Ambuscade! 1 NPC, 100 players

[Kitsurubami]

Is this how its going to be forever? no one at SE saw 1 NPC and 3 battle fields being an issue? :mad:

[Moppet]

Is this how its going to be forever? no one at SE saw 1 NPC and 3 battle fields being an issue? :mad:

Been stuck trying for a while now. I'd assume this will be an issue since it's set up to be a daily activity. Hopefully they notice. :(

[Sirmarki]

Logged in, tried 3 times, couldn't get in, gave up, logged out.

This is why server merges cant be a thing as of yet....

[Castanica]

Is this how its going to be forever? no one at SE saw 1 NPC and 3 battle fields being an issue? :mad:

You don't seem to understand the concept of "new"

When they added the NPC companions there were upto 100 person waiting lines, you know how many were waiting in line a week later? Once the novelty wears, people will stagger their daily attempts or just not do it at all.

[detlef]

You don't seem to understand the concept of "new"

When they added the NPC companions there were upto 100 person waiting lines, you know how many were waiting in line a week later? Once the novelty wears, people will stagger their daily attempts or just not do it at all.That fellow quest only needed to be completed once. Ambuscade is an event with terrific drops that can be entered by groups as small as a single player. I guess you don't seem to understand how those aren't comparable.

Aside from that, if you're after that Are's set I think you can't really afford to wait it out; you have to hit it before it rotates out.

[Castanica]

That fellow quest only needed to be completed once. Ambuscade is an event with terrific drops that can be entered by groups as small as a single player. I guess you don't seem to understand how those aren't comparable.

Aside from that, if you're after that Are's set I think you can't really afford to wait it out; you have to hit it before it rotates out.

Everything they ever added was spammed for the first week, you really think there will be 50 people at the npc in a week? People have the mindset they need to get everything asap, you really don't.

[Cdryik]

Well, this event in particular ask you to get things asap, or you're gonna lose the stuff reward the next month :/

[detlef]

Everything they ever added was spammed for the first week, you really think there will be 50 people at the npc in a week? People have the mindset they need to get everything asap, you really don't.Ares set might not come back for another 5 months. Are you suggesting that players just wait till September to spam for their gear?

[Castanica]

Ares set might not come back for another 5 months. Are you suggesting that players just wait till September to spam for their gear?

Correct me if I'm wrong in any of this.

Nobody has actually confirmed it rotates gear at all, you're just assuming so.
None of the gear is actually significantly better than what you can get right now from other content, its worse than some.
You don't need to do it every single day to get the gear.
Everyone spams content for the first few days as soon as the server come up, some miss work / school and stay up late or wake up early.
It takes about 10 minutes to clear and everyone can only enter once per day, once they enter they have no reason to stick around.
After a patch, large numbers of people all logon at the same time to try content when usually they logon at their peak times only.

When they added salvage it was almost impossible to enter for a week, I can't remember the last time I couldn't enter for an extended period of time. All patches are like this when they add new stuff.

If after a week it's still an issue then complain but complaining now is really silly honestly. I know the addictive nature and how players MUST HAVE GEAR ASAP for no reason but still, it makes sense to calm down a bit here.

I'm on the biggest current server and I got in twice with no real problem, 30 mins at most.

[Larien]

Well, go read the update notes again to confirm yourself wrong - It states it changes every version update... As does the in-game NPC when talked to about stuff.

[Castanica]

Ok, what about all the rest of the things?

Can you enter more than once a day? if so then you have a point, if not then given it takes <10 minutes to run and you have 24 hours per day to enter (and most will spam at jp midnight) I don't see the problem.

In a week there will be no problems at all for anyone as is the case for all content, I don't see why we have these same complaints after every patch when it always goes the same way.

Everyone gets mad if they have to wait even 10-20 minutes when content is brand newly added right after a patch, it's just silly in my mind.

FFXI is an old game they have strict limitations on what they can do, they can't do what they do on newer games where they just make unlimited instances of everything. Adding more NPC won't fix the problem because the issue is limited battlefields.

[Larien]

Yes you can also go in many times per day. First vol 2 free... then daily kill 1,orc/dragon, then a repeatable kill 10 orc/dragon for another volume after that (I went in 4x in a row with those repeatables...) so it is literally spamable non-stop except for the wait to get in due to numbers. Also as you can obtain gear and R/E/M upgrade mats from it... it is NOT likely at all to empty anytime soon.

[Castanica]

Yes you can also go in many times per day. First vol 2 free... then daily kill 1,orc/dragon, then a repeatable kill 10 orc/dragon for another volume after that (I went in 4x in a row with those repeatables...) so it is literally spamable non-stop except for the wait to get in due to numbers. Also as you can obtain gear and R/E/M upgrade mats from it... it is NOT likely at all to empty anytime soon.

Wow you're pretty greedy, no wonder the event is blocked with people like you. :P

[Camate]

Greetings, everyone.

We are definitely aware of the congestion at the entrance to Ambuscade, and we apologize for the inconvenience this is causing.

As a first step to countering this congestion, maintenance was conducted earlier on the server that manages the instances. This aim of this maintenance was to make adjustments so that more instances are created. This should help alleviate conditions where it is not possible to access the content since instances cannot be created.

While there are still issues arising to the large amount of requests being processed to create new instances, which in turn are generated errors, we are currently looking into a way to make this more efficient.

The team will be working on a fix, and it will take a day or so; however, we’re planning to make edits so that the process is less cumbersome when entering the instance fails. With this edit, you will no longer have to target and talk to an NPC in the event a failure occurs.

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience, but the team is working as fast as they can to implement a fix.

[Castanica]

I'm honestly amazed you didn't put limits on how many times people can enter per day, at least when it's new content. Given what you can get it's kind of crazy and will cause so many serious problems.

[Raydeus]

They just didn't expect that many players doing the content considering how other content gets ignored. The difference being this content can be done SOLO.

[Diavolo]

Logged in, tried 3 times, couldn't get in, gave up, logged out.

This is why server merges cant be a thing as of yet....

This problem you are talking about would occur on a server with 4 people playing on it. Let's try not to be overly dramatic now.

[Kitsurubami]

You don't seem to understand the concept of "new"

When they added the NPC companions there were upto 100 person waiting lines, you know how many were waiting in line a week later? Once the novelty wears, people will stagger their daily attempts or just not do it at all.



i think the point YOUR missing is that the game is 10+ years something old and we are still having this issue that has been an issue before also this whole "Daily" thing doesn't mean squat you can do as many runs as you want myself and a friend managed 6 runs before we got sick of spending Hours fighting to get in.

[Kitsurubami]

Camate as a general suggestion would adding NPCs for Ambuscade to rabao and Selbina help at all?

And thank you for the reply ^^ and update from the team.

[Stompa]

You don't seem to understand the concept of "new"

When they added the NPC companions there were upto 100 person waiting lines, you know how many were waiting in line a week later? Once the novelty wears, people will stagger their daily attempts or just not do it at all.

People will be spamming this for Riftcinders and other currencies. Riftcinders at 2m+ on AH now, you can get a Riftcinder for 1500 points. People go 0/50+ on Riftcinders in VW. 1500 Hallmarks is way faster.

So even if people have all the armors, which is unlikely given the new stuff every month, people will still use this system for certain currencies, and for the augmentation items too. I don't see this battlefield becoming less busy for a long time.
:cool:

[Castanica]

FFXI isn't a single player game, you don't have the right to access content 24/7 at a moments notice. The dungeons are on a server and access is shared among all the players.

It's funny how the more access they give the more demanding players are, people complain if they have to wait 5-10 minutes per entry. Flashback 5 years ago you could enter salvage/limbus/dynamis twice/thrice a week at best and there was a lot less complaining.

[detlef]

Wow you're pretty greedy, no wonder the event is blocked with people like you. :P


I'm honestly amazed you didn't put limits on how many times people can enter per day, at least when it's new content. Given what you can get it's kind of crazy and will cause so many serious problems.Yeah so you have to do roughly 50 dragon fights to obtain the +1 body. Daily limits aren't going to fly here.

[Kensagaku]

Yeah so you have to do roughly 50 dragon fights to obtain the +1 body. Daily limits aren't going to fly here.

And note that that's on VD, so if you're solo, heaven forbid you get any shiny new items from your own effort. I was doing solo on normal earlier for 100 points a kill, so y'know, 150 kills for that. Daily limit totally gonna fly.

[Castanica]

Yeah so you have to do roughly 50 dragon fights to obtain the +1 body. Daily limits aren't going to fly here.

Honestly I'm struggling to figure out why anyone would even want to get the +1 gear, it has some major drawbacks.

[Helldemon]

Largely the DT with stats you can still maintain a proper hitrate I would imagine, I have had no luck with getting an Ilvl DT body piece for my drg, jumalik I have never even seen, no luck on tartaru's. I'm still sitting in Mekira losing out on 15-20 vit 80+ def for PDT and the int/mnd/chr and meva for MDT. The legs are BiS for DT I believe for most of those jobs once again with very high acc. Pretty sure all the DT pieces are great because of the acc that comes along with them.

With AoE's and the way TP feed works you are nearly required to sit in a hybrid build as a melee to survive anything but they generally don't have enough acc to hit w/e is killing you. There is a reason everyone largely uses mages only for damage these days and it's because the tp system for mobs is broken and AoE's are to damaging. Much easier to just get a couple mages and MB everything down versus needing a bunch of support to keep melee alive. Even in 50% DT fulltime you can get killed pretty quickly to tp spam as even two or more melee jobs just feed the mobs to much tp.

[Kensagaku]

The only real "drawback" to these pieces is the low Haste on them, which can be countered by not fulltiming all of them and using a good haste belt like Tempus Fugit. Wondered why they added such a large Haste belt up until now...

[detlef]

Honestly I'm struggling to figure out why anyone would even want to get the +1 gear, it has some major drawbacks.Are you just being disagreeable on purpose? It's a good, desirable set of gear that a lot of players will want. Players have to have the ability to put in many consecutive runs in order to obtain the gear within the allotted time.

[Sirmarki]

This problem you are talking about would occur on a server with 4 people playing on it. Let's try not to be overly dramatic now.

How have you come to that conclusion?

[Keido]

A big step to not having these problems is to stop allowing trusts and single players to enter. Have a party minimum 6 for the first month and then allow the single player to hog an instance. Its a MMORPG why do we treat it as a sometimes we get together and party. So tired of all this solo garbage!

[Castanica]

A big step to not having these problems is to stop allowing trusts and single players to enter. Have a party minimum 6 for the first month and then allow the single player to hog an instance. Its a MMORPG why do we treat it as a sometimes we get together and party. So tired of all this solo garbage!

Your opinion, given how the game has changed and continues to be updated your opinion is not shared by the developers. I think this is put in the "sad day for you" file.

I guarantee you there are far more people happy they can solo/duo this than the few that have a group of friends who want to spam this 50 times a day and sad they have to wait 10 minutes per entry because of that.

[Keido]

Your opinion

Crazy how people are entitled to them.

[Castanica]

Crazy how people are entitled to them.

Here is the thing, the majority of relevant content in this game that offers good rewards is not solo friendly at all (that's why merc services are so popular and why the AB keys put more 119 gear on people that the previous year of normal play did). One new thing they add which is all inclusive you instantly pounce on and proclaim it must also bar solo players because this is an MMO! (ignoring that again, most relevant content is group content).

This mentality is like a feminist horde that gets 99 privileges and when guys get one single thing they rampage the streets with patriarchy signs.

Sometimes content is aimed at everyone and not just the minority, if that means some groups have to wait a bit to enter that's ok.

[RichLester]

My solution would be to also have 1 tome & NPC per main city or Selbina/Kazham/Norg to spread people about a bit so Mhaura doesn't crash/lag.

Are the instances created via the 1 tome in Mhaura (ie. only 1 entrance to create an instance) or is it the server itself having not enough memory to hold all the instances at once?

I agree with an earlier comment that only the daily RoE should appear & "Not Repeatable" (at least for the time-being until SE can sort it out) then make them repeatable again.

[Numquam]

Please be quick with this fix. I had to team up with a few others last night to try this content out. I pay 12.95 a month so I can play solo.

[Hyrist]

I'd be more sympathetic to the anti-solo arguments if parties weren't the same way they were a decade ago - shouting for the top five flavors of the month and throwing every other job to the wind (let alone method of using that job). As that hasn't changed, really, I feel as if parties can deal with the congestion or become more welcoming.

Meanwhile, keep it in mind that parties doing the higher difficulties than soloists don't even have to enter the content as much, so really it's the soloists who as suffering worse than the parties in this case.

[Vinedrai]

People will be spamming this for Riftcinders and other currencies. Riftcinders at 2m+ on AH now, you can get a Riftcinder for 1500 points. People go 0/50+ on Riftcinders in VW. 1500 Hallmarks is way faster.

So even if people have all the armors, which is unlikely given the new stuff every month, people will still use this system for certain currencies, and for the augmentation items too. I don't see this battlefield becoming less busy for a long time.
:cool:

You can only get 3 riftcinders and 3 riftdrosses from Ambuscade per month.

[fillerbunny9]

You can only get 3 riftcinders and 3 riftdrosses from Ambuscade per month.

which people are totally not going to try and make money off of on the AH, right?

[Castanica]

which people are totally not going to try and make money off of on the AH, right?

They are 2 million because of the rarity, now that supply is increasing and anyone can get them the price will slump down sharply.

There are lots of things you can do in this game for money, doing Ambuscade when you can do much easier content for more money and the amount you can get is very limited isn't going to be a thing going forward. If anything it will end up being mule content.

At most people will do it once a day or something as a daily. The spamming will be for gear only, the worst spam fest will be when they add leather gear.

[Stompa]

You can only get 3 riftcinders and 3 riftdrosses from Ambuscade per month.

Yes, and my point in that post was to respond to the "this content will be empty in a few weeks, just like NPC Fellow etc."

The fact you can get limited currency, actually extends the lifespan of this battlefield. I think if you add up the capes, new monthly armours, augmentation items, and the bonus currencies, we are looking at an event that is versatile and will be busy for a long time.

On the point by the other member about Riftcinders dropping in price sharply, no they won't. This will increase the supply on the AH from the current 2~ to more like 60~. Prices will fluctuate as they always do, but I don't see Hallmarks as a price-crashing system. Many people who are obtaining Riftcinders will keep them for their own empys, the people that sell Riftcinders will just keep the AH stocked up, but I doubt it will flood the market and cause price crash.

[saevel]

I'd be more sympathetic to the anti-solo arguments if parties weren't the same way they were a decade ago - shouting for the top five flavors of the month and throwing every other job to the wind (let alone method of using that job). As that hasn't changed, really, I feel as if parties can deal with the congestion or become more welcoming.

Meanwhile, keep it in mind that parties doing the higher difficulties than soloists don't even have to enter the content as much, so really it's the soloists who as suffering worse than the parties in this case.


Sorry but the requirements for this event are really low. You don't need a superb setup really either.

Melee x 1~3
Healer
Buffer x 1~2


Melee's can include a Tank or just 3 melee with -DT sets. I originally went as BLU but then switched to going WAR when the VD Dragon didn't have any cheap tactics.
Healer can be WHM, RDM or SCH. I've had all of them do main heal.
Buffer can be BRD, COR or GEO. GEO is the best in slot here due to frailty + vex but I've had them all and they all function.

Any non brain dead players can form a group to do this six man.

[Hyrist]

What you say, and what happens, are entirely two different realities, Savelle.

Efficiency above enjoyment is the edict of parties and has been the same tune for a over twelve years - a tune I don't play to.

This is the situation:

I play Red Mage to play a variant role, and I've been gone a long time and am still gearing a lot of my sets.
The party Meta in Ambuscade for Red Mage is main healer - the role I despise above all others and will be gearing last.

So I don't party, not on those terms anyways.
Now people go as far as to say 'don't play the game at all unless you play my way'? Because of congestion on new and popular content?
That's just downright insulting.

And this situation repeats, to various degrees, with the majority of the soloists you're dealing with. People dejected by the meta and sick of people in general, who would rather deal with the congestion than the stigmata.

So my policy stands: Don't mind me playing my way, I don't mind partying with you. Till then, enjoy the F8 spam. It's not my fault SE bottle-necked the content.

Edit: Something to keep in mind though, which I found to be pretty intelligent design on their part reward wise. On the path of getting my cape upgraded, I'm going to be receiving an entry-level set of 119 heavy gear, pretty much for free as I'm only really in there for the cape. It won't be the +1 version, but it may be enough to convince me to level and use Paladin for groups, giving you that tank in the meta you're talking about.

That won't be accessible to me if I don't go solo or find groups that don't mind spamming normal with me in the front lines, and it will still be a long ways before it's party-competent. But I wanted to chime that in because by being solo-friendly, it's also encouraging at least one player to pick up a more party-friendly job and method.

Something to consider before being harsh on the soloists for a design that was meant to be accessible to them but failed to avoid botlenecking?

[dmuller30]

I think they are working on a solution right? I mean when new content comes in any other game I don't have to wait. For example FFXIV new content = faster que times on DF because more people are playing. I think maybe just allowing more instances would fix the problem which is what the GM said the other day that they are doing. Maybe just give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't know so many people were going to join, although over half of the community is pretty much done with the last content introduced so to me it's no surprise this thing is packed.

[Camate]

The development team is currently working on addressing the congestion issue further as outlined in my previous post, but unfortunately it seems like it will not be possible to complete the work this week due to incidental network issues. There is maintenance scheduled for Sunday, April 10 (JST), and the team is planning to implement the fixes during this maintenance.

Once again, we apologize for the inconveniences the congestion is causing.

[Olor]

Have folks considered upping the points gained for lower tiers? I am going to need to spam this a lot on easy to get any gear at only 75 points per win. I asked folks if they wanted to group up but people only want to group with folks who are already super geared... so can we stop punishing soloists? Please? For the sake of everyone?

[detlef]

Have folks considered upping the points gained for lower tiers? I am going to need to spam this a lot on easy to get any gear at only 75 points per win. I asked folks if they wanted to group up but people only want to group with folks who are already super geared... so can we stop punishing soloists? Please? For the sake of everyone?A typical search of Legion yesterday revealed like 6 soloers and 2 PTs of 3-6. If those soloers considered teaming up with each other you'd at least be able to clear your chosen difficulty faster but may even be able to tackle something worth more hallmarks. Please try searching Mhaura, Legion, and even Zi'tah for like-minded people. It will make everybody's day a little easier. Keep trying to group up.

As an aside, a returning player I pearled was apparently able to get into a group without a problem. I did see him on his hilariously geared Facio Bliaut WHM later but he was getting 300 hallmarks a fight like everybody else who grouped up.

[Hyrist]

As an aside, a returning player I pearled was apparently able to get into a group without a problem.


*peers*


BRD Lv 99

I... think I might have found the reason. ;)

That said. I need to stress, I don't go out of my way to avoid parties. But nobody shouts for 'a warm body' (or a melee rdm) to occupy a group. I do keep eye out for whomever wants to just join up for whatever. Maybe I'll toss a /say before I start spamming the book to see if there are any takers.

For me personally it's less of me being averse to groups as assuming they're averse to me.

[detlef]

Please reread what I wrote. It wasn't me. This guy I'm talking about had MNK and, apparently, a patched-together WHM that got the job done.

[Hyrist]

Please reread what I wrote. It wasn't me. This guy I'm talking about had MNK and, apparently, a patched-together WHM that got the job done.

Yep. I missed that. My bad. Good for the monk though!

Cept he went WHM in the end. I'd assume accuracy troubles? That or the spikes kept eating away at him.

Fun thing. I'm not sure how D and VD measures up, but the Thornsong spikes are completely negated by my Phalanx on Normal. If it wasn't for the profound lack of Stona on /sch I'd join parties to spread that around. (No, I don't have Phalanx II merited, /sch kinda killed the point of that IMO.) That, and I despise main healing with the white hot passion of a 1000 supernovas.

[Olor]

A typical search of Legion yesterday revealed like 6 soloers and 2 PTs of 3-6. If those soloers considered teaming up with each other you'd at least be able to clear your chosen difficulty faster but may even be able to tackle something worth more hallmarks. Please try searching Mhaura, Legion, and even Zi'tah for like-minded people. It will make everybody's day a little easier. Keep trying to group up.

As an aside, a returning player I pearled was apparently able to get into a group without a problem. I did see him on his hilariously geared Facio Bliaut WHM later but he was getting 300 hallmarks a fight like everybody else who grouped up.

I stood where everyone was standing around and asked if anyone wanted to group up, someone made fun of me for being gimp, then asked for other players to join them and no one else said anything *shrugs* I am totally 100% into grouping up. I just don't find many folks into it.

Judging from the number of glowing people with stars over their heads gathered around there are lots of players that could afford to adopt a gimp and speed everything up for everyone. I get that they have the choice not to, of course, but seems a little sad that folks don't want to give back to the community.

[Diavolo]

How have you come to that conclusion?

That's just the way the game handles the "instanced" fights, Ambuscade included - only a few players/parties can enter the same battlefield at any given time, after which everyone else is left waiting for those players to exit. So the problem outlined here would have sprung up regardless of how populated your server is.

I am hoping any further content created for FFXI plays to its strengths, the open world, and not to its weaknesses. There are plenty of wide open zones with practically no activity whatsoever that are screaming for a little attention, might be nice if they got a little of that before it was all said and done, especially now that mounts have become a thing.

[Akivatoo]

Have folks considered upping the points gained for lower tiers? I am going to need to spam this a lot on easy to get any gear at only 75 points per win. I asked folks if they wanted to group up but people only want to group with folks who are already super geared... so can we stop punishing soloists? Please? For the sake of everyone?

Some guy allready solo this event in VD, considarate that make "stop punishing soloists" no sence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqLWio0PGfw
i don't think you really understand MMORPG is mainly for play with other ppl
solo ast BST can be fun but have an other job to play in pt would be helpfull for you to enter "normal party"
BRD is the main reroll job for BST (due to the CHR stuff you allready use as BST) but expensive to gear up.
COR can be geared fast enough to join good JP party and get the 3 star u'r looking for.
COR GEO are perfect job to find room in party (event you spend less than 20M to gear up the job)

[Bahamut]

Thank you for adding solo content finally!

[Sirmarki]

Some guy allready solo this event in VD, considarate that make "stop punishing soloists" no sence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqLWio0PGfw
i don't think you really understand MMORPG is mainly for play with other ppl
solo ast BST can be fun but have an other job to play in pt would be helpfull for you to enter "normal party"
BRD is the main reroll job for BST (due to the CHR stuff you allready use as BST) but expensive to gear up.
COR can be geared fast enough to join good JP party and get the 3 star u'r looking for.
COR GEO are perfect job to find room in party (event you spend less than 20M to gear up the job)

Solo'ed with his third party tools lol.

[Pixela]

i don't think you really understand MMORPG is mainly for play with other ppl
)

Thing is, that's just not true.

Almost every mmo that runs now is a solo game first and foremost, and FFXI also fits this category because they have heavily embraced solo play. An MMORPG is mainly a solo game with the ability to group with others if you choose. Your thoughts about what an mmorpg is, pretty much about 5-10 years out of date.

I've played almost every mmorpg there is and they are all mainly solo games, FFXI had to evolve and get with the times.

[Pixela]

Some guy allready solo this event in VD, considarate that make "stop punishing soloists" no sence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqLWio0PGfw


This is like mocking a homeless man for starving because a millionaire with a fishing boat can catch fish to eat.

Are you comparing a player with all the best gear (that they had to get in groups), all the plugins and probably "certain naughty plugins" on a very specific job to a solo player with sparks or just above gear?

[dmuller30]

Some guy allready solo this event in VD, considarate that make "stop punishing soloists" no sence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqLWio0PGfw
i don't think you really understand MMORPG is mainly for play with other ppl
solo ast BST can be fun but have an other job to play in pt would be helpfull for you to enter "normal party"
BRD is the main reroll job for BST (due to the CHR stuff you allready use as BST) but expensive to gear up.
COR can be geared fast enough to join good JP party and get the 3 star u'r looking for.
COR GEO are perfect job to find room in party (event you spend less than 20M to gear up the job)

I do not agree with this way of thinking at all. The game is leaning more towards solo play now, I have been soloing because lack of party invites and that is on top of me shouting. Maybe you don't understand what an MMORPG is FFXI is no longer the party onry it used to be. I am not horribly geared and still can't find parties for the content I need. I don't always solo but when I started back up a month ago no one would take me because the gear I was wearing wasn't up to par, and getting help getting up to par wasn't easy because to get into the groups to get this gear I had to be geared which makes 0 sense. . . .

[Olor]

Some guy allready solo this event in VD, considarate that make "stop punishing soloists" no sence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqLWio0PGfw
i don't think you really understand MMORPG is mainly for play with other ppl
solo ast BST can be fun but have an other job to play in pt would be helpfull for you to enter "normal party"
BRD is the main reroll job for BST (due to the CHR stuff you allready use as BST) but expensive to gear up.
COR can be geared fast enough to join good JP party and get the 3 star u'r looking for.
COR GEO are perfect job to find room in party (event you spend less than 20M to gear up the job)

Yeah, folks above already said that, but saying that because someone with tons of gear that they got from group content can do something with that gear and with 3rd party tools, everyone can is silly. I am totally willing to admit I'm not the best player, and I totally don't have the best gear, but I'd like to enjoy the game.

Punishing folks for playing alone or in small groups or with others who are not well geared is bad game design, especially when the content requires spamming of a limited resource (instance time)

[Olor]

That's just the way the game handles the "instanced" fights, Ambuscade included - only a few players/parties can enter the same battlefield at any given time, after which everyone else is left waiting for those players to exit. So the problem outlined here would have sprung up regardless of how populated your server is.

I am hoping any further content created for FFXI plays to its strengths, the open world, and not to its weaknesses. There are plenty of wide open zones with practically no activity whatsoever that are screaming for a little attention, might be nice if they got a little of that before it was all said and done, especially now that mounts have become a thing.

This is a good point. Ambuscade KI could have been used to pop a dragon/orcs/Whatever in the open world for credit. Heck they could have allowed it to work at any VW pop for example. As soon as content goes into those pseudo-instances it just falls to bits.

[Pups323]

Its because of the way they do instances...

Einherjar for example, all of the possible instances (think there are 9?) are in the same zone and make up a 3x3 grid.

The 'instance' server isnt creating a new room for each person its just asking

'is someone in each of the 9 rooms? if so no one can enter'
where as in modern mmo it says
'need another instance? ok here you go let me make a new instance for you'

Taking a map like legions, dividing it into 9 or 12 rooms and calling them instances doesnt help anyone.

[Dekusuta]

Simplest solution is to redo the incentives; Add a daily reward bonus similar to the 'duty finder' dailies reward in FFXIV to get a substantial (200-300 marks) reward for clearing dragon /orc once per day to allow people to get their 1 or 2 clears daily and move on.
The spamming is the problem.

Maybe even lock out the content once the 4 tome-giving RoEs are depleted to further reduce incentives to spam. Honestly, there's a lot of other things to do in this game, but right now, its 100% ambuscade because people want their capes, upgrade items and the tiered gear rewards.

Quick back of the napkin calculation is @ 500 hallmarks daily require 29 days to get to the hallmark tier needed to get all the +1 gear set that month
Guess what, the incentive is there to crank out the hallmark and spam the content.

Is there an upgrade path of the NQ versions of the gear? Because if someone couldn't get hallmarks due to being able to solo on normal and with great effort only got 300 hallmarks a few days in a row, he or she won't be able to hit the tier needed to get the last +1 piece. Really unfair and cruel to casuals.

[Frodnon]

The development team is currently working on addressing the congestion issue further as outlined in my previous post, but unfortunately it seems like it will not be possible to complete the work this week due to incidental network issues. There is maintenance scheduled for Sunday, April 10 (JST), and the team is planning to implement the fixes during this maintenance.

Once again, we apologize for the inconveniences the congestion is causing.

Why not use all the available arenas for this? that way there's some variety in scenery and it relieves the load from abjhalis. I don't think the simple fights of this event would vary too much if other arenas were used randomly.

[Dekusuta]

Why not use all the available arenas for this? that way there's some variety in scenery and it relieves the load from abjhalis. I don't think the simple fights of this event would vary too much if other arenas were used randomly.

I really rather people spamming for their hallmarks not interfere with say... dynamis or salvage.

If, due to the very old game code, instances can't be created, they should rework the rewards to discourage spamming and reward 1st time kills. Heck, they do this even in FFXIV with duty finder daily bonuses, and in that game instances are common and issues are less about congestion than balance to encourage doing other things in-game.

The congestion is the symptom of a problem, and that problem is people are spamming it endlessly. In FFXIV, new content creates a rush of interest, but things like Crystal Tower instanced fights have loot lockouts to prevent spamming.
The ideas aren't novel, there are workarounds to the incentive systems here that is being used by another MMO in the very same franchise

And frankly, I lean heavily on having daily ROE hallmark bonuses so I can do my solo fights and get 300-500 hallmarks with the base reward + daily reward and or do it with my friends and get more, but not feeling like i'm required to grind hallmarks multiple times daily to hit a magical number so ill have enough to get the tiered hallmark rewards that month.

[Frodnon]

I really rather people spamming for their hallmarks not interfere with say... dynamis or salvage.

And neither of those are arenas, so the two events are completely disconnected. i'm talking arena 'instanced' zones. mineshaft 2715, empy paradox, horlais peak, Jade Sepulcher, etc. the 'instanced' little arenas for BCNM and story fights. Most if not all could host this content as well.

[Dekusuta]

And neither of those are arenas, so the two events are completely disconnected. i'm talking arena 'instanced' zones. mineshaft 2715, empy paradox, horlais peak, Jade Sepulcher, etc. the 'instanced' little arenas for BCNM and story fights. Most if not all could host this content as well.

How will it interfere with merit BCs?

Reducing congestion by reducing spammage and increasing instances is the way to go.

[Frodnon]

How will it interfere with merit BCs?

Reducing congestion by reducing spammage and increasing instances is the way to go.


They can't simply increase instances because of the way the system currently works. Each 'instance' is really only a floating island copy-pasted a number of times in each zone and unfortunately they cannot edit zone layout, so as long as we have high demand, the 6 or so copies of abjhalis will not suffice.

The suggestion i made is to open up other arenas for use in this event. That way at peak times we won't simply have the 6 instances of abjhalis-legion, but we'll also have 6 instances of mineshaft 2715, 6 instances of holrais peak and so forth. Everyone would be fighting the same basic setup (the 2-6 orcs, the dragon, etc) but in different arenas.
basically enough bcnms to support the large number of groups and soloers, without impacting any one zone so hard that no other events can be done there.

[Dekusuta]

They can't simply increase instances because of the way the system currently works. Each 'instance' is really only a floating island copy-pasted a number of times in each zone and unfortunately they cannot edit zone layout, so as long as we have high demand, the 6 or so copies of abjhalis will not suffice.

The suggestion i made is to open up other arenas for use in this event. That way at peak times we won't simply have the 6 instances of abjhalis-legion, but we'll also have 6 instances of mineshaft 2715, 6 instances of holrais peak and so forth. Everyone would be fighting the same basic setup (the 2-6 orcs, the dragon, etc) but in different arenas.
basically enough bcnms to support the large number of groups and soloers, without impacting any one zone so hard that no other events can be done there.
You do realize what youre suggesting is increasing 'instances' right? I'm well aware this game can't create a new instance and simply subdivides a zone into various arenas, which is why there's a congestion issue.

I'm agreeing with you, but I'm only pointing out that you have to manage the demand side as well, not simply adding more zones/instances for these fights given the game's limitations.

[Frodnon]

why not just make it like wows dungeon finder u enter the queue and wait for your turn.
first come first serve.

And that is also a terrible idea. You enter a queue and wait upwards of half an hour to 45 minutes to do a run. The issue is still unresolved and the event is still impossible to grind out points for in a convenient time frame.

[Frodnon]

You do realize what youre suggesting is increasing 'instances' right? I'm well aware this game can't create a new instance and simply subdivides a zone into various arenas, which is why there's a congestion issue.

I'm agreeing with you, but I'm only pointing out that you have to manage the demand side as well, not simply adding more zones/instances for these fights given the game's limitations.

They have three options as i see it, Two of which don't solve the core issue at all.

1. They lower prices and discourage 'spamming' thus defeating the original use of the event. I want to be able to spam to be able to farm the cap number of various currencies within a prompt time. I'd still have to combat against high demand or worse, daily caps.

2. They add a queue system. Whoo, i get to sit in mhaura idle for upwards of 45 minutes for my turn. Event is still impossible to farm points in a convenient and fun time frame due to the stupid amount of downtime.

3. They increase the number of fights capable at once via new arenas or tricks with the current zones (multiple people fighting in one arena?) Alleviates the delay between fights and solves the issues the first two don't fix.

[Keido]

They have three options as i see it, Two of which don't solve the core issue at all.

1. They lower prices and discourage 'spamming' thus defeating the original use of the event. I want to be able to spam to be able to farm the cap number of various currencies within a prompt time. I'd still have to combat against high demand or worse, daily caps.

2. They add a queue system. Whoo, i get to sit in mhaura idle for upwards of 45 minutes for my turn. Event is still impossible to farm points in a convenient and fun time frame due to the stupid amount of downtime.

3. They increase the number of fights capable at once via new arenas or tricks with the current zones (multiple people fighting in one arena?) Alleviates the delay between fights and solves the issues the first two don't fix.

4. Stop allowing soloing with trusts to everything.

[Olor]

4. Stop allowing soloing with trusts to everything.

5. Stop allowing people to form their own parties, force them to accept scrubs /sarcasm

Seriously, people are soloing with trusts because other folks won't deign to play with them/don't make it fun.

So if you want less soloists, be more inclusive in your parties, be more fun! Teach a new player the ropes, have fun with a scrub, etc.

But given that this is the *first* solo friendly event with any relevant gear whatsoever, in AGES folks should not be complaining that soloists want to access it, especially when folks won't even let people exp with them anymore because their precious CP/hr will be ruined if they helped some folks catch up.

I love this game I just wish folks would be a little more lighthearted about it sometimes.

[Jile]

5. Stop allowing people to form their own parties, force them to accept scrubs /sarcasm

Seriously, people are soloing with trusts because other folks won't deign to play with them/don't make it fun.

So if you want less soloists, be more inclusive in your parties, be more fun! Teach a new player the ropes, have fun with a scrub, etc.

But given that this is the *first* solo friendly event with any relevant gear whatsoever, in AGES folks should not be complaining that soloists want to access it, especially when folks won't even let people exp with them anymore because their precious CP/hr will be ruined if they helped some folks catch up.

I love this game I just wish folks would be a little more lighthearted about it sometimes.

This is it exactly. People push the weaker ones to the ground and complain when they have to stand by themselves and they solo content.

I don't expect people's attitude to change so since SE opened this Pandora's box, they need to give every server 100 instances at a time so we can move on with xi-life. There are what, 16 former world-servers that are collecting dust? Why not convert a few to instance-servers so we can get this fixed?

[Keido]

5. Stop allowing people to form their own parties, force them to accept scrubs /sarcasm

Seriously, people are soloing with trusts because other folks won't deign to play with them/don't make it fun.

So if you want less soloists, be more inclusive in your parties, be more fun! Teach a new player the ropes, have fun with a scrub, etc.

But given that this is the *first* solo friendly event with any relevant gear whatsoever, in AGES folks should not be complaining that soloists want to access it, especially when folks won't even let people exp with them anymore because their precious CP/hr will be ruined if they helped some folks catch up.

I love this game I just wish folks would be a little more lighthearted about it sometimes.

You are full of it. That's not the case at all from what I see. Here is a few things I see.

People that will only play one job even though they have others, not accept advice from more knowledgeable players, ask for help but not know what they need, and try once and call it good enough. You could be one of those players I don't know what I do know is they are prevalent. Which is fine maybe you are so introverted that you cant or wont make online friends no issue with that. What I do take issue with is you holding up my game because you actively refuse to look for a group or be even slightly flexible when trying to form one. Players with that attitude can only solo period rather than say the good players should be forced to take the scrubs how about just one of you scrubs round up all the other scrubs make a party and form a relationship. I know that seems way too hard but it really isn't. Don't pass the buck to others because your too lazy to push a button.

I can only say what its like on Phoenix so your experience might be different. Most of the time we have 5 solo entrants and a duo. While those people are in there are 30 people waiting to get in. Is that poor design you bet it is. If say you were required to have 6 people enter and really you can do this content with any party make up of any competent players 1 person is left out not 30 spamming a book for 45 min to fight something that takes 2 min to kill. Its absolutely crazy. It isn't difficult to group up its purely that you don't want to.

It really isn't a difficult concept. Maybe it is because I actively have friends that I play with and we have groups that we do things with. I help run one of the link shells still active on my server so while I would love to take you "Scrubs" often times I am already in a party with people who are my friends. So buck up lil camper make a party with those around you without one. Who knows you might just make a friend that will be with you for years.

[Raydeus]

So how are the congestion fixes going? I've tried a couple of times to get in but it's been always congested so I just go do something else instead.

Also, which Trusts are working better for the current fights?



What I do take issue with is you holding up my game because you actively refuse to look for a group or be even slightly flexible when trying to form one.

Oh cry me a river. This is probably the first relevant content that is open to solo players and small parties from the start in years, and you are complaining because they are holding "your game" and not playing the way that is convenient for you? How about instead of trying to tell others how to play the game you just go and do all the other party based content available to you and your friends?

Solo players have to skip most of the party content that is added until the devs open it up for soloing (usually once the content has become irrelevant) so surely you can live with skipping Ambuscade if the way it was implemented bothers you so much.

[Keido]

Oh cry me a river. This is probably the first relevant content that is open to solo players and small parties from the start in years, and you are complaining because they are holding "your game" and not playing the way that is convenient for you? How about instead of trying to tell others how to play the game you just go and do all the other party based content available to you and your friends?

Solo players have to skip most of the party content that is added until the devs open it up for soloing (usually once the content has become irrelevant) so surely you can live with skipping Ambuscade if the way it was implemented bothers you so much.

If there wasn't a limit on it sure. However because there is a limit you cant ignore it. How about you don't be so obtuse. Make a party and benefit everyone stop being selfish and self righteous. You and your ilks insistent whining about content and how easy it needs to be is the problem you are causing the bottle necks. My game play should not impact you and yours should not impact mine.

We will see what the "Fix" however I have my doubts that most of us including you happy go lucky soloists will still be there standing at a book for 45 min to fight something that takes 2 min to kill. Well for those of us that form parties it takes 2 min to kill. I have no idea what average kill time is for soloists. Fact remains that they are the bottleneck and the problem with the content along with how its been implemented. Easy fix make it require 6 people to enter boom problem solved.

[Eckamus]

Obviously, there needs to be a higher of availability to enter Ambuscade. A possible solution could involve (some things have been suggested by others also):

Create 3 access areas - 1 each in Mhaura, Selbina and Rabao
Create a separate instance zone for each town - (e.g.,: Legion - Mhaura, Legion - Selbina, etc...) allowing each to contain the normal 3 participant parties or more would also be welcome. I'm unsure of the actual limit of these instanced zones.

This would allow for a easing of entry into Ambuscade, since a total of 9 participant parties could partake in the event at once. I am sure something like this would help, as long as it is able to be done that is.

[Olor]

People that will only play one job even though they have others, not accept advice from more knowledgeable players, ask for help but not know what they need, and try once and call it good enough. You could be one of those players I don't know what I do know is they are prevalent.

Which is fine maybe you are so introverted that you cant or wont make online friends no issue with that. What I do take issue with is you holding up my game because you actively refuse to look for a group or be even slightly flexible when trying to form one.

It really isn't a difficult concept. Maybe it is because I actively have friends that I play with and we have groups that we do things with. I help run one of the link shells still active on my server so while I would love to take you "Scrubs" often times I am already in a party with people who are my friends. So buck up lil camper make a party with those around you without one. Who knows you might just make a friend that will be with you for years.

a) I am totally willing to change jobs, but I am not going to start from the beginning to level w/e flavour of the month job SE hasn't nerfed lately. I've got BLU and BRD in a way that is half decent right now. BST, I generally refuse to play since they nerfed it and I don't find it fun anymore. My THF is okay but I think people generally would rather have a BLU anyway.

b) I am happy to take advice if it's useful advice "get this gear from content that is only really achievable for an optimized group" is not useful advice. "Level and gear a new job from scratch" is not useful advice. "Stop sucking" is not useful advice. People not knowing what they need... why is this a problem, it's a game not an application for a doctorate program. People shouldn't have to spend all day researching how to play a game. Besides which, most of the wikis are not very helpful anymore. I read threads on BG etc, but it's not reasonable to expect every player to do this.

c) I play to pass the time and relax. It is not relaxing having people angry because you're not a perfect player. I tend to solo because I don't take the game very seriously. I love making new friends but I find it hard to find players with the same attitude these days. Probably most of them have been driven out by the lack of ways to advance solo and low-man with non-optimal gear. When I find folks, I totally play with them though.

d) I do play with others when they are around and interested and have the right attitude. I am not going to play with folks that are cranky and angry and perfectionist though. I have been mostly duoing/trioing this event.

Instead of whining about soloists, invite others to join your group. Or go do one of the 10 other events that rewards relevant equipment that is only obtainable by people in optimized groups. Whining that ONE event IN THE ENTIRE GAME that drops relevant items is doable by solo folks in beginner gear is totally unreasonable.

For the game to survive there has to be content that folks can do to advance their characters before they have strong social networks in game... especially since the community has gotten so insular.

[detlef]

Are soloers the problem? Are players grouping and spamming the content the problem? The answer is yes. If you're trying to do the content, then you're contributing to everybody's misery. The only thing players can do about it is group up more or ignore the content and I guess both of those things are unreasonable.

[Keido]

a) I am totally willing to change jobs, but I am not going to start from the beginning to level w/e flavour of the month job SE hasn't nerfed lately. I've got BLU and BRD in a way that is half decent right now. BST, I generally refuse to play since they nerfed it and I don't find it fun anymore. My THF is okay but I think people generally would rather have a BLU anyway.

b) I am happy to take advice if it's useful advice "get this gear from content that is only really achievable for an optimized group" is not useful advice. "Level and gear a new job from scratch" is not useful advice. "Stop sucking" is not useful advice. People not knowing what they need... why is this a problem, it's a game not an application for a doctorate program. People shouldn't have to spend all day researching how to play a game. Besides which, most of the wikis are not very helpful anymore. I read threads on BG etc, but it's not reasonable to expect every player to do this.

c) I play to pass the time and relax. It is not relaxing having people angry because you're not a perfect player. I tend to solo because I don't take the game very seriously. I love making new friends but I find it hard to find players with the same attitude these days. Probably most of them have been driven out by the lack of ways to advance solo and low-man with non-optimal gear. When I find folks, I totally play with them though.

d) I do play with others when they are around and interested and have the right attitude. I am not going to play with folks that are cranky and angry and perfectionist though. I have been mostly duoing/trioing this event.

Instead of whining about soloists, invite others to join your group. Or go do one of the 10 other events that rewards relevant equipment that is only obtainable by people in optimized groups. Whining that ONE event IN THE ENTIRE GAME that drops relevant items is doable by solo folks in beginner gear is totally unreasonable.

For the game to survive there has to be content that folks can do to advance their characters before they have strong social networks in game... especially since the community has gotten so insular.

You might be on the wrong server then. Good people still play the game and help others we are out there. I have no problem inviting people outside the LS depending on the difficulty of the fight and the persons willingness to listen. I don't think the community is insular at all you just have to find the right people that know how to build a party with the pieces available to them. You are correct with some of the mentality for some of the content however its not true of everyone. We have built players and still do from nothing in our LS. That doesn't mean that everyone is willing to do that but there are plenty of people that are. Good attitude and willingness to take advice and know what you want/need go a very long way.

You would rather get 75 or whatever the min is instead of 300 or 500 a kill? I don't understand. Maybe I am just lucky to be surrounded by good people and have avoided all the people that really are bad. Again if the content was not so limited this would not be a huge issue but you have to spam the content to get the pieces. Allowing a single person to block many is bad. That persons unwillingness to find good people is also bad. I think some of you wear this gimp tag like some sort of honor badge when you really don't have too. What you need to do is find the good people that play get to know them play and play with them. This game is already on super easy mode and its longevity is in question so why would we not want communities any longer? Anytime you wanna come to Phoenix and join a shell that cares about its people you just let me know. Provided you have a good attitude know what you want and listen about builds or strategies you would fit right in. We take anyone. We build players because that is really what you have to do now if you want success.

[Olor]

There are cool people on Asura, I hang out with a few people, I'm just a casual, and I don't necessarily sub every month etc. So I will find a cool LS, play for a while, life gets busy, I drop sub for a month or two, come back and the LS has disappeared. This happens all the time.

I'd love to get 300 or 500 a kill, I'd be happy to join any group that is interested in grabbing me, happy to switch to bard, happy to do whatever, as long as folks are going to be friendly and welcoming. As I said above, I have mostly been doing this content with other people, but I am not going to stand around *not* doing the content in my limited playtime, waiting and hoping for someone to invite me. I am just going to go do a couple pops. 150 points is better than 0 points.

I am glad you are a friendly bunch who pick up strangers and give them a break, unfortunately it isn't always easy to find folks like that.

[BlackHalo714]

Sometimes I think we are at civil war with each other when really it's the game design that is at fault. I like the idea of Ambuscade it is the way the implemented the content was poorly done. They advertised this content as casual for solo and group play. I don't mind teaming up with a group or doing some runs solo because of time restriction but spamming one book that takes longer to get in than to actually do the content isn't fun.

I know they said they were working on a solution but I guess I am to question why couldn't this be designed into the open world. They just introduced new mounts and have so many beautiful zones that barely ever go to anymore. Why are we crammed in a small town zone spamming one book to get into a instance fight? SMH i guess. I hope they figure something out with this. With the current rewards of Ambuscade it wouldn't seem like it will relieve congestion anytime soon.

Edit: Wrote this post before I logged on today seems entry time is much better. I still wish they could of done something different than a instance but happy hunting.

[Hyrist]

There has, and will always be a dichotomy between those who play for efficiency, and those who play for fun. That's the crux in every game that involves people to existence. Between those who are enthusiasts, and hobbyists (the real term for hardcore and casual, btw, this tale is much older than video games, you need only look at things like golf and bowling - or any hobby, really.) is this huge grey area of people who have varying levels of interest and goals.

What I don't like? Is the blatant disrespect of those goals when they don't align with yours. I've got the mentality to simply accept the differences and go about my own way. But the line gets crossed when you say that's bad because I chose to solo (or play simply with those that agree), rather than to conform.

There are plenty of people who accept my playstyle as is, and I party with them when I can. But that's simply not the case for pickup groups in general. So, there is two choices. I can stop playing the game until I find someone, making that my only goal. Or I can find them along the way. Making content solo friendly, but group incentivized like Ambuscade is, is a very smart approach to having me find people along the way, and I like that.

[RichLester]

Ok. Putting all that aside, what actually can be the solution to satisfy everyone?

1) If the instances are just copy-n-pasting rooms, then making Selbina, Kahzam, Rabao, Norg, Tavnazian Stronghold, Aht Urghan Whitegate Legions should be possibilities for locations.
2) Increase the amount of hallmarks we gain from all levels & lower the amount for capes & equip. This will then enable people to buy the +1 items they want quicker. They can then reach the point in the month where they have got all the items they want & go do something else.
3) Limit how many cinders, etc. we can get per month (say 5). It then blanks out & not selectable when it says 5/5.
4) Remove the x10 mobs versions, leaving just the daily ones.

Regarding the "spamming", may I remind those that SE does state when logging in, "we have no desire to see your real life suffer as a consequence. Don't forget your family, your friends, your school or your work." Doing it for hours apon end sure isn't good. Yes, sorry, I solo quite a lot of my content but I only go on this 1-3hrs a night or sometimes not at all. Also, when I took a year off some years ago, I found everyone is so much further ahead of me & have been on the back foot ever since.

Here's an idea. Will it possible to get few hallmarks after building up a few capacity points chains? (say 5 or more) so we can build them up that way too, also easing the burden.

SE - Will you be able to place a post tomorrow of exactly how you manage to relieve the congestion? (expecting it'll be temporary until a permanent solution is found)

[Sirmarki]

Easy fix make it require 6 people to enter boom problem solved.

No, because that will take at least half an hour/45 mins in itself to do.

[Keido]

No, because that will take at least half an hour/45 mins in itself to do.

Wait as opposed to spending 30-45 min spamming a book?

[Hyrist]

Wait as opposed to spending 30-45 min spamming a book?

You mean 5-15 minutes? Olor can attest, none of my groups were waiting nearly as long as you're describing.

Furthermore, that time was cut down to 1-3 minutes all day today, for I which I could only presume was either a drop in interest due to the patch, or an improvement on the system substructure.

I must have done 21 runs today. Most of which was with 1 other person. Many of whom were first timers in gear that would have made them completely unacceptable to the average group, who only wanted to do VD.

Sorry to say, but the more you talk the less you seem rooted in reason and good intentions, and more that you're just venting an outward frustration through the scope of uninformed bias.

[Olor]

Yeah maybe Hyrist is just particularly talented at spamming the book but we rarely waited more than 5-7 minutes to start a run. Usually chasing down enough dragons to get a new pop would take longer with warps etc.

[Jile]

You mean 5-15 minutes? Olor can attest, none of my groups were waiting nearly as long as you're describing.

I have not tried since the update that just happened but prior to that it's been typically taking me 20-60min to get in. Phoenix may just have more demand or at least higher demand during the times I've tried and evidently Keido tried vs what you've experienced on Asura during the times you tried.

Hoping this update helped - because regardless of the cause of the choke-point it has been miserable trying to take part in it.

Edit: The update didn't help squat... simplified us having to target a book and go through the menu over and over but didn't address the real issue of an utter lack of instances for people to use... SE, seriously? /facepalm

SE, please put a real fix in place asap. Thank you. The new content, when we're able to get in, is appreciated.

[Keido]

LOL!!! Big fix is a few more instances and you don't kicked from the book. Solved nothing its 6:30AM where I am. I have been trying for 20+ min. No dice. Glad to see that you all are so lucky.

[Sirmarki]

So the update essentially has added a "Retry" button?

[Frodnon]

So the update essentially has added a "Retry" button?

Yep, gratz to SE for a /targetnpc enter-enter macro i guess...

[Pixela]

Why on earth didn't they limit how many times you can enter? This is incredibly silly, what on earth are they thinking over there?

[Hyrist]

Simmer down guys, seriously.

The system they implemented actually works well. I'm seeing people cycle in and out rather than sitting there surrounding the book forever, complaining about the wait times. Basically what happens now is that the system controls how often you ping so it's not being flooded. Those who are in the menu cycle to get into the dungeon are effectively in a queue to get into it. Just keep selecting to enter and you'll receive a pause as it checks for available instances (which there are many more now, entry is dirt easy). They flat out prevented ping spamming to a regulated rate at this point, which likely helps their end.

And entry rate is much faster and higher. I'm not getting more than a five minute wait, and the amount of times I'm spamming my attempt to enter is hard-capped by this system so it's not me.

[Olor]

Yeah I tried last night and it took less than 5 to get in, more like 2 minutes... not sure what is going on - on less populated servers...

[Diavolo]

...available instances (which there are many more now

I'm not sure what's going on here, but I can tell you the number of "instances" haven't increased at all. Cerberus is a quiet server and even with only 150 accounts online those rooms filled up quick. Didn't see more than 9 players/parties inside Legion before the maintenance, haven't seen more than that afterward.

[Pixela]

I seem to remember reading that these instances are cross server, so if you're linked with a busy server you're sol.

[Shyles]

I think the patch has been working pretty well so far! I ran Ambuscade a few times last night with my friends, and we were getting in with about 2 minute waits. We were just happy we didn't have to book spam lol.. Though we can probably thank the VW and Surge campaigns from siphoning off some of the Ambuscade congestion for now. Maybe they could do the same thing with entering Sinister Reign lol...

On the bright side, I think they said this patch was only an emergency solution, and they are still working on more long term solutions given the potential for high month-to-month traffic for this event. So we'll see what they come up with! Some of the things I hope they do are:


Add Ambuscade NPCs to Rabao and Selbina
An invisible 3-yalm barrier around the NPC
Make other players disappear when talking to the NPC like with the Records of Eminence NPCs.

[Catmato]

Add Ambuscade NPCs to Rabao and Selbina
An invisible 3-yalm barrier around the NPC
Make other players disappear when talking to the NPC like with the Records of Eminence NPCs.



More NPCs don't make a difference if there's no more instances.
F8
What difference would that make?

[Diavolo]

I seem to remember reading that these instances are cross server, so if you're linked with a busy server you're sol.

I don't currently have a character active on Asura, so I can't speak to how things are working there post-maintenance, but on at least two other servers where I've monitored Legion no one is warping from Mhaura into Ambuscade when there are 8 or 9 solo players and/or party leaders already inside. There is no cross-server support here. I have a hard time believing they would have found a way to alleviate congestion on Asura without applying the same fix to less active servers. I'm more inclined to believe those who are experiencing better results are doing so because the current campaign has drawn a good deal of players to Walk of Echoes, Voidwatch and Wanted Unity fights.

[Hyrist]

That would make sense only if that occured immediately after the patch and the campaign went into swing. I was having it occur before the maintenance and the fix, for a full day, on a weekend day.

It's speculation. Meanwhile, my experiences on Asura are differing from yours. There are people poping in and out of vision quite a bit as I'm queuing, and I'm getting in within the first 5 minutes, if not on the first attempt.

I would say it has less to do with the campaign than it is the fact that many players who pushed at the first congestion likely have completed their capes now, alleviating the initial strain. As a soloist I have about 10 runs left to do before my cape is complete, and I think all that I intend to get afterwards is some quick rift boulders for my inevitable Emperyan weapon climb, so even I will be out of the congestion pipeline soon.

[Shyles]

More NPCs don't make a difference if there's no more instances.
F8
What difference would that make?





Of course, more instance servers would be lovely. Though even without server adjustments, it would reduce the lag in Mhaura by removing the bottleneck.
Clearing space around the npc would make it easier to target the NPC for those of us who use controllers.
It would decrease lag while in the rewards menu.


At least that's the way I see it. Any of those things would make Ambuscade feel less congested I think.

[Camate]

Greetings, everyone.

The development team is still in the midst of testing and verifying improvements plans for Ambuscase, and while I can’t get into the nitty-gritty details just yet, I would like to share the general direction of the adjustments planned.

First up is registration for entering an instance. The aim of this is to regulate the traffic at the entrance to this content, which has currently become a bottle neck. This will guarantee parties or solo players access to the instance in the order in which they registered.

Additionally, we’re looking into increasing the benefits of challenging Ambuscade as a party to give more opportunities for a greater number of players to get involved with this content.

There have also been questions about the rewards, so I would like to address what I can in regards to this as well. In the next version update, we’re looking to make it possible to acquire items via methods other than Hallmarks. With this system, we are planning to make possible to re-acquire the Sulevia equipment that can be purchased currently. Furthermore, we’ll also be adding new items that can be purchased with Hallmarks. (Hallmarks is also a part of Ambuscade that will reset, so after the next version update it will be necessary to save them up again.)

While it will be possible to purchase job-specific capes each time after a reset, the limit is one for each job during each period. This will also reset with each version update.

Once we get closer to the version update I will make a follow-up with more details.

[Catmato]

There have also been questions about the rewards, so I would like to address what I can in regards to this as well. In the next version update, we’re looking to make it possible to acquire items via methods other than Hallmarks. With this system, we are planning to make possible to re-acquire the Sulevia equipment that can be purchased currently. Furthermore, we’ll also be adding new items that can be purchased with Hallmarks. (Hallmarks is also a part of Ambuscade that will reset, so after the next version update it will be necessary to save them up again.)

While it will be possible to purchase job-specific capes each time after a reset, the limit is one for each job during each period. This will also reset with each version update.

Once we get closer to the version update I will make a follow-up with more details.

Wow, so capes AREN'T the unique rewards this month? That's pretty big news.

[VoiceMemo]

I wonder why SE didn't take a page out of Meebles. In meebles the more people you go with the more bonus points you get, thereby more points per person. It favors full 6 for maximum points.

[Calatilla]

How about adding a second zone, like meebles so that everyone isn't spamming the same NPC all day. Adding a queuing system isn't going to solve the congestion problem really. 3 instances for a single NPC on an event you can literally do back-back is just silly.

There are 2 zones that are currently unused and have been for years. Diorama Abdhaljs-Ghelsba and Abdhaljs Isle-Purgonorgo. Each of these zones can have their own NPC and instances separate from Mhaura which would help with congestion a lot more than an artificial queue.

[Secondplanet]

I always thought the best way to go around it is to divide the armor up to towns like WotG did with mage gear in windy, light armor in bastok and heavy armor in sandy, If you throw in Mhura and Selbina you can have 2 other misc sets so that would give you 5 zones for this which would greatly decrease the need for everyone to force their way into one town.

[Eckamus]

I agree, it would simply make more sense to add more zones to Legion. This would allow more than the 6 entry limited currently. 'Regulating Traffic' won't fix the congestion if there is still only 6 entries allowed to enter at once. It will simply just organize the chaos is all.

Adding entrance zones in Selbina and Rabao, would likely work for entry points. The zones could be as follows:

- Legion - Rolanberry (For original Legion only)
- Legion - Mhaura
- Legion - Selbina
- Legion - Rabao

This would allow for a total of 24 entries at once, 6 for Legion and 18 for Ambuscade. Even if entries were not added to other towns, the addition of 4 zones total for legion would dramatically reduce the congestion and decrease the frustration many feel with this event and it's entry.

Also, not sure if it is something that would be considered, but running back and forth to complete the RoE many, many many, times has it's toll. My concern is that with less populous mob types this may also add a new level of congestion. Maybe allowing the leader or members to all buy a KI for entry once they have completed the 'Daily" and normal RoE for whichever book they are doing. Similar to Original Legion entry.

[Pixela]

Just gonna point out that most who solo do so either because their gear isn't very good and they can only do ve > n or they won't be accepted because they aren't specific jobs.

What should be done is giving bigger bonuses for doing <normal as a group because if you have poop gear then nobody will take you and you can't do anything above that anyway. If you want them to group then you have to know their limitations.

[detlef]

The biggest bonus has to be for the highest difficulty, otherwise even really well-geared players will just spam Normal.

Regarding the soloers in your scenario, what's stopping them from teaming up with 1-2 other soloers and tackling Difficult?

[Pixela]

The biggest bonus has to be for the highest difficulty, otherwise even really well-geared players will just spam Normal.

Regarding the soloers in your scenario, what's stopping them from teaming up with 1-2 other soloers and tackling Difficult?

1 person with sparks or equivalent gear will have trouble hitting it and will take huge amounts of damage, also pretty good chance they will wipe.
2 people with similar gear will still take huge amounts of damage and have trouble hitting it.
3 people, as above.

[detlef]

So what I'm reading is that somewhere between Normal and Difficult, the hit rate becomes unacceptable and the fight becomes very dangerous (assuming we're talking about the dragon right now). I think you're also suggesting throwing 3 melee jobs at it with no real regard for tactics. Might some adjustment be in order then? Possibly bringing some kind of support or healing role into the mix? A GEO, COR, BRD, RDM? Also, outside of the breath moves, the AoE ranges are very small. I would think any ranged attacking job would do just fine in there.

[Raydeus]

So what I'm reading is that somewhere between Normal and Difficult, the hit rate becomes unacceptable and the fight becomes very dangerous (assuming we're talking about the dragon right now). I think you're also suggesting throwing 3 melee jobs at it with no real regard for tactics. Might some adjustment be in order then? Possibly bringing some kind of support or healing role into the mix? A GEO, COR, BRD, RDM? Also, outside of the breath moves, the AoE ranges are very small. I would think any ranged attacking job would do just fine in there.

The thing is if you have random soloers you can't really expect to have a proper setup or many options, not to mention someone in sparks gear will probably perform worse than my lvl119 Trusts. So there is little incentive for me to waste my limited play time trying to party. For the most part the only advantage of grouping would maybe be getting it done faster and slightly safer if and only if the people playing know what they are doing, but that's about it. And you may even need to go on a lower difficulty if for some reason the people in the party are worse than your Trust. Now, I'm not discounting the possibility of bumping into well geared people you can actually get a higher difficulty Ambuscade done with and that happen to have the proper jobs for it right there, but that's something far from reliable.

Also, players soloing are usually doing so because they have very good reasons not to group unless grouping can be done quickly and painlessly on the spot. Because if you are waiting for people to change jobs and gear up or whatever you are going to lose many solo players unless they happen to have enough time to waste on that. And if you are trying a more difficult run you'd like to at least know you will be getting more for it to make it worth the extra prep time and you wont end up wasting it because the people playing are worse than Trusts. But how exactly do you know that beforehand partying with randoms? Are you willing to gamble your time for the chance of getting slightly better rewards or are you better off doing your thing and repeating the event at your own pace?

That is the question. And the main reason I personally rather skip an event than wasting time trying to party with random people whenever I have time to do the fights.


PS > As a side note that is one of the reasons why I really hated the Content Finder in XIV so much. You get grouped with a bunch of random people who may or may not know what they are doing, and maybe cause you to waste your time on a loss. Not only that but if you happen to be the inexperienced or undergeared one there is no way for you to learn the instance on your own at your own pace so you have to ruin other people's runs while you learn and/or get better gear. And let's not forget how f'ing awful it was when they had the brilliant idea of setting the mission battlefields as farmable events, so you had people b*tching at you for wanting to watch the cutscenes and just killing the monster before you were even out of it. Yep, very epic those story fights were. Woo... hoo....

[OmnysValefor]

As a side note that is one of the reasons why I really hated the Content Finder in XIV so much. You get grouped with a bunch of random people who may or may not know what they are doing. ...

Almost any game (with exception to XI*) where you can solo to level cap and then are required to party for "hard content" (whatever is hard for you) is going to have this problem and developers never get that.

- Healers learn nothing about triage healing when they're trying to nuke something with feeble nukes before they get killed.
- Tanks learn nothing about enmity control when they're the only one ever hitting the mob or, as in FATEs, things are dying before they have a chance to register enmity.
- DD learn nothing about throughput vs burst when they need the target dead before they die. DD also don't learn that while they may have been godmode while leveling, they can't tank dungeon trash.

I loved the community in classic XI but these reasons are why I really love party grinders.

* I gave exception to XI for two reasons: (1) The game is in its twilight. Trusts gave a resurgence. (2) There are still a lot of players that do know what they're doing because they went through the party-grinding experience.

I played XIV as well, and not to hate on that game at all but it didn't teach me a single thing about tanking. Even the PLD job quests have you fighting mobs with bigger badder tanks that you're not meant to provoke, because they will hurt you, badly.

[OmnysValefor]

That said, what they should have done for Ambuscade, I think, is connect it to HTBFs (maybe without drops if your group goes the "meritless" route). The shadow dragon does nothing really new for that family of mobs. It's not a new or innovative fight for anyone and by the third time, it gets kind of boring. That alone should alleviate a lot of the congestion.

[Raydeus]

Honestly the only way I can see random grouping working would be if the number of people in the party directly added a bonus to the amount of Hallmarks to be gained in the fight.

Say you are doing a Normal volume 2 fight and get 100 for it. If you did the exact same fight with another player you'd instead get 125, 150 with 3, etc. That way even if you aren't fighting a harder version of the battlefield (or had to lower the difficulty) you'd at least get something from it while using less instances in the process. Which would also help with congestion in my opinion.

[detlef]

Honestly the only way I can see random grouping working would be if the number of people in the party directly added a bonus to the amount of Hallmarks to be gained in the fight.

Say you are doing a Normal volume 2 fight and get 100 for it. If you did the exact same fight with another player you'd instead get 125, 150 with 3, etc. That way even if you aren't fighting a harder version of the battlefield (or had to lower the difficulty) you'd at least get something from it while using less instances in the process. Which would also help with congestion in my opinion.I definitely agree with implementing the Meeble system where a multi-player attempt at the same difficulty is encouraged.

I still think soloers should at least be able to duo and get more hallmarks over time but maybe I'm severely overestimating things.

[Mookies75]

Greetings, everyone.

The development team is still in the midst of testing and verifying improvements plans for Ambuscase, and while I can’t get into the nitty-gritty details just yet, I would like to share the general direction of the adjustments planned.

First up is registration for entering an instance. The aim of this is to regulate the traffic at the entrance to this content, which has currently become a bottle neck. This will guarantee parties or solo players access to the instance in the order in which they registered.

Additionally, we’re looking into increasing the benefits of challenging Ambuscade as a party to give more opportunities for a greater number of players to get involved with this content.

There have also been questions about the rewards, so I would like to address what I can in regards to this as well. In the next version update, we’re looking to make it possible to acquire items via methods other than Hallmarks. With this system, we are planning to make possible to re-acquire the Sulevia equipment that can be purchased currently. Furthermore, we’ll also be adding new items that can be purchased with Hallmarks. (Hallmarks is also a part of Ambuscade that will reset, so after the next version update it will be necessary to save them up again.)

While it will be possible to purchase job-specific capes each time after a reset, the limit is one for each job during each period. This will also reset with each version update.

Once we get closer to the version update I will make a follow-up with more details.

It's been impossible to do Ambuscade even after the "fixes." I'm nowhere near the amount needed for the +1 armor set or cape items, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get there. It's not for lack of trying. Even without the congestion issues, even if I could get in, it'd be an insane grind solo.

There are a high volume of players, but nobody wants to party up. The incentive for group play must be high enough to get them to do it. They're not going to party with people they see as "scrubs." Not only that, why punish people who don't have people to play with? The FF11 community isn't exactly friendly these days. I think the points generated need to be increased all around. I'm not saying the items need to be handed to people, but the grind is crazy for people who have to do it solo.

And I'm glad to hear that there will be some other way to get the abuscade gear after the month is up. I am however worried that it's going to have hoops attached to it that make it not worth it.

[RichLester]

I'm wondering how this registration thing is going to work, though. As people mentioned earlier, there are still only 6 instances & I don't want to be waiting in a queue for 20-40mins just to do a 10-15min Ambuscade. I could be doing other things with my time (RoE getting capacity pts, mog garden, old quests). Imagine seeing yourself in 10th place in the queue. Again, not solving the problem.

I have noticed now that as all the groups that started the event have now had their opportunity to get the +1 items & capes they wanted, the congestion has naturally eased a bit. I'm expecting this will happen each month, though, when brand new gear is released (expecting RNG/NIN/DNC/BLU/... gear this time round & mages month afterwards then pet jobs).

I'm guessing what they mean by other methods of obtaining hallmarks is 1 Copper Voucher = 1000 Hallmarks. I'm hoping that's the case so I can do my daily RoE, get some capacity/job pts & some hallmarks during my few hours on in the evening's session.

[YosemiteYogorockBlondelle]

Have more ambuscade arena's covering the event to walk into do battle instead of the one arena to copy walk into it to battle the NM?;) :cool:

[RichLester]

Currently it costs 50 Hallmarks for one pluton.

Currently it costs 2 copper vouchers for one pluton.

So the "1x copper voucher for 1000 Hallmarks" would not fit that current balance.

I think adding Hallmarks to the copper-vouchers list makes a lot of sense, it would certainly cut down congestion, people who only want a single cape or something could buy Hallmarks with vouchers, and not add congestion to the Ambuscade zone.

However, the 1000 Hallmarks per voucher seems very unlikely. Currently you get 20 plutons with 1000 Hallmarks, but only 0.5 plutons with a copper voucher. So the current exchange rate would be 1:25 on vouchers:Hallmarks.

... that's if I am after plutons, of course, but I'm not at the moment. It's more building up the 1000s of hallmarks we need to augment the capes to max & get the equipment that will be available each month. Eventually, I'm hoping for neck pieces, ammo slots & earrings/rings which would most likely cost just as much & I expect it will take another 6 months for the current equipment to come round again.

[Olor]

So what I'm reading is that somewhere between Normal and Difficult, the hit rate becomes unacceptable and the fight becomes very dangerous (assuming we're talking about the dragon right now). I think you're also suggesting throwing 3 melee jobs at it with no real regard for tactics. Might some adjustment be in order then? Possibly bringing some kind of support or healing role into the mix? A GEO, COR, BRD, RDM? Also, outside of the breath moves, the AoE ranges are very small. I would think any ranged attacking job would do just fine in there.

I was trioing normal and it was going really well and was pretty easy so we decided to do difficult and the initial dragon breath one-shot one of the other players I was with...

The step up between normal and difficult is way too big for folks without great gear.


Honestly the only way I can see random grouping working would be if the number of people in the party directly added a bonus to the amount of Hallmarks to be gained in the fight.

Say you are doing a Normal volume 2 fight and get 100 for it. If you did the exact same fight with another player you'd instead get 125, 150 with 3, etc. That way even if you aren't fighting a harder version of the battlefield (or had to lower the difficulty) you'd at least get something from it while using less instances in the process. Which would also help with congestion in my opinion.

This would help. I like this suggestion.

[detlef]

I was trioing normal and it was going really well and was pretty easy so we decided to do difficult and the initial dragon breath one-shot one of the other players I was with...

The step up between normal and difficult is way too big for folks without great gear.Once we learned that the initial breath move was always going to come, we prepared for it with -DT sets. Even something like an Afflatus Solace Cureskin may be enough to get you through that initial breath. Don't let that deter you from trying and mastering Difficult, that one move on its own isn't really indicative of the difficulty.

[RichLester]

I totally agree with you. And I am also wanting capes and a couple of armour pieces, I'm not after plutons either.

I was using plutons as an "attributed marker" since we know that plutons/boulders/beits are the only items that can be purchased with both currencies, Hallmarks and Copper Vouchers. So if we are talking about converting Copper Vouchers into Hallmarks, we can only use the attributed values that SE have already used for these currencies.

Currently SE say ; "2 copper vouchers are worth 1 pluton" and "50 Hallmarks are worth 1 pluton." So we know the value that SE has currently placed on Copper Vouchers and Hallmarks.

We can use this as a marker, for what a future exchange rate might be. Based on this current attributed marker, we can say that one Copper Voucher will get you 25 Hallmarks. This doesn't mean that it will be <That way.> in the future, only that this is our only current marker.
:)

I can pretty much get 75 hallmarks on Easy (dragon) with 15mins solo, go off for some kills & repeat so it won't be worth me spending the copper vouchers on it. Having it set at 1 Copper Voucher = 1000 hallmarks (or 2 vouchers?) would be a reasonable rate throughout the month to ease the congestion so we can at least get a few pieces & cape augments in time for next update. Approx 12 days to get any current PLD/DRK/DRG pieces you want until another 6 months if you want it. You got the points built up for them already? so not much time left.

[detlef]

Copper Vouchers are super easy to get, especially with the gear reclaimers. If they ever allow exchanges for hallmarks, the exchange rate won't be pretty.

[RichLester]

Interesting. I know I can get a few copper vouchers a day doing the x30 mobs & another but never at that high rate. I haven't managed yet to find the RoE for the rates you guys are saying. "gear reclaimers"? Which RoE is that one? I think not many people know you can get them that fast.
If we can get copper vouchers at that rate, then of course 2 vouchers for 25/50/75 would make sense.

[Voidstorm]

I think there are a few things that if changed would help out quite a bit.

1: Change of how augments are obtained.
*Oseem Will let a player continue attempting augments without leaving the menu, similarly I would like Gorpa-Masorpa to allow players to continue their path without having to trade cape+material 50 times per cape.

2: Addition of waves to Ambuscade.
*Enemies in Legion give points upon being killed, once the wave is defeated and a certain period of time passes, another wave will appear until the time limit has been reached. For Ambuscade, limit the re-spawn to immediately after the final corpse of the current wave disappears the next wave will spawn. (each wave can just be a clone of the previous wave)
*In order for players to be more apt to team up, make the only stats increased by higher difficulties be attack and evasion of physical/ranged/magical types. That way a group capable of defeating both D & VD won't be able to defeat D 2x as fast. If HP was to scale, players would be unlikely to charge at the most difficult version even if they are capable.
*Lower the first wave points and make the points obtained for each kill be that base number multiplied by the wave completed.
**For example: Ambuscade Primer Volume One (N) Base reward = 200. The group clears 10 waves in the time limit. (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10)*200 OR 11*5*200=13,200
**Lower that base to a number that makes the highest difficulty at the fastest expected killspeed to get a full set of +1 armor in a single entry. From there just reduce the rest to become additional entries that same team would need to get the same full set of armor if attempted at the new difficulty.

[RichLester]

Gear-trader is the NPC standing next to the Copper voucher/sparks NPC in your hometown.

You can trade them all ilvl gear; HardMode BC gear, Unity gear, Skirmish weapons/armour, WKR weapons/armour, Delve weapons/armour of any stage, ilvl 100 to 119. Items have to be EX or RA/EX.

...



Ahh, ok. Thanks for the info. If that's the case, it still depends on enough players turning up to the battlefields to get enough gear to trade in. Time vs Currency, as always. Also, I'm only on for a few hours in the evenings/weekends nowadays & if I did the maths correctly, I'll need to be in at least 2 events spending a good few hours just to get 2000 reclaimation marks in order to get 25/50/75 hallmarks? I can get 150 hallmarks in 1 hr doing 2 Easy battles at the moment (5 vouchers a day @ 50hm, in your case) so doesn't seem worth doing for my time, in fact. Would still prefer the 1 voucher = 1000 hallmarks method.

For the waves idea, if only it was Campaign II. We can then all join together randomly to kill them all.

[Olor]

Would be nice if you could trade multiple items to the NPC with your cape rather than trade them one at a time. That's a lot of trades...

[Camate]

Greetings, everyone!

For those of you interested in a way to alter your augments I have some good news.

In the May version update we will be adding a new item that will allow you to change the properties of the back equipment you possess while maintaining your augment rank. However, there will be a limit to the amount that you can obtain in each version update, so you won’t be able to change the properties as much as you like.

[Olor]

Thanks Camate, that's pretty cool, let's us change our mind if we go the wrong path - the congestion overall seems to be much less at this time though I expect it will be bad again at the beginning of the month when items change over.

[Bahamut]

Oh thank you for this, I was debating if I should change my stats I worked so hard for, since I have all the BACK pieces for all jobs and only limited amounts of enchantments.

[Nyarlko]

Greetings, everyone!

For those of you interested in a way to alter your augments I have some good news.

In the May version update we will be adding a new item that will allow you to change the properties of the back equipment you possess while maintaining your augment rank. However, there will be a limit to the amount that you can obtain in each version update, so you won’t be able to change the properties as much as you like.

Nice to know that we'll be able to change cape augs. Any chance we can get a fix to the BST cape while your eyes are here? >_> The "Reward+30" should most likely do absolutely nothing currently. It only takes reforged body+feet 109 to overcap potency already, so the cape might as well have a blank line there instead. Recast would be nice, ("Pet level +1" like the SMN/PUP capes would be even nicer *hint hint*) but darn near anything would be better than what is there currently.

----------------
As far as the congestion issue goes, it has definitely lightened up a lot on Asura at least at this point of the month, but I am dreading the idea of dealing with the exact same issue every month from now on. If the primary bottleneck for entry is the entry npc (and not lack of available instances), then perhaps add a 2nd entry NPC to Selbina and split the fights up between Mhaura/Selbina. IE: Mhaura = Vol.1, Selbina = Vol.2
Combined with the recently announced queue system you are implementing, I imagine this could also alleviate some of the stress on the single entry point NPC that we have currently.

[Hyrist]

Not sure I like how they're trying to encourage parties. Unless this new currency does absolutely nothing unique and simply saves parties more time, all they succeeded to do in this situation is massively punish soloists for content they themselves designed to be soloable.

The point remains, unless you're part of the Meta, you're not getting into parties for difficult runs. Unless you're doing difficult runs, people don't want to party. Until they solve that paradox, encouraging parties in this way is just discouraging certain jobs from being played.

The only way I see they managed to do this intelligently is if they allowed Gallantry to be obtained by parties as large as 2 people, with the amount of Gallantry to be gained growing with how many members are in your party.

[CrAZYVIC]

Ambuscade ver 1 was wonderfull giving us the oportunity of obtain amazing gear, Currency for Ultimate weapons and the chance of play Solo or in Party without be penaliced. The next ambuscade must remain as the first.

Now Square will force us to play in parties, if this game had 750k active players, duty finder, party finder, DPS Jobs with a difference of DPS 100 - 200 not problem...

Sadly FFXI have a Huge mess in the balance on the Jobs. The difference in DPS here can be dramatic. If you aren't part of the META Jobs you will be excluded

This its a buff to the unwanted classes and only for ambuscade VER2.

Ambuscade Ver 2.

Enemies will take +0.25 more damage and Skill Chain damage .

Blunt - Hand to Hand
Slashing - Great Axe, Great sword, Scythe, Katana, Great katana.
Piercing - Polearm, Archery.

Tank Classes in FFXI.

PLD its the Only wanted tank. Burtang + Aegis + -50% damage taken reduction set its in another Leage the other loltanks jobs can't compete vs PLD

Add for WAR, RUN, NIN. More equip with Effect Cure Received +% I&II. -50% Damage reduction + 30% effect cure received will make this Jobs a bit more competitive with PLD.

ILV119 III Bravura&Kikoku&Aeonic weapons = Effect Cure Received II +20% + Regen 15 Tick

ILV119 III Conqueror,Ukon, Kannagi, Nagi. Epeolatry = Effect Cure received II + 30% + 16 Regen tick.

So square dont force us to go parties the game have a really small comunity per server.

[Moppet]

Have to say, I'm really disappointed that they're adding new currency/items exclusive to doing Ambuscade in parties. I would have been fine with a big boost to the current currency rewards when in a group, but now I get to go back to being excluded. Fun times.

[Secondplanet]

anyone else find the irony that SE said that Ambuscade would cater to both parties and solo player but will take the solo player longer to see rewards and now they are more or less taking it back with the new party point system? I just hope they make it you have to have a full party to stop the players who play their main while bots play the other 2-3 characters while they "solo" everything.

[Hyrist]

When I get back into Ambuscade I'll do what I've been doing, invite those who don't mind doing easier runs for a consistent pacing.

The problem is, now that there's a forced queue system, that wait time is going to make that consistency much harder to achieve. Cause everyone's going to be waiting roughly the same time, everyone's going to want maximum reward for the waiting time. Instead of addressing the core issue - the severely low number of 'instances' for players set by default, or at the very least splitting them between full parties, small parties, and soloists so that the queues don't compete with one another, they institute a secondary currency to try to get players to party more on their own... when we're already having shouts for specific classes only, as well as a lack of sufficient roles filled due to popularity among roles and jobs.

This is indicative of reactive development, rather than proactive development. My expectations over the years have lowered, but even so, this was disappointing.

[Ketaru]

Sadly FFXI have a Huge mess in the balance on the Jobs. The difference in DPS here can be dramatic. If you aren't part of the META Jobs you will be excluded

I would argue that while, yes, this is likely going to be the scenario, Ambuscade really isn't so difficult as other content to require this, at least for Regular Ambuscade in which the Difficult setting is pretty soloable with some skill. It might really be in player's best interest to pickup people on the spot if they vaguely fit job requirements. Other whys, groups are essentially going to be competing with soloers for the same limited space. Not to mention swarms of soloers competing for the same Record of Eminence targets.

This incentive to party is obviously meant to alleviate some of the traffic. So while, yes, that MNK may not be ideal in your eyes, he's going in whether you invite him or not. And if he goes in alone, he's going to be that much slower, taking up that much more time in Legion. Might as well invite him.

[detlef]

Hate the idea of putting your name in a queue. I'm sure there will be people who queue up and afk, wasting more time.

While I like the greater incentive to party up, I think adding a second form of currency exclusive to this is the wrong way to go. Simply increasing Hallmark rewards would have done the trick without completely locking soloers out.

[Olor]

Hate the idea of putting your name in a queue. I'm sure there will be people who queue up and afk, wasting more time.

While I like the greater incentive to party up, I think adding a second form of currency exclusive to this is the wrong way to go. Simply increasing Hallmark rewards would have done the trick without completely locking soloers out.

Yeah this is crummy. I've been enjoying the content and playing way more than usual lately because of it. If I get punished because people don't want to party up with me, it will be really discouraging.

You can reward people for partying without punishing people who solo. It's been really nice to just log in and work on stuff when I have time at my own pace.

I've even been able to move up from easy to normal on the dragon, when at first I couldn't solo normal at all. It's been pretty cool to feel myself getting better at it over time, and I appreciate the event for giving me an incentive to learn the fight and figure out how to get better at it.

I'm happy to group with folks when they are around and available but if I have to stand around in PJ shouting for party members to get access to the same rewards as others it will ruin it for me.

[Ketaru]

You can reward people for partying without punishing people who solo. It's been really nice to just log in and work on stuff when I have time at my own pace.


How would you go about rewarding parties without punishing soloists? It's all relative. People who are soloing are getting no less than they were getting before- partiers are just getting more, which (at least on the surface) sounds exactly like what you're talking about.


If I get punished because people don't want to party up with me, it will be really discouraging.

Going to the point of relativity, people are similarly getting punished for NOT inviting you because you're going to be taking up a battlefield that can accomodate six people while, potentially, an entire party will have to wait for you to finish. Unless you're standing around in level 99 gear, people do have an incentive to invite you. At the least of which because now THEY will be in a party.

If nothing else, by soloing (and I say this as a mostly-soloer), we are imposing a huge inconvenience on people in content that is already experiencing congestion.


I'm happy to group with folks when they are around and available but if I have to stand around in PJ shouting for party members to get access to the same rewards as others it will ruin it for me.

The more likely scenario is you would be standing at the Ambuscade NPC with your Seek flag up waiting for someone to invite you. I suspect others will be doing this as well. While you're waiting, you can continue to solo it. The only time you'll have to take your flag down is when you're actually inside soloing and have to call trusts. Once you're done, just put it up again.

[Olor]

The more likely scenario is you would be standing at the Ambuscade NPC with your Seek flag up waiting for someone to invite you. I suspect others will be doing this as well. While you're waiting, you can continue to solo it. The only time you'll have to take your flag down is when you're actually inside soloing and have to call trusts. Once you're done, just put it up again.

You can't accept invites or invite people while you are in the book waiting line... You have to stand around missing out on chances to actually progress

There is a difference between just giving people in groups more hallmarks(which they already largely get from doing harder difficulties) and having a whole new currency that soloers can't access... I am fine with groups getting more hallmarks and I supported the idea of adding something like meebles where you automatically get a bonus for having additional people. The difference is I can work hard solo to "catch up" on hallmarks but I can't solo a new "group only" currency. One of these situations punishes soloers - one of these simply rewards parties. I'd rather have the latter without the former.

[CrAZYVIC]

I would argue that while, yes, this is likely going to be the scenario, Ambuscade really isn't so difficult as other content to require this, at least for Regular Ambuscade in which the Difficult setting is pretty soloable with some skill. It might really be in player's best interest to pickup people on the spot if they vaguely fit job requirements. Other whys, groups are essentially going to be competing with soloers for the same limited space. Not to mention swarms of soloers competing for the same Record of Eminence targets.

This incentive to party is obviously meant to alleviate some of the traffic. So while, yes, that MNK may not be ideal in your eyes, he's going in whether you invite him or not. And if he goes in alone, he's going to be that much slower, taking up that much more time in Legion. Might as well invite him.

Yeah this content its a lot friendly. I loved the idea of play that when i could. Here even i solo on WAR the difficulty Dragon. I hate the idea of have form a party and yes PT leaders will shout for the meta jobs even if the content its easy =/

[Olor]

yes PT leaders will shout for the meta jobs even if the content its easy =/


Yep, only jobs I've seen people shout for for Ambuscade are GEO and WHM

[detlef]

They're not wrong that you should really bring a GEO to everything if you can. That's a job balance issue though.

[Olor]

They're not wrong that you should really bring a GEO to everything if you can. That's a job balance issue though.

I don't begrudge people for preferring to bring strong jobs to content, I begrudge the fact that not all jobs have a place in content (any content).

If it was at least balanced so that WAR was good here BLU was good there, BLM good the other place, BRD excellent here, GEO needed there I would feel less fussed, but as of now there are not many jobs one can expect to feel comfortable asking to get invited into content outside of friends.

The balance is completely out of whack, and that is a real disincentive to players who might otherwise be interested in playing the game. Ironically, I think this first round of ambuscade seemed like it was acknowledging the difficulties faced by players of heavy DD jobs. And now it's like they are forgetting that lots of people are soloing on these same jobs because they aren't really very useful in most strats for relevant content.

[Helldemon]

5. Stop allowing people to form their own parties, force them to accept scrubs /sarcasm

Seriously, people are soloing with trusts because other folks won't deign to play with them/don't make it fun.

So if you want less soloists, be more inclusive in your parties, be more fun! Teach a new player the ropes, have fun with a scrub, etc.

But given that this is the *first* solo friendly event with any relevant gear whatsoever, in AGES folks should not be complaining that soloists want to access it, especially when folks won't even let people exp with them anymore because their precious CP/hr will be ruined if they helped some folks catch up.

I love this game I just wish folks would be a little more lighthearted about it sometimes.

SE messed this up worse when they introduced the scaling system imo. I probably came pretty close to quitting around that time because of it. It basically made it extremely harmful to invite anyone that wasn't on the best jobs with the best gear. Of course there were plenty that already did this but there were groups that would invite anyone if they already had the gear/jobs/skill to win and hadn't yet hit 18. Now every person you add gives the mob an extra 100k hp so now that weaker geared person makes the fight significantly harder if they aren't geared as well as everyone else.

I've been guilty of this myself. A new ls member of an ls I'm apart of came to ruaun for an event but didn't have silt to get tribs so he farmed them for awhile, but event ended. I needed two T1 kills(Garguille and Mantis) and managed to get three others to stay and help. Anyways, we killed the Garguille and then the new guy happened to show up by the pop spot before we popped the mantis and some of the party members mentioned maybe we could invite him. I stayed silent for a minute but then decided we probably couldn't afford to, I felt bad and we won but I had to 1hr with my last pet and the others were almost out of mp(both trusts were dead, august got one-shot as soon as I popped...) so if we had invited him we would have wiped. Before this system I would have gladly invited him despite him probably not being geared enough to do the NM but now I am forced to weigh if we'll still be able to win whenever I'm a party leader and someone wants to join. They should have given reduced rewards for less people, or more rewards for people still going with 18 and not given so much hp to the NM's for each person added. They also need to work on tp feed and how much damage AoE's do.

Edit:
I don't begrudge people for preferring to bring strong jobs to content, I begrudge the fact that not all jobs have a place in content (any content).

If it was at least balanced so that WAR was good here BLU was good there, BLM good the other place, BRD excellent here, GEO needed there I would feel less fussed, but as of now there are not many jobs one can expect to feel comfortable asking to get invited into content outside of friends.

The balance is completely out of whack, and that is a real disincentive to players who might otherwise be interested in playing the game. Ironically, I think this first round of ambuscade seemed like it was acknowledging the difficulties faced by players of heavy DD jobs. And now it's like they are forgetting that lots of people are soloing on these same jobs because they aren't really very useful in most strats for relevant content.

Ya, ambuscade was great because it doesn't scale and any job is capable of doing good there, at least on the dragon. That could change with next months Low Tier NM. The gear from the tier rewards is pretty great, I found a use for all the pieces on my drg I believe, if you can manage to get the +1 gear for the job you want to play there you should be capable of doing even VD in a group provided the stats are similar(lots of acc/att/DT) of course the low haste hurts but most VD groups have 1-2 supports which should help with that. My main is drg and I have no mage jobs so trust me I know how it feels to be excluded from stuff. I've only been able to do a few Reisenjima NM's myself and only have one piece of Valor gear(legs).

[Olor]

SE messed this up worse when they introduced the scaling system imo. I probably came pretty close to quitting around that time because of it. It basically made it extremely harmful to invite anyone that wasn't on the best jobs with the best gear. Of course there were plenty that already did this but there were groups that would invite anyone if they already had the gear/jobs/skill to win and hadn't yet hit 18. Now every person you add gives the mob an extra 100k hp so now that weaker geared person makes the fight significantly harder if they aren't geared as well as everyone else.


Yeah you've hit the nail on the head, everything you say is spot on. For most content I don't begrudge folks not inviting a scrub because SE designed the content to be harder if you try to help people, which is really crummy.

I do find it annoying with the dragon because as you note anyone can contribute somewhat and it's not at all hard and it doesn't scale but people still don't want to invite others to join. I can solo the dragon on normal now, I am sure I could do it on difficult if I was in a party (probably even VD but I would be less helpful on it) but folks only want to invite GEO or WHM. I have WHM but it is waaaaay worse geared than my other jobs and I find it too stressful to play.

I am really super hopeful that the set for light gear jobs is as good as the heavy because I really need a better light DD body and hands and more ACC overall. I have pretty good Taeon in head, feet and legs, but only have Hagondes body for my blu and the relic 119 body for my THF.

[Camate]

Thanks for all the feedback on Gallantry.

In terms of what you can purchase with Gallantry, one of the major items will be the item I mentioned the other day that will allow you to alter the augments on your equipment. Additionally, we will be making it possible to reacquire Sulevia equipment that is currently purchasable with Hallmarks.

While you may be thinking that this is just the same as Hallmarks, the biggest difference is that there are no cumulative-type rewards for Gallantry, and all of the rewards can be obtained by spending points. Even if it’s an HQ item, you will be able to acquire it for the slot you wish, and if you, for example, wanted to obtain Sulevia’s Platemail +1, you could do so by exchanging your points at a lower amount than the amount of Hallmarks you need at the moment.
(However, if you’re trying to obtain the equipment for all equipment slots, you’ll need a great deal more points than the total Hallmarks required.)

Similar to Hallmarks, Gallantry will also reset when there is a version update. This is necessary in order to maintain a set rate for the cumulative rewards, and if we were to remove this system, each time we rotated rewards we would have to continuously bump up the required amount of points. As a result, months in the future the required amount of points would be astronomical. We’d like to keep this system in place so there is a defined starting point as well as a defined goal line for obtaining these items.

[OmnysValefor]

Greetings, everyone!

For those of you interested in a way to alter your augments I have some good news.

In the May version update we will be adding a new item that will allow you to change the properties of the back equipment you possess while maintaining your augment rank. However, there will be a limit to the amount that you can obtain in each version update, so you won’t be able to change the properties as much as you like.

Curious about this: Why not?

Why not permit people to buy as many of this re-augmenting item as they like? The smarter solution, certainly, is to have different capes if you find yourself constantly resetting, but it seems silly to me to stop people who would rather just change their augments.

I love the Ambuscade system, aside from the monotony and the bottlenecks. I think the duality of Hallmarks is wonderful but I do have one concern:

It sounds like, aside from Sulevia's also being obtainable next month, each month will have one armor set. Why do this? I have a friend who recently came back and Sulevia's was introduced at the perfect time for him to get tremendous upgrades out of them. Say he came back the month after a gearset was available, he'd have to wait a number of months to get the gear? That's quite unfair! At first, when I helped him, I was doing the majority of the work, but thanks to Ambuscade gear, he's contributing much much more.

If he came back a month too late, he'd be lacking a set that every plate DD on the server would be expected to have (unless they had better). He'd be denied opportunities in groups and denied one of the best hybrid gearsets FFXI has ever had.

So please, use the next month to reconsider.. Make Sulevia's permanently available if it is not, Make Ambuscade versions of Usukane, Skadi, and Morrigan's also available permanently available. This is the proper kind of helping hand that returning players need.

Also, in case you're reading this: It was very smart of you to trade Haste, rather than Accuracy/other offensive stats, for -DamageTaken% rather than accuracy. I genuinely hope the rest of the melee sets follow suit.

[Pixela]

Curious about this: Why not?

Why not permit people to buy as many of this re-augmenting item as they like? The smarter solution, certainly, is to have different capes if you find yourself constantly resetting, but it seems silly to me to stop people who would rather just change their augments.

I love the Ambuscade system, aside from the monotony and the bottlenecks. I think the duality of Hallmarks is wonderful but I do have one concern:

It sounds like, aside from Sulevia's also being obtainable next month, each month will have one armor set. Why do this? I have a friend who recently came back and Sulevia's was introduced at the perfect time for him to get tremendous upgrades out of them. Say he came back the month after a gearset was available, he'd have to wait a number of months to get the gear? That's quite unfair! At first, when I helped him, I was doing the majority of the work, but thanks to Ambuscade gear, he's contributing much much more.

If he came back a month too late, he'd be lacking a set that every plate DD on the server would be expected to have (unless they had better). He'd be denied opportunities in groups and denied one of the best hybrid gearsets FFXI has ever had.

So please, use the next month to reconsider.. Make Sulevia's permanently available if it is not, Make Ambuscade versions of Usukane, Skadi, and Morrigan's also available permanently available. This is the proper kind of helping hand that returning players need.

Also, in case you're reading this: It was very smart of you to trade Haste, rather than Accuracy/other offensive stats, for -DamageTaken% rather than accuracy. I genuinely hope the rest of the melee sets follow suit.

They did it this way to so that people can't zerg it 24/7 for a month, get every single item and then say "DONE! MORE PLZZZ! BORED NOW! QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ"

It's a great way to add content and make it viable for 4-5 times as long as it would normally be so, I hope they do more content like this in the future with cycling rewards (with a way to get previous ones at a greater expense).

MMO players are like someone with an eating disorder, if you put all the months food on the table at once they will eat it all at once. You have to ration them for their own good sometimes, especially when you have a smaller dev team.

[Selindrile]

Thanks for all the feedback on Gallantry.

In terms of what you can purchase with Gallantry, one of the major items will be the item I mentioned the other day that will allow you to alter the augments on your equipment. Additionally, we will be making it possible to reacquire Sulevia equipment that is currently purchasable with Hallmarks.

While you may be thinking that this is just the same as Hallmarks, the biggest difference is that there are no cumulative-type rewards for Gallantry, and all of the rewards can be obtained by spending points. Even if it’s an HQ item, you will be able to acquire it for the slot you wish, and if you, for example, wanted to obtain Sulevia’s Platemail +1, you could do so by exchanging your points at a lower amount than the amount of Hallmarks you need at the moment, I only bring this up to state that I hope that sort of augmenting never becomes part of ambuscade.
(However, if you’re trying to obtain the equipment for all equipment slots, you’ll need a great deal more points than the total Hallmarks required.)

Similar to Hallmarks, Gallantry will also reset when there is a version update. This is necessary in order to maintain a set rate for the cumulative rewards, and if we were to remove this system, each time we rotated rewards we would have to continuously bump up the required amount of points. As a result, months in the future the required amount of points would be astronomical. We’d like to keep this system in place so there is a defined starting point as well as a defined goal line for obtaining these items.

Will there ever be a way to "catch up" on capes if one already changed their augments mid-stream, I (and others I know) unfortunately have misclicked on cape augments due to the ridiculous need to trade each item manually and spacing out when trading 20 at a time, so our capes will go uncapped, perpetually a little behind each month, I guess it's not a big deal, but it's painfully annoying.

Also, if you're reading this, as awesome as Reisenjimma augments are, the augment system is ludicrous, literally everyone I know hates it while simultaneously uses the heck out of it like someone shame-eating and hating themself while doing it, haven't we made it clear that we all hate perfectly random augments? Airlixir/Eshalixir or even Skirmish2's ability to roll one stat at a time are far less enfuriating, I only bring this up to state that I hope this sort of system never becomes part of ambuscade.

[OmnysValefor]

Also, if you're reading this, as awesome as Reisenjimma augments are, the augment system is ludicrous, literally everyone I know hates it while simultaneously uses the heck out of it like someone shame-eating and hating themself while doing it, haven't we made it clear that we all hate perfectly random augments? Airlixir/Eshalixir or even Skirmish2's ability to roll one stat at a time are far less enfuriating, I only bring this up to state that I hope this sort of system never becomes part of ambuscade.

x.x Wow. I feel absolutely the opposite. I loathe Skirmish and Skirmish II's augment system even though it is improved. Rei stones are easy to farm and aren't terribly expensive--I love the Reisenjima system.

[OmnysValefor]

They did it this way to so that people can't zerg it 24/7 for a month, get every single item and then say "DONE! MORE PLZZZ! BORED NOW! QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ"

It's a great way to add content and make it viable for 4-5 times as long as it would normally be so, I hope they do more content like this in the future with cycling rewards (with a way to get previous ones at a greater expense).

I know why they did it, but these may well be all sets of gear that everyone who plays jobs is expected to have. In the case of my friend, we'd have to wait probably four months for it to return. This gear is of greatest benefit to returning players, but every drk/war/drg on the game can get benefit out of at least some Sulevia's (if not their goto piece).

And unless the fights become a lot more interesting, it's not a great way to add content. "BLU's, save MG for after dispel please." "Uh oh, his health is getting low, better save provoke for the hate reset"

[Selindrile]

x.x Wow. I feel absolutely the opposite. I loathe Skirmish and Skirmish II's augment system even though it is improved. Rei stones are easy to farm and aren't terribly expensive--I love the Reisenjima system.

Easy to farm, cheap, nigh impossible to get the augs you want, a friend and I did some rough math, there's probably over 3.5 million different augments on a specific peice of armor with a specific stone, so approximately a 1 in 3.5M chance you're getting the exact augment you want, and so much time is just spent clicking and reviewing and clicking and reviewing, it's painful, it's definitely my least favorite augment system, though obviously it has the best augments.

[Hyrist]

Thanks for all the feedback on Gallantry.

In terms of what you can purchase with Gallantry, one of the major items will be the item I mentioned the other day that will allow you to alter the augments on your equipment. Additionally, we will be making it possible to reacquire Sulevia equipment that is currently purchasable with Hallmarks.

While you may be thinking that this is just the same as Hallmarks, the biggest difference is that there are no cumulative-type rewards for Gallantry, and all of the rewards can be obtained by spending points. Even if it’s an HQ item, you will be able to acquire it for the slot you wish, and if you, for example, wanted to obtain Sulevia’s Platemail +1, you could do so by exchanging your points at a lower amount than the amount of Hallmarks you need at the moment.
(However, if you’re trying to obtain the equipment for all equipment slots, you’ll need a great deal more points than the total Hallmarks required.)

Similar to Hallmarks, Gallantry will also reset when there is a version update. This is necessary in order to maintain a set rate for the cumulative rewards, and if we were to remove this system, each time we rotated rewards we would have to continuously bump up the required amount of points. As a result, months in the future the required amount of points would be astronomical. We’d like to keep this system in place so there is a defined starting point as well as a defined goal line for obtaining these items.

I honestly don't see how this will resolve issues with congestion.

Those who are going to party have more incentive to stay around thanks to the new currency, meaning more groups will remain there. But Soloists have next to no incentive to party in this situation aside from small pieces they MAY have missed, but because parties are so unbalanced towards the flavor of the month, soloists just have more incentive to spam the content when it is new, rather than group up with parties, so they don't feel forced to party more.

And with your queue system in place, you've just effectively increased the congestion fourfold time wise for everyone, including said soloists.

Sorry, but I'm afraid you don't understand the severity in which the dichotomy between meta players and casuals are divided, and have effectively thrown oil on the fire in both the divide and the original congestion problem.

If this is the course SE wishes to take then I highly recommend you pass along the suggestions to separate the queues between those with full parties, semi-full parties, and soloists (or just parties and solo if you don't have in-system flags separating full party from a smaller ones.) This will alleviate the specific kinds of congestion that are putting community strains on soloists vrs parties. This will also encourage soloists to alleviate congestion and push through to the naturally faster processing party queues, further sweetening your carrot to get people to party.

[Olor]

No, I don't want a soloist Queue, I like to solo because I don't often have a large chunk of time to party... so making it even slower to solo would make it pretty much impossible for me to play :/

If people want to grab me to fill out a party to get me out of the queue, great, but I don't want to be punished because folks don't want to invite.

[OmnysValefor]

Easy to farm, cheap, nigh impossible to get the augs you want, a friend and I did some rough math, there's probably over 3.5 million different augments on a specific peice of armor with a specific stone, so approximately a 1 in 3.5M chance you're getting the exact augment you want, and so much time is just spent clicking and reviewing and clicking and reviewing, it's painful, it's definitely my least favorite augment system, though obviously it has the best augments.

I would describe Skirmish as more frustrating to farm, and nigh-impossible to get the augments you want. I've always loathed that a +2 stone can give you the same terrible stat than NQ stone will very likely give you.

Neither system is likely to give you perfect augments, you'll probably end up with a great DPS piece that has INT+10 on it from Reisenjima. It's still not a bad trade.

Edit: I get you're saying that Skirmish will allow you to hack away at solely that INT+10 hoping for something more suited to your role, but you're also more likely to spend 200k and get int+1.

[Kensagaku]

Honestly, I wish they had a combination of both systems. We already have it so each stone favors a slot of augments, so why not just have it only cover that slot? Trade Pellucid stones for acc/atk/macc/matk etc, fern for your "special" augment, and taupe for your stat augment. It'd still have some aspect of randomization to it, but with more plentiful stones and separate slots, you can actually build an item piece more to your specifications. I'm okay throwing a couple hundred Taupe stones to try and get that STR+15 aug, or as many Fern to get a Triple Attack+3, but not when I have to also hope I get a high acc/atk, or heaven forbid Damage+ on weapons too.

[Pixela]

No, I don't want a soloist Queue, I like to solo because I don't often have a large chunk of time to party... so making it even slower to solo would make it pretty much impossible for me to play :/

If people want to grab me to fill out a party to get me out of the queue, great, but I don't want to be punished because folks don't want to invite.

I agree, I only came back to XI because it now supports casual players. If people in groups have to wait as long as me that's great because they aren't the kings and queens of vandiel, they are no better than me. Also the truth is that most people in parties are the ones causing the congestion anyway, since they spam the life out of this content over and over. Most soloists do 1-2 runs a day and go do other stuff.

I still think they should of put limits on how many runs you can do a day, this is a good 2nd best option though.

[OmnysValefor]

Honestly, I wish they had a combination of both systems. We already have it so each stone favors a slot of augments, so why not just have it only cover that slot? Trade Pellucid stones for acc/atk/macc/matk etc, fern for your "special" augment, and taupe for your stat augment. It'd still have some aspect of randomization to it, but with more plentiful stones and separate slots, you can actually build an item piece more to your specifications. I'm okay throwing a couple hundred Taupe stones to try and get that STR+15 aug, or as many Fern to get a Triple Attack+3, but not when I have to also hope I get a high acc/atk, or heaven forbid Damage+ on weapons too.

I agree man, that would be perfect. But obviously, both systems are designed to be gil/time-sinks. They could be as convenient as you describe if SE wanted them to be.

[Selindrile]

I would describe Skirmish as more frustrating to farm, and nigh-impossible to get the augments you want. I've always loathed that a +2 stone can give you the same terrible stat than NQ stone will very likely give you.

Neither system is likely to give you perfect augments, you'll probably end up with a great DPS piece that has INT+10 on it from Reisenjima. It's still not a bad trade.

Edit: I get you're saying that Skirmish will allow you to hack away at solely that INT+10 hoping for something more suited to your role, but you're also more likely to spend 200k and get int+1.

I completely disagree, most everyone I know had extremely high Skirmish2 augments and all 3 targetted stats they want, it costs a bit of money, but it's not hard to farm at all, and the trading is reasonable (though being able to use stones directly from NPC and trading all stones at once is definitely an upgrade), and you can throw a couple stacks at something and almost guarantee a max aug of the item you want, in skirmish, you throw some gil or time at a peice and you're likely to get all 3 stats you want, and can keep hacking away as you said at always improving them. With reisenjimma gear, you get one good aug and then just spend tons and tons of repetitive time/gil failing to get anything that approaches it, or get super frustrated at seeing other stats you want but being unable to take it.


Honestly, I wish they had a combination of both systems. We already have it so each stone favors a slot of augments, so why not just have it only cover that slot? Trade Pellucid stones for acc/atk/macc/matk etc, fern for your "special" augment, and taupe for your stat augment. It'd still have some aspect of randomization to it, but with more plentiful stones and separate slots, you can actually build an item piece more to your specifications. I'm okay throwing a couple hundred Taupe stones to try and get that STR+15 aug, or as many Fern to get a Triple Attack+3, but not when I have to also hope I get a high acc/atk, or heaven forbid Damage+ on weapons too.

This would be great, if they just changed the way the slots worked a bit, this is exactly the sort of thing I would hope for.

[Hyrist]

No, I don't want a soloist Queue, I like to solo because I don't often have a large chunk of time to party... so making it even slower to solo would make it pretty much impossible for me to play :/

If people want to grab me to fill out a party to get me out of the queue, great, but I don't want to be punished because folks don't want to invite.

You're punished more in the alternative (which is already being implemented). You'd be sharing a queue with parties and soloists both otherwise, and there is no guarantee that parties will finish their fight faster than a soloists.

Splitting the queue splits the burden SE's already putting on the shoulders of players. Once in queue, you and parties stand on an equal playing field. in wait time.

With it split, your only competitors are your compatriots. Meaning, if Solo queue is contested, you have all cause to say "oh, hay, it's backed up, anyone here want to group up?" Which will enable you to bypass the congestion and hop into group queue which may not be as backed up due to lower number of queues.

Both sides benfit. No trying to form the perfect party. You'd be waiting anyways due to waiting in queue. May as well spend part of that time to communicate to see if there's people willing to party up. The solo queue benifits from this system because if 3 people form solo queue party up and drop into party queue, that's three queue slots freed up for other solosits.

The other way around would give no vent for either type of player because nobody would want to pull out of their place in queue and get back in line, as both soloists and parties are vying for the same spots.

[Urmom]

Thanks for all the feedback on Gallantry.

In terms of what you can purchase with Gallantry, one of the major items will be the item I mentioned the other day that will allow you to alter the augments on your equipment. Additionally, we will be making it possible to reacquire Sulevia equipment that is currently purchasable with Hallmarks.

While you may be thinking that this is just the same as Hallmarks, the biggest difference is that there are no cumulative-type rewards for Gallantry, and all of the rewards can be obtained by spending points. Even if it’s an HQ item, you will be able to acquire it for the slot you wish, and if you, for example, wanted to obtain Sulevia’s Platemail +1, you could do so by exchanging your points at a lower amount than the amount of Hallmarks you need at the moment.
(However, if you’re trying to obtain the equipment for all equipment slots, you’ll need a great deal more points than the total Hallmarks required.)

Similar to Hallmarks, Gallantry will also reset when there is a version update. This is necessary in order to maintain a set rate for the cumulative rewards, and if we were to remove this system, each time we rotated rewards we would have to continuously bump up the required amount of points. As a result, months in the future the required amount of points would be astronomical. We’d like to keep this system in place so there is a defined starting point as well as a defined goal line for obtaining these items.

Um am I missing something? Because how does "Gallantry will also reset when there is a version update. This is necessary in order to maintain a set rate for the cumulative rewards" work as an explanation in light of "there are no cumulative-type rewards for Gallantry"

[YosemiteYogorockBlondelle]

I know this is probably silly of me for not reading up or not read up on all 166+ posts and obviously don't know of it has been said already yet but with very high hopes, I actually would love to see ambuscade added to at least these older outer cities/islands Rabao, some-how some-where in Selbina, um... forgetting where all of the area's I was thinking of but I fill them in later via editing them back in later If I think of them again. Think Poragono Island was one of them..

I decided to redo this post and move it to here > Ambuscade Post #7 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/50296-Ambuscade?p=577712&viewfull=1#post577712) while leaving this previous post still under here as well! :cool:

[RichLester]

Well, it looks like we're gonna have to see how this new queuing system will be like but what if loads of people just come in & out of the queue, messing it all up? We aren't patient people. If I can go away & do something else worthwhile for 30mins, I will. With it currently as it is, I can do 2 to 3 easy ambuscades solo within an hour (mid-month after all the party goers have got their stuff).

I still agree it isn't going to solve the congestion. If it continues the way it is, may I suggest SE another new battle content system but this time for solo players only (trusts available, of course) with all sorts of already available high-level equipment (geas fete, ambuscade-equivalent) so us soloists can actually catch-up & jump into the parties that are currently happening.

[Pixela]

I hope they put a system in place that makes a noise when you enter, otherwise people will be watching tv while waiting for the queue to let them enter and they won't realize for 5-10 mins they are inside.

[detlef]

I hope they put a system in place that makes a noise when you enter, otherwise people will be watching tv while waiting for the queue to let them enter and they won't realize for 5-10 mins they are inside.This is one of my fears as well. While it's important to get people in quickly, it's also important to make sure they move along quickly as well.

[OmnysValefor]

But of course, sounds can be muted and some players do this :/. I mean, it's a fine idea incorporating a sound but I wish they'd've worked on system congestion rather than a queue system.

There are so many different battlefields in this game, it's a shame it's all confined to Legion. We could've fought the orcs last month at Horlais Peak.

[Camate]

I hope they put a system in place that makes a noise when you enter, otherwise people will be watching tv while waiting for the queue to let them enter and they won't realize for 5-10 mins they are inside.

We’re currently in the midst of looking into adding a sound effect when your turn is up to enter. However, there are some internal hurdles at the moment, so we can’t make any promises that this will be implemented.

[Camate]

Greetings Ambuscaders,

I hope you are enjoying this month’s challenges (and hope the regular Ambuscade's Antlion isn’t bugging you too much) and making some awesome capes for your jobs!


We’re currently in the midst of looking into adding a sound effect when your turn is up to enter. However, there are some internal hurdles at the moment, so we can’t make any promises that this will be implemented.

In a follow-up to the above, I just wanted to let you know that we will be making a change to the queue system in the next version update so that your party will automatically enter the instance when your tome flares up. This will be a setting that you can switch to, but if you would like to manually enter, we will be adding a sound effect to let you know your turn has come.

What kind of capes have you all been making? :cool:

[Sapphires]

What kind of capes have you all been making? :cool:
While I enjoy being able to make custom made capes, I have noticed that one of the downfalls of the current cape system is that I am making the exact same type of cape for multiple jobs.
A good example for melee oriented jobs is everyone making something like
+20 Dex
+20 Acc/Atk.
+10% weaponskill damage (or double attack)

The current battle content design balance makes many players never feeling as if they have enough accuracy to hit their targets, so I need to make the above cape for my Dancer, Dark Knight, blue mage, monk, dragoon, aaaand the list goes on and on.
With this in mind, the current system + time gating on obtaining upgrade materials per RL month does severely limit the diversity of capes being made by players.

It feels like the current system will cause severe inventory problems as the months pass by and people struggle to make room for 2-3 ambuscade capes per job in addition to the 1-2 incursion capes they may still cling on to, and so on.

I would really appreciate an all-jobs cape that could be inscribed with the ambuscade cape materials - even if this cape was to cost some very high price such as 5000-10k hallmarks/gallantry I would gladly buy it to save inventory space.

[Urmom]

I agree with the idea that a multi job cape would be great.... but 10k accolades would be a super low price. Unless you meant hallmarks then yeah 10k would be a pretty big amount. Big enough to help keep this event going even

[OmnysValefor]

While I enjoy being able to make custom made capes, I have noticed that one of the downfalls of the current cape system is that I am making the exact same type of cape for multiple jobs.
A good example for melee oriented jobs is everyone making something like
+20 Dex
+20 Acc/Atk.
+10% weaponskill damage (or double attack)
[...]

It feels like the current system will cause severe inventory problems as the months pass by and people struggle to make room for 2-3 ambuscade capes per job in addition to the 1-2 incursion capes they may still cling on to, and so on.

I would really appreciate an all-jobs cape that could be inscribed with the ambuscade cape materials - even if this cape was to cost some very high price such as 5000-10k accolades I would gladly buy it to save inventory space.

And, for a lot of jobs that you're truly dedicated to, you need more than one cape. I now have 3 PLD capes and I think that's all I need, but how silly is that? I need an enmity cape for tp'ing/abilities/certain spells, a ws cape because I'm on PLD so much, and a fastcast cape for ... casting spells faster.

Cape is like... the throwaway slot. Most other slots are too vital to flux so much. I almost feel like the capes themselves should be a purchased key item/job trait. ("Okay, here's your PLD trait, you now always get 3% more MP from physical damage taken") and then yes, the capes should be all jobs. RUN, if I ever get around to it, will have identical capes, probably, to what PLD is making.