Forgot How Much Fun Monstrosity is

[Beastorizer]

Been gone since 2015, now I am back. Was debating to put this in the "Quality of Life" suggestion thread or create a new one, but I digress.....

My favorite feature is Monstrosity. tbh, It is the reason I chose XI over XIV. This is the only mmo I know in which you can play as the actual monsters. Would be great if XIV implemented something like this.

Anyway, such a great feature; what a shame the bestiary was never finished. There are many missing species; like the......

-Zilant
-Yztargs
-Yggdreants
-Khimaira
-Hydra
-Waktza
-Am I missing any?

....I figured it would not be too much trouble to complete the bestiary overtime with consoles out of the picture.

Maybe.....
-Allow them in [S] areas, and campaign but scale their strength down while participating maybe?
-Allow them to zone into besieged during an attack?
-Maybe Abyssea on a default 120 min timer with all lights for xp purposes since it appears to be dated?
-Revives (Probably a dead feature...)?
-Missions & BCNM solo on a timer?

It had so much potential. Being like Areuhat is fun. Transforming into a monster, or having a creature alter ego. A quest could have been based off of her like the Morpher from Tactics, but I digress.....I know this was probably discussed, or maybe they shutdown updates to Monstrosity, just thought it would not hurt to ask lol.

As you can probably see, I am a fanatic for this type of stuff. I wish more mmo implemented a feature like this. Back in the day, it would have been great to see new monsters in the update notes, only to know,sometime later, they would be playable.

[Nyarlko]

Rather than just new monsters to be, I believe that updating the rewards and reward systems would go a lot further to revitalizing the content. It's an amazingly over-complicated content system as a whole, and the rewards just aren't rewarding enough for the vast majority to be willing to spend much time on it.

It's also dead content. They never even completed the announced updates, much less considering adding actual new stuff. :(

[Alhanelem]

I breifly had fun with belligerency when it came out, I got a group of friends to try to kill me as a behemoth. :p

[Beastorizer]

By try, I assume they failed lol?

How "Not Broken" many of the moves were really started to make me think how many of these guys are not BST pets, but I digress....

What made me make this thread was ....
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Monipulator

Perhaps some were planned, but not finished? I seen this before I came back to the game and was wondering what is the deal with those. This was a long time ago mind you.

[Alhanelem]

By try, I assume they failed lol?

How "Not Broken" many of the moves were really started to make me think how many of these guys are not BST pets, but I digress....

What made me make this thread was ....
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Monipulator

Perhaps some were planned, but not finished? I seen this before I came back to the game and was wondering what is the deal with those. This was a long time ago mind you.
All of the major mob categories were listed from the start, but only a few were selectable. A handful were added over time until updates eventually stopped.

[Beastorizer]

I also feel the exp bonus from the Rhapsodies missions (The key items) should affect monstrosity as-well.

I mean, finishing the species they were going to add in the 1st place should not be too much work. People used to play this at one point. Many do not, because it has not been updated. I doubt people would play FFXI in general if the base game was not updated.

It is my belief that people will try it out once again if it were updated. If a monstrosity update was in the update notes, people may think "Oh, an update, maybe I will play that once again." Psychologically, they will feel like it is something they should play once again, even for a short-time.

Reasonable updates are, first and foremost finishing the species. Then, expanding the areas like Seekers, etc. Then give them more to do, like revives & campaign, maybe.

Also, maybe give them some dungeons to do once a day which drops currency for RME or other high level gear components. Playing a monster is great, but that is all monstrosity offers atm. I would like to see an incentive to level up monsters. Obviously a Orthus would clear a dungeon faster than a Ash lizard, hence giving people a reason to level for the stronger monsters.

[JKap_Goat]

What is monstrosity? This sounds way to cool

[Alhanelem]

What is monstrosity? This sounds way to coolIt's a system that allows you to play as a monster, you can unlock many different kinds, and leveling them up will earn you points that you can use to unlock various traits and attributes, and unlock new monsters. There is also a PvP system where you can basically pose as an NM, and players can try to defeat you. The more stuff (or people) you defeat the more infamy you earn, until you become designated an NM or an HNM. You can only play solo as a monster but in belligerency mode (the PvP option) non-monster players can party up to take you down. There were plans for more playable monsters and other new systems, but at some point, it was basically abandoned, for no apparent reason. Really, it seemed to be popular, I have no idea why they gave up on it.

As a monster you can use all of the skills that monster has, as well as the abilities and spells of the jobs assigned to that monster. Many monsters are a bit limited in this area since the majority of mobs in the game are WAR/WAR (duplicate subjob) so you have fewer abillities. But if a monster is, for instance, WAR/BLM, just like real monsters, the subjob level is equal to the main job so you have all of the spells up to your level.

[Beastorizer]

Alhanelem covered everything.

I am a little bias, being a monstrosity fanatic, but it can get a little repetitive. It is basically you vs mobs, or in rare cases, other players. It is still a blast though, because there are many mobs to try out. I just wish it wasn't abandoned so quickly.

SE was on to something here......

[Beastorizer]

Halloween is this month. What better time to update monstrosity? lol.

Posting a month or so, trying not get spammy.

Other than more species, they could give us MON objectives that drop things players use, like REM currency or even Gil. Why not do it? Even if it were a way to earn more coppers & sparks?

I do realize I am talking to a wall, lol. The last exp campaign included Monstrosity, so it is abandoned, but obviously not forgotten...

[Beastorizer]

Actually, with some digging, I found my answer.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/36535-Monstrosity-Feedback?p=579433&viewfull=1#post579433

There were 50 pages of interested people, and they still didn't give a damn lol.....

Now I see why the outcry for BST goes unnoticed. When they don't give a damn, they really don't give a damn. Giving BST duplicate pets over & over again is unacceptable, let alone calling it an update.

I mean, if they didn't even want to give BST a few pets in the game that they don't have; the odds of putting a Gabbrath or something Monstrosity is slim to none. I feel like this is bigger than Monstrosity. It is a pattern of lackadaisical behavior when dealing with content or jobs players cared about.

It all makes sense now. The effort is not there with FFXI, despite the fact they are taking money. They want our money, but don't want to necessarily work hard for us. It almost as if they feel "We are doing you, the players a favor by keeping the game open."

They don't hate BST, PLD or any other job, they just don't care.

[Typral]

I miss Monstrosity :( I stopped because there was 0 content... it had so much potential.

[Alhanelem]

Actually, with some digging, I found my answer.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/36535-Monstrosity-Feedback?p=579433&viewfull=1#post579433

There were 50 pages of interested people, and they still didn't give a damn lol.....

Now I see why the outcry for BST goes unnoticed. When they don't give a damn, they really don't give a damn. Giving BST duplicate pets over & over again is unacceptable, let alone calling it an update.

I mean, if they didn't even want to give BST a few pets in the game that they don't have; the odds of putting a Gabbrath or something Monstrosity is slim to none. I feel like this is bigger than Monstrosity. It is a pattern of lackadaisical behavior when dealing with content or jobs players cared about.

It all makes sense now. The effort is not there with FFXI, despite the fact they are taking money. They want our money, but don't want to necessarily work hard for us. It almost as if they feel "We are doing you, the players a favor by keeping the game open."

They don't hate BST, PLD or any other job, they just don't care.I'd call this a hijack, but I admit there's probably truth to that.

I had a ton of fun with Monstrosity, even daring friends to come out and kill me, I got to literally play like I was an NM once.... Sometimes the fun of something actually is reward enough. :D