. Especially with a motive of enticing new players to join, sub and keep p[l]aying

[Kimithras]

Building a Linkshell up from the ground, piece by piece, seeing it succeed, only to be hurt by an arbitrary limitation is truly frustrating.

I believe it is a limitation that no longer makes sense and I don't think it would be overly difficult to modify.
Even today, Square Enix still manages to surprise us with new ideas, changes to game mechanics, new content... It is difficult to believe it is a twelve year old game.
I don't think this change would be beyond their skills.

Come on, Square Enix. You can do it. Your faithful community needs it.

[Alhanelem]

Building a Linkshell up from the ground, piece by piece, seeing it succeed, only to be hurt by an arbitrary limitation is truly frustrating.

I believe it is a limitation that no longer makes sense and I don't think it would be overly difficult to modify.
Even today, Square Enix still manages to surprise us with new ideas, changes to game mechanics, new content... It is difficult to believe it is a twelve year old game.
I don't think this change would be beyond their skills.

Come on, Square Enix. You can do it. Your faithful community needs it.The limitation is unlikely arbitrary, it is probably due to ps2 memory limitations.

[Olor]

Then they should just drop PS2. I mean, they have already locked NA PS2 players out, it's garbage that they keep the restrictions in place for JP PS2 players only.

Anyway, I fully support the Original Poster. I was also in an LS awhile back that regularly hit the player limit, and they did do a second shell and it really broke down the community. It's not a viable option.

[Alhanelem]

Then they should just drop PS2.I don't think there's a person alive who doesn't want this, unless possibly you live in japan. :p

[Tiktaks]

I don't think it has to do with the Playstation 2 limitations, but server stress. Having Linkshells with hundreds of members on at once wouldn't be nice for SquareEnix to handle stress wise.

With the game currently as is, not as many Linkshells reach the 64 member cap as they used to, so I don't see it being as bad as a problem as it used to.

[bungiefanNA]

Other chat channels have no such limit, and Yell has to be pushing the servers harder than linkshell chat would. An increase of the limit by at least 100% should be within reason. I Nth this request.

[Kharlan]

Co-sign! :cool:

[Johnnyderp]

seconded, this needs to happen. Does SE even read these forums?

[Mnejing]

seconded, this needs to happen. Does SE even read these forums?
Nope, just the JP forums so this "effort" is wasted.

[Tiktaks]

seconded, this needs to happen. Does SE even read these forums?

Yes they do! Look at the other posts with all the dev posts in them.

I believe if this problem comes to their attention with enough support, we will easily get a response.

Edit: Please don't turn this into a topic bashing SquareEnix! I rather work towards a positive goal, not a negative one.

[Olor]

Nope, just the JP forums so this "effort" is wasted.

Not true... I know from the BLU forums, since JP BLU forums have essentially nothing on them. While its true most responses we see are only translations of commitments made from the JP side, since they never complain about BLU, they must also respond to our forums.

[Poxyklyp]

I fully support this. I think the linkshell system has been in dire need of an overhaul for a long time. I'm sure they could come up with something that would satisfy everyone & stay within the ps2 limitations. It's just a matter of them actually doing it. At the very least I think the 64 member cap needs to be raised.

[predatory]

Nope, just the JP forums so this "effort" is wasted.

I know this isn't true because I've started a couple of threads that got dev responses, one was about the gates in the eldiemei necropolis and the other was about weapons that only a single job could use. They read the posts, my guess is that sometimes they just don't have an answer.

Here's what I think happens, we post about an idea we think would be cool, the community reps look at it, (hell they may actually be part of the dev team), and take the issue to the appropriate person, and if that person says something along the lines of that's in the works then we get a response, if it's not then we don't get a reply about it until it does go into development

[predatory]

Oh and about my first or second reply, if there is an issue where there are more than 64 people actually trying to get inshell and can't because of the limits placed on how many people can be in any given linkshell at one time, then this is indeed an issue and should be addressed, I was under the mistaken impression that the OP wasn't aware that you could hand out infinite pearls to a linkshell, my bad and I aplogize for being ignorant of that situation, but I do stand by the rest of what I said

[predatory]

Don't we have community reps, why the fuck aren't these two threads that have obviously been started by the same group of people on asura been merged together in one thread, wth is going on here> you think youre answering one thread and its a different thread started by different people from the same linkshelll, isnt the job of the community rep to combine threads that are the same or to move threads to the right section of the forums?

[Lithera]

It is the job of the mods yes. That includes the community reps. I think they could use a 1k needles in combining the threads.

[Shirai]

I don't think it has to do with the Playstation 2 limitations, but server stress. Having Linkshells with hundreds of members on at once wouldn't be nice for SquareEnix to handle stress wise.

With the game currently as is, not as many Linkshells reach the 64 member cap as they used to, so I don't see it being as bad as a problem as it used to.

While I am not against the idea, you yourself are already giving a pretty good reason why this is pretty unlikely to happen.
I've come back from a 9 month hiatus about a month ago myself, and am very pleased with some of the QoL changes put into this game, like the extra storage and the mog wardrobe.
But at the same time I have noticed that loading times have increased considerably, even with the dwindeled server populations.

And I am pretty sure SE isn't going to invest in any upgrades in this game's network infrastructure soon.

[bungiefanNA]

Then they should just drop PS2. I mean, they have already locked NA PS2 players out, it's garbage that they keep the restrictions in place for JP PS2 players only.

NA players aren't locked out. There's at least one method to install Adoulin on an NA PS2 that works, and I know several people using it. You do need the data from a JP install disc, and an alternate way of putting the files on your own HDD.

[Tiktaks]

While I am not against the idea, you yourself are already giving a pretty good reason why this is pretty unlikely to happen.
I've come back from a 9 month hiatus about a month ago myself, and am very pleased with some of the QoL changes put into this game, like the extra storage and the mog wardrobe.
But at the same time I have noticed that loading times have increased considerably, even with the dwindeled server populations.

And I am pretty sure SE isn't going to invest in any upgrades in this game's network infrastructure soon.

I haven't noticed any loading time increases in the past few years. Thats... odd. I still will remain hopeful.

[Olor]

NA players aren't locked out. There's at least one method to install Adoulin on an NA PS2 that works, and I know several people using it. You do need the data from a JP install disc, and an alternate way of putting the files on your own HDD.

That's nothing but a workaround. Officially - support for PS2 is over in NA/EU. They need not continue gimping the game for a tiny minority of people who can't get into 2014 and play the game on a modern(ish) system. You can buy a comp that will run FFXI for peanuts these days, especially if you go used. If you're a committed console peasant get an xbox. This isn't rocket science.


I haven't noticed any loading time increases in the past few years. Thats... odd. I still will remain hopeful.

Maybe you never try to change gear or access your inventory after zoning, but there is now at least 20 seconds where you can't do anything of the sort. It is pretty annoying but its the price we pay for increased inventory.

[Lithera]

What so everyone in japan has to suffer the crap box pause? Microsoft doesn't sell well there.

[Shirai]

Maybe you never try to change gear or access your inventory after zoning, but there is now at least 20 seconds where you can't do anything of the sort. It is pretty annoying but its the price we pay for increased inventory.

This exactly, before I took my break it was a mere matter of seconds before I could access my inventory after zoning.
Nowadays, as Olor sais, it takes at least 20 but usualy around 30 seconds before my inventory starts loading items.
And no, it's not my computer system nor my Internet connection.
I don't mind this too much, I can learn to live with it because it is the benefit is huge, and not only to me but to everyone.

Unlocking or increasing linkshell capacity may have a similar effect on the network infrastructure, it may not, we don't know.
But if it does, I'd personally rather not have this increase because as you yourself have said, there may be two perhaps three linkshells with numbers that exceed the cap so for most people the benefits won't compensate for the downside.
I won't magically move to a larger linkshell because I can, and neither will others.

Not being able to access my inventory for a second or 20 is no big deal, missing those seconds in linkshell or party chat can be vital.

[Tiktaks]

This exactly, before I took my break it was a mere matter of seconds before I could access my inventory after zoning.
Nowadays, as Olor sais, it takes at least 20 but usualy around 30 seconds before my inventory starts loading items.
And no, it's not my computer system nor my Internet connection.
I don't mind this too much, I can learn to live with it because it is the benefit is huge, and not only to me but to everyone.

Unlocking or increasing linkshell capacity may have a similar effect on the network infrastructure, it may not, we don't know.
But if it does, I'd personally rather not have this increase because as you yourself have said, there may be two perhaps three linkshells with numbers that exceed the cap so for most people the benefits won't compensate for the downside.
I won't magically move to a larger linkshell because I can, and neither will others.

Not being able to access my inventory for a second or 20 is no big deal, missing those seconds in linkshell or party chat can be vital.

The reason the inventory change causes changes within the network is because everyone is constantly using the Linkshell. There wouldn't be much stress if any at all with the Linkshell change, because only 2-3 Linkshells would be using it at the increased capacity which wouldn't be enough to "Stress" the servers.

[Shirai]

Every capacity change influences the infrastructure, no matter how minor you think it is and neither of us knows exactly how the network is going to behave at such a change.
Don't just assume that nothing will happen because "only 2 or 3 linkshells" are actually going to use this and don't assume that what you are asking for is an easy thing to do.

[LordMedivh]

I will have to agree with most of the people here and my own linkshell. I have played this game since release and never understood why they had a Linkshell limit in the first place. I can tell back in the very old days the servers could not handle that much data at once. FFXI is one of the first and most successful massive MMORPG back in the day. The game runs off of very old school coding.

In my honest opinion and the way the game works, I will not see any issues with the linkshell being increased on people who can hold them. I can understand we can downgrade our alts and not have them in the LS but even without that it is still an issue today. Our LS is probably one of the biggest linkshells to date and it is extremely rare to find a LS that is that huge on any Server today since the game is not as populated as it use to.

What I remembered back in the very old dev days in 2003-2007 is the game had a limit on a lot of areas but since the downfall of most of the population and now mostly play 14 now it seems that the game can easily handle more LS members. I am not seeing how it would affect the server load times. I do see a lot of people having some lag issues but I have no issues on my end running a decent connection (20mb is good for me at this moment.)

Overall all they have to do is adjust the limit on the LS holders since this should not be a major issue. This is just a Hex edit for them to adjust the limits to a Linkshell. We don't need a revamp of the linkshell or do we need to follow what FF14 has. I feel an increase in linkshell size or even overall remove that limit will fix this issue. The chat lines and such are regulated still and it is very hard for anyone to actually spam up LS chat. It is very hard for myself to spam without having that 5 second lag before it posts to the chat logs.

I overall do not see any major issue if they increase this or not and I can't see of any major issues the game will suffer. It might take awhile for members to load up the LS since that does it to me too at times with a high connection. Overall increasing it to a higher size would fit best for this option. We are overly known on Reddit and I am not going to see us start slowing down on accepting old school players or even the better new players.

[Feary]

lol at this point in the game, you might as well just allow yell across the game. 64+ 100+ ppl in a linkshell is like 1/5 the server's active population at any given time. lol

at that point, what is the point. to get a head of shout/yell limitations.

i dont see 64 being a clique when most all content can be done with 6 or less.

ive been in linkshells that large and co ran a dynamis linkshell nearly a decade ago that would cap the entry every other run. i do understand the importantance the social aspect that this has. however,
i just dont see the practicality in this being further developed on because it is obviously the exception not the rule.

[Feary]

I will have to agree with most of the people here and my own linkshell. I have played this game since release and never understood why they had a Linkshell limit in the first place. I can tell back in the very old days the servers could not handle that much data at once. FFXI is one of the first and most successful massive MMORPG back in the day. The game runs off of very old school coding.

those servers are probably dedicated to assisting 14, these forums, and/or the se management site. if not all at least half since server merger.

[Zenoxio]

While the problem listed above is my primary concern there are also a few others problems that are worth mentioning, so I will put them in this topic as well. These ideas were brought together by Zenoxio, a mod over on /r/ffxi and a Pearlsack in the Linkshell.

- Ability to invite players to LS from anywhere
- Basic permission/rank system so a LS doesn't just die out when the leader vanishes
- Ability to break pearls/kick players while they are offline

I repeat - I know some things have technical limitations on your part SquareEnix, but this is just some of the things I really hope can be worked around somehow. I want our community to continue growing, so we can help more and more new players get started and feel like they have a home. Thank you!

Yep, I can't urge this enough to SE. If you want to see your game community bolster, please consider working out these limitations.

[aBaDmAn91]

The limit of 64 is not enough, SE should really do something about it.

[Alhanelem]

I haven't noticed any loading time increases in the past few years. Thats... odd. I still will remain hopeful.
He's talking about the time it takes to load all the data when you move to a new zone. The more stuff you have in your bags, the longer it takes for them to load in.

[Tiktaks]

lol at this point in the game, you might as well just allow yell across the game. 64+ 100+ ppl in a linkshell is like 1/5 the server's active population at any given time. lol

at that point, what is the point. to get a head of shout/yell limitations.

i dont see 64 being a clique when most all content can be done with 6 or less.

ive been in linkshells that large and co ran a dynamis linkshell nearly a decade ago that would cap the entry every other run. i do understand the importantance the social aspect that this has. however,
i just dont see the practicality in this being further developed on because it is obviously the exception not the rule.

I know for /yell when they increased it to multiple cities, it pushed it to the max server stress without causing problems. SquareEnix has openly stated this in a dev post and I don't see /yell changing again anytime soon. As for Linkshells however, what I hope to see is that the cap can be increased even maybe up to 100 people max or so, pushing it to its absolute max like they did /yell. There seems to always be a little bit left they can push it and they have been pushing a lot of out dated mechanics out per patch, my only hope is to have the Linkshell on their list of things to come.

[LordMedivh]

those servers are probably dedicated to assisting 14, these forums, and/or the se management site. if not all at least half since server merger.

That was the point I was trying to come across but you answered it correctly.

If I remember correctly they did upgrade their servers back in 2006 or so if I remember correctly. I know the servers today can handle this adjustment.

The inventory issues as in lagging to other zones. I can see the difference on the auction house. I don't know if this is due to my inventory but when I zone to other areas I haven't had much issues. My mage character has all his bags maxed out and no lag from zoning. The opposite of that is my level 99 character lags more and he has 80% less inventory lol.

If they remove the limitations of the linkshell, I don't know how it will impact the servers. They still use the old school chat system where spamming is impossible. (Back in 2003 there was no such thing as spamming in chat due to not high enough technology of the server handling that much chat requests lol)

If I remember correctly the chat system runs off like this. It takes a second or 2 to have your chat posted in your LS and the other person who sees that chat takes about 5 seconds or less to see that chat. How I know is that I run two games at once off of two difference PC's and I can see the lag between both sides.

If they remove that limitation It won't hurt the servers because the chat logs are limited to how long it takes to post that chat and also you have that 250 character limit per each chat line. (I don't know if its 250 but around 150-200 or whatever).


Because of the character limits per each chat line this won't even hurt the system at all. As being from a hardware engineer the game barely pulls much bandwidth anyways to even become an issue today.

My average bandwidth on this game is around 3GB a month. Overall even if there is population or not but removing the LS limit would not hurt the game. Specially on how many people are online per day. If servers can withstand 3500 people a day even though our biggest population so far is what? 1600 for Asura, this limitation should not even make a dent on the server.

[Tiktaks]

That was the point I was trying to come across but you answered it correctly.

If I remember correctly they did upgrade their servers back in 2006 or so if I remember correctly. I know the servers today can handle this adjustment.

The inventory issues as in lagging to other zones. I can see the difference on the auction house. I don't know if this is due to my inventory but when I zone to other areas I haven't had much issues. My mage character has all his bags maxed out and no lag from zoning. The opposite of that is my level 99 character lags more and he has 80% less inventory lol.

If they remove the limitations of the linkshell, I don't know how it will impact the servers. They still use the old school chat system where spamming is impossible. (Back in 2003 there was no such thing as spamming in chat due to not high enough technology of the server handling that much chat requests lol)

If I remember correctly the chat system runs off like this. It takes a second or 2 to have your chat posted in your LS and the other person who sees that chat takes about 5 seconds or less to see that chat. How I know is that I run two games at once off of two difference PC's and I can see the lag between both sides.

If they remove that limitation It won't hurt the servers because the chat logs are limited to how long it takes to post that chat and also you have that 250 character limit per each chat line. (I don't know if its 250 but around 150-200 or whatever).


Because of the character limits per each chat line this won't even hurt the system at all. As being from a hardware engineer the game barely pulls much bandwidth anyways to even become an issue today.

My average bandwidth on this game is around 3GB a month. Overall even if there is population or not but removing the LS limit would not hurt the game. Specially on how many people are online per day. If servers can withstand 3500 people a day even though our biggest population so far is what? 1600 for Asura, this limitation should not even make a dent on the server.

Still not 100% sure on how it all works and what servers are ran with what, but hopefully this shouldn't be hard for SquareEnix to do. I won't assume anything till an official response though!

[LordMedivh]

Every capacity change influences the infrastructure, no matter how minor you think it is and neither of us knows exactly how the network is going to behave at such a change.
Don't just assume that nothing will happen because "only 2 or 3 linkshells" are actually going to use this and don't assume that what you are asking for is an easy thing to do.

It all depends on how the chat system works. We all don't know that for sure since the game was made over 10 years ago. We are not assuming things. We are just discussing on how the game works. If I remember correctly the game can run off multiple network infrastructures like the chat system can run off 1 network structure while the game runs off on their own server. If I also remember correctly if you zone in or out to areas, the chat system stops. This means it can indicate the chat system runs off a separate server or a network of its own. It is all guesses. I did remember one of the Dev people stated they will be able to make adjustments to LS capacity limits easily since it does not harm the game. If I remember correctly they made an annoucement about adjusting the LS structure in the future.

I know today MMO's do not have this issue anymore due to breakthrough technology. FF14 has a Linkshell system and now a Company System (Still need to study about this.)

If you guys read on the FFXI reddit forums we got a reply stating they are in process of discussing LS changes and such. Its progress for now and we have to live with this issue until they fully announce it. I have good feeling they will make the linkshell easier. We all know SE today, they focus on content more and keeping the game alive. So we just have to sit back and relax for now until they make that announcement.

[Crevox]

What people don't seem to understand about the community reps is that 90% of the posts they make are just mirrors of the JP dev responses.

When a dev responds on the JP forums on a topic, the community reps translate it, and then find a suitable (similar) topic on our forums to post the translation of that reply there. You may not notice that this is the case, but it is. If you look at all JP dev posts in a day, by the end of the day, you can expect the same posts on these forums, translated.

Regardless, the community reps do pass on pressing concerns to the devs; we may never see a response, but, that doesn't mean it isn't happening. If we DO get a response, it's more than likely because they are saying they are going to pass on the feedback, or a dev already replied about it on the JP forums.

But, like I said; it's not impossible that we'll get a dev response without the JP side bringing it up first, but, based on history, extremely unlikely.

[Tiktaks]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/42981-Rate-of-Leveling-and-the-New-Player-Experience

[Apie]

self deleted

[Lithera]

Why the want to be alone in an mmo though and this is a QoL thread so this post is even more off topic.

[Apie]

self deleted

[Lithera]

Trust were always meant to be used in party. It's just they ran into problems that delayed that part and now have fixed a bit. Also it's a main numbered and an mmo because SE wanted to try something new. The game still calls for you to get into groups to do most of the current events thought as end game just currently very low man. Even in XIV the story is based around you til near the end. Even the story in XI says you but also know that there are other adventures like you. Just that the game never directly says oh go and collect your elite squad of adventure friends to beat up this thing or person.

Yes it being an FF title is why many picked this up but not the only reason why. Even if that is a reason why many of those same players found it nice that they could ask inside their LS(es) or through shout for help on things instead of going well I guess I gotta go level bst or smn and gear the crap out of it so I can try and solo this mission.

The game has been a party centered game until recently where you couldn't get almost anything in game or you would spend most of the time on the ground dead.

Again this is a QoL thread about link shells. Also if you haven't noticed a lot if people on the forums have been complaining that the community that once made this game great is diminished due to the high amount of things you can do solo.

[Tiktaks]

Trust were always meant to be used in party. It's just they ran into problems that delayed that part and now have fixed a bit. Also it's a main numbered and an mmo because SE wanted to try something new. The game still calls for you to get into groups to do most of the current events thought as end game just currently very low man. Even in XIV the story is based around you til near the end. Even the story in XI says you but also know that there are other adventures like you. Just that the game never directly says oh go and collect your elite squad of adventure friends to beat up this thing or person.

Yes it being an FF title is why many picked this up but not the only reason why. Even if that is a reason why many of those same players found it nice that they could ask inside their LS(es) or through shout for help on things instead of going well I guess I gotta go level bst or smn and gear the crap out of it so I can try and solo this mission.

The game has been a party centered game until recently where you couldn't get almost anything in game or you would spend most of the time on the ground dead.

Again this is a QoL thread about link shells. Also if you haven't noticed a lot if people on the forums have been complaining that the community that once made this game great is diminished due to the high amount of things you can do solo.

While the group gameplay never be what it once was, the community is as strong as ever, as long as you meet the right people. The idea of how I run my Linkshell is to always keep it feeling like a home within FFXI. Not everyone will find their own "home" within LS so they will not know what it truly feels like to play this game with the company of many others all talking to you along the way to the top. This community has a way of coming together, even if the gameplay doesn't do so itself as much anymore. I will always have a deep respect for FFXI and the players it has, so I will continue to always play the game for what it is and just hope for the best for come Quality of Life changes for the social aspect like I requested.

[Babekeke]

One way to increase party play would be to add benefits for doing the now soloable content in a party.

EG. when doing salvage in a group, all NMs drop a guaranteed cotton purse to all members in the party, and the end boss has a chance to drop a linen to all players as well.

In Dynamis, all NMs drop a guaranteed 100 piece to all members in a party, while the zone boss has a chance to drop 2 to all members.

Sure, there are people with multiple accounts that would abuse this feature, but on the whole it would improve this game. There's currently no reason to team up to do these events as they're all soloable and you get more money from doing it solo.

Other benefits would also include reducing the stress on salvage zones, as there would be more people doing it in groups instead of all trying to enter their own instances.

[Tiktaks]

While making more party content would be nice, this post is more about the technical side of Linkshells and the caps they have.

[bungiefanNA]

What people don't seem to understand about the community reps is that 90% of the posts they make are just mirrors of the JP dev responses.

When a dev responds on the JP forums on a topic, the community reps translate it, and then find a suitable (similar) topic on our forums to post the translation of that reply there. You may not notice that this is the case, but it is. If you look at all JP dev posts in a day, by the end of the day, you can expect the same posts on these forums, translated.

Regardless, the community reps do pass on pressing concerns to the devs; we may never see a response, but, that doesn't mean it isn't happening. If we DO get a response, it's more than likely because they are saying they are going to pass on the feedback, or a dev already replied about it on the JP forums.

But, like I said; it's not impossible that we'll get a dev response without the JP side bringing it up first, but, based on history, extremely unlikely.

The devs speak Japanese, not English. As such they're going to post on the JP forums. The community team's job is to translate our concerns and relay them to the devs and to translate dev responses back. It could very well be that some of the dev posts are placed into areas of similar concern as our, and ours was the reason for the post. But yes, the devs aren't going to have to wait for translations of the JP forums.

Hey Crevox, did you ever join the REDDIT LS on your server? I saw you were concerned with just how much there was to udnerstand about this game, and they are very willing to help at all hours of the day. An LS like that would be your best resource for grasping this game.

[Camate]

Greetings,

There’s been some progress on the linkshell feature expansion that was mentioned previously ( “http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/42981-Rate-of-Leveling-and-the-New-Player-Experience?p=513695&viewfull=1#post513695”) that I’d like to share.

We’re currently in the midst of working on a feature for a future version update that will allow you to equip two linkshells at the same time. We’ll also be adding a system where you can give a linkpearl to an NPC so that other players can obtain that linkpearl.

As we need to create a new chat channel to go along with this system, we are expecting it will be possible to implement this in the September version update.

Once there are more details I’ll be sure to share!

[MDenham]

As far as the "equipping two linkshells at a time" idea: This feature is fine for when you need to talk to two groups that don't overlap.

The problem is that if you're trying to make it so that a single large linkshell has options of which one to talk in... well, you either end up with the same "nope, only 64 people allowed" issues as before because everyone's trying to sit in both linkshells at the same time, or you now have about 120 people on, half of whom can't talk to each other easily because they're only in one of the two linkshells.

So: in the process of creating the new chat channel (/linkshell2 or whatever), will the existing limit of 64 people active in a linkshell at a time be raised as well?

[Sekundes]

Years ago, I may have been worried about the 64 person limit. Now? Not so much. 64 people is no small portion of the average number of people online in most servers. Though obviously I'd be totally fine with them making that adjustment so long as there are not any slow downs or coding issues from doing so(you never really know with 11 years of coding).

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

We’ll also be adding a system where you can give a linkpearl to an NPC so that other players can obtain that linkpearl.

Would this (finally) allow players on the 14-day free trial to obtain a linkpearl?

[MDenham]

Years ago, I may have been worried about the 64 person limit. Now? Not so much. 64 people is no small portion of the average number of people online in most servers. Though obviously I'd be totally fine with them making that adjustment so long as there are not any slow downs or coding issues from doing so(you never really know with 11 years of coding).Assuming that the chat channels all share the same base coding (which is probably a bad assumption to make), bumping it as high as 128 shouldn't cause problems (based on /shout, /yell, and /say all being able to hit 128 listeners, /yell doing so in multiple zones).

[Akivatoo]

Can you add an place like Aht Urhgan Whitegate hotel ( i mine private place ) only linkshell member can enter it, with guild coffer for share money and craft equipment like all other MMO's ?
we can dream about so many linkshell improvement to improve the linkell link.

[Kharlan]

Greetings,

There’s been some progress on the linkshell feature expansion that was mentioned previously ( “http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/42981-Rate-of-Leveling-and-the-New-Player-Experience?p=513695&viewfull=1#post513695”) that I’d like to share.

We’re currently in the midst of working on a feature for a future version update that will allow you to equip two linkshells at the same time. We’ll also be adding a system where you can give a linkpearl to an NPC so that other players can obtain that linkpearl.

As we need to create a new chat channel to go along with this system, we are expecting it will be possible to implement this in the September version update.

Once there are more details I’ll be sure to share!

That's sweet! Unfortunately, it doesn't really solve Reddit LS' issue. I guess we could maybe have everyone equip LS1 and LS2...


Years ago, I may have been worried about the 64 person limit. Now? Not so much. 64 people is no small portion of the average number of people online in most servers. Though obviously I'd be totally fine with them making that adjustment so long as there are not any slow downs or coding issues from doing so(you never really know with 11 years of coding).

Did you even read the thread...? This happens daily on Asura.

Also, 64 is a small portion of any server that isn't dead.


Can you add an place like Aht Urhgan Whitegate hotel ( i mine private place ) only linkshell member can enter it, with guild coffer for share money and craft equipment like all other MMO's ?
we can dream about so many linkshell improvement to improve the linkell link.

Just go play WoW or whatever generic MMO you want instead.

[Shirai]

That's sweet! Unfortunately, it doesn't really solve Reddit LS' issue. I guess we could maybe have everyone equip LS1 and LS2...

That's not going to help either. You'll still have the same 64 people, but now occupying both linkshells.
I'm afraid your Reddit linkshell problem is never going to be solved as I doubt that they will change the whole network infrastructure for a single linkshell group.

Yes, your group is that unique.

[Akivatoo]

Just go play WoW or whatever generic MMO you want instead.

LOL

have tool to manage correctly an linkshell isn't a stupid request, but you probably ignore that.

good luke on your RUN level up :)

[FrankReynolds]

Years ago, I may have been worried about the 64 person limit. Now? Not so much. 64 people is no small portion of the average number of people online in most servers. Though obviously I'd be totally fine with them making that adjustment so long as there are not any slow downs or coding issues from doing so(you never really know with 11 years of coding).

There are currently 42 people logged in with shell equipped in my LS atm. There were 59 last night. The only reason there aren't more is because many of them have on other shells atm. If they could equip 2 at the same time, we would hit the limit.

[ZoMBie343]

Most MMO chat systems are all IRC based. Things like /say (per zone), /ls /p /tell are all based separate IRC channels.

I can't imagine linkshells would be different. Is it that hard to make LSes support > 64 people?

(Just asking).

[RaelZan]

Why not create a house and the linkshells that belong to that house could communicate with each other each linkshells events would be posted on the house board and this way every one would still work together as a group I know Square Enix could set up house banners and the heads of the LS could then elect a head of the house with a term limit. Sorry just thinking out loud it could even cross servers as well... and this could be a whole add-on for the game...

[Blah]

So to be clear....they're...abandoning the whole idea of equipping more than one linkshell and...going with somesuch other chatting option? Ah...what?

[bungiefanNA]

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/comments/368jgb/i_need_some_help_from_the_community/

So REDDIT is now hitting 64 players online almost 24/7 now, a year after this thread was started. They have today decided to try a second LS, with sackholders being relays to repeat relevant discussion to the other shell, but we will still have a capacity problem. The only choices are to wait for a capacity increase (since we have a 128 person limit minus the number of sackholders) from SquareEnix, or to use additional programs for text chat, which console users can't use. Unity can support 128 people, why can't linkshells? Heck, FFOChat can support as many people as IRC allows. We have over 400 pearls handed out, something needs to be done.

[Seillan]

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/comments/368jgb/i_need_some_help_from_the_community/

So REDDIT is now hitting 64 players online almost 24/7 now, a year after this thread was started. They have today decided to try a second LS, with sackholders being relays to repeat relevant discussion to the other shell, but we will still have a capacity problem. The only choices are to wait for a capacity increase (since we have a 128 person limit minus the number of sackholders) from SquareEnix, or to use additional programs for text chat, which console users can't use. Unity can support 128 people, why can't linkshells? Heck, FFOChat can support as many people as IRC allows. We have over 400 pearls handed out, something needs to be done.

Agreed wholeheartedly. Funny enough, I was just thinking about this issue with the reddit linkshell only like 2 days ago (no joke) and it's actually the main reason I've been putting off my application to the shell. I figured you guys were/are probably bursting at the seams with so many returning (and even brand new) players coming to the game recently and I guess I had the situation pegged pretty well. While a second shell definitely isn't ideal, I can't say I wasn't glad to see the announcement on reddit. New/returning players really need a shell like this to make the experience much smoother and more fun, imo. Now that there's a bit more breathing room, I might need to see about dropping my application soon as well :).

Here's hoping SE plans to address this issue in the coming months.

[bungiefanNA]

Well, someone in the shell proposed tying an outside IRC channel into the game, but that's not an option for console users, so the post was deleted and archived as a backup option if the dual-shell thing doesn't work. There's also the matter that SE wouldn't approve of such an option, but it's the only thing that will work if they don't improve capacity themselves.