"Yaaar!" .. really?

[Aysha]

You really expect players to do this quest on a weekly basis?

I mean seriously, now. I've ridden the ship probably 30-50 times during my entire playtime of FFXI, and I have only seen pirates a grand total of once.

Once.

Fact is, I still have yet to see a Sand Charm and as such, not been able to do the Inside the Belly quest because of that lame requirement, because the pirates refuse to spawn for me, in the many times I've tried to encounter them.

Some of the others (such as Bloody Robes) are also particularly annoying, especially considering the fact the mobs that drop them are not that plentiful and only appear during the night (you could have at least switched it, and made the Skull be weekly and the Robe be once, so that one could farm Gusgen for the skull).

And Sunsand Rush is also annoying because of the Earth Weather requirement to get the Sunsand, and Fusion on crabs is kinda LOL...

And 30 minute foods? I didn't mind it when it was Grapes because Grapes wear off in 5 minutes... but I don't really feel like having to buy antacids constantly to get rid of the food effects.

All in all, this newest batch of quests is "ugh"... the first ones were reasonable but these ones? Yuck.

[Halley]

Meh, it's not like you'd get anything from the key anyway. This ones stupid. Just refuse to do it. simple.

[Aysha]

Yeah, sadly, looks like I'm just gonna get a skull and let it go at that.

The rest of the quests stink, sadly. SE needs to keep in mind that they're asking us to do these weekly and we are not going to want to spend hours per character to get these done. We simply don't have that kind of time to spend on something like a lottery ticket (which is what the keys pretty much are). Yes, you can get awesome equipment out of the key, but you're basically playing the lottery and you have about as good of odds of getting anything worthwhile out of said keys.

I think I've turned in like 60 of my keys thusfar? And got nothing except for a couple PUP attachments. Woo. Yippie.

Meanwhile, the stupid goblin loves giving me junk like common crafting materials that you can get anywhere, food that isn't really worth anything, and Lv60-75 junk nobody cares about.

[Halley]

Wait till the next and future sets;

Walk to jueno with no speed+ from selbina
Shout in Dragon's Aery for 3 hours with no less than 100 people in zone
Burst with Freeze x10
Seek party on DRG for 10 hours
Do Garrison
Do Eco Warrior
Outpost Supplies
Successfully teleport 10 players
Retrace 10 players
Join a party, fall asleep
Lamp Lighting quest in Jueno

[Justuas]

Meh, it's not like you'd get anything from the key anyway. This ones stupid. Just refuse to do it. simple.

Can get Omen bodies.

[Halley]

Can get Omen bodies.

No, you really can't. Only the worst players get good rewards. it's literally the lottery. Only the idiot that will spend the money and be broke a year later can possibly win. it's a con to get you to keep wasting your time.

[Justuas]

No, you really can't. Only the worst players get good rewards. it's literally the lottery. Only the idiot that will spend the money and be broke a year later can possibly win. it's a con to get you to keep wasting your time.

Not sure if you were using sarcasm. You can get Omen bodies. http://www.ffxiah.com/screenshots/79959
But yeah if you won't even try the lottery then won't win anything.

[Halley]

Unironically you use a screenshot of one of the worst possible players getting a good reward, as I stated.

[Hawklaser]

For what its worth, bogys are up full time in gusgen and lower delkfuts, plus the robe is a much more common drop than the skull.

Never had much problem running into the pirates myself, they do show up somewhat frequently in my experience, just make sure you take the ferry during their window.

These vanaversery RoE's are based of off old playstyles. Fusion on crabs happened quite a bit in valkurm when didn't have a lot of options. On the food, just use it before going out to do a number of the vanaversery RoEs, 30m doesn't take that long to pass while doing them.

[Halley]

You're kinda missing the point. You're right, but it went over your head.

It's possible to spend hours riding that boat. And not get pirates. Anything with a random factor is a "no-go".

Every hour spent TRYING to do something is an hour spent NOT accomplishing something.

The mithkabob things is simple enough. use an antacid. Or actually use the food, hell 30 minutes of atk+ while soloing isn't a bad thing for the cost.

The ratio of "value of key":"effort to obtain key" is WAY to low for Yaaar. Skull/Robe are acceptable ratios if its not crowded. Ram is acceptable even though its NOT nostalgic to make a level 109 Ram required.

[Hawklaser]

You're kinda missing the point. You're right, but it went over your head.

It's possible to spend hours riding that boat. And not get pirates. Anything with a random factor is a "no-go".

Every hour spent TRYING to do something is an hour spent NOT accomplishing something.

The ratio of "value of key":"effort to obtain key" is WAY to low for Yaaar. Skull/Robe are acceptable ratios if its not crowded. Ram is acceptable even though its NOT nostalgic to make a level 109 Ram required.

No, I really didn't miss the point. The complaint is basically coming down to being lazy, and expecting the keys to all be freebies. For some crafting on lightsday is just as bad as having to ride the ferry. Or fishing up moat carp.

I fully expected there to be one for riding the ferry or airship at some point during all of these, seeing as they used to be used somewhat often. Now with all the fast travel options they barely get used. After all, can you name a better way to get new players that may never used the ferries or airships to do so?

On the random factor, it is entirely possible to go for hours and not get 4 yag necklaces. Not likely, but possible. Any kind of drop related one has the potential to take a long time. The pirates are less random than you think, and more about taking the ferry at the right time. As the few times I have went out of my way for them, I didn't have any problem with encoutering them in 1-2 rides.

If and only if the pirates was the one for the KI for this set might I agree with it being unacceptable. But for a single key, that often gets junk, not so much.

[Halley]

But for a single key, that often gets junk, not so much.

The whole rest of your statement is wasted typing. This is the only valid point, and the crux of the whole thread.

It's. A. Waste. Of. Time. An unacceptable amount of time, for an unacceptable reward.

[Stompa]

When SE introduced ROE they did say "we don't expect you to do them all" and that is why there is no reward for having finished 800~ different RoE.

I think this applies to Anniversary ROE too. You're not supposed to do all of them, just the ones that suit you.

For example the Pirates one, which should have been called "HARRR!" btw ("your parrot flies away!"), is probably aimed at Fishing people who like to ride the ferry and catch fish.

In 2004, I got fishing 100, mostly from riding on the Ship, and in the time it took me to get that level, I was able to solo Blackbeard and Silverhook on my WHM/NIN, I solo'd them probably 50 times total, and died around 20 times. But I was able to get both clubs on whm75 solo, around 2005, and I had got fishing 100 at the same time!

Anyway, Pirates can go back to back numerous times, you can have a string of Pirates attacks, or you can have zero for entire Earth days, or any random number between those two extremes. Supposedly it is tied to seasons, and you can see the ship leaving Norg, etc. but really it seems to be random to me.

If you are multitasking FFXI and work (like me!) then there is a way to do your RL work or Netflix or w/e etc. and you can still know if your ship has pirates, without having to stand waiting on deck for the whole journey. When you watch the ship leaving port Cutscene, if pirates are going to attack, the next thing you see is your Chatlog loading, with a black screen above it. Normally your chatlog will load with the cabin and your character, but when pirates attack, you get a few seconds of black screen and chatlog loading.

This is how it was in 2004~2011, so I assume they haven't changed it since then.

And if you are multitasking, you can just ride the boat, and check that black screen chatlog, and if there's no pirates, you can just go back to your work or w/e you're doing.

On the subject of keys in general. We often hear stories about people who buy countless thousands of lottery tickets, fifty on a single day, etc. and they never win a single prize. Then there's the person who buys one single ticket and wins the biggest prize in the lottery, with their first and only ticket. This is how I approach FFXI gobbie keys. If it is "your lucky day" then you are going to obtain a really nice prize with one single key, but if it is not your lucky day, then it doesn't matter if you throw a hundred keys at it, you still won't get lucky.
:)

[Hawklaser]

The whole rest of your statement is wasted typing. This is the only valid point, and the crux of the whole thread.

It's. A. Waste. Of. Time. An unacceptable amount of time, for an unacceptable reward.

And by this statement one can also conclude all the keys even the really simple ones like get Signet or eat a grape are worthless wastes of time too. Except the problem is the keys have the chance to get items that can take people months of time to get normally, or from content that would take them months to even be able to participate without being carried through it as a total leech. If you are geared enough, that you don't need anything from the keys, why bother getting any at all? After all, why waste any time on what is worthless junk to you, even if its a few seconds to go get signet? So you have a little task to do some random things related to varied things in the games history, for a chance to potentially bypass months of farming or content, and yet want to complain the time investment isn't worth it. But yet, if someone else manages to get something like an Omen body from them, complaints go up about that too because it wasn't to someone that was deemed worthy of having it.

So evidently to some degree they are worth it to you and/or feel entitled to all of the keys enough raise complaints when they are not super easy to get like getting signet.

[Halley]

Signet is something you already do. The npc that sells grapes is someone you already talk to every day. The curio moogle is someone you already see every day. The ram is already at the place where you enter riesen anyway. None of those are wasted time.

You're missing the whole point, and being stupid just for the sake of being stupid. I get it.

I'll eli5 it for you, in simple terms.

Reward:Effort exists in everything you do.
5 Seconds for garbage, not a big deal. 5 Minutes for garbage, irritating. An hour for garbage, unacceptable under all circumstances.

Either remove ALL consumables and anything that can stack to at least make keys 1% less garbage, or make keys progressive. Once you've gotten *item you can never get it again.

[Aysha]

The whole point of this thread, is that Pirates are ridiculously hard to come across at times, and to set it as a weekly quest is a bit over-the-top.

I'm not trying to be lazy here, I'm not trying to say that I am unwilling to put some work in it, but let's face it. Pirates is 99% waiting and doing nothing while having the game run in the background.

Did FFXI REALLY need more "AFK Content"? We already have enough of it, we sure didn't need more.

Though, it WOULD be nice if they were to increase the pirate encounter rate if someone on the ship has the RoE Objective set, then we could at least use this quest to get Sand Charms to FINALLY get past that stupid quest.

[Hawklaser]

Signet is something you already do. The npc that sells grapes is someone you already talk to every day. The curio moogle is someone you already see every day. The ram is already at the place where you enter riesen anyway. None of those are wasted time.

And you are in Mhaura how often due to Ambuscade? Is it really that hard to notice the ferry in port around the only time the pirates can show up? (same times as normal undead if you didn't know, ferry doesn't always line up with it well thanks to a portion of arrival/departure that prevents spawns) And then get on board for a couple of minutes between activities before using use one of the varied unlimited warp items to go do something else once see if pirates spawned on that trip?

Really its no worse than checking the moon phase for the full moon fountain to visit it during the correct time, which I can see being a possible one in the future as well. They could have always have used goofy NM spawns like when airship passes overhead, or during specific weather instead of something that only takes paying a little attention when in a place most frequent on a daily basis. Or any other more annoying things than watching for the large ferry boat lining up with night.

Sorry, that all your anniversary lotto keys don't come on a silver platter. As I don't expect any of the future ones to get any easier than the first batch, in fact I expect them to be even harder than the ones being complained about now. Remember the fun of climbing the crag in Attowah Chasm? I would not be surprised if one tied to that happens.

[Vold]

Please don't doom us by giving them such ideas. I spent enough time climbing that nightmare ._.

[Aysha]

Please don't doom us by giving them such ideas. I spent enough time climbing that nightmare ._.

Nowadays, you only have to do it once thanks to the waypoint up there.

[Halley]

And you are in Mhaura how often due to Ambuscade? Is it really that hard to notice the ferry in port around the only time the pirates can show up? (same times as normal undead if you didn't know, ferry doesn't always line up with it well thanks to a portion of arrival/departure that prevents spawns) And then get on board for a couple of minutes between activities before using use one of the varied unlimited warp items to go do something else once see if pirates spawned on that trip?

Really its no worse than checking the moon phase for the full moon fountain to visit it during the correct time, which I can see being a possible one in the future as well. They could have always have used goofy NM spawns like when airship passes overhead, or during specific weather instead of something that only takes paying a little attention when in a place most frequent on a daily basis. Or any other more annoying things than watching for the large ferry boat lining up with night.

Sorry, that all your anniversary lotto keys don't come on a silver platter. As I don't expect any of the future ones to get any easier than the first batch, in fact I expect them to be even harder than the ones being complained about now. Remember the fun of climbing the crag in Attowah Chasm? I would not be surprised if one tied to that happens.

The ONLY time you go to Mhuara is after you join a party, making them wait while you get on the boat is a douchebag move, so I can see why you'd think it's standard. Douchebags can never tell they're being douchebags.

You can see the moonphase 100% of the time without even putting in commands, so NO, it's not even remotely the same.

Nothing in XI is hard, just tedious. And waste of time.

[Catmato]

Nothing in XI is hard, just tedious. And waste of time.

Then why are you still here? It's pretty obvious that you don't like the game and with as often as you come back with new accounts, the game doesn't care for you much either.

[Khajit]

Signet is something you already do. The npc that sells grapes is someone you already talk to every day. The curio moogle is someone you already see every day. The ram is already at the place where you enter riesen anyway. None of those are wasted time.



The only reason most players even have signet activ ATM is to get a key. What nonsense are you talking about? I use mea to get to reisenjima which also. Makes your second assertion clearly wrong.

[Zeargi]

I've been really struggling with this one. I remember them being more abundant than this.

[Justuas]

5h gone and no pirates... haven't been this unlucky with this.

[Aysha]

More like you guys seem to have forgotten just how rare they are (or how rare they can be).

[Sirmarki]

More like you guys seem to have forgotten just how rare they are (or how rare they can be).

If I remember correctly, they are more likely to appear during foggy weather.

I also would add that the RoE is optional and maybe it's there just in case they spawn when you happen to be on the ship. I don't think its intended to be camped.

[Justuas]

If I remember correctly, they are more likely to appear during foggy weather.

I also would add that the RoE is optional and maybe it's there just in case they spawn when you happen to be on the ship. I don't think its intended to be camped.

It's perfect afk content for me so I camp it.

[Teraniku]

Looks at Bostanieux Oubliette map, Leaves....

[Dzspdref]

Go to Norg, notice when the ship THERE is getting ready to leave in any "evening" time slot. HP warp to Selbina, jump on boat to Mhuara, you got pirates. Works every time for me every week I've done this without fail. Worst part is waiting a bit in Norg, which can be problematic with coinciding the ride.... but now guesswork is nearly over.
Now to get one where you have to ride the airship to Kazham. Or ride a chocobo from a city to Jeuno. There's some ideas...

[ZionRebels]

the pirate ship leaves norg every 57 minutes.

selbina<->mhaura is every 16:00 , 00:00, and 08:00

the pirates will attack the boat everytime the pirates departure matches the 00 00 time spot from selbina<-> mhaura. If it matches at 16 they dont attack. if it matches at 08 i never tried so cant confirm if they attack this timeline spot.

[Catmato]

Based 7 year necrobump.

[Zenion]

the pirate ship leaves norg every 57 minutes.

selbina<->mhaura is every 16:00 , 00:00, and 08:00

the pirates will attack the boat everytime the pirates departure matches the 00 00 time spot from selbina<-> mhaura. If it matches at 16 they dont attack. if it matches at 08 i never tried so cant confirm if they attack this timeline spot.

Okay this is huge if true. Is that 57 earth minutes, or 57 Vana'diel minutes? If it's Vana'diel then I think that should mean a chance literally every 57th ferry trip... so every 19 Vana'diel days, but that would mean it's always 00:00, 08:00, or 16:00, it can't line up so any two or more of those times can have pirates and ferries launch at the same time.

If it's earth minutes though... a ferry runs every 19.2 minutes at 2.4 earth minutes per Vana'diel hour, which should make the intersection there every 95th trip, about once every 30 hours and 12 minutes? And then there's potentially a 1/3 or even 2/3 chance that it just doesn't happen if the 16:00 observation is true (not chance-based, if there's pirates at 00:00 this would mean maybe pirates 95 trips later, and definitely not pirates 190 trips later.)

I could swear I've seen pirates twice in a day before so those figures both seem a bit too big, but I guess it's easy to test if somebody can find a pirate ship the first time and keep track from then on.

[ZionRebels]

based on vanadiel time... you have pirate ships leaving all the time its a quick cycle of arriving and departure.

u need to go to norg and mark the timeline its departing in a notepad and then u can make the calculation when it ll be next time it ll match the 00 00 from selbina to mhaura.

its a rotation of a few vanadiel days.

[ZionRebels]

btw as i said i never tested the one that matches 08. The one from 16 no pirate spawn and the one from 00 00 pirate spawn for sure.
if i remember right my math every 2 vanadiel day a match will happen on 08 or 16 or 00 respectively.

so its a rotation of 6 days to match 00.

also there s a small shift on that 3 minutes that the pirate ship is eating from the one hour round to make that spiral. its not perfect. sometimes its 3 minutes sometimes is 4 and that shift is happening on the time it takes between the the departing from the arriving. Sometimes it ll last 3 vanadiel minutes , sometimes 4 etc. But in the end it always end up matching perfectly anchoring the 08 16 and 00. its a like a "moon" movement.

if you say u catch pirate in a short time period it means that maybe on the 08 they spawn too but i believe they dont or maybe there s some extra condition that can make they trigger too

now if u apply the math and go on the 00 match for sure u ll get them with no guessing...