Has the new content direction spoiled ffxi for anyone else?

[Cabalabob]

So I've been playing ffxiv, I came back to ffxi for a free login a while ago and decided to resub.

I resubbed because I was so burnt out on ffxiv's lockouts and timed resets making me feel like I was being forced to play. Then I came to ffxi and it felt like I was playing on my own time. Content like reforging armour, delve, vargary, escha and sinister reign, where the only limit was how many pops you were willing to farm. I didn't feel the mad rush to get everything done, it didn't matter how long I took or when I did it.

Then came ambuscade which single handedly spoiled that feeling. It was back to the mad rush to get the gear before it was gone in a month, I hated it.. now to top it off omen comes with a daily reset which feels like ffxiv's daily roulettes...

My sub just ended and I find myself asking why should I resub ffxi when the thing that drew me back to it is now gone?

[Domille]

Alright, for one, ambuscade gives you an entire 30 days, even if you only log in for a week, you shouldn't have much issue getting 14500 points.

I mean honestly, I know that some servers are incredibly small. And shouts are bad. You -can- make your own groups, ambuscade is very easy content. It doesn't take any knowledge or skill whatsoever to do/run a VD regular.

That being said, ambuscade is incredibly boring. 300 points per run really sours the experience. You should easily be capable of doing 1 or 2 runs a day for a week. There really isn't any forced rush. And the gear is 90% garbage anyway, so don't really stress it. I think 500 per run is more realistic.

Omen, is absolute garbage though. The gear +3 is not worth the effort for 97% of the pieces. Don't stress that either.

As far as the sub situation, I have said for a while now ffxi is not worth its sub fee anymore. No one can talk you into or out of your sub. The game value is low enough to be "worth" but square doesn't deserve the money for the work they're now doing, so it's totally up to you.

[Eckamus]

Yeah, Omen is new and the 20 hour lockout is a bit annoying, but I'm over that now, mostly. Be nice if it was less as not everyone is able to play everyday. I'm only able to actually do Omen 3 maybe 4 times a week if I'm lucky. So I won't see a full set for 4-6 months most likely. Some of the gear is really nice for certain jobs, others not so much. A 4-6 hour recharge KI and being able to hold 4 + KI would be a much more reasonable approach to the lockout. This way a player wouldn't be locked to a static group and be free to join shouts here and there.

As for Ambuscade, it does get old fast, since it is so repetitive, get KI > kill > get KI > repeat til you achieve desired effect or lose your sanity, lol. I really think they should have doubled Regular points when they doubled Intense points. Making them both respectively 1200 Intense and 600 Regular for VD and not how they have it now 1200 Intense and 300 Regular.

There is quite a bit a disparity, between how long it takes to complete the 14500 points to get all the gear also. As a example, Intense VD at 4 runs and hour would take ~3 hours vs the same 4 runs an hour on Regular takes ~12 hours. Essentially, it comes out to less geared or more casual players are required to invest significantly more time than better geared and advanced players.

[Jin_Uzuki]

You really don't need to rush ambuscade. It's similar to FFXIV in a way, but you really have PLENTY of time as said to get the points for all gears.

And any other event but Omen is pretty much always up.

[Shiyo]

I agree 100% with the OP. The #1 thing I enjoyed so much about this game is I could take everything at my own pace and do content when I felt like doing it and never felt rushed or forced to log on.

However, recently ambuscade and now omen(especially omen) changes this completely and makes me feel "rushed" and "Forced to log on and play".

The current content direction for the game will ruin this game for me entirely if they continue down this path of "everything bad every modern mmo does".

I do not want temp content that FORCES me to spam it or I lose out on that gear forever.

I do NOT want excessively long lock outs on content(20 hours per omen run).

This is bad for the game and exactly what I tried to get away from by playing this game and not the other 604600460640460 other modern mmos I could be playing.

Ambuscade is bearable, but omen is "DO NOT EVER DO THIS AGAIN AND FIX THIS IMMEDIATELY" territory.

The content design direction needs to change or they will run this game into the ground.

edit:
Protip for devs:
Trying to force people to play/login is the fastest and easiest way to make them NOT want to login and play.

[Diavolo]

I made my dislike for Ambuscade clear early on and I find Omen to be even worse as it comes across as a desperate attempt to deliver new content that can be exploited for long periods of time thanks to its restrictive entry conditions. Rhapsodies of Vanadiel gave us content that was able to stand the test of time and had me hopeful for the future of the game, but Ambuscade and Omen have changed that opinion. It's looking like the dev team is likely going to continue down this road since there's been great interest in the content despite what anyone says about it.

[Olor]

I am really not a fan of the ambuscade "disappear your points system" - it's a big reason why I'm letting my sub drop. Like you, I liked that I could do content on my own time, Ambu made me feel like if I didn't do ONLY AMBU then I would miss out on really good gear (I would).

I've said it a number of times, I'd be happy to grind out twice as many points to be able to get the items on my own time, but that's not an option. I mean, I could just not worry about the content - but given the fact that the gear sets were really good for a lot of my jobs and once they are gone they are pretty much impossible to get... yeah... no... not a good system.

So, yeah, I feel you.

[Nyarlko]

I am really not a fan of the ambuscade "disappear your points system" - it's a big reason why I'm letting my sub drop. Like you, I liked that I could do content on my own time, Ambu made me feel like if I didn't do ONLY AMBU then I would miss out on really good gear (I would).

I've said it a number of times, I'd be happy to grind out twice as many points to be able to get the items on my own time, but that's not an option. I mean, I could just not worry about the content - but given the fact that the gear sets were really good for a lot of my jobs and once they are gone they are pretty much impossible to get... yeah... no... not a good system.

So, yeah, I feel you.

If you do let your sub expire, make sure to keep an eye on the main page here. Devs have already said that older Ambuscade gear would be made available again, and I'm thinking we'll probably see a switch to a pure voucher system around March/April. I just don't see them continuing to add new gear sets continually and I'd say that odds are good that the content will also go somewhat easy-mode-ish after the 1yr anniversary. They seem to have decided on a 1yr content cycle after all, so it wouldn't make much sense to continue focusing/adding to "last year's model" when they are trying to drive interest in "this year's model" like Omen.

Even currently though, as long as you have a job geared enough for V1 Difficult+, it's not that hard to knock out 15k hm in 2-3 hours. The problem is getting to the point that you can handle 130+ clvl in order to get the gear to be able to handle it. You might want to consider leveling/gearing one of the Big3 Party Roles (tank/healer/support) to help you get into groups to farm gear for your favorite jobs instead of pushing to join with jobs that are less in demand.

On a personal note, looks like we're on the same server, so hit me up ingame on Nyarlko or Cthuuko before you poof. Might be able to help you kill a few you've been having trouble with. ^^

[Shiyo]

Voucher system doesn't fix the problem. In the time I've grinded out the entire HQ set this month I haven't even gotten 1k gallantry.
Gallantry is HILARIOUSLY awful to get.

[Eckamus]

Gallantry isn't bad to get, you need to have a full party though. Believe with 6 people you get 50% of what you get for Hallmarks. So, 300/150, but not sure how it calculates below 6 people. Maybe something like 50% > 40% > 30% > 20% > 10%, but I can't say for sure.

[OmnysValefor]

It's not that I feel pressured to time contraints by ambuscade is that the event has never been much fun and after frog it kind of ruined it for me.

This month, summoners and rangers work. There's no reasonable reason, that I know of, that other jobs don't work, they just don't. Summoners, you're limited by BP cooldown and rangers, to be honest, I don't even know any good ones.

I've tried a few melee oriented strategies, but Amnesia and that BLU boss' aoes hurt, not to mention the WHM needs to watch me for Bio.

I think it's cruel to limit the weakness to vastly underreprsented jobs.

As for Omen, the twenty hour cooldown is baloney.

If I were to design an event like Omen, you'd select your group style when you entered (melee, mage) and you'd get one of a random array of bosses based on that choice. Each type would present a reasonable challenge to the chosen style and unforgiving to the opposite group ("mage" oriented bosses would have brutal small range aoe attacks, physical oriented bosses would reflect spells cast on them, or both could take reduced damage from the oppositing strategy).

The lockout needs reduced, and please don't say we'd burn out too quickly. These are all recycled mobs anyway. I don't care what the caturae's name is, it's still a caturae more or less.

The "fun" of Ambuscade leaves the room after the second or third takedown each month.

[Nyarlko]

Gallantry isn't meant to be a mere time-extension on how long items are available for soloers. The point of Gallantry is to reward those who do the content the way the devs want us to do it.. in full 6man parties. The further we get from their intension, the less we're rewarded.

/shocked @ multiplayer incentives in a MMO >_>

I understand why they made it this way, but I agree that it would be nice if the currency values were a tad higher on lower difficulties and for smaller group sizes given how painful it is for lowend geared players to grind sets out.

[Shiyo]

Gallantry isn't bad to get, you need to have a full party though. Believe with 6 people you get 50% of what you get for Hallmarks. So, 300/150, but not sure how it calculates below 6 people. Maybe something like 50% > 40% > 30% > 20% > 10%, but I can't say for sure.
That's the problem, you need a full party.
You shouldn't be punished for wanting to lowman stuff, that's vw/legion tier of awful design. The most fun I've had in this game since 2003 has ALWAYS been lowmanning and pushing the limits of what I can tackle with the fewest amount of people possible.

I imagine ambu would be really boring if you tried to do anything past VE this month because the soulflayer mob has AOE full dispel which is a mechanic that literally ruins 90% of the jobs in this game and makes them incapable of fullfilling their roles. Full dispel needs to go away, forever.

The Corse isn't bad and is fun to fight(when you arent being spam aoe stunned). I have no idea how to remove the 60 second stun mechanic, does anyone know?

edit: 6 man parties shouldn't be the "only way to play". You shouldn't be able to solo ambu(it's rude imo) but duo/trio should be fine and shouldn't get completely screwed over. The way gallantry(and ambu) works does not encourage multiplayer/teaming up, it encourages MULTIBOXING.

[Domille]

The Corse isn't bad and is fun to fight(when you arent being spam aoe stunned). I have no idea how to remove the 60 second stun mechanic, does anyone know?


Yes you do. Double Geo.

Vex/Attune negates AoE stun and negates or limits 60 sec terror.

Fury/Frail speeds up the fight.

[OmnysValefor]

The 60 second stun is a terror actually (not being sarcastic). I was getting regular 5-10 second durations on my RUN without barblizz (I just wanted to try regular, sinceI hadn't yet).

Barblizzard helps. A GEO or Bard + a WHM (barblizzara) could probably take care of it.

Jobs that can wear it might use founder's greaves for the +50 terror resistance which is huge.

[Elexia]

That's the problem, you need a full party.
You shouldn't be punished for wanting to lowman stuff

You're not "punished"...but that's the problem with playing on a low population server I suppose.

[Domille]

Actually, you -are-.

You get less points for soloing. Now you could say you get "rewarded" for not soloing. But if that's true, then "punishment" for not taking 6 is also true.

[OmnysValefor]

I like the system.

First, this is an MMO.

Second there are limited instances.

Occasionally, even on Valefor with its population of 17, you run into times with 2-3 soloers and they don't care how interferes with everyone else's queue times.

It's sad that there needs to be a reward for grouping in an MMO but I like that full groups are encouraged.

[Domille]

That's entirely squares fault, not the players.

If people won't shout or invite you, then you have to get it done anyway you can. It's insane that you get punished for it.

It's the lowest acceptable 119 content. There should be no tiering within it.

and it certainly shouldn't take 50+ runs.

Adding money rewards is what would break it if you got more points per win, so raise the cost of the money drops and lower the cost of the armor. Simple.

[OmnysValefor]

Fair, there's some elitism, but there's also people that don't even ask. It takes a pretty ridiculously undergeared/bad-performing player to be worse than a trust with exception to Selh'teus, Qultada, and uh, the geo trust. (In the right content, Seth's aoe tp move is OP stuff.

The bards exist, but their just as likely to give you Ballad as something you want. Qultada isn't perfect but is better.

It goes both ways, some people can't get invites, some people don't want invites.

[Shiyo]

Farming VE duo intense was 100x more fun than grouping up and playing with a all ranged + paladin party on higher difficulities, so I picked to duo it and have fun.

I didn't mind how it was slower(but bearable) to get hallmarks, but the hilariously low amount of gallantry I received was stupid and I shouldn't be punished for playing in a way that I find MORE FUN(lowmanning). Full groups has ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS been less fun in this game, but all it meant was more difficulty besides VW/legion/gallantry. Any system that punishes you for trying to do things with less people is bad, you should be rewarded for lowmanning and killing things with less people(unless you're a bst, then you should be banned from the game for soloing any content that can cause congestion/make people wait).

Gallantry system should NOT be player based as all it does is encourage multiboxing. Playing with a full group on the highest difficulty hasn't been fun in any ambu I've done yet, however I've enjoyed lowmanning every ambu I've done. I shouold not be punished for my preferred playstyle.

[Elexia]

Gallantry system should NOT be player based as all it does is encourage multiboxing

You do realize this has been a thing since...at least 2004, right?


I shouold not be punished for my preferred playstyle.

Maybe it's because I grew up in Japan, but being rewarded for playing with other players doesn't mean you're punished if you choose not to do so, because it's not a punishment not being offered a bonus by not meeting requirements, you aren't getting the bonus because you choose not to, it's as simple as that. So maybe where you're from "punishment" has a different definition.


Full groups has ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS been less fun in this game

In your opinion. Some of the most fun I've had were:

64 Man Dynamis back when people went in at minimum level (not everyone was max level yet) which later turned into 32 man Dynamis as per Dynamis Linkshell.
18 Man Limbus
18 Man Einherjar
18+ man Sky and Sea god player swapping
18 man Abyssea bosses and Rani.

I could go on and on. It simply sounds like you just play with terrible people either personality wise or skill wise, because a game that PROMOTES grouping for more than a decade..it's kind of inevitable. If you don't make good connections or join good linkshells you have fun in...that isn't the game's problem. There's always a "preferred setup"...that's when there's the...

"MAKE YOUR OWN GROUP, START BEING A CHIEF." Comes into play.

These days, with almost no playerbase it's simply an incentive/bonus to play with more people, however you are not losing anything by going in with less people, you just aren't gaining a bonus. It would be a different story if you need a full party to get ANYTHING, for example going into say VD Ark Angels solo you forfeit all drops.

That would be a punishment.

[Jin_Uzuki]

People who can multibox will multibox regardless anytime they can, I'm not sure what's the argument is here there.

We shouldn't design party content in a game based around playing with a lot of people because some people play multiple characters?

[Shiyo]

People who can multibox will multibox regardless anytime they can, I'm not sure what's the argument is here there.

We shouldn't design party content in a game based around playing with a lot of people because some people play multiple characters?
If you kill an escha-zitah boss it drops 1 pool of loot for everyone regardless of how many people are in your party.

If you do VW/WOE every party member gets their own loot pool full of items you can trade.

If you do ambuscade every player gets their own tokens and EVERYONE gets more currency per member in the party up to 6 that can be spent on gear or items you can trade.

Notice the differences?

[Elexia]

If you kill an escha-zitah boss it drops 1 pool of loot for everyone regardless of how many people are in your party.

...That's how quite a lot of monsters work in the game in a lot of content, there's no bonus beyond "Did you meet xyz requirements to drop more loot? yes/no. No where near the same concept.


If you do VW/WOE every party member gets their own loot pool full of items you can trade.

VW has personal loot and "universal loot" purely dependant on RNG and staggers. Different concept.


If you do ambuscade every player gets their own tokens and EVERYONE gets more currency per member in the party up to 6 that can be spent on gear or items you can trade

Ok.


Notice the differences?

I notice you have no idea what you're trying to argue to be honest.

[Nyarlko]

If you kill an escha-zitah boss it drops 1 pool of loot for everyone regardless of how many people are in your party.

If you do VW/WOE every party member gets their own loot pool full of items you can trade.

If you do ambuscade every player gets their own tokens and EVERYONE gets more currency per member in the party up to 6 that can be spent on gear or items you can trade.

Notice the differences?

Escha NMs also give personal loot if you have Spoils+ vorseals. I've gotten gear and abjs from personal loot before, so its definitely not 100% shared loot.

VW only gives personal loot.

UNM only gives personal loot.

Ambuscade gives personal currency for loot.

I fail to see much difference between Ambuscade and the rest other than Ambuscade removing the randomness of drops, as far as rewards go.
The concept of providing extra/bonus rewards for doing something specific like going in larger parties is not a new concept to MMOs in general, or even FFXI itself. (Ref: VW procs, Aby procs)

[Jin_Uzuki]

Not to mention multiboxing these contents means you don't have to fight for loot with 5 other people. All those +2 lixir and escha ores go to you. In fact, there are more advantages in multiboxing escha than Ambu!

Most multiboxes tend to control 2 characters. They have no reason to not party in Ambu or invite more people. More gallantry and they don't have to fight for loot anyway. (Maybe HP scaling?)

[Nyarlko]

Not to mention multiboxing these contents means you don't have to fight for loot with 5 other people. All those +2 lixir and escha ores go to you. In fact, there are more advantages in multiboxing escha than Ambu!

Most multiboxes tend to control 2 characters. They have no reason to not party in Ambu or invite more people. More gallantry and they don't have to fight for loot anyway. (Maybe HP scaling?)

Isn't the only scaling involved for Ambuscade based on the difficulty level? Pretty sure there are no adjustments based on party size.

[Shiyo]

Escha NMs also give personal loot if you have Spoils+ vorseals. I've gotten gear and abjs from personal loot before, so its definitely not 100% shared loot.

ALL THOSE ARE UNTRADABLE.
NONE OF THOSE INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF LOOT YOU GET PER PERSON BY SIMPLY BRINGING A MULED BODY.

[Elexia]

ALL THOSE ARE UNTRADABLE.
NONE OF THOSE INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF LOOT YOU GET PER PERSON BY SIMPLY BRINGING A MULED BODY.

So.......

The fact your server is low population is your issue and not with the event itself, because it really isn't a big deal.

[Ketaru]

You aren't "duoing" if you call trusts. All you've done is rob a living, breathing player of the opportunity to gain Hallmarks, Gallantry, and JP in favor of a thankless NPC who will gain nothing from their participation.

[Nyarlko]

ALL THOSE ARE UNTRADABLE.
NONE OF THOSE INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF LOOT YOU GET PER PERSON BY SIMPLY BRINGING A MULED BODY.

UNM/VW do in fact increase the amount of loot by bringing a mule. ^^;; I can assure you that the odds are in your favor to increase the number of overall HMP you get from VW if you bring more muled bodies vs fewer, and last I checked, HMP are in fact tradeable/sellable. Same goes for UNM since each player gets a coffer and the upgrade items are tradeable/sellable. Same goes for the vast majority of group oriented content since the inception of the game if you take into account farming kill speed compared to group size. (You tend to die less often and kill things faster w/ more bodies than less, which increases opportunity to profit.)

Gaes Fete is the exception in that the only tradeable/sellables are lixirs/ores. And I have (exceedingly rarely.. like twice in last 500 NM kills) received +2's on both of my characters from the same fight, so it is technically possible to increase overall group profit there as well, even though the primary focus of the event system is R/EX loot.

[Shiyo]

UNM/VW do in fact increase the amount of loot by bringing a mule. ^^;; I can assure you that the odds are in your favor to increase the number of overall HMP you get from VW if you bring more muled bodies vs fewer, and last I checked, HMP are in fact tradeable/sellable.
I literally said this. Please read posts before you reply.


If you do VW/WOE every party member gets their own loot pool full of items you can trade.


I'm going to go back on topic:

This games content direction(especially for entry for omen) needs to change. If people wanted to play FF14 and modern MMO's, they'd go play one of the 4060460 of them.

People play FFXI because it's unique. The current direction the devs are taking this game is making this game less unique and trying to turn it into a modern MMO. That is not good and will put a lot of players off from playing(as it's already doing).

[Nyarlko]

I literally said this. Please read posts before you reply.
Sorry, I think that I misinterpreted your statement to apply to all of my earlier post that you were replying to. My point still stands though that it's nothing new or shocking to receive extra rewards for playing this MMO (middle "M" stands for "Multiplayer) in a group when compared to solo/lowman.




I'm going to go back on topic:

This games content direction(especially for entry for omen) needs to change. If people wanted to play FF14 and modern MMO's, they'd go play one of the 4060460 of them.

People play FFXI because it's unique. The current direction the devs are taking this game is making this game less unique and trying to turn it into a modern MMO. That is not good and will put a lot of players off from playing(as it's already doing).

The entry system for Omen is actually more along the lines of oldschool ffxi than modern MMOs though. Most of, if not all, of the old lockouts are still there in-game in fact. They just tend to get bypassed by RoV KIs nowadays so it's easy to forget that.

Omen is intended to be on the higher end of endgame content, not intended for newbies to succeed easily, and not intended for solo/lowman to be able to achieve the same results as a full group. If you watch the FP, the devs actually seemed rather proud of how strict/harsh they made this challenge. I could totally picture Matsui chuckling evilly and making a grinchy smile in his head while they were doing the demo. lol Makes sense to me for new endgame content to be designed to be challenging for current endgame players. That includes using the lockout as a (very likely temporary) means to prevent current endgame players from totally steamrolling thru in a matter of weeks rather than months.

The only complaints that I have with Omen would be:
* Certain jobs gain nearly nothing from upgrading ANY of their AF, but that is not a problem with the design of the content itself, just with the stats on some of the gear.
* It can be super annoying and easy to miss objective messages with all of the combat spam due to their default dark grey text color. They are important AND timed, so they should be easily readable on the fly.
* Certain things which are not exactly obvious (like the omens from foes message after a kill) have absolutely no explanation given as to what they do. I'm used to going in blind for new events in this game and don't expect any hints about boss gimmicks, but content system-related info should be shared in detail with the players IMO. Really only an actual "problem" if there was relevant info given to JP side that was not passed on to the NA side.

[Shiyo]

That's great. The devs are wrong and 20 hour lock outs are trash.

[detlef]

The only complaints that I have with Omen would be:
* Certain jobs gain nearly nothing from upgrading ANY of their AF, but that is not a problem with the design of the content itself, just with the stats on some of the gear.
* It can be super annoying and easy to miss objective messages with all of the combat spam due to their default dark grey text color. They are important AND timed, so they should be easily readable on the fly.
* Certain things which are not exactly obvious (like the omens from foes message after a kill) have absolutely no explanation given as to what they do. I'm used to going in blind for new events in this game and don't expect any hints about boss gimmicks, but content system-related info should be shared in detail with the players IMO. Really only an actual "problem" if there was relevant info given to JP side that was not passed on to the NA side.Are these are your only complaints? What about:

-Not being able to store more than 1 KI,
-Only earning cards on your current job
-Low HP trash mobs make certain objectives way more difficult than necessary

[Elexia]

Are these are your only complaints? What about:

-Not being able to store more than 1 KI,
-Only earning cards on your current job
-Low HP trash mobs make certain objectives way more difficult than necessary

Well

1. It would be nice to store more than one, but that doesn't bother everyone because not everyone plays consistentlydespite popular belief.
2. This could have been done better but it actually makes sense from a design perspective. XI has always rewarded players that were versatile be it community or game system wise. I'm sure you've played long enough to know the joys and/or horrors of being shoved onto a job you didn't like because you had it leveled and they needed x job, but also being able to switch to a fully geared/merited job no matter what is needed for x run. So this is kind of a personal opinion because it could been as good or bad depending on personal play style.
3. Trash mobs being a thing is always a kind of "eh" situation in MMOs.

[Jin_Uzuki]

I want them to add 24 hours lockout to escha now just to see people defending it now.

[detlef]

Well

1. It would be nice to store more than one, but that doesn't bother everyone because not everyone plays consistentlydespite popular belief.
2. This could have been done better but it actually makes sense from a design perspective. XI has always rewarded players that were versatile be it community or game system wise. I'm sure you've played long enough to know the joys and/or horrors of being shoved onto a job you didn't like because you had it leveled and they needed x job, but also being able to switch to a fully geared/merited job no matter what is needed for x run. So this is kind of a personal opinion because it could been as good or bad depending on personal play style.
3. Trash mobs being a thing is always a kind of "eh" situation in MMOs.1. Being able to store multiple KI benefits everybody but it benefits the people who can't play constantly most of all. It means that a player who can't log on constantly can still theoretically progress comparably to a player who does by saving up a few KI for when he/she can actually sit down and devote some time to the game.

2. I don't know what you're trying to say. Do you agree or disagree? Certainly the card situation should have been implemented differently because 10 cards is a ridiculous number to have to trade when you need hundreds.

3. Trash mobs are fine, but I'm actually emphasizing the low HP as my complaint. If your objective is to do a a dozen skillchains in 90 seconds or whatever, having 15 mobs that can practically be auto-attacked to death is poor design. Why not have half the mobs with double the HP?

[Shiyo]

1. Being able to store multiple KI benefits everybody but it benefits the people who can't play constantly most of all. It means that a player who can't log on constantly can still theoretically progress comparably to a player who does by saving up a few KI for when he/she can actually sit down and devote some time to the game.


This is literally the only reason I have a problem with the KI system. It tells me "login and do your chores every day or you'll be punished".
Just let me save up the damn KI and spam it when I feel like it. That's all I want.

[Nyarlko]

Are these are your only complaints? What about:

-Not being able to store more than 1 KI,
-Only earning cards on your current job
-Low HP trash mobs make certain objectives way more difficult than necessary

Pretty much. I have no issues w/ any of those. Lockout and card restrictions are both only annoyances at worst, and can be gamed a bit already. The mob HP issues might need a look at since you are right that it's currently pretty easy to overshoot the target numbers. I rarely am able to complete many objs solo/duo tho since I'm going BST and pets don't count for jack, so forgot to consider them. ^^;;

[OmnysValefor]

2. [cards per job] could have been done better but it actually makes sense from a design perspective. XI has always rewarded players that were versatile be it community or game system wise.

Versatility rewards versatility. People didn't need job-specific rewards in virtually any past content to go on useful jobs (Loot dropped independent of the job).

You need certain people on certain jobs, regardless of if they want the cards for those jobs. Further some jobs just underperform.

As a best-in-slot paladin, I can't actually find a reason to bring paladin to anything I've fought so far in Omen. PLD is less DPS than run, by a mile (hey, more time is more time), needs Haste II more than Runefencer (Vallation/Valliance) and offers little group support (neither the fast cast or protection from Valiance). You might never kill a paladin tank but there's not much he can do to help with enemy aoes (past rampart).

So yeah, my friends would let me bring my Paladin over my Rune Fencer, but even I know it's probably the suboptimal choice. Some groups are using DD-tanks (which is how I use my rune fencer in there, but it needs a little more and to AG Epeo).

TL;DR: Up until this content, my versatility of jobs was it's own reward. I could come whatever was best for the task.

[Cabalabob]

So is ambuscade finally done? No new rewards except adding the other sets to spend metals on? It'll be more manageable at a slower pace now if it's just vouchers for the existing gear every month.

[Seriha]

TL;DR: Up until this content, my versatility of jobs was it's own reward. I could come whatever was best for the task.
Frankly, versatility went out the window the moment they introduced job points and their unseemly grind. Omen is just another nail in that coffin.

Otherwise, the talk of rewards/punishments I've seen going on in the thread is splitting hairs with the usual dash of, "It's an MMO, play with others!" sophistry. No one likes dailies/weeklies/monthlies/whatever and Omen is an unfortunate callback to that system. Dead servers are a thing, and people don't want to drop money on transfers with no guarantee they'll find a suitable group of players on the other end and possibly lose what few friends they did have on their home world. Elitism is strong as ever in XI, where no amount of personal skill can overcome certain mathematical requirements like needed ACC for harder content. As well, many aren't keen to getting stuck on jobs they have no real interest in just to maybe possibly play the one they really want in the distant future. The Ambuscade infrastructure is also a bust, as evidenced by all the complaining lobbied against soloists just trying to get their bone because no one invites or their schedule is random/limited. No amount of telling them to just make their own groups guarantees bodies, assuming cooperative jobs and a tolerance of available gear levels.

There's a lot of dead content in XI, but the unfortunate reality is some of it at level cap is still needed for up-and-comers just to even get a glance from the more established players. Sparks gear doesn't cut it. Depending on the job, not having your Empyrean WS is a detriment, which means slogging through WoE or possibly Abyssea itself if the weapon path is soloable. Odds are any and all Skirmishes done, be it Yorcia or RoE objectives, will have to be soloed because there's zero incentive for anyone to backtrack. They're miles behind on Job Points with no catch-up mechanisms at play, and heaven help them if a double CP campaign isn't going on. SE may have intended Ambuscade to be the catch-up content for gear, but the fatal flaw in their intention is that, bluntly, their players are jerks. And I can't fault anyone who wants to avoid the headache of interacting with others because PUG rules are always changing, the game isn't their life, they don't subscribe to the cookie cutter, etc.. And if the resultant logic is that sub-optimal play deserves less rewards, then yeah, it looks more like a punishment to me. And no, I don't mean something like a WAR/WHM should have everything handed to them, to preempt the snowflake argument. Rather, reasonable effort warrants reasonable reward, and not things kept out of reach (like the Ambuscade party currency) solely because someone doesn't fall in line and drink your flavor of kool-aid.

Versatility should be one of XI's strengths. Sadly, this meets conflict between various design choices or how players are more apt to play MMOs now relative to the past. No amount of pining for the past or trying to force things isn't going to change the latter, either. The genie's out of the bottle, there's competition, people have grown up, people have learned. And if the game is really, truly supposed to be about people coming together for common goals, SE is failing miserably in making that task easy by sticking to paid world transfers, no matchmaking services, and no cross-server functionality. That's all before getting into things like job balance or the actual worth and difficulty of events, themselves. XI could and should be better, but for whatever reason, we have what we have. And it's more than just XIV being a thing.

[Olor]

I haven't been subbed for months because of the new direction of the game. Making it less and less pick up friendly and the inability to work at my own pace on ambuscade gear, which was just about the only gear upgrades available to me... yeah. I just got done with it. It felt like if I didn't spend all my playtime spamming ambuscade I was screwing myself... just not fun.


They're miles behind on Job Points with no catch-up mechanisms at play, and heaven help them if a double CP campaign isn't going on. SE may have intended Ambuscade to be the catch-up content for gear, but the fatal flaw in their intention is that, bluntly, their players are jerks. And I can't fault anyone who wants to avoid the headache of interacting with others because PUG rules are always changing, the game isn't their life, they don't subscribe to the cookie cutter, etc.. And if the resultant logic is that sub-optimal play deserves less rewards, then yeah, it looks more like a punishment to me. And no, I don't mean something like a WAR/WHM should have everything handed to them, to preempt the snowflake argument. Rather, reasonable effort warrants reasonable reward, and not things kept out of reach (like the Ambuscade party currency) solely because someone doesn't fall in line and drink your flavor of kool-aid.

All of this pretty much. The game just stopped being fun for these reasons. I couldn't put in steady effort and get steady reward consistently.

[zataz]

while i admit your right on people choosing not to help people.... i don't get all the stress over welfare gear of ambascade. ill admit some pieces are nice. but so are ones from Reisenjima and HQ pieces and while i don't mind helping people who need help. i am not about carrying people. i do not help people who wanna go from a sparks sword to colada. while i understand why they wanna go that way i believe in progression and if u cant hit the mob your not ready for the drops (not talking about 130+) but like 125 128 so on.

[Nefario]

I guess it depends on what you want.
I'm back in the game and it just reminds me why XIV will never be able to approach the greatness of XI.

The way this game was back in '07, sure, it would be nice if it still was that, but it couldn't be that, and i give full credit to the devs for using what little manpower and time they had left over the last few years polishing this game into an operable offline entry that stands as one of if not the best entry in the franchise.

Just... leave out all the end game issues for the moment and the 'online' concept and take the game as just an offline entry into the franchise sold on steam for a few bucks. New player poops out the cash to try out the game they haven't tried before and lands in one of the starting cities fresh. Ok, the UI is terribly dated, but it's well enough, and not unlike what you would expect from going back to any game of the era. Perhaps the lack of direction can be difficult, but also exciting, provided the player has a will to explore, and who wouldn't given the gargantuan world available to explore?

The game as designed today, makes it practically impossible to miss the first Rhapsody Mission, which ultimately points you towards all the other Missions in the game, and the help NPCs are clearly marked on the map, leading even the densest of players to discover the sparks system. This serves as a perfect notepad for any player to track their progress through all the core content and not miss ANYTHING. Also, the NPC summoning. So they effectively get to party with the main storyline characters while getting to explore an absolutely massive world filled with gorgeous art design, classic music, oodles of great storytelling and other contents to discover all while moving up the level chain without ever really having to grind so much. It's immense, and it's a masterpiece, flowing reasonably seamlessly from a defined start to a finishing point.

And then there's endgame, like a lot of modern games will just poop you back out into the world to do whatever else you want to do when you're done the main story. In this case i suppose you could do it before you finish parts of the story too if you want. There IS an absolute freedom to just go any which way, and frankly, that's how i plan to play the game, personally. If i make social connections along the way, all the better.

I give the devs credit. The game couldn't be what it was infinitely. Unchanged, it would have no way to exist today. Imagine i had to shout for Valkrum parties in 2017? Or try to find people to help me through Chains of Promathia? Yeah right. I very much doubt it. All the oodles of great content are still great. At least this way they are accessible. Might i have trouble getting through the door on elite stuff? Sure. Do i care? Not a damn bit. It's a tiny fraction of the ultimate product that equates to little more than any games equivalent to super bosses.

Now all that said, the community was one of the greatest things about this game for long time. Maybe some things have changed, but if another 10 years go by with little new content and a few thousand people are still gathered about on servers that SE keeps active on a skeleton crew, that says something on its own. Back in 2000 i spent a great deal of time every night after school on some rolyplaying message board. A bunch of the people from those days still haunt that board. It's a community. Again, i don't give a damn about if i do or do not have trouble finding a party for some uber boss. If i find a linkshell with some good people that i can afk around in some corner of the world and make connections with, that's what counts.

And if not, i'm still left with maybe the greatest game in the Final Fantasy franchise to play freely at my own pace.

[Seriha]

i am not about carrying people.
While I get this, attempting to analyze content progression yields an ever increased likelihood of that happening or the player in question giving up. Looking to the JSE Oboro weapons, for example, a returnee will likely have trouble finding the bodies for a high-tier BC clear even if the content is pretty easy. From there, they may have issue getting the base crafted weapon. After that, it's dumping millions in upgrade materials for things both not meant to be permanent with no means to recoup the cost. It's an arguably insidious time and resource sink just to jump to something between sparks and escha-zitah stuff. The augmented WKR weapons are decent in their own ways, but the big problem is just having others help to kill the darn things. Assuming a WKR campaign is going on, it's likely the server is only cycling through the bee, shark, and trex. Yumcax is most assuredly the worst of the lot between the small safe space and its ability pool, which further translates to people avoiding it as much as possible.

Meanwhile, when I think back to when Magian Trials were a thing, you a wide assortment of weapons that could be done solo and weren't total junk. Sure, some were never made (or at least I hope they weren't!), but if you were a PLD who want a -DT sword and couldn't snag a Hautclaire because HNMLS and all that, you had an option with the Earth path. This isn't to say magians were perfect, but they ultimately did a decent job in giving players lots of little things to do at their own pace while not being implicitly locked to party/alliance play.

What this really tells me is that there needs to be a sort of Sparks+1 equivalent of gear within reach so you're not left feeling like you'd be carrying people who want to both participate and advance. I somewhat inferred that Ambuscade's gear could play this role, but the stuff is obviously hit and miss depending on the sets, and even the good ones still lack something to make them suitable full-time pieces until swaps can be wiggled in (Jhakri's lack of haste making it a potential entry level melee set for BLU or RDM comes to mind, for example). This still leaves room for cursed gear and the Reisenjima lottery to be better, but getting invites to those groups should be more feasible.


Again, i don't give a damn about if i do or do not have trouble finding a party for some uber boss. If i find a linkshell with some good people that i can afk around in some corner of the world and make connections with, that's what counts.
Everyone is going to have their preferences, for sure, but I generally caution that someone shouldn't let their own be the sole justification for content (or the lack thereof). For example, while I don't shy away from conversation, I don't exactly look to the internet as my source of friendships. Rather, if I'm logging into a particular game, it's because there's something in it I want to do. It might be taking down a specific boss. It could be working on craft skills. It could be just lazy farming whatever. Odds are I just want to "turn my brain off" because RL has sucked with its own needs and obligations. However, every time one encounters a barrier that basically says, "Nope, can't do that!" you risk losing that player to another game that will scratch that itch, especially if the reason why they can't is due to means beyond their control. I'm against hardcore content largely for this reason, as it thrives on exclusivity instead of inclusion. And whether we want it to or not, the genre has been kicking and screaming in its transition from the former to latter the past decade+, complete with the usual rhetoric about welfare and the like. In the end, I too frequently see focus on how things were instead of how they could be, learning from both successes and failures.

[Nefario]

My own approach aside, yes, absolutely. If there is a gap between what a player can reasonably accomplish solo and the point at which they are able to reasonably find invites to groups, that is a design flaw that needs to be addressed.